3-on-3 Basketball

Remember when we mentioned that there might be new additions to this year's Health Days celebration.... well, Smithfield Recreation is super pumped to announce our first annual 3-on-3 basketball tournament!  This tourney is held in conjunction with our Health Days celebration and we hope to continue it for many years to come.  We wanted to add more healthy activities that include all different ages and encourage everyone to participate in events that will boost health and fitness levels.  There were so many ideas flying around but we chose to focus on 3-on-3 for this year.  If you have any suggestions on contests, games, activities, etc., that we can add in the future just let us know!

Anyways, 3-on-3.  Oh man, this one is going to be awesome.  Have you ever been a part of a fast-moving, high-intensity, extremely exciting round of games that bring out the best talent in each player?!  We highly recommend it.  The tournament will be held on Friday, May 10, here at the recreation center.  We have 3 different gyms that we will be using with 10 hoops in total.  So we have plenty of room to accommodate tons of teams!  We are currently taking registrations for teams aged from 12 to 99.  The games will be formatted into a double elimination tournament so you are guaranteed multiple games.  You can find the flyer and rules on our website on the main page, under Adult Sports  as well as City Events.  You can also register online or here at the recreation center.  Come be a part of what is sure to be a long-standing tradition of Health Days!

Smithfield Recreation

Start off Strong and Warm-up first

Performing a warm-up is an important part of any work out. There are several physiological benefits to making a warm up a part of your exercise routine.

Most people do a warm up when starting a work out. A warm-up is just that, warming up the body before engaging in higher intensity exercise. A good warm up involves low-intensity, large-muscle-group activity that is specific to exercise to be performed. So if you are going to perform 100 meter sprints you could warm-up with some light jogging. Your weight training with sets of squats at 80% of your 1 RM (one repetition max), include some squats with out weight or just the bar in your warm-up.

You can also include some dynamic stretching (rhythmical movements that comfortably stretch and lengthen the muscle)  in a warm up after the large muscle activity if desired. An example of this would be knee hugs; while walking bringing one knee up to your chest, repeating with the other leg.

Performing a warm up will increase muscle temperature, increase muscle blood flow increase the body's ability to utilize oxygen, and increase elasticity of muscle. With these physiological changes occurring your body will be better prepared to engage in high intensity exercise, enhancing performance and preventing injury and cardiovascular complications.

Here comes the sun...

Well, welcome to spring in Cache Valley.  Just when we maybe begin to get a small impression that the weather might smile down on us, we get a snowstorm in the upcoming forecast.  Locals who have been here for years are more than used to the sudden changes in temperature. Those who are new to the area.....don't worry, spring is just around the corner!  And we are all looking forward to it. 

Here at the recreation center we are gearing up for Youth Soccer.  We are still taking a few late registrations for U-8 Girls as well as U-10 Boys and U-10 Girls.  The coach's meeting will be held this Wednesday and participants will be getting calls after that.  Coaches will inform their players of practice and game schedules.  If you don't hear from a coach in the next couple weeks, please let us know. 

Other happenings: Adult Softball and Basketball registrations are still going on. Basketball will begin in the middle of April and the softball starts at the beginning of May.  Check out the website for specifics. 

Another sign that spring is almost upon us.....Health Days!!! We are very excited for our 89th (yes, you read that right - 89 years of Health City celebrations) annual Health Days celebration!  This year's dates are May 6th through 11th.  We have so many exciting activities and events, with new ones currently being added.  Stay tuned for more information on that.  As for now, get ready to sign up for the Health Days Fun Run.  Sign ups begin next Monday, March 25th. The race is on Saturday, May 11th at 7:30 am.  It is a great way to start off the biggest day of our Health Days celebration so come on in and register!

Next Monday, we will also begin to take registrations for our third annual Half Marathon and 5k.  We are switching things up a bit this year and the race will be held at the end of July.  Prices are better than ever this year as we are one of the lowest priced half marathons you will find.  Anywhere!  It is $35 for the Half and $15 for the 5k.  This race is a ways out but we want you to be able to prepare as best you can for our Health City Half!

Please let us know if you have any questions, concerns or suggestions for us.  More information on these and all of our programs can be found at www.smithfieldrecreation.com. 

Health Days Info

Happy (almost) beginning of Spring everyone! It's not looking too great outside but we are already thinking way ahead and getting ready for our 2013 Health Days Celebration. Did you know this will be the 89th year that Smithfield has put on this celebration? That's a lot of health. And you have the opportunity to help us keep it going! We are now taking entries for our parade that will be held at 10 a.m. on May 11th.

The parade begins on 250 East traveling north, turns down 400 South and then heads north again on 100 East to 100 North. More information can be found at www.smithfieldrecreation.com as well as downloadable entry forms. Just email, mail or fax it back to us!

