Monthly Archives: December 2014

Workout To Get (And Keep) That Bonza Booty!

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The booty focused workout seems to get a lot of attention these days.

It seems like just yesterday no one wanted to acknowledge that they even had a butt and now they’re all the rage!

So how do we get the perfect booty?

Being ample just isn’t enough! We want round, firm perky butts! But lets face it, our sedentary, office encased lifestyle doesn’t exactly encourage our derriere to jump up and say “Notice me!” And, really, who knows what exercises will actually achieve these results? Squats and lunges and stairs, oh my! Thankfully we are all privy to the genius that is Jamie Atlas and the Bonza Bodies Fitness Trainers.

With their help we can all achieve the butt we want with the RIGHT functional body exercises we’ve come to expect from the world class personal trainers at Bonza Bodies. Skip the boot camp and the spin classes and the stair master! Here is the workout you need for the perfect Bonza booty.

If you are finding these moves too easy, don’t you worry! The advanced Perfect Butt moves are coming soon to a blog near you! You know you can’t wait…

And a special congratulations to all of our Ski Conditioning Participants! We love seeing all those sexy legs in class!

Like what you see?  Come perfect your moves at either the Downtown studio, 80202, or Lakewood, 80215, and on those busy days you just can’t make it in, keep the moves up from home!  Email info@bonzabodies.com or call 1-866-609-5004

The plight of small group personal training in 2014

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Small Group Personal Training (and I) Owe 2014 To You.

No, seriously.  Whether you’re currently a personal training client, boot camp or weight loss challenge participant or have been one in the past, you’re a part of the reason why we’re here today.   Even if you’ve just read some of our stuff, talked about us to someone or done nothing at all but read this far into this post, I mean it.  You’re helping create awareness with every workout, every mention, every activated neuron in that beautiful head of yours.

60 lbs weight loss

Sometimes weight loss results come from smart work, not just hard work.

Let me explain further why you’re to thank for small group personal training:

If you were once with us and left, that forced me to sit down and think deeply about why you did.  About what we could do to make Bonza better so the next person would want to stay forever.  When you stayed, that gave me the chance to show you different ideas, to brainstorm with you and let you them give me the thumbs up or thumbs down.  I’ll say it because you’re too nice to – it hasn’t been all smooth sailing.  We’ve gained some good people but lost a few as well.

It might be an exaggeration to compare running a personal-training focused fitness studio to a battlefield, but let’s put it this way.  Every time I look out at the clubs and studios that are making headlines, it gives me the strength to keep fighting.

Because Bodylab shut down.   They had a great nutrition program (like we do) and got great results (like we do) but couldn’t make it work.

Chi Fitness changed hands.  Became a house divided – where workouts once met yoga, the innovative concept eventually sputtered out.

Orange Theory Fitness grew exponentially but in a different direction than what made them effective in the first place.

All of these studios have or did have the chance to be game changers, but they all shied away from the small group concept  they were borne of and went with something different. The closest thing left to a dedicated small group training experience is Pearl Street Fitness (who do a great job – theirs is a little larger than our class sizes and with a different movement philosophy, but do a great job at what they want to be good at, which I salute).

Running a small group personal training fitness studio is worth every minute of effort.

liz smiling

This is Liz. She’s holding a ViPR. Just one of many functional training tools/devices of torture that took off in 2014

So don’t get me wrong, the battlefield I’m talking about isn’t with other studios.

It’s with the crystal clear view I see and the battle to get other clubs and trainers to save this concept before it gets overlooked altogether.

Which is that people need attention.

They need to be able to go to whatever workout they want to with whatever trainer is there and get a personalized experience.  Are we at a place where I’m happy with it yet?  No.  But I’m hard to please.  And we’re getting there.  We’re closer every month.

Sorry, where are my manners!  Let me get off my soapbox for a moment.

That’s better.  (deep breath)

Happy Holidays to you from Bonza and all of our personal training staff.

Of course, I’m hoping when you read ‘happy holidays’, you’ll insert your religious/seasonal/solstice-based celebration of choice to that, sparing me the awkwardness of getting it wrong and feeling angst about my ignorance when it comes to knowing what to say.  What’s that?  I know, right?  Thanks for understanding.

christmas tree zoomed

Tihis cool zoom out effect helps me understand what LSD must feel like…

So when I look back at the year that was, a lot seems to have happened.  It’s actually kinda dizzying, both for me personally as a personal trainer and fitness professional, and for Bonza Bodies as a club coming into a level of it’s own finally after many transformations and reorganizations.

We won a few awards for personal training, one for boot camp, spoke at a few events and got seen on TV about a million times it feels like.  The funniest thing is that the thing I’m most excited about is the place Bonza is at right now.  We’ve got members that have stuck with us, managers that have been resilient even when I’ve loaded endless projects upon their sh9ulders.  A couple of new faces and new game plans that have me giggling (yes, giggling) about what 2015 will hold for us.

So thanks.  For being a part of a movement to get clubs to pay better attention to you and not accept it when they say “Oh, you want personal attention?  Trainers corner is over there.  Don’t forget to budget the thousand dollars per month you’ll need to afford it!  PS Nutrition is extra”

We’re not where we want to be.  But we’re getting there.  And it’s in big part thanks to you.

Here’s to you – have a happy and safe holiday season, you butthead.

