BIG WEEKEND IN COLUMBUS OHIO!

With only two weeks of regular class left and spring break looming just over the horizon, you'd think I'd be counting down the days, but instead I'm counting down the days til this weekend!!

This weekend, Columbus, Ohio will proudly be hosting the Arnold Fitness Classic at 300 W. Broad Street, the Convention Center. There's a ton of events to go watch or participate in.. bikini contest, armwrestling, Art at the Arnold, powerlifiting, gymnastics, strongman, WEC weigh-ins, cheerleading and dance, fencing, boxing, MMA workshops.... you name it, they probably got it. For a full schedule of events click here. It's always a good time, the festival runs all weekend, starting Thursday and ending on Sunday. Lots to see and tons of free giveaways. I can't wait!!

In association with the Arnold this year, there will be an Amateur MMA Festival, Friday March 5th at the Lifestyles Community Pavilion (formerly Promo West)  20 fights - shaping up to be an awesome show, along with a who's who crowd with all the visitors the our capital city that weekend. For more info check out MidWest Combat, awesome MMA site based out of Columbus.

The WEC (World Extreme Cagefighting) will also be coming to Columbus this weekend on Saturday, March 6th. The card is stacked, headlined by a bantamweight title fight between the current champ, Brian Bowles, and the number one contender Dominick Cruz. WEC's first trip to Columbus will also feature the return of former bantamweight champ Miguel Angel Torres, as well as the comeback of Jens Pulver, former UFC lightweight titleholder.

CAN'T WAIT!!!!! Definitely hitting the gym hard this week for cardio & strength training during the day, yoga & pilates in the afternoon. One thing I can say for sure is the bodies you will see this weekend at this smorgasbord of events will make you want to get in better shape. Without a doubt. So head out this weekend for fun, and maybe you'll find the motivation and information you need to push you toward your own fitness goals.

For a chance to win tickets to the Amateur MMA Fest, listen & win - QFM 96 - Ohio's Best Rock    or if you can't wait - tickets are on sale now @ Ticketmaster. Get them NOW. They're going quick & it's gonna be a great show.

Here's a couple pics from last years Arnold Fitness Classic & the UFC! Great weekend!

Me & Ash w/ WEC's Mike Brown!

Ash & UFC's Randy Couture!

Tyler & UFC's Bobby Lashley!

Me & MY FAVORITE FORREST GRIFFIN!

JD, Zach, & Tyler w/ Mike Brown!

Ash punching Tito Ortiz!

UFC

It won't be snowy forever...

The past few days in central Ohio have been a snowy mess. However, on the upside, school was cancelled today so I got to catch up on some homework and scholarship applications. :) Nothing better than a college snow day... all you high schoolers out there don't take your snow days for granted! In college they are few and far between! I also was organizing my desk and updating my calendar, which reminded me that spring is really just around the corner... Soon we'll be back in flip flops and swimsuits. That's right people. SWIMSUITS. Need I say more? Or are you already lacing up your sneakers for a workout? 

No need to panic yet though.. there's still plenty of time to get in shape. We have a good couple weeks before it's certifiable swimsuit time. So why not start shaping up now, instead of in the dressing room with pale, fleshy roles staring you in the face in a couple weeks? (graphic, but I'm just being real people!) There is nothing worse than bathing suit shopping after months of cold weather full of warm bulky clothes and comfort food. Cuz guess what? There it all is, exposed for the world to see, and if you haven't been taking care of business in the off season, it ain't pretty. 

So check your excuses at the door NOW. I don't care if you don't have time or it's too cold or you don't know where to start. MAKE TIME. PUT ON A HOODIE. FIND OUT. 

"Those who think they have no time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness."Edward Stanley (1826-1893) from The Conduct of Life

Seriously. 

Need more motivation?

There you go. Now, go clean out your cupboards of foods that work against you instead of for you and get a good workout in. You'll be great. You'll look fabulous. You'll get compliments. And maybe a spray tan wouldn't be a bad idea.... That way you can nix the fleshy roles AND pale components of swimsuit shopping in a couple weeks ;)

Here's a couple workout plans aimed specifically at getting you bikini ready: 

http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/workout/lose-weight/bikini-season/cardio-sculpting-workout-routine/

http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/workout/lose-weight/bikini-season/bikini-body-workout-2009/

http://www.shape.com/fitness/bikini_body_countdown

And an awesome healthy eating resource of recipes:

http://www.shape.com/healthy_eating

Heart Zone Training

If you follow Healthy is Hot on facebook, perhaps you saw my post the other day about heart zone training with an interval program on the EFX machine. Here's a little more info on the subject...

