YOU come first

This is a topic that I have been trying to write  about for the last 8 months. It is very dear to my heart and finally I am able to post it!

Have you flown recently? If so, did you pay attention to the flight attendants when they go through the safety instructions? "Put your own oxygen mask before helping others", sounds familiar?  Even though we all mostly tune out off those instructions, there is definitely a deeper message in that particular instruction - at least for me.

It has always been the rule of thumb for me to put my loved ones first. Especially now that I have a baby, it doesn't look like there should be any other way. However when you think about it, there needs to be times where YOU have to come first!  If you are not strong and healthy enough, you cannot help anyone around you, including those who might be solely dependent on you to live. Your loved ones might not depend on you physically and you might not realize how your emotional support is key for them. Think twice before you say (if you ever say) "I am not important, you come first"!  You might be surprised how many people might depend on you well being! :)

So let's all focus on being strong! How about 10 perfect push-ups before you end your day today. You can be on your toes, on your knees or on the wall. Can you give me 10 push-ups with 1 second hold on the bottom with each of them?

Strong core = strong body!

Hi five for keeping yourself healthy!

Step by Step

Prior to Kaya, it was a little tough to understand how priorities can take over your workout routines. Now I get it! Over the last year  and a half I have been working on developing short but effective training routines to keep us in shape without jeopardizing our other priorities.

Those who have trained with me would already know, it is never the number of minutes you spend on the treadmill that helps you get stronger, it is the layout of your routines, your form and of course the moves. Over the next few weeks, I will share with you some of the routines that I follow. Please make sure to comment on my post if you have any detailed questions on those routines so that I can help you do it right even if I am not there with you in person.

For this blog, my focus will be your heart - having it beat hard AND strong!

I love being able to use what's already around us to work out. Given that I live in the city, one thing that I have constant access is set of stairs. No matter what neighborhood I have been, I always manage to find a set of stairs that I can play with. As a result, I have built a 15 minute routine around them. Even if you don't have this luxury, as long as you have 10 or more step stairs you can still use this routine to strengthen you heart. What I have here is a 200-step stairs with multiple landings. I treat each landing as the start of my new move. Once I reach to the top, I run around the block to get back to the bottom of the stairs so that I can repeat everything one more time. My routine can easily be done without the running part and with only one set of stairs.

Here is my routine:

Move 1: side one leg jumps RIGHT - face towards left, be on your right leg, jump up step by step (try not to hold on to the railing)

Move 2: side one leg jumps LEFT - face towards right, be on your left leg, jump up step by step (try not to hold on to the railing)

Move 3: moving pushups - put your hands on the fourth step, do one pushup, jump your feet to the second step and move your hands 2 steps higher, continue until you are at the top

Move 4: skipping squat jump - start with a quarter squat, jump to the second step holding the squat, keep skipping a step all the way to the top making sure that your squat is held

Move 5: jumping planks - put your hands on the fourth step holding a hand plank, jump your feet to the second step, jump you feet back down to start, jump your feet to the third step, move your hands three steps higher, keep moving until the end

Move 6: uneven jumps RIGHT - face towards left, put right foot on the first step and left foot on the floor, jump both feet to the next step (left foot to step 1, right foot to step 2), keep your body centered between legs, go all the way to the top

Move 7: uneven jumps LEFT - face towards right, put left foot on the first step and right foot on the floor, jump both feet to the next step (right foot to step 1, left foot to step 2), keep your body centered between legs, go all the way to the top

Move 8: kickbacks - step by step run up with brining your heels to your butt

Move 9: knees up - step by step run up with bringing your knees up towards your chest

Move 10: quick jump - feet shoulder width apart, knees slightly bent, jump to the next step, move as fast and controlled as you can

Move 11: moving dips - sit on the second step, feet on the ground, move your butt off the step, do one dip, without sitting back jump you feet to the first step and move your hands to the third step, repeat the dip and the jump all the way to the top

Once you do all 11 moves, repeat everything one more time. If you only have one set of stairs, after each move run down and do the next move.

Now, are you ready to give it a try? At the end you will deserve a huge HiFive!

