Fitness

Chief Executive John Lee Supports Sport For All Day 2024, Encouraging Parent-child Exercise and Fitness.

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10 hours ago

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August 5, 2024

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Press Room

Chief Executive John Lee Supports Sport For All Day 2024, Encouraging Parent-child Exercise and Fitness.

CE takes part in Sport For All Day 2024 to encourage public to exercise (with photos/video)

To promote the message of regular exercising for health, the Chief Executive, Mr John Lee, today (August 4) attended the Sport For All Day (SFAD) 2024 held by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) at the Tung Cheong Street Sports Centre, Tai Po, and showed support for the national team and Hong Kong athletes participating in the Paris Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, wishing them success in the upcoming events.

The theme of this year’s event is “Parent-child Exercise for Fun and Fitness”. The LCSD organised parent-child fitness exercises at designated venues to encourage parents to take part in activities with their kids to build up their physical fitness and foster relationships among family members.

Accompanying Mr Lee to attend the event were the Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism, Mr Kevin Yeung; the Acting Director of Leisure and Cultural Services, Miss Winnie Chui; the Chairman of the Community Sports Committee (CSC), Professor Patrick Yung; the Vice Chairman of the CSC, Mr Eric Fok; the District Officer (Tai Po), Ms Eunice Chan; karate athlete Tang Yu-hin; and fencing athlete Kaylin Hsieh.

During the event, guests watched a parent-child fitness exercise, e-racing for kids, electronic virtual dodge games, a new sport Kabaddi participation activity, an electronic virtual sports of virtual cross-harbour swimming, and parent-child 3-on-3 basketball. They also paid a visit to the booth of the Festival of Sport organised by the Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China (SF&OC) to promote the Olympics sports.

At the same time, to echo the Sport For All Day, 17 Principal Officials also joined the recreation and sports activities held at sports centres in various districts, including the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Chan Kwok-ki; the Deputy Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Cheuk Wing-hing; the Deputy Financial Secretary, Mr Michael Wong;the Deputy Secretary for Justice, Mr Cheung Kwok-kwan;the Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Mr Erick Tsang Kwok-wai;the Secretary for Security, Mr Tang Ping-keung; the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mr Algernon Yau; the Secretary for Health, Professor Lo Chung-mau; the Secretary for Development, Ms Bernadette Linn; the Secretary for Education, Dr Choi Yuk-lin; the Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry, Professor Sun Dong; the Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs, Miss Alice Mak; the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Chris Sun; the Acting Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr Joseph Chan; the Acting Secretary for Transport and Logistics, Mr Liu Chun-san; the Acting Secretary for Housing, Mr Victor Tai; and the Acting Secretary for Environment and Ecology, Miss Diane Wong.

Moreover, the LCSD has set up an SFAD activity booth at the “Sport for All Fun Day” of Festival of Sports, which was held by the SF&OC at the Free Space of Kwun Tong Town Centre on August 3 and today, aiming to further enhance public interest in sporting activities. Furthermore, over 10 organisations held free recreation and sports programmes for the public to join in their venues, or open up their facilities for free use today in order to echo the event.

The LCSD has been organising the SFAD in August every year. On the event day, most of the LCSD’s fee-charging facilities are available for free use by members of the public, and various free recreation and sports programmes are offered for public participation at designated venues under the LCSD across the 18 districts. Today, a live webcast of sports demonstrations was also arranged via the event’s dedicated website and the “LCSD Plusss” Facebook page. Members of the public can revisit the videos on the website at www.lcsd.gov.hk/en/sfad .

The Sport For All Day 2024 is co-organised by the SF&OC; the Department of Health; the Sports Medicine Team of the Chinese University of Hong Kong; the Sports Medicine and Health Science Alumni Association of the Chinese University of Hong Kong; the Physical Fitness Association of Hong Kong, China; and the Sports Association for the Physically Disabled of Hong Kong, China.

CE takes part in Sport For All Day 2024 to encourage public to exercise (with photos/video) Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

Transport Department monitors refund arrangements by green minibus operator after overcharging of fares

The Transport Department (TD) reported today (August 5) that the New Territories green minibus (GMB) operator which overcharged fares earlier arranged for refund to the affected passengers through various channels from today. The TD will closely monitor the refund arrangements.

