Fitness
Economic Exercise: Regions Teaches Financial Fitness For A Better-Feeling Future
(MENAFN- 3BL) By Nestor Mato | April 25, 2024
Interactive and engaging. Regions bank Shared the Good this April by helping students across the Gulf Coast.
Regions Next Step ® is the bank’s free financial wellness program, and during Financial Literacy Month, Regions associates used the Next Step Reality Check series to give students an interactive and engaging way to learn about building and balancing a budget. The Reality Check challenges students to make financial decisions during the course and complete the experience with a budget surplus. During the Reality Check, students are assigned a persona and then make decisions based on common scenarios that will directly impact their budgets.
Finance Park – Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida
Regions associates volunteered with middle school students from both Academy Prep Center of Tampa and Academy Prep Center of St. Petersburg to teach banking basics at Junior Achievement’s Financial Park.
Leading up to the Finance Park, Regions volunteers provided a series of lessons in the classroom, where they focused on personal finance, including learning about balancing a family budget, interest rates, how education affects earning potential, and how saving today pays off tomorrow.
“These presentations are a fun and interactive way to help students gain the knowledge and skills they need to make informed financial decisions,” said Tricia Johnson, market executive for Regions Bank in St. Petersburg-Clearwater.“We are happy to serve a role in helping these young people learn more about banking so they can set themselves up for a more secure future.”
During the event, Regions associates partnered with students to assume randomly assigned family and income scenarios. They utilize banking services, purchase housing, transportation, insurance, and other expenses, as well as make investment decisions.
“It is the unfortunate reality that many young people are not taught about managing their finances before adulthood. This has afforded students the opportunity to consider how their future career choices may impact their financial mobility,” said Jenna Dufficy, Assistant Head of School and Academic Dean of Academy Prep Center of Tampa.“Community partners like Regions Bank are transformative, helping our students fulfill the school’s mission of becoming future community leaders.”
Family Game Night – Dothan, Alabama
Children as young as 10 and their families were invited to a dinner and game night that included a Reality Check experience. Crimson Ridge Apartment residents were treated to pizza, sponsored by Regions Bank, as they learned about building and balancing a budget.
“These financial education events are designed to empower people with the knowledge and skills they need to make informed decisions including in saving, investing, and debt management,” said John Brown, market executive for Regions Bank in Dothan.“This partnership has the ability to teach skills that can last a lifetime and help lead to greater financial stability and success.”
In addition to Financial Literacy Month, April is also Fair Housing Month. Crimson Ridge is an affordable housing community of Dothan Housing and houses over 100 families. Participants also received giveaways and prizes from both Regions and Dothan Housing.
“There was excitement in the air as the Regions team brought the Next Step Financial Literacy Program to Crimson Ridge Apartments to impart valuable financial management lessons to our families,” said Samuel P. Crawford, CEO of Dothan Housing.“Community partnerships and initiatives like this unite the community and inspire positive change intergenerationally.”
Financial Fitness for Teens – Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Physical education is important. Regions joined the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Louisiana to make it clear financial fitness is, too.
In collaboration with the Boys & Girls Clubs Louisiana Alliance 2024 Teen Summit, Regions volunteers taught 90 teens from around the state about the fundamentals of money management and financial responsibility.
“We wanted to help make sure young people know it is about more than making money; it’s about appreciating the value of money,” said Regions’ Baton Rouge market executive, Amy Province.“It is especially helpful for these students who will soon step out into the world. Between bills, groceries, and other expenses, this exercise really does help them understand the importance of budgets and balances.”
Regions associates also took part in a“Career Pathways” class to help give students the knowledge needed to navigate their professional journeys. A career in banking can take several forms, they shared, from roles at the branch around the corner to positions in Commercial Banking, the Mortgage division, Human Resources, Information Technology, and Marketing.
“Helping our Club members have these discussions fuels our mission, which is to enable all young people, especially those who need us most, become productive, caring, responsible citizens,” said the CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Louisiana, Angel Nelson.“With the support of community partners like Regions, we’re able to expand our financial education programming and provide valuable resources. In turn, Regions is helping our young people approach their finances with confidence and knowledge.”
