23 minute read
Oxygen Yoga
Gym review series: Oxygen Yoga and Fitness
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Let’s review the gyms for a new year, new me
victoria baht
s&h writer
Victoria Baht
Instructor of Oxygen Yoga and Fitness stands super buff after teaching a cardio and strength class.
Most of us know the month of January has a constant theme of “new year, new me.” For the month of January, each issue is going to feature a sports article based on a different gym in Regina. It will include a review and then a short interview between myself and the instructor of the class. Make sure to check in weekly to see which gyms you should try out to get a new you!
This week, we are visiting the Oxygen Yoga and Fitness studio. The studio has a great setup! You get to book your classes online using an app, and you can see a variety of different classes with a variety of different instructors. Not only can you book a class, but they also have an option to do classes on the app. You can stream the classes live, or you can do them on demand. This seems like a great option for people who have a crazy life or want to stay home because of COVID.
So, what is this gym doing for safety during the pandemic? When you walk through the doors you have a worker greet you and check your temperature. Once you get into the studio you are six feet away from each client, giving the option to remove masks. You can enjoy your workout mask free, although once you step off the mat, you put the mask back on. The instructors also sanitize all gear between classes and mop the floor as a safety precaution for the clients.
Let the class begin! Start by laying out your yoga mat at a designated spot with some equipment. Okay, I made it to the studio, I am in my spot, now what is that I feel? I already feel some warmth… I haven’t even started working out already, why am I so warm? The answer to that question is one of the unique things about Oxygen Yoga: is has an infrared studio which means that the studio is always warmed up to about 34-36 degrees. Now that’s a great way to stay warm these winter months!
Okay, time to work out. Let’s get ready! Step one is laying down in savasana. This is a pose where you lay down on your mat comfortably and try to clear your mind and get into the true state of either relaxation or “let’s kick some butt this workout!” The instructors help you get into that mindset by talking to you. They tell you what to expect for the class, saying it is okay to take a break when you need, or it is okay if you want to keep pushing yourself harder. This is your workout and it is your body, so do what makes you feel comfortable. After a few minutes of motivation speaking, you then do some light stretches of your body while laying down.
Then it is time to start! You pop back up on your toes and start moving. For this review specifically I took the class called “Hot Tone and Sculpt,” and holy man is it a killer! This is a unique class where your movements are in a sequence of three. Let’s say you are doing a squat: you go down for three counts and come
up for one, and then you reverse it down for one and up for three. With cardio, you burst after four power moves. Trust me, the class goes by fast, and you feel powerful. When the class is all done you do a quick stretch again and lay back down in savasana. Then, they end each class sitting all together and thanking you for coming out. We all put our hands together in front of our chests in the shape of a heart and say, “I love my life!”
That is your workout! “Sounds easy” you may think, but just wait until you try it – your body will burn and feel amazing. One thing Oxygen is good for is providing options to make the workout truly for you. You can just do arms, just do legs, or take a break. Even for the cardio bursts you can go all out or take a low power version; whatever is good for you is good for them. Would I go back for another class? 100 per cent.
Now let’s hear it from Shawna Taylor, an instructor at Oxygen studio (and man, she kills it
– Shawna Taylor
every time).
What do you like specifically about teaching classes at the studio?
I like being able to motivate, see the progress and work in the clients. It always fills me with a fire and passion each time I step on to the mat.
What keeps you personally motivated to be a fitness instructor?
Part of it is my own fitness journey, it is a big part of my life. Plus, the yoga has given me a chance to calm down and relax. I find if I can do it with others, it keeps me motivated to keep pushing myself and them as well.
What is some advice you would give someone who is wanting to try your gym for the first time?
Do not be afraid! It might look intimating but we will always offer you different levels and different options. So just come, and don’t be afraid to be outside of your zone and grow.
We all know January is the month for “new year, new me.” What are some suggestions you have for people to not only have a “new me,” but to improve their habits and lifestyle?
Do not put a lot on new resolutions. Focus on yourself and start by being healthier, and it starts when you are ready. Be more conscious of your body and yourself and with how you feel.
Does the gym have any special promotions going on right now? If so, can you explain them?
At Oxygen North we are celebrating our fifth year so we have sales and deals and contracts, and chat with the front desk to find out more!
That’s all, Carillon readers! Now you know what is like to workout at Oxygen studio. Make sure to check back next week to see which gym we review and interview next, and remember to love your life!
