Gold's Gym files for bankruptcy due to COVID-19

Gold's Gym on Tuesday announced that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, but its president and chief executive Adam Zeitsiff assured that they are "not going anywhere."

In a video message, Zeitsiff maintained that Gold's Gym "is not going out of business."


"The COVID-19 global pandemic has affected Gold's Gym deeply and in many ways," he admitted. "Our focus from the beginning of this crisis has been on the health and safety of our members, our team members, and the communities we serve."

Gold's Gym closed 30 company-owned gyms last month, in an effort to "maintain the strength and growth of the potential of the brand as well as ensure the continued viability of the company for decades to come."

"While the COVID-19 pandemic certainly impacted our company-owned gym operations, we expect the filing will have no further impact on current operations," the company said.

The company further assured that they will continue to support its system of nearly 700 gyms around the world. There are 26 Gold's Gym branches in the Philippines, all of which have been closed since the enhanced community quarantine was implemented in March.

"This pre-negotiated filing will enable us to emerge stronger and ready to grow, and it is our intent to be on the other side of Chapter 11 by August 1, if not sooner," the company said.

Gold's Gym was founded in 1965 by bodybuilder Joe Gold in Venice Beach, California.

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How exercise may affect your immunity

Does exercise help or hinder our bodies’ ability to fight off infections?

In the context of the novel coronavirus outbreak, that question has gained urgency and also, thanks to recent research, emergent answers. The latest science suggests that being fit boosts our immune systems, and that even a single workout can amplify and improve our ability to fight off germs.

But some studies also indicate that the types and amount of exercise may influence how exercise affects our immune responses. More is not necessarily better. And the location of the exercise could matter, too; cue recent findings about the germiness of gyms.

What follows is an overview of the state of today’s science about how and why exercise interacts with our immune systems and whether we should plan to remain active, even as the incidence of new virus cases continues to grow.

Many of us who exercise have heard from well-meaning friends, spouses or parents that strenuous exercise will tamp down our immune systems, opening us to pathogens and illness. That notion gained credence in the late 1980s, the result of studies showing that “marathon running increased the incidence of infection symptoms among runners in the days and weeks after the race,” said John Campbell, a professor of health science at the University of Bath in England and co-author of an influential 2018 review of exercise and immunity.

But those studies subsequently turned out to have relied too heavily on self-diagnoses from the runners about their sniffles. In experiments using laboratory testing of marathoners after races, few proved to have actual respiratory infections. Instead, most had developed airway irritations or other noninfectious conditions.

Follow-up studies then established that marathon runners and other competitive endurance athletes tended, in fact, to report few annual sick days, indicating their immune systems were not over-burdened by exercise but bolstered. Since then, a wealth of research in both people and animals reinforced that idea. A series of 2005 experiments with mice, for instance, showed that if rodents jogged gently for about 30 minutes a day for several weeks, they were much more likely to survive a virulent form of rodent influenza than untrained animals.

At the same time, though, some research hinted that one strenuous workout might temporarily diminish our immune responses soon afterward, putting us at heightened risk for an opportunistic infection after the workout. This possibility was known as the “open window” theory and relied on experiments in animals and people showing that immune cells flooded our bloodstreams immediately after a hard workout and then abruptly disappeared, presumably dying as a result of the exercise stress. This disappearance seemed to leave us with lowered levels of the cells that recognize and fight pathogenic intruders, offering germs an open window for incursions.

But, once again, subsequent, sophisticated experiments offered a different explanation. In remarkable experiments with rodents, scientists marked some of their immune cells with phosphorescent dye and had them run to exhaustion.

Afterward, the scientists noted that the levels of glowing cells in their bloodstreams spiked and then plummeted, as expected. But they also found that few of those cells had died; instead they had traveled to the animals’ lungs, guts and other parts of their bodies potentially most vulnerable to germ invasions during exercise. After a few hours of sentinel duty, most cells returned to the bloodstream, stabilizing immune cells levels there and suggesting that their immune vigilance had refocused but not declined.

Similarly, in a study published last year, fit, exercise-trained mice that were injected with germs immediately after a strenuous run fought off the infection better than sedentary animals, in large part, additional molecular analysis showed, because their immune cells homed in on and clustered around the pathogens, while those same cells were more diffusely scattered in the tissues of the inactive animals.

Taken as a whole, this research about exercise and our immune systems tells us that “there is no or limited reliable evidence for exercise directly increasing the chance of developing any kind of viral infection,” said James Turner, co-author of the 2018 review about exercise and immunity and also a professor of health science at the University of Bath. “So, it is safe to exercise, despite concerns about coronavirus,” he concludes. Exercise, in fact, will probably lessen the risk of an infection, he said.

There are caveats, though. If you have not been exercising, now might not be the ideal moment to start an extremely ambitious and tiring new workout routine. In the 2005 studies with mice and influenza, a separate group of animals that ran strenuously for weeks developed somewhat more severe and longer-lasting symptoms than the mice that ran moderately before their infections, although the differences were slight.

