The Fitness Guru

Here’s a video Lawson shot with Nicole Feliciano from Momtrends . It is a quick workout to help new moms get back in shape……but if you guys want to try it as well, that’s perfectly alright.

First of all, watch who you’re calling insane… I wouldn’t skip my workout because I forgot my HR monitor, but I’d probably do a big eye roll and be pissed at myself. For those of us Type A people who have to be in control of just about everything the Heart Rate Monitor is crucial. For a personal trainer worth their salt it’s a must. For the pregnant woman, the triathlete, the marathoner, the even remotely serious fitness buff- it’s something we can’t live without. Thank heavens they come in cute styles and colors. They used to be God-awful and not have half the features. I guess you can tell you’ve stumbled into enemy territory, but I intend to make a believer out of you.

Let’s start with what it’s for; Heart rate monitors can be simple, performing basic functions like, telling the time and monitoring your heart rate. They all come with a watch and a chest strap. Some are super complicated, we’re talking GPS foot pod, body condition programs that read your fitness levels from day to day letting you know whether to kick your own ass or take it easy based on the little computer’s findings, some even come with things like marriage counseling and mind reading. They cost anywhere between $60 and $400. I wear a Polar F6, which retails for $119.9. They’re discontinuing it soon (no matter how I beg) so enjoy it while you still can. This little beauty is in the mid to low range of complicated, it tells time, monitors your heart rate, alerts you when you’re out of your desired target heart rate zone, times the length of each workout, reads your average heart rate percentage during your workout, gives you the amount of calories burned and what percentage of those calories burned are fat. It also logs the history of all this fabulous information. Now that I write it out, that sounds like a lot of stuff, but honestly I’m pretty low tech (I have to ask my husband to set the Tivo) and I really need all that stuff the insure that I’m getting the most effective workout possible. Insane? Not really.

Now let’s talk about what it can do for you; Watch me shoot myself in the foot… if you’re self-motivated and have learned enough from your trainer, a good heart rate monitor can make your trainer obsolete. Once you understand proper form, exercise selection and learn what zones your heart rate should be in during your workout the monitor will tell you when you’re off base. Hate to waste time? So do I, which is why your heart rate monitor will ensure that every minute of your workout is as productive as possible, even your cool down. Most monitors will base fat burning percentage on your average heart rate during a workout. By including your cool down into the equation it will bring down your average thereby increasing the percent of fat burned in each workout. It can also be a great motivational tool. By tracking and adding up weekly calorie burns and number of workouts per week, you can track your proposed weight loss and strength gain goals. The monitor will even keep a record of your progress indefinitely so you can check yourself daily, weekly or even monthly and compare your fitness levels as you progress. To me, the heart rate monitor is about being your most productive and expecting the best result from your fitness regime, knowing when it’s time to tweak, change or stay with what you’ve got. Why not let technology be your guide? From a style stand point, I wear my monitor as my everyday watch and I’d call myself a sporty fashionista. My hubby wears his everyday to work and yes we’re in fitness, but I’ve got clients who are into everything from architecture to finance who wear their HR watches daily. It’s one less thing to pack in the gym bag.

Sold? I hope so, if not- at least turn a blind eye to your friend’s psychotic ramblings about target zone and fat burn. Let’s be serious, which one of you could get out of a burning building faster- okay…not fair. Which one of you looks better in a bathing suit? Thought so…☺

July 7, 2009 7:00 pm

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August 25, 2009 7:00 pm

The Fitness Guru brings Pilates classes back to Brooklyn Bridge Park for another exciting summer of evening classes. Classes will take place every Tuesday evening, with registration beginning at 6:30pm and the class starting at 7pm. Class is FREE. Come and enjoy!! And check out the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy Web Site while you’re at it!!

In today’s news: apparently men have an easier time resisting their temptation foods than women do. This behavior may point to the reason that obesity numbers are much higher for women than they are for men.

Ha! Tell that to my wife! She has an unnatural ability to put off temptation foods. She makes a decision to stay away and she is able to follow through and then some. Its one of those personality traits that, even after 16 years, I am still fascinated by. Me? Not quite. I don’t live for temptation foods but the key there for me is temptation. If I want one of those foods that brings me pleasure, it is a very short dance to go from the thought of temptation straight to follow through. Now before you start in with the gloriously sexist commentary, this is a discussion about eating habits and ability to stifle the urge to go where you know you shouldn’t be going. My New Year’s Resolution is to go through all of 2009 without ice cream. I know that might sound petty to some of you. I should be focusing on the bigger issues, like what can I do aid world peace and end suffering. Instead, I am choosing to build a wall between me and my good friends, Ben and Jerry. If anything I think that might be some sort of blow against world peace. But the problem for me is addiction. I am addicted to ice cream. And I am addicted to ice cream at 8:06 pm Eastern every evening. Like clock work. Does it matter what flavor? If the freezer was stocked with fruity ice creams, like strawberry such-n-such and cherry thingajoo, then I probably would be able to hold off a little longer. But, with a wonderful little grocery store on the corner that is fully stocked and stay open until 10pm, why bother putting up some kind of false face? If I’m going to eat it, just get the right flavor on the way home and I am good to go.

