Category: Work Outs (Page 4 of 6)

Sampling a Pilates Exercise Class

May 4, 2019 / Chris Brown / 0 Comments

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. The exercise room is set behind the front desk and has a wall with curtains to separate the waiting area from the work out area. You put your personal items in open faced wooden cubbies that are located up in the front. Because a curtain separates the front from the workout area, I wouldn’t be able to keep an eye on them, so I ended up keeping my phone and keys with me in the work out room.

Each personalized station is set up for one person. And I believe that there were 12 stations in the club.

Instructor
Our instructor was a former ballet dancer, who was in terrific shape. Unlike many group exercise instructors, he had us do the exercises very slowly so he could monitor and correct our form.

He explained what the benefits to the body Pilates provided and discussed ways to modify the exercises to be more or less difficult depending on each of our fitness level and experience with Pilates type exercises. Because it was only a sample class, he was going easy on us.

Equipment
There was lots of very new equipment in top condition. If I wasn’t familiar with it, I might have been intimidated. Among the items at each station was a Pilates reformer machine, bosu, TRX straps with several places to hook them, circle, a small stability ball and a Pilates chair.
The only piece that was new to me was the Pilates chair which looks a bit like a padded bench with springs. They had the bosus sitting on top of the chairs and I didn’t get a great photo of them, but click through on this link to see what they look like and how they work.

They insisted you wear socks with non-skid treads or they would let you buy some from them. I noticed two people wearing some Sky Zone trampoline park socks. I had looked for some of those in the bottom of my sock drawer, but couldn’t find my pair from the time I tried Sky Zone.

Exercises
While the majority of the exercises involved putting your foot in a strap and manipulating the spring under the equipment, many of the exercises were similar to ones that I’ve done in my gym.

Plank – with elbows on the bosu
One foot on the bosu, knee up, balance by touching the wall
Bridge – lying on my back with arms at the sides
Sit on the padded Pilates stool, bend sideways at the hips and press down the spring loaded bar with my hand
The ballet move where you stand and Plié slowly. It’s definitely NOT a squat.

Evidently ballet dancers have issues with squats and prefer the Plié where the dancer stands with the heels together and the toes pointing out, then and bends at the knees.

Individual Training Room
After the sample group class, we were ushered into the back to see the individual personal training area and equipment. There are sales person explained the different membership programs, pricing, requirements and time frames.

I remember she said that they gave a discount to veterans, those in the armed services and to first responders. I thought “Wow, very generous!”

Then one of the women in my class piped up and wanted to know about doctors and nurses as well, “Don’t forget about us!” I don’t know why, but that was a turn off to me. I guess you could make a case for a lot of other professions as well.

During the hour that we were there, that is the only thing that I can remember that any of the other people who didn’t work there actually said. It was a very quiet group.

The biggest positive is the equipment. It looks super brand new like it has never been touched. I believe that the facility opened in September 2018, so it still is very new.

The biggest negative to me is the lack of interaction between the other people. Even though it was a group class, during class it was obvious that there isn’t the joking around. It was very serious and not as much fun.

While I guess I shouldn’t judge the place on how the participants act. Maybe that is how you act during Pilates. However to me if working out isn’t something that I look forward to, I’m not going to do it.

Perhaps I’ll give Pilates another try sometime in the future. Right now it didn’t have the attraction to me compared to so many other types of exercise. How about you? Do you love Pilates? What do you love about it?

Running and Staying Healthy with Wendy Rivard

April 9, 2019 / Chris Brown / 0 Comments

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 17 minutes at the Chicago Marathon at age 52 using a low mileage training plan with lots of cross training. Her bucket list marathon was Big Sur which she completed in 2016.

Her most recent half marathon was in Mobile Alabama in January, home of the original mardi gras. She met up with several bloggers and ran through the beautiful neighborhoods with the live oak with moss hanging down over the streets. The finish line featured women wearing the southern belle dresses with hoop skirts greeting the runners with their finishers’ medals. Red beans and rice was served with a dixieland jazz band party after the race.

She writes about her journey at the Taking the Long Way Home and has made many running friends online and in person through the blog.

