Old workouts, new challenges and chews!

I had a throw back of workouts the last few days.  Yesterday, I got an email saying I had one “influencer” class at Physique that I had to use or lose, so I scheduled an 8:30 AM class for this morning.  I thought I might die since it has been so long, but the class was not too insane.  I did feel like a champ when I left though.

Sunday, after my cross-country run, I kind of wanted a workout to “bliss me out” if you will.  I decided on one of my very favorites, the New York City Ballet Workout.  This was my very first Amazon purchase, and boy did I get my money’s worth. It has gone everywhere with me.  Why do I love it?  It makes you feel strong, long, graceful and poised, and it is a gentle full body workout. For some reason, more than any other workout, this one makes me feel really good about my body, I can’t explain, it just does.

I also love that within in days of doing it, I am at least 50% more flexible.  You can also do it absolutely anywhere.  Doing just one set of the minimum number of reps of all the exercises and stretches in the book took me about 45 minutes.

For any one who wants a quick an dramatic change in their flexibility, I promise just the first two sections (warm up and stretch) will get you results in no time.  The stretch below is pretty amazing.  It seems so simple, but it is so effective.  I usually do it at the beginning, middle and end of the workout, and by the end, I have no trouble getting my chest to my knees.  The key is to spend 10 full seconds in each of the four positions—no cheating.

So on to some yummy products I have recently sampled.  I don’t review everything I try, but these were all good enough to share!

Let’s start with one of my top five favorite foods: CEREAL!

I saw this new Nature’s Path cereal at the store and was very intrigued.  NP Optimum Blueberry Cinnamon is one of my favorites! So when I saw the new Optimum Strawberry and Yogurt, I had to try it.  I love me some yogurt!  It was really good!  Sweet and yummy.  While it has slightly less protein than the blueberry, it is also a little less crunchy—in a good way.  This is a keeper!  It is a good replacement for All Bran Yogurt Bites, which is great but highly over processed with fake ingredients.

This was a free “surprise” from Kashi.  Kashi Honey Sunshine.  It had a very mild honey flavor, like lighter captain crunch or crunchier corn pops.  I don’t really like captain crunch, but this is a great high volume, low cal option for those who do.  I would like it in trail mix or something.

Next up, something I received a LONG time ago, but recently became borderline obsessed with—Enjoy Life No Nuts Mountain Mambo. I typically don’t love seeds, but this combo is divine.  Sunflower kernels, pumpkin seeds, raisins, apples, chocolate chips and cranberries.  This is the perfect sweet, salty, savory combo! While calorie dense at 140 calories per quarter cup, a little goes along way and it cures my sweet tooth every time.

Next up, Mariani Honey Bar Trail Mix!  This one was donated for a work program, and I just had to sneak one for myself.  This bar lasted me all day!  It was very tasty, peanut heavy with a nice balance of sweetness.  I bar has 190 cals, 6 grams protein and 2 grams of fiber. No preservatives and six simple ingredients: peanuts, honey, raisins, sunflower kernels, almonds and pumpkin seeds—maybe it is this seed, nut combo that I love.  While not raw like larabars, it is a great option, and much better than Kind bars, which I find too sweet. Try it, I think you’ll like it.

Finally, Hint Water.  This was literally just a hint of flavor.  I had tried it years ago and not loved it, but this time around, it was great.  As I am not a huge water person, a little flavor goes along way.  I tried the Pomegranate-Tangerine and Raspberry Lime—both were nice and refreshing.  While it gets pretty expensive to buy these, as pleasant a product as they are, sometimes just a tiny splash of juice is all it takes to up the fun factor of your agua.

Next up, Bar Hopping!  Juice Bar Hopping that is!  I have realized that green juice is becoming a distance memory in my lifestyle and with my crazy schedule lately-gym-work-class-work-blog-homework-bed, I need all the energy I can get.  So I thought I would make it fun, but trying out all the juice bars within reasonable distance from my office.  My goal is to start my morning with green juice twice a week and them hopefully up it from there.  I will compare price, flavor, and quality!

