mrmadison24 
"Consistency. I would like to compete in an amateur competition in the next 3 years."
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| Created: | 02/27/2008 |
| Total Visits: | 619 |
| Total Blog Entries: | 19 |
| Total Comments: | 1 |
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May 25, 2009
5/20
2 miles w/ 45lb vest (12:30 / 12:00)
rippetoe A
1 mile w/ 45lb vest (17:03)
5/22
15 minutes on Stair Mill
rippetoe B
cooldown: 2 miles (16:07 / 13:57)
5/24
warmup: 2 miles w/ 45lb vest (15:56 / 16:20)
rippetoe A
cooldown: 1 mile w/ 45lb vest (14:09)
5/25
4.18 miles w/ 45lb vest (16:50 / 12:17 / 11:53 / 14:00)
Posted in Training
May 19, 2009
1 mile - 9:22
crunches 100
BICEPS: Standing Barbell (18×20, 15×25, 12×35),
crunches 100
Spider Curls (12×45, 12×45, 10×50, 8×50),
Incline Dumbbell Curls (12×20, 12×30, 10×50, 12×35),
1-armed ISO Lateral curls (12×20, 12×30, 10×50, 12×35)
1-armed Concentration Curls (18×10, 15×10, 12×20, 12×20)
It’s no accident that jogging took off in the 1970s.
It’s nearly summertime, but the living isn’t easy — not if you’re suffering from a 401(k) meltdown. Life, in fact, is hard, and only getting harder. And when life gets tough, the tough get running.
While gym memberships are down and personal trainers are getting the boot, running is making a major comeback according to race directors and shoe retailers.
It’s easy to see why. Running is an inexpensive activity that requires little in the way of equipment — a decent pair of shoes, shorts, socks and a T-shirt and you’re ready. The playing field is any free land, sidewalk, park or road. (It’s not surprising that America’s first running craze was born of the economic malaise of the 1970s.) And most cities and towns have at least one running club, an informal group that meets for distance runs and interval workouts. In short, running is one of the cheapest forms of exercise a body can do.
But running is not just exercise. It’s a great stress reliever and an inexpensive source of neurotransmitters like dopamine that wash the body with good feelings. In stressful times, running can literally make us happy. Thus, being a runner is both an emotional and biochemical commitment.
Of course, some people “jog” purely for fitness purposes and hate it. This might explain why the French were recently in an uproar after photos surfaced of President Nicolas Sarkozy in shorts and a T-shirt breaking a sweat in the Tuileries. Running is an American activity, the French press claimed, a fascistic act designed to manage and control the body. Not an intellectual pursuit at all. “It is about performance and individualism,” one writer wrote, right-wing values antithetical to everything cherished by the country that gave us foie gras.
Perhaps so. Yet once infected by the running bug, it’s hard to find a cure.
During the winter in New York I would routinely encounter a man who ran the loop of Central Park shirtless, no matter the weather. I once saw him in the middle of a 22-inch snowstorm when I thought I’d be the only one crazy enough to venture outside. Yet the park was filled with runners.
Another time my training partner burst into tears in the middle of a run because his girlfriend had just dumped him. Rather than stopping, he picked up the pace, until the two of us were flying down the mall in Washington, D.C., in the middle of a blistering hot day, silent and relentless, burning away the sorrow.
All runners have stories, many of them bizarre or off-color. In law school I ran with a world-class, 5,000 meter runner who disclosed he was stoned in the middle of a 13-mile run (apparently a common training technique for him).
At the Olympic trials in Charlotte, N.C., in 1996, marathoner Bob Kempainen vomited a bright green stream of Gatorade on national television, then calmly accelerated (running a 4:44 mile) and sprinted to victory. World record-holder Grete Waitz did her business on the side of the road, then pulled up her shorts and went on to win the 1984 New York City Marathon. Every runner has a tale about a port-a-potty just missed, a coffee that wouldn’t stay down, a blister that burst and filled a sock with blood. We tell the stories with pride, metaphors for our own indomitability.
None of us, of course, can beat back disease, debilitation or death. Running may temporarily relieve our stress, but it’s sure to take its toll on our knees and hips and the fatigue of constant training can have a depressant effect.
Yet imagine the runner, alone on the road, his footfalls on gravel in sync with his breathing. He is swift and fast and focused. His arms pump in steady cadence. His knees rise in regular rhythm.
There is nothing on his mind but how his fingers feel as they brush his palm, his toes as they kiss the edge of his shoes, his calves as they whisper against each other with every stride. He is man, machine, spirit. Watch him fly.
Mr. Stracher is publisher of the New York Law School Law Review. He is writing a book about the 1970s and the running boom.
