RSSSonja’s 6 Great Workouts, Pt. 2
January 16, 2010
This is the second installment in my review of intermediate workouts (Christine just yawned and went back to her tea). This once includes a stability ball workout by Keli Roberts, a toning workout by Kari Anderson, and a Moira Stott Pilates video.
Read moreSonja’s 6 Great Workouts, Pt. 1
January 12, 2010
I brought the gym to me and ordered some workout videos from CollageVideo. Now, unlike Christine, I do not like videos that have the words “attack” , “combat”, or “killer” in them. My choices are all intermediate and more gentle. I have reviewed them here so you can see what you think.
Read moreHow To Build Exercise Into A Holiday
November 7, 2008
Workouts are not put on hold when you’re on vacation.
Easier said than done. You’ve got lots of time but it’s busy time, visiting, shopping. I can’t get exercising done mid-day because by then the day is planned and I’m dressed and don’t want to get all sweaty again. Evenings are always overbooked with friends and dinners and relaxing conversation.
Create a time slot
You just have to wake up early. You just have to. I had to learn to do this year round, in a last ditch attempt to find an hour alone each day.
It’s easier on vacation. You don’t have to rush anywhere after. It doesn’t matter if you’re a little tired during the day. It’s an hour for you alone. Getting from horizontal to vertical can be tricky if it’s been a late night, but then it’s all about you. Part of the restorative power of a holiday is more solitary time to reflect. This is a glorious time to get that done too.
Start small
Don’t start by getting up early AND working out. That’s too many steps all at once. Just have a cup of tea and look at the ocean, or outside at the snow. Give yourself a pedicure. Make this time consciously and peacefully about building YOU. Every 5 minutes, think “This is MY time.”
Come week 2, your body has learned to wake up and feels a little sharper. Exercise is how you’re going to survive the year’s fattest month, but you have to start getting up earlier NOW. Come December, even if you can manage 3 times a week, your clothes won’t be any tighter by New Year.
Build strength safely
You don’t have to do complicated exercise programs. Go for a walk. Take a piece of elastic tubing.
Elastic tubing, or so-called Resistance Bands, are one of my favorite pieces of exercise equipment. Your muscles adapt to the same moves on the same machines, or with the same weights, so progress becomes very slow if not stuck. This is a terrific equipment search page at CollageVideo because it shows you the many forms that elastic tubing can take, as well as the videos that utilize each type of elastic.
To build beautiful definition and a powerful frame, learning new movements and/or varying the equipment is the answer. The same move feels surprisingly different done with elastic if you’re used to weight.
And, listen. As we get older, working strength is unbelievably important. I try to do as much Strength as Cardio. It gives you physical and mental resilience against the onslaught of aging. Forget feeble. Aim to be stronger every year.
8 Great aspects of elastics
1. It is much harder to hurt yourself because you are limited by your own power or lack thereof. There is no momentum involved, so the weight won’t swing out of control. This one is most important for me because I have a tendency to overdo just about everything.
Figure 8 band, bow and arrow.
2. Tubing works both sides equally. I have to focus hard on this to prevent my strong side from taking over. What happens next is the weak side gives in, and we’re back to #1, where injury occurs.
Figure 8 band, side leg lift.
3. You can take it on walks. Walking on vacation is the absolute best. You can feel like you’re on top of the world, like a model in a Nike ad. With tubing, a walk can become a circuit training workout, with strength and upper body moves added in even while you’re walking, so you have some core and multi-joint work as a bonus. Wrap the tubes around your waist when you’re not using them.
15lb band with handles, front arm raise.
4. Pack it anywhere. They’re light and flat and take up no space. When I travel, I take a few exercise videos and my tubing. If it rains or I don’t want to go outside, I can still do a little workout and feel great.
15lb band with handles, kickbacks.
5. They’re cheap!! And available in many levels of resistance. 5 lbs of resistance is a starting point. 15 lbs of resistance is difficult for me.
15lb band with handles, biceps curls.
6. You can work every muscle if you use your imagination.
Biceps curls standing on the band.
