Category Archives: Fitness

Ode to my Exercise Ball and At-Home Proprioceptor Stimulating Moves

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Yes, I’m an ‘on the ball’ kind of runner!

Sitting alone in the corner
Super-sized yet oh-so taut,
Let me re-introduce myself,
Mr. Ball, show me what you’ve got.

To some, you’re just a child’s plaything,
But, oh, I know, you’re so much more.
We’ll rendezvous, just me and you,
Let’s rock and roll from quads to core.

Hello crunches, planks and deep side bends,
You’ve got magic moves, not for the weak.
For sure, I’ll be sore but craving more,
So let’s hook up “same time next week.”

I know, it’s weird, but I’m in a meaningful relationship with my exercise ball. Obviously normal people don’t feel the need to wax poetic about a giant rubber sphere. So, how much do I love my exercise ball? Let me count the ways:

  • With an exercise ball, I can perform a seemingly never-ending array of fitness moves that target every part of the body (I’ve included four great entry-level ones to start with below).
  • Many standard gym moves, like bicep curls or skull crushers, can be made more challenging by sitting, bridging or, in some other way, balancing on a ball.
  • As far as fitness equipment goes, an exercise ball fits perfectly into anyone’s budget. There are plenty of options in the $20 buck range.
  • It hardly takes up any space. When not in use, I hide my exercise ball in the bathtub and close the curtain!
  • It’s easy to take on a trip, just deflate and toss in the suitcase. Most hotels have an air pump and will send up a bell hop to inflate or deflate, as needed.
  • When each of my boys was a baby, gently bouncing on an exercise ball while holding him would help with fussiness.

Semi-Scientific Words on Proprioceptors and the Exercise Ball

The job of proprioceptors is to connect our brains with our bodies; in other words, to help us have a ‘sense of self.’ In constant communication with the brain and spinal cord, these neuromuscular receptors are linked to how the body moves through time and space. Proprioceptors run interference on everything imaginable, from the position of a joint to the tension of a muscle. Procioceptors in tip top shape are essential for good balance and, according to an interesting article in Runner’s World, we’ll lose up to 75 percent of our balancing ability between the ages of 25 to 75. You can join me in trying to fend off Father Time and challenge your proprioceptors to stay young by performing tasks on an exercise ball. The body’s increased need for stability and balance on an exercise ball stimulates the workload of proprioceptors, which in turn can make you a more agile, aware and injury-free athlete.

Try These Exercise Ball Moves at Home

Triceps Dip

 Sit on a workout bench or sturdy chair and place hands on edge with fingers forward. Rest your calves and ankles on top of exercise ball. Next, straighten arms while lifting hips upward. Bend arms to lower torso and then straighten arms to return to starting position. Three sets of 10 reps each.

 

 

Low-Ab Crunch

 Lie on your back with arms at side and calves resting on the ball. Without arching back, raise hips upward while keeping abdominal muscles engaged for support (see A). With hips still raised, bend your knees and roll the ball toward body with feet until they’re flat on top of the ball. Slowly return to the starting position. Three sets of 10 reps each.

 

 

Plank

Keeping toes on the ground, lean on the top of ball with forearms while keeping remainder of body in a tight plane. Engage abs and align neck with spine for proper form. Three sets of 30 – 90 second position holds.

 

 

Crunch

Rest middle back on top of ball while keeping arms straight and palms placed on upper thighs (see A). Next, slowly curl upper body forward, one vertebra at a time, while keeping hands on top of thighs. After each crunch, lower back slowly to the starting position. Three sets of 10 reps each.

What Goes Up Must Come Down, What Goes In Must Come Out

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Also known as “The Trails and Entrails of the 2012 Hood to Coast Relay”

Some of you may have heard that I just got back from running the famous Hood to Coast Relay on a team sponsored by Nuun Hydration. Whoo-hoo!  It was truly the realization of a 16-year dream to take part in this almost 200 mile journey from the snow-capped Mount Hood all the way down to the sandy (and quite chilly) beach of Seaside, Oregon.  And, to represent for an awesome company whose product I firmly believe in and actually do drink made the experience all the more exceptional, as did hanging out with the 35 other like-minded runner-blogger-foodie-fashionistas. Holla!

