Oliver
HELLO
Oliver
In 1995, I took Adele Munisteri's spinning class at the Reebok Sports Club. More...
Member Of...
I Heart These...
Feats Completed
- The Love Challenge:
- Love Belly
- Love Body
- Love Soul
See all feats for The Love Challenge- Social Workout Challenge: New Years Edition:
- Stand Up
- Sleep Log
- Pimp Your Bed
- Sun Salutes
- Take A Bath
- Jan Plan Plus
- Go Fish
- Home Food
- See all feats for Social Workout Challenge: New Years Edition
- Emergency Holiday Challenge:
- Family Oriented
- Reindeer Gaming
- Walking on Christmas
- See all feats for Emergency Holiday Challenge
- Eat. Sweat. Blog.:
- Flog
- No-moo
- Caffeine free
- Brightly Colored
- Just Water
- Raw food day
- Localvore
- Unsweetened
- Soda Free
- Go Veggie
- See all feats for Eat. Sweat. Blog.
- Other Feats:
- Cartwheel
- Wheel Pose
- Handstand by 20
- Jump Rope - One Minute with Five Crossies
- Moonwalk
- Juggle
- Sing
- Headstand
- Spot Turn
- Chinups
- 2009 Feats of Summer 50 Workout Challenge
- Recover from H1N1 Virus
- Commuting Meditation
- Mile Run
- Half Mile Swim
- Free Throws
- Group Fitness Class Sampler
- Situps
- See all feats
Rebirth
Hello to Count.It!
It's been a long journey, but this old blog, once known as SocialWorkout.com, has moved through all of the karmic cycles of life, and also passed through several circles of the Inferno...and it has (some time ago) been reborn as a gleaming, loved-filled, high tech online platform called...COUNT.IT. Got a moment? Come on over!
Big News
Social Workout Works Out
Five years ago, two people connected in the comment threads of this site. They were part of our original crew of literate, urbane, fitness nerds. Pretty soon, he was inviting her to costumed mud races, and she was writing warm odes to him. In hashtags, she denied her love, but it wasn't long before they discretely made public their mutual hearting. From the start, they've been a force for the good, and together they flogged thousands of pushups, crunches, and burpees, and even co-produced an extraordinary short film.
This weekend our old friends msh258 and killercadoogan were married. We smile and salute them. At Social Workout HQ today, we will all hold a ceremonial two minute plank in their honor.
Onward friends and lovers!
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.
Innovation
The Complete, Unabridged List of Social Fitness and Wellness Sites, Apps, and Devices
We've been compiling an exhaustive list of interesting products in the "social fitness/wellness" space. We're now well over one hundred, and it's clearly time to start sharing the love. If you'd like to make additions or changes, please tell us about it!
California, High School, Phys. Ed., Physical Education, Propaganda, Rah Rah, Videos
Vintage Physical Education Propaganda
Thanks to Meret H. and Jared R. for digging up this video of days gone by in a sunny, very clean-cut California....
Research
Americans Walk Less than Anyone, Including the Amish and their Own Grandparents
This just in via Andrew Sullivan: The average American walks 5,117 steps per day, which ranks them way below (among others) the Swiss and the Aussies, who log about 9,600 steps daily on average, AND the Japanese, who are at 7,100 steps per day.
Slackers! Sullivan links to a nice summary of recent walking research by Wayne Curtis. Turns out we're historically slothful. Writes Curtis: "In 1906, just as cars were coming into vogue, the nation was afflicted by a small outbreak of long-distance walking — multi-day walking races and long-distance walkers seemed to be tromping everywhere."
How far would the average 19th Century American walk in a day? To sort that out, researchers apparently visited the Old Order of Amish in Canada, and equipped those folks with pedometers. This, it seemed, a reasonable simulation of normal 19th Century life. Turns out the average non-motorized Amish male logs 18,425 steps per day, or roughly nine miles.
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Workout
A Yoga Affair in Little Italy
I arrive on the yoga mat with bones, body, and soul frazzled. I.AM.YOU Yoga is on the sixth floor of a building deep in the heart of Little Italy. It's my first visit. Outside: Waiters in white coats, wives in Juicy Couture, and husbands scarfing canolis in Sopranos tees. Inside (by way of stainless steel elevator): Lauren, remarkably toned former investment banker in skintight, black short shorts, a dozen black yoga mats laid out in tight rows on the polished hardwood, and twin turntables at the ready. Mister Bob Dalbolina kicks off a tremendously physical yoga series to soothe the tightly wound souls of the very fit mostly female class. All good, but on this night, in these very close quarters, I realize to my horror that caffeine and stress are rising from me in pungent form. Oh god, I'm stinky.
