Oliver
HELLO
Oliver
In 1995, I took Adele Munisteri's spinning class at the Reebok Sports Club. More...
Member Of...
I Heart These...
Feats Completed
- The Love Challenge:
- Love Belly
- Love Body
- Love Soul
See all feats for The Love Challenge- Social Workout Challenge: New Years Edition:
- Stand Up
- Sleep Log
- Pimp Your Bed
- Sun Salutes
- Take A Bath
- Jan Plan Plus
- Go Fish
- Home Food
- See all feats for Social Workout Challenge: New Years Edition
- Emergency Holiday Challenge:
- Family Oriented
- Reindeer Gaming
- Walking on Christmas
- See all feats for Emergency Holiday Challenge
- Eat. Sweat. Blog.:
- Flog
- No-moo
- Caffeine free
- Brightly Colored
- Just Water
- Raw food day
- Localvore
- Unsweetened
- Soda Free
- Go Veggie
- See all feats for Eat. Sweat. Blog.
- Other Feats:
- Cartwheel
- Wheel Pose
- Handstand by 20
- Jump Rope - One Minute with Five Crossies
- Moonwalk
- Juggle
- Sing
- Headstand
- Spot Turn
- Chinups
- 2009 Feats of Summer 50 Workout Challenge
- Recover from H1N1 Virus
- Commuting Meditation
- Mile Run
- Half Mile Swim
- Free Throws
- Group Fitness Class Sampler
- Situps
- See all feats
Wake Up Call
Jump at the Sun
Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to 'jump at the sun.' We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground.
Workout
Late Night Jivamukti with Nan
Deja vu: It's Thursday night, and it had been nearly a week since the last exercise. Travel got in the way, and work. At the company happy hour, I confessed that I was a miserable hypocrite. You can't run a site dedicated to wellness, and not take care of yourself. I was miles from Feralicious. So I finished my Guinness and bicycled to Jivamukti for the 8:30PM installment.
Progress Reports
The Most Feralicous
It's Day 11 of The Feralicious, and our challengers are eating, sweating, and blogging in admirably untamed ways. Among the most feral are those that have logged a workout every day thusfar. Call them the Daily Club, as seen on the Leaderboard, snapshotted above.
Scientific
Soccer Players Healthier than Joggers
British researchers divided 36 random men into three groups: a soccer group, a running group and a control group....
During the 12 week program, the soccer group improved maximal oxygen uptake...62% more than the running group....lost an average of 50% more fat than the running group...and also had an increase in lean body mass of 3.75lbs, an increase in lower extremity bone mass, a greater decrease in LDL-cholesterol and an increase in fat oxidation. The running group saw none of these changes.
Bike More Now
Google Adds Bicycle Directions to GoogMaps
The bike rennaissance rolls on, pushed forward by the techno, environmental idealists at Google. Effective immediately, you can now map your bike ride using the directions feature of Google Maps. Cool! FYI: According to Google, it will take me just four days and 23 hours to bike the 1,435 miles from Social Workout HQ to Miami Beach. Not sure if they're accounting for sleep, but I am sure the route would be scenic. Their route includes 962 directions. From the Official Google Blog:
...we knew that when we added the feature, we wanted to do it right: we wanted to include as much bike trail data as possible, provide efficient routes, allow riders to customize their trip, make use of bike lanes, calculate rider-friendly routes that avoid big hills and customize the look of the map for cycling to encourage folks to hop on their bikes. So that's exactly what we've done.
Upgrades
Department of Small Improvements
A few brief notes from our engineers: We're delighted to say we've fixed the faulty subscription link to our daily email newsletter! Perhaps you thought you signed up to get the Daily in your inbox, but weren't actually receiving anything? You're not crazy. All fixed now, and everyone should subscribe away. See the cute little envelope icon at the top of the left column: All of our best home page posts delivered at dawn every weekday morning, entirely on the house. Killer deal.
Also important: We recently upgraded our old school, steam-punk style feat tracking software to allow our challengers to keep track of their various feat counts on a single, convenient page.
