Sassy Sexy Shapely

  I recently bought P90X, trainer Tony Horton’s set of extreme workouts.  I’d been thinking about it for over a year now and finally broke down and got it.  I also invested in the optional pull-up bar, which my wonderful BF assembled and installed for me this past weekend.  In case you’re wondering, it easily fits in any doorway and is removable.

I’m holding off on beginning the full-fledged program.  I have some stuff coming up in the next month or so that will keep me from doing it consistently.  I plan to begin the program in September.  In the meantime, though, I’ve tried the CardioX workout and will sample the other ones soon. I’ve also been doing a couple of pull-ups a day, just to get started.  Although my arms are getting stronger, my upper body has never been a powerhouse.  I can do one decent underhanded pull-up and manage a little bit of lift on the other styles, but that’s about it.  Still, the fact that I even have a pull-up bar in my place is pretty extraordinary, considering the non-athletic person I used to be.

In addition to the standard pull-ups, I’ve done a few leg exercises, too.  Every little bit helps, and every time you change up the way you use your muscles, it’s good.

 It has been an exciting week of firsts!  Earlier in the week, I had my first gourmet raw meal at a raw only restaurant.  The other night, I attended my first Muay Thai class.  Bonus: the class was FREE!  Hooray!!

“Muay Thai—or Thai Boxing—was born on the battlefields of the 15th century, during the legendary clashes between Thai (or Siamese) armies and their bitter rivals, the Burmese. Trained in the weapons-based fighting method known as Krabi Krabong, these early Thai soldiers also became famous for their toughness in close-quarters weaponless combat, where legs, knees, elbows and hands took the place of swords and sticks. This type of weaponless fighting became Muay Thai, known as the ‘Science of Eight Limbs.’ ”

I was introduced to Muay Thai in an article in a fitness magazine over a year ago and was delighted to discover that my city had a studio that offered a free introductory class.  It took me way too long to get around to taking the class, but I finally did.  It TOTALLY rocked!  It was a fantastic workout, tough but oddly energizing at the same time.  What made it even more fun was that my BF’s brother’s new GF took the class with me, and my BF’s brother stopped by, managing to take the ”action shot” accompanying this post.  There’s proof!

After we removed our shoes and socks, we started the kickboxing workout by lining up in the gym, facing our instructor, who bowed to us.  We bowed back, and then we warmed up by skipping rope.  Yikes!  It was *intense* from the get-go.  Next, we partnered up, two on a punching bag, and alternated punching and kicking combinations.  One of the routines was a front kick/3 punch combo… then a repeating roundhouse kick with one leg… then alternating punches where the left punch would increase from one punch to 5 punches and count down again. It was different every time, which I imagine would keep the training from getting stale.  Plus, because we switched off with our partners, it was intervals at their finest!  We ended the class with 50 squats, 45 seconds of mountain climbers, 45 seconds of up-and-downs, 45 seconds of modified V crunches, and finally two sets of 10 leg lifts.  Cool-down consisted of a few standard stretches.

The up-and-downs were the hardest for me.  That’s where you repeatedly go from a push-up position to a plank position on your elbows and back again.  The instructor said I could do it with my knees bent, but I refused.  I do 20 straight-leg push-ups consecutively; no way I’m doing the “girl” version now!  It was challenging, though, partly because of balancing as a I moved between positions.  Eventually my ab muscles started to complain, but I kept at it for the entire 45 seconds!

This class was a huge morale booster, not only due to the endorphin rush.  Even having done my daily workout of 15 sets of stairs, 1st thru 4th, I still had plenty of energy and stamina to get through a high intensity class.  I am in good shape!  I focus on my flaws so much that I often don’t realize how far I’ve come.  Testing myself physically in a whole new way not only reinvigorates me; it gives me a tangible demonstration of my conditioning… and it’s not half bad.  Woohoo!!  I am so happy that my hard work is paying off!  J

I am a firm believer in working out at work. We spend so much time on the job that, to me, it just makes sense to maximize the hours by building exercise into our work days.

I’ve devised a stair climbing workout that includes:

• Walking briskly up the stairs
• Jogging up the stairs
• Taking the stairs two at a time
• Walking sideways up the stairs
• Coming down with legs wide (for inner thighs)
• Coming down in a serpentine fashion (back and forth)
• Decline push-ups one or two steps up
• Triceps dips on the bottom step

I “do my stairs” four to five days a week and supplement with strength training using 8-pound or 10-pound weights at home.

