Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

Here it is. I tested the Nintendo Wii with my heart rate monitor. We played Wii Sports, Monkey Ball Banana Blitz and Rayman Raving Rabbids. This commercial gives you a pretty good idea of how much movement you will be doing when you play. There is a scene where the mom is running in the game and she can’t help but move her feet. That exact thing happened to me. We were playing Rayman and I had to run as fast as I could to deliver a bomb to a bunny instead of letting it blow up in my face. You run by moving your arms up and down as if you’re jogging. You could do it sitting down, but you really are faster if you stand up. I couldn’t help but run in place. Mike said, “You don’t need to move your feet.” I shouted back, “Shut up!” and got the fastest time of anyone else. Moving your feet makes you move faster too and my heart rate monitor read 129 bpm.

On the whole, however, most of the games didn’t get my heart rate any higher than it was while I sat on the couch watching others play. Tennis, bowling and baseball on Wii Sports didn’t really do anything for me. The boxing, however, got my heart rate up to 127 bpm. It was a little frustrating, however, because it didn’t feel like my punching in the air had anything to do with what was happening on the screen. Worse still, Dan knocked me out in only three rounds. I hate to lose.

Monkey Ball Banana Blitz sucks. Sorry… I really hate to say it because I have LOVED Monkey Ball on the Xbox, but the mini-games are NOT intutitive at all. They really didn’t use the Wii controller well. None of the games got my heart rate up at all except the Monkey Boxing. Ironically, the Monkey Boxing was way more responsive than the boxing on Wii Sports. If you like boxing, I would totally recommend Monkey Ball. Every time I threw a punch, my monkey moved it’s arms. It may not have hit the other monkey, but it at least tried, which is more than I can say for the responsiveness of the Wii Sports boxing.

The hands down favorite, however, is Rayman Raving Rabbids. From cow throwing to shooting bunnies, it was the most fun. It didn’t bring my heart rate up at all except on “Bunnies Don’t Give Gifts” where I had to sprint with the bomb and the “Bunnies Don’t Know What To Do With Cows.” If Rayman wasn’t a cardio workout, it definitely did something for my arms because the next day, Mike, Dan and I had arm soreness. Stacey was tough, but I think she works in at an insurance company where she has to lift thousands of claim forms every day or something…

On the whole, the Wii Workout isn’t that great. It’s not quite intense enough to get your heart rate up for an extended period of time and it isn’t too much of a muscle workout. Is it exergaming? Not really… Is it better than any other gaming console for getting you out of the couch? Heck yeah!

What would you do if you could just start walking and just keep on walking for thousands of miles through North Carolina’s natural beauty? You would find yourself on the Mountains to Sea Trail.

• N.C. Mountains to Sea Trail wins award – Yahoo! News

Although it’s not completed it recently won the Steward for the Environment Award from REI. The idea of being able to start on a path and just keep walking until you hit the ocean is beautiful to me. There are a couple of trails like this planned all across the United States. There just might be a local trail in your area that might be good enough for a winter walk in the snow. It might not be 1000 miles, but then again, how often are we able to walk 1000 miles?

For More Information:

• FMST: Friends of the Mountains to Sea Trail

• REI Stewards for the Environment 2006

That was the email that was one of the 130 emails I had to wade through when I got back from my trip to Vegas. It was from Self Magazine, and the email didn’t actually say anything about a healing yoga routine that Jennifer Aniston loves. It had a few dorky tips about having a positive attitude about exercise and avoiding winter sniffles. Mostly, it was just trying to get me to subscribe to Self Magazine again.

I’m not.

The last three magazines went right into the recycle bin without even opening them. Why? Do I suddenly hate Self Magazine now? No. They’re okay. They keep saying the same things over and over again, but they aren’t really evil. They have a pretty positive attitude about body, diet and health. My only problem is that I just am sick of reading the same articles. It’s not like they are recycling their stories, but how many times can you say eat less and exercise more without sounding like a broken record?

