In times of yore I could try any trendy workout and evaluate it immediately after the class through how many layers of skintight workout wear the sweat of my brow had seeped and by how tight I thought a given body part(s) was as a result.
As I write this – in 150% page view mind you – at 47 years old, I judge workouts the morning after. Did the fill-in-the-blank series of carefully planned exercises leave me able to walk with merely a, “I think I can challenge myself to do it again†moan? Or is the particular class to be avoided because of a, “I can’t expletive function†scream the as I get out of bed?
While the 40 may be the new 30 on the outside – thanks to cosmetic concoctions and sunscreen (Really, don’t leave home without it. And, drink lots of water, always.) – our muscles still ache once we enter our fourth decade despite appearances.
Recent studies have shown that the positive affects of exercise are short lived (another truth of 40+; everything positive is temporary: everything negative is long term) so you have to find something that you can keep doing. As David Siik said during the class I took at Burn 60 recently, “don’t give up on your New Year’s resolution; if you can get through the third week of January, you can make some real changes to your body,†Siik yelled encouraging us to up our treadmill speed.
Siik is an excellent teacher and while I am no star student I always feel fitter and more mentally alert after one of his classes even though I walk slowly the morning after. But I keep going back, because I’m sore but functional – and gravity is ever present. But Burn 60 isn’t for everyone.
For those who can’t commit to classes or simply don’t like sweating with others, another athletic hottie, Brandon Michael Larcom, has created The Slide Effect that is like a gym in a box.
After a shattered knee ruined his professional skating career, the internationally ranked figure skater turned his attention to training others to maximize their sports performance on and off the ice. Through coaching, Larcom realized that “a great coach is someone who motivates while teaching,†[someone whose invention] “can become the athlete’s, companion, assisting the user to reach their goals by literally “reaching further, – it’s our tag line! Every movement and exercise is about going further than the previous repetition,†for those of us who can’t afford a personal training coach on a regular basis.
The Slide Effect uses the gravity I seek defy to my benefit (and for the benefit of real athletes too), “all of the Slide Effect exercises are based on breathing and stretching; gravity stretches and lengthens the muscles, using your own weight while breathing in helps contract the muscles and tighten the body,†says an ever positive Larcom… at only a slightly lower decimal than Siik. And he is right – in theory at least, I did fall on my face a couple of times but did feel my muscles strength and length – and I moaned as they did each.
While it’s unlikely that Larcom will get me on the ice, The Slide Effect may actually get me in to my old jeans even though I am so sore at this juncture that I will likely not be able to walk too far in them.
For more information: www.theslideeffect.com