We discussed:

Her cross training as well as events like the indoor relay, Ragnar, half marathons and marathons.
The benefits of the therapeutic massage and how it differs from a regular massage. Other recommendations for recovery.
Loves the Ink n Burn clothing because of the wild colors and the pockets. She was a brand ambassador. https://www.inknburn.com/ladies/
Her diagnosis of Rheumatoid Arthritis two years ago and how she is learning to live with it and refuses to let this disease defeat her.

“It’s not the running that hurts the joints, it’s the arthritis.” She has cut back on some running but has added more strength training to support the muscles around the joints.

How to contact Wendy Rivard:
Find her at www.takinglongwayhome.com
Instagram

Also mentioned in the podcast:

Marcia from Marcia’s Healthy Slice
Holly from Ho Ho Runs
Deana Kastor: Let Your Mind Run: A Memoir of Thinking My Way to Victory
Kathrine Switzer: Marathon Woman
Jill ran the Hop for Hope 5K
Veggie Challenge: Beets and watercress

Five Reasons to Add Planks to Your Workout

March 14, 2019 / Jill McCauslin / 0 Comments

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 a lot of preparation or equipment for planks. They can still be quite the challenge.

Close to a Whole Body Workout

Doing a plank works your abs, your back, your shoulders, and your glutes. This is a great way to begin building strength in your core. Planks don’t put any pressure on your spine from folding up like you might get from crunches and sit ups so they also help to avoid injury.

A plank also works those side muscles such as the obligques.

Can Do Anywhere

Planks require no equipment. All you do is get into position and hold the plank as long as you can. You might use your phone to time the plank but you don’t even need that. I sometimes just count to approximate the number of seconds I’m holding.

Planks are great to do at the gym but also at home. Remember the idea of doing an exercise every time a commercial comes on? Think of planks for that. These are even a good choice for traveling because you can do this in a hotel room without making noise or having to carry any equipment.

Improves your posture

Because planks strengthen your core, especially your abdomen and lower back, it becomes easier to sit and stand with better posture.

Many of us struggle with posture problems because of sitting too much and having weak core muscles. Poor posture causes back pain, feet and leg pain, and lots of general misery.

Improves Your Stability and Balance

Having stronger core muscles have been shown to help people be able to do more of their daily functions and to prevent injury. Even elderly people are often advised to do planks.

Can Do Daily

Starting your workouts with a plank is a great way to wake up most of your muscles. If you’re going to be lifting weight, this is a good starting point. Of course, planks don’t have to be a warmup. You can just do them every day as a way to strengthen your body.

How to Perform a Plank

Get on the floor and get into a pushup position. Bend your elbows to 90° and use your forearms to support your weight. Make sure your elbows are directly beneath your shoulders. Your body should be a straight line from your head to your feet. Make sure your butt isn’t sticking too far up into the air and not sagging towards the ground. You need to squeeze your abs the whole time you’re planking.

Hold this position for as long as you can. You might start with 15 seconds and work your way up eventually to two minutes.

Some people hold the plank even longer but I’m not sure there’s a lot of value to that. Instead, put your knees down and take a rest and then repeat the plank.

Modification

If you can’t do a plank successfully, put your knees on the ground. Do a plank this way until you can lift your knees up. You’ll still get much of the advantages of doing a plank.

If getting on the floor and using your knees is too hard on your body, you can use a wall in the same way that people do wall push-ups. Move your feet away from the wall, place your hands shoulder height on the wall and hold your body up.

Variations

Straight arm planks

Instead of resting your weight on your forearms, hold your weight on straight arms. This increases the work on your arms and shoulders. It’s a good variation to do just to shake things up.

Side Planks

Hold a side plank for the same amount of time as the regular plank. Make sure to do both sides. This really helps strengthen the obliques, legs, and arms.

Plank Jacks

Hold your plank position and then basically move your legs out and then back to simulate a jumping jack. This takes some coordination.

Up and down planks

Move from resting your weight on your forearms to straight arms and then back again. This increases the effects on your whole body. It’s a challenging workout.

However you choose to do them, it’s a good decision to add planks to your workout. Let me know if you try them.

