Exercise

Like all fitness products, running shoes have a shelf life that depends on how often they’re used and how they’re used. Running on worn out shoes can increase your risk of injury, and it usually is just downright painful. What are some signs you’re in need of new kicks and not just having an off run?

1. Track your mileage.

Most shoe companies recommend new shoes every 350-550 miles. For people who run 20+ miles a week this means new shoes every 3-4 months.

2. Check the sole.

Put your old pair of shoes on a table and look at them from behind. Are they leaning to one side? This means the midsole cushioning is probably worn too.

3. Aches and pains.

Suddenly experiencing new aches and pains in your feet? May be a sign that your midsole is wearing out.

4. Creasing and wrinkles.

Look at the area under your heel and ball of your foot. Are there creases and wrinkles? May be a sign that you need new shoes.

5. The Twist Test.

Can you twist the shoe? As your shoes wear out it’ll become increasingly easier and easier to twist them.

6. Is the tread worn down?

As we clock the miles we wear down the tread, especially if you’re an outdoor or trail runner. Check here for signs of wear.

How do I prolong the life of my shoes?

Many experts suggest having an arsenal (or two or three) pairs of running shoes that you rotate throughout runs. This can give them a longer life, and also keep you from that horrible transition from shoe to shoe. If you’re tight on budget try buying a new pair of shoes about halfway through the life of your current shoe. This gives you time to break them in during the next few weeks on short runs.

Remember, if your feet go numb, feeling tingly, you have aches and pains that are more than just muscle stiffness, this can be a sign of poorly fitting shoes. Don’t wear shoes that hurt your feet to prevent further injury.

Every few months a “new” type of exercise or fitness routine makes its way into the media and takes the world by storm. Remember Taeboe? Crossfit? Pole Dancing? Pilates? Yolates? It’s easy to be overwhelmed by all the options about which you should pick to help you become a fit, healthy person.

Don’t worry – I have the answer in one sentence.

Do what makes you happy.

For some reason this isn’t intuitive to everyone. Some people think that for muscle gain they should do x, for leaning out they should do y, and oh my god they heard that t, q, r and p are crazy and they’d never try! It’s really so much more simple than that.

Try a type of exercise or fitness. Like it? Do it.

A great example is my stepdad. My mom has bought him gym membership after gym membership and the man refuses to go. Once I managed to drag him, but he spent the entire time walking circles around the indoor track. I didn’t care, it meant that he was moving. A few months later my stepdad dropped about 40 pounds from walking. Yup. He’d put on his headphones, tune into a football game or talk radio, and just cruise around the neighborhoods and trails on foot for an hour or two. He found it relaxing, he enjoyed it, he did it. He looked forward to his walks. He invited us on the walks to share the joy. In fact, when we went to Mexico he’d wake up early to walk on the beach. On vacation!

Another example is my mom’s friend Kelly. She’s been on every diet, exercise plan, health routine, etc. known to man. She decided to take up spinning one day with me at the gym. She hated it. Absolutely hated it. But her fitness heart rate monitor told her she’d just burned 450 calories in 1 hour – which was what spinning was about to her. Calories. So she’d go every so often, hating it, trudging through it. Eventually the thought of going to spin filled her with foreboding. Then it translated to a lack of will to go to the gym. Then? Then she stopped going all together.

Seems counter productive, right?

Fitness should be about what you love.

Here’s a personal example – I love the desert. Love it. If it’s not 120 degrees and dry as hell I am unhappy. I love to go outside and hike. I could walk, run or climb the Arizona mountains for hours a day if I could. I love it. I enjoy it. I don’t care about driving to go to do, or navigating through Phoenix traffic. I feel the same way about my challenge yoga class. My mom would rather shoot herself in the face than spend an hour contorting herself into poses, but I would rather die than skip it. See what it’s about?

Trying something new.

This is important too. No matter how much you love to walk, run, lift weights, etc. you’ll eventually get bored. Sometimes all it takes is a change of scenery: climb a new mountain, go to a new instructor, sign up for a new gym. Sometimes it’s a complete revamp of what you do. My suggestion? Try a new class. Go to your gym, grab the class schedule, close your eyes and let your finger land on a random class. Barre Boutique? Sounds fun.

The same goes with those of you who aren’t gym go-ers. StumbleUpon is a great way to find random stuff. Click the fitness or health tab and GO! Type in “Outdoor exercises” into Google and see what happens. Try a BodyRock.tv workout or Nike Fit Club.

Do what you love and exercise will become part of your life! THAT is the best exercise for you.

We’ve all been there – our workout clothes start to smell after awhile. Socks, sports bras, underwear…doesn’t matter what it is, if sweat has touched it, it’s going to stink. Don’t worry, there are a lot of cheats to get the stank out.

1. Wash your clothes with 1 cup of apple cider vinegar.

This will help to neutralize any odors that you may have. You can pair it with your normal laundry detergent.

2. Combat underarm stench with mouthwash.

Spritzing a bit of clear mouthwash on the underarm areas or crotch areas before washing. The antiseptic helps to get out the odor.