And do not ignore basic hygiene and common sense. Wash your hands often before and after exercise; shorten or skip workouts if you feel unwell; avoid training partners who are sniffling or coughing; and rub a sanitizing wipe over gym equipment before use. A study last year identified lingering, infectious germs on about a third of the surfaces at 16 different fitness facilities. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

How Darren Criss overcame his fear of gym bros

Actor Darren Criss, 32, has a lot to say about grooming, diet, fitness and, most important, sleep. Criss, a San Francisco native who lives in Los Angeles, is so obsessed with sleep that he times it to REM cycles. 

He has also started a men’s grooming site, the Motley, with siblings Matthew and Madison Ruggieri, and has just introduced a unisex skin care line called Onekind. Here, Criss, who is in the war drama “Midway” and is filming “Hollywood,” the new Ryan Murphy Netflix show scheduled for release next year, explains his personal care routine.

 Fully Groomed

I have a lot of cleansers, but honestly, this is the one category where I feel like you just need to get your face clean. You use a bar of soap, and as long as it does the job, it’s OK. Then I use Port Products Sol Defense SPF moisturizer. Then, morning and night, I put on Recipe for Men Under Eye Gel.

For night, I’m biased toward my own products. I do the Onekind Midnight Magic serum — there’s retinol in there — and I use that in tandem with Onekind Dream Cream. Every two days or so, I do the Urth Botanical Resurfacing Mask. I love a lot of their products. I also have the Urth Antioxidant Face Complex. It’s like taking your face to the spa.

The Perfect Shave

I have to shave every day for “Hollywood,” the show I’m on, and it’s really tough on the skin. I have to pay attention to the length of my stubble and the kind of blade I use. If I have a few days’ growth, I like the Executive blades from Dollar Shave Club.

But if it’s a day’s stubble, I’m using a safety razor. That’s because razor burn comes from multiple blades and multiple tiny cuts. I’m trying to minimize that by the number of the blades and also how big the blade is.

I use a hot towel to warm up the stubble. I also try to use really hot water to warm up the blade. Lock Stock & Barrel makes a really great shave oil.

One of the most important things, though, is the Urth Post Shave Elixir. I have buckets of it. If I don’t have it, I’m in a panic. I recommend it to anyone. I recommend it to my wife after she shaves her legs. I guarantee you maybe five people in the world care this much about shaving.

The Eastern Medicine Thing

I know it’s a hippie-dippy thing, but I’m a fan of oil pulling. I take a big dip out of a jar of coconut oil and swish that around my mouth. It sounds gross, and it is kind of gross. It’s supposed to pull bacteria out of my mouth.

I think it’s an Eastern medicine kind of thing — let’s face it, they’ve been ahead of everything on this front for millenniums. Someone recommended it to me years ago, and then when I was doing “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” on Broadway, I was literally making out with strangers every night. I did anything I could do to clean my mouth — it was more for their benefit and less for mine.

Sleep King

I’m really militant about sleeping for certain lengths of time. I’ve been doing this for years and years: I make sure I sleep in increments of 90 minutes. It takes me about 10 to 15 minutes to fall asleep and then the 90 minutes to complete a good REM cycle. So, for example, I’d rather get three hours of sleep than four hours.

You know those days when you wake up and you feel really good even though you didn’t really get a lot of sleep? That’s hitting the REM cycle. Or you sleep for a long time, but you wake up in the middle of a REM cycle and your whole day feels awful? I avoid that like the plague. Of course, there are a lot of variables — what you ate, how much you drank — but I try to have my sleep evenly timed out.

A Timed Diet

I’ve been into health and food ever since I was maybe 12 or 13. I was fascinated by the idea that food is fuel in this very nonintellectual way. You need carbs to do this and protein to do that. How it’s translated today is that you see that the digestive system is directly related to everything else. It’s not a subsidiary component.

So I time the way I eat. I don’t mean I’m timing while I’m eating, but you know how if you have dinner plans at 8 with friends? Well, then you don’t eat as much during the day so you’ll have an appetite and enjoy a meal out. I take the same approach with every activity throughout the day.

If I’m working, the snacks and the doughnuts are all lying around, and I have to be careful of that. Otherwise, I’ll feel strung out and tired. I try not to eat three hours before bed, but if I’m hungry, I might have a low-glycemic snack. I’m not going to have a carnitas burrito.

Then one of my biggest life hacks: I’m a huge chia seed person. If chia seed was a brand, I’d be repping them so hard. I soak chia seeds overnight and then do chia seeds and matcha in the morning. They’re the ancient form of good things.

Becoming a Fitness Fiend

I got heavily into fitness in my late 20s. Now I’m a certifiable fitness rat. I work out like I used to play video games. It’s competitive and fun. It’s also meditative. For me it’s really about the cardiovascular benefits and general well-being. If my body is a little more toned, that’s a super-bonus.

When I first started, that entry point was hard to find. I was completely allergic to the bro-y gym culture. “Get swoll, dude!” The thing that changed my life was P90X. I’ve never met him, but Tony Horton is the biggest dweeb in fitness.

I was too embarrassed to go to the gym, and I didn’t want to work out in a public space, and here was a guy who was making the dumbest dad jokes. This guy was all right. I knew this guy from high school.

