Categories
Exercise Fitness Kickboxing New York sports

Kickboxing As A Tranquilizer

I have to admit that I was in a fairly foul mood all day- no particular reason, just internally roiling.  As I made my way to midtown this afternoon..running errands, navigating my way around tourists who walk at a snail’s pace and then stop for no reason at all… I thought that I should have a flashing light above my head that warned people away. >:-(

My mood improved dramatically as soon as I started to really work out.  Yes, after the mobility exercises and warm ups and a few minutes into the excruciating dip exercises I became happy.  How strange. It happened too quickly to have been caused by endorphins.  It may have just been the opportunity to really move instead of being cooped up at the dentists office or the subway or trailing behind really slow folks on the street.  Woo hoo!  At least I was good this afternoon.  Let’s see if I feel that good again after tomorrow’s session.

Here’s a video that walks youthrough the proper way to do a dip.  I must admit that I do a modified version of this and keep one foot on the bottom bar so I have help in going up and down.

Categories
Entertainment New York

Detroit at Playwrights Horizons

I forgot to mention that we went to see Detroit at Playwrights Horizons Theater.  It doesn’t actually open officially until tomorrow so it’s probably not fair to say that it really isn’t worth going to see.  The buzz was that it did so well in previews they were going to bring it to Broadway.  It opened Off-Broadway with the following cast: Amy Ryan, David Schwimmer, Darren Pettie, Sarah Sokolovic, and John Cullum. Detroit is about the relationship between two couples who are new neighbors and I think is supposed to be a comedy.  Other than Darren Pettie, the cast is a waste and the play a tad lame.  A good friend of ours couldn’t join us because she caught a bug….this would not have helped her in any way.  It had a running time of 100 minutes with no intermissions [afraid to let the audience escape?].

Categories
Exercise Fitness New York

One More Kickboxing Session on Friday and the Weekend Off

I think that I am building up a bit more stamina for the cardio rounds with the punching bag.  At least that is what I am telling myself.  😉

The Original Jacknobber II by the Pressure Positive Company
The Original Jacknobber II by the Pressure Positive Company

John had me go through a series of free weight exercise using the stability ball.  Unfortunately for me, John believes that should I push myself so I found myself doing rows and curls with 30 lb weights. LOL  My shoulder decided to rebel afterwards so my weekend included trigger point massage.

Here’s a link to a nice write-up on trigger point therapy/massage titled: Self-Treatment for Chronic Neck Pain, Stiff Neck, Pinched Nerve in the Neck, Crick in the Neck, Relief for Neck Ache, Sore Neck, Neck Arthritis

 

Categories
Exercise Fitness Kickboxing New York sports

What Comprises a “Kickboxing Boot Camp”?

I’m feeling a bit smug.  I worked out today with John and felt as winded as I normally feel [as in “I’m going to throw up and die before the 4 minute round is over”].  After our session was over, we sat around chatting and watched a group class begin.  The four young women were in very good shape but seemed to spend a good deal of time standing around between each exercise. I asked what the class was called and was told: “Kickboxing Boot Camp”.  My response to John was that it couldn’t be correct because: [1]  the women were still breathing and [2] since when does boot camp allow you to just stand around for minutes at a time between exercises?  LOL

I shake my head sadly, however, because they all looked so young and in shape and could each probably do my workout with no issues……

Categories
Exercise Fitness New Jersey New York New York Liberty sports

Slow Start To The Week

It was a slow start to the exercise week.  I didn’t get to the gym either Monday or Tuesday although  I managed to do the 4 mile loop around the park and a strength training session at Crunch. 🙂

I used the TRX Suspension Trainer and TRX Rip Trainer so I had some support as I did squats and lunges.  I did biceps curls, push ups, and triceps exercises.  I rounded out the work out with inchworms and planks using the Bosu Ball. [Here’s a link to 6 Bosu Ball exercises by RealSimple,com]

Here is a video that walks you through a beginner’s exercise routine using the TRX.  The trainer goes through a huge number of exercises and it looks like it would be a killer routine if you did them all:

[Check out http://www.scotthermanfitness.com/ for more information and detailed exercises!]

