Author: Jessica

The Moves

Getting To the Core

Jessica

What’s At the Core?

Moving from a strong CORE could be the most important element in your approach to movement and exercise.  A strong core allows you to move through life with control because the muscles in your abdomen, lower back, pelvis, and hips are all strong enough to work together in concert toward balance and stability.

A targeted core exercise is any exercise that asks your abdominal muscles and your back muscles to synchronize.  HOWEVER, bringing an engaged core to almost every exercise will extend the exercise to building the core and use the core to make sure that the correct muscles are doing the work they should be doing.

You may notice that if you’ve spent some time focusing on engaging your core in your workout that you move from your core more in your every day activities like standing up, sitting down, carrying groceries, and even sitting at a desk.  This is terrific!  We want our workout to add more physical strength to our everyday life and we want our movements in everyday life to reinforce our strengthening.

For Active Imaginations:

Imagine for a moment that you are laying on your back and you are about to do a bicep curl with a weight that is a bit heavy for you.   Imagine first that you are going to do this curl with a core as relaxed as jelly…

If your imagination is active you might notice that tiny back muscles in your upper and mid-back might jump up to help do the job but that these same muscles might become injured in the process.

Now imagine that you are about to curl with the same weight but this time you first engage all your core muscles.  Now as you do your bicep curl you may notice that you feel your core supporting all the muscles in your arm.  That’s what we want!

Assignment for the week:

See if you can engage your core in EVERY single exercise you do and then see if you can engage your core when you are doing daily tasks including sitting at a desk or table.  Building your core is less about crunches and more about bringing a level of awareness and engagements to all of your movements and exercises.

– Becka Tilsen, Booty Blogger, Camper and Coaching Consultant Extraordinaire

Nutrition, Partners

Spinach, Sweet Potatoes and Baby Grace!

Jessica

This week we are featuring our Booty Camp Sponsor Freggies!!  You might know that Freggies is part of the Booty Camp family in more ways than one because the Freggies Operations Manager and Owner of Seward Park and West Seattle Franchises is the husband of our very own powerhouse Volunteer Park trainer Melissa!

Freggies LogoFreggies is an organic produce doorstep delivery service that offers high quality low cost organic farm-fresh fruits, veggies and specialty foods.  If some of you have been to our Booty Camp outings this year you have seen the size and diversity of their regular family size produce box – it’s quite impressive and the price it right too – just $30-40 per week (see discount end of article for promo code for first order booty camp discount!).  The Booty Camp Blog sat down with Greg and chatted about Freggies and the couple’s new arrival of Baby Grace!

Greg told me without prompt that:

 “I’ve been blown away by the community that surrounds Southside Booty Camp.  I can see the love that Melissa has when she goes and trains.  It’s so much more than a gym.”

Greg reflected that both SSBC and Freggies strive to make a healthy lifestyle accessible to people.  Greg says, Freggies works to make it as easy as possible to get healthy food into your kitchen.

For all the new veggie eaters Greg has a simple idea: if your used to having a salad with iceberg or any other lower nutrient lettuce, make it with spinach instead.  Greg said that spinach is one of the most nutrient dense foods we have, it helps prevent cancer and it makes a huge difference in the health of our blood.

BABY GRACE SPORTING A BOOTY BABE ONESIE!

Here’s a simple Superfood Spinach Salad

  • A bed a fresh organic spinach (baby spinach is sweeter)
  • Red onions – sliced thinly
  • Cucumber – sliced
  • Apple – sliced
  • Nuts of your choice (pecans or walnuts are delicious in this salad)
  • Any other veggies of your choice (carrots, peppers, radishes)
  • Dress with a lemon juice and olive oil
  • Optional
    • Add other superfoods like blueberries, almonds, avocado or broccoli for a superfood super treat.
    • Add goat cheese and or smoked salmon for a heartier meal

For the seasoned vegetable eater Greg suggests expanding your diet to eat most veggies in both raw and cooked form.  Spinach for example has some nutrients that your body can absorb in a raw state and some that can be processed once it is cooked.

The new challenge Greg will be tackling soon is homemade organic baby food! As many of you already know Melissa gave birth to their baby Grace Isabella on June 23rd after 36 hours of labor!   Greg and Melissa are thrilled to be new parents and Melissa has already started back at Camp.

Greg’s voice lit up as he described his solo “dad time” when Melissa goes to Booty Camp where he turns off all work and just gets to slow down and focus on Grace.  Even though sleep is hard to come by Greg says that he actually feels “more balanced” with baby Grace.

