Posts Tagged ‘San Jose Workout’
Posted by terrepruitt on November 10, 2009
Resistance Training has many benefits. I say resistance training because the resistance may be any force the body has to overcome. It does not have to be weights, it can be bands, springs, or even your own body weight. In addition to doing something that you like you want to train according to your goals.
Some of the benefits of resistance training:
- Increase in strength, power, and endurance in the muscles
- Increase in size of the muscle
- Increase in lean mass (or maintained lean mass)
- Increase in the tone of the muscles
- Increase in metabolism
- Increase in bone density
- Increase in energy
- Improvement in the body’s muscle to fat ratio
- Improvement in mood
- Improvement in Insulin Sensitivity
and
- can assist in lower your resting blood pressure
- can assist in preventing sarcopenia
- can assist in lowering your resting heart rate
I met up with a friend today in San Jose at the gym we had a nice workout. We played with some of the equipment and managed to get a great set of exercises in. It is nice to be reminded of why resistance training is important.
Posted in Exercise and Working Out | Tagged: blood pressure, bone density, endurance training, hypertrophy, muscle to fat ratio, power training, resistance training, resting heart rate, San Jose excercise, San Jose Gym, San Jose training, San Jose weight training, San Jose Workout, sarcopenia, strength training, toning muscles, training, weight training | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on October 31, 2009
I teach my Nia classes in a studio in San Jose that is next to a pet store. The groomer that works there usually gets there before the shop is open so she sits outside in front waiting. Often she has a puppy or a dog that she has rescued and is trying to adopt out. She seems to be able to rescue them and it works out that she can find someone to adopt them pretty quick.
This time she had her own animals. I heard them yelping and realized they were puppies so I peeked out. Imagine my surprise when I saw a purple puppy with black patches. Her sister was black and pink. They were jumping and yelping and vying for attention. They were obviously cute little girls, but with their bright colors it made them even more adorable.
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Keep in mind these animals are puppies and you know how puppies are. It was a miracle that they were still long enough to get a shot, but having them be in a particular spot for correct lighting was not possible. In fact I don’t think the little one was still at all. I did not retouch the puppies, but I did blur some of the background.
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The sun was really bright when it was shining on the purple puppy. The sun almost washed out the purple. It definitely made her color seem less bright.
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But she was pretty purple. And her sister had a pink muzzle, chest, and pink feet.
It was really cute. They were really cute. Full of energy.
Since it is Halloween, I thought it would be cute to post pictures of Purple and Pink puppies!
Posted in Entertainment, Misc | Tagged: adopt a puppy, Halloween, Nia Classes, Nia classes in San Jose, Nia workout, pink puppy, puppies, Purple puppy, San Jose Nia classes, San Jose pet store, San Jose studio, San Jose Workout, workout classes in San Jose | 2 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on October 24, 2009
There is no substitute for going to an exercise class. The energy and the camaraderie you get from BEING IN a class is uncomparable, but sometimes class schedules don’t mix with yours or you want to just get a quick workout in.
Like me recently, my husband and I were going to go see a play at the last minute at a little theater in downtown San Jose, but before we went I wanted to do a workout. I pulled out a few of my videos to see the “total workout time” and did a few quick calculations. I decided on Turbo Jam Cardio Party two. But it got me thinking about how I love Collage Video because they do a great job of breaking down the “total workout time” on a DVD.
Do you know what I am talking about? Has something like the following happened to you? You want an Aerobic workout DVD because you want to get your cardio done at home, you buy a DVD and that states it is a 60 minute workout. You put it in your machine and what it actuually turns out to be is 15 minutes of warm up and 15 minutes of cool down leaving you really with only 30 minutes of an aerobic workout. When you were expecting 60 minutes or at least 50 minutes and you only get 30, it doesn’t make for a satisfying purchase (or workout).
Unfortunately you can’t get Turbo Jam from Collage Video so you can’t see a breakdown of workout cycles of those DVDs, but Collage Video has hundreds of other DVDs. One way you can pick the DVD is by workout type: Aerobics, Muscle Toning, Both (Aerobics & Toning), Stretch/Yoga/Tai Chi, Pilates, Interval training, Dance, Kickboxing, Latin & Salsa, Bootcamp.
Collage, then gives a detailed breakdown of the total workout time, just as I had mentioned before. Which can be really helpful, when planning your workouts. If you want to get a combo DVD with Aerobics and toning it is good to know how much you will get of each. Here is an example.
