Plenty of fitness programs this time of year claim to get people in shape and fight the "holiday bulge." But now Village Fitness Club lays claim to the program that the top trainers in the country, the Colorado State Patrol, police, firefighters and many Navy SEALs are using to get in the best shape of their lives.
Village Fitness has become one of just 200 affiliates in the world to offer the CrossFit program, dubbed "white-hot" by
Men's Journal and "fast, furious, and not for the faint of heart" by the
Los Angeles Times. CrossFit, according to Mark Clark, the club's fitness director, mixes basic, functional multi-joint exercises - squats, push-ups, pull-ups, dips, dead-lifts, medicine ball throws, and more - with short bursts of cardio, emphasizing full range of motion and exacting form. The program adds intensity by clocking each workout with a stopwatch.
CrossFit workouts are short and intense, replacing ordinary weight lifting and steady-state aerobic training. The results, says Clark, are extraordinarily time-efficient workouts that quickly begin to melt fat, build muscle, increase flexibility, and provide measurable increases in overall fitness. More than just working on strength and cardiorespiratory fitness, CrossFit targets accuracy, agility, balance, coordination, flexibility, power, stamina, and speed.
Village Fitness Club offers group and individual Cross-Fit sessions. Non-members can obtain free, daily CrossFit workouts, posted seven days a week at
www.villagefitnessclub.com. The online workouts, says Clark, are particularly helpful for those who already know how to do the moves with proper form - and have no trouble with self-motivation.
"Anyone can do CrossFit, starting at any level," explains Clark. "Because the moves are functional - meaning they simulate movements we all do in everyday life - CrossFit is one of the safest programs around."
Village Fitness (
www.villagefitnessclub.com), Castle Rock's first full-service fitness club, is located in The Village at Castle Pines Marketplace, at the southeast corner of Happy Canyon Road and Highway 85. Servicing more than 1,500 members from Castle Rock, Castle Pines, Sedalia, and surrounding areas, the facility provides strength training and cardiovascular equipment, free weights, a full complement of group exercise classes, personal training, weight management program, and interactive childcare center.