ACE-ing the Symposium: How I learned to relax and enjoy muscle fatigue

ACE-ing the Symposium

How I learned to relax and enjoy muscle fatigue

Going to a fitness Symposium is sort of like going to a camp revival meeting, except everyone is gung-ho about fitness. There are usually two official workouts each day, one in the morning before the classes start, and one in the evening after the lectures are done. In the middle of the day, many of the “lectures” are actually hands-on activities that are sort of workout-esque. To put it simply, you can get more exercise in three days than many people in America get in a full year.

A sane and logical person would probably choose to skip the extra workouts and just enjoy the normal level of activity in the classes. However, the people who attend fitness conferences are not really sane people. We are crazy fitness nuts. We can’t get enough. Industry experts bring in their shiny new equipment and construct insane workouts with them to convince you to buy 100 Bosus, or TRXs, or Step 360s. And we go, because we want to take classes with the glitterati of fitness like Shannon Fable, Lawrence Biscontini, Keli Roberts and Dan McDonough (because we are hoping some of their awesomeness will transfer to us like body glitter).

The first time I attended the Symposium by the American Council on Exercise (ACE), I was relatively newly certified. I was 39 years old, and my flawed perception was that the average attendee age was around 19. Upon arrival, I felt a little old and flabby as I compared myself to others. This feeling was only magnified when I participated in the first workout. It was a high-low interval class that combined lots of partnered work with medicine balls and resistance bands. I think we did about 500 lunges and squats. By the next morning, I could hardly move, but that didn’t stop me from doing another group workout that included approximately 583 lunges and squats (each).

Throughout the day, it seemed like every class I did required more lunges and squats, and by the end of that first full day, I could hardly walk upright. By the second morning, I felt like my leg muscles actually squeaked when I walked. But I am a fitness nerd, and here were all these other fitness nerds—so I did the only logical thing. I switched muscle groups. Legs shot? Do the core workouts! Legs and arms non-functional? Focus on the upper body! By the time I left, there was not a muscle group in my body that didn’t feel like it had been soaked in butane and lit on fire.

However, I still totally enjoyed the experience. The physical discomfort only lasted for a few days, but I still remember listening to Jonathan Ross speak for the first time. I strongly related to his stories about how people in his family afflicted by obesity became his internal motivator for a life in fitness. I bought his book, Abs Revealed (If you aren’t familiar, you should definitely check it out: good, common-sense advice about building great abs).

Another presentation I still remember from that first Symposium was about working with kids, a topic close to my heart since I have three children of my own.

I took my Symposium motivation home. I started a "Fit Kids" class, and I wrote many articles about fitness and exercise. Time passed.

Knowing what the Symposium was like and that I intended to go again, I changed up my workout so that the next time, it wouldn’t kill me. When I worked with clients, I incorporated some of the techniques and tools I had learned at ACE (particularly the partner exercises). When I went back the Symposium in May of this year, I was 41, but in better shape than I had been two years prior.

I took my first TRX class with Dan McDonough at ACE West in 2013. The TRX completely destabilizes your body, so it takes bodyweight exercises like planks, pushups, squats and lunges to a whole new level. But on that first day of class, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. In a workout class like that, I am usually so focused on my own struggles (for example, “man, this move is kicking my butt”) that I really don’t have time to look at other people around me.

Dan had us split up into groups of two to work with a partner, mostly so that we could share the Rip and Suspension trainers more effectively. My partner was probably 25, with tattoos running down his arm. We may have stood about the same height, but he probably outweighed me by about 30 lbs—and all of that was chiseled, sculpted, and exactly where it ought to be. Having this young Schwarzenegger as my partner only magnified my sense of “old and beat,” with which I was already struggling. But it’s okay, you know. We all do the best we can.

So we were doing this move in which you put your feet in the handles of the suspension trainer, with your elbows on the floor, like a plank. And then you raise your hips into the air, bend your knees, and pull your knees toward your chest, and then you straighten back out and bring your knees to the right side and the left. This is excellent for every part of your abdominals, but it was an unfamiliar movement at the time, and I was having a hard time controlling it. In other words, I was shaking like an unbalanced washing machine. I had to back the move off and rest.