7. They are a brilliant addition to your strengthening arsenal. Elastic tubes are a highly effective to tighten, tone, and build strength.
Pushups, planks, leg to the side, band on the foot and under the hand.
8. Using a tube is a nice way to stretch. Somehow my muscles relax better than when I’m using my own force or gravity.
Front shoulder press.
The challenge at the beginning is learning how to use these elastic bands. Some are flat and wide, others are tubular with handles on the end. I recommend you have both because they work the muscles differently. Also, those with handles can be looped around your feet or around a weighted body bar, increasing the movement variety.
Rowing, elbows up or down at your sides, or both.
Begin by purchasing a few DVDs using tubing or bands to see the various ways that fitness professionals use them. If you search elastic tubing, and resistance band at Collage Video, you will have 75 to choose from. This is worth doing to get some safety guidelines. I’m not a fitness instructor. The moves I’ve shown here are some of the ones I’ve learned from videos to work a variety of muscles but you still have to be sensible. Assess your own fitness level. Learn how to protect your back and stabilize your shoulders and pelvis (Pilates is great for this) before you add external resistance.
On the Collage site, you’ll see how each video makes use of time, how others have reviewed it, and the difficulty level. There is also the all-important 1 minute video clip of anything you are considering buying.
Your workout’s done. Have a spectacular day.
Workouts are not put on hold when you’re on vacation.
Easier said than done. You’ve got lots of time but it’s busy time, visiting, shopping. I can’t get exercising done mid-day because by then the day is planned and I’m dressed and don’t want to get all sweaty again. Evenings are always overbooked with friends and dinners and relaxing conversation.
Get up early. Go for a walk. Take a piece of elastic tubing. Feel like a goddess.
Hold Your Ground
September 27, 2008
Exercise is a great metaphor for life. How you look is the minor payoff. The grand prize is its effect on how you think.
The mind-over-body challenge provides an ongoing simulation of asserting an intention and meeting the challenge at every workout. You have to dominate the demon that would keep you sitting on the couch. Get used to conquering demons and pretty soon, they start looking puny. Face down an obstacle every day and overcoming obstacles becomes familiar territory.
The expression “Hold Your Ground” has real meaning in movement, as well as being an analogy for strength and determination.
Literally, pull the ground
It means to grip the ground beneath your feet. Grip the ground when you move, like the tread on a bulldozer, and pull yourself along it. The ground you stand on? You own it.
I bought an elliptical machine at Canadian Tire. It was $299, on sale for 119 ( yes, 119, not 199!). Seemed like a good deal, with just-warmer-than-lukewarm reviews on the CT site. I agree with the reviewers who said the stride is short. But that’s not a bad thing. This feels more like running than stair-climbing or elliptical work. My body deeply dislikes running, and my knees abhor it. This is a great way to get the huge toning and calorie burn of running without the pain. 85% of the reviewers agreed that it was worth it for the price and I concur. Watch your CT flyers, women!
If you kickbox, picture being hard to tip over and impossible to lift up. It means you have to consciously set and harden your pelvic muscles. You can’t solidify your entire body from your legs alone. It has to come from deep in your middle.
If you remember the article Where Strength Begins : Hold Your Body Together, you’ll have seen the analogy of the cross hairs of a rifle in your pelvis (spine Y axis, Earth and Water line X axis). Tighten along the crosshairs and hold the whole thing together. Don’t let it rock unless you’re in control of it.
Take a few Pilates classes. Learn how all movement begins and is empowered from your pelvis. Once you get how to do this, your limbs work smarter, not harder, because the power is coming from your core. Your limbs are then free to move with more grace and yet, more force. A powerful, rock-solid center is the origin for everything you do – in your head as well as your body. Imagine yourself hard to displace.
Here are a couple of brilliant ones with excellent instruction. Both are linked to their page at Collage Video.
Play with your feet
When only one foot meets the floor, feel the ground connecting with the entire surface of a strong, relaxed, and conscious foot. Feel your foot spread out and give your weight to it. Think about a secure, broad, comfortable foot. Have you ever really thought about how your feet connect to the ground? It’s a very calming thing to do and great for balance.
