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The Alaska Club

TAC Board: The Alaska Club Blog

How to Role Model Daily Exercise with your Kids

I am a mother to three children, who were all born within three years (2006-2009). I was in “advanced maternal age” when I had my first baby, so my husband and I went for it and had two more without thinking about it because we didn’t have time to waste. Parenthood is amazing in all the ways everyone promised it would be, except it isn’t always amazing for the workout routine! I am happy to share some strategies I employed to survive and stay in sort-of “good” shape and sane…. And also share some of my favorite moments doing events with my kids.
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Member Testimonial: Brian Crouse

My journey began on September 22nd, 2019. My best friend called and during our conversation, she told me she had lost 80lbs in the last 8 months. She showed me a pic and she looked amazing. I was not about to have her show me up, so I asked "HOW?". She was eating healthy. She had cut out most carbs and sugars. I was 386lbs and had already thought about getting healthy; and this was the last straw.
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Member Testimonial: Kathryn Pyne

First, I would like to thank The Alaska Club for allowing Any Time Fitness members to transfer their membership. With this transfer, I have been able to continue work with my trainer, Joelle Miller. Her patience, knowledge and experience working with a wide range of abilities has greatly helped me.
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Interview with Olympic Skier Logan Hanneman | TAC Board

on Sep 10, 2019 12:45:30 PM By | The Alaska Club | 0 Comments | Gym and Health Club Exercises fitness US Ski Team winter ski exercise
We’ve all heard how big Alaska is. The jokes about Texas and the lower 48 are pretty well versed by every proud 49th state resident. The mountains are big. The rivers are big. The king salmon, the moose, the grizzly and polar bears… yep, you know it. Large and in charge.
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Moving for Memories: Preventing Alzheimer's Disease

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Exercise as an elixir to disease

on Oct 18, 2018 11:03:04 AM By | Barbara DuBois | 0 Comments | Gym and Health Club Exercises healthy living injury disease
There is amazing news on the home front regarding exercise! It is no news that a sedentary lifestyle puts a person at risk for the “metabolic syndrome.” Metabolic syndrome, according to the Mayo Clinic, is a person who endures, “high blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist, and abnormal cholesterol levels.” This syndrome dramatically increases a person’s risk for a whole host of diseases that are lifestyle related: heart disease, cancer, stroke, osteoporosis, diabetes, to name a few. Incredibly, even mental health problems such as depression and Alzheimer’s have now been recognized as more frequently appearing diseases among the inactive.
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A Decade of Group Power

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Winter is Coming!

on Oct 12, 2017 3:08:41 PM By | Barbara DuBois | 0 Comments | Gym and Health Club Exercises fitness winter
The trees are shedding their gold and the snow is gradually creeping down the mountains. Alaskans are observing animals everywhere kicking into high gear as they ready themselves for a long winter and for the last autumnal rites of mating. People are posting on social media sites of bears foraging in neighborhoods, on heavily frequented trails and simply ambling down roads. Moose are precariously grazing on the Northern Lights Boulevard median, besides the Glenn and Minnesota Boulevard and literally everywhere besides someplace safe. My maternal instinct wants me to urge them away, but with my luck, I’d unwittingly influence them to run into traffic. The Parks Service continues to knock out the valiant efforts of the beavers’ damming projects at University Lake, only to see the dams rebuilt in a few days. All the critters know it’s coming. They’re getting ready.
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Resolve to Free Your Mind in 2016

on Dec 31, 2015 2:25:23 PM By | The Alaska Club | 1 Comment | Gym and Health Club Exercises
“Free your mind and the rest will follow.” This isn’t normally what you hear from a New Year’s Resolution post, is it? That’s because this is real-talk and, like deciding on resolutions that can actually outlast Grandma’s holiday fruit cake, being real can make all the difference. So, why the insightful lyrics of a 90’s R&B group when it comes to resolutions? Maybe the group was kind of onto something. Unless you’re one of those super humans who can actually eliminate bad habits at the drop of a hat, drastic resolutions, though they make us feel better, are often really hard to keep! Instead, free your mind (or simply, free yourself) from the overambitious, never-gonna-stick resolutions you feel tempted to make, and the rest will follow.
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Try Synrgy360 For A Total-Body Workout

on Dec 10, 2015 12:44:28 PM By | The Alaska Club | 0 Comments | Gym and Health Club Exercises fitness
Now at The West Club Life Fitness pioneered the SYNRGY360 concept to create inspirational fitness experiences for a diverse audience of exercisers.
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3 Tips to Manage Holiday Stress, The Healthy Way

