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

The end of summer has come up so quickly that I almost forgot that the new television season is coming up and with it, The Biggest Loser.

• NBC.com > The Biggest Loser

I was not a fan of this show at the beginning of the season last year, but this year, I’ll be waiting at the edge of the couch to watch! This year they have contestants from every state in the United States. One person from each state makes for a lot of contestants, so I don’t know if I’ll be able to pick my favorites like I did last year. It will definitely be a change.

They have replaced Jillian Andersen Michaels with a blonde named Kim Lyons. A press release from NBC said that Jillian left of her own free will to pursue other interests. Jillian’s website says NOTHING about it, so I guess I just have to believe them. I’m going to miss Jillian. I like her technique much better than the touchy feely stuff Bob does. I don’t know anything about Kim Lyons except what NBC says, and that all sounds like a bunch of hype. I’m kind of bothered that they went with such a cutie. I know it’s not fair to judge someone by their looks (isn’t that what bothered me when I was fat?), but I have nothing but hype and her looks to judge her by. I can’t wait to watch the show to see how it will be.

Last year, The Biggest Loser was SO motivating to me. Watching all those people give it their all really helped me to give it my all. They were exercising four hours a day. I could fit an hour a day into my schedule. I watched them all fall while I exercised. Sometimes I’d watch the episode two or three times a week. I am really looking forward to seeing this season’s show!

Via: Season 3 of “Biggest Loser” features contestant from each state – That’s Fit

Exercise is a fun and enjoyable way to keep healthy for everyone. The Buddy Walk is trying to raise awareness about Downs Syndrome and sponsors walks all over the country. You can find one to volunteer for here:

• Buddy Walk

Encouraging exercise for all members of our society makes our world healthier on a whole. Give the Buddy Walk in your area a little of your time and you will profit more from it than you will every know.

If you have ever talked yourself out of exercising, you know that there are a million excuses not to work out. Wendy Bumgardner at About.com blows all those excuses out of the water with her Excuse Busters series:

• Walking Excuse Busters – Too Busy to Walk

• Walking Excuse Busters – Scared to Walk Alone

• Walking Excuse Busters – Lonely Walking Alone

• Walking Excuse Busters – It’s Too Cold

• Walking Excuse Busters – Too Hot to Walk

• Walking Excuse Busters – It’s Raining

• Walking Excuse Busters – I’m Tired

• Walking Excuse Busters – Sore Muscles

• Walking Excuse Busters – Sore Feet

• Walking Excuse Busters – I Have a Cold

• Walking Excuse Busters – My Family Misses Me

• Walking Excuse Busters – Walking is Boring

• Walking Excuse Busters – Unmotivated

• Walking Excuse Busters – I’m Too Fat to Walk in Public

• Walking Excuse Busters – I’m Too Old to Exercise

• Walking Excuse Busters – Health Concerns

Wendy has compiled such a thorough list of excuses and how to bust them that there really are no excuses. No matter what you say, there is a way to work around the problem. Now, if you don’t exercise, you need to analyze why and find a way to bust your own exercise excuse.

Maybe you’ve been exercising for a few weeks, but you’re not seeing any progress. Maybe you’ve started exercising, but you’ve got strange pains in your shoulders or other muscles. Maybe you are thinking about quitting this exercise thing because “It’s not working.” Before you do, read this article from WebMD.

• WebMD – The Top 20 Fitness Mistakes Beginners Make

Here are a few of the most common mistakes:

Doing the “gym slouch.” “We see many people in the gym leaning on equipment,” says Debi Pillarella, MEd, a spokeswoman for the American Council on Exercise. “We call it ‘gym slouch’: They’re on the Stairmaster, [elliptical cross trainer], or treadmill, leaning over, and hanging on for dear life.” When your back is rounded, your spine doesn’t get enough support. So stand erect when you’re working out on one of these machines.

Giving your abs a free ride. Many people do crunches or abdominal machine workouts without ever toning their abdomens. The problem is that they’re using the upper torso, neck, and head to do the work. “Do mindful exercise,” says Pillarella. “The contraction should be from the ribcage to the hip bone. Put your mind into the muscles that are working, and keep all the other muscles quiet.”

Seeking a quick fix. Many people expect dramatic results from a little exercise. “Current recommendations are for 3 1/2 to four hours of physical activity a week just to prevent weight regain,” says Kasper, who is a professor in the department of kinesiology at Valdosta State University in Valdosta, Ga. “If you want to lose weight and you’re walking 30 minutes, three times a week, without changing your diet, it will take roughly one month to lose a pound.”

These tips are very helpful when you might be considering quitting your workout routine. They will give you the information to tune things up and prevent injury. Check them out.

