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Most vital piece of functional fitness equipment found under foot

The inclusion of functional training into a healthy lifestyle does not stop when traveling for business or pleasure, and may influence a traveler’s hospitality selection.

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By Bo Barber
VP of Marketing and Sales, Ecore
 

Today’s health-conscious consumers on the cutting-edge of fitness are realizing the limitations of stationary strength and cardio machines, and are opting instead to focus on functional strength and conditioning exercises such as high-intensity interval training. This evolution in fitness was documented in the American College of Sports Medicine’s worldwide survey of fitness trends for 2016, which ranked high-intensity interval training as the no. 1 choice by consumers who now want more open spaces to exercise to boost long-term wellness.

The inclusion of functional training into a healthy lifestyle does not stop when traveling for business or pleasure, and may influence a traveler’s hospitality selection. To appeal to the modern consumer and stand out from competition, many in the hospitality industry are offering a customizable approach to staying fit while away from home that includes a full-scale gym and wellness center to support functional fitness activities such as jumping, sprinting, throwing and crawling.

To ensure these facilities meet the high expectations of today’s fitness enthusiasts, contract architects and specifiers are opting for flooring that positively influences safety, ergonomics and acoustics to provide users with force reduction and energy restitution throughout each workout.

How Flooring Impacts Functional Fitness
During functional training, people use their bodies and weights to perform exercises, making the surface underneath their feet more critical than ever before. In response to the functional training trend, fitness centers nationwide are removing some of the standard equipment and adding open space and more supportive flooring for interval training.

Hilton Hotels is taking the functional fitness trend one step further by offering open space with athletic flooring in individual hotel rooms. The Hilton Five Feet to Fitness project offers fitness-minded guests with a functional fitness nook in their rooms, equipped with Ecore ergonomic flooring, functional training equipment and a video kiosk with a library of guided exercises. The specially-designed flooring keeps guest workouts quiet and non-disruptive to neighboring rooms while providing support underfoot for a variety of fitness activities.

Unlike traditional fitness center flooring, functional training flooring has a direct impact on the performance of the athlete, providing stability and support to protect from injury. Functional fitness flooring must withstand heavy weight drops, ropes, medicine ball slams and repeated jumping, all while providing a comfortable, ergonomically sound and quiet environment. Architects and designers should keep in mind these three important factors when specifying a functional fitness facility:

Safety

Athletes of all levels – weekend warriors to Olympic champions – train to improve their abilities and reach new achievements. With each push toward greatness, athletes put their bodies at risk of injury that could set back their efforts temporarily or permanently. Thus, measures are taken to protect athletes’ bodies to ensure they are able to perform at peak levels – including proper nutrition, adequate sleep and high-quality equipment. Flooring is a key piece of equipment for athletes, playing a role in nearly every activity from start to finish. To keep safety a priority, fitness facilities should invest in surfaces that mitigate injury, protect the body and promote ultimate and healthy performance.

Ergonomics

Once the athlete’s body is protected, the focus turns to enhancing and improving performance. Functional fitness calls for intense activities to be performed in different frequencies and directions over and over. No matter the intensity, the repetitive motion, swift movement and constant impact takes a toll on the body and the quality of the workout. Ergonomic flooring helps diminish fatigue, minimize discomfort and enable athletes to perform at their highest levels longer and more efficiently. The right flooring enhances longevity of athletes by absorbing force and providing a return of energy through innovative engineering and design.

Acoustics

While acoustics may not be the first thing that comes to mind when brainstorming a state-of-the-art workout facility, it has a surprisingly significant impact on the overall fitness experience. A room full of athletes performing various activities involving fast movements and heavy weights can become a noisy mess fast. Using a flooring surface that absorbs energy, vibrations and sound can greatly reduce the ambient noise and create a more pleasant experience for the user and those around this space, while also greatly increasing the longevity of the flooring and fitness equipment.

Additional Flooring Selection Considerations
There are many different flooring materials to choose from when designing a fitness facility – some offering more benefits than others. While the flooring should be selected to meet the needs of the fitness center user first and foremost, the durability and sustainability of the product should play a role in decision making as well.