My hubby and I also got to see a New York Liberty game against the Washington Mystics. The Liberty managed to win but they play so poorly it may behoove them to lose so they get a crack at a higher draft pick next year.  At least that’s what my husband says; I tend to be far more negative about the team as a whole.

I wasn’t as successful nutritionally as I ate out several times over the past few days.  Hopefully, I can get that under control today.

Categories
Entertainment New Jersey New York New York Liberty sports

New York Liberty Game in Newark, NJ

We went to see the New York Liberty play against the Los Angeles Sparks this evening.  The first quarter made me reconsider why we continue to support the Liberty. 

New York Liberty
New York Liberty

It was shockingly bad.  Now that Lisa Leslie is gone, I thought I may actually switch my allegiance to the Sparks.  They looked like an actual team.  Cappy Pondexter carried the Liberty and, believe it or not, New York won the game.  Bill thinks that the Los Angeles team got lulled into a false sense of security when they saw how badly the Liberty played in the first quarter.  It was good entertainment. 🙂

 

  

Categories
Fitness

No Exercise Today – Just Reading Dr. Oz

I’m taking the day off from active exercise.  Instead, I am making my way through the pile of magazines I have around the house.  The October 2012 Prevention Magazine article by Dr. Oz is good.  Some of the things Dr. Oz mentions are: stretching first thing in the morning; not stressing over the small things; showing up early minimizes stress; getting enough sleep will help in losing weight.

 Back stretch suggestions:

Categories
Exercise Fitness Kickboxing sports

Excellent Muay Thai Body Kick Tutorial

I saw this video from Fairtex Muay Thai – it’s a tutorial on Body Kicks and it’s pretty good. Enjoy!


Fairtex Muay Thai – 02 – Body Kick by Hater_Huntin

Categories
Calories Diet Exercise Fitness Injuries Kickboxing New York sports Weight

Light Kickboxing and Strength Session with John Salgado

Sadly, I weighed in this morning a half pound heavier than yesterday.  Yes, I know I’ve already written that a person should not weigh herself on a daily basis but I can’t help myself.  I’m not sure why it happened but I think it may relate to under-eating again.  The Fat2FitRadio.com pod casts repeated noted that under-eating would result in the body going into starvation mode and holding on to calories.   For the second time this week, I dropped under the calorie limits suggested by the Calories and Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) calculator.  I ate a little over 1600 calories yesterday, so I consumed at least my BMR of 1430 calories.  However, I didn’t eat enough.  🙁  According to the calculator, I should eat between 1907 calories for a Lightly Active woman (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk) to 2150 calories for a Moderately Active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk).

Today’s workout with John was lighter in deference to my knee and because I am fighting off a flu.  We spent a lot of time doing kickboxing strength exercises and drills.  I was still soaked in sweat but happy.

 I found this video on how to do a Back Leg Roundhouse Kick on the ehow.com site.


Women’s Kickboxing: Back Leg Roundhouse Kick — powered by ehow.com
Categories
Calories Diet Exercise Fitness Injuries Kickboxing sports Weight

Another Excellent Kickboxing Workout

Despite coming down with a bug, I worked out with John Salgado today and did pretty well.  Because we’re still working around my cranky knee, we started out doing some drill on the Bosu Ball: jogging on it, Dome Toe Taps [you can watch the video below but I can say she’s a lot better at it than I am LOL],  side squats [again, very small movements because of my knee], and squat thrusts.

Other exercises for today included wall squats with a stability ball and a 10 lb ball.  A new item for today was assisted dips.  We rounded out the work out with punching and kicking combinations on the bag.

Wall Squat with Stability Ball by http://www.workoutz.com

The good news on weight loss and nutrition is that I am still within my recommended calorie intake for my BMR.  I must confess that I had vanilla ice cream with blueberries last night [yes, I entered it into the SparkPeople.com Nutrition Tracker and I remain in calorie range :-)]  I’m down another half pound but that could be just water weight.