I got all this information through my Conditioning Principles class @ OSU

Ok, first the zones: (I'll use my numbers as an example)

YOUR Max Heart rate = 220 - (your age)       for me this is 220 - 21 = 199

Then the ZONES, there are 5 of them, here's the break down:

Zone 1: "The Healthy Heart Zone" 50 - 60 % of your max heart rate: 99 -119 bpm (beats per minute)

This is the safest, most comfortable zone, that can be reached by walking briskly. In zone 1 you strengthen your heart and improve muscle mass while reducing body fat, cholesterol, blood pressure, and your risk for degenerative disease. You get healthier working in this zone, but not more fit (your endurance or strength won't be increased, but your overall health will be)

If you are out of shape and just starting out, start here. It's easy and comfortable to you and will help. Trying to do too much to fast can be dangerous to your health and also cause injury. Also, anyone with heart problems should work out in this zone. Zone 1 is also the zone for warm up and cool down so everyone should spend some time in zone 1 during every workout.

Zone 2: "The Temperate Zone" 60% - 70% of your max heart rate: 119 - 139 bpm

Zone 2 is easily reached with a slow jog. Even though this is still a relatively low level of effort, working in this zone starts to train your body to increase the rate of fat release from the cells to the muscles for fuel. This is why zone 2 is often referred to as "the fat burning zone", up to 85% of the total calories burned in this zone are fat calories. The way your body burns fat depends on your level of fitness. The more fit you are, the more efficiently your body will use fat to maintain a healthy weight. However, if you'be been exercising hard, but not achieving the weight loss you'd like to, try dropping back to zone 2 and exercising longer. This zone has a trade off.. more fat calories burned, but less claories burned than if you were working out at a higher level. So to achieve weight loss you need to spend more TIME (and therefore more calories) exercising in zone 2.

Zone 3: "The Aerobic Zone" 70% - 80% of your max heart rate: 139 - 159 bpm

In zone 3, you're running easily or doing equivalent work. Here you're improving your bodies functional capacity. The size and number of your blood vessels increase, you increase your lung capacity and respiratory rate, and your heart builds size and strength so you can work out longer before you become fatigued. Building up that endurance!! Your body is metabolizing fats and carbs at about a 50-50 rate which means you're burning both at the same ratio.

Zone 4: "The Anaerobic Threshold Zone" 80% - 90 % of your max heart rate: 159 - 179 bpm

Here is where you "feel the burn."
Zone 4 is reached by going faster and harder. Here you increase your speed and fitness, increasing your heart rate as you cross from aerobic to anaerobic training. At this level of work, your heart cannot pump enough blood and oxygen to supply the exercising muscles completely, so they respond by continuing to work and contract anaerobically (without oxygen). The muscle's waste product of this type of work is lactic acid, which is what makes your muscles sore, as compared to aerobic work in the presence of oxygen, the waste product is water. Time spent training in zone 4 is limited, usually not more than an hour because your muscles just can't sustain working anaerobically without becoming fatigued. This is the muscles way of protecting themselves from overwork.

Zone 5: "The Redline Zone" 90% - 100% of your max heart rate: 179 - 199 bpm

You're sprinting. You're going all out. Zone 5 is mostly used as part of "interval" training (exertion done only in short bursts.) Your heart is working at full capacity. Even world class athletes can only stay in this zone for minutes at a time.

Make yourself a chart:

Zone 1: 99 - 119
Zone 2: 119 - 139
Zone 3: 139 - 159
Zone 4: 159 - 179
Zone 5: 179 -199 (max.)

So the workout I did for interval training was this:

50 min on the EFX machine on an interval course  (looks like this: _-_-_-_) if you imagine the low lines being lower level of work and the high lines being higher level of work.
On the low levels I set the resistance to 8 (out of 20) and the incline to 8 (out of 20), aiming to keep my heart rate in zone 2, or the fat burning zone. Around 119 - 139 bpm
On the higher levels I set the resistance to 18 (out of 20) and the incline to 16 (out of 20), aiming to keep my heart rate in zone 5, or the redline zone. Around 179 - 199 bpm
I did alternating high and low levels, which lasted 2 minutes each, for a total of 50 minutes, followed by a 5 minute cool down at a comfortable pace.

This was HARD the first time I did it. I was amazed at how hard it was to control my heart rate and bring it back down after the hard work. It took me a couple times through to really get the hang of relaxing, taking deep breaths, and bringing my heart rate back down to zone 2 from zone 5. 2 minutes may sound like enough time to do that but it's difficult. When the workout was complete I had gone 5.34 miles and burned 637.1 calories. Not too shabby ;)
Give it a try yourself.. play with the resistance and incline until you feel comfortable.. not everyone starts in the same place and that's ok. It's all about YOU and YOUR BODY. Trying to do too much too fast and injuring yourself is ridiculous. Just believe in yourself and feel great knowing you are improving your body. :)  Feel free to leave comments on how it went!!