How to keep New Year’s resolutions using sport psychology (and without all the boring articles)
katherine mutschler
s&h editor
It is the new year, and you know what that means: it is time to get the sudden urge to become super mega fit. Whether you are wanting to lose some of the turkey weight you gained over the holiday, you just want to get strong enough to lift your enemies, or, if you’re like me, you just want to stop feeling winded when you go up the four flights of stairs in classroom building, January is the perfect time for a fresh start. You’re not alone with this sudden urge to change your lifestyle. This year, you have decided you will not fail like all the other years, but why do resolutions feel impossible to keep? Using sport psychology, I will explain the best methods for easing into a new lifestyle, finding what works best for you, and keeping you motivated.
If you’re feeling full of spit and vinegar at the start of the new year, you may feel like you want to do it all at once. All your friends are telling you to do HIIT workouts five days a week. You feel like you need to cut out all bread and pasta for a month. By the end of week two, this will not feel sustainable anymore. What do we do then? Weinberg & Gould presents in their article “Exercise Behavior and Adherence” from Foundations of Sport and Exercise Psychology (fourth edition) that exercise adherence is more successful when the person eases into the workout regimen. If a person has been sedentary for the whole pandemic, they will be more successful doing light cardio, making small diet changes, and going for walks. This prevents the body and mind from burning out, which results in you being able to keep your resolutions longer.
It is very easy for the individual to engage in the “all or nothing” mindset. Weinberg and Gould explain that this is demonstrated in the form of a person feeling like they have failed if they miss one day of working out. A person may also cut out all foods
they enjoy right away. This all or nothing mindset results in failure because the individual is more likely to give up if they eat the food they “weren’t supposed to,” or they go all out on a cheat day and toss the whole plan away.
Another way this is presented is if a person misses a workout or eats food that they deem as bad (like a slice of cake) first thing in the morning. They see this as a failure, and then feel that they have lost all progress because of one isolated event. Just continue to do your exercises and eat your favourite foods in moderation, and it will all balance in the end. It is better to have a gray mindset: “I will try not to drink soda as often, but once a week and maybe a bit more is okay for now,” or “I don’t feel well enough to workout. I will do yoga instead.”
Now you must be asking yourself, “but what diet or workout is the best one for me?” With all the contradicting opinions online (are eggs good or bad now?), it could be hard to figure out what
is the best diet or workout for you. The answer is simple: the best diet/workout routine is the one that makes you happy and the one that is sustainable. Calorie counting may seem appealing to some, but having to put a numerical value to food everyday may not be ideal for your mental health while it may be fine for others. You may love bread a lot, so as soon as someone says “keto” it is time to walk away. If you can still eat the foods you love (with moderation) and feel physically great, then you are doing exactly what you should be.
The best workout for you is the same principle as above: the workout you enjoy and the workout you can be consistent with is a good routine for you, according to research found in the chapter “motivation and behavioral change” from Sport and Exercise Psychology (third edition), edited by Peter R. E Crocker. As a teen I tried for years to like HIIT, and would be shocked that I could not make it to the fourth workout in
my plan; this was because I hate HIIT workouts. If you don’t like what you are doing, then you aren’t going to do it. Lots of different dance, muscle training, cardio, and other types of workouts can be found online, or at the gym. For both eating and working out, sport psychologists suggest doing what you enjoy and giving yourself variety.
Motivation is best when it comes from within. Research in “motivation and behavioral change” from Sport and Exercise Psychology explains that there are a few levels of motivation, ranging from non-self-determined (outside sources of motivation) to self-determined (internal motivation). Non-self-determined examples sound like “I feel guilty when I don’t work out,” or “I feel guilty if I eat this food item.” Guilt does not help us reach our goals. Another example would be: “I have to work out because my trainer said I had to.” It may work in the moment, but long term this does not keep a person motivated. The best sense of motivation comes from understanding the benefits of your workout or eating, identifying with what you are doing, and because you enjoy it. For example, I have a running friend who, if I were to ask her, would say, “I run because it is fun, it is good for my health, and I am a runner.”
Keeping New Year’s resolutions is hard because we all want to go full power into our new routine. Diet ads saying “lose 10 pounds in a week” and “workout and don’t eat any fun foods ever” are plastered on magazines, YouTube ads, and TV.
Don’t look at their ads. Look at yourself, and find some manageable goals that you can really enjoy. It does not have to be just one thing either; you may try running and find you hate it, but then discover the joys of lifting weights like I did. Go forth and find what you love, and happy new year!
“As a teen I tried for years to like HIIT, and would be shocked that I could not make it to the fourth workout in my plan; this was because I hate HIIT workouts. If you don’t like what you are doing, then you aren’t going to do it.
– Katherine Mutschler
Shoeib Abolhassani If the endorphins don’t cheer you up, the sound of crunching leaves will!
