Admit it. Staying fit in winter is a drag when you live in the Northeast. Let’s face it: the walking, hiking, biking, climbing, jogging, and swimming that we ordinarily do is just that much more difficult or nay, impossible to keep up on a regular basis. And most of us are not inclined to put on cross-country skis every day, or jog in 30-degree weather.
As an acupuncturist, I have a professional interest in discovering workouts that promote injury and trauma recovery, that can be done gently for injured tissue, and that really work to increase circulation and strength. I look for workouts that help people connect the mind and body, that increase awareness of the breath, and that help sustain psychological balance and a healthy sense of humor during this long period of indoor living.

Spinning®

I had never heard of Spinning, but when one of my patients credited his fitness trainer with playing a major role in his recovery from a sternocleidomastoid muscle tear, I was intrigued.

Unfortunately for me, Brenda Montgomery invited me to her 6:20 am Spin class on the morning of my sinus infection—I could only watch as her group of 10 bikers worked off the previous evening’s mousse au chocolat. “Our annual end-of-the year party was last night,” Brenda explained from her Reebok Studio Cycle seat.

I nodded. Suddenly, she sat up like Xena Queen of Bikers, whipped back her brunette cap of hair, let the tension all the way down on her stationery wheels, and shouted in no uncertain terms, “Spin it out! As fast as you can!” The 10 bikers released their tension in unison, sat up determinedly and started pedaling as fast as they could, biker demons at the break of dawn.

“Now add a little bit of tension, contract the pelvic floor, lift and push those legs!” Brenda commanded. “Like you’re climbing a hill!” They stood and pushed.

Faces turned red and sweat began to pour. “I’m training for my next meal!” someone quipped. “There are cookies at the top!” Brenda laughed. Suddenly she lurched forward, perilously leaning out over the handlebars. “Hold on top, and arms forward! Tighten your abs, relax the shoulders!”
This was the Brenda Montgomery morning wake-up show, non-stop biking for 40 minutes, laughing and shouting all the way, whipping her tidy team of 10 into shape five mornings a week. Her students, from all different age groups, love her. “This class is like a big therapy session,” she said. They tease each other and banter, and talk about everything. It slowly dawned on me how this could be good for you beyond starting the day in negative calorie mode.

Originally developed in the 1980s by a world-class cyclist, New Zealander Jonathan Goldberg (AKA Johnny G), Spinning is a high-energy group exercise that incorporates music, visualization, the use of heart monitors, and camaraderie. Spinning instructors undergo rigorous training not only in athletic and motivational techniques, but also in safety. It’s really different from simply biking on a stationary bike, in that the trainer instructs students how to position themselves on the specially designed bike so that they get a total body workout. Arms, upper body, back, abdomen, hips, gluteus muscles, quadriceps, lower leg, ankles—all are working.

Montgomery said she thinks the Spin bikes are a great way for people to increase their endurance as well as to rebuild after an injury. “Knee problems?” she said, “There is one woman in the class who started coming after a knee replacement. This is the best thing for it. Because you can control the tension on the bike, you can work at your own speed to build up the muscles around the knees.”

No novice at this game, Montgomery started working as a fitness trainer in her native Minnesota back in the early ‘80s. “Those were the days of aerobics; there were no rules, and no one knew what was safe. The industry has come a long way in that,” she said.

“Fitness has changed from putting emphasis on building muscle and looking good to ‘functional training,’” she explained. “Now that the baby boomers are getting older, they’re concerned with preventing injury and being healthy in everyday life—how to carry the groceries and pick up their child without throwing their back out.”

What type of training, beyond Spinning, would Montgomery recommend to those of us wishing to prevent or recover from injury and to become more fit and functional in everyday life? Her favorite is Stability Ball training, which helps develop balance, flexibility, and core strength. “People can buy a ball and work with it at home. The balls are also good for sitting on in front of the computer, because you really have to keep the spine erect and the abdominal muscles engaged to stay on them. Push-ups on the ball are great for carpal tunnel or wrist-surgery recovery as well,” she added.