Sharron Davies, the former Olympic swimmer and one of the UK’s leading female athletes, is also a proponent of office fitness. She has published a fantastic five-part series of desk exercises on the Times Online.

• Part One - posture, neck and shoulder flexibility
• Part Two - tricep squeezes, sitting back arches and ankle side bends
• Part Three - quad flexes, calf stretches and ankle rotations
• Part Four - wrist rotations, triceps lift and side raises
• Part Five - simple dips, seat raises and bicep curls

To register for Sharron’s monthly “at your desk” toning exercises, go to Leitz Office Games.  I signed up, and I’m looking forward to getting the first newsletter.  You can never learn too many ways to stay in shape.

Keeping your feet on the ground goes beyond being realistic about your life’s goals. It can also help you to significantly reduce your risk of heart disease… if you’re using those feet to walk across the ground. J

Wednesday, April 16th, is National Start! Walking Day, a day created by the American Heart Association to encourage Americans to get more activity.  Why walking?

Walking has the lowest dropout rate of any physical activity, and is the simplest positive change individuals can make to effectively improve their heart health. Research has shown that the benefits of walking and moderate physical activity for at least 30 minutes total on most or every day of the week can help you:

Reduce the risk of coronary heart disease

Improve blood pressure and blood sugar levels

Improve blood lipid profile

Maintain body weight and lower the risk of obesity

Enhance mental well-being

Reduce the risk of osteoporosis

Reduce the risk of breast and colon cancer

Reduce the risk of non-insulin dependent (type 2) diabetes

According to the website, “…for every hour of regular, vigorous exercise we do … we can live two hours longer”. Wow! That’s impressive.

Personally, I won’t walk to work on the 16th; it’s just too far. I may go for a walk during the day, but it’s not a high priority for me since I already get regular brisk exercise by doing my stairs every day along with weight training twice a week.

I think it’s great, though, that the American Heart Association is promoting walking by developing such a comprehensive program that companies can use to motivate their staffs. Exercise is so important to our physical and mental health, and everyone should be encouraged and supported to do it regularly.

Today I did my 15 sets of stairs, first thru fourth, two at a time and finished my workout with three sets of 10 each decline push-ups.  I positioned my feet two steps up and muscled my way through to the sound of Sweet’s “Fox on the Run” on my iPod.  By the time I finished that third set, I was beat.  I’ve been doing between 16 and 20 of straight-leg push-ups three to four times a week, but the decline ones are tougher.  It felt great when I was done, though.  I was energized and still able to do another quick six with my BF when I got home.  We’ve been doing five or six together a couple of times a week, breaking him into it slowly.  We’ve also brought his glider over to my place so we can work out together.  It’s cool!

My new mantra is “Don’t recline: Decline!”

For a while last year, I was drinking 5 cups of green tea a day. I started doing it when the calorie-burning green-tea soft drink Enviga first came out. Drinking green tea in quantity has been proven to boost weight loss, and I figured it couldn’t hurt to try it, especially because I like tea anyway and normally drink a lot of it. I didn’t want to spend outrageous sums on those little cans, though, so I decided to go the cheaper route of slurping down several tea bags’ worth of the celery-colored liquid on a daily basis.

I haven’t been quite as consistent in my green-tea consumption lately, not since starting my new job. I still drink several cups of tea every day, but more often than not, it’s black tea. A recent posting on Yahoo!’s food blog has prompted to resume my green-tea habit.

Green tea achieves superfood status because of its polyphenols. Here’s a short list of the body benefits of this extraordinary beverage:

1. Cut your cancer risk
2. Soothe your skin
3. Protect your skin
4. Steady your blood pressure
5. Protect your memory
6. Stay young
7. Lose weight

Despite its benefits, green tea can be an acquired taste. At first I didn’t like the flavor; it wasn’t robust enough and had a grassy aftertaste. I’ve now developed an appreciation for it, but Maggie Nemser, a health blogger at Shine.com, hasn’t quite gotten there yet. She’s looking for ways to jazz it up with milk or sweeteners. She needs to stick with soy milk or another non-dairy option. According to Wikipedia’s write-up on green tea, “…adding milk to tea will block the normal, healthful effects that tea has…”. Apparently, “casein from the milk binds to the molecules in tea that cause the arteries to relax… Plant-based ‘milks’, such as soy milk, do not contain casein and are not known to have similar effects on tea.” I recommend unsweetened vanilla almond milk. At only 40 calories per cup with a gram of fiber, it’s a yummy alternative, unless you have nut allergies.

