Train Like a Pokemon

Twixie09

Some people are Charmanders. They naturally evolve through their health journey as they go. The gravitate towards eating right from a young age. They get into sports early and continue to live actively. Genetics favors them with fast metabolisms and high dexterity scores. It's not to say they don't have to train in order to stay fit and eat well to keep weight off, but their evolution is a natural result of moving through life's experiences. I'm definitely not one of these people. 

Other Pokemon are harder to evolve, just like people. It takes a special combination of elements before we can morph and strengthen into the best version of ourselves.

For instance, when evolving Inkay, the players has to hold the controller upside down when he levels. This makes me think of my own journey. Simply being healthier wasn't enough motivation for me to commit to an overhaul of my eating and activity habits. For me, I had to work from the inside out. I found motivation in how mentally damaging allowing myself to continue living life on the sidelines was becoming. I found inspiration within the characters I love and my ability to portray them at fan conventions. I found Paleo and discovered a love of running and bodyweight circuits. All of the benefits I've created for myself came from a change in mentality more than a simple physical overhaul. 

Kirawra

Then there are those, for whom one evolution is never enough. Take Evee, for example. In her base evolution, she's pretty simple (AND ADORABLE!), but she's a jack of all trades when it comes to evolution. She could grow up to be a fairy, flame, electric, brass, water, ice, psychic or dark type Pokemon depending on how she trains. Some people are lucky to be blessed with this kind of body- one that gives them a lot of different options as far as physical activities and hobbies. They're injury free and naturally take on any physical challenge from rock climbing to marathons. Switching between methods of training is as easy for them as changing the channel. However, we can all take one lesson from Evee. Don't settle for just one routine workout. It's self limiting! You could have tons of other strengths hidden inside you. Even if you find that all these evolutions aren't your favorite, you'll never get bored. Keep trying new things. Run a Tough Mudder, try a dance class, or ask a person trainer at your gym to get you set up in the weight section. Don't settle for one evolution. You might find out you have a lot more potential! 

It's important to remember that while women and men seem to evolve differently, it's purely cosmetic. Similarly, there's no difference between a male and female Pyroar aside from how they look. Sure, male and female metabolisms are different and how our bodies are put together creates separate challenges for us, but on the whole we can work on any physical task that the opposite sex can perform. Women lift heavy just like men. Men let their hair down and take Zumba classes. We might look different, but we can use the same skills and we can take up the same challenges. Sure, each gender has it's own set of physical boons and limitations, but generally, we are all capable of the same challenges. Just because the crossfit gym is full of dudes, don't let that keep you from signing up for a free class ladies. And gentleman, if that ballroom dancing studio you pass by on your way home from work seems like fun, just go for it!

There are also folks who are just waiting for the right person to come into their life to inspire or motivate them. I was lucky enough to have a few friends whose journeys made my challenge seem possible and that really helped me kick in the door when it came to simply getting started. However, it can also be useful to surround yourself with other people who are continually focused on their own self improvement. For example, Karrablast and Shelmet need each other to evolve. They have to be traded between Pokemon trainers and as they are, they gain attributes from the other so that they can strengthen and change. Karrablast, an uninspired bug gains Shelmet's armor and becomes a tanky knight called Escavalier while the snail part of Shellmet gains the freedom of losing his armor and becomes a dextrous and speedy ninja named Accelgor. The fact is that sometimes we aren't enough on our own. We need inspiration to feed our will to persevere through challenges. That's why I always encourage the Slayers to find their fellowship and take their health journey together. If you partner up, someone will always be there to motivate you when you stumble or to cheer you on when you need to commemorate your achievements. It's dangerous to go alone! 

Train like a Pokemon. If you're not evolving, then maybe it's time to try another method. Try something new at the gym, find a friend, or look inside yourself to discover what will truly motivate you to change what's outside. Get out there and evolve in your own unique, special way!

Resistance is Not Futile

I was recently contacted by the lovely folks at AquaGear Swim Shop about reviewing some of their equipment. Even though I'm not huge into water sports (simply because I live in NYC and that's just not in the cards for me on a regular basis), I decided to check out the site and find out what they were all about.

It turns out they're a family owned business and while a lot of stores out there claim to have great customer service, I was really impressed that when I went to the site during the day, a little chat window popped up with someone asking if I needed assistance with anything in the online shop. I think that's pretty cool that they have live customer service available for a web store. I don't think I've ever seen that as an automatic option when selecting a product unless I actively went to a customer service page and looked for it. When I accepted the chat invite, I was quickly connected to a sales associate who was happy to help me with any questions I had about products.

