Physical Funness for the Motion Starved

Fit more fun into your fitness while exploring the outdoors.

Tag Archives: walk


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FMFW’s are back by popular demand!

Glow Sticks are cool.

When I was in high school, my mom made me get up at 5am to run with her before work. She was afraid to run alone in the dark because she thought she’d get mugged, or fall into a ditch. As an adult I can see her point and while a creepy guy did follow us once, neither of us fell, and frankly you can get hurt just as easily in the light of day. Plus, creepy guys harass day and night! So, no more excuses folks, go it alone or grab a friend and get out there!

Back in the day, my mom and I ran with flashlights. Now they have fancy contraptions called headlamps, you strap ‘em to your head and look like a coal miner. Then, there’s my personal favorite the Glow Stick. Glow Sticks don’t really light your path but they’re hella fun and they come in super cool colors.

So, at the very least, giddy up and go for a walk around the well-lit city. How about this: make a pact with a friend or your kids to walk by the light of each full moon this year. Full moons come around only once a month (except twice in Aug this year) and the added light should keep you from falling off an unseen cliff or something.

For those of you here in San Francisco, I’ve made it easy for you. All you have to do is come walk with me! I’ll even bring Glow Sticks for the dark nights. Here’s the deets:

Full Moon Fitness Walks
There’s no better way to celebrate our beautiful city than to go for a walk by the light of the full moon. The evening of each full moon this year we’ll walk, look at the sights and visit corners of The City you may never have seen. Walking is the perfect way to shrug off stress, burn calories and breathe fresh air. Along the way we’ll have the opportunity to talk about your fitness questions, take in the views and participate in some light stretching and toning exercises. This is a low impact workout designed to offer folks a casual relaxing way to get a little exercise. Make no mistake however, this is a workout, you will sweat!

Time: 6:00 – 7:15 pm
Cost: 9 workouts for $50 paid in advance, or $10 drop in
Dogs are absolutely welcome as long as they’re friendly!

Schedule:
February 7th – Meet in the East Beach Parking lot on Crissy Field. Look for the orange windsock.
March 8th– TBD
April 6th – TBD
May 5th – TBD
June 4th – TBD
July 3rd – Sorry no walk this day
August 1st – TBD
August 31st – TBD
September 29th – Harvest moon! We’ll head for the hill for this one!
October 29th – TBD
November 28th – Last FMFW of the year!

For more information and to sign up contact Kelley@motionstarved.com


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Inspiration seeds

Bespoke inspiration

You’ve heard of “paying it forward” right? It’s when you do something nice for someone and in turn that person pays it forward by doing something nice for someone else, and so on and so on and so on. Pretty soon everyone is doing something nice for someone else and the world is a much better place.

The same thinking works for inspiration. If you inspire someone to better himself, they may just inspire someone else to do the same, and so on and so on… See where I’m going with this?

Here’s a current example:

Last January  I started working with Diana, she wanted to lose some weight and tone up. At first, Diana could do about 3 abdominal crunches before she’d slam her legs to the ground and groan in pain. After a few months Diana got much stronger and actually began to like working out, she lost a nice chunk of weight and people took notice. One day about six months into Diana’s training, her mother became so impressed with Diana’s new ways that she talked her neighbor into power walking 3 mornings a week with her, something she had not done in years. After a few weeks of steady walking Diana’s mother and her walking partner inspired another neighbor to join their morning walks. Now, six months later they’re walking five mornings a week and have added another two walkers to their group.

So you see… it started with Diana, she inspired her mother, her mother inspired the other three walkers, those three walkers have now gone on to inspire their friends and family.

Pretty cool, don’t you think?

Inspire someone; all you have to do is plant the seed in one person and then watch it grow…


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5…4…3…2…1… and we have liftoff!

Climbing to the moon

Climb to the Moon has launched! We are up and climbing. It’s all up to you now. We can’t get to the moon in a year without you, so get up and start moving!

Remember, you can walk, you can run or you can climb stairs. Whatever you choose, be sure to count your steps and tweet us your progress. Thanks to our master programmer Skinny Scott, moonclimb.com will grab our tweets, count the steps and mark our cumulative progress on site. Don’t fret; Skinny has taken into account retweets and potential cheaters so it’s all covered. We even have the ability to figure out which one of us has climbed the most steps so maybe one day we can award prizes, or give a special mention to the most dedicated climbers. The Moon is our oyster!

If this is Greek to you, here’s the short back-story.  Please read it!

If you’re gonna join us on our adventure to the moon, please remember you need to tweet us your steps, you can say anything you like but you must include the number of steps you took. Use the word steps and mention moon climb, moonclimb, #moonclimb or @moonclimb. You can use hash tags and we’d love it if you sent us photos to share with the other climbers. We have folks climbing all over the world and it would be super cool to see photos from other places!