Amanda, Marjorie, Jennifer, Katie, Elizabeth . . . and Erin is running!

I’m not a very savvy race recapper; I’ve forgotten my race leg times, my mind and my photos are fuzzy, and I’m just staring at the big bag of swag donated by generous sponsors (thank you) that I will eventually need to dig through and provide thoughtful reviews. However, I do clearly recall important details about the trip such as the food and drink. It’s all perspective and priorities, people – and this is The Fit Fork after all!

When I finally rolled into Seattle (Nuun HQ), the pre-running party had been going on for at least a day. Since I missed out on the female bonding at the Seattle Mariners game, the morning run-swim and the insider tour of Oiselle, I hoped that my attempt to sweeten up these girls with Jamba Juice smoothies would bear some fruit. Thanks to the yummy, slushy goodness of flavors like Razzamatazz™, Strawberry Whirl™ and Aloha Pineapple®, I felt as welcomed as the new girl at school whose mom sent in cupcakes to mark the occasion — only healthier!

What Blogger-Runners Do - Tweet About Everything!

Soon, we’d meet up at Nuun HQ for a variety of activities including a taste-testing of not-yet-for-sale secret flavors whipped up by the company president, Mason Reay.

Nuun Hydration Tablet - Top Secret Flavors Coming to you Soon!

The frenzied scavenger hunt across the city of Seattle sent me into a few moments of tourist distress. Alas, we only had time to stop, snap pictures and tweet our location at a number of foodie locations including Pike’s Market, a famous Donut Shop, the Original Starbuck’s Coffee.  I’m definitely will need to revisit these places at my leisure on a future trip!

The pre-race dinner, catered by Bucco de Beppo, was a smorgasbord of healthy Italian dishes to suit the rainbow of food restrictions in the group. I am not at all being snarky here when I point out that Team Afternuun Delight covered quite a slice of the nutritional spectrum from dairy-free, soy-free and gluten-free to plant-based and low-carb. Kosher? Raw only? If I missed some, post in the comments. I always like to hear about a new diet lifestyle. I felt tempted to throw in my personal preference which is the Paleo Diet (fish, grass-fed pasture raised meats, vegetables, fruit, fungi, roots, and nuts, with the exclusion of grains, legumes, refined sugar, and processed oils). But, then I remembered I follow the “100-percent Paleo, 80-percent of the time” mindset; meaning vacations, even a running vacation, almost always fall under the other 20-percent of the time. This would be my mistake.

Race day we were up at the crack of dawn, but didn’t have to take off until later in the morning. This meant a quick trip to Specialtys Bakery near the ballpark where the-nicest-ever-employee Colin hooked me up with a Southwestern Egg Sandwich on bread. Yes, bread!  After loading into our respective vans (six ladies to each and some darn nice ones riding with me), we headed out of town and only made it as far as the Panera Bread in Tacoma. Here the whole gang noshed on our favorite menu items (me, Barbeque Chicken Salad) while local lunchers looked on with a combination of bewilderment and, I’m just guessing, awe and admiration at our sparkly skirts and rainbow striped arm-warmers.

Most of our remaining day and a half would be spent inside the 12-passenger van, except when it was time to run our respective legs, visit one of the 529 port-a-lets (they called ‘em “Honey Buckets” and I came to know ‘em well), or hang out for some down time at an exchange. This meant we relied on rations piled up in the back of the van except when our intrepid and highly entertaining driver Tyler, a Nuun employee, would pull over to grab us a snack.

Tyler, Elizabeth and Jennifer cutting loose at a exchange point.

Rations consumed in the van:

  • Nuun Hydration tablets (favorite flavors were Kona Kola and Strawberry Lemonade)
  • 12 Chiboni Yogurts  (the official yogurt of the USA Olympic Team and Team Afternuun Delight)
  • Lots of Kind Snacks – Granola and Bars
  • 14 bananas
  • 8 bagels
  • Peanut butter
  • Homemade brownies (I never got one!)
  • GNC caffeine chewies
  • Saltines
  • Graham Crackers
  • Trail Mix
  • Gummy Bears
  • String Cheese
  • Assorted beers
  • Muscle Milk
  • Assorted energy drinks (consumed by driver and, err, me)
  • Coffee
  • Random ham sandwich and hamburger stops

You know you’re committed to eating right when you bring food along with you on a trip. Wish I had that much stick-to-it-iveness; maybe I wouldn’t have had so many stomach issues. The crazy lady (love ya) in the back seat delighted us with an endless array of healthy options on the go, some actually good!  Kale chips, sprouted raw pumpkin seeds, tuna fish in a can (she courteously went outside to eat that), beans, rice milk, berries, kombucha and more.

