Personal Fitness Goals

Another question that people ask often is how often they should work out ... what's the best balance from novice to advanced athlete?

I teach between 10-15 yoga/taichi/qigong/ballet, kick-boxing and pilates classes weekly. I also do my own personal practice 3-4 times a week and I love to hike, snowshoe and ski. That's what works for me.

How do you figure out how often you should be raising a sweat?

 

Everybody has their thing, for me, I can't sit for too long, I need to move. Being obsessed to the point where it's running your life is not good either. You have to be able to realistically fit an excercise program into your schedule, everyone is different. Some people have goals to get to a certain weight, others are happy if they can get to 80% of their goals, it's always much better to where they started originally.

 

Yeah I hear you skinny. I'm an antsy person too. I completely agree with the statement that everyone is different ... and their goals and approach to working out will differ.

 

Finding the right club or fitness center is paramount. If the place has everything you need, you'll probably go more. Don't get a membership just to have one. I'm in the process of joining a new club in NYC. The one I went to in Hanover, NH, was great. It had the works, including a 12-person hot tub with a waterfall feature. I find it hard to "schedule" a time to go. Life happens and usually disrupts work out times. During the summer, I have the beach for swimming. I don't like jogging. I'd rather run playing a sport. Honestly, I'd rather swim laps and stretch in the pool than anything else.

 

My favourite part of the gym is the massage chair, that's a good workout lol.

 

I don't like strangers rubbing me down. People I know, ok. I just have a weird thing about that. A sexual thing? Fine. Oddly enough, I'm cool with that. But give someone $30 to rub my neck and shoulders? Nah. That creeps me out a little. Reverse-Perverrism?

 

The massage chair I go on is mechanical, they could run you up to $8k to have in your own home. I have a membership to a gym that has over 100 locations. If I'm stuck in traffic in any part of the city, I could just pull in and kill an hour and relax, as the traffic dies down.

 

That's the direction I'm going in as well. Multiple locations.

 

That makes sense to be able to go off schedule for your workout too at times. I used to work out at a gym for hours at a time until my husband starting buying equipment to outfit our gym downstairs. I think strength-training is essential for a well-rounded workout but I prefer to get my cardio outside.

 

Multiple locations and 24 hr places are good. I only work out at one location, I'll randomly walk into the other places only for the chairs and to chill out at the end of the day (beats being stuck in rush hour traffic).

 

I think that's a great way of approaching a little extra exercise skinny!

 

What are your thoughts (anyone) on glycemic diets?

 

How do you figure out how often you should be raising a sweat?

You should be active and burning calories every single day.

What are your thoughts (anyone) on glycemic diets?

Dumb. They are really, really dumb.

 

LOL

For Christ's sakes Bww ... gimme an answer! Why are glycemic diets dumb? Can you expand on this a little?

<rolls her eyes>

 

Well.....let's start with the fact that the GI (glycemic index) of a lot of foods can't be known until after you consume them. Mix that with the fact that the GI can change based of what foods are mixed with other foods. And throw in that eating low GI foods hasn't proven to help you lose weight.

It's another diet that's used as a substitute for getting off your fat ass and moving around.

It's dumb.

 

Unless you have severe food allergies or some health related restrictions on things you can't eat.....all these diet plans are crap.

 

Okay that's clear enough. I used to follow a low glycemic diet because of my chronic pain. Purple shade veggies like peppers, tomatoes and some other stuff is supposed to aggravate or provoke pain.

 

well golf trip is over. diet and walking starts. my body is so sore from golfing, the last 2 days of just walking hurt. well, i gotta start someplace. might as well start now in pain.

 

Being sore is a good thing. It means you're using your muscles.

 

but how many people do you know personally that will rub you down for free or money?