<p>In addition to his obnoxious/schizo behavior on fitness forums…</p>
<p>McDonald pitches insane diets to the bodybuilder crowd, including bulk and cut cycles that are an automatic disqualification from my perspective. He peddles an on-line crash diet book – 800 calories a day for guys. I have no use for that meathead nonsense. It’s the type of silliness that 25 year old kids eat up. At my age, the last thing you want to see in diets are crash cycles in any direction. It’s the exact opposite of the kind of incremental permanent changes that are heathy and productive. But, 25 year old meathead guys live for the quick fix.</p>
<p>He, and several of his buddies (ex-buddies) love to set up strawmen arguments misrepresenting the recommendations of top trainers and ‘debunking’ them with arcane trivia. A perfect example is the Tabata article linked. It is completely unwarranted from the the small size of the Tabata study to claim that the benefits of that kind of high-intensity intervals continue for three weeks, but not four. Precision that simply reasonable from a short term study of eight guys…</p>
<p>I haven’t worked out since two days ago and won’t be until Monday. (Moving back into my dorm…), but I’m definitely making a conscious effort to watch what I eat. The great thing about living back on campus is the endless amounts of healthy food. Had a spinach salad with a veggie stir fry for dinner. Was filling and I don’t feel sluggish. </p>
<p>Deborah, the great thing about yoga is that it is driven by self-acceptance. You gain confidence and a sense of comfort as you begin to practice yoga. I follow various yoga fanatics on IG and I know I am no where close to what they’re doing, but I know what I’m able to do is pretty cool at the same time. Plus, you get to try new and fun things!</p>
<p><em>Story Alert</em>
My pilates instructor, as I have said before, goes hard. One day she had a troubling day and amped up the class. She made us do series of planks across the floors. I’m not sure what they’re called. It’s where you walk out to plank position then slide your legs up to your hands, rinse, and repeat. She made us bear crawl, squat, crab walk across the gym. That was just LEGS…imagine that followed by an abs sequence and an arm sequence. Well, the next week she heard that people were feeling especially tight when we stretched so she made class a deep stretching day.</p>
<p>That day was riddled with position in which I never thought I would be able to do. A backbend into a headstand?? Never thought I’d be able to do it, but if it weren’t for just being OPEN to try new things, I would’ve never known. You have to believe in yourself at certain times and just FLOW with the sequence. Listen to your body and allow it to do its thing!</p>
<p>Here’s a challenge for you yoga lovers out there (and anyone else!)</p>
<p>A yoga instructor that I follow on IG posted this about two days ago. This was NOT my idea!</p>
<p>Anywho, you get into a low squat…feet flat. If you want you can add wait or doing fun things with your arms, but most importantly: you’re squating LOW. </p>
<p>If you did this, it’d be great if you could post your experience in this thread. To make it easier try to listen to music or something!</p>
<p>My experience:
I stayed in the position for the allotted time. Once the time was over, I came out of the squat feeling like I had Rocky’s quads of steel. I jumped up, fist in the air, and let out the manliest grunt I could muster up. (Yes, my mom did wonder what I was doing…but she was not surprised that it was out of the ordinary). My shins tensed up. I was extremely aware of my hip muscles (? and my back muscles. </p>
<p>My sentence:
I feel like I can do a straddle from Taiwan to Botswana with how open my hips feel.</p>
<p>MOWC, no I haven’t. My daughter is familiar with what they do and some of her studio’s clients also do the Breakaway Computrainer classes and vice versa. Of course, to do Breakaway’s classes, you need to bring your own bike to throw into the Computrainer, which is a disincentive for me since I would then feel compelled to pull off my regular rear tire and throw on an indoor tire, which means that bike would be effectively out of service for outdoor riding unless I swapped tires back and forth… Plus, if I make the time to do Breakaway’s class and not my daughter’s just one floor up, I think I’m in big trouble !</p>
<p>IDad, yeah, the more I looked at various sites he’s own, the more he comes across as a huckster. Haven’t looked at his diet stuff but as you describe it, I would agree with your conclusions.</p>
<p>Bookmouse, my husband and I joined a gym a little over a year ago. Husband wanted to swim. As a result I no longer run only outside and have access to an array of equipment, including a slew of treadmills, and classes if I choose to take advantage. Really cool. Perhaps there’s a gym or community center you’d be interested in to check out same? My thoughts are either that, other indoor exercise options (e.g. home workouts), or bundle up for the weather (beanie, gloves). Good luck!</p>
<p>Michael- I know. Hard to do it all! My son gave his girlfriend race wheels for Christmas. She was thrilled. She’s trying to win a Kona spot at Eagleman in Maryland in June.</p>
<p>There is no way my ol’ geezer bones are holding a squat for 4 minutes. I find that those “iso holds” produce a ton of soreness.</p>
<p>If you want a fun variation, grab a small weight plate or dumbbell or KB, go down to your squat position and push the weight forward, extending your arms straight. Try holding that one for four minutes… You’ll need a fire extinguisher for your abs!</p>
<p>I have done a set of Tabatas on the Airdyne once or twice, just for giggles. I can do one set. Multiple sets are pretty tough. Even on one set, I have to hold back to get through the thing.</p>
<p>And, I do “Tabata planks” – various combinations of plank and side plank, 20 seconds on, 10 second off, for eight rounds. Not interval training at all, just a convenient fun way to get in 4 minutes of plank.</p>
<p>Snow shoeing was 2+ hours of LSD for me today. I think my max heart rate was 75% of my max and it was almost always 70% or lower.</p>
<p>Idad, I am kicking my butt that I missed the early-morning-sun yesterday to do a snowshoe hike! Glad you got out.