I now love the social aspect of working out. I have maybe six or seven friends on rotation, and instead of going out, we do a workout class together. It might be HIIT, a Pilates reformer class or yoga. I try to change it up as much as possible. I want to confuse my muscles.

I also love Training Mate in Los Angeles. It’s by these goofy Australians. They’re super-fun and funny. When I’m in New York, Refine is my jam. Fhitting Room is really great.

Making Time for Recovery

A lot of people don’t know how to keep their muscles healthy. They need to do the recovery. Physical therapy is really nice, but it’s expensive. I believe in rolling out the muscles, and that just takes some time. Also, cryotherapy is incredible.

You can do other things, like an Epsom salt bath, and I’m a big fan of the steam shower if you can get access to one. I do it at night too, as it helps me relax before going to sleep.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Google taps fitness tracker market with $2.1-B bid for Fitbit

Alphabet Inc.-owned Google will buy Fitbit Inc for $2.1 billion, as the biggest Web search company looks to take on Apple and Samsung in the crowded market for fitness trackers and smart watches.

Google said on Friday that it sees an opportunity to introduce its own wearable devices and invest more in digital health. The purchase will also bring a rich trove of health data gathered by millions of Fitbit's devices.

Fitbit's fitness trackers and other devices monitor users' daily steps, calories burned and distance traveled. They also measure floors climbed, sleep duration and quality, and heart rate.

Fitbit's share of the fitness tracking market has been threatened by deeper-pocketed companies such as Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., as well as cheaper offerings from China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and Xiaomi Corp.

"We believe Google is a natural fit. The deep health and fitness data, coupled with the 28 million active users on the Fitbit platform, offer a tremendous value," Craig Hallum analysts wrote in a note. Xiaomi dominates the global wearables market, with a 17.3% market share in the second quarter of 2019, followed by Apple. Fitbit owns 10% of the market, according to data from market research firm International Data Corp.

Reuters first reported the deal on Monday.

HEALTH DATA

Fitbit, which helped pioneer the wearable devices craze, has been partnering with health insurers and has been making tuck-in acquisitions in the healthcare market, as part of efforts to diversify its revenue stream. Analysts have said that much of the company's value may now lie in its health data.

U.S. antitrust regulators have little reason to oppose Alphabet's plans to buy Fitbit, but that does not mean that U.S. officials, backed by a bevy of anti-Google lawmakers, will not give the proposed purchase extra scrutiny.

Google is already under antitrust investigation by the Justice Department, the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee and dozens of state attorneys general for allegedly using its massive market power to crush smaller competitors.

Fitbit has raised privacy concerns in the past: In 2011, the sexual activity of people using the health and fitness tracker was found to be publicly accessible online.

The company said on Friday that its users' health and wellness data would not be used for Google ads. Google said in a blog post that it would give Fitbit users the choice to review, move or delete their data.

Google, which has been defending its privacy practices after a number of regulatory probes, said it would be transparent about the data it collects for its devices and would not sell that data.

Fitbit brings to the deal partnerships it has struck with some large drug companies. In October, Fitbit announced a collaboration with Bristol-Myers Co and Pfizer Inc on early detection of irregular heartbeat, or atrial fibrillation, on its devices.

Fitbit in August also launched its latest smart watch, Versa 2, adding Amazon.com Inc's voice assistant Alexa, online payments and music storage to the device's capabilities.

Fitbit has been offered $7.35 per share in cash, the company said, a premium of about 19% to the stock's closing price on Thursday. The company's shares were trading up 15% at $7.11. Shares of Alphabet were nearly flat at $1,263.18.

The company's shares have gained more than 40% since Reuters reported on Monday that Google had made an offer for Fitbit.

Qatalyst Partners LLP was financial adviser to Fitbit on the deal, which is expected to close in 2020. Fenwick & West LLP was the legal adviser.

(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain and Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva and Jonathan Oatis)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Why so many of us don’t lose weight when we exercise

People hoping to lose weight with exercise often wind up being their own worst enemies, according to the latest, large-scale study of workouts, weight loss and their frustrating interaction. The study, which carefully tracked how much people ate and moved after starting to exercise, found that many of them failed to lose or even gained weight while exercising, because they also reflexively changed their lives in other, subtle ways. But a few people in the study did drop pounds, and their success could have lessons for the rest of us.

In a just and cogent universe, of course, exercise would make us thin. Physical activity consumes calories, and if we burn calories without replacing them or reducing our overall energy expenditure, we enter negative energy balance. In that condition, we utilize our internal energy stores, which most of us would call our flab, and shed weight.

But human metabolisms are not always just and cogent, and multiple past studies have shown that most men and women who begin new exercise routines drop only about 30 percent or 40 percent as much weight as would be expected, given how many additional calories they are expending with exercise.

Why exercise underwhelms for weight reduction remains an open question, though. Scientists studying the issue agree that most of us compensate for the calories lost to exercise by eating more, moving less, or both. Our resting metabolic rates may also decline if we start to lose pounds. All of this shifts us back toward positive energy balance, otherwise known as weight gain.

It has not been clear, however, whether we tend primarily to overeat or under-move as compensation, and the issue matters. To avoid compensating, we need to know how we are doing it.

