Motivation To Move Community

Any Rebounders Out There?

2010-02-11T14:39:30-05:00

Anybody out there using a mini-trampoline for cardio? Do you do your own thing or follow an exercise DVD for rebounding? Right now, I’m just “running in place” and was wondering how others might be using their rebounders.

Online exercise planner/trackers?

2007-01-15T16:50:32-05:00

Anyone have any suggestions for online exercise planner and trackers? Or even just planners. I’m in an exercise study through the Coopers Institute here in Dallas. They have an online tool I can use, but after the study is over, I won’t have access to it. And I’d like to keep using something like it.

Basically what I want is to tell it I want to burn X amount of calories a week and that I plan on exercising X amount of time a week. Then I put in what I’m doing, and it tells me how long to do it. The one I use now is based off my weight which would be good if I could find another based off of weight, but I don’t know if that’s necessary?

Thanks so much guys
Karen

I really am getting bigger

2009-08-02T19:17:45-05:00

I am 5 ft. 4 and 125 pounds.
i started working out regularly to increase muscle and to just feel good., i am doing weights and cardio. my arms used to jiggle but now they are just big, so much bigger that i had to unbotton the short sleeves on a blouse i regularly wear. I am happy i am not jiggling, but now how can i get leaner. my husband is an avid zone diet follower, so even by not weighing everything, I am a very healthy eater.
thanks for any thoughts on how to change my workout to become leaner.

Exercising outside

2009-08-11T14:54:09-05:00

I found this wonderfull article and would like to share this with you. But before I do this. I would like to share my experience. I used to spend a lot of time inside of the buildings and I barely went outside. I spend my workdays inside, after work I study, I go to gym, stores, etc. I never thought about it but about 95% of the day I was spending inside. I felt as I was having healthy lifystyle but I really didn’t feel great, felt very sleepy and slugish. I changed my diet, increased my sleep but how I felt didn’t changed. Then I went to a doctor did my lab work work, everything turn out o.k. I was about to believe may be it’s a way you should feel as you get older, (and I’m not that old , I’m only 30 years old). Then I read this article and try to experiment and see what will happen. And believe it or not it really help me a lot. I feel very energize, don’t feel sleepy. Everyday I try to find some time to spend at least 2 hours outside. Here some interesting article I found.
Research shows that going outside can greatly improve your attention and memory. You can even do something as simple as a walk through a forest preserve. No matter what season it is, spending time outdoors is beneficial.

With as little as an hour outside, you can improve your attention span by twenty percent. This is beneficial for teachers and parents to know. Just because it is cold all winter, you do not want to coop your child up indoors the whole time. Bundle up, and head outside. Teachers can take their class outside to study for their next test. It will be a change in pace, and also an improvement in test scores.

There are also other benefits from going outdoors. The brain needs fresh air. It needs oxygen, and the air outside is much better. You can also relieve stress on your eyes while being outside. If you have a job where you stare at the computer screen all day, this can relieve a buildup of stress on your eyes. A quick jaunt outdoors can fix a multitude of problems.

Another tip while at work is going outside to help with a problem. If you are stuck on a problem or situation, take a step outside to think about it. You can look at things with a new perspective outdoors.

If you are having a long day, and you can not seem to stay awake. Step outside for a while. The oxygen from outside will help your brain, and you may not feel so drained.

Natural revival

There’s good scientific reason why Hart and Frew feel such a difference between outdoor and indoor exercising. It starts with how we pay attention to the world around us and function within it, explains Andrea Faber Taylor, PhD, a researcher in the Landscape and Human Health Laboratory of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

During most of our waking hours, we use our directed-attention ability, which helps us stay on task, take an exam or drive in heavy traffic. Directed attention—while useful for success in many life functions—demands concentrated effort. It leaves us feeling mentally fatigued and even stressed, Dr. Faber Taylor says.

By contrast, being in natural settings triggers involuntary attention. We use this when watching a flickering campfire or the moving water of a stream. Involuntary attention is easier on the mind, helping to rebuild and renew directed-attention strength.

“When people exercise outdoors in nature, they are not only exercising their body, but likely restoring attention and receiving physiological stress-reduction benefits. It’s a whole-body effect versus just the physical,” says Dr. Faber Taylor. Among her research findings: that walking in a park setting for 20 minutes improved the attention performance of children with attention deficits, compared to walking in more built settings. Similarly, a University of Michigan study released in 2008 showed that walking in natural environments or even simply looking at pictures of nature scenes restored the cognitive functioning of a group of college students.

Combining nature and physical activity—a phenomenon called “green exercise” by researchers at the University of Essex in England—produces a positive effect on physical and emotional health. Green exercise has been shown to significantly improve self-esteem and mood, reduce blood pressure and burn calories.