After we finished our first round of legs, we had arrived in Portland. Since it was after midnight, we parked the van and walked over to the closest place open and serving food, the Bunk Bar. At this time of night, you can’t be picky. Another Egg Sandwich for me (top bun off but loaded down with bacon ) and split a local brew on tap with a teammate. Was hoping that beer would help me go to sleep during our 2 hour layover in the parking lot. But, alas, it was the indigestion and adrenaline that so wanted me to stay awake.

Hydrating at bunk bark with beer and Nuun.

My second leg at 8am was fueled in quality style with a Monster Absolute Zero followed by a banana and yogurt for recovery. The remainder of down time until my third leg at 5pm included no sleep, a long traffic jam through the countryside of Oregon, overindulging in trail mix until I couldn’t even look at the bag anymore, and a stomach ache that refused to be resolved.  Several days of magnesium, caffeine and fiber supplementation were failing me, there seemed to be no solution to my hormonal-travel-naughty-eating induced problem.  The whole van was pitching in to help, amazing how close you can become with people when “living” in such close quarters.  Rumors from another team van were flying; apparently the Aspaeris Pivot Compression Shorts, a gift in our goodie bag, were literally squeezing the #@$& out of some of the girls. It was worth a try, but I was foiled from the get go. My pair was missing.

Apparently, all types of digestive problems are common during the 28+hour relay, as evidenced by the van for the team Great Bowels of Fire. 

Third leg was run around 5pm after a late afternoon filled with heartbreaking drama including a nasty, sprained ankle by a sweet teammate and picking up lost runners who had run miles out of their way out on the course. It was really touching, and a great lesson for me, to see everyone rallying together to emotionally boost up the injured and upset. It wasn’t about winning the race or how fast or cool a single person was; it was about finishing together regardless of the circumstances.  And we did!

To celebrate, we partied down at the beach as guests of Nike. Local hefeweizen, pulled pork, smoked turkey, salad and such.  It was good, it was all good.

Entrance to the 2012 Hood to Coast Relay Nike Party

After a midnight van ride and another sleepless night in Seattle, I started working my way back to Austin. A Kind Bar and Starbuck’s Chai Latte held me for breakfast and a spinach salad with feta and craisins was a not-too-bad airport layover lunch. And, when I got home at 7pm, everyone was waiting for dinner! Hurray! Fajitas on the fly.  Oh yeah, and I unpacked. Everything. All problems solved.

Thank you Nuun Hydration for such a wonderful experience and all the support from your employees. It was both harder and easier than I thought, does that make any sense?  Loved it!

 

Will Yasso’s 800s Help Lasso Goal Marathon Time?

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Valerie Hunt, Bart Yasso and Jennifer Fisher (me)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have a marathon coming up at the beginning of December, the Dallas Marathon.  I’ve run plenty of these races and trained using a variety of different plans. From high mileage to low mileage, heavy cross-training to just winging it, it seems that each philosophy has its own merits and misgivings. Plus, when you look at all the other things that go into marathon training, it can easily make your head spin. VO2 max, lactate threshold, nutrition issues and more, I need a nap just thinking about it.