So, for the new study, which was published last month in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers with the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and other institutions decided to exhort a large group of inactive people into exercising and closely track how their waistlines and daily habits changed.

They began by recruiting 171 sedentary, overweight men and women ages 18 to 65, measured their weight, resting metabolic rates, typical levels of hunger, aerobic fitness and, using complex, liquid energy tracers, daily food intake and energy expenditure. With standardized psychological questionnaires, they also explored whether the volunteers felt that virtuous, healthy actions now justified less-desirable ones later.

They then randomly assigned some to continue their normal lives as a control, while others began supervised exercise programs. In one, people exercised three times a week on treadmills or exercise bikes until they had burned eight calories for every kilogram of their body weight, or about 700 calories a week for most of them. The other program upped the exercise to 20 calories for every kilogram of body weight, or about 1,760 calories a week.

Both routines lasted for six months. Throughout, the volunteers wore activity monitors, and the researchers periodically checked their metabolic rates, energy intake and fitness. The volunteers could eat as they chose.

Afterward, everyone returned to the lab for comprehensive remeasurements. As expected, the control group’s numbers, including their weights and resting metabolic rates, had not budged. But neither had those of most of the exercisers. A few had dropped pounds, but about two-thirds of those in the shorter-workout group and 90 percent of those in the longer-workout group had lost less weight than would have been expected.

They had compensated for their extra calorie burn.

But not by moving less, the scientists found. Almost everyone’s activity-monitor readouts had remained steady. Instead, the exercisers were eating more, other measurements and calculations showed. The extra calories were slight — about 90 additional calories each day for the some-exercise group, and 125 a day for the most-exercise set. But this noshing was sufficient to undercut weight loss.

Interestingly, the researchers also found that those exercisers who had compensated the most and lost the least weight tended to be those who had reported at the start that they thought some good health habits gave people license for other, insalubrious ones.

“In effect, they felt that it’s OK to trade behaviors,” says Timothy Church, an adjunct professor at Pennington who led the new study. “It’s the ‘if I jog now, I deserve that doughnut’ idea.”

In consequence, they lost little if any weight with exercise.

But the study produced other, more encouraging data, he says. For one thing, almost everyone’s resting metabolic rates remained unchanged; slowed metabolisms would encourage pounds to creep back. And those few exercisers who avoided an extra cookie or handful of crackers did lose weight.

“There was only a small difference, overall,” between those who compensated and those who did not, Church says. “We’re talking about barely 100 calories. That’s about four bites of most food.”

So, people hoping to lose weight with exercise should pay close attention to what they eat, he says, and skip those last four bites, no matter how tempting.


2019 New York Times News Service

source: news.abs-cbn.com

The gym buff's guide to post-workout grooming

Nothing feels quite as good or as satisfying as pulling in a long session at the gym, working out muscles and breaking into a sweat.

It's a great way to detox and destress, as exercise opens up your pores and floods your body with happy hormones, like dopamine and serotonin, which help you feel good. 

And while people typically do not interfere with each other at the gym, hygiene becomes everybody's business when a stink is sensed by all. There's a stark difference between a sexy, musky scent and just plain stink. Guys, don't confuse the two. 

After working out and shaping up, don't forget to wash up – especially if you're heading off to work or meeting other people – as sweat can harbor bacteria that cause body odor. 

If you've already invested time and effort in working out at the gym, you should also invest in a good grooming regimen. It doesn't take much or that long to put together an effective one. 

Here, we give you a run-down of basic grooming essentials for every gym buff. Don't forget to pack these items in your bag:

1. GOODBYE BACTERIA: Antibacterial soap or shower gel

Old sweat and a warm body is a bad combination. The body can become a breeding ground for bacteria, which not only causes body odor but can trigger acne. 

To prevent breakouts, gently and effectively wash off sweat, dead skin cells and sebum on your skin, as well as odor-causing bacteria, with antibacterial soap. Some variants promise to kill 99% of all germs. 

Shower gels are also effective options as these are formulated with moisturizing ingredients that leave your skin feeling smooth. They also come in a variety of refreshing, masculine scents that last all day. 

2. PIT STOP: Antiperspirants 

Contrary to popular belief, sweat is virtually odorless to humans. Rather, it is the rapid growth of bacteria, and the breaking down of sweat by bacteria that cause your body to reek. This is why areas with hair, such as the armpits and groin area, tend to develop odor.

Hair strands prevent the quick evaporation of sweat, making these areas danger zones for stench. While others have taken to shaving and trimming the hair in those areas, a hardworking deodorant also does the trick. 

There are numerous antiperspirants that promise all-day dryness and protection, and they come in a slew of fresh and masculine scents. A note though: it's good to switch up brands every so often, because just like how bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics, your deodorant can become ineffective as your armpits can become resistant to the active ingredients.

3. GREAT HYDRATION: Moisturizer or moisturizing lotion

While deodorants are meant to help keep armpits dry, it doesn’t mean that all your grooming products should be drying. After a good wash-down, rehydrate your skin and prevent it from cracking (which can be painful) with lotion and facial moisturizers. 

It's best to choose products that are packed with skin-loving ingredients that cleanse, refresh, hydrate, and protect skin from UV rays. Another reason to commit to moisturizing: you'll look instantly younger!

