August
29
2011
Like tornado clouds that lurk all day, the freshman 15 is infamous. High school students leave home and get lost in buffet lines and late night pizzas. Teach your kids how to avoid the freshman 15 by reading this article: http://www.news24.com/SciTech/News/Students-dont-know-fitness-ABCs-20110117.
August
23
2011
Denver Athletic Club Nutrition Tips
Making these small changes may be all that’s keeping you from losing weight. Just a little conscious effort is all you need, the rest falls into place. The Denver Atheltic Club is dedicated to your health and nutrition!
1. Downsize Your Dishes. Use smaller plates and bowls to help you eat less. We tend to fill up the dish we’re using and then eat it all. Our brains also think we are getting more when the same amount of food is placed in a smaller dish.
2. Savor Your Meals. Eating slowly helps you consume only what your body needs to feel satisfied. Eating too quickly, in less than 20 to 30 minutes, leads to overeating and feeling uncomfortably full afterwards.
3. Leave Some Food on Your Plate. This is especially important if you grew up in the “clean plate club.” By leaving even a few bites, you can focus more on your internal signals of satisfaction and less on eating food just because it is there.
4. Don’t Eat Out of a Bag or Box. When you eat out of a package, you are likely to keep eating until it’s all gone – no matter how many servings the package actually contains. Pour one serving into a small bowl.
5. Choose Your Glass Wisely. Here’s another place where our eyes play tricks on us. When glasses are short and wide, we tend to fill them with more fluid and to drink more. Use a slender glass for any beverage except water.
6. Rethink Your Drinks. High-calorie beverages like soft drinks, juice drinks, energy drinks, specialty coffees and alcohol add calories just like solid foods. Whenever possible, replace these drinks with plenty of water.
Thank you American Dietitic Association!
August
15
2011
If that’s even a word – would mean exercising while playing arcade style games.
If the thought of another treadmill workout isn’t going to get you to the gym today, then consider these fun, interactive options. They’re also great to use as a family.
The Denver Athletic Club has an entire area dedicated to these toys – dedicated to the kid in all of us. Call today for more information: 303.534.1211.
August
11
2011
The new Kangoo Jumps have been scientifically tested for 10 years now and offer a tremendous amount of benefits:
-Joint Protection
-Injury Prevention
-Recovery Time
-Weight Loss
-Endurance
-Cardiovascular
-Energy
-Face Lift
-Health
-Bone Mass
-Spine
-Stress
-Posture
And these are just to name a few. Stop in to The DAC to find out more information and sign up for a class. You can check out their website as well.
August
9
2011
New research (via ACSM) says real-time feedback helps adults stick with exercise. Check it out.
June
24
2011
Top of the town
Lookout Mountain Time Trial, Saturday, June 18
Finish Times
Linda Skovrinsky 31:36
Rick Robinson 36:10
James Karo 34:25
Barb Parnell 39:29
Darren Nakos 24:28
Scott Nicholson 26:53
Mike Angus 26:30
Brian Graff 31:03
Paul Marczyk 28:28
Congrats to everyone!
June
21
2011
Check out all of the DAC Tri Club offerings: http://trainsmart.denverathleticclub.net/dac-tri-club/. Call for more info: 720.931.6740.
April
25
2011
Some zones are better than others. Depending upon the event you’re training for, some zones are down right off limits! Take the marathon, for example. We all know that mortals don’t sprint a marathon. That’s obvious advice though: don’t sprint your marathon. So where is the cutoff–the threshold?
The answer of course depends upon your conditioning level. I can still make a few generalizations though.
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1. The elite would have a hard time maintaining 90% of their max heart rate for the duration of a marathon. 90% of max heart rate equals lactate threshold pace (the link is to another article I wrote regarding this training zone). For the rest of us, our lactate threshold may occur at 80% of max heart rate, or 70%, or even 60%! There’s only way to determine this number too. Succome to a lactate threshold test at your nearby testing center. The DAC offers this test of course (Call 720.931.6740 for details).
2. Assuming your lactate threshold occurs at 80% (more of an average score), then your marathon pace sits in just under that zone (assuming, of course, that you have been training to cover the distance). This is referred to as sub threshold, and a relatively trained individual can maintain this pace for multiple hours.
3. If you are new to this whole zone thing, and you’ve never even done a marathon, then you can plan on spending your marathon time at about 65% of max heart rate. Granted, this is a very rough guess, but it’s a start.
The bottom line is that you need to know your zones, your paces, the no-no zones, and only then are you able to begin to maximize your performances (i.e., avoid injury, have a ton of fun, etc.).
Good luck out there!
April
22
2011
the marathon. 3 weeks out. What should this weekend’s run include? Do too much and you run the risk of injury, overtraining, burn out, etc. Run too little and you might be undertrained and unprepared come race day. Oh the choices…
DAC Endurance Coaching
The endurance coaching staff at The Denver Athletic Club have come up with the answer. Warning: it may not be the answer you’re looking for.
This is your last opportunity for a long run. The distance on that run should be only a mile or two more than your longest run to date. Although, if your longest run to date is 10 miles, then I suppose a 15 miler isn’t out of the question.
Running more than 20 or 21 miles is off the table too. Some people may argue with that position, but I stand firm. A 20 mile run is very hard on your body. I don’t care who you are. And if this is your first marathon, then 20 miles is going to take every minute of the next three weeks to fully recover.
A marathon is a test of mental acuity. It is an event that cannot adequately described; It must be experienced. Your long run this weekend is simply another opportunity to sharpen the pencil. So get to it. Have fun!
March
14
2011
Baby Boomer Fitness at The DAC
The American College of Sports Medicine researched the top trends in fitness. I posted one of their trends last week. Here’s another:
Fitness Programs for Older Adults–At The DAC we’ve hired a specialist (Gina Fontaine) to train our boomers. Her latest event: Tone Your Bones! To speak with Gina just call 720.931.6740 and I’ll direct her your way.