So I'm realizing more & more I know almost nothing about

LauraMax

LauraMax

Cathlete
fitness. When I started working out in 1989 it was still pretty basic & male dominated. I read everything I could get my hands on for maybe 5 years or so, but it was all so repetitive I just gave up & used my Shwarzenegger bible whenever I wanted to change my workout.

This forum & my extremely modern & trendy health club have made me realize how much fitness has changed during the last 15 years or so. Or maybe not changed, so much as become much more researched & varied. Now I realize my knowledge base really consists only of the basics & nothing of the vast amount of variations that are out there.

Examples--I know nothing of functional fitness like Kathryn. I know nothing of freestyle like Carol. The new focus on core workouts is brand new to me. I've been doing pilates for about a year now so I am building a knowledge base about that, but still, I'm stuck in the Schwarzenegger school of exercise.

I bought a bosu for home & am starting to really enjoy it. Thing is, I could not for the life of me put together my own workouts for it. Since it's new there are few home DVDs available. Plus I see trainers at my gym giving clients weight training routines on the bosu, which I think would be really effective, not to mention fun & very cool.

I guess there is no end to the learning curve, but I really do want to know more about this stuff--especially bosu & pilates. I wonder if there are any classes or books I can look into so I can broaden my knowledge & really start mixing up my routine, which is about 50% home workouts, 50% gym workouts. Anyone have any suggestions?
 
Laura,
"The New Rules of Lifting" by Lou Schuler would be a good place for you to start, IMO, as it comes from a more traditional weight training background, but integrates a lot of functional fitness ideas (though the term FF is never used in the book). I got my copy at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/15...002-8011507-0428057?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

Also, for functional fitness, there are some online articles you can read at www.nasm.org (they seem to be the group that codified FF, I won't say invented, because I'm sure it has existed for a long time in sports training, but without a specific name).

www.performbetter.com is very FF oriented and has some articles online as well.
 
Okay, what is a bosu? I was going to ask for a definition of FF too, but Kathryn anticipated me and posted a Website!!

Laura, I'm like you. I don't know all that much about fitness. Basically, I know Cathe... which is a very good thing, I think, if I decide to limit myself....;-)
 
RE: So I'm realizing more & more I know almost nothing ...

Hi Lauramax,

Gosh...functional fitness is the new wave and each day they are learning newer and better ways of training. I really can relate to everything you've written. I, too, keep trying to read and keep up with it all as well (I do hope this old body holds out;)). Pilates is also going in that direction as well (I'm scheduled for a continuing education seminar on functional fitness on the Pilates Reformer at the end of March... hoping, of course, I can sneak away from my real paying job;)).

The other difficult part is fitting all this "good stuff" into a workable routine without giving up what has been already working for you. OY Vay!

Robin:)
 
Shannon,

A bosu is kind of like half a stability ball w/ a flat plastic bottom. You can do corework on it like the stability ball but it won't move or roll because of the flat plastic. I believe you can also turn it upside down and use the plastic side to do balance exercises on.
 
RE: So I'm realizing more & more I know almost nothing ...

Shannon, here's the link to the bosu (stands for "both sides up"):

http://www.bosu.com/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=bosu/story.html?src=SPBC

Robin--exactly the problem. My intention is to keep my basic lifting & cardio workouts the same, but to add in some things that increase flexibility & have more core work. Basically what I've done is taken my off day & made it an official "core day." So my cardio is always kickboxing, & the core workout is something like the pilates, bosu or Core Max. But I want to make the core workout more intense so I'm hoping to take the bosu & incorporate some light weighted workouts. That's where I got stuck.

I guess my other option is to actually pay a trainer at the gym (GULP! PAY a trainer! :p ) for a session or two & get him/her to create a home bosu workout for me with 5/10/12/15 lb weights.
 
RE: So I'm realizing more & more I know almost nothing ...

Thanks for the info on the bosu.

Okay. You all have sparked my interest. What are some good fitness books? I'll take Kathryn's recommendation for starters.
 
RE: So I'm realizing more & more I know almost nothing ...

I have a Mindy Mylrea video that uses a Bosu. It's called Awesome Strength and it shows variations of all the exercises using different equipment. Mindy does everything on a Bosu, one of the background exercisers does everything on a step or ball and the other background does everything with a resistance tube on the floor. It's really cool.

