Kick Boxing: You'll get a kick out of this......

"Wow, this is like Zumba with muscles!" I thought as we went through some of the routines in Kick Boxing. After you have visited as many classes at the YMCA as I have, which by the way is all of them now, comparisons become inevitable. I was the only guy unfortunately in this well-attended class with mostly younger women, and that is a shame since in many ways this seems like a guy's kind of class. There is the rhythmic music that gets you going of course and this punctuated by powerful punch and kick movements that I really liked. I had just came off a 13 mile cross-country ski race so I was about as fit as I can get and I was glad because this class, like several others I have attended, can really put you through the ringer. My heart was in the working zone (65-85%) of max for half of the time and above this for the other half.

While there aren't too many Olympic-style skate skiers this far south, this class more than any other I have attended seemed to match some of the demands of my favorite sport. The cardiovascular demands of this class is exactly what I need. I realized in the race that despite my efforts I hadn't done enough in this regard since in the race my heart rate was at 98% and above for over two and a half hours. Additionally, the powerful side kicks that we repetitively did in Kick Boxing are not that different from the powerful side thrust (much like ice skating) that I use in skate skiing. There is something really cool about the punching and kicking movements in this class. Maybe all these ladies in there have aggressive tendencies that they have been hiding otherwise because everyone was really getting into the activity.

Our instructor Karole was excellent at leading the movements and letting us know when there was going to be a change. This was particularly important to me, a first-time participant. We ended with some core-strengthening crunches, which I have learned to hate but know I need, and some stretching. Is it just me, or are women way more limber? All in all, this is a great class and anyone who joins will certainly get a kick out of it, particularly if they stand too close to the next participant!

Next: Final thoughts





 

SISU: the X-C ski race: The goal...........

"Great job Kent........hard training and a good luck charm from a dear friend.....what a great combination!"

A good friend from my bicycle club sent me the aforementioned e-mail message following my completion of SISU, the 13 mile cross-country ski race held in Ironwood Michigan. There are a multitude of good reasons for exercise; you feel better, you look better, you can eat better and still manage your weight, you may live longer and it can be fun, especially with the variety of activities available at the YMCA. For me however there is one overriding reason; I want to cross-country ski faster so that I can compete with the big dogs up north. Now I am 'old dog' obviously and have no pretenses of winning or actually even placing in my age group in a ski race, but I want to belong. SISU, which is a Scandinavian term for toughness without complaining, is where the best cross-country skiers in the midwest compete. Other than a tiny smattering of competitors from out of state, I was the skier from the farthest south. Unlike all those skiers from Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, snow for me to train on is a precious - and this year unavailable - commodity. Except for one day at a downhill ski area when I went up and down one hill about two dozen times, all my training had to be at the YMCA.

My finishing position for the race was 153 out of 193 competitors and my time was 2 hours and 33 minutes. Given the lack of snow to train on here in Illinois I was very pleased and all my training paid off since my time was 11 minutes faster than the previous year, which actually is almost a minute a mile faster. My training for the race had encompassed a plethora of activities but swimming a third of a mile almost daily and lots of weight room lifting were key. Karen, through personal training helped me with specific exercises to strengthen the specific muscles needed for my sport, and Kay's yoga classes helped me with breathing. Zumba and other activities helped as well.

What I learned from this race was that I was strong enough, but sadly not fit enough. We skate ski (Olympic style) and the energy requirement go off the charts, especially when we are climbing hills and there were lots of hills. Using my heart monitor, my heart rate was at 98 percent after about a minute. We began with a hill, and my heart rate never really dropped below that level unless I stopped at a rest station. After about half the race of running my heart at redline, it became exceeding difficult to skate ski up hills or even maintain a smooth rhythm on the flats because of the exhaustion. I had the muscle, but not the wind. Still it was incredibly exciting and demanding, even the downhill parts as I once hit 26 mph on one of the steepest areas. I have a GPS that measures these things.

About the good luck charm; Dr. John Harbeck, who was tragically killed this fall in a bicycle accident, had skied a similar race in Wisconsin. John was a very dear friend and his wife Shirley kindly gave me his ski sweater and his medals for finishing his race. I wore the sweater several times in Michigan and next to my heart during my race was the medal from another guy who wouldn't quit and never complained. And that is what SISU stands for.

Next: Kicking it up a notch.

Discovery Preschool: The wonderful coincidence..........