Here are the places I want to try:

• NoHo Juice Bar
• Green Pirate Juice Truck
• Juice Bar @ The Coffee Shop
• Liquiteria—well I know i love this one!
• Juice Generation
• Atlas
• Little Atlas
• Campus Eatery
• Great Jones Spa and Juice Bar

Any other suggestions?  One Lucky Duck is a bit far and Jivamuktea doesn’t open early enough.

Finally!  Go Yankees!

Final note, last night was by far the best Gossip Girl episode of the season.  I had almost given up on it.  But oh the zingers were flying.  I would recap, but NYMAG shares my sentiments completely, read the recap.

Oh and other random obsession, Someecards.com

Physique 57 DVD Giveaway!

Can you tell I am excited?!?

Physique 57 is hands down my favorite NYC workout discovery of all time–and Kelly Ripa’s favorite workout, too! P57 opened a whole new type or working out to me.  Not just the Lotte Burke-esque method, but the non-gym, non-yoga, studio work out environment.   In fact, physique 57 was the reason I started blogging about fitness in a general way.  The first non-marathon TNT related post i wrote was: Body Transformation is Possible at Physique 57.  Just for a little background I started my old blog The Little Runner that Could to help fundraise and discuss training for my marathon through TNT, and then stopped blogging for a while.  After I started taking P57 a few months later, I decided to start blogging about fitness classes in the city, working out, training, and running. And here I am today, lol.

I realize over 30 of my posts reference Physique 57 and after Physique so generously donated class passes to the blogger meet ups I organized in March—you also heard Diana’s, Dori’s, Missy’s, Sarah’s, Ashley’s, and Emily’s enthusiastic reviews.

The one thing I always grapple with is keeping my posts relevant and relatable to my fabulous readers in places outside of NYC.  However, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, I was thrilled to learn that everyone finally finally access to the Physique 57 workout!  P57 recently released the:

The Physique 57™ Complete 3-Disc Full Body Workout Set

Including:
• Classic 57 Minute Full Body Workout
• Express 30 Minute Full Body Workout AND
• Arm and Ab Booster 30 Minute Workout

While I haven’t tried it myself yet, I have every confidence they will be fabulou sand life changing,  and I plan to buy them soon.   And I am offering one lucky reader the chance to win all three DVDs and have the magic of Physique 57 right in the comfort and convenience in your own home! 

So, how do you win?

Easy peasy. 

1.) Simply leave a comment in the comment section.

2.) For a bonus entry, link back to this comment in your blog, or  if you don’t have a blog, shoot an email to a friend telling about the contest and cc me.

Finally, I would love for the winner to write a review of the DVDs for their blog or mine. But that is optional obvi!

Contest ends Friday, August 28th at midnight!  The winner will be announced over the weekend.

Weekend Wrap Up, Workouts, Reviews!

Wow, I feel like more has happened in the week I have been home than in the entire six month before I left.  Fortunately, a lot of it has involved two of my favorite things, fitness and friends!

I have mentioned that I am getting back into my workout routine and that it has been more difficult than I anticipated, hello sorebody!  However, I am definitely beginning to feel like myself and 30 minutes of cardio no longer kills me!  In fact, I am back to normal as of today! 

Just to recap, this weekend I went for my first official long run of the marathon training session—one down!  I met Katherine and one of her great friends for an easy 10 miles.  One full loop, plus the 4 mile loop of the park.  We took it easy and enjoyed the fact that NY Road Runners was having a long training run, replete with plenty of water stations to steal from hehe!  I was thrilled to have finished 10 miles, six longer than I had run in a month without much difficulty at all.  Especially considering I had consumed more than a couple glasses of prosecco while out with a girlfriend at Dove and Otto the night before! 

That evening I went out to try a place I have heard a lot about, but had been resistant to try: Studio Square (aka the new beer garden).  I had been resistant to try it not because it didn’t look nice (in fact it got 4 out of 5 stars in the Time Out Review), but because I have such a love and esteem for the old beer garden, and I didn’t want to cheat on it for it’s younger, chicer, hipper cousin. (photos below from google images)

I have to say Studio Square thoroughly impressed me.  It was packed, there must have been easily 1000 people spilling over the surround bar patio and out of the huge outdoor seating section.  I actually wasn’t sure if we could find seats.  But fortunately we did and the night involved lots of fun, meeting new friends, learning new games, and flip cup—during which we were enthusiastically cheered on by at least a hundred fellow patrons.  haha. While I do not consider myself a beer fan by any stretch of the imagination, I would definitely recommend skipping the sangria, it was way too sweet. 

