Message in a Bloggle at Stingfield.com » Exercise, Health, Fitness

Sting's Wife To Release Fitness DVDs

Kathy — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 14:42:19 +0000

Sting’s wife, Trudie Styler, will soon be releasing a series of fitness DVDs produced by Gaiam incorporating elements of yoga, pilates and ballet filmed at her Tuscan villa Il Palagio and set to Sting’s classical music from “Songs from the Labyrinth”. Trudie stars in the DVDs and prepared with four-hour daily training sessions for several months prior to the shoot with the help of Madonna’s former personal trainer, James D’Silva, who will join her in the workouts as well. One look at these photos and I’m convinced to try this exercise routine because Trudie looks fabulous! And having the chance to exercise with Sting’s music incorporated into the workout? I’m in for this program, no doubt about it! The first two DVDs are currently scheduled for release in October 2009, a third DVD will be released in December 2009, and two more DVDs are scheduled for release in 2010.

Photos courtesy of The Daily Mail, article here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1199116/Meet-Tuscan-Trudie-Styler-The-flexible-new-queen-fitness-DVD.html

Turbo Jam Takes Off in Springfield Illinois

Kathy — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 21:56:50 +0000

Turbo Jam exercise classes are now being offered for the first time in Springfield, Illinois on the YMCA’s Fall 2008 fitness schedule. I’ve become addicted to Turbo Jam in the last year and absolutely love this workout, so I wanted to check out the classes offered by the YMCA to see how they compared to the Turbo Jam DVDs I’ve come to know and love. I took advantage of a membership promotion the YMCA is currently running that offers 10 free visits to try out their facility and classes.

Wondering “What the heck is Turbo Jam”? Turbo Jam is an intense high-energy, calorie-burning aerobic workout combining kickboxing, dance and martial arts, created and instructed by Chalene Johnson. I have quite a few Turbo Jam DVDs in my home exercise library, of which my favorites are Cardio Party Mix 1, Cardio Party Mix 2, Cardio Party Mix 3 and Fat Blaster. Here is a good example of what the workout is like:

I attended the Springfield YMCA Turbo Jam class on Monday, September 29, 2008 from 7:15 to 8 pm. Unfortunately I have to report that I was disappointed overall with the class, but only because I am very familiar with Turbo Jam. The instructor kept the moves extremely basic and continued with each move for an extended period of time, probably so that all the participants in the class could easily master the moves. There was no fun dancing or kicks involved, and for me the class dragged on and on. Repeatedly looking at the clock and willing it to move faster is not a good thing, and I found myself doing just that often. I will say that my heartrate remained extremely high for almost the entire class, so it was a great cardiovascular workout with a big calorie burn. In 45 minutes I burned approximately 600 calories. But overall the class left me wanting to return to my Turbo Jam DVDs once again. Maybe as this new class progresses and people get used to it, it will get better.

I’d recommend this Turbo Jam class at the YMCA in Springfield, Illinois for those interested in learning basic Turbo Jam moves who haven’t had any previous experience with this type of exercise. I’d also recommend those who try it be in pretty good cardiovascular shape to begin with, because it is a hard workout. You should only try this workout if you like (or at least can tolerate) urban dance and hip hop type music. Once you master the class at the YMCA, check out the Turbo Jam DVDs with Chalene Johnson, because they are a lot of fun and they kick butt! But only if you like to dance and shake your booty. You have to take some time to learn the moves, it doesn’t come right away and for a while you feel like a fool, but once you master Turbo Jam the time just flies by and then you can get your groove on, listen to some fun music, and get a great workout all in one. There is no strength training included with the Turbo Jam Cardio DVDs though (there are some other TJ DVDs with sculpting and weights, but I don’t find them very effective or like them as well), so I alternate Turbo Jam cardio DVDs with other workouts that incorporate strength training and weights.

