Fitness Camp Kickoff
5 April 2005If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Had two great ladies travel up to South Central Pennsylvania for one of our fitness day camps on Sunday. With the onset of the good weather the fitness camp season is off and running! It was blustery and in the 40s when Susan and Laurie arrived. Our typical routine is to sit a spell and figure out where the attendees are at, physically speaking, and where they want to get to. Is what they seek realistic? Once we mutually arrive at a goal, we like to reverse engineer the process and lay a loose game plan into a periodization framework. In the Purposefully Primitive methodology we work with three core components: progressive resistance, cardiovascular training and nutrition. We hatch a plan within each of the core fitness triad elements. Of course I hate to talk a thing to death and there is no better way to learn how to swim than by jumping into the pool. So within 45-minutes of arriving we were off to the mountains for a cardio session. I am a big believer in the use of the heart rate monitor to access aerobic intensity. We had Laurie and Susan each wear one as we tramped along the trout steam, then up the steep and narrow trails leading to the circular path that circles the farm.
One aspect of outdoor cardio (using a heart rate monitor) that folks are continually amazed by is once the heart is elevated initially it is fairly easy to keep it elevated. The goal was to stay between 70-85% of age-related max and we would periodically spike up to 85 or 90% then take a breather and let the heart settle back down to the 70% floor. This gives the muscles a chance to clear waste products before we would hit it hard once again. This interval approach to cardio fits like a glove when working outside and when grade (going up steep hills) is factored into the aerobic mix. Spike, settle down, spike again; after chugging hard up a steep hill it is wonderful to top out at 90% then relax and allow the system to recuperate while sucking in the rarefied oxygen. We would zen-out on the amazing mountain scenery then refreshed and revitalized hit it again. 45-minutes of intense walking went by in what seemed an eye-blink. My dynamic duo were invigorated, fired up and ready for stage II. We headed back to the unheated garage gym and Stacy put them through a whole-body all-dumbbell routine that could be completed in 45-minutes. All the fundamental exercises were gone over in depth and proper technique (full-range-of-motion on all exercises, today, tomorrow and forever) and workout pace were displayed and discussed. After a high intensity out-of-doors cardio session and a full-body weight workout in a 40-degree garage, my two warrior amazons were ready to eat.
We threw together a primitive feast: haddock fillets spiced with jalapeo pepper, homemade pasta with special sauce made with wine and country sausageveal chops, brown rice, spelt berries, saladeveryone ate like longshoreman after a 12-hour shift. Strong coffee for Susan afterwards; I drank beer. We leisurely discussed what we had done and talked over how best to meld that which theyd been exposed to with the particular realities of their individual situations. Once all the food had been eaten, all the drinks drank and all the questions answered, it was time for them to head back to the real world.
Highly recommendedI’m always on the lookout for realistic cookbooks and the best I came across this past year would have to be Steven Raichlens How to Grill. I picked up a copy of this 500-page opus Magnus at Sams Club for $13. This sucker covers every way to grill using propane, charcoal or wood every tool and every conceivable food is described and gone into in incredible detail: beef, veal, pork, sausage, lamb, chicken, turkey, fish, shellfish, vegetables and desertsevery conceivable recipe is covered. Plus he elaborates on how to construct your own homemade sauces. Types of grill, discussions on smokers, on and on it goesad infinitumplus the book is prefaced with a glowing introduction from Purposefully Primitive hall-of-fame chef Mario Battali. If you see it snatch it! Raichlen runs something called BBQ University at a luxury resort and charges attendees $2,500 a head to learn the subtleties of BBQ preparation. (Brisket is the Mount Everest of BBQ) Filmed for TV, I counted 32 people in attendance at one 2-day seminarBBQ is tasty and lucrative!
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