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Did you know that infrared energy is absorbed through your skin up to 1.5 inches into your body while you are training in the sauna? It’s true, and have you thought about what the benefits are to your organs resulting from the infrared stimulation? Let’s briefly explore that question, and why the delivery of oxygen to organs is so important.

You may have seen in the news recently that the Coronavirus interferes with oxygen getting to your organs. In fact, ARDS, or acute respiratory distress syndrome is one of the main conditions afflicting patients with critical COVID-19 cases. When oxygen is reduced, or restricted to vital organs it can become life threatening due to the risk of organ failure. In the effort to revive patients of COVID-19, therapies such as hyperbaric oxygen and other alternative approaches to increase the oxygenation of tissues have become necessary in addition to the standard respiratory ventilators. Hydroxychloroquine to increase hemoglobin (red blood cell protein that transports oxygen from the lungs to tissues and organs) for oxygen binding has been a major news topic as well.

Obviously, it is important to strengthen blood circulation and the flow of oxygen throughout the body as a part of your weekly fitness routine. This vital body process of transporting oxygen can be enhanced through exercise and exposure to infrared radiation like that from sunlight or from an infrared sauna.

When you workout in an infrared sauna you get a one, two punch for improvements to your cardiovascular and respiratory system. For example, when you practice the isometric postures of yoga the constant restriction and releasing of your muscles works as a full body pump, so to speak, forcing elevated blood flow. Exposure to infrared energy immediately begins to raise the heart rate to your target zone for the workout and stimulates accelerated metabolic activity which also works to improve circulation.

And, over time, with consistent infrared workouts like that of HOTWORX, you can improve what is known as your VO2 Max which is your maximum volume of oxygen consumption. A better VO2 Max indicates that your body is processing oxygen at a faster and more efficient rate providing more oxygen to your vital organs!

In today’s new normal it is imperative that you pay attention to the health of your respiratory system! Give it a boost through infrared workouts.

As I was thinking of a topic for this week’s blog post, I found myself looking back at my convention speech (held virtually this year) slide deck to get an idea.  I immediately thought to look back to my slide of customer “one liners” explaining why they love the HOTWORX workout from their online 5 star ratings.  By far, the “workouts” themselves were the main reason for member satisfaction.

My attention was drawn to one of the comments about skin which read, “added bonus…my skin looks and feels amazing too!” Obviously, this customer, like many others, appreciated gaining an added bonus during her workouts. We like to call this infrared effect more workout, less time! After reading that one I decided to use it for a blog topic.

I keep seeing similar skin result comments like that and actually hearing them from our members all the time.  It’s great that customers get that sort of by-product outcome from HOTWORX infrared workouts, but let’s explore WHY it happens. What is the biology behind the result?

According to one scientific study published in 2006, positive anti-aging results can be obtained for the skin through consistent and long term exposure to infrared radiation. In this study, 20 individuals were observed over a 6 month period of time. These patients reported up to a 75% improvement in skin roughness and texture, and up to a 50% improvement in skin color tone. These improvements happened through the consistent use of infrared stimulation. Take a look at the excerpt below taken from an abstract of the actual study:

“These results suggest that infrared radiation may have beneficial effects on skin texture and wrinkles by increasing collagen and elastin contents from the stimulated fibroblasts. Therefore, skin treatment with infrared radiation may be an effective and safe non-ablative remodeling method, and may also be useful in the treatment of photo-aged skin.”¹

Dermal fibroblasts are key to the production of collagen and support the layers of skin for repair and for acting as a barrier to the outside elements.

The bottom line is, infrared workouts are not only good for rejuvenation of the muscles and the mind, infrared training is good for your skin too!

¹ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2687728/

The HOTWORX franchise originally designed its patented infrared workout sauna for small groups to train together. It was never anticipated that the sauna would one day provide exercise in a way that would allow for very precise social distancing during a pandemic.  Under normal, pre-COVID, circumstances, up to three people can workout inside of the sauna for fast, fun and effective group training.  One day we will work out together again with our friends, but right now we must use extra precaution and play the hand that we have been dealt by the virus.

When the pandemic hit, causing a nationwide lockdown, the HOTWORX team quickly adapted technology to provide a workout at home option, and immediately began to plan for how we would keep members safe upon re-opening.

Fortunately for our franchise organization we own all of our app technology and were able to adapt rapidly to the new normal. When our locations were allowed to re-open we were good to go because we had already deployed tech updates to manage the COVID response.  The Burn Off App was reconfigured to allow for single occupancy of the saunas during workouts with the other two slots marked as temporarily unavailable. The result made for an excellent fitness studio social distancing solution with private workouts inside of an entirely closed in session space.

Customers enter the sauna where they close the door behind them and perform a solo workout one-on-one with the virtual instructor/trainer. This workout is completely isolated from everything and everyone in the studio. Our studio locations range in size from 5 to 10 saunas each.  This is also fortunate to allow for a maximum of only 10 persons working out in the studio at any one given time.

It is likely true to say that this workout is now the most socially secured workout available anywhere in the health club industry.

While inside of the sauna members can workout in the enclosed environment and sweat out the stress, detox and gain strength. Before, during and after their workouts, high quality sanitation supplies and hand sanitizers are provided for additional cleaning beyond what is provided by the staff.

We all look forward to the day when we can train like we used to but it is just not possible at this time due to the Coronavirus. There are companies competing hard to bring the first vaccine to market for this terrible plague, and I for one feel confident that we will soon see relief from this strange and terrible crisis. But in the meantime we must all remain diligent, patient and positive while we live our lives and adapt to the new, albeit temporary, normal.

Adapt and be fit.

Don’t let the negative critics keep you from forging ahead. Keep the future you want in focus and find the opportunity in adversity.

Workout hard in appropriate environments, wear the mask, wash hands and…

KEEP POWERING THROUGH!!

We got this!

I have been involved in franchising and licensing now since 1989 which is more than three decades, WOW. Time flies by.

In the late ’80’s and early ’90’s I was a licensee of three Gold’s Gym locations. At that time, Gold’s was “licensing” out their brand name rather than full on franchising of a system of operations. I really enjoyed being an owner of Gold’s Gym locations, and still love to take trips out to the original Gold’s known as the Mecca of Bodybuilding in Venice, CA. I always say that if you can’t get motivated in that gym, then you just can’t be motivated.

I still love that brand, but a business cannot stand on its name alone. One of the reasons that I moved on from ownership of Gold’s Gym was due to their lack of system standards at that time and the lack of uniformity amongst their licensees. The brand is most important, but the biggest advantage of franchise ownership is access to a proven operating system. A great system can catapult the brand to stratospheric levels.

After three decades of franchising, I can tell you that a franchise system MUST be viewed as a team. Teamwork is the only way that a franchise can thrive and succeed in the marketplace. Franchising is a difficult business model when compared to all company owned organizations such as Starbucks where each location is fully controlled by the corporate headquarters and can mandate uniformity from the top down with compliance held in place by employees who want to keep their employment. Franchising is more difficult because it relies on expansion through a federation of independent business owners connected together by a document known as the franchise agreement. Uniformity of the brand relies on adherence to that document and can at times be testy when brand standards are not met. The best way to keep the uniformity in a franchise organization is to view it as a team effort.

Patton said “an army is a team.” A franchise is a team too!

When you view franchising as a team the entire organization makes perfect sense. The way I look at it is the franchisor as the coaching staff and each franchise location as a player on the team. For HOTWORX and our sister brand Planet Beach it works very well as viewed in that paradigm. A paradigm is not just how you look at something, though, it is also how you think about something. With the franchising model, it must be viewed as a team but always thought of as a team too. Franchising is truly a team with coaches and players striving to outperform each other and to surpass competitors from other brands.

For a fitness franchise like HOTWORX, “teamthink” resonates. Fitness and athletics go well together. Actually, fitness and any form of team competition from football to a scavenger hunt go well together. Teamthink is always more powerful than an individual thinking alone.  One great idea from one person has no power until it is manifested through action with a group of people. They say great minds think alike, and when multitudes of great minds begin to think and act for a team to build a special brand for everyone, magic begins to happen. The result is something extraordinary for the franchisor, the franchisee, and ultimately for the customer.

Books have the power to change people for the better. For those who read more than others, there is a chance that at some point they will experience a fundamental change in their life because of a book that they read. My business partner, Nancy Price, back in 2011 gave me a book for Christmas that changed my career.

The book was the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson. What I learned from reading that book changed the way I view business as an entrepreneur forever. I remember taking that book on my annual ski trip following Christmas to Lake Tahoe. I skied during the day, then I walked from the gondola and sat by the fireplace in the lobby of my quaint little hotel and read that biography. I, like many others, wanted to learn from the story of a guy that changed the world through his products. I was captivated by the book. It was a true story that read like a great novel.

The events of Steve Jobs’ career were truly inspiring to me. The most influential parts of the book, though, were the stories of Jobs’ maniacal and unwavering command of perfection for product software and hardware design. To me he was to the iPhone the same way Bear Bryant was to college football, or the way Tiger Woods is to golf.

Its all about the product! Customers want a great product, period.

Here are a few noteworthy quotes from Steve Jobs:

"It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them."

"Quality is more important than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles.”

"I'm convinced that about half of what separates successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.”

"I want to put a ding in the universe."

"Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful … that’s what matters to me.”

Of course, we all know now that his company, Apple, became the most valuable corporation in history as a result of his leadership. The first consideration for any business owner should always be the equity value of the enterprise.  What is your company worth? This value number will be heavily weighted by the uniqueness and quality of the product that you sell.

In the case of HOTWORX, the product that we sell is THE WORKOUT. I recently scanned several of our franchise locations across the United States to get an understanding of why our customers would leave a five star rating. I read hundreds of reviews. What I discovered is very encouraging to me as a CEO. The things that were most important to our members were, quality of the workout, staff friendliness, convenience and studio experience, and cleanliness. What was interesting, even though our price is very reasonable for what we offer, was that price was one of the least stated reasons for their satisfaction with our product. CX (customer experience) is more important than price.

But by far, the number one reason customers gave 5 star ratings to HOTWORX was for the quality of the workouts, with reviews including the words intensity, motivation and queuing from the virtual instructors, 24/7 availability, and variety for cross-training all mentioned as important.

Modern customers, like those who buy Apple want great products with quality of experience. For HOTWORX, quality of the workouts will always reign supreme.

It would be hard to argue against the title of this blog post.

Indeed, getting things done is on the top of the list for the most important activities in life.

Most of the time we equate productivity with business, and rightly so, but it goes way beyond business. It works the same way for everything else in life too. The output of a business depends on productivity and so does that of personal life.

No doubt, you get out of life what you put into it, business or personal. And, the sum of what you put in and get out is your productivity.

To get more out of life, you have to put more into life!

One could certainly argue that productivity is connected to everything in life. Think about it from a personal perspective like this. The harder I work on positive projects, the more I will create positive results. The more positivity that I can create in life based on my personal productivity, the more I will have done for my part in making the world a better place.

As CEO of HOTWORX, I take a lot of pride in what we do to provide a positive workout experience for our customers. Our goal is to deliver great workouts in way less time.  We call it MORE WORKOUT, LESS TIME. This is what we put in so that we and our customers can get more out of life from a mental and physical fitness standpoint.

To that end, our corporate team worked very hard to power through the recent pandemic lockdown.  Of course, all of our locations were closed like other businesses. In that moment, like any other crisis, great opportunity was born out of adversity. We recognized an opportunity to create better operating systems and to provide an added level of service to our studio members.

Our approach to the COVID shutdown was simple, but deliberate, and laser focused on results. First we gathered together all of the relevant facts in a calm manner.  I sent memos out to remind everyone during this time that, as the old maxim goes, cooler heads would prevail. Once we had the facts, we collaborated and created a very comprehensive solution that was planned to get the franchise all the way through the lockdown and beyond the first couple of weeks after reopening. Then, when we had the plan, we went to work to take MASSIVE ACTION!

We worked with blazing speed to deploy a HOTWORX at Home plan based on technology that we originally developed as an additional virtual personal training service for our members to use in the FX Zone (our studio functional training areas). This was a huge hit during the lockdown.

Our team developed a reopening plan that enabled our studio owners to provide a perfect phase one approach. We were able to use our proprietary technology to limit sauna use for social distancing based on appointments made in the HOTWORX Burn Off App to enable a safe, heated workout environment.

Additionally we continued to invest in our studio marketing when other brands held back, and we deployed our reopening strategy with precision. I am reminded of a Patton quote, “A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.” We live that quote!

This same approach can be deployed with your personal fitness program to achieve great results. Strive to get more in less time. Time is the most valuable commodity in life. Spend it wisely.

If you haven’t tried infrared fitness, then what are you waiting for? If you want to increase your level of productivity so that you can put more into life, add HOTWORX to you fitness regime.

In last week’s blog post I shared evidence showing how the sweating process accelerates for individuals who have been training and making fitness improvements. I showed that basically, as an individual obtains better fitness conditioning they will sweat faster and in higher volumes. I also pointed out that sweating faster allows the body to cool down quicker for longer and more intense workouts. With this in mind last week, I began to wonder about the calorie burn of an individual who is in better shape.

The question popped into my head as to whether there is some sort of inverse relationship between more sweating and calorie burn.  By that I mean, when a fit person sweats more, then is there any relation to the amount of calories burned? It’s counterintuitive when you think about it. Fit people burn less calories for the same amount of activity, as compared to unfit people, but fit people sweat more. Hmm, less calorie burn but more sweat…why is that?

The Inverse Relationship:

Better fitness level yields more sweat but a calorie burn plateau.

“Sweating itself doesn’t burn a measurable amount of calories”.¹ Sweating level is based on several different factors including level of fitness, environment, age, body weight and genetics. Sweating is not a direct measure of how hard you are working out, it is a measure of heat generated within the body. Sweat is not linked to how many calories you are burning. Sweat levels are tied to your level of fitness and your workout environment. My recommendation is to find a great workout studio like that of HOTWORX where you can submit to infrared heat adaptation and strive to get into better shape for more sweat and detox.

When people get in better shape they burn less calories for the same activity. They then will need to up their intensity again to match and go beyond their new level of conditioning. In this scenario, calorie burning levels off but the sweat is more and faster.

One study presents evidence of this calorie burn plateau with respect to higher levels of conditioning. The human body adapts to elevated intensity and conditioning.² You may be working out harder than others, but it does not mean that you are burning more calories than they are. This is ok. It just points to the fact that it is time to up your game again.

It’s good to reach the calorie burn plateau because you will then be at a much higher level of fitness and sweat efficiency.

¹ https://www.healthline.com/health/does-sweating-burn-calories² https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(15)01577-8

During my weight workouts and infrared training sessions this week, the subject of sweat came up with my training partners. It was mentioned that it seems easier to sweat when you are in better shape. This observation motivated me to do some research which has resulted in this blog post.

As it turns out, there is scientific evidence to prove that very notion. Studies show that trained individuals sweat more than untrained individuals. One such study from Japan was published in the National Library of Medicine in October 2010.¹ In their research, scientists assessed subjects in groups of males and females. Within the two groups subjects were separated according to trained individuals and untrained individuals. The groups were then required to cycle at 35, 50 and 65% of their VO2 max.

After the exercise session, sweat was then measured on the forehead, chest, back, forearm and thigh. The data proved significantly greater sweating in the trained individuals as opposed to the untrained individuals. It was concluded that more training improves the sweat gland responses. The study also recognized that females who have not trained required higher body temperatures and intensity for sweating compared to the other groups.

Your body’s sweat response accelerates as you get in better shape!

People who are fit sweat more because their body needs it. They generate more heat and the response is sweat for cooling off. Of course there is the added benefit of more detox from more sweat, especially when sweat is generated in conjunction with a response to infrared heat.

The better conditioning you gain from training, the more you will sweat and detox your body. Simply put, sweating becomes more efficient when you are in better shape. Fit people are stronger and can generate more power for longer periods of time and at higher levels of intensity during workouts.

Want more from your workout in less time? Infrared workouts can lead to quick conditioning results for faster sweating. An infrared sauna workout forces your body to acclimate to the radiant heat and the absorption of radiant energy causes your cells to react with increased metabolic efficiency.

Strive to improve your conditioning with better training so that you can accelerate your sweating. Sweating is more than just a natural body cooling process. More sweat results in an inside out cleansing effect.  The sweat process enables the body to rid itself of impurities.  Study after study proves that sweat contains unwanted toxic substances that are exiting the body. It stands to reason that the more you sweat, the cleaner you become on the inside.

As you train harder, the sweat results get better, and once again, you get more out of life when you put more into it!

Don’t quit. Train hard and sweat it out!!

¹ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20696786/

It feels sooo good to get back into my routine of weight training with the morning group and my weekly 4-5 HOTWORX infrared training sessions. My body feels so much cleaner from the inside out. We now have most of our franchise studios reopened and I can tell by the social media buzz on Instagram in the last few days that our customers who are returning to the infrared workouts feel the same way that I do.

It is definitely an advantage to have a membership that provides access to infrared training 24 hours a day, every day of the year once again. So many of us work odd hours like those heroes in the medical industry who work at hospitals all hours in the day and night to fix us when we need repair.  They deserve a place that accommodates their schedule too…

Infrared training is one of the best stress relievers ever.  I have tried everything and nothing else comes close to the stress management results that I experience from infrared training sessions. The science proves it, but I would rather hear the evidence based on a customer’s experience…

If you’re looking for a way to get the most out of the time that you have for a gym workout, then you owe it to yourself to experiment a little. Try infrared. Add it to your workouts and you will bounce back faster from the quarantine couch time that we have all had too much of recently.

The infrared radiates into your body up to 1.5 inches through the skin while you workout in the sauna.  This absorption of radiant energy stimulates your cells into metabolic action. During a HOTWORX workout, your body raises its core temperature much faster than it would in an air conditioned gym. This causes a revving up of the detox process through elevated sweating.

So, get off that quarantine couch and bounce back faster with infrared fitness!

No fitness program is complete without a cardio component. The traditional workout usually involves some form of strength training first, such as weights followed by cardio. Traditional cardio such as a session on the treadmill, elliptical or some other equipment in a steady state type of movement is what is practiced by the majority of health club members. The steady state approach to cardio does work to get results but it takes more time and is monotonous. It lacks variety and can quickly lead to boredom.

It’s time to break free from the old school cardio grind!

There’s a better way to do it…

Enter infrared isometrics and infrared HIIT.  By themselves, isometrics such as yoga and HIIT (high intensity interval training) with a cycle can provide an awesome cardio workout minus the monotony.  But when you add in infrared heat and energy, isometrics and HIIT can give you a level of cardio training that you have yet to imagine.

I can tell you, as an avid infrared fitness user myself, that when you practice yoga or indoor cycling in an infrared environment such as that of a HOTWORX sauna, you will never even know that you are doing cardio.  With infrared, your heart rate goes up sooner and the workouts are fast. The time flies by because your mind is on the posture sequence or the interval at 125 degrees Fahrenheit and not the grind of trying to keep a steady state for your heart rate on a treadmill.

There is a body of scientific evidence to suggest that interval training is better for developing endurance and strengthening cardio, as well as burning fat!  The argument is that bursts of intensity are more important, and more beneficial than steady state. High intensity yoga and cycling, when done properly, can raise and lower the heart rate with the blasts of intensity required to perform postures and intervals. Heart rate up and down intervals happen without the grind when practicing HOTWORX isometrics and HIIT workouts. Most of the time, you never even know you’re getting a cardio workout.

Welcome to the better way to do cardio.

I would advocate that more attention should be paid to average heart rate during the workout and not the old school approach to cardio fitness which is the maintenance of a set heart rate number during the entire workout.

Most people meander through life without paying attention to one of the most important success components which is professionalism.  The practice of professionalism will make the difference in your career as to how quick you bounce and how high you go. If you want to be the best that you can be, then you will commit to professionalism.  If you want to reach the highest level of performance, then you will commit to professionalism. Professionalism will set you apart from the rest. Wouldn’t you much rather stand out than to simply blend in with the average?

Professionalism is not just something that you should practice in your career, though. It can make the difference in your workouts too. Don’t you want to have great workouts every time? Commit to professionalism for every set.  What does that mean? It means that you will follow your instructors guidance and that you will strive to stay on point with great form for the entire length of the set. This adherence to precision with your training will get you more strength, tone and balance faster.

Professionalism is the key that will unlock your access to big dreams, big goals and big results.

Be sure to find a professional guide along the way.  If you want be professional, hang out with professionals. In fitness, find a place like HOTWORX where you can have access to cutting edge infrared training and high level virtual instruction for your workout needs. Then strive to be as good, or better than the instructors. Bring your best efforts for every posture and every set.

Never forget that professionalism and discipline are almost one in the same. They require each other.  You can’t reach a state of professionalism without discipline.

Webster’s defines professionalism as “the conduct, aims, or qualities that characterize or mark a profession or a professional person.”¹ I define it as the sum of everything that you practice in the effort to be the best that you can be.  To raise the sum, strive for excellence in every aspect of everything that you do in life.

What is a professional person? She is a pro at what she does! She wants to excel at her job and do well at her fitness program. Her image is always perfect on the job and her form is a top priority for her workouts. She has a thirst for knowledge. She has a burning desire to be the best that she can be.

To better understand professionalism, let’s talk about what is the opposite, such as that of a slouch. A slouch is the anti-professional. This type of individual lacks self discipline and motivation. A slouch projects laziness.  Nothing disappoints me more than to witness slouch behavior.

Don’t be lazy. Be a winner. Be a professional in everything that you do.

I was reading an article online today entitled “What It Takes to be a Professional: The Things You Can Control” by Chris Longstreet, CEO of the Society for Hospitality Management. Longstreet told a story about the work ethic of Matt Kata, and quoted his baseball philosophy with three things necessary to reach professional success:  "Attitude, concentration, and effort," because, "those are the easy things to control. I know that the numbers will be a reflection of that."²

In business your are viewed and remembered as a member of one of two categories, mom and pop, or professional. In fitness you either strive for excellence and train like a pro, or you simply go through the motions. The results are always relative.  Like Kata said, the numbers will be a “reflection” of your attitude, focus and work towards professionalism. The pro gets the results and the amateur always gets something way less. Be professional.

Professionalism is your key to business and fitness success!

¹ https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/professionalism² https://www.4hoteliers.com/features/article/1265

Where There’s a Will There’s a Way!

You’ve heard that saying all of your life, but do you act upon it?

The Coronavirus Disease 2019, AKA COVID-19, has been and remains to be a terrible illness that disrupts our lives with death and economic turmoil.  We are going through it together as a world. With a collective will we can bounce back together too.

As we bounce back, though, like anything else in life, there will be those who choose to remain positive and motivated, and there will be those who do not. Positive people find the discipline and the will to stay on the right path. My message to you today with this blog post is one of the importance of WILL. Strong will is a vital component to have on the road to a comeback.

But, what is will?

Will is desire, and the power that comes with self control over emotions and actions. Have you heard the expression “iron will”? Will is what gets you one more rep, better form for a plank, more endurance, mental toughness, and one more sale in business. Will can get you through a tough workout even when a mask is necessary.

How about this?  Have you ever had a coach tell you that the difference between winning and losing is WILL?  In business we call it the WILL TO SUCCEED! Champions maintain a positive mental attitude and an insane desire, or will to win.

Another way to look at is, in the words of a former colleague of mine, “How big is your want to!?” How much do you want to emerge from COVID-19 with a new attitude and a higher altitude?  I have already seen a few people who have chosen to give up and who have gone the route of blame and negativity.  It’s unfortunate, but it is a choice they made.  And, to be clear, it is a choice to be a winner…. no doubt about that!

I have to say, however, that I have seen a tremendous number of people within our franchise organization, the vast majority actually, who have chosen to work hard and stay positive throughout the quarantine. Those individuals, including: customers, franchise owners and staff members, are now emerging with tremendous personal and business momentum based on their choice to power through a crisis with an iron will.

How big is your will to get through the tough times, and emerge better than ever?

Cultivate your will.

Remember that you’re not just born with willpower, though.  You have to develop will and sear it into your psyche. Wake up every morning, make your bed immediately, and leap into action armed with the power of will. Developing a strong will requires daily decisiveness, and, as General Patton would say, “violent execution” on the path to achievement of your goals. The iron will to get things done is incredibly powerful. Iron is the action, and will is desire. Practice daily. If you fall down, will yourself to get back up.

Summon your inner warrior now and choose to have an IRON WILL TO SUCCEED!!

During this time of global concern over external cleanliness such as washing of hands and surfaces of things, it is probably good to begin thinking about cleansing the body from the inside as well.  For millennia humans have practiced sweating as a way to clean the body from the inside out.  Heat therapy has been around since the dawn of civilization. Historical examples date back to  the heated bathhouses of the Roman Empire and American Indian sweat lodges as cultural evidence of the importance of heat and sweating for wellness. Without the benefit of modern scientific research, the ancients knew how important sweating was for internal cleansing. Over a thousand years ago the Finns even used the communal village sauna as a place for childbirth.

Infrared Sweat = More Detox

Without a doubt a good sweat makes you feel good, but did you know that during an infrared sauna session the sweat induced by absorption of IR heat and energy releases 5 to 7 times more toxic substances from the human body, as opposed to sweat induced from traditional convection heat saunas?  Multiple studies and sweat analyses have proven this point.

Infrared Heat and Energy + Workouts = Accelerated Sweating

The effectiveness of an infrared sauna session for detox is well documented.  With that in mind, HOTWORX decided to double down on this power of infrared with the introduction of the first ever fusion of IR with isometrics and later with high intensity interval training.  The level of accelerated sweating from this practice of working out in an infrared sauna is intense.  I can write about it for you, but the best way to understand it is to try it!

Cellular Level Detox

As your body absorbs the non-ionizing infrared radiation during a workout, vibration begins to occur at the cellular level within the body. As this process begins to break up fat within cells and release the toxic substances, the far infrared heat and energy heats the body raising the core temperature. Then, a deep sweat begins to act as a conduit for detox bringing impurities from inside the body through the skin to the outside.

For that reason, it’s time to consider a new fitness regime of infrared exercise.  Infrared training can greatly improve your body’s ability to remove toxins, and can take a load off of your liver and other internal organs.  Additionally, infrared training like that offered at HOTWORX, can save your daily schedule by shortening the amount of time that it takes to get to that accelerated sweat for detox.

Take your wellness to a new level. Here’s the formula: Infrared + Training + Sweat = Maximum Detox!

Use the power of infrared for detox while you workout.

More Workout, Less Time💪🏽

I, like many of us, have been watching the White House Press Conferences every day during this crisis. I do this in an effort to increase my level of knowledge for decision-making.  During a crisis it is important stay positive and to stay informed!

A recent briefing from the President was of particular importance as it relates to the potential of light and heat as a combatant to COVID-19.

William Bryan, head of science and technology at the Department of Homeland Security, revealed some interesting new findings from the U.S. Army’s high-level biosecurity laboratory at Fort Detrick, Md. that show certain levels of exposure to heat, humidity and sunlight reduces the lifespan of the Coronavirus.

“The laboratory results show that increases in temperature, humidity and sunlight all can speed up how fast the virus is destroyed, based on measurements of its half-life when exposed to these elements.”¹

In the same press conference, Dr. Deborah Leah Birx made the point that creating an artificial fever may provide a health benefit. Of course, this is what happens during a HOTWORX training session as the infrared heat causes the body’s core temperature to rise. Dr. Birx is a physician, a veteran (achieved the rank of Colonel in the United States Army) and a diplomat who specializes in global health specific to immunology and vaccine research. She also serves as the Coronavirus Response Coordinator for the Trump Administration's White House Coronavirus Task Force.

It was obvious that President Trump wanted to convey to all of us that summer heat and sunlight might be a good thing to help as we move forward to defeat the pandemic. He made this statement:

"I hope people enjoy the sun, and if that has an impact, that's great.”

HOTWORX has released an official statement which addresses the effect of high temperature on the coronavirus:

A recent study conducted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security showed that exposure to higher temperatures resulted in a more rapid death for the coronavirus. Bill Bryan, Head of the Science and Technology Directorate at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, presented the findings of this study during a press conference hosted by the Coronavirus Task Force. Bryan stated, "For example, increasing the temperature and humidity of potentially contaminated indoor spaces appears to reduce the stability of the virus.  And extra care may be warranted for dry environments that do not have exposure to solar light."

While the 125 degree temperature of our infrared workout saunas may be considered an unfavorable condition for survival of the virus based on these findings, HOTWORX makes no claim to provide a cure, remedy, treatment or relief in any way for COVID-19. As our studios begin to reopen, we kindly ask that HOTWORX members and guests follow the new social distancing and other protective guidelines we have temporarily implemented to lower the risks associated with the virus.

The new research is promising with respect to the power of heat and sunlight, but out of an abundance of caution and respect for our customers, we have asked each of our franchise locations to refer back to this official statement in any conversation with the media (or anyone) to ensure that no erroneous, confusing or false-positive statements are made.

We all look forward to more hot exercise and to the reopening of all of our HOTWORX 24 Hour Infrared Fitness Studio locations very soon.

Stay positive, and stay safe my friends!

¹ https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/04/23/lab-study-coronavirus-summer-weather/

True Entrepreneurs are optimistic by nature.

That said, entrepreneurs need to nurture their optimistic nature by staying fit physically and mentally.

First off, keeping up the workouts, no matter where they are done, can help to lower the business stress and raise the levels of optimism.

Secondly, it is vital for fitness entrepreneurs to remain mentally tough during a crisis like the one we are experiencing right now. The main thing to remember is how important it is to maintain a positive state of mind. It doesn’t just happen, though. We choose the state of our mind, in the same way that we choose to workout! Entrepreneurs like us need to keep our attitudes on a high note at all time.  State of mind is a matter of discipline. It’s a mandatory choice if we want to win in business.

Lead by example to build a culture that values winning based on positive thinking.

Never forget that positivity attracts positivity, and negativity attracts negativity. You are who you hang out with online or in person. Hang out with winners.

This is especially important for fitness industry entrepreneurs to remember since health clubs are largely in the business of positivity and motivation.

Just choose to avoid the quicksand of negativity.  You don’t have to go there.  Face your challenges and stay on the solid ground of positivity.

Positivity is a mindset.

I think back to one of my off-season football coaches, Coach Duke, who used to constantly tell his athletes, “Get your mind right!” With that phrase he would convey the importance of mental focus and belief that the task at hand can be done.

In order to be successful during a crisis, get your entrepreneurial mind right! Hang out with positive people and practice your own “bright future” mentality so that it can elevate yourself and those you choose to work with. It will result in higher levels of performance, guaranteed.

Just last week, one of our Dallas, TX franchise owners, Stacy Barbara, while in the midst of this economic lockdown, had to deal with the piling on of yet another crisis.  Somehow, a car accidentally was placed in reverse and crashed into her studio glass storefront landing almost the entire vehicle into the lobby.  Without even thinking about it, Stacy told her HOTWORX business coach, Alyssa, that she would be back up and ready for the pending reopening as early as Friday of that week only three days after the Tuesday incident!  Now that is the winning attitude of a true entrepreneur!

I communicated with Stacy via email and she shared with me that one of her favorite quotes, and one that she said “nicely applies here” is:

“Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don't have the strength."  Theodore Roosevelt

Much respect goes out to Stacy!! A positive, get it done attitude is one big reason why her studio is so successful, crisis or no crisis.

The HOTWORX franchise team has also remained upbeat and very busy throughout the COVID crisis working from home to educate all of the people who have continued to inquire about entrepreneurship through franchising. HOTWORX has refused to let the crisis slow down the franchise recruitment efforts and has even granted 33 new franchise licenses in March and April!

Paul Rackley, one of our newest multi-unit HOTWORX franchisees, shared his perspective stating, “The current economic environment coupled with the product we are selling, and the organization you are involving yourself with, makes it a good time to start this journey.”  

As a fitness entrepreneur myself, with a New Orleans based team, who has managed through many national and local crises including 911, Hurricane Katrina, the BP Oil Spill, the Great Recession, and now COVID, I can tell you without a doubt that your attitude determines your altitude!

How high you bounce depends on what you do right now…

Stay positive my entrepreneurial friends and we will continue to blaze right through this to the other side!

Infrared is a form of electromagnetic radiation (EMR).  EMR, as a current, is surrounded by an electromagnetic field (EMF).  For example, lightning is a current between the sky and the ground, or wherever it travels, and an EMF encircles it as it travels. Infrared waves of light energy is surrounded by EMF as well.  Therefore, EMF levels can indicate the presence of infrared radiation (IR).

