Charity D.
Member Of...
I Heart These...
- Beata Dziemianczyk-Lodziato
- Prana Power Yoga
- Brooklyn Boulders
- Crunch: Super Slim Down - Ellen Barrett
- Area Yoga
- The Fierce Club
- Body Elite Health and Fitness Center
- Equinox - Brooklyn Heights
- David Barton Gym -- Chelsea
- Asphalt Green
- Dominic Venton
- Yoga Booty Ballet - Heather
- Red Carpet Ready
- Mala Yoga
Feats Completed
- The Love Challenge:
- Love Body
- Love Mind
- Love Belly
- Love Soul
See all feats for The Love Challenge- Social Workout Challenge: New Years Edition:
- Home Food
- Swap Meat
- Whole Grainy
- Go Fish
- Pimp Your Bed
- D.I.Y. Feat
- See all feats for Social Workout Challenge: New Years Edition
- Eat. Sweat. Blog.:
- Caffeine free
- See all feats for Eat. Sweat. Blog.
- Other Feats:
- Cartwheel
- Alt.Healthy.Fast
- Group Fitness Class Sampler
- Sing
- Wheel Pose
- See all feats
Home Stretch
Yet Another Nighttime Walk
"There's something about just going outside and walking instead of sitting on the couch and watching so much TV." — drock, today, 9:15 A.M.
My Body
Gina Bradley on Lifting Your Own Board and Moments of Independence from Everything
Gina Bradley is a Stand-Up Paddleboarder and the founder of Paddle Diva in East Hampton, New York.
I am definitely a water person. I’ve always loved the water. I'm an Aquarius — I was born under the sign! I used to be a wind surfer, but one of the things with windsurfing, the wind has to be just right in order for you to go out. The thing I love most about paddleboarding, you can always go out, in any condition. The other thing I love about it is the six pack abs. It’s an incredible core workout done properly. You're constantly balancing. You don’t even realize, but you’re working every single muscle in your body. My whole philosophy is that I find sports I like doing, and then, oh by the way, they also get me in shape.
Retreats
Yoga, Paddling, Cooking, and Pilates in Ontario
- Who: Smoothwater of Tegamami
- What: Daily yoga, with Pilates classes, canoeing lessons, and cooking with wild edibles.
- When: July 12-16, 2010
- Where: On a lake in Temagami, Ontario, with accommodations at a wilderness lodge.
- Why: You're on a lake in an old growth forest. Think beautiful, relaxing, and affordable, with low-key Canadians for company.
Noon Stretch
At Zumba It's Raining Men
"Went to a non-traditional Zumba class last night at The Rock in Astoria. High energy, tough cardio and even though the songs were a major flashback - good fun. Plus going with girlfriends makes time fly by." — Karaway, this morning, 7:22 A.M.
— Image from the June 2009 Zumba Festival, held in Leuven, Belgium.
Newslinks
58% of Americans Want to Ban Unhealthy Food Advertising
A new survey published this week by food and nutrition firm FoodMinds reports that Americans want the government to tell them what to eat, sort of. A few of the most interesting findings:
- 77% of people want front-of-package labels warning them if products have high calories or low nutrients.
- 58% are in favor of a government ban on junk food ads targeting kids and young adults.
- 50% want it to be legal for employers to reward healthier employees and punish less healthy employees with fines or higher costs.
All that said, almost two-thirds of people say no to taxes on soda and fatty foods, which is a bit sad given the new research showing they'd likely be marvelously effective.
Scientific
What Do Barefoot Runners Do When It's Cold?
Harvard professor Daniel Lieberman explains the science behind barefoot running in this truly informative video. But maybe the most informative part: Shots of Lieberman running around snowy Boston barefoot and in shorts and a t-shirt. Apparently, running barefoot improves your stride and also makes you magically impervious to winter.
