In 1949, Mental Health America declared May as Mental Health Month. Also known as Mental Health Awareness Month, this 31-day event focuses on spreading the word that mental health is important and something we should all care about.

Each year in May, Mental Health America offers a toolkit of materials to help people understand and improve various aspects of mental health. It probably comes as no surprise to members of our Thornton, CO, gym that one of the most effective ways to boost mental health is to become more physically active.

What activities and workouts can you join at our gym to enhance your own mental health and wellbeing? And how does exercise improve our mental health, anyway?

If you’re ready to try one of the hardest workouts at Adventure Fitness Athletic Club, climb onto our StairMaster 10G Gauntlet stepmill. The StairMaster 10G Gauntlet is one of Susan’s favorite workouts and we know many members of our Thornton, CO, gym love this versatile machine, as well. Read on to learn more about the StairMaster 10G Gauntlet’s features and the advantages of adding this machine to your workout regimen.

Spring is here, the weather is gorgeous, and we’re all ready to enjoy some fresh air! But how can you bask in the beautiful outdoors when you’re at the gym? Adventure Fitness Athletic Club has the answer — our ElliptiGO classes! Starting May 3, 2021, AFAC will have ElliptiGO classes at our Thornton, CO, gym.
Riding an ElliptiGO is a great alternative for people who can no longer run because it’s a low-impact workout that allows you to build cardiovascular fitness. You’ll work up a sweat on the ElliptiGO as you power the smooth, elliptical motion while being gentle on your back, hips, knees, and ankles. Best of all, you’ll be outside with all your friends from Adventure Fitness Athletic Club, having a bunch of laughs and taking in the breathtaking scenery. Are you ready to ElliptiGO? Sign up on MINDBODY or on our gym classes page. You can also speak to any member of our staff for assistance. These classes are open to all levels so we hope to see you there!

Since Adventure Fitness Athletic Club is next to the mountains, most of us know that climbing is a great form of exercise. The good news is, if you’re a member of our Thornton gym, you have access to exercise equipment like the VersaClimber that helps your body closely mimic a climbing motion. This means you can enjoy the benefits of mountain climbing from the comfort of our gym, on your schedule. AFAC’s two VersaClimbers provide a better exercise experience than many other types of equipment, are low-impact, and are incredibly versatile in the ways you can incorporate them into your workout program.

On the days you plan to lift at Adventure Fitness Athletic Club, you’ll notice that we offer several different types of strength training equipment to choose from. Our mission is to keep our Thornton gym stocked with a range of different options so that our gym appeals to people of all fitness levels and workout preferences. Two key types of strength training equipment you’ll find at AFAC are plate loaded machines and selectorized machines. While both are equally effective to use during your workouts, each has its own benefits.

For many AFAC members, stationary bikes are a top choice to get in a good cardiovascular workout. And since our Thornton gym strives to offer the widest array of workout equipment possible, we have several different types of stationary bikes at our gym for our members to use, including recumbent bikes and upright bikes.

As part of our commitment to be the best gym in Thornton, CO, Adventure Fitness Athletic Club constantly invests in the latest and greatest exercise tools to provide gym members with the widest range of workout options possible. That way, our members have the opportunity to mix up their workouts and test their limits. Jacobs Ladder is a great example of gym equipment that provides an effective strength training and cardiovascular workout at the same time. At AFAC, our Thornton gym has the latest model, a Jacobs Ladder X (JLX), and it’s one of the stars of our gym for many reasons.

It’s time to put one foot in front of the other to commemorate National Walking Day on April 7th, 2021! Held annually on the first Wednesday in April, National Walking Day was created by the American Heart Association as a way to raise awareness about the importance of physical activity. On National Walking Day, millions of people across the United States will (literally) take steps to live healthier lifestyles. Adventure Fitness Athletic Club offers countless ways for our Thornton gym members to incorporate walking and other low-impact exercises into their fitness routines. From our full range of machines like treadmills, ellipticals, climbers, and bikes, to our unique classes like Nordic Walking, AFAC has what you need to celebrate National Walking Day, every day.

