At Fitness Focus, the goal is to offer a fitness center with a welcoming, fun and safe environment that all ages can enjoy. They are a forerunner in the fitness industry in Saskatoon . With the ever changing fitness demands of new and improved classes, training; and nutrition. They are your TRUSTED SASKATOON FITNESS EXPERTS!  

 
The change of seasons can throw off your fitness routine considerably. If you're used to running around your neighborhood after work, you may be hesitant to keep that hobby up once the sun starts going down at 5 p.m. Adjusting your fitness routine can take some effort, but your goals shouldn't disintegrate just because the seasons start to change. 
 

INSPIRE YOURSELF 
SUB IN WINTER ACTIVITIES 
Baggy clothing, unhealthy snacking and pushing back your bedtime will all conspire to land you on the couch during the winter months. Instead, look for small changes you can make to give your body a very different message. Wearing a fitted cardigan is a way to let yourself see the results that you've made after all your workouts. Going to bed earlier is the best way to wake up earlier feeling rested and refreshed so you can go for that morning run. Skipping the potato chips at your mid-afternoon break and substituting whole grains can give you the energy you need to stay on track. 
 
Ice skating, skiing and sledding are all great ways to burn calories while enjoying the new season. And while you may need to travel a few Kilometers to find a rink or trail the effort will be well worth it. Not only will you be testing and improving your physical stamina, but you'll also be learning or improving upon a skill. If you come back from an activity and your shoes are soaked through, put crushed up newspapers inside them and set them in a warm (but not hot) place. Too much heat can wear down the materials of your expensive shoes. 
 
Another option to keep up with your fitness plans during winter is to start using a gym. Fitness Focus provides all the tools for any person to pursue growth and empowerment through personal challenge. Working out a a gym offers you consistency so you're less likely to alter your routine no matter what season it is. Contact us today and see how we can help you maintain or achieve your fall winter goals!
 
Fitness Focus are TRUSTED SASKATOON GYM and Fitness Experts

This February we're beyond excited to present to Saskatoon, Puppy Yoga!  This is our first ever time offering this event which we've aptly called Mutts & Mats: Yoga for a New Hope. What could be more enjoyable than a relaxing Yoga class, surrounded by adorable 3-month old puppies? While this class is currently sold out, the initial response has been so overwhelming, we plan to provide this class again in the very near future.

If you've ever been to our gym you've likely met our Gym Dog named Dak.  Having Dak around, and the reception he's gotten from all of our member, we've realized what an admiration you all have for dogs.  We've also realized just how many of you out there all have a furry family member of your own. We figured it was only fitting to combine something as lovable as dogs with something so many of you are so passionate about as Yoga.  And hey, if yoga can be made more popular with the addition of cats or goats, then puppy yoga might just be the best thing ever invented.

Our friends at New Hope Dog Rescue in Saskatoon will be bringing their newest litter of German Shepherd cross puppies to explore and play around the Fitness Focus yoga studio while all the participants find their zen. All proceeds raised by Mutts & Mats will be going to New Hope Dog Rescue, which provides financial aid for emergency surgeries, housing, food and other expenses associated with the process of finding dogs a forever home. 

 Hey Saskatoon, have you already lost your New Years ambition to get to the gym?  It's really easy to get excited about starting that training program when you're just starting a new gym membership, or rejuvenating the one you have been ignoring since the summer.  Here are a few tips that can help you keep on track, permanently:

1.   Have a plan!  If you can plan ahead, your ability to stay the course will be that much better and you'll be able to avoid external stresses and time constraints.

2.   Be disciplined! Make sure you do everything from eating, planning, training and resting with consistency. Once you find your groove, anything that deviates from the routine will be your motivation to get back on track.

3.   Stay positive!  All the negative influences over a few days seem to accumulate and cause your drive to workout to completely crumble.  Leave it all behind you. Dwelling on the negative things in life, even on the way to the gym, will make you feel like turning around and going straight home. After that, you'll wind up feeling guilty that you missed your workout, and the negativity continues.

4.   Define your goal!  To simply go to the gym is not a goal. Too often you might find yourself going through the motions and not facing the challenge each day.  Choose where you want to be and what you want to achieve. Otherwise you'll never realize that you've succeeded

Do you ever notice how some years just fly by? So quickly in fact that you would swear that, despite the cold weather, it was still only August or September.  Well that was 2017 in a Nutshell for us; honestly where did it go?  We want to take a moment to share a few highlight of what we got up to over the past year.

Back to the beginning, we'll set the scene for you. January 2017 started with rising and falling temperatures, which as we know in Saskatoon, causes water mains to rupture. As you likely know, Fitness Focus is located in an older neighborhood, and along with that comes an old infrastructure.  Our busiest time of the year, and we get stuck with no running water. After almost five days fighting well below zero temperatures, the city was able to repair the main and we were back in business.    

In March we added some new equipment to the weight room. Some much needed functional training equipment really brought things together.  A dead lift platform was brought in in the power lifting area; the hard, elevated surface has been put to good use, so much that we've considered adding a second platform.  In addition to the platform we added some new bumper plates which allow for easier loading and smoother lifts.

Another goody in the strength department was a Sissy Squat Bench.  Don't let the name fool you; the Sissy Squat movement is as challenging as exercises get. If you have yet to try it or want a demonstration, you can ask any of the Personal Trainers; they're always happy to share their knowledge.

We pride ourselves on our Personal Training department, as a leading gym in Saskatoon with Personal Training it's important that the Training Team is always expanding, growing and doing new things.  We welcomed Denise Kominetsky and Curtis Korchinski to the Personal Training Team.  They are both nationally certified, extremely knowledgeable, respectful and positive additions to the team.

