Albany Fitness

Give aways include FREE 14-day membership for everyone who walks in the door, and a raffle for a FREE 6-month membership.

Stop by the Best Fitness Tent at the Workforce Challenge on May 17th from 5 to 7pm. Pickup your VIP Bracelet while you're there to enjoy drink specials at Legends on Pearl all night long!

Click here to Download and Print Flyer

Best Fitness Albany Club wants to Congratulate Brett Winne a Fitness Professional at Best Fitness on placing 1st in his weight class at the A-Nation Championship!

Brett trained for 16 weeks by maintaining a strict diet and intense training.  He remained dedicated by his own discipline and surrounding himself with positive people such as the staff at Best Fitness!

March 24th we kicked off the newest addition to our Program - Body Pump. Join us at Best Fitness Albany Club for Body Pump in the largest Group Exercise Classroom in the Capital Region.

• This 60 minute weight based resistance training class will help you burn up to 560 calories per class!
• The latest hard hitting inspiring music will motivate you to keep pushing yourself through each workout.
• Results = Increase strength and endurance that tones and shapes while maintaining bone health.

(click images below to enlarge)

That’s right spring break is already here, you swore you’d hit the Best Fitness Albany gym and eat right leading up to your bathing suit appearance. Now that its crunch time here are some healthy tips to get in shape fast!

Exercise!!

1. Change up your regular routine - try high intensive aerobic interval training instead of your usual hour on the elliptical. Go hard for 10 to 30 seconds with 10-30 second rest periods. Repeat this exercise 10 to 20 times. This can be done on a bike, treadmill or Arc Trainer! It will make the time go faster and you will BURN MORE CALORIES!
2. Add Strength Training to your routine - try compound movements by focusing on several muscles and your overall core when choosing exercises. Make sure in any exercise you do FORM IS KEY! For more ideas on effective moves see a Best Fitness- Fitness Professional.
3. Try group classes - exercising with a group will help to keep your routine fresh and fun while letting you try out new methods of exercise.

Diet!!

1. Get rid of the bloat - avoid fried and salty foods.
2. Stay away from sugar - cut it out as much as you can avoid sugary drinks and cereal.
3. Avoid White Carbs - white pasta, bread and rice will sabotage your diet. Stick to whole grains like oatmeal.
4. Eat Frequently - eating small meals every 3 to 4 hours will keep the hunger pains away and you will crave less unhealthy foods.
5. Drink lots of water - keep it clean, by increasing your water intake; you’ll help to cleanse your body of things that could potentially cause bloating.

Remember everything is best in moderation, in terms of both diet and exercise! If you have more questions or looking for more tips make sure to stop in and talk to a Fitness Professional at Best Fitness Albany Club.

Happy Spring Break!

Couch to 5K, Starting March 11th – June 10th. Race Day June 10th Kidney Foundation 5K. Best Fitness will pay the Race Fee.

(Click to View and Print Flyer)

"Couch to 5K was an awesome experience! Our trainers took a diverse group of people varying in age and levels of fitness and turned us all into runners – many for the first time. It was great to see how each of us progressed throughout the weeks. I think what was really cool was, even though running is an individual sport, the trainers fostered a real sense of camaraderie and teamwork – we all encouraged each other and ultimately had a lot of fun in achieving our common goal – crossing the 5K finish line!"

-David Booth member since November 2007

"I participated in the Couch to 5K in the fall of 2011. It was a great and rewarding experience for me. The trainers Kelcie, Joe and Bret were very motivating and supportive throughout the program. I liked the variety of workout options available. We had weekly workout/running sessions at SUNY and The Crossings which included education and discussion time. We started out running a short distance and each week we increased the distance until race time. I would recommend the weekly strength class, my trainer was Joe and he did an excellent job! Along with this I ran on my own at least 2 times a week. My first 5K on Thanksgiving Day was exciting and I felt totally prepared and completed the race. Since then I have participated in my second 5K on New Year's Eve in Saratoga and was very successful. I am a 5K runner and a BFF (Best Fitness Fan)!"

- Ellen Nilsen

Best Fitness will be selling American Heart Association wrist bands and pins, all proceeds will go to the American Heart Association!

(Click to view and print flyer)

Join us on Saturday January 28th for our Member Appreciation Day. Breakfast will be served from 8:30am to Noon compliments of ShopRite!

For more details and to print out flyer, click here.

Group X and Personal Training (MEMBER APPRECIATION DAY)

Free Event for Member and Guests to Attend January 28th 8am-Noon, see poster for details.

