I’m sure my colleagues won’t mind me saying this, but our office is known more for our love of cakes, biscuits and sitting on our bottoms than for any athletic tendencies.
That’s not to say we aren’t health conscious and we don’t try to do our bit in the gym, but as I’m sure readers can sympathise it’s not easy when you’re at your desk most of the day, (and when all the reporters seem to have a sideline in baking delicious cupcakes).
So when I heard about Luton fitness instructor Kirsty Watson and her special fitness classes, I asked if she could come to the office and get us active in our lunch hour.
Sundon Park based Kirsty, 27, runs hula-hooping, pilates and nutrition classes and all the exercises she promotes focus on the core muscles.
Kirsty said: “The core muscles are the ones around your middle, the deep stabilisation muscles. We use them for posture all day, walking, sitting and standing, but because many people slouch at work or sit at computers they are not conditioned to use them. With hula-hooping and pilates we try to train those muscles to make them stronger.”
So armed with some giant hula-hoops we got our hips shaking and our waists wiggling and set about practising the best spin.
Surprisingly, it’s easier than it looks, and with a few of Kirsty’s top tips and encouragement we all managed to spin a few hoops at least, and even do a semi-successful step across the room with it.
Kirsty said: “Most people can hula-hoop. It can take a while to get the hang of it, but most people can. The bigger the hoop the easier it is, so if you’re tried before with the smaller children’s hoops and haven’t managed it, don’t be put off, try it with the adult hoops.”
Both the hula-hooping and the pilates was really good fun, and it left us feeling inspired to pass on the cake and practice our perfect postures instead when we went back to work.
If you’d like to find out more, visit http://kirstywatson.com/ .
As the party season approaches, Kirsty also has classes aimed at helping ladies lose weight and tone up ready for a special event.
She said: “Once you’ve got into a positive but realistic mind frame it’s all about eating as cleanly as possible and exercise. My best advice would be to sit down and ask yourself realistically what you want to achieve before your big event, how long you have to do it and what changes you will need to make in order to get there.”