Gina Jackson Personal Fitness

We did it again! Another great Saturday morning in Braddock Park, this time we were Jammin’ In The Square.

In addition to the regular Upper and Lower Body work using the resistance bands and balls, a Pilates Mat inspired workout was used Read the rest of this entry →

Summer Fit Camp in Braddock Park had quite a few heads turning this past Saturday.

The inclement weather at the 7:00am hour forced us to set up right along the lake’s edge. As a result, many passersby wanted to get in on the action. Check out why….go to the videotape! Read the rest of this entry →

I had an absolutely great 50 minute workout this afternoon! I pulled out my in-line skates, (replaced the wheels last season before I put them away in storage) put on a baseball cap, popped in my 45-minute CardioClub Mix and hit the road for some moving and shaking of my legs, butt and core.

Then to stretch my legs (particularly the sidelines and calves) I went home and rolled out my muscles with a small ball before sitting down to a late lunch and this blog entry.

It is really easy to get into a rut and become absolutely bored with your workout routine. All of us – trainers, athletes and the weekend warriors – fall into one at some point. A rut that is. Next thing you know, our program becomes sour and sometimes we fall completely off the wagon.

Spring is a great time to mix up all that great indoor training and use it to move your body. Cycling, In-line Skating, Basketball, outdoor track, hiking are all activities that can be pursued to use your body and “do something different.”As you may have seen from an earlier post, several (12 people in fact) have opted to do just that – something different – this summer by joining me in the same park for a Summer Morning Fit Camp. We won’t be in-line skating, but we will be shaking it up a bit!   I promise to post some pix!

Have you ever wished you could get a massage every day of the week? Want an easy way to get rid of the knots and sore muscles you feel from everyday life? Now you can!

By using just Three Little Balls and this special Intro Workshop offered by Gina Jackson of ThePilatesClub.Net to teach Self-Care of Your Own Body with Body Ball Rolling, you will learn how you can release the tension in your shoulders, spine, legs and body.  The workshop will be held at the Palisades Sports & Fitness Center in North Bergen on May 6, 2007. Read the rest of this entry →

You want to keep the men (old and young as well as the women) in your life guessing about your age? You want to remain strong enough to dance around the floor, prance around the park and walk or run up any flight of stairs without difficulty?

If you want tight, taut skin along your neckline, legs and breasts well past your 60th birthday read about Morjorie Newlin, who at 86 years of age is still pumping iron.

“Fourteen years ago, when Morjorie Newlin was 72, her neighborhood supermarket had 50-pound bags of kitty litter on sale. Without anyone to help her carry the bags back to her house, she struggled mightily under the load. Never a particularly athletic woman, but staunchly independent, she decided that she had to do something about her deteriorating physical capabilities. Read the rest of this entry →

You probably won’t believe this story either.  It goes well with my earlier post this week about the amazing mistakes of your favorite sugar substitutes.  This story doesn’t have a happy ending either….at least not for those of you diligently working hard on your bodies at 5-6:00am, dashing out to work to work hard for your money there, and grabbing a scone and frappuchino on the way into the office for that 8:30 meeting.

Scone you say?  Light dough, melts in your mouth, maybe 120-150 calories you assume!  What about the frappuchino?  Its just coffee with heavy cream, maybe some flavor which you pay extra for – in dollars and in calories – as this story will clearly tell.

Before I go there, remember the documentary, "SuperSize Me," about the guy that ate McDonald’s SuperSize meals for 30 days and gained over 25 pounds to prove the point?  Well, I believe that Starbucks is the next untold story.

Kathy, a 50+ active woman that just recently moved to NYC and changed her lifestyle habits as a reverse commuter to her NJ office.  She works out 3X week in a NY gym with a personal trainer (along the lines of a Navy Seal/Bootcamp/Marine Cadet trainer-type!) and 2X week with me on Pilates in my NJ studio.  She is conscious about what she eats: steamed brocolli, brown rice, whole wheat pasta, healthy proteins, etc. 
She admits that she noticed with all the work she was doing on her body and with such consistency, she couldn’t drop a pound.  I kept admonishing her to watch the protein intake and be diligent about her cardio (which I advise all my clients as its our biggest areas of neglect if you are regularly strength training.