We are also taking registrations for booth space for the celebration down at Forrester Acres! The party begins at 11 a.m. after the parade and goes until about 4 p.m.  If you are interested in being a vendor, concessionaire, or bringing any rides/inflatables please call Dani at (435) 563-0048. Once again, more information can be found on our website. Please let us know if you have any questions!

Yoga: Heart Opening

I have spent years watching my teacher smile and purr as she basks in a heart opening yoga posture. While I frown and grumble, trying to get through the backbend, looking forward to the next pose, anything else.

Carson Efrid Westerlund swinging the door of the heart wide
open in Milos, Grece. August 2012

What most people call back bending, many yogis refer to as heart opening—a small matter of semantics that reflects a great deal about the perspective taken during the posture.

The heart is the metaphorical home of such good emotions: generosity, compassion, sincerity, receptivity, humility, love. Inviting these qualities through a heart opening practice makes it easy to see the good around you and in you.

Within our heart resides our heart guru, the innate intelligence that when followed guides us to our true self, our joyful self.

The yogic system of energetic anatomy places great importance on the qualities of the heart center, or anahata chakra. It serves as the gateway of integration allowing the energetic centers below and above it in the body to integrate, bringing together the body and the mind, the self and the other, the masculine and feminine, earth and heaven.

The heart organ is amazing, pumping blood through our body all day, everyday of our life. Through its work all of the extremities of our body are nourished and toxins are removed. The heart is a tireless worker—when it gives out, life ends.

The practice of opening the heart, stretching the muscles of the front heart and strengthening the muscles of the back and belly creates a receptive and open physical home for heart.

I recently came in contact with the following snippet of wisdom, “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”*

I have found it helpful to apply this idea in my practice. Rather than attempting to embody the full luscious backbends I've seen in others, I look for those things that limit me. I identify the muscles, tension, and blockages that bar my happy expression of a backbend. I practice with the intention of lengthening my spine by softening the upper gluts and firming the belly while rolling my shoulder blades back and down, bringing them into the back of the heart. All of these actions together move my heart center up and out. And I find my perception of space expanding from the usual 180° or 270° to a full 360°.

May you live fully from your own open heart.

Join me in exploring heart opening postures in my Thursday night flow class through March 14.

*While frequently misattributed to the great Sufi poet Rumi, the correct source appears to be Jesus' Course in Miracles(2000) by Helen Schucman and William Thetford, Ch. 16 The Forgiveness of Illusions, p. 162.

Fat Burning Zone Myth

It has been said that the best way to burn fat is to train within the fat burning zone. This fat burning zone is understood to be around the training intensity of 60-70% of your max heart rate*. Even though training at this intensity might use a higher percentage of calories from fat for fuel, there is a problem with this way of thinking. 

Staying within the fat burning zone can cause the overall total calories burned to be fairly low, and losing weight is all about total caloric expenditure! So keeping the intensity down and the heart rate lower just so you can stay in the "fat burning zone", can have a negative affect on the total calories you burn from a work out session. For example, walking on a treadmill at 4 mph for 60 minutes can burn somewhere around 300 to 350 calories (or more depending on your weight), while running at 7 mph for half the time can burn around 350 to 400 calories. Try don't be so focused on your heart rate that you are not pushing yourself and getting the most effective work out you possibly can. Don't get me wrong heart rate is a great way to gage your intensity, but also think about how your body is feeling during the exercise, and how difficult it is.

A great way to gage this is your Rate of Perceived Exertion or RPE. This scale can help you determine the intensity level of your training by how difficult you feel the exercise is. The higher the rating you give yourself during exercise, the higher the intensity that you are working at.


Here is a great Treadmill work out to try so you can increase the intensity and total calorie expenditure that only takes a little more than 30 minutes.

Walk at a speed of 4 mph at an incline of 12 for 3 minutes, run at 7mph at an incline of 0 for 1 minute. Repeat 8 times. Cool down walk at 3 mph at 0 incline for 3 minutes. Total work out 35 minutes.
Adjust the speeds if needed to match your fitness level, but make sure to keep it challenging!

*Max heart rate = 220 - age.

Recreation Center Notices and Updates

We have hit the ground running here getting ready for all of our Spring Sports! We are still taking online registrations for Youth Soccer so it's not too late. If you are interested in signing up for the Youth Competitive League, call the recreation center because there are still a couple spots left! (435) 563-0048.

And, for your convenience, we have installed a brand new whiteboard outside the Aerobics Room! Ok, I know that doesn't sound too exciting, but it is. 

 

  We will put class changes, instructor subs, and time changes on this schedule so you can keep up to date on our Group Fitness Program! We will continue to email the changes to those on our distribution list as well. If you are interested in being included on this list just call the Recreation Center to let us know.

Stay healthy. Stay happy.