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How to balance your fitness week in Grand Rapids

How to Build a Balanced Fitness Week in Grand Rapids

May 17, 2025/in Fitness /by Shannon Austin

Move Smarter, Not Harder

In a city as active as Grand Rapids, it’s easy to feel like you have to do it all. Strength train. Get your cardio. Stretch more. Meditate. Don’t forget core. And while variety is the spice of life (and fitness), too much too fast can leave you exhausted—or worse, injured.

At Fever Yoga Cycle Strength, we believe in building a sustainable fitness routine that works with your body, not against it. Here’s how to create a weekly plan that keeps you moving, motivated, and balanced—without burning out.

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1. Build a Strong Base: Strength Training (2x/week)

Strength is your foundation. Whether you’re cycling, flowing, or pulsing at the barre, it supports joint health, improves posture, and enhances performance across all modalities.

Our group personal training classes in Grand Rapids are designed to take the guesswork out of your workouts. You’ll build strength safely with guidance, structure, and motivation in a small group setting.

2. Boost Your Heart Health: Cycle or Heated Barre (1–2x/week)

Add in some cardio—but keep it smart and sustainable. Our indoor cycling classes in Grand Rapids are high-energy, music-driven, and low-impact, giving you an effective burn without taxing your joints.

Or try our upgraded heated barre classes in Studio B, powered by radiant infrared heat for a sweat that supports recovery, mobility, and skin health.

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3. Balance It Out: Yoga (1–3x/week)

Yoga is where strength meets softness. Our hot yoga and restorative yoga classes support mobility, mindfulness, and nervous system regulation—perfect for recovery, grounding, or a powerful standalone workout.

Whether you’re recovering from a strength session or winding down after work, yoga is your body’s best reset.

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4. Sample Balanced Week

Here’s one sample routine out of many diverse options that many of our Fever members follow:

• Monday: Group FIT Strength Training (30) and Express RIDE (Indoor Cycling) (30) OR Barre Sculpt (50) OR Hot Pilates (50)

• Tuesday: Power Vinyasa Hot Yoga (60 hot) or Slow Flow Hot Yoga (60 hot) • Wednesday: Restore + Sound Bath (60 assisted class) RECOVERY DAY

• Thursday: Hot Barre Burn (50 infrared)

• Friday: Vinyasa Hot Yoga (45 hot) or Hot Pilates (50)

• Saturday: RIDE (Indoor Cycling 30 ) or Pilates (50)

• Sunday: Slow Flow Hot Yoga (60 hot) or RIDE (Indoor Cycling 30)

The key? Listen to your body. Your energy fluctuates. We help you stay consistent while honoring your limits.

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Final Thoughts: Keep Your Fitness Flowing

At Fever YCS we offer flexible, results-focused programming to support your goals. You don’t need to do it all—you just need the right balance of movement, recovery, and consistency depending on what you need that day.

Ready to build your balanced week? Check our class schedule and start strong today.

Do Grand Rapids locals prefer working out in the morning or afternoon?

Do Grand Rapids Locals Prefer Morning or Evening Workouts?

If you’re trying to find the best time to work out in Grand Rapids, you’re not alone. One of the most common questions we hear at Fever Yoga Cycle Strength is: “Should I be working out in the morning or the evening?” While both options have benefits, we’ve noticed clear patterns right here in our community—and we’re here to help you discover what works best for you. Building a balanced fitness week is key to a successful routine.

Morning Workouts in Grand Rapids

Many of our members love the sense of accomplishment that comes from getting their movement in early. Whether it’s a sunrise hot yoga class, a focused barre session, or a strength class that jump-starts your day, morning workouts offer:

• A mood and energy boost (thanks, endorphins)

• Better consistency and fewer schedule interruptions

• A sense of community with other early risers

At our Grand Rapids fitness studio, popular morning classes include hot yoga, barre sculpt, strength training and cycle—especially before work hours.

