Category: Work Outs (Page 2 of 6)

Get Healthy with Chris Freytag

March 12, 2024 / Chris Brown / 7 Comments

#159 Get Healthy with Chris Freytag

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In episode 150, Jill McCauslin and Chris Brown interview Chris Freytag, the founder of Get Healthy U and Get Healthy U TV.

Chris Freytag has been teaching, training, writing books, creating DVD’s, and speaking on the subject of health and fitness for the last 30 years.

Get Healthy U TV is a streaming website with workouts for midlife women. They have over 700 workouts for all levels and ages. You can access the workouts on your computer, smart phone, Roku, Fire TV and the Get Healthy U app.

Get Healthy U is the sister fitness hub that educates and inspires women to make healthy lifestyle choices as they age. Get Healthy U provides trustworthy information about health, fitness, well being, nutrition, and recipes.

Get Healthy U TV and Get Healthy U reach over 1 million women a month through their website, newsletters, social media and workouts.

Chris lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with her husband where they raised their three now-grown kids.

We discussed:

How we can develop healthy habits as we age
Why waiting for motivation isn’t a great idea
How to get yourself moving when you don’t feel like it
How to manage your health when you’re dealing with the stress of everyday life
How much cardio and strength training should women over 50 do each week
Her thoughts on yoga, Pilates and mini trampolines (rebounders)
What she recommends for the best way to get started on getting more healthy

Chris Freytag leading a group of women in a workout.

Links:

Get Healthy U TV
Get Healthy U
Instagram
Facebook Page
Twitter

Checking Out New Gyms

July 17, 2023 / Jill McCauslin / 2 Comments

I’ve decided to check out new gyms around me and possibly make a change. I’m not sure if this is a good decision or not but wanted to see what’s out there. Maybe this is a “grass is always greener” scenario, I’m not sure.

I put my regular membership at my gym on hold for a couple of months to give me time to check out other places. I’ve gone a cost-cutting phase and thought perhaps I could spend less on my gym. Plus, it seemed like a good idea to check out new places. I’ve belonged to this current gym for a long time so I’ve become very comfortable there.

I’ve been to a couple of gyms so far. Here’s what I’ve discovered.

The first gym I went to has lots of classes and plenty of machines. I’m finding it a bit intimidating to go to new classes but I suppose that I just need to do it. I think it would be a good way to figure out if I like this gym or not.

I wandered in to use the strength equipment. The benches were all taken and there weren’t any dumbbells between 5 and 30 pounds available. Since that’s what I needed, it crossed off any free weights for the day. So I wandered over to the machines and checked them out. I was a bit overwhelmed by trying to figure out which machines I wanted to use and what the settings should be. It really shouldn’t have been that difficult but I think I was just being a bit anxious about the whole thing.

I should remember what I wrote about a few years ago about starting at a gym. One thing I said was be sure to check out the classes.

I then went to a small chain gym near me. It was very small. It had some cardio equipment and some strength equipment but there were two people working out in there and it did not seem to have room for a third. Also, the manager met with me and was really pushing me to sign up for a weight loss program which isn’t why I wanted to be there. Everything “extra” that they offered was going to cost more. I’ve taken that gym off the list.

There are a few more places I want to check out. There are a few Planet Fitness locations in the area but none of them are convenient to get there. There’s a YMCA and a couple of community rec centers but again, none are particularly close to me. I may also check out a women’s only gym that offers personal training as part of the price.

I like the idea of having my gym close to me. It makes it more likely that I’ll go.

We’ll see how these new gyms work out. I may be glad I froze my gym membership because I may end up just going back to the place.

Return to Yoga

January 27, 2023 / Jill McCauslin / 0 Comments

FI’ve been talking about my need to return to yoga for quite a while. I practiced yoga off and on for but due to the combination of not really liking the yoga classes offered at my gym and then the whole social distancing thing made it difficult.

Finally, I tried a new yoga studio this week. I received a gift certificate for Christmas with five passes for classes at a nearby studio. Figuring it was time, I took my first class this week. I signed up for a gentle yoga because I find starting back into anything is easier if you just take it easy at first. Signing up for the flow class seemed a bit much for starting over.

I loved it! The class was enjoyable, and the studio was lovely. The room where we practiced had large windows overlooking the Cuyahoga River so there was lots of natural light.

Sometimes it’s difficult to go to a new gym or a yoga studio or any fitness place because the people there are used to themselves and aren’t welcoming to others. This class had a number of people attending but nobody seemed to be in a clique.

