Workout at Mortensen Plaza

                If you’ve had a workout program for any length of time, then you know that even the best programs can become routine (pun was intended).  Instead of a complete overhaul of your program to find excitement, you could try adding something to it.  If I may be so bold as to make a suggestion…WIP Into Shape.

 This is an event by Riverfront Recapture that takes place on the Mortesen Riverfront plaza.  WIP Into Shape is led by WIP Fitness which stands for Work In Progress.  The event is held every Tuesday night through the summer and is free to participants.

A lot of times with events like this there are bugs to work out, but WIP Fitness pulled it off without any snags and everyone had a great workout.  There were around 50 people who participated, all at different levels of fitness, and all were challenged. 

The workout consisted of:

·         The warm up- as a group

·         The main work out

The class was broken up into three groups, one group per station and three stations total.  At each station there were three separate exercises, each with a modification to meet the needs of different fitness levels.  The class rotated through each exercise then moved to the next station.  Coach Laura did a great job of explaining the exercises before and keeping the program on track.  Laura Keever-WIP Fitness Co-owner, Patrick DellaPace- WIP programing and fitness director, and Coach Laura all made the rounds answering questions, coaching and encouraging.

·         Finishing Exercise-as a group was an all out Tabata style workout for four minutes, 20 sec on and 10 sec off with high knees, the burpees, then plank jacks and repeat!

When you are stuck doing 15 miles per hour home from work, caught in a  Nor' Easter, this is what we in CT dream about.  The night was perfect without a cloud in sight, fresh air over looking the beautiful river.  Outside being active with family and friend- great event!

                WIP Fitness offers group fitness classes in West Hartford and Avon.  They are also coming to Pratt Street in Hartford opening soon. 

                Riverfront Recapture is a “Private non-profit organization leading the effort to reconnect Metropolitan Hartford with the CT River by providing access to four riverfront parks in Hartford and East Hartford.” They offer other events in the area worth looking into.

Buy Local Eat Healthy
LiveFitCT
-Keith

To see pictures from the event please go to and like our facebook page

the Willimantic Classic

  This year the Willimantic Classic fell on Saturday May 6th.  It was the 4th year of the Classic, which is an outreach of the Willimantic Athletic Club.

   The Willimantic Athletic Cub was founded in April of 1982 by a group of friends that wanted to support and promote recreational activities. WAC hosts various programs for athletes of all ages and abilities and all CT residents are welcome. The Willimantic Classic is just one of the many events they organize.

  Although Sat was cold and cloudy with occasional rain the run still drew near 500 runners. There were 3 separate distances all of which are named with inspiration from Willimantic, the host city. Willimantic has a long history in the textile industry with thread and cotton factories. So it was fitting to name the half the Thread City 13.1 which had 208 finishers. The Tailored 10k with 110 finishers and the Frog Bridge 5k with 158 finishers. A great showing for the 4th year!

  The event ran smooth with timing from CT's own The Last Mile Racing which will be timing the Manchester Road race this year with 15,000 runners. They are also part of the team that times the Boston Marathon. The volunteers were organized and the announcer/dj  kept things interesting with shout-outs and interviews. Over the last 4 years the Classic has seen runners from 35 different states, they are still looking for Alaska and Hawaii, but the day will come.

  The Classic uses the revenue from the event to donate to 3 separate organizations.

·         Windham Regional No Freeze Shelter which is dedicated to the survival of the homeless in the Windham region. Among other things they provide temporary shelter

·         The Sexual Assault Crisis  Center of Eastern CT they offer confidential comprehensive services to victims of sexual assault and abuse

·         Local Schools.

All other money is reinvested to put on future amazing events.

  The surrounding community all leans in to help this event. Congrats to all involved for another successful run and special congrats to all the top finishers

Half  (m) William Sanders    (f) Apryl Sabadosa

10k (m)  Shaun Berard        (f) Carol LineHazel

5k    (m) Zachary Stoddard  (f) Chantal Fautex

You can all the results at here

You can see pictures from the event on our facebook page

Buy Local Eat healthy
LiveFitCT
-Keith

Endurance For Veterans

                It’s clear looking back through our history that we have asked a lot of our military and the men and women that serve.  We as a country love our service members both active and retired and we have great appreciation for their dedication and sacrifice.

                Is it possible for those that haven’t been on the front line to imagine the horrors of war?  Hollywood has done an increasingly better job over the years of portraying the sights, sounds and graphic detail that they face. With embedded journalist, recorded footage special effects and first hand accounts.  But after two hours the popcorn is gone , the lights come on and we can return home safely.  Unfortunately for many of our soldiers who experience war and traumatic events, they can carry those images with them forever.

Awareness

                The 22 push up challenge has done a great job bringing awareness to a terrible fact that there is an average of 22 service members a day taking their own lives.  That’s 8030 a year…

                We all want to help, but what do we do?  I can think of four options that we have:

1.       Politically- we can put pressure on those in charge to take better care of our military.

2.       Seek out family and friends that serve or have served and make sure they have what they need.

3.       Raise awareness

4.       Donate to a charity

All need to be done, but number four is what we are here to talk about. 

 Not all charities are created equal.

         Endurance for Veterans was founded right here in CT by Robert Estrada in 2015.  Their vision is “ To Reduce the number of veterans that take their own lives by providing the opportunity to heal and rehabilitate through physical fitness.”

                There are over 40,000 American charities with military related missions.  Live Fit Connecticut has chosen to endorse and work with E4V because it’s easy to see their heart for the mission.  They are right here in CT (although their work doesn’t have state borders) and 100% of the money raised goes to the mission.  You are not paying for someone to drive a fancy car.

The Current Mission

                E4V’s 2017 project is so exciting.  They are leading a study to analyze the impact that community based physical fitness has on PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).  The study has two goals:

1.       To find out if the mission of helping through physical fitness is effective

2.       To provide a benchwork for a sustainable solution

They are looking for active duty or veterans that have had some kind of traumatic experience within the military to participate in the study.  Those participants have to commit to workout at least 3 times a week for a total of 3 hours. Two researchers from Yale are collecting the date.  This is part of a 3 tier process:

1.       Gather data for the study

2.       Publish study for review

3.       Based on data, develop sustainable programs that can be implemented nationwide.

The Mission, Should You Accept The Challlenge

You can help E4V by becoming active within their community, participating in their events, donating to their mission, helping to raise money and shopping in the E4V Store

June 10, 2017 E4V is hosting their second E4V Face Off, a fitness competition supported by local CrossFit gyms.  You can register a team or go and support.  E4V also has a Car Show coming up on May 21st at Sonny’s Place in Somers.

E4V is also our charity partner for our Mud Run and will be there to meet runners and spectators.

If you have been wanting to find a way to further support our troops, please look further into the work they are doing.

-Keith