The above shows you will get 4 minutes of warm-up, 37 minutes of floor aerobics, 11 minutes of standing toning, 6 minutes of toning, and 4 minutes of stretching. This allows you to plan both your purchases and your workouts better. You can see exactly how much time you will be spending on each cycle. I think that is very important.
If you are going to be able to make it to your favorite class, do you have a favorite workout DVD that you do instead?
Posted in Exercise and Working Out | Tagged: areobics, Cardio Party, Collage Video, dance exercise, Dance Workout, dance workout class, exercise class, exercise cycles, muscle toning, San Jose exercise class, San Jose Pilates, San Jose Workout, San Jose Yoga, toning, Turbo Jam, Turbo Jam Cardio Party, Turbo Jam Cardio Party 2, workout class, Workout cycles, workout DVD | 2 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on October 13, 2009
Know what a BOSU is? It is a piece of exercise equipment. Picture a stability ball, you know those round ones full of air that you can sit on? Picture that cut in half with a plastic “cap” on the flat side. It is very versatile. It can be used for a variety of exercises and it can be used on either side. The flat side can be placed on the ground so you are working on the rounded side or you can place the rounded side on the ground and do your work on the flat side.
Either way–depending on what you are doing–you are going to be challenging your stabilizing muscles in addition to the muscles you are exercising. That is a great way to get more muscles working during your workout, burn more calories, and make you a more strong and stable body.
You can stand on either side (the flat side or the rounded side) and do dumbbell work: biceps curls, shoulder presses, upright rows, lateral and rear deltoid raises, bent over rows, etc.
You can lie on either side (the flat side or the rounded side) and do dumbbell chest presses, supine triceps extensions, curls, crunches, and sit-ups to name just a few.
Using either side you can do push-ups, mountain climbers, or add it to your burpee.
With push-ups you can either put your feet on it or hold it with your hands.They can also be used for cardio work. They can be jumped on and off of, they can be used for lunges, or as I mentioned before, they can be used for mountain climbers and burpees.
I think they might be a favorite of personal trainers because there is so much you can do with it.
To me they are a little easier to store than a stability ball because they take up less space, but unlike a ball they won’t really challenge your muscles just by sitting on them. But as I mentioned above you can use them for a lot of different exercises and they will add an additional challenge to almost any workout routine. I think I have see them in the Target by my house in San Jose, so I am sure you can buy them at Targets or stores where they sell sports equipment/exercise equipment.
As with any exercise equipment you use and as with any exercise you do–caution is required.
Posted in Exercise and Working Out | Tagged: BOSU, crunches, dumbbell work, exercise equipment, exercise routine, exercises, push-ups, San Jose exercise, San Jose Personal Trainer, San Jose Target, San Jose trainer, San Jose Workout, sit ups, sports equipment, stability ball, stabilizing muscles, stable body, strong body, Target, workout routine | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on September 24, 2009
My husband and I live in San Jose. We are pretty close to Santa Cruz, I think. It is about 45 minutes away. But usually it takes longer than that to get there due to traffic. We don’t go there often.
Yesterday I went “over the hill”, we call it because we have to go over the hills to get out of the Santa Clara Valley/Silicon Valley to the ocean side.
While there, I thought, I don’t come here enough. This is beautiful. And I took a few shots, thinking I would share 
them with you. Then I was thinking I should write something to post. But then I was invited to coffee today, when I “should have” been writing my blog, I was having coffee. When I accepted the invitation I had a feeling that going to coffee was where I needed to be and posting the pictures of Santa Cruz was what I would end up doing.
Well, it turned out that I was at coffee for three hours. I had been correct. I needed to be on that coffee date making a connection with someone. And these pictures are beautiful and they really should be shared. Because California is beautiful. Santa Cruz is awesome. Yesterday was the most gorgeous day there.
The pictures are beautiful not because of the skill of the photographer, but because of the skill of the maker—-no one could have taken a bad picture of yesterday’s masterpiece. It has worked out as it should. I have been studying the Nia 5 Stages, it is a “self-healing” movement practice. I took a break from it with friends and wow—the break was another way of self healing. Friends, the ocean, coffee, conversation, an exercise in listening, it is all very healing!
Is there something you do for you that is self-healing?
