http://blogs.fitconnect.com FitConnect.com -- It's OK To Brag! Copyright 2007-2008 FitConnect LLC JimB on 8/14/2008 (4 comments)

As a onetime competitive swimmer, I'm really excited about Michael Phelps' accomplishments at the Olympics. I've been rooting for him as he shatters one record after another.

When I was at the gym Monday night, I was watching the Olympics on TV as I was working out on the elliptical machine.  Among the events I got to watch during my workout was the men's 200-yard freestyle, in which Phelps captured one of his many gold medals. On the elliptical, you can work both your arms and...]]> Thu, 14 Aug 2008 03:10:13 GMT JimB on 8/10/2008 (3 comments)

Do you live in a neighborhood that was built before 1950? If so, you run less risk of being overweight, according to a study reported recently on MSNBC.

That's because older residential areas were built before the automobile took over the country, and homes were usually built within walking distance of stores, schools, railroad stations and other places you needed to go. After 1950, with suburban sprawl, subdivisions were built so far away from any of these amenities that you had to...]]> Sun, 10 Aug 2008 04:01:48 GMT JimB on 8/2/2008 (3 comments)

Please bear with me while I vent. I promise there will be a fitness angle in here somewhere.

This week we Star-Ledger staffers got some devastating news.  The publisher announced that unless some drastic cost-cutting measures are adopted, the paper will be put up for sale on Oct. 1. While the present owners, the Newhouse family, have a no-layoff policy, a new owner would likely cut the staff drastically and cut pay and benefits for those who remain.

The only way th...]]> Sat, 02 Aug 2008 20:08:24 GMT JimB on 7/29/2008 (2 comments)

It's always nice to see a Baby Boomer rock star who's still at the top of his game musically, and even better, physically. And there's no better example than Bruce! (We Jerseyans don't need to say his last name.  To us, there's only one Bruce!)

I had the good fortune to attend Bruce's concert at Giants Stadium last night, and it was amazing.  Bruce will be 59 in September, and he's still as energetic as he was 30 years ago. Not only are his voice and charisma intact, he st...]]> Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:18:45 GMT JimB on 7/25/2008 (3 comments)

The Wall Street Warriors are moving into the Warrior II pose.

The Wall Street Journal carried an interesting story today titled "Yoga Bears: It's No Stretch to Say Traders are Taking Deep Breaths.'' It's about how some of the New York investment companies are offering yoga classes to their employees to help them deal with the stress caused by the current downturn in the stock market.

At one small firm, about a third of the employees are currently taking part in the...]]> Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:23:30 GMT JimB on 7/18/2008 (1 comments)

Obesity rates just keep rising in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control have announced.

According to the Centers' weekly morbidity and mortality report, more than a quarter of Americans admitted to being obese in a 2007 survey. That represented an increase of 1.6 percentage points since the last survey in 2005.

Even worse, in some southern states, the obesity rate was as high as 30 percent. It seems that southern cooking with its emphasis on fried foods i...]]> Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:56:37 GMT JimB on 7/16/2008 (3 comments)

It's hard to believe that an activity as relaxing and stress-reducing as yoga can actually cause injuries, but it can happen, as a story that MSNBC moved yesterday reports.

Any activity, no matter how beneficial, always brings a risk of overdoing. In yoga, injuries usually result from beginners attempting difficult poses before they have mastered the basics, or from former practitioners coming back years later and trying to jump right in where they left off.

Any good yo...]]> Wed, 16 Jul 2008 04:52:44 GMT JimB on 7/10/2008 (4 comments)

The results are in! The winner of The Star-Ledger's Biggest Loser Challenge is Tom Feeney, who lost an astounding 49 pounds in three months. That was about 20 percent of his starting weight!

As his prize, Tom won an extra week of paid vacation, a six-month gym membership, and $10 for each pound lost, for a total of $490! Tom lost the weight on a combination of healthy eating, exercise and lifestyle changes.

Second prize winner Pat Turner lost 8.4 percent of her body wei...]]> Thu, 10 Jul 2008 04:03:44 GMT JimB on 6/26/2008 (2 comments)

The Star-Ledger's Biggest Loser Challenge is nearing the end!