Evening Workouts in Grand Rapids

For others, evening workouts at Fever offer a welcome release after a busy day. Whether you’re sweating it out in a high-energy cycle class, building strength with resistance training, or grounding down with yoga, evening workouts:

• Help release daily stress

• Offer more flexibility for late risers or parents

• Often feel more social and community-driven

We see consistent turnout for evening hot yoga in Grand Rapids, especially among those who prefer to work out after 5 p.m.

Which Is Best? The Answer: It Depends on You.

Whether you prefer AM or PM workouts, we’ve got options to meet your schedule. Our goal at Fever is to support your long-term consistency—so choose the time that helps you show up most regularly.

Looking to build a habit? Start with 2–3 classes per week during your preferred window, and mix in a variety of modalities:

• Barre, Pilates, Hot Pilates and Hot Barre in Grand Rapids for strength and alignment

• Hot yoga for detox, flexibility, and empowerment

• Group personal strength training for guided results

• Cycle classes in Grand Rapids for high-energy cardio

Final Thoughts

At Fever YCS, we offer morning and evening fitness classes because we know one size doesn’t fit all. Your lifestyle, energy levels, and goals matter—and we’re here to support them with flexible schedules, welcoming instructors, and results-driven programming.

How indoor cycling benefits your mental + physical health

How indoor cycling benefits your physical and mental health

December 4, 2023/in Cardio, Indoor Cycling /by Shannon Austin

Indoor cycling studios are quickly taking the fitness world by storm. While there are plenty of ways to get your workout these days, spinning stands out as one of the best. Stationary spin bikes allow you to focus on what’s happening in your workout. Your speed and resistance help you build muscle through strength training while weights and choreography make it a full body workout. The benefits of indoor cycling aren’t just physical either. Making spin class a part of your regular fitness routine can have a positive impact on your mental health as well.

If you are looking to step up your cardiovascular health and take care of your bones and joints look no further than your local indoor cycling studio. A typical spin class will combine resistance training and speed intervals with choreography intended to give you an intense full body workout that can burn anywhere from 300-600+ calories in one class. In addition to the benefits of combining cardio and strength training, it’s easy on the knees. Cycling uses repetitive low impact motions that can help strengthen bones and keep joints lubricated which can help you avoid future damage, while also being a great option for individuals recovering from previous injuries. Research has shown that regular cardio exercise can boost your natural energy levels, increase endurance and improve your oxygen uptake which means more oxygen, blood and nutrients are flowing to your muscles. Cycling is an excellent low impact workout with maximum results.

Investing in the right indoor cycling shoes can significantly enhance your workout experience. Proper gear, like well-fitted shoes, ensures optimal foot support, reducing the risk of discomfort or injury during intense cycling sessions. When you clip into the pedals with recommended indoor cycling shoes, you gain improved power transfer and efficiency, allowing for a smoother ride and maximizing the benefits of your workout. Upgrade your gear for a more comfortable, efficient, and enjoyable indoor cycling experience. We recommend Shimano indoor cycling shoes with Spd clip ins for the best ride.

In addition to the physical benefits of spinning, you will likely begin to see an improvement in your mental health as well with regular spin classes. Cardio exercises release endorphins, also known as happy hormones that help to lower stress and cortisol levels. These endorphins can also help relieve the physical symptoms of anxiety. Indoor cycling workouts can increase your focus and mental clarity as well as improving your rest and sleep habits. If you are struggling to pick up a new workout routine, it is important to find exercise you can enjoy doing so that making it a part of your day becomes fun. Taking classes at your local cycling studio allows you to meet and join a community of people who have similar interests and meet new friends.

Our favorite part of spin classes? The high energy music that keeps you going! Indoor cycling is gaining in popularity and for good reason. Combining a calorie scorching cardio workout with resistance and strength training, indoor cycling builds lean muscles, boosts energy and keeps your bones and joints healthy. Not to mention improved focus, less stress and better sleep. If you haven’t given spinning a try yet, join us for a class and see what you’ve been missing!

