Woman of Fitness: Robbin U.

My name is Robbin. My life, for the last 32 years, has been divided between raising my two children and working as a nurse on a labor and delivery unit of a local hospital. I cannot remember a week that I have not worked at least 50 or so hours. Overtime always helped make ends meet. A little over 5 years ago, I went into management on the same unit. The hours remained the same, but the stress level went up exponentially! It was that same year that I decided to take care of me.

I had stepped onto a scale at the doctors office and could not believe what I saw. I had been on Weight Watchers most of my life and decided to add exercise. I took a Zumba class at the local park district and the instructor told me that she taught the class at Women’s Workout World as well, and I joined soon after. I never imagined that Zumba would take me where I wanted to go, but slow and steady won the race.

As I started losing weight I started new classes. I tried Turbokick early on, but I could not hang. 65 pounds later I was running back to Turbo because I wanted that challenge. Some of the weight crept back on, and I am determined to not allow that to happen. So at almost 60, I am going to kick it up and I started to take team training.

I have always been a strong-minded person, and now I am going to let the trainers at W3 help me to become strong in body as well! I used to say that I wanted to lose weight and get healthy for my kids. They are grown now, and I truly believe that when I really do it for myself, I feel better. I do not feel my age, and that is a great feeling!!

Oh… and did I mention that I am a HUGE Cubs fan??? ๐Ÿ™‚

-Robbin

What to Wear to the Gym for your Best Workout

Enhancing Your Performance

Many women donโ€™t think twice when it comes to what they wear to the gym. They have their favorite pair of workout shoes, that one sports bra that feels just right (or so it seems), and their favorite pair of yoga pants they wash every day because letโ€™s face it- they want to wear them again tomorrow. At this point holes may be forming in the inner thigh, and they are fading in the butt area, but theyโ€™re your favorite right?โ€ฆyou canโ€™t just throw them away!ย Wrong!

Athletic apparel is a booming industry in fashion today. Many women feel that they donโ€™t need to look cute while working out, versus the girls that go to the gym just to look good. Well let me tell you there is a lot more to athletic wear than what meets the eye. Actually, itโ€™s an entire world of science, technology, fabric innovation, manipulation and perforation. Athletic apparel is created for a reason, and it is broken off into different categories for a reason- the reason beingย you. Yes, the reason is to enhance your performance through allowing the maximum range of motion, stability, and acceleration. Being aware of what you put on your body may severely impact your joints, muscles and the ladies(chest) in the long run. Athletic wear can get expensive, so Iโ€™ve come up with a list of a variety of products perfect for your specified workout and their equals for less!

#1 Taking Care of the Ladies!

I donโ€™t care what cup you are- how small or big- you have to wear a supportive sports bra. Wearing a supportive sports bra while doing physical activity will ensure that the coopers ligaments in your breasts donโ€™t stretch out to maximum capacity, meaning you will defy gravity for as long as you can! Are you experiencing back pain and upper back and shoulder problems? This may be due to your bra. 80% of women statistically are in the wrong size, so before you go out on your search, make sure to get measured professionally. Here are some photos of bras ranging from low to high-intensity support depending on your workout of choice and size of chest!

Great for light workouts. These bras are meant mostly for ladies with cups A-C who are lifting weights or doing light yoga, Pilates, and PiYo.

ย Medium Impact Bras

These bras are best for women with A-C cups who are performing any activity from Zumba class, a long run, or just doing moderate cardio at the gym. They will support the ladies but also give them room to breathe! Getting the right size is the key to a good bra. These bras range from small to extra large. Ask an associate if you are not sure, and they will be glad to assist you!

High Impact Bras

These bras are designed with molded and adjustable straps to really help secure the chest. These bras are mostly for women with C-E cups. With extra support and padded straps, you will be able to move securely without having to worry about back aches or anyone staring at your chest! They are created to tame the ladies! The Hero as well features an traditional snap off for easy removal.

#3 The Right Tights for your Workout!