Also happening in the Personal Training department was a pilot project aptly called the One Year Life Changing Transformation. Over a dozen nominees were narrowed down to five, after which the five remaining were interviewed by Two Trainers, Fitness Focus Managers, Herc's Nutrition Owner, and Owner of The District Kitchen & Bar to determine who was most deserving of this life changing opportunity.

The goal of this project was to offer one person the opportunity to lose a substantial amount of weight and learn how to change their lifestyle and management their health and body weight on their own thereafter.  Our Candidate has so far made great progress, we hope she can reach her goals,learn more about herself and fitness, and inspire people around her to do the same.

What do we have planned for 2018?  Just as we treat our health and fitness, we're planning for nothing but progress in the coming year.  We have some new plans Group Fitness and the Childcare Room, and we're looking forward to running a new member survey to find out from you, exactly how we've been doing and what you want to see moving into the future.

Thank you all for your support over the past year.

Members' workout requirements are always changing, which means we need to add new equipment to the gym. A must-have was a third Squat Rack, the Atlantis Half Rack. More people are starting to incorporate functional (and fundamental) exercises like deadlifts, lunges and squats into their training which necessitated us to add another Squat Rack into the weight room. In the past people would stay clear of exercises like squats because were under the impression they were only beneficial in a competition setting with the sole purpose of lifting a maximum amount of weight.  Now people are starting to realize that squats are the perfect exercise for both shaping the legs and glutes while complimenting a variety of other body parts. It's great to see people are now challenging themselves with these types of exercises.

 The leg platform is a very diverse piece of equipment.  It looks very simple as it's just an adjustable step; but it would take more than your 2 hands to count the amount of exercises you can do with it. Step ups, lunges, reverse lunges, box jumps, box squats, stiff-leg deadlifts, incline push-ups, and the list goes on.  Get creative with the leg platform, it's durable and build for a serious workout.

Most machines work front-to-back. The Helix turns tradition on its side— literally. With lateral (or side-to-side) movement, you use more muscles, which means you burn more fat than during a traditional workout– in the same amount of time.  Plus Helix’s patented motion tones your butt, core and inner/outer thighs better than old-fashioned cardio machines.

Common Misconceptions about the weight room

So many people that are both new to the weight room or long time users become deterred from the gym because they haven’t achieved the results they had expected from their weight routine.  There are many common misconceptions about lifting weights that cause people to start on the wrong track and are then left feeling discouraged.

Lifting weights will make you big and bulky; false.  The primary benefit of lifting weights is increased lean muscles, but increased lean muscles doesn’t mean enormous muscles.  For men it is a lot easier to get big muscles, but still takes years of heavy training.  In the case of women, they just are not genetically programmed to build thick and bulky muscles.  Other benefits of weight lifting include increasing metabolism and lower body fat, a greater resistance to injury and improved overall health.  So don’t ignore the weight room, embrace weight training and use it to build the body you want.

Doing Ab exercises everyday will result in a flat stomach and well-defined 6-pack Abs; false.  Abdominal (Ab) exercises are resistance training and like weight training, are used to develop the targeted muscles.  We need to remember that muscles and body fat are two completely different things, so once we develop our Abdominal muscles it does not change the fact that there still might be some fat lying on top of them.  Spending a majority of a workout everyday training Abs will become very repetitive and boring; dedicating some time twice a week Ab exercises is lots. 

It is possible to spot reduce fat from one area of the body; false.  Repeating an exercise over and over will do nothing more than condition that particular muscles to perform that exercise.  To reduce body fat, we need to adjust what we eat so that the calories we ingest are slightly lower than the calories we burn, signalling the body to start burning fat for energy.  On the extreme end of this, when we begin to starve ourselves our body goes into survival mode and will begin to store fat in the body for future requirements.  We have no control over what area the body fat will accumulate; it is all genetically predetermined.  For some people it is in the stomach, for others it’s the hips or butt.  Just as we have no control over where it will end up, we have no control over where it will come off.  

The key to success in health and fitness is the understanding that it takes patience in the process and the willingness to always learn, to change old habits and adapt.

Try adding a component of TRX to your training in the gym.  We offer TRX based group classes as well as one on one personal training.  TRX Suspension Training was born in the Navy SEALS, develops strength, power, endurance, balance, flexibility, mobility, durability, and core stability.  The TRX Suspension Trainer is a highly portable performance training tool that leverages gravity the user's bodyweight to enable hundreds of exercises that can be instantly scaled for any user to reach any fitness or training goal. whether you're young or old, out of shape or a beast, injured or at the top of your game, TRX Training meets you where you are and takes you where you want to be.

2011 has proven great for Team Wawryk Pro Trainers and Fitness Focus Health & Athletic Centre.  So far it has been an exciting and unique endeavor for the gym's personal training department; as Team Wawryk's professional level of experience has never before been offered at a fitness centre in Saskatchewan.  What sets Wawryk Trainers apart from traditional styles of Personal Training is their first hand knowledge of health and fitness; not only through study, but also through years of experience and application, that they pass on to their clients which range from beginner to advanced lifters seeking contest preparation....

Founder IFBB Pro Vince Wawryk (pictured below) has an extensive background spanning over 20 years in exercise & fitness, diet, nutrtion, and weight management; combined with the Wawryk Trainers they possess over 50 years experience.

To talk about your individual fitness goals and learn new solutions to reach them, a Team Wawryk Trainer can be contacted at the gym through the front desk, directly at teamwawryk.com, or visit them on Facebook

Vince Wawrk IFBB Pro  -  Head Trainer at Fitness Focus Health & Athletic Centre