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30 April 2021

Freestyle Step - The Benefits.


Freestyle Step - The Benefits

...so is it really good for you?

The workout that revolutionised fitness

According to "The American Council on Exercise" Freestyle Step revolutionised the fitness industry in the 1980s. Ever since then, it seems that every fit man and woman is screaming down your throat to "Get off the couch and exercise!" with most these peeps seemingly just starting, in the middle of, or just finished a step routine. This has been more obvious by the tons of commercials (specially in the United States) pushing the benefits of freestyle step aerobics while trying to sell you the step, their clothing, the weights being used, .... their soul.

Many of you (that includes me too!) joined a gym so you could be one of the peeps into the next gym revolution. Or maybe, you did not, just because in your eyes it was just another new workout that will dim with time.

However, it turns out that it was not a fad, it was not fading away. Instead it grew into one of the greatest things could ever happened to the fitness industry, and to top it all off, not just was it a fun exercise, it is really good for you and your health!

Benefits of Step Aerobics:

Cardiovascular Health

  • One hour of step aerobics = running flat out for 11 kilometres. Step aerobics offers the same cardiovascular benefits as running for that long at maximum effort. ....I know which one I rather do!.

  • Your heart is a muscle like any other muscle in your body, so step aerobics is a great way to exercise your heart, your lungs, and the rest of your cardiovascular system. And just like any other muscle, through increased exercise, you can increase your heart's strength and endurance. A stronger "ticker" means you have a better "pump" machine to push your blood around your fant-a-bulous body. Secondary improvements are that of reducing heart and arterial strokes and diseases. Another added benefit is that your improvement during your workouts because more blood being thrown at the muscles, the more oxygen your muscles get, the more energy they have to execute whatever workout you through at them. Win/Win!!

Musculoskeletal Health

  • Say what? ... Musculoskeletal = Strength and density of the bones.

  • Freestyle Step Aerobics is a weight bearing workout. Even although it is considered to be a low impact form of exercising your booty. Since you cannot leave the kilos on the side while exercising, it means that even although it is a low impact workout, you still carry your own weight while Freestyle stepping.
  • So, after all of the above, where is the benefit? Well, since we cannot leave the extra weight we carry on the side of the gym floor, then our body self-defence mechanism to cope with the additional weight is that of increasing the bone mass by producing extra bone cells. Bone density is then increased allowing the bones to better manage your body with the provided weight. The additional bone cells makes your bones healthier, stronger. You can then balance better and helps you fight degenerative diseases like osteoporosis. So heck yes! that is a great benefit!

Weight Loss

  • YES!!
  • Freestyle Step Aerobics has enormous benefits regarding weight loss. Due to the Musculoskeletal and Cardiovascular benefits explained earlier, if you combine these two you have the recipe for a extremely effective tool to burn the hell out of your body fat (....others call them body love...).

  • Also, as you can choose your own level of intensity on your workout, it helps you to start loosing weight slowly, until such time that you can handle more intensity. As you build more intensity, more weight you shred, and then you are enabled to exponentially loose more and more weight until you reach your goal. Sweet! right?
  • But, how many calories can I burn with Freestyle step aerobics? There has been many studies in this regard, and they have shown that it can actually burn 600 calories in one hour. Go figure!
  • As we said before, you choose your intensity, so the calories you burn are dependent on the intensity of your workout, as well as the length of the workout. Clearly 10 minutes of freestyle step workout is not going to burn the same number of calories as a full hour would do. But to give you an estimate, a basic routine and basic intensity could burn anywhere between 300 calories to 400 calories. From these figures, you can model your workout to reach your desired goal. I mean, you can increase your workout intensity to burn more calories. You can do this by stepping faster. You could also choose not to increase the intensity, but increase the time of your workout, which in return will burn more calories. Another thing you can do to increase your fat burning.... sorry, I mean your calorie burning workout is to increase the height of your step by using additional step raisers. Raising the height of the step comes with additional danger, as you have to be aware that you need to raise your foot that little bit more than normal, so you do not trip over the step. If this is not your thing, combine workout length and make your workout just a little bit faster to achieve a greater benefit on the calorie burning department.

Mental Health

  • Our brain is addicted to endorphins. Little neurotransmitters of electrical signals. A good freestyle step workout releases endorphins in the brain, feeding its addiction.

  • Endorphins is like a drug, it helps relieving you of pain in the body, as well as relieving anxiety and helping you deal with stress a heck of a lot better.
  • Indirectly from freestyle step direct benefits, by losing weight with freestyle step as well as toning your body, you will feel awesome about your looks and increase your self-confidence levels. You just don't loose with freestyle step!.