Well, the big AH-HA! came when Kathy innocently decided to check the calories she was consuming 3-4X a week – AFTER she left the gym or the studio – on the way into the office.  She went online to Starbucks where you have to download the nutrition facts of all the meals they supply.  Her favorite Maple Walnut Scone – 3-4x weekly provided 650 Calories, 310 of which were fat, 34 grams of Fat 80 grams of Carbs, 36 grams of sugar and 7 grams of protein.  She exclaimed, "this wasn’t even a meal," it was just a snack. 

READ THE LABEL – the generally
accepted formula of counting calories is there are 9 calories per gram of fat, 4 calories per gram of carb,
and 4 for protein. Those of us that are resistant to weight loss (takes more work to shed one pound) KNOW that that glycerin and sugar alcohols can produce stalls in our progress and that all calories get broken down into blood sugar for use in the body as energy.  However, Carb and Fat calories get broken down quickly into blood sugars for the energy source of the  body.  If you don’t burn them (and you really can’t do that if you overloaded the system, right?) it gets stored in those pocket areas we work so hard to make stronger and leaner.  Protein is broken down more slowly (also into glycogen) in the process of digestion and therefore, replenishing the body with complex carbs and protein – after the workout – versus fat and simplex carbs (sugar) as done with the Starbucks Diet above will make a huge difference in increasing the body’s metabolism and balancing the body’s energy use.

In Kathy’s case, not only was she consuming a high-calorie, high-fat scone but she topped it off with a Frappuchino Grande worth another 2-300 calories of pure sugar!!  What a way to start the morning!

I think the moral to the story is clear….if you go to Starbucks, get the coffee black and pick up a cup of oatmeal and two hard boiled eggs from the corner bodega. It will save you money, precious earned energy and lots of unnecesssary pain from your trainer!

Lastly, check your current Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts consumption.  There actually is a tab for "Nutrition."  Great eye-opener!

Again and again, research has shown that women who maintain a regular, moderate
strength training
program enjoy a long list of health advantages. Some women
still fear that weight training might bulk them up in unfeminine ways; however,
as women of all ages realize the benefits of resistance training, negative
attitudes about women in the weight room are rapidly fading, according to renowned
strength training researcher William J. Kraemer, PhD, of Ball State University in Muncie, IN.

Weight training expert and researcher Wayne Westcott, PhD, from the South Shore
YMCA in Quincy, Massachusetts, gives 10 important reasons why women need to
take strength training seriously:

You’ll Lose More Fat Than You’ll Gain in Muscle  Westcott and his colleagues have done numerous
weight training studies involving thousands of women and have never had anyone
complain about bulking up. In fact, Westcott’s research shows that the average
woman who strength trains two to three times a week for eight weeks gains 1.75
pounds of lean weight or muscle and loses 3.5 pounds of fat. Unlike men, women
typically don’t gain size from strength training, because compared to men,
women have 10 to 30 times less of the hormones that cause bulking up, explains
Kraemer.

Your New Muscle Will Help Fight Obesity  As you add muscle from strength
training, your resting metabolism will increase, so you’ll burn more calories
all day long, notes Westcott. For each pound of muscle you gain, you’ll burn 35
to 50 more calories daily. So, for example, if you gain three pounds of muscle
and burn 40 extra calories for each pound, you’ll burn 120 more calories per
day, or approximately 3,600 more calories per month. That equates to a loss of
10 to 12 pounds in one year!

You’ll Be a Stronger Woman Westcott’s studies indicate that moderate weight training
increases a woman’s strength by 30 to 50 percent. Extra strength will make it
easier to accomplish some daily activities, such as lifting children or
groceries. Kraemer notes that most strength differences between men and women
can be explained by differences in body size and fat mass; pound for pound,
women can develop their strength at the same rate as men.

Your Bones Will Benefit By the time you leave high
school, you have established all the bone mineral density you’ll ever
have–unless you strength train, says Westcott. Research has found that weight
training can increase spinal bone mineral density by 13 percent in six months.
So strength training is a powerful tool against osteoporosis.

You Will Reduce Your Risk of Diabetes Adult-onset diabetes is a growing problem for
women and men. Research indicates that weight training can increase glucose
utilization in the body by 23 percent in four months.

You Will Fight Heart Disease Strength training will
improve your cholesterol profile and blood pressure, according to recent
research. Of course, your exercise program should also include cardiovascular
exercise and flexibility training.