I also don’t like the articles that promise to flatten my belly in six weeks. They aren’t really realistic. The exercise routines just seem like a fashion photo shoot for exercise clothes instead of actual workouts. Not only that, they send me email with titles like, “Try the healing yoga routine Jen Aniston loves.” Jennifer Aniston is a beautiful woman, but I really don’t think the yoga routine that she does will make my body look like hers. We’re two different people. Sure, it would be nice to be as fit as she is, but a simple yoga routine in an email isn’t going to get me there. Worse still, they didn’t even include the routine in the email…

My sister and her husband sat in line for nine hours outside in the cold, November weather to be one of the first people to get a Nintendo Wii. Me? I talked to them on the phone and called a few stores around town to see if their prospects were better there. The next day, they invited us over to play with their new toy. We played Wii Sports, Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz and Rayman Raving Rabbids. The next day, Stacey called me:

“Hi, how are you doing?”

“My arms are killing me!”

“Dan has been complaining all morning. You guys are wimps.”

For two days, my biceps and forearms twinged with pain whenever I picked anything up. Three out of four of us were seriously given a good workout by the Wii games. The reason is the new Wii Nunchuck controller. To punch out the monkey, you need to actually punch with the controller. To run away from the bunnies, you need to move your arms up and down really quickly like you’re running. There was a lot of hype around those Wii controllers and after playing with them for over four hours, I can tell you that none of it was hype. They really are as cool and fun as Nintendo tried to tell us they were.

Since we played Rayman Raving Rabbids more than any of the others, there must be something about psychotic bunnies that really entices me to run fast, play hard and throw cows. I was disturbed by the idea of shooting bunnies, blowing them up and pushing them off the dance floor, but after a few minutes of torture at their hands, I had no qualms about delivering that burning package of explosives into the hands of one very psychotic bunny.

I’m itching to play more so I can do a full review. I guess I should have been out in the cold with them waiting for my own Wii. I had no idea it would be so fun…

You are looking at a computer hack that turns your favorite puzzle game, Tetris, into a weightlifting activity. It may look like PVC pipe and buckets right now, but this is a prototype for a new type of video game.

• Tetris Weightlifting

Tim Tucker, a computer design engineer with a Masters from Indiana University, created this apparatus to play Tetris and has released the information to build one yourself. Wondering how it works? He explains it here:

• Tetris Weightlifting – How It Works

You pull one handle to move the block left or right and pull both of them to drop the block. There’s no explanation on how to rotate the block, but as far as weight-lifting ideas goes, it seems a lot more entertaining than just sitting there and lifting weights.

Exergaming is an idea that has been difficult to catch on with the big console companies like Playstation and Xbox. It appears that we are going to have to create this for ourselves in our basements and workshops. Good idea, Tim! Hat’s off to you!

Via: DDR and Video Games: Not Quite Enough?

My mom has the Post-Thanksgiving Christmas Shopping down to a science. She arrives at her first choice store five to ten minutes before it opens, rushes in, buys the one or two items on her list and sprints for the checkout stand: repeat, repeat, repeat. Christmas shopping with her is an efficient and tiring ordeal. Sure, you get all your Christmas shopping done in about three hours, but afterward, you’re more tired than thirty minutes after the turkey dinner the day before. Here are some tips to get the most of your shopping workout:

• The Mall Is For Walkers: It might seem like lazy shopping to go to the mall because there are so many stores in one spot, but the point that you miss is that you end up doing a lot of walking in that mall. Wear your running shoes and you’ll last a little longer.

• Running Gets You There Faster: If it means you have to run to beat the other people rushing for the low priced televisions, running gets you there faster. Very few of the other shoppers are willing to run while they are getting their three items that they want from this particular store. If you sprint between the items, you’ll burn extra calories AND get what you had on your list.

• Carts Are For Wimps: Carrying your products in your arms not only builds upper-body strength, it lets you be more agile when dodging other shoppers. A cart is a big and bulky thing to negotiate through the narrow aisles of the store. Use a hand basket or just carry your items and you’ll be faster. Plus, you’ll feel it in your arms the next day.