4. A MANLY MUSK: Cologne

Of course, head out the door smelling fresher with your preferred cologne. A spritz or two of your signature scent will give you a boost of confidence to power you through your hectic day. Plus, it draws in people, too!

5. MUST-DO FOR YOUR 'DO: Hair Gel

Polish off your post-gym grooming regime with light mousse or hair wax. A little subtle styling of your hair can do a lot to help you look more presentable and put-together. 

Feel like a king by making sure that your crown looks impeccable. 

***
While working out is hard, looking polished and put-together in a jiffy can be as easy as 1, 2, 3!

NOTE: BrandNews articles are promotional features from our sponsors and not news articles from our editorial staff.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Trainer spills secret to Nadine's sexy body

MANILA – Nadine Lustre is one of the actresses who has a body that a lot of girls aspire to have.


No wonder she has been hailed as this year’s sexiest woman in the country after all.

While she also maintains a healthy and controlled diet, another reason why she has a sexy body is because she regularly exercises.

In an article on Cosmopolitan Philippines, Lustre’s trainer talked about the actress's gym routine.

"I admire Nadine’s work ethic and time management skills. We all know how hectic her schedule is and as her trainer, believe me, she needs 48 hours in a day,” Mark Banta said.

He also admires Lustre’s discipline, especially her endurance

"Another thing I like about training Nadine is that she doesn’t have go-to moves. If she needs to endure an hour of ab workouts, she’ll do it," he said.

"If she can squeeze in a workout after taping in the morning, shooting in the afternoon, guesting at night, why can’t we make time for a 30-minute workout?” he added.

Currently, Lustre is currently one of the regular hosts of ABS-CBN’s “It’s Showtime.”

source: news.abs-cbn.com

'I can still do it!' Rita Avila, 52, flaunts figure

MANILA - Actress Rita Avila, a sexy star in the 90s, proves that she still has it.

Avila, 52, has been sharing photos of her in a swimsuit on Instagram, drawing praise from her fans and fellow celebrities.

She used the hashtags #icanstilldoit, #fitat52 and #bodycare, among others. 

Avila is married to film and TV director Erick Reyes. 

The actress was part of the defunct soap "Magpahanggang Wakas" which was directed by her husband.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

'World's hottest math teacher' draws backlash over workout video

The math teacher whose body and brains made him an Internet sensation may have miscalculated the potential effects of a fitness video he recently posted on social media.

Pietro Boselli has come under fire for using a friend as a workout equipment in a nearly 3-minute clip that he said they made just for fun.

In what looked like a scripted video set on an unnamed island in the country, Boselli talks to the camera and says he was looking for a training tool he can “actually lift repeatedly for exercise.” He settles for a “Filipino man,” whom he calls “ideal.”


Subsequent scenes show Boselli chasing the man around the beach and hoisting him a number of times as if he were weights. He would later clarify to the Telegraph that the man was his friend, Danel.

The image didn’t sit well with many people.

Krishna Omkar, whose reaction to Boselli’s video drew one of the most likes on Facebook, called the clip “outrageous.”

“The Filipino man is referred to by the white man (Pietro Boselli) as ‘that’ and ‘my weight,’ he doesn’t have a name, neither do we see his face clearly, nor do we hear him speak, he is purely an object to be used by the white man and must be approached ‘slowly because he can get scared and start running’ just like a wild animal?” Omkar wrote.

“Yes I do have fun and I have a great sense of humour. That’s what lets me recognize that this is demeaning and derogatory.”

Another commenter, JP Mercado, said the visuals were “problematic.”

“Put differently, while Pietro is fully formed . . . ‘that Filipino man’ remains a caricature who’s poked fun at,” Mercado wrote.

“I don’t know. I mean, I’m all for shenanigans, which I’m a staunch advocate of, but this is just . . . off.”

Some who defended Boselli said they don’t understand how any one would take offense over a video that both Boselli and Danel knowingly agreed to create.

Boselli told the Telegraph he only has respect for Filipinos.

“I am so far removed from racism that I cannot possibly see anything racist about a funny video I have made with my friend Danel (the Filipino man in the video),” he said.

“We all have differences but we are all the same as human beings. I have and always will respect everyone.

“If anyone sees any racism in this video, they probably have racism in their head. I and Danel alike, still think this is light- hearted and funny video.”

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Hip yoga studio offers 'express' program

Want to get a good workout but can't fit it in your tight schedule?

Yoga + Express gives you all the benefits of a full yoga session packed in just one hour instead of the usual 90 minutes.

According to Yoga instructor Missy Castro, Yoga + Express combines movements from different yoga classes into a 60-minute program to maximize time without sacrificing the quality of exercise.

"The workout is like an overall workout for your body so we choose movements that maximize time when you can work out everything," she said.

The studio offers a variety of yoga classes such as Yin Basics, Flow Basics, Hot yoga, Flow yoga and vinyasa-based Hot Flow yoga.

It is also the first yoga studio in the country to use infrared heaters, which Castro says is therapeutic for muscles of the body.

Yoga + Express currently has four branches across the country.