Having the right tights for your workout will be one of the key aspects of your performance. The main two categories of tights are running and yoga/training.ย Most running tights feature a drawcord for stability and less spandex for breathability. They usually will have an inseam or zipper pocket to stash your keys etc. Training tights, on the other hand, tend to have a higher waistband for extra coverage when doing yoga, Pilates, or any workout that asks for minimal distraction when lying on your back. It is important to be comfortable when doing your workout, so you are not pulling your pants up every five seconds! Being comfortable in your wardrobe will only make you concentrate harder due to less distractions. Nike, Lu Lu Lemon, and Under Armour all use a sweat wicking system in which the fibers will wick the sweat to the surface, allowing you to stay dry in the long run!

Running Tights

Nike Epix Lux
Lulu Lemon Speed
Lulu Moon

ย TRAINING PANTS:

North Face
Lulu Lemon
Fabletics

#4 Do Not neglect your feet!

The importance of wearing the right shoe for your workout is crucial, if not the most important. If you are training, you must wear a training shoe! If you are running, you must wear a running shoe! No questions asked. This is crucial to your health, performance and pure enjoyment of your workout. Having a training shoe will help you with stability, jumping, and locking them in place when you need to. Training shoes tend to have more contact with the ground, allowing your movements to be fluid and intact. There are many different kinds of support; asking an expert will help you get on the right track. Finding the correct running shoe is key to your performance and overall bone health. Most runners need support and tend to switch their shoes out to work different muscle groups. It is important to have arch and ankle support if you have bad knees. In this case, you may need a Lunar Glide or Pegasus if shopping via Nike. Below are a few examples ranging from most minimalistic/barefoot to highest support.

Running Shoes

Nike 3.0 Flyknit
Nike Free 4.0
Nike Lunaglide 6.0
UA Speedform

TRAINING SHOES

Nike Flyknit Agility
Ryka Cross Training

These are a few tips to keep in mind. Places like Nike and Under Armour offer services like gate analysis in which they find the correct shoe for you by testing your feet on a treadmill. Now go out there and get the clothing that best suits you! Your hard work deserves the best. Follow our Pinterest page @w3body for more inspiration on athletic fashion! (Womenโ€™s Workout & Wellness)

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*Post and information provided by Vanja, W3 Marketing Intern

W3 Hosts WERQ fitness group exercise dance certification!

What is WERQ? WERQ is a fitness dance class. All of the music in this class is current top 40 pop, hip hop and rock. Unlike other hip hop fitness formats, WERQ ensures that anyone who is teaching this format is a fitness professional- in other words, holds a nationally recognized group fitness certification, such as ACE or AFAA. WERQ was founded in Chicago. Women’s Workout & Wellness recently hosted a WERQ certification for our instructors to become certified in this format. We are always looking to improve our group exercise schedules! And one of the ways we look to improve our group fitness classes is by adding new formats to keep our members excited. We also change our signature formats (we recently changed our HardBody group X class format) to ensure our members get a great yet different experience each time. If you’re looking for group exercise classes in Chicagoland, check out our vast group exercise schedules. You will no doubt find something you like from Latin dance- Zumba- to weight lifting- HardBody and Body Fit- to interval classes, like cardioflex, and then to cardio kickboxing, like Turbokick! We also offer mind/body classes, like Yoga or PiYo. Now, with our recent WERQ certification, we have yet another fun, calorie-burning format to add to our group exercise schedules throughout our Chicagoland gyms! Stay tuned for when this class will be added to the group exercise schedule at the W3 nearest you! In the meantime, check out this picture of our awesome W3 instructor TEAM before the WERQ cert!

Chicago Zumba for Women

Want a women-only Zumba class? Check out Women’s Workout at our 5 locations!

Zumba, still being one of the most popular group exercise/group fitness classes, is a party at Women’s Workout. If you’re looking for Chicago Zumba, W3 is the place to go!

Because we are a women-only fitness facility in Chicago and we know that women love Zumba, we make sure our Zumba classes are among the top in Chicagoland. Not only do we ensure we have great Chicago Zumba classes, but we also make sure that we change it up from time to time and make it FUN for our members through our Zumba parties!

