Social Workout

My Body

Nadia Arumugam on Removing Yourself From the Vicinity of the Buffet

Nadia Arumugam is a food writer, food stylists, and chef. Her first cookbook, Chop, Sizzle & Stir: Easy Recipes for Fabulous Stir-Fries was published this spring.... 

When you’re a chef, you’re working so hard that you never get time to eat. But if you’re a food stylist or a recipe developer, there’s an onus on you to keep on tasting the food, and that can create an unhealthy relationship. As someone who doesn’t have the perfect fast metabolism, I noticed that when I went from being a freelance writer to being an editor at a food magazine, it was a real challenge to keep the weight off. You’re in love with food, you want to try everything, and you feel an obligation when you go to events. It’s this balance of knowing when to stop. I find that I have problems doing that, so I have to physically remove myself from the vicinity of food. Don’t stand anywhere near the buffet at the party! 

I’m not a natural gym bunny. I actually hate the gym with a vengeance. So [when I lived in London] I walked to work. Even if it was an hour. I would make that effort because it would make it so I could eat. Now I go to Kula Yoga in Tribeca. 

My Body

Stephen Lincoln on Awakenings, Spinning Trances, and Sexual Yoga

Stephen Lincoln is the owner and founder of The Protein Bakery and Group Fitness Director for David Barton Gym. 

On Awakenings: I was in my early 20s, doing visual for the Gap, and I was really unhappy. I just couldn't have four hour discussions about should it be a V-neck or a round-neck. And I was spending way too much time in mall food courts. And then I had a mental awakening. Instead of a breakdown, it really was an awakening. I started doing class with my best friend, and team teaching with her. My philosophy with that was to throw everything at my body I could. Cycling, yoga, running on the treadmill, dancing to Madonna songs, everything. Just moving more and eating less. I lost 82 pounds, got back into acting, moved to New York, went to every audition I could, and started getting parts and fitness teaching jobs. I think I've taught at every New York club except Health and Racquet.

My Body

Bill Bahen on Intellectual Physicality

Bill Bahen is the Founder and Executive Director of Hudson River Community Sailing, a cool non-profit which offers youth leadership training to New York City public high school students by way of sailing classes in their own back yard....

I’m from Maryland and my father was a big sailor, and I grew up in sailing. There are numerous, numerous pictures of me in my dad’s boat in a laundry basket. I’m also a big fly fisherman. Both of these sports don’t end. There’s so much more to learn and do. It's not like just putting a worm on a hook or turning on an engine. They’re calming and rewarding, but they’re also challenging. If your physical activity is tied to knowledge and challenge and something a little intellectual, you're never exhausted. For instance, the entymology of flies is just fascinating. You can fish every stage of the life cycle, larvae and nymphs and all of it, and it's just fascinating to learn about.

My Body

Eliot Schrefer on Marathon Pushers and Downing Cookie Dough

Eliot Schrefer is the author of the novels Glamorous Distasters, The New Kid, and a young adult novel, The School for Dangerous Girls, as well as the non-fiction work, Hack the SAT. ~ The Eds.

There's the up at 3:00 A.M. with a bottle of whiskey and a pack of cigarettes writer, and there's also the goodie-two-shoes up in the morning showered with the laptop ready kind. I'm definitely more of the nerdy good kid rather than the Hemingway kind.

One of my big regrets in life is that I never played any sports in high school. It was so beyond the realm of what I would have been good at or accepted in. But toward the end of high school I realized I was really unfit, so I started running in the afternoons. I'd run like 50 feet, huff and puff and stop and walk then run another 50 feet. I've run off and on ever since then. A couple of years ago I did a 10K Turkey Trot. And I really liked it, so then I did the New York Half Marathon and the Bronx Half Marathon. Then I did a couple of marathons. It's like drug dealers pushing you into heavier and heavier substances. Now I've got my eyes on an ultra-marathon. Just when you thought there was nothing worse than bloody nipples you're looking at losing your toenails.

My Body

Aimee Raupp on Sleep, Soy, and Skinny Bitches

Aimee Raupp is a licensed acupuncturist with practices in Manhattan and Nyack, New York, and the author of Chill Out and Get Healthy.

The most important part of being healthy is being in touch with yourself on an emotional and physical level. Being in touch with your reactions to situations. How they make you feel, how you express your emotions, what are you using to manage your stress? Then it's sleeping and eating sensibly, as wholesome and clean as possible. We're losing touch with our physical and emotional selves. Be in your body. If you're not in touch with yourself, good luck with that. Check in with yourself. Notice that you feel like crap when you eat that Snickers bar.  

My Body

Tara Zimliki on Bootcamps and 4 A.M. Wake-ups

Tara Zimliki is a personal trainer and the owner and operator of Tara's Bootcamp in Branchburg, New Jersey.