The use of environmentally-conscious and sustainable materials – such as tire scrap, recycled rubber, bamboo and cork – renders high-quality products for modern flooring demands without leaving a detrimental carbon footprint on the environment. Ecore’s Performance Collection, for example, features a durable top layer made of sustainable materials that is slip resistant when wet or dry, as well as fade resistant to hold up against the toughest workouts. The base layers provide significant sound and force reduction while delivering energy restitution, enabling the materials to last longer without additional repairs. These types of materials, when utilized properly, often exceed customer expectations in performance and durability, while greatly reducing maintenance costs over time. 

Modern athletes are looking for fitness equipment and accessories that not only accommodate their physical activities, but work equally hard to enhance performance and safety. Likewise, fitness center managers want to protect and support their members by investing in innovative equipment that will withstand heavy demands. Building up fitness and reaching new physical limits starts with the right foundation: quiet, safe, resilient, ergonomic flooring designed specifically to meet the needs of athletes and fitness centers.

Bo Barber is the Vice President of marketing and sales for Ecore, a company that transforms reclaimed materials into performance surfaces that make people’s lives better. Ecore’s products align substantial force reduction with a balanced amount of energy return to create surfaces to meet virtually every commercial flooring application need. 

Believing that everyone's perspective is important, Zest Magazine has opted to provide an avenue for these perspectives to be known. care to hear the publication's contributing writers; or better yet, do some contributing yourself by contacting info@zestmag.com.

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Superbod Movement goes beyond the stage

Century Tuna held its first Superbod Life community run in partnership with Megaworld, demonstrating how a supportive community, both online and offline, can empower individuals at every stage of their Superbod path.

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On its 20th anniversary, the Century Tuna Superbod legacy expands beyond the runway and into the real world. This milestone reinforces a fitness movement that continues to empower every Filipino to confidently unleash their “Superbod Era” in a supportive, no-judgment environment. Rather than shifting gears, this evolution brings to the forefront what Century Tuna has long championed: that being a Superbod is an accessible, daily lifestyle meant for everyone.

This vision recently ignited a massive advocacy with the launch of the first Superbod Era Strava Challenge, rallying over 58,000 Filipinos of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds. The overwhelming response to this digital challenge showed that Filipinos are more than ready to take part in the community Century Tuna has long been working to build—a welcoming online space where everyone, regardless of where they are on their fitness journey, can connect, support each other, and celebrate their progress together.

To kick off this initiative, Century Tuna held its first Superbod Life community run in partnership with Megaworld, demonstrating how a supportive community, both online and offline, can empower individuals at every stage of their Superbod path. Joining the run were Century Tuna Brand Ambassador Atasha Muhlach and Super Bowl Ambassador Emilio Daez, inviting Filipinos everywhere to be a part of this collective space and unleash their best fitness eras.

Welcome to Yousr Fitness Era: Join the Superbod Life Community

The Century Tuna Superbod Life Community is a dedicated safe space where members can get all-access to uncomplicated, top-tier advice on fitness and nutrition, real-life inspiration, and practical tips designed for everyone. Whether you are a starter taking Day 1 or a restarter ready to take your fitness journey one day at a time, this platform offers a 100% support, zero-pressure environment.

More than achieving a singular fitness goal, being a Superbod is a sustainable way of life. That is why the community is built around a holistic, easy-to-follow framework: Move Super, Fuel Super, and Live Super.

Through Move Super, members unlock real-life advice through Q&A sessions with fitness experts, practical workouts that make consistency achievable for any lifestyle, and exciting on-ground meet-ups where they can break a sweat and share encouragement with one another.

Fuel Super simplifies nutrition with easy-to-follow guidance like 5-minute meal ideas, clever snack swaps, and practical preparation tips that fit seamlessly into even the busiest schedules.

Meanwhile, Live Super focuses on sustainable wellness habits and overall well-being, proving that a healthy lifestyle is built in the small, everyday choices. More than anything, it is a space where you can experience true transformation simply by being surrounded by real people who are navigating the exact same journey right alongside you.

Built for Real People, Real Journeys

“We realized that many people, especially beginners, hesitate to start their fitness journeys because they often feel like getting into fitness is complicated—like it is something only a few can access and pull off,” shared Mr. Carlo Endaya, Vice President, General Manager, and Group Business Head of Century Pacific Food Inc. “The Superbod Life community was built to change that perspective. It is a safe space where members can learn and be inspired by peers going on the same journey and from experts who can guide them toward their health goals. At Century Tuna, we truly believe that everyone has the potential to reach their ‘Superbod Era’—they just need the right place to start.”