Gym Etiquette

February 28, 2019 / Jill McCauslin / 1 Comment

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 people are sitting on a machine or standing in front of it and talking, you can ask them to move. If someone is sitting on a machine and clearly not just resting between sets, certainly you can ask if you can use the machine. They’ll either say, “oh, I’m almost finished” and wrap it up and let you use it or they’ll just say “no problem” and let you have it.

Usually if people are standing by a machine and talking, they’ll simply move aside if you ask to use the equipment.Conversely, if you’re sitting on a machine and someone asks if you’re finished, either wrap it up or let them use it.Sharing equipment at the gym shouldn’t be a stressful thing.

Working In

What is working in? Sometimes you want to use a machine while someone is using it too. Typically people rest between sets so you can ask if you can work in which means use the machine for a set while the other person is resting. You basically end up alternating using the equipment. If a gym is busy, this is more common. If the gym is not busy, I find it’s better just to go use a different piece of equipment and then come back to this when the person finishes with it. There is nothing wrong with someone asking to work in. You can ask and don’t be offended if someone asks you. The best answer is “sure” or “I have one more set and then this is all yours.”

Clean Up

Put away your equipment. If you’re using free weights, it’s frustrating not to have the weight you want because somebody has stockpiled every dumbbell in the joint. Use the dumbbells and then put them back on the rack, even if you’re going to use them again. Obviously, if there are five sets of 12 pound dumbbells, this isn’t such a big issue, but if all of the 20 pound dumbbells are being used, don’t leave a set lying on the ground while you use something else.

If you’re looking for a set of dumbbells and someone has a set lying on the ground, it’s ok to ask to use them. The person may say sure or they may say they’re almost finished but at least you’ve let them know that you need those dumbbells.

Similarly, if you put plates on a bar, put the plates away when you’ve finished. Be considerate of the next person.

If you want to use a bar and someone has left the plates on, you may have to just put the plates away. It’s frustrating but that’s the only way you’re going to use the bar. I’ve seen young guys leave 100-pound plates on a bar which is probably more than I can easily remove. If that happens to you, you may have to ask someone for help. Again, there’s nothing wrong with that. The people who work at the gym will help you if nobody else is around.

Wipe the Equipment

Wipe off the equipment when you finish. If you’re using a machine or a mat or a bench, wipe it off when you are finished. Most gyms have some kind of anti-bacterial spray and towels or paper towels available. Be considerate of others and clean the equipment before leaving it.

Talking to People

It’s ok to talk to people and to ask for help if you need it. If someone is wearing headphones, don’t try to strike up a conversation. It’s still ok to ask if you can work in but it’s not the time to ask someone detailed questions.The flip side of that is not to tell people they’re doing something wrong. We all get irritated when a stranger starts to correct our form. If you need help or advice, consider asking someone who works at the gym.

Spotting

A basic tenet of gym etiquette is that people spot each other. If you need someone to spot you, ask someone for help, but try to choose someone who is not intently focusing on their own workout. I notice that few people ask me to spot because I’m an older woman and I think they assume I’m not going to be a good spotter. That is probably true, especially for the guys lifting heavy weight. Sometimes when I’m doing a chest press with dumb bells, I’ll ask someone to hand me a weight. Once the dumb bell is in my raised hand, I can do the exercise but getting started is sometimes a challenge.

Safety Concern

One additional point. If someone is rude to you or threatening or super critical, let a gym staff person know. They’ll deal with it. Don’t get into an altercation.

Basically, life in a gym is like life anywhere. Treat others in the way you want to be treated. Clean up after yourself, don’t hassle others, and be willing to share.

Building Endurance by Working Out in the Fat Burning Zone

February 16, 2019 / Chris Brown / 0 Comments

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 into the peak level.

Cardio Vs Fat Burn

The vast majority of my running and group exercise workouts over the years have been at cardio/peak levels, which burn a greater percentage of carbs/sugar and less of a percentage of fat. These type of workouts also burn a ton of calories – both carbs/sugar and fat -there is no doubt about that.

While doing workout in the fat burning level feels like I’m not doing enough to be considered working out, I find that I can keep going a very long time and not get at all tired.

The idea of building a strong base by focusing on endurance and working out at the fat burning level is supposed to increase your ability to do more work while still keeping your heart rate at the lower level. Over time, the heart gets stronger and you can do more with your rate in the low level and your speed increases.