Place:
I.AM.YOU. studio
Workout
Jump Rope and Misc.
Jumped for 20 minutes, avoiding the elliptical, and then did pushups, situps, pullups, dips, etc.
Place:
Equinox - Soho
Workout
Late Rope Jumping
Didn't get to the gym until ten-after-nine. PEA. EM. That's late to start sweating, and I blame my compulsive, procrastinatory inability to separate from desk at the end of the day in hopes that I'll suddenly be granted divine clarity and complete all of the outstanding things on my To Do lists. But whatever.
Place:
Equinox - Soho
Workout
On Pilates and Hip Circles
My question: How many situps, if any, is a Pilates class worth toward's one's Feralicious goals? (Can one even count situps done in a class towards one's feat goals?) My answer: You can count situps (or pushups) from a class, but they must be real, identifiable situps. No "situp equivalents," as in: "30 seconds of Pilates teasers is equivalent to 10 situps." No, that's a slippery slope.
Place:
Equinox - Soho
Workout
Friday Evening Yogaworks
Several of the sales guys from Flavorpill, with whom we share offices, had decided to go to Yogaworks Soho. S. is a big yogi, of couse, and it was to be the first class for T., who once played football. I tagged along. Keith was teaching, and the room was crowded. It was a beginners class, and Keith seems particularly good with beginners.
Place:
YogaWorks - SoHo
Workout
Shameless Use of Leisurely Bike Ride
As my Saturday workout. Truth is, however, it was time set aside for de-stressing, and we rolled down to the bottom of Manhattan and then back up again. More sightseeing than sweating, but physical nonetheless. Especially if you count the feeling of warm and cool spring air on face, and the smell of new bar-b-ques. And also the getting home early and going to bed.
Place:
Outside
Workout
Lunchtime Pilates
Kristen McGee and Equinox Soho. I found the last spot in the corner, and it was all very graceful, not excruciatingly hard, and ideal for the midday time slot. While we were doing some form of core clenching exercise, a woman behind me let out a significant fart. This caused the tatoo'd man in tights next to me to start giggling uncontrollably, along with his neighbor.
Class(es) Taken:
Pilates Mat - Kristen McGee
Place:
Equinox - Soho
Date:
Thu, 03/18/2010 (All day)
Workout
YTTP Late Night
I sweat hot tears, or I cried hot sweat, or something. It was classic YTTP: With a slightly certain-of-herself teacher prodding us to work on our "vibrational breathing," and a guy a few rows over groaning at high volume.
Place:
Yoga to the People
Workout
Salsa with Jose
Just catching up around here, on my workout posts AND on my salsa classes. Monday was the first class in two weeks. It wasn't high impact, and Jose fell back into his nasty habit of demo-ing the move about 1,000 times before letting us try. But it was dancing, and very good for my heart and soul.
Class(es) Taken:
Advanced Salsa - Jose Rosario
Place:
Sandra Cameron Dance Center
Date:
Mon, 03/15/2010 (All day)
Workout
Late Night Jivamukti with Nan
Deja vu: It's Thursday night, and it had been nearly a week since the last exercise. Travel got in the way, and work. At the company happy hour, I confessed that I was a miserable hypocrite. You can't run a site dedicated to wellness, and not take care of yourself. I was miles from Feralicious. So I finished my Guinness and bicycled to Jivamukti for the 8:30PM installment.
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Deets
Cool two story, triangular building on 13th street. Apparently 7,000 square feet. First time drop ins are $20. After that, it's $40 for a drop in or you can join on a monthly basis. The initiation is $500, and monthly is $160. There's a also a month-to-month option for $250. And, of course, they want you to stop by and discuss your options.
Calvin is the bomb!
I've never taken Body Architect class, but Calvin is a true fitness pioneer and original. He's been teaching dance and step aerobics for-ev-ah, and yet is still the youngest guy in the room with the most energy. Seriously. This is way too positive of a review for the actual publisher of this site, (that's me), BUT Calvin was one of the inspirations for this site.
