FITNESS
One major key to maintaining a regular fitness routine is by prioritizing yourself. “Prioritize yourself by doing those little daily steps towards your fitness,” says Magdalena Romanska, a fitness lifestyle coach who has a certification from the International Sports Science Association or ISSA, owner of Be Fit Fit gym and a realtor with Russ Lyon Sotheby’s. “Fitness is so empowering … but if you empower yourself, that’s going to help you to start your day in a good way to help you to get to your goal.” Magdalena didn’t start exercising until she was 18 years old. She says fitness was not a priority in her native Poland. She was overweight as a teenager and spent about a year reaching a healthier weight and gradually fell in love with health and fitness in the process. “It’s very humbling to be somebody to whom people come and ask me for advice for fitness and to share that with them. But then once I share with them, and I see the results, it’s super empowering to see that it works,” she says. Here are some of her top tips for staying fit.
MAKE TIME FOR EXERCISE
“Any moment is good,” says Magdalena. Fit in exercise when you can. Prior to our phone call, Magdalena was doing an upper body workout since she had about 20 minutes of free time. “Step by step. Little by little.” She’s a fan of interval training, or performing a cardio exercise at a high intensity for about 30 seconds and then either resting or performing a lower intensity movement for one or two minutes. Interval training can improve your aerobic capacity and keep your metabolism high throughout the day, long after you’ve stopped exercising.
MIX UP YOUR FITNESS ROUTINE
Moving your body in different ways is a great way to work out. You don’t want to overuse or overwork the same muscles. “Mix the training of the upper body with lower. If you like hiking, hike. But also do some swimming occasionally just to relax the hiking muscles,” says Magdalena.
BUILD REST INTO YOUR ROUTINE
Rest isn’t always seen as being a crucial part of a fitness routine, but rest is important to recovery and injury prevention. Magdalena advises resting as part of a training schedule to give your muscles a break. Aim for resting at least once a week. If that isn’t realistic, try resting once every 10 days. “If you normally train, go to the gym or hike or do a short walk in the neighborhood or do gardening to move,” says Magdalena. “Whatever you do typically, don’t do that thing for that one day.”
Magdalena Romanska of Be Fit Fit gym.
HOW TO STICK WITH AN ACTIVITY
The easiest way to stick with exercise is to find a physical activity that you like. “It has to be something that the person likes, what fits their daily lifestyle, what fits their daily activities, their way of spending the day with the family or without the family,” says Magdalena. If you have a job that requires you to be on your feet all day and don’t feel like doing high intensity training, try yoga or a gentler activity. If you prefer biking, try spinning classes, mountain biking, road biking or an at-home bike. Get creative. Whatever type of activity you end up doing, don’t force it. “If you don’t like swimming, just forget about swimming,” she says.
START GRADUALLY
You might be really excited about starting a new exercise routine, but try not to go too hard, too fast. If you start exercising every day after a long break, you might injure yourself and have to stop exercising again. “The biggest problem is the physical injury. And that’s going to slow them down even further because they are not going to be able to train or they will start overusing the other muscles,” says Magdalena. “It’s simply not sustainable.” She gave us the metaphor of trying to eat salad every day after not eating healthy. Yes, you’re eating healthy and that’s positive, but you’re likely to get bored very quickly or might give up due to feeling overwhelmed by such a big, sudden change. Try going slow to establish real change.
TRY THE ROWING MACHINE
You can exercise in any way you like, but Magdalena’s favorite (and her only favorite) cardio machine is the rowing machine. “It’s actually the best cardio machine for our abdominals,” says Magdalena. “It’s good for the legs.” It’s easy to operate and non-weight bearing since you’re sitting down and pulling a bar back to go out on the machine and then returning to the starting position. Some models even come with a video component so you can feel like you’re in a boating race or chasing another boat.
AIM FOR A MIX OF CARDIO AND STRENGTH EXERCISES
For the average person, a mix of cardio and strength is going to make for an ideal fitness routine. “Cardio is good for everything,” says Magdalena. Any type of cardiovascular activity or any kind of movement that raises the heart rate is beneficial for the health of our hearts and can be great for weight loss. The type of exercise you perform ultimately comes down to your own health and fitness goals. “When somebody, let’s say, wants to gain some healthy muscle tissue, you want to do more of the weight training rather than cardio,” she says.