Unlocking Your Potential: The Power of Nutrition and Fitness

October 6, 2023/1 Comment/in Fitness /by Shannon Austin

Achieving your fitness goals is a holistic journey, and it all starts with proper nutrition and fitness. Balancing your diet and exercise routine is crucial for long-term success. In today’s fast-paced world, it’s easy to overlook the importance of these foundational pillars of health. Let’s delve deeper into the synergy between nutrition and fitness and how they can transform your life.

The Nutritional Foundation: Fueling Your Success

Your body is like a high-performance machine, and it requires the right fuel to operate optimally. When you provide it with the right nutrients, it rewards you with enhanced energy levels, mental clarity, and overall well-being. It’s not just about counting calories; it’s about the quality of those calories.

Start by nourishing your body before and after your work out with a variety of nutrient-dense foods into your diet. Lean proteins like chicken, fish, and tofu provide essential amino acids for muscle repair and growth. Complex carbohydrates like whole grains and legumes supply steady energy throughout the day. Don’t forget the importance of healthy fats from sources like avocados, nuts, and olive oil.

Balancing these elements ensures your body has the tools it needs to recover from workouts and perform at its best. A well-rounded diet also supports your immune system and promotes longevity.

Hydration is another key factor in balancing your bodies energy and resources. Staying hydrated during your workouts with the proper electrolytes and minerals will along you to sustain endurance and replenish your body quicker.

Fitness: The Path to Vitality

Coupled with proper nutrition, fitness is your gateway to a healthier, more vibrant life. Regular physical activity not only helps you achieve and maintain a healthy weight but also reduces the risk of chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and hypertension.

Exercise isn’t limited to intense gym sessions. It can encompass a variety of activities that you enjoy, such as swimming, hiking, dancing, or even gardening. The key is consistency. Aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity per week, along with strength training exercises on two or more days.

Fitness is not just about the physical benefits; it also enhances your mental health. It releases endorphins, reducing stress and boosting your mood. Moreover, it promotes better sleep, leaving you feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the challenges of each day.

For more guidance on crafting a balanced fitness routine, explore resources from renowned fitness organizations such as the [American Council on Exercise].

In conclusion, nutrition and fitness are the cornerstones of a healthier, more fulfilling life. By nourishing your body with the right nutrients and staying active, you unlock your potential to achieve your goals and enjoy a higher quality of life. Remember, this journey is not about perfection but about progress, and every step you take brings you closer to your best self.

Barre vs. Strength Training: What is Best for Your Workout?

February 17, 2023/in barre, Featured, strength training /by Shannon Austin

The vast array of fitness classes and workout options available today can be both exciting and, let’s face it, overwhelming. With so many styles to choose from, it can be difficult to know what workouts best suit our lifestyle and will benefit us most in the long run.

In this blog, we’ll unpack the basics of a few popular workouts, barre and strength training, discuss the unique benefits of each workout, and explain what workout is best for your fitness goals.

Understanding Barre vs. Strength Training

Barre is a form of full-body exercise that combines movements and positions borrowed from ballet with low-impact, repetitive strength exercises, designed to isolate and strengthen muscles. Barre classes often rotate through sections focusing on arms, core/abs, and lower body, repeating small, isometric movements targeting one muscle area until all muscles are fatigued. While barre can be done without equipment, classes typically incorporate a ballet barre and light weights, resistance bands, sliders, and/or exercise balls.

Strength training (also known as resistance training) is a form of exercise focused on gaining muscle mass, building strength, and increasing endurance. Strength training encompasses a wide variety of exercises, using body weight or equipment, with a focus on building muscle mass in all major muscle groups. Bodyweight exercises like lunges, squats, push-ups, and planks are examples of strength training, as are movements that incorporate weights and resistance machines.

Pilates is a form of strength training that focuses on deep core muscular engagement and utilizes different props such as pilate rings, foam rollers, free weights, and bender balls.