Dieting industry and capitalism
New Year, new me, same sales pitch
gillian massie
staff writer
Sales pitches normally go one of two ways in the new year: someone is trying to get you to invest in cryptocurrency, or someone is trying to get you on a diet plan with a gym membership.
Every year, as soon as the ball drops in time square, television stations and social media apps are flooded with ads promoting weight loss and diet culture. The “New Year New Me” mentality has adapted to non-contact methods to compensate for COVID-19.
We are 18 months into the pandemic and now entering the fifth wave of COVID-19 with even more uncertainty as Omicron variant cases continue to rise. Stuck between closures of fitness facilities, fear of gaining “the quarantine 15” emerged, encouraging people to get into shape with their pre-coronavirus bodies. Many of these ads have been targeted to lose the weight that people have put on during quarantine. For many individuals, it has not been feasible or safe to become physically active because facilities were closed.
For most of the pandemic, isolation left us with minimal options for any physical activity. It has become incredibly easy to turn to fad diets and other supplements that dieting industries offer because there is little alternative. There was opportunity to head outdoors in the summer months, but heading into colder winter months it is not safe to attempt outdoor activities in -40-degree weather.
According to CNBC, the dieting industry has become a $71 billion dollar industry. Not to mention these specific diet plans have a 95 per cent failure rate. These plans are designed for rapid weight loss that cause more damage than good. In the National Eating Disorder Association, only five per cent of individuals keep the weight off from these fad diets, and the rest gain it back within one-five years.
Diet culture as an industry is labelled as “toxic” for sacrificing physical and emotional wellness in the pursuit of thinness, youth, and beauty. You can always be losing the extra weight which is exactly what the diet industry wants you to think, which means buying yourself a lifetime subscription to products that enforce your own insecurities.
The harsh truth is that people benefit off of you hating yourself – and it’s not your fault.
It is easy to compare yourself to fitness influencers whose job is to look as fit as possible. Matching gym sets, glute bands, and protein powders are expensive. Not to mention influencers who are obligated to market these items to their following because they are being sponsored by big corporations. Social media apps like Instagram have become another way to promote products with its new “Instagram Shop” section that takes you straight to the website, and then the checkout. Convenience of plugged-in credit card numbers and free shipping can suck customers in to making a purchase they might otherwise not make.
Influencers’ monetary gain does not justify the long-term damage that comes with endorsing unsafe or unethical dieting products. When Kim Kardashian endorsed appetite suppressing lollipops, it sent out promotion for disordered eating. With such a broad and young audience, it sets an example that eating less and working out more should be prioritized over your wellness.
Fear of weight gain throughout the pandemic has been used to guilt consumers into buying products from the diet industry. Relationships with food and exercise should not be dictated by the way the dieting industry sees fit – they should represent tradition, culture, and memories.
Annie Spratt A person has given up on their workout to lay on the ground while someone lifts their leg up.
Braving the cold series: how to skate
Let’s learn how to skate in the cold winter months
victoria baht
s&h writer
All of us that live in Regina, Saskatchewan know that the cold can be a little unmotivating when it comes to keeping active in these cold winter months. This is why the Carillon wants to talk to you about the sport of skating and the different levels everyone can skate at to stay active. Once you finish reading this article, who knows? You might be motivated yourself to give it a try or to get back at it. Before we get into being active, let’s look at what the sport of skating is. Some of you may think skating is a sport where you glide around on two thin pieces of metal while hoping to stay balanced long enough to be able to gain some speed and then come to a full stop. Although it is more than that, skating started out in the 17th century as a form of transportation. It originated by gliding around on shanks or rib bones of elk or caribou. Skating became a hit and people wanted it to become more than a form of transformation. It then became social pastime in the 1840’s where the fun all began. Skating did not stop there and has developed into so much more. Now you see athletes taking part in figure skating, speed skating, hockey, and skating for fun – and so can you!
Now that we know some of the history, let’s get down to the action! The first step is getting your skates on, and then making sure your skates are nice and tight and properly laced. Skating is a sport that depends a lot on your ankles, so you want to make sure they are protected. Once your skates are on you are ready to start.
The next step is getting onto the ice. Now, this may be a little tricky which is okay – that is the fun part. Please know that as you skate it is normal to fall on your butt, hands and knees, or run into the boards when trying to stop (or at least we say it is). When learning how to skate, one of the most important lessons is learning how to fall and how to get back up. So, go ahead fall a couple of times!