FUN
If you’re searching for a new activity, consider dancing. We can’t think of a more fun way to move than by giving a dance class a spin. We spoke with Jessica Phillips, artistic director, teacher and owner of Sedona Dance Academy and Sun Moon Studio, to learn more about the benefits of dance. Jessica was a professional dancer with Ballet Arizona for 10 years. She’s been dancing since she was 8 years old. She’s 30 now. She opened Sedona Dance Academy in January of 2020. “It’s a way of moving in a playful way. So you’re moving for an entire hour to music, and it’s an easy way to get a workout in without feeling like it’s a workout and having fun while doing it,” says Jessica. “We work from the bottom to the top of all the different muscle groups. Something akin to Pilates, but in a bit more free flowing way.”
TRY A JAZZ, HIP HOP OR BALLET CLASS
Her studio offers jazz, hip hop and ballet classes for adults. Jessica tells us that the jazz and hip hop classes are for beginners. The ballet classes are for individuals who have some foundational experience with ballet. Classes, generally speaking, are organized like this: Class will being with a warm up and continue with practicing movements and steps relating to the dance taught at the end of class. The last part of class called “across the floor.” During this part of class, students literally travel across the floor performing repetitive steps. At the very end of class, students learn 30 seconds to one minute of choreography. Ballet classes are typically structured like this: Expect to spend 45 minutes performing exercises at the bar. The bar assists with balance and alignment. Next, dancers come to the center of the floor and perform a few exercises there. Next, students travel across the floor and then do a couple combinations of jumping in the center of the floor. Most people are familiar with ballet moves, but here’s what to expect from a jazz class: “Everything that you do needs to have a statement,” says Jessica. “It’s just moving with confidence. What makes it jazz is bringing your own character, your own sass.” In jazz, according to Jessica, everything’s coordinated. You’re using your hips and your hands are typically held out wide. If you take a ballet class, you can expect to leave feeling more coordinated. “In ballet, everything you do is, you’re pulling up. And so everything’s really elevated. Your posture is straight, really long neck. Your hips are engaged. You’re not arching your back, your back is more straight. And from that position of your body, we do different moves with our legs and our arms and our head, and it all connects,” says Jessica. “It just requires more precision.” Hip hop dancing is a style of street dancing. Jessica says it’s very grounded and doesn’t require a certain kind of posture like ballet would. “It’s just about feeling the beat,” says Jessica about hip hop dancing. “And the beat is a heavier beat.”
Jessica Phillips, artistic director, teacher and owner of Sedona Dance Academy and Sun Moon Studio.
THE MANY BENEFITS OF DANCING
No matter what style of dance appeals to you, dancing has plenty of physical benefits. “You’ll strengthen your pelvic floor and your core immensely without doing a ton of core work. You just naturally engage your core when you dance. It’s just impossible not to and also your back and all these different smaller muscle groups that aren’t necessarily worked very often and that keep you really stable, and also usually you’ll get a little bit of cardio in.” Additional physical benefits include improved balance and coordination. Your coordination may improve since you’re moving your body in sync with the music. Jessica hopes to have a salsa teacher at her studio in the future to give students a chance to learn another style of dance. Dance can help you feel more in touch with your body and can offer mental benefits too. “If you just keep up with the class and see your growth, you see results, and you feel more confident in your body. Not just in dance class, but outside of it. And mentally, it also helps you stay mentally sharp because you’re required to not only move, but also to move to the music and to keep the beat and to be aware of all these different moving parts of your body. It engages in your mind and your body and also your soul when you’re expressing. It’s just keeping everything awake,” says Jessica. “Dance is in our culture from the beginning. And it’s so natural once you let go of the mind chatter and the hesitancy and all that doubt and whatnot. Your body wants to dance and wants to move.”