Starting this week, I am drinking more green tea, and I’ll be carrying it in my bag for business lunches and road trips. It’s just one more way to keep myself healthy now and in the future.

Has Merck finally invented the magic weight loss pill? At the outset, it seems promising.

“Merck & Co. said on Monday that patients on its experimental obesity drug lost more than twice as much weight as those on a placebo in a late-stage clinical study.”

Over a 52-week period, patients taking the drug taranabant lost an average of 8.8 more than those taking a placebo: 14.5 pounds vs. 5.7. Sounds great, doesn’t it? I would be delighted to lose another 14 pounds over the next year. It’d put me exactly where I should be in terms of my weight and BMI, and it would mean I wouldn’t have to work any harder than I have been. Maybe I could even slack off a bit.

That is if I didn’t mind the possibility of increased rates of depression, anxiety, and irritability. Those psychiatric side effects occurred at the higher 4-milligram and 6-milligram doses; they supposedly weren’t an issue at the lower 2-milligram dose.

Regardless, I wouldn’t want to take the risk. Time and time again, we’ve seen that these purported miracle drugs harm us much more than they help us. It’s just not worth having my physical or mental health compromised to lose a few more pounds. I would rather be a bit heavier than become a down-at-the-mouth, nervous Nellie wearing a smaller pants size.

No drugs for me… no matter how revolutionary they claim to be. I’m sticking with the tried-and-true recipe for weight loss success: fewer calories and more exercise. There’s no downside with that plan!

Warmer, more pleasant weather is chasing the winter doldrums away, and the time is ripe for exercising outdoors. 

Build your own invigorating back-to-nature workout by combining these elements according to your time and energy constraints, or follow the detailed plan at MSNBC’s FitList. 

• Warm up
• Jack squats
• Push-up combo
• Jumping jacks or jump rope
• Walking lunges
• Planks
• Mountain climbers
• Standing side crunches
• Jogging, running, jumping jacks or jump rope
• Sitting V-crunches
• One-leg squats with forward reach
• Power walking, jogging, running, jumping jacks or jump rope
• Cool down

Yesterday, before our Easter motorcycle ride, I made a point of getting in my last set of 20 push-ups for the week.  It was exciting that, for the second week in a row, I did five days of cardio, two days of strength training and, yes, four days of 20 push-ups a day.  Woohoo!

Still, doing them yesterday was a drag.  By I time I finished the 20th one in a row, I was grumbling about hating push-ups.  My BF heard me and was cross that I had done them without him.  He wanted to do them with me!  So we did.  We stopped, dropped and did five push-ups together.  It was beyond cool!  My BF not only did push-ups twice this week, but he made sure we did some together.  I was delighted, and I look forward to doing more of them together now that he’s home for a little while.

We all know we should include different forms of exercise in our fitness plans. Did you also know that you should breathe differently depending on the activity you’re doing? I had no idea that breathing was so important… or that it was so specific to the kind of physical exertion I was undertaking.

In The Ins and Outs of Breathing During Exercise, author Jay Blahnik describes the benefits of proper breathing.

• It makes cardiovascular training more efficient.
• It helps with power and stability during strength and endurance training.
• It fosters relaxation during mind/body and flexibility training.

Blahnik goes on to relate the appropriate breathing techniques for Cardio, Strength and Flexibility workouts.

“Cardio Training — The most important thing is to avoid shallow breathing during cardio training whenever possible. Shallow breathing is an indicator that you are either working too hard or have not established a good breathing pattern for the activity you are doing. Try taking stronger, deeper breaths during cardio training (without any feeling of holding your breath), and establish an inhale/exhale pattern that feels comfortable for you.”

“Strength/Endurance Training — When doing strength or resistance training, such as weight lifting, you should generally exhale on the exertion (or most difficult part of the exercise) and inhale on the recovery (easiest part of the exercise).  For example, when doing a crunch, you should exhale when you lift your shoulders off the ground, and inhale when you lower your shoulders to the ground.”

“Relaxation — When doing mind/body, stress reduction or flexibility training, such as yoga, tai chi and qigong, you should generally focus on deeper, diaphragmatic breathing that will not only help you execute the moves more deliberately, but will also help you relax and focus on the exercises while reducing stress.”

Breathing… just one more way to get the most of your workout!