Comment below if you have any questions.

I am back!

Yet another morning rushing into the muni, being jammed like sardines just so that I can make it to work on time... As I am being pushed both from left and right, the driver starts talking with a very heavy Spanish accent. He doesn't say "get away from the doors" or "we are delayed". He actually talks about how to have a fun start to the day with each stop and how each stop is more than "church", "Castro", "van ness". He is almost like a tour guide for all these commuters who don't even pay attention. And with his positive attitude my morning shapes up differently...

I hope most of you can attest that a positiveness can be a great boost of energy. This morning's positive interaction made me reevaluate multiple things in my long overdue todo list. One of which is this blog. Pretty much every week I have an idea to write down but hardly have the time to type it up, proof read and then post. Today I decided that since I always wanted this blog to serve as that positive touch to all of us, regardless of how short the entry might be or quickly written, I will make sure to update it at least once a week.

My focus is to energize us and to get us moving especially if you need that push. Therefore I will continue to give you tips, provide challenges and if you have anything specific that you would want to me address, I will do that.

Now... A huge high five to you if during your busy day you had a chance to look up and notice something unique about today...

(As I typed this I didn't even realize that it had been one year and 3 days since my last post)

Keep Strong

It has been over 4 months since my last entry.  Clearly a baby changes lives!  Over the last 4 months I pretty much dedicated all my time to Kaya while still teaching the Boot Camp class at the Y.  For those of you who haven’t been to class, Kaya and I are actually teaching those classes together so even then he is with me, wrapped to my chest.  That being said, being with him all the time gave me the opportunity to be creative in keeping up with my basic strength training.  After all, to be able to carry him, entertain him and keep up with him I need healthy muscles. 

Kaya asleep and everyone else is ready to be done!

Either with kids or without kids, I guess, we all have found ourselves in situations where a regular workout has been hard to keep up with.  In these situations, the key things to focus on are your large muscle groups.  As much as everyone would like to keep their biceps looking nice and big, if you don’t have the time to do your regular exercise, the time you will spend to keep your back or your butt in shape will help you much more than focusing on your biceps.  Keeping your total body strong will help you to get back in shape with rest of the smaller muscle groups once you will have the time to have your regular workout back in schedule. 

I admit that my biceps are much smaller now but by focusing on the below moves, my core (glutes, abdominal, back, chest) is still strong enough to keep up with the demands of my sports – windsurfing and mountain biking – as tested over the last few weeks.

Here is my recipe of moves:

1.     Start with JUMPING JACKS – 10 of them

2.     Come down to PUSHUPS – 10 slow counts

3.     Continue with BURPEES without pushups – 8 of them

4.     Come up to a perfect SQUAT – 10 pulses with 2sec hold in between

5.     Stand up with feet with apart for SHOULDER CIRCLES – 10 small and 10 large (alternating direction)

6.     Come back down to PLANK – 20 sec hold on elbow, 20 sec hold on hands

7.     Repeat 1 through 6 one more time

If you have ever trained with me you know my pickiness on form.  Therefore I would like you to pay attention to the following:

PUSHUPS: Either on your toes or on your knees, keep your butt down and your lower back up.

SQUATS: Knees behind your toes, knees inline with your ankles, butt sticking out, chest facing forward NOT towards the ground

SHOULDER CIRCLES: Arms parallel to the ground THE WHOLE TIME

PLANK: Keep your butt down and your lower back up, when on your elbows – keep your elbows at 90 deg angle.

If you are pregnant or just delivered your baby, please consult with your doctor before you start any of these moves. 

And lastly, DON’T FORGET to stretch AFTER you are done!  Enjoy and keep it STRONG!

Trust the Team

It has been three weeks since my last post and I feel horrible about it as those of you who have been checking in regularly might have already given up on me.  

Even though my last three weeks have been occupied with feeding my angel baby boy for 8-10 hours a day and having him sleep on me for 7-8 hours, my inspiration for this blog has still been growing. Looking back at the time since Kaya joined our household, the biggest change for me is letting others do the work for me; getting my food ready, filling my water bottles, doing laundry, cooking etc...  To be honest, for such a stubborn person who likes doing everything on her own, it was a tough but well needed adjustment. 