“This community is exactly what Filipinos need in their fitness journey, and I am blessed to be part of something this big,” shared Century Tuna Brand Ambassador Atasha Muhlach. “What makes Superbod Life so special is that inspiration doesn’t just come from brand ambassadors like us, but from the real-world stories, shared struggles, and genuine experiences of the everyday people you’ll meet in the community.”

Fueling the Long Run

As Century Tuna welcomes Filipinos into their “Superbod Era,” the brand highlights proper nutrition as a vital pillar of fitness. Achieving one’s goals requires the right balance of protein, vitamins, and minerals, which is exactly what Century Tuna delivers in its products.

Those sprinting into their fitness journey can also find premium convenience with the latest ready-to-eat tuna and rice meal in a can, the Century Tuna Super Bowl, packed with protein, Vitamin B3, and Omega-3 DHA to fuel the body on the go.

“I finally have a nutritious meal I can take anywhere to my runs or gym sessions,” said actor and host Emilio Daez. “With the Century Tuna Super Bowl, it’s a ready-to-eat meal option that perfectly fits an on-the-go professional schedule. Bonus treat for many Filipinos is that you get all of this for only P29 per can.”

Century Tuna also recently announced the official on-ground casting call for Superbods 2026. Aspiring participants can pre-register at https://bit.ly/2026-superbods-pre-registration, or head on to Space at One Ayala, Makati City, on June 27–28, 2026, from 9 AM to 5 PM.

Join the Superbod Life Community by visiting https://www.facebook.com/groups/superbod.life or by scanning the QR code below. Watch out for exciting giveaways and events happening this month for the Superbod Life community!

For more information on the upcoming Superbods competition, visit https://centurytuna.ph/ or watch out for updates on Century Tuna’s Facebook page at  https://www.facebook.com/centurytuna.

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Omega Healthcare recognized

Omega Healthcare is the only RCM service provider to earn both the Leader and Star Performer distinctions

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Omega Healthcare, an AI-driven healthcare solutions company, has been recognized as a “Leader” and “Star Performer” in the Everest Group Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) Operations PEAK Matrix Assessment, 2026, maintaining its position as a “Leader” in the evaluation since 2017.

Omega Healthcare is the only RCM service provider to earn both the Leader and Star Performer distinctions in the report, which assessed 34 RCM operations service providers. The Star Performer designation is given to companies that demonstrate the most improvement over time on the PEAK Matrix. Everest Group’s team of analysts led a comprehensive analysis of the RCM services market, including client reference checks and interactions with the service providers evaluated.

“Against a backdrop of persistent margin pressures, rising denial rates, and evolving reimbursement dynamics, healthcare providers are making revenue cycle performance a strategic priority, driving demand for more intelligent, technology-enabled operating models that enhance efficiency and financial resilience,” said Aastha Malik, Practice Director, Everest Group.

“Omega Healthcare is well-positioned in this evolving landscape, integrating its large coding talent pool with digital platforms and analytics-led solutions to deliver scalable and performance-driven RCM operations. Its investments in gen AI and agentic AI across RCM processes, supported by a strong partner ecosystem, reflect a shift toward more intelligent and automated workflows. These capabilities underpin its recognition as a Leader and Star Performer in Everest Group’s Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) Intelligent Operations PEAK Matrix Assessment 2026.”

Omega Healthcare was honored as a Star Performer due to double-digit revenue growth, expansion into larger provider segments, with increased deal scale, and strong buyer feedback across cost savings, domain expertise, innovation, value addition, and AI/technology expertise.

According to Everest Group, leaders have demonstrated comprehensive support of healthcare providers by operationalizing gen AI, automation, and advanced analytics across key RCM workflows.