However you plan to train, there’s a simple way to gauge your improvements and see if you’re on target to nail that special goal time. The method is called “Yasso’s 800s,” a workout popularized by Bart Yasso, aka the ‘Mayor of Running” or ‘Chief Running Officer’ of Runner’s World.  The idea is to run a progression of ½ mile intervals once a week, tacking on an extra interval each and every week until a total of ten 800s in one workout session is reached. Of course, you’ll still need to put in all the other hard work required for a marathon, including that beloved weekly long run. I’m going to give the Yasso 800s a try and see how close they predict my actual time, you should try it too!  Here’s the rundown on how to get it done;

  • About two months away from the marathon, head out to the track and run four 800s with a rest in between each that is equal to the last 800 run. Work as hard as you can, but remember that the goal is to keep each interval at an even pace. Don’t blast through the first and slow down in the last.
  •  Assuming the intervals were run evenly (within a few seconds at most), the average 800 meter time will convert into your predicted marathon time. For example, if you run 3:05 minutes for an 800, then your predicted time will be 3:05 hours for the marathon.
  •   Each week, add one additional repetition to the workout until you reach a total of ten 800s.  The first few repeats will feel relatively easy; the later ones will get harder and harder to complete.  If you can finish them all at the same pace, the theory is that you’ll be strong enough to rock the marathon at the converted time.  As the marathon approaches, give yourself a 10 day to 2 week break from this workout to rest and recover.

If you’ve tried this before, drop me a note in the comments and let me know how it worked for you. What was your 800 meter time and what was your marathon time?

Will Exercise for Smoothies, Jamba Juice Inspired Workout

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All these smoothies are for me, mwha-ha-ha!

You all know how I love my Jamba Juice and today I really earned one of their delicious, nutritious smoothies. So in hopes of inspiring others to work out hard and ‘live fruitfully,’ I want to share an exercise routine I put together, inspired by my favorite smoothie shop, Jamba Juice. Modeled after CrossFit-style workouts, this series of five functional exercises provides a full-body blast, engaging arms, legs, core and the cardiovascular system all at once.  So, let’s get started . . . . give me a “J” . . . .give me an “A.”

 

 

JENNIFER’S JAMBA WOD (Work Out of the Day)

Jump onto 20” to 24” box x 20

Air squats x 20

Mile run (at 80% effort or better)

Burpees with full push-up x 20

Alternating arm kettle bell swing x 20 (10 each side)

And, now for the fun part – repeat three times and then rehydrate with a smoothie! Feel free to post your final time to the notes; I’ll give you a virtual high five . . . and a Jamba Juice smoothie recommendation!  You know they have a dizzying array of flavors; sometimes it takes me 10 minutes just to make up my mind!  Right now I in love with the Fruit Refreshers, a slushy-like drink made with yummy fruits and coconut water which so tastefully replaces electrolytes lost out sweating in the sun. Try the Tropical Mango, Watermelon Splash or Strawberry Lemonade.

Oh, and hello! I’m a featured ambassador for Jamba Juice, check me out!

Promo

Throw a Wall Ball Into Your Workout

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If you’re getting into CrossFit or some other functional fitness program, you’ll soon be introduced to Wall Ball, if you haven’t already!  When you consider functional exercise is meant to move multiple muscles and joints over multiple planes, Wall Ball is a winner in so many ways!  This one move alone works 11 different muscles including quads, glutes, calves, hamstrings, abs, lower back, chest, front delts, back delts, bis and tris.  Plus, if you are doing the drill to achieve the highest number of reps possible within a certain time period, it can also be quite an intense cardiovascular workout.

As the name implies, the only equipment needed for Wall Ball is a sturdy wall and soft medicine ball. Beginners can start with a 6-pound ball and, over time, work up to 10, 12, 16, 20 pounds or more! Before you start the drill, chalk off a line about 8 to 10 feet above the ground as your target.

To perform the movement, assume a front squat position with feet shoulder width apart. Hold ball to your chest, elbows tucked close to sides. Propel body upward in an explosive movement and follow through by pushing / tossing the ball toward the wall target. As the ball rebounds, catch it with outstretched arms and absorb the impact while moving back into the squat position.  Repeat for a predetermined amount of reps (5 sets of 8 reps a good start). Be mindful that each shot / catch movement remains fluid and continuous.  The drill can be made as difficult as needed by increasing the weight of the ball, moving further back from the target, or raising the height of the target.

As you become more proficient, The CrossFit Journal  lists milestones to work toward:

  • 1 minute: 25 shots
  • 2 minutes: 50 shots
  • 3 minutes: 75 shots
  • 4 minutes: 100 shots
  • 5 minutes: 125 shots
  • 6 minutes: 150 shots