TRX... Total Resistance Exercise

Getting bored with your 2010 fitness routine? Are you in a rut or have you hit a plateau in your fitness level? Thinking about how you can challenge yourself to new levels for 2011 but not sure how? I can feel these same things at times. Beginning January 2011 I plan to shake it up a bit for myself and my clients by introducing the TRX system...

TRX stands for TOTAL RESISTANCE EXERCISE

I don't just share this new exercise program with you because it's the latest certification I have under my belt or because it's one of the latest fitness fads... instead it's because after experiencing it myself, getting great training from an expert TRX trainer, and studying about it on my own I am convinced it just might be a better way to train. Although I still believe weight training most certainly has it's place the TRX system trains with a whole different dynamic!

With it's origins rooted in the Navy SEALs TRX offers a functional training component. Functional training emphasizes a transfer of the fitness that is gained from the program into everyday activity or specific sports performance. Although traditional weight training is useful for gaining strength by isolating muscles, what it can't offer that TRX does deliver is an integrated approach of gaining not only strength but also balance, movement, coordination, stability, power, flexibility and cardio endurance... life skills we use in everyday life or to improve our performance in the specific sports we enjoy.

HOW DOES IT WORK? A suspension training technique adopts the concept that the body knows movement not muscles and it engages the body as a single coordinated system. It takes movement patterns of everyday human activity and recreates them into movement patterns in suspension training. Loading and repeating these movement patterns enhances performance in life and on the playing field.

TRX understands that life demands free bodily movement through space... our bodies work to produce movement. We do not move in everyday life within one dimension or within the confines of a machine or restrictive pattern so our exercise should also reflect more than one dimension in movement. TRX trains your body to move in every direction possible, in every plane of motion. If we limit our training routines to only one dimension or to only one motor pattern, like so many strength training routines do, it can lead to strength imbalances and movement deficiencies in neglected planes of motion.

While teaching a zumba class not so long ago I noticed a beautiful, buff body builder come into my class. I kept watching her out of the corner of my eye and noticed she really struggled to catch on to the moves to the point she visibly became frustrated and left class early. I felt bad and wondered why it was so difficult for her. I realize there are some who just don't have a knack for rhythm but in her case I sensed it was something more. After taking the TRX training I have to wonder if her inability has anything to do with muscle imbalances she may have incurred due to her intense training in one plane and dimension of movement. It reminded me that I want to be sure to be training my body to do more that just yield a aesthetic looking physique. I want to improve my ability to move freely through space. The TRX is a training device that works with the nature of how our bodies have been created to move.

I was also reminded that it's important to shake things up a bit in our training routines. Don't get so stuck doing one type of training. Try new things that will challenge your body to move in new ways. That's why I believe dance classes, no matter how much you may lack a natural ability to dance, should be a part of everyone's routine. In dancing you move in every plane of motion and send your muscles messages of confusion which they need to help you improve your ability to move freely through space, seeing new gains in your balance, coordination, stability, flexibilty, power and cardio endurance.

So what will it be for you in 2011? I say shake it up and try the TRX system of training. I have 3 new small group classes starting up in January! As soon as the dates become public knowledge I will update my teaching schedule at the bottom of my blog page! JOIN ME and we can train our bodies together in new ways for 2011... or call me for your own personal training sessions and we can work one-on-one for a more "focused on YOU" workout plan!

Watch the TRX in action... go to http://www.fitnessanywhere.com/

Some of the images in Susan Boyle's "PERFECT DAY" video reminded me of my experience recently with the waves~~~ incredible!

Susan Boyle Perfect Day. "New Single" (HD Scenic )

The Way of the Waves

I recently enjoyed a quick trip to Melbourne Beach in Florida.

Being a people watcher I was especially in tune one afternoon watching people become intrigued by the crashing waves. The waves that day were huge! Up to 8-10 feet according to the man who rented me my beach chair. Enjoying a comfortable place to settle in I too delighted myself in the way of the waves, listening to the deep rumble below as each wave readied itself to lift with great force, rise high, curl over, fall with a loud crash and somehow know when to back off, a majestic force humbly displaying it's awe-inspiring power yet being careful not to intimidate it's audience. Over the loud crash of each wave I could hear the applause in people's hearts as they continued to tirelessly watch, anticipating the next rush of excitement and allowing it to fill them with a measure of joy. Some even jumped into the waves as if attempting to become a part of them... deepening their experience still.