Lying on my belly on the floor and feeling wrecked, I looked to my right. There was another 20-something body sculptor next to me, looking like he was modeling the movement for the cover of Muscle and Fitness. Just when I felt like I was out of my depth, I turned my head to the left, and I saw a lithe 20-something woman, sweat beading on her bright red face, struggling with a much simpler modification of the move. My heart went out to her, because I realized I wasn’t the only one whose butt McDonough was kicking. This, in fact, was the point: to find your personal limit and push yourself right up next to it. And I realized that my struggling neighbor and I were actually getting a lot more out of this workout than Mr. Muscle and Fitness on the other side of me.

Long story short, McDonough’s workout sold me on the TRX. I now have it at home and I use it two or three days a week. When I took another TRX class with him in October, he kicked my butt once again. But I kept up much better. I don’t think my muscles squeaked as bad, but I have also learned a valuable lesson: hot tub + swimming = fitness conference survival.

I have also learned that the Symposium is only a little bit about working out. Although the surge of energy I felt working out with a bunch of fitness nuts encouraged me to push myself harder than normal, it was never really about me. It was about you—the person working out with me, or taking classes with me, or reading my articles.

Although it is difficult to get rid of the intrinsic need to compete, proving that I am as strong as a 20 year-old athlete is impossible and irrelevant. It just doesn’t matter. What matters—whether it’s at a fitness conference or my Tuesday morning workout—is pushing myself as far as my body can go that day, while encouraging others around me find their own limit, and surprising themselves by blowing right through it.

Tomato-poached fish and vegetables on mashed potatoes

At dinnertime, I like to imagine that I am on a Food Network show like Chopped, in which I have to come up with an awesome meal based on a strange assortment of foods. Of course the strange foods are just whatever happens to be in the kitchen that night. I have a thing about making last minute trips to the grocery store—I don’t like to do it—since that’s at least a half-hour venture.

For that reason, I like to think of ingredients as interchangeable parts. Instead of viewing a recipe as a rule book, I look at it as more of a guideline. So I provide this, our dinner, which was created based on what I had in the cabinet tonight: Frozen tilapia, leftover homemade tomato sauce, potatoes, some goat cheese, an onion and a zucchini. From zero to eating, this dish took me just about 29 minutes to prepare. I provide it to you in the hope that it will provide you with some ideas, but that it will not prompt you to run to the grocery store.

Tomato-poached fish and vegetables on mashed potatoes

Serves 3-4

6 individually wrapped frozen tilapia filets (or any mild, white fish)

4 redskin potatoes

1 onion, preferably Vidalia

1 zucchini

1 clove garlic

1 ½ cups leftover or 1 can Muir Glen Organic tomato sauce 

Olive oil or coconut oil

Black Pepper

Garlic powder

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp goat cheese

¼ cup milk

Remove from the freezer and run under cold water to thaw:

6 individually wrapped frozen tilapia filets

Start mashed potatoes

Fill a medium saucepan ¾ full with hot tap water. Place on the stove over high heat, and cover the pan.

Wash and scrub four redskin potatoes. Leave the skins intact and cube the potatoes.

Add the potatoes to the hot water. Once the water reaches a boil, lower the heat to medium-high to keep the water from boiling over. Set a kitchen timer for 12 minutes.

Begin the vegetable sauce

Coarsely chop one Vidalia onion. Heat on medium-high about ½ tsp. olive oil in a large, nonstick skillet with lid. Add the onion.

Coarsely chop one zucchini and add to the skillet with the onion. Sautee until the onion softens, becomes translucent, and starts to brown, about 8 minutes. Add 1 clove minced garlic and cook about 1 minute. Season with black pepper. Add ½ teaspoon dried or fresh oregano. Add 1 ½ cups organic tomato sauce (I had some homemade sauce leftover in the fridge, but you can use canned organic sauce like Muir Glen). Stir the vegetables and sauce together.