Posted in Training
May 18, 2009
7.03 miles w/ 45lb vest, 109 minutes (20:03 / 13:08 / 11:02 / 11:00 / ** / ** / **)
Posted in Training
May 12, 2009
Salt Lake City
I felt like I had stumbled into a Burmese forced-labor camp. I was walking on all fours like a bear, each hand dragging a 20-pound weight, sweat pouring off my face, making my grip slippery. When I reached the end of my crawl, things got harder. Still holding the dumbells, I did a push-up, then while holding the plank position I lifted each weight once before jumping into a squat, standing up and raising the weights above my head.
This exercise is called a man-maker. I had to do 10 without a break, then back to bear crawling for 250 yards. Man-breakers, I began calling the workout in my mind.
A fellow sufferer named Paul panted to the finish.
“How was it?” asked our tormentor, Mark Twight.
“It sucked,” Paul said.
Welcome to the painful world of Gym Jones. If the name reminds you of the People’s Temple death cult, it probably should. Gym Jones is “a private, invitation only” exercise facility in an unmarked building here. It’s the brainchild of Mr. Twight, a legendary American alpinist whose idea of fun was to climb Alaska’s Mount Denali by a brutally challenging route in 60 sleepless hours. He also wrote a book called “Extreme Alpinism,” for those who don’t find the prospect of scaling scary mountains by hard routes extreme enough in the first place.
About a decade ago Mr. Twight gave up torturing himself up in the mountains in favor of endurance ski and bike racing. Now, for a living, he tortures other people. He trains elite U.S. military units and transformed a bunch of out-of-shape actors into ripped Spartan warriors for the film “300.” Actor Vincent Regan lost 40 pounds after a month training with Mr. Twight. “His wife didn’t recognize him at the airport,” Mr. Twight noted.
Since I was planning a trip to Alaska in the near future, I signed up for a seminar at Gym Jones ($1,800 per person for two days, including energy bars and bananas) to get whipped into shape. Then — for some reason that eluded me while I was groveling on the floor — I stayed around for a few days of extra pain from Mr. Twight.
“What’s your fitness goal?” asked Rob MacDonald, who when he isn’t training athletes at Gym Jones beats up people in a cage.
“Not to die on a mountain,” I said.
Before long I had changed it to not dying at Gym Jones.
The seminar was a mix of lectures on the primacy of mental training (”accept and embrace and enjoy suffering”), nutrition (”If you can’t pronounce it, don’t put it in your mouth. If it wasn’t food 100 years ago, it is not food today”), fitness theory and gym work. There were 11 of us. Most were martial artists, one an Olympic athlete, another an Army ranger. I was the only climber.
One of our first exercises was called Tailpipe. (”When you’re done, it feels like you’re sucking on a tailpipe,” Mr. Twight said.) You race through 250 yards as fast as you can on a rowing machine while your partner hugs a 53-pound weight to his or her chest. Then you switch positions and repeat three times without pause. The look of anguish on your partner’s face encourages you to go faster.
“It’s hard to breathe,” gasped one participant, pressing the weight to his chest, his eyes bugging out like a crab’s.
“That’s the point,” Mr. Twight added.
At the end of the six-minute drill, half the class was sprawled on the floor, wheezing like waterboarding victims.
Another exercise possibly covered by the Geneva Convention was the Jones Crawl, so-named because most people crawl away when done. You start by deadlifting 115% of your body weight 10 times, then jump up onto a thigh-high box 25 times — repeat twice, without a rest, for time. The Army ranger finished first in 4:34 minutes. I finished five seconds later. Mr. MacDonald beat us both by almost a minute.
“Is the Army this hard?” I groaned.
“Hell, no,” the ranger huffed.
The gym actually resembles Room 101 in Orwell’s “1984″ more than a modern fitness center. There are no weight machines or mirrors or towels. Exercises are done with free weights, emphasizing full-body workouts during intense, heart-pounding circuits.
The idea is to develop functional fitness that will translate into high performance whether you’re brawling in the Ultimate Fighting Championship or climbing Denali. The goal isn’t to build huge muscles, but more efficient ones, increasingly the power-to-weight ratio.
“No one has ever gotten bigger in this gym,” Mr. Twight said. “The gym is not our sport.”
Each exercise has to be done in good form or it doesn’t count, and you have to keep going until you get it right. On the box jumps, for instance, I watched one of my seminar-mates repeatedly leap onto the box but forget to stand upright.
“Doesn’t count,” his coach said again and again as he hurled his body atop the box. “Doesn’t count.”
And when I lurched too far forward while dragging a sled loaded with 245 pounds of iron from one side of the gym to the other, Mr. Twight suggested that I carry a 25-pound weight above my head in each hand to improve my posture — while dragging the sled.
One part of the seminar I was actually looking forward to was called “recovery,” which Mr. Twight explained was perhaps even more important than training hard. Unfortunately, Mr. Twight’s idea of recovery didn’t involved watching TV and eating ice cream. A Gym Jones recovery exercise means a half-hour bike ride or run after your “real” workout.
