CARDIO!

Keeping with the theme of the week...

Use these cardio ideas to spice up your workout as you become your own personal trainer!!

1.  Take it outside -- (I just did this last night and had a blast) Using landmarks through a park or on the street, select random intervals of sprinting, running stairs, or a light jog to randomly take your cardio circuit through a different terrain (literally!) Hit the pavement with a friend or two and challenge one another.  Say, "at the next tree we're gonna sprint to the lamp post" then the next person can say "ooh, stop here and we're gonna run up and down these stairs three times in a row while increasing our speed."  Use the hills, landmarks, and pathways you find to chart your time, speed, and intensity. 

2.  Indoor circuits -- Set up a small area for use during your full series workout.  Get a bench or stair stepper and keep some additional space available.  Switch between 1 min of stair climbing, jumping jacks, and high knees.  Increase your speed against the previous minute.

3.  Dance it out!! -- Who doesn't love to dance??  During your cardio circuit while paired with your cardio, strength, balance, and reactive training, turn on some music and dance to one song.  Keep moving (jumping, sliding, changing levels, while working on new moves!) and when the song is over get back to your routine. 

Remember, a fun workout is a successful one!  Grab a friend, roll the dice and have a blast :)  

CORE!

Roll those dice and select from a few of these simple core stabilizing and strengthening exercises:

1.  Prone isometric-abs (Plank) --  Lie face down (prone) with feet together and draw abs in to activate the glutes (butt muscles) while lifting the body up off the ground.  Make sure to keep the body in a straight line from head to toe with weight on elbows and feet.  Keep those abdominals engaged! 

2.  Medicine ball rotation -- While holding a medicine ball (see below), stand with feet hips width apart and slightly bend the knees to support the back.  Twist the spine while rotating from side to side (facing right and left) without moving the pelvis.  You can also try this sitting on a mat in a seated crunch position or with your feet lifted off of the floor. 

3.  BOSU crunch -- While sitting on a BOSU ball (see below) or a physioball, place the small of the back on the ball with feet flat on the floor (like a traditional crunch position) with arms behind the head.  Using the abdominals ONLY raise the torso forward then lay back down on the ball without arching the spine.  **Be careful not to use the strength of the legs or momentum of the torso to complete this movement!! 

4.  Marching/single knee raise -- While laying on the back (supine) with two feet flat on the floor, engage the low abdominals (pull navel to spine) and lift one foot up off the floor to a 90 degree angle.  Hold for a few seconds then lower and repeat with the other leg. 

Whenever completing core based exercises it's essential to stabilize the spine and pelvis as you are doing each repetition.  Do not arch the spine, tuck the pelvis, or allow for excess movement in this region. 

See you tomorrow for another set of exercises! 



Be your own...

...personal trainer!!

Ever feel stuck in your typical patterns or bored by your own workout? Sometimes I find myself wishing someone would spontaneously tell me what to do and surprise my body with the unexpected. I often walk to the gym saying, "you're gonna run, you're gonna run" and then when I walk in I go do something totally different. It helps to keep me alert!!

If that doesn't work, try this:

Get a pair of dice and assign each number of one die to various exercise types (core, cardio, strength, balance, reactive, athlete's choice) and the other die will be assigned length (time in minutes, number of reps, etc) or intensity (lbs, resistance, speed, etc.) See if you can challenge your body to work outside of it's comfort zone. Roll each die, and see what to do. Complete that exercise and then roll again. A fun workout is twice as nice!

Stay tuned all week for exercise example types for each of these and get to rolling...

A snowy Saturday!

Get outside today and get fit while enjoying the winter white-- according to FitSugar, you can get a great workout and burn some serious calories: (base for 150lb man)

Building a snowman-- 285 cal/hr
Having a snowball fight-- 319 cal/hr
Making snow angels-- 214 cal/hr

Imagine the calorie burn for winter sports like skiing, ice skating or hockey....

So... bundle up, head outside, and get fit this winter!!