HOTWORX uses an EMF meter to measure IR presence.  Below you will see the level of EMF as measured inside of the workout sauna at 127º Fahrenheit.

Distances of approximately one, two and three feet from the IR source was measured as viewed above in the HOTWORX IR sauna. As can be seen, levels of EMF, and therefore IR, can be detected from those distances.  Obviously, there is more intensity as you move closer to the heaters.  This is why HOTWORX recommends a workout distance of 1 to 3 feet from the IR source to the human body, so as to maximize the absorption of IR into the skin.

IR is electromagnetic radiation, or EMR.

Let’s understand EMR.  There are two general types, ionizing and non-ionizing.  Ionizing is a more powerful form of radiation and can cause damage to the human body.  Ionizing radiation disrupts electrons from their atom orbit and can alter the DNA of cells.  By way of example, certain wavelengths of ultra-violet light are ionizing and can cause skin cancer with prolonged skin exposure.

The second type of EMR is non-ionizing.  Non-ionizing radiation presents no harm to the human body.  It still has the level of energy necessary, though, to move atoms around and cause molecules to vibrate.  This process creates heat, but does not displace the orbit of electrons.

Electromagnetic fields are a low frequency and non-ionizing form of radiation. EMF’s are created by natural and man-made objects.  The sun and even the human body along with electrical devices create IR and, therefore, electromagnetic fields.

As an electrical device, the design of an infrared workout sauna matters, and this is why so much attention was paid to the floor space, and proximity of the client to the IR source for the patented HOTWORX sauna.  Obviously, with the use of an EMF meter, the presence of infrared energy can be detected to let clients know how they are exposed to the beneficial effects of IR absorption while they workout.

Life is not fair.

This we know. So what?! Just because life does not present a perfect path for all of us to follow, there is no need to waste time by sitting around asking why.  Why doesn’t matter. Just know that we need to work hard and stay positive!

One thing is true.

We all have an inner warrior spirit if we choose to access it. We do not have to accept mediocrity from ourselves. That is a choice that we can make. We can choose to be our personal best.

At a recent Franchise Times Finance conference where I was invited to speak, part of my speech addressed the topic of our target customer, or in modern terms, our ideal customer avatar. We have always targeted a 30 year old female with a job for our legacy brand Planet Beach, and now with our emerging fitness brand HOTWORX as well.  It is simple to say who our target customer is, but in reality, the 30 year old female with a job demographic is always a moving target.

[embed]https://vimeo.com/407144338[/embed]

I have watched that demographic change over the years.  I can promise you that the modern day “Eileen”, as we lovingly call our ideal customer avatar, wants much more from her fitness routine than that of her mom back in the day.  No offense to Richard Simmons and Jane Fonda, but Eileen wants to go beyond namaste, she wants to “Namaslay It!”

Whether we want to admit it or not, we get out of life what we put in.  We do not get out of life what we take from it.  I believe in life based on merit.  I guess that makes me a meritocratist.

So be it!

“Meritocratists believe in the individualist credo: If you have the abilities and work hard enough, you can compete with anyone to make your dreams come true. Meritocratists disapprove of programs that use race, culture, ethnicity, class, gender or any cultural identity dimensions as criteria for an opportunity, believing instead in personal merit.”¹

Everyone has a reason, no matter their plight in life, to reach within to access their personal inner warrior. The desire for results is a good reason. This is especially true in fitness. Discover your inner warrior to find the strength for that extra hold to finish the eagle pose!  Access the inner warrior to pound out the last interval in your HIIT session. Whenever you need the umph to do more, find your inner warrior!

Contrary to popular belief, not everyone gets a trophy, nor should they.  Life is not fair like that.  Life gives back what you put into it.

Modern fitness calls for gym owners to challenge their members to perform routines to the level of their personal best pace.  At HOTWORX we cue our members individually to “go at your own best pace, but challenge yourself!”

From a marketing standpoint, to reach the modern Eileen, the fitness studio that recognizes the  desire to discover her inner warrior will be the studio that rises to the top.

This requires owners to recognize that it is not good enough for customers just to show up, but that they need to be led to perform and do the work to get the results. At HOTWORX, this requires franchise locations to show customers how to follow the HOTWORX Training Method which has been designed to inspire INNER WARRIOR DISCOVERY.

Eileen wants to know how to read her most important fitness metric. This calls for teaching customers how to analyze their personal fitness data. Most importantly, clients should view how many calories they burn during a workout session and how high their after workout calorie burn is (the one hour after-burn).

In the 21st century, it’s about burning calories and doing the work, not just showing up. You don’t have to be a fitness buff to acknowledge this. The average health club member wants this…a place for results, not just a hangout…

a place that inspires the discovery of the personal INNER WARRIOR!!!

¹ https://theidentitypost.com/are-you-a-meritocratist/

The power of cross-training for consistent variety is a cornerstone component of the HOTWORX training method. We created the first-ever 24 Hour Infrared Fitness Studio based on cross-training through a variety of innovative isometric, HIIT, and functional resistance workout types.

While we might not have access to the infrared workout saunas at the studio right now, we can continue to practice cross-training at home.  HOTWORX responded to the stay home order by providing a variety of isometric workouts and functional training workout videos for each body part to all active members.  Through the use of these virtual training videos in the HOTWORX Burn Off App, our customers can pick and choose, on demand from home, 13 different isometric and functional training workouts.

We can all find the time during this quarantine to get our workouts in at home to keep up a high level of physical and mental energy. My recommendation is to cross-train between isometrics and functional training with a weekly home routine like this:

Monday: Yoga, VPT biceps and hamstrings; Tuesday: Iso, VPT chest and shoulders; Wednesday: Warrior, VPT triceps; Thursday: Pilates, VPT core and calves; Friday: Yoga, VPT quads, glutes.

There are thousands of ways to combine the workouts. The cross-training combinations are limited only by the imagination. Keep the individual workouts consistent and cross-train for variety!

As a professional trainer, I knew that we had to keep our individual workouts consistent and familiar to our customers while keeping things exciting for them with variety and options. The key to fitness success for clients is to maintain the training method integrity and workout type consistency. Cross-training by practicing different types of workouts has been around for a long time, and it can provide stimulation for muscle development beyond just keeping to the same workout type every session. The important thing, though, is to practice cross-training with workout types that remain consistent.

There has been substantial research to demonstrate that people drop out of exercise programs, thanks to boredom. Common sense tells us that. Cross-training is the cure for workout boredom. It is safe, especially if it is based on low to zero impact exercise such as the 3D Training Method from HOTWORX. Cross-training can reduce the likelihood of injury, too, because it strengthens multiple muscle areas in the body. The isometrics are offered to provide for extensive and varied flexibility postures, as well as foam rolling to further lessen the chance for injury.

We have found from our membership data that the HOTWORX Studio concept has an incredibly high exercise-adherence ratio as compared with industry standards. One of the reasons for this high level of repeat studio member visits is because of the opportunity to easily practice cross-training. HOTWORX members can choose from a variety of 30-minute isometric workouts, two 15-minute HIIT workouts, and a complete functional training area called the FX Zone.

Now, thanks to very rapid video editing, an app upgrade, and efficient deployment, HOTWORX members are able to maintain their fitness at home for now. Remember, there are endless combinations of ways to cross-train. Take advantage of HOTWORX at HOME while we all ride out the pandemic together.

Work Hard, Stay Positive!!!

In all of my CEO memoranda sent out to our franchise organization regarding the COVID-19 crisis, I try to end on a positive note with some sort of uplifting salutation, such as “Work hard and Stay Positive”.

I tell people that this crisis is BY FAR the weirdest that I have ever dealt with as an entrepreneur. Like all crises, though, positivity and thoughtfulness is what will bring us back to normal.

Certainly no-one could have imaged two months ago that half of the world economy would be shut down due to a virus originating from a wet meat market in Wuhan, China.  But, you never know what curve ball you are going to be thrown in business and in life.  The thing that you do know is that crises have happened before and they will happen again.

The best advise, then, is to keep yourself super busy by working hard and to train your mind to focus on the positive!  Another thing that has helped me through numerous crisis situations is to simply tackle things one day at a time.  Do all you can each day, one day at a time, and focus on problem solving and decision making based on the facts like never before.  Remind yourself that you WILL get through this, and know that we are all in this together!

The practice of positivity is good advice from a science perspective too. Studies have proven that a positive mindset is a very healthy choice.  The Mayo Clinic says that positive thinking can reduce stress and can improve your health.  Do you view your situation as a glass half-empty or half-full?  I am convinced… actually, I know that we can all train ourselves to stay positive.  We owe it to ourselves and our loved ones!  Our positivity can effect the stress levels of our family and friends too!

You can use your mind to improve the health of yourself and others.

Discipline your thoughts, keep them positive.  If you let negative thoughts consume your thinking, then you will experience more negativity.  Conversely, if you think positive thoughts, then you will have more positive experiences for yourself and those around you.

The Mayo Clinic notes that positive people, “get more physical activity, follow a healthier diet, and don't smoke or drink alcohol in excess.”  The health benefits of a positive mindset include:

-Increased life span

-Lower rates of depression

-Lower levels of distress

-Greater resistance to the common cold

-Better psychological and physical well-being

-Better cardiovascular health and reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease

-Better coping skills during hardships and times of stress¹

Not all of us have access to HOTWORX infrared workouts right now, but soon enough we will all be back in the studios killin’ it again.  We know the health benefits of infrared workouts, but, imagine the health benefits of positive mentality combined with a consistent infrared workout routine!  It’s something to look forward to again for sure, and something to anticipate while practicing a perpetual positive mindset!

“I think, therefore I am”

This ageless quote was the result of the French philosopher, Rene Descartes’ search for a statement that would bear no doubt.  Indeed, using his statement adapted to the context of this blog, there should be no doubt that we are what we think!

“I think positive, therefore I am positive”

Let go of the negative, THINK POSITIVE for your health and for the health of all those around you!

¹ https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/positive-thinking/art-20043950

Working out is an essential component of living a healthy lifestyle.  Depending on where you live, chances are that your gym has now been required to close as the wave of coronavirus sweeps through your country.  There is no certainty as to when your gym or studio will reopen which adds to the anxiety.

As a fitness professional and former athlete, I can tell you with absolute certainty that you get a better workout when you train with other people, and an upbeat training facility helps to elevate your motivation.  This is not an option for a while though, and we must play the hand that we are dealt.

While it is not ideal, there are ways to get a really good workout from home. Gravity is the only workout tool that you need if you are forced to workout at home.  There are thousands of exercises that can work every body part with only a floor and maybe a wall.

HOTWORX, the 24 hour infrared fitness studio franchise chain, announced Friday and released to all of its active members a “HOTWORX at Home” version of four isometric workouts including yoga, Pilates, ISO and Warrior so that members can at least continue with training, albeit without the infrared heat, but at least with access to the workouts they have come to know and love.

[embed]https://www.facebook.com/officialhotworx/videos/247087349791933/[/embed]

Yoga and other forms of isometrics are perfect for training at home when you need to keep up tone and flexibility.  If you are looking for more of a resistance type of workout with low to zero impact, try a bands routine.

Working out at home might not be the same as a high energy studio or gym, but you can at least maintain your physical condition while riding out the quarantine through the use of mere gravity and virtual instruction.

Don’t let this quarantine beat you up!  Stay positive.

Take control of the situation and find ways to maintain your fitness.  You will need to reach within for the motivation to workout at home during this time.  Call out to your inner warrior. You can do it, and soon enough you will be back in your favorite gym enjoying the powerful workouts and uplifting environments.

As we all manage through the current COVID-19 pandemic, we know that it is important to maintain a healthy immune system and working out is one of the best ways to ensure just that.  That said, precautions should be taken at the gym during this time, such as wiping hands and wiping down any surfaces with gym wipes prior to use and limiting gym use during peak times. Also, given that this is a virus transmitted through the eyes and mouth through touching, gym goers should consider using virtual instructors and trainers instead of the traditional hands on trainer approach.

The one, two punch of virtual training during non peak hours and constant disinfecting of hands and equipment can go a long way for health clubs to contribute to the battle to defeat the coronavirus pandemic.

Wiping down gym equipment with disinfectant wipes is common sense, but it doesn’t hurt to hear it again from an infection control specialist. “Karen Hoffmann, R.N., an infection prevention specialist at the University of North Carolina’s School of Medicine in Chapel Hill and immediate past president of the Association of Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, recommends wiping down gym equipment with disinfectant wipes before and after each use.”¹

The coronavirus spreads by touch through respiratory fluids from coughs and sneezes when their droplets land on surfaces.  People contract the virus when they touch these surfaces with their hands and then touch areas of their face. Basically, the coronavirus transmits in the same manner of the flu and the common cold.  Fortunately, there is research to indicate that the virus does not spread through the air, and,

the coronavirus does not transmit via sweat…

As reported by consumerreports.org, “When it comes to the gym, there’s some good news: “We know that the coronavirus is not found in sweat,” says Amesh Adalja, M.D., an infectious disease physician, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, and spokesperson for the Infectious Diseases Society of America.”²

Virtual training, like that offered at the 24 hour infrared fitness studio HOTWORX, allows clients to practice hot yoga and other hot exercise options at non peak fitness center hours every day, 365 days per year.  Obviously, this allows for use during slow periods where there is less likelihood for a transmission of the virus.

Gym goers should consider working out to virtual instruction during non-peak hours after 8pm and before 6am as we move though this wave of coronavirus.

Health club members should STAY HOME if they have any symptoms.  CDC urges all of us to stay home if we are sick!

Again, wash hands at the gym prior to workouts and after workouts, and wipe machines and hands prior to and after use.

All health clubs should implore their staff to abide by the following statement:

If you have time to lean you have time to clean!

In summary, the two health club nuggets in this blog post are:  (1) members should consider workouts during non peak hours and (2) they should seek out virtual trainers and instructors during this time as opposed to hands on personal training and large group fitness with hands on instruction.

¹ https://www.consumerreports.org/exercise-fitness/staying-safe-at-the-gym-during-coronavirus-outbreak/² https://www.consumerreports.org/exercise-fitness/staying-safe-at-the-gym-during-coronavirus-outbreak/

As I write this blog article, the entire planet seems to be over reacting to fear of the Coronavirus.  I get it.  The media needs to sell tickets and the Coronavirus is the show.  I am not trying to make light of the situation, but common sense needs to prevail.  (On a positive side note, right now is probably one of the best times to invest in the stock market!)

Nevertheless, what can we do to be a part of the Coronavirus solution and not just another knee-jerk reaction to hysteria created by the media hype?

Listen to voices of reason.

In the words of New York Governor Cuomo in a CNN interview regarding the Coronavirus, “Anxiety has outpaced reality”. The reality is that more than 80% of those who are infected will have a mild case and the symptoms will go away on their own.

What we can do is take a couple of simple steps as individuals and participate in the solution rather than become victims to the overblown punditry. After wading through all of the BS, it becomes clear that there are two things that we can easily control.

We all should (1) increase our level of hygiene and (2) incorporate immunity building practices into our daily routines. Elevating cleanliness by increased hand washing and by doing everything else we can to sanitize is a very important first step. Improving our ability to ward off disease through building up our immune system is the all important step two.

The use of infrared heat can help with step two.

Heat has been used for therapy since ancient times and the benefits of heat has been known for centuries back to the dawn of recorded history.  The ancient Greek philosopher and father of metaphysics, Parmenides is credited with the following quote in the 6th century B. C. : “Give me the power to produce fever, and I'll cure all disease.”

Heat is not a cure for everything, but incorporating infrared sauna heat with exercise certainly helps to strengthen your immune system.  Infrared sauna use by itself can benefit immune systems, but adding exercise to an infrared sauna session can take it to another level. Personally, I have noticed that when I am working out 4 to 5 times per week in the HOTWORX sauna, I am way less susceptible to catching colds.  While others are coughing all around me, I am able to power through it with a better than average immune system.

When the body heats up during an infrared sauna session, the heart rate increases causing a relaxing of muscle cells to accelerate blood flow and cellular oxygenation.  This promotes more white blood cell production which improves immune functions and can work to fight off a virus.  Studies have shown that exercise may improve white blood cell production as well.

According to one Finnish study of single session sauna use: “sauna bathing stimulated the immune system to a higher degree in the group of athletes compared to the untrained subjects.”¹ This would suggest that people who are more fit tend to benefit even more from sauna use.

Everyone should remain diligent, but know that cool heads will prevail as we move through this health crisis. Take on the common sense, two step prevention strategy as a response to the Coronavirus:

Fight back with (1) more cleanliness and a (2) boosted immune system! 💪🏽🔥

¹ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3916915/

Have you ever noticed the heat on your skin from the sun when you’re outside.  Maybe at the beach you noticed when a cloud moved on to let the sun shine down freely and the heat felt so good to you at that point.

The sun is the ultimate infrared heater.  When you are outside, you can feel infrared energy in the form of thermal radiation that is beaming onto the planet providing warmth to your body.  Thermal radiation describes heat that can be transmitted through electromagnetic waves over long distances. Earth receives the sun’s thermal radiation from a distance of 93 million miles away.

This form of radiant heat, is always transmitted from a source, such as the sun, or an infrared heater. The transmission takes place through waves of light known as electromagnetic radiation.

Just like that from the sun, the heat that is absorbed by the body inside of an infrared sauna has a very distinct feel to it.  I like to tell people that the inside of an infrared sauna feels like a mid-summer day at noon in Las Vegas! The absorbed radiation is what warms the human subject and gives the body such a good feeling of warmth.  When I walk into a HOTWORX sauna I always get this feeling immediately.

Infrared Heat is radiated from the source to the subject.  The subject either reflects the radiation, re-radiates it or absorbs it.  The absorbed radiation is what warms the subject. In the case of IR saunas, the warming of the human subject through absorption is what is most important.

Here’s some of the science behind that IR feeling of warmth…

“At the beginning of the twentieth century, the discovery that energy is quantized led to the revelation that light is not only a wave, but can also be described as a collection of particles known as photons. Photons carry discrete amounts of energy called quanta. This energy can be transferred to atoms and molecules when photons are absorbed.”¹

According to Debra Rose Wilson, “Infrared heat [saunas] can provide waves of a type of heat and light that can penetrate deeper into the body, and can heal deep tissue.”²

This process of transferring energy when photons are absorbed is part of what is happening during a session in an infrared sauna. Heat is transferred from the infrared heaters to the human subject.  In fact, this heat that is carried by the waves of infrared energy can penetrate up to 1.5 inches into the skin.  This absorption of thermal radiation has many well documented benefits that I have covered extensively in previous blog posts.

The point to be understood from this blog post, however, is the high quality of the heat that can be experienced inside of an infrared sauna.  Inside of the patented HOTWORX infrared workout sauna, the infrared energy is felt in the form of heat! The far infrared radiant heat and small amounts of medium wavelength infrared allows customers to experience deep infrared energy and heat penetration while they workout.

““These saunas use infrared panels instead of conventional heat to easily penetrate human tissue, heating up your body before heating up the air,” explains physical therapist, Vivian Eisenstadt, MAPT, CPT, MASP.”³

If you haven’t experienced the heat of an infrared sauna, I invite you to join in and see what you are missing.  If you want to take your workout to another level, I invite you to turn up the heat and experience a training session in a HOTWORX infrared sauna!

¹ https://www.khanacademy.org/science/physics/light-waves/introduction-to-light-waves/a/light-and-the-electromagnetic-spectrum² https://www.healthline.com/health/under-review-infrared-saunas#3³ https://www.healthline.com/health/infrared-sauna-benefits#1

Save your joints!  Extend the life of your body!

If your goal is, like most of us, to get in great shape and stay there, then you might want to consider getting there and staying there in a way that extends the life of your body, mainly your joints.  You can do this through the use of low, or zero impact fitness routines.  Without a doubt, you can achieve a very high level of intensity during a workout and never have to jump at all.  If your workout is in an infrared environment, then your intensity will be even greater and you will get to a higher level faster due to the heat and infrared energy.

Jump training, also known as plyometrics, should remain in the realm of athletic competition training.  Certainly, there are sports that require it, but it remains a very risky method of training, even for the professional athlete.

I recently hiked a 2700 foot vertical climb in two hours with two other people.  It was a tremendous workout, perhaps one of the most difficult activities that I have ever done.  I was in great shape for it, though, and without any impact training leading up to the climb.  My lower body training consisted of zero impact infrared isometrics and very low impact infrared cycling at HOTWORX.  One month after climbing the Gros Piton in St. Lucia, I snow skied in Aspen for three days with noticeable improvement in my skill and confidence on the mountain that I also attribute to zero impact infrared training.

Even in the world of professional football, you see athletes like Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers who are opting for lower impact off-season training such as yoga and suspension band workouts.

Add heat and infrared energy with a low or zero impact workout routine and you will experience fast and effective results, but with a much lower probability of injury and way less wear and tear on your joints and the rest of your body.

Working out inside of an infrared sauna is good for your brain.  Peripheral exposure to far infrared (FIR) can stimulate the central nervous system, while exercise and FIR both can facilitate an increase in the level of oxygen to the brain.

Peripheral FIR exposure stimulates brain functions…

The central nervous system, consisting of the brain and spinal cord, gathers data from the entire body in the effort to coordinate all bodily activity.  The importance of a healthy central nervous system needs no elaboration.

It is important to note that, “the body experiences its [FIR] energy as a gentle radiant heat which can penetrate up to 1.5 inches (almost 4 cm) beneath the skin.”1 The exposure to radiant energy of far infrared stimulates the central nervous system.

One reason for the far infrared stimulation is the fact that the body is made of up to 60% water, and, “water content is a critical factor in the interaction between FIR and living organisms.”2 The brain itself has an even higher water content than the rest of the body at approximately 73%. We know that water is important for the vibrational interaction between cells and infrared radiation.

Integrating to the brain through the hypothalamus, the autonomic responses regulate blood pressure and the non-conscious rate of breathing. This is the part of the nervous system that works automatically and autonomously with blood vessels and internal organs which include the stomach, intestine, liver, kidneys, bladder, genitals, lungs, pupils, heart, digestive glands along with sweat and saliva. This system also prepares the body for fight or flight.

One study to investigate autonomic responses with the use of peripheral FIR stimulation concluded that, “the central manifestation and the autonomic responses are prominent during and after FIR stimulation…”3

In addition, optical stimulation from peripheral FIR exposure may present an alternative approach to infrared neural stimulation. In an article published online by The Optical Society, a case is made for optical stimulation as, “a simple yet novel approach to contact-free in vivo [non-invasive process performed within the body] neural activation that has major implications for clinical neurosurgery, basic neurophysiology, and neuroscience.”4

Another topic of importance is the flow of oxygen to the brain. The brain needs oxygen for optimum performance as it, “is the most complex organ in the body and uses 20 percent of the total oxygen we breathe in.”5

Exposure to FIR and exercise can greatly enhance the delivery of oxygen to the brain by improving the circulatory system in the body.

I can personally attest to the immediate effects of elevated alertness and focus that can result from an infrared workout.  Four to five times per week during the work day I train inside of the HOTWORX infrared sauna with a colleague during lunchtime. The mental boost I get for the rest of my work day is awesome.  With a mid-day FIR stimulation and increased blood flow to my brain the HOTWORX training session helps me to make better decisions. In other words, I practice infrared training to gain a better quality of thought.

Give your brain some stimulation through exercise combined with FIR!

1 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3699878/2 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3699878/3 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266084625_Effects_of_far-infrared_radiation_on_heart_rate_variability_and_central_manifestations_in_healthy_subjects_a_resting-fMRI_study4 https://www.osapublishing.org/ol/abstract.cfm?uri=OL-30-5-5045 https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/307076

There seems to be elements of mass delusion in the world of fitness training these days.  What do I mean by that?  Well, before I explain, let’s gain an understanding of the word schizophrenia.  Schizophrenia is a psychology term and when used in general conversation refers to “a mentality or approach characterized by inconsistent or contradictory elements.”¹

Indeed, there is a problem in the fitness industry with respect to training consistency.  Contradictory elements and inconsistency are rampant within the personal training industry today. This problem has manifested itself in the popular idea that clients should use a different flow in yoga, or a complete change-up to every workout, no matter what type, every time they come to the gym or studio.  Trainers have morphed and twisted workout types and disciplines into an asymmetrical blob of gobbled-goop, and pop culture has swallowed it hook, line, sinker and cork!  This is workout schizophrenia.

Without a doubt workout innovation is necessary to improve the way that we train so that we can get better and faster results.  But innovation should come with discipline and product integrity.  In fitness, this means that as trainers experiment with new ways to workout, they should not lose sight of one of the most important and fundamental training principles of all…CONSISTENCY.  Specifically, I am talking about consistency within a workout type.  One of the big problems is that trainers forget to codify their innovations into a discipline, and, therefore, it is never presented as such to their clients. In other words, many trainers are effectively saying to their clients that schizophrenia is good for their fitness program. There is an epidemic of this psychotic practice in the fitness industry and it needs to be called out. Customers deserve better.

It should stand to reason that fitness requires discipline through consistency!

Trainers must first understand that a good workout should either fall into a workout “type”, or should be codified through proper experimentation and testing into a new workout type.  What is a workout type? A workout type is a single session workout that falls into the scope of a discipline such as yoga, or weight training, or Pilates.

Sometimes, a workout type can stand alone as an invention, possibly giving way to a new discipline.  For example, HOTWORX created the first ever fusion of (1)infrared energy, (2)heat, and (3)isometrics/HIIT, and with that combination, has incorporated multiple workout types into an entirely new discipline, or workout method.  This new method is called 3D Training.

One of the most effective workout types ever created is Bikram yoga.  Fifty years ago Bikram was a new yoga workout.  It was introduced and presented clearly as new workout type within the discipline of yoga, but with absolute control through consistency.  The incredible effectiveness of the Bikram workout as a type cannot be denied. The results are world renowned and well documented. Bikram practices the same 26 postures in the same sequence for every workout.

Today, people new to fitness are rarely taught the importance of consistency and sameness by their trainers and instructors.  In fact, most of the time they are coached the opposite way, the way of inconsistency, or as described by this blog post, the way of workout schizophrenia. Beware of the trainer who coaches you to do an entirely different set of exercises every time you show up for weight training or yoga. Run for the hills. Find a trainer who values consistency and workout integrity, or one who at least understands the importance of what that means!

Progress can only be observed by improvements that can be measured!

It is nearly impossible to measure inconsistent activities.  If there is no clear system, then there is nothing to measure, no standard as a guide. A consistent workout method brings definition and clarity to the fitness table.

The first step back to workout regime saneness is to understand exactly what a workout “type” is.  A type of anything, when it is created, has unique character and needs a name.  For example, when I created the very first HOTWORX workout, I gave it an appropriate name, Hot ISO, as a relevant label for a new type of isometrics that borrowed from yoga and athletic isometrics. Since its inception, Hot ISO has evolved slowly as a 30 minute hot exercise type of workout.  The exercise flow remains familiar and consistent for clients with a logical flow of warm-up, upper body, lower body, core, cool down and self-myofascial release leading to the finishing salutation.  It is done this way EVERY time, and yields incredibly positive fitness results for our customers.

Avoid the pop culture workout schizophrenia.  Find workout types that adhere to a discipline and workout methods that value integrity of flow and regime.

Remain disciplined and consistent my friends!

¹ https://www.google.com/search?q=schizophrenia+definition&oq=schizophrenia&aqs=chrome.4.69i57j0l5.6631j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

All of us, male and female alike have a spirit within that can help us to do extraordinary things. This “inner warrior” can power each of us to overcome obstacles in life as we battle for achievement.

Everyone has an inner warrior, a power within just waiting to be unleashed.

Buddha once said that one who conquers self is greater than one who conquers a thousand soldiers in battle! Your inner warrior can help you win the battle for your “self”. It is the part of us that creates the will to achieve. Some people know this desire to win and never give us as the fighting spirit.

Truth is, we all have a fascination with this inner warrior.  The difference between those who achieve positive results and those who do not is how often they access this part of who we are. Negative people turn a blind eye to this and retreat when facing obstacles. Positive people find the power to go around, over, or through them.

We all love to talk about ourselves when we step outside of our comfort zone for a great workout. You know it’s true. This is why health club members love to shout about the great sweat they got from a killer workout. Don’t believe it? Just check your social media and scan the number of posts you find with a reference to satisfaction from a good workout. Fitness is about positivity. We are all looking for a reason to share our inner warrior experiences. A great workout is a good reason.

People can always do more than they think they can. One objective in fitness is to find a way to continually access that inner warrior.  Your warrior spirit can connect you to a force that you may not know you have. The inner warrior can show you how to push beyond any limitations that might be preventing you from accomplishing your goals. Find it!

At HOTWORX we have a slogan, “DISCOVER YOUR INNER WARRIOR.”  Motivation is serious business in fitness, and our job as trainers is to help clients find the courage and the will within to do more than they think they can during every workout.

In the Art of War, Sun Tzu says, “Courage, above all things, is the first quality of a Warrior.”

Discover your inner warrior and you will access your courage.  The more you access it, the harder you will train. Know your inner warrior!

Nothing is more important than results for customers. As fitness professionals, we must acknowledge that they want results above all else. When we communicate to potential new members, and members alike, we should find ways to appeal to the inner warrior fascination that all of them have, whether they know it or not. This is the first step in the effort to deliver the fitness results that they want.

People want to unleash their warrior spirit as a means to improve their lives, and they might need a little push so they can recognize that the power within is there.  Fitness programs should be designed to help customers discover their inner warrior.

At HOTWORX, our goal is to give members an experience that is outside of their comfort zone and exciting enough to please their warrior within!

Every person who has joined a gym, or studio, for the very first time is looking for transformation in the way they look and the way they feel as a path to a higher level of self confidence. New studio members are looking for a fitness breakthrough, and transformation can happen when they tap into the power of their inner warrior. Great fitness programs are designed to facilitate this potential.

When she is looking for the right gym, she thinks about how cool it would be to join a challenging program in a positive environment. The warrior spirit can motivate her to take the first step. Show her RESULTS and she will brag about the great workouts.  Satisfy her inner warrior and watch the five star reviews multiply!

As fitness professionals, we need to deliver programs that give members the opportunity to stroke their inner warrior fascination. If you think it, you will do it.  Surround yourself with warrior slogans and positive people so as to feed your thoughts.

Train outside of your comfort zone to feed the warrior. Ignite your workouts with hot exercise. HOTWORX Isometrics, HIIT, and 125 degrees of infrared heat is one sure way to do just that!

Discover your inner warrior!

The immune system is your body’s ability to recognize and defend itself against infectious bacteria, organisms, viruses, and the development of disease. The lymph system consists of tissues that store white blood cells that are used for fighting disease within the body. The lymph nodes are the radar for the body, providing early detection when harmful organisms have made their intrusions into the body. Upon detection, the lymph system is prompted to make more infection-fighting white blood cells called lymphocytes.

Far infrared (FIR) exposure provides for a natural way to enhance the human immune system.

“Far-infrared saunas provide an incredibly gentle, side-effect-free, effective mechanism for detoxification for all of my patients, even the sensitive ones,” Rachel West, MD, told Massage magazine.¹

Through the heating of the core body temperature and through the penetration of infrared energy, FIR boosts your immune system, thereby increasing the count of white blood cells and killer T-cells. T-cells kill cancer cells and other cells that are infected with viruses along with cells that are otherwise damaged and need to be eradicated from the body.

“Far Infrared Sauna Therapy (F.I.R.S.T.) helps to boost the immune system in many ways. First off, as the far infrared heat raises the body’s core temperature it also induces an artificial fever. A fever is one of the body’s immune responses that attempts to neutralize a bacterial or viral infection. White blood cells also rapidly proliferate due to the suitable environment and can also help fight off the harmful pathogens and microbes that invade the body. Additionally, as far infrared heat penetrates deep into our body and increases the body’s temperature we sweat out 5 [to] 6 times more toxins, fat, and impurities than normal sweat. Every system in our body performs better when it functions in a detoxified state, especially our immune system.”²

Exercise can also assist with building your immune system. There is a commonly held belief that people who practice yoga are far less susceptible to colds in the winter due to their boosted ability to fight off germs that cause sickness. Yoga can help to regulate your immune system as it relieves stress.  Most yoga postures, especially forward bends such as downward dog can provide a calming effect to the body.³

Imagine how beneficial your workouts could be if you combined yoga with infrared sauna therapy!