Then there’s the recovery shower, which, as athletes know, helps flush toxins from the muscles. It starts off well enough: five minutes of hot water. Then you turn the water to as cold as it will go for several minutes. Repeat at least once, ending on cold water. After the first day’s workout, I decided to give it a try. It was the first time in my life I ever feared going hypothermic in a hotel room.
“Just take it,” Mr. Twight advised.
Mr. MacDonald recalled the first time he tried a recovery shower at Mr. Twight’s urging.
“I wanted to punch him,” he said.
I know the feeling.
Mr. Ybarra is the Wall Street Journal’s extreme sports correspondent.
Posted in Training
May 5, 2009
By MELINDA BECK, WSJ Health Blog
A lot of Americans think they’re eating a healthy diet these days. But it’s easy to be fooled by our assumptions and the ways that food manufacturers play on them.
Take chicken. The average American eats about 90 pounds of it a year, more than twice as much as in the 1970s, part of the switch to lower-fat, lower-cholesterol meat proteins. But roughly one-third of the fresh chicken sold in the U.S. is "plumped" with water, salt and sometimes a seaweed extract called carrageenan that helps it retain the added water. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says chicken processed this way can still be labeled "all natural" or "100% natural" because those are all natural ingredients, even though they aren’t naturally found in chicken.
Many Americans assume they are on a healthy diet these days. But it’s easy to be fooled. WSJ’s Health Columnist Melinda Beck looks at whether some products are really as healthy as they say they are.
Producers must mention the added ingredients on the package — but the lettering can be small: just one-third the size of the largest letter in the product’s name. If you’re trying to watch your sodium to cut your risk of high blood pressure, heart attack and stroke, it pays to check the Nutrition Facts label. Untreated chicken has about 45 to 60 mgs of sodium per four-ounce serving. So-called enhanced or “plumped” chicken has between 200 and 400 mgs of sodium per serving, almost as much as a serving of fast-food french fries.
Adding salt water became widespread when big discount stores began selling groceries and wanted to sell chicken at uniform weights and prices. Plumping packaged chicken helps even out the weight. But that means consumers are paying for added salt water at chicken prices — an estimated $2 billion worth every year, according to the Truthful Labeling Coalition, a group of chicken producers that don’t enhance their products.
Makers of enhanced chicken, including some of the biggest U.S. producers, say many consumers prefer it in blind taste tests and that it stays moister. Ray Atkinson, a spokesman for Pilgrim’s Pride, says the company sells both enhanced and unenhanced chicken because consumers ask for it. He also notes that even at 330 mg of sodium, the enhanced chicken qualifies for the American Heart Association’s mark of approval.
A survey released this week from Foster Farms, a member of the Truthful Labeling Coalition, found that 63% of consumers are unaware of the practice, and 82% believe that salt-water-injected chicken shouldn’t carry the all-natural label. The telephone survey polled 1,000 consumers on the West Coast.
Here are some other foods that may not be as healthy as they appear.
Salt substitutes. If you’re trying to cut down on salt, check with your doctor before you start using a salt substitute. Most contain potassium chloride, which can exacerbate kidney problems and interact badly with some heart and liver medications.
Artificial Sweeteners. Sugar-free gum, mint and candy have fewer calories and are better for your teeth. But they frequently contain sorbitol, a plant extract that isn’t completely absorbed by the body and works as a natural laxative. Consuming a single pack of gum or mints can cause bloating, flatulence, stomach pains and diarrhea in people who are sensitive to it. Some diabetics find that such sugar alcohols, which are sweet but have few calories, can raise their blood sugar. Others include maltitol and xylitol.
Trans fat. There’s been a remarkable reduction in these artery-cloggers in processed foods recently. But manufacturers are allowed to round down: Products labeled zero grams of trans fat can have up to 0.49 gram of fat per serving. You could still be consuming significant amounts of trans fat, “especially when the serving size is unrealistic,” says Bonnie Taub-Dix, a nutritionist and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, a nonprofit professional organization. If the ingredients include partially hydrogenated oil, hydrogenated oil or shortening, a product isn’t completely trans-fat free. And it may have considerable saturated fat as well.
The same rounding principle applies to zero calories, fat and carbohydrates. Walden Farms, which advertises a line of dips, spreads and dressings as “Fat Free, Sugar Free and Calorie Free,” says its products do have trace calories and up to 0.49 gram of fat and carbohydrates per serving.
“Wheat bread.” This is a meaningless term, since almost all bread is made with wheat. Some manufacturers add to the illusion by using a brown wrapper or darkening bread with brown sugar or molasses. The more healthful stuff is whole wheat, which includes the outer bran and the wheat germ inside, good sources of nutrients and fiber. Check the ingredients. If the first one listed is “enriched wheat flour,” you aren’t getting much whole grain.
