Awakening the Dragon Within – Fitness Forum 2008

Saturday morning early over 50 members of Abreast in a Boat arrived at the BCIT Recreation Centre to be greeted by pink dragons! While we signed in and received our colour coded name tags, we were treated to coffee, tea, juice, yogurt and baked goods. It was great to visit with paddling buddies we hadn’t seen for a while and meet many of the novices. After opening remarks by Margaret Delgatty, Orrie Babiuk and Jean Buckley we were efficiently divided into three groups and sent off to one of three areas to experience three different sessions by professionals in their respective fields.

L to R: Gail Bonner and Sheila Tynan

One session in the activity room was Yoga with Ainsley Sutton. Ainsley is a full time Yoga instructor trained in several yoga disciplines. She currently studies, practices and teaches at Open Door Yoga on Commercial Drive in Vancouver. The 45-minute session began with breathing and focussing inward to concentrate on why we were there and give thanks. She led us into several poses including Downward Dog and the Child’s Pose (very good for stretching) as well as several poses with interesting names from Sanskrit! Yoga is very good for flexibility, balance, finding your centre and stress reduction. The grounding of your feet before each pose is particularly good for the steersperson’s balance.

After a short break for water and the call for door prize winners there was a change of scene to the gym with Tim Le Bas. Tim is a CSEP Certified Exercise physiologist and works out of the Catalyst Conditioning Studio in Richmond. He is the author of the AIAB ‘Fit to Paddle Program’ on our website. His session was titled: “Postural Awareness and Injury Prevention”. His watch words were – ‘your range of motion’ and control in the exercises to prevent injuries. He focussed on exercises for proper shoulder girdle health (shoulder joint, shoulder blade and collarbone), low back health and pelvic stabilization. Of prime importance is to be aware that dragon boat racing is classed as a unilateral sport meaning that most of us paddle on one side only. Tim also had sheets of the exercises we did to take home with us.

Margaret Delgatty addressing the members

After another break the last session was with Rose Jack from “Jumping Jack”. Many of us know Rose from the warm up session from last year. Her topic was “Cool Down Stretching” but of course, before you can cool down, you have to warm up! So we were led through a warm up to get all that fluid moving in our joints and to get our heart rate up. Effective cardio workouts get your heart rate up for about 20 minutes or more before cool down. Rose got us going and then we checked our heart rate. Keeping our feet moving to prevent blood pooling in our legs and feet we rechecked our heart rates. A difference of three or more is a good indication that your heart is handling the exercise well! Then came the cool down and stretching exercises. Rose showed us how Pilates breathing is different from yoga breathing and how important posture is in how we hold ourselves. It take a lot of work to breathe properly and have the best possible posture to help us look and perform our best. Just lowering your shoulders, holding your chin inwards, expanding your chest and engaging your core does wonders and you can gain back 3 cm of height just by having the right posture! One exercise that only takes 30 seconds and uses all muscles in the human body is the ‘plank’. We all have 30 seconds in a day that we can do this – no excuses!

After all the sessions everyone met back in the main gym for calling the winners of the last door prizes and the closing remarks by Margaret, Orrie, Margaret Hobson and Jean. Thank you gifts were presented to Ainsley, Tim and Rose. As well, flowers were presented to Margaret Delgatty and Orrie for all their hard work. As we left we picked up goody bags after filling in an evaluation sheet! I am sure everyone who participated was energized and ready to take on the world! Paddling season here we come!

L to R: Rose Jack, Ainsley Sutton and Tim LeBas Our fitness experts!	L to R: Orrie Babiuk and Margaret Delgatty - the organizers

Dorothy Fenning