I attended rounds last week which discussed Exercise related Emergencies. The rounds were very well done and they re-sparked my love for my favorite workout couple.
I've been spending a lot of time in front of the computer working on a variety of projects and well...it's turned into me spending most of my time watching old PARTICIPACTION videos and very little time doing actual work. Let me show you why! I have to hand it to Hal and Joanne. They truly know how to get their workout everyday, even while doing simple activities such as: Shopping: - STOP that online shopping and get to that grocery store:
Traveling:
On the flight/train ride/car ride:
"Don't worry, no one will notice."
And lastly - just in case you develop any injury from your exercising:
I hope you can all share the same enjoyment I have for these videos.
I’m sick, the simple cold sick, but enough to prevent
me from going to my favourite aerobics class back home. It's just a runny nose
and a little dry cough, but it’s enough to make me out of breath even after 3
high kicks. So what have I been doing? Well other surfing the interwebs for
wonderful new workout clothes and music? A lot of stretching, foam rolling and
drinking juice. It’s quite lovely actually.
Some less cardiovascular challenging activities I have been
doing are: walking (fall is the perfect season for the breeze and a great
opportunity to see fall fashions (which again leads me to my online shopping
interests), yoga videos at home (this
way I can keep my coughing to myself and take a break when I need to) and
stretching with straps.
Research dating back to the late 1990s shows that taking a
break from repetitive strain and stress of exercise on the body is beneficial
to the body to allow it to adapt and become stronger. So despite being sick and
going through a box of tissue a day, I’ll consider this wee little cold a
blessing and I hope I’ll look forward to aerobics next week stronger than last
week! That's right - I'm a SURVIVOR.
Hello my high kicking friends. As we head into colder temperatures our workout goals may also including BRINGING THE HEAT in addition to staying fit and having fun. I thought I would re-post one of my favourite posts and the inspiration for this blog. Happy High Kicking! The HIGH kick is FOR YOU. Not for anyone else.
Those of you who know me - or have every come to aerobics with me, or HECK - even spent more than 2 hours with me know I LOVE the HIGH KICK. It is quite possibly my favorite body movement in life. Let me explain the High Kick before I go into great detail about why I LOVE it so much.
Basic High Kick
Throughout the High Kick series remember to breathe and enjoy yourself - it always helps to SMILE.
1) Start with both feet together and your hands on your hips.
2) Ensure strong posture by tightening your core, chin up, shoulders down and back.
3) Before you HIGH KICK it is important to understand that you must acknowledge your limits. You kick to your limits - not to the level of the lady, man or child next to you. The High Kick is FOR YOU - not for anyone else.
With one SMOOTH and SWIFT motion you kick your right leg up but KEEP your left leg stable, strong and supportive until you reach YOUR LIMIT.
4) Gently place your right foot back in place with your left.
5) Repeat on the left side.
If you are injured or cannot do the high kick for health or mobility reasons HAVE NO FEAR!!!
You can still get the benefits by choosing a part of your body you do want to fling in a CONTROLLED manner and give that a try. Perhaps your arm? Forearm? Finger?
How good do you feel?
I love the high kick for a variety of reasons. Here are are the top 5:
1) I always feel alive when I High Kick - if I can kick that high I must be living right?
2) The feeling of being able to High Kick higher than previous times is a feeling of accomplishment.
3) High Kicking in a room of strangers at aerobics gives me a feeling of unity achievable in no other manner.
4) Health Benefits of High Kicks: Flexibility in your Hamstrings, Strength in only your core but also your entire lower body. Win -Win!
5) High Kicks can cause for hilarious events (falls) to occur and as long as everyone is okay at the end it can make for some funny stories and laughs.
I invite you to try some high kicks to this fabulous workout tune:
Since my post last week I have been fortunate enough to receive sweaty selfies from lots of my friends. Friends upside down, friends doing a wall sit, friends doing a bicep curl. I LOVE IT. Not only did it motivate me to sweat even harder so that I could reply with an EXTRA SWEATY selfie it allowed me to reconnect with some friends I haven't heard from in a while. I continue to send aggressive eye pictures to Rebecca and my dear friend Emma has joined in on the fun workouts and although we don't do them together, we keep each other accountable after each workout (sorry for the yelling Emma). I encourage you all to take selfies next time you workout and send it to someone you haven't been in touch with for a while. Maybe it will encourage them to work out and it will put you back in touch. Here are some tips on taking the PERFECT workout selfie:
1) BE SAFE. GOOD for you - you ran on the run/bike path for X kilometres, but BEFORE you snap that sweaty picture look both ways. NO ONE wants to end up in the ER because of a collision with a bike, rollerblader (or a horse if you are in Montreal). 2) PICK THE PERFECT LIGHTING. Sometimes it barely looks like I am sweating, other times I look DRENCHED. You must play with the lighting and the angle. I am no photographer so unfortunately I cannot tell you the best angle or lighting but you are smart human beings. TRIAL and ERROR. LAW and ORDER. Play with it, own it, FLEX it. 3) The MESSIER, The WETTER, the REDDER the BETTER. Don't fix your hair, DO not wipe that sweat off, and do NOT wait until your face isn't as red as a BEET. Embrace it. You worked hard. Your body is showing your GLOW. If you need more non-workout selfie tips I have included this wiki-how link. Some tips included "do something cheerful" and "know what poses are passe. " The article is full of accurate diagrams and tips. Please enjoy.
http://www.wikihow.com/Take-Good-Selfies
Dear friends, continue to send me pictures of your sweaty self. It motivates me and gives me a good laugh. Enjoy the song of the week.