Also, if you count miles, you’ll need to convert them to steps. There are 2000 steps to a mile and about 15 steps to a flight of stairs.

Stay hydrated and hang on tight! We’re on our way…


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I can’t wait until 2012!

Climb to the Moon

Climb to the Moon

Happy New Year everyone!

While 2011 was a fantastic year I’m super excited to begin 2012!

To start the year off right, Motion Starved has a couple fun things on tap to feed the truly motion starved and offer opportunities for us all to get moving, get healthy and have a good time doing so.

Check it out!

Stair Climbing Workouts – Each Saturday for seven weeks we’ll climb a different set of stairs visiting all parts of San Francisco. This Saturday we meet and climb at Lands End. This session runs from 1/7 – 2/18.

The price for seven, one-hour workouts is $40 paid in advance, the drop-in rate is $12 per workout. We workout rain or shine!

Why stairs? The beauty of climbing stairs is, no matter your pace you always get a fantastic cardio and booty-boosting workout. These workouts will include core and stretching exercises as well as interval stair climbing. Participants are encouraged to climb at their own pace but will be urged to push themselves. Walkers as well as runners are welcome.

Climb to the Moon 2012 – This “event” is completely free of charge and is about fun, motivation and being part of something larger than yourself.

Here’s the short version of the story: One day, my friend Dawn and I wondered how many stairs you would have to climb to reach the moon. Dawn did the math and found that you’d have to climb over 4 million stairs to reach the moon. Yikes we thought, that’s a lot of stairs, we’re going to need a team to help us walk, run/climb if we’re going to make it to the moon in a reasonable amount of time.

That’s where you come in. Dawn and I would like to invite you to help us climb to the moon this year. Think about it, it’s kinda cool to imagine that with enough people we can actually get as far as the moon.

Here’s all you have to do: run, walk or climb stairs, the idea is to inspire you to walk, run and climb a little more than you might normally. You’ll need to record your steps either by wearing a pedometer, counting miles or if you plan to climb actual stairs those are pretty easy to count. Every day or when you choose to, Tweet us your steps and that will record them on our website. The big (477,714,000 steps) number on the site will go down the closer we get to the moon. It’s our goal to start counting with the light of the first full moon on 1/9 and reach the moon by the last full moon in 2012 on December 28th.

That’s the basic idea, there are other details like we’re working on prizes for those who climb the most within a certain time period but that’s still in the works. For fun we hope that folks will take photos and tweet them to share where they’ve been climbing. It’s likely that we’ll have folks from all over the world climbing with us so it’d be super cool to see photos from other places. Don’t you think? Another hope is that we can get individuals and corporations to donate money to their favorite fitness related charity as an incentive for us to reach our goal. Currently we have a $5000 donation promised to the San Diego Downtown YMCA if we’re able to make it half way to the moon by July 1st.

So, won’t you please help us? All you have to do is run, walk and/or climb a few extra stairs, open a Twitter account (super easy, you can use any profile name you like), follow @MoonClimb and tweet us your progress. Details on exactly how to make sure your tweet will be picked up by us are at the bottom of this page in the footnotes.

That’s enough for now; let me know if you have any questions. Please join the fun and help us make 2012 a really amazing year.

Kelley

* Sample tweets: You must tweet the number of steps, the word steps as well as mention moonclimb. Like: I did 100 steps for moonclimb today. OR moonclimb inspired me to climb 50 extra steps today. Easy!

** The average person’s stride length is approximately 2.5 feet long. That means it takes just over 2,000 steps to walk one mile, and 10,000 steps is close to 5 miles. If you count miles please do the conversion before you tweet.

*** Pretty Please “like” both Motionstarved and MoonClimb on Facebook!!!!

**** The Moon Climb 2012 site is not up yet but very soon! Stay tuned and check here.


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Easy burning!

The cold & laughter, a good combo

Yes, apparently fidgeting can help you burn up to 350 calories a day. This, according to research done by the Mayo Clinic. Think about it, have you ever seen a fat hyper person? I can’t say that I have but maybe they exist.

Since I find fidgeting annoying I’ve found a few other ways to burn extra calories you may not have considered.

Laughing – 15 minutes of laughter can burn up to 40 calories. If you laugh for 15 minutes a day you could lose 4 pounds in a year. How easy is that?

Stand Up – Standing up burns 50% more calories than sitting down. So, by standing while talking on the phone, working at your computer or reading the paper, a 155-pound person can burn as many as 50 more calories per hour. Pace while you talk and you can burn another 35 to 40 calories per hour.

