Tag: workouts
Need A Workout? There’s An App For That

Need A Workout? There’s An App For That

By Colleen Schrappen, St. Louis Post-Dispatch (TNS)

With summer camps, fests and vacations shaking up our usual schedules, fitness can get put on the backburner. Energy-sapping heat and humidity don’t help, either.

But whatever your summer workout routine is lacking–novelty or convenience, camaraderie or competition–can be just an app away. From yoga instruction to sports training to mapping running and cycling routes, apps can help tailor a plan for you.

The scads of programs, though–ones as disparate as Daily Butt Workout and Zombies Run!–can be overwhelming to wade through.

“You have to find out what works best for you,” said Brian Lyons, the director of race management with Go! St. Louis.

“There are so many apps out there that help track your fitness,” he said. “You have to pick and choose.”

Some criteria to consider: Does the app focus on the type of fitness activity you want? Is it adjustable to your ability level? Is it intuitive, secure and easy to use?

COVERING GROUND

Lyons, who has been with the nonprofit racing agency since 2007, noticed a few years ago that more people were carrying their smartphones during races to get a better feel for how far and fast they were running. Apps such as MapMyRun, Runtastic and Nike+ use a phone’s GPS to provide real-time data on pace and distance.

“They can help guide people who want to follow a plan,” Lyons said. Details as specific as elevation, duration and speed variances are provided.

You can interact with that data as much or as little as you want: Use it just once to find a trail near your vacation spot, map out and save loops of different distances to train for a half-marathon or download stats from your daily power walks to compare later.

Many apps also integrate a social media component, with the option to share routes with fellow app users, post results on Facebook or Twitter and measure results against other athletes.

Casey Saunders, a bicyclist who works at Big Shark in University City, first downloaded the Strava app a couple of years ago to enhance his training.

“It’s the only app I use,” said Saunders, who has been biking for about 15 years. “It’s pretty widely used by recreational and more serious cyclists.”

Strava provides rankings for what it terms “segments,” sections of popular routes that cyclists cover and then compare to see how they stack up in climbing, sprinting or endurance. The path through Forest Park could be a segment, or a short climb along Lindemann Road in Kirkwood, or a longer trek along the Katy Trail.

And Strava also tracks running, swimming and gym workouts. You can share your accomplishments with other users or participate in virtual challenges.

“It gives you a whole other aspect to your ride besides just getting out there by yourself,” Saunders said. “You can compete with people around the world.”

Apps have changed how bicyclists train, especially recreational riders. Several years ago, “there wasn’t much like that,” Saunders said. “There were a couple GPS companies, but nothing that made it so easy and accessible.”

FAMILY FITNESS

Apps can also provide a taste of a new activity before you sink money into it, an especially attractive option for parents. “There are so many apps you can do with your kids,” said Justine Fields, a physical education teacher in Webster Groves. “It can be expensive to go out and put your kids into training programs” for their sports teams, but many fitness apps are free or cost just a couple dollars to download.

To help her 13-year-old prepare for field hockey drills, Fields downloaded the Tabata Trainer app, which outlines and clocks high-intensity interval workouts. In four minutes, mother and daughter cycle through squats, planks, pushups and lunges.

“Fitness becomes a family activity,” Fields said. “It’s the best of both worlds. The kids want to play on the mobile devices, and this way they are being active.”

Fields has used games from P.E. Shake and Workout in a Bag (which has a separate children’s version) during her elementary classes. Incorporating technology into fitness is a natural pairing for their generation, she says.
When she introduces apps to her pupils, they often tell her they want to try the activities at home, too.

“It’s very motivating,” said Fields, who has been teaching P.E. for more than 20 years. There are plenty of quick activities to help children “get their energy out.”

For example, Bit Breaker resembles an old-time arcade game and tracks players as they jump and juke to bust up falling bricks. Fields tweaks Twister Talking Spinner from its dotted-mat origins to include kickballs and colored targets; a hand means throw, a foot means kick.

FLEXIBILITY

With apps, your phone or tablet can become a portable gym. Kiley Enno, an instructor at Southtown Yoga in Lafayette Square, appreciates the convenience of maintaining her yoga routine when she is out of town. Her preferred app, YogaHour, provides 60-minute workouts in Hatha yoga, the same branch that is taught at her studio. “It’s like carrying a class in my pocket,” Enno said. “I have what I want at my fingertips.”

For novices, apps such as Pocket Yoga or Yoga Studio can introduce users to yoga terminology and poses, Enno said, so they feel more prepared for their first studio session.

“But technology should go hand in hand with personal instruction,” Enno said. A class offers hands-on help with body positions and a sense of community.

“I feel like I work harder in class,” Enno said, “because I am motivated by the other people there.”

