Mark your calendar for Saturday June 22th at 8 AM for a great workout up the stairs at Harvard Stadium outside of good old Harvard Square, Cambridge. Are you up for it?
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Saturday, February 23, 2013
21-Day Koko Booster Exercise & Nutrition Challenge: Day 1
So, two of our Northern Virginia clubs, Koko FitClub Herndon and Koko FitClub Ashburn have each challenged a member to do a 21-Day Koko Booster Program, and share their experience and results with all of us. The 21-Day Koko Boosters are new with the launch of Koko Fuel and include customized, fully integrated strength, cardio and nutrition plans.
Josie, from Koko FitClub Ashburn, is a 44-year-old mobile DJ who once lost more than 100 pounds but then gained it back. Her current fitness goal is not just to lose weight, but to change the way that she and her husband approach their overall health and fitness.
"I love the fact that Koko FitClub offers a no pressure, no mirror environment with specific fitness and nutrition plans designed just for me," she said. “Losing weight only to gain it back is so discouraging, so I am looking forward to making real lifestyle changes with this challenge.”
Her starting "Q" Score (a score that represents each Koko member's relative strength) is 15 – the average among the women of Koko Nation in their 40's is 48. Josie's current Koko eBMI is 46.8 - 17.9 points away from a healthy fit zone. (Remember, eBMI number aligns with the traditional BMI scale but, unlike BMI, takes into account the amount of lean muscle in your body, a key medical indicator of your health.)
Karin, from Koko FitClub Herndon, is a 53-year-old former paralegal who is now safely transporting school kids as a bus driver. Her fitness goals include losing a few pesky pounds and improving her lean muscle level.
“I have been a member of Koko FitClub since April of 2012 and love that it offers me an affordable substitute to a pricey personal trainer. I have had memberships at so many gyms I've lost count and I've hired expensive trainers, but I have never found a program as easy to follow as Koko Smartraining.”
Her starting “Q” Score is 60 – the average for a woman in her 50s is 43 and her current eBMI is 25.7. With her current fitness levels in the healthy range, her goal now is to increase her lean muscle level, lose a few pounds and lower her eBMI.
Stop by weekly as I chronicle Josie’s and Karin’s progress as they incorporate workouts and meal planning into their daily routines and help me cheer them on as they start seeing results!
Best of luck to you, Josie and Karin! You have a big cheering section and I'll be following you both throughout your adventure.
Stay Koko Strong!
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Using Technology to Track and Improve Fitness
At times we can feel overwhelmed with all the options that we have with different gadgets and technology that are aimed at trying help us improve our diet, exercise, sleep etc. Here is a sample of how using technology can in fact track not only your health and fitness levels but improve your health as well.
A typical day for me starts with monitoring my previous days workout before I even get out of bed. I do this by using a great product called Restwise. It measures my SpO2 (oxygen saturation level) and my resting heat rate. I enter this data into an app on my iPhone along with a few questions and it gives me a rating of how well I've recovered from the previous days workout. From this I know if I'm going to work hard or maybe back-off a bit because I still need more time to recover from my previous workout.
Next, I attach my Fitbit to track my daily steps (it can also look at how well I'm sleeping (I also have used the Sleep Cycle app). Yesterday for example, showed that I walked just under 10,000 steps or about 5 miles (which is my daily goal). It was cool to see that I took 6,000 steps and walked 3.05 miles while clearing snow from my driveway/patio/deck. This can be a great incentive to keep people moving more each day knowing that they need to check in or that "big brother" is watching.
The best use of all this technology, however, comes when I actually exercise. I head to the Koko FitClub for my workout where I typically perform an interval-based cardio session followed by a circuit-based strength session in 45 minutes. Before I start my session I step onto the Koko FitCheck to determine my lean muscle level and eBMI. This gets uploaded to mykokofitclub.com where I have data on everything I done for the last 8 years including Strength gain, Q-score, LML, eBMI and more. I also use Koko Fuel to help me with the nutritional side of things.
With my workout at Koko during the week and my activity on the weekends (this weekend I'm doing some snow-shoeing) - I typically use a Polar heart rate monitor to check my heart rate level.
The best thing about all this technology however is that it can keep you on track to exercise more consistently due to something called the Hawthorne effect. Read more about it here and here.
It's now time to get out and do some snow shoeing and track my progress!
