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Friday, May 12, 2017 at 11:55 a.m.

Getting their morning workout in

Photo by Gabriel San Roman / OC Weekly

Activists tuned their jaranasbefore marching on Planet Fitness in Orange this morning to protest wage theft. Day laborers who worked at the gym site last December joined in the spirited picket strumming their own instruments and chanting, "No pay? No way!" Leaflets handed out to people walking in to get their morning exercise spelled out the labor dispute.

OC Colaborativacomprised of Colectivo Tonantzin, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network and UCI Immigrant Rights Cliniccharged that Planet Fitness hired nine jornaleros to work on three OC gyms through a subcontractor who left the state after stiffing them at the end of the job.

"For many of the days, they worked 10-17 hour shifts up until 2 a.m.," said P.J. Flores, an activist with Colectivo Tonantzin. "For all the workers, they're owed over $100,000 in total." Activists first protested at Planet Fitness' Laguna Niguel gym where the unpaid workers wrapped up the job in January. The fitness club's lawyers sat down and talked with OC Colaborativa members, but the issue remained unresolved.

The picket in Orange originally had been planned for last Friday, but got delayed in hopes a new round of negotiations could end with terms agreeable to all. "So far, they only want to pay three of the workers $19,000 but that doesn't even begin to cover all the expenses," Flores said. "We're going to keep pushing until all of them are paid."

The day laborers did tiling, moved equipment and built bathrooms for Planet Fitness gyms in Orange, Laguna Niguel and Huntington Beach. Day laborer Pedro Montiel took a break from the picket line before handing off the guitar he strummed. "We want the people watching us to support us and our cause," Montiel said in Spanish."We want to be paid what we're due."

Day laborers asked Alex Chem of Phaenix Innovations West when they were going to be paid for their work. The subcontractor claimed that he hadn't received the checks from Planet Fitness. Chem later stopped answering the phone and the workers never saw him again.

Flores and Montiel walked into the Orange gym and explained the situation to the employee working the front desk. She recognized the worker and promised she'd pass along his message to the manager who wasn't onsite at the time. The Weeklyreached out to Planet Fitness' corporate headquarters, but received no response.

"We're hoping this picket pressures Planet Fitness into finally ending this without going to court," Flores said. "But if they still don't want to pay, we will continue with either the Department of Labor or OC Superior Court to file a lawsuit to make sure the workers get paid."

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Day Laborers Hold Wage Theft Picket Outside Planet Fitness in Orange - OC Weekly

With Mothers Day around the corner, its a good time to reflect on how much our mothers have done for us. Its also a time to think about all the soon-to-be and new mothers that are celebrating their first Mothers Day. The time mothers have for self-care is limited and so are the resources to get back after babythat is, until now.

Houston Heights residents Ingrid Hanna and Hallie Agerphysical therapists, fitness enthusiasts and mothersstarted online postpartum rehabilitation programBack After Babyin March to help new mothers bridge the gap between their pre- and post-pregnancy bodies. Former colleagues, Hanna initially reached out to Ager to develop a series of workshops for new mothers using her fitness background and their multiple years of physical therapy experience.

I knew that Hallie and I would work together again someday, Hanna says. The idea turned into a web-based program because we needed to make something that was realistic and accessible. It was not realistic to expect a new mother to be able to attend a workshop or three physical therapy sessions a week.

Both womenstressed that the program is about much more than losing weight. You go to the doctor for six weeks after having the baby, and thats it. Theres no education on how to recruit and wake up your muscles," adds Agee. "The aches and pains dont have to be there. Mothers want to get their muscle and strength back.

There are three phases to the six-month program: relearn, restore and revive. The relearn phase is what the averagewoman needs most postpartum. During this phase, new mothers relearn movement patterns, muscle activation and prevent or correct muscular imbalances.

Restore, the second phase, builds up core stability, mobility, range of motion and muscular strength. Revive, the final phase, builds on strength and mobility gains to prepare new mothers to begin any exercise program. Detailed exercise videos demonstrate proper form, reps or length of time for each exercise. Just as important, the program stresses everyday form and posture to minimize stress on joints and bad mechanics performing everyday activities.

Back After Baby costs $20 per month for the first six months and $5 per month for any additional months. Users may be able to skip phases, or it may take longer than six months to achieve pre-pregnancy abilitiesevery person starts at a different level.

Mother's Day will come and go, but the benefits momsreceive from safely and effectively transitioning back to a full-fledged exercise routine will make every day a celebration.

