Archive for August, 2009

Injuries = Not Good Times

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

Nothing much to report from my trip to Tennessee last week – I was exhausted the day after flying/driving, so I didn’t get to check out the Sports Barn in Chattanooga – next time!  I’m heading to Miami over Labor Day weekend to visit my friend Kim (who moved down there to open/run the new Exhale in Miami).  I’m excited about checking out the SCLA in Miami while I’m there, and any other fun gyms/classes I can find  :)

A lot of people ask me how I work out so much without getting seriously injured.  While not immune to injuries (I’ve had minor problems with knees, hip flexors, IT bands and my back in the not so distant past), I think one of the most important things I’ve learned is “if it doesn’t feel good, don’t do it”.  That, and “don’t throw your body around” – if you move slowly and with purpose, you’re more likely to stop a movement before you go too far and get hurt.  I am a believer in modifying movement to fit your body and any lingering issues you may be dealing with.

I’m definitely in the camp that hates taking time off from the gym – I’d rather exercise comfortably at a lower intensity if I’m nursing an injury than not do anything.  I think that is actually one of the reasons I haven’t (knock on wood) suffered from a completely debilitating injury – I’ve conditioned my muscles to be able to work through trouble and heal.  Important to note that I’m talking about relatively minor issues here – no broken bones, tears, sprains – those are injuries that you can’t recover from without rest/taking time off.

Recently, I’ve been dealing with a very tight right hamstring.  The left hamstring has always been noticeably more flexible (in things like the splits, single leg stretching and forward folds) – but the right one was never painful, until about a month ago.  So I’ve had to modify quite a bit of my routine recently – adding in a lot more stretching before/after working out (with the foam roller and myofascial release rolling pin), less Expresso bike (which isn’t that unfortunate, since they’ve sadly been offline for the last 2 weeks and nobody at SCLA seems to know how to get them connected to the internet again – so no tracking workouts or using the Premium routes I’m paying $9.99/month for), no more EasyTone shoes (I walk so much where I think my hamstrings were being over-activated) and not giving into my ego in certain yoga postures (I really miss being able to do sundial pose on the right side)

Photo credit - Barry Stone, About.com

Photo credit - Barry Stone, About.com

I also had a great deep tissue massage (from my friend Guerda Victor at Exhale Spa – she is AMAZING – and I am not typically a fan of female massage therapists because I prefer stronger/man hands and a lot of pressure).  That and all the stretching have been helping, but I’m still not 100%.  I’m still fully functional and it’s definitely getting better, but it’s a slow recovery.  I figure it’s good for me to work on being patient though (it’s never been one of my strong suits).

Posted in General | No Comments »

The Expresso Bike

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

I’m really not good at keeping quiet about things I like – which can be a problem when you like something that not a lot of people know about.  After all, who hasn’t experienced frustration when something you’ve liked forever explodes in popularity and then all of a sudden you don’t have as much access to it?

Even knowing that, I still can’t keep quiet about my new favorite machine at the gym – the Expresso bike.  The SCLA has 2 of these, sitting quietly next to the spin bikes by the stairs to the cardio loft.  At peak times in the gym, when every elliptical machine is taken, somehow these bikes remain unused.  Inexplicable.  For anyone who has ever wanted an indoor bike that perfectly simulates an outdoor ride (including steering!!!), you need to find a gym that has one of these ASAP (which you can conveniently do here).

I have never sweat more in my life than I do on this piece of eqiupment – you are working. . .the hills feel like you’re riding up a hill outside, and you can shift gears using the buttons on the handlebars.  My heart rate usually stays between 80-90% of my “max” during my workout.  I think my favorite feature about these is the ability to track your workouts at Expresso.net - all you have to do is sign up for a free account (or you can pay $9.95/month for “Silver” membership – which unlocks additional routes not available to the general populace and keeps track of all your best times compared to other people).  Expresso.net also has messageboards with member tips, comments and fastest times. 

If you complete a course and then choose to ride that same course again, the system will have a “ghost” rider of your previous best time on that course, so you know how to pace to keep up with yourself.  Each course also has a “pacer” – a biker in a yellow jersey who can goad more competitive riders into going faster.  My second favorite feature is the ability to race your friends – if you sit down at the bike at the same time as a friend and choose the same course, you can see each other and “race” – who can finish faster?  The one time I have raced a friend, I got the workout of my life and my best time ever on one of my favorite courses, “Wicked Workout”.