While the holidays are typically a time of sharing cheer with family and friends, the season also brings with it various sources of stress for each of us. Here are three ways to keep your cool while navigating the hustle and bustle this year.
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New Aqua Fitness is Waves of Fun!

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Insanity at The Alaska Club – Energy Breeds Energy

on Oct 9, 2015 11:00:00 AM By | Barbara DuBois | 0 Comments | Gym and Health Club Exercises
The hardest part of my work week isn’t going to work. It’s getting up when it’s cold, dark and the bed is incredibly warm, soft and snuggly and I just yearn for one more hour of peaceful slumber. I always factor in at least one hit on the snooze button. So as you can guess, I particularly relish sleeping in on Saturdays. It’s one of the few luxuries in life that doesn’t actually cost me anything.
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Simplify and Build from the Basics

on Sep 1, 2015 6:40:00 PM By | Patrick Curtis | 0 Comments | Gym and Health Club Exercises fitness
Whether starting an exercise routine, returning to one or looking for a progression beyond what has been a regular routine, a rundown of the basics as recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine (acsm.org) can help with each of these needs.
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Spa Experiences from Germany

on Aug 11, 2015 5:00:00 PM By | Barbara DuBois | 0 Comments | Gym and Health Club Exercises spa
This summer I had the good fortune of travelling to Germany, the country of my cultural heritage. My mother was born in Belgard, Germany, and when she was a teenager, my grandparents decided her frail health required an environment conducive to rigorous outdoor activities. And so, my grandfather took a new position at the Post Office in Kolberg, a train journey one hour away from Belgard and situated on the Baltic Sea.
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The Balancing Act

on Aug 6, 2015 3:00:00 PM By | Patrick Curtis | 0 Comments | Gym and Health Club Exercises fitness
As kids, we’re typically extraordinarily active when playing. We’re growing, exploring our motor skills and movement; often playing games that require hopping, skipping, jumping, leaping and/or balancing on one foot. However as we approach adulthood, (depending on our recreational or exercise-related pursuits,) we move around and play less, which can result in some loss of balance and coordination. Programs that replicate an “adult recess” experience have grown in popularity in recent years as workout programs such as P90X, Insanity, HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) and many others exemplify this approach. The variety and pace of these types of workouts appeal to many exercisers who feel like they offer the perfect counterbalance to an inactive workday; and one of the key aspects to this type of exercise is the integration of balance and coordination along with strength and endurance.
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Cross-Training Concepts for Summer in Alaska

on Jun 29, 2015 4:00:00 PM By | Patrick Curtis | 0 Comments | Gym and Health Club Exercises
A basic definition of the term ‘cross-training’ as it applies to physical fitness is using more than one method to develop a specific skill or fitness component. A general example is developing cardiovascular endurance with bouts of running, swimming, cycling, group classes, dance cardio etc. However, we are most often using the term for fitness to describe using similar activities to prepare for the demands of another, such as swimming to prepare for surfing. In this example there is a relationship between the activities that is easily identifiable: the arm movement with freestyle swimming replicates the paddling action on a surfboard.
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Techniques for Managing Back Pain

on Jun 9, 2015 9:00:00 AM By | Barbara DuBois | 0 Comments | Gym and Health Club Exercises Yoga
In the fall of 2013, I was really starting to have some pretty persistent and growing back problems. Now if you suffer something like this, my very first recommendation to you is to get checked out by your doctor.
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What to Expect When You Walk Into A Spin Class