I struggled and struggled! Nothing in my intense aerobic and weight training had prepared me for this! Here I was at a table with three and four year old children trying to color within the lines with water colors. Actually, this was an incredibly relaxing activity compared with my usual ones and the kids at the table were clearly having a ball. We were water painting Winnie the Pooh pictures of winter activities and the teacher Beverly had just finished a discussion with the children about their favorite winter activities. Much like me - a big kid at heart - they all loved winter and were jumping into the task. This Discovery Preschool class was definitely going to be fun.

"Winnie's sweater is red," said Lauren, who was way better versed on Winnie the Pooh than I am, although with a new grandchild coming I had better get up to speed on issues like this. The little boy across from me said something about his dad Chad and I looked at his name, Hudson.

"Is your mom Kinsey?" I asked, already knowing the answer. Wow, what an incredibly wonderful coincidence. Kinsey and our daughter Sara had met in this very room and, to use computer nomenclature, are BFF (best friends forever). Kinsey was in Sara's wedding and now the young mother and mother-to-be still talk all the time.

So what do you learn in Discovery Preschool? You learn to share, take turns, cooperate and solve problems. You learn to use different art skills and this is where Sara, our daughter who is now an art teacher, was first introduced to art activities. Age appropriate activities help promote creativity, discovery and understanding. Best of all, the children learn how to make friends and who knows, one of these friends may turn out to be the child's BFF.

Next: Kicking it up a notch with kickboxing

Final exam: The cross-country ski race

I have really enjoyed training at the YMCA this fall and winter and especially have enjoyed all the different activities that I have been doing for this blog. These however have all been means to an end and the end is the 13 mile cross-country ski race in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan called SISU. This race brings together the top cross-country skiers in the midwest so this "Old Dog" finishes well back in the pack, but still relishes the opportunity to run with the big dogs. Last year I finished 120th out of 143 with a time of 2 hours and 44 minutes, but I hope to do a lot better this time around. Last year's conditions were brutal to say the least. The half-marathon started in a heavy snow in 15 degree weather and dropped to 8 degrees by the end of the race. Using Olympic-style skate skiing, the glide of the snow is crucial and the heavy snow made for very slow going as did the temperature. Temperature surprisingly affects the glide on the snow a lot with ideal being around 28-30 degrees and then it gets slower either warmer or cooler than this.

While I obviously haven't been able to train by skiing the Y has been wonderful for providing a variety of activities that hopefully will carry over to my favorite sport. I have spent hours in the weight room building up the muscles in my shoulders and legs and the personal training I received Karen have given me some specific exercises in this regard. To build my endurance, I swim 1/3 of a mile almost every day, plus work on the stepper and exercise bicycle. It is all the other additional activities however that lead me to feel confident that I can give my best effort. Yoga has been instrumental in helping my balance and breathing. Zumba has been awesome fun, but also has helped in coordination, balance and endurance. Every time I visit a new class I test my body in new and unique ways. Not only is variety the spice of life, it is a true building block to fitness.

I have no illusions of winning, or even placing in my age group with the quality of skiers that are in this race but I do feel confident that I can do my best. As such I have already met one of my fitness goals. The others will be determined when I try to skate-ski up one of those long finishing hills in this race.

Gentle Yoga: Making peace with Yoga........

Boom - recover, boom - recover! This is one of the rhythmic devices I use when I pursue my favorite sport, cross-country skiing. We skate ski in races which is the style used by the Olympians, although am somewhat slower to say the least.  The "boom" is the explosive action where we drive the poles into the snow and push hard outward on one of our skis. The "recover" is just as important however, and when we move our weight to the other ski we need to relax our bodies completely, even if only for a second. This moment of relaxation allows us to maintain our endurance for long distances. I lift weights and do aerobics for the "boom," but I really need to work on the "recover" part of the ski stroke. I clearly needed to make peace with yoga.

Gentle yoga is the first and only class that I have visited twice during my blogging of YMCA activities. There are other YMCA yoga classes, but before I jumped into something more advanced I realized that I needed more help with the basics and our instructor Kay was perfect in this regard. The aspect of yoga that I really hadn't internalized very well was the relaxation part and we spent time just learning how to breathe correctly. Instead of fighting the moves - a typical guy reaction - I needed to ease into these with as little tension in my body as possible. This is obviously diametrically opposite to the lifting that I do in the weight room. While we had talked about this during the first session, I really wasn't able to internalize it until the second. Kay noted that yoga is a learning process and it often takes weeks or months to become proficient and that she continues to learn all the time about the activity.

