Physical Funness for the Motion Starved

Fit more fun into your fitness while exploring the outdoors.

Category Archives: Fitness


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May is on the way

Physical Funness at it’s best!

Friday was Earth Day, this week is National Dance Week and next month is both Ride your Bike to Work Month and Presidential Fitness Month. Yikes! So much pressure to go green and get fit.

The beauty is, with all that’s going on, getting fit is just a matter of joining in on the fun. It’s a no brainer.

This Sunday marks the beginning of May.  With that, I propose a little challenge. I challenge you to try one new fitness related activity each week for the entire month. That’s 4 weeks so you have to try 4 things that are completely new to you. Anyone who completes 4 new challenges during these 4 weeks will receive a Motion Starved T-shirt.

Challenges may consist of organized events or your own personal adventures. Just remember that this challenge is set up to motivate you to try new things that will advance your fitness and or well-being.   If you’re interested in joining the May Fitness Challenge “comment” on this post or email me directly.  If you take this challenge you will be encouraged to share your stories with the rest of us (or at least with me).

Here are a few ideas to get you started. I’ll have other suggestions as the month goes on.

Big Wheel Race — Sorry, you missed this as it happened last Sunday but I attached the video as inspiration and an example of how exercise can be fun.

National Dance Week — There are over 400 free dance related events and classes offered in The Bay Area alone.

Bike to Work Month — In SF check out the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition for all sorts of bike related events to make you a stronger and smarter rider.

Loads of free classes of every kind imaginable — Sports Basement.

Green Volunteering Guide — Get a workout while cleaning up Ocean Beach or helping to plant trees with Friends of The Urban Forrest.  All excellent workouts as well as earth friendly missions.

Last but not least — Don’t forget this Saturday I’ll be offering a group hike in The Headlands followed by a little core work and some stretching. Or, you can join one of my Tuesday & Thursday evening’s classes. Click on “Schedule” for details.

Take advantage of this little push and get moving. Let me know what you come up with.


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Fish Face Pose?


A long time ago I read that if you chew gum your face won’t get saggy, so I started chewing gum. I’m not sure if it worked, but my face isn’t really saggy (or is it?).

Now there’s something called Facial Yoga, ever heard of it? The idea is the same as the gum chewing; apparently exercising the facial muscles will sculpt and lift your face keeping it looking younger. Maybe it’s not the answer to going under the knife (if you’re into that) but we know that working the other muscles in your bodies keeps us looking fit and younger so why not the face? Hence my gum chewing.

Aside from toning the facial muscles and reducing sagging, these exercises promise to smooth away lines, and deliver a more glowing, youthful complexion. Sound too good to be true? There’s only one way to find out.

From what I’ve read it’s best to do your face yoga routine in the evenings after you’ve washed and moisturized your face. There’s no specific routine, just do the exercises for 10 minutes each evening.

If you have even a remote interest in face yoga watch the video. It’s short and funny, you get to watch the lady do the exercises and make fish faces,  also the interviewer is kinda snarky.

Give it a try and report back. I’d like to know how you did.


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No motion starvation allowed

What’s up for the weekend? I hope you will all be doing a little moving around. No motion starvation allowed.

On Saturday I’ll be participating in the first WTF Cycling team ride of the season. WTF is a bike team started by me and my best bike pals. The majority of us are retired bike racers that just can’t get the bike out of our blood so we formed a team. What does WTF mean? I think you can figure it out. If you’d like more info on WTF Cycling or would like to join us for a ride sometime, feel free to “like” us on Facebook so you can stay appraised of our goings on.

No matter what you get up to this weekend have a wonderful time of it. If you need a suggestion, how about a Scavenger Hunt?  I’m sending all my clients away for the weekend with this assignment and I expect full reports from them on Monday. Join in on the fun if you dare!

Here’s how it works — Go for a run, walk or combination of the two for one hour. As you travel along, hunt for the items listed below. Keep track of what you find and let me know how you did. I suggest you place this list in your phone so you have it handy. Check off the items on the list or better yet, snap a photo of your findings. I’d love to see what you come up with.