You Will Be Able to Beat Back Pain and Fight Arthritis  A recent 12-year study showed that
strengthening the low-back muscles had an 80 percent success rate in eliminating
or alleviating low-back pain. Other studies have indicated that weight training
can ease arthritis pain and strengthen joints.

You’ll Be a Better Athlete  Westcott has found that strength
training improves athletic ability. Golfers, for example, significantly
increase their driving power. Whatever your sport of choice, strength training
may not only improve your proficiency but also decrease your risk of injury.

It Will Work No Matter How Old You Are   Wescott
has successfully trained numerous women in their 70s and 80s, and studies show
that strength improvements are possible at any age. Note, however, that a
strength training professional should always supervise older participants.

You’ll Strengthen Your Mental Health A Harvard study found that 10 weeks of
strength training reduced clinical depression symptoms more successfully than
standard counseling did, Westcott says. Women who strength train commonly
report feeling more confident and capable as a result of their program.

Source: IDEA Health
& Fitness Association

This to me is likened to taking a pill to lose 20 lbs in a week.  The issue still exists when you stop taking the pill. I believe we all need to work to maintain what you have, work to get what we want and ultimately love and accept what we end up with – after giving it your best shot, of course!  Anyway, this article made me smile and chuckle a bit.  Tell me what you think.

Gina
———————————

WILLY MANRIQUEZ has perfected a sales pitch that stops most women dead in their tracks.

"Do you want me to take away
the laugh lines from around your eyes in less than a minute?" Mr.
Manriquez, a salesman for the skin care brand Freeze 24/7, asks
shoppers as they roam the cosmetics floor of Henri Bendel in Midtown.
The makers of Freeze 24/7 products claim to reduce the appearance of
wrinkles by relaxing facial muscles.

Most passers-by welcome Mr.
Manriquez’s anti-wrinkle demo, he said. But he occasionally meets a
skeptic like Janice DiGiovanni, 47, who owns the Absolute Laser spa in
Rhinebeck, N.Y.

The motto of her clinic, which offers laser
procedures and acid peels, is "We do what skin care products promise to
and don’t," Ms. DiGiovanni said last week, as she settled onto a stool
in front of Mr. Manriquez and prepared for disappointment. "I’m
thinking moisturizer is a moisturizer is a moisturizer."

Mr.
Manriquez dabbed an eye serum and an antiwrinkle cream around her right
eye. "Your muscles are getting used to relaxing, so your smile lines
are not as deep," he said. "You look better already."

Ms.
DiGiovanni, who said she regularly gets antiwrinkle Botox and Restylane
injections, held up a mirror and examined her face with an experienced,
critical gaze.

"I can actually feel the plumpness around my eye.
It feels more firm," she said with some surprise. Then she demanded
that Mr. Manriquez "freeze" her left eye. "I have to say I’m excited."

Excited she was indeed. She left the counter after spending $385 on four products.

But
some dermatologists and plastic surgeons are skeptical of Freeze 24/7.
"It’s like putting glue on your face to lessen the movement," said Dr.
Trevor M. Born, a plastic surgeon in Toronto. "The numbing agent in it
may make you lose the perception of the surface of the skin, making you
feel that your face is swollen and tighter."

Thanks to visceral
responses from first-time clients like Ms. DiGiovanni, upstart Freeze
24/7 has become a force to be reckoned with in the cosmetics industry.
When it was introduced at Henri Bendel in October 2003, the brand had
only one product, which was displayed on a rickety coffee table. Today,
it has six products and is sold in more than 1,000 stores in the United
States, including Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s and, as of last month, 447
Victoria’s Secret branches.

The company had sales of $25 million
in 2005, up from $5 million in 2004, said Scott E. Gurfein, the
president and chief executive of Freeze 24/7. Out of every 10 people
who stop for a skin care demonstration, he said, eight or nine plunk
down $115 for the antiwrinkle cream.

"Put product on, see product work, buy product," Mr. Gurfein said. "It’s not rocket science."

In
a world of demanding consumers accustomed to the immediacy of
high-speed Internet connections and instant messaging, Freeze 24/7 has
become the leader in a new cosmetics category: instant skin care.
Traditional skin care items, including prescription creams like
Retin-A, take one to three months to show any kind of result because of
the time needed for ingredients to slough off dead skin cells and
stimulate new collagen growth.

Fast-acting products that offer
immediate brightening, lightening, lifting or tightening effects often
work by using ingredients that temporarily camouflage blemishes,
spackle the skin, or stiffen it, making it feel tauter.