GMB routes No. 501A, 501C, 501K and 501S operated by Fully Mint Limited had charged passengers fares higher than the effective fares approved by the TD from May 19 to July 26. The differential ranged from $0.3 to $1 per trip.

A spokesman for the TD said that the GMB operator and Stored Value Facility operators arranged for refund to the affected passengers from today. Overcharged fares paid by Stored Value Facilities or cash can be refunded in full:

Octopus: The overcharged fares can be refunded to the same Octopus card via the mobile application or at any of the 51 Octopus Service Points (including MTR Fanling and Sheung Shui Station) across the territory on or before April 30, 2025. The GMB operator’s staff will also assist affected passengers on refund at the Wo Mun Street Public Light Bus (PLB) Terminus in Luen Wo Hui, Fanling at designated time slots (9am to 1pm; and 6pm to 8pm daily);

Alipay and AlipayHK: The overcharged fares have been refunded directly to the relevant accounts of the affected passengers this morning; and

Cash: The affected passengers can visit Wo Mun Street PLB Terminus at designated time slots (9am to 1pm; and 6pm to 8pm daily) and collect the overcharged fares in cash on site from the GMB operator’s staff on or before September 4, 2024, after providing their name and contact information, etc.

As beneficiaries under the Government Public Transport Fare Concession Scheme for the Elderly and Eligible Persons with Disabilities were not affected by the overcharging incident, refund is not needed. The GMB operator will reimburse the Government for the overpaid subsidies under the Scheme.

For enquiries, affected passengers may call the respective hotlines or visit the mobile applications or websites of the operators: Hotline Website Fully Mint Limited 9137 7273 www.ma-minibus.com

Octopus Cards Limited 2266 2222 www.octopus.com.hk

Alipay Financial Services (HK) Limited 2245 3201

(Hong Kong)

400 1032826 (Mainland) www.alipayhk.com/en/shoppers/

Source: AI-generated images

Fitness

Luxury gyms are changing how we exercise—and how we live

Published

17 hours ago

on

August 4, 2024

By

Press Room

Luxury gyms are changing how we exercise—and how we live

During the summer months, VITAL Climbing’s rooftop rock wall often has as many as 100 members hanging around at one time climbing, watching the sunset, and drinking a beer from the gym’s cafe.

“People are at the gym more than just to climb,” co-founder Nam Phan told Fortune. “They’re there to meet other people, socialize and climb with other people. That has really cemented our design approach.”

Luxury gyms, like all health clubs, were left out in the cold when COVID lockdowns forced many people to give up their memberships. Along with home-office setups, fitness enthusiasts set up garage-gyms and ordered Peloton bikes en masse. But over the past few years, the customer base for high-end clubs has surged again—and many aren’t just coming back for the barbells.

‘We change travel patterns’

Life Time opened its first NYC club in 2016. Eight years later, it has 12 locations throughout the city, either fully open or in development. Their newest location, Penn 1, occupies over 50,000 square feet in the heart of Manhattan, decked out with seven pickle ball courts, multiple workout floors, a bar and cycling studios.

Life Time, Inc.

While a membership at a Planet Fitness or Blink might run you anywhere from $15 to $40 a month, Life Time’s cheapest midtown membership starts at $269. And if you want access to the pickleball ball courts, it’ll cost another $60. But then again, Life Time isn’t just selling you a gym.

On the ground floor of Penn 1, a lounge area looks out over the courts where members can sit and answer emails after a workout—or pour themselves a draft beer from the bar-style tap in the corner. Up another flight of stairs is a recovery area where people can use Life Time’s massage chairs or pneumatic compression sleeves, which look like giant blood pressure cuffs that wrap around your arms or legs.

Lounge area at Life Time's Penn 1 location.

Life Time, Inc.

Parham Javaheri, chief development officer at the company, told Fortune that Life Time builds a complete health and wellness experience that keeps members coming back to the facilities far more than a typical fitness club.

“We change travel patterns,” he said. “If you’re going to Life Time 12 or 13 times a month, well then you’re more likely to stop and shop around there, do your groceries around there, pick up whatever you need to pick up on your way to and from that Life Time.”

Prime real estate

It isn’t just customers that have a new appreciation for everything luxury gyms have to offer.

The general shift of more people working from home has spelled trouble for commercial real estate. Earlier this year, the office vacancy rate nationwide passed the 20% threshold for the first time in history, according to a Moody’s analysis. In New York City, the value of office space is expected to decline 28% by 2029, equating to a nearly $50 billion loss for the city.