The class was indeed a gentle yoga but it was clear to me that I’m not as flexible as I was a while ago. I have the strength to do things but boy do I have tight hamstrings. And once again I’m back to the beginning with the balance poses.

The advantage of starting over repeatedly is that I knew I was back to where I started and didn’t feel compelled to try to do more than I could. I felt at ease knowing that if I keep going, I’ll get better.

I’m going to pick a different class for next week. I like the idea of trying out different things since this is a new place. I think checking out the different instructors and classes will be a good reentry into the world of yoga.

How about you? Have you tried something new recently or gotten back to something that you used to love to do? Let me know in the comments.

Strength Training Guidelines

July 14, 2022 / Jill McCauslin / 6 Comments

We’ve talked a lot about strength training guidelines for adults on our podcast. I thought I’d provide a quick recap of those guidelines and give you some ideas on how to get in quality strength workouts.

Strength Training Guidelines

According to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), healthy adults should perform strength training at least twice a week on non-consecutive days. Each session should include 8 to 10 repetitions that stress each of the major muscle groups or 10 to 15 repetitions for those who are older and frail.

If you go with longer repetitions, you’ll use lighter weight.

You can certainly train more than twice a week but you want to make sure you cover all of the major muscle groups at least twice a week. So, perhaps you do upper body and alternate with lower body twice a week. That gives you four days of strength workouts.

Major Muscle Groups

If we’re supposed to train every major muscle group twice a week, we need to know what they are. Plan on training these parts of the body:

Chest
Back
Shoulders
Arms:
- Biceps
- Triceps
Abdomen
Legs:
- Quads
- Hamstrings

Benefits of Strength Training

Why should we strength train at all? Isn’t it sufficient to just walk 10,000 steps every day?

The ACSM describes a variety of benefits of strength training. They are:

Maintain muscle or fight the loss of muscle mass
Prevent osteoporosis
Decrease the risk of heart disease
Decrease the risk of falls or the likelihood of injury if you do fall
Increase quality of life

Examples of Strength Training

You often hear strength training also referred to as resistance training. The goal is to put your muscles under tension using resistance. You can do that with weights like dumb bells and kettle bells, resistance bands, machines at the gym, or body weight exercises.

Examples of typical resistance exercises that can be performed using free-weights, machines, or body weight for the major muscle groups are:

	Free-Weight	Machine-Based	Body Weight
Chest	Supine Bench Press	Seated Chest Press	Push-ups
Back	Bent-over Barbell Rows	Lat Pulldown	Supermans
Shoulders	Dumbbell Lateral Raise	Shoulder Press	Arm Circles
Biceps	Dumbbell Curls	Cable Curls	Side planks
Triceps	Dumbbell Kickbacks	Press downs	Dips
Abdomen	Weighted Crunches	“Abs” Machine Crunches	Prone Planks
Quadriceps	Back Squats	Leg Extension	Body Weight Lunges
Hamstrings	Stiff-leg Deadlifts	Leg Curls	Hip-ups

If you aren’t sure how to do any of these, there are lots of demonstrations available on YouTube and a variety of strength training apps.

Don’t forget that the ACSM also recommends that you get in some cardio workouts during the week. I’ll write that up in a future post.

Outside my Comfort Zone

June 6, 2022 / Chris Brown / 0 Comments

During vacation I like to change up my regular routines and challenge myself to go outside my comfort zone.

Last week I was on a family vacation to the beach and was enjoying all the fun of reconnecting with family, walking along the waves in the sand and swimming outside in a pool.

My sister suggested we do yoga on the beach. I’ve watched it from afar but never signed up. In fact in years past, I may have even done a little yoga on my own, but never with the full class.

It was delightful. There were definite advantages over a studio yoga class.

The ocean in the morning makes a very beautiful backdrop
The sand is very forgiving on the knees
An 8 am class is later than most of the yoga classes I take at home
The sun wasn’t too hot just yet
The sound of the waves makes a soothing and rhythmic ambiance

There are also challenges.

It is out in the open so “everyone” can see you
The sand moves and shifts making balance poses somewhat challenging
The sand also gets on the beach towel so by the end of class I felt a bit like a sand monster. A relaxed, happy sand monster!

We had a great instructor who took us through a variety of vinyasa flow style yoga moves. I guess that part really was not outside my comfort zone! It felt so good to do some sun salutations, warrior poses, pigeon and even happy baby. Although it was early morning, the sun started to get hot early and I’m so glad I brought my water bottle. All the sand everywhere actually added to the sensory experience… and sure felt good to get a shower afterwards!

