Another Fitness Tip

Michele Thorington, certified trainer with Hurley Health and Fitness has your fitness tip for the day.

She is reminding you to make time to exercise. It's best to workout either five times a week attacking atleast 30 minutes of moderate exercise or two times a week taking on 20 minutes of vigorous exercise.

The second round of eliminations will take place next Thursday on the 23rd. Make sure to help your favorite loser stay in the competition by voting for them right here on the website.


Getting Your Kicks: NEMAA Karate and Kickboxing issues a fitness challengePosted by Kristal Spence on Oct 16 2008, 04:48 PM


It’s meant to be a workout like no other, giving any participant a true Biggest Loser experience, a popular weight loss series in its sixth American season on NBC. Over the summer, NEMAA Karate and Kickboxing developed its first fitness challenge that was advertised to the public. The challenge was conducted between June and August, offering participants more than 100 classes of turbo cardio kickboxing, kickboxing with bags, strengthening and toning classes, and nutritional counseling within an eight-week span.

“We had a big kickoff meeting and we gave them 30 seconds to do push-ups and sit-ups and we counted those so they could see that they had gained strength over the eight weeks,” certified kickboxing instructor Monique Johnson of Gales Ferry said.

She explained that participants were required to schedule their classes with her each week and their attendance was monitored.

“We also weighed [participants] in and then figured their percent weight loss in the eight weeks,” she continued. “I had them commit to five classes a week…There was an accountability factor and it made them put it on their calendar.”

Though there were many family members participating in the challenge together, the challenge was on a individual basis, Johnson said, with ages ranging from about 20 to 60 years old.

“We had a total of 40,” Johnson added. “I cut it off at 40 and we had 40 in the challenge.”

She said throughout the rigorous and dedicated eight weeks, she awarded prizes and incentives for participants to make those scheduled classes and made a point to e-mail participants when she didn’t see them. In addition, the exercisers were offered group nutritional counseling as well as personal consultation if they needed extra motivation and were told to keep eating logs when they were worried about not seeing results.

Johnson said most participants made it to the finish line, repeating their push-ups and sit-ups at the end of the program to measure their gained strength, and the person who lost the greatest percentage of weight received a complete makeover package and a $200 cash prize.

“I knew I was going to have some that would drop out,” she said. “It’s a big commitment and a lot of people come in with other things on their plate…I was surprised at how few we had drop out. I was extremely pleased…Also the instructors had to do a full sit-up for every pound total that they all lost,” she added, laughing. “We tried to implement some things to keep everyone really motivated, and that’s what it takes.”

Winner of the summer challenge Tim Lough said he originally heard about the challenge at Sub Fest.

“I wanted to lose weight, and it gave me an opportunity to have an activity with my youngest daughter,” he added, referring to his 19-year-old daughter Caitlin. “The experience was great. It forced me back into a routine of regular workouts. I also changed my eating habits. I went from two meals a day where I ate the wrong foods, and too much of them, to eating correctly three times a day with healthy snacks in between. The workouts were not the same boring routine. It was a mixture of aerobic exercise and kickboxing. No two workouts were the same. Each instructor has their own style and that made it enjoyable.”

Married with four kids and a local resident for about 11 years, Johnson said her journey to become a certified instructor and owner of the kickboxing program all started when she became a member of NEMAA Karate and Kickboxing when it opened in Uncasville in 2001.

Owner Chris Pennenga of Ledyard had recently retired from the Coast Guard, finally settling down and opening up the school. Having trained in martial arts all of his life, he said he knew he wanted to open the school because of his love for the sport, dedication to health and staying in shape, and enjoyment in teaching.

“I think I have a knack for teaching and when you find something that you’re good at, you try to excel at that,” he said. “I’ve had kids with me that have trained since they were 4 and now they’re 12 years old. It’s a big part of their lives…some are actually instructors now.”

Johnson said she began taking classes from Pennenga, who eventually certified her to start teaching. When the school expanded and moved to Groton, Johnson bought and now operates the school’s fitness program as Pennenga owns and operates the school’s martial arts program, both providing programs for Ledyard Parks and Recreation and Groton Parks and Recreation.

“That’s how it’s evolved to where we are now,” Johnson said, smiling.

The idea of the fitness challenge, they both agreed, was influenced by the show The Biggest Loser. After trying it out with Johnson’s class members and experiencing great success, they decided to broaden their participation to the public. After the summer challenge, Johnson said, many stayed and joined the gym.

“That was the hope, that they would get to the ultimate point, which is all about balance and finding time in your life for fitness, health, and nutrition and over an eight-week period, they would develop that as a habit,” Johnson continued. “We had many that have continued and will hopefully keep going toward their long-term goal and will maintain. It’s all about balance and that’s what we kept stressing over and over, that we were trying to help them find a balance with stress levels, fitness, nutrition, family, and work and have it all work together.”

The school is setting up for its Holiday Challenge, running Oct. 20 through Dec. 12 to keep health and fitness flowing through the holiday season and celebrated with friends on New Year’s.

Johnson said the challenge will run in basically the same manner with a makeover as the grand prize provided exclusively by Touch of Elegance Salon in Ledyard and a $100 cash prize. She added that this time around, group nutritional counseling on a weekly basis will be offered and that boxing gloves for the bag classes are included in the challenge price, as is a challenge T-shirt.

“Chris is also offering a second challenge this time, a Martial Arts Fitness Challenge,” she continued. “This challenge is for those that like mixed martial arts, grappling, sparring, push-ups, sit-ups, and martial arts classes. It will run basically the same as the fitness class challenge and for the same time period.”

“We’re going to run, we’re going to jump rope, we’re going to hit the bag, we’re going to wrestle, we’re going to grapple, we’re going to do everything,” Pennenga said, comparing their experience in the program similar to how a fighter would train. “It’s easy to get discouraged in exercise. You have to try to keep a positive attitude and that’s what we did and plan to do the entire time.”

“I would recommend the winter challenge to anyone who wants to get themselves in motion and avoid the winter ‘hibernation’,” Lough said. “The challengers are all just like you. They want to get in better shape and have fun doing it…We all work together.”

“My philosophy is balance, balance, and more balance,” Johnson emphasized. “I hope people take away from the challenge that making exercise a part of your regular routine will help you be mentally alert and physically healthy and energized so you can handle the challenges of every single day…There’s nothing like someone coming to you with that look of, ‘I can’t believe I did this,’” Johnson said, “and when they did that three weeks in the program or five weeks in the program, it re-motivates me to re-motivate everyone else. It’s really neat. They look like you just gave them a house..or gave them gold or something and I’m like, ‘You did it and you can keep doing it.’”

NEMAA Karate and Kickboxing is located at 1353 Gold Star Highway in Groton and can be reached at 860-445-5425. View pictures and more information