Getting my blog done.....

right under the wire!!  I'm managing to keep up with my blog this week with the help of a few major supports -- you know who you are ;)  I am so grateful to my personal relationships of friends, family, and colleagues, who help keep me on my toes..... sometimes, literally. 

Does keeping up with these relationships help you to keep up with your own life??

Sure does.

The Better Health Channel lists many factors that affect our "well being". Some include:

• Network of close friends
• Sense of purpose and meaning
• A sense of belonging
• Happy intimate relationships with a partner
• Sufficient sleep
• Nutritional diet
• Regular exercise

These in addition to practical things like having a stable career, enough money to live, and reaching achievable goals create a person's ability to maintain a positive "well being" and impact your overall level of HAPPINESS and LIFE SATISFACTION. 

These things seem pretty important to me and I'm sure they do to you too.  So, how can you develop your sense of well being? 

• Make regular time available for social contact
• Become involved in activities that interest you
• Try to be optimistic and enjoy each day
• Try to find work that you find enjoyable and rewarding, rather than just working for the best pay
• Join local organizations or clubs that appeal to you

I just started a weekly Italian class with a company called Fluent Brooklyn.  Each Thursday night I will join a crew of interested folks who are passionate about learning, and daring to try something new.  I left my class this evening feeling so JAZZED about my new "friends", the new information I learned, and my positive "try anything" attitude.  When I couldn't master the pronunciation immediately, I took a deep breath and with the help of these new "friends" (practically strangers!) I was able to achieve the goals of the class.  I can't wait to get back next week.

Think of challenging yourself in a new way: learn to knit, start a new language, meet someone new, walk a different route home from the train than you usually do..... and find an adventure and perhaps some happiness along the way!

And the winner is....

Raleigh, North Carolina -- the #1 most healthy city for women ranked by Women's Health.  Their team assessed 38 measures of health and well being: access to medical care, cancer rates, obesity rates and important lifestyle factors including nutrition, unemployment, happiness and fitness.  Cities like San Jose, CA; Burlington, VT; and Madison, WI were found to rank among the top ten.   

This ranking made me think about my choice to live in NYC (which did NOT make the top ten) and how things in my life like work stress, commuter stress, freelance employment stress (often things out of my control) mixed with the things I am in charge of like my nutrition and what I eat, my fitness level, the amount of sleep I get (ahh! this I need to work on!) and my personal relationships with friends and family, all link up  to create the overall picture of my well being.  And that mental health picture I was posting about yesterday -- all of these aspects are connected and one drastically impacts the other.

Living in a city that didn't make the top ten, or that may even be ranked unhealthy for women, shouldn't be an excuse for you to be unhealthy.  Think about the individual elements I listed above and think about how changing one can shift the entire picture. 

Today, I plan to work on my sleep schedule!  I will head to bed right after a little Law&Order ;) and hopefully this will be one change I can make no matter what city I happen to be living in! 

A little self help goes a long way...

It's performance week for me, and that means that in addition to the mental stress that comes along with being not only the choreographer but one of the performers, it means that my back pain from a long standing injury has resurfaced as it always does during these intense times of rehearsal.  I decided to hop into the bubble bath tonight to get a little R&R.    

A few dollops of some lavender and I was in heaven!  (I recommend the L'Occitane foaming bath!!)

This essential oil can help to:

• aid in relaxation while de-stressing to calm feelings of anxiety (aromatherapy use)
• relieve tension-headaches when scent is inhaled
• reduce joint and muscle pain when used in massage oils 

A warm bath will:

• increase circulation
• provide soothing comfort
• soften connective tissues (I could even stretch in my tiny NYC tub!)
• relax muscle tension

It's important to drink water as you might actually sweat in the bath! Similar to the effect of a hot tub, the high temperature may make you feel a slight headache to follow.... so keep hydrated!  Take some deep breaths and allow your mind to rest as your body meets the natural buoyancy of the water which helps to reduce pressure on joints. 

I try to relax in a bath about one a week (which can be challenging but worth it!) and perhaps you should thinking of adding this to your New Year's Resolution list... it'll be a beneficial one to keep as our mental health is just as important as our physical health. 

Rub-a-dub-dub!!