Fitness

Action Plan for Smart Goals
As part of the program, you will develop your own set of personal SMART goals, in essence personal goals that are smart, measurable, action-oriented, realistic and timely.

Aquatic Exercise
Aquatic exercise promotes both cardiovascular and muscular endurance. It is easy on joints and muscles because of water’s accommodating light resistance, and the “anti-gravity” of water takes pressure off the body allowing for better range of movement and the ability to move without pain. Participants work through a series of moderate exercises, games and basic swimming movement (both with or without the use of floatation devices) that increase the heart rate and improve flexibility in order to burn calories efficiently.

Fitness─Resistance Exercise
This one-hour class is designed to introduce participants to the twelve basic movements found in most effective exercise programs. Using exercise bands, free weights, an exercise ball and club machines, the instructor shows you the relationship of one exercise to its corresponding movement with another apparatus (i.e. standing chest press with the band and dumbbell chest press while on the ball). Two days are dedicated to each of the formats. Upon completion, participants are tested on their new knowledge. You can choose the format that fits your home environment, and you’ll understand different approaches to the same exercise. This will give you confidence in doing the exercise and will head off boredom from having to do the same exercise.

Gym
You will have an opportunity to use the techniques learned in our daily fitness workshops. All sessions begin with an aerobic and stretching component prior to the workout. In the aerobic component, you are introduced to interval training and the monitoring of your target heart rate using both a heart rate monitor watch and manual techniques at wrist and neck pulse sites to assure efficient use of exercise time. Following the completed sessions, you will stretch again. This regimen increases cardio vascular and muscular endurance, calorie burning (weight loss) and your flexibility and balance.

How Fit Am I? Fitness Assessment Results Made Plain
The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that you assess four crucial components of physical fitness before you start a regular program of exercise. These include aerobic fitness, muscular fitness, flexibility and body composition. This seminar will enable you to understand the value of these tests, what the results mean and setting fitness goals based on your personal test outcomes.

Journal to Optimal Health
A journal can be an impartial sounding board, a confidant and a companion on the journey to optimal health. Not all journaling strategies work for all people. In this workshop you will learn ten different methods of journal keeping to help support you in clarifying your values, setting goals and keeping records of your success. You will learn journaling strategies to motivate, dispute cognitive distortions and support your body image changes.

Jump Start Your Engine─The Fuel Muscles Burn
Are you burning the wrong fuel? Is your body burning fats or storing fats? Muscles burn calories from the breakdown of carbohydrates, proteins or fats. Which one is your body burning? This workshop will teach you the basics of muscle metabolism and how it impacts the design of a workout session.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who’s the Fittest of Them All─Improving Your Body Image
Body image is a multifaceted aspect of our sense of self. Without active attention to changing body dissatisfaction, it can haunt you and hamper successful lifestyle change. In this lecture you will learn effective techniques to improve your body image through visual, cognitive and behavioral changes that will help you sustain optimum health for long-term success.

Nuts & Bolts Exercise–Let’s Get Started
Physical activity is critical to one’s health. While this information isn’t new, it can leave us with some unanswered questions. What is the right way to exercise? How much exercise? This evidence-based workshop will give you the information you need to put your exercise program on track. You’ll quickly discover that the fitness routine that gives you the results are just steps away.

Steps to Becoming Fit at Any Age
Most of us know we need to be physically active to be healthy. It's not new information, but it can leave us with many unanswered questions about exercise and how to exercise effectively. This evidence-based seminar will give you the information you need to put your exercise program on the right track. It’s a fitness routine that will give you the results you need to discover you are just steps away.

Stress Inoculation
Living with stress can undermine physical and mental health as well as erode happiness and well being. This workshop helps you to recognize sources of stress in your life and teaches you healthy ways to prepare for and vent stress. The curriculum focuses on learning how to live your life in balance─body, mind, and spirit─and how it can inoculate you from the damaging effects of stress that will inevitably enter your life.

Staying Fit for a Lifetime─It’s In the Bag!
Now that you have been participating in and experiencing the health benefits of a fitness program that is right for you, now how do you stay motivated to fit this into your life once you return to your daily schedule? This workshop will give you the tools you need to keep your fitness schedule in tact and going strong.

Transformations Wrap-Up Session
This is a private, individual session where you can get answers to your questions, learn about tapering off of medications and discuss how to apply your aftercare plan.

Walks
Cardio-respiratory training is the foundation of the exercise component of the Transformations Program. This daily activity promotes cardiovascular endurance and allows you to take in the beauty of the surrounding Napa Valley. Walking is the easiest and most efficient form of exercise because it requires little equipment and can be accomplished at any fitness level. Even working at a moderate level of effort on a level surface burns calories efficiently. Walking is the primary exercise recommended after you leave the program. With this in mind, you are taught the techniques of fitness walking, including proper warm-up, stretching and form.

Yoga
Stress is known to deteriorate the body and it contributes to many chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and irritable bowel syndrome and it causes increased levels of the hormone cortisol, which stimulates eating and signals the body to store fat, particularly around the abdomen resulting in increased weight gain. Yoga, a 5,000 year-old philosophy and science, not only is powerful in reducing emotional and physical stress, it offers techniques to strengthen muscles, increase flexibility, increase the production of endorphins, the "feel good hormones," improve circulation, deepen breathing, reduce muscle tension and improve lymphatic flow. Yoga also improves mindfulness and the ability to have a clearer mind and “be in the moment.”

Yoga can be practiced by anyone, and so the journey of yoga begins at a different place for each of us. At the Center for Health we offer a variety of yoga levels to accommodate your individual needs. We also offer private yoga sessions for those who wish to deepen their practice. If you have never done yoga, a skilled instructor will guide you through the basics. For those who already practice yoga, this is a change to deepen your experience. Postures are adapted to your individual level of fitness, and you can even participate in a chair.