The final weigh-in will be next Tuesday, and then we'll know who the winner is! Right now Tom Feeney and Pat Turner are just about neck-and-neck in terms of percentage weight loss.

Today about a dozen participants took part in the walk around the building at lunchtime. They walked around the block five times for a total of a mile.  Then we gathered for a healthy lunch of salad and wrap sandwiches.
...]]> Thu, 26 Jun 2008 02:23:50 GMT JimB on 6/22/2008 (8 comments)

As the saying goes, it's a sad day when you don't learn something new.

Well, today I learned something cool ... I learned to jump rope!

I've been following the Men's Fitness series "The Eternal Beach Body Plan." Several of the most recent workouts have included jumping rope, which until now I had never been able to learn.

This morning when I was warming up for my workout at the gym, I noticed a guy jumping rope in the aerobics studio. He seemed to have mast...]]> Sun, 22 Jun 2008 00:56:33 GMT JimB on 6/17/2008 (10 comments)

"Know you not your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own? For you are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." 
- 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

A story moved on the wire today about Mark Brown, a football player turned pastor who has written a book called "Coming Alive at 55."

In the interview, Rev. Brown tells how he got himself back in shape after ...]]> Tue, 17 Jun 2008 19:24:11 GMT JimB on 6/14/2008 (6 comments)

When I previously blogged about yoga back in March, Fitster slizzard suggested that I try heat yoga. I had heard good things about it and wanted to try it sometime.

As it turned out, World Gym Paramus is now offering a heat yoga class on Saturday mornings, and today I finally had a chance to try it.

The class runs for an hour and a half with the room heated to 85 degrees. One of the regular participants in my Friday morning class was also in this class, and before the c...]]> Sat, 14 Jun 2008 19:17:59 GMT JimB on 6/12/2008 (2 comments)

I haven't posted the latest BL news for a couple of weeks. The total weight loss is now 353.2 pounds, with 24 people weighing in faithfully each week.

The winners for the last two weeks are:

Week 8: Peter Barash (5.6 pounds)

Week 9: Sandra Comarcho (8.2 pounds)

Good work you guys! Beach season is here, and you're going to be looking better in your bathing suits!]]> Thu, 12 Jun 2008 23:13:01 GMT JimB on 6/10/2008 (11 comments)

As if we need another reason to work out, researchers have now discovered that exercise can prevent substance abuse.

Those of us who have experienced that runner's high after an intense workout know that it beats any kick from drugs or alcohol.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse has discovered that teenagers who exercise regularly are far less likely to smoke or use drugs than those who don't exercise. But then, anyone who smokes isn't going to last long in the gym or...]]> Tue, 10 Jun 2008 05:32:54 GMT JimB on 6/5/2008 (7 comments)

If you live in the New York metropolitan area, you've probably been hearing about the case of two Wall Street types who got into a fight during a spin class at a fancy Upper East Side gym last summer.

On Monday, a jury acquitted Christopher Carter of assault charges stemming from the incident in which he allegedly attacked Stuart Sugarman, who was making loud and obnoxious outbursts as they worked out.
Carter repeatedly told Sugarman to shut the f*** up, and was rebuffed. Fina...]]> Thu, 05 Jun 2008 02:31:19 GMT JimB on 5/30/2008 (9 comments)

We all know that bicycling saves gas, but did you know that if you live in a congested urban area, it can save time as well?

Transportation Alternatives, the New York City bicycle advocacy group, recently conducted its annual commuter race, and on the route from Brooklyn to Manhattan, the cyclist beat both the automobile and the subway.

I was active in TA back in the '80s when I lived in NYC. I wrote articles for their newsletter, The City Cyclist, and served as a facil...]]> Fri, 30 May 2008 22:54:06 GMT JimB on 5/29/2008 (4 comments)

After seven weeks, participants in The Star-Ledger's Biggest Loser Challenge have lost a total of 326 pounds!

This week's winner, Cindy Delonas, lost 3.2 pounds!