Everest Group cited Omega Healthcare for several key strengths, including:

  • Integrated delivery model: Clients benefit from a fully integrated delivery model that combines Omega Healthcare’s global workforce with the Omega Digital Platform and WhiteSpace Health analytics to deliver scalable, technology-enabled RCM operations. This seamless integration helps healthcare organizations drive workflow automation and data-driven performance management across the entire revenue cycle.
  • Advanced technology enablement: Omega Healthcare’s use of gen AI and agentic AI in workflows such as denials, appeals, coding, and A/R follow-up helps clients resolve claims faster, reduce manual errors, and enhance process consistency. Its strategic technology partnerships help clients scale AI beyond pilots, delivering more reliable and impactful outcomes across enterprise operations.
  • Enterprise growth and domain expertise: Clients highlighted Omega Healthcare’s deep domain expertise, strong understanding of clinical workflows, and ability to flex resources to meet evolving operational needs. The company has continued to expand its presence among large health systems, strengthening its position to support end-to-end engagements and deliver sustained results for complex provider organizations.

“We are honored and proud to be the only RCM provider recognized in the report as both a Leader and Star Performer by Everest Group,” said Omega Healthcare CEO and Co-Founder Anurag Mehta. “This achievement is a direct reflection of the relationships and strategic partnerships we’ve built with our customers and the broader ecosystem. As healthcare organizations navigate persistent financial pressures, regulatory change and the proliferation of AI, we remain fully committed to leveraging the strength of our purpose-built AI-powered solutions to bring intelligence into action for our customers. We are constantly co-creating novel solutions with our customers across different parts of the RCM continuum. This relationship helps ensure Omega Healthcare owns outcomes and consistently delivers breakthrough results.”

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For every parent who wants to be present: AXA reinforces importance of early health preparedness

Even the most loving preparation can leave one crucial question unanswered: What happens when the parent who protects the family suddenly needs protection too? 

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Preparing for a child often begins long before birth. Parents plan for the crib, the diapers, the milk, the clothes, every necessity mapped out before the baby even arrives. 

Yet even the most loving preparation can leave one crucial question unanswered: What happens when the parent who protects the family suddenly needs protection too? 

For many Filipino families, that reality is closer than most realize.  About one in five Filipinos may develop cancer before the age of 75. The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that neoplasms, which include various types of cancer, ranked as the country’s second leading cause of death. The toll is made heavier by late diagnosis, with many cases discovered only when the window for early intervention has passed.

This June, as the country observes National Cancer Survivor Day, AXA Philippines unveils the third short film of its Everyday Protectors campaign, one that reflects what many Filipino families quietly carry – the weight of serious illness, and the love that refuses to let it win.

AXA’s health film portrays the story of Lina, a mother whose world shifts on the same day it expands. As her daughter takes her first breath, Lina also receives a cancer diagnosis, turning the happiest moment of her life into one filled with fear and uncertainty. Yet despite the difficult road ahead, Lina finds strength in the moments she hopes to witness like first steps, birthdays, and the everyday memories that make parenthood meaningful.

The film reveals how Lina shows up for every milestone despite her illness, a quiet testament to what Filipino parents do every day: protect the people they love, no matter the cost to themselves. But Lina’s story also carries another truth which is that everyday protectors should not have to face their hardest battles alone. 

AXA Philippines, one of the largest and fastest-growing insurance companies in the country, understands that a serious illness is as much a financial challenge as it is a personal one. From preventive healthcare benefits to comprehensive critical illness coverage, AXA offers a wide range of health insurance plans so families get the care they need: Global Health Access (GHA) delivers access to worldwide premium medical services; Health Care Access provides comprehensive medical insurance with cashless access to doctors and hospitals nationwide; while AXA’s superior critical illness plan, Health Max Elite, provides the most extensive coverage that spans the full care journey, from pre-early to late stage protection, covering over 150 critical illnesses, including select mental health conditions and non-listed cases requiring ICU confinement and life-saving surgery.

By helping reduce the financial strain that too often forces families to choose between care and everything else, AXA gives everyday protectors the room they need to focus on healing and being present.

AXA’s Emma app, where you can easily access and manage your insurance policy anytime, anywhere, just got a refreshed look with enhanced features designed to take charge of your health with ease. From accessing mental wellness support through Mind You to filing reimbursements and tracking claims in real time, Emma by AXA helps you maximize your health benefits with greater convenience. Log in today and make the most of the tools designed to support your health and well-being every step of the way.

One name to cover all your insurance needs, discover how AXA can provide complete protection for health, car, travel, and SMEs here.

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