PIlates Life
re:AB is a Hub for the Pilates Nation
A journalist friend worked for a while for a Pilates website that went bust. Why didn't it make it, I asked. "Pilates is not a lifestyle," she said. I understood what she meant. Yoga has several thousand years of Hindu religion and Indian culture behind it. The music, the food, the clothing. Even Capoeira has Brazilian music and history. Pilates doesn't have a national culture, it's got a German-American fitness visionary and a tribe of loyal dancers and midtown media women with excellent posture.
If Joseph Pilates had had a TV show, things would be ..." More comments...
Notable Trainers
Clive McIntosh Saved My Life
What: Notable Trainer
Where: Crunch Fitness and Private
At Flavorpill HQ in Soho on Friday afternoons, the CEO's personal trainer comes in and runs a half hour boot camp for anyone willing to step away from their desk. It's sort of an experimental thing, and a testament to how much Flavorpill CEO, Mark Mangan, digs Clive McIntosh.
New York
so jealous!
" More comments...Review and Deal Alert
David Barton Astor Place Sexier than The Box and Cheaper
Last night, pre-martinis at Temple Bar with Lululemon (herself), we stopped in for overdue tour of the new David Barton Gym at Astor Place. Everone must go take a look, if only to see the next step in the evolution of gym to nightclub: DJ booth in the shape of giant mirrored ball, thumping music, outsized Phillipe Starck-style mirrors leaning against exposed steel and brick. Purple backlighting everywhere. Lovely juxtaposition of candle-lit wooden floors and futuristic cardio machinery (each unit with its own TV). All the energy does make you want to work out -- the way a hopping club makes you want to dance. Everyone beautiful in that lighting: The ripped man of color with dreds and tattoos; the Nicole Kidman knock-off doing pelvic lifts with pesonal trainer. And that's the further surprise: It's not all gay. The mix of men and women, in fact, roughly balanced. "David has a wife and a kid and lives on the Upper East Side," said our tour guide. "The Chelsea thing just sort of took off." My thought: It could easily have been Equinox Greenwich Avenue or any other Hot New Club, just re-themed, like a Windows desktop, to something between The Standard and the Delano. So, other than mandatory tourist visit, should you join?
New York
Sunday Cure
Being anywhere but bed or perhaps surfing on summer Sunday morning at 8 A.M. in the Hamptons would seem unwise. But if you can drag your butt to Newtown Lane, Jerry's thoughtful class is kind of a shockingly nice way way to wake up. It's not easy, but he spends alot of time setting up poses, so your body has a chance to acclimatize to the situation.
Review
Multi Intenso Yoga
In the New York yoga scene, there are certain hub studios, places with street cred that attract regulars with strong practices. (Compared to these places, gym yogis and Bikram fans are strictly bridge-and-tunnel.) Among the hubs, in Tribeca, is the Kula Yoga Project, a crunchy, well-run studio, up a long flight of rickety stairs, which packs them in nearly ten times a day. The teaching is generally above average, with certain standouts.
Among the latter is David Andre Regelin, a tall, dark-haired yoga Adonis with an evangelical following. "I used to be a spinning junkie," raved one petitie Italian woman to me, "and I never thought yoga could give me the same kind of high. Then I discovered David."
New York
Far Flung Correspondents
Triopetra Yoga Retreat
[This just in from Rebs Wilson, friend on extended jaunt around the world. A fragment from life with yogis on the island of Crete.... -The Eds.]
I arrived at Triopetra to help with computer stuff. My “bosses” are Ieva, a gypsy princess, who sings her Latvian folk songs while washing the dishes and cleaning the rooms; and George, often dressed in 70’s neon. In exchange for my work, I get to stay in yoga paradise for two months.
Each week a yoga teacher arrives with a new flock, car sick and terrorized from ride in, which features jaunty Cretan folk music, and narrow, winding roads attached by olive-tree roots to mountain faces poised to tumble into deep gorges.
Other Places
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Love it!
Posted in response to: Law of Attraction
Love it. SW Welcomes a. bryce to the site!
Posted in response to: Keep it Simple
Ah, bittersweet. Marion is a great one, and she'll no doubt move on to wonderful, new things. But definitely the end of an era. Does any other teacher ride as hard, and with as much energy, as M.R.?