Body Ki

Body Ki is the creation of Ron Rubio, dancer, aikido san-dan (third degree), and rural warrior extraordinaire. An amalgam of influences, thoughtfully synthesized, and taught in a supportive manner, Body Ki is movement that I would definitely recommend to anyone. It is great for people who are totally out of shape—no exotic pretzel twists, no particularly technical maneuvers, and you work at your own level. (“Stop if you have to,” is one of Rubio’s not-infrequent directions during class.) I would also recommend it to people recovering from injury, physical trauma, or surgery. For those with a regular workout regimen, Body Ki is a welcome change from the usual. And it’s not for pansies: try on 60 sit-ups and 70 pelvic thrusts during the “Ab & Back” class for size.

“Body Ki is a holistic fitness system,” said Rubio, “that incorporates the ideas of peak performance from athletics, maintaining vigilance, which is central to Aikido, and the extension and energy movement from my dance background.”

Unable to picture it in my head before we started, I took a class. It is all mat work. We started with traditional ballet pliés in first and second position. Ron then had us transition into modified martial stances, keeping the movement smooth and the posture upright. We lunged to stretch the groin, quadriceps and hamstrings. He then took us through an ankle-tonifying sequence that was more grueling (but just as, or more beneficial) than a physical therapy session.
Breathing, said Rubio, is more important to him than the actual movements. He practices circular breathing, expanding the lower belly while inhaling through the nose, and pulling the belly toward the spine while exhaling through the mouth. I also liked the inclusion of the misogi, cleansing breaths, to clear out toxins and lactic acid buildup after exercise sets. Another sign I look for in a good teacher is an awareness of the power in getting the group to breathe together. Rubio’s got that awareness and encourages the group to breathe and support each other through the breath.
If you are recovering from an injury or just plain out of shape and all of that sounds way too challenging, Ron works one-on-one with clients, offering gentle movement, breathing techniques, and affirmations to facilitate the healing process. His emphasis on working through “fear blocks” associated with injury recovery and surgery is laudable and I encourage people to explore it.

Smart Bells®

Paul Widerman is a man possessed. The inventor of saddle-shaped cast-aluminum and iron weights called Smart Bells, Widerman speaks about his invention with pride and sometimes a hint of awe, like someone aware that he is the vehicle for a great idea waiting to happen.

He might be right.

Beyond being a weight, just what is a Smart Bell? How does it work? First, Smart Bells come in two weights—6 pounds and 15 pounds. Rather than the flat doughnut-shape of a typical dumb bell, Widerman’s weights are orbital-shaped and three dimensional. “Smart Bells also cast shadows of an infinity symbol,” he pointed out. And indeed, they do. “And they break every rule of weight lifting,” he adds.

This is something that Widerman should know about. A former weight lifter and wrestler himself, as well as a wrestling coach at Harvard, Widerman can reel off the advantages of the Smart Bells from the top of his head like a child reciting multiplication tables.

“In normal weight-lifting, we push weight against gravity,” he said. “Strength building occurs by increasing the amount of weight against gravity. The action strains the body and it is full of obvious effort. Weight lifting also tends to isolate muscle groups so that you work only one muscle at a time. Traditional weight lifting is characterized by linear movements. And while the breath is utilized in traditional weight lifting, it does not flow smoothly. Smart Bells break all these patterns,” he said.

How did he arrive at his iconoclasm? Widerman says he was inspired by the work of Moshe Feldenkrais, who discovered that any peak performance involves the training of some muscle groups to contract while synergistically not contracting others. “I started off by asking myself how I could train muscles to have strength as well as the grace and effortlessness of maximum peak performance without straining,” Widerman explained.

Widerman came to the conclusion that in weight training, all the muscles could be used together synergistically by using circular patterns of movement. These circular or orbital patterns of movement constantly flow, utilizing the breath and keeping it flowing.