A few bread makers are still displaying the USDA’s old Food Pyramid on their packages — the one that recommended six to 11 servings of bread or pasta a day. That’s been replaced by a more individualized pyramid that recommends only six carbohydrate servings, three of which should be whole grains.
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Packaged chicken, labeled 100% Natural, can contain added broth or water and salt, noted in small type.
Fiber. Companies are adding fiber to all kinds of products — including yogurt, ice cream and beverages. In many cases, the added fiber comes from purified powders, not the kind of fiber found in whole grains, beans, vegetables and fruits. The latter have been shown to lower cholesterol, reduce the risk of diabetes and heart disease and may cut the risk of colon cancer. But there isn’t much evidence that “isolated” fibers like inulin, maltodextrin, oat fiber and polydextrose have the same effect, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit consumer-advocacy group. The Nutrition Facts label doesn’t differentiate between the kind of fiber counted, so check the ingredients.
“The added fiber is probably better than nothing, but it’s not as good as fiber from natural sources like fruits, vegetables and whole grains,” says CSPI Executive Director Michael Jacobson.
Yogurt. The yogurt aisle is dizzy these days with products that promise to reduce your cholesterol, control your blood pressure, protect your digestive health or boost your immune system. In many cases, it’s a single ingredient that provides the benefit, and you can find much more of it in other sources. For example, Promise activ SuperShots say they “Help Control Blood Pressure” thanks to 350 mgs of potassium. There’s much more potassium in a banana, a cup of spinach or a baked potato. DanActive probiotic dairy drink’s immunity-boosting claims stem from its L. casei Immunitas active culture. There’s lots of research interest in such probiotics, but for now, the marketing is ahead of the science. The friendly bacteria in DanActive has mainly been shown to fight diarrhea in people taking antibiotics.
Super water. The Center for Science in the Public Interest sued Coca-Cola Co. earlier this year over claims on its VitaminWater beverages. The center argued that the drinks — with names like “defense,” “rescue,” “energy” and “endurance” — are mainly sugar water with 125 calories per bottle. Coke called the lawsuit “frivolous” and said its VitaminWater brands are properly labeled. “Consumers today are savvy, they are educated and they are looking for more from their beverages than simply hydration,” said Coke spokesman Scott Williamson.
Government surveys show that most Americans aren’t deficient in many of the vitamins supplied in these drinks. If you consume more than you need, the excess gets excreted.
Omega 3. Many foods are adding these essential fatty acids, said to cut the risk of heart disease, cancer and arthritis and help promote brain health. But you can get a lot more from natural foods. You’d need to drink 45 eight-ounce glasses of milk that is fortified with 32 mgs of omega 3 to get as much of these fatty acids as you get in a three-ounce serving of salmon.
Will any of the products mentioned here hurt you? No, but they may not help you as much as manufacturers would like you to think. "Try to buy foods as close to their natural state as possible," says Ms. Taub-Dix.
Posted in Training
April 28, 2009
 
SWEAT THERAPY | Fitness centers become sanctuary for the newly unemployed seeking to release stress
When Richard Gill’s financial consulting work came to a “screeching halt” in late January, he could easily have submitted to temptation.
“Some people run to a bottle,” the 38-year-old Lake View man said last week.
Posted in Training
March 24, 2009
3/23 15 minutes abs, 45 min. Chest (pec flye, incline d.b., decline bench, machine press), 4.0 miles w/ 45lb vest (70min)
 WHAT’S YOUR WORKOUT NOVEMBER 11, 2008, 10:16 A.M. ET
Exec’s Workout Could Tire Men Half His Age
From Wyoming Rock Climbing to New York Harbor Kayaking to Running Three Stairs at a Time at the Harvard Club
The ExecutiveTo celebrate his 50th birthday in September, Scott Williams, the executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Morgans Hotel Group, kayaked through New York’s harbor with a friend. The duo paddled against the East River current from Williamsburg, under the Brooklyn Bridge, past the temporary waterfalls designed by artist Olafur Eliasson and Governors Island before barely making it to Red Hook three hours later.
![[Scott Williams]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-CP753_workou_E_20081104150942.jpg) <cite>Scott Williams</cite>
Scott Williams kayaks just past New York City’s Brooklyn Bridge in the East River.
Some might call Mr. Williams an adrenaline junkie. After college he played rugby for the U.S. national team. This past summer he climbed Wyoming’s Teton Range. Now he’s training for a heliskiing trip in British Columbia. To stay fit enough to participate in such rugged activities, Mr. Williams maintains a disciplined diet and committed workout routine that he can adapt when he travels to one of his company’s boutique properties around the United States and Europe.
