exercising

Exercising at Dark-Thirty a. m.

October 2, 2009 by Shelli

This is POST 11 of my “fitness journey” blogging. For backstory, see Post 1,
Post 2, Post 3, Post 4, Post 5, Post 6, Post 7,Post 8, Post 9 and Post 10.]

Getting fit is hard to do. Especially if you’re me, because that means three times a week your alarm clock blares at 4:30 am.

One of the most common excuses for putting off our fitness and exercising is lack of time.

On a recent day hike in the nearby Wind River Range of Wyoming.

I know for me, this has commonly been an excuse. During the last few years I was a business owner, wife and mother of three young sons. Even though we sold our business last September, I remain on board as a consultant. And, as our sons grow, life is getting busier.

I want and need to be fit, but I also want to maximize my time with my family. Don’t get me wrong. I have an extremely supportive (and very fit) husband, and my boys like to see their mommy healthy and happy. Still, I do feel guilty if my exercising takes away ant of my time with them.

To overcome this self-imposed conflict, I’ve been waking up at 4:30 am to work out at the gym on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

This isn’t easy. I love sleeping. I operate best on a full 7 or 8 hours of it. But, at least for me, that 45 minutes of hard exercise yields more benefits than an extra 45 minutes of sleeping. And, when I get home, at about 5:30 am, my boys are still sleeping. I don’t feel like I’ve shorted them, or me, of any family time. So the dark thirty workouts work for me.

There are 3-4 other women I have gotten to know, all also mothers and full-time professionals, who also often work out at dark thirty. Recently we had a little fun and shot some photos of what we really do when we’re at the gym in the wee hours of the morning.

They are below.

My early morning workout friends, Sarah Sweeney, Misty Atnip and Leslie Calkins.

This is a complex set called "Getting Rid of the Rolls."

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DonutPartyatETCGym4

Elemental Gym has a fantastic gym, some terrific programs and classes that will help you achieve better fitness. And, I might add, some great personal trainers: Steve Bechtel, Ellen Bechtel, Jagoe Reid, and Sophie Mosemann.

We Run to Play Wii

September 7, 2009 by Shelli

Hello!

Okay, so our family lives in the beautiful mountain town of Lander, WY. The Wind River Range, Yellowstone, the Red Desert and Oregon Buttes are in our backyard and the sun shines 330 days out of 365 days a year.

My husband, Jerry, is a P. E. Teacher. I am really into fitness. We are both health nuts and trail runners, hikers, mountain bikers and snowboarders.

At the same time we love technology.

So when the Wii came out, we were at a crux. How can we support video games when we live in such a beautiful, outdoorsy place, Jerry’s a Physical Education teacher and during a time when obesity and sedentary lifestyles are rampant in our U. S. society?

The answer — our answer, anyway — has been to require some fitness, reading and outdoor fun BEFORE any Wii time is permitted.

We aren’t getting parents of the year as a result, I’m quite certain, but our kids will be fit, and they will get to enjoy technology and game systems like Wii. As long as they do their exercise first, that is.

Cheers from Wyoming!

IN FIRST PICTURE: The last sprint is always a race. (Here are two oldest sons, ages 9 and 7. Hayden wins the sprints, but Wolfie wins anything of any distance)

IN SECOND PICTURE: Here is our 2.5-year-old son, Finis (“Fin”), who also likes to run… even though he doesn’t yet play Wii.

HERE’S A VIDEO CLIP OF THE PRE-WII FITNESS SESSION:

Posted via email from HaveMediaWillTravel

Spot Reduction: We Can Stop Believing

September 1, 2009 by Shelli

This is POST 8 of my “fitness journey” blogging. For backstory, see Post 1,
Post 2, Post 3, Post 4, Post 5, Post 6 and Post 7.]

So, I’m at my personal training session with Steve Bechtel at Elemental Gym, in Lander, WY, yesterday. I’m hard at work on my last exercises of the session. They are abs-related. Incline situps to be exact.

Hiking up Cyclone Pass during a monster day hike from Sinks Canyon to Shoshone Lake to Baldwin Creek, above Lander, WY. According to my personal trainer, hiking hard up hills can help with fat loss.

I tell Steve that I’m actually able to see some of my abdominal muscles now, but not all of them. “I still can’t make them out near the bottom,” I explain, pointing to my pooch belly.

To this, he says, “Well the only way you’re going to get rid of that is with intervals.”

My training includes two days a week of intervals. This is one of my workouts.

He must not have heard me, I thought. What do intervals have to do with my mid-section? (After all, “Don’t Stop Believing,” by Journey was blaring from the satellite radio…)

“No… I mean my abs, the bottom front part of them,” I add, this time pointing more directly to my stomach.

It was then that Steve asked me if I was asking about “spot reduction?” Spot reduction, meaning when you exercise and focus training on specific regions of your body so as to hopefully burn the fat off that area specifically.

“Yes, exactly!” I said.

“Spot reduction is a myth!” he exclaimed. Well, maybe not exclaimed, but he said it pretty emphatically. He explained how there have been countless machines built to promote spot reduction. Think of the ab devices we see on TV informercials during bouts of insomnia in the wee early morning hours. Also I think of the inner thigh and outer thigh machines you often see at gyms. I know as a woman, I’m the target audience of such machines.

“SPOT REDUCTION IS A MYTH,” IN STEVE’S WORDS:

As we wrap up my training session, Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing has (ironically) been replaced by Another One Bites the Dust, by Queen. Just great…

Elemental Gym is a fantastic gym and has some terrific programs and classes that will help you achieve better fitness, and some great personal trainers, including Steve Bechtel, Ellen Bechtel, Jagoe Reid, and Sophie Mosemann.