Ault Park-Part 1
At the beginning of fall, when the heat and humidity of summer begins to fade, is my favorite time to take my workouts outside. Because I believe in nature's restorative powers, I wanted to take our Fit Day group outdoors for a large portion of the event. We spent the beautiful morning in Ault Park where six different studios were represented. To give the participants a good variety of exercise (and highlight more outstanding studios), at one point we split up into four groups to give everyone a chance with four different trainers for 15 minute cycles. Splitting this part of the day up also proved to be a good move so no one felt overly burnt out by yet another hour long class, and the four studios worked together flawlessly to give everyone something different at each station. The City Skinny, CoreStrong, It's Working Out TRX, and Studio S pilates all planned segments for this part of the day. I want to highlight each one, because each trainer stood out to different people for different reasons, and we were so lucky to have such a dynamic group.In this post, I want to highlight what Stephanie Tieman, owner of CoreStrong, and Lea Verlin, representing The City Skinny, added to the day.
If you read my blog regularly, you probably feel like you know Stephanie already. She has a gift of making people feel comfortable while they get uncomfortable pushing themselves. Stephanie took the ladies up and down the steps of Ault Park, working our legs in different directions with different patterns of movement up and down the steps. We double-leg jumped, skipping a step at a time, and worked the inside and outside of our legs going up the steps sideways. We ended the workout with push-up and tricep dip pyramids. This took us right to the threshold, but didn't burn us out for the rest of the day.
Lea and I planned a mini HIIT workout, which she facilitated beautifully, using resistance bands, kettlebells and bodyweight. 6 exercises were performed for one minute each with a 30 second rest in-between each set. We then repeated each of the 6 exercises for 30 seconds each without stopping for rest in-between, giving our bodies a 3 minute power set to complete the session. These included kettlebell swings to get the whole body moving and elevating our heartrate, single arm plank swings (a favorite of mine), reverse lunges into a warrior 3 position, leg raises in a plank position hitting different areas of our glutes, bench step-ups, and a squat/row combo using a resistance band.
I often head outside, sometimes with a couple pieces of light equipment like a resistance band or a kettlebell, and sometimes with just myself. There are great ways to use benches, steps and other spots in a park or on a trail to break up your workout, giving you a break from the routine. There is something revitalizing about heading to a different outdoor spot, finding what is available and utilizing these things in your workout. All six of our Ault Park trainers gave our group some great ideas for exercising outside, and often take their studios outside from time to time to give some versatility to their clients and keep things fresh.
In fact, you can find Stephanie (not only in her fabulous studio rowing, boxing and doing her thing) on the weekends leading outdoor classes and taking groups running the bridges of Kentucky and Cincinnati. The group meets at 7:30 on Saturdays, runs 1 mile to Sawyer Point, where they do a 30 minute bootcamp style class (where they tackle the steps at Sawyer Point) and run back. Go to her website for weekly updates. And to make it even more enticing, it's free! The City Skinny is taking things outside for classes, too. If you live in the Cincinnati area and want to be notified of class locations and times, subscribe to our newsletter or like our facebook page for updates. It's an awesome time of year to get outside, wherever you live, and save the gym for your rough winter days. It's good for the body, mind and the soul and can be a game changer for your fitness routine!