But many
of those instant products do not provide long-term benefits, doctors
say. Quick-fix beauty items are to cosmetics what cellphone cameras are
to technology: they are fun to use and offer instant gratification, but
their results can be fuzzy.

"Skin care is like dieting," said
Karen Grant, the senior beauty industry analyst for the NPD Group, a
market research firm. "You have to invest time and effort. There is no
instant miracle cure."

Try telling that to the shoppers who are
attracted to Freeze 24/7’s cool, ice-cube-like packaging and its cool —
or coolant-like — name. The word "freeze" suggests that wrinkles may be
frozen temporarily, Mr. Gurfein said. The antiwrinkle cream is supposed
to work by relaxing facial muscles in a less invasive fashion than
Botox, the injectable toxin used to paralyze facial muscles
temporarily, he said.

The company says the freezing effect comes
from two ingredients: gamma aminobutyric acid, a substance found in the
human nervous system that can block signals between nerves and muscles,
and gynostemma pentaphyllum extract, derived from an herb used in
traditional Chinese medicine. The company contends that gamma
aminobutyric acid, a molecule that stays on the skin’s surface,
activates smaller gynostemma molecules and sends them through the skin,
where they signal muscles to relax, according to Gene Beilis, a
pharmacist who is the vice president for product development at Freeze
24/7.

But the company has no scientific evidence to back up its
claim that its products actually affect facial muscles. Asked to
provide microscopic data showing that the ingredients penetrate the
skin, Mr. Beilis said that the company has "not gone into deeper levels
of testing."

"You wouldn’t be able to see the chemical interactions occurring under a microscope anyway," he said.

Nava Dayan, a senior principal scientist at Lipo Chemicals, which makes
raw materials and ingredient technology for the cosmetics industry,
said there is a standard test performed on cadaver skin, the Franz
diffusion cell method, that can show whether a cosmetic formula
permeates superficial and deeper levels of the skin.

Because the Food and Drug Administration
defines cosmetics as products that do not fundamentally alter the skin,
cosmetics companies are not required to prove if or how their products
work on the skin’s appearance.

In 2003, Freeze 24/7 had an
outside company test the product by having a researcher treat the faces
of 20 women and visually assess their wrinkles. The test concluded that
each woman had an "observable decrease in the appearance of wrinkles"
around the eyes ranging from 50 to 90 percent. Those results suggest
that the product does something to the surface of the skin, but does
not indicate that muscles are involved in the process.

Dr.
Born, the plastic surgeon in Toronto, theorizes that Freeze 24/7 really
works by numbing the skin on impact and then solidifying when it dries,
making the face feel tighter.

Mr. Beilis agreed that gamma
aminobutyric acid is a powdery substance that coagulates when it dries,
gripping the skin in place. Another ingredient in the product, eugenol,
a clove derivative used in dentistry as an analgesic, "gives you a
cool, numbing, tingling sensation," he said.

But Freeze 24/7
devotees do not care about science as long as the product works
instantly, said Mr. Gurfein, the company president. He said the brand
has been successful because other skin care companies "focus on
technology against a demographic that doesn’t care how a product works;
they just want it to work."

At Henri Bendel, Freeze 24/7 is the
best-selling skin care line, far outstripping beauty brands created by
doctors, including N. V. Perricone M.D. and Patricia Wexler M.D., said
Claudia Lucas, the store’s senior vice president and merchandise
manager for beauty.

But even if the products work only
superficially, they may have a long-term benefit, said Dr. Diane C.
Madfes, a dermatologist in Manhattan.

"You are instantly limiting
the movement of the skin by putting a restrictive barrier on your
face," Dr. Madfes said. If such a product is used daily, it may train
the face to stop making movements that cause furrows, she said. "So you
may prevent new wrinkles from forming or already-existing wrinkles from
getting worse."

Dr. Born offered an alternative treatment for
frown lines: Scotch tape. Ever since they were teenagers, five of his
patients have been taping their foreheads every night, and they have no
frown lines now that they are in their 30’s and 40’s, he said.

There are no published clinical studies that prove Scotch tape reduces wrinkles, but it costs only $2.19.

You’re 52. What is your philosophy on aging? Would you be willing to have plastic surgery?

If
it gets to the point where I have to have Scotch tape on my eyelids to
hold them up, I will definitely try to do something. I don’t really
want to go over the cliff.