On a final note, the new beer garden is not replacing the old, it serves a different purpose.  If I want to wear heels and have a slightly lounge/club vibe, I will go to the new beer garden.  For a laid back, bring the (big and boisterous) family and wear flops experience, that’s beer garden classic.

YOGA ROOM REVIEW

On Sunday I woke up surprisingly full of energy, and was eager to try out The Yoga Room!  I have Gena’s awesome yoga post to thank for that! The Yoga Room has two locations in Queens, and the LIC studio just moved to a gorgeous space just three blocks from my casa! I took advantage of the $10 classes open house special and signed up for Hot Yoga and Hot Bodies Pilates.  

This was the fourth Bikram class I have taken, and the first one in a few years.  The room was HOT, definitely 110!  The class had a good mix of veterans and newbies.  Bikram involves 26 poses, and you do each twice in a row.  I really enjoyed the standing series.  Interestingly enough, the standing side stretch was one of the most challenging for me.  I seemed to have plenty of strength and flexibility for all of the others, although I got wobbly at times—balance is apparently not my forte! I like the 26 poses because you can really focus on getting into the pose or focusing inward, since there is not a lot of jumping around from position to position.  That said by the time we got to the mat poses,  I was experiencing occasional bouts of boredom and wanted things to move a bit faster.  The second half involves sivasina between each pose.  Nevertheless, at the end of the class I felt longer, more limber and even a bit leaner, it was a wonderful stretch for my entire body.  I was also fairly invigorated and totally drenched in sweat, in an extremely cleansing way not a gross way.  I went to the changing room to switch outfits and get ready for Pilates.

I grabbed a free mango zico coconut water—yum, that was being given out in the lobby.  When I asked where my Pilates class would be, they said the same studio.  Wait, what?  The hot room?  Stupidly, I thought hot bodies Pilates was just a cute name for a vigorous Pilates class.  It never occurred to me that a Pilates class would be hot.  I have never heard of bikram Pilates.  I was more than a little nervous to spend 2 and  a half hours in a such a hot room, but my yoga instructor was taking the class, so I decided to just try it and see if I would be okay.  Fortunately, the Pilates class wasn’t as hot as the yoga, maybe 90 degrees. 

While I really enjoy Pilates, I don’t get the chance to take it very often, so this was a nice treat.  The class was about a fifth the size of my yoga class, so we got lots of personal attention from the instructor.  The class was pretty challenging.  We used the ring a lot, which really added to the intensity of the ab work.  I like that Pilates feels like a workout more than yoga, but I like how yoga lets you focus on something beyond the workout and get in touch with yourself and the world.  I will say that I don’t really see the need for heat in Pilates (or even yoga for that matter).  I definitely appreciate the renewing feeling and opportunity for focus that a bikram yoga class offers.  But I see it as an occasional novelty, not something that I would take on a regular basis. I do look forward to trying the non-bikram yoga and Pilates and reformer classes at the Yoga Room since you can work more intensely when you are not in such hot conditions, and consequently, drenched in sweat. 

Overall, I really enjoyed both classes, the stunning and spacious—rare in yoga–studio (will take pics next time) and friendly staff! The Yoga Room isn’t cheap, classes are $18 each, although you save a few bucks when you purchase a class card. They are offering a special of $89 for unlimited monthly classes, almost half off the regularly cost and far cheaper than the Core Fusion or Physique 57.  Speaking of P57, workout dvds have finally been released for those non-NYers, NYers (like me) that can’t afford $35 a class, or NYers that like the convenience of not having to stick to class schedules, which tend to fill up anyways!

On a final note, I always think of taking a yoga class as a way of doing something special just for myself.  I think of it as treating myself and my body really well.  I hope the Yoga Room continues to offer great specials, so that I can treat myself more often Sunday was definitely a great day for some “me time,” some R and R with the roomie, and settling happily back into my life in the city.

Weekly Workout Wrap Up

A week in workouts and the Nalini Method reviewed!

Plus, some more May flowers, gotta get some perks for having so many events in one week. 