The other aspect of yoga that is perfect for my sport - and any sport or activity for that matter - is balance. Now I fly around corners on one ski so I thought I had good balance. Balance in motion however isn't the same as static motion and just standing on one foot is not all that easy, especially if are not using your arms as outriggers to stabilize oneself. Better balance, posture and breathing are all benefits of yoga that not only will help my sport, but actually benefit every aspect of life.

So, although I tend to be more of a muscle guy, I am definitely "making peace with yoga," and hopefully that peace in my body will pay off during "boom-recover!"

Sliver Sneakers: Are they heavy?

"This class keeps me on my toes," noted Brianna, as she directed the senior group in the activities of the Silver Sneakers program. Brianna is also one of the Individual Trainers at the YMCA, but she dials the intensity of exercise down a few notches for this program. Still, the range of motion and activities mirrored those in many other classes, but at an intensity level individual for each participant.

The five members of the class all knew each other well and there was a lot of good-natured  banter between the members of the class and the teacher. In fact, Brianna laughingly noted that it is sometimes hard to keep the group on track. While the program is not intensive physically, it is very important. The activities provided help in  the maintenance of ADL (adaptive life skills) for some of the members. As such there are activities that you wouldn't ordinarily do in other programs, i.e. exercises to make the hands and fingers more flexible to ward off the effects of arthritis. Many of the activities are completed while sitting on a chair or standing beside it so issues of balance are dealt with safely and anyone with knee problems can participate without undue pain. The equipment included light weights, flexible straps and a small rubber ball and the weights and straps were of different weight and tension to account for individual differences. While it wasn't like Zumba, there was music and you could do exercises in rhythm if you liked.

The class may keep the instructor on her toes, but she also kept the members using theirs as while setting we did some foot rotation exercises to maintain and improve flexibility.  Many of the members of this class also attend one of the water exercise classes at the Y and the combination of the two programs is ideal. If you are a senior, or if you have a serious injury or pain issues, this class would be perfect for you. There is no impact on the joints, activities are adjusted for individual differences, the instructor is knowledgeable and really nice and the participants are friendly.  Sneak on in; you will be welcomed.

Wallyball with the girls:

This "Old Dog" was panting, and it wasn't just because the girls were cute! I had invited myself into a wallyball game with a group of young women who meet every Monday morning for this fast-paced activity that resembles volleyball.. Luckily, I hit a morning when Lisa, Patsy, Patti, Cathy and Julie were one person short for their three-on-three game, so as a male I got special dispensation since I evened the teams up. Lisa told me that the group had formed over a dozen years ago.  Although she noted the membership has sometimes changed, her group's enthusiasm for the sport hadn't.

While I had played basketball competitively until I was almost 35, I never was all that good at volleyball. 30 years later I was even less good at this similar, but in some unique ways very different sport. First, there is the ball, which is volleyball size but far more rubbery. This meant that for the first game or so I would knock it out of bounds, into the net, or on occasion all the way it up to the ceiling. The ball didn't sting like a volleyball however and I was good with that. Second, the walls, ceiling and back walls of the racquetball court come into play in this activity. More a than a few times I stood there like a big dummy trying to figure out what to do as the ball would come at me from unexpected angles. Third, although I am in my 60s and pride myself on still being able to jump, my jump doesn't get me off the floor! So much for my spiking ability.

We played four games in an hour rotating one person each game to the other team. Now for the first two games my team lost, but I figured that just had to be the side of the net I had been playing on. When I switched sides for the third game, I was actually on the winning team proving my theory right. This of course ignores the fact that I only returned a fraction of the balls hit to me and couldn't get to many of the others like I should have. I had forgotten how fast actual competition in a team sport can be and these girls were awfully at good getting to and hitting back shots that I could only wave at.

By the fourth game this "Old Dog" was really panting and my team got creamed, primarily because anything hit my way had as good of chance of going off my head as over the net. Still, I loved the experience. I really appreciated the camaraderie that the girls had with each other and the opportunity for me to experience a brand new sport. I would love to play again, but I suspect when teams were picked I would be chosen someplace well after last.

Next: Are those Silver Sneakers heavy?