Social Workout

Profiles

From Banker to Yogi by Way of Skinny Boyfriend

[Since we launched Social Workout, people have started to tell us their stories. Stories of how -- often after years on auto pilot -- they found an unexpected path to happiness and community in a new exercise routine, an inspired teacher, or a hole-in-the-wall studio or gym. We love those stories. Lauren emailed us to mention she was launching a new yoga studio on the Lower East Side. But wait, wasn't she just a banker at Morgan Stanley? Yes, she said, but that was until her boyfriend suggested she take a yoga class.... -The Eds.]

Not long ago, I was a Morgan Stanley banker with a 60 mile a week running habit. Yoga was not part of my vocabulary. I was a Wall Street lifer. Or at least a Wall Street lifestyler. Yogi? No way.

New York

Home Gyms

Treadmill Desks Unsexy, But Maybe Also Awesome

Put treadmills and desks together, and you have a deeply unsexy combination. Like sneakers with skirts (see above). But that shouldn't stop you, or so we're told by our friend David Goldenberg, founder of PigSpigot, and a treadmill desk early adopter.

Summarizer

Women's Health November: Hide It Under the Mattress

All the magazines come at once. We summarize them. Sometimes thematically.

Close up of sexy breasts in cheetah print bra. Breastfeeding may dramatically reduce your breast cancer risk. Note to self: Procreate early. Uh oh, juice exploding out of an orange and phallic photo of a parsnip dwarfing a carrot. Gulp your OJ fast, lest it harm your teeth, and eat parsnips. Hello, a woman with glistening abs, wearing only a tool belt, hung with hammers and wrenches. Instant love fixes: Have stronger orgasms via deeper breathing. Boost intimacy by letting him watch you put on mascara. I'm on it. Now a super close-up of kissing couple, she pressed up against bookshelf, gripping it for support. Who says your period has to slow things down? Next page, same couple, still against bookshelves, his hands under her nightie. Scientists are discovering that your menstrual cycle can affect your libido in incredibly hot ways. Who knew? We like this article. Now a woman in off-shoulder sweater is giving me a devastating come-hither look. I don't really want the sweater, just to caress her shoulder immediately. After 100 pages of Women's Health I'm up for anything.

My Body

Celebrity Trainer Mark Jenkins On Brandy, Beyonce and Meditation

Mark Jenkins has trained Mary J. Blige, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Beyonce, Benny Medina, Johnny Cochran, Tyler Perry, Busta Rhymes, L.L. Cool J, Eve, Q-Tip, A Missy Elliott, Brandy and D’Angelo. 

My dad died when I was two, so my mom raised my sister and I. Not knowing what to do with a male child, she sent me to dance school. I was going to tap, jazz, ballet, modern, and gymnastics. I was young, performing at Lincoln Center and auditioning for musicals, but in high school it wasn’t cool to ballet dance in Brooklyn. I stopped dancing, and that was the only thing keeping my weight off.  In two-three years, I went from having a dancer’s body to a 45-inch waist. I used to be in shape, but I was getting bullied and not getting any girls. So I said, I’m going to join the military to get in shape. I joined the Navy. I barely made it through boot camp. When I got to my station, I started lifting weights with the Navy Seals, and at the end of two years I was 250 pounds. 22 inch arms, 29-inch waist.  My legs were 32 inches around. I was able to get girls. It was empowering. It was a life-changing experience. My friend Daryl Hill was overweight, and I said I would train him. Daryl got in such good shape I started training all the overweight guys in the military. The thing is— they’ll kick you out in the military if you’re overweight. But, at the time, I thought [the training] was a useless skill.

After the Navy, I got a job at the post office and they kept giving me extra mail because I was so muscular. Soon I quit and took a job training at the gym. And the gym was across the street from MoTown records. So I started training executives. I was transforming them in 100 days. I trained them for free—publishers and photographers, everyone. But I wasn’t making any money. I lived in the projects, and I bounced, and was a waiter. But I figured when I got my opportunity I would blow up. So I started training D’Angelo’s publicist, and he put on thirty pounds of muscle. And D’Angelo noticed, and he wanted to start. I asked for thirty grand, and, if they weren’t satisfied, I’d give them their money back. I followed him everywhere he went. From the studio to the hotel and back. It took three months for him to get in shape for that video, How Does It Feel. He had a big stomach before.

Practical Eating

Black Bean...Brownies?

Yesterday afternoon I made vegan brownies. Today I rave about them. Not only are they egg and dairy free, but they are sans gluten and soy. How? The main ingredients are a can of black beans, bananas, rolled oats and unsweetened cocoa. Consider them a protein-packed breakfast, lunch and snack food all in one. Now, the consistency is more akin to fudge than traditional brownie due to the lack of flour, but that will not get in the way of satisfying your chocolate jones.