Monday:

AM: 10 minute treadmill run, 30 minutes elliptical, 5 minutes abs

PM: 30 minute elliptical

Tuesday:

4 mile run

Went to the gym on my lunch hour and found it closed for 2 weeks, guess AM workouts it will be for a while…grrr!

Wednesday:

10 minute run, 30 minute elliptical, 10 minute rower, leg segment of core fusion dvd

Thursday:

4 mile run

Nalini Method Class with Dori and Missy!

I was really excited to try this class! Missy and Dori recently recapped it, and I have to say, I was surprised they found it challenging, boy did they have their game faces on, they made it look easy!

This class is very similar to Core Fusion, Core Fusion Sport and Physique 57.  I would say from my one class, it is about as hard as one of those classes with a good instructor.  I have taken harder CF, CFS and P57 classes, but that is the exception not the necessarily the norm.  It all depends on the instructor, and I loved Rupa! Her music was fabulous, current and very fast paced!  There were tons of props: blocks, weights, the barre, a curved two handed dumbell, ankle weights, a ball, a mat, and the star of the show for me: a rubber ring–for seriously killer thigh moves. Plus, there were only a few students, so she corrected me and/or encouraged me throughout the whole class, on pretty much every move. That was great.  She also really stretched me out after every section, I felt like I was back in gymnastics with my coach pushing me down into a full 90 degree stretch.  The stretching was great, and I think probably accounted for the fact that I was not sore over the next few days, despite feeling the burn throughout the class.

The arm work was done seated, which was interesting, normally I think standing is best because you engage the whole body, but as we were propped up, you had to work the stomach to maintain posture.  The arm work was pretty easy, maybe I should have uped the weight.

The leg work was done on the floor and at the barre.   Using the rubber ring for leg raises and a bunch of other stuff in what was probably the longest series of the class seriously had my inners and outers burning, it was awesome. I felt like we attacked all three sides before we moved on to the barre work.   The barre work was pretty similiar to the other studios, a little shorter, so I never  started shaking uncontrollably, but like Dori pointed out in one of her posts, while the class is hard, it is possible, occasionally, okay sometimes often, that’s not the case at the other studios.

The ab work was done on the mat.  It was fairly challenging and a few times I lost the mental battle and fell out of the position. It was a little harder than P57 usually is and a little easier that CF usually is.  I liked it!  I felt a little weird with weight on my ankles and my feet flexed toward the air, it is similiar to birthing position, but it was pretty effective when we were lifting and lowering the weighted plate in mid-sit up position.

The class flew, and I mean flew by, Rupa really let you know what was coming, so you knew what to expect, and I love that!

I am excited to try my next class, although I couldn’t commit to going that far out of my way on a regular basis, I am certainly happy I tried it!

Friday:

30 Day Shred segments 2 and 3

Saturday:

3 mile run, lots of city walking

Sunday:

Core Fusion DVD, lots of city walking, hopefully some elliptical tonight

I tried to go to the building gym in the AM and it was closed for a reason still unbeknown to me, then I tried to go to the local track and it was locked–annoying since yesterday a rowdy soccer game was in full swing by 7AM and then a baseball game kept the noise level up until nearly 5PM, you would think the Yankees were playing across the street.  By this point, it was raining, so I headed back to the apt. for some DVDs. Whatevs, sometimes you have to go with the flow and change your plan.

Pure Core (class review)

The most apt title for this post would have to be dude where’s my yoga?  But for clarity purposes, I will go with the straight forward.  

 

Gena and I decided to use our 3-day passes to Pure Yoga on a Sunday morning Pure Core class, description: condition your body and build long, lean muscles through a challenging and innovative sequence of exercises blending yoga, core training, isometrics and resistance work.  This class is not for beginners or pregnant women.  I am going to go out on the limb and say it’s not for pregnant men either.

 

I enter the class, literally, as it starts, and I am shocked by all the props: hand weights, sliding discs, core balls (kind of like kettleballs without handles), small exercise balls and mats, of course.

 

Our instructor is also the program director of the Pure Yoga studio, and the instructor I had for my hot yoga class too.  She is adorable, petite, and wonderfully upbeat, with a great sense of humor, she pushes you through, and for the record, she definitely has the taut, lean muscles that most people associate with yoga.  She is like a non-scary version of Tracy Anderson.

