Today I warmed up using the BOSU ball as a wobble board, jumping on and off and doing step-ups with hip flexion, then plyometrics with jump rope, Ski Drill Planks, Walking Plank and power squats, taking 30 second break between each sequence. 

Then I worked my back on the free weights and machines - First, bench-style bent-forward lawn mowers in 5 pyramid sets with 40 lbs, a seated erector pull-down at 75, four sets of seated lat raises (in each of the four lift positions at 45 lbs each side). During longer rest periods I did the heavy rope in deep squat position to work my arms and lower back while standing on the wobble side of the BOSU.

To finish out I did bicycles and supermans on the soft side of the BOSU, giving my back a nice static stretch and cool down.

Tomorrow it's a bit of cardio followed by focus on the Gluteus Maximus, including:

Running Plank
Side Leg Raises
Backward Leg Curl-ups
Side Lunges
Forward / Backward Lunge
Ball Squats
Bridges (floor)
Cross-Leg Bridges
On the Ball Hip Lift
On the Ball Leg Lift
Dirty Dogs

Yoga Pose Cool down

Outdoors: Into the Gym

Outdoor, fair-weather running was my first and exclusive aerobic passion, and I enjoyed doing it for up to seven miles per run, five days a week. I luxuriated in the mental vastness I could enjoy on the outdoor trek, and each day there was something visually stunning to behold - Virga formations in the sky, the shadow of a hawk across the ground, the blaze of a sunset through spring trees, a fluttering mass of tiny yellow butterflies, a deer stepping out from a wooded stretch of road, or swirling snake tracks in the dirt through which I was striding. However, because the weather at times drove me indoors, and because the clay of Michigan back roads found my knees barking, I had to resort to the indoor version of running.

Crossing over to fitness machines was not something I was completely comfortable with - the treadmill was my logical choice at first, but I felt intimidated by a certain loss of control - would it be safe to run on such a machine at high speeds? Was it possible I might catch my shoe on the edge of the conveyor and fall?

As I eased cautiously into the activity, I watched how others handled high speed-stopping, an untied shoe, interruptions, or pushing a lot of buttons while going like a felon on a getaway. Some people seemed to do it while being able to check football scores, text and talk to the person next to them at the same time. Others just surged into the body mantra of forward motion, breathed and perspired, staring straight ahead. I did have a few mishaps (where I sprayed myself with my water bottle or caught the tread of my shoe on the edge of the spinning treadmill band), but over time I began to feel that utilizing the machines might help me to stay at a steady pace consistently - I realized that in using such machines I could mark my improvement, and of course the surface of the treadmill was more cushioned than the hard-packed clay and asphalt I had become accustomed to.

About a year into my indoor fitness endeavors, I had worked in the recumbent bike, the elliptical, the treadmill, the cycle, the spinning bike and the stair stepper into my rotation of aerobic workouts. I happened to be in the row of elliptical machines just behind the treadmills when a personal trainer and his new client approached the treadmill just ahead of me. I watched the client's reaction to the machine - her shoulders dropped back, her expression hollowed, and she swallowed hard.
"I've never used one of these before," she said with trepidation. She stepped onto the conveyor hesitantly, and the trainer guided her through the mechanisms and buttons that adjusted the speeds and levels of the machine. She held on to the handrails with a vice grip at first, walking slowly for a while until some of the tension eased out of her shoulders. At last she worked her way up to a quicker stride, with the trainer beside her urging her on positively throughout. It took me back to the moment I had experienced such uncertainty and newness, but watching the professional assisting the woman, I also felt the first telltale twinge of desire to become a personal trainer.

Activities I Enjoy

While I'll try almost anything athletic, I do have some favorite activities

Beach Frisbee / Beach running
Distance Cycling
Stand Up Paddle
Windsurfing
Rafting
Balance (Wobble Board) Routine / BOSU
Tennis / Badminton
Kayaking
Disc Golf
River Fishing
Weightlifting / Bodybuilding
Heavy Rope / Medicine Ball
Boxing
Yoga
Ultimate Frisbee
Jump Rope
Endurance Running
Hang Gliding
Mountaing Hiking / Mountain Biking
Snowboarding


 

An Odd Philosophy: "If it hurts, go in anyway, and work it out."

Inevitably, as a fitness enthusiast or active individual of any kind, you're going to hurt yourself; an avid, veteran windsurfer friend of mine pulled a groin muscle water skiing. Several of my Ultimate Frisbee teammates sustained various leg injuries in a single game. A seasoned weight-lifting buddy pulled his trapezius playing disc golf. As I trained for a half-marathon I pulled my sartorius.