Poach the fish

Remove the fish from their individual wrappers and slide them into the tomato-vegetable broth. Nestle the fish down into the sauce, spooning sauce and vegetables over the top to cover the fish. Cover the pan and set the heat to medium. Allow the fish to cook in the broth until opaque and flaky, about 7 minutes.

Finish the potatoes

Into the bowl of an electric stand mixer, drop 2 tablespoons of butter, cut up, and 2 ounces of goat cheese (or Greek yogurt, or cream cheese, or sour cream, or feta). Add ¼ teaspoon black pepper. Season with garlic powder.

Use a colander to drain the potatoes. Add the potatoes to the butter & cheese in the mixer bowl. Beat on low for 30 seconds. Add about ¼ cup milk (or buttermilk)—just enough to make the potatoes fluffy without turning them into soup. Beat on medium-low speed for about 2 minutes. The potatoes should retain some of their texture.

Cover the whole mixer, including the bowl, with a towel to keep the potatoes warm.

Check the fish

The fish will be opaque and flaky when done.

Plate the dish

Spoon 1/4 of the mashed potatoes onto each plate. With the back of the spoon, smooth the potatoes out so they form a bed for the sauce. Top the potatoes with ¼ of the fish and vegetable mixture.

Gluten-free banana nut pancakes for one or two

Every once in a while, when we get the kids off to school, my hubby and I have a quiet morning in which we get to eat whatever we want. If I have a few bananas hanging around, I love to make these flourless banana-nut pancakes. They are pretty small, but the nuts make them rather filling.

One of two small pancakes

Notes:
Keep the skillet on medium-low heat. Because of the natural sugars from the banana and the coconut flour, the cake will brown quickly. If you use high heat, the exterior will burn before the inside sets.
Since these pancakes have no gluten or xanthan gum holding them together, they can be crumbly. Take care when flipping.
This recipe may be doubled if you have 2 bananas, or if you are very hungry.

Makes two pancakes.

Ingredients:

• 1 ripe banana
• 1 egg
• 1/4 tsp. gluten-free vanilla
• 2 tbsp. Bob's Red Mill almond flour
• 1 tbsp. Bob's Red Mill coconut flour
• 1/8 tsp. gluten-free baking powder (omit this for a Paleo option)
• 1 tbsp. chopped walnuts or pecans



Mash the banana with a wire whisk

• coconut oil

Directions:
Mash in a small bowl
1 ripe banana

Separate one egg. Add the yolk to the mashed banana.
Put the egg white in the bowl of an electric mixer with the wire whisk blade attached.
Beat the egg white on high speed until soft peaks form.

Add to the banana-egg yolk mixture:

Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form

1/4 tsp. gluten-free vanilla
2 tbsp. Bob's Red Mill almond flour
1 tbsp. Bob's Red Mill coconut flour
1/8 tsp. gluten-free baking powder (omit this for a Paleo option)
1 tbsp. chopped walnuts or pecans

Gently fold the egg white into the banana-egg-nut mixture with a rubber scraper, folding until the white is well incorporated. Do not overmix (that would deflate your egg whites)

Preheat a medium nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Add and allow to melt:
1/4 tsp. coconut oil

Spread the batter around with a spatula

Pour 1/2 of the batter into the skillet. This batter is thick--you will have to spread it around with a rubber scraper to make a flat pancake shape.


Cook the pancake on medium-low heat until bubbles form in the top surface and do not immediately close up with batter, about 4 minutes per side. Gently flip the pancake with a spatula. As you start to slide the spatula under the cake, take a peek at the bottom side. It should be a rich dark brown before you attempt to flip.

Before cooking the second pancake, add another 1/4 tsp. coconut oil to the pan. It helps with flipping.

Top with pure maple syrup and enjoy immediately.

Homemade Gluten-Free Waffles

Waffles are a weekend tradition in my house. When I was growing up, we used to make pancakes every Sunday. I learned that recipe when I was seven years old. Many years later, my kids developed a preference for waffles, which are basically the same thing, but with syrup pockets. I have made waffles almost every weekend for probably 15 years.

After going gluten free, the thought of a waffle-less existence depressed me almost as much as a future without pizza. I experimented with many waffle and pancake recipes, but this one, a combination of techniques from two different versions of Joy of Cooking and The Wooden Spook Bread Book, is our hands-down favorite. It makes more than enough waffles for five hungry people.

