Tag Archives: workout

>A great warmup

Posted on March 2, 2010 | Leave a comment

>Snowboardered Gretchen Bleiler’s warm up routine is completely do-able. It made me want to get on the trampoline (which she does later). But not on the snowboard.

This is part of a series the New York Times has done on athletes’ gym routines.

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>Workout review: African Fitness Jam

Posted on January 22, 2008 | Leave a comment

>Tonight I drove over to Capitol Hill for the African Fitness Jam workout with Eric Wilson, the founder of CompFit. The class focuses on African dance moves that strengthen your core (lower abdomen and back). I definitely found some muscles in my lower back that I’d been neglecting!

The live drumming is so energizing, and Eric is such an inspiring teacher and dancer, that the class (a half hour of warm up and individual consultation, followed by an hour of fast-paced dancing and a cool-down) just zips by. Highly recommended.

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>Rock the routine

Posted on January 9, 2008 | Leave a comment

>I like to do power yoga and resistance work to hip-hop and pop music — tunes I’d never listen to for any other reason. According to an article in todays New York Times, that’s because the 120-140 beats per minute of upbeat dance numbers like Snoop Dogg’s “Drop It Like It’s Hot” match my workout heart rate. (Tip: Use the little iTunes-BPM Inspector (freeware) to calculate beats per minute.)

The article goes on to talk about neurologist Oliver Sacks swimming while humming waltzes, and Greek warriors going into battle listening to music played in the Dorian mode.

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>What cost fitness?

Posted on January 7, 2008 | Leave a comment

>I was standing in the shower this morning, rinsing shampoo out of my hair and calculating how much my 3-times-a-week workout program costs on an annual basis when I heard someone pounding on the front door.

It wasn’t that polite Fed Ex we’ve-left-your-package knock. It was the your-car-is-blocking-the-neighbor’s-driveway; the we’ve-got-a-report-of-an-assault type of banging. The kind where you know the person knocking isn’t going to go away and let you finish your shower.

So I jumped out, grabbed a towel and wrapped it around me, and dashed to the front door. I yanked it open to discover one of my neighbor’s contractors on the porch.

“Oops,” he said with a big grin. “Terry said you’d have a key.”

I dripped over to the mail table, got the key, and handed it to him.

Workouts: $1,500-$2,250 a year.

Being able to comfortably answer the front door wearing only a bath towel: Priceless.

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>Your workout begins

Posted on December 31, 2007 | Leave a comment

>OK, Susan has finally started putting yoga workouts online.

For the past 15 months I’ve had the immense privilege of working out with one of the world’s greatest fitness instructors, Susan Powter.

Susan faces (for the umpteenth time in her colorful career) the challenge of figuring out how to replicate the astonishing classroom experiences she gives us so that they are accessible to everyone.

She’s been playing around with some ideas via video, via MySpace, and via blogging, in the past several months. Sometimes things work, sometimes they don’t.

Now she’s got Susan Powter Online going. This site does not provide the polished, organized exercise information we’re used to from all those videos and DVDs we’ve all purchased (and not used) in the past few decades. This site is about how Susan, who turned 50 two weeks ago, lives a fit, healthy life in her modest, artsy home in Seattle (which she shares with her young son). Here’s some yoga in her little Seattle studio; it’s cold—that’s why Susan starts out in fluffy slippers!

Our workout with her Sunday was in the hallway of the school where we rent space. Temperature? 55 degrees. And we were sweating when we finished.

Here you go:

http://blip.tv/scripts/flash/showplayer.swf?enablejs=true&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fsusanpowterblog%2Eblip%2Etv%2Frss&file=http%3A%2F%2Fblip%2Etv%2Frss%2Fflash%2F575070&showplayerpath=http%3A%2F%2Fblip%2Etv%2Fscripts%2Fflash%2Fshowplayer%2Eswf

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