Cindy’s Fitness Blog

I have recently injured my shoulder to the point of limited mobility.  I have to refrain upper body strength training.  All is not lost, however, as I still have plenty of body parts left to work with.  I have increased my cardio training and am working my legs and core.   i am even enjoying  new cardio opportunities.  I shall try water running, which will keep my legs and heart training while offering my arms some passive light resistance.   Where there is a will there is a way, I say.  My mother taught me that!  I suppose I will lose some of my upper body strength gains, but in time I will get it back!

Are you thinking that because it is the holidays and goodies abound that you are going to indulge?  NO! NO! NO!  Now is the time to test your true resolve.  Leave the junk alone!  It has no place in the human body.  It destroys.  All that extra sugar will reduce your immune system’s ability to fight the colds and flu at this time of year.   You will have wasted your efforts to get healthy and fit.  You’ll feel sluggish, and then after the turn of the year, you will be just plain angry at yourself.  I see nothing positive in any of this.  LEAVE THE JUNK ALONE!

As you know, I have returned to one of my past loves: figure skating.  Shoulder, hip and back allignment are crucial to performing this sport with grace.  I was watching a new skater make attempts at backwards skating, and I wanted to go over and tell her, get those shoulders above your hips and hold your abs tight.  Ooops..sure enough, she fell.  I have had to remind myself to position my hips correctly to manage certain skate movement patterns.  Thank goodness my core is well-trained!  I almost lost balance today, but caught myself.  Yippee for me!

I found out yesterday my hip arthritis has worsened.  That explains the hip aches and pains I have so much.  Here’s what I must now eliminate from my exercise program: running, walking, walking/running stairs, and any kind of jumping activities.  I can keep riding my stationary bike, figure skating, using the eliptical and definitely can keep up the strength training.  Cross-training and variety is good so that the repetitive activity of one exercise mode doesn’t exacerbate hip symtoms.  Losing weight is a good idea, even though I have healthy body fat levels, it will still be helpful to have less bearing down on my pelvis.  Wish me luck!

Last night, I tried out the ‘Yoga for Athletes’ class, hoping it will help me with some left hip weakness I am noticing upon returning to figure skating after 30 years!   Wow! Was I right!  Some how I got into these amazing contortions with my legs that caused extreme stretch (for me, anyway) in my outer glutes and external rotators.  I literally had to pick my leg up out of the positions and today I am sore.  My yoga teacher confirmed that my many years of dance training forcing constant external hip rotation has shortened and tightened those muscles.  The moral of the story is that although it hurt and was tough, I believe it is really going to help unlock some of the problems I am noticing in my athletic endeavors.

Do you know the recommendation for losing weight and keeping it off is 90 minutes of activity daily?  Not sure I did that, but right now I am maintaining my weight with at least 60 minutes of activity daily.  Here’s what I did:

Monday - 30 minutes of yoga in morning and one hour of a push resistance workout in evening.  Tuesday: One hour of figure skating.  Wednesday:  One hour of functional resistance work in afternoon, and 1.5 hours yoga in evening.   Thursday:  One hour stationary bike.  Friday:  One hour of a pull resistance workout.  Saturday: One hour of figure skating and 30 minutes of yoga.  Sunday I rest with the Lord.

Along with taking the nutrition up a notch, it’s also time to put some ‘ZING” in my workouts!  This week will be a push/pull combination of exercises, along with figure skating, and olympic lifts.  I’ve not done those lifts since I learned them in school, so it should be interesting.  Today was dumbbell chest presses, band flyes, leg press, leg extensions, dumbbell shoulder overhead press, dumbbell shoulder shrugs and ball crunches supersetted with cable overhead tricep extensions.  A great workout using all my pushing muscles.  Tomorrow I will do the Olympic lifts.  I’ll let you know how that goes.  Larer in the week will be pulling exercises.  I’ll tell you about that too.  For now, get your workout in!

It’s fall, the holidays are approaching and I encourage you all to be a notch more conscientious about your determination to eat clean.   Just because everyone else puts unhealthy edible ‘foodlike substances’ in their bodies, does not mean you are required to do so.  In fact, go against the mainstream. Dare to be different.  Concentrate on lean protein sources surrounded by gobs of fruits and vegetables.  When you choose fats, use avocados, nuts and olive oil in moderation.   I dare you to drop a few pounds prior to the holidays and keep it off, rather than being a statistic of people who normally gain 5 or so pounds during this time.

I’ve returned from a 10 day vacation in Tucson, AZ.  It was a great time of rejuvenation!  Are you wondering if I worked out?  Well, of course!   While some folks think vacation is a time to splurge on food, and forget exercise, I believe vacation should really be about doing all you can to restore optimal health!  Bascially, I slept well, exercised well, and ate 95% of the time healthfully.  Unfortunately, you can’t completely control eating out even if you do make the seemingly healthy choices.  It worked!  I am back and feel great and because I love what I do, I am ready to venture forward to continue helping all of you achieve optimal health as well!  Remember, if you’re taking a vacation, bring your workout gear and accessories!

Hello everyone!  Monday workouts can be the best of the week.  You may have rested yesterday and/or just done some fun recreational playing around.  All good stuff!  Now it’s Monday, and you’ve got energy for a great workout, right??!!  Today, I spent an hour supersetting legs and shoulders, with very little rest between sets.  I want to work hard and fast to get the best calorie burn.  I am going to Tucson next week for vacation and would like to trim up a bit.  I finished legs and shoulders with obliques and upper abs.  It was great!    What is your workout today?  Let me know!