Having my sister there with me doing yoga gave me the added push I needed to outside my head of feeling like “everyone” was watching and judging. When I think about it logically, most of the people, even on the beach front condos, are still inside either sleeping or enjoying a leisurely cup of coffee.

This will definitely become part of my vacation routine going forward. It really helped to get the kinks out of my back from sitting on the long drive from Ohio to the beach.

Electrolyte Replacement for Hot Weather Workouts

May 21, 2022 / Chris Brown / 1 Comment

I am a sweater. That is, I perspire during hot weather and especially during work outs… a lot!

Replenishing electrolytes is a real thing for me or I can easily become overheated, dizzy and feeling very weird. During summer bike rides I’ve had to take advantage of the SAG truck more than once when the temperatures go higher than 85 degrees and I’m pushing myself.

If this is not a problem for you, you probably don’t know what I’m talking about, but if you bike ride or run during super hot weather and tend to sweat a lot like me, you may be very aware of the need for electrolyte replacement.

Many of the organized rides and runs that I’ve done in years past have rest stops with water and gatorade, as well as orange slices, ice and more to help combat the high temps.

The other day I took my second bike ride of the year. It was 18 miles with a breakfast break in between. But by the time we actually got back it was around 12:30 and well over 80 degrees. We had been gone for a bit over 3 hours.

I knew it was going to be hot so I tried something new for electrolyte replacement. I usually go through 2 water bottles when I do the Kent loop. This time I added about a half cup of Pedialyte to one of my 24 ounce water bottles. It didn’t taste too bad (like if I had had straight Gatorade) but helped to replace some of the electrolytes I sweated off.

I’m definitely going to try this again.
Here are some photos of the package:

While the package says not to add water or dilute, I am using this as a preventative measure, not as a fix.

I got this in an email from LMNT from Runner’s World, so this was designed specifically for working out and replacing electrolytes. Have not tried it. Let me know if you have and what you thought.

What do you do to replace your electrolytes during hot weather and long workouts?

Find Your Tribe with Jone Carpenter

April 12, 2022 / Chris Brown / 0 Comments

Episode 104 – Find Your Tribe with Jone Carpenter

Originally from rural southeastern Ohio, Jonella Carpenter, known as Jone, is both a mother and grandmother. She can often be found walking, running, or hiking in her local parks in all kinds of weather. Her attraction to the outdoors started when she was a kid (even the outdoor chores were fun for her) and grew as she became an adult.

In 2008, a friend suggested that Jone run a half marathon, and though she didn’t know what she was in for, she has never been afraid of a challenge. She toed the blue line of the Akron Marathon on a crisp September morning without training, and though she crossed the finish line three hours and forty-five minutes later, she couldn’t walk for days.

Needless to say, she learned quite a bit during that first race! Since then, Jone learned more about how to train, fuel her body, and stay motivated even when times were tough. As a breast cancer survivor, her body has been through significant changes but continues to be a way to explore nature, connect with friends, and challenge herself in a variety of ways. She even overcame a life-long fear of water to learn to swim in her 50s.

Among her friends and running buddies, Jone is known for always saying yes to any adventure (even the cold, muddy ones) and can often be found encouraging others (even strangers she’s met along the way) to keep moving. Through the miles, boot camp classes, swim lessons, and other adventures.

One key point of advice to women over 50 who want to be fit and strong: Find Your Tribe. Jone ran informal groups of friends calling themselves the Towpath Turtles or BCB – the Bad Choice Babes and works out at a gym where the group exercise inspires her.

During this episode we talk about:

Running races and training
Finding a group of like-minded friends, Finding Your Tribe
Lifting weights and cross training
Her experiences with breast cancer and running shortly after her mastectomy
Reframing your attitude to “I GET to do this” instead of “I HAVE or I SHOULD”
Learning to swim in her 50’s
How she listens to her body
Keeping muscle and protecting bones
Group cooking
Watching macros (using protein powder as a creamer)

Ways to Get Started with Strength Training

March 31, 2022 / Jill McCauslin / 2 Comments

One thing I’ve noticed in the Becoming Elli community is that many of us are looking for ways to get started with strength training. Many women who have joined the Becoming Elli Facebook group (it’s a private group and if you haven’t joined, please do so!) want to get started with strength training.

Most of us know how to do cardio exercises. We use the treadmill or the elliptical or we bicycle indoors and out.

If you listen to the Fit Strong Women over 50 Podcast, you know that we talk a lot about the importance of strength training for women as we age.

Why Strength Train?