Phew, falling can be a lot of work. Time to get down to the real business. The moving part, sounds scary right? Well let’s not be too scared because worst case scenario is that you will fall, and we already know how that route goes. They say the way to visualize the movement of skating is to pretend like you are on a scooter. Do a nice swift kick of your leg back and keep one leg forward (or on the scooter). Once the pushing leg is back you shift back and forth and you will gain speed. If that does not seem like your style, just hold onto someone and glide behind them!
Now that you have gained some speed, how do you stop? Don’t you worry, that’s what the walls are there for. Feel free to glide and grab onto them. A better idea is actually stopping on the skates. A good way to stop is by pushing your feet apart, using the flat part of the blade to come to a full stop. Another way to come to a stop that may not be the most effective – but works – is just gliding on your skates and swerving your legs in mini half circles. Eventually your body will lose momentum and you will come to a stop.
Now you have the steps of learning how to skate, why not give it a shot? Reminder that skating can be a dangerous sport and is hard to learn, so please be careful and take someone with you when trying it out for the first time – that way you can both laugh together!
op-ed
Missing out on more than you know
The walls of our bedroom are not what we should be remembering about our undergrad experience
Joshua Mayo via Unsplash Just because you leave your tree up doesn’t mean the joy of the holidays will continue to be felt during courses
It is no surprise to anyone that we are trapped online for yet another few weeks, as it currently stands. Before the winter break all students and staff at the University of Regina received an email informing us of two very important decisions. The first is that we will be starting the Winter 2022 term at home behind our computer screens once more. Following that was the announcement that courses are starting five days later to provide adequate time for professors to change their delivery methods to be suitable for the online platform once more.
To say that anyone was shocked by this decision would be foolish. As much as we
all hate to admit it, we knew that this would be coming. It was not a question of ‘if’ we would end up back online, but rather it was a question of ‘when’ it was going to happen. Although some were hopeful that we might get to experience a week or two in person before being shipped to online, we were unable to make it even that far. Despite the prediction that come January 24, 2022, we may be able to return to life in a classroom, this is sounding once again like a distant dream that we will not be able to make a reality.
I, like the rest of the student body, am not fazed that the decision was made. Rather, I am disappointed that we are still being forced to live our undergraduate years out like this. There has been almost two years of remote learning that has taken place. This means two years of being unable to interact with faculty and peers, two years of not being able to utilize the spaces on campus that were built to ensure our success, two years of isolation, and two years of anxious yearning for the day we can sit amongst our peers in a classroom once again.
Unlike many students in the Fall 2021 term, I had the privilege of being on campus weekly. Once a week for work, and once a week for rehearsal. It was a total of three to four hours each week that I had
the opportunity to walk the halls, interact with the staff that were there, and see the few peers I could at the time.
Although this might not seem like a lot, I was emotional every single time I stepped foot through any of the doors, filled with fear that this might be the last time I get to step onto campus for months in the event of a lockdown. Knowing that there were thousands of students that were not granted the opportunity for even those few menial hours a week to see the campus and remember what it is like to be a student outside their bedroom.
Now, the feeling of despair is a blackhole that feels impossible to crawl out of. With the prevention of courses in person of any kind those few hours have been ripped from my grasp. It feels as though I was trying to hold onto a fistful of sand and there was no chance that I would be able to maintain my grip on it for long.
I had allowed myself the hope of potentially seeing campus more - of being able to utilize the common study spaces, the fitness center, and the libraries. I was looking forward to being able to message friends and see if they wanted to grab coffee somewhere between classes or accidentally running into them in the hall as you try and do the 15-minute dash across campus between classes. There was so much
hope and potential that feels as though it has been thrown away with little hope of coming back anytime soon.
Nothing could prepare a person for the best parts of university - the group events, random late night study sessions with friends, welcome week activities, finding that perfect nook to relax in after class, that impulse coffee purchase, among so many other amazing little moments.
We might be doing important research, preparing for higher levels of schooling, or praying that we get hired into a field that is relevant to our degree after everything is all said and done. But those are not the things that you will remember and care about later. You are not going to care about the stress of writing that midterm in your 100-level courses, or the number of pens you went through because you always seemed to lose them before they ran out. What you will remember is your professors love for their dog or the icy shuffle from the parking lot into the school that you had to brave in the winter.
Now I know, all these things sound mundane and pointless. But these are the strange little moments that make university so unique from any other schooling experiences. Being trapped behind a screen is absolutely devastating as it is depriving us of these opportunities to make the weird little
memories and enjoy the simpler moments outside of papers, exams, and applications.
Banishing us to life behind our computer screens may be for our own good. There is no arguing that it will keep us safer and slow the spread of everything. Regardless of how good it may be for the state of the province’s health and our own, I am still going to continue to wish that it did not need to happen.