We often celebrate National Dance Day with a Zumbathon party in July, where we have a “marathon” of Zumba for 2 hours at each Chicagoland location. We also have ZUMBAWEEN “Halloween Zumba” parties in October, and during February with National Heart Month, we celebrate healthy hearts with a Zumba and Turbokick cardio party!

Finding good (and affordable!) Chicago Zumba classes may be hard, especially downtown because you may have to buy a pricey punch card or class pass somewhere. Luckily, Women’s Workout is a perfect place to go for Chicago Zumba as we are affordable AND all of our group exercise classes and W3 locations are included in a membership! That’s right… go to any of our Chicagoland locations to take Zumba and pay nothing extra!

It’s not only a great deal for Chicago Zumba, but it’s a great value where you know you’ll get great results with great Zumba instructors and a consistent experience every time. Fill out the guest pass if you are not a member to be invited in to try a fabulous W3 Chicago Zumba class! We look forward to having you in our workout facility.

~W3~

Berwyn Zumba Classes at W3!

Check out our hot group exercise classes at W3! One of our great locations on Cermak & Ridgeland has packed classes and if you’re looking for ZUMBA in the Berwyn area, this is the place to go!

Being a very heavily-populated Hispanic area, Zumba with its latin-inspired moves is naturally a very popular class at this W3 location.

We have a variety of Berwyn Zumba instructors. One in particular is Veronica! She is the club manager and was recently certified in June. She has been teaching and helping out to promote Berwyn Zumba at W3 ever since! Some of her favorite moves and types of dances are Merengue,”Beto Shuffle,” & Cumbia. Her absolute favorite are the reggaeton songs! She has helped W3 make the Berwyn Zumba classes popular!

If you’re looking for Berwyn Zumba classes, look at the W3 in Berwyn located at 6342 W. Cermak Rd- give them a call 708-788-0010, stop in for a visit, or email them at berwyn@w3body.com. Also if you’re looking for Berwyn Zumbaย and want to try a class, fill out the form to the right and you will be contacted to redeem your free guest pass to Women’s Workout & Wellness.ย Get ready to dance the lbs away! We are having a Berwyn Zumba party (Halloween Zumba= Zumbaween) at the end of October.ย All W3 clubs will have a Zumba party!ย Special Berwyn Zumba HALLOWEEN songs during the week of October 28th.ย Please see club for details!

*Check out the pictures of a Berwyn Zumbathon party we had in 2011! W3 is the place to be.

Spring into Fitness at W3!

The big “New Year’s rush” is over…but summertime is almost here! So what does that mean? It’s REALLY time to get in shape. Pressure is on for beach/swimsuit season, not to mention the weddings, vacations, graduation parties, summer bbqs and more that await our agendas during the summer. It’s fun, but it’s alsoย nerve-rackingย if we slacked off a bit during the winter months (especially these winter months in Chicago- it’s May and it’s 50 degrees outside!) So, with the weather (hopefully) attempting to warm up outside, it’s time to get serious and really take some time to focus on ourselves.

Besides the ever-so-popular Zumba, Turbokick, HardBody and CardioFlex classes at Women’s Workout & Wellness, you can also find a variety of bootcamps, challenges and functional training programs going on that are changing the lives of women across Chicago- helping them lose weight, tone up, increase their strength and cardiovascular levels, feel better and more energized, and just overall GET IN SHAPE! Before we talk a little bit about what these programs consist of, I just wanted to share a few comments we have heard from some members across our W3 locations. One 4-Week Summer Shape Up Challenge member from the Downers Grove W3 said she can’t even begin to explain how these workouts make her feel- not just physically but emotionally and mentally as well. She decided the 4 weeks wasn’t enough for her and enrolled in this program for a minimum of 3 months! Good for her!