I usually wake up at 4 A.M., wash my face, then do 50 or 60 pushups. It gets me pumped. Then I check on my daughters. After that I have my breakfast. Egg whites with whole wheat bread or a shake. And then I get ready and go teach bootcamp. It starts at 6 A.M., and I teach again at 7 A.M. After that, I train clients, then come home and take my girls to the park. I'll go running with my daughters in a double stroller if the weather is nice. Like 8 or 9 miles. But, in the cold weather, I go on the treadmill in my house. Then we color, which is my favorite part of the day. For lunch I eat a lot of whole wheat pasta. Especially as a runner, I need that. I try to give myself one treat a day. I love jelly beans, but they have a lot of sugar, so I just let myself have ten of them. Then I get ready for evening camp at five o'clock. For dinner I do a lot of fish, or grilled chicken and pasta. I ran three marathons pregnant— two not knowingly, and one knowingly.

My Body

Terri Walsh on 80s Fitness, Bridal Bootcamps, and Diet Food

Terri Walsh, a 25 year veteran of the NY fitness scene, is the author of Diva: The System to Unleash Your Female Power, and the owner of TW Training NYC, a private personal training gym.  ~The Eds.

I came to New York when I was 23. Back then Bally's owned the Vertical Club. It was like the Studio 54 of gyms. If you got to teach classes there you were the shit. It was leg warmers, head bands, the whole thing. That was the beginning of the Perfect movement. It was all independent studios, and you got paid a portion of what you were bringing in the door. You have to keep that room full or you're gone. Teaching classes, you have to have plan A, plan B and plan C, or else basically you suck. If the room isn't getting you, it's not them, it's you. They're there because they want to get you.

All my friends who used to be aerobics teachers are now yoga teachers. Everyone became spin teachers for a while. The thing that's absolutely huge right now is the pole dancing. I'm mystified. I realize it's a great workout, but I was brought up to stay off the pole. 

My Body

Michael Friedman on Dancers, Porn Stars, and Christians

[Michael Friedman is a composer and lyricist for theater and film. As Associate Artist with The Civilians he has been the musical force behind This Beautiful City, Gone Missing, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jacskson, and Saved!, and is currently working on the group's upcoming Porn Musical. ~The Eds.]

For me, being healthy certainly doesn't mean working out four times a week. Fitness as an end in itself isn't important. It's more about sleeping well and having more energy and being able to work. To feel alive.

When my work life really gets disastrous... It's like being in a depression. When everything goes bad, the thing that will make you feel better is eating something good or going on a run, but that falls apart too, so it compounds. Getting your life back together — it's a holistic thing. You discover that you've actually cleaned out your apartment and caught up on your bills, and you'll paint your bathroom and go to the dentist, and your sheets are clean. And then you go on a run. Either everything falls apart or everything comes together.  

My Body

Brett Hoebel on Capoeira and Garbage Fitness Products

(We heard about Brett Hoebel through L.A. super trainer Elizabeth Ordway who gave Hoebel top marks. Hoebel made his name at Equinox in New York with urbanmotion, a class that combined capoeira, kickboxing, and house music. He's since gone out on his own, and attracted a crowd of celebrity clients including Karolina Kurkova, America Ferrera, and Veronica Webb.)

I've always been an athlete. I was just naturally good at sports. I could throw a ball straight before any of the other kids. My mom put me in gymnastics when I was two. I always loved to dance. There's just been that movement in me. But I had a wheat allergy and started to gain weight in fifth grade. We moved from New Jersey to California, and I had no friends. But we walked past this karate dojo everyday. There, they don't care how heavy you are, how skinny you are. You come in, you're respectful of the rules, you'll be rewarded. I really excelled. I went to all the classes, and got into sparring. That got me hooked and gave me a lot of self-confidence.  

In 9th grade I decided I didn't want to be the last kid to ever go out on date, and I also tried out for varsity teams, so my training tripled. I weighed in 150 for football, then wrestled sophomore year at 120. I was in ridiculous shape. That changed my life in a good way. The secret is inner strength. You can come up with crazy exercises, but if you want to change your body, your'e going to have to change your life. I call it chatter, that voice in your head that's like "I'm too tired, I want to quit." You have to turn that off. That kind of mental strength, knowing you're not going to quit, that's what does it.

My Body

Ellen Barrett on Fitness DVD Shoots and Post-Baby Espresso

(Ellen Barrett, fitness instructor, studio owner, and star of the Fusion Fitness DVD series and numerous other videos, just released a new DVD: Barefoot Cardio. -The Eds.)

For fitness videos, height really matters. I'm 5'6", that's pretty much as tall as you can be and not look like a goon on these video shoots. Really tall people don't balance out. And petite people look so much more tall than they look in real life. The first video I ever did was for Crunch. I was in Hollywood, and I was training a lot of celebrities, and I was teaching at Crunch and they wanted their videos to be really authentic, with actual teachers. It was hell and torture. The director was just so mean to me and the people who were in the background exercising. It was such a beast. It was also exhilarating, but I remember finishing and thinking I never wanted to do that again.