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Om Shaqi
Shaq vs. Yoga
Yoga isn't just for white girls anymore! Shaquille O'Neal, superstar NBA center, moved to Cleveland recently, and, not having anything better to do, he's taken up yoga. "He's got some tight hamstrings," said his teacher Tami Schneider to the A.P. "He came in just like a regular guy. He was alone, which was nice, and he seemed to feel right at home at the studio. He fit right in." Well, let's just say he "fit right in" as well as any 7'1", 325 pound NBA superstar. Apparently, Shaq's practice requires two mats, placed end-to-end. I don't imagine anyone bitched about him taking up too much space — or that Tami got very far "adjusting" him. (Fun game: Imagine Shaq in various yoga poses. Or doing pranayama breathing.) Give it up for the big man for having an open mind! Not only has he tried yoga, but he spent the summer filming Shaq Vs. in which he competes with stars of other sports: "He traded punches with Oscar De La Hoya, intercepted Ben Roethlisberger passes and even swam against Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps." All I can say is that Ray Kelly could learn a thing or two from O'Neal.
Free Yoga
TeleYoga Wants You and Your Friends to Do All the Minutes of Yoga You Can Muster
In a mere week, the Million Minute Month begins! To cheer us all along, we've gathered powerful forces for good in the form of Spirit Guides. Today, a big welcome to Spirit Guide Christine Miller, Founder of TeleYoga, whose sweaty minute encouragement begins...now. On the line: A free private TeleYoga session. All you have to do is rally a few friends as fellow challengers. Here's how it works:
More..._0.big center.jpg "Christine! photo by David Pexton")
Healthy Read: Jillian Michaels's Master Your Metabolism
This book came out last spring, and I probably would have jumped to buy it at the time but for the reviews on Amazon, which basically said that if you have listened to the majority of Jillian's podcasts then you already have this information.
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Sacred Sweat
Does the Pope Sweat?
It's Day One of a new papal regime. This got us to thinking: What's the Pope's daily routine, and does he go to the gym? Dawn Patrolers will recall that we also covered the daily routine of the Dalai Lama. Call it the Sacred Sweat series.
It's early to know how Pope Francis will spend his days, but we do know that he will not be running any marathons. Turns out Francis is working with only one lung, having had the other removed due to dangerous teenage infection. Outgoing Benedict wasn't much of a cardio fiend, either. He limited his daily exercise to a 10 minute walk around the Apostolic Palace, but he also kept a strict and healthy schedule: Up at 5AM after six hours of sleep, a Mediterannean diet, sans alcohol, and plenty of prayer.
The public record suggests that fitness, in the conventional sense, has not been a major preoccupation of the Vatican. True, Pope Pius XII, a controversial pontiff who presided over Catholicism during World War II, used a rowing machine in his youth. By the time he was Pope, however, Pius' routine was strictly 15 minutes of "knee bends and arm flexes" timed with a gold Swiss watch.
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SW-e-AT
Food-Ex Pairing: Brown Rice and Hammies
Today's food-ex pairing needs no introduction. One of them supports, in a nutritional sense, well over half the world. The other supports, in a literally sense, you.
Let's talk about your hamstrings. They're not super visible in most people, and they're kind of awkward to exercise. (Yogis, think standing split. Weightlifters, think prone thigh curls.) This makes them easy to ignore, but that would be a mistake. Your hamstrings are responsible for minor things, like allowing you to flex your knee, and also to extend your hip. As in: walking, running, jumping, and lifting things off the floor. And they're also responsible for important things, like Moonwalking, and/or doing that other Michael Jackson move, where he lifts one knee and taps the lifted heel with his hand.) OK, I bet you're wondering where the term hamstring came from. Not to be a shameless Wikipedia quoter, but check this out:
Another commonly accepted origin is that legs of ham used to be hung by a hook through the space between the thighbone and the tendons behind the knee. Ham/pork used to be more common in England than beef and lamb.
