On Friday, February 12 gyms in Manitoba were allowed to reopen.
Glow Fitness for Women was delighted to be back in the gym.
"Our goal with our Covid procedures was to make them so seamless and integrated that you don't have to think about it. We want our members to be able to come to Glow, get moving, and get their mind off pandemic stress while they are here. It only takes one session to notice the effect on your wellbeing." says Katie Hartle, owner of Glow Fitness.
Covid protocals are integrated - tracking and surveillance systems are built into the gym's software.
The air is kept fresh with an hvac system that pipes fresh air into the space from outside.
Distancing measures and cleaning are woven into the updated experience.
Hartle notes that getting everyone moving in one direction is nothing new at Glow, as they have a circuit of strength machines and cardio setup, "Everyone moves in one direction already!" 
Being a 24/7 facility allows their members to come anytime, allowing traffic to space out.
Members typically spend 30 minutes to 60 minutes at Glow, either on a treadmill, doing the strength machines in the circuit, stretching, or yoga.
The hydraulic-based strength machines are time-saving, two sets of opposite muscle groups can be strengthened at once, and a full-body circuit session takes 30 minutes.
"Our members come and get their workouts in and out very efficiently, which helps keep our 25%  capacity rules met." says Hartle.

And for those who can't come back to the gym yet?
"We have a program we call, "Virtual Glow." We film from our yoga room. We have live classes with our instructors on Zoom - and yes - we offer tech support!"
The Virtual Glow program includes a gentle pilates, a faster-paced 30 minute "home circuit", meditation, and a variety of yogas. Everything is designed for all-levels, and beginner friendly. 
Glow members who don't wish to attend the Virtual program or the gym can also choose to freeze their memberships until they are ready to resume their workouts.
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We will be reopening the gym on Tuesday, July 21, adhering to all current government restrictions.
Check back here to find out more information about workouts and signing up during these restrictions. 
While we cannot be open 24 hours yet - due to restrictions - we will have amended staffed hours until we can.
As soon as we are able to return to 24/7 - we will!
At this time, we expect to be open under the following staffed hours:
(This might be updated - check back here or check your email for the latest information!)
Temporary staffed hours:

• 6 a.m. - 2 p.m.
• ​6 p.m. - 11 p.m.

Yoga at Glow this summer
Due to restrictions from the government, we are not yet allowed to have yoga classes in our yoga studio - so for the summer, we are teaching yoga classes with our very own teachers online (access the content anytime!) and in the Selkirk Memorial Park.

Watch for our special Full Moon Flow and Let Go Yoga Workshop in the Park - Saturday July 4, 10 a.m. 
Drop-ins welcome for all park yoga classes - $10/class.

We appreciate your support and the chance to stay connected and serve you, our dear community, and help you achieve your best health and wellness during these pandemic times!

You can sign up to support some of your favourite Glow yoga teachers, who will be teaching yoga live...from their homes!
Expect a few special guest appearances from some fluffy friends, and follow along in your pajamas. Yoga in your pajamas - there's a silver lining!

Your regular membership is on pause and your payments are frozen, however you can sign up for a special online membership to follow along our yoga classes online with our Glow teachers.
We will post 7 yoga videos a week.
You can join us live for the yoga video, or you can watch it anytime you want over the whole month.

Nope! You don't have to be a member of Glow to join us. These online classes are available for anyone, from anywhere!  Welcome, guests of Glow!

We will be sharing the videos in a private Facebook group, which you will be invited to after you sign up.
If you do not have Facebook, you will be able to watch it on a private YouTube page - which means you can watch it from a smart TV too. We will send you the link after you sign up.

The schedule will change each week, but the videos will stay up for the whole month so you can revisit your favourites anytime.

Here is a sampling of what to expect:

Monday - Yin and Guided breath
Tuesday - Yoga for Back, Neck and Shoulders, or Full Moon Flow and Let Go Yoga Workshop
Wednesday - Relaxing Hatha Yoga
Thursday - Core and Restore
Friday - 20 minute Morning Yoga,  and 20 Minute Bedtime Yoga
Saturday - Quick Yoga Strength Workout
Sunday - Yoga to Align your Chakras

Please note, our online yoga classes run for different lengths, from 20 minutes to 45 minutes depending on the class. 

We understand this might be a tough time financially for some.
For this reason, we are letting you decide how much to pay for a 30 day subscription to our online classes. 
​We are suggesting a donation of $39.95, but you can pay whatever you want when you sign up.

Right here! 
​Just click the donate button below. After you have made your payment to sign up, you will be directed to a page where we ask for your name and email address, so that we can share our videos with you - starting Friday!

Click the yellow donate button to sign up for our May online yoga classes.