Preheat a waffle iron. Whisk together in a large bowl:

1 ¾ cups Bob’s Red Mill All-Purpose Gluten Free Flour

¾ tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon sugar

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon Bob’s Red Mill xanthan gum

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

Separate 4 eggs.

Using the wire blade of an electric mixer, beat the four egg whites until soft peaks form.

Thoroughly blend in another large bowl

4 egg yolks

¼ cup butter (1/2 stick)

½ cup Greek yogurt

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon gluten free vanilla

Add the flour mixture to the milk mixture and blend, then gently fold in the egg whites. The batter should be thick but still pourable. If it is too thick and doughy, gently blend in milk to thin it to pouring consistency.

Follow your manufacturer’s instructions for the amount of batter to pour into the machine and baking time. For our one-at-a-time Cuisinart waffle iron, I pour about ½ cup of batter in a soup ladle, then spread the batter around with the back of the ladle before closing the lid.

We top our waffles with nut butter and pure maple syrup, but sliced bananas and pecans are yummy, too. The topping possibilities are endless!

Only when chased: Learning to love the run

When I was younger, people used to ask me, “Do you run?” 

I would answer “Only when chased.”

In middle school, I used to write myself notes to get out of running one lonely mile in gym class. I hated running. I was bad at it. It took me a good 14 minutes to do a mile. I had allergies. I imagined I tasted blood in my lungs at the end of a mile. I had weak ankles. Sweating deflated my big '80s hair. I didn’t like how my face would turn red when I ran, and stay that way for hours.

An athlete I was not, but I had a decent sense of humor, so I wrote funny excuse notes. My eighth-grade gym teacher had to that no actual parent was writing these notes, but I made him laugh every week with my absurd stories: Valerie has contracted a rare lung disease that only flares up on Wednesdays, in response to the threat of running. Please excuse her today.

For whatever reason, the gym teacher let me get away with it, and on Wednesdays, I would not even bother changing into my gym uniform. I would ride in the golf cart with my forty-something gym teacher, and make sarcastic comments about school and my classmates. He would spit coffee while laughing. I would hold the clipboard at the finish line. While he called out times, I would write down the minutes and seconds of my sweaty, panting classmates. I somehow managed to get an A in gym without ever doing anything. 

In high school, I had teachers who actually made me participate in the mile.  I usually walked it, but sometimes I would sprint for a few yards. We stopped having compulsory gym in 10^th grade. I remember achieving my best mile time ever (to that point) that year. It was about 10min 30seconds. Once I caught my breath, I remember going on and on to my gym teacher about how impressed with myself I was. “I knew I could do it,” I remember saying. “I knew if I just didn’t quit, I could do it.” I also remember the look on her face, which was a polite version of “Do what?”

Once forced PE was over, if I linked up all the miles I ran between ages 16 and 30, It probably would have added up to about 10. Combined. I ran once or twice in college. Maybe five or six times between my first two pregnancies. But I really did have allergies. I could only sustain a running program for about two weeks before I got a sinus infection and was out for three weeks. It’s hard to get any better when you keep getting sick.

I was about 32 when I started running fairly regularly. I lived in Warrenton, Virginia, at the time, and we had a trail—the Greenway, which was once a railroad track. In its infinite wisdom, the town had decided they would never need that whole commuter railway thing, so they dug up all the tracks and paved the former railroad bed. It was a smooth, level mile. This was where I spent most of my running time—being lapped by speed walkers and moms with triplets in strollers.

I was 34 when I decided to do my first 5k race. It was sponsored by a high school track team that had done a poor job promoting outside their own community. Only about 100-150 runners showed up, most of whom were still in high school. Although it was in November, the morning turned exceptionally hot, and I was sweltering in overwarm clothing. Instead of the nice, flat out and back railroad bed I was used to, this 5k course around Robinson High School had actual hills. Steep ones. The high schoolers bolted at the start line. Left in their dust, I tried too hard to keep up, which wore me out and forced me to walk more than I wanted to.

