Gauteng Fitness League Health Morning
On Saturday, 2 June, the Fitness League in Gauteng offered a health morning for its members with three presenters.
The morning started with a combined yoga and pilates class by Ansi (contact her on Facebook at Ansi Genis).
She is a personal trainer who has been teaching different disciplines, including aerobics and water aerobics, Pilates, spinning, and resistance exercise techniques for more than 20 years.
Nowadays she focuses more on yoga and she is also trained in suspension yoga and zen Pilates. She believes, with many experts, that ‘sitting is the new smoking’ and her mantra is, walk your 10 000 steps each day!
Although some of the exercises were tough, she concentrated throughout on using the correct techniques to prevent injury.

She was very impressed with how well the Fitness League ladies coped with the exercises – some of which really taxed their fitness levels and body strength – which just goes to show that the Fitness League classes work! Further proof is these ladies – all over the age of 75 – who are still regular participants in Fitness League classes


Ansi’s class was followed by an interactive lecture on mindfulness by Christine (contact her on Facebook at Christine Smith). She focused particularly on heart health and techniques to get your mind and body to communicate with each other, so as to form an optimally functioning team.
Her aim is to integrate the complexity of body and soul, stemming from her belief that, with a little help, the body has an enormous ability to heal itself. Christine demonstrated how essential touch is for getting your heart and mind in sync and reminded everyone that one of the most important emotions for promoting a healthy heart is gratitude.
During a scrumptious tea, provided by the Fitness League teachers, members had a chance to catch up with each other, before the final lecture by Sanet.
Sanet (contact her on Facebook at Sanet Cilliers Health Coach) is a health coach who focuses on optimising healthy living, particularly for women.
Her mantra is ‘healthspan instead of lifespan’ and she firmly believes that lifestyle choices influence one’s wellbeing either positively or negatively. She therefore constantly researches ways for optimally improving lifestyles, but by using only the least harmful and mostly natural methods and products.

Her lecture, too, focused on heart health, and she discussed some cutting edge ideas on diet for optimal health, as well as the more important supplements one should take to promote a healthy heart.
This was a morning with a difference, with ideas and inspiration by three amazing ladies, and members left with new thoughts on how to improve their own heart health by living a balanced life on all levels – through a combination of good exercise, a positive outlook and good body habits.
(Marielienne Janeke)