exercise - Keyboard Athletes

Balance: Key #6 to Summiting Kilimanjaro

On day 5 we started our morning with a climb up a 500-foot lava rock wall.

It wasn’t a technical climb (meaning no ropes, carabiners, etc), but there were times it was close.

I remember two very distinct moments when I said to myself, “If I miss a step here I’m dead.”

Obviously, since I lived to tell about it, I managed that step just fine.

It’s tough when you can’t trust your body

It can be scary, though, if you don’t feel you can trust that you are going to step where you need to and can maintain your balance while pulling your body weight across a 4 foot cravass (don’t tell my brother).

Navigating a cravass is an extreme example – and doing that is not just balance, but also strength, and overcoming the fear of falling. But, there were balance challenges every single day. Some days were hours on end of scrambling up and down rocks. For me, the more technical the hiking, the more fun I had. For others in my group, it was sheer torture.

I do a lot of balance training on my own and with clients. It’s simple and it reflects the balance skills you need in the real world. Here is a simplified version to get you started.

Basic Balance Training

Stand on one leg.
Quickly turn your head left (while still on on leg). Stay there for 10-15 seconds.
Put your leg down and head back to center to reset.
Get back on one leg and turn your head quickly to the right. Stay there for 10-15 seconds.
Put your leg down and head back to center to reset.
Repeat with the other leg

(You can also try other head positions and eventually graduate to eyes closed)

How did that go for you?

My guess is that simple did not equal easy in this case.

Yes, this training applies in real life

Sometimes I get asked, “but when would I do this in the real world.” My answer is, “do you ever turn your head to talk to someone while walking?” About 80% of our gait cycle (walking) is on one leg or the other, so this most definitely reflects the real world. You can then expand this exercise to looking and down. And, for an added challenge, try doing it with your eyes closed. Why eyes closed? Ever blink, sneeze, or cough while walking?

These are the same drills I did to prepare for Kilimanjaro (in addition to actually climbing in similar conditions). I needed my body to be able to trust that it could safely be on one leg with my head in different positions, eyes open or eyes closed.

The drills, combined with my other training, worked great. I never questioned a foot position, wasn’t wobbly on one leg while going up or down, and was able to navigate the rocky conditions with ease.

Although some people would classify me as an adrenaline junkie — I’m so not. I’m very opposed to putting my life in danger, but I do like pushing myself. And, I believe there is a very distinct line between those two.

For more about balance training, check out the Z-Health Essentials of Elite Performance DVD.

Filed Under: Lifestyle

Geek Fit Friday – Training Progressions

By Jen Waak 4 Comments

When you are working to get progress your training, how do you up your game?

For cardio training, most people I know simply go longer — either based upon time or distance. So, an extra 10 minutes on the bike, mile around the track, etc.

For strength training it is usually either additional weight or volume. So, in this case, it would be moving up to the next size kettlebell, performing another five lifts, etc.

However, there are a lot of other ways to still progress your training that is as, if not more, valuable that the methods I defined above. You may actually have NO NEED to run that extra mile, so why? Maybe you really don’t get any additional benefit from being able to press an additional 5 pounds.

BUT…..

The nervous system likes a target, and we always like to walk away from any training session feeling like we accomplished something. So, let’s change the rules of the game a little bit, shall we?

Instead of going longer, try to cover the same ground in less time. For cardio training, instead of running a 9 minute mile, work to get to 8:30 mile.
RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion). This is a fancy way of saying, how tired did you get from what you were doing? It is usually measured on a 0-10 scale, with 0 being no noticeable exertion, 5 is heavy, and 10 is very, very heavy. The goal would be to accomplish the same amount of work with a lower RPE rating at the end. That means it’s getting easier, so that’s GOOD! This works for both cardio and strength training.
Reduce the rest between your cardio or strength sets. You can still do your 3 sets of 10, but instead of a minute or two between sets, drop your rest period down to 30 seconds. (Confused as to how this works for cardio? Think circuit training.)
Change the temperature or time of day. I’m a temperate climate kind of girl and I hate training before mid-afternoon, so asking me to train when it’s hot or in the morning is some sort or torture for me. That same set of stairs that I have no problems with on a 50-degree afternoon is sheer torture on a 40-degree morning.