Be sure to warm up with some Jumping Jacks and a few stretches before you start to run, and stretch well post workout. Have fun and watch your step!

The List

Beware of Dog Sign

House with Green Door

A Bird House

Garden Gnome

Take Out Menu

A Swing

Graffiti

Someone 85 years or older

Water Bottle

Cardboard Box

Glass Bottle

Paper Bag

An Acorn

Feather

Nail

Fruit Pit

Pink Stone

Mushroom

Berry

Shell

Your Hunt Reports are due to me by Monday.  May the force be with you!

See you next week…


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It’s time to roll!

May is a damn good month! In California, it’s official bike to Work Month and my favorite; The Tour of California professional bike race visits our beautiful state during May (There’s also Mothers Day and my moms birthday, I’d be screwed if I forgot that.). What more could a month aspire to be? May is full of fitness, inspiration, green living and motherly love.  Happy, happy May to us all!

Lets talk about Bike to Work stuff; It’s pretty cool how these things happen, one day somebody, and it doesn’t matter who, decided that May would be Bike to Work Month.  It’s a fantastic idea. The hope is to get folks out of their cars and on the road to living healthier lives through bicycling. Pretty keen! Here in San Francisco there’s even a designated Bike to Work Day on May 12th. The paramount and bestest day of Bike to Work month. On Bike to Work Day there are “energizer stations” set up all over the city that hand out free goodies and lend support to bike commuters. It’s really nice and very festive! I’ve even been known to go way out of my way in route to work just to stock up on the goodies and chitchat with folks along the way. Why would you pass that up?

Yea, I know, riding your bike to work all clean and dressed to impress can be a bit daunting but why not use Bike to Work Day as an excuse to give it a try. God forbid you may actually have some fun.

Since I’m buggin’ you to ride your bikes to work it’s only fair that I offer a few words of wisdom.

First — Before you go jumping on your bike have a look at it to be sure it’s in proper working order. If you ride all the time than I trust that you keep your bike in good repair. If you don’t than I’ll get on you another time. For now, dust the poor thing off, pump up the tires to the pressure on the sidewall and if you dare clean and lube you chain. Better yet, call NOW and make an appointment at your favorite bike shop.  Don’t wait until the last-minute bike shops get busy this time of year and changing a flat in your work cloths seriously sucks. Give your bike some love, right now!

Second — What to wear? For this I have enlisted Mo, you know Mo if you’ve been following my posts. Not only has Mo been seen riding her bike up and down the cost of Chile recently but she’s an avid bicycle commuter. Here are Mo’s words of wisdom concerning proper peddling attire.

“No one wants to look like a slob when they get to the Financial District and they don’t have to.  Many work clothes and the bike go great together. For example, a tight skirt with some stretch doesn’t show anything private.

When I am going to and from work or to school I actually look nice, wear makeup, etc. on the bike, in part to make a point, and in part to not look like a dirt bag cyclist when I’m going to my classes or whatever.

My clothing choice recommendation – a medium black skirt with stretch, gives enough to let you swing your leg over, but doesn’t creep up or blow up with wind.  Also, high heels are more comfortable on the bike as most of your weight is on your butt and not on your feet!

You can spend money to buy specially made bike clothes but probably is not necessary.” You can roll with what you got.

All I’m asking is that you think about it. Start with cleaning up your bike, you never know when the urge to ride might hit.  Then, take a second to have a look at your cycle friendly wear, to work or otherwise.  Just in case…

See you on the road…

P.s. For more info on Bike to Work Day check out The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition.

P.s.s. Mo will be “The Captain” of the Energizer Station at The Ferry Building on Bike to Work morning. Stop by and say “Hi” if you’re in the hood!

P.s.s.s I read that 7 out of 10 San Franciscans have bikes. By my calculations everyone under the age of about 65 has a bike. Get on it!


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Cotton is rotten

Pretty girl, bad clothing choice.

I like to sweat, that’s a good thing, as my body seems to sweat a lot. Sweating is good as it cleanses the body of all those nasty toxins and cools us down.

Ever notice that when you sweat in a cotton t-shirt it seems to stay wet forever, and then once you stop sweating, you start freezing because you’re standing around in a soaking wet cloths.

