I did a light workout today--a little cardio, the single-joint-isolation leg strengthening exercises my old coworker showed me that keep my knees from falling off in long runs, some ab work, some pullups...
Interesting, though, to realize my role in the gym has seriously shifted since the last time I paid attention to it. Maybe it's just a product of the gyms I've belonged to, but I've always felt young in comparison to those around me. (Hell, I'm 23--I feel young most places!) At the gym, where people go to keep themselves looking and feeling, well, as if they were my age, I've always felt kind of on top of the game.
Today, however, as I finished up my leg extensions and wiped the little patterns of Rachel-sweat off the seat, I noticed a group of three high school aged girls wearing cheerleading t-shirts gathered around the assisted pull up machine. They were giggling and gossiping and spending a lot more time working their mouths than their lats and I actually started to slip into a mental rant about the "damn-kids-hogging-the-machine-who-aren't-even-working-I-don't-pay-for-this-when-does-school-start-someone-get -me-the-manager-etc-etc-etc" when I caught myself. I was thinking like an old person. I was being age discriminatory and that is lame. Weren't these girls participating in the exact kind of "feel good" exercise I claim to feel so passionately about? Weren't they choosing to spend a morning of their coveted summer vacation exercising in the company of friends instead of watching The View at home alone or smoking cigarettes with the boys their mom's warn them about?
I sucked it up and waited for them to leave and did my pull ups, but there they were again, messing around with boxing gloves and targets, when I went to do my abs! After a couple rounds of oblique crunches on the Bosu (one of my all time favorites for me and my clients) I decided to treat myself to a little bit of playtime with some balancing exercises. 10 attempts and about 9 wipe-outs later, I noticed 2 of the girls had pulled out Bosu's themselves and were attempting the exercise they had just seen me do.
I'm not gonna lie, this kind of thing really feeds my ego. Especially since completing school and becoming a personal trainer, I feel like the cool kid when I go to the gym: not only am I working out, I know all the gimmicks and how to use the best toys, too. Since I had to walk by them anyhow to get a mat to stretch on, I asked the girls (who were a little embarrassed I had noticed their following) if they were on a cheerleading team together (yes) and which school they were from (Westmont High) and told them I thought it was pretty cool that they were working out together. I also pointed to the Bosu and said, "You know, you can stand on the flat side of that--it's a little bit harder but really good for practicing balance and working your abs."
Guess what the entire squad was doing when I left the gym.
(Good deed for the day? Check.)
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Gimme some slack!
Goodness it’s been a while—the past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of family vacations—first the 4th of July in Tahoe with my boyfriend’s mom and brother and then the annual Press Family Yosemite trip. It’s been crazy and exhausting, but fun and I’ve found a couple of great new workouts in disguise!
Brian’s little brother, Eric, is kind of a badass when it comes to hidden workouts. He’s an eagle scout who has been pretty into backpacking for a while now and gets his jollies off of “being prepared” for whatever in the wilderness. A couple of years ago he followed Brian’s footsteps and entered the indoor climbing scene. Since then he’s developed (along with gigantic shoulders) interest in a lot of the outdoor “alternative” activities that tend to be popular in the climbing community. I got to reap the benefits of his explorations over the holiday weekend in the form of a free slacklining lesson.
Slacklining, for those of you who don’t frequent climbing gyms, hippie music festivals or alternative fitness demonstrations, is kind of like tightrope walking with hairy armpits. Typically the slack line is strung between two trees, giving the activity kind of an earthy feel—especially when those trees are in a lightly forested area of Lake Tahoe. Here's Eric giving a demonstration of how it should be done:
As a rookie, you’ll see that my slacklining attempts are short lived and heavily assisted, so it’s a good thing I didn’t try to be like this guy and set my rope up a billion feet off the ground.
Teetering on the edge of disaster
Slacklining is SUPERFUN!
I know it looks like I’m not doing much in my pictures, but believe it or not, the next day my legs were ridiculously shaky. My quads were sore in what felt like a really similar region to where I usually ache after a day of skiing. I didn’t commit to a very long slacklining session, but Eric swears when you do the pain in your legs is most definitely rivaled by a burning core which is easy to believe since your body is in a constant state of micro-adjustment while on the slackline. I was impressed that only about 30 minutes of this slacklining business was able to give me such a decent workout, especially since I was laughing half the time!