Progress Reports
Feral Stampede
We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to report that, one week in, the Feralicious Challenge has generated the highest participation rate Social Workout has seen to date for a challenge. Nearly 60% of our Feralizers have logged at least one workout since last Monday, and plenty of you have yet to miss a day. Equally cool, there are a bunch of new faces in the crowd, including some who have returned for the first time since long past challenges. Welcome all, and nice work! Should you be feeling lost or unmotivated otherwise misanthropic this Monday morning, don't hesitate to transmit either probing question or a feral cry. You might also step away from your computer, knock off 20 pushups, and then add them to your feat count. It provides an instant, full body feeling of progress....
Workout
Friday Funky Sexy with James Ervin
I've been ranting about James of late. What amazes me about him is the expressiveness of his body. He can say things with little flips of shoulder or foot, that I can appreciate, but never replicate. He's fluent, I'm mute.
Class(es) Taken:
DANCEology - James Ervin
Place:
Equinox - Soho
Date:
Fri, 03/05/2010 (All day)
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Workout
Late Night Jivamukti with Nan
Deja vu: It's Thursday night, and it had been nearly a week since the last exercise. Travel got in the way, and work. At the company happy hour, I confessed that I was a miserable hypocrite. You can't run a site dedicated to wellness, and not take care of yourself. I was miles from Feralicious. So I finished my Guinness and bicycled to Jivamukti for the 8:30PM installment.
Workout
Friday Funky Sexy with James Ervin
I've been ranting about James of late. What amazes me about him is the expressiveness of his body. He can say things with little flips of shoulder or foot, that I can appreciate, but never replicate. He's fluent, I'm mute.
Class(es) Taken:
DANCEology - James Ervin
Place:
Equinox - Soho
Date:
Fri, 03/05/2010 (All day)
Workout
Salsa Mondays
Back on again with Jose Rosario at Sandra Cameron. My salsa skills progress more slowly than a snail in winter, but they progress.
Class(es) Taken:
Advanced Salsa - Jose Rosario
Place:
Sandra Cameron Dance Center
Date:
Mon, 03/01/2010 (All day)
Workout
Equinox in My Socks
The beauty of the Jan. Plan is (was) that you could go to happy hour, and then still hit the gym at 8:45PM. Amazing! That's what I did (last) Thursday. I had forgotten my sneakers, so I did the elliptical in socks for 20-plus minutes, some of which involved watching The Office (subtitled). Getting off, I thought (again) that watching TV really compromises a workout.
Place:
Equinox - Soho
Workout
Emergency Home Yoga
Got home just shy of 10PM. Lit blue Whole Foods aroma candle. Dimmed lights. Unrolled mat. There had been a few coffees, and safe to say mind and heart were spinning. Somehow sensed that I didn't need to think too far ahead in terms of what poses to do, and I didn't turn on my computer to do a download or look at sequences. This was mainly because my new laptop has none of my old downloads.
Place:
Home
Workout
Superbowl Sunday Yoga
Stephanie Culen's class was crowded for Superbowl day. Mostly women. She's got a gift for the talking, steady, counting almost all the breaths, and firm. She doesn't stop the flow to do demonstrations. She did give me a good correction. It's a different style, and I like it. I'm not a fan of the demos I guess. Sometimes I suspect the teacher of showing off.
Class(es) Taken:
SacredStrength YogaFlow - Stephanie Culen
Place:
Equinox - Soho
Date:
Sun, 02/07/2010 (All day)
Workout
intenSati to Zumba Combo Platter
Last Saturday's intenSati class, which I'm only writing up now, deserves a full essay. It deserves an epic poem. It was the most crowded class I've ever been in -- there must have been 100 of us in the studio. My back was literally to the wall. It seemed insane, really, before class started to think we'd all be jumping and sweating in moments. But we did.
Class(es) Taken:
Place:
Equinox - Greenwich Avenue
Date:
Sat, 02/06/2010 (All day)
Workout
Soul Cycle Tribeca: First Visit
My first trip to Soul Cycle. 8:30AM class in the new Tribeca location. I've biked down there to join my friend P., editor of a certain big daily email publication, who is in turn joining her friend D. who is editor of a certain big design magazine, who happens to be there with her husband, J., editor of a top culture-and-politics website. No doubt, the Soul Cycle press department is responsible. Or it could simply be that, we're on Warren Street in Tribeca, where media power people run wild in high end fitness studios.
