Columbia Athletic Club, which opened in 1981, is the brainchild of Cy Oskoui, who came to America in the 1960s to complete his university education. Although the business is now managed by the second generation of family and colleagues, the mission remains the same: to help people live better lives and to become part of the community by meeting people and making new friends.
To that end, the vision is to provide excellent service and to be the premier provider of health and lifestyle services. The club may not be the largest, but it aims to be the best for its members, employees and neighbors.
Fitness Minded
It says something that Brandi Ohlsen started as a personal trainer at CAC and within a month had become the fitness director, a job she’s held for more than 17 years. In this position, she oversees certifications, attends conferences to stay abreast of current fitness trends, and ensures the safety of programming, among other duties. Not surprisingly, her educational background is in exercise and sports science and sports medicine.
Columbia Athletic Club offers a full-service facility that provides everything from nutritional counseling to sport-specific training for a diverse population that includes infants and children, people with disabilities, senior members and everyone in between. As Brandi explains, to some extent, “A gym is a gym, but we try to create an experience. We take pride in who we hire, and many of our trainers have been with us for 10 or 12 years.”
Keeping Up
The facility has evolved over the years. In 2013, an extra pool was added for classes such as water walking. A small group studio was also added in 2016 for functional training. The small-group classes max out at eight people, Brandi says.
In terms of fitness, “The trend now is working in versus working out,” Brandi says. She explains that as our professional lives require longer and longer hours, remediation of the stresses we incur as a result is important. This includes techniques such as fascial release and addressing the parasympathetic nervous system as well as the sympathetic nervous system. In other words, we increasingly need to find ways to recover via purpose-specific mobility and corrective exercise.
Brandi recommends that people get up and move every hour—even at work. You can stand up for a couple of minutes, or move up and down on your toes. There are chair workouts and basic stretches. One can also build exercise into a daily routine by taking the stairs rather than the elevator and parking farther away from a building entrance.
Athletic Training
When it comes to sports training, the program depends on the activity, but all sports require an awareness of proprioception along with strength, power, agility, core strength and mobility, though there are variations in exercises for each sport. Mobility in this context has to do with a mix of stability and mobility of various parts of the body. In an ankle, for example, stability is undesirable, Brandi says. You want to be able to freely move that joint in three dimensions. Balance is an integral part of any routine no matter your age. Studies show that this ability starts decreasing at age 16, Brandi says, so it is important to work on it.
Nutrition
Proper nutrition is “all about nutritional density,” Brandi says. While there may be some seasonal variability, she recommends sticking to whole foods and finding balance within each meal with healthy fat, lean protein, complex carbohydrates, vegetables and of course hydration.
That’s a Plan
Columbia Athletic Club does offer members a complimentary consultation with a personal trainer, and they can sign up for individualized training. If someone has a specific goal in mind, say, to become a better skier, the club offers a few ways to get there such as the individualized plan or small group sessions. The club also offers a winter sports conditioning program as well as a summer program geared to hiking.
Members who like a more deconstructed approach may find adult pickup basketball three days a week appealing, but otherwise, club members tend to organize themselves into groups for specific activities.
Make the Most of Winter
Brandi practices what she preaches, and on winter weekends you can often find her cross-country skiing or snowshoeing in one of her favorite spots such as Leavenworth. She tends toward the quieter end of the winter sports spectrum rather than the adrenaline-fueled activities. To each their own, and whether it’s an extreme snow sport you pursue such as heliskiing or snowmobiling, or the quieter snowshoe or cross-country trip through the woods, it’s important to prepare your body for the strain that is sure to be imposed on muscle groups that haven’t been used since the last deep freeze. The following exercises are designed to do just that.
Find more information at ColumbiaAthleticClub.com.
Slanted TRX Eccentric Squats – Starting with your foot on a slanted firm surface. The main focus of the exercise is on the eccentric phase (lowering down) and accelerate back up to reset the exercise. Great way to focus on muscles that stabilize the knee as well as changes in speed.
Lateral Hop with Single-Leg Landing to Hop – Standing on the floor in an athletic stance, load the outside leg and jump sideways, generating enough momentum where you focus on deceleration of the opposite foot landing. Once you regain your balance, lower down on the standing leg and perform a single-foot plyo jump squat and repeat side to side. Focuses on frontal plane movements, deceleration from the glutes, and proprioception of the foot/ankle.
Anterior Step Up with Balance – Select proper box height based on your ability. With inside foot, place on edge of box with toes facing forward (you will have a tendency to turn toe-out). With some speed, step up and try to stabilize without the opposite toe touching. Decelerate off the box slowly, ensuring 100% contact of heel. Step off each time and repeat. Great way to fire the glutes and stabilization from the foot up.
BOSU Single-Leg Step Over and Back – With your foot on the top of the wobble side of the BOSU (balance trainer), stay in an athletic stance, loading the leg on the BOSU. Simply step forward, finding balance and drive off the foot on the floor, focusing on proprioception of the foot and ankle.
Kettlebell Floor to Rack into Transverse Squat – Start by straddling the bell. With a deadlift, accelerate the kettlebell to rack position at the shoulder. Holding the bell in rack position, step behind at a diagonal/45 degrees looking over your shoulder. Once in position, lower in a squat and drive the knees outward in line with the toes. Drive off the back foot back to initial position. Great way to build power and work glutes in transverse plane.
Stability Ball Single-Leg Squat with Knee Press into Wall – Place a smaller stability ball against a flat wall. Place the stability ball on the side of the thigh toward the knee. Stand with the foot under the hips, lower in a squat position; as doing so, you will press into the stability ball with the knee to work on the glute medius and return to stand each time.
Stability Ball Plank Glide-Outs – Start with deep squat position, arms extended where you barely can touch fingertips to the ball. Slowly lift out of the squat, rolling out to a plank position, finding stability through the core and shoulder girdle. Slowly return to start position by reversing the movement. Great way to add mobility in the hips and stability in core/shoulders.
On each exercise, you can always focus on repetitions and/or time. Perform three sets of each 12 reps or three sets of 45-60 seconds. You want to add the appropriate load to each to find fatigue by the end of each set.