Greg’s parting gift to us is to show us how easy it is to make baby food and remind us of a special offer available to Southside Booty Campers.

Sweet Potato Baby Food:

  1. Boil a peeled sweet potato
  2. Put in a food processor and process until creamy

    Vol Park Trainer Melissa, Baby Grace, and Hubby/Freggies Owner Greg Madgsick!
  3. Serve it to your baby!  Freeze the extra (it’s good for 6 months)

-Contributed by Camper Extraordinaire Becka Tilsen

Freggies Special for Booty Campers: Get $10 off the first box, by using the promotion code: SSBC$10

 

 

Motivation

Fat or Sugar: What Do You Burn When You Run?

Jessica

On Thursdays we work the most important muscle we own: our heart.  Without it, we most obviously wouldn’t be alive. Just like every other muscle we ask you to exercise, your heart needs exercise too. How do we exercise it? We get it pumping. This is why we do Tabata intervals, sprints, running around/over/through whatever is in our path. We want to keep our heart strong.

Even though getting your heart pumping is a good thing, you can do it both inefficiently and efficiently. To understand this, I’d like to dive into a little more detail of what happens when your heart rate rises above a sitting level. As a preface, I’m sharing knowledge learned from my degree in Kinesiology, and 4 years experience as a metabolic specialist where I’ve done hundreds of exercise assessments using gas exchange (one of the most accurate ways to know what’s going on inside your body).

Your body uses two different fuel sources while you do cardio: fat and sugar. If you’ve ever read a nutrition label, you’ve probably seen that fat has 9 calories per gram, while sugar has 4 calories per gram. This means that inside the same amount of fat lies a little more than double the fuel of sugar. 9 calories versus 4 calories. We obviously burn calories when we exercise. Now, if you were going for a long run, which energy source would you prefer to use based on the above information? Probably fat. It will last longer. And heck, we seem to store a lot of it on our bodies! Why not use it up when we run?

Sadly, when we start exercising, we don’t automatically burn fat at high intensities of exercise. We burn mostly sugar. The higher our heart rate gets, the more intense the exercise is, the shorter we feel we can last, and the more sugar we burn. Also, as our heart rate rises, the percentage of fat we burn drops. The more deconditioned we are, the more quickly fat burn drops. When we’re primarily burning sugar as a fuel source, we start feeling uncomfortable, like we DON’T want to keep going. On the other end, when we burn a higher percentage of fat, we feel comfortable, like we could last for a long time. For example: most individuals burn 70% or more fat while walking (although they don’t burn many overall calories, because walking is not intense).

If you’re one of those people who dread running because it feels so hard, my guess is that it feels hard because you are burning well over 50% of your calories from sugar as you run. Thankfully, it’s possible to change this! We can teach our bodies to burn more fat at a higher intensity. We do this by frequently bringing your heart rate back down to where you burn a high percentage of fat, then pushing it up again. This is also known as “interval work” (sound familiar?).

Practical application: When you do cardio, don’t spend all your time at a high intensity. Recover your heart rate by slowing down for a couple minutes, back to a comfortable place (this may be walking for some of you, or a much slower pace if you’re a seasoned runner). When you’re feeling recovered, increase your intensity. On the weekends, do a recovery workout at a lower intensity than you do during the week. When you’re recovering, it won’t feel like you’re doing much work. Let me assure you, after seeing hundreds of exercise assessments that showed me the exact percentage of fat and sugar burn, your body is doing very valuable work during the recovery time. Imagine if we only drove our car at a high intensity. It would adapt, and it would respond, but it wouldn’t be the most efficient way to drive. Your body is similar. It will adapt to working on mostly sugar at a high intensity, but it’s not the most efficient way to exercise. Vary the intensity of your cardio, spend time recovering, and within a few months, enjoy the difference it can make.

-Trainer Melissa Madgsick

Partners

Make it Easier with Somanda Bodyworks!

Jessica

This week we want to tell you about our sponsor SOMANDA BODYWORKS.

Amanda Coleman offers private hands-on healing and therapeutic movement classes.  Her work is called Structural Integration, it is both a gentle and deep hands-on approach.  Her goal is to coax her students into deep fulfilling partnership with their own physical nature by upgrading both hardware: bones, muscles, and organ function; and software: creativity, movement, energy, beliefs and habits.

As you can probably guess from the description Amanda brings a robust holistic perspective to her practice.  Amanda sees the structure of the body as supported by what she calls tensegrity, like a suspension bridge, and she works to strengthen that suspension.  Her work succeeds in spreading out the load to diffuse work throughout the body so that you are more springy, buoyant and quick.

amanda-5-1Moreover, Amanda sees each physical issue as a microcosm of a systematic symptom.  She said that for example, when clients work on balance and make progress on the physical level they often start to see opportunities to attend to balance in their relationships with their self, their partners, their surroundings.