P.S.   I would suggest using a heart rate monitor rather than relying on the machine's grip bars to give you an accurate reading. If you move your hands off of them or don't grip with the right pressure the reading is inaccurate. Try a watch with built in heart rate monitor.





Happy Heart Zone Workout! :)

Motivator of the Month: Lindsay Vonn

With the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics about 5 days and 56 minutes away, we're all geared up for the games to begin. So when I was casting about trying to think of a new motivator to share with you, I didn't have to look much further than the kitchen table...

Twenty five year old Lindsay Vonn is an alpine ski racer on the United States Ski team. She is also gracing the cover of Sport's Illustrated this week. She has had remarkable success and lists of accomplishments at such a young age. Vonn is the first American woman to win back-to-back FSI Alpine Ski World Cup Championships, which she did in 2008 and 2009. Vonn also captured back-to-back World Cup Championships in downhill and Super G. She holds 31 World Cup wins in four disciplines - downhill, Super G, slalom, and super combined -, two World Championship gold medals, and two World Championship silver medals, she easily claims the title of most successful American woman skier in World Cup history. 

Vonn has been on skis since the tender age of 2, and at 14 was one of the best junior skiers in the world. By 16 she was part of the U.S. Ski Team. Her success only continued as she got older. 
Vonn spends countless hours on her fitness regime to ensure her position at the top. She spends at least 6 weeks of her summers in Salzburg, Austria at the Red Bull training center, working with Martin Hager to improve her endurance and strength. Sport's Illustrated quotes her: "Talent can only take you so far, I know what other skiers do in training. I KNOW I WORK HARDER." 

She is certainly a strong, inspirational, and amazing young woman. Her passion for the sport keeps her working hard and pushing herself to do better always. Keep your eye out for her 2-12-2010! Go for Gold Lindsay!!!

21 Ways to make Fitness Fun :)

Check out this article @ Women's Health Magazine website... 

80% Nutrition 20% Exercise

This is from a Facebook note that a friend of mine posted yesterday... It was in regards to many of her friends asking her how to get healthier... Really good advice, positive, and realistic... what we all need!! :) Anne is currently working as a personal trainer and has a degree from Kent State University in Exercise Science... she is part of HEALTHYISHOT! on facebook as well! Add Join Healthyishot as a friend on facebook and join the group!! :)

Anne Miller: 80% nutrition, 20% exercise

Anne's Notes|Notes about Anne|Anne's Profile

80% nutrition, 20% exercise

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 Thursday, January 10, 2008 at 10:05pm

The following is an attempt to explain healthy eating for all of my friends (and some complete strangers) who ask me for advice on weight loss. Before I begin I'd like to say that the heavy sarcasm is completely justified through my own struggles with weight loss. 18 lbs lighter, I view myself as a pretty good role model for this stuff.

1st and foremost, NO MORE DIETS!! Lifestyle changes are the only way to get real results that last. The only 'diet' that I've found remotely close to what I'm talking about is South Beach. And even that author says, hey, no more dieting, you have to take this seriously and admit to yourself that you can't eat only meat or just grapefruit every day for the rest of your life.

On that note, let me just tell you how much I hate calorie counting. It's boring and annoying so I avoid it whenever possible. HOWEVER, when I first started on my journey of becoming a health nut, I did keep a food journal. It really is important to get an objective idea about what you're putting in your mouth every day.

Assignment number one: Keep a food journal for 3-7 days. Make sure that you include at least one week day and at least one weekend day, since most people tend to go a little crazy on the weekends.

Write down how much your eating and of what. If you have a problem with binging, you might want to throw in an emotion column to try and tack down when you're most vulnerable to binges. Once you pinpoint the emotion triggering the eating, find other ways to distract yourself like knitting or taking a walk! Even something like a cup of hot tea that you HAVE to drink slowly would help. Recognition of the trigger is the first step in getting better.

Try to write down what you eat as soon as you eat it so you don't 'forget'. And write EVERY BITE . Every hersheys kiss, every spoonful of your boyfriend/girlfriends dinner, every shot at the bar.

Once you've gotten a few days recorded, go to a calorie counting website. My favorite is www.calorieking.com . Now add em up for some daily totals!

The next part is figuring out how much your body individually needs. To ballpark this try a site like http://www.ahealthyme.com/topic/calneed .

I personally need about 1700 calories a day. Now this number is to MAINTAIN your current weight. If I want to lose weight, I would simply subtract 200-250 calories from this number and aim for that daily.