• Standing In Line Is A Way To Burn Off Nervous Energy: Sure, you can stand still in line like a zombie, but if you are fidgeting, bopping from one impulse item to another, and bouncing a bit, you’ll not only burn off that nervous energy, you’ll burn a few extra calories.

• Fisticuffs Are Never The Answer: I worked at K-Mart for over seven years while putting myself through college. Every year, there was a fist fight. It might seem like a good workout to physically fight for the last 40-buck microwave, but you’ll just end up stuck in a room in the back of the store for an hour or so. Let the other person get the good deal. You’ll find something better later, I promise.

Me? I think I’ll just avoid the frenzy. After seven years of retail slavery, I vowed never to shop on the Friday after Thanksgiving. I think I’ll get my workout the old fashioned way. I’ll just run around my neighborhood. It will probably be abandoned, so I’ll have my run of the sidewalks.

I have run pretty hard, but never hard enough to smell like ammonia.

• “Daddy, You Smell Like …Pee” » Complete Running Network

Releasing ammonia in your sweat is caused by burning protein during your exercise instead of carbohydrates. If you are low are carbs, the body dips into the protein reserves, which means your muscles or whatever protein you ate recently. I’m not a long distance runner, so I have never had a workout that was this intense.

It makes me wonder what it would be like to workout so hard that you end up burning off all the carbs you have eaten. I’m such a carbohydrate hound that I don’t know how far and long I would have to run to achieve this. I wonder if it’s healthy. According to Devine Sports, it might not be:

“The smell usually isn’t anything to worry about. But if it persists, you probably aren’t taking in enough carbohydrates. If you emphasize carbohydrates before, during and after running and the ammonia smell is still around, you should get checked out by a physician.”

If you have noticed an ammonia smell after exercise, try increasing the percentage of carbohydrates in your diet. If the smell, persists, make sure you talk to your doctor. It might be enticing to know that you are burning off so much fuel that you are dipping into your protein reserves, but it might be a sign of a bigger problem further down the line.

I have been enjoying running and walking outside this season. It made me think about what other things I could be doing to enjoy the nice Autumn weather.

What exercises do you enjoy during Fall?

Are there things during this season that you don’t do the rest of the year?

Are there certain exercises that are just better when the weather turns a little colder?

Which exercises are harder this season?

What did you used to do as a kid during Autumn? Are you still doing them now? Why or why not?

What do you think is perfect exercise weather?

What do you think about not-so-perfect exercise weather?

The Question of the Week is meant to be an Inner Workout for you. Find some time during the week and allow yourself to write the answers to the questions posted. You can write them on paper, on a word processor or here in the comments section. Whatever works for you as long as you do it.

Keep writing until you find out something about yourself that you didn’t know before. I’ve also heard that it works to keep writing until you cry, but that doesn’t really work for me. Whatever works for you. Just keep writing until it feels right.

You might think that the rain would make the walk unpleasant, but strangely, it made it better. I carried my umbrella and let the rain fall while I walked around my neighborhood. I got a little wet, but I’m not made of sugar. Years of running on the treadmill has made me shy away from running in the rain or snow, but this walk reminded me of how interesting and different the same neighborhood is when it’s raining.

It made me excited for winter and the snow. I remember many winter runs under the heavy snow. The snow would dampen the noise of my footfalls and scare away other runners. I had the whole place to myself and it was a quiet and white sanctuary. I love the treadmill, but sometimes I need to be reminded that there is a whole world out there waiting to expose itself to me.

Hi Laura,

Have you noticed this problem when running with the Nano Nike+ Sensor on your treadmill?

Support Forums : Treadmills …

Hope all is well.
Shiny Penny

Shiny Penny,

Yeah, I mentioned that it doesn’t match perfectly to my treadmill or even the Google Pedometer readings. The thing is, I’m not worried about being THAT exact. I just want an estimate of my workout. Sometimes I think I obsess over the measuring of things instead of just doing the workout.

Thanks for the link to the forum, though. If other people have questions, they can see more info there.

Thanks again,
Laura