¹ https://www.massagemag.com/far-infrared-saunas-and-lymphatic-massage-a-healing-combination-12683/² http://completebalancehealth.com/index.php?page=immune-system-therapy-far-north-infrared-wellness³ https://www.yogabasics.com/learn/yoga-therapy-for-colds-and-flu/

No offense to Richard, but the days of Richard Simmons style workouts have long passed. In the modern world, customers want more than old school aerobics.  People want more out of the time they have for fitness. People want more and fitness professionals have responded with new and better workouts! Companies like HOTWORX have responded to this demand with more efficient workout tools and routines.

Because of this new fitness reality, the discipline of yoga has made a tremendous leap forward into the mainstream of the industry through many expanded methods and styles.  One such method is that of a more fitness oriented, athletic style of yoga.

As stated by wanderlust.com, “yoga has shifted from being a form of physical therapy to being straight-up exercise.” ¹

HOTWORX yoga was created to meet the demands of the 21st century fitness customer who wants “more workout in less time”. The HOTWORX Hot Yoga style incorporates a fast pace active recovery (largely from the heat and infrared energy) training session for beginners and athletes alike.  This yoga exercise sequence ensures a full body isometric workout and utilizes virtual instructors who are always queuing clients to challenge themselves and to go at their own best pace. With a well choreographed exercise flow and virtual encouragement to workout at an appropriate pace and level of intensity, the session becomes accessible to everyone who wishes to begin a yoga practice, from expert to beginner.

Average fitness club members, and athletes as well, use yoga as a tool to help them become better at their sport and for their general health to improve quality of life.

HOTWORX style yoga promotes the mind/body connection and encourages extreme focus to improve balance and mental discipline. It also allows the muscles to process metabolic byproducts at a faster rate due to the deep penetration of infrared energy at the cellular level.

With HOTWORX yoga, attention is given to power and strength along with the traditional flexibility, balance and mental awareness. This is a more holistic/athletic approach to yoga that is better suited for exercise, everyday movement, and athletic performance.

HOTWORX Hot Yoga enables clients to torch the calories, increase flexibility, improve endurance and prevent injury as a supplement to other programs or as a stand alone workout regime.  Who wants to be stronger? This new infrared yoga style is also good for athletes or beginners who want to gain strength with increased heat shock protein synthesis due to heat acclimation.

Professional snowboarder, Jamie Anderson, who won gold at the 2014 Olympics in Russia credits a lot of her success to a disciplined yoga routine. In a Yoga Journal interview she said, “It just gives me that ninja-like edge. And I feel strong and flexible, so I'm able to land better and crash better. I definitely try not to crash, but at times it happens, and I know having my yoga practice protects my body a lot.” She added that, “If you’re doing a lot of yoga you should be happy! On and off your mat.”²

Aaron Rodgers, the future Hall of Fame quarterback for the Green Bay Packers does yoga in his off season training, and I recently discovered that the Super Bowl XLVIII champion Seattle Seahawks held mandatory yoga sessions as a part of their training regime leading up to their world championship win.³

Another yoga trend that is here to stay, is the advent of private and semi-private training sessions.  Yes, that’s right, yoga personal training sessions.  Through its use of virtual instruction, this is an area where HOTWORX is leading the way with semi-private yoga training with groups of three people per infrared session.  This is small group training at its finest.  The virtual training ensures that the yoga sessions are delivered on time and with proper flow and queuing for every workout!

With HOTWORX yoga, customers are able to take advantage of working with a private virtual instructor in small groups of three, and they are able to use a flexible scheduling system that can be personalized through the HOTWORX Burn Off App appointment scheduling.

Yoga has evolved! It’s time to try it in an infrared sauna.

¹ https://www.wanderlust.com/journal/difference-athletic-yoga-yoga-athletes/² https://www.yogajournal.com/practice/olympic-gold-medalist-snowboarder-jamie-anderson-yoga-trains-core-gives-ninja-like-edge³ https://www.stack.com/a/best-yoga-poses-for-athletes

As a former NPC National Collegiate Bodybuilding Champion, I can tell you that paying attention to every training routine detail makes the difference between winning and losing the title. Even after an athletic career, paying attention to how you train for fitness can have a huge impact on your quality of life. Recently, I have been listening to stories from athletes, and former athletes who are using HOTWORX infrared workouts to enhance their competition training routines and their post-career fitness activities. One such story really grabbed my attention last summer.

Pat McAfee, a football and professional wrestling analyst and former NFL punter for the Indianapolis Colts, has a very entertaining video podcast, The Pat McAfee Show. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys a raw and funny take on sports. One day at my office I overheard people talking about the Pat McAfee podcast and discussing how he was talking about HOTWORX on his show. Apparently his girlfriend had become a member of the HOTWORX franchise location in Indianapolis and he was working out with her at that studio.

On this particular podcast he spent about 12 minutes talking specifically about his experience at HOTWORX with his girlfriend who he refers to as “my lady”. He starts by saying, “I’ve found something…that has completely changed my life.”

He goes on to say…

“My lady has found this gem of a workout place, it’s a hot sauna workout place. The place is called HOTWORX with an X, great name! I’m addicted to this thing. It’s changed my life in three days.”

While inside of the infrared workout sauna, he says, “…there’s a tv screen, and the instructors, badasses, by-the-way.”

“I got two fifteen minute workouts this morning, I feel like I ran a marathon.” “Sam and I go and we’re in the cycling room together…” “My lady loves this place, I absolutely get it.”

“I don’t give a lot of free love to a lot of people.  This sauna workout thing is doing it, it scratches me directly where I itch”

“I’m addicted though, I’m gonna go back tonight”

Subscribe to the Pat McAfee youtube channel, and if you want to watch the show I just mentioned you can go to:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMKPbiBFelg

If it’s “doing it” for pro athletes, then maybe you should try adding infrared training to your fitness routine in 2020!

As a 2020 resolution, you should join in on what I like to call the “Bold New Infrared Fitness Frontier”.

Remember that nothing changes in the comfort zone!

The original tagline for HOTWORX, that we still use, is “Beyond Hot Yoga”.  I remember one of our first trade show expos where we were showing the sauna. This was before we introduced the infrared studio franchise. We had that tagline proudly displayed on the top of the sauna at that fitness industry trade show in Orlando.

I will never forget the reaction of one gentleman who happened upon our booth.  He noticed the sauna and then looked up at the tagline poster and said out loud to himself in a very slow statement, “hum…, beyond hot yoga” and just stood there with an auspicious stare at a new method of fitness delivery. In that moment I felt that we indeed had created something very special for the fitness industry.

Since that time, we have launched a new fitness franchise built around the whole notion of workouts that go “beyond hot yoga”. I thought it appropriate to write a blog article about our innovative workouts to kick off 2020 and launch a new decade of infrared fitness. After all, the most important aspect of hot exercise, or any exercise, is the workout itself! So, I have listed these workouts with descriptions and/or short stories about each one.

As a fitness company we are always looking for ways to improve the workout experience of our customers. With that goal in mind, we continue to create new workout types and new exercise sequences and flows. Here is our current hot exercise lineup.

Hot Cycle

We made fitness history again when we introduced HOTWORX HOT CYCLE in 2017. The idea was to offer indoor cycling for clients who wanted to do a quick HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) session either by itself or to pair it with the Hot Yoga or other hot isometric workouts for a calorie scorcher. Imagine that your workout begins with a 15-minute cycle in the heat with 125°F of pure infrared, then you move straight over to the next HOTWORX sauna for Hot Yoga to round out your day of fitness. We call this back-to-back cross-training session a “Bonfire” workout.

Customers use Hot Cycle differently. Some will do a Hot Cycle session after a functional workout for a cardio and lower-body blast. Some will do multiple back-to-back Hot Cycle sessions. I was working out at the Oxford, Mississippi, location (the original location) and had a conversation with a member who told me that she had just finished her seventh session in a row. Angela is a true HOTWORX warrior!

Hot Row

While attending the same fitness trade show mentioned above, I noticed a large group of people doing a very short, but super intense HIIT workout on this new machine that was a rower, but that was also a chest press.  I imagined using that machine inside of the HOTWORX sauna and eventually worked out a plan to install those machines from Inspire Fitness as a part of our HIIT program in the form of a new workout that we call Hot Row.

Hot Row allows clients to experience a total body resistance training workout in only 15 minutes with a HIIT session. The Cross Rower gives clients rapid repetitions for rows, chest press, and leg press all at once inside of the HOTWORX Sauna. Customers are able to experience this incredible total body resistance and cardio workout while they reap the benefits of the infrared energy and heat environment.

As of the writing of this blog article, HOTWORX is working on a new and even better Hot Row workout to be announced sometime in 2020.

Hot Blast

The Hot Blast workout was introduced as our most recent HIIT session. It is an extremely unique total body pounding using the Keiser Total Body Trainer which is a cardio machine that is a combination indoor cycle and upper body push and pull with right and left hand levers. This workout is designed to “blast” upper body and lower body simultaneously for a 15 minute HIIT routine like no other.  This workout allows customers to engage their mind and body for strength, endurance, and high intensity cardio intervals with a 15 minute hot infrared session of total body intensity.

Hot Iso

Hot Iso is the original HOTWORX workout designed to deliver an awesome sequence of isometric postures borrowing from athletic resistance training and pro football style stretching as well as from yoga and Pilates style holds. The idea behind the creation of this workout was to maximize the isometric compressions and infrared radiation absorption to create a high level of detox. It is performed for 30 minutes inside of the HOTWORX infrared sauna at 125 degrees. There is a modified yoga sun salutation warm-up called the “Launch Phase.” Following the Launch Phase clients enter the main workout “Flight Phase,” which consists of 14 isometric postures beginning with lower body, then upper body and finishing with core. The “Landing Phase” is the cool down period ending with foam rolling and then a seated, legs crossed, meditative posture.

Hot Yoga

The HOTWORX version of Hot Yoga is certainly more yoga in less time! It is a pure, athletic yoga posture sequence at 125 degrees for 30 minutes providing clients the most accelerated infrared yoga results. The idea for HOTWORX was indeed inspired from an idea that people should do yoga in a sauna. Now they can, 24 hours a day.

Hot Pilates

The HOTWORX version of Hot Pilates provides an intense core workout while focused on the principles of Pilates: Centering, Concentration, Control, Precision, Breath, and Flow.  This version of Pilates uses floor exercise within the 125 degree infrared sauna environment.

Hot Buns

Hot Buns was created for one purpose: to get your BUTT in shape! This intense isometric glute workout is in high demand by HOTWORX clients. Imagine 30 minutes of nothing but BUTT isometrics—yes, rear end only inside of the infrared sauna at 125°F! With this session, you work your glutes hard while you sweat out the toxins and absorb the rejuvenating infrared energy. Hot Buns incorporates the use of two types of bands, a small loop for use around the knees and legs and a large loop band for squat postures.

For those who want a great butt workout to add to their fitness routine, HOT BUNS is rear-end-tensity for real!  

Hot Barre None

HOTWORX has become known for its unique workouts and Barre None is no exception. There is a story about how it came to be…

It was very clear from the beginning that we needed to create a barre workout for HOTWORX. We knew this early on, but the dilemma was how to mount a ballet barre inside the sauna. We finally identified a manufacturer who made a portable barre that would fit, and we even produced a workout based on the use of that portable barre. We tested the workout for a few months with mostly positive feedback, but it just never seemed to be the right way to deliver a barre workout inside an infrared sauna. The barre itself just seemed to get in the way and reduce the quality of the workout experience.

After months of testing and contemplating the marketing of the new workout, it finally dawned on us that by using the back wall of the sauna instead of an actual ballet barre that we just might have the solution. It worked, the workout was incredible, but the problem was, how do you market a barre workout that doesn’t use a barre? In a moment of deep marketing thought, it came to me that we should just call the new workout Hot Barre None! We now have a trademark registration pending on that workout name. It was perfect, and it was very well received when we finally rolled out our barre workout in the fall of 2019.

With the new Hot Barre None session, customers discover muscles that they do not know they have. Using the sauna wall as a workout tool instead of a barre, the virtual instructor guides clients through a half-hour of intense postures and slow dynamic reps to help improve poise, posture, strength, and balance. From this workout, customers develop long, lean muscles while they detox from the infrared heat and energy environment.

Hot Warrior

We always have new workout videos that are in development, and out of that development pipeline came one of our most popular workouts known as Hot Warrior. Hot Warrior is another great HOTWORX 30-minute isometric workout. We consulted with a pro bikini competitor for insight to help with the choreography and filming of this workout. The idea was to take the Hot ISO, our original HOTWORX workout, to a higher level. Mission accomplished!

Everyone has an inner warrior, a power within just waiting to be unleashed. In collaboration we created a half-hour infrared fitness routine that draws from yoga, Pilates, and general athletic isometric training methods like the original Hot Iso, but to a “warrior” level. The Hot Warrior is a very uniquely designed workout and is very challenging. Hot Warrior challenges you and draws from years of fitness competition training experience to motivate clients to bring their “A” game.

You will be amazed at the results that can be earned through this hot exercise posture sequence. The multi-dimensional training method of exercise through infrared energy and heat combined with the more advanced isometric holds reduces your training time and accelerates your calorie burn, not to mention the strength gains received from elevated heat shock protein synthesis!

Find your inner Hot Warrior. Do it now.

Hot Bands

As a fitness trainer I developed a deep appreciation for the workout results that can be obtained with the use of bands.  Bands can deliver a great resistance workout much like that of weight training when done properly.

Hot Bands is another HOTWORX original 30-minute infrared workout featuring the use of resistance bands for a total-body workout using the combination of isometrics and slow dynamic reps. Hot Bands gives clients the option of a total body resistance workout inside of the infrared sauna. After this session clients will feel as though they have been through a lightening fast “hot” weight training session. In addition to the weight training type of muscle gains, users of Hot Bands can expect to burn 25–30 percent more calories in 30 minutes compared with Hot Yoga.

Hot Core

Hot Core is the first ever 30-minute infrared isometric session designed for core training and infrared self-myofascial release with the use of a foam roller. The first half of the workout consists of focused abdominal, hip and lower back work, for the core. Core strength is vital. I always like to say that everything begins and ends with the core. The core is the motion center for the body in fitness and any other activity that requires movement.

The second half of this workout provides for a self-administered deep tissue massage guided by the virtual instructor. With this HOTWORX foam roll routine trigger points are smoothed out resulting in muscle relaxation, acceleration of workout recovery and reduction in the appearance of cellulite.

Hot Flex

Originally, this workout was produced as a 15-minute pro-athletics-style infrared stretching routine for use as an advanced warm-up or as an advanced cool down to use in combination with any of the other HOTWORX workouts. It could also be used by itself if a member was simply looking to improve flexibility.

As of the writing of this blog post, Hot Flex is in redevelopment as a 30 minute, stand-alone, flexibility training session.

Think “alternative” for your 2020 fitness.  Venture out to the infrared frontier and accelerate your results through innovative infrared workouts!

Here we are again staring at another new year.  We need to reset as we are now about to roar into the 20’s of the 21st century.  Well, let’s hope to roar into the new decade, but we need motivation first. When is the last time you looked in the mirror and asked yourself, “What motivates me?” Different things motivate different people but I think we can all agree that most people in one way or another do get excited about the prospects of going on a vacation.

Vacations are great motivators!

The vision of snow skiing, or hiking a ski mountain in the summer, is one of my most effective personal motivational tools. My ski trips are planned and then used as my personal fitness GOAL! I am also beginning to plan summer cycling and/or hiking trips as well. If I am weight training or if I am working out in the HOTWORX infrared workout sauna, I am in constant training for my next ski trip, or hike! That’s me. For you, it might be the same or it might be a surfing vacation, or a trip that involves scuba diving or paddle boarding, a yoga retreat, or some other physical activity.

I have always believed that in order for anyone to achieve a balance in life, some sort of physical fitness goal has to be a part of the equation. For me, now that my bodybuilding and football days have passed, that physical fitness goal has changed to quality snow skiing for the most part. I work to improve my physical fitness for the purpose of upping the “quality” of my snow skiing game. Skiing is the most fun that I can have while achieving a high level of quality exercise at the same time. Recently, though, I have added hiking to the mix.

My most recent fitness vacation did involve a mountain, but not for skiing.  Rather, this mountain, the Gros Piton in Saint Lucia which originally attracted my attention for its sheer beauty became the object of my passion for fitness. Years ago, I remember admiring and then tearing out a magazine picture of Sugar Beach, which is nestled between the two volcanic Piton mountains. These two mountains comprise the smaller Petite Piton and the larger Gros Piton.  I taped that magazine page to my washing machine to remind that one day I would go to Sugar Beach to experience the beauty of that island in person.

It wasn’t until recent years that my Saint Lucia thoughts turned to a wonder of what it would be like to actually climb the Gros Piton. Those thoughts turned into a new fitness goal to scale the Gros Piton. With that new goal in mind, I set out to create a business objective that would allow my colleagues and I, along with our significant others, to travel to Saint Lucia for a corporate vacation retreat.  We did indeed accomplish the business objective and earn the trip sending us down there to that beautiful island in December 2019.

I invited all of the group to climb the mountain and when it came time for the actual hike there were four of us who stepped up for the challenge. They included me and my girlfriend Brittany, my great friend and HOTWORX business coach Jeremy Harwell (the original manager of the first HOTWORX location in Oxford, MS), and one of my best friends for many years Jerome Price, the husband of my business partner Nancy.

I often train at HOTWORX with Brittany and I can always rely on her for a great infrared workout. Jeremy, Jerome and myself constitute the “Wrecking Krewe” which is our self proclaimed name for our 7:30 a.m. Monday-Friday morning weight training group.

Jerome agreed to hike up to a point and then wait for the rest of us to climb to the top and come back down. Jerome battles from a lingering back injury.

So, we decided to take a boat from the small village of Soufriere to the beach at the foot of the Gros Piton to begin our trek.  We wanted to scale the entirety of the mountain from the beach to the top.  Most of the hikers begin from the end of a road that leads to a beginning point about a quarter of the way up the mountain, which is cheating in my opinion.  Normally, according to most accounts, it takes four hours from that abbreviated point to hike up and then back down to that same point.  Very few Gros Piton climbers begin from the true base of the mountain which is at the beach.

We scaled that mountain from beach to top (2,618.9 ft.) and back down to the beach in four hours and thirteen minutes. The climb took us up a makeshift trail that consisted of dirt paths, steep rocks, railings (where there was railing) made of branches that were randomly nailed together, trees, giant roots, vines and stumps, along with many other winding obstacles and crude man-made steps. I burned an incredible 2,769 calories during that climb. We all agreed that it was the the best HIIT workout of our life thus far! What a rush it was to get to the top.

Accomplishment of a fitness goal is always fun!

So, I practice weight training and HOTWORX to make myself a better skier, and hiker now. If I have better skills, then I have more fun on the slopes, and to me that is the greatest natural high ever! Planning for a good ski trip or a great hiking excursion is a super motivator for my fitness routine.

I always set a specific date for my next fitness vacation. Then, I ready myself with weight training and HOTWORX. When I finally get to the vacation destination, it’s GOAL time!

Use of a physical fitness goal that involves a sport related vacation can supremely elevate your workout program.

Ready, set, GOAL your way to top notch fitness!

I would argue that the most important component of business marketing is uniqueness.  Of course there are many important aspects of marketing such as professional imagery and and ad production, but if the product is not memorable based on its uniqueness, then it will fail to gain sizable traction in the marketplace. Market differentiation happens when there is product and service uniqueness.

The market differentiation that the HOTWORX franchise brings to the table has many layers, not just the 24/7 infrared workouts. In addition to that, there are many “firsts” in terms of fitness technology that HOTWORX has introduced to the industry including: the now patented 63-square-foot, three-person infrared workout sauna; virtual instruction for small-group infrared training; the “silent” functional trainer; the Burn Off App; the 30-minute infrared isometric workout; and the 15-minute infrared HIIT, to name a few.

As I write this blog post, we are in the midst of development of our new virtual personal trainer (VPT) program to enhance the functional training area of the studio known as the FX Zone. The VPT program allows customers who have an upgraded membership to create a tailored, virtually instructed, functional training routine that fits their personal goals and schedule as a complement to their infrared training routine. Look for this to become available at all HOTWORX locations early spring 2020.

Perhaps the most important HOTWORX differentiator, though, is the 24-hour availability of hot yoga (along with other, more inventive hot exercise options). With the HOTWORX infrared workout sauna, our members utilize access to a variety of hot exercise options 24 hours a day. This is a huge, first mover, market advantage for our franchise owners and especially for our customers. In the modern world, the traditional fitness studio class schedules are just not convenient for everyone, and even for people who maintain a normal daily work schedule (9am - 5pm work day), they sometimes prefer to work out late at night, super early in the morning, or at odd hours during the weekend. Hot exercise becoming available 24/7 is a game changing difference.

Another way to achieve market differentiation is to open a boutique business. Boutique businesses are known for their uniqueness, and boutiques of all types are gaining popularity the world over. Generally, we understand a boutique to be a small, exclusive business that offers a very specialized form of services or products. What began as a term to describe a small clothing store now gives definition to many other business types such as hotels, advertising agencies, and health clubs.

HOTWORX differentiates itself as a boutique fitness center as well. HOTWORX is a very unique boutique though!

People want a “specialty” experience from boutique studios that focus on quality over size, but they also want multiple workout options. There are very few boutique fitness studios that can offer more than one workout type. Typically they will offer one or two workout types such as yoga, Pilates or indoor cycling.  HOTWORX is unique not only as a boutique, but as a boutique with over 10 different workout types to choose from.

HOTWORX 24 Hour Infrared Studios are boutiques that specialize in small-group infrared training, but the market difference is that there are a variety of workouts and hot exercise types way beyond what is offered at the usual studio. HOTWORX provides the best of both worlds, a boutique atmosphere and the workout variety of a much larger multi-service fitness facility.

If you want market differentiation, be unique!

The practice of adding workout variety through cross-training is gaining in popularity. The reason is because cross-training accelerates performance. The real benefit from cross-training is the gains that come from the blended variety of workouts.

Some people take cross-training to another level by combining different workout types back-to-back during one workout session in a day, as opposed to one workout type per day.  It’s not for everyone, though.  It takes a highly motivated fitness enthusiast or athlete to perform this type of training on a consistent weekly basis.

HOTWORX calls this single session back-to-back training a Bonfire Workout.

For HOTWORX, this workout consists of an individual performing a single workout session using the combination of a hot 15-minute HIIT workout, either a Hot Cycle, Hot Row, or Hot Blast, then immediately switching workout saunas and moving to an isometric sauna for a 30-minute workout of either ISO, yoga, Pilates or any other one they choose to schedule.

The Bonfire usually begins with HIIT for an exhaustive, yet fast, lower-body (Hot Cycle) or total-body (Hot Row or Hot Blast) resistance training and cardio workout. Once the 15-minute routine is done, customers exit the HIIT sauna and immediately take their shoes and socks off to enter one of the isometric saunas. The 30-minute isometric workout then provides the perfect complement to the HIIT routine. Isometrics such as yoga and Pilates give a great core workout as well as training for balance, flexibility, and detox with 125°F of heat and infrared energy to boot. Alternatively, if a customer wishes, she can do an isometric workout first, followed immediately by a HIIT session.

What an incredible workout this is! It’s a fitness bonfire! This is a must-experience for any aspiring fitness enthusiast.

Isometrics and HIIT are totally different workout types, but they combine to create one great cross-training session. The benefits of isometrics are well documented and include increased circulation, flexibility, and bone and muscle strength gains.  High intensity interval training, as reported by CNN, “encourages your cells to make more proteins to feed their energy-producing machinery—and this arrests the aging process.”¹

This can take your infrared training to another level.

HIIT + ISOMETRICS + INFRARED ENERGY AND HEAT = THE BONFIRE WORKOUT

¹ http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/07/health/interval-training-exercise-cellular-aging-study/index.html

Motivation is fundamental to working out. Working out requires work and work requires motion. You have to get off the couch to do the work! You can always do more than you think you can do and now is the time to get yourself in motion! What is the thing that can stimulate you toward action? Belief that you can do it is how it starts.

BELIEVE…

The foundation of motivation is belief. There’s no argument against that. In fitness, to achieve your goals, it certainly starts with a belief that you can. As a fitness professional, nothing is more upsetting than to listen to someone saying they need to “think about it” before they begin a fitness program. What is there to think about? Choose to BELIEVE that you can, and begin that program today! Stop procrastinating. A good friend of mine and the “guru” of fitness membership recruitment, as I call him, John Paul Yersick, or “JP”, once told me that the sworn enemy of achievement is procrastination. In my view, procrastination is just a fancy word for laziness. Don’t be lazy!

DO…

Next step is to actually DO SOMETHING! Take action. Find the program that will be the most effective tool to get you to your goal in a safe, timely, and efficient manner. “Do” consistently and use a method that will allow you to measure progress.

As a trainer, one of my biggest pet peeves is the trend toward, let’s call it hyper-variety of types of exercises within any one fitness genre. How can you measure progress if you are told to do a different workout with different exercises every time you come to the gym? That is bad advice. Just know that you need to DO a program consistently every week and stay within a reasonable pattern of “sameness.”

ACHIEVE…

If you DO a routine with relentless regularity, then you will get to the next step, which is to ACHIEVE. Don’t bask in the glory for too long, though.

Now it’s time to…

REPEAT!!!

This is the fitness cycle of success, for sure. It sounds so easy, but we all know better. It’s simple but not easy. Of course, as the old saying goes, “Nothing in life worth having is easy.” True that! Just keep repeating to yourself, BELIEVE, DO, ACHIEVE, over and over again.

Never stop!

BELIEVE, DO, ACHIEVE…REPEAT.

Have you ever wondered why high intensity interval training, aka HIIT, is so popular?

HIIT requires greater usage of lipids as a fuel source.  Simply put, HIIT burns more fat!

Lactic acid is produced during and following an intense workout interval.  This happens because blood flow cannot keep up with the oxygen transport needs for the working muscles to meet the demands of the movement and resistance during this anaerobic state.  Huge amounts of lactic acid is built up during HIIT and this helps to remove excess fat through the requirement of increased fat and carbohydrate oxidation.  “Some fitness experts argue that training at lactic acid threshold is necessary to burn fat.”¹

HIIT programs such as the HOTWORX workout, Hot Cycle, is perfect for intense intervals due to large muscle groups in the lower body that are used during the session.

HIIT produces increased EPOC

EPOC stands for Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption.  Numerous studies have shown that HIIT results in a higher level of EPOC, which in turn requires a higher calorie after-burn.  After-burn refers to the period of time directly following a workout when calories are burned at a higher rate than pre-workout levels as the body attempts to cool down to homeostasis which is the normal resting level of metabolism.

Steady state cardio versus HIIT

Steady state cardio workouts involve a constant rate of performance output usually at a more moderate heart rate level.  For example, one might set a treadmill to a certain level of pace at a set level of incline to practice a steady state cardio workout.  This is less effective for burning fat when compared to HIIT.

HIIT “significantly lowers insulin resistance and results in a number of skeletal muscle adaptations that result in enhanced skeletal muscle fat oxidation and improved glucose tolerance.”²

HIIT “results in significant increases in aerobic and anaerobic fitness, increased skeletal muscle capacity for fatty acid oxidation and glycolytic enzyme content, and increased insulin sensitivity.”³

In a US National Library of Medicine report, “Impact of exercise intensity on body fatness and skeletal muscle metabolism”, the results of a training comparison study were noted.  Eight men and nine women participated in the study to determine the effectiveness of endurance training versus high intensity interval training.  The endurance program ran for 20 weeks and the HIIT program ran for 15 weeks.  Even with a reduced program time requirement, the HIIT sessions proved to be more effective for fat loss by a factor of nine!  The HIIT program produced a much greater reduction in subcutaneous adiposity.

The results of that study provides even more support of the belief that HIIT burns more fat.

Taken directly from the Library of Medicine report, “the metabolic adaptations taking place in the skeletal muscle in response to the HIIT program appear to favor the process of lipid oxidation.”4

Now imagine what HIIT can do when combined with an infrared energy and heat environment during the workout.  All of the benefits of HIIT mentioned in this article are amplified to a higher level with infrared.  With infrared there is a higher calorie burn during the workout and, therefore, an even higher level of EPOC and fat burn than that of HIIT alone.

Now, go out and earn the fat burn with HIIT and infrared!

¹ https://www.sportsrec.com/425381-does-lactic-acid-burn-fat.html² https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2991639/³ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2991639/4 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8028502

The Holiday Season is here!  I’m sure there will be plenty of cheer, but there will also be more stress.  We all should make a promise to ourselves not to overindulge this year.  Of course, that is easier said than done.  But if we make a conscious effort then I am sure we can all dodge the binge and stress train that is headed our way.

You can always do more than you think you can do, and we can all avoid losing hard fought fitness gains during the holidays and even make progress moving into the new year if we commit to at least three infrared sauna fitness sessions per week.

I recommend at least two 30 minute isometric sessions and one 15 minute HIIT session per week to get you through Thanksgiving and Christmas unscathed this year.

Infrared training inside of the patented HOTWORX fitness sauna can get you more results in less time so that you can spend more hours with family and friends for a less stressful holiday season this year.

More Workout in Less Time is the key to your holiday fitness success over stress!

Less time spent in the gym for better fitness results is a no-brainer, but what about getting more than just another workout from your workout?  With an infrared sauna workout environment you can benefit from heat therapy and from infrared light wave absorption for therapy as well to give you more during your workout time.

Heat therapy has been used since ancient times for detox and stress and most of us are well informed of this.  The benefits of heated workouts are well documented too, but what about infrared energy for stress management?  The application of infrared energy to a workout is still a fairly new concept.  The use of isometrics and HIIT training inside of an infrared sauna was developed by HOTWORX and then introduced to the marketplace in 2015.

When infrared light waves penetrate your body the vibrations make for a very positive interaction with your cells.  It creates accelerated detoxification.

Far infrared light waves trigger detox by interacting with the cell membranes and the intracellular and extracellular fluid to increase metabolism.  Experts believe that infrared energy also activates production of Norepinephrine as a hormone and as a neurotransmitter through increased circulation.

“Neurotransmitters are the chemicals that allow communication between cells. When you are stressed out, norepinephrine tells your body to prepare for it. It does not tell your body to chill out and ignore the situation; it makes you capable of meeting the daily challenges that you face throughout the day.” ¹

Infrared training can activate these dramatic changes in your body chemistry helping to rejuvenate you back to a de-stressed state of being.

Feel the good vibes, literally, from infrared training to ward off the blues this holiday season!

¹ https://www.stress-relief-resources.com/reduce-stress-with-infrared-sauna.html

What are the risks, if any, associated with exposure to infrared heat and infrared energy for women who have breast implants?  First, let’s take a look at the two types of breast implants so that we can understand what is being exposed during an infrared session.

There are two basic types of breast implants, Saline and Silicone.  They both use a silicone outer shell that is filled with a more fluid interior substance.  Saline implants are filled with salt water which is harmless in the case of leakage.  It is the silicone substance that poses the problems.

Silicone is derived from silicon, the same silicon that is used for computers which is semi-metallic and combines with oxygen to form silica.  Silica in natural form is one of the most abundant substances on earth and can be found in crystals and quartz and in the form of sand on the beach.  For implants, silica is processed to form a polymer called silicone and can then be made into the form of a gel or a rubbery substance.  There are risks associated with the silicone and breast implants.

Implant rupture risk:

With the saline version, the body will absorb excess saline with no adverse consequences where there is a leak or rupture.  Surgery will then be needed, however, to replace or remove the deflated shell.

With silicone implants there is always a risk of what is known as a silent rupture where the silicone leaks without someone knowing and tends to remain within the encapsulated fibrous tissue that forms around the implant outer shell and may remain unnoticed for some time.

There are differing professional opinions as to the level of risks.

According to a 2018 Mayo Clinic article, “Leaking silicone gel isn't thought to cause health problems, such as breast cancer, reproductive problems or rheumatoid arthritis. Still, a ruptured silicone breast implant might eventually cause breast pain, breast thickening, or changes in the contour or shape of the breast.” ¹

When rupture happens, women have experienced painful shrinking of the fibrous outer encasing of the implants, spilling of saline (a harmless solution) into the body and other pains including post-operative muscle spasms.

“Some women have claimed even more potentially serious problems, alleging that the silicone in implants, particularly the silicone gel inside the implant sac, can cause connective tissue or other autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, neurological disorders, cancer, and even new silicone-related diseases.” ²

With some implant types there is a low risk of developing a type of cancer know as BIA-ALCL which is the acronym for breast implant associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma.  It is not a breast cancer but it may require chemotherapy, radiation or surgery to treat.

Safety research of both implant types is ongoing.