I listed out some of the easy ones, but there are a lot more ways to modify your training — for either novelty or progression — that I didn’t mention. The list is really only limited by your imagination.

List your favorites below!

Filed Under: Fitness

Move It Monday – Fall Asleep Faster

By Jen Waak 1 Comment

Wish you could fall asleep faster?

I think most of us intuitively know that if we exercise during the day we’ll sleep better at night. After all, it is the premise behind getting the kids to play outside all afternoon, right? What we have always intuitively known and see anecdotally is now backed up by science.

For every hour of sedentary activity, the amount of time it takes kids to fall asleep increases by 3 minutes. That average of 5 hours that American watch TV every day (a number that absolutely ASTOUNDS me, BTW) is an extra 15 minutes to fall asleep. Here is where it gets really interesting…. In the kids studied, if they fell asleep 10 minutes sooner, they slept an hour longer. 20 minutes sooner, 2 hours longer. So, suddenly a couple of hours of play time — which doesn’t have to be anything crazy, just not plopped in front of the TV — gives you an extra hour or two to sleep, clean the house, call your best friend, get a workout in. Doesn’t that sound awesome?

Adults have similar benefits

Just 30-40 minutes of moderate intensity exercises (which was defined by the study as a brisk walk) each day can significantly reduce the amount of time it takes to fall asleep, and improve the overall quality of sleep. In the study linked to above, the participants fell asleep 11 minutes faster and slept 42 minutes longer. Suddenly, that 30-minute walk has bought you almost an extra hour of sleep. And, if you are in the large portion of the population that gets less than the healthy minimum of 7 hours a night, this is a huge win.

And with that, I’m off for a brisk walk with my pup. Daylight savings confuses my body for several days, so I need whatever help I can get!

P.S. Is it just me, or isn’t “sedentary activity,” by definition, a bit of a misnomer? If you are sedentary, you aren’t moving, which is then NOT an activity.

Filed Under: Health

Move It Monday – The Fountain of Youth

By Jen Waak 2 Comments

Interested in reducing your risk for cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, diabetes, and dementia?

Study after study is concluding that regular exercise is the only well-established fountain of youth, and it’s free.

Today’s Personal Health column in the NYT has a really nicely researched article about the many, many health benefits of exercise to defend against both physical and cognitive deterioration.

My Move It Monday for this week is short and sweet. I want you to read about how you can use consistent exercise program reduce your odds of breast cancer 16%, reduce your odds of a stroke by 40%, and significantly cut your chances of developing diabetes, osteoporosis, and dementia.

Filed Under: Health

Geek Fit Friday – iPhone App Lose It (Part 2)

By Jen Waak 2 Comments

A couple of months ago I reviewed my favorite iPhone diet and exercise logging application — Lose It!

Since that time, the people at FitNow have added in a whole lot more accountability in to the application, and made it a whole lot harder to “forget” to track your food intake.

Facebook and Twitter updates. Clearly not for the faint of heart, but you can post your exercise logging, your weight gain/loss, or when you hit your goal.
Mealtime logging reminders. Now that the iPhone has push capability, Lose It! has taken advantage of it, and you can configured reminders to go off up to 4 times a day to ping you to enter your food and exercise. Personally, a HUGE win in terms of remembering to use it!
Friends. This isn’t my favorite feature, but I’ll mention it for the sake of completeness. You can invite people to be your friends on loseit.com, and watch their stats as well (overall weight gain or loss, calories consumed, and last logging date). I love the idea, but I don’t have the energy to create another network.
Emailed reports. You can set up daily and/or weekly spreadsheets of goals, food intake, exercise to be emailed to any email address. As a coach, this is super-cool for me (and if you are one of my clients, beware) — I want this from my clients, and now I don’t have to ask them to double-log. And, it comes straight to my inbox, in Excel, where I can use my Excel ninja skills to get exactly what I want.

To set any and all of these settings, go to http://loseit.com, and sign up for a free account. The settings are all under the aptly-named tab, “Motivators” (except Friends, which is under the “Friends” tab). You can’t enter any food or exercise in on the web site, but even if you don’t want to take advantage of the Motivators, it does have some really nice reporting on it that you can’t find in the app.

My only complaint is that it is limited to the Apple ecosystem (iPhone and iTouch), but if you are an iPhone user, I definitely suggest you check it out!

Filed Under: Weight Loss

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