Mr. Williams lives in Greenwich, Conn., with his wife and three children, ages eight, 14 and 16. He stands 5-foot-10 and weighs 158 pounds.
The Workout
Mr. Williams leaves his house at 5:20 a.m. to bypass morning traffic into New York and arrives at his desk in 45 minutes. He usually cleans out some e-mails and then works out. Having an office near the West Side Highway allows for runs along the nearby waterfront promenade a few days a week. After the run, he uses a shower in his office.
Other times he works out at the Harvard Club, which he likes for its no-frills feel. (Mr. Williams attended Harvard Business School’s General Management Program.) “It’s like going back 100 years,” Mr. Williams says. “It’s totally old school, with two-inch thick pipes in the showers and gigantic bars of green soap that just say ‘PINE.’ ”
Mr. Williams says he adores exercise. Occasionally he makes the two-and-a-half hour, 38-mile bike ride into the office. When he goes to the gym he warms up on the elliptical machine for seven minutes listening to U2 (the old stuff), the “Into the Wild” soundtrack and his company’s hotel mixes. He then runs up and down nine flights of stairs on the fire escape, first taking them one at a time, then two, then three and finally doing super-quick steps down and walking back up. He does core work using the stability ball and also integrates yoga poses into his routine. Between exercises he does sets of 40 push-ups, or as many as he can complete until he runs out of gas. Sometimes he uses free weights for strength training but mostly exercises using his body weight. He finishes up with a few minutes in the steam room before hitting the shower.
![[Scott Williams]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-CP752_workou_E_20081104150705.jpg) <cite>Scott Williams</cite>
Mr. Williams shows off his waterskiing abilities.
Mr. Williams adjusts his workouts according to the season. In the summer he gears them toward competing in local sprint triathlons (.47-mile swim, 12.4-mile bike, 3.1-mile run), recreational kayaking and climbing. This past summer he climbed the extremely challenging Exum Ridge of Grand Teton. During the spring, summer and fall he plays soccer once a week in a Greenwich league. Mr. Williams, who played club-level soccer at the University of Washington, usually plays midfield or defense.
In the winter, he shifts his exercise routine to strengthening his legs in preparation for ski season. He also plays pick-up basketball at a local school gym on Sundays in the winter. “A lot of us bring out our kids and they play at one end of the quarter and the adults play on the other,” he says.
Mr. Williams’s aggressive activity load has left him with a laundry list of injuries that include a torn rotator cuff, a ruptured Achilles tendon and a broken wrist and fingers, just to name a few. “I have a high pain threshold,” he says. Mr. Williams admits that he over-trains. He doesn’t build in a set rest day during the week because of his erratic travel schedule. “But the cross-training of everything I do prevents injuries,” he says. “I’m addicted to the high of working out. I just need it every day. I need the juice.”
The Diet
Mr. Williams has not consumed dairy products in 15 years and tries not to eat too much wheat. He takes his breakfast seriously. Some mornings he makes his own oatmeal — a combination of Irish steel-cut oats, flaxseed, dried cherries, organic brown rice milk and cinnamon. “If I am really feeling crazy I add chopped dates to sweeten it,” he says. Other mornings he’ll have a bowl of his homemade granola, which includes pumpkin seeds, pecans, almonds, flax seeds, rolled oats and cinnamon.
Sample Workout Schedule
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: Run along West Side Highway promenade
Tuesday, Thursday: Gym workout at the Harvard Club
Saturday: Outdoor bike ride
Sunday: Pick-up basketball and soccer
After some hard workouts he eats a tortilla with egg whites, avocado, black beans and scallions. He doesn’t drink caffeine, preferring a juice concoction mid-morning. It’s a mixture of MonaVie Active, (a combination of açai, the antioxidant-packed Brazilian berry which provides a natural buzz, and glucosamine), grapefruit juice and a green-enzyme-packed powder that contains oregano, alfalfa and wheatgrass among other plant fibers.
Because of his office’s relative isolation, he sends in for lunch each day. Mr. Williams usually eats ratatouille or tuna for protein. He calls his wife a spectacular cook who shares his healthy eating habits. “People think I’m a little obsessed,” he says. “But I don’t go crazy. I usually eat what the kids are having. Occasionally Nancy and I will prepare something different.” He doesn’t have a sweet tooth. Mr. Williams doesn’t drink much alcohol but says he knows of the health benefits of wine and enjoys the occasional Bordeaux or Burgundy.
The Cost
Mr. Williams calls himself “old school” when it comes to gear. He hates logos and actually uses a Sharpie pen to black out logos on his T-shirts. He keeps a few pairs of running sneakers, usually New Balance or Asics, at home, plus ones at his desk and the Harvard Club. He times his stair-climbing intervals with his Timex Ironman chronometer, which costs around $40. He has a Cannondale mountain bike and a Look KG361 road bike, as well as Head LM75 skis.
