HAHPN - July 2010 #2

Park Bench...was rearranged and edited on 12.20.2022. The message below was used as an email

•Happenings •Muffin's Top - For the Genders •Park Bench vs Treadmill Happenings 

Park Bench vs Treadmill The treadmills are coming! The treadmills are coming! Oh my gosh, hurry and buy one! 

Not so fast!

Let me begin by saying that treadmills are great. But, you could do better by having a park bench nailed to your basement floor. A few days ago, I was talking to someone about how much fun it is to perform exercises on a park bench. I mean, it’s a park bench. It sits through the harshest weather, gets messed on by birds, dogs, and people (hey, it’s true). Yet, it sits there; all for your leisure and physical fitness enjoyment. 

What can you do on a treadmill? 

Run, walk, jog, sprint, jump, shuffle, and upper body workouts. All of this is great! You can also do these same things outdoors, a place that provides a very small amount of aid and does not cost a couple hundred or couple thousand dollars.

So, what on earth can you do on/with a park bench? Squats, various lunges, various types of push-ups, planks, split jumps, upper body workouts, and more. Basically, these encompass the exercises you most likely are not performing to the best of your potential. 

OK, Derek, what is your beef with treadmills? 

There is no beef. My relationship with treadmills is lean. But, look at it in this manner: the tread on the treadmill is an aid. The handles on a treadmill are an aid. The digital numbers on the treadmill are an easy visual aid. The ground and everything that you cannot immediately touch outdoors are not aids. You have to propel yourself, set your own speeds, change direction on your own. So, with this ideal in mind, why waste time buying a treadmill if it is not going to be used a lot? (Psst, you can go outdoors or use your “indoor playground” for free) 

Bottom line: people love cardio. With cardio in mind a treadmill becomes a household favorite. But, you need more than just cardio to meet any fitness goal. Among other things, you need strength training. Strength training is the back bone that a lot of people lack – a park bench offers strength training more so than a wasted treadmill. Now, when the two are combined (cardio + strength training) the results are greater (see the topic “Muffin’s Top – For the Genders” and can revisit “Love and Marriage – Cardio & Strength Training). 

Before leaving this topic as is, I know it gets too cold and too hot to the point where you do not want to go outdoors. But, if you’re seriously going to buy a treadmill, which, said again, costs thousands of dollars, by all means…USE IT! If you already have one, decide if you truly need it. 

How do you do that? 

Well, is it used as a clothes hanger? Is it only used once a week? Has it been broken for a while? If you said ‘yes’ to these questions, then I am an advocate for getting rid of it! You would do your body better if you go outdoors (less aid, fresh air, see things). However, if you work from home and need a walk-station while you work, then you can get clever and make one out of your old treadmill. Otherwise, your park bench is waiting. 

My advice to anyone no matter what your age is…GET OUT AND PLAY! Have fun, Derekwww.teempt.com Facebook: TEEM Performance Training Twitter: @TEEMPTraining

Good morning to you all! A few things may change and are happening now. 1) The e-newsletter format. Plan to organize it, so individuals can add or delete themselves from this list. I honor any requests. Also, a new format (unlike the previous one) will be easier to make, be more aesthetically pleasing, and will let me know who is actually taking in this info. 2) Blog. Those very short entries that show up on these emails may actually find themselves on a true blog site, hopefully accessible via the website. You can hopefully also see old posts from a few years ago. Oh, they have evolved 3) Surveys. I randomly selected many people from this list (in the DC and Cambridge, MA area) and sent out a fitness related survey as it relates to fitness boot camps and fitness mini-camps. I can expand these surveys to more DC and Cambridge area individuals on the list, but I will do it with your permission. For those who have filled them out, I say thank you very much! For those who have not (said in a quiet but direct voice) can you please get them in as soon as you can! 4) Photos. Photos from the first Fitness Boot Camp Trifecta held on July 6th, 10th, and 12th are now posted on the facebook page Muffin's Top - For the Genders Look at yourself in the mirror. Now look away. Look back at yourself in the mirror. Now look away. Is your belly pouch talking to you? If it isn’t, that’s superb. You are in an admired population. But, for some of us it is more difficult to avoid our ‘Muffin-Tops’ or for our sake, “Muffin’s Top”. I apologize to anyone who has a friend named “Muffin” - we’re building tough skin here. Who is “Muffin”? I’m not talking about the scrumptious, sweet, and nice buns that come out of the oven. I’m talking about the image of the soft (or crispy) overflow on the top that muffins exude as it hangs over the paper. In terms of physicality, muffin’s top finds its way to nestle snuggle and sleep in our guts. It’s that adipose tissue around our belly buttons that we sometimes name. Muffin needs to go. Not only does he/she provide some sort of self-consciousness. But, “Muffin” is detrimental your health, especially your heart health. Check it out: blood is trying to make its way to your heart. But, somewhere in the middle it gets side tracked by adipose tissue around the belly button. Meanwhile, your heart is screaming, “Hello, I need some blood!!” Getting rid of “Muffin” is a great goal. How you get rid of it is even better. You have many options, including the following: exercise (that is, vary up what you do); exercise well (don’t sit around too much); eat (breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, and dinner); eat well (watch everything and eat in moderation, with variety, with balance, and with control). Oh, I could go on. But, I won’t bore you. I understand that sculpting “Muffin” into a lean specimen is very difficult. I named mine “Jeffrey” and, for the life of him, he hates it when I put effort into my exercise routine and eat well. I keep this idea in mind when discussing goals with individuals and when teaching/coaching fitness boot camps.