3. If you can’t wash them right away, hang them out to dry.

Instead of throwing them into your laundry basket to contaminate all your other clothes, hang them out to dry in a bathroom or on a laundry line until you can clean them.

4. Use exercise clothes specific laundry detergent.

Yep, they make this! It helps prevent break down of the clothes because it is gentle, but has powerful stank removers so you’re getting a deep clean.

5. Avoid fabric softeners on moisture-wicking clothes.

They disrupt the integrity of the material to moisture-wick.

6. Hang dry clothes with elastic to make them last longer.

After washing hang out sports bras, gloves, anything with elastic. It keeps them around longer and saves you money on electricity.

7. Wash baseball hats in the dishwasher.

Helps keep the integrity of the shape.

Here’s a great article on how to remove the yellow armpit stains from white shirts!

I hate cardio. It’s boring, I drift off, I don’t push myself, I hate it. Rather than throw in the towel, I decided to find ways to make cardio more challenging and, ultimately, more fun.

1) Join a class.

My first spin/cycle class was amazing. I usually hate riding those stupid bikes, where I go for like 10 minutes, get bored and don’t sweat. Hah, not in a spin class! The music combined with the fact that I made myself pick a bike in a center so I couldn’t just trounce off when I got bored or overwhelmed. I worked myself hard. The same goes for other cardio – step, rumba, belly dancing, cardio kick boxing. Find your grove! Experiment! Ask personal trainers at the gym which classes are their favorite! If it’s fun, it’s not a work out.

2) Ditch plodding along.

It’s way easy to get on the elliptical, glue your eyes to the TV and just plod along. There are a lot of ways to mix up a standard cardio work out. For example, I gave my sister the following idea and she now uses it and says it breaks the time up easier.

Elliptical: 4 minute warm up at moderate intensity. 1 minute of resistance at 15. 4 minutes resistance at 5. 1 minute resistance at 16. 4 minutes resistance at 5.

Split this up any way you want. Do 5 minutes and 2 minutes, or 10 minutes and 5 minutes. Heck, beef the resistance up to 55. Segmenting the time like that where you’re counting INTERVALS instead of hours makes time go by faster.

3) In the same thought process, mix it uppp

Changing resistance is one good way, why not change the incline and pace too? On machines that have inclines experiment with those. High incline for 10 minutes, low incline for 10 minutes. Resistance and incline can be changed on the machine, don’t be afraid to experiment.

4) Push the pace when you mix it up

Up your resistance and also try to push the pace. Basically, try to go the same speed at the higher intensity/resistance/incline as you did at the lower one. Think of it as “pushing the pace.”

5) Let your iPod be your god.

Take it off shuffle. I know, it’s hard, but do it. Coordinate your cardio to your iPod. The first song should be your warm up – a 4 or so minute song that is mellow, but will get you in the mood. Follow it by songs according to your plan. Doing intervals that day? Download a playlist that’s like a Power Hour one, where each song is a minute long. Always start to slack off at about 15 minutes in? The song that starts at 15 minutes should be your absolute BOOTY POPPING I AM A BEAST song! Know your work out and coordinate your iPod to it. In the same breath, don’t get stuck on the same play list. Listening to the same songs over and over again sucks. Tumblr search playlists, go on Fratmusic.com to find new songs, listen to the radio, go on internet forms. Anything, just mix your play list up!

6) Intervals

I pretty much already touched on this, but intervals really help me in my work out funk. Telling myself, “Alright, I’m going to run AS HARD AS I CAN for the length of the track, then walk the corners, THEN RUN AGAIN!” is really motivating to me. I have a set plan, and intervals breaks up the time. Plus, intervals burn more calories and more fat, but that’s a topic for another day. This goes along with breaking up your workout, but this is more tuned to the outside runner than the inside cardio machine junkie (i.e. – me)

7) BE POSITIVE. 

This is the most important part. When I feel like quitting, I always give myself a pep talk. “Holy crap, Courtney, you have burned 500 calories according to this machine! Hell, a year ago you would have been sitting on your ass eating 500 calories and watching Friends repeats, but today you’re at the gym. And look at that? Look how badass you look with all that sweat on your face. Like a beast. Like a beast that will run a 5k soon because you’re SOOO cardiovascularly fit!” Or, my personal favorite, “I really love cardio. I have all this time to myself to do things at my own pace. No professors or lectures or studying, this is ME time. And I’m ROCKING it.”

8) Use distractions to your advantage

I know a lot of people frown on watching TV when you work out, because you often plod along. Turn it into a drinking game, but for your cardio. Some examples –

I watched The Princess Diaries on ABC Family. Every time Ana Hathaway and Chris Pine had sexual tension, I put the resistance up to 50 and the incline up to 15 and ran as hard as I could until the scene was over.

When watching anything, I up the intensity/etc. to the highest during the commercials. That leaves the show part – the entertaining part – to be my recovery time.

When watching SVU, I push the pace as hard as I can every time Ice T is on TV.

Get it? Make up your own system, where the TV commercials or certain scenes in movies or, hell, every time Nancy Grace shakes her head condescendingly at a minority into an opportunity to sprint or recovery. Make it YOUR work out, it’ll be fun.