Also, I neglected to post last week's winner. In a repeat performance, Brian Levy lost another 3.4 pounds. Congratulations Cindy and Brian!]]> Thu, 29 May 2008 01:29:21 GMT JimB on 5/23/2008 (6 comments)

You've all seen the label on Heinz ketchup bottles with the famous "57 varieties" slogan. Actually, when company founder Henry J. Heinz came up with that slogan back in the 1890s, the company was already making more than 57 products. He chose the number "57" simply because he thought the numbers "5" and "7" looked nice together.

I think of today as my "Heinz" birthday because as far as I'm concerned the number associated with my age has no more basis in reality than the Heinz slogan...]]> Fri, 23 May 2008 03:46:06 GMT JimB on 5/21/2008 (6 comments)

It's ironic that my latest update of The Star-Ledger's Biggest Loser Challenge coincides with the launch of the Munchmobile, the paper's annual celebration of overeating.

The Munchmobile, a k a the Big Dog, is a customized van topped with a huge hot dog. Each week during the summer months, reporter Pete Genovese takes a crew of half a dozen selected readers on a tour of casual dining establishments around New Jersey.  On each tour, they visit half a dozen restaurants ...]]> Wed, 21 May 2008 02:17:36 GMT JimB on 5/12/2008 (12 comments)

For the past three days I have been attending an American College of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer workshop at Manhattan College in The Bronx.

The workshop is intended to help aspiring trainers prepare for the ACSM's certification exam. It's essentially a cram course that extracts the key concepts from the voluminous study materials published by ACSM for those planning to take the exam.
    
After trying to read and absorb the overwh...]]> Mon, 12 May 2008 04:20:42 GMT JimB on 5/11/2008 (2 comments)

    Spring was never waiting for us girl, it ran one step ahead, as we followed in the dance...

    Am I the only person in the world who thinks "MacArthur Park" makes perfect sense? Most people seem to think that Jimmy Webb was smoking funny cigarettes when he wrote those lines about the cake being left out in the rain, and the "sweet green icing flowing down."

    This evening I went for a ...]]> Sun, 11 May 2008 02:50:38 GMT JimB on 5/9/2008 (1 comments)

Nice going, Biggest Loser Challengers! After four weeks, our total weight loss is now 255 pounds! Collectively you lost 50 pounds last week, 2 1/2 times what you lost the week before!

Congratulations to Keisha Wade, biggest loser of the week at 6.2 pounds! Way to go, Keisha!

After a month, it's time to change your workout. Here’s a fat-loss workout program, adapted from "The New Rules of Lifting" by Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove. ¶


Superset 1)
Fri, 09 May 2008 02:00:52 GMT JimB on 5/5/2008 (8 comments)

In a previous entry, I sang the praises of Brian Mahoney's spinning class at World Gym.  Today the class really proved its value.

This afternoon I did a 25-mile ride in Bike Bergen, a benefit bikeathon for the Interreligious Fellowship for the Homeless of Bergen County. This was the first time I had set foot on my real bike this year.

I've been taking part in Bike Bergen for several years now. I completed the ride in less than two hours, a personal record. Not...]]> Mon, 05 May 2008 02:47:53 GMT JimB on 5/4/2008 (3 comments)

I started my internship at the Wyckoff Family YMCA today, and it was a trip!

I observed a trainer named Dave, who's a real wild man! He was working with a very fit, highly motivated client named Shirley, and the creative exercises that he came up with for her were a wonder to behold.

The most memorable was one in which he had Shirley don a 20-pound weighted vest, pick up a pair of dumbbells and run up and down the stairs leading to the pool. He instructed her to stop at...]]> Sun, 04 May 2008 00:48:51 GMT JimB on 5/1/2008 (1 comments)

"Biggest Loser: Couples'' contestant Jenn Widder shared her experiences on the NBC reality show Tuesday with participants in The Star-Ledger's Biggest Loser Challenge.

Jenn revealed that although her weight loss was officially placed at 65 pounds on the show's finale, she has actually lost 85 pounds, down from her starting weight of 254. She said she has gone from a size 24W to 12.  She says she's got about 40 pounds to go to reach her goal.

Jenn got off to a slow ...]]> Thu, 01 May 2008 05:14:05 GMT