I've often heard of people sustaining injuries that are far more slight who then take a long hiatus. For example, "My wrist was sore, so I didn't work out at all for a month." Then there are those of us who show up at the gym even though the tornado sirens are going off, quarter-sized hail is pelting the gym roof, and there's crazy purple lightning in the apocalyptic sky...

Early on in my fitness development, I was often guilty of overtraining, or stressing my joints and systems too hard with cardio sessions that were too long and too intense (doing the stair stepper for 70 minutes at level 20 regularly, for example). Not knowing the importance of slow, precise repetitions during weightlifting, I powered through some exercises like the Energizer Bunny. Consequently, I developed some 'creptius', the creaking, cracking or grinding noise you occasionally hear in your joints. Since cartilage doesn't have pain sensors, the crackling and popping didn't hurt, but I could tell that something was 'off' in the rotation of my shoulder or the bend of my knee.

Occasionally I did have discomfort beyond that of my usual recovery soreness - I 'pulled' something, and all the muscles around the affected area were feeling displaced. I did apply heat and ice just as I should, but from the very beginning I felt that there might be a way to undo whatever minor damage I'd done. For example, when I pulled a muscle in my back, I used a third to half of my usual weight for a back exercise and slowly, carefully worked the affected area. I *only* did this if it wasn't physically painful - *only* if it was uncomfortable, sore or 'feeling displaced'. In every instance, if I followed the rule of working out the affected area with care, deliberate slowness and much less weight, by the end of my training session the area felt warm, lubricated and more resolved. And I went home with the discomfort feeling markedly reduced - sometimes even eliminated. This may be, in part, a result of the natural chemicals our bodies release as we exert ourselves, but long after the endorphins of the workout assuaged, I still felt better.

In another instance, I have long been a sufferer of migraines. For me the condition is likely genetic, since my mother had the same crippling sort of headaches. Being healthy in almost every other respect, I was frustrated that at times a raging migraine would hit, confine me to a dark room, leaving me nauseous and motionless.
After the holiday season had gone into full swing last year, a former Boston College running-back and dear friend of mine asked me how I'd enjoyed my Thanksgiving.
"Oh, I was home in bed," I shrugged. "Migraine."
"Oh, if I have a migraine, I just come here." We were in the gym, of course.
I must have looked at him like he was from Jupiter, and immediately counted him off as insane. However, the next time I felt the trademark flimmering of lights in my peripheral vision (one of the precursors to a migraine), I was actually on my way to the gym for a workout. I chose an activity that would leave me stationary and stable (the cycle) and proceeded to kick back the migraine with a simple workout. I apologized to my friend later for thinking him crazy, and have since beaten off or diminished at least ten migraines with the simple 'go in anyway' attitude.

Reps (Repititions) and Sets

While I've heard of (and observed) a real variety of approaches to repetition and set in a fitness environment, for myself I have found the following three disciplines most useful in weight training:

1) The ascension set - increasing weight with the same number of reps in a series of three to six sets, or increasing the number of reps with the same amount of weight throughout.

2) The pyramid - an ascending and then descending number of reps in a series of sets, for example; bench press at 8 reps, 10 reps, 12 reps, 10 reps, 8 reps.

3) The fail system - doing as many as I can until I can't do any more repetitions. 
 
Having been confused as the personal trainer often in the gym a) because I'm so interactive and b) because I'm there so often, people frequently ask me how many reps or sets they should do, and I always tell them that this depends on what their ultimate goal is in training. While this sounds like an attempt at deflection to avoid giving a longer answer, there is a method behind it. 

As I have come to understand it, heavy weights at low reps produce a larger, more explosive muscle. The actual tears (or traumas) in the muscle are larger, creating the visible bulge that has made so many bodybuilders famous. However, smaller weights at lower reps produces more finite tears in the muscle fiber, and therefore yeilds a leaner muscle. With this in mind, I tend to do a lower weight for most training purposes, with reps in the 12 to 15 range, with three to four sets for each muscle group in my training sessions.

Women seeking to tone and trim their figure, or women wishing to do muscle sculpting to increase definition should follow this rep and set frequency.

Men wishing to do the same may do so at higher weight ratios, since most men have a greater upper body strength than women. 

Men and women wishing to bulk up skeletal muscle can do as few as 3 set of 3 reps or 5 sets of 5 reps. The key in my experience is to assess your level of fatigue and recovery after each session, and to watch the visible effects that will undoubtedly reveal themselves in your muscular definition.



 

 

The 7 Laws of Training, as Explained by the International Sports Science Association

First is the Principle of Individuals, which simply presents the idea that if a hundred people tried the same training program, each one of these hundred people would respond differently. I subscribe to the belief that a person's environment, attitude, mood at the moment, their diet in the past week, their current stress level, and their physical ability all play into the applications of this theory.