He splurges on the necessary gear for specific trips, like when he climbed Mount Rainier in Washington state. His soccer league costs $80 per season.
The Effort
Mr. Williams travels frequently between his company’s hotel properties and doesn’t blink at having to improvise his workout routine. When in San Francisco, he brings his mountain bike to ride the city’s hills. When in Los Angeles for the reopening of the Mondrian, he realized he’d forgotten his phone charger. He jogged five miles to the Apple store to buy a new one.
In Scottsdale, Ariz., he wakes for a morning mountain run. But some business trips don’t allow for even the briefest bit of exercise. A few weeks ago Mr. Williams flew to London for breakfast and lunch meetings, then flew to Montreal the same day for a dinner presentation. From Montreal he flew to Miami and then back to London before returning home. “One of the reasons I work out so hard is because weeks like that leave me feeling like I haven’t worked out in two weeks,” he says.
The Benefit
“Ever since I had kids I wanted to be in good enough shape to be able to pick them up,” says Mr. Williams. Mr. Williams says that as he gets older, setting goals like climbing the Grand Tetons or competing in sprint triathlons keeps him motivated to stay fit.
He mentions how Starbucks founder Howard Schultz preached making the coffee shop people’s third destination, after work and home. “I don’t need to go to a coffee shop,” Mr. Williams says. “Working out is that third place I go when I need time away. It sounds clichéd, but all of my best ideas float up when I’m working out.”
Write to Jen Murphy at workout@wsj.com
Correction & Amplification
Scott Williams competes in sprint triathlons that include a .47-mile swim, 12.4-mile bike and 3.1-mile run. An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the races included 9.5-mile swim, 12.4-mile bike and 3.1-mile run.
Posted in Training
March 24, 2009
3/22 2.25 miles w/ 45lb vest, 30min. Chest (machine flye, incline d.b., decline bench, machine press). 3miles 30min.
March 16, 2009</abbr> - 11:00 am By Brithny - Duke University
 Running on a treadmill is a great workout, but it gets boring. Kick boxing spikes your heart rate and burns major calories, but you’re sick of taking the same class….again. And if you eat one more salad (with the dressing on the side!) you are going to kill someone.
Eating healthy and staying fit don’t have to be so….monotonous. Nutrition experts are constantly coming up with new forms of exercise and new research on dieting that may be just the new thing you (and your body) need. The latest? Combinations of our favorite things to get even better results:
1: Piloxing
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Joseph Pilates, meet your match. In the boxing ring, that is. There’s a new exercise contender in the draw now: Piloxing!
Here’s the blow-by-blow: LA-based fitness trainer Viveca Jensen bases the classes off of the best of both worlds, by combining the intense power moves of boxing (like the one-two punch) with the softer toning moves of pilates (like those pesky 100’s). Supposedly, it has a “Swedish twist” to it, which apparently makes it better/more efficient. (Swedish fish do taste better than regular fish, so I guess there is a truth to that.) Celebrities like Hilary Duff and Alexis Bledel have signed on to this new exercise trend, claiming it helps to attain a “sleek, sexy, and powerful” self-image.
2: Yollet
Last time I donned a tutu, I was tailgating with my friends and had no intentions of doing ballet whatsoever.
But with this new fitness trend, I just might wear it again. This time with exercise in mind (no, chugging beer is not considered a workout for your esophagus). Yollet (pronounced yo-lay) is a fusion of Classical Ballet and Yoga, and its 1-hour class is just what you’d expect: 30 minutes of non-stop chasse’ing then 30 minutes of downward dog and stretching.
3: Food Synergy
Many foods have shown to have a “one-plus-one-equals-three” effect when eaten together, amping up the nutrition benefits more than when eaten separately. For example, combining foods that contain carotenoids, such as tomatoes, with a healthful fat, such as olive oil, makes it easier for the body to absorb the nutrients more readily.
This new “food synergy” gives you more reasons to eat your favorites together:
Oatmeal + OJ (power breakfast!)
Blueberries + Grapes (little circles of yumminess)
Peanuts + Whole Wheat (PB&J all the way)
Apples + Chocolate (yes, I said it. Chocolate.)
Now you have an excuse to drizzle a little full-fat dressing onto your salad too!
So, what do you think? Would you try any of these?
Posted in Training
March 4, 2009
Pumping iron can benefit your workout
Brittany Kunza
Daily Titan Columnist
Published: Monday, February 2, 2009
Updated: Monday, February 2, 2009
I am going to sum up something that I have been telling people for the last few months, Cal State Fullerton’s Recreation Center, also known as SRC, is probably one of the best gyms out there.
Not only has the building been deemed as a sustainable design commended for qualities such as limited water use and utilization of natural light – a.k.a. windows – but more importantly, every piece of equipment upstairs has its own TV and the soap in the bathroom smells abnormally good.
