Welcome to Becoming Elli

We want to be like Elli because she was the Norse Goddess of Aging who beat Thor in a wrestling match. We want to be like Elli, fit and strong as we age
Working Hours
Monday - Friday working out
Saturday - Sunday and eating right!

www.BecomingElli.com

Fit Strong Women Over 50 Podcast

Northeast Ohio

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Work Outs

Becoming Elli / Work Outs (Page 4)

Sampling a Pilates Exercise Class

I recently had a trial class here in my town, at a relatively new exercise studio called Club Pilates. While over the years, I have taken a few Pilates classes at the health and fitness center where I've belonged almost continuously since 1994, it's hard to pass up a free class to check out something new. Regular readers may remember my CycleBar experience and Jill's workout at this Pilates studio when it had just opened. Sample Class I got a ticket to a sample class during one of the community expo/showcases held locally. The Club Pilates runs a special 30 minute sample class for a group of people who have expressed interest. There were 8 people in the class, including me. Facility Set Up The facility location is in shopping plaza....

Running and Staying Healthy with Wendy Rivard

Download | Play in New Window Please Subscribe: Apple Podcasts  (iTunes) | Google Podcasts | Android-Google Play | Stitcher | Player FM | Castbox | Tunein | Spotify | RSS In episode 31, Jill and Chris talked with Wendy Rivard about her fitness journey. Wendy has been a runner for most of her adult life. She is a pediatric nurse practitioner for a large medical practice in Chicago. Besides running, she does a lot of yoga, strength trains at a Cross Fit box, enjoys boot camps, water skiing, stand up paddle boarding, and kayaking. She started running to help deal with anxiety in her 20's, and continued running to help with other life challenges: infertility in her 30's, stress of grad school in her 40's, and now in her "old age", she continues to run to help her stay healthy. In 2014, she achieved a personal record of 4 hours...

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add planks to your workout

Five Reasons to Add Planks to Your Workout

Why should you add planks to your workout? It seems like trainers love to have us do planks and there seems to always be some type of plank challenge going on. Just go online to find people who can hold a plank for half a lifetime. Chris talked about using planks to help with strengthening the core in an earlier post. Planks are a great way to strengthen our bodies. Add Planks to Your Workout There are lots of reasons to add planks to your workout. I've listed five here but each of these reasons can lead to more benefits. Basically, if you add planks to your workout, you're adding something that is quick and easy to do, well, easy as in you don't need to do...

Gym Etiquette

I notice more questions about gym etiquette from people new to gyms than I do about working out. I think many of us are nervous about fitting in to the gym world. Many women over 50 did not grow up using the gym so we're a bit more shy about it. I know I didn't do much exercise of any kind until I was in my 40s or 50s. Here are the most common questions about gym etiquette that I see and my answers. I've spent many years going to different gyms but I think there's some common courtesies that hold true regardless of which gym you're at. There's no book of gym etiquette that I know of but I think these rules work. Gym Etiquette Sharing Equipment If...

Building Endurance by Working Out in the Fat Burning Zone

Since the beginning of the year, I've been experimenting with lower heart rate training than I usually do in my workouts. Some people call it the "Fat Burn Zone", although I'm still not convinced that it is burning "my" fat. I do know, however that it is easy to keep going with exercise. I am not watching the clock. Exercising in this zone, I don't feel tired or worn out in the least. The idea is to work out at the level of exertion where your heart rate stays at the aerobic level called the fat burning level. If you exercise just a little harder, you begin to breathe harder, your heart pumps harder and you'll enter the cardio level. Really push it and you'll go...

Five Strength Building Body Weight Exercises for Women Over 50

I have been trying to focus on building a strength exercises in my workout routine. We know that as we get older, the body naturally loses muscle tone, so my strength routine is an attempt to keep my muscles toned and functioning correctly. For whatever reason, I find it much easier to go to walking, running and cycling which are more cardio based. I like strength exercises that use weights, but sometimes just using body weight is enough of a challenge. Because I am looking for more endurance and resiliency, I tend to really love strength work outs. Keep Good Form with Bodyweight Exercise As with all exercises, form is critical to making it work your body and not to injure yourself. When learning these, it's good to use...

The Challenge of Choices: December’s Eating and Work Out Plan

I got all thrown off my eating plan the last few days. It was a combination of December gifts, a baby shower and going out to eat twice in one day. My work-outs have been light too. In the 11 years since I've been working on getting more healthy and fit, I find this is a very normal occurrence in December. The trick is to get back on the plan and not say "Oh just forget it!! I'll just start again in January." That's the thought that used to get me in trouble. What does work for me is jumping back into my December plan. I've found that if I can restart again several times in December, my work in January is more like maintenance, not like...

Listening to Music During a Workout

Finding the perfect playlist to match the type of workout I am doing is an ongoing quest of mine. There's probably no way that your taste in music matches mine. I was reminded of this during a spinning class on Wednesday. Everyone has different tastes in music. I loved it when my spinning instructor played Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies! (It starts slow and gets fast.) Run Run Rudolph is another holiday favorite of mine. It's a fun and fast one that I love. Not everyone appreciates those I guess. I find that exercising to music makes exercise fun. In fact it's not a work out, for me it becomes a "play out", but there are some challenges in getting the music worked out. Here...

Pilates Reformer

Pilates Reformer: Checking Out an Old Favorite

I spun the wheel at the Club Pilates booth at a local festival and won a free one-on-one lesson. After some back and forth, we got this session on the calendar and I went to check the new Pilates studio in town. So, a quick review of the studio. Club Pilates is a chain that appears to be growing quickly. There are a number of new studios in my area and the one in my hometown just had its grand opening. The new Club Pilates studio seems to be well equipped. There are lots of reformers in the class area. Each reformer also has a Bosu ball, TRX straps, and other equipment. The area is set up to handle multiple students in a class. Because my session was...

Ride Review: Trying out the Cyclebar Cycling Studio

This past week, the nearby Cyclebar cycling studio had a coupon for a free week of cycling so I tried out a class on Labor Day Monday. For the free trial, you log into their website, reserve a seat ahead of time and they assign you a bike location. When I walked into the reception area, the first thing I noticed was how new and shiny everything looked. The young woman at the front desk directed me to the row of little iPads so I could check in, get my seat assignment, and borrow shoes, if needed. I had brought my own clip-in shoes, but they had lots of new-looking bike shoes to use if you didn't own your own bike shoes. My first impression of Cyclebar: ...