For in studio strength training, we prefer SPRI dumbbells lined in vinyl. If the weights are not protected, they will start to peel and shed rather quickly. If you’re new to strength training, start with a low weight of 5 pounds. After curling a few reps, those light weights will feel much heavier. Continue to progress to heavier weights until you meet your new “edge” and comfortability. Typically functional training will allow 10 – 25 pound weights per rep once you reach comfort.

The Benefits of Barre

Barre offers a full body workout, toning your core, glutes, arms, and thighs/legs. Due to its use of small, isometric movements, barre often targets the deeper muscles in the body that are missed in other workouts. And, because barre is low-impact and easy on joints and muscles, there is a decreased chance of injury and recovery is often faster than higher-intensity workouts. Expect to use light weights such as 3 pound weights with a lot of reps to “burn out” the muscle groups.

Barre classes focus on both strength and flexibility, often incorporating stretching and lengthening exercises throughout. These exercises contribute to increased mobility and range of motion that are beneficial in everyday life and lead to better posture and balance, as well.

The mind-body connection and focus required for barre classes help reduce stress and increase mental clarity—not to mention the feel-good endorphins that come after.

The Benefits of Strength Training

The most obvious benefit of strength training is an overall increase in muscle mass and a toned physique. However, strength training also helps build bone density, joint flexibility, and balance—all of which lead to a higher quality of life and a lower risk of injury overall.

Strength training may also be an ideal form of exercise for those pursuing fat loss, as increased muscle mass leads to a higher resting metabolic rate. This means that your body consistently burns more calories when at rest, rather than just during your workout.

Alongside its physical benefits, consistent strength training also contributes to overall health and longevity, better sleep, and mental clarity.

Barre vs. Strength Training: What is Best for Your Workout?

The simple answer is that both exercises can be extremely beneficial for your overall health and what workout is “best” will depend on your unique fitness goals and preferences.

We recommend incorporating a combination of barre, strength training, pilates and other exercises into your routine to increase your overall strength and help you avoid injury, mental boredom, and burnout. Switching up your workouts will continue to challenge your body and help you see more consistent results over time.

However, when it comes to exercise, it’s also important to do what you love—if a barre class gets you excited to wake up in the morning, do that! If a strength training or pilates class plan helps you unwind after a long day, do that! Prioritizing the forms of exercise that you enjoy the most will ensure you stay consistent over time and see exercise as a gift to your body and mind, not a punishment.

Whether it’s a strength class, a barre class, or one of our pilates options, Fever would love to be a part of your fitness journey. Schedule a strength class today.

How to Form Habits that You’ll Keep for Life

November 21, 2022/in Fitness /by Shannon Austin

As the new year approaches, many of us begin thinking about the resolutions, goals, or intentions we want to set for the year ahead. And I don’t know about you, but I used to be hesitant about setting resolutions, because, midway through the year, my motivation would drop and I’d start slipping away from the behaviors I had so eagerly envisioned in January.

Commitment is hard, especially when it comes to life-changing habits and behaviors, like eating a vegan diet or consistently exercising. Whatever you repeatedly do forms the person you become, the things you believe, and the personality you portray. So if you want to improve, or form new habits, how should you go about it?

Over the years, I’ve learned a few tips and tricks for creating habits that endure past the last snowfall.

The 3 R’s to Forming New Habits:

Reminder– this is the trigger that initiates the behavior you’re trying to enact. Several weeks into your commitment, it can be easy to start slipping back into your old ways. Set a reminder to execute your habit every day. It doesn’t matter whether this is a phone alert, a physical cue, or something else – what matters is that you see or hear a reminder that prompts you to take action.
Routine– this is the behavior itself, or the action you take. Commit to 30 days of whatever habit you’re trying to form, whether it’s eating vegan, flossing your teeth, moving your body daily or practicing yoga. Three to four weeks is all the time you need to make a habit automatic, and a month is a good amount of time to commit to, since it easily fits in your calendar!
Reward– this is the benefit you gain from doing the behavior. If you’re committing yourself to creating a new habit, it most likely is because you want to improve on some aspect of your life. Therefore, there are usually innate benefits to forming the habit, such as a healthier immune system, stronger teeth, or a more toned body. But it doesn’t hurt to personally reward yourself, as well! It’s important to celebrate because we like continuing actions that make us feel good. Whether you quietly tell yourself “Good job. You made progress today!” or physically reward yourself with some form of treat, what matters is acknowledging your progress.