To our beloved Glowing Community,
We understand that our little gym and yoga studio is more than just a place to workout and do yoga.
We are a refuge from the daily challenges of life, a place for women to recharge and reconnect, with yourself and with our community of women.
A place to become stronger not only physically, but mentally and emotionally too.
Women have more on our plates than ever before, as caregivers, as workers, as wives and mothers and sisters and friends - and an outbreak doesn't make this any less true.
Now, more than ever, in these uncertain and isolating times with the Covid-19 outbreak, women, and your families, deserve the support of your community, the mental and physical benefits of a workout, and space and time for yourself to recharge your batteries to go on.
As a team at Glow, we got together and discussed these needs, considered all that you, our members and community, would be needing at this time in our lives. 
We asked ourselves, how can we help? How can we be your sanctuary, your place to recharge, to connect with your community and stay inspired without seeing each other physically? How can we provide a full wellness experience remotely?
For this reason, we have created a new program with these needs of you, our community, in mind. We  also chose to set a low price, as we understand that many of our members will be struggling with loss of work at this time.
We didn't want to just provide workout videos or tutorials, because Glow is more than a place to workout - and we think our community needs  more than just workouts right now to face the incredible stress that so many women and families might be going through in these times. We wanted to tailor our program to reflect the reality that comes with being stuck at home, either alone, or perhaps with extra family members to take care of.
As a small business, we also wanted to create an avenue to help support as many of our employees as possible, especially those who might not qualify for EI or other forms of financial support while our gym is closed.
Many of you have asked us how you can help us to stay open as a business, and from the bottom of our hearts we thank you! 
Opening our doors again when this is over is our goal, and we can't wait to see you all in person again! 
Joining our challenge, or, if you prefer, just joining our workout videos, or exploring some of the other options we have to support Glow at this time, are all ways that you can help us all! Thank you a million times for your support! 
Please check out below all the options we have to keep Glowing right through these Covid times, even when you can't visit us in person.
- Yours in Health and Wellness! 
Katie, owner of Glow, and the entire Glow team!

Starts at $39.95 +gst

What You Get:
Our 30 Day Quarantine Challenge is a full, fun, and balanced wellness program designed by the Glow Team that you can play from home, by yourself or with your whole family.
Every day, you can participate with our nutrition, workout, and wellness daily challenges, and each week you can play our weekly wellness challenge. 
Connect with your Glow community and each other, let's inspire and motivate each other to be well, be entertained, and get through these Covid times together!
We will also be sharing yoga videos with you each day, presented by our very own teachers from their homes - come and practice "at home" with us!
Option 1: Choose to do the Challenge only for 39.95 for 30 days or,
Option 2: Choose the option to do the Challenge AND our 50/50 cash pool - earn points by completing our daily and weekly challenges and you can win the cash pool at the end of the 30 days! Whoo-hoo!! (More details below)
Option 3: Pay what you want. If you would like to support our team and help us to keep going as a small business, we invite you to pay what you prefer for this challenge - we will enter you into the 50/50 and anything over $49.95 will be shared among our Glow team.

Pay what you want option for the Challenge - click the "donate" button below to enter your own custom payment instead of our suggested price.

Pay what you think is fair! We suggest a donation of $39.95 for a 30 day video subscription, however anything above that will be shared among our Glow team running the program. We appreciate your support! Many of our yoga teachers do not qualify for EI at this time as they are self-employed, your generosity allows us to help our team!
Yoga videos will be shared in a private Facebook group and in a private YouTube page.

Yoga Video Subscription only - click the donate button to add a payment of any amount

​Please join us at Glow's Selkirk location Sunday, March 8th, 12pm-5pm, for our 2nd Anniversary Event/Celebration in honour of International Women's Day!
We have a fun day lined up with local vendors such as Marta with doTERRA essential oils; Brie of Brie's Botanicals with her all-natural oil blend products; Heather with 13 Gypsy Moons brings her yoga-inspired bracelets; and Sara from Three 6 Tea will have a tea station set up.
Special Women's Wellness-Inspired Workshops by:

• Gail Spencer-Lamm will take us through a Yoga Dance-Fusion Class from 11:00am-12 noon (this must be signed up for in advance as space is limited).
• Mary-Anne McGavock will guide us through an informative "Women's Circle", gathering to celebrate the Feminine; learning about "herstory" (as "his"tory is already well documented) from 12pm-12:50pm.
• Our resident Meditation teacher, Irene Way will take us on a guided meditation from 1pm-2pm.
• A nutrition presentation on Gut health (very informative) will be hosted by nutritionist Elizabeth Logan from 2pm-3pm.
• Stay tuned for more workshops yet to be confirmed!

Plus...

• Sale prices on Gym + Yoga memberships
  
• Refreshments, light snacks, cupcakes
  
• Door prizes, silent auction draw
  (attend a presentation/workshop=1 free ticket, bring a friend=2 tickets, share a picture on Fb or IG from the party= 3 tickets, sign-up for one of our birthday memberships deals=10 tickets). 

Karma donations welcomed with proceeds given to Nova House.
Free to all! Men, children and guests warmly welcomed as we celebrate International Women's Day and Glow Turning Two with a party!

We can't wait to Celebrate with you all. Hope to see you there!

