FitSugar

Holiday Fitness Survival Guide: Enlist a Friend as a Fitness Buddy

FitSugar — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 05:30:00 -0800

I have always found that when November rolls around, I lose a little of my fitness steam. The combination of the daylight saving time change, the holidays, and the first sneezes of cold and flu season just seem to zap my energy and eat up my free time. In this season of giving thanks and just plain giving, it is difficult to put myself and my workout first. That is why Fall is the best season to enlist a friend as a fitness buddy. Nothing beats working out with a friend for motivation and morale. Plus, you get to gab while burning calories. Here are some of the benefits of enlisting a fitness friend.

You might flake on yourself and skip the gym time, but would you flake on your friend? I hope not.
If you want to run outside and your friend only uses an elliptical, instead of thinking your relationship as fitness buddies won't work, think of it as a cross-training opportunity. The two of you can also find a compromise and try step or strip aerobics together.
You get to share the burden of planning your workout. This is a good way to mix it up and learn new moves without wasting time at the gym.
Working out with a buddy can decrease the boredom of repetitive exercise significantly, so you are more likely to work out longer and possibly harder. Sometimes a little friendly competition keeps the fitness fires burning.

Before you jump into a new relationship, check out the article Pair Up to Pare Down over at Shape. It offers a few suggestions to make sure your partnership with your workout buddy actually works out.

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Do You Exercise With Your Significant Other?

FitSugar — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 03:06:33 -0700

I'm glad to have my husband as a workout buddy. We take yoga classes together and go for hikes and bike rides with the kids. Not only are we burning calories and working our muscles, but it's also a great time to catch up. I love that he motivates me to get moving at times when I'd rather just plop down on the couch and watch reruns of Sex and the City. What about you?

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Fit Tip: Make Workout Plans With a Friend

FitSugar — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 10:15:00 -0700

Sometimes it's hard to get motivated to work out on your own. Things always come up in your schedule, and it's easy to skip exercising. One thing that helps me stay on track is when I make plans to work out with a friend. You can make it a once in a while type of thing, like planning a two-hour hike on a Saturday. Or you can make plans where you meet at your local yoga studio for a class once a week. If you need something more consistent then schedule something such as a walk before you both have to go to work in the mornings.

Having someone who's counting on you to be there makes it less likely that you'll skip it or put it off. It'll motivate you to go knowing your friend expects you to be there. Plus working out and being able to chat can make the time go by quickly, and it's so much more fun that you may actually forget you're even exercising.

Fit's Tip: If you're looking for something different to do with your friend, check out all my ideas for getting active with a partner.

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LeAnn Covers Fitness, and Health

FitSugar — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 11:00:00 -0800

I always love hearing about how couples motivate each other to get healthy, but now more than ever since it's Valentine's Day. LeAnn Rhimes recently told Fitness magazine that her husband was the driving force behind finally being able to get healthy.

Here are highlights:

"I wasn't taking care of my health. I was getting out of breath in the middle of the show . . . and sometimes I was getting really sick." The solution came with the emotional stability provided by her husband Dean - who also provided her something more: a workout partner. "[Dean and I] both push each other to be better."

LeAnn definitely eats healthy, too. To see what an average day of eating looks like for her just read more.

I usually eat a bowl of oatmeal with agave nectar, dried cherries, and walnuts in the morning. I have a protein shake after the gym, then grilled chicken, a whole-wheat pita, and humus for lunch.

Come afternoon there's another snack, then, for dinner, I might have trout with spinach sautéed in garlic and olive oil and a piece of dark chocolate for dessert.

Do You Have a Fitness Partner?

FitSugar — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 03:30:00 -0800

For some of us, fitness partners are the best way to keep motivated. Right now, my fitness buddy is my husband. We've been running together at night since it gets darker earlier these days. What about you, do you have a fitness partner?

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Who do you workout with?

FitSugar — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 08:45:17 -0700

These days I have precious little time to myself, going to the grocery store alone, without my two precious girls in tow, honestly feels like a vacation. Since I am quite pressed for time, my workout has become my quality alone time. Someone recently suggested we run together, and I was actually shocked...I felt like they were encroaching on my quality alone time. Then, I realized I was being quite paranoid and most people don't feel how I feel. So it got me wondering whom people workout with, or do they go it alone.

The Ultimate Date: Indoor Rock Climbing

Fit Community — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:00:32 -0800

Women That Rock (Climb) community members Spacekatgal and her husband Spacekatdude give you their take on why indoor rock climbing makes a perfect fitness-inspired date.

Spacekatdude and I are married, so we're always looking for fun new things to do. Recently, we decided to give indoor rock climbing a shot! We totally loved it! We wanted to post a bit about it for newbies.

We each signed up for a $160 class, which included gym membership for two weeks. We got free equipment rental and a really great instructor named Nate that taught us the basics, focusing on safety. We were taught to tie our own knots and how to "belay" your partner safely, meaning how to catch them if they fall off the wall.