Which brings us to my favorite courses - two of them are the black diamond courses – Wicked Workout and Oh Mama (both take around 30 minutes to complete).  The “Extreme” courses I like best are Vindicator (took me about 45 minutes) and Savage Revenge (75 minutes and my legs were shaking when I got off the bike).  I am more a fan of biking hilly courses with high resistance and lower (but not standstill) RPM’s.  When you are choosing a course, it will show you the mileage and the layout – so you can choose hillier courses, or flatter ones if that’s what you prefer.

Now, the seat on this bike is not the most comfortable – which is why I couldn’t be on it for more than 20 minutes when I first started using it.  Maybe that’s why it’s not more popular.  But if you are looking for a cardio workout on a machine that is also fun while getting your heart rate up, this is the best piece of equipment in the gym.  I’ll race you there! 

Tags:
Posted in Cardio | No Comments »

Random Musings

Sunday, August 9th, 2009

Interesting week this past week, as my favorite teacher was away for most of it. I actually had to (gasp!) branch out and take classes from new instructors. I find that most of the teachers at SCLA are very good – and I can appreciate that it has to be really hard to step in for an extremely popular teacher – but I don’t get why some of them feel the need to force energy in a class.

I went to a class I sometimes attend that had a sub this week – very nice girl – but I should’ve known when she announced at least three times before class that she was “not Teacher X and we should all feel free to leave if that’s what we were expecting – she wouldn’t be offended” that it probably wasn’t going to be the best experience. I don’t mind teachers that try to talk/engage with the class – I usually am pretty vocal back because I feel bad when nobody answers and I can’t imagine being up in front of 30 people and feeling ignored. However, this girl would not shut up. I’m not kidding. Whether it was asking “is everybody ready” before a drill, not being satisfied with the 3-4 people who answered, and asking again (this happened at least 3 different times in the class) – or assigning “row captains” to cheer and motivate (???!!!) other riders – I almost felt like I was back in kindergarten. The thing is – the class was actually a really good workout – but she was so annoying that for the last 10 minutes I tuned her out and did my own thing (a friend of mine thought the same thing and left early).

What I also found weird was that 45 minutes into class, she said “just want to let everyone know, it’s 6:30 – so feel free to leave if there are other classes you want to go to”. Who does that?!!! I have to think this is a self confidence issue – which hopefully she gets over because she has the potential to be a solid teacher if she would just stop trying to force her brand of energy/interaction onto people. And no, I’m not naming names. My philosophy has always been that if I don’t like a class, I don’t need to complain to anyone – nobody’s forcing me to go to it and there are plenty of other classes I can take.

In other news – took an AMAZING spin class on Wednesday at lunch at SCLA with Kelly C – who IMO is one of the best spinning instructors in the city – and whose class I wish I could go to more often. She also teaches at Equinox. Great music, great energy and a workout so intense that I had to wring out my top halfway through the class because I was sweating so much.

I also went to Life in Synergy on Friday night for “Bollywood Dance Party” – again, LiS delivers a fabulously fun event on a Friday night (they did this a few weeks ago with “Thriller”). We learned the dance to Jai-Ho this Friday – which actually has much simpler choreography than Thriller (a lot of the Jai-Ho stuff repeats itself). I think they’re planning more of these Friday night dance party type events – definitely worth attending (with or without pre-gaming at Vinny T’s downstairs) if you’re looking for a fun class. LiS has no memberships – strictly pay per class ($15 for 1, or you can buy a 10-pack for $120) – and an amazing schedule.  Their two Zumba teachers (Lauren and Katie, both of whom led Friday’s event) are really good.  Eventually I am going to make it to that Cheer Fit class that I’ve been dying to try (taught by a former Patriots cheerleader)!

(Broken record alert!)  My primary yoga teacher, Marc McDonald, opened up his new studio Om Warrior this week.  SUCH an amazing space.  Marc is one of the best teachers in the city – if you’ve never taken his class you should head over to 133 Pearl Street sooner rather than later – the space has a very zen and comfortable feel to it.  I took 6 classes there this week and haven’t had that much fun doing yoga in a long time.

This week will involve squeezing classes in when I can with the Sox back at home (going Tuesday and Wednesday nights – so gotta rearrange the gym sched).  At the end of next week, I’ll be visiting the Reebok HQ to be a guinea pig for a new class they’re developing – which I likely won’t be able to talk about (assuming I’ll have to sign an NDA).  I live for doing stuff like that though – always fun to give honest feedback about fitness.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Cardio, General, Mind Body | 1 Comment »