The rest is here:
How to Get Your Fitness Groove Back After Baby - Houstonia Magazine

Fitness trackers and other wearable devices provide quantifiable information that helps users increase physical activity, engage in friendly competition and improve fitness. But simply having access to information is not the same as knowing what it means or what to do with itand the market for these gadgets is slumping.

Many of these devices, such as Fitbits or Apple Watches, seem geared to appeal to the young, healthy and affluent consumer who can easily afford expensive smartphones or other gadgets. As research suggests, they also happen to be the least likely to be obese or to have high cholesterolthe kinds of health problems that fitness trackers try to address by motivating consumers to be more active or eat healthier. If the appeal of wearables is, well, wearing offand data from wearables is not helping people meaningfully change their health behaviorspart of the problem may be the narrow set of health-related concerns that personal health wearables tend to emphasize.

Manufacturers could help reinvigorate the market for personal health devicesby targeting a larger, broader community of users that could directly benefit from the information. Devices that are designed specifically for users who require consistent updates on their personal health datasuch as heart rate, blood oxygen levels, or blood glucose levelsmay encourage more consistent use. Research from the Pew Foundation has shown that nearly half of adults have one or more chronic health problems like diabetes, hearing loss or heart disease. And those with one chronic health problem are twice as likely to monitor their personal health data as those without such health problems.

One challenge to building a bigger market is that personal health depends less on personal fitness habits thancommonly believed. Recent research suggests that community-wide factorssuch as education, employment and neighborhood environmentaffect individual and community health and well-being more so than individual health behaviors alone, such as exercising or healthy eating. Across the United States, where someone lives and how much they earn is strongly related to life expectancy.

Instead of continuing to focus narrowly on health and fitness, makers of these devices should consider seeking creative ways to incorporate other measures of health and well-being into them. Miniature motion sensors, cameras, barometers, and sophisticated algorithms that recognize voices, faces or landmarksall of which are already available on smartphones and wearable devicesmight be used to gaugea neighborhoods air quality, the amount of green space, how safe it is, the presence of public art, or the level of social connectedness.

Air Louisville, an innovative community partnership program that began in 2012, takes this approach. The program gives out free sensors to attach to asthma inhalers, which track when and where people in Louisville, Kentucky, experience asthma symptoms and take medication to deal with them. The result is real-time air quality information that city leaders could use to make data-driven decisions about how to try to improve air quality. As of last fall, Air Louisville had collected data from 97,000 inhaler uses by 1,100 residents diagnosed with asthma. By connecting inhaler use to weather, pollution or traffic conditions, the city could target certain areas for such specific interventions as introducing congestion pricing (to cut down on the number of vehicles on the road) or rearranging noise barriers on city streets (the barricades have been shown to spread air pollutants).

Trackers focused on well-being also could complement similar citizen science efforts by helping members of the public who are already collecting information about the well-being of their community. During the contaminated water crisis that began in 2014 in Flint, Michigan, residents sounded the alarm and eventually collaborated with researchers to help figure out what was going on. Volunteers knocked on doors in Flint to collect samples of tap water in homes, initially collecting about 270 samples. But when they returned to see whether conditions had improved, many of the residents had moved away, unintentionally thwarting the data collection and analysis.

Smart devices might have prevented that. Because they can repeatedly sample community conditions like air or water quality, or monitor health conditions (such as lead levels in blood), wearables can reveal trends and help pinpoint when changes occur. If trackers being worn across the community had been able to connect the dots, the polluted water might have been detected much earlier, possibly preempting the full-blown crisis.

Wearables offer potential benefits far beyond monitoring heart rate or counting the number of steps walked. Wearable data could be combined with other health indicators present in nontraditional data (like social media content) or traditional data (like that gleaned from the U.S. Census or clinical and public health systems). Manufacturers could look for opportunities to ease the constant burden of self-monitoring for those with chronic diseases or disabilities and to partner with policymakers, who increasingly recognize the potential in digital health data.

City governments have used social media information to improve food safety, monitor outbreaks of the Ebola virus and disrupt illegal drug distribution. In a major drive to use technology to reduce patient deaths, Englands National Health Service has made devices and apps available free to millions to help them manage conditions such as diabetes and heart disease.

Although their popularity may be in flux, personal health apps and wearables are likely here to stay. Those designed to help people who will actually benefit from them most will have the potential to help people function more effectively in the world, inform data-collection for public healthand improve community well-being.

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Using Wearable Fitness Devices to Monitor More than Just Fitness - Scientific American (blog)

Greenbelt, MD-based ZIPS is opening its first stores in Southern California.