If your number seems pretty high for you, then you probably aren't feeding yourself enough. This is such a big mistake that women and young girls make all the time. They think that if they just eat less, they will lose weight. But ladies, your bodies are smarter than they look. "Stupid body, holding on to all that stupid fat". Weeeelll you wouldn't think it was so stupid if a huge draught hit, would yah? Or a country wide famine? Or another depression?

Okay, so your body may be a little behind on the times, but it thinks that if you don't feed it enough, there must be a problem with food sources and it kicks into high gear survival mode...holding onto EVERY CALORIE it can for dear life. The BARE MINIMUM of calories you should be consuming is 1200 a day. Anything less than this and you're doing more damage than good. And if you do reach the point where you're eating so little calories that your body eats itself, you need help, and you need to eat a hamburger.

"Okay Anne, if I need to eat 1200 calories, then why don't I just eat my box of pop tarts and call it a day?"

Do I really need to justify that with an answer? Without going into the boring details of glucose and blood sugar spikes, just believe me and your mother when we say that you MUST have balance. You may lose a few pounds by cutting out carbs completely and eating only bacon and steak, but now your arteries hate you for making them so hard and you can bet that Beyonce booty is coming back the second you eat those delicious cookies you've been depriving yourself of.

Let's take a look at the one thing the government has done right in the past few years, the food pyramid.
http://www.mypyramid.gov/pyramid/index.html

This explains how many servings you need of everything in a day. While I don't think that you HAVE to have exactly this number (personally I can't eat that much) I would recommnend soaking in the general message they're giving you. It's all about balance people. Try to get a little of everything in every meal. If you had a dinner plate in front of you, imagine it divided into two halves, then one half is divided again - one fourth should be protein, one fourth should be whole grain carbohydrates, and one half should be loaded with lots of good veggies and or fruits.

Okay now I'm just going to give you a few steadfast rules that I live by every day.

#1- RICE CAKES ARE NOT YOUR FRIEND
Can you honestly sit there and say "Boy, Anne, after I eat a rice cake I feel completely satisfied for hours."
No. And if you can, you're a damn good liar. I don't know about you, but I want some real food, not cardboard. No, not even cardboard with cinnamon, Crazy Pants. If you really need a snack (and you should be eating every 3-4 hours to keep your energy high, metabolism stoked, and your blood sugar stable) why not have some whole wheat crackers and an ounce of your favorite cheese? A piece of fruit with peanut butter or a handful of nuts and a glass of milk?

#2 JUST BECAUSE IT SAYS "WHEAT" DOESN'T MEAN IT'S HEALTHY
You must must MUST start looking at ingredients labels. If you see the word ENRICHED flour (even enriched wheat flour) put it back. You may as well pick up a loaf of white bread. And if you're gonna do that, why not go all out and just bake a cake. Enriched may sound nice, (oh they educate their grains!) but all it means is that they took out all the good stuff, and put a little bit back in. What you need to look for are the words "WHOLE GRAIN". This guarantees that they put the grain in the bread the way god intended it. And we all know Jesus was as thin as a rail so let's take it from him.

#3 DON'T DRINK YOUR CALORIES
Argh! That's my cry of frustration at this one. Okay, a calorie is a calorie is a calorie, whether you eat them in fudge brownies or drink them in orange juice. Just because it's liquid, doesn't mean it won't end up on your muffin top.(Not the kind you just ate). There are so many yummy alternatives out there and of course your body runs so much smoother when you drink water.
Perks to H2O: clearer skin, boosted metabolism, hydrated organ tissue which leads to better functioning organs, less headaches, and the list goes on. It's a win win! Add some lemon juice and a splenda if you really can't stand plain water.

#4 PROTEIN AT EVERY MEAL
Warning: do not read as "steak bacon and eggs for every meal". Like I said, balance is key. But protein is the one food group that is really gonna stick with you the longest and make you feel fuller longer. Plus it's really important for building up those muscles that I know you're working on ;).

I know there are so many more things that I could address but I really wanted to keep it relatively simple. If there is a question you have, post it and I will do my very best to answer it for you. Thanks for reading! :)

Sip on this

DRINK THIS! What to sip for a better workout...

if you feel:

Sluggish & tired --> Green tea, 20 - 30 min before.. the caffeine will help u power thru to the end & the antioxidants will help your endurance as well.

Always get a side stitch (ouch!) --> Coconut water, chock-full of cramp-preventing potassium (15x more than most sports drinks!) (haven't tried this personally... haha if coconut water puts you off.. eat a banana)

Really sore the next day --> Chocolate milk! perfect ratio of carbs to protein plus calcium, an excellent way to help muscles recover post workout. drink within 30 minutes of finishing.

 

Sweat a LOT --> a Sports Drink, with body replenishing sugar & electrolytes its a great hydator. Choose one free of artificial colors/falvors/preservatives.. sip 4-6 oz every 15 - 20 min during your workout! :)