Who knew!
If you're curious about how to work your hams in a kind of Western-weight-lifty way, I recommend this page on Project Swole. These people seem smart. Dancers and yogis might can try almost any of the exercises demonstrated in this very jazzy Pilates promo video. These people seem funny. Take your pick, but remember the old Chinese proverb: "Talk does not cook rice."
Oh snap! Let's talk about brown rice. Did you know that in some languages "to eat" translates directly as "to eat rice." This according to the food geeks at WHFoods, who also point out what you already know: Whole grain brown rice is very good for you, while stripped and polished white rice is a lot less so. Eat the brown rice, and you'll be thinner, have lower cholesterol, and be less likely to develop Type 2 Diabetes. How should you do it? TheKitchn.com has your back with its normal Five Ways to Eat... post, one of which would seem particularly appropriate as it includes some delicious hammy: "Fried with onions, ginger, and an egg."
Enjoy you SW-e-AT-ers....
Newslinks
The John Friend/New York Times Kerfuffle
Last weekend, the New York Times Magazine ran a mega-piece on John Friend, the founder of Anusara yoga. Some people thought it was glowing. Others found it off-base and needlessly negative. Now John Friend is out with a rebuttal. In his words, "I believe that there were several instances in the article in which information was twisted in order to make the article sensational and juicy." Here are a few of the points he refudiates:
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Wake Up Call
On Eisstockschießen
You have to have a dream so you can get up in the morning.
~ Billy Wilder, Austrian-American filmmaker
Eisstockschießen is like curling, but without the brooms. Or it's like bocce, but played with funny discs on frozen ponds in Austria.
Practical Eating
Skyr Vs. Fage: Yogurt Deathmatch
All yogurts are not created equal. Some are champion snacks or even meals, and others are sugar-soaked goop. One serving of my childhood favorite, Western Family lowfat blueberry yogurt, contains 44g of sugar, versus 9g in an equally if not more delicious serving of Total Fage. So no more Western Family for me. Which brings us to the topic at hand: yogurts' nutritional content, specifically high-end, thick-style yogurts.
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Gymjuries
The Teen Girl Gym Rat Phenomenon
Teen girls are taking up weight lifting in ever increasing numbers, reports a new study, (especially the college-bound junior athlete set) and one result is that they're sustaining an increasing number of gym injuries. Teen boys often injure themselves by moving up to heavy weights too quickly. Girls are more likely to suffer sprains and crushed fingers. In case you need a reminder of why it's really nice to be past puberty, one personal trainer who works with teens sums up the situation: "It's hard to lift properly when your body is changing from month to month." Gosh, it's good to be old.
Day 2: Just getting started ya’ll
This competition rulz the skool on so many levels. One, I've recruited some of my favorite people (including my lil' bro) to participate in the BOWC. Chicago represent! Two, I am really enjoying the documentation of my food intake and responses to class.
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“Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things” -G.Carlin
I have a disproportionate ratio of body mass to sweat produced. I am maybe 5'1 and sweat like I'm LeBron James. And not just at the gym, but especially when I'm sleeping. I'm putting my sheets in the wash as we speak because my poor husband is being sweat out of our bed. I am a sweaty thing! Today at the gym I started my workout on the bike and realized I forgot to get a towel.
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Link Love
Motherhood, E. coli, and Britney — Oh My!
And in today’s news...The Center for Disease Control tells us that women in America are having their babies later. Apparently, the average age of a new American mother is now 25. That still seems pretty young, but teen pregnancies must more than offset the fertility clinic effect. In any event, American moms are spring chickens compared to the Swiss and Japanese who are 29 on average when they become mothers. Meanwhile, attention you moms, The Guardian declares that a potentially dangerous strain of E coli struck two girls at a dance festival in Wales. (Reminder: Go see Food, Inc. for context on this one.) And, finally, everyone take heart: Britney mother-of-two Spears’ body is hot again. So how was your weekend?
