Social Workout

My Body

Jon Togo of "CSI Miami" on L.A. Gyms, Boxing, and Body Dysmorphia

Golden Oldie alert! Reaching back to late summer 2009 for a classic from our My Body series. ~ The Eds.

I used to do Pilates for exercise when I first moved to L.A. I was really good at it. It was all the Beverly Hills housewives and me. The place was called “Pilates Plus.” This French guy ran it, and he used to grab all the cougars' asses who were in the class while they were working out. It was a great workout, but I couldn’t take all the yentas. It was fifteen Joan Riverses and me.

I haven’t been to the gym in a long time. I box now. The regular gyms in L.A. are horrible. Literally, Fabio works out at my old gym. Once I saw Vin Diesel working out with a giant wooden staff. It's so douchey, it's unbelievable. It’s irritating and horrible. Once I was in a spin class and the teacher was like, "This is why you don’t work as actors! You don’t push yourself!”

I like the idea of going someplace where what you do for a living doesn’t matter. When you go to a boxing gym, you’re treated the same same no matter who you are. There’s no posturing in boxing.  You can put on any front you want, but, once you get in the ring, you have to back it up. Everyone is really friendly, but they beat the shit out of each other. I get my ass whipped all the time. Some of the guys I train with fight for a living, and they have nothing to prove. There’s something very America about it. It’s like jazz. It’s a throwback sport. It’s the hardest workout there is. Because you’re working out and trying to not to get punched in the face at the same time. It would be like if you were holding a position in yoga trying to breathe and relax, and at the same time the yoga teacher was kicking you in the face. But boxing doesn’t hurt. It’s not a painful experience. You wear so much padding. You learn how to do it.  I got the shanan punim. I got the money maker. I can’t get hit in the face. All the actors wear headgear because they don’t want to get punched in the face.

My Body

Jessica Gordon on Collapsing Into Good Hands

Jessica Gordon is the founder of Yada Yada Yoga, which offers mobile holistic fitness, including yoga, kickboxing, and massage, in New York and L.A.

I discovered yoga when I was a Division One tennis player. I had lots of injuries, and I was going to the chiropractor, things like that, but then I met a yoga instructor. I kept putting off sessions with her because of a back injury, but she finally said just come, and in twenty minutes she did more for my back than I’d done in a month with a chiropractor.

My Body

Jill Miller On Living Peacefully and Playfully Inside Your Own Skin

Jill Miller is an Omega Institute faculty member and the Creator of Yoga Tune Up®

When I was eleven, my mother brought home two videos: The Jane Fonda Workout and Raquel Welch Yoga. I became obsessed and raced home every day and did both videos. I had an eating disorder, it kind of went hand in hand. I was a fat kid and a nerd and the TV type kid, so the awakening that happened through those videos was tied with a lot of other physical personal issues.

I went to Northwestern at 17, and I went into theater arts and performing arts, but I saw a poster for shiatsu massage school, and even though I was busy with college, I decided to enroll. I was still stick and throwing up and bulimic, but I noticed that when I touched people or when they touched me I felt silence inside myself. The chaos would just cease.

My Body

Victoria Stilwell on the Joys of Dog Walking and Parks

Dog trainer Victoria Stilwell is the host of Animal Planet's series "It's Me or the Dog." Her insights and advice for positive, reward-based dog training can be found on Positively.com.

We have a chocolate lab, and having a dog you have to exercise, because you have to exercise your dog every day. It's not fair if you don't. And that's a great thing. Even if I don't feel like it, I have to go, and then of course after I've finished my walk, I feel great.