Posted in Nia | Tagged: california, healing, Nia, Nia 5 Stages, Nia exercise, Nia San Jose, Nia Santa Clara, Nia self-healing, Nia workout, ocean, San Jose, San Jose exercise, San Jose Nia, San Jose Workout, Santa Clara, Santa Clara exercise, Santa Clara Nia, Santa Clara workout, Santa Cruz, self-healing, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley exercise, Silicon Valley Nia, Silicon Valley workout | 6 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on September 22, 2009
I believe that positive thinking can go a long way in helping someone get better. I also believe that “happy” and “positive” can assist with improving someone’s heath and/or keeping them healthy to begin with. I believe there are a lot of things people can do to be responsible for their own health and make themselves better. But I didn’t use the term healing or self-healing. So when I first heard Nia using that term I thought, “Uh-oh, what is this?”
But it is not meant as a proclamation that any or all ills will be cured with Nia. It really is “self-healing” as in feeling better. There is always room for improvement and even just a little better is still BETTER.
More and more people, and even the medical field, are realizing that the body has its own intelligence and sometimes we need to listen to it. One BIG thing that a lot more people are paying attention to is things like “a cold”. I have recently experienced a larger number of people realizing that when they get a cold it is their body saying, “Whoa! Slow down. Rest.” And yes, most of the time that is very difficult but these people are saying, “I better take one day to rest because if I don’t it is going to be worse.” And they exercise a little self-healing, by taking one day and then taking it easy for a few more days and it seems like they can “heal” themselves faster. And taking one day off, can work out so much better than having to take a week.
See? That is self-healing? Our bodies will basically heal themselves.
Yes, there are illness and situations where we need medical attention. But there are a lot of things that we can do to feel better/self-heal.
For example: One thing I did to “heal myself” years ago was stop talking on the phone with my shoulder and head holding the phone. I used to get terrible neck aches and I talked on the phone at work a lot. It got to a point that I could no longer hold the phone like that as much as I needed to so my employer got me a headset. Ahhhh! I felt a little better. Then I realized I needed a headset for home. Ahhhhh. Totally better. Now I don’t talk on any phone holding it between my head and shoulder. Voilà! Self-healed.
So . . . Nia uses the term, self-healing, a lot because it is believed that movement is a healing act. Nia used to say: “Through Movement We Find Health”.
One of the incredible tools that Nia has (and there are many) to assist in self-healing is the Nia 5 Stages. It used to be called the Nia 5 Stages of Healing. I recently took a two day training so that I can now assist people in self-healing with the Nia 5 Stages.
I am confident that living in the Bay Area with San Jose, Mountain View, Cupertino, and Santa Clara having so many great technologies around us I can easily add the technology of the body to the Silicon Valley.
Posted in Misc, Nia | Tagged: Bay Area exericse, Bay Area Nia, Bay Area Workout, body intelligence, body technology, Cupertino exericse, Cupertino Nia, Cupertino workout, heal, heal myself, heal others, Mountain View exericse, Mountain View Nia, Mountain View workout, Nia, Nia 5 Stages, Nia 5 Stages training, Nia Bay Area, Nia Cupertino, Nia exercise, Nia Mountain View, Nia San Jose, Nia Santa Clara, Nia self-healing, Nia workout, positive thinking, San Jose exericse, San Jose Nia, San Jose Workout, Santa Clara exercise, Santa Clara Nia, Santa Clara workout, Silicon Valley exercise, Silicon Valley Nia, Silicon Valley workout | 7 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on September 17, 2009
I love the movie “Lars And the Real Girl”. For those of you that are not inclined to watch it because you think it is about a man and his blow-up doll, you are somewhat correct. There is a man in it who has a “life-sized doll named Bianca”. But it might not be what you think. Even the back of the DVD cover does not describe the movie the way I see it.
I can’t remember what made me actually want to watch it, but something did and I am so glad because it was NOTHING like I expected. I expected a comedy. While there is some humor in it and it makes me laugh, it makes me cry more. It is, in my opinion a very, very touching movie.
Now, I think that might be enough for those of you that don’t like to know too much, but thought this was a silly movie. For those of you that don’t mind knowing more, read on.
It is a silly movie, there is a life-size doll in it for heaven’s sake, but it also an amazing movie. It is really about a person having “stuff” in his life and how he deals with it. We all handle different things in different ways. This movie is about how Lars handles his “stuff”. But what I find amazing and I am getting teary-eyed just thinking about it, is how the town handles the way he handles his stuff. They are the most amazing people that I could ever hope to meet.
It is a small town so the whole town can get involved. In big cities like San Jose or big areas like the Bay Area, I don’t think this would have worked as well.