A strong and well-communicated team is what brings the winning trophy - either in sports or in life.   If there is an individual contributor in a team setting, the play can never be efficient. Every member of a team had their "super powers" and unless you bring all of these powers together, success doesn't come along.  

I have been lucky to have great teams around me - whether in sports or in life. Most recently, my immediate team has been my  husband and my mom. From delivery of Kaya to now we have definitely been the winning team. "Hi Five"s are well deserved in this household. 

Team at the hospital

FYI, separating a feeding baby from his mom so that the mom can stand up after hours of sitting is a tough job!

Team at work

Don't forget that a team can be only two people and that's why it is very important to remember the power of Hi Five to promote constant support. The trophy is waiting for us when we trust the super powers of our partners/teammates.  

My Pregnancy in a Nutshell

As I always say, each person is very different.  Therefore please keep in mind that the way I had gone through my pregnancy might be very different compared to other’s experiences.

I consider myself very lucky and blessed since I pretty much didn’t have any of the “common” symptoms/effects of the pregnancy – other than 40-week long PMS, which I am very thankful to my lovely husband for coping with it.  From the first day we realized that I was pregnant to the last week, my baby boy made me forget many times that I was pregnant because he never prohibited me from living my life as usual.  I didn’t have nausea. I didn’t have weird food cravings. I didn’t have swollen hands or feet. I didn’t stop any of my sports; mountain biking, windsurfing, teaching Boot Camp…  I didn’t need any pregnancy clothes (more clothing to buy for my baby).  On the other hand, I did notice some changes in my body, other than my growing baby.  Out of all the moves I do at the gym – including all sorts of balance drills, the only one that was affected was the pull-up.  For some reason – I don’t think that it was my extra weight – my arms started to bail on me after 3 counts when I was able to go up to 15 easily.   Towards the end of the pregnancy, I also realized that my lungs needed more air in them whenever I was walking up the steep hills of San Francisco.  I also did experience lack of energy during the first trimester in my own way – given that doing two of my sports for multiple hours in the same day has never been an issue, getting tired on those days was my way of not having enough energy.   Out of all these changes, the most mysterious one for me was my nose – I had stuffy nose my entire pregnancy.  I would love to understand the physical reasoning behind it as I am hoping that it will be back to normal once I deliver. 

Through out the pregnancy, Derek and I opted out of reading anything related to pregnancy since we strongly believed that every case would be different.  However, one thing that we didn’t watch out for was setting expectations based on a guess – we were told that our baby had a chance to be slightly early due to my mom’s deliveries with me and with my brother.  Having that expectation definitely impacted the comfort of our last week.  We set ourselves into the waiting mode much earlier than his actual due date of 1/20.  Instead of continuing to enjoy his movements and calmness, we questioned his decision of not coming out, even though it was not time yet. 

Basically, in this entire process, the one thing to keep in mind is to set NO EXPECTATIONS.  Uncertainties dictate the process and that is the beauty of it.  Every step of it is full of surprises.  Therefore taking a step back and enjoying each surprise, as a new episode of an exciting show, is the best approach ever.  At least, this is what I have learned…

And now we are proud parents of Kaya Roy Lueck, born on 1/24 at 10:16am...  A wonderful new chapter of our life has begun and I am out of words to explain my excitement!

Power of Positive

A few months ago, during a business trip to Florida, I sat next to a very inspirational gentleman.  He was headed to the Keys to meet his wife and I was headed back home to my husband.  As the tiny little propeller plane was taking off, we had already started talking about training for sports – one of my favorite topics.

