MEDINA COMMUNITY RECREATION CENTER 
 APRIL 2019 NEWSLETTER
Medina Community Recreation Center Newsletter









The Competition Pool will be closed on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5:30am to 3 pm beginning April 23 due to limited staffing.





Save the date!
THE IMPORTANCE OF USING FREE WEIGHTS
Written by: Elsie Ross, CPT at Prescription Fitness (Cleveland, Ohio)
 
If you are only focusing on resistance machines for your strength training, it is time you "free" yourself from the limitations that resistance machines provide and switch to free weights instead.  Not only are they more convenient and much more affordable if you work out at home, but free weights provide many other benefits that resistance machines simply cannot compete with. All you need to get a good workout are the weights and a few square feet. You can perform so many different exercises and variations of those exercises to strengthen every muscle in your body. Believe me when I tell you...if you incorporate free weights into your routine, you can be confident that you will become stronger, burn lots of calories, improve your balance, and reduce your risk of injury.
 
One if the main advantages to using free weights over machines is that free weights allow your body to move throughout all three planes of motion.  Since free weights, unlike machines, are not fixed on a certain path, you don't just have to push or pull in one direction. When your body has to work to support the weight AND control the movement, your larger muscles, stabilizer muscles, and core all work harder.  This means you are strengthening way more than one muscle.
 
In addition to working more than one muscle at once, free weights make them work together which in time improves balance and coordination.  A study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that individuals who used free weights improved their balance almost twice as much as those who performed similar exercises on resistance-training machines.
 
It is important to know that the more muscles you work in any given exercise, the more calories you're going to burn with every rep. Free weights are great because they allow you to perform compound movements that work your entire body at once.  One example of a compound move is the squat to overhead press: by working your legs, core, arms, and shoulders, this exercise greatly increases your calorie burn. There is no resistance machine that will allow you to perform this move.
 
Free weights can help you prevent injury because they allow you to work on muscle imbalances whereas strength machines do not. By loading each side of your body separately, free weights reduce differences between your right and left side.  Also, by constantly challenging your balance, free weights force you to work and strengthen your small stabilizing muscles, which play a big role in supporting your body and keeping your joints in their proper place.
 
Below are a few things to keep in mind when transitioning from machines to free weights:
  • Get help from a qualified trainer - it is important that you learn proper technique for each exercise done with free weights
  • Always exercise all sides of the body-right, left, front, and back
  • Use full range of motion
  • Lift in a slow and controlled manner. It is important NOT to use momentum
  • When lifting very heavy weights, always use a spotter
  • Keep your head up, and maintain a straight spine

In This Issue
Like us on Facebook
GENERAL FACILITY
REGULAR HOURS 
Monday-Friday:
5:30am - 10pm
Saturday: 8am - 8pm
Sunday: 10am - 6pm
 
Natatorium closes 1 hour prior
to facility closing.


The MCRC Operating Calendar does not correspond with the Medina City School District Calendar. The MCRC will remain open for business during school vacations, teacher in-service days, some holidays and snow/calamity days.
PLAN YOUR NEXT  PARTY OR GET-TOGETHER AT THE MEDINA REC!
  • Swim Parties
  • End-of-the-Season Sports Parties
  • Showers
  • Business Meetings
  • Non-Profit Group Meetings

FOR DETAILS:

Click on the Facilities Rental General Info page at medinarec.org 

MCRC CALENDAR OF EVENTS
 
APRIL
19 - Preparing your Garden for the Spring - Soil Prep, Soil Testing, Site  
Selection and More! Suzanne Vanpeursem and Barb Buser - Master Gardener Volunteers from the OSU Extension - We are so lucky to have the OSU Extension office here in Medina and even luckier to have them come and tell us imprtant information to help us make our gardens produce great flowers and vegetables. Bring lots of questions! Lunch provided by Willowood Care Center.   
 
MAY
3 - State of the City of Medina - Mayor Dennis Hanwell
Come and hear the great news of how the wonderful City of Medina is doing directly from our mayor. There will be plenty of time for questions and answers. Lunch provided by Echelon of Medina.
 
10 - 3-on-3 Youth Basketball Tournament
 
17 - Veterans on Display - A Memorial Day Tribute by MAPS Air Museum - Reed Kimball - Director of education MAPS Air Museum. If you have never visited the MAPS Air Museum in Green, Ohio, you are in for a treat. Reed will tell us some great stories of heroes that are on display in the museum and remind us of the importance of Memorial Day and why we need to preserve the past. Lunch provided by Life Care Center of Medina  
 
27 - Memorial Park Pool Opens