Specific to breast implants and exposure to infrared saunas, I have found very little research and have discovered only limited information on the topic.  This is probably due to the fact that the silicone used for breast implants is not subject to compositional breakdown from the relatively low level of heat exposure to infrared saunas.  Traditional non-infrared saunas can expose an individual to up to 200º F, or 93º C, whereas infrared sauna sessions rarely involve temperatures over 150º F.  In the case of infrared fitness training, HOTWORX, for example uses 125º F for workout sessions.

Here’s a common sense question.  Would a woman with breast implants refrain from laying out by the pool in a place like Las Vegas in the middle of summer for several hours?  Probably not.  The intensity of infrared from the sun is very high (yet not harmful) in an environment such as a mid-summer day in Vegas.  The workout inside of a HOTWORX infrared sauna is very similar to an outdoor workout in a climate such as that of a dry, hot summer day out west.  There is no credible evidence that would lead me to believe that a woman with breast implants should avoid working out in an infrared environment with reasonable heat levels such as 125º F.

Silicone melts at 392º Fahrenheit (200º Celsius).  Of course, no human would submit themselves to an oven-like environment that would allow their body to reach a core temperature that would begin to melt silicone.

As for the sauna, while it is true that silicone implants may cool down more slowly than the rest of the body after a sauna session, there is no evidence that this is has a detrimental effect. I did read several threads in online chats and all of them noted that when they asked their doctor about infrared sauna exposure they were told that it poses no problem for their implants.

The medical industry does go to great lengths to ensure safety with breast implants.  Medical grade silicones are purified to meet the highest requirements for industry standards. Silicones are considered non-toxic (or toxic to a very small extent) to humans and to the environment for the most part. However, there are scientific experts who question this common belief. ³

Here is one thing that is worth consideration.  Infrared sauna use accelerates detox.  Infrared induced sweating yields high levels of body detoxification.  Women who have breast implants should consider infrared for detox as silicone is a polymer and could be a potential source of toxic substances.  It stands to reason that elevated detox may be good to rid toxicants that might be released into the body from the presence of silicone implants.

It seems that a good course of action would be to listen to your body and pay close attention to how you feel during and after an infrared sauna session or an infrared workout.  One thing is for sure, the level of toxic substances within your body will decrease with the use of an infrared sauna.

Of course, the best advice is to consult with your doctor if you have concerns regarding breast implants and exposure to infrared saunas.

¹ https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/womens-health/in-depth/breast-implants/art-20045957² https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK44775/³ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4884743/

There are hundreds of fitness apps in the marketplace but there is only one app that is dedicated to infrared sauna training available 24/7 and that is the Burn Off App from HOTWORX.  The HOTWORX Burn Off App was designed to keep clients on a rolling 90 day infrared fitness challenge.  When a new member joins a HOTWORX studio and begins to use the Burn Off App, they start their first 90 day challenge and every 90 days thereafter the challenge resets.

The member is motivated to achieve higher levels of fitness during the 90 day infrared fitness challenge by watching the most important fitness metric of all which is the number of calories burned during each workout and during the one hour after-burn following the workout.  This metric is measured by watching the calorie burn bar rise from a level one through level six meter.  This meter allows Burn Off App users to literally raise the bar of workout performance.

The level 6 target can be obtained if a client remains consistent with 5 intense infrared workouts per week.  Level 6 requires a 27,000 calorie burn in 90 days.  If you do the math you will see that 60 workouts with a 250 workout calorie burn and a 200 after-burn is what it takes to get to the 27k number in 90 days.  If the training sessions are more intense and therefore require more calories to be burned, then the level 6 can be achieved with fewer workouts.  For example, if a Burn Off App user averages a 300 workout calorie burn with a 250 after-burn they can get to the goal with 50 workouts.  The 60 workout scenario would require 5 workouts per week.  The 50 workout scenario would require 4 workouts per week with a 5th workout every 4th week.

Good habits take 90 days to create!  If you want to create a habit of health, then find a good fitness app and give infrared a try.  An infrared workout environment will immediately increase your workout intensity getting you to your target workout heart rate faster and to a higher rate of calorie burn.  The HOTWORX Burn Off App is perfect to keep you on track in rolling 90 day measurement intervals.  Make a practice of always being involved in a 90 Day fitness challenge.  When you crush your goals in your current 90 Day Infrared Fitness Challenge you can look forward to the next 90 days and to outperform your last challenge.

In fitness new things are always being introduced to the marketplace. .  These new products and services range from exercise machines to supplements, workouts, apps, gadgets, etc.  Some of these things last but most disappear as fast as they are introduced.  We’ve all seen those “miracle” fitness gadgets on tv infomercials and home shopping networks.

Unfortunately, most people look for shortcuts that reduce effort.  They go for the shiny object only to discard it when there are no results.  Let’s face the music.  Our bodies are meant to move, meaning work, in order to gain and maintain muscle.  There are ways to make working out more time efficient, though, but the body work has to be done to achieve a desired level of fitness.  It’s called working out for a reason.  There is no way around the work.

I’ll say it again, the work has to be done!

That said, however, is there a way that we can make the most out of the time and work we put in for training?  Yes, there is…

Enter the “Bold New Infrared Fitness Frontier”.

Through the clutter of the gadgets and fitness fads, technological breakthroughs do happen creating permanent shifts in the paradigm of fitness training.  A shift in the way we view the quality of a workout room is now happening.

It has only happened twice in the history of fitness.  I am talking about an epic change to the workout room or studio environment.  The first time it happened was in the early 70’s with the introduction of the heated (with no infrared) studio for yoga as a way to gain more flexibility and detox to the body.  This led to a revolution in the way that people practiced the ancient art.

The second time it happened was with the invention of the HOTWORX infrared workout sauna in 2014.  After a year in development, HOTWORX introduced the now patented infrared workout sauna for isometrics in 2015 at a franchise expo in New York City.  This was a significant moment in the history of fitness innovation.  For the first time, there was a way to provide hot yoga with infrared energy.  This was a leap forward in fitness technology enabling clients to reap the benefits of infrared energy absorption (due to the precise proximity of the body to the infrared source) while working out, as opposed to just taking a sauna after a workout.

This evolved method now allows users to gain the benefits of an infrared sauna and a workout at the same time.

HOTWORX introduced many different workouts for the infrared sauna going well beyond hot yoga.  For the first time, hot isometrics was introduced including pilates, and other forms of athletic isometrics.  Additionally, HOTWORX developed High intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts for the infrared sauna.   Currently there are 10 different workout types offered through the HOTWORX 3D Training Method, expanding well beyond just the hot yoga of the past and combining infrared energy for more than just a hot workout like that of the past.

Infrared opens the fitness world to a new workout dimension.  A new frontier has been discovered.

The Bold New Infrared Fitness Frontier has changed the landscape of working out forever.

Most of us are familiar with clothing that is designed to compress the body in some way.  How did this type of gear become such a necessary part of working out?

Tights for dancers have been around for a long time.  Tights were invented by a French costume designer in the early 1800’s to upgrade the look and improve the presentations of ballet.  Perhaps ballet attire can be attributed with the earliest known use of compression gear designed to enhance physical performance.

In modern times athletic compression gear is worn to assist an athlete while competing and by fitness people to improve the workout experience and results.  Compression gear works by helping to move fluids around and through the body which increases blood flow, reduces swelling and prevents injury.

Working out in an infrared environment with compression gear can provide for a better detoxification experience.  Penetration of infrared energy into the body stimulates cellular detox through vibration.  Toxic waste that has been released from IR penetration is accelerated by compression and is then released and excreted through sweat and through the other circulatory system pathways.

There are many different compression gear products designed for an array of use.  They range from socks to knee and elbow sleeves, and from lower body tights to shirts and headbands.  The reason for such high level of availability of these products is simple.  They work.  For fitness professionals and for athletes alike, compression gear has become essential to the point of ubiquity.

One super effective product that promotes fluid circulation and sweating for detox is the HOTWORX Core Compressor.  The Core Compressor is a neoprene waist belt that is used for infrared training.  The compression from this product squeezes organs beyond the normal twists and isometric flexions as an aid to flush out toxic waste while it generates more sweating and forces increased blood flow.

Compression gear and infrared training pair up to provide you with more detox and faster workout recovery

Be sure to gear up with compression wear for your next infrared training session!

I am sure that you’ve had a three dimensional experience from a visual standpoint.  Take movies for example.  Compare a really good 3D movie to a non-3D movie, or compare it to color movies from the last century, or go all the way back to black and white films.  Obviously, the movies have come a long way in providing a better experience for movie goers.  It makes a huge difference by adding the spacial experience of 3D.  I see the kid movies that my four year old daughter watches and I have to laugh when I think about the old cartoons that I watched as a kid.  Some of the new animations are just stunning to watch.

I doubt anyone would disagree that the future of visual experiences belongs to 3D and beyond.

What about fitness?  Can the application of another dimension be utilized in a training method?

Absolutely, it can, if we think in terms of how we can make our workout space more effective.

The third dimension in fitness is infrared energy!

Let’s take a brief look back at fitness from a dimensional perspective.  Most gyms and fitness studios still use air-conditioned workout rooms to prevent any environmental “discomfort”.  This first dimension is exercise alone with no consideration given to the workout environment…  boring…

It wasn’t until the advent of hot yoga that another spacial dimension was brought to bear. The second dimension of fitness, which is heat, was introduced in the early 1970’s by Bikram Choudhury who founded the practice of hot yoga in Japan.  By adding heat the practice of yoga was taken to another level of effectiveness and we can call this element of heat the second dimension of fitness.

Now comes the third dimension.

Infrared energy, or Infrared radiation (IR), also commonly known simply as infrared, is located on the electromagnetic radiation spectrum where length of light waves range from 700 nanometers to 1 millimeter. IR is a type of radiant energy that is invisible to the human eye. Infrared waves are located just beyond those of visible light.

Infrared energy is best delivered through the use of a sauna when applied to a fitness training environment.  This is due to the need for subjects to be close enough in proximity to the energy source (infrared heaters) for maximum effectiveness.  Humans need to remain 1 to 3 feet from the IR heaters for proper energy absorption.  This is why the patented HOTWORX infrared sauna design has 63 square feet of floorspace and a precise configuration of carbon and ceramic IR heaters.  The design is perfect for three individuals to workout together for a super effective small group training experience.

So what happens when the IR is absorbed into the skin during a workout?  The deep penetration of up to 1.5 inches into the body causes positive things to happen at the cellular level.  Infrared energy stimulates cellular activity to accelerate the oxidation of fat, speed up detoxification, and increase the amount of calories burned during the training session.

In fitness, customers want the absolute most that can be obtained in the shortest amount of time.  By adding the third dimension of infrared energy to the workout, more results can be obtained in less time.  The HOTWORX mantra is MORE WORKOUT, LESS TIME.  Three dimensional training delivers way more than the one dimensional air-conditioned gym or studio and more than a two dimensional studio with only heat and no infrared energy.

Time is your most valuable commodity.  Get the most out of it.

Maximize your workouts by incorporating infrared energy, the third fitness dimension, into your routine!

Three months!  Just three months to a new you.  No doubt you’ve heard this before.  Have you ever thought about why fitness brands promote the three month, 12 week, 90 Day Challenge?

Last weeks blog topic was all about forming a good habit.  Think about the illustrative equation below:

Habit + Time = Lifestyle

Timing, as the old saying goes, is everything.  Timing to begin something and timing to complete something is everything in fitness for sure.  If the right amount of time is committed to a lifestyle change, then one can transform themselves into a new person.

In order to form a new and permanent lifestyle, one must create a good habit such as working out.  But the habit must be practiced until it becomes as normal and regular as brushing your teeth in the morning.  One way to form a habit into a lifestyle is to track fitness results.  This is why fitness companies have developed technology to work in conjunction with fitness trackers such as the Apple Watch and Fitbit.

HOTWORX developed such an application that works through its Burn Off App.  The HOTWORX Burn Off App syncs with Apple Watch and Fitbit and works with all other fitness tracker brands that have a heart rate monitor.  The Burn Off App is a great tool for users to track their fitness results through infrared sauna workouts at the 24 hour studios.

With the right tracking technology, users can measure their way into a better lifestyle.  You get what you measure in life.  It’s always important to know what you put in and what you get out of life.  You get what you put in!

Now, back to the 90 Day Challenges.  Why 90 days?

Generally, it is accepted that it takes 21 days to form a habit, and it takes 90 days to change a lifestyle.  This is commonly referred to as the 21/90 rule.

We are all familiar with the rush of people into gyms around the world in the month of January to make good on their decisions to get in shape for the new year.  Unfortunately only 10% of new years fitness resolutions are actually achieved.  Don’t get discouraged if you are in the 90%.  We have all been there.  At first there’s a choice to make.  If you are reading this blog, then you likely have already made that choice to change your lifestyle.  After that choice, though, you gotta take the action!

Commit to the magic 90 Day Challenge and never look back.  With the HOTWORX Burn Off App, when a customer first joins the infrared studio the first challenge in a rolling and permanent series of 90 Day Challenges begins.  Every 90 days the app ends the previous challenge and begins a new one for each customer.  Once a successful 90 day challenge has been recorded, then it must begin again to keep the new lifestyle going.  At HOTWORX we have a t-shirt that has this phrase printed on the front:

Believe, Do, Achieve, Repeat!

Commit to and see your first 90 Day Infrared Fitness Challenge all the way through and do it again, and again, and welcome yourself to your new fitness lifestyle!

I hear from people all the time who tell me they are addicted to HOTWORX.  I also see similar statements as a continuing theme in comments and posts on social media.  The positivity from this engagement is super uplifting!  I’ve read hundreds of comments about how good customers feel inside of the infrared sauna while they workout, and, about the re-energized state of mind and body they have after the workout.  As an avid user of HOTWORX myself, I can attest to this experience personally.  I am addicted to the effectiveness of infrared fitness.

There is a new fitness frontier, the infrared frontier… a cutting edge that has fostered a movement.  We like to call it the “Burn Off Movement”.    

When I go for a few days without my infrared training I feel the need to get back to it as soon as possible…jonesing for more, if you will.

Infrared training has changed my life forever.

I’m a fitness junkie anyway…a gym rat since the ’80’s, but, since I added HOTWORX to my fitness routine three years ago (when we rolled the very first workout sauna prototype off of the assembly line), my fitness rocketed to new levels.

Thousands of others have now had the same experience as well.  Judge for yourself by the comments clipped from social media below:

Why not create a good habit?  Become addicted to fitness!

Try a new method of training that is faster and more effective.

Join the infrared fitness revolution 💪🏽🔥

The most effective way to workout in an infrared sauna is through the use of isometric and HIIT training methods and workout types.

Inside of a sauna the close proximities lends itself to isometrics as opposed to dynamic motion and more ballistic styles of training.  Professional trainers who design workout programs understand that there exists an opportunity for intense workouts with almost no impact to the human body from a properly choreographed infrared sauna routine.

Isometric exercises from the yoga, pilates and athletic disciplines can be crafted into highly challenging cardio, strength, flexibility and endurance workouts with ZERO impact to bones and joints.  As a professional trainer, for that “durability” reason alone, I would recommend low, or no impact training to the mainstream fitness client.  Zero impact training greatly reduces the likelihood of workout injuries.

Zero impact does not mean lower intensity.  Trust me, some of the most intense workouts that I have experienced have come at the hands of isometric postures.  One of the most extreme workouts that I ever encountered was my very first hot yoga attempt.  Take it from an ex-jock fitness fanatic, isometrics are for real…  especially when combined with about 125º of infrared heat!  The challenge of hot yoga hooked me into isometrics for good.  I can tell you today, as a 56 year old, that, primarily due to the many different types of infrared isometrics that I practice, I feel that I am in better shape than I was in my 20’s.

The combination of infrared and isometrics is the perfect way to train for longevity of muscles, joints and bones!

Let’s turn to high intensity interval training (HIIT) now.  Most people think of HIIT as something associated with Cross Fit, Tabata and other high dynamic and plyometric forms of working out.  Rightly so, and just the thought of high intensity intervals makes one conjure up images of jumping boxes, jumping rope, running stadium steps and the like.  HIIT can be performed with almost zero impact though.  All you need is a quality piece of cardio equipment, an infrared sauna and a well crafted interval workout.

In the fall of 2016 the corporate office of HOTWORX made fitness history by placing three indoor cycles inside of the patented HOTWORX sauna while streaming a Facebook live video with three executives sweating and breathing hard while pedaling through the first ever infrared sauna HIIT workout.

This groundbreaking new workout proved that a super fast, intense and effective HIIT routine could be achieved with next to zero impact.

No impact is necessary for outstanding fitness results.  Even if you do practice other high impact forms of fitness such as running or hiking, adding zero impact infrared training will reduce your probability of injury by cross-training your body for elevated recovery from the infrared and flexibility from isometrics.

Now is the time to add zero impact and infrared to the fitness tools in your gym bag!

I would venture to say that most workout routines in America today end in a failure.  They fail due to poor results.  The individual will aspire to achieve the goal but becomes frustrated and falls off the workout wagon.

You gotta stay motivated, so there is that.  But sometimes motivation is lost due to an improper training method, thus, causing an individual to quit.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of people who join health clubs quit because they don’t use the facility enough, and since they don’t come often enough they certainly don’t see the results that they want.

But why do they stop coming to the gym or studio in the first place?

Just as anything in life, a workout routine needs integrity to withstand the test of time.  Workout integrity is based on proper methodology.  Poor workout methods cause people to fall into a workout rut sometimes.  This can lead to fitness negativity, poor studio attendance and outright apathy.

Often times people stop coming because of a flawed workout program that dooms them to failure without them even knowing it.  For example, many people get stuck in a rut of only practicing one workout type.  If all you do is yoga, then eventually you will get bored and either quit or look for a change.  Or, maybe all you do is run and you’ve reached a plateau.  You might be stuck on an indoor cycling routine.

It’s time for some variety!  Get out of that rut.  It’s time to INCORPORATE INFRARED CROSS-TRAINING into your weekly workout routine!

If you are a new member of a HOTWORX 24Hr Infrared Fitness Studio then you have joined a studio that provides you with the opportunity to cross-train until your heart’s content.  It would take almost three weeks of training four days per week to do the same workout type again within a HOTWORX studio.

Take a moment to look over the HOTWORX Training Method:

The key to training success is cross-training my friends.  Use all of the numerous workouts available and never let yourself get stuck on one workout type.  My workout routine consists of five weight training sessions Monday - Friday at 7:30 a.m. and 3-4 Infrared isometric workouts per week usually during my lunch break.  I never do the same isometric workout twice in any given week.  This isometric round-robbin approach provides sufficient cross-training to my routine.

Cross-training provides for a more complete strengthening and conditioning of your muscle groups.

Cross-training does three things:

1-Keeps you from getting bored with the same workout type.

2-Keeps you motivated.

3-Ensures that all of your muscle groups are fully worked and that they are worked differently.

Cross-training creates a wholistic fitness result as opposed to select muscles being worked similarly with only one workout type.

The whole is always greater than the sum of a part.  USE MULTIPLE WORKOUT TYPES!

Cross-training will give you the most from your weekly infrared training routine!

A professional fitness competitor once said to me that “there is no change inside the comfort zone.”  Indeed, that is the truth.  In fact if you are standing still in a comfort zone then you are actually moving backwards while others are passing you by.  In my opinion, the only “comfort zone” that is worthwhile is a good vacation to recharge your batteries for even more action at a higher level.

We are the human race, not the human rest.  We are meant to stay in motion!

In case you haven’t heard, there is an obesity epidemic in our country.  The bottom line is that we sit too much.

At HOTWORX we have a new motivational poster…

“We are now reaping the consequences of not moving our bodies. This should give us a clue, namely, that our bodies were made to MOVE—not to be sedentary."¹   -Dominique Gummelt, PhD

To me there is nothing more disturbing than to witness laziness.  Laziness has levels.  Even those who go to the gym regularly can be guilty of laziness.  There are YouTube videos circulating of customers in gyms where they actually allow eating sandwiches while working out on a machine.  Some of these gyms actually give out sugar filled candy to clients and promote pizza nights.  What is that?  Fitness absurdity!  Fitness can be fun, but it is not a joke.

Health clubs should promote workout discipline and good nutritional habit formation.

Some say that half of the fitness battle is to show up at the gym.  That may be true, but who wants to fight only half of the battle?   If only half of the battle is fought, then nothing has been won.  Where I’m going with this is that I have seen plenty of laziness inside of gyms, not just outside of fitness centers, all over the world.  Just because someone goes to a gym regularly does not mean that they actually workout hard enough to see a change.  As gym and studio owners, it is our job to motivate clients to do more than just show up, but to actually work it.

Sometimes it takes a brutally honest message to clients, out of genuine concern for their health, to get them moving.

Sometimes, tough love is what it takes to get someone’s attention and to jolt them out of their comfort zone.  The same holds true in business management.  People get complacent and “comfortable” with the status quo, when they could work just one more hour or make one more sales contact towards the next level of success.  Of course, in fitness, as I have said as a trainer to clients and to myself during workouts…you can always do one more rep!

People can do way more than they think they can…ALWAYS!

The only way to achieve positive change is to submit yourself to rigorous training in fitness and in business.  There is no easy path to success.  You gotta put in the work.  You gotta learn what you need to know when you need to know it.  You gotta find the discipline.  You gotta get it done!

That said, help is out there.  There are methods to accelerate workout success.  One way is to introduce change to your routine and to stop working out in a comfortable air-conditioned studio or gym all the time.  Supplement your training and step into an infrared sauna workout so that you can step outside of your comfort zone.

I have skied the mountains of Big Bear Lake in California many times.  Beyond skiing, Big Bear is also known as a training ground for champion boxers and MMA fighters.  Why?  Because they know that training in the altitudes of Big Bear can catapult their octagon or boxing ring readiness.  When you can achieve a certain accelerated level of training in abnormal atmospheric conditions, then, when you are required to perform in normal environments you will bring with you a much higher level of conditioning.

The same is true for infrared fitness training.

When you workout inside of an infrared sauna it takes way less time to achieve results.  But that’s not the only training benefit.  After a few consistent weeks of infrared training you will notice, in normal environments, how much easier it is to go through the motions of everyday tasks such as reaching for a book or bending over to pick up a box.

Attack your fitness with a determined effort to step outside of your comfort zone.  Smile when you do it, and make it fun!

¹ https://www.acefitness.org/education-and-resources/professional/expert-articles/5282/proof-that-the-human-body-was-made-to-move

Ahhh… Football season is here and a football game is a social event.  Most people want to look and feel their best at social events.

I have written a couple of blog articles about the impact of upcoming vacations as motivational events for your workout program.  A planned vacation such as a trip to Tulum for the beach or an escape to Aspen for a ski trip can do wonders to motivate you to workout.  But it doesn’t have to be a full blown vacation to motivate.  It can be a simple weekend college football game that drives you to give your best effort at the gym or studio.

Of course, it doesn’t have to be a football game.  It might be a wedding, or a house party, or a Mardi Gras ball, or any event that makes you want to feel your best and look your best when you attend.

A hard focus on event readiness through a disciplined and consistent infrared training program is the key to success!

I use football events because I am an ex player and a huge fan.  I am actually writing this blog post as I ride to Oxford, Mississippi on my way to attend an Ole Miss home opener.  I knew this event was coming soon and I am sure it is part of the reason I have been training so hard with weights and with infrared isometrics the past few weeks.  Fortunately the original HOTWORX 24HR Infrared Fitness Studio is located in Oxford so I will get to maintain my program over the football weekend.

Infrared training works faster than traditional fitness.

Infrared training is important if you have a short amount of time to get ready for an event.  You will be amazed at what you can accomplish in 2-4 weeks of infrared sauna training with at least three workouts per week.

It works so well because of the three dimensional nature of the infrared workout (3D Training = Heat + Infrared Energy + Exercise).  Infrared energy penetrates the skin 1.5 inches and goes to work at the cellular level to accelerate your workout results.  One of the many benefits of infrared generated heat is accelerated heat shock protein (HSP) synthesis.  HSP increases with exercise and with exposure to heat.  Heat shock proteins ward off free radicals and elevate hypertrophy (muscle development).  This increased lean muscle development can help with fat oxidation and weight loss.  Muscle uses more than just carbs for fuel it also burns fat for fuel.

More muscle will increase the fat burning capacity.  That said, more heat shock proteins produced from infrared training can mean a leaner you!

So, start using more events beyond vacations to motivate you to a higher fitness level, and turn your training attention to infrared for better results.

I have been training clients now for three decades.  Since my days of training for bodybuilding competitions I have known from experience that it is always more motivating to train with a partner, or even two training partners.  There is no doubt that training with others is more motivating than training alone.

An audience always provides for extra incentive to perform.  When you train with others you always want to step it up so as not to be seen as a slacker in front of others.  One decision that you will be faced with in fitness is whether to workout by yourself, train with a partner or a small group “session”, or take a “class” with a large group.

As a trainer for many years, I have found that the most productive group size is three.  And this group size is most effective with professional instruction.  With a small group of three the most logical term for the workout is “session”.  In fitness, larger group exercise is almost universally known as a “class”, but for one-on-one training and small intimate group training it is most relevant when referred to as a “session”.

Think about it like this.  Large group fitness is a class and a small group workout is a session.  Another way to look at it so as not to confuse the two is to note that small groups of two or three clients with an instructor is personal training and therefore is most relevant when referred to as a small group training session, not a class.

A “session” is more personal, and therefore, more valuable!

You never hear anyone refer to tutoring as a class.  It is always more personal with one or two students and is known as a session with a tutor.  The same applies with fitness students.  When there is more personal and intimate training it should be referenced as a session, not a class so as not to confuse the two.  Google around and you will see that tutoring is a session.

One example of workout sessions is the schedule offered at a HOTWORX 24hr Infrared Fitness Studio.  HOTWORX offers a variety of infrared sessions with small groups of up to three clients per workout inside of the patented HOTWORX infrared workout sauna.  These sessions are semi-private and intimate with close up virtual instruction.

A fitness class is larger and less intimate.

A personal training workout is a session because it is more intimate like that of a tutor to a student!

The bottom line is this.  While there are certainly some very good large group fitness classes available, they will always be less intimate and less private.  This is why they tend to be less expensive when compared to small group, private or semi-private personal training.  A typical small group or one-on-one training session ranges from $50 to $100 per session whereas most large fitness classes range from only $12 to $25 per class.  That is a big difference in value, and further reason to distinguish a class from a session.  A session is always more valuable.

Seek out a more intimate workout and you just might see better results!

Maybe it is time to try a small group infrared training “session”.

To gain an understanding of the exercise hormone let’s first look at how fat is stored and released.  We store fat when we eat more calories than we burn.  We know that body fat is found inside of white fat cells.  The main function of white fat cells is to store fat.

For those who want to lose weight and lose fat, the goal is to reduce the amount of fat stored inside of those white fat cells.  We can do this by burning fat and sugar for energy during exercise.  This has been known for over a century, but recent research has discovered that there is more to it.

Studies have now shown that working out the muscles produces irisin.  What is irisin?

Irisin is a hormone that alters fat cells.  It has been called the exercise hormone.  In 2009 Harvard Medical School studies and other studies found that there are not only white fat cells that store fat, but there are brown fat cells as well.  Brown fat cells do not store fat, they actually burn fat.  Therefore, the goal should be to increase the number of brown fat cells and decrease white fat cells.¹

It has been shown that irisin does this in mice.  It is likely that this happens in humans as well.

When irisin increases from exercise it causes the browning of human and mouse white adipose (fat) tissues.²

With more exercise intensity, it stands to reason that more of the exercise hormone irisin will be produced within the body causing an increase in brown fat cells and a reduction in white fat cells.

Irisin has also been proposed as a hormone that may be capable of accelerating energy expenditure, weight loss, and decreasing the body’s resistance to insulin caused by diet deficiencies.³

So, workouts that can produce more results by increasing the rate of metabolism can assist you with producing more irisin and thus more brown fat burning cells.

The Journal of Physiology reported an irisin study in 2016.  The research was led by Li-Jun Yang, professor of hematopathology at the UF College of Medicine. Yang and her team discovered that irisin literally suppresses the formation of fat cells.  Their testing proved that irisin reduced the actual number of mature fat cells by up to 60 percent!4

In a statement to the University of Florida Yang said, “Exercise produces more irisin, which has many beneficial effects including fat reduction, stronger bones, and better cardiovascular health.”

Infrared workouts can supercharge your metabolism to generate more of the exercise hormone.  The HOTWORX slogan is “more workout, less time”, and for good reason.  Training in an infrared environment can generate results fast.  The energy expenditure from one 15 minute infrared HIIT session can produce more calorie burn than ordinary workouts that take up to an hour or more to finish in an air conditioned gym.

Try an infrared workout for a more intense workout in less time and to produce more of the fat burning exercise hormone irisin.

¹ https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/major-fat-burning-discovery² https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/irisin³ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6198573/4 https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/201610/irisin-the-exercise-hormone-is-fat-fighting-phenomenon

Every now and then I see an article published by a well known periodical proclaiming that there is no way to detox through sweating.  What planet are they from?  Surely not Earth, and those writers are certainly not paying attention to the scientific evidence.  The question of whether or not sweating is detoxifying has already been answered over and over again through scientific research.  The answer to that question, then, is a resounding yes, sweating does release toxins and toxicants from the body.  The real question is how should the process of sweating be formalized into therapeutic detoxification protocols.

Let’s talk about BPA…

Bisphenol A, commonly known as BPA, is a toxic substance to humans.  Exposure to BPA is linked to miscarriage, obesity, sexual dysfunction and other health problems.

BPA is widely used as a strengthener for plastics such as liquid containers and straws, etc. It is likely that it bioaccumulates in humans according to data from recent studies. Bioaccumulation occurs when toxic substances build up and are stored by the body faster than they can be detoxified.

BPA is excreted in sweat and BPA concentrations in sweat are consistently much higher than in urine.  It is important to note here that infrared sweat is more effective for removing BPA than normal sweating induced from a traditional environment. As for infrared sweat, it is well established that much higher levels of toxic substances are present as opposed to that of sweating from traditional saunas heated by old school convection devices.

We know that significant amounts of toxic substances can be found in human sweat.  One such toxicant is BPA.  BPA is a chemical toxicant that has been linked to adverse health effects on humans.  Currently there is no established detox method to eliminate this contaminant from the body.

Many doctors do recommend infrared sauna exposure for detoxification.  But, perhaps doctors should develop more infrared sauna protocols for detoxification of BPA and other toxic substances.

In one study using 20 participants, researchers assessed the concentration of BPA in blood, urine, and sweat.  The idea was to see if sweating could be an intervention method for detox of BPA from the human body.

Body fluids were collected from the 20 participants and then analyzed for levels of toxicants including that of BPA.  BPA was indeed present at varying levels in blood, urine, and sweat.

The study concluded that, “Biomonitoring of BPA through blood and/or urine testing may underestimate the total body burden of this potential toxicant. Sweat analysis should be considered as an additional method for monitoring bioaccumulation of BPA in humans. Induced sweating appears to be a potential method for elimination of BPA.”¹

Conclusion:

Avoid products with BPA such as plastic water bottles and straws, and avoid touching or even accepting register receipts as both of these have BPA that can be passed on to your body.  Of course there are many other sources of BPA that you can come in contact.  So, you should  also create a weekly detox plan so that your body does not become victim to bioaccumulation of this dangerous toxicant.

What can greatly enhance your detox efforts is a weekly hot exercise program such as one of the infrared workout programs offered by HOTWORX.  Take advantage of infrared sauna workouts that can deliver a high level of detox through accelerated sweating.

¹ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22253637

Here's the bad news first:

Aside from the cosmetics, belly fat is a major health problem!

As quoted from one New York Times article, “If your waist measures 35 or more inches for women or 40 or more inches for men, chances are you’re harboring a potentially dangerous amount of abdominal fat.”¹

Subcutaneous fat is obvious and easy to see when it increases or decreases.  It is the visceral fat that is more problematic and harder to track.

“Abdominal, or visceral, fat is of particular concern because it's a key player in a variety of health problems — much more so than subcutaneous fat, the kind you can grasp with your hand. Visceral fat, on the other hand, lies out of reach, deep within the abdominal cavity, where it pads the spaces between our abdominal organs.