Moving these Smart Bells around in Widerman’s 10-minute routine of continuous movement cuts a workout down to the quick. “Originally designed to promote the total fitness of wrestlers, the routine took me four years to create,” he said. “It’s an aerobic weight-lifting circuit, like the combination of weight lifting and yoga or tai-chi.” It can be done alone, with a partner, or in a group.

Talk about Core Training—the Smart Bells workout is probably the most efficient and intense core strengthening tool I have ever used. But I have to add that in my humble opinion, six pounds may be too much weight for an out-of-shape person to wield around in slow circular patterns. Widerman could expand his market by looking into manufacturing lighter Bells for belles or injured folks. But they are definitely catching on in the big leagues. Widerman now lists the Yankees, the Mets, the Knicks, and the Golden State Warriors as Smart Bells users.

If you are already relatively fit and are looking to stay that way for the rest of the winter, consider the Smart Bells investment. You’ll end up sleeker and stronger than you would think possible for 10-minutes a day.

Heart Monitor Man

I didn’t actually go out and take a run with Mark Wilson. I would have liked to. I mean, I jog.

But Wilson is an atypical fitness trainer in that he is a triathlon coach and the founder of the Hudson Valley Triathlon Club. Most of his clients, though not all, are already involved in some kind of personal training program. They usually call him in to fine-tune their programs or to prepare for competitions. I would consider working with Wilson because he has the clear mind and mental focus of a champion; just being around that energy motivates a person to perform better. And he himself has dealt with various blocks to training and has come out victorious, having won not just one, but three Ironman triathlons at Lake Placid. (Ironman competitions include a 2.3-mile swim, a 112-mile bicycle race, and a 26.2-mile marathon). So Mark’s got training chiseled down to a science.

The linchpin to all effective training for people just getting back to it, Wilson said, is to return to exercise slowly. Many an injury is due to springing a physical surprise on the body by doing something it is not used to doing—playing basketball with the guys after not having played in years or skiing all day after not having skiing or prepared for it since last season.

“When you were 25, your body could go out and play a game of basketball anytime and repair itself quickly. But once you’re over that age, you’re not a super kid anymore. You may still be able to go out and play, but there may be a price,” he said. “You shock both the nervous system and the cardiovascular system.” So the first key is to get your body used to a new sport by easing into it gradually.
What about exercise to help weight loss? This is a subject that fascinates Wilson, because it is not as clear-cut as it seems. “I see many clients who are already athletes,” he began. “It’s curious, in that they’ve been training for five years and they are still fat. Even those who are wearing a heart monitor, who do daily red-face workouts.”

The obstacle to weight loss for many people, Wilson said, is that they are unaware that there is a point reached during exercise where the body stops burning fat and starts to burn more sugar. Once the body crashes over that point, Wilson said, it gets stuck in the sugar-burn, which last for seven to nine hours. “At this point, the body enters an emergency state. The muscles are painful, and you can’t talk. Your adrenals are pumping cortisol, leading to adrenal exhaustion. You’re craving sweets, end up eating too much sugar, and it turns to fat. Then you turn around the next day, go to the gym, crash through your trigger point, and do the same thing. So you stay fat.” It’s a vicious cycle.
What determines whether we burn fat or sugar for fuel? The key is the heart rate, Wilson said. “Your best bet for taking off unwanted weight is to invest the $79 for a heart monitor, exercise regularly, and keep your heart rate at an aerobic rate.”

How does one determine their aerobic heart rate? Wilson suggests subtracting your age from 180 to find your fat-burning rate. A 35-year-old man’s aerobic heart rate would then be 145. “Actually, I generally recommend to all my clients not to let their heart rate go over 150 all winter. If you run all winter at 150, you will strengthen the heart and will eventually be able to run faster at the same heart rate. It works because the body gets better at burning fat for fuel.”
Case in point: One of Wilson’s clients was a 350-pound woman who lost 2 pounds a week walking one mile a day at a heart rate of 105. She lost a total of 50 pounds in half a year. “It pays to go slow,” Wilson said.