Archives for January 2012

Thanks to our new friends at Shape Magazine for getting thousands of people closer to gold medal health!

They have featured our very own Concept 2 Master Rowing Instructor and Bellevue Wellness Coordinator, Anna Cummins, with one of her rowing machine routines in the January 2012 Issue of Shape Magazine. Be sure to get your copy of Shape Magazine this month to help you keep your New Year’s resolution to have a happier, healthier body! Remember, if we keep our bodies moving, this helps our spine and nervous system to function at their best.

The Shape Workout Plan:
*Adjust Pace per your level of fitness. Pace listed is for a 145 pound female beginner.
3 min. Warm-up Row, SR 16-18, 2:30
3 min. Row, SR 20-22, 2:14
2 min. Row, SR 22-24, 2:12
1 min. Row, SR 24-26, 2:10
1 min. stand up and do continuous walking lunges, switching legs
4 min. Row, SR 22-24, 2:12
3 min. Row, SR 24-26, 2:10
1 min. Row, SR 26-28, 2:08
2 min. Easy Row, SR 16-18, 2:30

Why Shape Loves this Workout:
“Ready, Set, Row! Torch 200 Calories and firm up (all while sitting down!) with this quickie plan by Danielle McNally

Pass by the crowd waiting for an elliptical and make a beeline for a rowing machine. You’ll burn up to 50 percent more calories while strengthening nearly all the muscles from your shoulders to your calves. Never tried it? This routine from Anna Cummins, a master rowing instructor for Concept 2, will take you from rookie to pro in minutes. Simply set the damper (a device on the side of the flywheel that controls the drag) between 3 and 5, choose pace mode, and row (see form check in magazine for tips), aiming for the recommended speeds. After 9 minutes, stand up and stretch – or to increase the burn, do walking lunges – then sit back down for the second half of your session. You’ll leave with an awesome workout under your belt while everyone else is still on her warm-up. “

Anyone wishing more information may contact Dr. Cummins, whose office is located at 4122 Factoria Blvd. SE, Suite 202, Bellevue, WA (telephone 425-590-9158).

A New Years Resolution by Dan Cerrillo, Manager of Crossfit Bellevue

My New Years Resolutions were to wake up 1-hour earlier and go down to the crappy gym in my condo building and do 30-mins of old fashioned cardio. I am doing this because my strength is great, my lifts are fairly clean but my cardio is way down. I know this is because the last couple of months I have made excuses for not running and rowing 5ks and what not.

My second resolution was to try and let things slide off my back a little more. I take things very personally sometimes, when people give me compliments its very hard to take but its even harder when people give me witticism. I will sit up all night and think about what I said or what the criticism was. First I am angry, then I am apologetic, then I go over it for hours. I lose a lot of sleep each time I lose a client or a basketball game. I wonder what I could have done better and think of things to improve.

Finally, my last resolution was to turn off my phone completely on the weekends. For years I was addicted to my blackberry, if it went off at night I would read the e-mail. If a phone call came in I would run to answer it and so forth. This is the one resolution I have to keep because it affects my family. For nearly 6-years I actually slept with my blackberry on my chest because my job was to be on call 24/7. Breaking this habit is very hard for me but each day and minute I part with the phone it gets a little easier.

So you may ask, why is Dan bugging us with his resolutions? Who cares, right? Well I care, I care about my resolutions and I care about yours. Some of you have asked for my help, some of you have expressed your unhappiness with your exterior presentation. Keeping promises is hard, especially when the promise is to ourselves. I wrote a client this morning because he said he was discouraged because of the swim workout I gave him was so humbling.

When I wrote him back I said don’t be discouraged, be proud of the person staring back at you in the mirror. Ask this person each day to perform and he will, ask this person each day to work a little harder and he will. Tell this person to never quit and to never be satisfied with being ordinary. Promise this person that no matter what each week you will push him hard at a minimum of three times per week. If you do this I promise the person looking back at you in the mirror will be much happier, the person will be much stronger in both mind and body and this person will be a better person for trying.

Have a great New Year.

—
Dan Cerrillo
Certified CrossFit Level-2
Managing Member CrossFit Bellevue

Anyone wishing more information may contact Dr. Cummins, whose office is located at 4122 Factoria Blvd. SE, Suite 202, Bellevue, WA (telephone 425-590-9158).

By Anna Cummins, 2008 Olympic Champion

Once an Olympic champion, I could now barely get out of bed and go for a walk, let alone get to the Pocock Rowing Center or Crossfit Bellevue. I knew something crazy was happening inside my body. For the first time in my life, I felt like the anti-athlete. As an athlete my whole life and an elite rower for ten years, any form of working out always made me feel like a million bucks, maybe not during, but for sure after each workout. In my first trimester with my first baby, the thought of any form of exercise was like thinking about rowing an Olympic final with no prior training. I did not want to go there. Not only did I avoid getting a rush from a little workout, I also wasn’t very hungry. Hmmm, who is this new person in my body and where did I go?

Pregnancy is a time to learn a lot about your body and that of what it takes to create a new body in the form of a little baby. Every woman has a different journey and the most important thing I have learned so far is to listen to what my body is telling me about the race ahead. In my first trimester, the message my body kept sending me was to take it down a notch or ten. As US Olympic coxswain Mary Whipple would say when we were out for a swing row in the eight, “let’s let the boat glide out and cruise at two beats down on this one.”

That said, my best workouts were walks around the neighborhood, getting to Crossfit once a week, and doing a slow swing row. When rowing, I could make it about 20 minutes at the slowest pace ever (for me:). Let’s say I was impressed at rowing 2:12. (Pre-pregnancy, I’d feel great at 2:02). In my first trimester, 3 out of 4 mornings, I hit my snooze button to just keep sleeping and I never felt rested! I felt so out of it that the only thing I could rally around was to simply show up and move.

We all know that exercise makes for healthier babies and for healthier moms. As much as I’d like to sleep in every day and not take that walk or trip to the Box, I knew I needed to try. I take the time to get adjusted by my chiropractor (that’s Dr. Bob Cummins) each week because I know it’s good for me and the health of our baby. Why don’t I get my body up and moving with the exercise I also know is awesome for my health? Hence, the only thing that will be different in my second trimester compared to the first is to have an exercise plan and to try to be disciplined.

It’s never too late to change a race plan, so don’t worry, my “plan” is now in full effect for the second trimester. January 1^st and a New Years’ resolution couldn’t have come at a better time. However, my focus on exercise while pregnant is not competitive, it’s health. I still remember to listen to my body, take rest, scale the weights down, and cut out a round or two if my body is telling me.

Hang in there all you Pregger-Rowers, Crossfitters and anyone trying to make a change! Know you have a fellow pregnant friend who is just as unmotivated as you are. Keep trying to get your body moving and keep listening!

First Trimester recommended Rowing W.O.D.

Warm-up: Spinal hygiene exercises or Joint articulations,10 air squats, 10 side lunges, 10 push-ups, 1000m easy row
Advanced: 2 rounds of 1000 row, 20 squats, 750 row, 15 squats, 500 row, 10 squats rest 2min. between rounds.
Intermediate: 1000 row, 20 squats, 750 row, 15 squats, 500 row, 10 squats
Beginner: 750 row, 15 squats, 500 row, 10 squats, 250 row, 5 squats
Post row: Easy row 500m, Stretch: Hamstrings, Hip Flexors, Quads, Calves.

Anyone wishing more information may contact Dr. Cummins, whose office is located at 4122 Factoria Blvd. SE, Suite 202, Bellevue, WA (telephone 425-590-9158).