Kristy

I solemnly swear that I am up to no good
 
RE: So I'm realizing more & more I know almost nothing ...

Speaking of, Wendy (fit_mom) mentioned the other day that she recently purchased a rebounder, which looked like a lot of fun. However, I can't buy this and a bosu at one time, so what do you experts think? Which might be the better first buy? My goal would be to vary my cardio and also save what's left of my knees and ankles. Ok, secretly I am looking for ways to step every day without killing myself. }(

Marie
 
RE: So I'm realizing more & more I know almost nothing ...

I'm not very familiar with the rebounder, but I will say I chose the bosu b/c it's so versatile. You can do cardio, pilates, strength training, core, all kinds of stuff with it.
 
RE: So I'm realizing more & more I know almost nothing ...

LauraMax, have you tried doing any Cathe step on it?
 
RE: So I'm realizing more & more I know almost nothing ...

>>I guess my other option is to actually pay a trainer at the
>gym (GULP! PAY a trainer! :p ) for a session or two & get
>him/her to create a home bosu workout for me with 5/10/12/15
>lb weights.

LOL...That sounds great. My trainer occasionally likes to incorporate bosu into my weight workouts (but I think it is more because he knows I'm uncoordinated and is amusing himself when I topple over;)) I, too, thought about incorporating bosu into my home workouts, but thought I already get quite a bit of corework with Pilates so I would be using it primarily for balance and some additional functional fitness (finding time is the other issue). I haven't totally ruled it out so if you do it, please share your experience...I'm sure we all can learn from it:)

I do have Tracie Long's Functional fitness DVDs..but for me, the jury (me, me, me;)) is still out on them. I like to use DVDs quite a few times before I say a word or even make them a permanent part of my fitness routine. ...We'll see;)

Robin
 
RE: So I'm realizing more & more I know almost nothing ...

I guess I look at all the new stuff and wonder what exactly it accomplishes. I remember a few years ago, when the idea of functional fitness was fairly new, everyone started throwing people on unstable surfaces and giving them weights and calling it "functional fitness". The BOSU is just one of those inventions born of those ideas. Don't get me wrong, I think it has it's place. But I wonder what it really accomplishes in terms of strength gains. I've spoken to many other trainers and strength and conditioning coaches and it seems to me that the jury is really still out on much of these ideas. I will say that most people agree that the term(FF) is misunderstood and now people just equate it with exercise on an unstable surface. But the more people I talk to about this, the more I hear the idea of functional fitness as doing exercises in more than one plane of movement; combining twisiting type movements with lateral or vertical movements and such.

I've heard a lot of trainers also say that balancing on a bosu just makes you good at balancing on a bosu and nothing more. They've also expressed doubt in getting actual strength gains from using them while weight training. They also cite it as more useful in a rehab setting for recovering ankles and the like. Personally, I think that it creates a nice alternative to the step and I see no harm in learning to do some balance moves on it for a varation.

The other thing I wanted to bring up is core work. Once again, I've talked to trainers who've surprised me with their suspicions about core work. I've heard some really well educated people(at fitness seminars etc) laugh at the idea of doing endless crunches and pilates to get a stronger core. They pretty much said the same thing about the bosu. That doing pilates and crunches makes you good at pilates and crunches and that is really no evidence that it translates to being actually stronger in your daily life. They are afterall, very specific exercises and there is that idea of specificity of training. So I guess in that sense, it kinda made sense to me. But I didn't like hearing it because I teach Pilates classes.;-)

In that seminar(I believe it was a seminar hosted by powersystems in Baltimore), the speakers proposed that engaging the core in the midst of strength training, cardio training, and everyday life, does more to "functionally" train the core than any amount of pilates or crunches could ever do. They did admit that core work(pilates,etc) could help a person be more "aware" of using their core but they also said that that could probably be done without core work as well. It was also said that pilates is probably more useful for people with incidence of lower back pain. I thought they were all interesting ideas.
I brought this up because it just reminded me of a couple of interesting ideas that I thought related to the thread. Just some food for thought and nothing more;)

Carolyn
 
RE: So I'm realizing more & more I know almost nothing ...