Spirit Guides

Brad Roberts of Crash Test Dummies on Chanting, Yoga, and Fat Fucks

Four days to the start of the Million Minute Month, and today we introduce another challenge Spirit Guides to inspire fence-sitters and fire up challengers-in-waiting. Regular readers will recall that Brad Roberts, lead singer of the Crash Test Dummies, occasionally chants in Susanna Harwood Rubin's yoga class, a few doors down from Social Workout HQ. Lacking both an expert in tantric chanting and a rockstar, we asked Brad if he would serve as a Spirit Guide for the challenge. Without knowing what he was getting in to, he agreed, and so below please find his take on yoga, obesity, kickboxing, swimming at the Chinatown YMCA, and fat Brits. Note for millenials: The Crash Test Dummies hit the pop scene in the early 1990s, and have released nine albums since, including this year's Ooh La La. Their breakthrough album God Shuffled His Feat sold over 10 million copies, and included the mega hit Mmm, Mmm, Mmm, Mmm. If you've heard the song, then you know that voice. That's Brad....

My Body

Frank Forencich on The Vital Importance of Play and the Seductions of the Modern World

[Frank Forencich is the creator of Exuberant Animal, which combines the study of human performance with play-based movement training. He's also the author of Play as If Your Life Depends on It.]

How old is play? This is something very few people have thought about. If you break it down, all mammals play, and all primates play. It’s older than fire. It’s older than stone tools. It’s older than our species. It’s fundamental to good social behavior. If you deprive a young animal of play, it will almost invariably grow up to have distorted social behaviors. There are ominous signs in the modern world that we're depriving ourselves of play, and it’s not a trivial matter. It’s really very important. On the flip side, the more we promote play, games and sports, the more creative and resilient people become.

My Body

Matthew Kenney Doesn't Subscribe to Fake Meat and Wholeheartedly Trusts Skinny Chefs

Our week of chefs continues. The late hours, the endless rich food... Is there such a thing as a healthy chef? We investigate. Today, Matthew Kenney, of Pure Food and Wine, FreeFoods NYC, and numerous other restaurants gives us his take on the "never trust a skinny chef" maxim. 

• Having cooked for so many people, what lessons have you learned about healthy eating? I’ve been a pretty healthy eater for most of my adult life. It’s about moderation. I don’t believe in hard core diets. I just believe in listening to your body. Chewing your food. A good balance of ingredients. The only thing that's really changed over time is that with each year, I’m more and more vegetarian. People say never trust a skinny chef. To me, it’s the opposite. I don’t trust a really unhealthy chef. I feel like if they don’t understand their own body, they don’t know how to nourish me. Food should taste great, but it shouldn’t make us sick.

My Body

Josh Sharkey Ate Chocolate Every Day for Four Years

Our week of chefs continues. The late hours, the endless rich food... Is there such a thing as a healthy chef? We investigate. Today, Josh Sharkey of Bark Hot Dogs gives us the low down on not being a vegan and eating chocolate every day. 

• Do you know any healthy chefs? I have sort of a skewed answer because I started a cleanse about a month ago that's turned into more of a lifestyle. I cut out gluten, sugar, dairy, caffeine, and alcohol. I felt so amazing after that that it’s kind of changed my whole perception. I’ll still eat those foods on a special occasional, but on a day to day basis I won’t just have a sandwich. I feel so much better, but the other chefs think I’m crazy. 

My Body

Being Around Food All Day Makes Tere Fox Really Happy

The second in our series of conversations with chefs. The late hours, the endless rich food... Is there such a thing as a healthy chef? We investigate. Today, we're in Williamsburg with Rockin' Raw's pastry chef Tere Fox (pictured left with her co-owner Luis Salgado). We asked, Tere graciously answered:

My Body

Erin McKenna Eats Two Cookies Every Night

Chefs are like athletes — they abuse their bodies in the name of performance. There are the burns and the cuts, of course. But then also the late hours, the constant high stress, the endless rich food, drinking, smoking, drugs, and broken relationships. It's arguably the most unhealthy profession since coal mining. At least that's the impression given by popular chefs, like Gordon Ramsay or Anthony Bourdain. In the name everyone's general well being, and out of sheer curiosity, Social Workout decided to investigate. We started with Erin McKenna of BabyCakes....