Questions & answers

What are the benefits of one F&S session?

• The stroke volume of your heart and its ability to absorb oxygen have increased;
• Your pulse has decreased for the same amount of work and your resting pulse is lower;
• The number of capillaries in your muscles has increased; Your level of cholesterol has gone down;
• You have greater muscle strength;
• Your bones become stronger - physical training prevents loss of calcium;
• Your joints, ligaments and tendons are more durable;
• You produce less lactic acid in your muscles for the same amount of work;
• Your production of endorphins has increased;
• You have greater stamina;
• Your resistance to ambient heat has increased.

Which intensity should I choose?

• Choose an intensity which suits your level, start slowly and work-out on your own pace. If you go to a session and you feel it is too difficult, drop the movements with the arms and concentrate on the legs.

How often should I exercise?

• Exercise frequently, but do not forget to rest. By doing the exercise you strain your muscles, joints and tendons. During the rest they can recover and get stronger. You should have a good balance between exercise and rest, as this way you get the best results of the work-out and the risk to get injured is diminished. Never exercise when you are ill and remember that complications can be dangerous. Start to exercise slowly after you are well again.

Where should I run during the sessions?

• To avoid zig-zagging and thereby potential injuries slower runners should run closer to the middle of the hall and faster runners further out along the walls.

What clothes and shoes do I need?

Can I bring my own mat?

You are welcome to bring your own mat to the sessions. Friskis&Svettis Luxembourg also sells small mats that you can buy for €5 in the beginning of the term. You can also contact us if you would like to buy one.

Why don't the instructors correct individuals when they do exercises wrongly?

Instructors do not correct individual participants in Friskis&Svettis, as many are sensitive to this. Instead they prefer to explain difficult movements at the beginning of the session. They also try to give short explanations during the session when actually carrying out the movements. We would also like to remind all participants that they are very welcome to approach the instructor after the session to ask for clarifications on any of the movements used.

Some useful tips:

• If you find that a movement is difficult to do, drop the arm exercises and concentrate on the movements for the legs.
• When you jump land softly on your whole foot. Note that almost all jumps you can also do with one leg on the ground. Instead of running, you can also walk.
• Take pain as a warning. If a movement is painful, check if you are doing the movement correctly as instructed by the instructor. If the pain continues, stop the movement and at the end of the session ask the instructor for advice. It is important that the movements feel good.
• Stretch properly and calmly after the exercise. Stretching relaxes your tired and tensed muscles. Stretching in the end of the exercise fastens the recovery process and balances the body's metabolism.
• Sometimes, for example when changing the intensity level of the exercise or getting used to a new session, you might feel your muscles being slightly tensed and aching approximately after 1-2 exercises. Training ache will however disappear in a couple of days whilst you give your body time to recover and you keep on moving, but less intensively.

Who develops the different programmes?

The individual instructors develop their own programmes, but all programmes build on movements that have been carefully developed in cooperation with experts in the fields of medicine and physiology in Friskis&Svettis.

Moreover, the session has to follow specific indications concerning the beats per minute allowed for the different parts of the session (warm-up, strength, oxygen peaks, flexibility, cool-down, etc.) To ensure that the risk of injuries is kept to a minimum F&S instructors strictly follow these instructions when selecting movements and music.

How often do the instructors change the programme?

Friskis&Svettis instructors should make a new programme every term. It is not considered appropriate to change too often, mainly because participants need time to learn a new programme in order to fully benefit from it.

What should I eat and drink before (and after) the session?

Drink sufficiently water before and after the exercise. During a session you can sweat approximately 1l or even more, depending on the circumstances. This loss of fluids needs to be replaced. Exercise also uses body's energy storages, so ensure you eat a small snack preferably immediately after the session. This way your body can start recovering from the exercise immediately and does not start using your muscles energy storages as energy.