Second is the Overcompensation Principle is based on stress response, and is described as 'nothing more than a survival mechanism' programed into our human genetic code.

The Overload Principle is one that I have integrated into my own weightlifting regiments; I began training at home years ago, for example, using hand weights for rowing exercises that were three pounds. Now I use 40 pound weights for the same exercise. I have hit upon periods of plateau when applying this principle, but by integrating new programs and provoking muscle confusion, I have found I can surmount the athletic obstacle.

The SAID Principle (which stands for Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands) is rather uncompromising, focusing on one training objective at a time. It is theorized that such training in one area will affect abilities in other areas (example: focus on aerobic fitness will diminish strength in anaerobic fitness).

The USE / DISUSE Principle is comprised of a stress / rest approach, where hypertrophy and atrophy occur in trained and 'detrained' muscles. The detraining effect has demonstrated what is called 'the law of reversibility', where muscle memory will allow you to retrain and regain skeletal muscle more quickly after detraining.

The Specificity Principle involves both neuromuscular adaptations and technique functionality. Basically, if you are training for a marathon, you focus on endurance running, rather than cycling or the stair stepper.

The GAS (or General Adaptive) Principle is made up of three stages; the 'alarm' stage, the 'resistance' stage and the 'exhaustion stage'. The General Adaptive Principle suggests that there should be periods of high-intensity training followed by low-intensity periods of training. The stress of high-intensity is traumatic, and the lower-intensity period allows your muscles to heal. While some athletes and trainers have expressed that the law of reversibility (from the USE / DISUSE Principle) creates undesirable atrophy within the General Adaptive Principle. However, I believe that by developing a consistent training schedule, with the proper frequency and with short periods of rest, progress can still be observed.

There are myriads of other Systems at work in the fitness world today, including:

The POF (or Positions of Flexion) (hitting a muscle from three positions creating a full range of motion)

HIT, High Intensity Training 
A. Superslow
B. Heavy Duty

Body Contract Training

Bulgarian Power Burst Training

Hardgainers System

Supersquats

Bigger, Faster, Stronger

I have had some experience with many of the above programs, and currently I *loosely* follow the schedule below: I use the term 'loosely' because I will adapt the schedule as my body communicates its needs throughout a given week of training. For example, if I try a new squats routine for my legs workout on Wednesday and I'm due for a hard cardio (which involves my legs) on Thursday, I'll do an arms workout on Thursday instead, and give my legs a day of rest.

Monday: 10 -15 minute cardio, Chest and Abs
Tuesday: 30 - 45 minutes cardio, stair stepper, level 16
Wednesday: 10 - 15 minutes cardio, Back and Shoulders
Thursday: 30 - 45 minute cardio, cycle, interval training from level 10 to level 20
Friday: 10 - 15 minutes cardio, Arms and Abs
Saturday: Rest Day
Sunday: 10 - 15 minutes cardio, Back
Monday: 10 - 15 minutes cardio, Legs and Abs
Tuesday: 30 - 45 minutes cardio, Stair Climber
Wednesday: 10 minutes cardio, Chest and Abs 
Thursday: 15 minutes cardio, Legs and Balance Routine
and so on...

The biggest rut I've seen athletes get into is the comfort zone. If you just go through the motions of a program and don't integrate other things into it, your body adapts and you hit a plateau. I find I naturally cycle through favorite workouts and exercises, and after a while I phase them out or put them on the shelf for a while. 

 

My Personal Supplements List

For any person with an active lifestyle, supplementation is of incredible importance. As a woman of 38, as a body builder, and as a vegetarian, I have to follow a strict and consistent supplementation schedule. First, I have to be sure to ingest 60 to 75 grams of protein within the 16 wakeful hours of the day. A significant percentage of this protein is derived from:

Pea Protein, by Now Foods  24g per serving
Whey Protein Isolate, by Biochem - 20g per serving
Pumpkin Seed Protein Powder, Omega Nutrition - 18g per serving

Other daily supplementation includes:

Flax Seed Oil, Tablets - for Omega 3
Gingko Biloba - promotes peripheral blood flow, increases cellular glucose
Green Tea Antioxidant - scavenges free radicals
Bilberry - an excellent anti-inflammatory  
Vitamin D3 - as a preventative against osteoporosis, for neural health 
Chelated Iron - to regulate iron levels in vegetarian diet and female hormonal fluctuation
White Willow Bark - a natural alternative to Asprin
BCAAs, by USPLabs - for faster recovery and to aid in post workout recovery soreness

I also take a chewable Elderberry and Zinc tablet to boost immunity (or if I'm in the presence of others with an illness). If I'm feeling under the weather I also take Beta 1,3/1,6-D-Glucan in 100mg capsules, enhanced with Astragalus Root (all products available from NOW Foods).