Amanda loves Booty Camp because it’s a space for women to build strength while connecting with nature.

The biggest message Amanda has for us Booty Campers is that “it can all be much easier”.  Amanda explains that we often feel like it’s so hard to work out, move, and engage with our bodies because we are often fighting with ourselves.  Both physically and psychologically we are working at cross-purposes.

Amanda uses her incredible skill at bodywork to attend to the physical and make room for the rest to follow.  She says that contrary to what many of us have learned to believe “moving can feel totally free and light, without big wear and tear on the structure, if things are balanced and calibrated.”

Amanda explains that many us have bodies that habitually recruit a large number of excess muscles when we move. She calls this “bound flow”.   She says that at any age and with any body she can work to take the strain off a system.  What’s the carrot that you get when you do this? Playfulness, she says, just shows up.  Ease and enjoyment are freed up to emerge.

Quite a carrot isn’t it?

Amanda gave the Booty Camper blog a few tips:

  1. Breathe – Direct Don’t Restrict.  Allow the sensation of breath to move throughout your entire body.  Amanda says the number one thing we do to make things harder is that we hold and restrict breath, even while breathing “hard”.  She says we can direct it.  But do not wall it off from parts of our body.
  2. The Starfish – Amanda tells us to imagine our bodies as starfish.  Just like starfish we have 6 limbs.  The head and tailbone in addition to our arms and legs.  Amanda says that a starfish moves because the center moves.  And so do we.

Above all Amanda brings an exuberance and a deeply felt conviction that everyone can live with more ease in their body.  People who work with Amanda come to really love and appreciate their bodies.  To everyone she says with fierce and unabashed hopefulness – “It’s all still there and you can get it back!  It’s all accessible.”

******* As a Booty Camp Partner this year Amanda is offering all campers a FREE 30 MIN CONSULTATION.  To schedule a consultation, get more information visit her site HERE! ******

Motivation

Time to Stand Up!

Jessica

Are you sitting down for this?  The hazards of sitting all day and what to do about it.

Most of us can attest personally that a full day of sitting in a desk chair does not feel good on our body.  Science is chiming in but also giving us some unexpectedly simple strategies.

In her new book The “The First 20 Minutes: Surprising Science Reveals How We Can Exercise Better, Train Smarter, Live Longer,’’ Gretchen Reynolds health and fitness columnist for the New York Times explores the new findings about exercise and the body.

Reynolds explains that sitting for long periods of time creates physiological changes in our muscles that can cause our bodies to stop breaking up fat in our blood stream, increase accumulation of fat in our liver, our heart, and our brain.  The immediate symptom of this is that we get very sleepy.

Perhaps the worst part of this process is that muscles become less able to respond when we do stand up, moving becomes harder and harder.  So sitting for longer periods of time becomes guess what?  Yep, easier and easier.

You know what makes it easier to move?  Booty Camp!

Actually Reynolds says that simply STANDING UP every 20 minutes changes how your body responds physiologically.  Just by standing up for 2 minutes you remind your body how to engage and contract muscles and how to release enzymes that break up fat in your blood stream.   You can make a big impact on improving your blood flow, decreasing your chance of diabetes, and heart disease.  Reynolds adds that if you can walk even across the room you get a host of more benefits.

How to make this change?

For some people setting an alarm every 20 minutes works great.  For others creating an easy way to do work while standing is a excellent way to build it in.  Reynolds offers tips like taking phone calls while standing, or buying a music stand so you can read while standing.

Motivation

Getting More Shut Eye

Jessica

So you fabulous women….. I want to put in a plug for SLEEP to help keep you fabulous! I received this info from the Dr. (sports and preventative medicine) who coaches my son’s cross country team who constantly pleads with the boys to get 9+ hours of sleep to get maximal response to their training thus maximizing the fitness benefits.

In a study appearing in the July issue of SLEEP, Cheri Mah, a researcher in the Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic and Research Laboratory, has shown that basketball players at the elite college level were able to improve their on-the-court performance by increasing their amount of total sleep time.

It’s no secret that lack of sleep can have negative consequences. Extensive research has shown the impact that sleep debt has on cognitive function, mood and physical performance. But, as Mah and her colleagues point out in the paper, very few studies have looked at the opposite: the effect that sleep extension can have on performance. And few other groups have looked specifically at the effect of sleep on athletes.