I was not exactly the last person to cross the finish line, but I was pretty close. I think the last guy was actually pushing an oxygen tank, and he was right behind me. My finish time was about 49 minutes. If you have ever done a large 5k, you know that 49 minutes is a decent walking time, and there are usually lots of people coming in somewhere around the one-hour mark. But this was not a large run. Pretty much everyone was finished and they were all hanging around, waiting for the stragglers—me. As I labored across the finish line, it seemed like every high school track kid in Fairfax County was lined up to cheer me on. “You can do it!” They shouted. “Almost there!” They said. “Are you ok? Call 9-1-1!”

I admit that a mean little part of me wanted to smack them for being so obviously worried. But there were far more people than I could effectively smack before the police arrived. And I had to admit that my face was an unhealthy color somewhere between heart attack and aneurism.  

Although this was not my favorite 5k race, I am happy to say it was not my last. Luckily, I had a pretty slow time from which I could improve. I still struggled with the same problems: allergies, sinus infections, no really good places to run. But I kept at it. I ran on the treadmill or I did the stair stepper at the gym when I could.

I got a stress fracture in my left foot (my only running-related injury ever). That got better; then I fell down some stairs and sprained both ankles. It took a while before I could even walk, let alone run. But I did. While practicing a dance aerial called the “pancake,” I injured my second toe so badly that it still lists to the right. (For the record, I did have it x-rayed. I am quoting my doctor’s diagnosis directly here: “Eh, I think you’ll be all right.” So I can’t say I broke it or dislocated it, or ripped a tendon. I just don’t know. But if your toe is forever crooked, and every time you tripped for a year and a half, it brought tears to your eyes, you can bet you messed something up pretty good.) That got better and I sprained my ankle again.

Every time I hurt myself, I went through a progression of recovery: first I was in the pool swimming, then I started walking, and finally back to running.

This year, the happiest coincidence of my life changed everything completely. I discovered that I should not be eating wheat. Once I stopped that, my allergies went away completely. Now I can spend time outside without the sinus infections. After about six months, my bones started getting stronger, so I didn’t hurt myself as easily. What a difference this has made in my life—to be able to run outside on a regular basis without getting sick, and to live an active life without spraining, straining, bruising and fracturing my poor little bones!

I recently started using the TRX suspension trainer, which helped even out my left-right muscle imbalances and made my legs stronger for running. We got a treadmill in our basement, so that I can keep running even when it’s windy, cold, snowy or dangerously hot.

Now, at 41, I am routinely running three days a week. For the past few weeks, I have done one five-mile run per week. Two days ago, I managed to run 3 miles in less than 30 minutes for the first time in my life. All this from the woman who used to write herself notes to get out of doing one single mile in gym class. I am actually seriously considering running a half-marathon in May. Me!

Now, much like my high school gym teacher, you may be hearing me say, “I did it, I did it,” and thinking, “Did what?” There are a lot of people who run faster than I do. Although the speedwalkers and the women pushing triplets in jogging strollers don’t pass me up on the trail anymore, other people do. There will always be folks who are faster than me, younger than me, stronger than me. But that’s the thing about running. Even though we’re in the same race, I’m not really competing with them. I’m competing with me. 

I am out there running against 12 year-old me who held the clipboard for my gym teacher because I didn’t want to get my hair messed up.

I am running against 34-year-old me with the tomato red face, surrounded by well-meaning high school track kids who thought I was going to have a coronary on their finish line.

I am running against chunky me, allergy me, and sprained-ankle me, and stress-fracture me. And at the same time I am competing against all these “me”s of the past, I am also at peace with them and able to be proud of them and love them, because they’re the ones who got me here.

I may never win a race—unless if I manage to find the one that is sponsored by the 70 year-old Women with Walkers foundation, and they do a bad job of promoting the event outside their community, so that I am competing against a bunch of septuagenarians with assistive equipment—however, I have seen some of these ladies book it around the mall. I think they could take me.