RELAXATION
Mental health is a key component of overall well-being. We spoke with Valerie Sanjali Irons, a sound alchemist, breath work practitioner and owner of Aumbase Sedona – an outdoor yoga and hiking company that also offers sound healing and breath work – to learn more what she recommends her clients to do de-stress and improve their health.
VENTURE OUTSIDE
Chances are high that if you live in Sedona, you enjoy spending time outside. Getting outside or engaging with nature in any way can help us. “Nature, I feel, resets our physical body, our energetic body and our heart center,” says Valerie. “It kind of gives us gives us a reset.” If you feel comfortable, try taking off shoes and letting your feet touch the bare Earth or even a rock. “Presence is very important,” she says. “Feel the wind blowing and watch the wind rustling through the leaves of the trees and be aware of the sound of the bee buzzing next to your ear.”
TRY BOX STYLE BREATHING
If you’re feeling stressed, taking a few deep breaths for just a few moments can help soothe you. There are numerous benefits of breathing. “Everything resets. It brings us back into a state of relaxation that helps anxiety to dissipate. It allows for clear and calm thinking. It slows down our heart rate, and it brings us back to center,” says Valerie. Although there are many breathing techniques, Valerie recommends box breathing. Here’s how you do this: “Hold to the count of four. Exhale to the count of four. Hold to the count of four, and then repeat,” says Valerie. Remember to breathe through your nose the whole time.
INHALE ESSENTIAL OILS
When our minds race due to anxiety – which is typically fear or dread of a future event – inhaling an essential oil can help you feel more grounded in the present moment. “Carrying an essential oil with you, and really taking the time to breathe it in and feel it,” says Valerie.
TRY MEDITATION
“Everybody should take a moment to close their eyes and take a deep breath if they’re feeling anxious,” says Valerie. She shared with us a meditation that’s part of the kundalini yoga tradition that requires no props except for your body. Here’s how you perform it: “You would touch the thumb to the first finger and to the second finger, the third finger and then the pinky. And when you touch the first finger, you say ‘sa,’ the second finger is ‘ta,’ third finger is, ‘na,’ and a fourth finger is ‘ma,’” says Valerie. “If you just repeat. ‘Sa, ta, na, ma,’ it’s very calming. It helps anxiety because it is using the brain and the tactile with touching the fingers.” Focusing on one mantra can help return you to a healthier mindset. “Because you’re repeating a mantra in your head. It takes the anxiety-creating thoughts out of the mind because the mind has to focus on the mantra. So then the thoughts that are keeping you in a spiral – the anxiety spiral – they dissipate as the mantra becomes the main focus,” she says. If you’re searching for a meditation class to attend, Valerie recommends Meditation Monday, that’s hosted on the third Monday of every month by the Sedona International City for Peace.
TAP INTO YOUR CREATIVITY
Nurturing your creative side can relieve stress. “Coloring books. Take an art class. Maybe even creativity could be sewing, cooking, painting, drawing, singing, playing music. Go to more events that allow you to use your voice and move your body and play an instrument. Those are the things we need right now,” says Valerie.
Valerie Sanjali Irons, sound alchemist, breath work practitioner and owner of Aumbase Sedona. Photo by The Narrative Lenz.
ATTEND A RESTORATIVE YOGA CLASS
If you’re not familiar, a restorative yoga class is typically just a handful of postures held for a few long moments. The postures are intended to stretch and relax you. “It’s very slow and relaxing. The poses are long, and they’re gentle. It’s really for anybody, and it puts you back together,” says Valerie. “Yoga is a practice that helps the muscles relax and open. “It’s great for people who do a lot of hiking and exercise and cycling. And then they can come to a restorative class where they just really let the weight of the body open and stretch those muscles.”
REACH OUT WHEN YOU NEED HELP
Working with a professional can make a big difference when it comes to our mental health and well-being. “It’s very important not to keep things bottled up inside. It’s very important to reach out to people. And if you feel like you’re too much for your friends or a burden or family members and no one’s understanding you, then reach out to a professional or somebody who can help guide you,” says Valerie. “It’s very important not to let these feelings of anxiety, and they can build and can become tremendous and can overtake us sometimes.”