ZIPS Dry Cleaners, the Planet Fitness of dry cleaning, charges a flat rate for any garment. The chain recently opened its first Orange County location in Costa Mesa. (Courtesy ZIPS)

ZIPS Dry Cleaners, the Planet Fitness of dry cleaning, recently opened the first of 110 locations planned for Southern California. (Courtesy ZIPS)

ZIPS Dry Cleaners, the Planet Fitness of dry cleaning, recently opened the first of 110 locations planned for Southern California.

The Maryland-based concept aims to do for dry cleaning what Planet Fitness did to the gym industry by offering an inexpensive, flat price for its services. Whether its a necktie, a wedding dress or a collared shirt, the no-frills dry cleaning chain charges $2.29 per garment.

The first local store opened May 5 at 3010 Bristol Street in Costa Mesa, the first of roughly 30 stores planned for Orange County. Los Angeles-based ZDryis the franchisee that owns the rights to build the brand in Southern California.

ZIPS maintains its price is three times less expensive than the industry average. The company also offers same-day service for garments dropped in by 9 a.m.

ZDry also owns and operates 10 Planet Fitness gyms in the Los Angeles area, with several more under development.

Shawn Bishop, amanaging partner at ZDry, said 20 years ago before Planet Fitness changed the gym landscape, consumers didnt blink an eye when they were charged $50 or more for their monthly gym membership.

Today, ZIPS is doing the same in their industry, Bishop said. Everyone needs dry cleaning in some capacity. The real question customers should ask themselves is, Would I rather pay $50-$60 for 10 pieces to be dry cleaned, or $23 for the same 10 pieces and have it done in one day?

At ZIPS, the company said its garments are cleaned in a closed-cleaning system that reduces waste, uses biodegradable plastic bags and recycles hangers.

The first ZIPS stores were founded in the Baltimore-Washington D.C. area in 1996. Today the chain operates more than 50 stores in six states.

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The Planet Fitness of dry cleaners, ZIPS, to open 110 locations in Southern California - OCRegister

Junior Megan Molloy teaches her Hustle Fitness class in the gym. In the past, Molloy has taught Zumba classes and Insanity classes, starting her freshman year. (Theresa Murphy/TKS)

Every Tuesday and Thursday, junior Megan Molloy goes to the Mirror Room in the Fitness Center to teach Hustle Fitness, what she calls her adaptation of Zumba. Despite struggling to get people to come, she keeps trying to encourage busy students to try group fitness out.

Fall Term of Molloys freshman year, the Insanity circuit training instructor told her class that he was graduating early and the school would need a new instructor. The instructor recommended Molloy get her certification, which Molloy did over winter break.

I took over teaching Insanity at the end of my first year, at which time the girl who was teaching the Zumba class was like, Oh yeah, Im transferring, she said.

Given that she already taught one of the classes, Molloy approached Assistant Football Coach and Adjunct Assistant Professor Andy Gibbons to see if he wanted her to get trained in Zumba as well. He did and she got certified over the summer.

So, round about way, I went to the class for long enough and then the people who were working the jobs defected, so I took over, she said.

Now Molloy teaches two Zumba-style classes a week. She now calls them Hustle Fitness to avoid Zumbas requirements on what kind of music can be played and thinks the change may have confused some people leading to a recent decrease in attendance. Molloy is responsible for promoting the class.

Unless youre already like at the gym, a lot of people are like, eh. You have to be into it, Molloy said, I started going to the group fitness classes here because I like group fitness and a lot of people dont because they think everybodys looking at them and its awkward.

Since attendance varies, Molloy said she does not really vary the difficulty of the lessons. However, with her only regular attendee, she said she has been doing routines more like Zumba Strong than the normal routines.

Yes, it actually is a workout, she said.

Beyond just a workout, the class has become a way for Molloy and her students to relieve stress from their lives.

Even when I dont want to go, I end up leaving feeling better. The endorphins dont suck. Plus any job where you get to jump around and be silly with other people is a pretty good gig, Molloy said.

For her students, the relaxed atmosphere helps them to feel comfortable and not feel pressured to go to every session if life gets in the way.

She gives positive feedback, so a lot of the time when I come, when Im feeling like a little stressed out, shes really nice about that and she understands if you cant make it to class all the time. I try to drag my friends along sometimes but theyre like really busy so, if its just me sometimes, I dont mind, sophomore Aliya Estes, one of the regular attendees, said.

Molloy said she knew people might be worried about being judged by others in the class but that everyone is generally watching the instructor so they did not need to worry. Instead, the classes can offer motivation to get into fitness and a supportive group atmosphere.

Usually around mid-term attendance will pick up again, because everybodys like Oh, yeah, Im always going to be busy, I might as well try to take care of myself anyway, she said.