And without an instructor or trainer keeping an eye on you, you could inadvertently be slumping your shoulders or hyperextending your knees.

“Apps are awesome,” said Cassy Guidinger, a trainer with Body Fit St. Louis, “but beginners might be doing things wrong or less effectively. You miss out on some variety, accountability and personalization.”

But Guidinger says apps can be a tool in achieving fitness goals. She has downloaded Instant Fitness, which lets users customize workouts based on what muscle group they want to work.

“Either way,” said Guidinger, whether it’s an app, a class, a run or a ride, “you have to be motivated to do the work.”

SOME APPS TO TRY

Numerous apps are available through the Apple store and Google Play, which cover a full spectrum of fitness activities. Here are a few you may want to check out: To track runs and rides: Strava, MapMyRun and MapMy Ride, Runtastic, Nike+For conditioning work or interval training: Tabata Trainer, Workout in a Bag, Instant Fitness

Activities for children: P.E. Shake, Bit Breaker, TwisterTalking Spinner

To practice yoga: YogaHour, Pocket Yoga, Yoga Studio

Photo by Health Gauge via Flickr

How To Prevent Your Muscles From Getting Sore After A Workout

How To Prevent Your Muscles From Getting Sore After A Workout

By Alina Gonzalez, Byrdie (TNS)

If you asked me what the worst part about working out is, the answer wouldn’t be the exercise itself. It would be the seemingly unavoidable post-exercise soreness. And aside from the discomfort itself, the muscle soreness straight-up precludes a next-day workout. Your muscles are so sore that you couldn’t do a squat if you tried; you can barely sit down on the couch, let alone do another boot camp, HIIT or kickboxing class.

Then it takes a couple of days to recover, and you’ve lost momentum; it’s like you’re being punished for trying hard. Yet experts agree that if you’re doing the kind of lightweight, leisurely exercise that doesn’t leave you sore afterward, you’re not really changing your body.

However, the trick that effectively and consistently eliminates post-exercise soreness: taking an Epsom salt bath after exercising.

“I make my own scented Epsom salt mixtures with the salts and essential oils,” Byrdie co-founder Hillary Kerr said. “It’s this very inexpensive, very old-school way of dealing with muscle soreness, but it’s honestly helped like nothing else.

It’s better than massage, better than stretching, better than any kind of arnica balm or Tiger Balm, and better than ibuprofen–ibuprofen can’t touch this. It’s life changing, in the sense that with some of these workouts, my legs would be so sore afterward that it would prevent me from going to work out again the next day. So I would have to take time off, in between, and then you feel like you’re never getting anywhere.”

Kerr said she will do it at night, after she comes home from a workout, and if the workout was particularly rigorous, she sometimes will double up and do it again in the morning: “It makes your legs feel like they are fresh and alive.”

She learned the Epsom salt soak trick from her trainer, Lauren Kleban of LEK Fit, who used to be a Tracey Anderson trainer and now has a private studio with classes such as trampoline cardio. But Kerr eventually began customizing it with essential oils.

“Donna Karan is really into essential oils, and I had a meeting with her awhile ago in which she gave me two different kinds,” Kerr said. “One is a clove-based essential oil, and the other is lavender–so I use the lavender one at night because it also has relaxation properties, and I’ll use the other one in the morning because it, along with peppermint, is good for waking you up.”

Kerr further customizes her blends based on her plans and how she feels. For instance, one night when she wanted to relax after a rigorous workout but was heading out for cocktails afterward, she mixed lavender and peppermint to both soothe her muscles but also wake her up a bit.

“It’s so old-school you assume it can’t possibly be as effective as people say, so it very much surprised me that it worked this well,” she said.

But don’t let your newfound comfort lull you into skipping a soak session, warns Kerr.

“Every once in a while, I’ll think I might not need to do it. Because I’ve been taking class four days a week for a while, so I got to the point where I was like, oh maybe I don’t need to do this. And I skipped it one day and very much noticed. My legs felt heavy and dead and sore the next day, and I was just sort of a loser in class.”

Well that’s a feeling we can relate to wholeheartedly–those days when you’re sore and giving class about 20 percent of the exertion rate you would be if you didn’t ache all over.

“It’s 1,000 percent helping me because I need all of the help I can get when it comes to motivation,” Kerr said. “So anything I can do to bounce back as quickly as possible is very important to me, and that’s why this has been truly a miraculous game changer. And I know people have heard about it, but I don’t think people understand how effective it is.”

Kerr mixes two cups of dry Epsom salts with a non-precise mixture of essential oils, pours it into a hot bath, and soaks for 20 minutes.

Photo by Nina Nelson via Flickr