The cold is your friend – You burn more calories when it’s cold. Not only does your body have to work harder to warm itself, in cold weather we tend to wear heavy clothing. The more weight you carry around the harder you body has to work, hence the additional calorie expenditure. So bundle up and go for a walk, run, ride, in the cold air. Research claims you’ll burn up to 7% more calories.

So, by my calculations if I were to go for an hour walk in the cold with a funny friend I could burn an additional 173 calories. Hummmm…


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Enough already! Take care of your feet!

Why are you so mean to me?

I am completely baffled by people who don’t take care of their feet. I’m not talking about the folks who walk around with monster-long toenails or filthy-dirty feet (although that’s nasty). I’m talking about those of you who don’t take proper care of your overall foot health. You don’t wear proper athletic footwear and you let the muscles in your feet stiffen so badly that it hurts to walk. And then you complain that your feet hurt. ‘sup with that?

Think about it! You’ll be stomping around on those poor little tootsies for 80 or 100 years. Please people, show ‘em some love!

You may not think about your feet that often, way down there at the ends of your legs, but they’re an essential part of almost everything you do. Whether walking, running, exercising, or just standing, having feet that are happy and well cared for make life far more pleasant. Therefore, knowing how to care for your feet is key.

I’ve posted about this before but lets refresh with some basic things you can do to keep your feet moving.

#1 – Stretch and massage the tendons and muscles in your feet. Especially the thick tissue that runs along the bottom of your feet. Here’s how.

  • Toe Writing — With your feet on the floor and your shoes off, use your toes to “write” the letters of the alphabet, from A to Z, on the floor.
  • The Grip — With your feet on the floor and your shoes off, try picking up a pencil or pen with your toes. Or try picking up a marble.
  • Toe Stretches — Kneel on you knees and curl your toes under your feet. Heals will be up and your rear end will be resting on your heals.
  • Flex & Point — Lift one leg off the ground. Point your toes forward, like a ballerina pointing her extended foot, and hold that position for 15 seconds. Now flex your foot, hold 15 seconds and repeat 10 times each foot.
  • Stretch your arches every day — I like to sit on my shins, butt resting on my heels with toes curled under. You can also stand with your toes against a wall (one foot at time) and lean slightly into the wall until you feel a stretch along the bottom of the foot. Do each foot twice. If you don’t like those ideas, just sit on the floor and pull your toes back with your hand. The idea is to stretch the bottom of the foot.
  • Stretch your toes — Squeeze your toes together (they might crack) and hold for a few seconds, then flex them up. Do this a few times every day.
  • Don’t forget — Ankle Circles and Toe Points to keep the supporting joints flexible.

General Foot Love

  • Stimulate the bottom of your feet — The soles of the feet are extremely sensitive due to a high concentration of nerve endings. Post workout give ‘em a nice soapy scrub with the loofah to wake up all those neurons & synapses. A little lotion massage after is always a good idea too.
  • Rule of thumb — As soon as you’re finished working out take off your shoes. Your feet will swell from the workout (or hard day at work) so give em’ room to breath.
  • Ice your feet — After a long run or day on your feet soak your feet in an ice bath or rest them on a ice bag for 10-15 minutes, then lay on your back on the floor and put your legs up the wall. Stay here for another 10-15 minutes.
  • Don’t file down or shave calluses or corns too much —These are nature’s way to protect you from abnormal pressure. Get appropriate insoles, padding or bigger shoes. A specialist podiatrist or biomechanical evaluation may be required for this.
  • Get a foot massage — You can do it yourself but I recommend having someone else do it for you.

Shoe stuff

  • Buy all your shoes late in the day — Your feet are larger at the end of the day.
  • Running shoes — Replace your shoes every 300 to 500 miles.
  • Obvious stuff — High heeled, pointed toe shoes, mules, strappy sandals and sandals that have thongs between the toes are best avoided. If you want to wear them, keep it to short periods and show your feet some extra love when you’re done torturing them.

This is just a start but you have to start somewhere and this is easy no brainer stuff.

P.s. If you liked this post you may like this one too.


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Do your hands puff up?

Puffy hands

Do your hands swell up while you’re on a long walk, a run or working out? Mine do if I walk for an hour or so. The first time I noticed it I kinda freaked out. Yea, it looks bad and one always worries when things start puffing up for seemingly no reason.

Well, there is a reason and it’s not a bad one. It’s actually pretty obvious once you think about it.

When your hands swing at your sides for long periods of time gravity causes the blood to pool in the veins of your fingers. All you have to do to correct this (if it bothers you) is to do things that will help keep the blood circulating. Try raising your arms over your head, rotating your wrists, or bump your fists. Stuff like that. If you still puff up, don’t fret. You should de puff within an hour or so after the activity.


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Move and learn this month

Yes, you can teach an old dog new tricks!