It turned out that the gentleman was a long distance runner with multiple marathons and half marathons under his belt.  For those of you who know me, I am not a big fan of running due to its negative impacts on joints.  However, I always appreciate and admire those who are persistent in reaching to their goals – even if the goal requires running.  As we chatted further, I realized that running was a passion that he shared with his wife too.  He then mentioned his wife’s illness – cancer.  The cancer was diagnosed about 5 years ago and they were told that due to the rarity and the stage, the doctors wouldn’t be able to provide any treatment for a couple years.  However, they would follow the progress of the tumor very closely.  2 years into her cancer, the doctors started the Chemo treatment.  After 2.5 years of continued Chemotherapy, she finally got the good news about being clean.  During her treatment, the couple decided to sign up for the Chicago Marathon.  They knew that with her weaker condition, the race could be even more challenging but they wanted to work against a goal while never thinking the worst possible outcome of the treatment.  They started to train while she was still in the treatment so that she would keep as strong as possible while the drugs were eating away all her energy.   Once the Chemo was over, her training for the run was more effective since she started to regain some of that energy.  However, one thing that she didn’t anticipate was that she got a stress fracture on her foot 6 weeks to the race.  Having to beat CANCER, they decided that a stress fracture would not be their game stopper for the race.  They kept up their positive attitude and focused more on strength training to keep her off her foot – that would have been my prescription from the very beginning. They ended up crossing the finish line together; hand in hand, proud of beating cancer…

There are times that we loose that positive look.  We focus on the worst outcomes and we worry before things even happen.  And eventually we even give up.  This couple is the perfect example of never ending positivity and its power of “push to the finish line”.  I am sure that there are many more stories like this.  My ask for this week is to find the positive in something that you are close to loose hope for – whatever it is, just believe in yourself because YOU can do it.  This upcoming Tuesday will be my 40th week in pregnancy, which is the due date of my boy.  For those of you who have been in my classes through last week, why not give those 40 pushups a try – with my slow count and a PERFECT form.  Don’t forget, being on your knees or laying for a superman when you get tired is NOT cheating.  Let me know how you do!

EveryBODY is Different

More than 4 years ago, I came across one of my CSCS (Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist) colleagues’ blog – Isabel De Los Rios.  She was talking about her career in nutrition and leading people towards healthy dietary lifestyle.  More I read about her expertise in nutrition, more I got drawn into her blog.  Her main premise was, and still is, promoting a dietary change in life to lead to health – as opposed to having a one-time diet to temporarily loose weight.

Neither Derek nor I have ever been into dieting to loose weight.  We have been athletes our whole lives so we believed in fueling our body constantly to get the best performance.  We believed that we ate healthy but still wanted to give Isabel’s logic a try to see if we would drive even better performance out of our bodies.  Her logic was, still is, very straight forward – get rid of any processed food and refined sugars, understand your portions and learn about your metabolism type.  Within one weekend that’s what we did: cleaned out pantry, learned to adjust our portion sizes, increased the number of our meals to 5 and found out that we are more satisfied when we have a balanced portion of carbs to protein.  You would be surprised how much of your pantry is full of “healthy” food with ingredients that none of us can pronounce.  Taking such a drastic step was definitely not easy but we decided to give it a try.  At the end of 3 months, Derek’s hereditary high blood pressure was way down to normal, his stomach issues were gone and both of ours performance at the gym was significantly better – mostly due to being in single digit fat percentages.  As a result, I decided to start studying nutrition and getting certified to be able to advice people about nutrition.

3 years into my studies, I will be taking my exam once my baby arrives.  Through out these years, I have also studied most of the major “diet programs” to gain a better understanding on their promises.  One thing for sure is that every human being is different; therefore, there cannot be only one type of diet that would work for everybody.  The other key thing is that if loosing weight would have been that simple, this country wouldn’t be dealing with such a huge obesity problem.

I see a lot of people trying new diets with the New Year.  My advice, if you are on the same path, is first to understand the logic behind it.  For example, the diet asks you to cut grains – ask the question “why?” before you blindly do what they say.  Like I wrote last week, your body is your best indicator – listen well…   Remember, there is never ONE easy solution for healthy living.  Please feel free to let me know if you ever have any questions with the diet choices you make.  I am not a doctor but I can at least help you understand how your body reacts to different components of a basic diet – carbs, fats and protein!  What you fuel your body with is what you get out of it when you perform!