Steroidal Teenagers

Back Away from the Tren Xtreme

It would have otherwise been a calm day in San Francisco's Castro neighborhood last Wednesday: Buff men staring down on Market Street from second story cafes, the giant rainbow flag, the vintage marquis of the Castro Theater announcing Errol Flynn in the Adventures of Robin Hood.... But the calm was shattered when federal agents busted into the local Max Muscle emporium armed with search warrants. For what were they looking? Tren Xtreme, a "designer steroid" that is the scourge of gay men and high school football players across the nation. Behind the raid, somewhere in an office in Washington, D.C., was Jeff Novitzky, special agent for the FDA, the Elliot Ness of the anti-doping movement. Novtizky is the man that took down BALCO (Barry Bonds) and Marion Jones, and now he's got his sights set on your local GNC and Vitamin Shoppe.  We're way into the Novitzky-supplement story, which the Times' Michael Schmidt has been diligently following for the last few years. Beyond the wonderfulness of humble onetime IRS bureacrat turned steroid avenger, we're sickly intrigued by the baroque expertise of the black market supplement crowd -- and we do feel sorry for the 17-year old linebacker desperate to make varsity. The child doesn't stand a chance! Just get a load of the sorts of exchanges going down righ now on bodybuilding message boards....

Local News

ZoneHampton Is Now Ride The Zone

Semi-breaking: Zone Hampton, pure play spin studio that is growning beyond its chic chic roots, has re-branded itself Ride the Zone. K. points out that the new Ride web site is now live, and features a "hot" video of founder Marion spinning on a moving spin bike. Huh?

Yes, if you're out of the loop, spin manufacturer RealRyder has introduced a line of spin cycles that pivot from side to side, mimicking the motion of an actual bicycle. Word is it's cool, and especially cool to take a class on the new bike with Marion. That'll run you a cool $30 for a drop in, but some of us just signed up for the Sunday matinee in SoHo.

New York

Impractical Eating

DIY Kombucha!

A new study finally proves what an old Russian taxi driver once told me: Soda makes you weaker. (Seems the ingredients in your typical cola actually disturb the potassium levels in your blood, and can weaken muscles.) This is, of course, why alt beverages are big these days, and especially trendy probiotic drinks like Kombucha, a fermented tea that's got all the fizz of a soda but actually shows some health benefits. Kombucha helps the good bacteria in your gut to thrive, improving digestion, and may also help to relieve joint or muscle pain. AT $4 a bottle, however, you can quickly go broke if you drink alot. [Eds Note: It's true. We've seen Manhattan moms strap their children into car seats and hit the road to find bulk Kombucha discounts not available at local Whole Foods.] 

There's a better way: Try making your own. The following may seem a bit like a high school biology class, but it's easy to do, gives excellent results, and is eco friendly and very easy on the wallet. (There's even a whole Flickr community dedicated to the DIY kombooch.) Without further ado, the first step is to grow your own living SCOBY (i.e. Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast)...

My Body

Kelly Morris on Drugs, Yoga, George Soros, and Long Term Happiness

Kelly Morris, one of the only five Senior Jivamukti teachers in the world, has a devoted following of hungry yogis eager to hear her urban-Buddhist-badass take on the world. In the middle of a calling out a pose, she’ll suddenly scream wildly about self-obsession and pimples and Facebook and meditation—all without blinking an eye. A former Sarah Lawrence gal turned spiritual warrior, she’s a blonde bombshell with a gravely baritone who swears and eats bacon and has a tattoo behind her left ear. Sort of like Buddha Barbie meets G.I. Jane.... 

A long time ago I was dating a hedge fund guy in L.A. who invited me to come to his yoga class. I kept resisting, but finally I went and loved it. I said, that’s what I’m going to do, and I came back to NY and went to Jivamukti, and within two minutes of walking in I knew that’s where I needed to be. I was in graduate school for sculpture, but I applied for teacher training, and then I dropped out of grad school. I was excommunicated from my family. My dad came over and thought I was in a cult. There were sculptures everywhere —Shiva and Ganesh — and paintings and incense and candles, and Krishna Das was playing. I was probably wearing a bindi. My family was concerned! I had been through so many transformations, and they were gearing up for another one. I was all over the place, and I didn’t know what I wanted to do. They were worried about me. I was 27 or 28.

Purists

Barefoot Running and the Paradox of Choice

Last week CJ spotted a dude doing a handstand in Vibram fivefingers "shoes," and we had to dig deeper. Turns out fivefingers are a rich vein to mine. This was not your normal product for Vibram, which invented the rubber-soled hiking boot in 1935, and now churns out 34 million rubber soles a year. The "shoes" were the brainchild of an Italian industrial designer who managed to convince Marco Bramani, grandson of Vibram's founder, to give it a try: The human foot achieved mechanical perfection over millions of years of evolution, our man argued, and we've done nothing but screw it up by wearing Manolos and Nikes.

Whether entirely true or not, the response among some people has been evangelical. Lifestyle entrepreneurs like Tim Ferriss (Four Hour Workweek) rave about the fivefingers in long articles on the Huffington Post -- affirming that raised heels and running shoes have made us soft. These shoes let us "reclaim our rightful arch strength, our stability, and undo the damage of years of unnatural posture," writes Ferriss. Then there is Barefoot Ted, a motivational speaker/blogger and personal trainer in Seattle, who seems not to have met flimsy, archless footewear he doesn't love dearly. Who knew there was a barefoot running movement?