..By Nicole Quaresimo

Davis a member of Best Fitness lost 97lbs since she became a member one year ago!

Check out some of the fun exercises you could learn by signing up to meet with one of our Fitness Professionals.

"My name is Shannon Davis and about a year ago I came to Best Fitness at a weight of 265. I currently weigh 168. With coming to Best Fitness, I lost a lot of weight and I am very proud of myself. The classes helped tremendously, without classes I would not be where I am now. I learned a lot and I gained confidence in myself that I can do anything I put my mind to. The trainers and instructors at best fitness gave me encouragement and is always there for any questions. Coming to best fitness changed my life and I now am happier than I ever was."

...By Karli Taylor

The myths about women's weight training and female bodybuilding do not ever seem to go away. I'd like stop the weight training and bodybuilding myths from circulating in gyms and instead, share the real facts about female bodybuilding.

*Women's Weight Training Myth #1 -Weight training makes you bulky.

Due to the fact that women do not and cannot naturally produce as much testosterone (one of the main hormones responsible for increasing muscle size) as males do, it is impossible for a woman to gain huge amounts of muscle mass. Unfortunately, the image that may come to your mind is that of professional female bodybuilders. Most of these women, unfortunately, use anabolic steroids (synthetic testosterone) along with other drugs in order to achieve that high degree of muscularity.

In addition, most also have good genetics coupled with an unbelievable work ethic that enable them to gain muscle quickly when they spend hours in the gym lifting very heavy weights. Believe me when I say that they do not look like that by accident. Women who conduct weight training without the use of steroids get the firm and fit cellulite-free looking body that you see in most fitness/figure shows these days.

*Women's Weight Training Myth #2 - Exercise increases your chest size.

Sorry girls. Women’s breasts are composed mostly of fatty tissue. Therefore, it is impossible to increase breast size through weight training. As a matter of fact, if you go below 12 percent body fat (which I don’t recommend doing), your breast size will decrease. Weight training does increase the size of the back, so this misconception probably comes from confusing an increase in back size with an increase in cup size. The only way to increase your breast size is by gaining fat or getting breast implants.

*Women's Weight Training Myth #3 - Weight training makes you stiff and musclebound.

If you perform all exercises through their full range of motion, flexibility will increase. Exercises like flyes, stiff-legged deadlifts, dumbbell presses, and chin-ups stretch the muscle in the bottom range of the movement. Therefore, by performing these exercises correctly, your stretching capabilities will increase.

*Women's Weight Training Myth #4 - If you stop weight training your muscles turn into fat.

This is like saying that gold can turn into brass. Muscle and fat are two totally different types of tissue. What happens many times is that when people decide to go off their weight training programs they start losing muscle due to inactivity (use it or lose it) and they also usually drop the diet as well. Therefore bad eating habits combined with the fact that their metabolism is lower due to inactivity, and lower degrees of muscle mass, give the impression that the subject’s muscle is being turned into fat while in reality what is happening is that muscle is being lost and fat is being accumulated.

*Women's Weight Training Myth #5 - Weight training turns fat into muscle.

More alchemy. This is the equivalent of saying that you can turn any metal into gold; don't we wish! The way a body transformation occurs is by gaining muscle through weight training and losing fat through aerobics and diet simultaneously. Again, muscle and fat are very different types of tissue. We cannot turn one into the other.

*Women's Weight Training Myth #6 - As long as you exercise you can eat anything that you want.

How I wish this were true also! However, this could not be further from the truth. Our individual metabolism determines how many calories we burn at rest and while we exercise. If we eat more calories than we burn on a consistent basis, our bodies will accumulate these extra calories as fat regardless of the amount of exercise that we do. This myth may have been created by people with such high metabolic rates (hardgainers) that no matter how much they eat or what they eat, they rarely meet or exceed the amount of calories that they burn in one day unless they put their mind to doing so. Therefore, their weight either remains stable or goes down.

*Women's Weight Training Myth #7 - Women only need to do cardio and if they decide to lift weights, they should be very light.

First of all, if you only did cardio then muscle and fat would be burned for fuel. One needs to do weights in order to get the muscle building machine going and thus prevent any loss of muscle tissue. Women that only concentrate on cardio will have a very hard time achieving the look that they want. As far as the lifting of very light weights, this is just more nonsense. Muscle responds to resistance and if the resistance is too light, then there will be no reason for the body to change. If you want to transform your body, don't be afraid to pick up the weights and lift hard!