I will be honest and say it's a real trust building exercise. I love my husband dearly, but I also know it's in his nature to be distracted. It was a little hard for me to put my life into his hands and trust him to catch me if I fell. Throwing myself off the wall for the first time was very scary - but I quickly learned that I could count on him for this. Working as a team to guide the other person up the wall is both fun and good for your relationship!

It's also a great workout. Within a few weeks of rock climbing, I've greatly increased my upper body strength. If you have moxie, I would definitely say it's a sport you should try!

To hear Spacekatdude's perspective, read more.

A guy's perspective - Spacekatdude here. Rock climbing is awesome. It's not just a physical thing - it's very mental, as you try to figure out set paths up the wall, only being allowed to touch rock outcroppings of a particular color - very challenging. Whenever we go to the gym there are a lot of women there, and it's great to watch those who love the challenge and love to push themselves, I think that's awesome. Our instructor Nate also told us that it was great for kids - one of the best rock climbers he knew was an eight-year-old girl, who showed him some excellent routes during an outdoor climb.

I mentioned that climbing is a mental exercise. This is because you have to constantly concentrate on what you're doing. If you go in mentally weak or lazy, bad things can happen: I read of some climbers who went to Half Dome at Yosemite, all ready to hammer in their own ropes to descend from the top. But there were ropes already there, embedded in the rock, and they just used those. As they climbed down, the ropes gave way, and they fell to their deaths. So laziness has no place in rock climbing.

Also, as you climb, it's important to remember to use your feet for power, and not to try to pull yourself up by your arms. So the mental challenge is to keep concentrating the entire time you're roping yourself in, climbing, and belaying.

Share your climbing tales in the Women That Rock (Climb) group and spread the love! Not a climber? Be sure to take a look at our other community groups - there's something for everyone!

Source: Flickr User Charlie Brewer

Feel the DailyBurn

FitSugar — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:00:43 -0700

I'm becoming a big fan of DailyBurn - a website that lets its users track workout, diet, and health goals in easy-to-read charts and graphs. There's a ton of great health and fitness information on the site and it has a social side that lets users interact with other members.

If you're not very tech savvy, don't be afraid. The site is easy to use and is laid out in a friendly and intuitive way. There are three main areas to DailyBurn - nutrition, exercise, and social networking. To find out how they work, read more.

Nutrition: This is basically an online food journal on steroids. Its food database contains the details of close to 200,000 foods, which makes it easy to track your diet and calorie intake and get a complete nutritional breakdown of what you're eating. There's also a pretty good database of healthy recipes, too.

Exercise: In this area you can design a fitness program for yourself or use one of the 80,000+ existing programs already on the site. If you don't understand an exercise, it's OK, because DailyBurn has tons of videos detailing the exercises. The exercise tracking tool is awesome - you can track your stats for weight loss, muscle gain, strength, and endurance. If you need better improvement in a certain area, it's really easy to adjust your fitness program.

Social Networking: This is where DailyBurn really sets itself apart from other sites. Use this section to find online workout partners and confidants who end up being your biggest cheering section while you reach your goals. And if you like a little healthy competition, you can go up against one another in fitness challenges much like The Biggest Loser. There are also groups members can join depending on their interest.

The basic tools on DailyBurn are free but paid members get access to advanced options like meal planning. The site is a great tool for burning fat and gaining muscle, as well as helping make smarter food choices. I like that I don't need to spend a lot of time inputting information onto DailyBurn because everything I need is already in its databases and navigation tools.

Gabby Reece on Getting Physical With Laird Hamilton

FitSugar — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 03:30:00 -0700

When it comes to fit couples, like former pro beach volleyball fitness guru Gabby Reece and her hunk of a husband pro surfer Laird Hamilton, you have to wonder if they work out together.

When posed with Sugar user Spectra's question, "What kind of activities do you do with Laird to stay fit?" Gabby quickly responded, with an almost inaudible chuckle, "Oh my gosh, I try not to train with Laird. We've been together for almost 14 years and always joke that we are both too bossy to train together trying to tell each other what to do, and he always wins. I would say Laird is far more advanced in some of the things he is able to do. I use him as an inspiration."

To learn how Laird inspired her to start biking, read more.

Laird urged Gabby to start biking suggesting that it was a great way to explore the beauty Hawaii has to offer. She also occasionally works out with the "boys" when she misses her own workout group due to scheduling conflicts. She explains that the workout,

"is really hard. I am there just barely silent holding on for dear life. But I am learning. . . You can always learn more, because it gets boring. Part of it is being around people . . . that give ideas and inspiration on how to do different things to keep it fresh."

Gabby did go on to say they do stuff in the water together as a couple and as a family, but training together happens "only once in a blue moon" and that might be what keeps them together.

My husband and I cycle together, but we had to hash out the parameters since we have different approaches to attacking hills and speeding down descents. What about you? Do work out with your husband, partner, boyfriend?

Who would you want as your workout partner?

FitSugar — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 08:30:00 -0800