Increased Leg Power

  • Who gets the bigger, better workout during your freestyle step workout, your body's lower muscles, that's who!
  • From your main leg muscles, the joints and little muscles in your ankles, all the way to every muscle in your feet will be the main protagonists during your workout as these will be carrying you, your body, your weight. To all this, add that this specific workout is done one leg, one ankle, one foot at the time, which means each leg brunts the workout on its own, without sharing the weight with the other leg, ankle, foot as these are not doing the same move at the same time.

  • The workout you get will not only be beneficial to the muscles of your legs, but it will also improve balance and stability on your legs. As a vicious circle, as you improve on your balance and stability on one of your legs, you are at the same time that you are putting the muscles of that leg to an increased workout you in fact will be building those muscles even at a faster rate.
  • Every muscle in your legs are used when you do freestyle step thus being beneficial for the lower body. Believe it or not, many athletes that depend on their legs, but furhtermore, on the strength of their legs (Cyclists, runners, and footballers come to mind) do include step workouts in their routines to maintain that required strenght.
  • But, from all of the muscles on our bodies, which ones are mostly used when doing freestyle step? I hear you say. The obvious answer is that freestyle step main muscles are those in the legs from the top of our legs, passing through our lower leg muscles, all the way to our ankles.
  • But maybe you are not aware that these are not the only muscles being worked out in your freestyle step routine. The Core muscles also are called in, mostly to help with balance and weight distribution during movement.
  • If you feel that you want those core muscles to work even harder, you can achieve a higher intensity on your upper body and core muscles by adding arm movements to the routine. So your Core, your upper body gets a good workout, but you also increase the number of calories being burnt while strengthening more muscles... Way to go!
  • Although not recommended when exercising intermediate to complex routines, if you find the need to add to your upper body intensity you might add sport resistance elastic bands with which you can add upper body routines in addition to your step aerobic routine. I personally do not recommend it, since there would be two sets of routines to remember.

Metabolic Rate Increase

  • The rate at which fat molecules are broken down by your proteins is what is called your metabolic rate. And this is something that freestyle step is good at if exercised regularly, it increases your metabolic rate.

  • Not only breaks down the calories and fat in the food you consume, but it also has a go at your existing body fat stored in those inconvenient corners of your body. So the more freestyle stepping you do, the more tough proteins your body creates that will be breaking fat and calories all over the place, thus your fat loss efforts would be more effective.
  • A hidden secret, and added benefit, is that as you do more freestyle step workouts you will also be increasing the rate that your body creates "H.G.H." (fancy acronym that stands for "Human Growth Hormone"). HGH is damn useful whe we are reaching a more advanced age, as naturally the older you get the less HGH you produce. There is nothing better than having the additional HGH when you can so you will be better for it later.
  • In brief, as you do more freestyle stepping, you will imporve your metabloic rate, aiding in the limitation of your calorie intake, and buring more excess fat from your body, while in the process creating a reserve of HGH for later use. What more could you ask for?

No matter what you think, it is a low impact workout!

  • But, what is low impact workout. Low impact workout is that workout in which you need to have one of your feet on the ground (or step) at all times. The main aim with low impact workouts is to lower the stress on your body when compared with high impact workouts.

  • Don't get me wrong, high impact workout is not necessarily a bad thing. It depends who looks at it. If it is being looked at by people that have good healthy joints, high impact workouts can achieve very good results with a minimum stress to their joints. On the other hand, if high impact workouts is being viewed by people that have joints that are weak or already have joint pain, then high impact aerobics would be dangerous for their joints, or change the workout from an enjoyable one to a painful one. These people should stay with freestyle Step or other low impact workout.
  • Step aerobics is a low impact form of workout, even although it is a high intensity one, thus it is less damaging to your joints than other workouts like runing, or skipping.
  • So i guess then, that after all of the above comments about joints, the question in everyone's mind would be "Is Freestyle Step Bad For Knees?". Freestyle step is a low impact exercise if done how it is intended. That is, at all times, one foot stays on the floor or your step platform at all times.
  • You have to be concious of you form, adding additional hand, wrist, ankle weights and avoid adding high impact moves to your freestyle step workout like jumps, hops, star jumps, etc... these additions can alter the fundamentals of freestyle step program was designed to be.
  • The basic and intermediate freestyle step is not bad for the knees, not really, but if you are not careful when adding variations to your program, or keeping bad form when exercising, these additions can be detrimental and be the cause of injuries. At all times you need to ensure to keep good form and follow the instructor's safety instructions such as, "always keep you entire foot inside the platform surface".

Adaptability

  • Great adaptability and versatility is one of the added benefits of freestyle step.
  • You can start with a step platform that is only 10 centimeters off the ground, or one even better, you remove the elevated step totally! For people with very low fitness levels and abilities or physical condition this is a great way to start.

