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Fitness

Meet Cindy Olavarri

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Cindy graduated from the University of California with a B.A. in Physical Education, a Secondary Teaching Credential, and a M.A in Exercise Physiology. She is certified by the American College of Sports Medicine as a Health/Fitness Instructor and Advanced Personal Trainer. Cindy had a very active childhood, fishing, backpacking, and playing baseball and basketball with her brothers. She ran track and cross country in high school and at the University of California. She was also a member of the first women’s crew team at U.C. Berkeley.

After college, Cindy competed in bicycle racing and was a member of the U.S. National Cycling Team. She competed in four World Cycling Championships and won the silver medal in the pursuit in the 1983 World Championships in Zurich, Switzerland. She also won three U.S. National Championship titles.

Cindy has worked in the fitness industry for over 30 years in a variety of capacities. She has been a personal trainer, fitness director, physical therapy aid, and college cross country coach. Cindy loves working one on one with clients of all ages helping them navigate the challenges of life with a healthy, active lifestyle.

In her spare time, she enjoys running, weightlifting, walking her dogs Lucy and Che, and working in her yard.

Equalizer Dip

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Take two Equalizers and place them side by side. Stand in between the Equalizers then bend down and grasp the foam portion of each handle. Place both feet outside the Equalizers just on the other side of the front feet. Knees are bent and the arms should be straight. Lower your body down between the equalizers
by bending the elbows. Make sure not to lower yourself down any further than 90 degrees of your upper arm. Extend your arms lifting your body back up then repeat. In this position you may if needed use your legs to assist you.

“The Stork” Outer Gluteal Activation

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The “Stork” is a static hip exercise for strengthening and activating the lateral Gluteals, Gluteus Medius, Gluteuas Minimus, and the Piriformis muscles. This set of external hip rotators are responsible for abducting the leg out away from the body, rotating your leg outward, and stabilizing your femur at the hip. Non-activity and injury can cause this group to become weak which can affect the overall performance of your hip complex, affecting your gait and in some cases cause knee, hip, and lower back pain.
A static exercise like the “Stork” means that the exercise requires you to hold the position for a set duration, much the same as an isometric where the limbs and joints do not move but the muscles are contracted. The duration can be as short as 10-20 seconds to as much as 30-60 seconds depending on the prescription.
To perform the “Stork” take an inflatable balance disc, foam pad, or even a moderately firm pillow and place it against the wall. Turn sideways to the wall so that your shoulder is next to the wall with your feet about shoulder width a part. Lift the leg closest to the wall and trap the disc between your lower thigh and the wall with your leg not quite 90 degrees. Stand tall and put your wall side hand on the wall for balance. Begin by driving your body into the disc with you outside leg. Your wall side hip should not touch the wall. Keep the outside leg straight throughout with the body tall. Hold for the prescribed duration and repeat on both sides 2-3 times. Please see our BAC Personal Trainers to learn more about the “Stork”.

“Standing Donkey Kick”: Glute Activation

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The Static Hip Series is called the “Donkey Kick”. The “Donkey Kick” is a static hip exercise for strengthening and activating the Gluteus Maximus and the Hamstrings. The Gluteus Maximus and the Hamstring muscles work in concert with each other to extend your hip. Extremely important muscles for gait in walking and in running. Injury and inactivity can dramatically affect the performance of these two groups which in some cases may cause modifications to gait and running mechanics, increasing the chances of injury and or pain.
A static exercise like the “Donkey Kick” means that the exercise requires you to hold the position for a set duration, much the same as an isometric where the limbs and joints do not move but the muscles are contracted. The duration can be as short as 10-20 seconds to as much as 30-60 seconds depending on the prescription.
To perform the “Donkey Kick” take a “Ballast Ball”, Stability Ball with sand material in the bottom, or a regular Stability Ball. Note that a “Ballast Ball” has a little more stability that a standard Stability ball. Pin or trap the ball at the base of a wall, a corner works even better as the ball will not roll around as much and you have a wall to stabilize and balance yourself with. Turn your back to the wall and the ball and then place the sole of one foot against the ball. Your support leg should be far enough forward, that the knee of the foot that is on the ball is slightly behind the front leg. Standing tall drive the heel of the foot on the ball into the ball. You should feel a contraction in the Gluteus Maximus and hamstrings. Hold for the prescribed duration and repeat on both sides 2-3 times. Please see our BAC Personal Trainers to learn more about the “Donkey Kick”.

Summer Weight Training

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As we head into summer it is important to stick with our fitness routines, especially weight training. It has become increasingly apparent just how important weight training is to our long-term health. Summer is a great time to take your cardio workout to the great outdoors, but if you drop your weight training over the summer months you will lose ground in your overall strength.

This is particularly critical because during the summer we participate in lots of varied activities, regardless of physical preparedness. Summertime is often filled with weekend warrior syndrome – from waterskiing to softball, hefting heavy coolers to swimming, summer is more than ever a time to continue your weight training workouts.

The goal is to keep doing all those things we love, which does mean continuing your training routines. If we were kids who spend the majority of their days running, climbing, and wrestling their siblings, we wouldn’t have to train, but alas most of us are working or working at being adults, which seems to leave out recess and playtime. So don?t forget to build some time into your summer activities to stay in shape so you can enjoy the whole summer free of injury!