I couldn't pull myself away from watching both the waves and the people's reaction. Some people were sharing their joy with each other and others were watching alone in contemplation. I thanked God for the beauty of his creation... the way He reveals himself through it and the way he refreshes us with it. I tried to imagine how God might see it all... does he dance with joy secretly watching his children find delight in the beauty he gladly displays? I wondered if He makes things so beautiful because he knows how much we need that kind of filling. The time there filled me with a re-newed knowledge of how much He loves me to go to such great lengths to plop me down in front of such a majestic show just for the sake of bringing refreshment, to gently stop the rat-race of my life for a few days, slowing me down to say... "I Love You" in such a beautful way.

The way of the waves that afternoon brought to mind a great verse...

1 Timothy 6:17b... "Put your hope in God who richly provides us with everything we need for our enjoyment"

Ever thought of God like that? Could it be all the beauty we find around us has been intentionally placed there by God for our refreshment and enjoyment... that God actually cares and wants us to enjoy ourselves? If I'm honest I rarely imagine God caring that I have times in life that are enjoyable and refreshing. I more often imagine him only concerned with how I am serving or working hard to please him.

I'm so glad God uses experiences and backs them up with Scripture to correct or fine tune my image of him. My God intentionally goes ahead of me to orchestrate experiences for the sole purpose of enjoyment! WOW! Only makes want to love, worship, and know him more!

In this season of Thanksgiving... thank him for the things that refresh your soul... HE PUT THEM THERE JUST FOR YOU!!!

Commit to Community

"...don't give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing

but encourage each other and all the more..." Hebrews 10:25.

I love the way this verse beautifully reveals God's heart for community, his desire to see us committed, taking time to meet, doing life together and urging us to do so all the more with no thought of giving up.

I have a great group of friends... friends I have tried to make an effort to meet with for over 13 years. In our early years, we flocked together as often as possible in an effort to survive the most challenging season of our lives (parenting toddlers and preschoolers). We endured the loud crashes of toys they liked to dump all over the floor and the high pitched screams of, no kidding.. when we all got together, a total of 15 kids who had no problem conquring the lower realms of my bi-level home. In the chaos, we somehow used the time to encourge each other to get the parenting job done! We laughed and shared stories as we slapped 15+ peanut butter and jelly sandwiches together and scrounged up extra chairs and squeezed all 15 squirming toddlers around my kitchen table which was made to seat only six. Sometimes we even tried to pray together dispite the annoying, dramatic interruptions. It was a riot!

It's fun to have so many memories of those days... Even though it was a crazy time, it had a free and inviting way about it because there was no predetermined schedule. The flexibility in my day always allowed time for community and it grew naturally and thrived as we shared our lives raising toddlers together. I loved being available to meet needs as they came, figuring out how to best handle a bruised knee, or deciding that NOW was a good time to walk to the park and run around, or to discern that it might be a good time to stop by a friend's house to visit. Forgetting to meet together was not a problem for me in those days. So glad I experienced such a season... I am still reaping the benefits today!


But today it is a totally different story... we are all scattered in different directions, kids with school and activities, adults with jobs and responsibilities. Fitting into my new, more structured environment feels tight and I often long to re-capture the free and loose fit of earlier days. The restriction limits my freedom to go with the flow and my family and I must follow a schedule. I'm OK with it. I'm not thinking just because it's "tighter" it's "wrong". I just find it's harder to keep community in the equation because I'm always concerned about what's next on my agenda, forgetting to stop and enjoy a chance for breakfast conversation with my husband, or to whisper words of encouragement in my children's ears as leave for their day, or invite a friend to lunch to catch up. I'm trying to learn to find a new way, in this structure, to flow through my day and grasp a little community on the way. I may not have an entire afternoon to do it like I used to but still a little encouraging and connecting here and there adds up and I trust it is just as powerful.