Place:
SoulCycle Tribeca
Workout
Hanumanasana with Susanna
The late show at Virayoga with Susanna Rubin. "It's hanuman month!" she announced to us all. A month of splits and hip openers. "I guarantee you're hips will be open if you come this month." It was fun, and she told us all about Hanuman, the buff hindu monkey god of wind. He rides the wind with legs outstretched and arms raised — hence his pose.
Place:
Virayoga
Workout
Salsa Sundays
Normally I wouldn't count Salsa Sundays as a workout...BUT, we really danced. And an amazing thing happened. Sitting in the resto was Evangelina, who turned out to be a salsa teacher, a serious expert.
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Deets
Cool two story, triangular building on 13th street. Apparently 7,000 square feet. First time drop ins are $20. After that, it's $40 for a drop in or you can join on a monthly basis. The initiation is $500, and monthly is $160. There's a also a month-to-month option for $250. And, of course, they want you to stop by and discuss your options.
Calvin is the bomb!
I've never taken Body Architect class, but Calvin is a true fitness pioneer and original. He's been teaching dance and step aerobics for-ev-ah, and yet is still the youngest guy in the room with the most energy. Seriously. This is way too positive of a review for the actual publisher of this site, (that's me), BUT Calvin was one of the inspirations for this site.
PIlates Life
re:AB is a Hub for the Pilates Nation
A journalist friend worked for a while for a Pilates website that went bust. Why didn't it make it, I asked. "Pilates is not a lifestyle," she said. I understood what she meant. Yoga has several thousand years of Hindu religion and Indian culture behind it. The music, the food, the clothing. Even Capoeira has Brazilian music and history. Pilates doesn't have a national culture, it's got a German-American fitness visionary and a tribe of loyal dancers and midtown media women with excellent posture.
If Joseph Pilates had had a TV show, things would be ..." More comments...
Notable Trainers
Clive McIntosh Saved My Life
What: Notable Trainer
Where: Crunch Fitness and Private
At Flavorpill HQ in Soho on Friday afternoons, the CEO's personal trainer comes in and runs a half hour boot camp for anyone willing to step away from their desk. It's sort of an experimental thing, and a testament to how much Flavorpill CEO, Mark Mangan, digs Clive McIntosh.
New York
so jealous!
" More comments...Review and Deal Alert
David Barton Astor Place Sexier than The Box and Cheaper
Last night, pre-martinis at Temple Bar with Lululemon (herself), we stopped in for overdue tour of the new David Barton Gym at Astor Place. Everone must go take a look, if only to see the next step in the evolution of gym to nightclub: DJ booth in the shape of giant mirrored ball, thumping music, outsized Phillipe Starck-style mirrors leaning against exposed steel and brick. Purple backlighting everywhere. Lovely juxtaposition of candle-lit wooden floors and futuristic cardio machinery (each unit with its own TV). All the energy does make you want to work out -- the way a hopping club makes you want to dance. Everyone beautiful in that lighting: The ripped man of color with dreds and tattoos; the Nicole Kidman knock-off doing pelvic lifts with pesonal trainer. And that's the further surprise: It's not all gay. The mix of men and women, in fact, roughly balanced. "David has a wife and a kid and lives on the Upper East Side," said our tour guide. "The Chelsea thing just sort of took off." My thought: It could easily have been Equinox Greenwich Avenue or any other Hot New Club, just re-themed, like a Windows desktop, to something between The Standard and the Delano. So, other than mandatory tourist visit, should you join?
New York
Excellently written post, if all bloggers offered More comments...
Sunday Cure
Being anywhere but bed or perhaps surfing on summer Sunday morning at 8 A.M. in the Hamptons would seem unwise. But if you can drag your butt to Newtown Lane, Jerry's thoughtful class is kind of a shockingly nice way way to wake up. It's not easy, but he spends alot of time setting up poses, so your body has a chance to acclimatize to the situation.