Visceral fat has been linked to metabolic disturbances and increased risk for cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. In women, it is also associated with breast cancer and the need for gallbladder surgery.”²

To explain further, the fat you can see and pinch on your body is subcutaneous fat and the fat you can’t see is visceral fat. Visceral fat builds up between and around organs of your mid-section including your stomach and intestines. This excess abdominal fat disrupts hormonal balance and functioning.  Visceral fat is linked with higher cholesterol.  Visceral fat also increases resistance to insulin leading to diabetes.   Toxic chemicals such as cytokines build up due to excess belly fat and increase chances for heart disease.  More bad news…belly fat is linked to colon, pancreas and esophagus cancer.

The results of a study (done in conjunction with the Million Women Study in the UK) were published in 2013 in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.  The study found that “High body mass index (BMI) and large waist circumference are separately associated with increased coronary heart disease (CHD) risk but these measures are highly correlated.”³

The good news:

A consistent infrared fitness program can greatly accelerate the burning off of visceral fat.  Infrared energy penetrates up to 1.5 inches into the body through the skin and goes to work inside of fat cells.  The infrared energy and heat helps to burn the fat away through cellular vibration, accelerated blood circulation, and more efficient oxidation.

According to a recent study by Binghampton University in New York, “Participants were exposed 5 times per week for a 30 minute infrared sauna at 110 degrees after 3pm. On average, the study subjects lost about 0. 5% body fat per week totaling approximately 4% over 8 weeks.”4

For an added burn, try a Core Compressor from HOTWORX.  This neoprene waist compression band can greatly enhance certain types of isometric postures forcing even more circulation and fat oxidation.  The Core Compressor will also elevate the level of heat (directly onto the belly and waist area) to an even greater degree in the infrared sauna during workouts.  The increase in your body's core temperature will help stimulate even more perspiration around your waist.

Fight the good fight every week to reduce as much visceral (belly) fat as you possibly can.  Of course you will look better, but what’s even more important is that you will become a healthier version of you.

¹ https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/11/well/live/belly-fat-health-visceral-fat-waist-cancer.html² https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/abdominal-fat-and-what-to-do-about-it³ https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/20474873134926314 https://infraredsauna.com/weightlossstudy.pdf

First of all, let’s clear the air when it comes to the way we throw around the term toxins.  Most people use the word toxins to describe all toxic substances.  This is wrong.  There are two forms of toxic substances, toxins and toxicants.  The word “toxin” should only be used in describing natural forms and “toxicant” should be used to describe non-natural sources.

To be super clear, as a matter of reference it should be noted that toxins originate from natural sources such as poison from a plant or venom from an animal, and toxicants are from man-made sources such as petroleum exhaust and pesticides.  There is a great deal of confusion on what constitutes a toxin.  Most people erroneously tend to apply the term toxins to all bodily pollutants.

Unfortunately for all of us our bodies are bombarded daily with toxic substances, mostly of the toxicant variety.  We are invaded through our skin, eyes, nose, and mouth by pollution we breath and poisons we touch or that make contact through bodily orifices.  Pollution is everywhere on our planet.  Extended buildup of toxic wastes by the body causes damage to DNA resulting in premature aging from tissue and organ degeneration.  Toxic buildup also poisons enzymes and can lead to failure of countless bodily functions.  Toxic buildup displaces structural minerals such as calcium which leads to decreased bone strength. It is because of this that more and more of us are beginning to practice some form of a body detox program.

The HOTWORX training method is an excellent choice for a regular detox program.  HOTWORX  uses a three dimensional approach known to the company as 3D Training.  3D Training incorporates three elements including exercise, infrared energy and heat.  This combination allows for what is quite possibly the most effective detox workout in the fitness industry.

Your body retains both toxins and toxicants in fat cells and other fatty organs such as the brain.

Note:  If there is no fat you can’t store toxins, so keep exercising and eating clean!

Additionally, know that infrared exposure makes the fat soluble toxic waste removal from cells a more efficient process. This explains why so many doctors use infrared sauna therapy to help patients eliminate toxic wastes from fat cells.

Now, add exercise with infrared sauna exposure and you can just imagine the acceleration of the detoxification process through improved circulation, breakdown of cellular fat, and through amped up sweating!  Increased circulation is promoted from a series of isometric compression postures.  When a posture such as the eagle pose in yoga is performed for an extended hold, then upon release from the isometric you can actually feel the rush of blood circulation pumping through your cardiovascular system.  Of course, during the workout infrared energy is breaking down the fat in your cells to ready them for disposal through sweat, exhalation, and the lymphatic system.

In summary, understand that there are two types of toxic substances that your body must fight against, toxins from natural sources and toxicants caused by human industry.

Consider adding an infrared fitness program as a main component in your body detox plan.

Last week our company held a franchise convention in Las Vegas at the Planet Hollywood Hotel.  One of the highlights of that convention was the announcement of a new workout that we have appropriately named Hot Barre None.

Yes, you heard that right, Hot Barre “NONE” is coming soon to a studio near you!

Hot Barre None is an all out barre workout that burns 20-30% more calories than hot yoga!  This workout was especially choreographed for HOTWORX and will be exclusive to HOTWORX members when it is rolled out this August.  This workout represents a year in the making.  It was filmed, and then re-filmed, tested and then retested with various different types of ballet barre hardware inside of the infrared workout sauna.  After all of that it was determined that no barre hardware was even necessary to provide a great barre workout…thus, the name Hot Barre None.

We discovered that by using the back wall of the sauna as a simple way for clients to reach for balance, or rest a hand on the wall for support during exercise rather than the use of an actual barre provided for an even better workout.  So, during the workout the virtual instructor will cue clients to use the “barre none” which is the sauna wall at the appropriate level according to their individual waist height.  

After researching the topic of proper barre height for fitness it became clear to me that barre height for fitness is best when tailored for the individual and not the same height for all.  Here is a set of barre height recommendations from one online ballet source, dinamicaballet.com:

1. “Level with your elbow”

2.  “At arm’s length, without raising your shoulder”

3.  “Level with where your hands are in the second position”

4.  “Between the hip and the waist”¹

Of course, the HOTWORX Barre None can now accommodate all of those recommendations without the limitations of one barre height for all.

The individualized height for hand placement is certainly an advantage but not the only Hot Barre None advantage, for sure.  What about the barre workout inside of the infrared energy environment and the 125º heat?  Just imagine it.  I can assure you that you will be pleased with the workout results.  For me, the workout burns about 25% more calories in the same amount of time that I burn in the HOTWORX Hot Yoga.  Now that’s adding even More to the More Workout, Less Time!

The new and super unique workout Hot Barre None is something that you really need to try when it is released.

¹ dinamicaballet.com

Those who know me well know that I have great respect for the historical figure General Patton.  Indeed, I do have a fascination with America’s most successful general.  Patton’s army gained the most territory, killed and/or captured the most number of the enemy in the shortest amount of time of any other American general.  When I think of Patton I think of results.  In fitness, the only way to obtain results is to take action.  Patton believed that an army should always be on the attack.  He never believed in falling back to regroup, and in his words “I don’t like to pay for the same real estate twice”.

More Action = More Results!

It is important to keep setting fitness goals and continually attack them.  If you set a goal to be a certain weight or body fat percentage for an event or for an upcoming vacation, when it’s done, be sure to immediately set a new goal for the next event or vacation.

We are hosting our annual franchise convention this week in Las Vegas at the Planet Hollywood Hotel.  We are right in the middle of the “action” on the Vegas strip.  This is a very appropriate setting as our convention them is ACTION this year.  As a part of our duly themed convention we are hosting a benefit for the Sacred Mountain Retreat for Wounded Warriors and First Responders.  Our military and first responders take action every day to keep us all free and safe.

In keeping with our theme we reached out to include teachings from successful military minds to help us improve our fitness services franchise.

Our keynote speaker is Retired Lt. General Russel L. Honoré.  Most people remember the no nonsense, take action approach he brought when he came in to restore order, rescue people and clean up the mess Hurricane Katrina left in the City of New Orleans.  I remember it well.  When the politicians failed us he came in and got the job done.  As soon as he got to the city, positive results started to happen fast.

I recently read two of Gen. Honoré’s books, Leadership in the New Normal and Don’t Get Stuck on Stupid (with the subtitle “Leadership in Action”).  One of my favorite takeaways from his books is “Good leaders are not afraid to take on the impossible.”

With your fitness program you can achieve what you might think of as impossible.  Be the leader of yourself and always take on what you want even when it seems impossible.  You can always do one more rep and you can do one more set.  The bottom line is that you can always do more than you think you can do, guaranteed!  Take on a never quit attitude and you will surprise yourself with newfound productivity.

Speaking of productivity.  If you are looking for more action out of the time you have set aside for fitness, then try infrared training.  At HOTWORX we call our workout method 3D Training - exercise+infrared energy+heat.  Instead of the traditional workout in an air-conditioned weight room, try working out in an infrared sauna to shorten the length of your workout and to obtain all of the benefits of infrared energy absorption and heat therapy.  This triple action approach to fitness delivers MORE WORKOUT in LESS TIME!  You CAN make the impossible possible through an action approach to your fitness program.  Infrared training can provide more action for your body during your workout time!

Get more done. Take action now.  Your health and fitness depends on it.

Fitness Discipline

It should go without saying that you have to be disciplined if you expect results from your fitness regime.  Only YOU can get yourself to the gym on a regular basis.  You must find a way to muster the self discipline that it takes to keep yourself going consistently.  Make your workout regime a part of your life in the same way that you brush your teeth in the morning.  Working out can be fun if you train your mind to become a fitness enthusiast.  Training your mind to create a good habit takes discipline.

I am reminded of this classic statement in fitness, “excuses don’t burn calories!”.  Rid yourself of unproductive excuses.  Excuses detract from your ability to make self discipline a habit.  If you are serious then you will find the time to build a lifestyle around your fitness needs.  Don’t let the age old excuse of “I just can’t find the time” sap your ability to stay on track.  Everyone CAN find the time to live a healthier life.  Everyone CAN find the time to get stronger in body and in mind and to build a much higher quality of life.  Prune the excuses off of your personal tree and allow the branches of personal growth accelerate!

That said, though, third party motivation is sometimes necessary to keep you disciplined.    Third party motivation can come in the form of a personal trainer or a virtual instructor or virtual personal trainer.  Find what works for you.  Use Google alerts, or something similar, to remind you when you need to be at the gym or studio.  Find a good app like the HOTWORX Burn Off App to help you track your performance with your Fitbit or Apple Watch and to assist you in setting workout appointments.  Tools exist to increase your accountability to yourself!  Google around to find them. Use them.

Franchise Discipline

HOTWORX is a rapidly growing 24 Hour Infrared Fitness Studio franchise.  Perhaps you have an interest in owning a business, or maybe you already own one.  Discipline is of paramount importance in the business of franchising a fitness concept.  Moreover, fitness is almost synonymous with discipline and a fitness studio is in the business of teaching fitness discipline to clients.  At any HOTWORX franchise location you will see numerous motivational posters with catch phrases and statements that are there to motivate and to promote self discipline such as the one you see above this blog post.

A Franchise requires organizational discipline.  The franchise organization must consist of team minded entrepreneurs.  Franchising is a team sport, not an individual sport.  Think football as opposed to golf.  Individual minded entrepreneurs who have trouble staying disciplined within a team are never happy as a franchise owner until they come to understand the importance of teamwork for the benefit of the brand as a whole.  It requires discipline and a belief that the whole is always greater than the sum of its parts.

Conclusion

Take this quote to heart…

“All successes begin with self-discipline.  It starts with you.”

                                                              Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

If you want success in fitness, you must find the self-discipline to live a FITNESS LIFESTYLE.  If you want success in franchising, you must find the self-discipline to be a true TEAM ENTREPRENEUR.

FAST…

From the beginning we set out to create a workout to be performed in the now patented HOTWORX sauna that would give clients a better workout in far less time.  When HOTWORX began creating the infrared sauna workout routine, Hot ISO was the first and the only infrared workout for a brief time.  From Hot ISO we learned quickly that isometrics performed inside of the infrared sauna produced fast results.

Hot ISO was created as a fusion of athletic isometric holds such as wall sits and squats with yoga and pilates isometric postures such as the warrior pose and various forms of planks.  Soon after Hot ISO we created our own version of Hot Yoga, and like Hot ISO, it only required 30 minutes per session.  Hot Pilates came later with the same short 30 minute session and many more isometric workout types have been created since based on the same short 30 minute infrared session.

While the heat causes a fast sweat, the compression postures that are choreographed into the routines combine with the infrared energy and the heat to speed up blood flow and accelerate detox.

As evidenced by the vast number of 5 star reviews that attest to how fast it works, we can now declare with certainty that our infrared workout experiment was successful.  Infrared training provides for a great workout in less time.  Time is money, as they say, and a faster workout can help to allow time for other things in life that are important too.

UNIQUE…

Just the fact that a workout is performed in a sauna led by a virtual instructor is still something unique in fitness.  HOTWORX takes the uniqueness of workouts to a new level, though, beyond the fact that workouts are performed inside of an infrared sauna at 125 degrees.   Many of the HOTWORX workouts are created by fusing workout disciplines.  Take the Hot Warrior workout, for example.  Hot Warrior borrows from yoga, pilates, martial arts and athletic isometrics.  This is fusion fitness choreography.  In addition, there are isometric workouts combined with slow dynamic reps that maximize the use of various types of bands that have now been created by the HOTWORX team.  Uniqueness arouses the curiosity of clients and keeps them engaged.

HOTWORX was first to market with infrared HIIT training routines led by virtual instructors as well.  These HIIT workouts only require a 15 minute session to provide for an amazing cardio workout!

EFFECTIVE…

There are many many benefits from infrared training.  Without a doubt, infrared training produces the most and the highest quality sweating session that can be found in fitness.  Studies have shown that infrared induced sweating is 7 times more detoxifying than that of sweat from a traditional fitness studio, weight room or from a traditional sauna.

Training inside of an infrared sauna will increase your calorie burn during and after the workout.

The heat from infrared causes your body to produce heat shock proteins for a very anabolic (muscle building) type of workout.

Infrared is good for your skin while you enjoy a great workout.

Infrared improves circulation.  

This list goes on, but you get the picture!  Infrared workouts are very effective.

If you’re ready for a different way to workout that is more effective and fast, then you should now consider adding infrared training.

Bullhorn announcement!

Four and a half years ago HOTWORX filed for a patent and subsequently filed for another patent in an effort to protect the innovative sauna design and function.  Copycats, or design thieves as I like to call them, can now beware.  I am very pleased to announce that as of June 10 we were approved for our design patent!  After multiple lawyers and many, many hours and days of work, toil and anxiety we finally were granted what is probably the most important piece of our patent puzzle, a patent for the sauna design.  After years of patent pending status, it is nice that we can now say that the HOTWORX workout sauna is patented.  The official title of the invention as applied for and approved is:

Infrared Sauna For Isometric Exercise

When I set out to design the HOTWORX infrared workout sauna I can remember sitting in our war room at the office for hours thinking through all of the variables that needed to be considered.

Such as:

The design of an infrared sauna for workouts was critical so that the correct absorption of infrared can be obtained by the clients.  The design had to take into account workout postures and client positioning from all angles during any workout.  The configuration of the heaters and how they should be mounted and where they should be mounted along with what should be the most effective distance between clients and the source of infrared is a very important thing that must be precise.

I had to make a decision on where to place the tv monitor, and one of the most important design elements was to make the back wall (opposite of the wall with the tv monitor) completely free from the mounting of any heaters, while making sure that the sauna room was still properly filled with the right type of infrared heat at the right place for up to three clients at any given time during the workout.  By design and in practice, the back wall is constantly used during the workouts as a tool for exercise for certain isometrics such as calf raise, wall sit for quads, and as a place for hands to use as an aid in balance for other types of postures and exercise movements and holds.  This is why the back wall needed to be free from anything that could restrict client movements into various isometrics, and free from anything that might reduce the quality of the workouts.

The entry of the sauna was created as a glass sliding door for convenience so that people walking through a workout area full of saunas would not be impaired from movement due to sauna doors that were constantly swinging out into the hallways.  This new sauna entry design also allowed for less square footage needed in the fitness studio floor plan.  The traditional sauna door that swings out requires the need for three extra feet of hall width to pass most building codes.

There are many other elements of the HOTWORX sauna design that I will save for a later discussion.  The important thing to know is that the patented design of the HOTWORX sauna accommodates for three clients to achieve the perfect hot exercise session!

Throughout the course of any given day our skin is bombarded with unwanted pollutants from the air, from things we touch and even things that we wear.  Dirt, dead cells, toxicants and natural toxins build up and clog the pores which can lead to skin damage.  This buildup of micro “gunk” can also reduce the flow of oxygen and blood inside of skin cells.

We need a skin detox routine!

Infrared sweating is good for clearing the skin.  Sweating expands pores and forces everything out.  As a natural skin purifying alternative to chemical products you can try infrared workouts.

Go ahead and “Sweat it Out” as we say at HOTWORX.

Infrared energy penetrates the skin up to 1.5 inches causing toxic substances to be released from cells and the heat generated from the infrared forces the body to sweat.  Sweating pushes everything out through the pores and cleanses the skin in the process.

TIP:  Be sure to wipe your skin immediately after sweating and during your infrared workouts.  Wiping off the sweat ensures that the toxic substances do not remain on the surface or re-enter the body back through the skin.  One of the most effective practices is to use a cold, essential oil infused towelette during and after your infrared workouts.  I recommend the use of a cold, natural lemon oil towelette.  Each of our HOTWORX 24 hour infrared fitness studios make these chilled towelettes available for purchase at any given time through our vending machines that can be found in the workout area for convenience.

In last weeks blog post I mentioned how infrared exposure can be beneficial to women during that time of the month.

“Another annoying side affect from PMS are those unruly breakouts. During that time of the month your skin takes a beating again because of the rising and falling level of hormones in your body. Utilizing an infrared sauna enhances skins tone, elasticity, clarity, and firmness. The expelling of toxins along with the body ability to naturally sweat/open pores also allows for a perfect opportunity to deeply cleanse the face after a warm session.”¹

As I travel the country visiting various HOTWORX studios I listen to customers.  Many of them have told me that they LOVE the way the infrared workouts make their skin look and feel.  If you haven’t tried an infrared workout, then you don’t know what you are missing.  In addition to all of the other benefits, do it for the health of your skin!

¹ https://kaliperiodical.com/5-period-benefits-of-infrared-saunas/

I always like to tell people that a HOTWORX workout is a “recovery workout”.  When training in an infrared environment you will actually gain relief from workout soreness while you train and you will experience a recovery from the workout while you are working out.

Infrared energy and heat provide relief from pain, naturally, without meds.

Dr. Will Cole, a functional medicine practitioner, recently stated that, “Infrared saunas are one of my go-to tools for relieving pain and I have seen them do wonders for many of my patients suffering from various health problems, chronic pain in particular.”

Infrared energy penetrates 1.5 inches into your body through the skin to work at the cellular level to remove toxic waste and it also helps to improve circulation whereby delivering more oxygenated blood and nutrients to muscles for pain relief and faster recovery.  Millions of people suffer from pain due to poor circulation.  Most office environments are not equipped to help and are actually contributing to this epidemic of poor circulation.  Sitting at a desk all day requires a good workout to get the blood flowing again.

Heat is known for muscle soothing.  Infrared saunas generate radiant heat the same form of heat that comes from the sun.  No doubt most of us have experienced the soothing feeling of the sun when we go to the beach.  Radiant heat has been used for pain relief for millennia.  Around the fifth century B.C. Egyptian physicians created rules for sun and heat therapy.

I was informed recently that infrared saunas can provide relief to women during monthly menstrual periods.

“In general, there is no reason why a woman should not use the sauna during her period. If your periods are too light, using the sauna regularly can improve your condition by increasing the flow of blood to the uterus. Using the sauna can also help to relieve period pains, since warmth has a soothing effect on cramp-like pain…”¹

“Allowing the blood vessels to properly open and the muscles to relax can also help slow down the amount of prostaglandins your body is producing, which is the hormone that causes cramping and inflammation as a natural healing process/defense mechanism when the initial stages of menstruation are underway.”²

In addition, other forms of pain can be relieved naturally through infrared sauna workouts.

One study noted that pain and stiffness from Rheumatoid Arthritis decreased clinically, and improvements were statistically significant through infrared exposure.³

The leg pain caused from Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD) can be managed through the use of an infrared sauna.  The Journal of the American College of Cardiology reported findings from a study using infrared saunas which found that IR “therapy improved symptoms, status, and blood flow in patients with PAD”.

Infrared workouts can provide relief from Fibromyalgia pain.  In one study of 44 female fibromyalgia patients, subjects were exposed to 3 months of sauna therapy 3 times each week, and they were also given underwater exercise 2 times each week.  Pain and other symptoms decreased by 33% to 77%, and the improvements were still present by 28% to 68% after another half of a year had gone by.4

When workouts are combined with an infrared sauna it is possible that the power to relieve pain accelerates due to the compounded circulation improvements caused by the fusion of infrared energy, heat and exercise.  We call this a 3 Dimensional Workout, or 3D Training.

For natural pain relief try an infrared workout routine!

1 https://www.klafs.com/health/faq-for-well-being/menstruation.html2 https://kaliperiodical.com/5-period-benefits-of-infrared-saunas/3 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/186858824 https://universityhealthnews.com/daily/pain/new-hope-for-chronic-pain-sufferers-infrared-sauna-therapy-shows-impressive-pain-reducing-results/

There are many health benefits resulting from an infrared workout routine.  The first that comes to mind for me is detox.

Did you know that infrared induced sweating causes sweat that contains seven times more toxicants than bodily sweat from a traditional convection heat source?

Since our topic for this article is detox, let’s make clear the difference in what we are talking about.  A toxicant is man-made and a toxin is natural.  “The terms toxicants and toxins both refer to toxic substances. But, toxins are natural products such as the ones found in poisonous mushrooms, or in a snakes' venom. Toxicants are man-made products, artificial products introduced into the environment due to human activity; examples are industrial waste products and pesticides.”¹

We are constantly absorbing toxic substances into our bodies.  Unfortunately we continually breathe pollution in the form of fossil fuel exhaust, second hand cigarette smoke, and many other toxicants in our atmosphere. We unwittingly eat pesticides and preservatives.  We touch surfaces of things allowing toxins and toxicants to enter our bodies through our skin, and we drink bad things too.

We all need to make a conscious effort to detox!

Working out with infrared energy and heat causes our bodies to sweat at an accelerated rate.  From the moment you enter into an infrared workout sauna such as the patent pending HOTWORX sauna, you begin to feel the deep penetration of energy and heat through your skin.  This infrared absorption through your skin stimulates cells to action.  The cellular vibration from infrared light waves causes your body to release toxic waste to be excreted through metabolic functions.  Your sweat glands play a very active role in the excretory system.  Sweat it out!

I recommend a good infrared workout sweat for detox at least three times per week.

Do something good for your body…add an INFRARED WORKOUT DETOX to your fitness regime.

1 https://www.pbs.org/odyssey/class/toxin_question.html

Realign your fitness immediately after vacation this summer.

It’s important to reset your fitness program following a vacation.  The best thing to do after unpacking and settling back in is to get back to the gym immediately!

One of the most influential sales professionals of my career always would tell me that procrastination is the “sworn enemy of achievement”.  John Paul, now well into his 70’s, still manages the sales force for one of the largest Gold’s Gym franchise ownership groups in the world.  That franchise group is located in Southern California.  “JP” knows how to get productivity from a team.

Procrastination kills productivity.  That’s the truth, in business and in fitness.

A great vacation always involves well deserved relaxation and celebration.  Both of these things are necessary rewards for long periods of hard work, but a great vacation can also result in a period of post vacation procrastination unless your motivation level is addressed immediately when returning home.

At HOTWORX we like to say, “Believe, Do, Achieve, Repeat…”  Somewhere in that continuous success loop there are times to stop, relax, and reflect.  We call those times vacation.  Perhaps vacation is a moment for re-establishing your belief in what you are doing.  That’s good, but “DO” is next in the loop!

DO, or action is the antithesis to procrastination!  Always remember that dreams without action are merely pipe dreams.  Action is the precursor to achievement, and is therefore, the sworn enemy to low productivity, laziness and procrastination.  When you work hard to achieve some great success, take a vacation and then get right back to “doing” the moment you get home.

As in your career, the same goes for your fitness!

Take a look at fitness on the set level.  In most yoga workouts a posture is formed and then held for one to two minutes usually.  During that posture, how you hold your level of focus and intensity determines how much progress you will make with your body.  Then, following the posture there is a brief moment of rest, and possibly a child’s pose.  As soon as the moment of breathing, recovery and reflection is over, it’s back to action and on to the next posture over and over again until the workout is done.

Getting back to action immediately as you move into the next posture is vital for best results.

Working yourself into great shape requires attention not to move too slow, or procrastinate as you gain proper form into the next exercise.  Go into the next posture on cue with the instructor, and not after the instructor.  As you work harder and harder, you will gain a higher level of conditioning, and, you will begin to find it much easier to immediately jump into the next pose with the instructor.

Push yourself to stay on cue.  Don’t be lazy!

Our corporate office team took a well deserved vacation cruise last week.  We returned to New Orleans on Thursday evening.  The very next day at work my colleague and I took a lunch workout and decided that HOTWORX Hot Yoga was the best choice to realign our fitness after the vacation…especially after being on a boat in motion on the high seas for 5 nights.  That 30 minute session was challenging from a balance standpoint, but was just right for a post vacation reset.

Defeat procrastination!

Take fitness action immediately after your summer vacation this year.  Your professional and personal productivity will thank you for it!

Everyone knows that a good workout can do wonders for stress.  So, what happens to stress when infrared is added to the workout environment?

Magic happens.  Speaking from experience, I can tell you that it’s like a 3X stress management session!

Last week I had the opportunity to workout with two guests from Australia who are exploring the possibility of developing our franchise in the land down under.  They took me up on an offer to try out our version of hot yoga at one of the corporate HOTWORX studios in Marrero, LA.  From the moment the three of us walked into the infrared environment our moods began to elevate.

“Infrared sauna therapy promotes relaxation by helping to balance your body’s level of cortisol, your body’s primary stress hormone. The heat generated by the sauna will also help to relax muscles and relieve tension throughout the body, allowing you to relax and de-stress.”¹

When you are under stress your body raises levels of cortisol and your blood pressure rises along with blood sugar levels.  This can lead to a lowered immune system response rate and poor weight management.  Higher levels of cortisol can cause your body to store fat for fuel.

Cortisol is the most powerful stress hormone in the body.

Just like magic, walking into an infrared workout sauna immediately begins to work to achieve  optimization of hormonal balance.

Prior to the invention of the HOTWORX workout method, people had never experienced such an accelerated de-stress while working out!

Many studies have shown that infrared exposure is also good therapy for depression.

As reported by WebMD, the medical doctor who performed two such studies stated the following:

“We recently did two studies in which we placed individuals with major depression into a high-tech infrared heating device, induced hyperthermia, and then watched to see what it would do to their depressive symptoms.  In the first study of 16 individuals with major depression, a single hyperthermia treatment reduced their depression scores almost by 50% five days later.”²

One unanticipated effect was noticed during those studies.  The effects of only a single infrared session continued for six weeks.

If you are looking to improve your mood and manage your stress, consider working out in an infrared sauna.

HOTWORX, a 24 hour infrared fitness studio franchise chain offers multiple types of workouts for clients to experience while inside of a patent pending sauna.  The HOTWORX infrared sauna is designed for semi-private sessions with up to three people at a time.  The workout sessions are led by a virtual instructor.

Amp up your de-stress with an infrared workout.

¹ https://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-12265/6-benefits-of-infrared-sauna-therapy.html² https://blogs.webmd.com/mental-health/20160707/can-sitting-in-a-sauna-ease-depression

I would submit to you that conventional thinking will never out discover unconventional thinking.  We have all heard the expression, “think outside the box”.  Unconventional thinking is an out of bounds practice and requires the courage to allow the mind to explore.  You Imagine better things, and then you think hard to create a path to those things.

The necessity to forge that path, and the appropriate level of action will then lead to discovery of a more effective way to do anything!

What about fitness?  No exception here.

Unconventional thinking led to the discovery of a better way to workout.  In the case of this blog topic, let’s think about more workout in less time through the use of an infrared sauna.

Results from training inside of an infrared sauna are far superior to the results of a traditional weight room workout, especially when time is factored in.

Thinking “outside” of the box led to a better way of working out “inside” of a box.  The premise was this propositional question…

Why workout in an air-conditioned room freezing out the performance of your muscles when you could train in a high-performance environment with at least 3x the results?

Here’s the 3x.

1. With an infrared sauna workout you get the advantage of accelerated sweating and detox.  Studies have shown that sweat from an infrared workout has seven times more toxic bodily waste than sweat generated from a traditional workout environment.

2. With an infrared sauna workout your heart rate will reach the optimal range much sooner than with a traditional gym.

3. Infrared energy penetrates the skin up to 1.5 inches into the body during an infrared workout activating cells and increasing the rate of metabolism.  No traditional weight room can generate that performance result.

Of course, there are many many other benefits to training in an infrared environment that create better workout results.  I only listed three.  Just google around the net and look into the research.  Better yet, go ahead and try an infrared workout for yourself to see how you feel after.  Start thinking “inside the infrared box” for your fitness.  I know that you will be impressed with your results.

I am a meritocratist.

I believe in advancement through merit.  Merit is the only fair standard.  It is a quality that values individual ability and achievement.  Of course talent is important, but, as in sports, abilities can be improved to an incredible extent based on the heart of the athlete.  Merit calls for a strong work ethic and drive combined with high personal standards to establish a winning attitude.

You get out of life what you put in, period!

A good trainer can keep you motivated and show you how to improve skills, but in the end…

IT IS ALL UP TO YOU!

“Meritocratists believe in the individualist credo: If you have the abilities and work hard enough, you can compete with anyone to make your dreams come true. Meritocratists disapprove of programs that use race, culture, ethnicity, class, gender or any cultural identity dimensions as criteria for an opportunity, believing instead in personal merit.”¹

What is the success formula for a meritocratist?

“Hard work + Individual initiative + Self-sacrifice = Limitless opportunities in society”²

This is most certainly true in fitness.  What you put into your workout routine is without a doubt what you will receive in terms of results.  There are ways to accelerate your results and those “ways” are known as tools and methods such as an infrared workout sauna for added detox and calorie burn, and a workout system such as the HOTWORX 3D Training Method.

Remember this, in fitness, as in life, excuses get you nowhere.  Excuses are for complainers and low performers.  “I just don’t have the time” is the number one excuse in fitness.  What that really means is, “I am just not focused on achievement right now.”

MAKE THE TIME for what is important.  You CAN get it all in.  If time is an issue, then find a workout that gives you more results in less time.

Your health is the most valuable thing that you have.  Better health = better quality of life.  Put in the time for your fitness program and you will get out a longer, higher quality life and a better sense of self.

Is motivation the problem?  Upgrade your playlist and get rid of the negative people in your life!

Are you hanging out with negative people?  One of the biggest problems with productivity in America is negativity.  Don’t let yourself get drawn in to a group of negative complainers.  You know the old saying…”Be careful who you hang out with because you will soon become just like them.”

Hang out with winners!  Surround yourself with people who believe that you get out of life what you put in.  Don’t hang out with the “what can you do for me” crowd.  There’s no better feeling than to be with a winning team, and there is no worse feeling than to be with a losing team.

Losers find excuses not to achieve and winners just work hard and find solutions on their way to the top!

Music can help to motivate you to put more into your training.  When I train in the FX Zone at HOTWORX I usually have my headphones in and will listen to some very positive high energy tunes.

“You get what you put in, and people get what they deserve.”  Kid Rock

I recently went on a business road trip to Chicago and found myself without the availability of an infrared workout.  I stopped in at the Oxford studio for a quick HOT ISO workout and then it was nice to get back home to NOLA for more of what I needed… infrared workout acceleration at HOTWORX.

After only a few infrared sauna workouts I could tell an immediate difference in body and in the way I felt.  It is nice to have the option nowadays to get more out of my workouts in less time.

Stay motivated, avoid negative people and put in the effort.  Your merit is worth it!

You get out what you put in.

¹ https://theidentitypost.com/are-you-a-meritocratist/² https://theidentitypost.com/are-you-a-meritocratist/

This week I have had the pleasure of working from Chicago in a fantastic American community known as Lincoln Park.  What an amazing spot for culture, art and, of course, fitness.  We are under construction for our new HOTWORX studio next to DePaul University home to one of the top theater schools in the country.  I managed to find a little time to explore the area and I immediately noticed a beautiful art museum (foreign art only) on campus that is free for admission (just donations).    As an artist myself, I began to feel right at home.  Thus, I was inspired to write an artsy blog post for this week.