While things such as nutrition and physical training are part of an athlete’s daily regimen, Mah said competitive athletes at all levels typically do not focus on optimizing their sleep and recovery. They are usually just told to get a “good night’s sleep” before a competition.“Intuitively many players and coaches know that rest and sleep are important, but it is often the first to be sacrificed,” she added. “Healthy and adequate sleep hasn’t had the same focus as other areas of training for peak performance.”

Mah began working with sleep expert William Dement, MD, PhD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and they turned their attention to the men’s basketball team. Over the course of two basketball seasons, Mah and colleagues worked with 11 healthy players with a goal of investigating the effects of sleep extension on specific measures of athletic performance, as well as reaction time, mood and daytime sleepiness. The researchers asked the players to maintain their normal nighttime schedule (sleeping for six to nine hours) for two to four weeks and then aim to sleep 10 hours each night for the next five to seven weeks. During the study period, players abstained from drinking coffee and alcohol, and they were asked to take daytime naps when travel prohibited them from reaching the 10 hours of nighttime sleep.

At the end of the sleep extension period, the players ran faster 282-foot sprints (16.2 seconds versus 15.5 seconds) than they had at baseline. Shooting accuracy during practice also improved: Free throw percentages increased by 9 percent and 3-point field goal percentage increased by 9.2 percent. Fatigue levels decreased following sleep extension, and athletes reported improved practices and games. The findings suggest, Mah said, that it’s important for sleep to be prioritized over a long period of time, not just the night before “Game Day.” She called optimal sleep an “unrecognized, but likely critical factor in reaching peak performance.” She said the findings are applicable to recreational athletes and those at the high school, semi-pro or professional level.

Of course the benefits of sleep go well beyond our athletic performance. Some of the other surprising benefits of getting more shut eye are improved memory, less inflammation (inflammation is linked to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and athritis; studies have found more inflammatory proteins in those who sleep less then 6 hrs ea. night), spurs creativity, better weight loss (dieters who are well rested lose more fat), can help reduce stress and can help you avoid accidents (Insufficient sleep for just one night can be as detrimental to your driving ability as having an alcoholic drink.

I know the thought of getting 9+ hours of sleep a night might make you laugh at the absurdity of actually pulling that off- but it is summer and most of us have a slightly more relaxed schedule including vacation time so this could be an ideal time to try for a little more shut eye and see what happens!

– Trainer Theresa

Partners

Introducing a Holistic Health Partner!

Jessica

Dr. Kris Sasaki’s practice – Functional Health – is one of our amazing Booty Camp sponsors.  Dr. Sasaki is a Chiropractor but Functional Health takes a much larger approach to wellness than just your vertebrae.

Functional Health is a whole team: Chiropractors, Athletic Trainers, Massage Therapists and Naturopaths who all who work together for a holistic approach to the health and fitness of their patients. See below for a personal testimonial about this personalized treatment by Booty Camp owner Jessica Breznau.

We asked Dr. Sasaki to chat with us briefly about why he decided to be a Booty Camp sponsor.

Dr. Sasaki said that many of his patients are in exercise camps and is an enthusiastic supporter of this new trend in exercising in groups that can support each other into a stronger and healthier lifesyle.

We asked him about how to avoid injuries.  He told us that he sees both new and seasoned campers get injured while working out.  He says that for both groups paying attention to FORM it the key to pacing yourself and making sure you don’t get injured.

He further explained that newbies tend to work too hard too fast, he cautions “When you are doing any new exercise sometimes you don’t have the strength to do proper form, you should slow down and don’t be afraid to ask your instructor to watch you form”.

Seasoned campers are likely to get injured around the same issues Dr. Sasaki says.  He explains that we can get stuck in repetitive routines and forget to pay attention to using the right muscles.  Dr. Sasaki says that knee pain and injury is the most common in women he sees because of muscle imbalances in our hips.  So working on the core can really help prevent knee injury!

Dr. Sasaki wants all the campers to know that you get a free 20 minute consultation at Functional Health and that “This is a place where we can take care of you so you can get back to your Booty Camp!”   You can contact Functional Health to set this up and read more reviews at their Yelp page HERE!  or call (206) 726-9595.

He concluded by reminding us about the big picture saying “Easy go, nice and slow…life’s a marathon not a sprint.”

