Home

While the City of Yarra’s wetland project is suffering from a lack of significant rains, at least one dog is enjoying the cooling effects of the water channel that feeds the wetlands.

The wetlands project was completed this year after 12 months of construction to harvest storm water that flowed under Edinburgh Gardens.

The main aim is to provide 50% of the parks watering requirements.

Written by Andrew Talati

At Fitstyler, we encourage clients to bring their dogs to boot camp, on the proviso that the dog doesn’t interfere with other Fitmates, or pose a risk to the safety of Fitmates or other park users.

Well, during our 6am boot camp session at Edinburgh Garden we have 3 regular four-legged friends who join their owners for some exercise.

As our trainer, Anthony, was explaining the next exercise for the session, however, James & Jess’s pet Kelpie Chariot decided to literally fly into Anthony’s leg and knock him down!

Ironically, Anthony fell flat into a sit-up position.

At first everyone was a little shocked as he fell on top of Chariot (totally unavoidable and unexpected). Nevertheless, both dog and Anthony were fine and it was all laughs and giggles after that.

It’s great that dog owners are happy to participate in exercise classes with their dogs.

Written by Andrew Talati

One of our Fitmates Pascale M had a funny story about her Scottish terrier Hamish who gets excited with white socks and trainers.

Hamish has become accustomed with the daily ritual of an afternoon or evening walk which is usually precipitated by his owner putting on her white socks and trainers. This process is now associated by Hamish as a cue for going for a walk.

However poor Hamish is left a little confused when Pascale M starts to put on the white Socks and trainers only to be left waiting as his owner hops in a car to get to boot camp training.

I have met Hamish and he is an extremely cute little Scottish terrier, maybe he can join one our Boot camps as dogs are always welcome.

A new study by Michigan State University found that people who exercise with their dog have improved health outcomes.
The findings showed that dog owners were 34% more likely to achieve the recommended minimum levels of exercise, which is benchmarked at 150 minutes per week (although there is a growing body of evidence suggesting this should be 210 minutes or half an hour per day).

The study used information gathered from a 2005 Michigan behavioral risk factor survey that was conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under the Department of Community Health.

The study found that people who owned dogs were more likely to participate in some form of physical activity for at least one hour longer per week than non-dog owners. Of the 41% of the 5,902 participants in the survey who owned a dog, 61% said they walked their dog for at least 10 minutes at a time.

Owning a pet was also found to have other therapeutic benefits including improvements in mental health which is why it is quite often recommended that elderly people be given a pet as a form of companionship.

The motivating factor for dog owners to get more exercise as opposed to sitting on the couch is that it is their responsibility to walk the dog on a regular basis.

The most interesting fact to come from this study is that dog owners were almost 70% more involved in some sort of physical activity as opposed to people not owning a dog. But it’s also a little disturbing that the study also revealed that a large part of the population was not meeting the minimum guidelines of hundred 150 minutes of physical activity per week.

Interestingly the size of the dog also determined the duration of the walk ie larger dogs required significantly longer walks when compared to smaller dogs.

Many of our clients attending our boot camps bring their dog along to the session so both the dog and the owner receive a work out.

If you have a dog and it loves a good romp, why not bring them along to your next Fitstyler session. Or if you’re looking at improving the level of intensity or for something different that will improve and increase your exercise regime with your dog generally, here are a few
ideas to help you get started.

Last night there was a dog’s Christmas party at Edinburgh Gardens in Melbourne.

Unfortunately while I was running Boot Camp, I didn’t have my camera with me to take the photo of 200+ people out enjoying a lovely BBQ with their dogs.

Being in the inner-city, you wouldn’t expect to find so many dog owners given that we have smaller backyards and in many cases no backyard at all however people are using their local parks as an extension of their own backyard.

We are very fortunate in North Fitzroy to have this absolutely magnificent Victorian Park. With our very abundant rainfall over spring and now into summer, the trees of full of new foliage and the grass is growing at such an accelerated rate that the Council workers are almost back on a weekly basis to mow the lawn.

So if you own a dog and live North of Melbourne, check out Edinburgh Gardens and meet other dog owners.

If you’re looking to do some exercise yourself with your dog, we have put together some fun exercises with your dog to get you started.

At fitstyler we also encourage people to bring their dogs along to boot camp provided that they are well-behaved and don’t present a risk to other Fitmates.