Distorted
Barbie is 51-Years-Old and Has 29-Inch Hips
It's Barbie's birthday! To celebrate Mattel is out with a $3 SuperStar Barbie, an updated version of the 1977 doll of the same name. But now she has giant Bratz eyes. Don't worry, though, they haven't changed the crazy body measurements. Scale Barbie up, and she'd have a 27-inch bust, 20-inch waist, and 29-inch hips (via Jezebel).
Newslinks
New Pool Signs Tell People Not to Whack Each Other in the Face
A slew of pools in the D.C. area are getting an update, reports the Washington Post: Big new etiquette signs. "It's just to let everyone know how to keep order," says one pool manager. Among the concerns the signs are intended to address:
- People who "do butterfly and hit other people in the face."
- "Crafty retirees scheming to keep a lane all to themselves."
- "Faster swimmers [who] are hesitant to do the foot tap [which signals they want to pass] because they don't want an inexperienced person freaking out about a stranger with a fetish comping up behind them."
Snapshot
Kathleen is a Candidate for Gym Rats Anonymous
Every day, we give you a snapshot of one fellow striver in fitness. We ask personal questions, they boldly answer. Today's snapshot: Kathleen, aka spindig.
- What's your number one workout spot? A toss-up between the gym and outside. The gym enables outside.
- What's the healthiest thing you eat? I try to eat an apple a day. Organic Mutsus when I can get them.
- What's the best thing in your gym bag? A recent gift from a fellow cyclist, multicolor SpokeLits for the nighttime ride home. They change colors from red to green to blue to yellow to white, etc. Very laser light show (technically, they're LED). I've had so many people ask me where I got them. Best of all, they're a fun way to be safe while riding in the dark.
Home Stretch
Sweet Reminder
"Got back to the gym today....It's funny how I forget how better I feel when I DON'T eat crap and DO hit the gym." — kornflowers, today, 10:28 A.M.
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Workout
Another Quickie At 24 Hour Fitness
Not feral. Very enslaved to modern machines. But the 20 minutes on the elliptical at lunch did me good, as did the twenty minute walk outside and hoofing it up the stairs on the way back to the desk.
Workout
The Bare Minimum, And It Felt Great
Left the office at 1, went around the corner to 24 Hour Fitness, did 20 minutes on the AMT. Mechanized, so not really Feralicious, but Feralicious in terms of leaving the office and doing something with my body, even if I only had a few minutes. Good start for Day 1.
Workout
A Two Hour Walk That Made Me Believe Winter Might Actually End
Sunday, put on my coat and walked to Prospect Park. Along the way I unzipped my coat, unwrapped my scarf, and reveled in how warm it was. A balmy 40-something. Snow was melting everywhere. It felt, dare I say it, like spring. It wasn't the fastest walk. In fact it was pretty meandering. But it was just the sort of constitutional my body was craving.
Workout
My First Run in a Loooong Time
I love running. Or I used to. Runs are a whole category of my memories. The runs through the rain in Oregon, the runs through the snow in Boston, the runs through the swamp of humidity in NY in summer. Runs out by the Great Salt Lake. Runs by Fresh Pond. And I don't know why I've given it up. Or I do. But it's foolish. I burned out.
Workout
Sexy Yoga in My Bedroom
Turned the lights low, brought the yoga mat into my bedroom, I only had 40 minutes, but 40 minutes and another YTTP podcast was all I needed to feel terrific. First time ever doing yoga in my bedroom. Felt safe and protected and cozy and private. All good things.
Workout
Yoga to the People, but I'm the only People
Finally did the YTTP podcast. Did it while beets for V-Day chocolate beet cake roasted in my oven. A packed day, and I wasn't going to make it to a studio or the gym, but finding the hour for myself right there at home in the middle of everything felt like a revelation.