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Molloy promotes group fitness - The Knox Student

Lexington Herald Leader

4 fitness centers targeted by Kentucky attorney general | Lexington ... Lexington Herald Leader Attorney General Andy Beshear is taking action against fitness centers in four Kentucky cities. Fitness centers with prepaid memberships are required to file ... Action Taken Against Several Kentucky Fitness Centers - LEX18.comLEX18 Lexington KY News all 5 news articles »

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4 fitness centers targeted by Kentucky attorney general | Lexington ... - Lexington Herald Leader

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) This week, 8News reporter Roxie Bustamante is taking on the challenges of #Adulting.

In the heart of Scotts Addition, sits Turn Cardio Jam Studio bringing unique workout classes to the Richmond area.

Richmond is on this verge of a fitness explosion, owner Sandi Cauley said. Theres so many unique programs coming in that weve never had before. We just used to have the same ole, same ole and its so great to see all these pop ups and new places. I think you should just try it.

Cauley said when she was adulting, moving from one place to another, she was always looking for different ways to stay active while engaging with her community.

The idea of going to the gym to me meant lifting weights or just going in on a bunch of machines and treadmills and not necessarily that back room part where the cardio classes happen, Cauley said. So, what do you just call that backroom? We knew it was cardio and we knew it was exercise based and then it got clunker and clunker, so we just narrowed it down to Cardio Jam Studio.

Heather Mazeika is one of the only certified instructors in the Richmond area that teaches a unique exercise called Volee.

Volee is new to the Richmond area, Mazeika said. It is a combination of traditional TRX suspension style training with Pilates, ballet movements, bar movements. Its pretty cool. Its got some cardio aspect to it. Its got a lot of good strength training, works the deep muscles, and works the big muscles.

Mazeika teaches the class at Turn Cardio Jam Studio and Fighting Gravity Fitness. She said often she sees people struggling to squeeze in the time to stay active.

We tend to be overscheduled, Mazeika said, and every minute of our day whether its at home or at work, you have to know what youre doing and I think fitness and activity tendto take a backseat for a lot of people. They dont understand the long-term importance of it.

Cauley said at the end of the day, its about finding something that works best for you.

I just dont think that theres one flavor for everyone. I think sometimes when it comes to working out, there are certain things that we know work. Running works, lifting weights, eating well works, but sometimes it can just get stale and boring, so Im really trying to bring in classes that are unique and that you cant find around Richmond, Cauley said. Maybe you would have to go to New York or [Washington] D.C. to get into, but Im bringing them here so that you dont have to travel far and that hopefully, youll stay excited about working out.

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#Adulting: Fitting in your fitness - WRIC

After receiving over a dozen complaints, Britain's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has officially cleared a controversial advertisement featuring Khlo Kardashian for use on the London Underground, according to the BBC.

The ad from fitness brand Protein World featured a photo of leotard-clad Kardashian beside text reading, "Can you keep up with a Kardashian? Take The Protein World 30 Day Challenge." Fourteen individuals complained to the ASA that the ad was "socially irresponsible," both promoting body shaming and encouraging unhealthy dieting habits. Others accused the brand of "massively" photoshopping the image.

The ASA, however, determined that Protein World's advertisement "promoted Khlo Kardashian's body image as desirable and aspirational; this was supported by her pose and the airbrushed style," adding, "We did not consider that she appeared to be out of proportion or unhealthy."

The organization continued, saying, "We acknowledged that the use of the terms 'Can you keep up with' and 'challenge' could be interpreted as having a competitive quality, but we did not consider that the terms or the ads overall encouraged excessive weight loss or other extreme or potentially harmful dieting behavior. We therefore concluded the ads were not socially irresponsible."

This is not the first time that Protein World has faced controversy for an Underground advertisement. A 2015 ad featuring a model in a bikini alongside the question "Are you beach body ready?" sparked hundreds of complaints. The ASA ultimately banned the ad from the London Tube but took issue primarily with its weight loss claims rather than its creative content, saying that the imagery was "unlikely to cause serious or widespread offense."

Though the ASA has cleared the Kardashian ad, the decision is not without its own controversy and many are still speaking out against the unhealthy image they believe it portrays.

"People taking the Tube should not have to be bombarded with adverts that imply their bodies arent good enough," London assemblywoman Caroline Russell, who received numerous complaints from constituents regarding the ad, told the Evening Standard. Young people receive this negative message from enough social media channels, and its appalling that this is being reinforced on Tube platforms, against the mayors own policy, when people are taking trips to school, to work, or going out to socialize."