Well, thank goodness some brainiac came up moisture-wicking fabric. Fortunately for us, most athletic clothing is being now made of the stuff and it really makes a difference. This special fabric magically sucks the moisture away from your skin, through the fabric, and holds it on the outside of the garment so it can evaporated, hence keeping you much dryer than cotton.

So, the next time you go shopping for workout togs make sure to stick with moisture-wicking fabrics. Moisture-wicking clothing can make a difference in your comfort and in your ability to focus on things like keeping your pace and enjoying the experience rather than feeling like a wet rag.

Don’t get me wrong, cotton is great for keeping you cool, and for looking cool while you sip margaritas on the beach but not while you exercise. Those coveted event t-shirts you get as proof that you’ve survived a challenge, are best worn post sweat to strut around in after you’ve changed out of our smelly workout cloths and are sitting down to your recovery meal.

P.s. Different apparel manufacturers have different names for their moisture-wicking fabric, including Dri-Fit from Nike, ClimaCool from Adidas, just be sure to read the tag.

 


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Is it Friday yet?

Well…it’s certainly been a full week here at Motion Starved HQ.  First there was my post about crooked butt cracks, which sure got its fair share of attention, from folks all over the world too. Then, after writing about asparagus I decided to burn myself up a batch only to find that it was full of sand (you gotta rinse it!). Crunch, crunch, into the trash it went. Then I visited Dr. Barbara so she could snap my ankle back into place, as always she did a great job, thank you DB! After that however, I managed to shake something loose in my head causing a spell of the dizzies. It was like I was Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. Dehydration, maybe, but not likely in this case. My educated guess based on unpleasant past experience says, some crystals shook loose in my inner ear. Silly things can really mess up a girl’s evening (and the next few). Are you wondering what I’m talking about?

Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV) — Basically, there are these little crystals that float around in the canals of your inner ear. Occasionally those little buggers get dislodged and strike against sensitive nerve endings within the inner ear, resulting in usually short, but severe, room-spinning vertigo (the “dizzies”) and in some cases nausea.

They say the thing to do is to figure out which side/ear is messed up and then avoid laying or tilting your head in that direction for a few weeks and the problem will go away on it’s own.  Silly as it sounds from my experience that’s all you can do. You’ll know which ear it is because when you tilt or turn your head in that direction you get very dizzy.

Anyway, don’t worry yourself, these things don’t usually happen unless you’ve had some sort of head trauma, hopefully none of you will need to deal with this. In my case I took a little fall on my bike a few years back traumatizing all sorts of body parts and sending me into a spin for months. I was walking around like a drunkard. Hella fun!

TGIF is all I have to say!  Go get you some love and some sun this weekend. Life is short, time to let the crazy out!

See you on Monday!

P.s. If you find yourself with a case of the “dizzies” you best visit the Dr. to decipher the cause, till you get there Dramamine or Bonine will help keep you upright.


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All I want to do today is lay in the dirt

Yesterday I ate a butterfly, then I yacked it up. Ugh!

Some days I’m just not feeling it. Maybe I’m tired or cranky, who knows. The bottom line is, some days I just don’t feel like working out, eating right or doing all the things that I am “supposed to do.” I used to torture myself with guilt when I had these days, telling myself that I was a Big Fat Cow for slacking off, acting like the world would come to an end if I fell off my fitness routine.  Well…I slack off all the time and so far the world is still spinning, I still reach my goals and still look reasonably presentable.

We all have those days and we all need to give ourselves the “okay” to simply give in. Whether it be sitting down to a pint of Ben & Jerry’s because they’re the only ones who can heal your broken heart, or skipping your workout because you just can’t bare to deal with it today. The key is not to make it a habit. Take a day off if you need to and don’t give it a second thought. Just be sure to get back on the wagon tomorrow, you’ll have a whole lot more spunk for having done so. You can’t be expected to roll along the same path forever; detours are necessary for a successful journey. Remember that.


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Do you have a kink in your crack?

That is one crooked crack!

Don’t laugh! It’s not funny even though it sounds really funny!