One of the benefits of being a member at BAC is direct access to talented trainers who can assist you in the process of improving your personal fitness, whether hiking, biking, skiing or camping. We have developed some new Outdoor Fitness Programs to help you stay fit and still enjoy the great outdoors! One great example is Jeremy?s bootcamp; they move things outdoors in the summer so come join us on Monday and Wednesday nights for a little extra weight and cardio training. Give us a call and make the time you spend in the club this summer really count!

Meet Jennifer Dyrland

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For the last 12 years I have enjoyed teaching Pilates at the Bellingham Athletic Club. Maintaining my Pilates certification through Power Pilates over the years has helped me fine-tune workouts and keep members challenged. Following several foot and ankle injuries, I needed a non-impact method to build and increase my core strength. I quickly became enamored with Pilates. Working with members to strengthen their abs, back, and increase flexibility has been great fun! Come check out a class! This year I will celebrate my 25th wedding anniversary- I meet my husband Erik while attending graduate school at WWU. We have two amazing kids and have recently become empty-nesters. Outside of the BAC I enjoy baking, hiking, snowshoeing, traveling, gardening, spending time with friends and volunteering.

Rethink the Pool!

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What do you normally think of when you hear of resistance training? Maybe using Dumbbells, Barbells, Medicine Balls, Kettlebells, or Weight Stack Machines? What about water? Water can also be used as a form of resistance training! Just ask people who have done Aqua Exercise and Hydro Therapy.

So what type of benefit can you achieve from doing resistance exercise in the water? For starters, water affords you smaller increments of resistance due to the negating of gravity and by the amount of force you put against the water. The slower you move thru the water the less drag and thus the lower amount of resistance. Whereas the faster you move thru the water the more drag and resistance you receive. This allows you to incremental increase or decrease the amount of resistance you receive in any given movement.

Performing movements in the water tend to be smoother and easier on the joints. You also have the benefit of the pressure of the water and the temperature which gives assistance to your lymphatic and circulatory system as well as helping with any inflammation.

Think of a movement that you can perform with one of the standard resistance training tools and you can just about do every single one in the water. Here at BAC, we have a variety of water resistance pieces of equipment that you can utilize in the water. From dumbbells to kickboards, to noodles. Not only can we do traditional type formats that you may be used to with traditional resistance equipment but we can also do the popular HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) workouts in the water!

Speedo, with its’ long history of swimwear, is now merchandising their Speedo Fit line of equipment and are teaming up with the professionals at EXOS, a nationally renowned sports performance facility in Tempe AZ, to put together an entire program in the water. YouTube has a number of videos using their products.

If you are interested in seeing how water can fit into your resistance routine please contact one of our personal training staff or check out one of our popular Aqua Aerobics Classes.

Rollga foam rolling hip, back, neck

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Rollga foam rolling hip, back, neck series:

Hip bridge for tissue around sacral spine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Piriformis for tissue release in the hip rotators.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mid-back for tissue release between the shoulder blades.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Neck for tissue release for the cervical spine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10 to 20 rolls of each position. Pain should be less than a 4 on a scale of 1-10 (1 being no pain 10 being intense pain). These exercises can be performed on a daily basis.

The Matrix S-Drive Treadmill

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“A Different Kind of Push-Pull!”

– Self-Powered
– 7% fixed grade
– Front push bar for sled push
– Sled brake with eight settings provides a true-to-life weighted sled pushing experience
– Parachute brake with 11 settings gives users the feel of real parachute resistance
– Both BAC locations
Stop by both clubs to give it a try! For instruction and demonstration please talk to one of the BAC Training Staff!

Quadrupled Hip Extension Over a Bench

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Glute activation and strengthening is being shown to be extremely important to lower back health and stability. For many of us, a normal day includes an inordinate amount of time in the seated position, from commuting to and from work, sitting at our desks, to sitting at the computer to watching TV. As with any underutilized muscle, the glutes will lose strength and stability due to non-use. Research now suggests that a loss of strength to the glutes can contribute to lower back issues and /or pain.

To counteract this trend it is important to include glute activation exercises to your exercise regiment. A very effective exercise for glute activation is the “quadrupled hip extension” on a bench.

To perform the exercise, kneel down on the floor and lay your torso over a bench. Slide forward until your hip bones touch the edge of the bench. While performing the exercise your goal is to maintain hip contact with the bench the entire time. This will keep your lumbar spine and pelvis in alignment during the exercise. Bend the leg you are going to work at the knee so that the hamstring is in a shortened position. This places a greater demand on the glutes to extend the hip. Lift the thigh toward the ceiling while contracting the glutes. Maintain hip contact during the entire motion. Lift the thigh as high as you can without losing contact with the bench, hold and squeeze for five seconds, then lower. Perform 5-8 reps, then repeat on opposite leg. As you become stronger you can place a dumbbell behind the knee to provide more resistance. If you have questions on how to perform this exercise correctly, please contact one of our Personal Training Staff.
Mike Locke
Fitness Director