Reality Check – Shreveport, Louisiana
Regions Bank teamed up with Volunteers of America of North Louisiana for three Regions Next Step Reality Check events in Shreveport. The LightHouse Teen Club at Highland Center, as well as the afterschool programs at Booker T. Washington High School and Broadmoor STEM Academy , all took part.
“These children are the future of our community, and it is essential they have the knowledge to be successful,” said Regions’ Shreveport market executive, Denny Moton.“It is especially helpful for the older students as they prepare for life after graduation. This exercise really does help them understand money management as they step into the real world.”
In total, volunteers taught 50 students about avoiding financial pitfalls and understanding how to manage income and debt.
“It is essential for our LightHouse kids to learn about personal finance because this portion of the curriculum is often missing in class. A lot of our older kids have jobs, and this activity allowed them to experience a scenario where they would have to provide for a family, prepare for daily life occurrences, and be an adult with limited income,” said Victoria Morris, Volunteers of America Director for LightHouse Programs.“To see them contemplate and make the best decisions was refreshing. They learned to work with what they had, compromise, go without, and even negotiate.”
And with what students learned at all these events, they’re better prepared to build up savings, keep debt in check – and achieve financial confidence and success over time.
MENAFN30052024007202015466ID1108277375
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.
Fitness
Lawlor: It’s a fitness exercise, but there were lots of positives – Fleetwood Town Football Club
Skip to content
The latest NHS exercise guidance reinforces what we’ve been preaching for years: hitting that 150-minute weekly movement target isn’t necessarily a get-out-of-jail-free card. It states that prolonged sedentary time is independently harmful, even for those of us who diligently carve out time for the gym. Verbatim, it says ‘prolonged sitting is harmful, even in people who achieve the recommended levels of moderate to vigorous physical activity’.
Chief Medical Officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty has been especially vocal about how detrimental it could be, highlighting hybrid working as a potential health hazard. ‘Without wanting to exaggerate, I think it’s important people think through, for example, hybrid working means quite a lot of people could very easily do very little other than leave their homes, where previously people would be routinely going to work, and that often meant at least some physical [activity],’ he said at a briefing.
I understand his logic, but it’s pretty reductive. Working from home isn’t the villain here – working from one chair is.
When we label remote work as “bad for your health”, we risk throwing the baby out with the bath water. In reality, for many – certainly the whole of the Women’s Health office, but also my less-fitness-conscious sister and stepdad, plus my entire friendship group – working from home often means being more active. It means more time to fit in a lunchtime run, to get some steps in before work, or to run some errands on a quick break.
On the other hand, plenty of office workers are more sedentary than they are at home. They sit at a desk for nine hours straight before driving home, whether to be seen to work tirelessly in front of their manager, or simply because they’re pulled from pillar to post in an office setting. For those who do have an office commute, eliminating that often stressful period of the day allows for better sleep, and more time for the movement breaks we need to break up the dreaded sedentary time. Not to mention that many commutes are almost entirely sedentary on a train/tube/bus.
The potential problem, the advice suggests, is the lack of incidental movement – the walk to the train, the stroll to a meeting room, or heading out for lunch – that’s naturally baked into your day when you’re in the “official” office. Without a commute or a day in the office, the onus is on you to manufacture movement in.
Regular stretching counts as a movement break
Without sounding evangelical, I’ve made this a non-negotiable part of my day. On WFH days, I work out or walk every single morning before I log on, and walk again every evening, even if just a lap around the block. During the day, I have a personal rule: if I’m downstairs, I use the upstairs toilet (and vice versa). Sounds excessive, but it forces me to activate my muscles and add to my step count every few hours.
Beyond that, the options are endless if you’re intentional. Use a standing desk or put your laptop on a kitchen worktop during calls. Take every phone meeting on foot, pacing your hallway if necessary. Set a timer to stand up every 30 mins to stretch, grab a glass of water, or do a quick load of laundry.
We don’t need to return to the office to be healthy; we need to bring movement back into our homes. The goal: to stop being professional sitters.
As Women’s Health UK’s fitness director and a qualified Pilates and yoga instructor, Bridie Wilkins has been passionately reporting on exercise, health and nutrition since the start of her decade-long career in journalism.
After earning a first-class degree in journalism and NCTJ accreditation, she secured her first role at Look Magazine, where she launched the magazine’s health and fitness column, Look Fit, before going on to become Health and Fitness writer at HELLO!