A Few Other Helpful Tips:

Find a Buddy: Find a friend who will join you in the pursuit of this new habit. There’s nothing like an accountability partner to keep you motivated if you feel like quitting.

Be Imperfect: You can’t expect your attempt to change huge lifestyle behaviors to be successful immediately. You might fall astray during your 30 day commitment, or it might even take longer to fully form. No worries, friends! Just expect a few bumps along the way.

Be Consistent in Your Timing: For habits like exercising and yoga, being consistent in the time you choose to practice is key. During your 30 day challenge, commit yourself to practicing your new habit at the same time each day, whether that’s morning, evening, or right after work.

Building Your Springtime Routine through Yoga, Nutrition, and Sleeping Patterns

March 26, 2019/in Fitness /by Shannon Austin

Last week we dove into the basic principles of an Ayurvedic approach to spring. We talked about how the kapha dosha is aggravated by qualities that are heavy, cold, or moist, so we encouraged you to begin inviting in lightness, warmth and dryness through the food, activities, and self-care rituals you choose to engage in.

We determined that the best prescription is to develop a rhythm. In this season, you’re looking to identify a set of routines that help you gradually lighten your body, mind, and emotions.

Today, I dive into what your yoga practice, eating habits, and sleeping patterns might look like when following an Ayurvedic approach to spring.

Your Yoga Practice

Your practice this time of year should be stimulating and invigorating. I’ve seen our Fever instructors begin to ramp up their classes, filling them with high-energy, powerful flows.

However, I highly recommend an inclusion of both yin and yang classes this time of year. Cultivating both strength and flexibility will bring balance to the kapha dosha. Move rapidly through your sequences this time of year, but linger in the moments between. Use those opportunities to slow down and move mindfully.

When practicing at home, try some of these poses:

Sun Salutations- These sequences pump prana – or breath – through your body, filling you with oxygen. Move rapidly through these sequences, linking breath to movement, to relieve stagnation in your body and mind.

Backbends- Any heart opening asana will energize your body. Bridge pose, wheel, and wild thing all expand your chest, relieving any congestion in your respiratory system.

Dynamic forward folds- Whether seated or standing, forward folds tone your kidneys and bladder, regulating your body’s water content and emotions.

Twists- Wringing your body out through a variety of twists – like triangle pose – really detoxifies your organs and strengthens your metabolic fire. Talk about a thorough spring cleaning!

Nutritional Advice

In the winter months, we naturally gravitate toward sweet, sour, or salty foods to counteract the dry qualities of these bitterly cold months. Now that the temperatures are rising, eat lighter foods, focusing on pungent, bitter, and astringent tastes.

Make sure that lunch is your biggest meal of the day, so you’re not forcing your body to digest a large meal during the times of the day when your kapha dosha is sluggish. Also, aim to eat at regular intervals during the day, at least 3-4 hours between meals.

Best foods to eat this season:

Saute leafy greens – kale, collards, dandelion, spinach, or mustard greens – with ghee to cleanse your body and counterbalance congestion.

Opt for less sweet fruits, like cherries, blueberries, grapefruit, or granny smith apples.

Choose seeds instead of nuts.

Barley, quinoa, and millet should be your staple grains.

Kick up your seasoning game with spices like turmeric, ginger, cayenne, mustard, and black pepper.

Adjusting Your Sleeping Patterns

Before the sun reaches its ultimate summer equinox point, take advantage of the darkness and fight the urge to stay up late. You’ll have plenty of time to milk those hours come June.

To keep your kapha dosha in balance, go to bed by 10:00 p.m. and rise before the sun. Have you ever noticed that it’s actually easier to wake up at 5:30 a.m. than 6:30 a.m.? Providing you went to bed early!