Coming in first only happens for one person in each race. Even winning your age group is pretty limited. Running, walking, exercise in general, is all about getting better every time. It’s about training your mind to focus on the task at hand, and learning not to give up when you feel a stitch in your side. It’s about understanding when your body needs a break so that you can finish, and when you can push through and do something you never thought you could. It’s about getting stronger—not just in your bones and muscles and lungs and heart, but in your mind, that precious organ that makes everything else possible.

So now do I run? Absolutely. But only when chased--by yesterday's accomplishments and a strong desire to do better today.

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Bread

So it's not exactly health food, but every once in a while, you just need to bake something sweet. This is a family favorite made gluten-free. I adapted this recipe from the best cookbook of all time, Joy of Cooking's 75th Anniversary Edition.


One 9 x 5-inch loaf

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan.

Whisk together and set aside:
1 1/2 cups Bob's Red Mill All Purpose Gluten-Free Baking Flour
1/2 tsp. Bob's Red Mill Xanthan Gum
1 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cloves

Combine in a small bowl and set aside:
1/3 milk
1/2 tsp. gluten-free vanilla

Beat in a large bowl until fluffy:
6 tbsp. softened butter
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar

Beat into the butter/sugar mix, one at a time:
2 large eggs

Add and beat at low speed until blended:
1 cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)

To the butter/sugar/egg mixture, add one-third of the flour mixture, then one-half of the milk mixture. Repeat, alternating the flour and the milk mixture until everything is blended. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to incorporate all the butter/sugar.

Optional: Stir in 1/2 raisins or walnuts (or both). You can also use pecans instead of walnuts.

Pour the batter into the greased pan and spread evenly with a spatula. Bake until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 70 minutes.

Adapted from Joy of Cooking, Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Bcker, Ethan Becker. 75th Anniversary Edition, 2006, Scribner, New York, NY. p. 628.

Working out on the road: The TRX

I have written before about my love affair with the TRX. It’s such a simple product--just a couple of straps, belts and handles--and it is one of the most versatile pieces of equipment I have ever used. My eighty-two year-old mother could use it. My 14 year-old son could use it, and Drew Brees does use it (and he stars in how-to workout videos about it on YouTube).

I only wish I had invented it, so I could be a millionaire right now. But I can’t even be upset about that, because it was invented by a former Navy SEAL, and I think he deserves to be sitting on my imaginary beach sipping margaritas.

The TRX weighs just about 2 lbs, packs up in a mesh bag that takes up as much space in your bag as one pair of shoes. 

You can use this piece of equipment anywhere. You can even tie it to a tree and use it in the hotel parking lot. But that is not something I would ever do. I think that would encourage a flood of people to come ask questions. And by a flood, I mean more than zero people.

I usually hook the TRX over the hotel door in my room. It’s pretty quiet, so I was able to get a nice workout in 20 minutes without waking up my husband or kids when we were all sharing a room before visiting Busch Gardens this summer.

The compact size, light weight, time efficiency and silence make it a perfect travel workout tool.

Following is an example of a travel TRX workout that should take about 20 minutes and totally kick your butt. If this workout is too easy for you, increase the challenge by changing your position relative to the anchor point, or doing the moves one-armed or one legged. 

I have also provided video so that you can see what I’m talking about.

Set 1. Complete two full sets.

            Rows from seated to standing         Sit, pull up, 3 rows. Rest 5 seconds.

                                                                    Sit, pull up, 4 rows. Rest 5 seconds.

                                                                    Sit, pull up, 5 rows. Rest 5 seconds.

            Triceps pulls                                    Repeat 8-10 times.

            To increase the challenge, stand further away from the anchor point.

Set 2. Complete two full sets.

            One-legged lunges                            Lunge 8 times on each leg = 1 set

            Bicep curls                                        8-10 reps.

            To increase the challenge, make it a single-hand curl.

Set 3. Complete two full sets of 4-10 reps.

            Squats with raised arms                  Keep arms up, out of your field of view

            W, Y, Ts                                         Shape these letters with your arms.

Set 4. Complete two full sets. One set = continue the move for one minute, taking breaks as needed.

            Plank, body saw OR atomic pushup.                       

            Side plank, rotating plank, or with a hip dip on each 3rd