Review
Multi Intenso Yoga
In the New York yoga scene, there are certain hub studios, places with street cred that attract regulars with strong practices. (Compared to these places, gym yogis and Bikram fans are strictly bridge-and-tunnel.) Among the hubs, in Tribeca, is the Kula Yoga Project, a crunchy, well-run studio, up a long flight of rickety stairs, which packs them in nearly ten times a day. The teaching is generally above average, with certain standouts.
Among the latter is David Andre Regelin, a tall, dark-haired yoga Adonis with an evangelical following. "I used to be a spinning junkie," raved one petitie Italian woman to me, "and I never thought yoga could give me the same kind of high. Then I discovered David."
New York
Far Flung Correspondents
Triopetra Yoga Retreat
[This just in from Rebs Wilson, friend on extended jaunt around the world. A fragment from life with yogis on the island of Crete.... -The Eds.]
I arrived at Triopetra to help with computer stuff. My “bosses” are Ieva, a gypsy princess, who sings her Latvian folk songs while washing the dishes and cleaning the rooms; and George, often dressed in 70’s neon. In exchange for my work, I get to stay in yoga paradise for two months.
Each week a yoga teacher arrives with a new flock, car sick and terrorized from ride in, which features jaunty Cretan folk music, and narrow, winding roads attached by olive-tree roots to mountain faces poised to tumble into deep gorges.
Other Places
Outdoor Workouts
Bootcamp Republic Will Get You Up Early
Tip for those desperate to escape the gym, but requiring group energy to stay motivated: Bootcamp Republic. These guys claim to be the city's "largest bootcamp company," and they're now offering a regular supply of three week camps in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Jersey City. From the looks of their staff page, your drill seargant is likely to have done hard time at one New York gym or another, including David Barton and Equinox. Each camp includes two, hour-and-a-half classes per week, which begin either at 6 A.M. or 7 A.M. Need peer pressure to avoid the snooze button? Your "teammates" will be waiting for you at the meeting place....
We worry a little about the grab bag nature of your fellow campers, but seven out of seven Yelpers give B.R. five stars. Must be said, their website is nicely done, and we like the tongue-in-cheek name. Price is $250, but here's a coupon that gets you 76% off for the first week. Next camp starts June 22nd. Curious? Check the video after the jump, and let us know if you go....
New York
Fitness Video Test Lab
Ballroom Dance DVD That Doesn't Suck
[And now, once again, it's time for another Obscure Fitness DVD Review, with Kimberly Rae Miller. She puts her body on the line, plumbing the depths of her vast exercise video collection, so you don't have to waste your time, and your $8.99.... ~The Eds.]
Ballroom dance-based workouts are usually lame. Case in point: Dancing with the Stars-Cardio Dance. Don't get me started: Those people seem to assume you tour regularly with the Alvin Ailey company. They don't explain their moves, and you stand in your living room feeling pathetic and not sweating. So, I wasn't chomping at the bit to test Dance off the Inches: Dance it off Ballroom, but I popped it in. And, surprisingly, I liked it...a lot.
Online & Video
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hey N and P: you're right, of course, and we're working on it! though it may take a little while. will keep you posted....
Posted in response to: The Most Feralicous
hey!
msh258: If you're working on completing a single pullup, you should simply note each training session as one set. the goal is to complete 20 sets of the baseline, so your goal is to complete 20 training sessions. at the end of this, we hope you'll be able to do the pullup. i suspect you'll be close!
michlny: Great question. Right now, you can "subscribe" to a post by clicking the subscribe link at the bottom of that post's page. Then, all comments on that post will get emailed to you with whatever frequency you set in your Notifications settings. SO, if you'd like to keep track of what people are saying, just click on the subscribe link for that post after you've saved it. (Note: To manage your Notifications, click on the "Notifications" tab at the top of your User Profile page.)
Fraidy: On Cardio unplugged, you need to track the feat in "hours." That's because we've set the target to be "5" hours. SO, if you enter "45" (as in minutes, you'll complete the feat instantly. But this is a good requirement, and we'll try to be more flexible in the future. (Again, to reset your counter, simply "add" a negative number to get back to the proper number of hours.)
Posted in response to: Department of Small Improvements
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on 2 days 22 hours ago by Oliver