I am convinced the gift of who we are to each other is priceless. You are a beautiful gift to me and I am a gift to you because we have stories to share with each other and somehow God uses our stories to mysteriously build us up into something even more beautiful! We need each other to live to our full potential. ~As we jouney along let's not forget to do it together! It's up to us to find ways to connect, to build up, to encourage and commit to community!


Blessings!

Heavy Basics

Personal training has not only become a great love of my life but has also forced me to explore deeper insights into becoming more physically fit. It's been fun to find the research and then consider it part of my job to test it out on myself.

I love the challenge of including the insight I'm learning in my weekly training routine. Have I said it before? I love my job!!!

Most recently I have decided in my weight training to begin to lift heavier. For years I have been using approximately the same amount of weight doing lots of repetition which is great for maintaining, however, too many times we focus on specific body parts and think if I work this area a little harder it will look the way I want it to. Lifting heavier, doing fewer reps and shifting the focus to becoming STRONGER I now believe is a better mindset. WHY? Because when your overall body becomes stronger your body composition will line up the way you want it to... tighter abs, more shapely shoulders, etc... Think about the physique of people long ago... when everyday life involved more physical labor, farming and even factory workers... or think of construction workers today. Why do they look so great physcially? Because the work they do everyday made them STRONG and a strong body is an evenly proprotioned, lean, beautiful body! Today we sit behind desks and eat junky proccessed food. No wonder we look the way we do.

If you have a choice to either jump on a tradmill or lift weights... choose the weights. Cardio conditioning is great but if you get your cardio through working a hard fast moving, power-packed weight training session with bursts of cardio interspersed between sets of lifting rather than a 30-40 minute treadmill run you will burn more fat and get more results. WHY? Because you are not only developing a stronger heart and set of lungs but you are also building muscle.

When you weight train you are breaking down your muscles, stressing them, causing micro-sized tears in the fiber. How could that be good you ask? It is, because the sore feeling you have a day later is the muscle fiber repairing itself, building itself up, getting leaner and stronger, giving you the beautiful physique and the energy you need to live life. When you weight train, your body continues to work hard hours after the workout is over. The body has to work hard to repair the micro-tears. The hard work burns more calories and even burns them as you sleep... while a cardio workout alone will stop burning calories as soon as the work out is over. A lean body is more efficient at burning fat. More lean muscle mass will work in your favor in every area of your life.

In weight training it's also advisable to stick to the basics! The basics work, always have always will. What are the basics? PUSH-UPS, SQUATS, CURLS, DEAD-LIFTS, OVERHEAD PRESS, BENCH PRESS, ROWS AND LUNGES. You can build a strong, beautiful physique doing nothing more than consistently lifting heavy with these 8 basics. A good set might be choosing an exercise and lifting 4 sets of 4 reps as heavy as you can, then do 8 sets of 8 reps with a slightly lighter weight and ending with a still lighter weight of 25 reps to max out the area you are training.

Sticking with light weights and doing tons of reps will cause your body to hit a plateau and no new growth will happen... again, ok for maintaining, but if you want to keep getting stronger challenge your muscle to lift a little heavier each time you work out. Keep a training journal to record your weight amounts and record your progress. When you reach a new goal celebrate and keep going! Decide soon to include strength training as part of your lifestyle, deciding it to be just as important as eating or sleeping, becoming consistent for the rest of your life and watch what happens!

Dainty Morsels

Can you go back to the first time your were hurt by gossip? Either from the shock you felt realizing someone would say such a thing about you or from the embarrassement and sting in your own heart when your friend found out you had said something about her? We all have done it and we all have been hurt by it.