If you’re interested in learning more about this type of endurance training, you may want to listen to some of Dr. Phil Maffetone’s work. He has a lot of information about it – videos, podcasts and articles. Besides improving endurance and performance, it has other benefits. More time in the fat burning zone aids recovery from high impact exercise, helps reduce stress and provides protection from metabolic syndrome. I really like this method of exercising because I’m looking for increased endurance.

While doing my indoor cycling classes, I’ve been using my FitBit watch to monitor my heart rate. During most of the classes I find I easily enter into the cardio mode when the fast music comes on. I have to focus and slow down to stay in the fat burn mode. It’s hard to keep it steady, but I’m getting better.

The MAF (Maximum Aerobic Function) formula is 180 minus age. Because I’m 61, my goal heart rate number is to workout at around 120 beats per minute. (Dr. Maffetone has you add and subtract numbers based on exercise history and health as well.)

I have found that it is very hard to hold a steady heart number when you’re working out! Good music especially makes me want to go faster and harder, plus going harder is habit. It is what I’ve been doing for years!

Staying in The Fat Burning Zone

Here are some of the ways of thinking that have helped me to stay in the Fat Burn Zone:

Focus on my breathing
Try to keep two counts in and five counts out
When I have to open my mouth to breathe out, slow down
If the music speeds up, keep focus on the breathing
When walking up a hill, slow down
If indoor biking, take off some resistance
Last week I put my phone on the bike so I could monitor the phone instead of my watch and I was able to hold it more steady.

It is not about “no pain, no gain.” On the other hand, it’s not too often that I find my heart rate has dipped too low and I have to speed up, but sometimes that happens when I daydream.

Although it’s only been six weeks, I’ve also found that I am enjoying doing more exercise than I used to at a time. In fact, I am liking two hours rather than 45 minutes or an hour. I feel stronger and am noticing that I can go harder with less effort. I’m interested to see when I get back to biking outside if this experiment has made a difference.

Have you experimented with heart rate training? What has been your experience? Which heart rate monitor do you use? Do you feel like this is all just too analytical for getting exercise? Let me know your thoughts.

Five Strength Building Body Weight Exercises for Women Over 50

February 9, 2019 / Chris Brown / 0 Comments

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 a mirror to check and make sure form is good. (Always check with your doctor if you are new to exercise or aren’t sure these are good for your body’s situation, like if you’ve had a previous injury.)

Sometimes I like to do variations to mix it up. It helps me from feeling bored. But other times I prefer to time myself to hold the position for a longer time before moving on to the next exercise. If some of these seem too easy to you, try a different one. If you find you can only do them for just a few seconds, over time, as your strength builds up, you will find you can hold the position for a longer time.

Here are five exercises that seem simple because they are holding your body weight. Each one has modifications to make it less or more challenging.

Bridge – One Leg Bridge – Marching Bridge
Plank – Elbow Plank – Straight Arm Plank – Up Down Plank – Side Plank – Toe Touch Side Plank
Cat/Cow – Bird Dog on Knees – Bird Dog on Toes – Bird Dog with Elbow Crunch
Wall Sit – One Leg Wall Sit
Calf Raise – Single Leg Calf Raise – Calf Raise and Hold – Single Leg Calf Raise and Hold

Most of these body weight strength exercises listed above are isometric, meaning you hold your body in a position.

Advantages of Isometric Strength Exercises
Isometric strength exercise helps build stamina. Another advantage is that these types of exercises are easier if you have arthritis or ligament injury. And you don’t need any equipment. You can do them almost anywhere when you have a few minutes.

Although these exercises won’t help you build speed, they really do help with strength and endurance. It is so important to add strength to an exercise routine for women over 50 to keep fit and active.

Do you have a routine of body weight exercises that you do regularly? Which one are your favorites? Which exercises would you rather skip? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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

December 17, 2018 / Chris Brown / 2 Comments

The Challenge of Choices 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 starting over.