But for high-end gyms like Life Time, the city’s vacancy problem has opened the doors to prime real estate, and Javaheri said developers are taking note.

“That’s phenomenal real estate, with a phenomenal developer in the heart of Manhattan,” he said of the new Penn 1 location, where runners on the second-floor treadmills can literally see NBA teams stepping off their buses to enter Madison Square Garden. “They could have leased that out to many other users, but what they wanted was an amenity that people use and coveted.”

Top-tier gyms aren’t just a boost for commercial real estate. In Henderson, Nevada, Life Time Living offers a signature membership to a 162,000-square-foot club just feet from its luxury apartments. Javaheri said that Life Time has brought the residential project more rent per square foot and a higher tenant retention rate.

Life Time Work, which has 15 locations across the U.S., is opening a new 110,000-square-foot club in Brooklyn Towers that will complement a curated co-working space with conference rooms, open work spaces, and private phone booths.

“When we did that Brooklyn Tower deal, there was an available space of office space,” Javaheri said. “We showed the developer at the time the concept of Life Time Work, and it was just a no-brainer for them.”

A few years ago, the overall landscape was bleak. Like hotels and restaurants, gyms had it rough during the pandemic. Between March 20, 2020 and December 31, 2021, 25% of all health and fitness facilities in the U.S. shuttered, according to a report from the Health and Fitness Association.

But since the U.S. emerged from lockdowns, the clubs that were able to hold out have seen people hitting the weights and treadmills again with a vengeance. In the first quarter of 2024, there were 184 million gym check-ins, according to a report by ABC Fitness. That’s a 60% increase from the same period in 2023 and nearly double from pre-pandemic levels.

Young people have been a crucial factor in the rebound of the fitness industry. Almost a third of new gym sign-ups were Gen Zers, who are more invested in their physical health than any other generation, according to the ABC report.

Rick Caro is the president of Management Vision, a consulting firm specializing in the health club industry, and former director of the Health and Fitness Association. He told Fortune that health clubs have always been strong anchor tenants for commercial real estate. Gyms generate regular traffic from users who want to get a return on their investment. They boost surrounding retail, and employers like proximity to health clubs because they can often get group discounts that serve as an incentive to their workers.

“What is exciting now, is how clever and creative people are to take this fundamental that’s been proven for a long time, but now they’re doing it a little differently or uniquely,” Caro said. “They’re doing it with a different variety of concepts at different price points or different size facilities.”

VITAL’s co-working spaces emerged organically

Lon Rubackin, senior vice president at CBRE, told Fortune he was contacted by VITAL Climbing about five years ago when the upscale-bouldering gym was looking to expand into Brooklyn. When the club opened in 2021, Rubackin said most of the members were “dudes” between 18 and 30 years old.

VITAL’s monthly dues don’t run as high as a Life Time or an Equinox, but a Williamsburg membership still costs $145 a month. For that, members get 24/7 access to VITAL’s facilities. To go along with the climbing, there’s weight training and cardio equipment, slacklines, a sauna, and a second, rooftop rockwall touched off by a fire pit and views of the Manhattan skyline.

There’s also a lounge-ish area that stretches from the entrance to the first floor rockwall, which Rubackin said isn’t exactly a co-working space, but still encourages members to hang out for longer than an average workout.

“People will work out and then they’ll go climbing and then they’ll take a shower and they’ll go back to their laptop,” Rubackin said. “Then maybe three or four hours later they’ll take a break and maybe they’ll hit a treadmill. It’s a very unique situation.”

Phan told Fortune that VITAL was never intended to include a co-working space, but rather that it was something that happened organically. Unlike older climbing gyms, which are often in out-of-way industrial parks, VITAL is in the heart of Williamsburg. It’s close to people’s homes and already had readily-available open space. Eventually people started bringing laptops and even setting up computer monitors.

“Post-COVID attitudes have aligned with what we were already building,” Phan said. “People were working from home more, they were desperate for community, and Vital just happened to be there at the right time.”