The Townspeople where Lars live rally around him. They do everything—they go out of their way—to support Lars and to help him through this period in his life. They are so incredible. I have only seen this movie twice. And the first time I was just in awe and wondering what was going to happen and how it was going to work out. The second time, I knew what was going to happen (basically, I didn’t remember everything), but I was still in awe. In fact I had more of achance to be in awe because I wasn’t wondering what was going to happen.
I honestly can’t say that I would be as strong and wonderful as the people in this movie. Their patience was exercised to the fullest! I don’t think I could or would take time out of my life for a plastic doll, but then again, they didn’t do it for the doll, they did it for Lars. They decided to particpate in his delusion because they realized that it was what he needed. So maybe I could, but I don’t know, I just think they were so amazing.
This is my “whatever” day —- Thursday, so I am just sharing a bit about a movie that I think was really good, but I think might get overlooked by some who would really enjoy it, but are turned off by the name and the idea of it. So, if you have not seen it and you are still reading, please, rent it or see it however you view movies. I think you will like it.
Just as I was about to post this I had another thought, that my Nia Friends might really enjoy this because it is about letting someone do what they need to do. In a sense, allowing someone to follow their own “body’s way” (even though it was more his mind).
If you have seen it, what did you think?
Posted in Misc | Tagged: Bay Are exercise, Bay Area Nia, Bay Area Workout, body's way, Lars and the Real Girl, life-sized doll, Nia, Nia Bay Area, Nia exercise, Nia workout, plastic doll, San Jose exercise, San Jose Nia, San Jose Workout | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on September 15, 2009
Wow. There are different types of training. I am not going to get into all of the different types because you need to determine what you need yourself, so you’ll need to do a bit of research. Once you know what you need, shop around and find out the best one that will work for you. I just want to share with you some information that you might not think about when shopping around.
I took my first CPR/AED/FA training a year ago. The certification for CPR/AED-Adult lasted one year. That certification for the Standard First Aid lasts three years. I think it was an excellent course. It was long, it was 7 or 8 hours. But the instructor had been doing it a long time and he was very good. He was entertaining and injected just the right amount of humor so as not to let the class be boring or to have us falling asleep.
I would recommend this long, extensive class for anyone that is getting certified for the very first time. It was very detailed and we did a lot of practical practice. We used dummies to do CPR, plus each group practiced with an AED. Then we practice basic first aid on each other.
I also liked this class because it was really close to my house in San Jose.
This latest class I took was CPR/AED and the certification lasts for two years! Yay! I love that! It will be perfect timing because that is when I will need a recert in First Aid.
This was the perfect re-cert class. It moved much more quickly and there was not as much practice on the dummy. Right now the ratio is 30 compression to 2 ventilations performed 5 times in two minutes. Doing that three or four times is enough. It takes a good amount of pressure to get that dummy’s chest to click.
With this class I think I got a little bit of a different idea about the whole thing. The first class I took was with an instructor. I don’t think he actually ever performed CPR. Tonight the teacher was a fire chief (I think that is what he said). He had a long list of in the field experience. He had even worked as an EMT. He has actually done CPR and used and AED. So a few of the questions actually made him pause. You could tell he had an answer, but he was not going to just blurt out the truth, but he wasn’t going to lie about it either.
Both teachers were great, just in different ways. It was just really interesting to get information from someone who had actually performed CPR and used an AED. I honestly don’t remember my last instruction including the information that it would be “crunchy”. The amount of pressure required to compress someone’s chest to get the heart to force it into pumping blood just might break bones. He said it probably would and it was ok. I thought that was really important to hear, because I think I might have backed off from pressing as firmly as they are now saying you need to, if I had not been told that bones will break. I thought that was invaluable information. Need to know kind of stuff.
CPR/AED/FA training is one of those things, like insurance, that you hope you never, ever, ever need. I hope it works out that I never need to exercise my knowledge. It is good to have it, I just don’t ever wanna use it. Are you certified? Do you have any stories to tell about a certification class you have taken?
Posted in Helpful Hints | Tagged: Adult CPR, AED, AED Training, certification, CPR, CPR Training, First Aid, San Jose class, San Jose exercise class, San Jose training, San Jose Workout, San Jose Workout class, Standard First Aid, training class, work out class | 2 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on September 12, 2009
I have only taken two yoga classes. One was this evening and throughout the entire class, while the teacher was instructing I kept thinking, “Oh that is so Nia. Oh this is so Nia. . . . . .Oh THAT is so Nia.” Even though earlier in the class I realized that maybe Nia was “so Yoga”.