Here’s what happened:

On Friday, I had lunch with a friend and I made a reasonably healthy choice with a tabouli and hummus grilled pita wrap. After several hours of sitting in a work meeting, she and I walked around the town. It felt good to stretch my legs and it was good for the soul to enjoy the holiday decorations and festive lights. Special booths were set up where vendors displayed beautiful home made gifts. I indulged in some delicious gingerbread cookies with thick icing. German cookies, I forget their name (maybe Lebkuchen?) but the taste was very intense. I’m sure pretty sure the recipe had molasses in it. I know it had brown sugar for sure and powdered sugar in the icing. I’ll pretend they were 200 calories each, but they tasted incredible.

Later that evening, after walking the track at the gym before dinner, I enjoyed a beer and split a Ruben sandwich with my husband for a Friday night date. Between the cookies, beer and grilled sandwich with corned beef/sourkraut, I was not surprised when I woke up Saturday morning with my finger joints feeling very swollen and very stiff.

On Saturday, my sister held a luncheon baby shower for my niece at her house. I brought the salad (spinach, feta and a variety of chopped veggies) to go with all the goodies she offered (pizza, jo-jo’s and beautifully decorated cupcakes!) Bonus – I loved that she had a huge tray of beautiful fruit for dessert as well as her lovely cupcakes.

When it was time to eat, I remembered some of the holiday party tips that Jill and I shared on the most recent podcast “Live Well to Eat Well” and navigated the tempting foods without guilt. Seconds on salad and fruit helped, but I enjoyed the pizza and jo-jo’s as well. There are definitely some challenges of choices, especially when there is fun and family involved.

A few hours later, I was back in the car for the hour ride back home. Between all the driving and party, I did a lot of sitting, but managed to get 13 flights of stairs in during the shower by offering to take the coats up to the bedroom. Without my FitBit I wouldn’t have realized that I did manage to add that to my exercise for the day.

Getting back to my plan:

After two days of indulging in foods that I usually don’t eat, I got back on track for my regular eating plan on Sunday and was happy to get a workout day in as well.

My workout was twenty minutes of strength training with weights with some other exercises, followed by an hour and fifteen minutes of gentle yoga, and several laps of walking the track.

The 20-minute workout looked like this:

20 kettle bell swings
20 KB squats
20 KB push press
20 KB dead lifts
wall sits
leg lift machine

Between each exercise, I rested about 20-30 seconds to get my heart rate down. It wasn’t a “huge, go-for-it” work out but a “get the muscles moving” work out. I find these are better to keep me coming back for more and not ending up with too sore or pulled muscles.

Sunday afternoon I prepared my food prep for the coming week: crock pot chicken cooked in olive oil and steamed/sauted vegetables (cabbage, carrots, celery, and onions) in chicken stock. I have plenty of go-to lunch or dinner starters by preparing this. Sticking to the plan during the next three or four days should be easier and that will help set me up for next week.

Next week will be an off plan week, since the gym will be closed for some of the days and there will be lots of family food, meeting friends out at restaurants and celebrations during Christmas week. I’m already thinking of ways to get more water, walking and work outs tucked into the week so I can start the new year in good shape.

How about you? What choices have you made this month? Do you modify your eating plan and workout plan for December?

Listening to Music During a Workout

December 8, 2018 / Chris Brown / 0 Comments

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 are the 3 problems that need to be overcome with music:

Finding the music itself (right beat, keeps you going, are the words right or even not even important, even the right version of the song makes a difference I think. I usually prefer instrumental over vocals)
Actually obtaining the songs to play them when you want them. – do you use Pandora or Spotify? Or do you buy music from iTunes? Or move a song to your playlist from your CD?
Getting the right device to listen to them – Bluetooth speakers? Ear buds? Built in speakers in a beanie? Play the music out loud for everyone to hear?

This past Sunday afternoon, when the weather hit 63 degrees here in Ohio in December, I took a bike ride with 7 of my friends. The group of us witnessed a runner crossing a road right in front of an ambulance with lights and sirens. It seemed impossible he didn’t see or hear it. There is a dip in the road, so when he glanced to the right, the ambulance was obscured by the hill. But we decided that it was the Noise Cancelling Headphones that made it so he could not hear the ambulance. WOW was that scary. Luckily the ambulance driver was alert and averted a bad accident. We were all waiting at the edge of the road on the bike trail and witnessed the whole scene unfold just five or six feet in front of us. He was totally oblivious. In fact, he looked at us weirdly because of the panic on all of our faces. It was almost like a scene from a movie. He just continued running down the bike/hike path behind us like nothing had happened. It took about a half mile on the bike before the adrenaline washed away from my arms.

