You may have noticed a handsome new face around Ultimate Fitness. Duane “Bang” Ludwig joined Team Alpha Male as Head Striking Coach earlier this year. Duane comes to the team from Colorado and an illustrious career as a Pro MMA fighter most recently with the UFC. Don’t let Duane’s nice face fool you. As most of the guys on Team Alpha Male, he is as deadly as he is good looking. Check out his highlights on YouTube if you want to see what we’re talking about.

Bang has brought next level striking techniques to Team Alpha Male. He most recently told TJ Dillishaw to watch for a 2nd round face kick in his last fight. Not so coincidentally, Dillishaw knocked out his opponent with, what else, but a 2nd round kick to the face! Extra Sensory Perception or is it all the time Bang spends studying tape? Team Alpha Male will no doubt continue to benefit from Bang’s incredible training, teaching skills and insight and now Ultimate Fitness members will benefit too.

Beginning April 1st UF will be incorporating Duane Bang’s patented Muay Thai system into several of our KB classes. This means some great new combos and a promotion system for Kickboxing students which UF has not had in the past. We are very excited to bring this new and improved system to our Kickboxing program. Watch for Bang Muay Thai classes to be added to the schedule  over the weekend and enjoy Bang Muay Thai Systems at Ultimate Fitness!

P.S.  Bang jerseys will also be here and available for purchase on Monday!

I must admit, I stole this post off the Fisher Chiropractic Blog. It’s such good, healthy information, I couldn’t resist sharing it with our readers…..

Beets are delicious and nutritious powerhouses!  Here are 7 reasons to love beets.

1.  Lower Blood Pressure (when high): A study done recently at London’s Queen Mary University found that a single glass of beet juice a day was more effective at lowering high blood pressure than medication. This doesn’t mean you should cease taking meds if you have high blood pressure. However, it does mean adding a cup of beet juice or more beets to your diet just might help your treatment of high blood pressure, angina and heart disease.

2.  Increase Exercise Endurance: Another study at England’s University of Exeter found that eating foods rich in natural nitrates, like beets, improved endurance during exercise. Who couldn’t use help with endurance?! They studied various substances and training methods to see if any would improve stamina. Beet juice had the highest effect, improving folks ability to exercise for 16% longer than without beet juice, without tiring. Naturally-occurring nitrates have been shown to widen blood vessels and allow more oxygen-rich blood to travel to the heart.

3.  Anti-Inflammatory: Raw beets and beet juice have betaine, a natural anti-inflammatory which helps protect us against aging and disease. Pass the beets please!

4.  Anti-Cancer Effects: The phytonutrient, proanthocyanidin, that give beets their lovely purple color is a potent anti-cancer compound. The fiber in beets can help protect against cancer. The particular fiber in beets increases the body’s ability to detect and remove abnormal cells in the body BEFORE they can become cancerous.

5.  Immunity Booster: Beets are high in vitamin C, which has been proven to boost the immune system.

6.  Reduce The Risk Of Birth Defects: Beets are very high in the B-complex vitamin called folate which has been shown to reduce the risk of birth defects when consumed by pregnant women.

7.  Rich In Essential Minerals: Beets are also high in manganese and potassium, the minerals needed for healthy bones, kidneys and the pancreas. Potassium also helps us with healthy nerve and muscle function.

Don’t know how to get more beets in your diet? Try them in soups and stews. I love steamed beets tossed with a smidge of extra virgin olive oil and a dash of sea salt. You can also slice or grate raw beets into your salad. Bottom line, get beets in your diet any way you can!

Ultimate Fitness will be closed on New Year’s Day but we will be open on New Year’s Eve for half the day. We’ll open at 7 am with Kenneth’s kickboxing class and then stay open until 2 pm. All scheduled classes up until that time will take place. Let’s all get a workout in before the end of the year!!!

The Gym will be closed Monday and Tuesday, Christmas Eve (12/24) and Christmas (12/25) as well as NYE (12/31) and New Years Day so we can all hang out with our families and gear up for 2013!

