The LoseSmart Approach to Fitness

Cardio: Endurance and Power

Each week begins with a cardiovascular training session. We alternate between testing a longer, endurance-based effort (.5-1 mile walk or run) and a shorter, power-based effort (500m row). These tests will portray improvements in your endurance and power throughout your stay. After each benchmark test, you’ll build your cardiovascular health through Zone 2 and interval-based training. These modalities will help you to build a cardiorespiratory foundation and utilize oxygen more efficiently without fatiguing during exercise. Intervals will range in duration. Longer, less intense efforts will allow you to develop your cardiovascular endurance, while shorter, more intense intervals improve your body’s oxygen delivery to the heart and muscles. These training approaches will help you to develop aerobic conditioning, while also improving your speed and power, some of the first components of fitness we tend to lose with age.

Strength: Functional Training 

Strength-focused days will consist of six to eight exercises that will target your entire body. Each workout begins with two primary movements that are designed to build overall strength quickly. These are known as compound movements because multiple muscle groups are being utilized during the lift. Emphasis is placed on both the upper and lower body during each workout. Following the main two exercises, three to five accessory movements will be embedded into the routine to help build lean muscle tissue and improve imbalances and/or weaker areas. Workouts may end with a core segment and/or a finisher (a short, higher intensity conditioning segment) to help you achieve that final push. Each workout consists of at least one of the following functional movement patterns to ensure you are getting a full-body workout: Push, pull, squat, hinge, lunge, carry, and/or core. 

Mobility and Flexibility

In your LoseSmart fitness classes, your warmups and cool-downs always include mobility and flexibility work. Additionally, your Connect classes, daily mobility and targeted mobility classes will also increase your ability to move pain-free through your entire range of motion. Following your Skyterra stay, you can keep up with your mobility practice using the videos on Skyterra at Home.

When it comes to weight loss, combining functional strength training, low-intensity movement such as walking, and smaller doses of smart high-intensity training creates a recipe for success. Strength training helps build lean muscle mass, which in turn, leads to more energy burn during the day. Low-intensity movement can help aid with digestion, regulate blood pressure, and manage blood sugar levels, especially when paired with meals. Endurance-focused cardio is excellent for weight management and cardiorespiratory strengthening, while our power-focused cardio leverages short bouts of intensity to increase insulin sensitivity and proper utilization of glucose.

Please note that more fitness does not always result in more weight loss. Recovery and rest are equally important, so limiting the number of strength and cardio-based classes to one to two per day maximum is our Fitness Professionals’ recommendation. When in doubt, listen to your body! It will tell you what you need to move or time to recover. 

Your LoseSmart fitness classes will accomplish both your high-intensity cardio and strength needs. However, low-intensity activities like walking, swimming, easy biking, rowing, etc. (anything you can do while breathing exclusively in and out through your nose) are helpful in mitigating soreness and overall stress on your body. Since our LoseSmart fitness classes take place before lunch, partaking in lower impact movements throughout the remainder of the day is a great goal. Low-intensity movement in the afternoon will help with recovery from strength training, blood circulation throughout the body and prevent stiffness in the joints and muscles. Consistent low-intensity movement can have profound effects on our bodies when weight loss is the goal.

While exercise is incredibly beneficial for both our bodies and minds, it is important to note that it is also a form of stress on the body. Stress can be beneficial in the right doses, but too much stress, in any form, can be detrimental to weight loss and body composition progress. Moderate- and high-intensity cardio, especially when done frequently throughout the week, can increase cortisol levels (our stress hormone). This can have an adverse effect on overall weight loss. Naturally, cortisol levels rise in the absence of quality sleep or due to work, personal or emotional stressors. When stress levels are high, adding in moderate- to high-intensity exercise, specifically cardio, can detract from weight loss progress.