The downside to the slacklining workout? Well, it was pretty hard on my knees. As any of my clients will tell you, I’m not a fan of putting knees in an acute angle and the whole “mounting” process necessary to get on the slackline without someone holding your hands makes that a requirement. Because you’re only lifting your own body weight, it’s not too heinous of a request, but it does create a bit of wear and tear and my knees definitely felt the strain after I’d done my long run the next day. Take home message? Give your knees some time to recover when you’re new at slacklining before you dive into other activities that are demanding to that joint.
The second drawback is actually correctable with some foresight. Because we all have a “happy” side, or a arm/leg that has better balance and coordination, it is easy to favor half of your body when doing a challenging, task-based workout (in this case, the task is don’t fall on your face). This can create unbalanced results. The temptation to keep trying to mount the slackline on your “happy” side is pretty intense, especially when you feel yourself getting “so close!” to getting it right. If you’re using slacklining as a method of conditioning, count and time your attempts to make sure your right and left sides get equal time in the limelight. You may see slower progress initially, but in the long run your joints will thank you and you may even end up more skilled than your less ambidextrous slacklining friends!
Finally, be careful when you slackline. I was lucky enough to have someone who was practiced enough to know how to keep me from killing myself. Try to find a veteran who is willing to give you some hands (or foot!) on tips, and when you fall, avoid catching your feet on the slackline and rolling down a hill face first into your mountain cabin. (Yes, Brian, that was for you.)
Brian’s little brother, Eric, is kind of a badass when it comes to hidden workouts. He’s an eagle scout who has been pretty into backpacking for a while now and gets his jollies off of “being prepared” for whatever in the wilderness. A couple of years ago he followed Brian’s footsteps and entered the indoor climbing scene. Since then he’s developed (along with gigantic shoulders) interest in a lot of the outdoor “alternative” activities that tend to be popular in the climbing community. I got to reap the benefits of his explorations over the holiday weekend in the form of a free slacklining lesson.
Slacklining, for those of you who don’t frequent climbing gyms, hippie music festivals or alternative fitness demonstrations, is kind of like tightrope walking with hairy armpits. Typically the slack line is strung between two trees, giving the activity kind of an earthy feel—especially when those trees are in a lightly forested area of Lake Tahoe. Here's Eric giving a demonstration of how it should be done:
As a rookie, you’ll see that my slacklining attempts are short lived and heavily assisted, so it’s a good thing I didn’t try to be like this guy and set my rope up a billion feet off the ground.
Teetering on the edge of disaster
Slacklining is SUPERFUN!
I know it looks like I’m not doing much in my pictures, but believe it or not, the next day my legs were ridiculously shaky. My quads were sore in what felt like a really similar region to where I usually ache after a day of skiing. I didn’t commit to a very long slacklining session, but Eric swears when you do the pain in your legs is most definitely rivaled by a burning core which is easy to believe since your body is in a constant state of micro-adjustment while on the slackline. I was impressed that only about 30 minutes of this slacklining business was able to give me such a decent workout, especially since I was laughing half the time!
The downside to the slacklining workout? Well, it was pretty hard on my knees. As any of my clients will tell you, I’m not a fan of putting knees in an acute angle and the whole “mounting” process necessary to get on the slackline without someone holding your hands makes that a requirement. Because you’re only lifting your own body weight, it’s not too heinous of a request, but it does create a bit of wear and tear and my knees definitely felt the strain after I’d done my long run the next day. Take home message? Give your knees some time to recover when you’re new at slacklining before you dive into other activities that are demanding to that joint.
The second drawback is actually correctable with some foresight. Because we all have a “happy” side, or a arm/leg that has better balance and coordination, it is easy to favor half of your body when doing a challenging, task-based workout (in this case, the task is don’t fall on your face). This can create unbalanced results. The temptation to keep trying to mount the slackline on your “happy” side is pretty intense, especially when you feel yourself getting “so close!” to getting it right. If you’re using slacklining as a method of conditioning, count and time your attempts to make sure your right and left sides get equal time in the limelight. You may see slower progress initially, but in the long run your joints will thank you and you may even end up more skilled than your less ambidextrous slacklining friends!
Finally, be careful when you slackline. I was lucky enough to have someone who was practiced enough to know how to keep me from killing myself. Try to find a veteran who is willing to give you some hands (or foot!) on tips, and when you fall, avoid catching your feet on the slackline and rolling down a hill face first into your mountain cabin. (Yes, Brian, that was for you.)
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