The last few months have been exceptionally hard to get in a consistent sweat. My schedules changes week to week as does what I'm required to know or do. Yes I am making excuses, you are absolutely right. But it has been the most difficult time so far to commit to a good healthy exercise routine. Part of the problem is when I wake up at that INCREDIBLY early hour to try and get in a sweat before I have to be at work EXTREMELY early the snooze button ALWAYS WINS. So I tell myself "It's okay, you'll do it when you get home." Do you want to know what I do when I get home? Many things...and one of them is NOT working out. I identified the problem, my lack of motivation and my lack of accountability. Back in the day, when I was on sports teams and ran with a running group I literally had to show up to some location with some workout clothes on and I listened to a coach or did the workout of the day using the motivation of teammates. I was accountable to those teammates because I was expected and in some ways needed to show up for practices so we could run appropriate drills and exercises. Well, no one needs me know...no one but myself. BUT THEN...I found this whole new world on the INTER-WEB. I found a pretty basic and reasonable workout plan I bought from a certified kinesiologist online and was able to join an "accountability group." Yes I don't know these women, and Sue is from Florida, Jen is from Ohio and I don't really know where anyone else is from...but really would it make a difference? We post daily after our workouts, or sometimes before if we are trying to find excuses. These are all busy women that work, have kids and take care of farms...if they can find the time so can I. And when I start thinking that I can't...THEY REMIND ME I WILL. An additional accountability tool I have been using is my poor friend Rebecca. She does not live in the same city as me and that maybe a good thing for noise control. I have COMMITTED to sending her a sweaty picture of my face - mostly involving a creepy eye for the next two weeks...which I am hoping will turn into 2 months...and then maybe two years. I am NOT SORRY. I am lucky to have someone that is not frightened by the sweaty creepy eyes that are sent her way on a daily basis. TRUE FRIENDSHIP. So my friends, if you too are having this probably and haven't been able to commit or find your fitness community or perhaps it just isn't in your schedule right now, please think about the E-WORLD of E-WORKOUTS. GO get it.
We've all had those days...we get on the treadmill, the bike or even go for a run outside and we're just...BORED. We're not even tired, or out of breath...it's the boredom that makes it hard to finish our workout. Often when I run I think about school, my friends, what I want to do when I get a vacation...or better yet a job. But somedays I don't want to think about any of it all. I wish I had a fun distraction that would make my workout an escape from the frequent thoughts that already haunt my day. That's why working out with a friend is ideal, but sometimes schedules prevent the sweaty company of others becoming a reality. I've tried running while reading on the treadmill - I almost rolled my ankle and fell of the end of treadmill with my limbs in the air. I've also tried watching TV shows while running but then the SAME commercials come on...and honestly - I HATE COMMERCIALS. LEAVE ME ALONE. Music is a great distraction and a motivator, but if your'e like me and update your playlist once since 1999 it's pretty repetitive. It can be difficult to find that perfect distraction. Sometimes if you're lucky you can find very interesting people to watch in dismay or horror (sometimes both), but again this is LUCK. PURE LUCK. SO WHAT IS LEFT YOU ASK? Here are a few games and distractions I think help: 1) Multiplication tables - do you remember those? One day when your PHONE BATTERY DIES you can thank me for encouraging you to practice your multiplication tables. 2) Freestyle rapping. We all have a little Biggie Smalls/Eminem/Snoop Dog/Miss Elliot in us. That's right - rap it out - and if you're feeling good then RAP IT OUT LOUD. You may have a career you never knew about. 3) Think of NOTHING...and then when you realize you have actually starting thinking of thinking of nothing...START OVER...Honestly - try thinking of nothing for 10 seconds - bet you can't... 4) FOR THOSE INTENSE WORKOUTS - try and count the drips of sweat as they fly off of you...you can even track your progress on an excel sheet. Do you have any tips on keeping yourself on those hard days of workouts? Please share. Have a VERY SWEATY WEEK EVERYONE!!
This weekend I got in a car with two lovely friends and we drove down to the BIG APPLE! Between eating some of the best food I have ever eaten, having the definition of "normal" reinvented and visiting some of New York's finest attractions I noticed New Yorkers have come up with many unique ways to encourage day to day exercises. Here are some of my favorite ones:
1) Running from Cookie Monster, Elmo and Sponge Bob because they want you to give them 15 dollars for taking a picture with them at Time's Square.
2) Rollerblade soccer - I wouldn't say this is for everyone. It was terrifying and addictive to watch.
3) Neighbourhood Basketball - the intensity is unparalleled
4) Dancing for hours because you keep saying "I'll leave as soon as there is a bad song..." only to realize they somehow never play a song you can't sing at the top of your lungs.
5) Walking for hours and hours and more hours - to get to the next food stop (of course)
6) Zumba (the Latina Dramatic Type) - these ladies of all ages move their hips in ways I didn't know were possible.
I had an amazing weekend and I cannot wait to go back to the Big Apple! I definitely recommend it New York for a variety of workouts and experiences.
No surprises for the song of the blog below:
