Merritt Clubs Blog

If you're looking for a place to work out, there are options on just about every corner. But if you're serious about getting healthy, you need to look a little deeper into what a health club offers.

Speak with a Dietician

Exercise is important to your health, but it's just as important to monitor how you are fueling your body. People trying to lose weight or just maintain a healthy lifestyle are often left to their own devices in the area of diet, because most gyms just deal with exercise. Merritt Athletic Clubs offers a dietician on staff (learn more here) who can help with issues such as weight loss, nutritional help for medical problems, diets to achieve peak athletic performance, and eating to prevent illness. When trying to achieve wellness, don't leave out this piece of the puzzle.

Massage Therapy

Many people view massage as an unnecessary, indulgent activity, but it has many health benefits, including stress relief, increasing blood flow, release of toxins, and overall wellness. We offer Swedish, Deep Tissue, Myofascial Release, Sports, and Pregnancy Massages. Call us to find out which one is right for you. Learn more and book appointment here!

Spa Services

Part of overall wellness is simply feeling good about yourself, so we also offer spa services at many of our locations. Whether you need a facial, hair services, a manicure or pedicure, we are hear to make sure you leave feeling your best.

For overall wellness, it's important to have all the pieces of the puzzle. Once you do, exercising becomes much more productive and you will see more impressive results. The Mayo Clinic suggests 150 minutes of moderate, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity each week, as well as strength training twice a week. Whether you enjoy swimming laps in the pool, taking a group class, or working out on the machines by yourself, we provide many opportunities so that you can achieve optimal health.

To find a location that provides the services you are looking for, contact us.

Childhood Obesity

In going to great lengths to help and protect our children, we often forget some of the small things we do daily can have the biggest benefits. Encouraging and participating in an active lifestyle with your child is one of those things. Childhood obesity has more than tripled over the last 30 years. More than 70% of adolescents who are obese remain obese in their adult life. Obesity can lead to many complications and place the child at a higher risk to develop liver disease, heart disease, joint issues and even asthma as they get older, not to mention the social and psychological effects. The best way to combat this trend with your children is to encourage and foster an active lifestyle from an early age.

My ALIVE client had exercise experience being a former high school/collegiate athlete, but many parts of his body were on a program of their own! He wanted to decrease the aches and pains he had developed from his past and continue to stay active as much as possible. The low intensity workout in his regular visits to the gym and less than healthy eating habits were not benefiting him, so he signed up for the ALIVE program. I was excited to work with him in the ALIVE program because many of the exercises were ones I use with my clients so they were familiar to me. I had concerns about how he would do working out on his own, and deal with the change in eating habits. To make the weekly exercise progressions smoother, he used a weekly cheat sheet we put together from the information in the program. I have been totally impressed how hard he has worked on all of the exercises -even when I wasn't there! (We did modify any exercises that may have caused him problems w/ past injuries.) The eating has been a tougher challenge, although he has changed more to the supportive eating and does love the cheat day. The supportive eating is real food and easy to put meals together. The program seems too easy at first, and then it gets more challenging as the client learns to figure some of the fitness stuff on their own, and then it is do-able. After two weeks on the program, he saw a loss of 6 lbs! After six weeks, 17 lbs down and definitely feeling stronger! Less aches and pains! I would say he is on a better path to fitness for him! It's so exciting to see the program work so well! I'm looking forward to seeing how he does in his last two weeks and comparing the final numbers against the beginning numbers! But I can already see the difference and so can others! He's ready for round 2 and I'll be there pushing and cheering him on! GO!!!GO!!!GO!!! COME ON!!! YOU CAN DO IT!! KEEP GOING!!--sometimes he calls this harassment or torture (it's "training!") :-) Guess you would have to experience the ALIVE program and the results from it to understand.