  • As you improve your abilities in your workout, and as you increase your fitenss level, then you can start adding the platform, or increase the hight of your starting level. This will also increase the intensity of your workout. The step platform is about 10 centimeters off the ground, however if you are ready to increase even more, you can add "raisers" and place your step hight at 15 or 20 centimeters. It might get to the point where your fitness level has improved so much that you might raise your platform as high as 25 centimeters off the floor.
  • You probably have seen some members in freestyle step group sessions adding extra movements to the instructor's routine. This is clearly done by advanced step members. Some might add arm movements to exercise the upper body area while still working out the lower body doing freestyle step moves. Some might add faster moves, or if their joints permits, add high impact moves. Although I do not condone this, you might find that on basic, or intermediate workouts some members might use sports resistance elastic bands or even small hand/wrists/ankle weights to further increase their workout intensity.
  • I again repeat myself that I do not condone elastic bands or weights during a freestyle step workout, due to concerns with potential injuries. Instead you might choose to increase the speed of your step moves and get your heart working at a faster rate. The other thing you can do, as discussed before is to increase the height of your step. These alternatives are less risky than using elastic bands and/or weights during a freestyle step workout.

Minimal equipement required

  • It is great being part of a step class group that enjoy their workout and their sense of community although it is not always possible to come down to your local gym for a step class session. And if you attend these classes week after week, paying per session or per membership, it can be costly.

  • You can always opt for doing step aerobics at home. Specially now with COVID-19, you can find many sessions online and available for your to be part of. All you need is to buy a step with or without raisers.
  • Nothing else is needed. However, as mentioned above, and against my recommendation, you might choose to add sport resistance elastic bands which are not costly at all, and might add intensity to your workout. I strongly suggest not to used them in an intermediate or advanced routine. Remember you might be alone at home and an injury might be hard to manage if no one else is around.
  • Ok, ok, ok,... you have decided to workout at home, so now, where can you find a step aerobic platform to buy? Aerobics platforms are not expensive, however they are small enough to be portable. Your step platform needs to be slip-proof, resistent and durable, and preferably come with raisers to allow you to increase the workout height and intensitey.
  • This month, at my local KMart store in Sydney, I saw Aerobic Step platforms at $45 australian dollars! and it did include the raisers!.

Conclusion

Everyone can take get benefits from freestyle step aerobics. All the way from beginners to the most advanced members, regardless of the numbers of "X" chromosomes, or their ages (although recommended for 16 year olds upwards), just about everybody can add freestyle step to their exercise routine and rip in all of the benefits stated above. A 60 minute freestyle step workout can burn from 400 to 600 calories depending on the workout intensity helping you to look the best "you" you can fathom. As a double "Wammer" it will help train your heart, lungs, bones, muslces and just about every part of your body, from lower body to upper body although at a lasser level. Freestyle step is one of the best workout options available. Don't waste your time, if you haven't yet tried it, do it now, join a class, soak in the atmosphere of the class and rip on all of the benefits... and to top it all, it even fun!

"The information provided herein is strictly for educational purposes. Always consult your qualified Group Fitness Instructor before implementing any suggestions above."

Disclaimer

You must get your physician's approval before beginning any exercise suggested in this blog or any of its articles. Any recommendations found within these articles are not medical guidelines but are for educational purposes only. You must consult your physician prior to starting any suggestions in this blog, or if you have any medical condition or injury that contraindicates physical activity. The suggestions in this blog article are designed for individuals 18 years and older that have been approved by their physician to take any of the suggestions above.

The information in this blog article is meant to supplement, not replace, proper exercise training. All forms of exercise pose some inherent risks. As such we advise readers to take full responsibility for their safety and know their limits. Before practicing the exercises in this blog article, be sure that your equipment is well-maintained, and do not take risks beyond your level of experience, aptitude, training and fitness. The exercises and dietary programs in this article are not intended as a substitute for any exercise routine or treatment or dietary regime that may have been prescribed by your physician.

Do not lift heavy weights if you are alone, inexperienced, injured, or fatigued. Do not perform any exercises unless you have been shown the proper technique by a certified personal trainer or certified strength and conditioning specialist. Always ask for instruction and assistance when lifting. Do not perform any exercise without proper instruction. Always do a warm-up prior to resistance training and interval training.

See your physician before starting any exercise or nutrition program. If you are taking any medications, you must talk to your physician before starting any exercise program, including Freestyle Step Aerobics. If you experience any light-headedness, dizziness, or shortness of breath while exercising, stop the movement and consult a physician.

You must have a complete physical examination if you are sedentary, if you have high cholesterol, high blood pressure, or diabetes, if you are overweight, or if you are over 30 years old. Please discuss all nutritional changes with your physician or a registered dietician. If your physician recommends that you do not do Freestyle Step Aerobics, please follow your Doctor's orders.

That was our January 2021 article, our first article for the 2021. Remember to feel free to comment, or contact me via email to FreestyleStepXTRVGNZ@gmail.com , and comment on what you think of this article, or any article you have read, or just any improvements you may want to see happening.

Bruno Jimenez
January 2021

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