Yoga Retreats
Yoga High’s Liz Buehler Walker and Mel Russo Take On Kripalu
Liz Buehler Walker and Mel Russo of the hip, Lower East Side Yoga High center are leading their very first six-day retreat in the Berkshires this Fall. Mel, formerly of East Yoga, is getting rave reviews from the tattooed hipster crowd down on Clinton Street. See for yourself: Learn to backbend in the mountains while receiving spa treatments and eating delicious food.
- Where: Kripalu
- When: September 20-25th
- What: Two classes a day. Morning class focuses on inversions, backbends, jump-backs and balancing. Afternoon class focuses on teaching together.
- How much: Costs Range from $745 to $1,930
- Link: Yoga High Kripalu Retreat
Recent Retreat Posts:
not so (Mc)Fit yet – please help!
I decided on the cheapy gym. Well, I’ve decided but I haven’t yet signed up…the choice between the two gyms in the end was pretty easy…I simply couldn’t handle the über-structured environment of the fancy gym and the colorful and young McFit location around the corner from my apartment was way more appealing.
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Jordan Black Cement 4 How to Start a Retail Business in Singapore
gapore namely a combination of an Eastern and Western access the community is enriched with Asian ethics meanwhile in the meantime mingled with Western access of conducting happening Since Singapore does never have its own natural resources apt increase its economy, it relied aboard additional field such as exporting and manufacturing.
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Mat Manners
Bad Yoga Behavior — Instructors Dish The Dirt
We've gotten into the rich territory of ridiculous breaches of yoga etiquette before. People popping cans of Diet Coke during savasana, tighty-whities in Bikram...but that's all been from our the student perspective. What about the teacher perspective? The Phoenix New Times talked to yoga instructors, and they've compiled a list entitled of notable complaints entitled "Why Your Yoga Instructor Hates You." You've got the usual suspects — crackberry addicts, people leaving during savasana — but then there are a few surprises:
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on allowing myself to be…me.
Today is my one-year anniversary. It’s been one whole year since I joined Crunch, and on Friday it will be one whole year since I started to work with Trainer Mike. I usually refer to this past year as “since joining Crunch” or “since starting with Mike,” which just goes to show how much my life has changed in this time. I’ve embraced a side of me that I didn’t even know existed.
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Poet Laureate
Mohawk’s Got the Rants
Maybe I’m channeling msh258 here, but something about today seems like it deserves a rant or two. Lo and behold, I refresh my Yahoo news page and read this lovely article about new Wisconsin legislation that’ll slap a 10k fine and some jail time on health teachers if they teach kids about contraceptives because a) it’s illegal to have sex if you’re a minor in Wisconsin (HA!) and b) knowing how to have safe sex will “contribute to the delinquency of a minor.”
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Poet Laureate
Healthy Man’s Spam
[Ed. Note: Mr. Mohawk showed up on Social Workout last spring, a male poet from Texas holding forth on a female dominated, hopelessly metrosexual and yoga-slanted urban fitness blog in the making. Since then he's contributed hundreds of posts and comments, from the witty to the ranting, crude, and beautiful. We think he has also worked out quite a lot. Apparently we owe his prolific posting to a strange glitch in the software he uses at his Day Job somewhere in Manhattan — a program of some sort that leaves him with several minutes to kill roughly every several minutes. Worried that this tenuous situation couldn't last forever, we've asked him to write some items in an official capacity. Frankly, we have no real idea what he'll do; but we're delighted and somewhat terrified to be introducting Mr. Mohawk to the Front Page....]
Because I was recently asked by HQ to pen the occasional men’s interest article for Social Workout, I joined the magazine’s Men’s Health email list. I figured, why the hell not? It beats, you know, having to look things up to write about. Over the past few days I’ve accumulated a handful of lovely newsletter emails, and now I’m going to subject you to them share them, in a haiku series no less! (I’ve written advertisements in CAPS.)
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I love that he tried yoga! That's so awesome.
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