‘A golden era’ of expansion

Despite the awesomeness of some of the new fitness clubs popping up around the city, there are still challenges to building out the kind of spaces that a Life Time or a VITAL require for their facilities. Javaheri said that most of Life Time’s clubs in NYC are around 50,000 square feet. VITAL’s location in Williamsburg is about the same. That kind of space is few and far between, compared to the 15,000- or 25,000-square-foot spaces a smaller gym might fill out.

VITAL is opening a new location in NYC on the Lower East Side that will top out around the same size as their club in Williamsburg. CBRE’s Rubackin said the new space at Essex Crossing was only the second acceptable location he’d found for VITAL in five years representing them.

“A lot of buildings that could use a tenant like that as a draw to get people back just don’t have the space,” Rubackin said. “Just picture your average office building. It wasn’t wasn’t designed to house a 50,000-foot anything.”

Still, Javaheri said that Life Time is in “a golden era” of expansion. The kind of space they need is becoming more available, and developers are coming around to the kind of anchor luxury gyms can provide.

“If it’s good real estate, I think a good developer looks at this current downturn and sees the opportunity,” he said. “They see the opportunity to take back some space and reimagine their building. And that’s where we come in.”

Fitness

The dead hang delight: how this quick, surprisingly simple exercise can change your life

Published

1 day ago

on

August 4, 2024

By

Press Room

The dead hang delight: how this quick, surprisingly simple exercise can change your life

As a species, we humans have been hanging around for quite a while. Scientific opinions vary on when our ancestors stopped travelling by tree canopy – but recent research suggests that our rotating shoulders and extending elbows first developed to help us climb more efficiently, and we’ve never completely given it up.

Over the past couple of decades, we’ve been rediscovering our ancestral love of dangling, with CrossFit, obstacle races, Ninja Warrior and even Gladiators reminding us of the sheer joy of hanging from a bar, tree branch or set of rings. But there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that, even if you aren’t working on your salmon ladder skills, your body can benefit from the occasional bout of hanging – and it’s one of the simplest things you can do at home.

Firstly, and maybe most obviously, hanging demands (and develops) a fair amount of grip strength. This isn’t just about opening jars – more than one study suggests that a good grip is a solid biomarker of ageing, and a predictor of future illness or disability. What isn’t completely clear is which way the causality in this relationship goes. It’s likely that a good grip goes hand in hand with overall strength – which is a good predictor of all-cause mortality – but it’s also possible that a weak grip is a symptom of “prematurely” ageing cells, rather than a cause. All of that said, if you can develop a stronger grip, it certainly won’t hurt – and can help out with exercises like the deadlift, a full-body movement that involves hauling very heavy bars off the floor and helps develop all-over, functional strength.

Moving downwards (from the bar), hanging might also help your shoulders. “A lot of people find that dead hangs – where you simply hang on to something with straight arms, and let the rest of your body dangle – help to increase their shoulder mobility and stability, which can help to prevent injuries,” says personal trainer Mike Julom. “They also strengthen upper body muscles like the lats and traps, situated in the mid and upper back, which help to address some of the postural problems that can develop from sitting at a desk all day. They also strengthen your core muscles, as you’ll use them to stabilise yourself as you hang.” Orthopaedic surgeon Dr John M Kirsch says he has cured multiple patients (including himself) with shoulder issues through hanging – though the results are entirely anecdotal, and more research is definitely needed.

Dead hangs seem to provide some gentle spinal decompression. Photograph: Thomas Barwick/Getty Images

Dead hangs also seem to provide some gentle spinal decompression – which can feel great if you’ve been sitting down all day or squatting with a heavy barbell on your back. “Some recent studies have shown that dead hangs can make your back more flexible, especially if you have a significant curve in your spine,” says strength and conditioning specialist Rachel MacPherson. “Though it’s not always a great idea to jump straight in with them, depending on your spinal health,” she says.” Scoliosis sufferers, for example, are often advised to work in a ‘semi-hanging’ position, with their feet on the floor.”

So where do you start? First, you’ll need somewhere to hang out. If you can manage it, the best option is to get a bar that will let you do pull-ups in your house – there are plenty of options to fit most doorframes, ranging from removable-in-seconds to semi-permanent. “I have one on my landing and it makes it really easy to do a minute hang in the morning and one at night before bed,” says strength and movement coach Jon Nicholson. “I’ve also got a set of rings hanging from a tree in the garden, which I barely get to use because the kids insist on having it set up for them to hang on.” Try to fit your hanging options in the kitchen, the garage, wherever, and you’ll find yourself clocking up the hangs.