We lose muscle more quickly than men and that loss begins earlier than we’d like to think about. Losing muscle makes it harder to keep our metabolism going at a good pace. It makes it harder to move. There are lots of reasons why we should be strength training, also called resistance training. We can go into those reasons in a different post.

There are lots of ways to do strength training, whether you belong to the gym or workout at home but we can all use some help in getting started. You can use weights such as dumb bells, kettle bells, and resistance bands. You can also use your own body weight doing things like squats, push ups, and lunges. Knowing what you can do is, of course, not the same as actually doing it.

Ways to Get Started with Strength Training

I’ve come up with a few ways to help get started with strength training.

Set Goals

Set goals with a timeline related to strength training. While long term goals are great, be sure to include some shorter term goals as well.

Perhaps your long term goal is to be able to do ten regular pushups. That’s a great goal but it may take you a while to get there so make some goals to hit on the way. Perhaps it’s to be able to do ten modified pushups. Then you can make a goal of being able to do one regular pushup. Finally, you hit that long term goal of ten regular pushups.

Invest in Yourself

I find spending money on something is a big motivator. If I pay for a training class, I’m much more likely to go. Perhaps you buy some new weight equipment to include in your home gym. Buying a kettlebell is sure a major investment. Or perhaps you pay to access a strength training app. Or you pay for personal training. Whatever it is, I think most of us do more when we’ve made a financial commitment to something.

Sure, people buy treadmills and gym memberships that they don’t use but I think if you combine the desire to get started with strength training with the financial commitment, you’re more likely to work at it.

Tell people what you’re doing

Tell friends and family member. Confide in your co-workers. If you’re open about wanting to get stronger, you’re more likely to get some support. It helps to tell people who also strength train or workout in some way. I remember telling my mother what I was doing and she really only walked. She told me I didn’t need to be doing this, that walking was enough. So telling your friend at your yoga class might be better.

Find support

Do you have friends who are also interested in strength training? If so, try to work out together. If that’s not possible, maybe try comparing workouts and giving each other ideas of things to try. Online communities, such as the private Facebook group for Becoming Elli, can be helpful. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, discussing with like-minded people can help.

If you’ve joined a gym, talk to the staff. There are people there who can show you how to do different exercises or how to use a piece of equipment. Take advantage of that resource.

Try to Improve

Look for ways to improve. I guess this might be related to goals but what I mean is, just be aware of your body and what you’re capable of doing. If last week, you could only carry two plastic bags of groceries, see if you can increase to three this week. If you can do biceps curls with 8 pound dumbbells, see if you can bump it up to 10 pounds.

Give It a Chance

Stay out of your head. Some of us start strength training say we don’t like it. The problem with that is we usually don’t want to do things that we dislike. If you work on having an open mind, you may realize after awhile that you’re actually enjoying yourself. Give it a fair trial. I really work on no longer saying, “I hate this” when doing squats.

Suggestions?

We know that strength training is important for us as we age so it’s important to figure out ways to get going with it.

What suggestions do you have? I would love to hear other ideas. Comment below if you have something to share.

Trying Out the Peloton App

November 18, 2021 / Jill McCauslin / 0 Comments

I got a free 30 day subscription so I’m trying out the Peloton app. I don’t have the Peloton bike or treadmill but my daughter-in-law suggested that I try out the exercise classes on the Peloton app or website. The classes are led by instructors and include a wide variety. I’ve been trying out different ways of getting a workout so I liked the idea of trying the Peloton classes.

Trying Out the Peloton App

The classes are well done. They tell you in advance what equipment you need. I took one class that required a dumbbell which fortunately I had. Most of the classes have just needed a mat and use bodyweight. The videos are well done and I think the instructors do a good job of explaining what they’re doing.

I noticed that the instructors give advance warning of what’s going to happen next. If your mind wanders, it’s possible that you might get a big confused by that at times. I don’t want to say that’s what happened with me but I am a daydreamer by nature.

I struggle with doing workouts at home but these worked pretty well. Part of the problem with working out at home is that my dog Penny just goes bonkers when I get on the floor. That seems to be a universal trait for dogs. Try doing yoga in your living room and soon there’s a dog trying to join you in downward facing dog.

Also, you can slack off in class because nobody is actually watching you. So it depends on your personality, I suppose.

Conclusion

I’m using the 30-day free subscription. Hopefully it won’t be hard to cancel. If it is, I’ll update my review with that information. After that, it costs $12.99 (US) as of today. This could certainly change. It’s less expensive than most gym memberships but of course the gym provides the equipment.