Please, if you use noise cancelling headphones, don’t use them on a bike trail or anywhere when you’ll be crossing a road. It can be really bad. I had no idea that they worked that well.

Listening Devices

My preferred way of listening to music during a run was with my old headband. I had cut some holes in the headband and slid some old headphone speakers into it for my outside runs. Sometimes for a bike ride, I would pull the headband down around my neck like a scarf. Much safer. Pretty ugly. I still don’t have the right answer.

When I’m running I have the neckerchief or headband fit under the baseball cap. You can see me with a version of it on in this photo and the old white headband in this photo. I tried using it for the 2018 half marathon but it failed me and I had to do the run music less.

During the winter, I use my iBeanie hat (a swag gift from the first FitBloggin’ conference I attended in Baltimore.) I don’t think the company makes these anymore, but here’s a link to something similar. This Bluetooth Beanie Hat that has built in speakers, which is great in the winter but way to hot if the weather is over 50 degrees out. (Mine is old and has wires that plug into my old iPod.) I like to keep the speakers off my ears so I can hear foot steps behind me. Because I run slowly, all runners (for the most part – and even many walkers) pass me and I don’t like to be startled.

I got some Bluetooth headphones last year for Christmas, but have had only some luck getting them to connect all the time.

Selecting the Songs

After getting a way to play the songs, I judge if I will like the music for a work out is to imagine if the song just started… would I want to get up and run out to the dance floor? If the answer is yes, then I’ll probably add it to my play list. Some songs make it to the play list only to be deleted a few weeks later.

There are lots of songs that end up going on the play list over and over.

I have different songs for running than I do for yoga or walking or even bike riding.

Anyway, back to what I wanted to write about – workout music that matches the workout. I like songs that have a beat that matches my cadence. I’m not a fast runner by any means. My playlist matches my age, taste in music and pace.

Unfortunately as I list these out here, I realize the words to most of these songs are not good, and actually go against my more thoughtful side, so please ignore that part. I guess I am not listening to the words at all, but getting the beat into my bones.

Jackson Browne Running on Empty – kinda slow but a good warm up song.
Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes Got to Find a Better Way Home. This one is peppy!
Devo Whip it good – Strong steady beat.
Rocky Horror Picture Story – Time Warp (but not if I am doing hills, this is a fast one!)
J Geils Band – Freeze Frame (also fast)
Tag Team – Whoomp There it is (Easy run song)
The Proclaimers I would walk 500 Miles – Seems slow, but it keeps me going.
Parliament – Flashlight – Neon Light – I like the beat of this one
Gwen Stephani – the Cheerleader song B-a-n-a-n-a Hollerback Girl – Good pick up
Pittbull – Bon, Bon, Bon
Weird Al Yankovick’s Can’t Watch This

Obtaining the Songs

My method is to use my CDs, put them into the computer. I create a playlist folder and then move them onto my iPod. It’s frustrating that I can’t move my playlists onto my iPhone, but it does help that I can save my iPhone battery by not playing music on it. If I don’t have the CD, I can usually get it from the library.

My other choice is to use my iPhone and listen on Pandora. I don’t have my channels worked out very well on Pandora because I don’t use it often enough. The results are usually less than satisfying.

I am curious about Spotify. Some of my friends use it – I know Jill has really enjoyed using Spotify and she shared one of her playlists earlier this year. Some people listen to the podcast on it.

How about you? I’m curious. What are your best workout songs from your playlist? Do you listen on headphones? How do you build your playlist?

Pilates Reformer: Checking Out an Old Favorite

October 18, 2018 / Jill McCauslin / 0 Comments

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 an individual one, I had my session in the private area with a fancier reformer. I enjoyed the session a lot and it made me remember why I liked doing Pilates years ago. The staff was friendly and the instructor I had was very encouraging and great at explaining. I would definitely consider going again.

The only negatives that I could see was the pricing. It’s rather expensive and what stopped me from signing up was that the membership was by the month. So, you could buy four sessions a month on a recurring schedule but you couldn’t carry over any sessions. Since I tend to have to go out of town periodically, I don’t want to worry about not using Pilates sessions that I’ve paid for. I decided that if I want to return, I’ll just pay the drop-in fee.