Another member from the W3 on Monroe St. in the Loop had to put another hole in her belt… not to make it looser, of course, but to make it tighter! Her belt has now become too big. She thanked her trainer for the great workouts so far. Yes, it’s the trainer’s motivating training style and amazing workouts, but she has put in a lot of work and has amazing fat loss results to show for it. Can’t wait to see her before and after picture side to side! Only a few weeks left of her bootcamp. Unbelievable RESULTS coming soon!

Intrigued yet?

We could write blog post after blog post of amazing success stories followed by pictures to show the results these women have received, and we will continue to do so because we know this program is what will help women across Chicago get fit and HEALTHY. What’s so great about it? It’s the functional training style of classes. Women join our group functional training program for various reasons: to lose weight, reduce fat and inches, gain muscle tone, feel better, get rid of pain, gain energy, sleep better, and more! And they are getting what they asked for. We use our functional “toys” and carefully designed workouts to produce amazing results. Some of our toys include ropes, slam balls, kettle bells, Bosus, TRX suspension training, plyo boxes, val slides, bands, superbands, monster tires, and more. Have you seen the Biggest Loser? Then you know exactly what we are talking about.

Check out our video HERE to understand ย a little bit more about functional training. Come check it out for yourself- whether you are a member of Women’s Workout & Wellness or someone looking for a gym/program to join, we have a challenge, bootcamp or program for you! Non-members are welcome to enroll in a program for 4 weeks or more, depending on our current promotion. Call today- you’ll be amazed.

What are YOUR results? Be our next success story. Call or visit us today!

~Women’s Workout & Wellness~

W3 Fundraiser to Benefit A New Direction

This Saturday, March 23rd at our Hometown/Oak Lawn location, Women’s Workout & Wellness is working out to wipe out domestic violence. We are hosting a fundraiser to benefit A New Direction, a non-profit that works to raise money to help bring women out of domestic violence situations. We are happy to work with our members and neighboring guests to raise money for this amazing cause! ALL W3 members and any of their friends are welcome to participate in this event. We just ask for a $10 donation toward A.N.D. to take as many group exercise classes as you want- including our special MASTER class with top W3 instructors for our NEW launch of the Kickin’ Core Ball Round 21 class- signature to Women’s Workout & Wellness!

*We have extended our group exercise schedule for this day only to make the $10 spread from 8:15am-2:00pm! Join us- we will see you there!

8:15-9:00am: YOGA

9:00-10:00am: ZUMBA

10:00-11:00am: STEP

11:00-12:00pm: BODY FIT

12:00-1:00pm: PILATES

1:00-2:00pm: ***MASTER CLASS KICKIN’ CORE BALL***

If you have any questions, please email marketing@w3body.com. Thanks!

Women’s Workout & Wellness in Hometown/Oak Lawn:

4130 Southwest Highway

(at the corner of 87th and Pulaski)

(708) 425-2171

W3 Breast Cancer Event

To help the American Cancer Society raise money for breast cancer, Women’s Workout & Wellness is hosting a Zumbathon/ girl’s night out event on Saturday, October 20th from 4-7pm. We have many different vendors coming to pamper our guests, such as facials, nails, eyelashes, jewelry and more! We also have 2 hours of ZUMBA! With 5 instructors. We will also be honoring a few members and an employee who are breast cancer survivors. Their speeches will begin at 4:30pm. All members from ALL locations are welcome as well as their friends and family members who are non-members. The event is at our Berwyn location at 6342 W. Cermak Rd in Berwyn. IL.

We hope to see you there!

Women’s Workout & Wellness

National Dance Day Success!!!

In celebration of National Dance Day, Women’s Workout and Wellness sponsored an event. We called it Girl’s Night Out and all proceeds went to the Dizzy Feet Foundation. All of the clubs had a Zumbathon plus more- either Hip Hop, Piloxing, etc. and had lots of vendors for their members and non-members that were visiting the club that night. Needless to say, W3’s Girl’s Night Out event was a ROARING success! So many attendees and SO much fun! Here is a Zumba clip from the Berwyn location, after an 1 hour ‘n a half of Zumba, showing the girls dancing to the National Dance Day dance. Thanks for everyone who came! We hope to have more events like this in the future!