on May 18, 2015 11:30:00 AM By | The Alaska Club | 0 Comments | Gym and Health Club Exercises
Hopping on a stationary bike has always been a popular way to get exercise, but over the past few years it seems like boutique spin studios have been popping up all over the place.
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Alaska Business Monthly: The Alaska Club

on Apr 27, 2015 11:00:00 AM By | AK Business Monthly | 0 Comments | Gym and Health Club Exercises Community
Innovate. Motivate. Celebrate. Those three things are key to making the Alaska Club a success, and it’s a combination that has earned the company respect among those in its field.
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Mechanics of the Core

on Apr 23, 2015 5:00:00 PM By | Patrick Curtis | 0 Comments | Gym and Health Club Exercises
We hear the term “CORE” often and know it has something to do with our abs and low back or our “trunk,” but what other muscles groups work as part of this power center of our amazing bodies? Most of us know we are supposed to do “core work” to support other activities and muscle groups. It is also said in the fitness industry and academic worlds that “all movement starts with the core.” Our true understanding of the core varies with each individual’s knowledge base, training and education about the body. However, we can quickly cover an overview of what is referred to in clinical terms as the LPHC or Lumbo-pelvic-hip-complex and it need not be too complex!
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Frequent Sauna Use Contributes to Good Heart Health

on Apr 20, 2015 10:30:00 AM By | Barbara DuBois | 0 Comments | Gym and Health Club Exercises
The other day I noted to my surprise that an article in the Alaska Dispatch News indicated that sauna users reduce their risks of dying from heart disease, and heart attacks and in general, improve their life expectancy. I was surprised because I thought people would be at a greater risk of heart failure just by virtue of exposure to a sauna's heat. Au contraire! Naturally, I was immediately curious as to how and what other outside factors might play a role as this was a study conducted in Finland.
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Choose an Event for Specific Goal Achievement

on Mar 18, 2015 9:39:00 AM By | Patrick Curtis | 0 Comments | Gym and Health Club Exercises
Most exercisers are aware of the importance and effectiveness of setting goals in order to achieve results from the time, energy and work put into working out. The SMART goal acronym is particularly useful with exercise/fitness goals as keeping things specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timed creates a way to break down large goals into increments that are more easily approached. Once each small increment is achieved a new one is set, creating a progression toward the larger, longer term goal.
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Train Your Body For Everyday

on Mar 10, 2015 10:01:00 AM By | Patrick Curtis | 0 Comments | Gym and Health Club Exercises
Functional training is a term that has gained attention and focus in the fitness industry in the past ten years with equipment and workouts being designed to specifically accommodate this concept in exercise. The truth is “functional training” has always been around as its most simple definition is: training the body for the demands of normal life. Our everyday activities involve some pretty complex maneuvers we may not even think of in this way, such as getting into a vehicle, which involves lowering the body, turning into the transverse (rotational) plane and shifting our weight laterally at the same time as we transfer from feet on the ground into the automobile. Since life itself places many demands on us as we move through our normal day, our exercise should also include some moves that prepare us for these demands. Not in a specific order, the following four pillars of functional movement serve as a simple guide to ensure you are including the basics of functional movement in your routines.
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Is there an increase in protein need if you exercise?

A person who is physically active spends more energy than someone who is sedentary and needs more energy and nutrients to recover from intense work out. Protein is necessary to help repair and strengthen muscle tissue, but how much is really needed?
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Active is as Active Does

on Mar 5, 2015 6:00:00 PM By | Patrick Curtis | 0 Comments | Kids Youth Fitness Gym and Health Club Exercises
Recently a colleague and I pondered what things were like thirty years ago in the fitness industry and what has changed. One thing we both remarked on was the emphasis on physical fitness in schools at that time made getting people involved with fitness in general much easier. There was the very active and popular Presidential Fitness Challenge, which is happily still going, but unhappily does not receive the same focus as in the past. There were always healthy challenges to raise awareness about diseases that exercise could help prevent or reduce the risk of, such as Jump-Rope-For-Heart through the American Heart Association among others. Although many of these programs are still active they don’t carry the same weight without a dedicated daily connection to physical education. Now factor in technology, another of the greatest changes affecting most aspects of life these days, with so many diversions and distractions, and we have a tremendous challenge getting youth and their families and adults in general to turn off the electronics and tune in to exercise. So how do we do it?
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A Word On Water