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Controversial Khlo Kardashian Fitness Ad Is Cleared for Use, Despite Body-Shaming Complaints - Glamour

Journal staff 6:00 a.m. ET May 10, 2017

Health Quest's outdoor fitness expo will feature workouts and information booth along the river and on the Walkway Saturday, May 13.(Photo: Health Quest/Courtesy photo)

If you need a little motivation to get in shape, a six-week fitness challenge kicks off Saturday at the Hudson River.

Health Quest's Get Fit Hudson Valley returns to thebanks of the Hudson River Saturday, May 13, where you can take a fitness class or borrow a bike for a ride on the Walkway Over the Hudson, The kickoff event will run from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., at Upper Landing Park, 83 N. Water St., Poughkeepsie.

The six-week fitness challenge awards community members for being active with the chance to win prizes. Participants are invited to enter their workouts at GetFitHV.com. The free website offers fitness tips, healthfulrecipes and a fitness contest. Each entry at one of more than 80 check-in Get Fit workout locations counts toward raffles for prizes, such as an Apple Watch, according to a written release.

The Get Fit challenge gives people of all fitness levels an extra incentive to get their exercise in each week and discover new ways to make the valley their gym,M. Zubair Jafar, a physician who leads the sports cardiology program for The Heart Center, a division of Hudson Valley Cardiovascular Practice, PC, said in the release.

The kickoff event willfeature a Get Fit activation table with complimentary The Hudson Valley is my gym T-shirts and water bottles for the first 50 participants to sign up for the challenge. All fitness levels are welcome.

The schedule for Saturday's instructional fitness classes isas follows:

Other activities will include:

This event is free. Upper Landing Park is at the bottom of the Walkway elevator. For information about parking, visit upperlanding.org/parking

Visit http://www.getfithv.com for more information.

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Fitness challenge kicks off with aim of better health - Poughkeepsie Journal

CHICAGO A person's overall cardiorespiratory fitness is linked to his or her risk of developing precancerous polyps in the colon, which can grow into colon cancer, a new study from Singapore found.

In the study, the researchers found that people with lower levels of cardiorespiratory fitness had a higher risk of developing these polyps, which are also called adenomas.

Doctors have long known that failing to get enough physical activity is linked to an increased risk of colorectal cancer, said lead study author Dr. Vikneswaran Namasivayam, a gastroenterologist at Singapore General Hospital. Namasivayam presented his findings here Monday (May 8) at Digestive Disease Week, a scientific meeting focused on digestive diseases. [7 Cancers You Can Ward Off with Exercise]

In the new study, the researchers focused on precancerous polyps instead of cancer. They wanted to look for a link between fitness and these polyps, because discovering such a link would "lend further credence to the idea" that fitness plays a role in the development of colorectal cancer, Namasivayam said.

The researchers also took things a step further, measuring people's cardiorespiratory fitness and not just asking them how much they exercised, he said.

Cardiorespiratory fitness is a very different concept from physical activity, Namasivayam told Live Science. When people talk about physical activity, the term refers more to a behavior than a biological measurement, Namasivayam said. But cardiorespiratory fitness can be objectively measured, he said.

Another way of looking at the difference between physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness is that while physical activity influences cardiorespiratory fitness, other factors influence it too, Namasivayam said. A person's age, sex and genetics also affect his or her cardiorespiratory fitness level, he said.

In the study, the researchers measured the cardiorespiratory fitness of 36 adults between ages 45 and 70. Of these participants, 20 people had precancerous polyps and 16 people, the controls, had no polyps.

To determine each person's level of cardiorespiratory fitness, the researchers focused on VO2 max, which is a measure of aerobic fitness that looks at how much oxygen the body is able to use in a given time period to power its cells. The higher an individual's VO2 max is, the more fit that person is. To measure VO2 max, the people in the study were asked to ride stationary bikes to the point of exhaustion, Namasivayam said. [Everything you Need to Know About Aerobic Exercise]

The researchers found that the higher a person's VO2 max was, the less likely it was that a person had a precancerous polyp. In other words, people in the study with precancerous polyps "were more likely to have a lower level of [cardiorespiratory fitness] compared with those who" did not have polyps, Namasivayam said.

The study was small, and more research is needed to help scientists fully understand the link between cardiorespiratory fitness and the risk of precancerous polyps, Namasivayam noted. In addition to replicating the findings of this study, researchers also need to look into the biological mechanisms that could explain the link, he said.

The findings have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Originally published on Live Science.

Read more:
Why Fitness (Not Just How Much You Exercise) Matters in Cancer Risk - Live Science

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