Interested customers can visit studios in Legazpi Village, Makati; McKinley Hill, Taguig; Nuvali, Sta. Rosa, Laguna; and Malate, Manila.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Wrist-worn fitness trackers vary in heart rate readings

Commercial fitness trackers worn on the wrist are less accurate than a chest strap monitor at measuring heart rate, and may over- or underestimate heart rate depending on activity level, researchers say.

In general, wrist monitors are more accurate at rest than during exercise.

"If somebody must know his or her heart rate with great accuracy, like a heart patient or a trained athlete, if you really need to know, use a chest strap," said coauthor Dr. Marc Gillinov of the Cleveland Clinic.

"If you're using these wrist worn monitors and you get an odd value, way too high or too low, it's probably wrong so don't be concerned," Gillinov told Reuters Health by phone.

Motion, ambient light and varying skin tones can all affect wrist monitor accuracy, he said.

The researchers studied four heart rate monitors worn by 50 young, healthy adults exercising on treadmills. They wore electrocardiographic (ECG) limb leads and a Polar H7 chest strap monitor as comparisons for heart rate data, and also wore two of the four different wrist monitors: Fitbit Charge HR, Apple Watch, Mio Alpha and Basis Peak.

Heart rate readings were collected at rest and on the treadmill at two, three, four, five and six miles per hour. Users exercised at each level for three minutes before heart rate was recorded. Recorded heart rates ranged from 49 to 200 beats per minute (bpm).

Compared to the ECG, the heart rate monitors had variable accuracy. The Basis Peak, which is no longer commercially available, overestimated heart rate by roughly eight bpm during moderate exercise. The Fitbit Charge HR underestimated during more vigorous exercise, by about six or seven bpm.

The Apple Watch and Mio Fuse had 95 percent of their heart rate readings fall within a range of 27 to 29 bpm over or under the ECR reading, a slightly smaller range than the Fitbit or the Basis Peak, as reported in JAMA Cardiology.

The companies that make the wrist monitors do not claim that they are medical devices, Gillinov said.

"They should not be used to diagnose or treat anything, you can't count on them in that context," he said.

Aaron Coleman, CEO and founder of Fitabase, Fitbit's longtime clinical research partner, told Reuters Health he thinks the results aren't too bad, especially considering the wrist-worn devices are being compared to a research-grade device, a chest strap that would be unwieldy for any casual athlete to wear.

In general, the further away from the heart a body monitor is located, the more variation there will be in heart rate readings, he said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Apple hones marketing for Watch with focus on fitness

SAN FRANCISCO -- Two years after unveiling the Apple Watch with apps and styles that tried to appeal to every need and every customer, Apple Inc. has honed its marketing strategy, debuting a second generation product aimed squarely at the health and athletic audience.

The focus on fitness will enhance the watch's appeal to its core audience but also cements its status as a niche device, analysts said.

"Apple is responding to what has resonated with customers," said analyst Jan Dawson of Jackdaw Research. "The problem is there are only so many people who want to wear a health and fitness device. If they want this to be really massive, they're going to have to go broader."

The first new device released under CEO Tim Cook, the Apple Watch has not attracted a mass audience, selling 1.6 million units in the second quarter, down more than half from a year ago, in the run-up to the new version, IDC data showed.

Apple's original pitch touted the ability to send doodles, make phone calls and track fitness, while the company described it as essentially a fashion accessory.

But at a San Francisco launch event on Wednesday, where the iPhone 7 also debuted, Apple Watch videos, advertisements and demos focused narrowly on features for health enthusiasts, with the notable exception of a Pokemon Go app.

The new Watch starts at $369, includes a GPS chip, and is waterproof. Apple designed a special edition with sports giant Nike Inc.

Exercise buffs on social media cheered the new features, particularly the internal GPS system designed for runners who want to track workouts without dragging along their phones.

"At last Apple Watch is something I can use as a runner," Ian Bignell (@eyan_b) wrote on Twitter.

Still, the device is likely to remain a niche offering, said Colin Gillis, an analyst with BGC Partners.

"It's becoming a more interesting product, but it is not going to be able to meaningfully impact the bottom line if iPhones slow down," Gillis said.

Apple has not broken out Watch sales, but Wall Street analysts suspect it is a small and growing contributor. Sanford Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi estimates the watch will generate $4.1 billion in revenue for Apple this year, up from $2.7 billion in 2015.

IDC analyst Ryan Reith called the new version a "great incremental improvement" and predicted it would outsell the first version, in part because of its appeal to the fitness audience. But he said it faced challenges, such as competing with smartphones for consumer spending.

While the focus on fitness helps, Apple still needs a breakthrough app to nudge the smartwatch into the mainstream - and it remains unlikely to find it in Pokemon Go, the popular augmented reality game that is coming to the gadget later this year, Gillis said.

"The killer app for the watch remains to be seen," he said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

LOOK: Anne Curtis shows off toned body

MANILA - As if she wasn't already fit enough, "It's Showtime" host Anne Curtis is ready to hit the gym once more in preparation for an upcoming fitness competition in April.

On Instagram on Saturday, the 30-year-old Curtis showed off her toned body and shared that she is again one of the endorsers of Century Tuna, which stages the annual Superbods pageant that promotes a healthy lifestyle.