Those benefits contribute to why women who walk, run, dance, do yoga, bike, weight train or do other sports outdoors are so committed to the open air.

“I will walk in rain, shine, snow, deerflies biting or anything else,” says three-mile-a-day walker Sally Berry, 48, a travel consultant from Canandaigua, New York. “I get to notice things no one else does—the first birds back in the spring, a heron in a creek or the first tree to start changing color in the fall.”

Although some nature exercisers do go inside when the weather becomes too challenging, most return outdoors as soon as they can.

Taking it outside

We all know women who love going to the gym. They enjoy the fitness equipment, trainers and classes within those walls. Others work out at home, preferring the privacy and convenience they find there.

Yet green exercise has appealing advantages: it’s often cheaper and easier than a gym or fitness club, usually provides a better visual and sensory experience than being inside and may be more easily adapted to your changing interests and needs. What’s more, exercising in a natural environment—rather than indoors on a treadmill—produces higher levels of positive emotions, with less tension and stress, and encourages you to exercise longer.

Working out with a personal trainer

2009-08-03T11:03:49-05:00

My workout plan which I’ve been tweeking for the past 8 years is no longer giving me results. I’m now working with a personal trainer for the next 16 weeks to get on track with a program that helps improve my mobility and build more strength.

Sometimes you have recognize what no longer works and go outside of your comfort zone if you want results.

Workout music lists on Rhapsody

2009-03-26T19:45:34-05:00

I just wanted to share my list of exercise music with everyone, so I published it on Rhapsody. All of you Rhapsody members, and non-members, can go to the playlist central section of the site, or player, and search for Poeboy’s Workout Mega Mix. Or if you just use it on the internet, then you can go to http://www.rhapsody.com/myrhapsody/playlists?playlistid=mp.131193353 in order to see the list. Please rate it and let me know here what you think!

body weight exercises

2009-06-13T00:26:03-05:00

Surely this has been discussed in other places, but I wasn’t able to find it easy. I’m looking for some bodyweight exercises that I can use for a total body strength workout. The fitness center I’m going to has dumbells and machines but I don’t feel comfortable venturing over there yet, and I need to keep up weight training, not just cardio myself to death. I’ve found this website http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/mahler57.htm but its way out of my league, I’m not looking for bodybuilding, just a balanced workout.

Relay for Life!

2009-05-16T22:01:47-05:00

Did anyone else participate in Relay for Life, or are they planning too? I relayed for the first time this weekend and it was fantastic! So much exercise and fun and for such a good cause, all the people with you and the cause you are walking for really gives you lots of motivation. This was the first time that I went out and walked/ran with serious intensity outside the gym for a long time. The last time I set out to for for a mile out on the track I could barely run one lap, but during the relay I was able to run the full mile! I wondered if anyone else has done or is doing relay and if they wanted to share some of their inspirational stories about it or some of the stories that were told at opening ceremonies.

Your Power Song

2007-05-15T01:25:23-05:00

We all know that music brings a lot to our lives. It motivates us. Soothes us. Sometimes it makes us feel happy, or even angry. It keeps us company when we’re alone, or brings us together with friends and family. The point is, music is such an important part of our lives - and workout music is no different.

So, what’s a Power Song? I’m thinking it’s that special song that gives that extra kick on final leg on the treadmill, eliptical, or bike. It could be a song that brings you through your cool-off period. Or it could be that song that motivates you to give it all you got to get that extra rep.

Fact is, if you listen to music, you should have at least one song in your library that will get you through the toughest point in your workout, and would give you enough, ahem, power which might even surprise you.

So, what’s YOUR Power Song? We all have different tastes so it could be any artist, and any genre. It could even be the birds chirping in the forest. What’s motivating you NOW?

This is meant to be an open thread for you to add whatever song you like, whenever you want.

I’m guessing it should be in this kind of format (or any other format you choose)

{Artist}
{Song}
{Genre}
{And why it’s your Power Song that day, week, month, even year}

This could even be an interesting MTM community iMix on iTunes.

And....GO!

Pilates

2009-02-18T09:29:22-05:00

What are your opinions on pilates as exercise?

I have been doing a class off and on, once a week. I enjoy the nature of it and the instructor is good. My frustration is that, given the fact that I have nine surgically fused vertebrae, I can’t curve my spine the way I’m supposed to and thus feel like I’m the wooden soldier in a class full of real human beings. The instructor herself is like a contortionist compared to me.

I suppose it’s still beneficial to *try* to execute those moves, and it still works the core muscles, but I feel like I’m waivering and am wondering whether my Wednesday night time is better spent just doing the usual strength and cardio business. That said, I’ve been borrowing some of the stretching and ab principles in my workout.