Here it is.

I once took a course in “Systems Thinking” for business in grad school and I remember that the cover of my textbook included an image of our solar system with the planets in systematic orbit around the sun.  That interesting cover for a business book certainly made me think before I began to read.

Systems thinking, in a nutshell, as presented to us by the professor, taught the practice of nature observation to find solutions for business problems.  My masters program was for organizational management, so the course was focused on business problem solving.  Systems thinking, though, goes beyond business and can be applied to every facet of life as a tool to open the mind to unlikely, or, I should say, unknown solutions.

The problem has already been solved by nature, you just have to look to see it!

Stay with me.  I know this is a fitness blog and the point will be forthcoming.

My favorite artist is Van Gogh.  Of course he is most famous for the masterpiece Starry Night which is displayed at the Modern Museum of Art in New York City.  I finally saw the work last summer up close and personal while in Manhattan.  I wonder what Van Gogh might have been pondering as he created those galactic bodies in the night sky.  As he painted during the day, he recorded his imagined view of the pre-dawn sky with a village under the heavens from a window facing east from his asylum room in France.

What was he solving?

The result was a masterpiece for humanity to experience, and maybe that was the solution he wanted.  I would submit that he was practicing a form of systems thinking.  Who knows? The important thing is that he left us with a masterpiece to ponder based on his ingenious perspective of nature.

So, I’m sure you are wondering right now, what does systems thinking have to do with infrared training?

When it comes to fitness innovation and the application of infrared it only takes a look back to the science (and art) that discovered infrared to know that there is a connection to the natural world of radiant heat from the sun and systems thinking.

Infrared was discovered through a scientific experiment by an astronomer and music composer from Britain in the early 19th century.   His name was Sir William Herschel, who is also famous for discovering the planet, Uranus.  His discovery of infrared has led to hundreds of inventions that have made our lives more healthy, convenient, and productive.

One such invention is that of the HOTWORX infrared workout sauna.  Infrared is the natural form of heat.  When you walk outside on a sunny day and feel the radiant warmth, you are experiencing the infrared energy absorption into your body through your skin.  This is the same, very natural effect that is happening inside of the infrared sauna.  This is one great example of looking to nature to find a solution…a systems thinking invention for fitness.

The HOTWORX method is a system.  In the same way that the solar system works together as one organization of movement in space, the HOTWORX training method works together through unlimited combinations of workout types to form a cohesive training program tailored to meet the needs of and to accelerate results for clients.

Science and art work well together!

When you find some time, google around to check out the many different “systems thinking” theories and practices to see how you might become inspired to find new ways to solve problems.  Why not use it with your exploration of an infrared fitness program!

With HOTWORX, there are limitless ways to combine workouts through cross-training.  There is no limit to your imagination when it comes to creating the best workout regime to suit your personal needs.

Try systems thinking as you create your best infrared fitness lifestyle.

High intensity interval training, or HIIT, has proven to be more effective than traditional workouts with respect to using fat as fuel, especially when combined with an infrared heat environment such as the HOTWORX fitness sauna.

Excess post oxygen consumption, or EPOC, is much higher with HIIT due to the oxygen required by your body for recovery following the sets of high intensity training.  The infrared energy and heat of the workout environment immediately works to elevate your heart rate as well.  The EPOC, or calorie after burn, is greater when compared to other forms of exercise.  Greater calorie burn usually equates to more fat loss.

Infrared HIIT will send your body into EPOC more rapidly than other more traditional forms of exercise. “This in turn will elevate the consumption of fuel and in particular the body’s fat stores.”¹

Infrared training is a method of producing heat shock proteins and HGH naturally within the body.  “The release of HGH is just one way that hyperthermic conditioning increases muscle growth. It also reduces the amount of protein degradation that naturally occurs during both muscle use and disuse. As a result, this increases the net protein synthesis in your muscles, which ultimately promotes muscle growth.”²  Hyperthermic conditioning by way of a definition simply represents the act of allowing your body to acclimate itself to a heated environment such as an infrared sauna.  Of course, when body composition changes to a higher muscle content, lipids can be used more effectively as a source of fuel.

Large amounts of lactic acid is produced while performing HIIT, which also aids in the production of HGH.

IDEA Fitness Journal 2014 excerpt:

“What is the Effect of HIIT on Impacting Fat Loss and Weight Management?

Boutcher (2011) observes that the striking surge in epinephrine and norepinheprine from HIIT training may serve a catalyst role for improving fat loss. Both of these fight or flight hormones (also known as adrenaline and noradrenaline) have been shown to drive lipolysis (the breakdown in fat), and are largely responsible for fat release from both subcutaneous and intramuscular fat stores (to be used for fuel in exercise). Specialized adrenergic receptors on fat cells are known to activate lipolysis (Boutcher). Interestingly, more adrenergic receptors have been found in deep abdominal (also called visceral fat because it surrounds the internal organs of the body) fat as compared to subcutaneous fat. Boutcher asserts that HIIT may thus have the potential to specifically lower abdominal fat stores, which have been implicated as the unhealthy fat depots in the human body. Kessler et al. (2012) summarize that it appears that at least 12 weeks of HIIT is needed in order to have notable changes in body weight and or percent body fat.”³

HIIT can be an excellent workout type if fat loss is a priority.  Add infrared HIIT to your 90 day challenge and see where your physique takes you.  Just three days per week and 15 minutes per HIIT session can make a huge difference in your body composition.

HOTWORX promotes a rolling 90 day challenge through its “burn off” app that is available for members to use to track their workout calorie burn and one hour after burn.  Twelve weeks, or 90 days is the magic amount of time that is necessary to create a lasting change for a fitness lifestyle.

¹ https://www.origin-series.com/13/13/high-intensity-interval-training² https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/05/24/sauna-benefits.aspx³ https://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/metabolicEffectsHIIT.html

Yoga is a workout type, a discipline for sure, but there are no rules in yoga. There are many many styles and methods. The different forms of yoga and the combinations of yoga posture sequencing, or flows are unlimited. Yoga is left to the imagination of those who practice the ancient form of fitness.There is a style of yoga to match any goal or need of the client.There are methods of yoga that require a 90 minute posture sequence, and some are choreographed to 60 minutes or 30 minute sessions. Some yoga styles are practiced within air-conditioned studios, some outdoor, others heat the environment to 90ºF or up to 104ºF as in Bikram.Many now like it even hotter…Enter HOTWORX Yoga, where sessions are performed in an infrared environment at 125º for a 30 minute posture sequence led by a virtual instructor.In 2014, the HOTWORX organization pioneered the use of a new patent pending infrared sauna designed for isometric exercises such as yoga. Thus, the practice of yoga in a sauna was popularized.HOTWORX uses a modified sun salutation flow as a warm-up and then a series of 14-16 postures are performed to complete a 30 minute session inside of a specially designed small group infrared workout sauna for three people.The benefits of infrared yoga are numerous. The obvious advantages include accelerated sweating for detox and elevated challenge from more heat to speed up results for a shorter workout session.Some of the benefits of infrared for yoga are listed below:-greater muscle flexibility due to the added heat-increased detox from the penetration of infrared energy through the skin at the cellular level-shorter workout time to obtain the desired results-muscle recovery while practicing yoga sequence due to infrared penetration and heatBenefits of infrared, in general, include:-boosted metabolism for greater calorie burn-improved cardiovascular function from lowered blood pressure and better circulation-pain relief-stress relief-reduces depression and anger-lowers fatigue-improves sleep-improves digestion-skin purification-reduces effects of SAD-faster wound healing and reduced scarring-strengthened immune system-greater production of heat shock proteins for improved strength gainsI would highly recommend hot infrared yoga for those who desire to get the most health benefit and results from their practice in the shortest amount of time!

What is HIIT?

High Intensity Interval Training, aka HIIT, usually consists of a warmup then 30 second intervals of high intensity sets involving the use of some type of cardio machine.  Cardio machines are not necessary but are useful tools to facilitate the interval sets.  The high intensity sets are followed by lowered intensity sets that take usually take up only 50% of the time of a higher intensity interval.  For example, a 30 second high intensity set would be followed by a 15 second lower intensity set of medium or low tension and/or effort.   Lower intensity sets allow for a clearing out of the lactic acid so that the individual can proceed to another high intensity set.

Keep in mind, there are no hard and fast rules here.  HIIT routines vary based on the needs of the athlete or fitness buff.

The HOTWORX HIIT workouts are 15 minutes (12.5 minutes of actual intervals) and bounce from high intensity to medium, and then to low with a proper warmup in the beginning and cool down at the end.

How did HIIT become such an in demand type of workout?

“High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) boomed into the fitness industry a few years ago as if it was a new revolutionary way of training. However, this form of training has been used as early as the 1920’s with Finnish Olympic long-distance runner Hannes Kolehmainen, who utilised interval training within his programming.”¹

By most accounts, HIIT was originally associated with cycling or running.  Accounts of HIIT training with olympic athletes date back to the early 20th century.  I remember using a form of HIIT every football season as an athlete.  Usually at the end of practice the coach would have the team form lines and he would blow the whistle and require us to run an all out 40 yard sprint with very short rest between running.  There would usually be 20-30 sprints as a part of the end of football practice cardio conditioning phase.

“in the 1924 Olympic games Paavo Nurmi, a finish athlete, used interval training in his preparations leading into the games where he won several gold medals. In the 1930’s we saw the creation of fartlek training from Swedish coach Gosta Holmer. Fartlek was a different type of interval training but still had very similar principles in that it allowed individuals to work at higher intensities. In the 1970’s Sevastian Coe used interval training as part of his preparations. He would perform 200m runs with only a 30second rest before repeating. More recently, and probably the most famous protocol which really sold HIIT to the industry was the creation of tabata training in 1996 by professor Izumi Tabata. Originally performed on Olympic speed skaters. Tabata would have athletes working flat out (170% VO2 max) for 20seconds, followed by 10seconds rest. This was repeated for 4 minutes (8 rounds).”²

There are many different versions of HIIT.  They are usually designed to deliver the top results for a certain type of sport and for a certain type of athlete.  For general fitness we have discovered that the 15 minute HIIT works best.

Of course, the history of HIIT is not a complete story without mention of the HOTWORX innovation, or dare I say audacity of innovation when it introduced HIIT training inside of the small group infrared workout sauna in the fall of 2016.  With the use of the workout sauna at the corporate offices three execs rolled three indoor cycles into the infrared sauna and blasted through a HIIT workout.  Shortly thereafter, HOTWORX began to produce HIIT videos for the sauna and the practice of high intensity interval training inside of the workout sauna was born into the fitness industry!

¹ https://originfitness.com/knowledge-and-advice/high-intensity-interval-training-hiit-the-beginners-guide/
² https://www.origin-series.com/13/13/high-intensity-interval-training

Let’s begin with what the word isometric means.  According to the Merriam Webster online dictionary, the definition as related to fitness is an adjective meaning anything “of, relating to, involving, or being muscular contraction (as in isometrics) against resistance, without significant shortening of muscle fibers, and with marked increase in muscle tone.”¹

According to one study, isometric exercise can be defined as “exercise without motion or as the attempt to move an immoveable object. The term isometric contraction is derived from the fact that during exercise there is no change in the length of the muscle. Iso means same, metric means length. Although no work is done, near maximum effort is extended.”²

There are differing reports as to the etymology of the word.  Webster’s claims that the first known use of the word, as to equality in measure, was in 1855.

Based on another account, isometrics was first used in “1838, literally [to mean] "of the same measure," from iso- "the same, equal" + -metric. The components are Greek: isos "equal, identical" + metron "a measure." Originally a method of using perspective in drawing; later in reference to crystals. The physiological sense relating to muscular action is from 1889, [which is derived] from German isometrisch in this sense (1882).”³

Most agree that the word isometric originated from the Greek word isos, which means "the same", and metron which means "size".  “Thus, isometric contraction means tensing the muscle without the muscle itself changing length.”4

In the ancient Orient, isometric exercise dates back 5000 years.  Ancient martial artist and yogis created postures to honor deities of their respective cultures.  There is evidence of martial art forms dating to 3000 BC in countries such as India, Pakistan and Nepal.

“What is known is that martial arts began in the ancient cultures of Asia, including China, India, and Japan. In both China and India, artifacts from 2,000 to 4,000 years old have been found with paintings of people striking possible martial arts poses.”5

Buddhist monks created a “flow” of 12 self-resistance, or isometric exercises which were introduced to monks in China in the twelfth century.  Interpretations and variations of this series of postures has been practiced now for centuries by martial artists across the globe.

Martial artists today still use the isometric practice of flowing from one fighting stance to another in an exercise sequence.

“The stillness in stillness is not the real stillness; only when there is stillness in movement does the universal rhythm manifest.”

                                                                                Bruce Lee

Yoga is another original form of isometric exercise.  It was first developed in ancient India.  Yoga also dates back to approximately 3000 BC based on stone carvings of some of the first yoga postures found in the Indus Valley.6

Yoga is equally responsible for the development of isometrics into the exercise form we know today.  The “flow” of exercise postures is largely recognized and associated with the practice of yoga.

Isometrics is an ancient form of exercise, for sure.

Many modern forms of isometric exercise methods have developed recently including:  hot yoga, pilates with the use of gravity alone, barre exercise, and the Hot Iso, which is an athletic isometric flow combined with infrared energy and 125º heat created by HOTWORX.

Isometrics needs no equipment.  As in martial arts and yoga, only the use of your body and gravity is required.  In some instances, basic tools such as bands and suspension straps can enhance the performance of modern isometric exercise.

Isometric training is good for muscle toning and strength gains and there is zero impact to the structure of the body.

Central Washington University research indicates that “isometric and isotonic exercises were essentially the same in producing strength increases.”  Isotonic exercise involves dynamic motion using sets of repetitions. “The tension recorded in a single maximum isometric contraction was not much different than the weight that could be handled in a single maximum isotonic contraction. Some of the studies show isometric exercise resulted in greater strength gains. Other studies reveal isotonic produced greater increases, and other studies showed no significant differences.”7

Isometrics provide strength gains and muscle toning results to more specific muscle groups as compared to dynamic weight training which provides for larger muscle group gains.  Depending on your goals, isometrics alone might be all you need, or isometrics may be the perfect supplemental exercise program to polish off your fitness routine.

Isometrics is perhaps more relevant now to exercise than it has ever been in human history.

The best advice is to just GET MOVING and discover the right balance, but be sure to incorporate a modern version of isometrics for more results!

1 https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/isometric2 https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1771&context=etd3 https://www.etymonline.com/word/isometric4 http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/shenandoah/OBB/History.html5 https://www.encyclopedia.com/sports-and-everyday-life/sports/sports/martial-arts6 https://yogasix.com/history-of-yoga/7 https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1771&context=etd

The old school way of getting your cardio in reminds me of the rock band Creed song “My Own Prison”.

I am sure there are many people like me who have spent countless hours on various cardio machines such as treadmills and stair steppers slaving away painfully, step after step after step.  Yes, you know what I mean.

Three years ago I declared my independence from treadmills and steppers.

FREEDOM!!!  How exhilarating it is.

I changed my cardio routine forever when I began practicing the HOTWORX method of fitness.  Image if you could actually get excited to go do cardio.  That’s the way it is for me now.  I am actually stoked to step into an infrared sauna for my workouts.  On any given day for me it might be yoga, or pilates, or a quick HIIT workout inside of the small group fitness infrared sauna.  Whatever it is, I feel like it’s game time throughout the whole workout.

Immediately when I enter the sauna my heart rate jumps and in no time I am at my target 85% of heart rate max continuously during the workout.

I never even pay attention to the fact that I am doing cardio because the workouts are fast, intense and they flow well from set to set, posture to posture or interval to interval.  The virtual instructors are very motivating and they ensure that the workouts move at a good pace.

I tell people that it’s  “ghost cardio”.  It’s a great cardio workout that you never even know you’re doing.

Free yourself from treadmill drudgery.  Join in on some infrared fitness excitement!

I see the social media comments and I am not the only person who is experiencing the infrared workout fun.  I workout in the HOTWORX usually with two co-workers.  The camaraderie inside of the sauna is so much greater than what can be experienced on a treadmill next to another treadmill.  When I go into other gyms I always take note of how sad people look when they are on a piece of cardio equipment.  Take a look for yourself next time.  Maybe you are one of those sad faces on the treadmills.  Even the name of that equipment connotes monotony…“tread” and “mill”…a grinding walk, if you will.

Declare your independence now and welcome yourself to the cardio freedom club.

[video width="1024" height="768" m4v="http://hotworx.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Steve-Blog.m4v"][/video]

Click the video above to play!

EXERCISE + HEAT + INFRARED ENERGY = MORE WORKOUT, LESS TIME…. When heat and infrared energy are layered in with your workouts like the video illustrates, the effectiveness of your training elevates.  We call this 3D Training.

Three Dimensional Training was developed by HOTWORX to shorten the time that is necessary to achieve the desired workout results of calorie burn, strength and toning, and detox.  The 3D Training Method involves the fusion of three elements including (1) exercise for body movement, (2) heat to force body acclimation to a new workout environment, and (3) infrared energy to activate metabolism for detox and muscle recovery.  You can better visualize this fusion dynamic by looking at the image below:

HOTWORX discovered that there are two types of exercise that are most effective when practiced in a proper infrared setting such as a sauna where the source of the infrared is located in a precise proximity to the human body.  HOTWORX designed a sauna for this purpose and currently has two patents pending for the invention of the small group training infrared sauna.  These two types of workouts are isometrics and high intensity interval training, or HIIT.

Isometrics such as yoga and pilates force internal organ and muscle compression through static posture holds whereby accelerating detox with the increased circulation of blood.  This is felt as a rush when the compression postures are released.  The original HOTWORX workout known as Hot ISO uses a 30 minute posture sequence that is based on a more athletic set of holds such as the wall sit.

HOTWORX HIIT for 15 minutes in the group training infrared sauna at 125º F provides for a superior lower body burn and cardio torch in a Hot Cycle session.  Clients can gain a total body torch with a new workout called Hot Blast that uses Total Body Trainer equipment from Keiser (a combination bike for lower body and upper body push and pull bars).

With exercise as the sauna practice rather than the traditional practice of sitting or laying in the sauna, the elements of heat and infrared energy become even more profound and effective as the metabolism revs up during the quick workouts.  The results of these sessions can be seen each time a customer shares their workout results on social media from their use of the HOTWORX Burn Off App.  This app allows the user to record the calorie burn (automatically with Apple Watch and Fitbit) so long as their fitness device (any device of their choosing) has a heart rate sensor.  They are able to record their workout results, back-to-back if there are multiple session, and then the one hour calorie after burn.  Here is an example of a customer share on Instagram:

In this real life example, and according to the HOTWORX Burn Off App integrated with the fitness tracker that she trusts, the customer burned 309 calories during her workout and over 400 in the immediate one hour after her workout as her metabolism was still in high gear from her 3D Training experience for that day.

Pro athletes have been training in alternative environments to gain an edge forever.  Think of the MMA fighters who go to the high altitudes of Big Bear Lake, CA.  Most of us have seen the Rocky movie where he trains in the snow of a Russian winter.  As an athlete, I remember my own two-a-day football practices in August in Mississippi in the sweltering heat and humidity in the team efforts to gain conditioning for the weekly night games in the fall.

Take your workouts from black and white to full color!  Try a 3D Training routine.

Over the past three years I have written many articles concerning infrared and fitness.  Sometimes I am still asked very basic questions such as “what is infrared?”  And, sometimes, well, actually more than just sometimes, I am still looked at with a deer in the headlights expression when I begin to explain “infrared fitness”.

Everyone knows fitness, but not so many know about infrared.  Once explained, however, all are amazed and convinced to give infrared fitness a try.

The knowledge base is growing with the help of resources like this HOTWORX blog.

So, in this article, let’s begin the story with the basics and go straight to the definition according to Merriam-Webster.

in·​fra·​red | \ ˌin-frə-ˈred. adjective

Definition of infrared

1: situated outside the visible spectrum at its red end —used of radiation having a wavelength between about 700 nanometers and 1 millimeter 1

The red light waves have the longest wave length of all of the visible light waves.  Infrared is located just beyond the red visible light waves.  Infrared is invisible.

The origin of the word comes from “infra” which is Latin meaning below and of course the word “red”.  When the two are combined, below+red is “infrared”.  Infrared light waves lie just “below” or after the visible red waves… “below” red and into the non-visible area of light.

In the early 19th century, a German scientist who became a naturalized citizen of the UK discovered the existence of infrared light while experimenting with different colors of the light spectrum as it passed through a prism.

So, who was this scientist?

He was William Herschel, the son of a German military family.  His father was a military musician and he himself became an accomplished organist and composer.

Sir William Herschel (knighted by the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order - German2), who’s original name was Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel, 1738-1822, was a British astronomer born in Germany, and became the “founder of sidereal astronomy for the systematic observation of the heavens. He discovered the planet Uranus, hypothesized that nebulae are composed of stars, and developed a theory of stellar evolution.”3 He was knighted in 1816.

He used thermometers to measure the temperature of the different colors and as a control he placed a thermometer just outside of the red.  He noticed that temperatures increased as he moved thermometers from the violet end of the spectrum to the red end of the spectrum. To his astonishment he inadvertently discovered through the control thermometer that the area with no color beyond red was actually hotter than the area with color.  What he found was what we now know as infrared heat/energy. 4

Herschel concluded after further experimentation that the sun must emit invisible light beyond the visible red.  The European Space Agency’s infrared space observatory (ISO) is now formally named for him…

“The European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory (formerly called Far Infrared and Sub-millimetre Telescope or FIRST) flew the largest single mirror ever built for a space telescope. At 3.5-metres in diameter the mirror collected long-wavelength radiation from some of the coldest and most distant objects in the Universe. In addition, Herschel was the only space observatory to cover a spectral range from the far infrared to sub-millimetre.”5

As you can see, infrared has an interesting story.  Since its discovery just over 200 years ago, entreprepreneurs have found ways to use it in commercial settings for numerous applications that give modern life more quality.

One such use of Herschel’s discovery is the HOTWORX invention of the small group infrared fitness sauna.

Now that you know the story of infrared discovery, you might be inspired to find ways to incorporate this gift from the sun into your daily fitness routine.

1 https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/infrared2 https://academic.oup.com/astrogeo/article/54/3/3.23/2118303 https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Herschel4 https://www.well-beingsecrets.com/health-benefits-of-far-infrared-rays/5 http://sci.esa.int/herschel/

I have written about this before, but I will continue to write on this topic to remind myself and blog readers of the importance of this simple fitness strategy.  Vacations are the greatest motivators of all to get people moving towards a fitness objective.  I write this blog post today from Park City, Utah during one such vacation.  Obviously my trip involves snow skiing.

I am reminded of a book that I read while in graduate school for organizational management.  The first sentence of the book went something like this…”The most important four letter word in business is G-O-A-L.  Without a doubt, setting a believable and achievable goal is the single most important motivator in business.

The same principle works in fitness for your personal routine.  Set a believable and achievable goal and go for it.  However, if you want to add a level of motivation to your fitness routine, you can elevate your goal by including a deadline for accomplishment that coincides with a day that you will leave for a vacation.  Consider planning a vacation that becomes a part of your fitness goals.

For example, your vacation might involve sports such as snow skiing or surfing or hiking, or why not run with the bulls in Pamplona!  These types of vacations will require for serious planning and timing of a fitness regime that will culminate in your best personal conditioning for the trip.  Once you schedule one of these types of vacations, your determination to be ready will serve as a serious motivator as you train in the months and weeks leading up to the vacation.

Consider incorporating infrared fitness to your vacation training routine this year if you want to add more efficiency to your workouts.

For your next vacation, pick a destination that motivates you to train!  Schedule a trip now to supercharge your workouts.

Get you some “vacation motivation”!

I was recently asked by one of our employees in Chicago whether or not infrared exposure is good for treatment of seasonal affective disorder, aka SAD.

“Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that's related to changes in seasons — SAD begins and ends at about the same times every year. If you're like most people with SAD, your symptoms start in the fall and continue into the winter months, sapping your energy and making you feel moody.”¹

Lack of sunshine and extreme (mainly cold and cloudy) weather conditions can cause this disorder.  Light therapy is good to counter the symptoms and to improve your mood.  Infrared is one form of light therapy and has been shown to be an effective way to treat the symptoms of SAD.

Here are two studies to support the use of infrared as a treatment for SAD…

“Thirty-eight patients with SAD participated in a light visor study addressing two questions. 1. Can the development of a depressive episode be prevented by daily exposure to bright light started before symptom onset in early fall and continued throughout the winter? 2. Does the light have to be visible in order to have beneficial effects? Three groups participated in the study: I (n = 14) received bright white light (2500 lux); II, (n = 15) received infrared light (0.18 lux); III (n = 9, control group) did not receive any light treatment at all. Infrared light is just as effective as bright white light. Both are more effective than the control condition. Light visors can be effectively used to prevent the development of SAD. The fact that exposure to infrared light was as effective as exposure to bright white light questions the specific role of visible light in the treatment of SAD.”²

“Light therapy was only partially effective in treatment of depression when compared with summer's sunlight. The antidepressant effect of infrared irradiation was evaluated using an experimental animal model. Seventeen mice were randomly assigned to the exposure group (n = 9) and the control group (n = 8). The mice in the exposure group received infrared irradiation for 60 min daily during the study period of 4 weeks. The two groups were given forced swim test once a week to evaluate depression with the measurement of the immobility time. We found that the exposure group showed a tendency of less immobility time by the end of the 3rd week when compared with the control group, and at the end of 4th week the difference reached a statistical significance (t(15) = 2.873; p = 0.012). The result indicates that the immobility time in forced swim test, the sign of depression, can be reduced after prolonged (4 weeks) exposure to infrared irradiation in the animal model. The result suggests that a continuous application of infrared irradiation has antidepressant effect.”³

I hear all the time and I read reviews from customers of HOTWORX the same post workout comment.  “I feel so good after a workout in the infrared”.

Infrared has a very uplifting effect on your mood and now has been shown through scientific research to be a positive treatment for SAD!

¹ https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/seasonal-affective-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20364651² https://www.researchgate.net/publication/12880246_Prophylactic_treatment_of_seasonal_affective_disorder_SAD_by_using_light_visors_Bright_white_or_infrared_light³ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6219980_Infrared_irradiation_has_potential_antidepressant_effect

Product and service integrity is always of paramount importance no matter what industry.  I would argue that this is especially the case with the fitness industry.  Without the establishment of workout types and methods, workout chaos and schizophrenia ensues.  When new workout types and methods are created, it is then important for those to form into a discipline.

This type of discipline is defined as “a branch of knowledge, typically one studied in higher education.”  For example, ”sociology is a fairly new discipline”¹.  This definition can be applied to new forms of fitness as well.  In our example, discipline is not used in a punitive sense, only to describe the importance of workout training method integrity and the need for clients to adhere to training method principles for maximum fitness results.

For 38 years now, since the age of 18, I have been involved in the fitness industry.  After my freshman season in college football, I began an intense weight training regimen for football and I took on a part-time job at a local gym and began to sell memberships and to train clients for the owner of the gym.  I have seen and practiced many different forms of training for football, bodybuilding, and for general fitness.  I have obtained multiple certifications including AFAA personal training, TRX suspension training, isometric floor exercise among many other certifications and clinics.  After almost four decades of observing and practicing these many forms of fitness disciplines including weight training, yoga, pilates, band routines, plyometrics, etc…, I have come to appreciate those workout types that adhere to discipline of flow, posture, interval, repetition, and consistency within the routines.  This is because the higher the level of integrity of a workout type, the higher the level of results!

It is for this reason that we decided to distill the innovative new HOTWORX practices into a well defined method of infrared training for general fitness.  Please take a moment to read below:

HOTWORX TRAINING METHOD

Providing “More Workout” in “Less Time” is the driving force behind the creation of each workout type for HOTWORX.  A workout “type” by way of example is Hot Iso, another is Hot Yoga, or Hot Cycle, etc…

3D Training:

HOTWORX provides a 3 DIMENSIONAL TRAINING experience with elements of (1)exercise, (2)heat, and (3)infrared energy through the use of our patent pending sauna for each of the isometric and HIIT workout types.  Training in a 3D environment greatly accelerates your metabolism, gets you to your target heart rate sooner, and forces your body to acclimate to the heat which conditions you for optimum performance in normal everyday environments.

CONSISTENCY:

We adhere to the fundamental workout principle of CONSISTENCY because muscles strengthen most efficiently from practice through a logical training sequence.  Therefore, the choreography and production of each HOTWORX workout type pays special attention to the consistency of flow and postures for isometrics, and consistency of intervals for HIIT.  This is a vital component to provide for performance measurability and to accelerate progression of strength and skill.  Muscles respond to signals and cannot be shocked or confused.  Muscle strength is gained through training method consistency.

CROSS-TRAINING:

CROSS-TRAINING incorporates the use of multiple workout types within the same day or the same week of a workout routine.  CROSS-TRAINING is a vital component of the HOTWORX method and it alleviates boredom from the practice of only one workout type.  CROSS-TRAINING keeps motivation high and promotes the work of different muscles and different work for the same muscles which elevates your performance for each consistent workout type you practice.  CROSS-TRAINING allows for multiple sets of muscles to be worked and strengthened rather than only the muscles that are worked from the practice of a single workout type.  We encourage the practice of multiple workout types such as programs that combine the use of yoga, pilates, indoor cycle HIIT along with others which work together and form a personal workout regimen.

IN A NUTSHELL:

*The practice of performing the same workout type differently every day is unsafe, less effective and is not a part of the HOTWORX method.

*The practice of performing a different workout type every day of the week or within the same day, so long as the workout type has CONSISTENCY is most effective.

*CROSS-TRAINING diversifies the training program, accelerates progression and motivates.

*This training method combined with the elements of heat and infrared energy creates fitness routines that are faster and more effective.

WORKOUT VIDEO PRODUCTION:

We update and freshen select workouts every six months with a subtle evolution of flow, postures, interval moves and sometimes with new virtual instructors.  We maintain the workout type consistency and familiarity so that our members can easily measure progress and so that fitness gains can be made more quickly and efficiently.

RESULTS:

Fast, positive results for our members is what matters the most.

Practice of the HOTWORX infrared training method delivers greater flexibility, strength/muscle tone, endurance, cardio conditioning, fat loss, and mind/body detoxification.

MORE WORKOUT, LESS TIME

¹ https://www.google.com/search?ei=-cNyXKL6CIO0swXR7ovQDg&q=definition+of+discipine

There is an epidemic in the fitness industry today and it is a “plague” known as workout consistency ignorance!

As the old saying goes, Ignorance is Bliss!  In fitness, though, it is not bliss.  It causes chaos.

Of course, ignorance of what is right is simply a symptom of not enough education.  Fitness facility operators sometimes provide poor counsel to clients due to the lack of proper knowledge of training methods and workout best practices.

Perhaps the most misunderstood aspect of fitness training is the importance of workout type consistency.  The thing that is most annoying to me as a trainer is the requests for constant change within a workout type.  Change within a workout type should be rare, subtle and it should be for a very good reason such as an upgrade to the flow or a better posture.  The change, though, cannot disrupt a clients ability to continue with enough familiarity so as to hinder the previous measurement of progression.

As an example, if you practice yoga, then how will you know if you are making progress if your workout is changed constantly?  What happens if you do an eagle pose within your flow and you notice that your are getting better in form and balance with each successive workout… and then one day you come in and the eagle pose has been erased from that workout?

Chaos ensues if there is too much disruption to a routine because there is no consistent measure of progress.

This “plague” of fitness consistency ignorance causes workout routines to go amok.  

It is maddening to listen to the uneducated and inexperienced requests and ramblings for change to a workout when people don’t know what they are talking about.  In response to these unfounded requests, trainers tend to go overboard in a knee jerk reaction for the sake of “muscle confusion principle” so far to the extent that there is nothing to measure progress against.  

YOU GET WHAT YOU MEASURE IN FITNESS, AS IN LIFE.

Experts agree…

“Strength IS a skill, just like anything else, because if you want to attain a high level of it, it demands consistent practice!”¹

Amen to that, and to this…

“You don’t need to ‘shock your muscles’ or ‘keep your body guessing’ or do silly muscle confusion workouts or anything equally dumb. It’s a myth.”²

“To confuse/shock the muscle: This is the most popular reason for changing exercises. You cannot confuse or shock a muscle, period. It is physiologically impossible.  Muscles are passive tissues that contract when told to do so. It doesn’t have a brain of its own to get confused.  It is as stupid as saying if you pull an elastic band in a different angle you confuse and shock the band.”³

“Learning Curve: Every exercise has a learning curve called Neural Changes or Adaptations(nervous system adaptations). It is just like learning to ride a bike. You get better at whatever you do with practice.”⁴

If you are not able to measure present performance against past performance, then how will you know whether or not your are making progress?  The only way to properly measure workout performance is to do a posture flow or HIIT routine over and over again and measure progress of that exercise practice until you get it right…and then, there is always more room for improvement!

