Stayfitanywhere’s Blog

This Sunday the Delta Jr. A Islanders (www.deltaislanders.ca) crushed the Grouse Grind as a team, 21 players and 2 coaches raced their way to the top of the mountain.  The players and coaches did a fantastic job considering less than 12 hours before the start of the climb the team had lost a hard fought game to the New Westminster Salmonbellies 6-4, who currently lead the BC Jr. A Lacrosse League Standings.  The winner of the race was Nate Clare and in a close second place finish was rookie Sean O’Neil.  As Nate and Sean caught their breathe at the top a flurry of players arrived to cheers with most players finishing under 55minutes.   The players weren’t finished when they crossed the finish line they still had a 30min yoga session to be completed.  Annika Hodgson from Duquette Strength showed the players what it takes to push their athletic careers to the next level.

For many it was their first attempt at the Grind and Yoga, and they showed tremendous determination and concentration in accomplishing both tasks.  With this kind of effort on and off the floor the Delta Islanders may just surprise a few teams on their road to the Minto Cup.

Check out pictures of the team on our facebook fan page http://www.facebook.com/pages/StayFitAnywhere/50493916136.  If you would like to book a customized active activity for your team or group please don’t hesitate to contact me!

Josh Neumann, BHK, PTS, TSCC-1

jneumann@stayfitanywhere.com

Monday and Thursday #FitTip at www.twitter.com/stayfitanwhere

I went to my first yoga class in a couple of years last night at Semperviva in Kitsilano.  It was a Vinyasa Power Flow class and it was definitely a challenge but I think I did pretty well.  I have to admit that I am by no means experienced in the practice of yoga, I have been shown a few things by yogis and trainers I know, taken a handful of classes including 1 Bikrams class (turn the heat down, jeez!).  So I would attribute my small success to my current fitness level (Kettlebell lifting, movement based training, sports, biking), an excellent instructor, and trying not to get shown up by Robyn, she won. 

This blog post isn’t about my triumphant return to the mat, after all I was never there in the first place, but it is about a story the instructor told before we started the class.  The instructor, Clara, began telling her story by mentioning that she had been teaching a class and noticed that one of her regular students wasn’t quite right.  To me this was the first sign that she was going to be a good instructor: attention to detail and her students.  Clara proceeded to tell the class about how she approached her student to find out how she was doing and the student said “things aren’t going very well in my life, but I need to come back to the mat to continue practicing yoga.”  When I heard this I immediately thought of the times I have heard people say I am just not well right now and need to stop exercising.  It was inspiring to hear about someone who is in a tough place in their life but continues to practice what she loves in an effort to help her overcome challenges.  Clara then recited a poem about the importance of practicing no matter what the situation is in your life, and the class began.  I spent the next 90 minutes practicing poses and doing my best to match Robyn pose for pose with some success and some failure and at the end of the class Clara recited the poem again (I tried to memorize the words of the poem but I just couldn’t keep up, sorry). 

Certain types of exercise aren’t for everyone and if you don’t like something you don’t like something; however, there are endless ways to get your body moving, the key is to find something you truly enjoy.  Go play the sport you loved as a kid, go play a new sport, go dancing, go biking, go swimming, go running, go hiking, go climbing, go lift weights.   You will eventually find something that you love to do, something that makes you happy and you will find any excuse in the world to spend more time doing it!  Whatever form of movement you chose you may just end up like Clara’s student and use that practice to transform challenging times in your life to happy ones.

Live to Move, Move to Live!

Josh Neumann, BHK, PTS, TSCC-1

jneumann@stayfitanywhere.com

Monday and Thursday #FitTip at www.twitter.com/stayfitanywhere

On Friday afternoon, I got a random invite from a friend to join her at a power yoga class.  I thought this would be something that I would be able to easily manage and would be a nice change from my current training regimen (speed, agility, quickness, and explosive plyometric training for basketball).  We started the class performing about 100 downward dogs linked with a cobra stretch (kind of like a dive-bomber push-up- not sure of the correct yoga terminology).  This was quite manageable for me because we at Stayfitanywhere are MASTERS of the push-up and do them ALL THE TIME!

After the downward dog/dive-bomber push-up series, we moved to a single leg balance combo. And I must say, I was put in my place.  We transitioned through a series of poses all on one leg at a time.  The process was probably 3 minutes ish? (It felt like an hour!).  And my legs were dying.  For the last month, my body has been accustomed to fast movement training.  In this class, the movements were very slow and it challenged the hell out of me!  

This just goes to show you that no matter how fit you think you are, there are always other ways to challenge your body.  It is also the reason why you need to change your exercise routine regularly (every 6 weeks or so). The body adapts and becomes accustomed to a training style or regimen. But once you introduce a new or unfamiliar activity, the body gets stressed & challenged in an entirely new way and breaks you from the comfort zone of your familiar activities. 

But I must say I am a very big fan of yoga.  It is an ancient practice that requires no equipment.  Practicing yoga is truly embodying the same principles of Stayfitanywhere:

1) All that is needed of you for you to stay fit and healthy is you and your willingness to put the effort in.  

2) Gravity is always working, so no equipment is really necessary.

3)  It doesn’t matter where and it doesn’t matter when;  You can stay fit anytime and you can Stayfitanywhere

2009 marks my 20th year of playing basketball.  I first started playing basketball regularly in the fall of 1989 when I was in grade 6.  I played on the basketball teams from grade 6 to grade 12 and then played regular pick up games after high school ended.  In the last 5-6 years, however, I have only been playing basketball regularly in the summertime.  This year however, I made a promise to myself that I would play a minimum of once a week, year round.  So far, I have kept that promise.  This week I played basketball twice.  On Thursday night, I played at my former high school, Lord Byng Secondary, with some other former Byng grads.  And on Friday night, I played at John Oliver Secondary.  Now I know from all my years of training and playing sports, NOTHING gives me a better cardiovascular workout than basketball does.  So, as a test (like my snow shoveling from last post), I wanted to see how intense playing full court basketball would actually be for me.  So I strapped on my heart rate monitor and played.  Here are the results:

Thursday-  Time:  1:14, Average Heart Rate: 156, Peak Heart Rate: 189, Calories:  1030

Friday- Time: 1:08, Average Heart Rate: 157, Peak Heart Rate: 193, Calories: 935 

Needless to say, I was pretty physically spent after both days.  But because I enjoy it so much, it doesn’t feel like work… unlike some other activities.  Earlier this week, I received a free yoga pass and decided to use it.  On Tuesday night I tried out a ‘Power Yoga’ class.  And again, I strapped on the heart rate monitor to see what effect it had on me:

Tuesday Yoga Class- Time:  1:26, Average Heart Rate:  91, Peak Heart Rate:  113, Calories:  293

Now this is a pretty unfair comparison.  It is a totally different type of exercise, with completely different objectives.  However, this class FELT like work to me and I didn’t enjoy it as much (and how ironic this is as my mother is Yoga teacher).  Now this isn’t to say that if I actually do yoga more often and practice it regularly that I might enjoy it further.  But I think the point here is that it is important to find activities that you really enjoy.  So sorry mom, I think for now, I’m sticking with the basketball… 

Andrew