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New Year's Edition Prizes
Double Your Pleasure With Pilates Duets
SoHo office buildings are fascinating. Social Workout HQ is located on the 12th floor of one such building, and our neighbors in the warrens of halls include design firms, PR companies, modeling agencies, and who-knows-what-they-do businesses with intriguing names like Gigantic, Inc. And that's just on our floor. Down on the 9th floor, around a few bends in the maze, is a Pilates studio called Mongoose Bodyworks. One lucky New Year's Edition Challenge completer will be winning a free private session at MB, and to preview the prize, Katie and I went downstairs last Friday for a Pilates duet session.
New York
Oh, and du.et is cool;)
" More comments...Pole Dancing
Sheila Kelley Loves Your Ass
The room is dark. Just faux-candles along the walls and a few dim lamps with red bulbs. So dark you can't see faces. But it's not like David Barton sexy yoga where dim lights are your cue to secretly check out all your classmates in the mirror. Because there are no mirrors here. The two-hour class starts with each woman introducing herself and saying a few words about her fears and why she's here. Very 70s women's collective. "This is a safe space," one of the two instructor even says. And then we all take our hair down. More than the lights, more than the friendly chat, even more than the poles, after a decade of fitness class ponytails, the feeling of hair on your shoulders feels the strangest.
I'm at Sheila Kelley's S Factor. And by now, Pole Dancing classes are basically old hat. They're so common, in fact, that the Social Workout feats committee added pole dancing to the Emergency Holiday Challenge. But I've never taken one. Not just because I haven't gotten around to it. Because I have very clear (and negative) opinions about strip clubs. I'm not one of those silly people who thinks it's empowering to dress like a slut on Halloween, so why would I think it's empowering to act like a stripper at the gym? But by the end of the class, my feminist heart was pounding with pride.
New York
congratulations Charity, it's always nice to shed a preconceived ..." More comments...
DVD Reviews
The Uncanny Effect of Exhale's Core Fusion Body Sculpt
Most fitness DVDs imitate the group exercise experience. There's a teacher and students, and you're just another class member, except you're in your living room. But not the Exhale Core Fusion Body Sculpt DVD. This DVD has no teacher. Or rather, it has two teachers, Elisabeth Halfpapp and Fred DeVito, the co-founders of Exhale's Core Fusion program, but neither of them talk onscreen. Each takes a turn giving disembodied, off-screen voiceover directions while onscreen their bodies silently carry out the commands. It's like eerie puppet theater. You'd think it might help that their own voices are bossing their bodies around, but the division-of-the-self effect actually makes it weirder. I'm not sure what the DVD's producers hoped to accomplish with this "innovation," but I really hope this isn't the start of a fitness DVD voiceover trend.
Online & Video
Dance Studios
Downtown Dance at DNA
In midtown dance studios you get Broadway stars all made up and ready to rumble, but the vibe at Dance New Amsterdam (DNA), on Chambers Street, is decidedly more downtown chic and international, thanks in part to a visa program for developing artists. If you're a dancer in the city, you probably already know all about it. If you're a "hobbyist," you should find out more immediately.
There are a handful of studios at DNA, all holding classes simultaneously, and walking down the hallway, looking through the glass walls at all the beautiful bodies, can make you giddy. Oliver Steele's Advanced Contemporary Modern class at Dance New Amsterdam (DNA) this morning featured smooth choreography to "I'm on a Boat, Bitch." They play around at DNA. "It's just more of an open atmosphere," said my guide for the day, Social Workout Dancer and Pilates teacher-in-training, thriviver. That's why even though it's less commercially focused than Broadway Dancer Center and less posh than Steps, it attracts the same star teachers. Case in point: Oliver and his wife Terri, who also teaches at DNA.
New York
Mainstreaming Yoga
YogaWorks Soho: Fish or Fowl?
YogaWorks Soho, which opened this summer, is a "yoga gym," or perhaps a gymlike yoga studio. Or something. It's a members-only studio. Meaning, like a gym, you pay a monthly fee ($110) and you can come as much as you want. And it's huge: You've got two floors, three studios, a shop area, little rest stations where you can check your email, and a proper locker room with showers, towels, and a sauna. Back in September Augustina Groop wrote about the gorgeous bamboo floors and all the well-chosen amenities. I couldn't agree more. Lovely.