A typical day for me starts with monitoring my previous days workout before I even get out of bed. I do this by using a great product called Restwise. It measures my SpO2 (oxygen saturation level) and my resting heat rate. I enter this data into an app on my iPhone along with a few questions and it gives me a rating of how well I've recovered from the previous days workout. From this I know if I'm going to work hard or maybe back-off a bit because I still need more time to recover from my previous workout.
The best use of all this technology, however, comes when I actually exercise. I head to the Koko FitClub for my workout where I typically perform an interval-based cardio session followed by a circuit-based strength session in 45 minutes. Before I start my session I step onto the Koko FitCheck to determine my lean muscle level and eBMI. This gets uploaded to mykokofitclub.com where I have data on everything I done for the last 8 years including Strength gain, Q-score, LML, eBMI and more. I also use Koko Fuel to help me with the nutritional side of things.
With my workout at Koko during the week and my activity on the weekends (this weekend I'm doing some snow-shoeing) - I typically use a Polar heart rate monitor to check my heart rate level.
The best thing about all this technology however is that it can keep you on track to exercise more consistently due to something called the Hawthorne effect. Read more about it here and here.
It's now time to get out and do some snow shoeing and track my progress!
Saturday, February 2, 2013
"Big Game" Calorie Costs in Exercise
The "Super Bowl" has become much more than a football game: It’s the second biggest day for food consumption in the United States after Thanksgiving. Below, Charles Platkin, PhD, MPH, a professor at the CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College in New York City and editor of DietDetective.com demonstrates how much you would need to do to burn off typical “Big Game” snacks. For instance, you would have to run 49 football fields to burn off just two handfuls of potato chips or do "the wave" 6480 times to burn off 6 Buffalo Wild Wings dipped in ranch dressing.
HANDFUL OF PITA CHIPS, EACH WITH ARTICHOKE DIP = RUNNING 141 FOOTBALL FIELDS
Each chip is 13 calories, plus just 1 tablespoon, probably just about a chips worth, of dip is 80 calories.
Diet Pro: Make your own 100% whole-wheat pita chips, and use salsa instead of the artichoke dip. There are many different kinds of salsa. They’re good, and they’re only 15 calories per tablespoon.
TWO (2) SLICES OF DOMINOS BACON CHEESEBURGER FEAST HAND-TOSSED SPECIALTY PIZZA (16 inches) = 209 MINUTES PERFORMING IN A MARCHING BAND
Pizza AND a cheeseburger what will they think of next? Each slice is 490 calories, but it is hand tossed.
Diet Pro: Try thin-crust pizza, and if you really want to be super healthy, how about getting pizza without the cheese just add your own Parmesan.
THREE (3) SIERRA NEVADA BIGFOOT BEERS = 211 MINUTES OF COACHING FOOTBALL
There are some high-calorie beers out there, and this is one of the highest.
Diet Pro: Unless you love Sierra Nevada and realize the calories, your best bet is a regular beer OR, even better, one of those micro-light beers. The best would be Beck's Premier Light at only 64 calories per 12-ounce bottle or MGD Light, also 64 calories. Michelob Ultra and Natural Light have 95, or you can go very low with Budweiser Select for 55. Sample a few light beers before the game to see which ones you prefer.
ONE (1) SLOPPY JOE = 59 MINUTES OF CLIMBING THE STADIUM STAIRS
This is a Tex-Mex creation that includes fatty ground beef, sugar, ketchup and even flour. Sloppy Joes have more than 500 calories with the bun (about 150 calories).
Diet Pro: Use lean ground beef and try a low-calorie sauce (without sugar). It will still taste great. Also, add veggies (onions, peppers, broccoli all chopped up) to the meat to lower overall calories and increase health benefits.
ONE (1) HANDFUL OF TRAIL MIX = 49 TOUCHDOWN DANCES IN THE END ZONE
Keep in mind, nuts and chocolate have about 160 calories per ounce, which is not bad if you don’t take five handfuls before you’ve even noticed.
Diet Pro: Try having ONLY nuts. Nuts are healthy, but they’re very high in calories, so don’t keep a huge bowl in front of you. And try to eat them one at a time meaning don’t shove an entire handful into your mouth all at once.