Your Body is Your Manual

Since January 1st, I see more and more commercials about “healthy food”, “new exercise tools” or “new fitness tracking equipment”.  Every company is hoping to get a piece from the “New Year’s Resolution” pie.  Perfect time to tell us what is best for our bodies, right?

Well…  It is our own bodies that are the best guides for “healthy” living, only if we know how to listen.  How often do you feel hungry or thirsty?  Do you rest when you feel tired? If you ever injure yourself, doesn’t your body tell you where the exact pain is?  It is much easier to pick on the easy messages that our bodies communicate to us.  What I learned over the years that the tougher messages like what my body doesn’t want to eat or do can easily get mixed with up what I would prefer not to eat or do – if that makes any sense.  For example: it is a Monday night, my regular weight lifting time, and I had a tough day at work.  I am mentally tired and I know that none of my lifting buddies will be able to make it to the gym.  Physically I am feeling okay but mentally I do not feel like going to the gym.  At this point, my body is actually ready to work out and those endorphins will probably help me in getting over my mental tiredness.  I just need to make sure that I hear what my body says while my brain is telling me to head home.

Last 9 months taught me even more about listening to my body.  The idea of pregnancy was discomforting because I didn’t know what to expect from my body.  Once I found out that I was pregnant, my husband and I decided not to read anything about pregnancy so that we wouldn’t set ourselves for any expectations.  Instead we left it to my body to dictate what needed to happen.  As far as my activities go, nothing changed in our regular routines.  At 38 weeks, I am still as active at the gym as I was prior to my pregnancy.  I continued windsurfing until the season was over in October.  And my mountain biking…  I was still on my bike at month 7.  Once my belly started to show around 7 months, I made the mental call of stop mountain biking but continue my city biking.  The potential risk of getting my belly too close to anything on the bike wasn’t worth it.

In my case, I realize that there is risk of overdoing things if I do not listen to my body carefully.  Therefore, I do take my time to stop and listen.  Even though from time to time, I still miss some of the directions, I strongly believe that my body is by far my best guide to healthy living.

Do you think you can have a workout and food journal for a week to track what your body says about your two basic activities?  Try not to listen to the generic “healthy must haves” and create your own map towards healthy living by listening to your own body.

Fail First to Succeed

As 2014 is coming to a close, I can put a check mark next to “get your site up”.  Years of dreaming, planning, talking about it, trying it in bits…   Now I have a place to let you know my thoughts, to give you tips in training, and to help you achieve your next “health & fitness” goals.

Over the last 11 years – as a volunteer instructor at the YMCA – I have observed all of my participants reaching to success in their physical abilities.  The definition of success varied but they did share one thing in common: none of them let the fear of failure hold them back.  Each and every of my participants is an inspiration to me and that’s why I wanted my first blog entry and the last words of 2014 to be dedicated to their successes through defeating their own fears of failure.

Have you ever run away from something so that you wouldn’t face failure?  I know I have.  However, my willingness to reach success on what I was running away from helped me face that fear.  At the end of the day, success is there to stay where as the fear just comes and goes.

It was my ego that drove my fear of failure.  I moved to San Francisco chasing my dream of windsurfing under the Golden Gate Bridge.  When I first moved out here, I had already been windsurfing for over 15 years and I had already established a certain level of confidence in my expertise on the sport.  When my husband introduced me to freestyle windsurfing, which involves all sorts of tricky moves, my first reaction was “no”.  Mostly because I didn’t want to feel like I was failing each time when I fell in the water.  However, we made a rule: “if you don’t fall into the water, you are not trying hard”.  That rule still goes and just last summer I won my first Freestyle Windsurfing Competition.

So now, here is my challenge to you on the verge of a new year…  Can you pick one goal that potentially pushes you to failure prior to success?  You don’t need to start very big.  You can simply pick yourself a simple fitness goal - being able to do x amount of pull-ups (correct form, slow speed, not assisted).  Don’t let that pull-up bar intimidate you and let me know if you need my help!  I will be there every step of the way, helping you succeed and giving you a HUGE HIGH FIVE at the end!