But, true confession: It all left me feeling cold....
it's cool. this site needs an anti-yogi, might as well be me ;)
" More comments...Yoga Classes
Night Club Yoga at David Barton Gym
Most yoga studios talk about well-being, peace, or creativity. Not David Barton. For their yoga, they promise "A huge increase in sexual energy." Having only been once, I can't verify that sweeping claim. But I can verify that Liquid Yoga, their fast-paced vinyasa class, is a total turn-on. A few of the contributing factors:
New York
I've currently maxed out on my sales pitch quota, but I'd like to ..." More comments...
Gyms
Biggest, Most Deluxe, Most Empty Gym in New York
24 Hour Fitness is the largest gym club in the world, with millions of locations, BUT only four top level, all-the-bells-and-whistls "Ultra Sports Clubs." Turns out one of these opened three weeks ago about two feet from Social Workout headquarters. And we hardly noticed. Really. It's difficult to hide a 100,000-plus square foot gym, but the Derek Jeter 24 Hour Fitness hit Soho with all the fury of a Radio Shack. No doubt some of its impact has been lost inside the cultural apocolypse that is the Hollister store. Still. I stopped by to investigate this morning at 8 A.M. and found row after row of pristine new cardio machines, each with its own TV. A huge weight-room floor. Big windows. Lots of light. No people. Think Neutron bomb.
OK, four people, including Calvin Stevens, who was teaching circuit training bootcamp. Calvin, I must say, rocks: High-energy, charming, and he sang along to Beyonce while cajoling me into lunging and jumping faster. "I like it, but I don't love it!" he'd yell when our pace lagged. All that energy for three of us.
If you're looking for a high end gym, massively uncrowded, in Soho, for just $69 a month, I've got a tip for you.... And I mean nice. The locker room is not ridiculous like David Barton, but fully functional with razors and spray deodorant. And you don't have to bring your own lock (such a hassle) because the lockers are those cool ones with the built-in, programmable key pad. $69 a month is about $80 a month less than the Equinox down the block. And that gets you access to all the other 24 Fitnesses on the planet. Of course, it might be a little loney, but there are trade offs. Naturally, they're giving away free seven day passes.
New York
Pilates Studios
More Pilates: Reformer Classes on the Cheap
Gramercy Pilates Fitness just opened a few months ago, with two distinct virtes: 1.) That new studio smell. 2.) Underpopulated classes. I signed up for a four-person Reformer class, and found myself the sole attendee. At $25, the four-person class is one of the best deals in town. But $25 for a private session? Total steal. If you're looking for Reformer time, supervised by very solid dancer-teachers in a very Grammery-infused wood and brick studio, without too many other people around (and the ones that are are the sort you want to be when you're 50), definitely check it out.
New York
Yoga Studios
Laughing Lotus Is A Sparkly Pink Yoga Palace
Laughing Lotus is one of the city's major teaching studios, and you can feel it. The vibe is friendly, but also a little clubby. As if half the people know each other. Cause, actually, they do. It's also a bit more girlie than other studios.
New York
Magic Pulleys
Pilates Reforming at the Right Price
A session with a Pilates Reformer machine will run you about $100 at most studios. Yesterday, I went for the first time. For free. Pilates Reforming New York offers free introductory sessions, (thanks Gotigers2003 for clueing us in). So, is the reformer really all that? Answer: Yes.
New York
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Yep, answers here: http://www.socialworkout.com/2010/03/09/department-small-improvements (see the comments section)
For the Feat Accompli question -- it's now automatic. So when you hit 100%, you're auto-counted as Feat Accompli. We're just realizing that might be less satisfying than clicking the button, though, so we may revert next Challenge.
Posted in response to: How do you work this thing?
graph added!
Posted in response to: why a big mac is cheaper than a salad.
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on 14 hours 17 min ago by Charity D.