on Feb 26, 2015 2:11:29 PM By | Patrick Curtis | 0 Comments | Nutrition Gym and Health Club Exercises
While most of us have heard that the average person should consume eight 8-opunce glasses of water a day, there are a few more bits of information useful to the exerciser. Proper hydration helps all bodily functions to be more efficient, including performance during exercise and water further enhances our results from our workouts, especially weight loss. Although the general recommendation above is a good starting point, most of us, and particularly those of us actively participating in exercise, need a little more. A good measure that applies to most active exercisers would be two and one-half to three large size (32-oz) water bottles daily.
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Variety as Fuel for Success

on Feb 17, 2015 6:00:00 PM By | Patrick Curtis | 0 Comments | Gym and Health Club Exercises
Whether you are one of the many working to stick to a New Year’s resolution or you are simply open to and interested in trying new ways of working your body with exercise, there are tremendous benefits to ensuring that variety is one of the ingredients in your fitness recipe for success. Not only can boredom with the same routine derail a long term exercise goal but continuing to perform the same or even similar exercises over time creates plateaus in the progress of strength and endurance gains.
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Joining The Alaska Club Changed My Life

on Feb 16, 2015 11:00:00 AM By | The Alaska Club | 0 Comments | Gym and Health Club Exercises
I’ve lost roughly 60 pounds in the last 18 months. But to be clear, it’s more like 45 pounds because I’ve recently gained muscle, which is heavier than fat. This has been a learning experience, as much as a weight loss experience. I’ve learned so much!
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Flexibility for All

on Feb 5, 2015 8:00:00 AM By | Patrick Curtis | 0 Comments | Gym and Health Club Exercises
These days there are so many places to get information, advice and guidance from Fitness Professionals that it can be a challenge to identify and keep track of the best tips on getting the most from workouts. Sometimes the most powerful inspiration comes from a simple review of the most fundamental basics. Most of us engaged in a regular exercise routine know we are supposed to stretch, but this last basic detail is often either skipped entirely or shortened in the interest of saving time. No to be overlooked, stretching can be one of the most enjoyable and restorative parts of a workout or cool down, and the true benefits are as important as strengthening muscles and conditioning our heart and lungs.
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Exercise to prevent weight regain

on Dec 16, 2014 2:06:36 PM By | The Alaska Club | 0 Comments | Nutrition Gym and Health Club Exercises
Last month we talked about limiting weight gain by being conscientious about calorie intake during those many upcoming holiday foraging festivities. Although diet has greater influence on weight, we cannot forget the importance of physical activity or exercise. You may lose weight by eating fewer calories, but to avoid gaining all those pounds back and then some, it is crucial that you exercise. Current guidelines from the US Department of Health and Human Services recommend at least 150 minutes a week of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity a week to prevent weight regain. The guidelines also suggest resistance training at least twice a week.
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Anchorage Yoga Instructor - Making Fitness Fun For All Ages

on Dec 1, 2014 6:37:00 PM By | Tresa De La Cruz | 0 Comments | Kids Youth Fitness Gym and Health Club Exercises Yoga
I have one of the best jobs at The Alaska Club – I get paid to play games, be silly, and have fun with kids, while also teaching them life skills like, concentration, focus, balance, physical fitness, breathing techniques and stress relief. If you haven’t guessed it already, I am a Youth Yoga instructor for kids ages 6 – 12. Yoga classes for kids are definitely not like yoga classes for adults (and I do teach both). While adult yoga classes tend to be more serious, inwardly focused, use Sanskrit names for poses and hold poses a long time, Youth Yoga is all about playing yoga games, moving to yoga songs, and doing fun yoga poses. The kids have such a good time; they will beg to come back every week for more.
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