Anytime you leave the ground, land like Catwoman. We all remember the old record players in our parents’ living rooms, right? When you land, don’t let the needle skip. To do that, you have to tighten your pelvic and leg muscles before you land. Land softly, soundlessly, but securely. Much easier on the joints too.
Figuratively
Visualize these sensations as determination and resolve to get what you want. Whatever gets in the way better move because you don’t intend to. Be as steady metaphorically as you are literally.
Know the calm place in your mind that allows your body to find balance. Practice clearing your mind to make yourself secure. The inner calm that leads to mental stability will also be found faster each time you search for it. That sensation is stored in the same place in your head, whether the situation is mental or physical.
Visualize your foundation deeply rooted in the earth. I lose this when I wear heels. I feel wavering and erratic in my movements and how I think others see me. Though they can look nice if you’re standing or sitting, I seldom wear them. I expect it comes with practice but unless the shoe has a solid heel and comfortable toe, well…too often, the walk looks pinched and wobbly, not empowered. It sends the wrong message.
On the front page of the Allure magazine site, there’s a poll asking whether you feel more powerful in heels. 85% of women do! That’s interesting because they don’t look it.
Develop a strong core. Once the center is empowered, whether in movement or life, the actions that follow can be stronger, tougher, and more intense.
Gains, mental and physical, are guaranteed.
--> Exercise is a great metaphor for life. How you look is the minor payoff. The grand prize is its effect on how you think.
Hold your ground means to grip the ground beneath your feet. Grip the ground when you move, like the tread on a bulldozer, and pull yourself along it. The ground you stand on? You own it. The determination you need to get what you want? You own that too.
Bike Sprints And Ab Intervals
June 30, 2008
The purest thinking can come while exercising on a machine, because it clears out your mind of everything but that one movement that is being repeated. The doorway for more creative ideas opens in the absence of complex choreography.
The problem is that I get bored. Very bored. I start focusing on how bored I am, followed quickly by how exhausted I am. That happens within the first 10 minutes so I have to find ways to keep going.
WOMAN + STRENGTH = GORGEOUS : 4 TOUGH STEP CIRCUIT WORKOUTS
May 27, 2008
Circuit means that cardio and strength segments keep alternating, a few minutes of one alternating with a few minutes of the other. This is my favorite type of exercise because the cardio gets done and I get strength with lots of variety. The time never passes faster than with circuits.
Read more6 KICKBOX WORKOUTS : FIGHT WITH YOUR LEGS
February 29, 2008
This is the follow up to the article Kickboxing : Strengthen Your Attitude, published on February 14, 2008. In that post, I explained why I love this type of exercise, which goes far beyond just burning calories. Here, I’ll show you a few favorites.
Kickboxing is an express ticket to great physical and mental potency. “Potency” [...]
ANTI-AGING STRATEGY 2 : DAY OF MENTAL PURIFICATION
February 10, 2008
Day of Purification sounds somewhat fanatical. The title could equally well be Day Of Clearing-Out-Your-Head. Really, these are just updates from my life. I’m having a mental health day today to celebrate being alone in my home. That probably hasn’t happened since 2002.
1. The day began with a truly challenging workout. Mindy Mylrea [...]
12 REBEL WAYS TO BE THE SAME SIZE ON JANUARY 1
December 9, 2007
To avoid digging in the closet for your fat (and then, fatter) pants, decide to be a ground-breaker. Revolutionize certain traditions, in the name of not changing sizes twice in December. Shatter a few sensibilities.
Quality time with friends
12 ways to show everyone your younger side:
1. Become known for bringing the vegetable platter. Get famous for [...]
PRODUCT REVIEW : YOGA DANCE FUSION
December 7, 2007
A beautiful uplifting program
Here is one of the most inspired, inspiring workouts I have seen. If you want to get your head into a peaceful and powerful place, I guarantee that this program will get you there. You will not remember feeling so good about yourself or anything else for a long time.
Look for [...]
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