Since, she has written for Stylist, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Elle, The Metro, Runner’s World and Red. Today, she oversees all fitness content across Women’s Health online and in print, spearheading leading cross-platform franchises, such as ‘Fit At Any Age’, which showcases the women proving that age is no barrier to exercise.
She has also represented the brand on BBC Radio London, plus various podcasts and Substacks – all with the aim to encourage more women to exercise and show them how. Outside of work, find her trying the latest Pilates studio, testing her VO2 max for fun (TY, Oura), or posting workouts on Instagram.
If you ask anyone on the gym floor how to grow a bigger set of shoulders, you’ll probably find that no two answers are the same. In between front raises, upright rows, machine presses and cable raises, shoulder day can quickly become a long list of exercises.
However, fitness creator and coach Eric Evans, also known on social media as Average to Jacked, thinks most lifters are overcomplicating things. He says that if he had to start from scratch after over a decade of training, he’d strip his shoulder workouts back to just two simple moves.
‘If I had to start over today, I’d build my shoulders with just two movements: a lateral raise and also a rear delt fly,’ he explains.
According to Evans, the reason for this isn’t because those exact exercises are magic, but because they work the correct movement pattern for the muscle.
‘Your body doesn’t know the name of the exercise you’re doing,’ he argues. ‘It really only knows the fundamental movement pattern you’re asking it to perform and also the amount of tension you’re placing on the muscle.’
So, you don’t have to perform cable lateral raises if your gym only has dumbbells, or use a reverse pec deck if you’d rather do bent-over rear delt flyes. As long as you’re training the same movement pattern and progressing the move with intensity or volume, you’ll achieve a similar result.
According to the coach, lateral raises deserve a place in your programme because they primarily target the side delts, helping create broader-looking shoulders and a more pronounced ‘V-taper’. Rear delt flyes train the back of the shoulders to create a rounder, more 3D physique.
‘I’m not including anything for the front delts, and that’s intentional,’ he says. ‘Your front delts are already heavily involved every time you do pressing exercises for your chest.’
For most lifters already bench pressing, incline pressing or overhead pressing regularly, he argues the side and rear delts are more likely to be the limiting factor.
‘I don’t think the front delts are what’s holding their shoulders back. I think it’s the side and rear delts,’ he adds.
He recommends focusing on controlling every rep, and avoiding using momentum to swing the weight. He also suggests working in the 8-15 rep range, adding reps until you reach the top of the range before increasing the load and repeating the process – also known as progressive overload.
‘You definitely don’t need to hit your shoulders from 10 different angles,’ he says. ‘You just need to consistently train these two movement patterns, push them hard and then gradually get stronger over time.’
The Bottom Line
Research suggests muscle growth is driven more by sufficient training volume, progressive overload and proximity to failure than by constantly changing exercises and programme hopping. In fact, that could hinder it. So if your shoulder workouts have become jam-packed with unnecessary variations, simplifying your approach may be exactly what helps you make more consistent progress in the long term.
If there’s one thing Kori Sampson knows, it’s how to optimise your body composition for performance. To tap into his knowledge as an elite athlete and coach, we asked him to create a 4-week plan to help you move faster, recover quicker and keep pushing when the fatigue sets in – all while improving your muscle-to-fat ratio.
Ready to build muscle, burn fat and come out the other side looking, feeling and performing better? Click here to get 14 days of free access to the plan via the Men’s Health app.
-
San Francisco, CA8 minutes agoGiants select Barry Bonds’ nephew Peyton in third round
-
Dallas, TX15 minutes agoMark Cuban takes legal action against the Dallas Mavericks ownership over proposed arena deal
-
Miami, FL18 minutes agoSouth Florida businesses report economic boom, as FIFA officials estimate a billion dollar economic impact
-
Boston, MA23 minutes agoForecast: Looking ahead to toasty temps next week
-
Denver, CO30 minutes agoDenver weather: Warming trend continues this weekend and into next week
-
Seattle, WA33 minutes agoTech Investor Vinod Khosla to Acquire the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks for $9.6 Billion
-
San Diego, CA38 minutes agoEndo injury overshadows 2-0 Angel City victory over San Diego – Equalizer Soccer
-
Milwaukee, WI45 minutes agoIndyCar drivers make a pit stop at the Milwaukee Mile