 

The class begins with weights, moves on to exercises on the gliding discs, and a vast array of combination strength exercises.  Such as squats with a single knee raise and overhead press. V ups holding core ball over your head.  Side lunges with front kicks holding weights. There are several sets of push ups, including one with hands on weights and alternating kickbacks.

 

The not for beginners warning is fairly accurate.  The woman next to me spent most of the classes looking at me with pleading eyes, as if begging me to make it stop.  At one point, she asked me “will there be yoga at the end?”  It was certainly far more intense than I expected, although you could push yourself to the intensity level you wanted to attain. 

 

It was definitely comparable to a Physique 57 or Core Fusion class.  We even did the famous physique wall plies with ball between the knees. Yoga was probably the one thing from the description that the class failed to deliver.  There was no yoga, save one or two stretches in the 60 minute class. Although honestly, that was fine by me.  I felt like I got an amazing workout after we were done.  I mean I wasn’t going to drop dead, but it was definitely a challenge.

 

In sum, Pure Yoga rocks.  They have a great array of classes, and for people who aren’t terrible concerned with the spiritual aspects of yoga, you can certainly avoid it.  Plus, the classes reach beyond yoga, as in the case of Pure Core.  The staff could not be friendlier.  I rushed into the gorgeous studio two minutes before the class started and the receptionist said I could sign in after the class.  Why am I not joining today?  The studio is totally inconvenient for me, sadly, I might consider going for a class here and there, but there is no way I could get my money’s worth with the mandatory monthly membership.  In fact, I actually had to take a cab to the class because with all the service changes on the subway, the EXTRA forty minutes I allotted to getting there was still not enough. 

 

However, if you are a yoga or aspiring yogi in the upper east side vicinity, go get your Pure Yoga Om on.

 

Fitness Finds!

First let me just say that I am so excited that my sister decided to join me for the Thanksgiving Turkey Trot!  Yay, I have asked her the last 3 years, and finally she agreed.  I have to say, I have never had much luck inspiring fitness to those around me.  I literally begged my 3 college roommates to go to the gym with me, and never, not once did they go.  It was less than a block away!  Even today, my roomies never use the gym, pool or free yoga, pilates or strength classes that our building offers.  Oh well, they don’t know what they’re missing. Maybe it’s good I started a blog Rant over. 

I am not sure if my sister runs or works out, but she is naturally pretty athletic, so I am sure she can wing it.  She is a senior at football crazy OSU, so I hear the school’s fitness facilities are pretty stellar!

Okay back to fitness finds, one of my friends just told me about: The Body.  A New York City workout studio that offers classes that sound EXACTLY like physique 57!  First class is free.  To any NYC girls, holla if you try it!

Next, I got great email from amazon announcing a bunch of new workout DVDS, here’s a peak:

Skinny Bitch Fitness: Body

Dancing with the Stars: Latino Cardio Dance

Dirty Dancing Official Dance Workout

Exhale Core Fusion Body Sculpt

Bollywood Booty

Tracy Anderson Mat Workout

Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred

Lisa Rinna: Dance Body Beautiful

I haven’t tried any of these, but the Amazon customer reviews are usually on point.  30 Day Shred has 541 reviews!

I enjoy the occasional home workout.  It’s amazing what you can do with a dyna band, some weights, a pillow and a stability ball.

Marathon and Election fever!

I don’t know which I am more excited about, the marathon or the election…probably, okay definitely, the later!  But I can’t wait to see the marathon tomorrow, unfortunately I have to be at school to meet on a group project at 11, so I will watch as much as I can.  The runners run right through LIC (where I live) and over the miserable 59th street bridge, so I should be able to do some cheering!

The election will require an almost marathon-like effort on my part because I forgot that I needed to change my address 30 days before voting, thus I have to go to my old polling site, which is only slightly over 3 miles away, but a pain in the butt to get to on public transportation.  I really don’t understand why, if you are registered to vote in NY, you can’t vote anywhere.  It is really annoying that moving 3 miles down the borough requires so much unnecessary paperwork.  Anyways, I am going to run to the old polling site and run back before work. Kills two birds with one stone.

In less whiny news, there are a few fun things I wanted to put on the blog in case you hadn’t seen them yet.