How about just having a little? Do alcoholics contend that they may have just a small drink? No. Addiction is addiction is addiction. It’s not the Ben and Jerry logo that I love (though I’m still giggling about their most recent flavor, Yes Pecan). It’s the sugar. And that was an addiction that I developed at a very early age. My parents didn’t gorge us on ice cream and cakes, but there was a constant source of sugar available and I showed very little restraint. Consequently, I had weight issues throughout my childhood and adolescence. But (here’s where it gets impressive) my body chemistry and my brain chemistry started to anticipate sugar in the daily blend. Even though I don’t have weight issues now—with the exception of the periods that my wife was pregnant and I put on my sympathy belly—it is mostly from the fact that I am extremely active. I work out four or five times a week and I work mostly on my feet. There is an extra calorie burn that many 42-year olds don’t get. So my weight stays balanced even though I am in the mocha chip trough every evening.

But what’s going on inside? It can’t be good for my liver, which is taxed by the extra sugar and fat. It can’t be good for my pancreas, which has to try to balance my sugar levels. It can’t be too good for my brain, which gets this sudden rush of pleasure follow by a very quick drop as the sugar jolts its way out of my system. And then, 35 minutes later, at 8:51 pm Eastern, I am asleep on the living room sofa, my wife standing over me quietly whispering “poor dear, he works himself too hard.”

No I don’t, Sweetie. It’s the sugar.

Ok, so maybe it’s me and the rest of the guys out there are able to avoid those foods. Yeah. Right. Are those the same guys who are able to avoid that last beer? The same guys who will lunge for the last cocktail weenie on the tray? The same guys who are eating their fiber-free meals off of plates the size of luxury car’s hubcap?

I will go out on a limb and say that men are more active across the board than women. I don’t have the studies in front of me, but the great thing about stuff like this, I can say anything and then—guaranteed I will find a study to support it. But from watching little kids, the boys tend to be more active across the board than the girls. So perhaps our calorie burn is that much greater.

But to suggest that men have greater will power with temptation? Uuuuuuum….not buying. I am open to arguments but why bother. In the end, both genders have more than enough temptation. The key is to recognize the temptation and start to remove the pinch/ouch cycle from your life.

Sure, the folks at the grocery store miss my late night fly-thrus. But they will be ok.

Ps The whole theory was created by testing 13 women and 10 men, not staggering figures for a claim like this. So maybe the jury is still out?……..

The Fitness Guru

 

www.fitnessgurunyc.com

Oooooooooh………Lawson and Michael are back on the microphones with a great new podcast about shopping for a personal trainer. There are so many trainers out there vying for your dollars. You want to make sure you get the most bang for your buck. Follow our simple checklist and you’ll end up working with the person who is best for you. Enjoy!

Shopping for a Trainer

The Fitness Guru

 

www.fitnessgurunyc.com

The Fitness Guru

 

www.fitnessgurunyc.com

A new study suggests that the key to a healthy lifestyle is your midset.

 

 

 

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/9/21/abstract

Haven’t we been saying that all along? The opening chapter of Malcolm Gladwell’s new book, Outliers, the author discusses a town in Pennsylvania where the population remains fantastically healthy due to the nature of the mindset.There is very little stress, very little strain. It is the way the inhabitants have lived for several generations and it is the mindset that they pass down to their children. The question which no study seems to follow up on,  is how to keep the healthy mindset.

 

I think the first step is to notice the moments in life where we allow the stress to overwhelm us– the anger while driving, the frustration at automated phone centers, the sheer stress of trying to maneuver down the sidewalk at rush hour. And that doesn’t even begin to touch on the stresses and strains that are hitting us as a society right now. I know that my immediate reaction in a great deal of these situations is poor at best (and I think that is very polite). But all reactions are pinch/ouch and if we see the pinch we can start to gauge the ouch in a slightly more healthy way. We have no control over a great manner situations that confront us. However, we do have a great deal of opportunity in the way that we react.

January 30, 2009
8:00 am	to	9:00 am

Michael will be appearing on The Fox 5 Morning News.

January 29, 2009
9:00 am	to	10:00 am

Michael will be appearing on Virginia This Morning (one of his favorites!) on WTVR/CBS Channel 6

January 28, 2009

1:00 pm

Michael is appearing on Living in The Heart of Viriginia

February 6, 2009 6:00 pm

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February 8, 2009 6:00 pm

Certification Weekend Click Here