April is National Move More Month! Thankfully for members of Adventure Fitness Athletic Club, our local gym in Thornton, CO is full of opportunities to celebrate National Move More Month in April and all year long. Read on to learn more about the many ways you can move more at our local gym, and why physical activity is so important.

Myzone is the first exercise tracker for the gym, outdoors, and in the water. It’s the favorite system of the fitness industry that accurately tracks your heart rate, calories burned, and time spent for all your exercise, both inside and outside the gym. The AFAC staff is here to help you purchase and register everything you need to get connected to Myzone at an incredible members-only discount. AFAC also has Myzone monitors in every room at our Thornton gym where you can view your real-time Myzone stats. Plus, through the free Myzone app, you can see your progress and build your own community of fitness friends who can motivate, encourage, and challenge you to join fun competitions where only your effort counts, not your athletic ability or talent.

Resistance bands come in many shapes, sizes, and colors, and Adventure Fitness Athletic Club has a full assortment of them at our Thornton gym. Our team is always available to show our members the many ways they can use resistance bands during their workouts.
Here’s a list of the different types of resistance bands you can try and how to use them to achieve a full-body workout at our gym, at home, while you travel, or anywhere else you desire.

Having a strong core is a huge asset, both inside and outside the gym. The team at Adventure Fitness Athletic Club is here to help! Our personal trainers can show you many ways to strengthen your core by using our wide range of gym equipment and attending some of the many fitness classes we offer at our gym in Thornton. In this blog, we’ll define what your core is and list 9 exercises you can try either at the gym or at home to give you more of the core you’re looking for.

March is Women’s History Month, an annual 31-day celebration of women’s accomplishments and contributions to our world. Adventure Fitness Athletic Club would like to take this opportunity to commemorate great women in fitness — from those at our gym in Thornton, Colorado, to others throughout the world who have inspired us to live healthier lifestyles and achieve our goals.

One of the unsung heroes of the gym world is slide boards, which we are excited to offer to members of Adventure Fitness Athletic Club. Slide boards can provide you with an excellent cardio workout while strengthening muscles in your entire body. Slide boards are also great because they allow you to move in ways that are completely different from the typical forward momentum that most cardio exercises (like running and biking) offer.

Eating protein is an important part of making your muscles stronger after a workout at the gym. Regardless of what type of workout you’re doing — whether it’s a jog on the treadmill or an hour of heavy deadlifting — a meal or snack filled with protein is what you should be noshing on as soon as you’ve finished exercising. In this blog, we’ll explore what protein is, why it’s important to your body, and some high-protein foods you can eat to make your muscles stronger after your workouts at our Thornton, CO, gym.

When you’re at the gym, you work hard to make sure all your muscle groups get a good workout, but don’t forget your heart! During an average lifetime, the heart beats about 2.5 billion times and pushes millions of gallons of blood to every part of the body. In this blog, we’ll list some ways that you can protect and improve your heart health, both outside and inside our Thornton, CO, gym.

Since we all breathe every day without much thought, why would you need to concentrate on your breathing when you work out at the gym? It should just happen naturally, right? Well that’s true, breathing does happen, but there are ways that you can consciously change the way you breathe to improve your gym workout performance and results.

The plank is an excellent exercise to increase your core strength and stabilization. It’s also a rewarding exercise because people of all fitness levels can start doing planks for short increments (10-20 seconds) and then slowly build over time to hold a plank for 1-5 minutes. They give you a real feeling of accomplishment and you can see the results in your stronger shoulder and abdominal muscles. At Adventure Fitness Athletic Club, our team of personal trainers is here to help members of our Thornton, CO, gym use proper form during all their exercises, including planks.

A trap bar is a hexagon-shaped barbell that allows you to stand in the middle of the hexagon, instead of behind a straight barbell. When you lift with a trap bar, you place less force on your spine compared to a barbell, but still give your lower body a good workout. Adventure Fitness Athletic Club has state-of-the-art trap bars for our members to use at our gym in Thornton. We invite anyone who would like to learn more about how to use trap bars to ask one of our staff members for help.