Gwad, it’s already September! Soon it’ll be cookie-eating season, the rain will be back and because of all those cookies and our fear of melting in the cold wet air our fancy holiday attire might not fit. Ugh….what ever will we do?

Well, you can be sure I’ll come up with some ideas to keep us looking svelte, your task is to take my advice.

As you know, September is the month students return to school. With that, I suggest we follow tradition and learn something new ourselves. At least get some culture as we exercise and make an effort to learn, and experience something new.

Here are a few ways you can move, learn and experience all at the same time:

Parking Day — Ever hear of it? PARK(ing) Day is an annual, worldwide event that invites citizens everywhere to transform metered parking spots into temporary parks for the public good. The idea is to promote the need for more open space within our cities. It’s creative, green and inspiring, get a map and go for a walk or cycle to check ‘em out. Parking day is Friday, September 16th.

Presidio Habitats — If you’re in The Bay Area you need to check out the Presidio Habitats walk. It goes away at the end of September so this is your last chance. What is it? – It’s an art exhibition celebrating the wild Presidio. 25 pieces of sculpture are scattered around the Presidio mixed in with the plants and wild life. It’s very cool and a great way to get some exercise along with a little culture and history mixed in. Get a map and go!

Look up — Generally as we walk around we see only what’s at eye level. When was the last time you stopped and looked up? We’re missing the best parts of old buildings by not looking up. The top of a building is like the decoration on the top of a cake. An Architects’ signature is the top of his building. The next time you’re walking around, make an effort to look up, not just once but often. You’ll be amazed at all the beauty up there.

That should get you started. I hope you get the idea, move and learn is your challenge. Have at it!

Happy 3-day weekend!


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Walk up Wednesday


Walking is one of the quickest ways to blast up to 25% more calories and exercising outside is said to earn you up to 30%. So, ditch the treadmill get some fresh air.

My workout suggestion for today is to go for a power walk around your neighborhood. I’ve got some things for you to do so you don’t get bored and zap even more calories.

Here you go:

Warm up — Swing your arms around, front to back and across your body like you’re a crazy person hugging yourself. Circle your ankles 20 times each direction. Do a few jumping jacks, 25 should do it. This should take about 3 minutes.

The Meat of it — Start by walking at a quick, but comfortable pace that you can hold. (Keep a forward leaning position, it should feel like you have to take a step to keep from falling forward. Abs tight.) Keep walking, when you see a hill or set of public stairs, take the challenge and head up, even if it means you have to change your course. Hold your quick pace! You should be huffing and puffing your way to the top of each hill or set of stairs. If you can hold a conversation, you aren’t working hard enough.  Continue on your walk taking every hill or set of stairs you come upon. Use the down hill portions and flat areas as recovery, to catch your breath but keep a relatively quick pace. For bonus points add some triceps dips, bench push ups and or ab work at the top of each challenge. Just keep thinking of all those M&M’s you are burning off!

An hour of this and you could easily zap 500 calories!

P.s. Adding 3,600 steps to your day can help you lose 15 pounds a year! 3,600 steps equal about 1.5 miles. If you do the workout above correctly you will have covered about 4 miles!

P.s.s. Watch the above video at your own risk, it might make you a little dizzy. I know it’s silly but I think it’s funny.


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Simon Says…We Won!

Team Motion Starved

Yipee! Today we played Simon Says as we traveled along on our Fitness Walk. Team Motion Starved traded commands (via our iPhones) with our friends at The Exercise Space in Seattle. “Simon Says do 20 Jumping Jacks” or, Simon Says… Lunge up hill for one minute.” The commands were doled out about every 5 minutes allowing for lots of time to walk and enjoy the scenery as well as get a little sweat on. Maybe it’s just me but I think these games are super fun. It really doesn’t seem like exercise. Today I wished we had more than an hour to play. I hope the rest of my team felt the same way.

Anyway, Team Motion Starved prevailed today, we had a small but strong group and while our competition was just as worthy they kindly gave us the win as our team had a little easier time completing the tasks.  Next week we’ll be doing another Scavenger Hunt. Scavenger Hunt #2 will involve walking, light toning exercises and hunting for items that are more interpretive than literal. Things like, find something cold, mysterious, twisted, stuff like that.  I’m gonna need to enlist some creative thinkers to help me with this round. Interested?

If you can’t join me on one of my Fitness Walks consider doing your own. Trade commands with a friend who’s walking with you, or on the phone. The scavenger hunt is fun to do either in a group or send the list to a friend far away and have them send you photos of what they find. It’s fun to see what others find.

Lastly, Thank you to my friends from both Team Motion Starved and Team The Exercise Space! Good job tonight! I look forward to next week!

Carry on…