"Worked hard for this campaign! Wooohoooo! I'm inspired to workout again to reach my fitness goal for 2016! What about you?" a caption to a photo of her wearing a skimpy red bikini read.

Aside from Curtis, actor Derek Ramsay was also tapped as one of the endorsers of Century Tuna. The Superbods pageant will be held on April 10 at The Palace Pool Club in Taguig.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

WATCH: Techniques to work your abs

Getting abs takes hard work, commitment, and definitely the right exercise.

So if you're working on achieving those abs but falling short of your goals, then maybe you're not doing it the proper way.

Here is Anytime Fitness instructor Andrew Agustin for a demonstration of various abdominal workouts you can try.

- Mornings @ ANC, January 11, 2016

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

CES 2016 features latest health, fitness gadgets

Health and fitness gadgets are among the top technologies in this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The gathering has been flocked by a multitude of wellness gadgets from sensor devices to sleep monitors and to beauty masks, all promising a treat-yourself-at-home wellness strategy.

-ANC's Dateline Philippines, January 7, 2016

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Yoga meets good food, music, art in BGC

The busy life in the city seemed to make the concept of getting a rest out of place. But this fitness center located in one of the business hubs in the country is asserting the need for serenity and relaxation.

Life Yoga Center, a fitness center promoting holistic health and wellness lifestyle, in Bonifacio Global City is where the practice of yoga meets good food, modern music and art, and a sense of community.

The center is modernizing traditional yoga classes, offering various classes to cater to different preferences and incorporating music to raise the vibe.

Yoga classes offered in Life include the traditional form of yoga, Ash-Asana, and the powerful and energetic yoga, Rock n' flow, among others.

After a yoga class awaits the Vibe Cafe where a healthy lifestyle is emphasized with the cafe's organic eats. The cafe serves light snacks like chicken pesto with asparagus and the crunchy H&C sandwich. For rice lovers, the rice bowls are also available in the cafe.

Modern art has a place in the center too, various art pieces are displayed throughout the place. They in fact transform their yoga studios into pop art galleries when featuring new artists.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

How gym thrives with 'passion before profit' goal

With numerous fitness gyms jumping into the sports business, the Fight Factory Manila (FFM) in San Juan prides itself with quality training and good customer experience first over profitability.

Offering a range of contact sports for a full body workout, from mixed martial arts to boxing, this fitness enterprise swears by word of mouth instead of the usual advertising.

Discover how a passion for martial arts turned into a business as FFM co-founder Allan Co shared insights on running a sports business in the metro.

- ANC, Shoptalk, October 30, 2015

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

India bends it like Modi on first World Yoga Day

NEW DELHI - Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday hailed the first International Yoga Day as a "new era of peace", moments before he surprised thousands in New Delhi by taking to a mat himself to celebrate the ancient Indian practice.

Yoga-loving Modi led more than 35,000 people, including bureaucrats, students and soldiers, performing poses such as the half camel and cobra in a 35-minute mass outdoor yoga session beginning at 7:00 am (0130 GMT) on a New Delhi boulevard.

Organisers are hoping the event qualifies for the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest yoga class at a single venue.

The current title, according to the Guinness website, was set by 29,973 students in Gwalior, India, in 2005.

"Yoga is more than only physical fitness. We are not only celebrating a day but we are training the human mind to begin a new era of peace," Modi told the crowd at Rajpath avenue.

He thanked the United Nations and the 177 co-sponsoring countries for adopting his idea for a world Yoga Day.

"This is a programme for human welfare, a tension-free world and a programme to spread the message of love, peace and goodwill," said the premier, wearing a crisp white outfit with a national tricolour scarf.

Modi then surprised the crowds by leaving the stage, removing his glasses, and securing a spot at the front of the massive session to mirror the stretches, breathing, and meditative moves beamed on giant screens along the historic avenue.

He took a brief break in the middle of the session to walk around and inspect students doing yoga around him before rejoining the routine of 15 different poses, including the crocodile and "wind-releasing" posture.

The prime minister, who credits yoga for his ability to work long hours on little sleep, had been scheduled only to make a speech at Rajpath, where colourful mats were lined across the stretch that connects the president's palace with the iconic India Gate monument.



- Sea of white -

Aerial images taken near dawn showed Rajpath, or King's Avenue, as a sea of white with scores of people, clad in new Yoga Day T-shirts, bending and stretching in sync with the English and Hindi instructions to a background score of Indian classical music being played over loudspeakers.

Central Delhi was sealed off and carpeted, with dozens of metal detectors and multiple checkpoints erected for the big day that saw other VIPs including Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal participate.

People in 650 districts joined in, with pictures pouring in on Twitter from across the country.

Some showed soldiers performing various yoga poses -- or asanas -- against a backdrop of soaring snow mountains at Siachen glacier, the world's highest battleground, in disputed Indian Kashmir while others showed residents stretching it out in local parks.

India will be joined by yoga enthusiasts in 192 other countries -- including in Britain, where mats will be rolled out along the banks of the River Thames.

In his maiden address to the United Nations General Assembly, Modi proposed to dedicate a day devoted to the ancient Indian discipline, prompting the UN to proclaim June 21 as the International Day of Yoga.