A crooked butt crack, or crooked gluteal cleft, is not uncommon and could be the sign of a potentially serious problem. According to Dr. Barbara, “it’s probably the sign of a torqued pelvis, could also be a sign of scoliosis, or a short leg.” YIKES!  Either way, it’s the sign of a dysfunction and if you read my post The anklebone is connected to the knee bone, you know that everything is connected. If your pelvis is torqued, sooner or later that will effect your back, knees and ankles.  Not a good thing in general and certainly not if you plan to stay active and perhaps live a healthy, “physically comfortable” life.

So… drop your drawers and have a look in the mirror. If you’re crooked, at the very least have your posture assessed by a professional, or like Dr. Barbara suggests get an x-ray to decipher the culprit. You gotta read the signs if you want to keep it together as you age. Don’t let this message slip through the crack (Ha!).

Tomorrow maybe I’ll talk about asparagus, something a little less dramatic. Maybe not, depends on my mood.

Wake up! It’s Monday!


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Is the Universe trying to tell me something?

Not again!

I did it again, sprained my ankle. The same one I messed up a few months ago. It sucks, I’m not a good sick person and I don’t deal well with immobility. I was running on the trail about 2 miles from my car and like the last time, my foot just turned under. Me, my favorite Lululemon togs and a sexy white tank top all became airborne just in time to for a slew of Trail Worker Dudes to witness the calamity. Landing, I slid along the path picking up leaves and sludge turning my white top into a camouflage print. Like I always do when I fall, I screamed. It’s a reflex I have no control over and it does well to magnify the peril. Once on the ground I looked up to see 3 very cute young guys standing about 20 feet away looking at me in shock. They just stood there looking at me with wide eyes. Maybe the scream frightened them? Nobody said a word, they just looked at me. Feeling a bit foolish I let them know that I was okay. ”No worries, I’m fine, this happens to me a lot.” Then one of them said, “Are you sure?” “Oh yea, I’m fine.” At that point they mounted their official vehicle and I was left to stumble back to my car some two miles.  As I dragged my rapidly swelling foot along the trail I began to speak out loud using words that might cause one to assume that I was deranged. Then the tears started to come. Poor me, I fell again! Life sucks, whatever will I do now? I might as well just lay down and die. Poor, poor me!

Everyone has had setbacks at one time or another. The only way to survive is to adapt. So I won’t be able to go for a walk on the beach tonight or run this weekend but I can certainly do plenty of other things.  I’m just going to have to look outside of my little box and find new and wonderful things to do.

It’s important to be adaptable and creative in all areas of life. If one thing doesn’t work then you have an opportunity to try something new.  Maybe my fall today was the Universe’s way of telling me to pay more attention to my bike or to work a little harder on my upper body. My arms are starting to look a little saggy…

I have to look at this as an opportunity and use it to my advantage. Something tells me that if I do this right I’ll be better for having had this little spill. After all, I’m a Scorpio, you can’t take us down, when we rise, we rise up even stronger.


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The beach makes everything better

A day at the beach

Growing up in Southern California, I went to the beach every day until I moved to Nor Cal. That’s just what we did. Rain our shine (although there were few rainy days). Maybe that’s why I love the beach so much. Any time I’m feeling sad or anxious I head for the beach. Guess that’s why I like to run on the beach in the rain. Strange as it seems, it makes me really happy.

With the weather starting to get nice and the evenings staying light longer I’d like to suggest that everyone get themselves to the beach one evening every other week. I’m out there at least two evenings every week and it’s wonderful! Lets celebrate the season and the beautiful place we live and hit the beach!

You can do anything you like at the beach, walk, run, ride your bike in the hard sand. Aside from the emotional lift you get from being at the beach, working out in the sand requires added balance working your core and makes everything a little harder. Even just a few beach runs strengthens your ankles, arches, and all below-the-knee muscles more than running on harder surfaces. Sand work also burns 1.6 more calories than working out on hard surfaces. How do you like that?

The goal I’m putting in front of you is to simply go to the beach. However, once you’re there I suggest tossing in a few of the following exercises along with your walk or run. Bottom line, just get out there!

If you’d like me to tell you how many of each exercise to do I will, if not, just go out and play around, have some fun and mix it up.