Commit to something and stick to your commitment!

Knee jerk reactions by trainers and fitness center operators to ill-informed requests from clients for change has caused untold numbers of injuries and has thrown countless fitness programs into disarray.  What clients are really asking for is variety, and even though they think they can gain some edge from changes to a workout type, it is not the right approach.  Within any given workout type it is best to focus on progression through skill improvement.

Skills improve with practice of measurable exercise, period.

To alleviate boredom, cross-training is the proper way to go to obtain workout variety.  Cross-training is not to be confused with Cross Fit (Cross Fit is a workout method that employs the heavy use of plyometrics).  Cross training is the use of multiple workout types to enhance the performance of each workout type.

Some 15 years ago, I began a one-on-one training program with a football coach to prepare myself for an opportunity to play arena football.  I trained for a year and a half to get ready.  I went to meet Coach Turner at New Orleans City Park outdoor training track and field facilities for the hour and a half sessions three times per week.  Coach Turner knew the right mix of consistent drills and exercises to allow for my progress to be measured.  When it came time for the actual football training camp in Columbus, Georgia, I showed up in the best shape of my life at the age of 41.  My improved skills and excellent conditioning was all due to the consistent training methods that Coach Turner had introduced me to.  If it works for football, then you can rest assured that it works for general fitness!!!

The HOTWORX Workout Method takes a logical and measured approach to revisions for each of the workout types that is offered both for hot isometrics and hot HIIT.  HOTWORX has discovered through experience that workout type revisions are best when they are done on a bi-annual basis.  Therefore, new workout videos are released every six months for most of the isometric and HIIT routines.  The bi-annual releases incorporate subtle changes and tweaks to the workout flows and postures for hot yoga, hot pilates and all of the other isometric based workouts and small revisions are made as well to the HIIT routines. These revisions, though, are not overdone and always remain consistent to allow for measurability.  Subtle changes are made if necessary in terms postures and sequencing within the flows, and new virtual instructors are introduced when needed to keep the sessions fresh while remaining consistent to the HOTWORX workout method.

Remain consistent my friends and track your progress if you want to obtain the greatest results from your fitness program!

¹ https://www.constantforwardprogress.com/cfp-blog/4-reasons-why-consistency-in-training-is-the-most-important-driver-of-long-term-results-and-how-to-make-sure-you-stay-consistent/2016/9/13² https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/when-why-how-often-should-you-change-your-workout-routine/³ http://www.exercisebiology.com/index.php/site/articles/why_you_should_not_change_exercises_too_often⁴ http://www.exercisebiology.com/index.php/site/articles/why_you_should_not_change_exercises_too_often

I hear it everywhere I go when I visit a new HOTWORX 24 Hour Infrared Fitness Studio…

Customers tell me, ”I feel so good and so energized when I finish an infrared workout”.

Of course, finishing any type of workout, infrared or not, makes you feel good and gives a sense of accomplishment, but I have never heard people rave about workouts in the way that they do about the 3D training method that combines (1) heat, (2) infrared energy, and (3) exercise.

Why?

It’s because of the absorption of energy through the skin from waves of infrared light. Infrared penetrates the skin up to 1.5 inches into the body and stimulates cellular activity!

According to a 2017 medical study as reported in PubMed Central® (PMC) which is a free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature at the U.S. National Institutes of Health's National Library of Medicine:

“Increasing evidence suggests that IR can carry out photostimulation and photobiomodulation effects particularly benefiting neural stimulation, wound healing, and cancer treatment. Nerve cells respond particularly well to IR, which has been proposed for a range of neurostimulation and neuromodulation applications, and recent progress in neural stimulation and regeneration”¹

The article goes on to teach that…

“For billons of years, the sun has generated IR radiation and living organisms on earth have evolved to deal with IR radiation as an important environmental factor depending on their habitat. Many ancient therapies have applied sunlight for wound healing and pain relief.”²

And the punchline of the article is…

“Since the human body is made up of 70% water, it can potentially accumulate a large amount of energy that could modulate biological processes, by strong resonant absorption of IR radiation from sunlight mediated by water molecules.”³

Modern infrared heater technology has now enabled the creation of workout environments that can provide IR exposure to clients while they workout.  Exposure to infrared is stimulating and rejuvenating.  When IR is combined with a workout, the effects from working out are then magnified by the infrared.

It makes good sense to elevate the effectiveness of your workout environment and to obtain the highest level of stimulation from your training sessions.  One way to do this is to incorporate infrared workouts into your weekly fitness routine.

¹ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5505738/² https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5505738/³ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5505738/

Fitness Studio Air Quality matters, especially for hot yoga, pilates and other forms of hot exercise.  Most fitness centers that incorporate some form of heated studio into their fitness programming use traditional heating that is blown in by an HV/AC system.  This type of heating relies on the pumping of hot air into a room in the effort to raise the temperature of the workout environment.  The problem with this is the air quality.  Air blown from venting is processed and dirty.  To add to the issue, when the air is blown through the vents as it is pushed out through a furnace and it is loud.

I recently took a hot yoga class from a large chain studio in Chicago.  The first thing I had to work through was the small size of the rental mat…then, there was the towel that only covered about 1/2 of the mat and looked like something out of a highway motel.  The instructor was good, but the cueing was difficult to follow because he was all over the room and difficult to see most of the time.

Never mind those things, though, it was the air that was a problem for me more than anything.  The air was stuffy, smelly and loud as it was pumped into the room.  To me this is an old school way to experience a hot exercise session.  While I was taking that class, I remember thinking to myself how much I missed my infrared sauna yoga.  I much prefer the more sanitized air quality from an environment that is created by radiant/infrared heat, which is much like the outside air exposed to the radiant energy of the sun.  The difference between traditional convection heating and infrared heating is stark.  I would rather workout with no heating noise and with clean air.

[video width="720" height="480" mp4="http://hotworx.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/The-Air-is-Awesome.mp4"][/video]

With yoga, especially, breathing is such an important aspect of the workout.  Of course, proper breathing is important for all fitness routines, but the practice of yoga places even more emphasis upon breathing techniques.  To date, however, HOTWORX is the only hot yoga offering to pay close attention to the quality of the air that is actually being breathed by clients while working out, and not just the technique of how they are breathing it.

Deep breathing is important as the requirement for oxygen increases and the force of breath becomes greater with exercise.  Good instruction during yoga teaches us how to relax the breathing process enabling the body to yield more energy to the actual exercise postures rather than to that of forceful breathing.

That being said, seems logical to me that yoga professionals should pay more attention to the air that is being taken in by clients during a session.  When headed to your next hot yoga workout be sure to think about the quality of the hot air!

The HOTWORX concept began with the idea that a sauna could be designed so that clients could experience hot yoga with infrared heat.  That 63 square foot sauna design was a success, but a by-product of that innovation was the realization that the HOTWORX sauna could be used in a setting that allowed for 24 hour fitness usage.  Thus, the 24 hour infrared fitness studio was born into existence on Feb. 13, 2017 in Oxford, MS with the opening of the first HOTWORX Studio…and with that, the world’s first studio for 24 hour hot yoga (and more) became a reality.

Two things make this work.

First, the sauna is a self contained semi-private infrared studio for three clients that lends itself to the opportunity for multiple sauna units set up side-by-side with separate workout session scheduling for each of them.  Second, the use of virtual instruction allows for workouts to be served to the TV monitors set to an exact schedule and on a 24/7, 365 basis.

Hot yoga is always available now for clients!  But wait, the headline of this article indicates more…

At HOTWORX there is a tagline, which says that the company goes, “Beyond Hot Yoga”.  What this means is more than just the use of infrared at 125º.  The company has expanded its hot exercise “menu” to extend well beyond just hot yoga.  Now there is Hot Pilates, Hot Iso, Hot Buns, Hot Core, Hot Bands, Hot Flex, Hot Warrior, and the all new Hot Barre to be released soon…which is just the isometric offerings.  For HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) there is Hot Row, Hot Cycle and rolling out as we speak, Hot Blast which incorporates the use of the awesome Keiser Total Body Trainer for a full body 15 minute head to toe torching.

Now that goes well beyond hot yoga!

Additionally, HOTWORX provides a functional training area known as the FX Zone that also provides 24/7 virtual instruction in the form of a silent training series for bands and for Myokore suspension training.

The well designed original workout choreography, and the extensive suite of isometric and HIIT sessions is great, but it takes talented instruction to bring the sequences to life and to provide the motivation for the clients.  That is why HOTWORX launched an annual Virtual Instructor Competition, or tryouts, if you will, to find the 5 best fitness instructors to be filmed for the upcoming year of new workouts.

The advantages of virtual instruction for customers include the following:

1-Virtual Instructors (VI’s) always show up on time.2-VI’s are always bringing their A game (no hangovers or low energy).3-VI’s are easy to see and to hear within the close proximity of the sauna.4-VI’s are certified and experienced.5-Customers can workout with their favorite instructors more often.6-Customers can select workouts from a 24/7, 365 day a year schedule.

VI Competition Lake Tahoe Finals last August (for the 2019 video filming)

I am happy to announce that we are now accepting online applications for this year’s VI Competition with the final round of the top 15 to be held at our annual franchise convention this year at the fabulous Planet Hollywood Hotel on the strip in Las Vegas this July 21-24.  This year’s “tryouts” will result in the top 5 VI’s who will be filmed for the 2020 workout videos.

CONVENTIONAL HEAT STUDIOS ARE LOUD AND THE AIR IS STUFFY

Heated workouts in the form of hot yoga have been around for half a century and those hot yoga sessions have been almost exclusively delivered inside of studios heated with  conventional HV/AC equipment.  This type of environment is loud from the heater fans and stuffy from the hot air that is being blown everywhere.  Furthermore, this old school heat only warms the outside of the human body to cause sweat.  It’s just hot air, literally.

Infrared heaters make no sound.  Rather, the heat and energy simply radiates out from the source.  The silence of the heaters and the fact that 80% of the heat and energy is being absorbed by the human subject provides for a much better workout environment.  It has been proven that IR sauna heating is 7 times more effective for detox than that of a conventional sauna, or conventional hot studio.

Some yoga studios have attempted to create infrared hot yoga environments but have fallen short on heat effectiveness because they failed to understand the importance of precise IR heat source placement and proximity to their clients.

EVERY DETAIL MATTERS

When I was designing the HOTWORX infrared workout sauna it quickly became clear that, in order to deliver an effective dose of infrared absorption to the human body, the subject must be exposed to the heat and energy source in a very precise manner.   For the proper penetration of infrared waves through the skin of the human body, the infrared heat and energy must be dispersed in a way that allows for the customer to receive the most efficient infrared wave penetration through the skin.  This requires the usage of different types of heaters placed in the right areas of the workout environment so as to spread the infrared throughout the space properly for clients.

I discovered that the most effective way to deliver an infrared workout was through the use of a sauna built for three people and with exact heater placement, precise wall dimensions and ceiling height with a 7’ x 9’ floor space, and through the practice of very specific flows of workout postures. During an isometric workout session such as yoga the use of direct infrared heaters and wide dispersion infrared heaters must be deployed in a very specific manner positioned to give the most effective IR exposure to clients whether they are performing floor exercises, squatting postures or standing positions.  The end result after development of this infrared workout sauna was the best possible solution for multiple forms of hot exercise.  Two patents are now pending for this 63 square foot device known as the HOTWORX infrared fitness sauna.

It should be emphasized that for maximum workout effectiveness, infrared must be administered with precision.  There must be exact placement of the proper types of heaters.  Additionally, the human proximity must be 1 to 3 feet from the energy source at all times during the workout session.

THE BOTTOM LINE IS

Infrared precision matters!

The result of this attention to detail is evident from the incredible numbers of five star HOTWORX customer testimonials.

Let’s just cut the crap.

Doing cardio is hard, and it can turn into a dull, boring grind if you keep doing it the old school way.  That is, by working endless minutes on the treadmill, elliptical or stationary bike.

When I’m on the road I like to train at as many different gyms as possible.  I go to low budget gyms and high end clubs so that I can see first hand what is going on in all of the industry spectrum.

What I continue to see is lots of people frowning and drudging through their time on treadmills and other “monotonous” cardio equipment.  This is not cool anymore, and it is not an effective use of personal time.  I see young professionals on the treadmill and I want to tell them that there is a more efficient way to do cardio.  Everyone should be informed that there is a way to get a lot more out of your cardio workout time.

Technology has paved the way now for a better way to do cardio folks!

Why not combine strength training, flexibility, balance and detox with your cardio workout for a quick, interesting and fun session?

All you need is gravity, infrared and a virtual trainer.

HOTWORX created a new workout method using isometrics such as yoga and pilates and other hybrid routines that combine with infrared energy and 125º F heat inside of a patent pending fitness sauna.  HOTWORX calls this workout method 3D Training.  The three elements of the 3D workout environment include (1) exercise, (2) infrared energy and (3) heat that are fused together to make the workouts fast, effective, and interesting as delivered by a virtual instructor.

The by-product of this workout method is a fantastic cardio workout.  I consistently reach 80% of my heart rate max within the first 5 minutes of the workout and maintain that level throughout the entire rest of the 30 minute session.  I always tell people that I never even think about cardio while I’m doing HOTWORX isometrics.  While I am focused on the isometrics, the cardio just happens.

Strength + Balance + Flexibility + CARDIO training are all happening at once in the fast 30 minute workout…

Why not experience a much better workout and get more included in the workout in way less time?  Of course, it makes perfect sense.  Time is your most valuable commodity.  Don’t waste it!

Wasting time is not cool.  Boring is not cool.  Low workout efficiency is not cool.

Get the most out of your cardio this year.  Leave the treadmill of 2018 behind as you wave goodbye to it in the rearview mirror.

Make cardio cool with short, interesting, challenging, and effective cardio sessions!

High Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT, in normal outdoor climates or in air-conditioned indoor workout environments, when done properly is a very effective addition to any fitness routine.  However, when HIIT is combined with infrared energy and heat, the human body responds with a supercharge to its metabolism and with the extra advantage of accelerated detox!

Scientific study after scientific study continues to prove the effectiveness of HIIT and fat burning/weight loss.  One such study recorded data showing that “Exercise whole body fat oxidation increased by 36% (from 15.0 ± 2.4 to 20.4 ± 2.5 g) after HIIT.”¹

…quoting below from that same study as published in the journal Physiology.org:

“In summary, seven sessions of HIIT over 2 wk induced marked increases in whole body and skeletal muscle capacity for fatty acid oxidation during exercise in moderately active women.”

HIIT requires burst of high intensity sets or “intervals” that can shoot the heart rate to 80% of max or higher during those intervals.  The high intensity interval bursts are usually accomplished with increased speed from pedaling or rowing for example, or from increased resistance levels, or from both increased speed combined with increased resistance.  I have consistently experienced 90-95% of my HR max at times during the HOTWORX 15 min HIIT sessions.  Better conditioning allows for higher endurance at higher HR levels.  Most trainers recommend that clients work hard enough to achieve 80% HR max during HIIT sessions.  I would recommend that clients try to achieve a range of 75-85% of HR max to start before pushing it to higher percentages.

By way of definition, the formula for HR max is as follows:  Take 220 and subtract your age for your heart rate max.  For example, I am 55, so my calculation is 220 - 55 = 165 HR max.

HIIT is great for weight loss.  It is generally accepted now that HIIT is more effective for weight loss than traditional cardio or weight training.  Logging just a few short HIIT sessions per week can greatly enhance any weight loss effort.

In another HIIT study, run/sprint interval training was shown to improve aerobic performance and it improved body composition in both male and female groups that were tested. Fat mass decreased 12.4% and lean body mass increased 1% in both groups.

Now, let’s take HIIT one step further.  What about HIIT when combined with an infrared energy and heat environment such as that of the three person, semi-private HOTWORX infrared fitness sauna?  HOTWORX introduced this type of workout two years ago and since then this HIIT form of 3D workouts (infrared energy + heat + HIIT) has become wildly popular with the studio members.

No doubt HIIT creates a more effective workout in less time…but, when combined with IR energy and heat the results compound to create even more workout efficiency.

¹ https://www.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/japplphysiol.01098.2006

It’s college football bowl season and time for the national championship, and it’s playoff time for the NFL.  Of course, the talk of who might win the Super Bowl is in the air as well.  The beginning of each new year is filled with championship spirit and discussions of what it takes to win.

What it takes to be a winner in football is very similar to what it takes to win in business and in personal fitness programs.

Words like dream, discipline, and dedication come to mind.

For example, what began with a dream to provide the very best workouts for people who have limited time to train has now become the fastest growing franchise in the fitness business.  Of course, I am talking about HOTWORX, the first ever 24 hour infrared fitness studio.

The uniqueness of the product is important for sure, but for any “dream” or vision, if it will have a fighting chance for success, it has to be supported by an absolute “dedication” to a set of goals and “discipline” to see it all the way through!

With HOTWORX, we set out from day one to open 500 locations within the first 5 years of operations.  I am happy to announce for this new year that we are on track to achieve that goal.  We opened the very first location for HOTWORX on February 13, 2017.  By the end of our second year on February 13 we will have opened 55 locations based on projects that are currently in construction.  Additionally, there are over 160 locations already sold and in various stages of development.

The HOTWORX numbers of units in the chart below for the end of years 3, 4, and 5 are projected based on a conservative estimate.  The other two comparison brands are actual open location numbers for the first 5 years of franchising (data source: entrepreneur.com).

Take a look at the chart below:

Another great boutique fitness brand, Anytime Fitness, achieved 977 locations after just 7 years of franchising.¹

We believe firmly that we too can achieve and even go beyond what other great fitness brands have accomplished.

In order for any winning program, whether it be a sports team, a business or a personal fitness program, to sustain performance at a high level it can never lose sight of what got it there.

For HOTWORX, our mission since the beginning, and in 2019, and for every year to come is to deliver great workouts in less time for our customers.

With a maniacal focus on fast results and awesome training sessions for our customers we will ensure that of each of our franchise locations remain profitable.  This will allow for the brand to continue with explosive growth in pursuit of our goal to have 500 locations open in the first 5 years of franchise operations.

Back to those three words… dream, dedication and discipline…

Make the dream real in 2019 through dedication to the mission and discipline to your goals!

¹ https://www.entrepreneur.com/franchises/anytimefitness/306988

Hot yoga is an awesome form of isometric fitness training.  It has been around for about 50 years now with its origins in Japan as developed and first practiced by the now infamous Bikram Choudhury.  Many excellent forms of hot yoga have since been created and are now practiced throughout the world.

I remember my very first hot yoga session at a small studio in South Beach Miami while on a New Years vacation.  I was drawn to hot yoga because the sound of it resonated “challenge” and “results” to me.  I figured, like most new years “resolutioners”, that I would begin a new year with a new me and launch a personal hot yoga practice for myself.  Man, was it ever so NEW to me, though.  I lasted about 20 minutes into that first 90 minute class.  I had to exit the session shortly after my first eagle pose and the first few postures that followed.  It was incredibly “different” to me.

As an ex athlete and a fitness trainer who takes pride in maintaining a certain level of fitness, this was a humbling experience for sure.  At that time, my workout methods were siloed into a routine of traditional weight training, stretching and running.

It was time for me to broaden my fitness horizons.

I made that commitment to hot yoga for the New Year, and that resolution for that New Year changed my life physically, and mentally!  I began to incorporate hot yoga into my weekly routine and I soon emerged from my rookie yoga status.  What also happened to me was that, as a business professional, I began to think about the hot yoga industry.  A couple of years later, on vacation to Jamaica with my business partners Nancy and Jerome, through a conversation about fitness and infrared saunas, Jerome suggested that yoga should be done in a sauna and that was when I decided to design a sauna for that very thing.

Originally, the fitness sauna that I designed was offered with only one workout and the first name of that sauna was Hot Box Detox.  As we gained experience and feedback from customers who used the new sauna, I soon determined that more workouts would be required, as well as a new and better name, LOL.

Our first tag line was Beyond Hot Yoga, which was meant to evoke the spirit of our departure from mainstream hot yoga.  We still rely on that tag line to convey the same message.

In the beginning stages of development of the HOTWORX workout method the first and only workout was Hot ISO.  Hot ISO was, and still is today, a hybrid form of yoga developed with a more simplistic and athletic posture flow in mind.  The idea was to provide a fast and efficient way for customers to practice isometrics for strength gains, toning, flexibility, balance and detox.  Hot ISO was a departure from traditional hot yoga in that it requires 125º F of infrared heat and that it only last for 30 minutes.  As a result, that fitness innovation provides customers with more workout in less time!

HOTWORX has evolved since then to offer many new and different hot exercise options “Beyond Hot Yoga”, if you will.  These workouts are now divided into two categories, hot isometrics and hot HIIT training.  For isometrics, HOTWORX offers:  Hot ISO, Hot Yoga, Hot Pilates, Hot Buns (lower body focused on the glutes with the use of bands), Hot Warrior, Hot Flex (athletic stretching), Hot Bands (total body isometric and slow dynamic reps),

…and be on the lookout in 2019 for Hot Barre!

As for Hot HIIT, there are two workouts including Hot Cycle and Hot Row with a new, 3rd Hot HIIT total body workout for 2019 called Hot Blast!

HOTWORX has now afforded incredible convenience and variety of hot exercise workouts and cross-training options for my current fitness program.

Go Beyond Hot Yoga in 2019!!!

I would advocate that the fitness industry is one of the best industries to enter into as an entrepreneur.  There are many obvious reasons, but what I will focus on for this article is  popularity and population growth.

When I opened my first gym back in the 80’s only 10% of the U.S. population was a member of a health club.  Since that time it has doubled to 20% and the U.S. population since 1987, when I opened that gym, has increased by almost a third.  Back then the population was 240 million and today the U.S. population is 326 million.  The industry has grown from approximately 24 million health club member participants to 64 million in that period of time which is an increase of 30 million customers.  The population continues to grow, and so does the popularity of health clubs.

It is clear that the industry is very strong and continues to grow world wide.  According to the recent IHRSA Global Report report: The State of the Health Club Industry, the value of the  U.S. industry is now over 30 billion per year.  The U.S. leads with the highest number of health clubs at 38,477 with Brazil a close second at 34,509. ¹

As people become more and more health conscious, and as the average life expectancy continues to gain years, the demand for fitness will continue to grow.  Twenty percent is better than the 10% of the 80’s but it leaves a long way for us to go to achieve 100% participation in fitness by the population.  The point is that there is plenty of room for industry expansion for many years to come.

Not only has the industry expanded by number of participants and by revenue, it is growing by level of participation as well.  What I mean by that is that people are doing more.  For example, many health club patrons now are becoming members of more that just one club.  In many shopping centers and in tightly developed business corridors throughout the country, boutique and specialty fitness clubs are opening everywhere to offer more and more options for the discerning health club goers of today.  Many of those patrons are maintaining more than one membership too.  It is common now that a health club customer will hold a cross-fit membership, a multi-sport and/or large facility membership, and an infrared fitness membership or some other mix of club participation.

I have watched successful development of shopping centers that have three or more types of clubs within them including boutique, plyometric oriented national chains next to a big box club and  HOTWORX within the same center.  The best advice I have to the owners of clubs in these types of centers is to practice coopetition over head-to-head competition.

This multi-membership trend should be capitalized upon by fitness club entrepreneurs.  The way to do that is through coopetition.  Instead of bashing the competition, they should maintain a unique identity and cooperate with other clubs as opposed to head on competition.  Customers want more options and we can improve their experiences while we improve our bottom lines if we encourage multiple club use and embrace the fitness movement as a whole.  Lift up all clubs, so as to raise the tide for all boats in the fitness ocean!

Coopetition will encourage an even higher level of industry participation and that is good for every fitness brand!

¹ IHRSA.org

Just left an incredible corporate retreat for HOTWORX in Punta Cana…

So, as I’m sitting in the plane on my flight home, I pondered for a topic before I began typing and it dawned on me to share a fitness story about my trip.

On Saturday, the last full day of the vacation, myself and Jeremy Harwell (Jeremy is General Manager of the HOTWORX in Oxford, MS) took a surfing excursion.  I had planned for this excursion in my mind for several months prior to this day.

On our way from the resort to the beach Jeremy and I found ourselves in a tour van making acquaintance with a few new surfing friends from Poland and from Russia.  We all were very excited and knew that we were about to experience something amazing to kickstart the first part of a beautiful day in Punta Cana.  Upon arrival after exiting the van we literally stood in awe of how stunning the beach was, and how perfect the waves were for a group of novice surfers like ourselves.

Soon enough we were in the water experiencing a tremendous amount of fun and fitness while catching wave after wave at the beautiful Macao Beach, one of the last public beaches in the Dominican Republic.  We were told by our guide that most of the beaches have now been bought up by the resorts.

So we surfed for almost two hours non-stop.  We rode the waves and paddled back out over and over for the duration of our excursion time.  I think we were all trying to get in every possible wave, knowing that each of us would be headed back to our non-surfing home towns very soon.

That being the case, the result for me from that rapid fire salt water workout was that I burned over a thousand calories as seen from my Fitbit pictured below…

I never felt winded or unprepared physically at any time.  My infrared cross-training was the key to non-stop surfing fun!!!

What’s the point of the story?

I’ve found that one of the best daily workout motivators is an “activity event” that is set to happen during an upcoming vacation.  The surfing story illustrates how well it works.

You should schedule a vacation event such as surfing, hiking, skiing, paddle boarding, running on a beach, or a yoga retreat.  Choose an activity event that you are most passionate about, then commit to it, and schedule it!  Plan an activity for a trip that requires some physical skill though, and then set out to improve your skills as you prepare for the trip.

When you plan for and commit to an activity during an upcoming vacation you will naturally experience a step up in the level of motivation for your vacation prep workouts.  This will force you to plan your weekly workouts in a way that will serve to improve your skills for the anticipated vacation activity.

You should always be preparing for the next event so that you will remain in an “activity ready” state of physical fitness.

Infrared cross-training at HOTWORX is an excellent option for those who are preparing for a vacation event and who want to obtain better strength, balance and flexibility for a physical activity type of excursion.  With the HOTWORX method of fitness, someone can train five days a week for two weeks and never do the same workout type twice!  For example, one could do Hot yoga on Monday, Hot Cycle on Tuesday, Hot Pilates on Wednesday, Hot Warrior on Thursday and Hot Row on Friday.  Beginning the next Monday they could do Hot ISO, then Hot Bands on Tuesday, Hot Buns on Wednesday, Hot Core with Hot Cycle on Thursday and then a combo of Hot Flex and Hot Row on Friday.

Each day during that two week run of workouts only requires a commitment of 30 minutes or 15 minutes depending on the type of workout.  The duration of the infrared workouts are shorter because of the effectiveness of the 125 degree heat and the penetration of infrared energy that stimulates the body at the cellular level.  The daily change-up of infrared workout types is a smart way to cross-train for any activity.  Your body will be more prepared to take the slopes this season because of it.  The mixing of the workout types will make you more agile and ready for unanticipated movements in response to the terrain when you are hiking or waves when surfing, for example.

As a 55 year old fitness fanatic, I can tell you that it feels good to be in shape for activities such as surfing and snow skiing with an edge from enhanced strength, flexibility and balance… and, frankly, staying in top shape for a vacation event is important, if for no other reason than just to have more fun!

One point that is not impressed upon enough by trainers and fitness writers is the advantage of mixing pre and post workout supplements with water for your workout hydration needs.  Proper hydration and supplementation is especially important for infrared training.

It makes good sense to give your body what it needs when it needs it before, during and after your workout.  This is even more important for infrared workouts due to the accelerated rate of sweating and energy expenditure.

Always remember, your body needs more than just water during workouts.

That is why I recommend mixing supplement powders with water for a good pre-workout hydration and also a good post-workout powder for use during and immediately after workouts.

Of course, there are tons of supplement brands out there touting the benefits of their pre and post workout pills, powders and drinks.  I have tried many of them and have noticed that they have a wide variation in results.  I use HydroGo Powders by HOTWORX now because of the precise formulations.

Pre-Workout Hydration

Pre-workout products are designed primarily as an energy supplement.   From my experience with pre-workout supplements, the energy effect is different for each formulation.  Some of these products create a jittery effect rather than the more desirable feeling of smooth alertness.

If you feel that you need an energy boost, then try a good pre-workout powder mixed with water about 30 minutes prior to exercise.  A good pre-workout supplement will include ingredients such as natural caffeine from green tea leaf combined with taurine.  Some studies suggest that taurine in conjunction with caffeine helps to improve cognitive functioning.  Taurine is an amino acid that, as studies have indicated, can act as an antioxidant to counteract free radicals and may enhance athletic performance.

Post-Workout Hydration

Whether you choose to use a good pre-workout powder or not, it is imperative that you invest in a good post-workout powder for use during workouts and immediately after workouts to achieve the maximum hydration effect.

As you workout you break down muscle.  A good workout powder mixed with water can immediately address this by supplying your muscle cells with the branch chain amino acids necessary to immediately assist in muscle recovery and to supercharge the strength building process.

What are branch chain aminos?

“Of the nine essential amino acids, three are the branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs): leucine, isoleucine and valine.  ‘Branched-chain’ refers to the chemical structure of BCAAs, which are found in protein-rich foods such as eggs, meat and dairy products. They are also a popular dietary supplement sold primarily in powder form.” ¹

BCAA’s, when consumed, immediately begin to decrease muscle damage and studies have shown that they can actually decrease post workout soreness.

BCAA’s have been shown to decrease fatigue related to workouts.  BCAA’s have also been successful in hospitals for reducing or stopping muscle loss in patients and for treatment of liver disease.

The practice of mixing good pre and post workout powders for consumption before, during and after your workouts can make a big difference in your fitness results!

Give your body what it needs WHEN it needs it!

Start mixing and shaking your way to better strength and workout performance today.

¹ https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/benefits-of-bcaa

I am writing this blog article on the Friday after Thanksgiving…which is the day that Americans consume the most number of calories as compared to any other day of the year (day of Super Bowl comes in second).

I heard recently that the average American consumes over 4000 calories on Thanksgiving Day.  Wow, that’s a lot of pigging out considering the average basal metabolic rate per day for an American woman is 1400 calories and 1800 for men.

Admittedly, I know that I came close to that 4k number myself yesterday.  One big cheat day every now and then will not destroy your fitness program, though, so long as you rebound from the gluttony immediately the next day with a return to discipline and dedication to your workouts.

I recommend that you jump back into gear right after Thanksgiving and prepare yourself for the upcoming schedule of endless Christmas parties, football games and New Year’s Eve events that are yet to come your way during this holiday season…

I feel pretty good today, the day after Thanksgiving. Black Friday was a good Friday.  I feel good because, even though I ate thousands of calories yesterday, I kept my commitment to workout hard and to fast for most of the day.  So far I have consumed less than 500 calories today and I am done eating today.  My fasted workout today consisted of:

1-Weight training for calves and triceps,

2-Hot Warrior 30 minute isometric workout at HOTWORX (125º of infrared),

3-Hot Cycle 15 minute HIIT training at HOTWORX (125º of infrared).

[video width="1280" height="720" mp4="http://hotworx.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/IMG_7398-1.mp4"][/video]

Just the Warrior and Cycle generated a calorie burn 886 calories burned from beginning to about 40 minutes after the workouts within a total time period of only one hour and thirty minutes!  Infrared training is an exceptional way to counter a day of over-eating and lounging on the couch.

It is now 6:08 P.M. on Black Friday and I have burned a total of 2,652 calories for the day.  So, with my BMR of 1,800 and with approximately only 500 calories to be consumed today, I am feeling properly rebounded from the caloric onslaught of Thanksgiving.

If I did consume 4k calories yesterday, then I am properly balanced out now and back to a slight caloric deficit again, thanks to my infrared workout rebound!

I attended a functional training seminar recently at the Athletic Business Show that was held in New Orleans.  The room was filled with trainers from all over the country.  Most of the crowd in attendance was affiliated with the military either active duty, or non-military contract fitness trainers.  The presenter, Anthony Wall, representing the American Council on Exercise (ACE), delivered a powerful and interactive speech on functional training.