One is this awesome desk bike! 

 

 

How great would it be to have one of these at work?  I am seriously considering it!

Second, Exhale Spa will soon be release Core Fusion DVDs.  I have reviewed Core Fusion before, and while it is not as amazing as Physique 57, in my opinion, it is definitely my next workout DVD purchase.  It will save me so much $$$$$ to be able to do this type of workout at home!  I hope it is super-intense, and I’ll be sure to let you know!  I wish P57 would follow suit.  I did the P57 workout that you can find on the marie claire website and it does give you a bitty burn, but it is not really like the class.  I do recommend you check it out though!

I obviously haven’t been able to blog much, I truly want to, but I just can’t find a moment to collect my thoughts.  Thus, scattered posts like this one! 

Anyways, what is in store on my fitness horizon?  Lots of yoga!  I am teaching 4 classes to kids in a couple weeks, so I really have to start taking as many classes as possible!  

If you get a chance to watch some of the NYCM tomorrow, I am positive you will be inspired!

A Tale of Two Races

Sorry sorry sorry for being so so so MIA! I have actually had responsibility at work, plus a full class load, and I just accepted the world’s most perfect internship–that happens to require that I give up a full weekend day every weekend from now until June, plus lots of friends in town, trying to help friend find apartments, and become mary kay ladies…you get the idea.

In any case today I ran Grete’s Gallop Half Marathon. I ran this race last year and it was definitively, the worst race of my life. I stopped several time and wanted to cry a few times! I had never had this happen, but the humidity was around 90% and it was HOT and miserable.

This year was a very different story. This morning it was COLD! Well, around 48 degrees when I left the apartment. I was wearing long black yoga pants, huge sweatshirt pants, my OBAMAthoner dri fit tee over a long sleeve waffle t-shirt, and a retro nylon nike jacket, and a scarf for good measure. I am ridiculous! I checked everything in baggage except my Obamathoner shirt, yoga pants, and fuel belt.

Miles 1-2-awful, I was stiff and my feet were sore from doing extensive walking around the city in heels yesterday, but that wore off after a bit.

Miles 3-4 kind of awful, but not too bad. I was really regretting going out last night, but I hadn’t seen one of my very best friends in months, and we had rescheduled like five times. So I had one small glass of wine and a few hours of great conversation.

Miles 5-6- finally hitting my stride, not feeling super energetic, but at least I was no longer seriously concerned that I was going to suffer for 8 more miles.

Miles 6-7-Flying high! At around halfway I started to feel euphoric. I was running a very steady pace and generally joyful. I knew I could finish no question.

Miles 8-11-still rocking it but I felt my first rain drop around mile 6. By mile 8 it was definitely raining…but at least no one had spit on me, like I thought with the initial drop. Nevertheless, I was kind of cold. However, the rain made me run faster and stronger. I wanted to finish before a downpour could start. Of course, it wasn’t like I could do five miles in 15 minutes, so I knew I might have to be uncomfortable for around 50 minutes. Fortunately the rain stayed very very light.

Mile 11-13.1-my ipod ran out of gas. I took the time to try and focus and run with my arms. I was annoyed because my playlist was awesome and the battery was supposedly full charged! Luckily, it didn’t really effect my run, even if it was less fun in silence. I continued running strong and got my best time ever for a half 2:10:15. Last year, I got 2:25:45, so clearly today was much better.

I finished feeling awesome! So good, that really want to run a marathon this fall, but I need to start putting school first. I recently had an honest reflection about my future career, and I have been putting my social life and my job and time wasting activities first, and those really can not be my priorities. I can excel academically, but I have to work incredibly hard to do it. I have always been jealous of those who can do no work and get 4.0s. So for now academia must come before my beloved friends; my beloved, therapeutic blogging; before my current job and job search; and before running marathons. However, I will still blog a few times a week with new ideas, workout and deals.

However, this race marks my 9th Road Runner Race this season….which means, I AUTOMATICALLY QUALIFY FOR the ING NYC MARATHON 2009! Woo-Hoo!!!!!!!!!!

This post is getting long, but I wanted to mention a couple cool things.

First, I got my fabulous tee, pictured above at Jack Rabbit Sports. Where I have been 3 times this week, first buying my new amphipod, and then some shot blocks, and then the OBAMAthoner tee. It is really my very favorite store, the staff are so cool! Plus, 10% off every time I go!