Today, arctic or not, I’m getting out for some makeup mikes :)</p>
<p>MOWC, that’s very exciting for your son’s girlfriend! The Eagleman sounds like a perfect course - flat and fast for the bike and run- on beautiful countryside roads. Never swam in the Choptank though, how are the currents? Water temp that time of year will probably be good, not too warm but not too cold either. What kind of wheels did your son give her?</p>
<p>Reynolds wheels. They gave him wheels for Kona to use and gave him a deal on her wheels. Eagleman is tough. Hot weather and strong field. Only 1 Kona slot in her age group. </p>
<p>I’m not squatting for 4 minutes- ever. Sounds like a knee blowout to me. </p>
<p>I will also say that, in my opinion, yoga should not be your only form of exercise- no matter what kind of yoga you are doing. Except for the really fast vinyasa classes and hot yoga, it doesn’t get your heart rate up enough and won’t do much for weight management. </p>
<p>Saw something this morning on Facebook that certainly applies to me- Anyone can exercise an hour a day. It’s controlling what you put on your plate the other 23 hours that’s the hard part.</p>
<p>Well the next weather event has started here. Snowing now, another 6-10 expected, blizzard conditions tonight, sub zero temps then setting In for the next couple of days.</p>
<p>Was hoping to get to the gum when they open at 1pm for a quickie today but am worried they may close before then. If so, chances are my exercise will be limited to some shoveling/snowblowing and some YouTube Zumba workouts. Guess that will suffice!!</p>
<p>The challenge is I guess directed to younger people. By all means, don’t do it if you know you can’t. :)</p>
<p>ID, I will definitely do try that out. I might do it when I get back home…or maybe the gym…hmm I’m unsure. I WILL try it out! Seems mentally and physically challenging. Holding out the weight in front of me, I should feel it in my arms too right?</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure that a lot of the really great yogis out there do weight lifting apart from yoga. But that is not to say it can’t be your only exercise. Weight management is more of wah you eat than how hard you excerise.</p>
<p>Fitness has a big cardio component, in my opinion, and many yoga classes do not provide that. Some do, but it is easy to convince yourself that you are doing all kinds of great exercise when you are really just stretching or doing restorative yoga poses. I have done yoga- I think it is great- but it is NOT enough for true fitness in most cases.</p>
<p>Hmm…ok. I’ll just say I disagree with you and proceed to stretch out my sore muscles from yoga the other day and ignore the muscle tone that I’ve gained from it.</p>
<p>Bromfield, it isn’t ageist. It was just a fun little challenge. If you don’t want to do it, don’t.</p>
<p>I don’t think I would recommend that anyone squat for 4 minutes. </p>
<p>I agree that you can get some good muscle tone from yoga. On this forum we challenge each other to some extend, and it helps us to really look at what we are doing and what we might change. That might be tough for you to swallow, but muscle tone is just one component of fitness and I am suggesting that if you are interested in progressing beyond what you already do, you might want to consider some other activities, too.</p>
<p>Or not! I know I am very deficient is some areas of my fitness, despite being a competitive runner. I’ve made choices, but I know my overall fitness could benefit from more strength work- not to mention cleaning up my eating.</p>
As a result I no longer run only outside and have access to an array of equipment, including a slew of treadmills, and classes if I choose to take advantage. Really cool. Perhaps there’s a gym or community center you’d be interested in to check out same? My thoughts are either that, other indoor exercise options (e.g. home workouts), or bundle up for the weather (beanie, gloves). Good luck!</p>![http://brigiddineen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Garland_Pose.jpg]this[/url](http://brigiddineen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Garland_Pose.jpg%5Dthis%5B/url){kind=link}
