Winter workouts are in full swing. We have some new faces in our weekend speed and agility sessions. It is nice to see new athletes starting out in  our speed and agility along side of those who have been coming. If you see the same people week in and week out, they don’t appear to be improving that well. But, when you  put our seasoned athletes next to the first timers you can see how advanced the veterans really are. We also realize how intimidating it might be for somebody just starting out. Please don’t be intimidated. Improvement comes with repetition. Good habits are reinforced with repetition and time and bad habits are broken over time. The only thing we can’t accelerate is time. The key is repetition over time. If you give us the time committment we will provide the repetition in a way that you will eliminate bad habits and replace them with good habits. Over time, the good habits become second nature. It is amazing to see this basic formula work over and over again. You can’t cheat the formula. If you don’t put in the time, you don’t get the results. Spend your time wisely, come workout with us. You will be amazed.

Have a good week. Hope to see you soon.

    It finally looks like winter in the Chicagoland area. We had a great kickoff to our weight losing program. 15 people have weieghed in and are starting their journey toward losing 7% of their bodyweight by May 16th. Good luck everybody! We’re here to help you if you want it. We are glad to announce we have been talking with Chef Jody Emer, Wellness Coach, to add her to our staff. Jody specializes in cooking specialty meals to meet health and performance goals. She is also a wellness coach and can assist you in meeting your health needs. You can contact her at thyme2shine.com, or call us and we can pass on her information. In March we will be providing a seminar for coaches of all sport on speed and agility and injury prevention. Stay tuned in for further information. It’s not too late to sign-up for the weightlosing program. Hope to be of service to you in the New Year.

The Staff at Kinetic Connections

    Happy New Year!

    It’s good to be back. We are in full motion for 2012. It was good to see all of our athletes this weekend. Our speed and conditioning session at Grass Lake School was packed this weekend.  Our young athletes are starting to understand the benefits of getting ahead of the game. We have been discussing choosing the best exercise program for yourself in 2012. We hope the information over the past month has been helpful. We will be starting a biggest loser style contest on January 11th. You can participate either as a team, or as an individual. The goal is to create a lifestyle change. It costs $50/person. The goal is to lose 7% your or your team’s total weight by May 16th. If you as an individual, or your team collectively loses 7% your weight, you get your entrance fee back. If you lose your weight and other individuals, or team members don’t, the gross total of the entrance fees will be divided up between the individuals and teams that achieved their goal. It costs $50/person to enter. Weigh in is at Colletti Physical Therapy and it starts 1/11/12. The final weigh-in is on 5/16/12. All participants have to weigh in on 5/16. You can start any time with your weigh-in on 1/11 or later. If you have any questions,call Larry Stone, 847-395-6100

    Sorry we are a little late with this week’s newsletter, just enjoying the Christmas Holiday. When we finished last week, we said we would cover the basics of choosing the proper aerobics conditioning program. Aerobic exercise is the type of exercise that requires oxygen as it’s energy source. The types of activities that require oxygen are running, riding a bike, using th ellyptical, or using the stairstepper. Aerobic exercise requires oxygen as it’s source of energy. When oxygen depletes as the source of energy, the next source of energy is fat. Aerobic activity over a long period of time becomes a fat burning activity. Unfortunately, performing an aerobic activity until it becomes a fat burning activity can become uncomfortable. Many people have difficulty tolerating the discomfort that comes with running or other aerobic activities. The long term benefits of aerobic activities include improved efficiency of the heart, decreased heart rate, and improved mood. Again, the downside of running is the fat burning effects are short lived.

    When choosing an aerobic activity that is good for you, there are some things that must be considered. Running is high impact. The use of aerobic activity to burn fat requires time. There is some discomfort involved when working hard enough to burn fat and not everybody is cut out to tolerate this discomfort. The upside of aerobic activity is an associated euphoria when working into and beyond fatigue. This euphoria is known as the runner’s high.

    If you want to add aerobic activity to your program you need to be physically able to perform the activities. Running is high impact. Ellypticals and Stairsteppers are lower impact. High impact is rougher on the joints than low impact. Aerobic activity is beneficial to an exercise routine. Consider adding it to your routine, please use good judgement when considering adding it to your routine. Aerobic activity is a good choice when thinking about adding ways to lose weight to your exercise routine.

    We hope all of the information we have given you regarding exercise and how to choose the proper execise routine that is beneficial to you has been helpful. Please use the information given to you when making your New Years Resolutions and choosing your exercise program for 2012. We will not be publishing a newsletter on 1/1/12. Have a good New Year. See you next year. We will not be holding our adult class on 1/2/12. We will be holding speed and agility on 12/31/11 at Grass Lake School. If you have any questions, please call Steve or Larry at 847-395-6100.

    One more week until Christmas. We hope everybody is having a good Christmas season. We will be holding open speed and agility sessions at Grass Lake School on Satueday, 12/24/11 and 12/31/11. We are closed on Christmas and New Year. Adult sessions will be held as usual on Monday and Wednesday nights. If you have any questions, please feel free to call us.

    We have been discussing choosing an exercise program and choosing the exercise that is right for you. the last thing we wish to discuss before the New Year is aerobicc exercise.  Aerobic exercise can come in the form of running, use of equipment such as exercycles, or in in classes like step aerobics. Next week we will discuss the benefitsts of aerobics and the various ways to perform aerobic exercise. Have a good week and we wish you a Merry Christmas.