When I first decided to start running for cardiovascular health, I found a book at the used bookstore called The Complete Book of Running. It was an out of date book that gave me a little information about how not to hurt myself. The first mistake they made was they showed a runner on the cover without socks. If I had followed along, I would have ended up with blisters on my feet that would have put me out of commission for a week. Fortunately, I already knew that I needed socks.

Today, people are more likely to type “running” into Google than hit a used bookstore. If they found this Wikipedia entry, they would be better informed than I was when I first started.

• Running – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If you have been thinking about trying running for weight loss or as a sport, peruse this Wikipedia entry and follow its links until you feel like you know a little more. There’s plenty of information there to help you make your decision. The real deciding factor is how you feel when you try running. Put on a good pair of running shoes and hit the roads. It’s the best way to know whether you’ll like the sport and you’ll find that there is no substitution for just doing it.

The Pose Method is a way of running that’s a little different than most of us use. It’s also different than my gym teacher taught me in my jogging class.

Mark, over at Passion for Running, uses the Pose Method and described what it feels like:

• A Passion for Running » describing the sensation of ‘lightness’

He said,

“Do you know the feeling of lightly touching on stairs as you go down them? There is that fine line between going too slow — when your feet begin landing more heavy and flat-footed — and going that speed where they just tightly touch the stairs.”

“That’s what Pose Method runners try for — that kind of quickness and lightness.”

With all I’ve read about the Pose Method, I’ve never heard it described like this before. This simple description makes me want to try changing my method of running in order to feel this sensation.

You can find out more about the Pose Method here:

• POSE METHOD® – by Dr.Nicholas Romanov

• Pose Running Technique introduced by Try My Sport.

A while back, I wrote an entry about exercise:

• Starling Fitness » How To Find An Exercise That You Will Love

Just last week, I had a comment left on that entry from Mysti:

“Hi I am starting to begin working out again and one of the reasons I quit last time is because I didn’t like my workout. Does anybody have any ideas of some really fun excersizes?”

I because exercise enjoyment is such an individual thing, I really didn’t have an answer for her, so I’m opening up the forum to you:

What exercises do you do?

Are they fun?

What is fun about them?

Why do you like to do them?

Answering these questions on the comments will not only help Mysti, but they will help you, too. If you have to answer, what is fun about your exercise and you don’t have anything to say about it, maybe it’s time to find a new one. If you have a lot to say, that’s wonderful. You suddenly have a list of things to remember about your favorite activity when you’re not feeling like getting started.

This band, OK GO, has a unique video for their song, Here It Goes Again. They look like they are having so much fun with these treadmills.

Next time you look at your treadmill, dreading the workout, dial up OK GO on your iPod and pretend that you’re playing on your treadmill just like they do in their video. Do some different moves on the treadmill and enjoy yourself just like they did.

Via: SOUND-OFF :: OK Go on Treadmills

Update 08-19-06: Wendy Bumgardner, from About.com, pointed out some treadmill workouts that may let you have just as much fun with your treadmill as these guys from OK Go:

• Jumping Intervals on the Treadmill

• Walking and Jogging Backwards on the Treadmill

V is a freelance architect who wanted to have a healthier life. She saw the treadputer ideas and decided to try it on her own. Documenting her journey (and the cost) she has started her own weblog about the process.

She found a used treadmill on Craigslist for $200 and her bulky CRT monitor didn’t work on the shelving, so she has purchased a LCD monitor for only $119. That and a little shelving and she is ready to walk and work.

She has used a monitor splitter so she can work at a desk (work top) if she needs to or work on the treadmill.

V talks about some of the logistics of walking while working:

“The other thing I’ve noticed is, when I get focused on something, I tend to forget to walk. It’s a good thing this machine has one of those thingies that hooks to your clothes and will pull out and turn off the machine if you get too far away from the console.”

I’m interested to see if she is able to draft while walking. Drafting takes a certain precision when using the mouse, so learning to do that while keeping active will be a challenge. If you are considering setting up a treadputer workstation, keep reading her weblog to see how she is able to handle the logistics of working while walking.

Update 08-18-06 12:12 am: Sadly, it looks like V has deleted her weblog.

Joanne Colan, from Rocketboom, learned how to race walk with Stella Cashman and Leo Romero of The Park Race Walkers in New York City. Race walking is an Olympic sport with strict rules defining it versus running.

You can also see the video here:

Rocketboom – August 4, 2006

The benefit of race walking is that you can reach running speeds without the jarring impact of running. It works an entirely different set of muscles than regular walking and running, so that makes it a great cross-training activity so you don’t overwork your body.

For more information about Race Walking:

• Race walking – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Racewalk.com – Introduction to Race Walking Technique

• North Amercian Racewalking Foundation – Home Page