Indian scholars believe yoga dates back 5,000 years, based on archaeological evidence of poses found inscribed on stones and references to Yogic teachings in the ancient Hindu scriptures of the Vedas.

And Modi, a vegetarian who practises the art daily, has made Yoga Day a key initiative of his Hindu nationalist government since he took office 13 months ago.

He wants to reclaim yoga as an historical part of Indian culture which has been lost to the West, where it has become a multi-billion-dollar industry.

Since storming to power, the Hindu nationalist premier has set up a ministry dedicated to promoting yoga and other traditional Indian treatments, and also started free yoga classes for his government's three million bureaucrats and their families.

"Yoga is the soft power of India and through that soft power the whole world can be one global village... (and) violence can be removed with this kind of peace," Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj has told reporters.

Swaraj is at the UN's headquarters in New York for Yoga Day, when scores are expected to strike a pose in Times Square.

But the government's push for "yoga for harmony and peace" met with criticism in the run-up to Sunday, with some religious minorities accusing Modi of pushing a pro-Hindu agenda in officially secular India.

A few Muslim groups have complained that chanting the sacred Hindu sound of "Om" during yoga and certain poses, such as "surya namaskar" or sun salutation, have clear Hindu overtones and were against Islam.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Workouts get smart with tech-personalized routines

NEW YORK -- When 55-year-old Connie Antoniou visits her fitness studio, the leg press knows her name.

"The machines are programmed for my body so they take the guesswork out and I'm not worried I'll injure myself," said Antoniou, an Illinois realtor. "The traditional approach didn't work for me. It just took too long."

An increasing number of gyms are using high-tech exercise equipment that can prompt, respond and adapt to individuals in what fitness experts say may signal a future that frees clients from trying to gauge how fast, how hard or how long to work out.

Now her trainer at The Exercise Coach fitness studio punches a code into the fitness machine, her name pops up on a screen, and a session tailored to her personal goals and strengths begins.

Antoniou said because of the workout she is stronger and has improved her golf game with just two 20 minute sessions per week.

The Exercise Coach, a Chicago-based firm that has 30 franchises nationally, is among the gyms and fitness studios turning to responsive machines to improve workouts.

"The paradigm is shifting to workouts that are briefer, more challenging, more intense, and less frequent," said Bryan Cygan, the founder and chief executive of The Exercise Coach.

He cited research published in the journal "Preventive Medicine" showing virtually all benefits of resistance training are likely to be obtained in two 15- to 20-minute training sessions a week.

"We take individual snapshots of customers and provide exercises that are appropriate to them," he explained. "Then our software makes intelligent recommendations."

The coach-led, circuit-style workouts cost up to $40 each and typically include leg curls, leg presses, multiple upper body exercises, and core work and elliptical trainers.

Ted Vickey, senior consultant on fitness technology for the American Council on Exercise, said the big box gyms are also exploring the benefits of responsive machines.

"The problem is that people aren't exercising, period," said Vickey, who is finishing a Ph.D. on the uses of technology in fitness. "I'm a fan of small steps."

Vickey says wearable trackers are currently the most important fitness devices. He envisions a future in which fitness centers resemble fitness hubs, where clients with stored information can get professional recommendations.

"I like the fact that we can use that tech to make a change , but I want humans to make that change," he said. "I don't want equipment telling me what to do."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Motivation to get fit: Exercise can be 'holy'

MANILA – Do you need a reason to start exercising this 2015? Here’s one: it can be a “holy” activity.

Motivational speaker and best-selling author Bo Sanchez, also known as the “Preacher in Blue Jeans,” made the statement during his interview on the ANC program “Headstart” on Friday.

He said that exercise as well as a proper diet can be “holy” because being strong and healthy is important in fulfilling a person’s mission to love as a son or daughter of God.

“Yes, because love requires it,” said Sanchez when asked by “Headstart” host Karen Davila if exercise and eating right can be considered holy. “Whatever love requires, that is what you do. What makes something holy? It’s love.”

“How can you love others if you’re sick? How can you love others until 60, 70, or 90 years old? You want to serve others for the rest of your life, you have to be healthy and strong,” he added. “So walk, eat right and exercise. Think right. Do what love requires.”

Referring to the body as “the remote control of your emotional life,” Sanchez noted that a person’s actions greatly affect his or her emotional state.

“Many people say, ‘I can’t control my anger, I can’t control my laziness, I can’t control my fear. What should I do?’ One would be controlling one’s thoughts, the other is controlling the body.

“When you can control your body, you can control your emotions. Sooner or later, you actually feel great,” he said.

Reacting to people who tend to say that they do not have enough time to exercise, Sanchez said the key is to know one’s priorities.

“Whatever is important to you, you will make time. A lot of people waste a lot of time on things that they do habitually. You have to make a decision: ‘What is the most important [thing] to me that I’ll give time [for it]?’ If exercise is important to you, then you’ll do it,” he said.

Sanchez said people can use this motivation to save money and spend more time with their famiy.

“Be rich so you can give and be generous,” he said, adding, “Your mission is not just connected to your work, but also to your family, your relationships, recreation, your health, food and exercise. All of those have to be connected with your mission.”

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com