I could write a book about what I’ve seen in the park over the last 16 years of teaching Zest Bootcamp outdoor group exercise classes, but one thing I will never tire of is this magical view over the beautiful city of Bath.
Whether it’s all the people and the dogs that I’ve said good morning to, without every knowing their names, the foreign visitors who come to see the view point and wonder why there are women punching each other (fitness boxing of course) or seeing Michael Portillo being filmed from the viewpoint.
Stories are all around us… I wonder who the people are that rise above us in the sky in hot air balloons, I wonder what jobs the early morning dog walkers do, I wonder where the tourists come from before they visit Bath – perhaps London or maybe Stonehenge.
The other stories that I’m interested in are those of our members at Zest, the people who have committed to making a decision to put their health and fitness as important as all the other things they do in their busy lives.
Some of them have to get up extra early to attend the 6.30am class before work, some have to walk for 20 minutes to get to class, some have to dig deep on days they don’t fancy getting changed, getting in the car and maybe even getting a bit cold or wet on occasion. On the odd occasion someone has turned up to class a bit hungover!
The reason they all get over the “discomfort” is because they desire a result – we can either have excuses or results, not much else.
Whether its because they want to improve their strength, mental wellbeing, reduce their aches and pains… they have all realised that the “benefits” of regular exercise outweigh the “costs”.
Often there are extra benefits they didn’t expect such as better sleep, meeting wonderful women and feeling part of a community. One recent member who struggled with Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia wasn’t able to exercise for many years and now she has started she feels ALIVE!
If we stay in our comfort zone we are actually in an uncomfortable zone – a place where there must be some level of “pain”. If we are willing to swap the temporary discomfort of doing or not doing something eg having a cuppa without a biscuit, then we will ultimately reach the “pleasure” we are seeking eg having more sustained energy, loosening our waistband.
It could be our clothes are getting tighter, our joints feel stiffer or our blood pressure has started to rise as we age. If we just took the first step to change some of our habits, we could address all of these things, whether it’s a better diet, more movement or quitting smoking, alcohol or damaging our stress levels better.
At Zest we run trial weeks so that women can come and try out the classes before committing to the whole month. It’s important to know if the other people are the kind of people you want to hang out with 2 to 3 times a week, and maybe the idea of outdoor exercise is something new to you. The community spirit is so strong that the Zesties even set up their own book club and many deep friendships have formed over the years.
One thing we are proud of at Zest is that we make sure not only to make new members feel welcome but also to offer top quality coaching that allows different ages and abilities to work alongside each other and all get great results. It would be easy to run typical style “beasting” bootcamp with hundreds of press ups and burpees etc, but would that be appropriate for women going through peri-menopuase and the menopause transition? Unlikely, which is why we make sure to include exercises that work on mobility, address postural imbalances as much as possible alsongside balance – something that we often lose as we age.
With over 25 years of experience you can rest assured you are in good hands at Zest so if you’d like to join us for a trial week, just complete the details on the Trial Week page.
I’ve attached some of our recent members of the month who joined our friendly classes in Bath for a variety of different reasons and I hope they inspire you to make moving your body an important part of your life – no-one is coming to do it for you, and one day you might wished you’d have started sooner.
Result or excuse remember – we can rarely have both!
Zita x
ps I really did see a marriage proposal … it was when we also ran outdoor classes in the evenings, the groom set up balloons on a bench looking over Bath then a few minutes later we noticed his girlfriend arrived and he got down on one knee… she said yes and we all cheered!
Outdoor exercise helps mental and physical wellbeing!
PS If you didn’t know I used to be an overweight, non-exercising asthmatic so believe me when I tell you that healthy living really is the best thing you can do for your mental and physical wellbeing. Click here to book a trial week at our friendly and fun fitness classes
* Although the word bootcamp can bring images of beasting and endless burpees – we actually don’t operate like that at Zest which is why if you watch the Bath Life Awards video you’ll hear me describe it as group personal training style class. Many of our members have been coming for years so they get coached on exactly what they need.