During the presentation, Wall instructed the audience to form small groups so that they could role play as trainers and clients with various functional fitness exercises.  A few of the exercises were new but most were traditional including various forms of isometric planks.  As I performed these exercises with my group, I noticed how super easy the exercises were in the air-conditioned environment of the classroom.  My form seemed so effortless to maintain for long holds.

The reason for that is clear to me…

I have been practicing these types of exercises for over three years now inside of an infrared sauna at 125º Fahrenheit.

Working out inside of an infrared sauna requires more energy and effort from your body.  So, naturally, when you perform the same exercise in lesser demanding environments you will be stronger.

We have all heard of athletes who train in extreme climates, like prize fighters who train in high altitudes, for example.  Athletes do this so they can supercharge their performance when they return to normal environmental conditions for their competition events.  A good analogy might be the feeling of running with ankle weights and then experiencing the freedom and acceleration when the weights come off.  Or, what about the batter who slides a weight on the bat while warming up just before stepping up to the plate.  Your fitness program is like the ankle weight or the added weight to the bat.  It should prepare you to better perform in life.

That said, it is important in fitness to challenge yourself, but not just with the fitness equipment or the exercise.  The environment needs to be challenging as well so that when you return to normal life everything becomes easier to do.

The weights, bands and exercise movements are your workout tools, but the environment is your fitness tool too.  Always consider the environment of your workout space.  If you want to accelerate your fitness results, then think about changing the environment.  Add heat and infrared, for example, to elevate results and to decrease the amount of time that is necessary to complete a good workout. It will make everything you do outside of the gym much easier!

After infrared training, everything in life is easier!

Markets are driven by value.  Customers constantly ask themselves, whether deliberately or intuitively, “how can I get more quality for less money, or how can I get more results in a shorter amount of time?”  The brands who can deliver on this customer need will change industries and move markets.

The fitness industry, like any other industry, has seen many market movers who have reshaped the industry.  For an example of this, look at suspension training which was introduced to the industry by Randy Hetrick, a former Navy SEAL and founder of TRX.  TRX changed the fitness game.  I am certified in TRX as a trainer myself and I don’t know any trainers who don’t use some form of suspension training with their clients.  All professional athletes now use suspension training as a part of their routines.  Suspension training changed the industry and has now become ubiquitous to fitness.

What about bands?  Something as simple as a rubber band designed for a fitness application has been a game changer as well.  There are three main types of fitness bands now which include:

Small Loop Bands, Large Loop Bands, and Handle Bands pictured below…

As with suspension straps, these three band types have no no limit to the number of exercises that can be created.  The only limit is the imagination of the trainer.  And, again, like suspension training, I don’t know of any trainer who does not use bands in some manner now to add to the fitness regimes of their clients.  Bands changed the fitness industry too.

So, what about infrared as a fitness game changer?

Infrared was discovered in the early 1800’s by the astronomer Sir William Herschel, who noticed radiation when he used a thermometer to measure the temperature of the invisible parts of the light spectrum.  Since that discovery, and with the application of electricity, entrepreneurs have been working to monetize infrared.  One of the first widespread uses of an infrared application was for heaters that were used to cure the paint of military equipment during World War II.  Towards the latter part of the 20th century infrared saunas began to gain popularity as an alternative to the traditional convection heat saunas for personal therapy and relaxation.  Then, in February of 2017, HOTWORX introduced the first ever 24 hour infrared fitness studio.  This concept uses patent pending saunas designed for customers to practice forms of isometrics including yoga and pilates, and HIIT training utilizing a workout temperature of 125º F.  The HOTWORX workouts are shorter because good results can be obtained more quickly with the incorporation of heat and infrared energy into the workouts.  The isometric workouts are 30 minutes and the HIIT workouts are 15 minutes.

Infrared for fitness is changing the way that people workout and is beginning to make a serious statement throughout the industry too, in the same way that suspension training and bands have done.  As a testament to this, the HOTWORX franchise concept is now growing at a faster rate during its first 18 months than other well known 1000+ location fitness concepts did in their first 18 months.

Infrared training, for all of its benefits and especially for the recovery and healing aspects, is becoming another essential tool for trainers to accelerate results for their clients.

Nowadays, customers are investing more into their fitness programs by becoming members of multiple clubs and studios.  With that in mind, I would encourage members of other fitness centers to add to their fitness experience by joining HOTWORX for infrared training.  Infrared training can be an amazing supplement to any fitness program for recovery, or as a new way to incorporate cross-training for workout diversity.

Infrared is a market mover and a fitness industry game changer.

Have you taken a look at the weight room in any of the newer “big box” health clubs lately?  What you will likely see is way less square footage devoted to heavy weight machines of the selectorized or plate load types. More and more of the weight room floor space is now being occupied by functional training equipment.

Fitness trainers are finding that the use of body weight, gravity and an array of tools such as suspension straps, bands and battle ropes can provide more results for clients.  This modern method of training is known as functional training.  Functional exercise is a more practical fitness method because it uses movements and tools that are more relevant to daily life.

I often tell clients that all I need when I travel for my fitness is a band and gravity.  People can experience an awesome total body resistance workout anywhere with just a band, their body weight and gravity.

Trainers are creating new ways to workout through the use of functional training tools.  The options for workouts are limitless.

For example, we recently introduced a new infrared workout that we call Hot Bands.  Hot Bands has taken functional exercise to a brand new level.  I find that I generally burn 30% more calories with Hot Bands as opposed to Hot Yoga with the same amount of workout time.  The combination of slow dynamic reps with isometric holds certainly delivers a great resistance workout, not to mention a great cardio workout as well.  The HOTWORX Hot Bands workout is a full body band workout in 30 minutes at 125 degrees of infrared sauna heat.

Functional exercise equipment allows for better use of health club space.  There are unlimited combinations of exercise that can be created from a well equipped functional training area.

In light of this movement towards functional fitness training, one could argue that the days of weight rooms filled with endless rows of weight machines that perform only one or two movement functions per machine may be numbered.

As the benefits of infrared become more evident and more widely known, the number of doctors who use infrared in treatments and who recommend its use also continues to grow.

The purpose of this blog post is to report to you how some of those doctors are using infrared with their medical practices.

Here are 9 examples of how different doctors are actively recommending heat therapy and infrared saunas for all kinds of reasons:

1

In an online article this past August, best selling author Dr. Joseph M. Mercola recommends heat therapy as a way to increase heat shock proteins to improve blood flow and to rejuvenate the brain:

“Heat stress is an important way of optimizing heat shock proteins (HSP) inside your cells that trigger mitochondrial biogenesis, thereby supporting your overall health, especially your cardiovascular, cardiac and brain health.”

“HSP are also involved in longevity, and are important for preventing muscle atrophy.”

Dr. Mercola goes on to add…

“Not surprisingly, much of the research has come from Finland, where most Finns take a sauna at least once a week, and saunas are found in most private homes and even places of work.  Known as a ‘poor man's pharmacy,’ saunas offer proven health benefits virtually anyone can enjoy.” ¹

Mercola shares that a comparison of once per week sauna use versus four or more times per week led to a reduction in risks of:

-Death from heart disease by 50 percent

-High blood pressure by 47 percent

-Dementia and Alzheimer's disease by 66 percent

-Respiratory diseases and pneumonia by 41 and 37 percent respectively

-Premature death from all causes by 40 percent ²

2

Rhonda Perciavalle Patrick, Ph.D

“Hyperthermic conditioning optimizes blood flow to the heart, skeletal muscles, skin, and other tissues because it increases plasma volume. This leads to endurance enhancements in your next workout or race, when your core body temperature is once again elevated.”

“This is where hyperthermic conditioning shines: heat acclimation reduces the amount of protein degradation occurring and as a result it increases net protein synthesis and, thus muscle hypertrophy. Hyperthermic conditioning is known to increase muscle hypertrophy by increasing net protein synthesis through three important mechanisms:

-Induction of heat shock proteins.

-Robust induction of growth hormone.

-Improved insulin sensitivity.” ³

Please note that muscle hypertrophy is the term used to describe the increase in muscle mass, specifically for the growth in size of muscle cells.

3

Here’s more research as reported in Time Magazine to indicate how important regular weekly sauna usage is to your health:

“One long-term study of middle-aged Finnish men found those who spent time in a sauna 2-3 days a week enjoyed a 23% drop in their risk for a fatal heart disease or episode. The heart health benefits were even greater for men who sweated it out in a sauna more frequently.”

“ ‘Sauna bathing leads to a significant increase in heart rate and reduction in total vascular resistance, thereby decreasing blood pressure,’ says Dr. Ernst van der Wall, chief of cardiology at the Netherlands Leiden University Medical Centre.”

…“As infrared heat penetrates more deeply than warmed air, users develop a more vigorous sweat at a lower temperature than they would in traditional saunas,” says Dr. Richard Beever, a clinical assistant professor of family medicine at the University of British Columbia.

The Time article advises to consult your doctor first, but referring to the use of an infrared sauna, the article states that, “the evidence suggests you have little to lose and possibly something to gain by checking one out.” 4

4

Brent A. Bauer, M.D.

“Several studies have looked at using infrared saunas in the treatment of chronic health problems, such as high blood pressure, congestive heart failure, dementia and Alzheimer's disease, headache, type 2 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis, and found some evidence of benefit.” 5

5

“According to Dr. Lawrence Wilson, a licensed medical doctor and nutritional practitioner who has been effectively using infrared sauna therapy on his patients for over a decade, this type of treatment is one of the safest and most useful healing methods he’s come across when combined with other factors like a balanced diet.” 6

6

I have written several articles about the effectiveness of infrared induced sweating for detox.  The evidence continues to mount, much to the dismay of the hot exercise critics, for sure.

“Christiane Northrup, M.D., is a visionary pioneer and a leading authority in the field of women’s health and wellness. Recognizing the unity of body, mind, and spirit, she empowers women to trust their inner wisdom, their connection with Source, and their ability to truly flourish.”

Here is an excerpt from one of her articles:

“While most sweat is comprised of water and little salt, studies show that 15-20% of infrared sauna-induced sweat is composed of cholesterol, fat-soluble toxins, heavy metals, sulfuric acid, and ammonia (as well as sodium and uric acid.) In other words, an infrared sauna may enable your body to eliminate environmental toxins through sweat.” 7

7

Functional Medicine Expert, Alejandro Junger, M.D.  

“Sweating inside a heated space has transcended time and many cultures: From Roman times, to the Ancient Greeks and Russians, as well as the Native Americans who had sweat lodges, the benefits of sweating have been known to mankind. The skin is our largest organ, and sweat is one of the major elimination channels for toxins.”

“In fact, a fever is the way our body creates the conditions for the immune system to perform better. Interestingly, there are clinics in Germany that create hyperthermia during chemotherapy to reduce the dose of medications needed by making the cancer cells more susceptible. This same effect happens (on a less extreme level) during a sauna session: By sweating one activates and intensifies the elimination of toxins” 8

8

Andrew Weil, M.D.

“I’m a sauna (and steam room) enthusiast, and I often recommend “sweat bathing” to help cleanse the skin, soothe sore muscles, or simply relax. Sweating in a sauna can also be beneficial to patients with arthritis, asthma or respiratory infections, and is an effective way to help recover from overindulgence in food or drink. The sweating rids the body of excess sodium and other unwanted substances. It also helps eliminate drugs and some toxins and by doing so can take some of the workload off the liver and kidneys.” 9

9

Dr. Will Cole

“Infrared saunas are one of my go-to wellness tools that I recommend to patients in my functional medicine clinic who are wanting to take their healing to the next-level. I personally use infrared saunas to stay on top of my own wellness game.”  “Almost every health problem – autoimmune conditions, digestive issues, brain problems, and hormonal imbalances included – can be traced back to inflammation gone wild. Infrared saunas naturally calm down inflammation in the body.”

“A recent study showed that after 20 days of consistent infrared sauna use, participants with chronic fatigue syndrome saw significant improvement in their symptoms.”

“Consistent sauna use has been shown to dramatically reduce the risks associated with heart disease as well as your risk of dying from other health causes. In fact, those who use saunas between four to seven times a week are 48 percent less likely to die from heart disease compared to those who only used a sauna once a week.”

“BDNF, or brain-derived neurotrophic factors, increase with sauna use and are responsible for facilitating the growth of new brain cells to improve memory and brain function.”

“People who used saunas had an improvement in both skin hydration and overall complexion.” 10

HOTWORX, a 24 hour infrared fitness studio franchise has been featured twice on hour long episodes of The Doctors tv show.  The fact that the infrared fitness franchise was invited to be on the show two years in a row is indicative that doctors, in general, are intrigued by the potential for use of infrared to treat patients, and as a recommended part of their wellness regimes.

Take a minute to view the clips from the two episodes of The Doctors below:

[embed]https://youtu.be/pyu33mUfLLg[/embed][embed]https://youtu.be/hA6Ir8164Qs[/embed]

¹ https://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2018/08/24/regular-sauna-use-decreases-disease.aspx² https://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2018/08/24/regular-sauna-use-decreases-disease.aspx³ https://tim.blog/2014/04/10/saunas-hyperthermic-conditioning-2/4 http://time.com/4481947/infrared-sauna-benefits-healthy/5 https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/consumer-health/expert-answers/infrared-sauna/faq-200579546 https://draxe.com/infrared-sauna/7 https://www.drnorthrup.com/infrared-sauna-sweat-toxins/8 https://goop.com/wellness/detox/the-power-of-infrared-saunas/9 https://www.drweil.com/health-wellness/balanced-living/healthy-living/are-infrared-saunas-better/10 https://drwillcole.com/10-ways-infrared-saunas-take-health-next-level/

Infrared energy and heat can penetrate the skin 1.5 inches and can accelerate the fat burning process.  Fat breaks down and becomes water soluble at approximately 100.5 degrees fahrenheit.  At that temperature fat breaks into particles.  When fats are broken down into particles they are more easily flushed by exercise postures forcing them out of the body through bodily functions including infrared induced sweating and through the liver, kidneys, bowels and through the lungs.

Infrared exposure causes your metabolism to speed up as the waves of energy interact with the cells in your body. This is important considering that impaired metabolism is associated with obesity.  Low level inflammation is also a contributor to obesity.  Infrared can also reduce inflammation.

Compare this fat burn effect to the melting of candle wax.  In the candle making process wax must be heated to its melting point which is in the 115-120º F range for most types of wax.  Fat breaks down as well when your body is heated.

Additionally, through exercise, your body will burn fat for energy.  It has been known for a long time that muscles gain energy from burning fat and from burning sugar that is supplied from blood.

If your goal through the infrared burn off process is to lose weight, then you should combine your infrared workouts with a daily practice of keeping your body in caloric deficit by eating less than your basal metabolic rate.  You can easily calculate your BMR through any number of websites.  Just Google around and find one that you like.

According to livestrong.com, “When your body is in this state of caloric deficit, it uses your fat stores for energy in a complex chemical process that eventually leads you to excrete most of the excess fat via your lungs…evidence, which tracked every atom as it left the body, conclusively determined that oxidized fat leaves primarily through the lungs…The fat actually excretes as about 85 percent carbon dioxide through the lungs and 15 percent water through your urine, feces, sweat and tears…When you consume more calories than you use, however, your body goes back to filling up the deflated fat cells, and you gain weight.” ¹

Here’s the punch line…

“For people to lose weight, their triglycerides must break up into building blocks, which happens in a process known as oxidation.  When a triglyceride is oxidized (or "burned up"), the process consumes many molecules of oxygen while producing carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) as waste products.” ²

¹ https://www.livestrong.com/article/34745-body-excrete-fat/² https://www.livescience.com/49157-how-fat-is-lost-body.html

Absorption of infrared through the skin is very good for you.  Have you ever wondered why the warmth of the sun feels so good while you are laying out at the beach or by the pool?  The warmth is actually infrared energy through heat that you are feeling.  As the infrared light waves penetrate your skin up to 1.5 inches, there is something good happening within your cells as they interact with the infrared energy.

Are you familiar with the Beach Boys song “Good Vibrations”?  When you go to the beach on a sunny day, you will experience good vibrations, literally.  The infrared energy actually resonates with the molecular vibration frequencies within your cells, and when that happens positive things occur within your body.

Atoms are in motion, and unless they are in a zero degree Kelvin (absolute zero, the point at which all thermal motion ceases) environment, all bonded atoms vibrate molecularly.

Related to this vibrational effect, far infrared (FIR), or so called biogenetic rays, have a considerable effect on water molecules.  For this reason, FIR has a significant impact on living organisms.  When there is a match in vibrational frequency of the IR and the cell molecule, IR absorption occurs and the state of the cell vibration, or its amplitude, is altered.

Here is a more scientific explanation for molecular vibrations:

“Picture a diatomic molecule as two spheres connected by a spring. When the molecule vibrates, the atoms move towards and away from each other at a certain frequency. The energy of the system is related to how much the spring is stretched or compressed. The vibrational frequency is proportional to the square root of the ratio of the spring force constant to the masses on the spring. The lighter the masses on the spring, or the tighter (stronger) the spring, the higher the vibrational frequency will be. Similarly, vibrational frequencies for stretching bonds in molecules are related to the strength of the chemical bonds and the masses of the atoms. Molecules differ from sets of spheres-and-springs in that the vibrational frequencies are quantized. That is, only certain energies for the system are allowed, and only photons with certain energies will excite molecular vibrations. The symmetry of the molecule will also determine whether a photon can be absorbed.”…“The stronger the bond, the more energy will be required to excite the stretching vibration.” ¹

It is also important to note, however, that “FIR energy is sufficient to exert rotational and vibrational modes of motion in bonds forming the molecules (including the water molecules) as well as resonate with cellular frequencies.” ²

IR absorption occurs when the vibrational frequencies of the infrared waves and molecules within the cells match up.  Generally there is more vibrational and rotational interaction in the shorter wavelengths and less in the longer wavelengths.  The measurement of these vibrational matchups, however, are loosely based in scientific study.  In other words, the range of the shorter wavelength (near IR), midrange wavelength (mid IR), and longer wavelength (far IR) are not absolute measures of effectiveness for triggering cellular responses.

Within the infrared spectrum, only FIR transfers its energy purely as heat and the skin recognizes it as radiant heat.  FIR is much better for the skin due to the longer wavelengths and easier skin absorption compared to that of near infrared wavelengths.

There are many benefits of this vibrational effect from FIR within the cells, but to name a few it can help to:

-stimulate cellular repair

-break away fat soluble toxins and release them through internal organs and through sweat

-promote regeneration of skin elastin and collagen

-improve circulation

These positive cellular vibrational effects can be experienced through the use of an infrared sauna.

¹ http://www.wag.caltech.edu/home/jang/genchem/infrared.htm² https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3699878/

Let’s face it.  Yoga has been an elitist exercise program for far too long.  From the high cost of the sessions to the over the top practices and strange ritualisms, yoga has been perceived and is still perceived by most average folk as a form of fitness that is just too far out for them.

No more of that!

It is time to democratize exercise!  Yoga should be more affordable and accessible for everyone.  And, let’s not just stop with the elitism of yoga, let’s look at the high costs and inaccessibility of group training as well.  Group training centers regularly charge their clients $150+ in fees per month and class format studios regularly charge $99+.

We need to democratize exercise.

How can these programs such as yoga, pilates and group training with professional instructors become more available and more affordable to the entire population? What about athletes and fitness enthusiasts as well, who want to supplement their base exercise program with an additional form of exercise?  They should have availability to do so with a quick, convenient and affordable format too.

Fortunately for all, one fitness company has answered those questions and fulfilled the need to democratize elite forms of exercise by providing a 24 hour infrared studio concept with 14 different workout types to choose from with sessions instructed by professional virtual trainers.

The name of that company is HOTWORX.

Not only has HOTWORX created a convenient and affordable option for these elite fitness programs, the company has also figured out a way to provide the same results in way less time through an innovative application of infrared energy and heat to supercharge the workout environment.  HOTWORX calls this new fitness method 3D Training because of the workout fusion of exercise + infrared energy + heat.

Shorter and more effective workouts, 24/7 availability, over 10 different versions of yoga, pilates and isometrics, two HIIT workouts and functional band and suspension routines with professional virtual instruction leads the way to bring the elite exercise programs to everyone finally opening up access, whereby democratizing what was once only privileged forms of exercise.

Power to all of the fitness people!!!

What, where, and when was the first hot exercise practice?  It depends on how you define hot exercise.

Since we first coined the term “hot exercise” right here on this blog, we have defined it to mean any exercise that is performed within an enclosed workout room or studio that has been heated.

That determined, as I contemplated that question above, I wondered just how far back does hot exercise go in terms of history.

There is no real information on the history of hot exercise, or heat combined with exercise in any purposeful manner until the late 20th century.  The first use of the word “hot” associated with an exercise is “hot” with “yoga” as far as my research can tell.

The deliberate manipulation of a studio atmosphere/environment was first done in the 1970’s by the now morally embattled yoga guru Bikram Choudhury, who is from India.

We know that India is the birthplace of yoga, and the climate of India is largely tropical with summer temperatures rising to over 120º Fahrenheit in some areas of that country.  Many hot yoga studios claim to recreate the climate of India inside of their yoga studios.

“Hot yoga was founded by Bikram Choudhury, who was born in Calcutta [India] in 1946 and started practicing yoga at four years old under Bishnu Ghosh. At 17, Choudhury suffered a knee injury that led European doctors to believe that he would never walk again. Six months later, yoga had healed his knee completely and he began to understand the importance of the 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises.” ¹ He eventually combined the practice of those postures with a studio heated by space heaters and thus, hot yoga was born.

The first heated workout studio was developed in Japan in the 1970’s.  Bikram Choudhury, the founder of Bikram Yoga and a former olympic gold medalist in weight lifting, experimented with heaters in his yoga studio there after he noticed his students using saunas during lunch breaks.  He originally heated the studios to around 82º F which was the average temperature of his hometown in Calcutta, India.  He found that his students could obtain better flexibility through elevated studio temperatures and he eventually increased the heat to 104º F, the temperature level that is used today for Bikram yoga.

When he moved to San Francisco in 1972 he brought the idea of hot yoga to the United States.  Bikram eventually became the yoga guru to the stars in Hollywood as his hot yoga business boomed during the 80”s.  Recently, Bikram lost a seven million dollar sexual harassment lawsuit and moved back to India, losing his business and his fortune.

Aside from the originator’s fall from grace, hot yoga has spawned a movement in fitness.  Not a fad, A MOVEMENT!

I remember my very first hot yoga class very well.  It was also my first ever yoga class.  I decided to take the class on a vacation over the New Year’s holiday in South Beach, Miami.  There was a small Bikram studio on the second floor in a location that was tucked away from the ocean and from the busier areas of South Beach.  When I arrived at the grungy little studio with my girlfriend at the time, I noticed that there was a space heater plugged into the wall in the front left corner of the room and the humidity in the room seemed almost unbearable from the very beginning.  The air in that dingy and funky little studio was thick and had a vexatious stench.  Nevertheless, we began the session and even though both of us were in great shape from more traditional fitness programs, we obviously were not in great hot yoga shape!  I lasted 20 minutes and she lasted a little longer, but we both had to exit the studio early.  When I came home after that trip I began a personal practice of Bikram yoga, which turned out to be a new beginning for me in fitness.

Hot exercise is challenging and it requires acclimation by the body to the heat!

Since that first hot exercise moment, though, I was hooked by the challenge, and, as an entrepreneur, by the possibilities for a better way of offering heated exercise beyond just yoga.

So hot exercise began with Bikram, but what about heat for health?

Unlike the relatively short history of hot exercise, heat for therapy has a long history and is well documented as a wellness practice dating back to ancient times.

Sweating for health is an age old practice.

[caption id="attachment_27199" align="alignnone" width="362"]

Ancient Turkish Bath House[/caption]

Dating from the ancient Roman and Turkish bathhouses, to American Indian sweat lodges, to Finish communal saunas, most cultures on earth have a history of sweating practices for health reasons.  The practice became so sacred to the Finns that they actually used their shared village saunas to bore their children.

Since those ancient times, heat for therapy has come a long way…

“Thermal Medicine, or the manipulation of body or tissue temperature for the treatment of disease, can be traced back to the earliest practice of medicine. Cultures from around the world can point to ancient uses of hot and cold therapy for specific medical applications, including cancer. Modern research in thermal medicine aims to understand molecular, cellular and physiological effects of temperature manipulation and the “stress” response, as well as to develop effective and safe equipment for clinical application and temperature monitoring. As a result, today there are a growing number of clinical applications of thermal therapy that benefit patients with a variety of diseases.” ²

Evolve or die.  Innovation always wins the day.  There are those who view innovations in yoga, such as hot yoga and hybrid posture asanas as a bastardization of yoga.  I consider these to represent progress, or evolution in fitness.  We need to remove the barriers of tradition and DEMOCRATIZE EXERCISE, if you will!  Yoga should be more accessible to all people and more open to creativity.

“Perhaps the most interesting developments in hot yoga science involve something called hyperthermic conditioning—or exercising in the heat. Research into hyperthermic conditioning is moving forward along with the work of Dr. Rhonda Patrick, a biomedical researcher. Acclimatizing to heat through the use of hot rooms has been proven to increase both endurance and the capacity to build muscle. Early evidence is suggesting hyperthermic

conditioning improves production of human growth hormone and heat shock proteins—both of which lead to enhanced muscle growth and healing. As if that wasn’t enough, Dr. Patrick argues that it is this acclimatization to heat that produces what is known as the “runner's high.” Lovers of hot yoga will recognize that a good hot class produces a significant yoga buzz.” ³

Along with the buzz, modern hot exercise programs should emphasize safe practice and a “Go at your own best pace philosophy”.  HOTWORX uses patent pending infrared saunas to promote a safe and effective heated studio with professional virtual trainers who instruct users to stop, sit, and rest on the mat if any nausea, dizziness or other illness feelings are noticed.  The virtual instructors, or VI’s as they are called, constantly instruct users to stay hydrated and to workout at an appropriate level of intensity!

HOTWORX developed the 3D training method of hot exercise.  This innovative method incorporates heat, infrared energy, and exercise using multiple types of 30 minute and 15 minute isometric and HIIT routines performed at 125º F.  The company promotes MORE WORKOUT in LESS TIME.  The results from this evolved approach to hot exercise has been met with incredible health and fitness results from clients.  With this method clients are able to achieve greater fitness and wellness results through a revolutionary approach to hot exercise.

Health and fitness has now evolved BEYOND HOT YOGA!!!

¹ http://bikramyogasetauket.com/bikram-yoga/history-of-bikram-yoga² https://www.thermaltherapy.org/ebusSFTM/SOCIETYINFO/WhatisThermalMedicine.aspx³ https://yogainternational.com/article/view/hot-and-bothered-the-hype-history-and-science-of-hot-yoga

Hot Exercise began with yoga.  The idea was to recreate the environment of India where yoga originally developed as a wellness practice and discipline.  Typical hot yoga studios are heated ranging from 90 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit with a humidity level of 40%.  Indeed this makes the studio very hot and muggy like the Indian climate, but it does not make for the best temperature or air quality for a workout.

When we tested the very first HOTWORX infrared workout sauna, we started with a 120º F temperature dry heat setting.  Soon after testing with 30 minute isometric workouts, we discovered that the perfect temperature for an infrared sauna workout was 125.  We had no motive other than finding the right temperature for a great workout.  It did not matter to us what the temperature was in the natural environment or the climate of any region in the world.  The only purpose for our experimentation was to find the perfect temperature for yoga, pilates and other hybrid isometric workouts.

We discovered that sweating begins very soon at 125º.  We also found that, at that temperature, the experience was just right for a 30 minute isometric workout and for a 15 minute HIIT routine.  The 125º is hot enough to be super challenging but not too hot for the 30 minutes of isometrics or for the 15 minutes of HIIT.  If we were to compare the HOTWORX infrared sauna workout environment to a natural setting, the closest example might be a workout performed outside in the middle of a hot July day in the dry heat of Phoenix or Las Vegas.

Having established 125º F as the most effective workout temperature, let’s leave it there.  Seriously, just set the workout temperature for 125 and go on to focus on your workout.  Do not get caught up in the trap of thinking that you will get an even better workout if the temperature is higher than 125.

125º F is perfect.

Now just pay attention to your mind body connection for your actual workout sequence.

Find an intensity level that is challenging but not too much, and block out everything except what matters.

This is what matters most:-workout form-balance-flexibility-sweat and hydration-intensity and heart rate-calorie burn

Keep it hot at 125º, go at your own best pace, and make progress with a laser FOCUS ON WHAT MATTERS!!!

Set it at 125º and leave it.  Then forget about the temperature and just know that it is perfect. Temperature beyond 125º certainly does not matter if your workout form is bad.  Think of the workout temperature setting as a cruise control.  Set it at the speed limit and just drive.

Work on perfecting your postures and form.  Also, remember that your level of intensity can always go higher and you can always flex harder, improve balance or stretch more.  These are the things that matter.

Make progress with what matters, and always remember that the perfect workout temperature is 125º F.

HOTWORX decided in 2017 to make an effort to support firefighters as a way for our company to give back to communities where we do business.  This year we will donate and install at least four saunas to fire stations in Haltom City, TX, Houston, TX, Oxford, MS, and Kenner, LA.

I had the privilege of traveling to DFW last week on September 11 to participate in a weight room ceremony to dedicate a HOTWORX infrared workout sauna to a fire station in Haltom City, TX, a town located near Ft. Worth.  This was the second sauna that we have donated and installed for Chief Perry Bynam out of the three units that we have committed to install for his stations.  Next year we will install the third unit at another one of Chief Bynham’s fire stations that is currently being built.

May we never forget that 343 firefighters, TRUE HEROES, gave their lives in New York City on September 11, 2001.  Many of us are not aware of this, but I was told by one of the firefighters at the Haltom City ceremony that more firefighters have now died since the 9/11 attack from complications related to exposure to toxicants from the ruins of the towers than died on the day of the attack.  These deaths are mostly due to cancer.

“The Fire Department of New York (FDNY) documented 863 firefighters and ambulance workers with cancers certified as relating to their work on September 11 2001, according to the New York Post.”¹  This was reported in 2014.  I am sure that the number has risen since then.

In this age of reality TV and hero wannabes, it is nice to meet a group of true unsung heroes.  Below you will see the group of firefighters from Haltom City.

They presented HOTWORX with a beautiful commemorative helmet as a token of their appreciation.  We will proudly display it at our corporate headquarters here in Marrero, LA.

Infrared saunas generate sweat that has been reported to contain 7X the level of toxic substances as compared to sweat from traditional saunas.  It is our hope that through our efforts to donate and install the HOTWORX infrared workout saunas in fire stations across the country that we can play a small part in helping to improve the quality of life for some of our nation’s finest citizens.

Firefighters take extraordinary risks to protect the rest of us!  They do this with little recognition as they serve our communities.

They are TRUE HEROES!

¹ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10994227/911-death-toll-rises-as-cancer-cases-soar-among-emergency-workers.html

[caption id="attachment_27164" align="alignnone" width="648"]

Old School, convection heat sauna -versus- New School, infrared workout sauna[/caption]

There are two types of saunas, traditional and infrared.

Traditional Sauna:

The traditional saunas are heated with convection heat and require higher temperatures to heat the core body of the user.  These saunas primarily heat the air surrounding the user.

Traditional saunas can allow the user to add humidity by throwing water over the rocks that sit on top of the heater. Traditional saunas can take up to 30 minutes to heat up to the effective temperature range of around 180 degrees.  The air is more difficult to breathe at such high temperatures because of the higher humidity when water is thrown onto the rocks to create steam.

Infrared (IR) Sauna:

The more modern infrared heat saunas warm the core body of the user from within due to the absorption of the infrared light waves, and for that reason they require lower sauna room temperatures.  This enables users to remain in the sauna longer due to the more reasonable environment.  This air is much more breathable in an IR sauna because the humidity is low and because of the lower heat.  This type of air quality is preferred for working out.

The IR sauna has a shorter warm up time of 10-15 min, which gives it another advantage over the traditionally heated saunas.

Traditionally, saunas have been used as a post workout recovery tool and for a relaxation/detox experience.

Traditions are sometimes meant to be disrupted…

In August of 2014, the sauna game was changed.  It was then that, what is now known as the HOTWORX infrared workout sauna, was designed and engineered to be used for isometric exercise and for high intensity interval training.  The first prototype was introduced at a franchise expo in New York in the summer of 2015.  HOTWORX currently has two patents pending on this innovative new workout sauna.

Now users can benefit from a great workout while retaining all of the traditional recovery and detox effects as well.