Be true to your goals,

Jamie Atlas

Sarah's new personal trainer Rex seemed adamant she finish her set before moving on.

Sarah’s new personal trainer Rex seemed adamant she finish her set before moving on.

Saying No To Family And Friends – A Weight Loss Mindset

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“Oh come on, one bite won’t hurt your weight loss!”

“But you’ve been doing so well, give yourself a treat!”

“Holiday calories don’t count!” – This one is a personal favorite of mine

How many of you have heard this? I guessing every single person reading this has heard one of these lines from a well-meaning family member or friend trying to get you to eat some sugary treat at a holiday get together.

Its how we show people we care/love them in this over sugared society we live in, we try to feed them. Or at the very least we feel less guilty if someone indulges with us…  But when it comes to our weight loss efforts, these well meaning intentions can crush our momentum faster than you would expect.

So how do we say no?

It would seem it’s either your weight loss efforts or annoying the ones you care about.  How do we politely draw the line and help friends and family understand that we are doing this not to hurt their feelings or (gasp) insult their sugary handmade ‘I made it for you’ guilt laden gifts? Its a tricky one, but as always your favorite Bonza Bodies Personal Trainers are here with some answers: Click the pic to see more!

Click here to see more!

If you’re feeling inspired, that’s normal.  However, as with any weight loss journey, expect to need support.  Talk to friends and co-workers and find others that also feel your pain. Above all, remember that you may have days where you struggle with making the right food choices! We all have struggles on the journey to better health, but YOU are worth the struggle!

TGIF champagne celebration

And if you want some extra guidance, WE can help! Contact Bonza Bodies at (303) 257-9328 for information on our hands on Accountability Membership options!

Stay True to Your Goals

Jamie Atlas

Weight Loss is just a part of our best transformation program ever

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 A weight loss experience you’ll actually be able to stick with.

The holidays are full of eating and drinking — either from stress, for celebration, or because we’re in a hurry and grabbing a donut seems easier than cooking some eggs. But the season of gathering over plates of calories and goblets of sugar is short-lived. And, like clockwork, here comes January and with it all the weight loss programs that promise all of the results with none of the support, nutrition or essential elements of any quality get in shape program.  They don’t really expect you to stick around, they’re just looking for their share of the ‘new years resolutionaries’ to pad their membership stats.  Why bother providing quality to someone who’s not really gonna stick around past the first two weeks anyway, right?

We don’t have a dozen studios to choose from, just one in downtown denver (80202) and our humble lakewood location.  If the weather stays nice we’ll have a few workouts at red rocks just because it’s amazing to do that.  If you live or work near either of those locations (or know someone that does that you can tell about this program) then you need to get involved.  What else are you gonna do?  Rely on willpower to do it yourself?  Say it with me and tell me how it sounds:  “Me getting in really great shape is gonna work this time because I really seriously mean it this time.  No, stop laughing.  I’m being serious right now.  No, this isn’t like the other times, it’s different because I say so.  Stop making that face!”

You say weight loss, we say transformation

In the dwindling days of December, you still have time to turn things around but if you don’t, all is forgiven on January 5th when we launch our best total body transformation yet.

who-is-awesome (1)I’ve been a personal trainer for a long time (what, you think I’m going to date myself by telling you how long? A long time, kids.) and I pride myself on my holistic approach to functional training. But this time, we’ve outdone ourselves. This is a 50-day total body transformation with all the bells and whistles to get the job done. It’s like fitness goals on steroids. Wait– No. It’s a VIP-level fitness experience including workouts, nutrition and support that is in essence a weight loss (or should we say fat loss) experience. Because that’s how transformation happens. Because you’re awesome and you deserve it.

Anyone who’s joined our classes at the studio or at Red Rocks has probably heard our trainers talking about nutrition and food choices. Tips to survive dinner parties, some of our favorite dishes for the holidays, and so on. It’s because we care about your results. We’re not just going to run you through a tough workout and then send you off to the bakery for a reward. Nope, we’re tackling your health like we would our own.

Join us for 50 days, starting January 5, and see what I’m talking about. Get the details below and sign up here.

50 dayys back 2-2

 

 

 

We’ve Kicked Off Our 21 Day Ski Intensive

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Are YOU ready for ski season?

If your answer is no, its not too late to start! Join us for our 21 day ski intensive at Bonza Bodies Denver Fitness. Classes are conveniently held at both our Downtown location in the 80203 AND our Lakewood location 80215! Our workouts are specifically geared toward getting those gorgeous legs ready for fresh Colorado mountain powder.

Why Should You Go To Ski Training At Bonza?

Classes are offered at different times daily with our world class Bonza Bodies Denver Fitness Trainers, including a Wednesday yoga class for flexibility and core-strengthening featuring moves specific to sking. So if you want to have the agility, balance and core strength to hit the runs like never before check the schedule for class times.

If you’d like more information on the program here’s the blog post that tells you all about it:

http://www.bonzabodies.com/uncategorized/ski-conditioning/

Current members are free to attend all classes without signing up and as always if you can’t make it to class here’s a video demonstrating workouts you can do at home or on the road…  If you’d like to learn how you can jump in on this before we get too far into the program (we just started this program Monday the 1st!) then send an email to info@bonzabodies.com and we’ll get you set up lickety split! Read More