That is good info, thanks Carolyn. The jury's still out for me as well. I got two cardio DVDs & they did nothing for me (Robin I haven't tried one of Cathe's workouts on it yet--Aila was going to try Low Max--I do know I'll be bringing the bosu to my beach house b/c during the summer I do cardio & core on the weekends, all the gym stuff during the week) for a cardio alternative, but more for the core stuff.

Anyway I got off track. So far I've tried 3 of the home DVDs & the only one that really gave me a "burn" in the abs was Core Synergy (Candace Copeland). But the first time I did it I felt nothing since I was still getting used to the bosu. Once I got used to it I did feel sore for the next couple of days & it was in muscles I didn't even know existed LOL. I literally felt sore in muscles UNDER my abs.

It took me a long time to get on board with the whole "core training" thing. But I do believe there's something to it. Traditional ab work doesn't hit the transverse abs & internal obliques the way pilates or balance exercises do. Over the last year of pilates at least once a week I have seen more cut in my abs & obliques, & a more "solidness" (for lack of a better word) in my trunk. So, while I would never make it the main part of my workout, I think it's a nice supplement.

Plus, it's fun! ;-)
 
RE: So I'm realizing more & more I know almost nothing ...

Carolyn,
Wow..it is very though provoking...thank you. I really do enjoy the discussions and interesting ideas this forum provides.

I still won't be stopping Pilates (Mat and Reformer) anytime soon because I believe in what it has done for my body structurally and physically. My doctor still can't believe I don't have any back pain with my scoliosis and I can still wear a bikini at my ripe old age;)

I should also add my poor DH is recovering from a gym injury. I had been picking on him for years because he doesn't do any "real" corework other than regular gym routines. Now, the physical therapist has him actually doing exercises on my Pilates Reformer to rehab. (He wouldn't go near the machine before.) Honestly, I'm really not so sure I would really be totally open the other "theories," but I really do them very intriguing and would love to hear more about them....if you have anything more you can share.

Robin:)
 
RE: So I'm realizing more & more I know almost nothing ...

Robin,
I totally agree with you about doing what works for you. Personally, I do Pilates about 1-2 hours a week because I teach it and I have learned to "engage" my core much more in daily life as a result. If nothing else, I think it's helped me understand what "engaging" the core and keeping a neutral spine during workouts REALLY means and that's enough for me. It sounds like it's doing wonders for you and your back issues and I think that's great! Like Lauramax said, I consider it to be more of an "add on" to my cardio and strenth training regime. There's really nothing that keeps your bones young and strong like strenth training so I try to make that a central part of my workouts. The latest seminar I went to had so much information about reversing bone degeneration with strength training alone(70-85% of 1 max rep). So the heavier the better. I was amazed at the results they presented. They had stats on a 95(!!) year old man who had never done strength training. They put him on a 12 week program and took tissue samples(OUCH!!) and x-rays, mri's, etc of muscle mass and bone density and he improved 400%!!! I'm not sure how they measured it but they said his bones were 400% stronger as a result! Just amazing!
cArolyn
 
RE: So I'm realizing more & more I know almost nothing ...

Carolyn,

You know, I was thinking about your post while running some errands and it occurred to me that many people say similar things of men's professional bodybuilding: that it doesn't necessarily really make you strong, it only makes you look like you're strong.

Very interesting post.

Marie
 
RE: So I'm realizing more & more I know almost nothing ...

Laura, I know that you are in NJ. If you are willing to come to the gym where I'm a trainer, I'd show you a lot of moves on the bosu. You can have a complimentary session with me...:) Let me know, I'm in the New Brunswick area. Mari
 
RE: So I'm realizing more & more I know almost nothing ...

>It took me a long time to get on board with the whole "core
>training" thing. But I do believe there's something to it.
>Traditional ab work doesn't hit the transverse abs & internal
>obliques the way pilates or balance exercises do. Over the
>last year of pilates at least once a week I have seen more cut
>in my abs & obliques, & a more "solidness" (for lack of a
>better word) in my trunk. So, while I would never make it the
>main part of my workout, I think it's a nice supplement.
>

Most definitely!:) (although I must admit...I think I do a bit more than just supplement;)) I, too, like a nice variety:)

Robin
 
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