The earliest memory I have was the time Tammy (not her real name), my worst enemy in Junior High, who also happened to be big and tough, found out from someone I thought was my friend that I had been saying things about her... I don't even remember what I was saying, probably something about how much I hated her. I confess, I did hate her because she hated me for no reason, she gave me dirty looks and would call me names to my face and laugh at me everytime I walked by... she scared the crud out of me. If you knew me back then I was shy, timid and very puny so you can imagine the scene. It was the girl's locker room. I was quietly changing back into my clothes from the obnoxious gym suits we had to wear in P.E. Tammy stomps up behind my back and just stands there so that when I turn around all I see is her towering figure staring down at me. My so called "friend" was standing behind her with a look of apology on her face as Tammy shouted... "So, I hear from Kim (not her real name) that you have been talking about me!" To my surprise I shot back at her quite confidently on the outside, heart pounding on the inside... "Yes, I did... and it's because I don't get why you hate me so much... not sure why you would be surprised... anyone would talk about a person who treats them as horrible as you treat me.... you don't even know me, ... you might find I'm a really nice person if you just gave me a chance." That's all I said and stood there waiting for a punch in the face, instead Tammy just stood there. Not knowing what to do next I turned around and finished changing my clothes. Finally she said... "are you saying you want me to give you a chance?" I turned around, rolled my eyes and said, "Um.... NO!" She had nothing else to say to me after that... and I couldn't believe I was actually walking right by her with no punch in my face or name calling. After that her dirty looks and name calling actually stopped! She simply left me alone, leaving me relieved and proud that I had stood up for myself.



We all have our silly stories that we laugh about now. For some reason I woke up today with thoughts about gossip on my mind and the various times I have been talked about and the times I have done the talking. It's such a killer. Is there anything more painful than to hear someone is saying things about you behind your back? As I reminisced I experienced the pain all over again just as if it had happened yesterday. Knowing the pain it causes, why are we so drawn by it when we are not the one being talked about and then so completely offended by it when it is us? Scripture says... "What dainty morsels rumors are-- but they sink deep into one's heart."

I know my ears have done their share of perking up to gossip... just yesterday I overheard a gossipy conversation and was able to figure out who they were talking about. I kept saying in my mind... "STOP LISTENING TO THAT!" but at the same time I was feeling pretty good because I too have had hurtful issues with this particular person and felt a sense of satisfaction in knowing I wasn't the only one who felt this way. It was as if I couldn't control my thinking... but later when I got into my car I took those thoughts and began to examine them more closely. I felt sad because the reality of it was that my heart was taking satisfaction in hearing something damaging about someone else's charatcer. Why would knowing something bad about someone else make me feel good??? OH YUCK! In my thoughts I prayed... "I'm so sorry... I have no business making judgements! How can I? I don't have all the information and even if I did I am still not in a place to judge. I am always called to love! Instead I should be praying for this person and also doing something nice for them."

Understanding the negative effects of gossip are never realized more deeply until we are on the receiving end of unfounded gossip, comprehending the real damage it causes, experiencing the helplessness and anger it creates within. In times like this release from the pain is possible. There is only One who is all knowing, who sees deeper into the heart, who evaluates the circumstances in perfect wisdom and limitless grace and mercy and who doesn't comdemn us even if the rumor has some truth to it. If I have a God like that, who regards people as precious in his sight and has made all people in his image, I too need to regard people the same way. If GOD doesn't condemn what business do I have condemning?

A change in perspective is needed to consistently live with this kind of freedom! Take my original story about Tammy... I bet she had some issues in her home life to cause her to lash out at an innocent target like me in Jr. High. If it had been possible for me to have such a mature outlook at that age it would have prevented me from gossiping about her in the first place. Maybe I could have tried talking to her about why she treated me so badly.

When we gossip about how horible people are due to their behavior towards us aren't we being just as horrible as they? What does gossiping about it accomplish? If it makes us feel better that's not saying much... it just shows there's junk in our own heart that needs to be removed.

Because I have been the target of some pretty damaging gossip in my life it has caused me to think twice about spending time with someone who talks too much! I can't help but wonder... "when she's with others does she talk about me too?" I also immediately feel sorry for the one being talked about and try not to allow what I'm hearing to have any effect on me and instead to have an even better idea in my mind about that person. Let's face it... we all have bad days, sometimes bad seasons, and instead of being the target of someone else's gossip wouldn't it be life giving to be the recipient of one who noticed the hurt and gave out love and support? Why increase the burden? Why not lighten the load with love?

It's the most powerful thing we can do... We might think gossip makes us feel more powerful but in reality it only creates a rotting effect. Love and building up others is what really empowers! I only hope I can aspire to it.