Physical Funness for the Motion Starved

Fit more fun into your fitness while exploring the outdoors.

Tag Archives: sweat


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Weekend Warrior Challenge

I suggest you drink U'r wine after your run...

What’s the haps for the weekend? Here’s an idea, how about I give you a little challenge? It’s just a little something to get you started.

First, did you read my post on Watercress? It’s very stimulating, or at least informative. I suggest you check it out and toss together a delicious watercress feast over the weekend. Try it, you may like it.

Planning to get some exercise this weekend? If you are, good for you! If you aren’t, shame on you! Either way, I suggest that you spice things up by adding this little cardio interval circuit to your plans.

Here’s how it works:

Warm up with a jog, walk and light stretches 10 minutes.
30 seconds cardio (any form you like)
60 seconds rest (yep, rest, stand or walk around just breathe!)
Repeat this sequence for 45 minutes.
Cool down with 5 minutes of stretching.

Voila! You just burned off four glasses or wine, or roughly 400 calories. I bet you feel good too!

Not sure what I mean by “cardio?” Here are some ideas for your 30-second bouts. Choose one or mix it up.

Jog up stairs
Jump rope
Run/Run in place w/high knees
Ride a stationary bike briskly
Skip
Step Up (rapidly done)
Jumping Jacks
Mountain Climbers
Burpees or Jump Squats

Give it a try! It’s only 30 seconds of “hard,” then you get to rest for twice that. How bad can it be? I did this workout today and I’m still alive to write about it. Let me know what you think, good or bad! Same goes for the watercress! Speak up people!

Happy weekend!


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The Skin-ny

When I left my hella fun advertising job to become a trainer, I though… Yippee! Now I get to be outside all day making people sweat. And with that, I’ll sweat and get super healthy right along with them. Yippee! The way the life of Kelley was meant be!

Well, fact is I am outside a lot, and I do sweat a lot, but the part I didn’t think about was the added stress this new life would place on my skin. See, sweat is good as it releases toxins from your body and cools you down, but if your skin isn’t clean and debris free it tends to get what they call congested. I call it zitty. Not that you need to know, but lately my skin has been seriously zitty, most likely because of all the gunk in the air that sticks to my sweaty skin.

Since I know enough to not wash my face or shower more than a couple times a day (because over washing will dry it out), what I need to do is make sure that once my skin is clean that it’s properly exfoliated and de schmutz.

With that, I took a gander at my friend Justine’s website. Justine is the esthetician who’s been making my skin look beautiful for years (and I hear she’s pretty good with the wax too).  You can check her out at Skin Remedy.

Anyway, I swiped the following info from Justine, I trust she won’t mind.

How to get rid of zit causing blackheads:

Here’s an easy mask that you can make at home to start on the path towards being blackhead free!

2 cloves of garlic (crushed)
1 tbs. ground oatmeal
1-drop tea tree oil (optional)
3 drops of freshly squeezed lemon juice
Sufficient amount of honey to create a paste

Mix everything together and apply strictly to the affected area (any area). Leave the mask on for 2 minutes, and gently rub in a circular motion for an additional minute…And voila! Blackhead free skin!

Justine doesn’t say but I would guess you should do this twice a week.

I’m off to mix up a batch now…

P.s. Your cell phone is the number one reason for congestion on your cheekbones. Think about it…you move it from one sticky dirty place to another, uck! Quick fix, wipe down your phone every morning and night with disinfectant wipes. Justine recommends, 7th generation chemical free wipes.

P.s.s. You fellas need to do this too! This ain’t just a chick thing!

P.s.s.s. I love you Justine!


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Coconut Water, not just for the shipwrecked anymore

Coconut Water

A couple of years ago my coach at the time suggested I try drinking 100% coconut water to rehydrate after a hard workout. Sadly at the time his words went in one ear and out the other. Now, years later I’m finding that the cloudy liquid inside a coconut has become highly popular and is currently all the rage.

Basically, coconut water contains more potassium than most sports drinks along with a huge list of other impressive claims: it cleanses your digestive tract, fights viruses like Herpes and AIDS, raises your metabolism and I even saw some data that suggested that it promotes hair growth (soak your bald head with it).

In the end, 100% coconut water is a naturally refreshing drink full of electrolytes. Use it to rehydrate after an intense workout. I think it tastes pretty good, although my friend Jacks thinks it tastes like “toilet water.” My suggestion to her was put it in the blender with some frozen fruit and whip up a post workout smoothie. Try it with frozen banana chunks, strawberries, add some yogurt, whatever floats your boat.

What the heck…give it a try, I’m glad I finally did.


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I am one filthy hot mess!

Since I workout outside, there’s never a time when I don’t finish a workout without some sort of chunkage attached to my body in one way or another. Along with the chunkage my clothing is always soaking wet and often salt (from sweat) infused. I look pretty bad sometimes. Today an old Chinese couple seemed very impressed with, or possibly concerned by my appearance as I bounded through my stair climbing/run. I have no idea what they said as they smiled politely and yammered, they had quite a bit to say. It was the hand gesturing that made me come to the conclusion that it was my sweat-covered body and dusting of salt that caught their attention.

My point — No mater who you are, post workout you need to take the time to stretch, eat and clean your body, preferably in that order. You need to stretch out your muscles, feeding them with oxygen rich blood to alleviate soreness, prevent injury and prepare them for future workouts.

Eat as soon as possible after an intense workout — The rule of thumb is to eat a small protein/carb rich meal within one hour of your workout. I eat as soon as I can muster the strength. This window of time is when your body is best suited to replenish what it’s used during your workout, supporting better recovery. Eat real food or suck down a “recovery drink.” I’ve used both, but I prefer real food.

Hit the showers — You stink and there’s fungus growing on those wet cloths and in all your cracks and crevices. The best thing to do is to immediately change out of your wet cloths, stretch and eat. After you’ve eaten, get in the shower and loofah up. Don’t forget to moisturize, all that sweating dries your skin.

After that I usually lay on the floor with my legs up to rest my legs. Do what you like, just make sure to be good to your body and let it recover so it’ll be even stronger for the next workout.

Ooh! Don’t forget to rehydrate with water while you’re doing the above!

P.s. If you liked this post, you may find this earlier MS post interesting.


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Where’s that funky stench coming from?

Deodorant just isn’t enough!

I don’t know about you but my exercise cloths smell really funky. Last week I was running and as I went along I kept smelling cheese. Then I realized it was me! I smelled like a big fat wheel of funky cheese!

If you ask folks how to get the stench out of your gear, you’ll be told to use Febreeze, 20 Mule Team Borax, white wine vinegar or baking soda. I even saw something that suggested you put your cloths in the freezer for a few days. That was funny!

Personally I like to stay away from products that contain ingredients that I can’t pronounce like Febreeze. Febreeze claims to be “specifically formulated to find and eliminate sweat odors.” It’s the “find” that worries me for some reason.  I recommend sticking with what Granny would have used. Baking soda or vinegar and possibly 20 Mule Team Borax. I like baking soda although I often have to rinse the batch twice.  They say you can pre soak but I don’t have the patience for that

Here’s the plan

  • First, your most offensive laundry should be washed separate from other clothes so you don’t spread the love.
  • My strongest recommendation is to add about a cup of baking soda to a large wash load. You can buy baking soda in a huge box so you don’t have to deal with all those small boxes.
  • Another idea is to use vinegar, this doubles as a fabric softener. Use a cup of white wine vinegar in the wash water.

That should do it although you’re gonna need to use this format every time you wash your workout cloths. That, or risk smelling like cheese.

Over and out…


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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.