The store was founded by Joanne Bullock who is apparently an aquatic personal trainer amongst other things and the store really reflects that angle. There are lots of items that you would expect to see from your average swim shop (like goggles, swimsuits, and swim caps) but there are also some really great training accessories like waterproof mp3 players, weights, and jogging belts as well as training DVDs and manuals. It's easy to search for a specific item or use the categories on the sidebar of the site to find what you want and hey, if you don't find it that way, you can always use the live chat feature to get advice!

I ended up choosing my item to review based on the fact that I needed something I could use out of the water. I've been adding some strength workouts into my routine and buying a set of weights can be really expensive and heavy, plus I don't know where I would store them in my starving artist's apartment. My mom has had some success with resistance bands and when I saw some on the site I immediately jumped at the opportunity to review them.

They had two kinds; the Speedo Aqua Fit 360 Stretch Bands which can be interchanged with a bunch of different pieces for different purposes or the All Pro Resistance Bands which come in two versions (extra heavy tension and medium). For the sake of being basic and not having to deal with attachments, I chose to get the extra heavy All Pro Resistance Bands. 

Ordering was easy and AquaGear saves your information for later use so you don't have to re-enter your shipping and billing address. However, they don't save your credit card info. That's actually something I like because I feel like it's really easy for someone to hack your password to things and then buy anything they want in that situation. Maybe I'm just paranoid but I don't mind the extra step of entering my payment info if it's going to ensure a little safety against identity theft. 

By the time I got back from my week of vacation in North Carolina, my shipment had arrived and I was ready to resist all the bands!

I was actually surprised at how effective they were at adding weight. I'd been pretty ghetto about the "rows" in my strength circuit. I was using heavy pots and pans or filling bags with books and lifting them so it was nice to have something with a firm grip that acted like a weight because I feel like they position of your hand when lifting can actually change some of the muscles that you use to perform the action. When I was using bags of books, my hand and/or wrist would often feel sore afterwards and I didn't experience that with the All Pro bands.

It also has an adjustable foot pad that you can slide up and down the band to stand on and shorten them for different positions. They were really easy to incorporate into my routine and gave me a lot of different options for upper body exercises without needing multiple pieces of equipment. Again, when space is an issue in your apartment, that's a pretty winning factor. They also come with a mesh storage bag so you can keep them together and out of the way when you're done (which is nice if you have a tendency to trip over things like me!).

One thing I'd like to know that the bands don't seem to offer on the packaging and that AquaGear doesn't offer in the store description for the item is the exact difference between the two sets of All Pro bands that they offer. Obviously one is medium and one is heavy, but how much weight is the resistance mimicing? I have no frame of reference for how much weight I'm moving. The other con for resistance bands is that they don't change their resistance, but with free weights you can always change them out for a heavier one. That's hardly the product's fault, though. It's really just something to keep in mind when trying to choose between weights and bands.

All in all, I'm really excited to continue using these bad boys and to see how I can use them to spice up my strength circuits! I was definitely able to get a more effective set of upper body exercises into today's workout and over time I think this is really going to improve my upper body strength. If there's anyone out there who has experience with resistance bands, I'd love to hear your advice on exercises in the comments!

Zombies, Run 5k Trainer Review

Six weeks ago I embarked on a quest to become a distance runner. 

I didn't wake up at 250 lbs and say, "I'm going to run this weight off, hooray!" Hell no. I quit the cross country team two weeks into the first semester of my freshman year of high school. Growing up, running made me feel like I was going to die.

I never experienced runner's high, just runner's hell.

It wasn't until I lost some of the weight I'd been holding on to for years, realized I'd be out of town and away from the gym for several weeks during the summer, and started using the character I was preparing to cosplay as an inspiration for my workout routine that I finally decided to give running a real chance. I committed myself to at least eight weeks of running training with Couch to 5k. However, no sooner had I started my first week than someone brought Zombies, Run to my attention. It's an app that turns your boring, soul-sucking run into a post apocalyptic race for survival. That's right, fellow nerds! There's a fitness RPG for your phone that will knock your socks off and change the way you look at running forever, or at least that's what it did for me. You can collect resources and build up your base to resist attacks and of course, you can use all the statistics that the app tracks to see how you're doing as far as speed, distance, and much more. They have a website where you can log in and see detailed analysis of your run on a GPS map and accompanying timeline of the music that was playing and the descriptions of the part of the training program that you were on at the time. In this way, you can see how certain exercises affected you and how specific songs or locations may have influenced your run. When something matches fitness, entertainment, and geekdom this fantastically, I just can't resist.