Pilates is a workout that focuses on core strength. It is a whole body workout but the emphasis is on the core. I remember originally being told that Pilates is similar to yoga. Perhaps mat Pilates is similar in that you do some of the same poses. Pilates does have an emphasis on breath but it does not have the meditative side of yoga. In my individual session, we did do some balance work which is always a challenge to me. We did some planking on the Bosu ball too. According to the Club Pilates website,

Pilates creates a strong foundation of balance, strength, mobility and flexibility. The full-body, low-impact workouts offered at Club Pilates provide a high-impact challenge to the stabilizing muscles of the core.

I struggle with getting in core work so I think I might try to attend some Pilates Reformer classes again. I did leave there and call my gym to confirm that they still offer Pilates Reformer classes. They do and their price was lower so that’s probably my option.

If you’re wondering, a Pilates Reformer is a contraption that looks a bit like a bed frame with a sliding board and springs and pulleys. It’s intimidating to look at. Most Pilates instructors will help you figure out how to use a Reformer and once you get the hang of it, it’s not so scary.

Another option for Pilates is mat Pilates. This is more of a typical gym class where you do a great workout that really focuses on your core. This is obviously a less expensive way to do Pilates.

Let me know if you’re a Pilates pro or even a novice. This is an exercise that seems to go in and out of fashion but never completely goes away.

Ride Review: Trying out the Cyclebar Cycling Studio

September 8, 2018 / Chris Brown / 1 Comment

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:

They were trying very hard to make everything a really great experience.
clean
friendly
organized
energized

Next, I moved into the open locker area. There were several benches to sit and change shoes.

The wall in the “locker” room had lots of encouraging quotes and phrases, which are so popular these days. Each locker had it’s own assignable combination, so you could lock your stuff up without worrying about it.

The third room in the place is the workout area – the cycling studio theater. It was immediately clear to me that this was designed to be an “experience.” With 48 cycle seats and only 2 empty, it was a packed house.

The bikes were all matching Schwinns. They all seemed very new, clean and fully functional. Crisp, white towels were rolled up and set on left hand side of each bikes’s handlebars.

The room was dark. With my eyes, it was very hard to see where the indicator marks should be set for the seat adjustments and handlebars, so I just guesstimated based on my experience from spinning at my gym. Because it was a “free trial day”, there were a lot of first timers, including the woman next to me who asked me how to set her seat. Of course, it was my first time there too, but I tried to help her. When there are so many people in the class, it’s hard for the instructor to get to everyone before the class starts. I tried to give her some help, but I really doubt that she was set up correctly.

Our instructor was extremely fit and very energetic. He used lots of hand motions and was very animated. He wore a headset microphone, so he didn’t have to shout. It was definitely a good sound system. The music was loud, but not ear splitting. I didn’t recognize any the songs, but I think there might have been a Bruce Springsteen one near the end of our session.

The instructor gave us lots of directions. I felt that with so many instructions throughout the session, it was difficult for me to get into the groove of the music by just closing my eyes and riding. Maybe it was just because this was my first time and everything seemed so new and different.

From a marketing standpoint, the Cyclebar franchise positions their “Rock Your Ride” theater experience as a feeling between a “sanctuary and rock concert.”

There were lots of colorful lights (mostly red) that the instructor played with all the time throughout the 45-minute class. I guess that was part of the rock concert feel. Once we got going, it was a bit of sensory overload for me. Maybe the music was curated for someone in their 30’s or 40’s. There were 3 or 4 battery operated candles in front of the instructor’s bike. My friend never even noticed the candles until she was leaving, because they were too low. I only saw them when he got off his bike and was moving them around, but wondered why they were there. After reviewing their website, I now figure that was a nod to the sanctuary feel.