Yoga was first. It has been around for thousands of years. For some it is rooted in religion, where as Nia has been around for 25 years and is rooted in the body. I just couldn’t help thinking that this yoga class was so like a Nia class, except much slower. Slower, in the sense that in this class the movement wass not to the music, but to the breath. There was no rhythmic quality to the movement, just the flow of your breath. Every once in awhile I would hear the music and to start sway to it and realize that I was supposed to be holding a pose so I would stop my body from moving but my spirit continued to boogey away.
This yoga class is about joy in yoga, allowing for another comparison, comparing to the first principle of the Nia White Belt which is the Joy of Movement. The Joy of movement is actually found as a sensation and not a feeling. In Nia it is something that is sensed in the body and not felts as an emotion.
The teacher started the class with the suggestion that you set an intention. I actually wiggled with happiness at this because in every Nia class we set a focus and an intent (in cycle one).
This yoga class made me realize why so many people that practice yoga also practice Nia because there are many things in common. In yoga there are poses that open areas of the body, in Nia we have movements and poses that open the body and get the joints juicy. Yoga has muscle strengtheners and ligaments and tendon lengtheners and so does Nia. But with yoga it is a pose and in Nia it is primarily movements linked together in a more cardio-dance fashion. In the cool down we do poses or stretches and sometimes there are yoga poses. It just amazed me how similar they were. With the request of awareness that the teacher was giving during the ending meditation, something that we request during the entire Nia workout, I was extremely delighted to realize that yoga and Nia aren’t competing practices, but companion practices. They are so similar that you can apply a lot of the principles to both. You can have a non-impact booty shaking cardio and strength workout (Nia) that you balance with the complete stretching and strength workout (yoga).
I truly was amazed at how Nia has taken so much of what is “yoga” and created a practice that can be such a great companion. With so many similarities it really allows for an expansion of exercise and workout possibilities for so many people who do yoga in San Jose and in the Bay Area.
Posted in Nia | Tagged: Bay Area Exercies, Bay Area Nia, Bay Area Workout, Bay Area Yoga, cardio, cardio dance, cardio yoga, dance class, dance exercise, Dance Workout, exercise class, Joy of Movement, juicy joints, movement class, Nia, Nia cardio, Nia Classes, Nia Practice, Nia principles, Nia Teacher, Nia White Belt, Nia-like, San Jose exercise, San Jose Nia, San Jose Workout, San Jose Yoga, workout class, Yoga, yoga classes, yoga flow, yoga instructor, yoga meditation, yoga poses, yoga pracitce, yoga religion, Yoga San Jose, yoga stretches, yoga teacher | 6 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on September 10, 2009
I have heard many people use it. Recently I was having coffee in Willow Glen and I overheard someone say they were bad for eating something. Or sometimes we say we are eating something bad. For example, “I was bad because I ate four pieces of pizza.” or “I ordered a sandwich and was bad because I got fries.” The use of the word bad gets no reaction. Most of us just shrug and say nothing. Some people even like it when you are bad. Some people even think bad is good. So it really doesn’t have an impact. It really doesn’t matter. Think about it? Is there something you ate today, that you would consider “bad”? Or HOW MUCH you ate, would you consider it bad? If there is, try this exercise, say it out loud. “I was bad because I ate a half dozen cookies.” “I was bad because I ate my chips with my sandwich.” Or whatever . . . . just say it out loud.
What if instead of saying “bad” we identified it a little more clearly? What if instead of saying “bad” we said “unhealthy”? I keep hear “health” lately, so what if we actually said, “unhealthy”? Do you think that would make a difference? Do you think if we actually used a word that is a little more clear and can actually be associated with a huge topic right now, that we might actually NOT eat that unhealthy food item or that extra unhealthy portion?
Do you think people might actually pause and think, “Yeah, that is unhealthy, maybe I won’t.” Instead of giggling because you were “bad”?
Now instead of saying “bad” as you did previously, say, “unhealthy“. “I was unhealthy because I ate a half dozen cookies.” “I was unhealthy because I ate my chips with my sandwich.” If we start saying it differently do you think we might start eating differently?
Maybe the same can go for working out. Haven’t you heard someone say, “I was bad because I didn’t workout.” What if we started saying, “I was unhealthy today, because I didn’t workout.” I’m just wondering if changing how we say it might help us change and care about our health.
Posted in Exercise and Working Out | Tagged: bad vs. good, bad vs. unhealthy, care about health, change our health care, health care, health care change, healthy exercise, really bad, San Jose, San Jose exercise, San Jose Workout, Willow Glen, Willow Glen Exercise, Willow Glen Workout | 5 Comments »
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