OUTBACK BABY BACK RIBS, FULL ORDER = 123 MINUTES OF TEAM PRACTICE AND CONDITIONING
Ribs are fatty, and the sauce is sugary. For the record, Outback Baby Back ribs are 1,156 calories.
Diet Pro: Try making them yourself, and trim all visible fat before and after cooking. Also, instead of coating your ribs with an excessive amount of sauce beforehand, partially cook them loaded with seasonings, brush them lightly with the sauce, and then finish cooking.
Each chip is 13 calories, plus just 1 tablespoon, probably just about a chips worth, of dip is 80 calories.
Diet Pro: Make your own 100% whole-wheat pita chips, and use salsa instead of the artichoke dip. There are many different kinds of salsa. They’re good, and they’re only 15 calories per tablespoon.
TWO (2) SLICES OF DOMINOS BACON CHEESEBURGER FEAST HAND-TOSSED SPECIALTY PIZZA (16 inches) = 209 MINUTES PERFORMING IN A MARCHING BAND
Pizza AND a cheeseburger what will they think of next? Each slice is 490 calories, but it is hand tossed.
Diet Pro: Try thin-crust pizza, and if you really want to be super healthy, how about getting pizza without the cheese just add your own Parmesan.
THREE (3) SIERRA NEVADA BIGFOOT BEERS = 211 MINUTES OF COACHING FOOTBALL
There are some high-calorie beers out there, and this is one of the highest.
Diet Pro: Unless you love Sierra Nevada and realize the calories, your best bet is a regular beer OR, even better, one of those micro-light beers. The best would be Beck's Premier Light at only 64 calories per 12-ounce bottle or MGD Light, also 64 calories. Michelob Ultra and Natural Light have 95, or you can go very low with Budweiser Select for 55. Sample a few light beers before the game to see which ones you prefer.
ONE (1) SLOPPY JOE = 59 MINUTES OF CLIMBING THE STADIUM STAIRS
This is a Tex-Mex creation that includes fatty ground beef, sugar, ketchup and even flour. Sloppy Joes have more than 500 calories with the bun (about 150 calories).
Diet Pro: Use lean ground beef and try a low-calorie sauce (without sugar). It will still taste great. Also, add veggies (onions, peppers, broccoli all chopped up) to the meat to lower overall calories and increase health benefits.
ONE (1) HANDFUL OF TRAIL MIX = 49 TOUCHDOWN DANCES IN THE END ZONE
Keep in mind, nuts and chocolate have about 160 calories per ounce, which is not bad if you don’t take five handfuls before you’ve even noticed.
Diet Pro: Try having ONLY nuts. Nuts are healthy, but they’re very high in calories, so don’t keep a huge bowl in front of you. And try to eat them one at a time meaning don’t shove an entire handful into your mouth all at once.
OUTBACK BABY BACK RIBS, FULL ORDER = 123 MINUTES OF TEAM PRACTICE AND CONDITIONING
Ribs are fatty, and the sauce is sugary. For the record, Outback Baby Back ribs are 1,156 calories.
Diet Pro: Try making them yourself, and trim all visible fat before and after cooking. Also, instead of coating your ribs with an excessive amount of sauce beforehand, partially cook them loaded with seasonings, brush them lightly with the sauce, and then finish cooking.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Review of Barefoot Running
Here is a fantastic short video on barefoot running by Dr. Daniel E. Lieberman who is the Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA. Note the interesting comments on the various loads placed on the body with traditional heel strike running compared to a forefront landing. Here is a copy of Dr. Lieberman's often-read research paper published back in 2004 in Nature that I had previously read and thought you might find interesting as well.
Friday, January 11, 2013
Most Viewed Blog Posts Since 2007
Nutritional value of eggs improve (6,189 page views) If their was any learning on my part from finding out this was the #1 post it was that people are interested in eggs and like very short blog posts (from me).
Create your own fitness eval for 2010 (2,340 page views) I always liked this post and if I could add something to this post it would be to talk about grip strength and using a grip dynamometer which I just purchased to test my upper body strength over time.
Nitrates improve performance (827 page views) I thought this was interesting and who would have thought that beetroot juice was so good for you!
Running stadium stairs: one of the best workouts (793 page views) This activity, whether doing it, writing about it, or developing audio workouts for Koko cardio, always brings back great memories. Maybe this will be a new activity for you to try this year?
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