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Stepping Your Way to Great Health!

August 11, 2019 by Health & Wellness New Classes New Trier Adult Extension New Trier Classes Step Class Fitness
 
 
 

I can promise, you will not become bored, and you will sweat like no other exercise in your life! 

 
Aerobic activity keeps individuals healthy and helps to increase immune systems. If you perform each step aerobics move with high energy output, you can burn close to a thousand calories during an hour class! That is huge when compared to other activities such as running, where the average runner burns about five hundred calories per hour. 
 

Build endurance, increase stability & agility, all while feeding your brain all it needs to stay sharp! 

 
Learn More

A brilliant person designed this very basic step website, displaying the name of all step patterns and the movements! Check it out! It will be very helpful to you! 

Learning to step, is just like learning to dance, with a little extra cardio. Once you learn the step patterns, it becomes much easier to follow. As the music speed increases, you will be flying across that the platform burning lots of calories while having lots of fun!

The general idea is to reduce the amount of pattern repetition when the music is faster. Example; currently we are repeating step patterns several times. This is to help those who are still learning. We want to minimize their frustration.  We might execute a pattern for 5 mins or more, over and over. Under normal circumstances, we would start with a pattern repeat of 8, decreasing to 4, then 2, and some patterns only once then we move on. (This is when the beats per minute are above 140)  Once a set of patterns are memorized, the goal is to put all the patterns together as a set. Working towards 2-3 different sets of moves, ultimately putting them all together as you near the end of the hour. 

Open each section to learn more….

A Typical Step Class Hour

Warm Up 5-7 minutes, everyone should follow the warm up together, no matter what your level. A warm up is designed to gets the joints and muscles prepared for the vigorous workout of step.

You can’t space out in a step class! Focus and listening is everything!

 

30 to 40 minutes of stepping, with music speed progression.The first 2-3 songs offer 124-128 beats per minute. The next songs progress to around 130 bpm. Depending on the expertise in the class, you could be stepping to 140-150 bpm the last 10 minutes of the cardio portion of the class. This is when things are moving fast and fun! The sweat is flying, and you are burning 500 to 1000 calories!The next few minutes might be a weighted arm workout, or a core workout. The last 5-10 minutes would be stretching & cool down!

Note: If you are late to class, march in place, tap your bench, swing your arms, in order to join us if we have moved past the warm up.

Student Placement

It is important to stand in the proper place for your level of expertise. If you operate at a high pace, and you are faster then the rest of the students it’s best to be in the back row, to the left or right of the instructor. This will reduce the confusion for the beginner steppers, while you get the better  higher elevated workout for yourself.  If you are on track and you can follow a beat without looking at the instructor, you should place yourself in the first or 2nd row to the farthest position left or right of the instructor.  When the class is facing your way, they will automatically be watching you, so it’s helpful that you stay on the beat to keep the class on track until the instructor gets to your side if needed. 

 If you are the student with 2 left feet, don’t worry! Place yourself directly behind someone who is on track and who follows the beat.  This would be the 3rd row most likely, in the center.  This puts you in the best position for following someone or the instructor. If you have to turn your head at all, this will only interfere with your proper focus while learning. You might lose focus, and you will most likely not keep up with the beat as it is more difficult to look at the instructor.  Room Set Up Here, where do you belong? 

All Levels of Fitness & Skill

Once you understand the different choices for stepping, you will see why anyone can do this workout!  All levels can workout together in a single class and still maximize for their individual needs.  You never need to be intimidated or feel like you don’t belong because everyone was new at some point.  If you are experienced, you can take it to whatever level helps you to get the quality workout you are looking for!

If you are new to stepping, or you are still working to increase your cardio capabilities, try following the class without the step. You will feel less frustrated and you will learn much faster!

Beginners You might know the step patterns, however, your cardio abilities may need improvement, or you do not know the step patterns.)
-Start without the step, pretending you have a step in front of you
-Keeps your hands on your hips until you feel confidant your feet are following properly
-Tell your feet what to do outloud. (Follow along with what the instructor is saying and you will do better almost immediately)
-no step
-less arms (arms on the hips when not using

How to Increase Intensity, (novice or experienced)

-Perfect posture (stand tall for all moves, execute with precision, this will increase your cardio work by 20%)
-2 Steps (you can add extra step,  and take away, adjusting during the workout)
-Weights (yes they help increase your cardio, however, be prepared to stay up with the beat. It’s not uncommon to slow down once you are holding weights and you will lose the beat
-Tap Up This is a way to hold the class in place while explaining the next steps.This is a great time to increase your cardio by jumping on the step like you are shooting a basketball into a hoop. (This will increase cardio substantially. When the moves are low and slow, (A-step) this will increase your heart rate substantially if executed properly.)

Repeaters: This is a great way to increase the intensity, however, they are normally used once the music has increased in beats per minute.  If the beat is to slow, repeaters will only throw you off the beat unless you have lots of practice. Example; When the class is executing 3 -single hamstrings, the faster student could execute 2 sets of repeaters and still end at the same time as the others falling right back into place with the class. Once the whole class gets to this level, the last 10 minutes of stepping is when we put all the moves together, minimizing the repeats flying through a set of patterns which have been merged together.That’s when it really gets fun!!

High Intensity Options

Using 2 steps increase the cardio workout substantially. 2-steps is more difficult. If you are not ready for the cardio increase it will make you fall behind the others using 1-step. This is the same if you add weights to your hands. Either of these additions make it more difficult to stay with the beat. If it slows you down you will begin to get out of sync with the class. Be sure you are ready for the additional work.

Stepping is your chance to get fit, have fun while helping your brain to continue being sharp and focused as you age! 

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