Nahid de Belgeonne: The Benefits of Power Plates and Yoga

Nahid de Belgeonne

Nahid de Belgeonne is a qualified expert in yoga and Power Plates, and the founder of the Good Vibes brand of boutique fitness studios, offering a unique class combination of Spincycle for cardio, Power Plates for strengthening and toning and Glow Yoga for your soul. Nahid was inspired by many movement disciplines including Pilates, martial arts and the Feldenkrais Method, and practices an accessible style that leaves her clients feeling good within themselves. Empowerment, kindness and a sense of humour are key mantras in her method of teaching, coupled with a strong belief that everyone deserves to achieve the best health possible.

 

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Interview with a Power Plates and Yoga Expert

What are the benefits of Power Plates and what results can you expect?

Power Plates work by transferring vibrations throughout the whole body, which cause the muscles to contract and lengthen multiple times per second. This intensifies the exercise making it an ideal tool to shape up fast. Power Plates are also known as the ultimate fat burner; studies show that adding Power Plates training to a high intensity resistance training can reduce the percentage of body fat, improving body composition as a whole.

Clients have reported a drop in dress size without their changing eating habits and have noticed more tone and sculpt in their bodies overall but noticeably in the legs, bottom, abs and upper arms.

It is claimed that 10 minutes on a Power Plate will have the same results as 60 minutes of conventional strenuous training. Do you agree and if so why?

10 minutes of mindful movement on the Power Plates on a moving ground amplifies the effects of gravity so your body feels heavier than it is. The whole body vibration training means that you can train multiple muscle groups at the same time, leaving you free to show it off. Why waste time in the gym?

Workout at Aguas de Ibiza

Experts claim interval resistance training, which involves short bursts of intense exercise, can increase your metabolic rate much quicker, why is this and what are your top fitness tips for working smarter?

Metabolic resistance training and the Power Plate are the two giants of results based fitness training and we've combined them both into one short 25 minute class.

What is it? The Metabolic Effect = the elevated fat-calorie after-burn effect of high intensity exercise.

The science: exercise at the correct intensity elevates stress hormones like adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol. This leads to a build-up of lactic acid which signals the release of two fat-burning hormones - Testosterone and Human Growth Hormone (HGH). The combination of these hormones drives the calorific after-burn created by Exercise Post Oxygen Consumption (EPOC) and they ensure the calories burned come from fat. EPOC has been shown to last up to 48 hours after the workout! Traditional 1 hour classes of 'aerobic' exercises do not impact the above hormones in the same way.

What happens in a class? After a dynamic warm up to open and mobilise the body, the class is instructed through sets of whole body exercises performed back to back. You work to your fitness levels and can step it up or down as you wish. You'll end with a high intensity exercise for a short burst to finish the session on a metabolic high. An advanced class is available in the mornings and evenings; expect to sweat! A less sweaty but power packed class is offered throughout the rest of the timetable. Get ready to see a noticeable change in your body shape and fitness levels in 3 classes a week over 4 weeks.

Top fitness tip: Pick 5 whole body exercises: squats, plank, alternate lunges, press ups and tricep presses. Do as many of each exercise as you can in 45 seconds, while managing to perform them with good form. Take a short rest and then repeat each set until you have exercised for 20 minutes. Stretch and cool down. You should feel warm and have broken out into a sweat.

When was your first introduction to yoga?

I left a highly paid and stressful job and booked a yoga holiday to stop me panicking about how to pay the mortgage. I chose Turkey, because it was hot and booked in with a teacher who sounded good. I was very lucky as the teacher was master teacher Simon Low (I later went to train with him at The Yoga Academy) and the place is a beautiful yoga venue in the mountains called Huzur Vadisi. The week of yoga made me realise there was another way to be.

  

A Glow Yoga class and Spincycle workout at a Good Vibes studio

 

What part of the body does a Spincycle workout have the biggest impact on?

Your heart! Spinning is primarily an anaerobic exercise, using energy from your reserves and building up muscular endurance over an extended period of time. There are also aerobic benefits of spinning. The Spincycle programs include both endurance and cardiovascular training during the workout. At points throughout the class you may be asked to break out into a sprint to increase your heart rate.Spinning improves your cardiovascular fitness as well as improving your lung capacity.

As someone continues to go to your classes, whether it's Glow Yoga, Power Plates, Spincycle or all three, what improvements and changes are they most likely to experience?

We encourage our clients to do all three activities as together they provide you with a mind and body approach to your fitness: Power plates for your strength, Spincycle for your heart and Glow Yoga for your soul.

You will notice improvements in your fitness levels. Clients have reported dropping dress sizes, bottoms lifting, smaller waists, toned arms and really enjoying exercise for the first time, as well as feeling happier in their skin, feeling less stressed and alleviating their low moods.

If you lived on a deserted island for one year, what six foods would you most want to take with you?

At what time during the day do you think is best to exercise and why?

You should exercise when it suits you; it all depends on your rhythms and what your day ahead entails. Some days I prefer to do something in the morning and sometimes I enjoy doing something at lunchtime or the evening.  If you are thinking of exercising very late, give yourself a break and exercise the next day or go for a long walk. My approach is to treat your body with kindness.

Re-energise your body and mind with yoga at Absolute Sanctuary in Thailand

What are your top tips for optimal health?

• Adopt a long term approach to your health and well-being and be prepared to change your activities according to your lifestyle. If you sit down during the day, you need to move a lot more.
• Break up sitting down for long hours. Get up every hour, roll your eyes, stretch up to the ceiling, and break up your habitual patterns.
• Move every day as our bodies are designed to be mobile.
• Do something restful for your brain to transition from work to life: whether 5 minutes lying down with an eye pillow on your eyes or lying down with legs up the wall
• Eat nutritious food; understand that everything put in your mouth has an impact on your body and never eat unhealthily when stressed.

What is really exciting you in your field of work right now and what's your vision for the future of Good Vibes?

The fitness industry is going through a revolution and Good Vibes is leading it. Clients are looking for more meaningful experience and a more personal approach. The mind and the body are bound together, there is no separation, so you need to think of a 360 degree approach to your long term well-being and that includes releasing stress and resting the body and mind. This is as equally important as strengthening muscles! Big corporate gyms feel so impersonal and their focus is all wrong; the no pain, no gain approach is dated.

It is so much more social and motivating to come along to the Good Vibes. Small classes taught by our brilliant teachers who passionately care that you are progressing. Good Vibes is an integral part of our clients' lives to help them perform better in all aspects of their lives. Good Vibes is planning more studios around London. We will be launching our online videos for those who want Good Vibes at home. Watch this space!