This gym is so fantastic I am contemplating pushing back my graduation date so that I can get in some more workouts.
Well, like anything, my workouts have been getting kind of monotonous: 30 minutes cardio, dabble in some weight training and spend some time on abs.
Despite me being totally aware that the cardinal rule for a good fitness routine is to not have a routine and change it up each time, I continue to do the same workout.
"Why Brittany? You have a health column, why don’t you practice what you preach?"
Because I am afraid of the man section, that is why.
If you have ever gone to the SRC, or any gym in that case, there is always the unofficial but very obvious, "man section."
In man land there are things like, "dumbbells," and many mirrors and enough testosterone to initiate a UFC match at any given moment. Because of this I have avoided the downstairs "man section," until last week.
Well, it’s a new semester and I was determined not to be afraid, so I put on my testosterone retardant suit and stepped through the double glass doors to man-land.
Some of you might be thinking that I am nuts for putting myself in such a life threatening situation, but to you I say there are many great benefits to weight training that us cardio-aholics are missing out on.
Aerobic activity is definitely necessary and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity each week or it’s equivalent conversion using the U.S. Department of Health’s guideline that two minutes of moderate-intensity is about equal to one minute of vigorous-intensity activity.
This means that increasing the intensity could be balanced by cutting aerobic activity time in half.
In addition to the aerobic activity, two or more days per week of moderate to high-intensity weight training is also recommended.
According to the American Council on Exercise (ACE), weight training helps to increase the strength of bones, decrease the chance of osteoporosis, increase the strength of muscle and connective tissue, which decreases chances of injury, and obviously also helps to build muscle.
If the thought of Madonna’s bulging biceps sounds horrible to you lovely ladies, don’t fret. There is clearly something abnormal about Madonna’s arms and lifting weights now and again will not be significant enough to turn you into a she-hulk.
For you men and women who are already occupying the man-section of the gym and lifting regularly, you are helping to combat the approximately one half pound of muscle that typical adults over 20-years-old lose annually due to inactivity, according to ACE.
Now, for you experienced lifters out there and those of you who have never lifted anything heavier than your algebra book, there are some guidelines to follow to make the most of your weight-training sessions.
According to Dr. Edward Laskowski, M.D., a physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist for Mayo Clinic, the weight used should be heavy enough to tire the muscle or muscle group being targeted with only 12 repetitions of an exercise.
That being said, a 20-30 minute workout can be sufficient to work all muscle groups. If working alternating muscle groups, Mayo Clinic recommends letting the muscle group rest for at least one full day before working it out again.
According to ACE, after you have the ability to do 12 repetitions perfectly, lifting to the count of two and lowering to the count of three-four without feeling too fatigued, increase the weight in 5-10% increments.
Don’t forget to keep your exercise routine fun and challenging by including variation … I know, I know. I am going to do this too!
Variations can be in the number of reps, the frequency of visiting the weight room, as well as the intensity (how much weight is lifted).
Happy workout! See you in the SRC weight room!
Posted in Training
January 7, 2009
Making time to exercise every day despite commuting between New York and Minnesota, with dancing on the side By JEN MURPHY
The ExecutiveJulie Gilbert, a senior vice president at Best Buy Co., has a pair of personal trainers, five iPods loaded with exercise music and two gym memberships. She used to have three.
![[Julie Gilbert]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-CX224_workou_DV_20090105153554.jpg) Julie Gilbert makes it to the gym seven days a week despite traveling from Minneapolis to New York most weekends.
Ms. Gilbert has come a long way from a childhood battling weight problems. By seventh grade she weighed 185 pounds and decided to get serious about losing weight. She started walking 10 minutes longer each day, eventually working up to five miles of running per day. In nine months the extra activity led to a drop of 65 pounds.
Ms. Gilbert has rarely stopped moving ever since. She frequently gives speeches and consults for other companies and always brings up fitness as a key part of leadership. Through a partnership with the Mayo Clinic she brought “treadmill desks” into offices in Best Buy’s Minneapolis-area headquarters so teams can exercise while they work. She also launched a pilot program in mid-2008 that brought MUVE devices – postage-stamp-sized machines that can be worn around the waist to measure movement throughout the day and synch to a computer to calculate daily caloric burn – into the office for all corporate employees.
Ms. Gilbert’s duties include attracting women both as customers and employees to the company. She works in Minnesota during the week and spends weekends at her apartment in New York City, partly because she finds the city a great place to network.
Ms. Gilbert, 38, is single. She is 5-foot-6 and weighs 135 pounds.