From here, one excellent option is to just build a hanging habit, by hanging for a few seconds every time you pop to the kitchen for a cup of tea or wander to the loo. If your strength or weight is going to make more than 20 seconds of hanging difficult, start simple.

“You can adjust the resistance by having the bar or rings at a lower height, or a small step underneath you, so that your feet can touch the ground in a squat position,” says personal trainer Amanda Grimm. “You can adjust the intensity by gently lifting your feet up until you have just your toes on the floor.”

It’s worth spending a bit of time on both ‘passive’ and ‘active’ hangs. Photograph: Marc Romanelli/Getty Images/Tetra images RF

It’s also worth spending a bit of time on both “passive” and “active” hangs, says Nicholson. “An active hang is where your shoulders are pulled back and down, while a passive one is where you just hang without exerting any extra effort,” he says. “One simple way of categorising upper body movements is into ‘pushes’ and ‘pulls’ – so, if we think of a plank as an exercise that works the major muscles involved in pushing things away from the body, the active hang works the muscles involved in pulling things towards the body. It’s the first motion contained within a pull-up or chin-up, so extremely beneficial to work on if you want to achieve your first chin-up, or, for rock climbers or swimmers to work on their shoulder strength.” (For the uninitiated, most serious pullers think of chin-ups as the one where your palms face towards you, which works your biceps slightly more, while for pull-ups your hands face away, emphasising your back muscles.)

Once you’ve got the hang (sorry) of both of these, you can start thinking about introducing tougher variations of the movement – but don’t try to progress too quickly. “Training is all about the body adapting to the stimulus we place on it, so it’s important to think ‘outcome’ rather than ‘output’,” says Nicholson. “You can’t just do a one-off 60-second hang and think: “Right, I can do that; I don’t need to do it again.” That’s output with very little outcome. Think about the benefits – the outcome in terms of grip strength, shoulder health and so on – of doing that 60-second hang several times a day for 30 days, or even longer.”

After this, you’ll be better equipped for tougher movements, such as brachiating – the technical term for swinging from hold to hold like a gibbon – and possibly pull-ups. You might eventually even progress to the “muscle-up” – a movement where you pull yourself above the bar and push yourself up until you’re above the bar with straight arms – or the parkour “lache”, where you leap from one bar to another with both hands at the same time. But if you don’t ever get as far as these sorts of circus tricks, don’t worry – there are plenty of benefits to even the simplest hangs. “I find dead hangs are a great time to focus on breathing exercises and even meditation and mindfulness,” says Grimm. “It help keeps the body calm, and can actually help you to grip for longer.”

“It’s one of the first things I get people to do,” says Nicholson. “Most of them moan about how much it hurts their hands, and they absolutely hate the idea of just hanging around for multiple sets. And then I’m like, yeah, you need to get a bar at home and do this all the time – and within a month, the people who actually do it are addicted to it. They walk into the gym and the first thing they do before they start talking to me is hang from a pull-up bar. Once you get through those first few days, it feels amazing.” Give it a try, and reconnect with your ancient ancestors. Top tip, though: you are allowed to use your thumbs.

Photograph: crotography/Getty Images/RooM RF

Swing states

Once you can hang for 30 to 60 seconds a few times a day, it’s time to add some more active hanging to your arsenal.

Scapula pull-ups

These activate some of the muscles that a “normal” pull-up uses, but are a bit less demanding. Start in a dead hang, then squeeze your shoulder blades together to do a reverse “shrug” to slightly lift your body upwards. Hold at the top position before you lower back down.

Kip swings

These are a simpler version of the swing that gymnasts use to set up for more impressive moves – but don’t try them on a bar unless it’s very well secured to a wall or squat rack. You’re going to move through two positions: the “hollow body”, with your body behind the bar and feet ahead of you, and the “Superman”, with your chest out and feet back. Do them with control, and feel the stretch in your shoulders.

Side-to-side swings

Again, don’t try this with a wobbly bar. Swing your hips slightly from side to side, building momentum to take the weight off one arm. At the top of each swing, quickly take one hand off the bar and then replace it, swinging back to the other side.

Brachiation

There are two ways to tackle the traditional monkey bars: with bent elbows, which is fast but tiring, and with outstretched arms, which is more efficient and takes practice. Try both.

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