As someone who couldn't run for any serious distances, I was really happy to see that they had a Couch to 5k equivalent. Zombies, Run 5k Training builds up your capacity for distance running while roping you into it's own engrossing story line that keeps you coming back for more in your quest to train as a "runner," one of Abel township's most valuable resources. In the world of Zombies, Run, runners function as lines of communication to the outside world, rescue mission operatives, and collectors for survival gear in the area. Rather than fight the zombies, your job is to move as quickly and quietly as you can so as not to attract undue attention, but more often then not, you do end up outrunning your fair share of hordes while you're out on missions. There's nothing like the fear of having your brains ripped out of your head and eaten by hungry zombies to keep you running at a good clip even when you feel like you want to stop pushing yourself. 

With Zombies, Run 5k Training, you have three missions to complete per week for eight weeks that get you in good enough shape to complete a 5k without stopping to walk. You can repeat missions if you're not ready to move on and all the distance running is labeled as "freeform" (run or walk if you need to).

Here are the pros. The story keeps me invested in my training even when I don't feel like I want to work out. The voice acting is surprisingly great! There is a colorful cast of characters and I always look forward to the times when I get to learn more about them. There's a great mix of drama, comedy, and color commentary on the exercises you're being asked to do during drills (high knees, heel lifts, skipping, etc.). I love inhabiting the character of Runner 5. Going on rescue and resource missions makes me feel like a badass. You can create a workout playlist and use it through the app so that the mission directions and storyline play on top of it throughout your workout. You can use GPS or the accelerometer to track your stats which means if you have bad weather or you prefer to use a treadmill on a regular basis, you have that option available to you. I love being able to assess my improvement or any shortcomings by looking at my run stats on the website. Every week when a new mission program comes up, I always think that it will be an insurmountable challenge, and yet every time I step up to the plate, I finish just fine- not easily, but I feel like my training has really paid off. However they put together the progression of the missions, I completely trust it because I've never felt the need to repeat a mission along the way and I've never stopped to walk during my "freeruns." You can also share your maps and your runs on Facebook and Twitter, which can be fun as well if you're into that sort of thing. The bottom line is that this app makes me look forward to doing something I've always hated. 

Here are the cons. The app does glitch out sometimes. The music player has trouble with large playlists and will sometimes tell you it can't use certain tracks. I usually select "run anyway" and it still has plenty of songs to choose from, but it is a drag that the bug hasn't been fixed despite complaints on their website and in iTunes reviews. Personally, I've used the accelerometer feature over the GPS twice on the treadmill to avoid dangerous running conditions due to inclement weather. The first time it completely bugged out my workout playlist and no music would play. I fixed it by selecting a different playlist but every few minutes it would stop playing any music at all and I'd have stop the mission and restart it. No one wants to be constantly fiddling with their phone and pulling it in and out of their pocket while they're running. It's distracting and very annoying. I got through it, but the statistics were pretty much useless when that happened because my mission got recorded in 4-5 separate pieces. At the very least it didn't make me start the whole mission over every time or I would have rage quit. If running on a treadmill is your thing, I have to say it isn't the best for this particular training app because there are several missions that ask you to stop and do heel lifts, squats, or stretches, causing you to constantly pause your machine. It's also frustrating to constantly be changing the speed on the treadmill to match the commands that the trainer is giving you. Maybe this wouldn't be an issue with the regular Zombies, Run app, but I'm not sure as I haven't had a chance to dig into that yet. The only other bug I've seen is that sometimes it doesn't immediately record my training session statistics on the website. This has happened twice over the six weeks I've used it and the stats usually show up when I complete the following mission. It's not like they're lost or I'm aren't permitted to continue to the next level, but they just don't show up for whatever reason which is a drag. 

Honestly, despite the bugs I mentioned, this is one of the best fitness apps I've ever used. It's taken me from zero to near hero in just six weeks and I can't wait to sink my teeth into the regular Zombies, Run app when I'm done. It's well worth the little bit of money it takes to purchase it and the fun you'll have becoming "Runner 5" will make you wonder why you didn't start running sooner.