Second, the Jack Rabbit Sports Indoor Tri Series is starting, sign up! It’s so cool!

Thirdly, did everyone see that Kelly Ripa is once again talking about Physique 57 in a magazine? I love it but three covers? Shape, Fitness, and now Shape again.

A fabulous reader let me know that in addition to the video of Kelly at P57 on the Physique 57 website, Marie Clarie also has a few clips straight from P57 founder Tanya Becker. She also mentioned that there is a new dvd with a similar workout called the Tracy Anderson Mat Workout based on Gwen Paltrow’s and Madonna’s workouts. It could be worth checking out.

All right off to clean and study study study! xoxo

Please excuse any errors. I was typing really fast.

Thigh Dancing and a New Fun New Blog

Ah thigh dancing. A Lotte Burke and Physique 57 signature. It really is a great way to tone and lengthen your hamstrings, bulk begone!

So here’s how it goes. I really wish I had a video of this one, but I have no idea how to do that. Do I need a video camera? Hmmmm

So anyways this is how you thigh dance. This is best to use as a finesse move after a lower body workout.

First put on a great song, such as Baby Got Back or my recent fav, Beyonce’s, Get Me Bodied (FAB!)

Now kneel down with your knees hip distance apart.

Now lower your butt one inch from your feet, you should feel the hamstrings activated.

Now shake hips side to side, so you are just skimming your feet. Really feel the beat, so it is not too painful! After about 30 seconds back and forth, start shaking while raising and lowering your butt…feel the burn!

Next up, thrusts. So basically lower to one inch about your feet and then thrust forward, pushing pelvis in front of you. Add overhead punches to keep your mind off the work in your legs.

Thrust side to side-so raise your hips up and thrust and punch to the right and left. Note: all this should look and feel fairly sexual, however, maybe not sexy

Final move is the lasso. Swirl your hips to the right as you raise and lower. At the same time, Swirl your arms above your head like you are holding two lassos! Reverse to the left.

Stretch it out!

Oh I just started reading Single-ish a blog by Glamour. It’s pretty good!

I have definitely hit my afternoon slump, but I am doing everything in my power not to run out for a Diet Coke!

I hope to do a lower Manhattan run after work, down by the Seaport to check out the Waterfalls. I planned to go during my lunch hour but my girlfriend called, and who can turn down a ladies lunch?

This weekend I am going hiking for the first time in forever. I am nervous, and I’ll let you know how it goes! The boy I am dating suggested it, and of course, I am totally swooning that I found a boy that would suggest a fitness related date! Although hiking clothes aren’t too cute. Maybe I can work the girl next door thing? I typically don’t write too much about my love life, but that is also because the last guy I was dating read my blog. So shhh!

Have a great weekend!

The Right to Bare Arms

Cliche title, I know.

Physique 57 did not disappoint last night! I even ran into one of my good girlfriends and marathon buddy, who I haven’t seen in weeks. We were both ridiculously excited to get off the wait list and into Magen’s class.

We did some great arm exercises that I can really feel this morning, so I thought I would share them with you.

These 4 easy moves will really have you feeling the burn. The great thing is that they require zero equipment.

1.) Regular push-ups (20)

2.)Push up planks with tricep kickbacks. Still in push-up position. Bend and lift your right elbow straight up, so your arm is in a V from your shoulder to halfway down your chest. Next extend arm straight behind you alongside your body. Bend back to V position and lower to the full plank push up position you started in. Repeat on right side. Do 10 on each side.

3.) Still in plank push up position, do push ups lowering your body with your elbows pointing at the wall behind you. Your arms should be very close to your sides. These are killer, aim for 10.

(Bonus move: drop to forearm plank and alternate touching right and left knee to the floor for 30, then do 30 with both knees lowering and lifting together.)

4.) Reverse push ups. Flip over and get in crab walk position. Knees are at 90 degree angle to the floor and arms are straight, so your body is elevated in a straight line from knees to shoulders–stomach facing ceiling. With hand facing your feet do 20 tricep dips, then point hands toward wall behind you and do another 20 tricep dips.

Enjoy a well deserved stretch!