Change can be hard (we will miss Jeromy’s classes) but the bright side is we will be bringing in some new blood to teach classes. Please welcome DJ Roberson to the UF crew. DJ will be teaching the Tuesday noon class and Conditioning on Friday afternoons. Jeromy’s other classes will be taken over by Mario and Dion. These changes take place beginning next week. If you have to lose a great instructor, it’s not so bad when you have other great instructors to fill the gap!

We have some happy and, at the same time, sad news.  After 6 years of being a steadfast staple on the Ultimate Fitness schedule, Jeromy Freitag has decided to focus on his fight career full-time. We are so happy for Jeromy that he is following his true passion and even happier that he will be doing a lot of his training at Ultimate Fitness. But we are a little blue that he will no longer be teaching at UF. Jeromy has been an absolute rock and a part of our success for many years. We are so thankful for all his years of faithful, hard work and he will be sorely missed. Please join us in wishing Jeromy the best of luck in his continuing fight career. We will keep everyone posted on his upcoming bouts and see you all in his cheering section. It truly is the end of an era! Best of Luck, Jeromy!!!

Beginning Monday, December 3rd, the following TRX classes will no longer be available: Tuesdays 5:15 p.m., Thursdays 5:10 p.m. and Fridays 1:15 p.m. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. TRX is not as popular as we had hoped and thus raised overhead substantially. It is not one of our main disciplines and while we love it, it is being cut in lieu of cutting any of our mainstay classes. If its popularity increases, we will add more classes back to the schedule. In the meantime, if you like TRX and can’t get enough of it with the classes that remain perhaps sign up for personal TRX sessions with Kito, Rosanna or Ryan. All are available for personal training and certified TRX instructors.

Ultimate Fitness will be closed for the Thanksgiving Holiday so that our staff, instructors and owners can spend a long weekend with their families. We will be closed from Thursday, November 22nd to Sunday, November 25th. Enjoy your Turkey Day, Black Friday and the entire holiday weekend! We wish you and your family a wonderful start to the holiday season!

Sorry we’re getting this information to you all a little late. Many of our members have done Tough Mudders and this is similar. In case any of you are interested in a big challenge this weekend, here’s the flier for the Spartan Race:

Cooler temps mean it’s the beginning of the awful cold and flu season. This can mean missed workouts, doctor’s visits and many trips to the pharmacy. Chronic Coughs can take a toll on training and fitness programs. You can help keep the bad bugs away by increasing your intake of immune-boosting foods.

Vitamin C, beta-carotene, probiotics and zinc are known soldiers against colds and flu. Supplements are great as extra reinforcements but for day to day maintenance try to get this nutrients through your diet by eating plenty of these healthy foods.

1) Grass-fed Beef (zinc):  Grass-fed cows yield beef with more immune enhancing CLA, beta-carotene, vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids than grain-fed animals. Beef also ups your intake of zinc which aids in the production of white blood cells that help fight infection.

2) Red Bell Peppers (vitamin C):  Red bell peppers actually contain about double the vitamin C of oranges and bring a hearty dose of immune-supportive beta-carotene and lycopene to the table. Vitamin C promotes healthy skin (which is part of  your body’s first line or defense), increases white blood cell and antibody production and may help decrease the length and severity of cold symptoms.

3) Yogurt/Kefir (probiotics):  Yogurt and kefir contain probiotics (healthy bacteria) that are like your own personal army patrolling your GI tract. You need these good bacteria in your system so the bad bacteria doesn’t have a chance to thrive. About 70 to 80% of your immune system is based in your tummy so keeping a large number of friendly bacteria is so important for ideal immune function.

4) Sweet Potatoes, Pumpkin, Squash, Carrots (beta-carotene):  Cooler weather means beta-carotene rich foods are in season. So, get in the kitchen and start whipping up some autumn dishes. Your body also converts beta-carotene into vitamin A, another strong immune enhancer. Too much vitamin A can be toxic so getting in your foods is safer than in a supplement.

If you are like most of us at UF, thinking more about what you are putting in your body, then this chart is something you will want to see. It’s a quick reference chart on GMO (Genetically Modified) labels on produce. This was an eye opener for us for sure and we thank Ms. Butterbeans Cooking School for Kids for sending it our way. This handy little chart shows what the first number on produce labels means and it is something we should ALL be paying attention to.