Are you already a member of Glow? We have a special reduced price for you too!

Already have a Glow membership? You save 50%!

Q. Where are the toys being donated?
A. All toys will be donated to local families through local Christmas Hamper programs.
In Gimli, we are working with Evergreen Basic Needs and their hamper program.
For more information about the Gimli hampers, click here.
In Selkirk, we are working with local volunteers and fellow businesses to continue a program that had previously ended at the local food bank.
For more information about the Selkirk hamper program click here. 

Q. Where are you located?
A. We are locatin in Gimli and in Selkirk, Manitoba.
In Gimli, we are at 40 Centre Street.
We are staffed Monday - Saturday 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.
In Selkirk, we are at 217 Clandeboye Avenue.
Staffed Monday - Thursday, 9 - 5, Friday-Saturday 9 - 12.

There is a lot of conflicting information out there on how we should be eating to feel our best. Join Elizabeth Logan, Holistic Nutritionist, for an informative presentation that shows you some easy tips to look and feel better with healthy eating.

We will also review information about our 30 day Habits Challenge - you can sign up for the challenge after the presentation if you wish.
All attendees will receive a free 3 day Kickstart Meal Plan.

In an assignement that she prepared for a course on healthy aging at the St. Francis University for Human Kinetics, Glow Coach Tiffany Addison discusses some of the benefits of working out, even if you don't get started until middle age or older. 
Check out some of the highlights of Tiffany's findings - or scroll to the bottom to download and read Tiffany's paper in full.

Good news! Exercise CAN slow the process of aging in the body. 
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​"Strength training is extremely important as we age, because it can drastically reduce the risk for developing sarcopenia, which is a result of the loss of muscle mass and strength that often occurs with age," explains Tiffany.
​
From the time you are born to around the time you turn 30, your muscles grow larger and stronger. But at some point in your 30s, things can go in the other direction  - you start to lose muscle mass and function. The cause is age-related sarcopenia - (WebMD.com)
​Luckily, the Glow workout focuses specifically on strength training the entire body.
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​Other ways that exercise on the circuit can slow the effects of aging mentioned in Tiffany's paper:

• Don't get sick as you age! Regular exercise prevents you from developing and dying from heart disease, high blood pressure, many cancers and diabetes.
• Boosts bone strength, mobility, and strength and independence, prevents osteoporosis.
• Improves balance and reflexes.
• Not just physical: anxiety, depression and mood can also be be onset with age, and can also be prevented or reduced with regular exercise.

• Work two muscle groups on each machine instead of one
• Do cardio and strength training together to save time
• Seal the workout with a good stretch!

"I think the Glow Circuit is an exceptional form of strength training...every machine engages both antagonist and agonist muscles so, when pushing or performing the forward motion you would engage one muscle group and, on the way, back you are engaging the opposite muscle group. Being able to engage and work two muscle groups within one machine and essentially one exercise allows for an extremely efficient and time effective workout." explains Tiffany, also mentioning that the flexiblity and cardio stations in the circuit make for a complete workout in 30 minutes.
​A lot of our members at Glow have exceptionally busy lives, balancing responsibilities at work, to family, children, parents, and their community. Fitting in a full workout wherever there is a gap in the schedule requires a routine that is effective and efficient with time.

• Why some people prefer to avoid pain from workouts
• Tiffany points out is that with the use of hyrdaulics in these machines they minimize the "eccentric" phase of the exercise.

Although eccentric contractions allow for a greater muscle gains, they are the main cause of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS).
"Personally, when I experience DOMS, even though it can be painful and cause discomfort for a day or two I have never experienced it restricting any daily activities. However, when talking to some of the members the fact that they rarely if ever experienced muscle soreness was one of major reasons why they enjoy Glow." explains Tiffany.
Tiffany notes that this lack of soreness from the workout is an incentive for some members of Glow who have soreness from arthritis or previous injuries.
"Conditions such as arthritis can make simple daily tasks such as walking and brushing teeth sometimes painful and uncomfortable enough  - the last thing you want to do  is add another element of pain and discomfort".
Skipping this muscle soreness or having just a bit of soreness that is minimal and manageable, made the thought of working out and being physically active much easier, Tiffany noticed in gathering feedback from our members.

• ​Tiffany began asking the women what they enjoyed most in their personal lives since joining the gym and almost all of them said the increase in their quality of life.

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"Even for those women who still had most of their mobility and freedom they still told me that their quality of life had drastically increased. They were able to spend more time with their children or grandchildren, to actually play and participate in what their children or grandchildren were doing.
The increase in their physical fitness allowed for them to have the stamina and strength to pick their grandchildren up, to get on the ground and play with them, to walk to the park with them.
​All of these little tasks that they were not able to do before engaging in regular physical activity at Glow."
​
​Final thoughts?
​"I think that if we were to emphasize how physical activity can increase older adults’ quality of life and present some of the examples I stated, we could see more of the older population being physically active."