Zumba Fitness in Springfield Illinois

Kathy — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 16:51:45 +0000

I tried out a zumba fitness class today in Springfield, Illinois for the first time with a friend. Zumba fitness is apparently all the rage now and I kept hearing about it, so I wanted to see for myself what it was all about. I attended a one hour zumba class instructed by Jill Kennedy-Broughton. I’m an exercise nerd, so I brought along my heart rate monitor to see just how intense a zumba workout would be. I also brought my camera so I could video just a bit of the action. Zumba is a latin music and dance inspired cardio workout. And I found myself really enjoying the music and dance involved in the exercise. It is a lot of fun. And I’m happy to say that in a one hour class including an 8 minute warm up and 5 minute cool down I burned 600 calories. Jill Kennedy-Broughton was an excellent instructor and showed her expertise and enthusiasm for this type of exercise throughout the entire class. If you’re looking for an interesting new exercise routine to spice things up and get yourself out of a rut and you also like to dance, I’d recommend trying zumba fitness. If you are self-conscious about shaking your groove thing in a room full of people however, this might not be the best choice of exercise for you. I really loved the latin music and found myself concentrating on the dancing so much that I really forgot I was exercising, and this is a very great thing in my opinion! My 12 and 9 year old daughters also attended this zumba class, and my 12 year old really enjoyed it and asked if we could do it again. My 9 year old daughter thought it was fun as well, but she got very tired after about 45 minutes. Here are a couple quick videos showing what to expect in a zumba fitness class.

Great Summer Salad Recipe

Kathy — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 13:55:13 +0000

I’ve been lax with the “exercise, health, and fitness” category of my blog, so I thought I would post an excellent summer salad recipe I found and tried recently. It’s a Vietnamese Pork Salad, recipe from Women’s Health Magazine. It is light and tastes absolutely fantastic! It reminds me of a couple salads I really enjoy from local restaurants: the Soba Noodle Salad from Cafe Brio and the Bume Noodle Soup (Dry with lime and peanuts) from Magic Kitchen.

Here’s the recipe, try it, I’m betting you will like it!

1 (12 oz) pork tenderloin
1/4 tsp salt
3 Tbsp lime juice
3 Tbsp sugar
1 clove garlic, minced
2 Tbsp fish sauce
6 c shredded coleslaw mix
1 1/4 c thinly sliced scallions
3/4 c chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 c lightly salted chopped peanuts

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Place pork on a foil-lined baking sheet; sprinkle with 18 teaspoon salt and cook until thermometer registers 160°F, 20 to 24 minutes. Let meat rest for 10 minutes. Cut meat crosswise into four sections and then shred.
3. Place lime juice, sugar, and garlic in a microwave-safe bowl. Cover with microwave-safe plastic wrap and microwave on high until sugar melts, 20 to 30 seconds. Let cool. Stir in fish sauce and remaining 1/8 teaspoon salt.
4. In a large bowl, gently toss coleslaw mix, scallions, and cilantro. Pour lime mixture over veggies, add pork, and toss gently. Divide evenly into four salad bowls. Top salad with nuts before serving.

Makes four servings. Per serving: 300 calories, 13 g fat (2.8 g saturated), 581 mg sodium, 24 g carbs, 5 g fiber, 25 g protein

Train For Your Body Type DVD Rocks

Kathy — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 14:00:38 +0000

Here is my first product review on this blog. I’ve being working out at home heavily this last year with exercise DVDs, and I’ve found one from Women’s Health that I really like called Women’s Health: Train For Your Body Type.

This exercise DVD ROCKS! It is always a real challenge for me, and I am pretty fit. The 22 minute cardio section is great and really gets my heart pumping every time based on the interval training. A great part of this DVD is its customizable format. You can pick and choose what segments you want to use to customize each individual workout. If you want extra cardio, add in the 5 minute kickboxing (it’s fun!). If you want more of a stretch, add the yoga powerflow. The upper body and lower body segments both keep my heartrate up and are excellent. Only have 40 minutes to workout? Add the sections you really want to do based on the time alloted to each. Really want to push it, use most of the segments for 70+ minutes.

This is a DVD I choose often and look forward to doing all the time. I would highly recommend it for a great workout. I have some of the other Women’s Health exercise DVDs too, and they are all excellent, but this one is my favorite by far.