Posted in response to: Ride the Zone R.I.P.
our ad sales force spans the globe!
(either that, or it's those clever google people.)
Posted in response to: What the Hell Happened to the Blog And Other Important Matters
PS: On November 10th, the Urban Zen Center is hosting a one-night-only photo exhibit and panel discussion on the rights of indigenous peoples. Not exactly "fitness" related, but inspiring; and the UZC has offered Social Workout readers a 20% discount. The normal, (tax deductible) benefit ticket is $60, but you can get yours for $48 with the code "JN3RA." If you've never been, must see that space!
Posted in response to: Urban Zen Does Monday Morning Yoga
Oh boy! This is no good at all. Hmm, well we spent this morning talking about ways to integrate the blog posts much more tightly into 2.0, to warm things up and create more of heartbeat. The trick is to keep the nice things about 1.0, but not the bad things. (For many people it was very confusing, and the workout tracking kind of blunt and clunky.) Two Point Oh definitely has a ways to go to make it simple and fun to use, but we're determined to keep tinkering until we get it right. The fantasy is that it'll be SUPER easy for everyone to track the things they're interested in tracking, and to create and share challenges.
My questions: What do you like most about 1.0 that's missing in 2.0? What other things might we be able to build for you to make 2.0 worth your while? Your wish, our command!
Posted in response to: I miss SoWo 1.0
SoWo has been taken over by evil, vindictive numbers geeks! NOT. Pittami, we miss you and are so sorry for your trouble. We can get you signed up, and just need to sort out what's going on.... Shoot me an email and we'll get to the bottom of it.
THANKS SPINNY!
Posted in response to: why does 2.0 hate me
Hey YeahRed: You can do it. New site looks more different than it is. Same nice group support waiting for you there. Clever blog items will live here for a while longer....
Syrup: Yes, you do have to reregister. Sorry about that. Eventually we may tie your old blog to the new one, but that'll take a bit more time.
Come take a look!
Posted in response to: Lift Off!
Yay! Beautiful work.
Posted in response to: 4,000+, 2,000+, 3
Hello over there! Amazing. Yes, running is an ideal way to aclimatize. And to see the neighborhood. You'll feel at home much faster, in place and body....
Posted in response to: eurotrip, part 1
hilarious! triceps checking not vain, or at least not vain in a bad way. vain in a good way.
Posted in response to: I saw muscles!
Oh no! Gym renovation... Recommend emergency outdoor maneuvers.
Posted in response to: Still doin' them push-ups
Sending you a bit of summer from NYC!
Posted in response to: Winter and sore shoulders SUCK(!) my left toe
OMG! That's amazing. Thanks for the deep intel.
Posted in response to: Iowans Aim for Group Yoga Record
KDOOG! So glad to have you back, and thanks as always for keeping it real. Your criticisms are entirely valid. THe MMM was flawed, but it WAS kind of weirdly cool how the sheer longevity of it came to mean something. Anyhoo, we're on to new things, and more social workouts, and your presence vital and greatly appreciated. As is your feedback, which will be especially helpful as we slowly evolve to SW2.0.... Onward!
Posted in response to: Now that the million minute challenge is over. I'm back.
Um, I'm sure I missed something: What is Ditch Day?
Posted in response to: Waiting impatiently for Ditch Day.
bridesmade, remember what they said in school: there's no such thing as a dumb question. yours gave me an opportunity to post this cool video from lululemons recent "Salutation Nation" event. Should be self explanatory, but you can also look here for a how to... .
Posted in response to: Salute the Sun!
Yes, eventually. But may need to do a focus group, however, to determine what the priorities are....
Posted in response to: Doh! Time to Throw Away Your Fitbit?
Interesting! When we integrate SW 2.0 with Fitbit, you'll be able to use both!
Posted in response to: Doh! Time to Throw Away Your Fitbit?
Ha! OK non-yogis, here's the beauty of SW2.0: We can run more than one challenge at a time. SO, this is going to be like elementary school: Some people take French, and some Spanish. Some of us will dive deep into the sun, and for others it's brainstorm time: What challenge are you looking for to finish your summer in style? Do you want to pump iron, run sprints, juice kale, wake up early, or spend more time naked? Please submit your suggestions, and we will review and create your custom challenge.
Posted in response to: Salute the Sun!
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on 13 years 45 weeks ago by Oliver