The ride had a really good warm up at the beginning. I liked that the bikes’ monitors actually showed the resistance level on the mini screen and the mini screen stays lit up for the duration the ride. At the beginning of each song, the instructor would give us a number range for resistance (in the photo below, mine is set at a 6) and RPM (89). From my spinning classes I knew what the RPM was, but I wasn’t used to actually seeing the resistance level – I had always just thought of the resistance as easy, medium or hard. It was kinda nice to actually see the number that correlated to the resistance of what I just felt as easy, medium or hard. The instructor didn’t really talk about hills or jumps. I don’t think the idea of this particular ride was to mimic outdoor riding at all.
The handlebars had about 6 places to hold onto and I liked the bar up the center so you could lean your elbows down on the handlebars with your hands along the top in the middle.

During the class, there was a lot of moving around on the bike: up and back, down and forward. I guess that is supposed to work your core. It felt a bit weird seeing the whole room standing and bowing to the music. It was like a sea of people. With the lights flashing and everyone moving together to the music, it made me a little bit dizzy for a minute because of the mirrors and where I was located in the room.

One of the songs utilized two bar weights that were included down the front fork of each bike. I’d say they were about 3 or 4 pounds each, but I only did it for a couple of moves with them. I’ve tried a weighted ride before and I know that, without proper form, this is a good way for me to strain my back. I’m pretty conservative when it comes to getting injured, so I just put the bar back in place and did the hand motions of out and up with the rest of the class. (Okay, I’m a wimp!)

Most interesting is the scoreboard. From time to time, it would rank everyone in the room in number terms. I’m still not sure what all the numbers mean. The instructor only let it flash it up on the screen a few times, before turning it off. He’d show the whole class, and then the top 5 riders or maybe the top two. I guess he didn’t want people to obsess about their ranking during the ride.

When I looked around, most people were wearing a plain tank top with no writing on it. I couldn’t tell if they had bike shorts or regular shorts on and had a bike pad under their shorts.

The air conditioning was cranking when we first walked into the place and it felt cold in the front rooms, but about 15 minutes into the session I was wondering if he was going to turn on the fans. Granted, I sweat a lot, but there were an awful lot of people in one room working out and it was one very hot Labor Day weekend here in Northeast Ohio.

At the 45 minute mark, the ride was over and while we stretched, one of the staff members passed out damp disposable wipes for each person to disinfect their bike. They mentioned that another class was about to start in 30 minutes.

The bike that I was assigned to was up against the mirror. There were four of us in this position. While it looked like I had lots of room – because of the mirror – when it was time to stretch at the end of class, my arm was hitting the mirror.

The instructor went over near the exit door of the cycling studio and greeted each person with a fist bump as they left. He left the scoreboard up on the screen so everyone could read it as they cleaned off there bikes and left the room.

When we walked into the locker room area, another staff member handed out face clothes. I think the thing I liked very best about the entire experience was these little face cloth towels, all rolled up, smelling like lavender, wet and cool when we walked out. It reminded me of the Japanese custom of passing out little cloths after a meal and also on the airplane on the way to Japan.

Because it was a full class, the locker room was extremely tight as we got our belongings out of the lockers. At first there wasn’t enough room to switch into street shoes, so we waited a bit for things to clear out. I’m not sure why, but it reminded me of a ride at an amusement park that I had just completed — Maybe it was the flashing colorful lights and loud music. And that the theater room was so dark. By comparison, the locker room was very bright and cheery. The distinct difference between the two reinforced that Cyclebar is set up to be a very well-planned experience, not just a workout.

It was fun to do this over the holiday weekend. They mentioned that they had a special running – monthly unlimited memberships are $99/mo which compares favorably to their drop-in rate of $20 a class.

After I got home, found an email sent to me with my results. You can also log into their website to see how you did. Here is the screen captures.

Truthfully, I’m not exactly sure the significance of the numbers, except for the calorie burn. They never asked for my weight, so I’m not sure how accurate the calories are. By comparison, my FitBit showed I only burned 311 calories during the 45 minutes of the actual ride, but it also showed another 97 calories in the first 15 minutes after class too. So I’d say my actual total calorie burn for the class was 408. Not too bad for a Monday morning!

Later I noticed on their website, you can go back to your class to click on the instructor’s play list and it is connected to Spotify. I don’t have a Spotify account, but if I did, I’m sure I would like being able to do this.

Do you have a Cyclebar studio near you? If you’ve tried it, what did you think? What new workout have you tried lately? Anything out of the ordinary?