The Workout
Ms. Gilbert has two fitness secrets: One, keep things fun. Two, be flexible. She makes a huge effort to fit exercise into her daily schedule, whether that means waking up at 4:30 a.m. to do push-ups in a hotel room or leaving the office at 5 p.m. to hit the gym for two hours before a business dinner. During the week in Minnesota she goes to Eden Prairie Life Time Athletic, a short drive from her office. Two or three times a week she works out for at least an hour with one of her two personal trainers. “I get bored easily,” she says. “They set me up on new routines and tell me if I’m doing the exercises correctly.” If she’s in town on a Sunday she’ll take spin class at The Firm in downtown Minneapolis.
Ms. Gilbert says the most valuable lesson she has learned from her trainers is the importance and effectiveness of strength training. “I can get the same results I would from an hour-and-a-half cardio class by doing 20 or 30 minutes of free weights, using the correct form,” she says. “And as a woman, if you want a great back or want to look great on the beach in Mexico, weights get you those results.” Now her daily routine always incorporates strength training and crunches. “Not the old, boring lay-on-the-ground ones,” she says. “Fun stuff like hanging from a strap and crunching my legs up to my chest.”
The Workout
Monday: 90 minutes of weights, “Soul Grooves” hip-hop class
Tuesday: 60 minutes of weights, spin class
Wednesday: 60-minute personal training session, followed by free weights (focus on legs and abs) with trainer
Thursday: 40 minutes on the stairclimber, 60 minutes of weights (focus on arms and abs) with trainer
Friday: 5:30 p.m. 40 minutes on the stairclimber, 60 minutes of weights (legs and abs) with trainer
Saturday: 60 minutes of weights (legs and abs), 20 minutes of stairclimber or class; dancing at a club for several hours during the afternoon and evening
Sunday: 60 minutes of weights (arms and abs) and 30-40 minutes of stairclimber or treadmill if in New York; spin class if in Minnesota
She also takes group spinning and strength training classes. Bahram Akradi, the CEO of Life Time Fitness, teaches Ms. Gilbert’s 90-minute Tuesday night spin class. Ms. Gilbert is known to park herself in the front row of the class and whoop throughout the workout. Top DJs from around the country spin music during the class. “It feels like you’re out at a night club except that you’re sweating on a bike and it’s not at all glamorous,” she says.
“Dancing is the ultimate workout,” says Ms. Gilbert. She takes hip-hop dancing classes at her gym’s location in Lakeville, Minn., Monday nights. She spends nearly every Saturday dancing at clubs in New York. Her favorite is Merkato, where she goes for 2 p.m. brunch and stays to dance from 3 to 6:30 p.m. She naps and returns for more dancing at 10 p.m. In New York. Ms. Gilbert uses the fitness facilities at Chelsea Piers and spends an hour doing weights, rotating upper body one day and legs and abs another. She follows the strength session with 30 or 40 minutes of cardio, usually on the Stairmaster.
In the summer she competes in 100-mile cycling road races as both a personal challenge and a way to get in shape. She also rollerblades around Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis on summer evenings after work.
The Diet
Ms. Gilbert has whey protein powder mixed with skim milk as soon as she wakes up at 4:30 a.m. Later she has a breakfast of oatmeal and organic whole wheat toast. For lunch she usually opts for a chicken-based dish like soft shell chicken tacos without the sour cream. She has a late afternoon protein shake and after the gym eats blueberries mixed with bananas, ice and protein powder. She often eats out for work in the evenings but sticks to salmon or chicken. Ms. Gilbert loves desserts but only splurges if they’re homemade.
The Cost
Ms. Gilbert spends $6,500 per year on her personal trainers. Her Minnesota gym membership costs $1,440 per year and Chelsea Piers costs $2,040 per year. Fitness classes at The Firm add up to approximately $300 a year and Ms. Gilbert estimates that equipment and gear runs her about $1,500 a year.
“In this economy you have to ask yourself what you’re wasting money on,” she says. “People are asking if they can afford their gym. I ask myself how much do I spend on a glass of wine each night? I actually cut it out and added it up and in one week I could use that money to pay for another personal training session and be in better shape and then I won’t need to buy new clothes because they still fit.”
The Effort
“I don’t miss a day,” she says. “I just don’t. I schedule it into my day like breakfast, lunch and dinner.” About six years ago Ms. Gilbert was working intense hours on a project. First she skipped one workout, then a few in a row. The days off began piling up. When she’d finally had enough, she stormed into her boss’s office and said, “I’m leaving at 4:45 p.m. If you schedule a meeting I won’t be there. I’m going to the gym. It’s my mental health. I’ll be back at 7 p.m.” His reaction: “He just laughed at me shaking his head and said, ‘Whatever you need, Julie.’ Since that day I never use work as an excuse.”
The Benefit
"I have built a lot of friendships though working out," Ms. Gilbert says. "No matter what time of day or night I’m at the gym there is always a group of people I know. It’s become a social aspect of my life."
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