I think the classes are well produced and the instructors are good. If you like working out at home, this might be a good fit for you. For me, it reminded me why I like to go to the gym so I’m going to cancel the membership.

A member of the Becoming Elli Facebook Group is using HasFit. It sounds like a similar program but is a bit less expensive. I’ll check that out next and let you know.

Let me know if you’ve used the Peloton workouts and what you thought or let me know if you’re using a different at home program.

Habits Help Me Stay Fit

November 6, 2021 / Chris Brown / 1 Comment

While this past year has not been one with a lot of big activity for me, some of the routines and habits I have put in place are really helping me to stay fit.

I noticed that I automatically do some things, mostly out of habit, but they are helpful, healthy routines that I thought I’d share.

The things that I learned – especially about habits – have really helped me to stay more fit and active than I would have.

Over the past year+ (during the Covid pandemic), I haven’t had the type of big goals like I did set a few years back. However I’ve still been able to keep up some exercise. While I’m not running any races right now, I still try to continue a healthy eating, an exercise routine and get good sleep.

Here is a look at the 3 key areas of fitness and how my routines and habits are helping me.

1) Food -I’m in the habit of roasting veggies in the morning when I’m preparing my breakfast. I don’t seem to want to overeat or emotionally eat at breakfast time so it’s an easy way to prep for dinners or late afternoons when I feel more like indulging. If I have healthy foods prepared, I’m so much less likely to eat something that I regret. Cooking up some quinoa, or roasting veggies, or popping something into the slow cooker always is a good thing. I weigh myself every morning and make sure to drink enough water.

Eating a meal outside at an area restaurant with a friend is a huge indulgence for me these days. I’m pleased that I ordered a spinach salad and that steak on top was delicious too. Dressing on the side means I cut a lot of nasty fats/sugars that I really didn’t want. One beer felt extremely indulgent for me. This photo was taken back in September and I’m still reveling in the time together.

Eating outside in the open air made the restaurant meal feel less worrisome to me.

I know that 80% is food and 20% is exercise when it comes to maintaining a healthy weight.

2) Working Out – I’ve barely been to the gym in the past 20 months, but I am doing a lot more gardening and lawn work. It’s not the same kind of exercise but it’s still getting me out of the house and off the couch. This past week I actually made it to the gym three times and got a spinning class in as well. It took a lot of mental discipline for me to walk through the door as I deeply concerned about spreading germs. But I know I need more cardio and strength training than I can do for myself at home.

Some of the exercises involve walks with Peanut, others are lawn work. This past week three of my exercise sessions are from going to the gym. My mantra is “progress not perfection” at this point. Some of the exercise is raking leaves, pulling out overgrown vines and cutting back my perennials. I continue to do strength work at home with some heavy (for me) weights, but I could really do with increasing it to keep my muscles strong.

3) Sleep – I’ve written about sleep issues before and some of the routines I do to improve my sleep. A lot of times people don’t consider sleep as key ingredient, but I know if I don’t get enough good sleep, eating right is a huge challenge. It’s like my energy levels are much lower the next day and I crave sugar and caffiene to feel peppy. If I get a good night’s sleep, I can eat right and feel like doing more activity.

I have downloaded many books on the library Libby app to learn more methods of meditation, Yoga Nidra, deep breathing exercises and other ways to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system. All these have definitely benefited my sleep.

Some nights my sleep is still is plenty elusive, so having these tools has been a great help.

Another useful app I’ve really enjoyed is called insight timer which has many sleep recordings from bedtime tales (who doesn’t like a book read to them), naturescape recordings of things like rain, ocean and crickets/toads, as well as sleep meditations. I have not yet subscribed but when an audio book can’t lull me to sleep, the insight timer app usually comes to the rescue.

My favorite “go to” is the hour long Deep Sleep Guided Meditation by Kenneth Soares. Second favorite is the 20+ minute Yoga Nidra for Sleep by Jennifer Piercy.

Do you listen to sleep meditations?If so, what are your favorites?

What habits for healthy eating, fitness and sleep do you have as part of your routine? Please leave an email (chris@becomingelli.com), or a comment below, or even a voicemail at 330-970-6662.

Strength Training Guidelines

Major Muscle Groups

Benefits of Strength Training

Examples of Strength Training

Why Strength Train?

Ways to Get Started with Strength Training

Set Goals

Invest in Yourself

Tell people what you’re doing

Find support

Try to Improve

Give It a Chance

Suggestions?

Categories

Trying Out the Peloton App

Conclusion