254/365 Rows on a Ball

Friends and Fitness Enthusiasts,

As you may have caught on, I like doing rows of every kind. This one is particularly cool because you're not standing or sitting, you're balancing on a ball!

Here's how to do it:
1. Select a balance ball that is a little bit taller than your knee. You don't want a ball too big or else it'll be more of a lower back exercise than an upper back exercise simply because of the way you'll have to position the ball.
2. Put your dumbbells of choice in front of the ball to keep the ball from rolling.
3. Roll onto the ball so that your tummy is supported and your toes are touching the floor.
4. Grab onto your weights, keep your back engaged, and row! Pretend there's a ball on your spine and you've got to squeeze it with your shoulder blades.

In health,

Lauren

253/365 Hold it Right There

Friends and Fitness Enthusiasts,

This was suggested to me by a friend. In order to pick up the intensity of your weight lifting and really test your anaerobic system (the one for creating a lot of power quickly) is to hold your contractions. For example, if you're doing 12 reps of an overhead press, hold your arms up straight in the air for an additional 10-30s. You could also try holding your arms when they are shoulder level.

I did this in my workout today and really enjoyed that extra burn and challenge. To start out, I would recommend only holding the position on the last set of your exercise so that you don't get too burnt out. Remember to drink that protein after you finish!

In health,

Lauren

252/365 Hardcore Parkour

Friends and Fitness Enthusiasts,

The following video is not parkour.


According to American Parkour, "parkour is the physical discipline of training to overcome any obstacle within one's path by adapting one's movements to the environment." Safety is one of the most important things about training for parkour. It's not meant to be a way for people to show off or try something stupid. It's about practice, discipline, and knowing your limits.

I'm writing this blog because a friend Brian has been doing parkour for about a year and loves it. It's a great work out that requires you to have immense control over your body for jumping, running, hanging, etc. If you've seen Casino Royale, remember the guy at the beginning that James Bond is chasing; I believe you could call that parkour.

The American Parkour website should be able to direct you to a parkour facility near you. If there was one near me, I would definitely give it a shot. When I get the chance, I'm going to visit my friend's gym where he started parkour training and now works.

In health,

Lauren

251/365 Just because it's _____ doesn't Mean You're Excused from Exercise

Friends and Fitness Enthusiasts,

When I worked at my college's gym, my fellow coworkers and I knew that it'd be a slow day if it was raining. For some reason, bad weather outside deters people from exercising inside. Don't let this be you! Things like "raining," "Friday," or "your menstruation cycle" are not what I consider a valid reason to not exercise.

Reasons that you are excused from exercising are:
- You feel like you're getting sick, you are sick, or you have just recovered from getting sick
- You feel pain in your chest (not how Cee Lo feels it) or on the left side of your body when doing regular exercise...go see a doctor
- You can't breathe or are short of breath

So if you want my respect as a fellow fitness enthusiast, don't let petty, temporal excuses get in the way of your burn.

In health,

Lauren

250/365 Blood Pressure

Friends and Fitness Enthusiasts,

Blood pressure is a measure of how hard your heart has to pump blood through your arteries. Many factors affect those two numbers in your blood pressure score. First off, the top number represents the pressure against your blood vessels while your heart is contracted (systole). A good score is below 120mmHg; a score above 130 means pre-hypertension and a score above 140 means hypertension. The bottom number represents the pressure against your blood vessels while your heart is relaxed in between contractions (diastole). A good score is below 80mmHg; pre-hypertension is 85 and hypertension is 90.

These values are affected by the amount of resistance in your blood vessels (total peripheral resistance). Our blood vessels are supposed to be flexible. The more stiff they are, the harder your heart has to work to keep blood flowing. TPR can be exacerbated by smoking, physical inactivity, stress, consuming a lot of sodium and/or trans/sat fat, and genetics. Exercise has been known to decrease blood pressure. Through exercise, your heart gets stronger and pumps blood more efficiently (there's a lot of physiology behind that, if you want to know more, just let me know).

If you want to get your blood pressure checked, do it after sitting for 5 minutes and before you exercise. The person who takes it will make sure that your back is fully supported, your feet are flat on the ground, and you aren't talking or laughing.

In health,

Lauren

249/365 Cholesterol 101

Friends and Fitness Enthusiasts,

You've got your HDLs, your LDLs, and your tri-glycerides. The values of these in your blood make up your total cholesterol. Ideally, your total cholesterol should be below 200mg/dl; this score is calculated by this formula: total cholesterol = LDL+HDL+1/5(triglycerides). So what exactly are these particles floating around in your body?

High density lipoproteins (HDLs) are considered good because they pick up LDL cholesterol and transport it to your liver to be reused by the body or excreted. Low density lipoproteins (LDLs) are considered bad because they contribute to plaque build up in the bloodstream. Triglycerides are fat that can ultimately be converted to LDLs which makes the risk for heart disease greater.

Those commercials for cholesterol drugs are right in that you cannot tell someone's cholesterol levels just by looking at him/her. Eating red meat, foods high in saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol, and consuming more than one drink a day (for women, two for men), have been known to increase total cholesterol. If you recall a previous post I wrote, consuming alcohol can cause us to consume fattier foods to remove the alcohol from our systems; it's a vicious cycle.

Alas, there's hope! Exercise has been known to increase HDLs and decrease LDLs. Now we shouldn't cut out fats from our diets entirely because all of our cells need fat (remember freshmen biology?). It's important to have a balanced fat consumption. We are encouraged to eat omega-3 fatty acids because we already consume a lot of omega-6 fatty acids from red meat.

In summary, your ideal scores should be as follows:
Triglycerides less than 150

LDL less than 100
HDL greater than 60

You can get your cholesterol score by asking your doctor to do your bloodwork during your annual physical.

In health,

Lauren

248/365 Football Player Syndrome

Friends and Fitness Enthusiasts,

I am only saying this because I care; I don't mean to offend anyone. There's a woman whom I've just started training. She played basketball in college; her husband played football. She's decided to get her life back and start working out again. During our session, we started chatting about her husband and how he's got Football Player Syndrome and now the Triple Threat (Diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol). This Triple Threat makes anyone at a much greater risk for having coronary artery disease or a stroke.

Football Player Syndrome is a term she and I came up with. It's something that tends to happen to former athletes: they stop working out at their former intensity but still eat like they are playing 4 hours a day. They have always listened to their coaches to work hard and eat hard. Unfortunately, once that's over, they have no way to burn off the calories they are so accustomed to eating (have you been watching The Biggest Loser? Rulon is a gold medalist in Greco-Roman Wrestling).

I'm writing this in case there are any former athletes reading this or if any readers know friends like this. Gaining weight has effects other than clothes fitting tighter and feeling sluggish, these other effects can be fatal. Know your numbers now so that 20 years down the road, you won't be asking yourself, "How did I let this happen?" The numbers I'm referring to are your tri-glycerides, cholesterol, blood pressure, and resting glucose. I'll get into these in the coming days.

In conclusion, you former athletes, you don't have to train like you did in high school or college; just stay active and control your diet. You're not a kid anymore; aging changes your metabolism and unless you do something to keep it running well, you could be diagnosed with this Football Player Syndrome. There are still trainers out there to help you but, ultimately you must decide to want this for yourself.

In health,

Lauren

PS: I love working with former athletes because that drive to work hard and be disciplined never goes away once it gets turned on  :)