Written By Booty Camper Extraordinaire Becka Tilsen 

Hello there!  It’s Jessica your Booty Camp Founder and I just wanted to put in special personal plug for the incredible healing powers of Dr. Kris Sasaki and Functional Health.  In the beginning of this year I had a herniated disk in my neck, I had two months of debilitating neurological pain down my arm.  As someone who needs my body to be fit for my work I did everything I could think of to figure out what was happening and heal. I saw everybody and was at the end of my rope!  I saw massage, acupuncture, even another chiropractor which had never been on the top of my list.  The first chiropractor was a real “in and out” kind of place.  It didn’t feel good.

Then I was referred to Dr. Sasaki’s Chiropractic and wellness center Functional Health.  And this changed everything!

First of all Dr Sasaki took the time to correctly diagnose my situation and realize that it was a serious condition that needed intensive treatment.  This was an injury that could have resulted in surgery and I am so grateful I found someone who was able to steer me out of it.  Dr. Sasaki’s work on my herniated disc returned function to my shoulder and arm and then through weekly sessions he built back my stability and functioning so that I not only was no longer in pain, but I had my strong booty camp body back!  The one that could wake-up at the crack of dawn and run the trails before the 5/10K event for the campers.

Functional Health is not only a beacon of welcoming but they have a well organized system to take care of you.  They have an assessment person who is also an athletic trainer works with you much like a physical therapist would.  Dr. Sasaki’s energy and enthusiasm is clear and has transformed my opinion of the power of chiropractic.  I highly recommend Functional Health if are considering Chiropractic.

 

Motivation, The Moves

Choosing to Kegel

Jessica

Kegels!

There’s been a lot of talk for the last few decades about Kegels and still many of us can’t seem to find the time and discipline to do them.  Well read on because this could be the day that it all changes!

What are you talking about?

For those unfamiliar, Kegel exercises refer to activating the small muscles at the front of the pelvic floor.  You use these muscles when you need to stop your pee mid-stream.  Although this trick is a great way to make sure you’ve got the right muscles only use it for locating them, practicing your kegels regularly while you pee can actually weaken your pelvic muscles.

Go ahead practice using the muscles right now as you read this.  We’ll wait…

Found it?  Great! Then read on!

Why are we talking about this?

Kegels are MIRACLE WORKERS when it comes to preventing many common health related issues.  Most notably urinary incontinence (letting a little pee out when you sneeze for exmaple. This happens to most women as they age UNLESS they do their Kegels).  Kegels make childbirth easier and healthier for your body and they will also make your orgasms stronger and (potentially) more plentiful!  So how about that for a carrot?

Ok Ok, but I’ve heard this before but I never do it!

You’ve probably never made this happen because you did not 1. Decide it is now a part of your daily routine and 2. Decide on a time every day that you’ll do it. 3. You don’t have a ROUTINE to give you something to do.

Decide. The power of decisions on our minds and actions is enormous.  As you read this, consider committing to it.  Don’t tell yourself “yes I should do that!” these “shoulds” pile up and erode our sense of agency in our own life.  Instead consider deciding “I’m going to try this!” Affirming that YOU and only YOU have control over what you choose to undertake.  We also like the word “try” because it leaves room for you to have days when you fall off the plan.  If you don’t expect perfection you are more likely to get back on track the next day.

Choose the same time everyday to do your kegels.  There’s been a lot of talk of doing them while driving. It turns out that for most, driving involves so many other things that kegels are not usually the first thing we remember to do.  Instead choose a time that is a bit more focused.  I like to do kegels while I’m brushing my teeth.  Some experts say to make sure you’re doing nothing else while you are doing your kegels, like right before you go to sleep or after you wake up.  Whenever you choose, make it the same time every day so your routine can take over.  Pretty soon you wouldn’t think of going to bed without your kegels.  It will become second nature.

Lastly, commit to a routine!  As with any exercise start small so you can succeed with minimal effort and then build up from that.  A big piece of exercising is getting used to the routine of a building a new habit.

Routine 1: At first you’ll work to just locate the muscle so you can contract it and relax it on command.  Try doing this ten times with a few seconds of rest in between.  Stay on routine 1 for at least a few days.

Routine 2: Hold your kegel muscle for 5 seconds at a time, and then relax for 5 seconds.  See if you can do this 10 times.  This takes less than 1 minute.

Routine 3:  Hold your kegel muscle for 10 seconds at a time, and then relax for 10 seconds.  See if you can do this 10 times.  This takes less than 2 minutes.  Repeat 1-3 times a day.

Happy Kegeling!

Special Events

A beautiful run thru the arboretum

Jessica

We had a gorgeous sunny day and great turnout of 30 campers, friends and family for our first 5k/10k event of our new series. The colors of the rhodies and azaleas were incredible.  And the heavy perfumed air surrounded us as we ran through the trails.

We had great feedback and are now busy planning for the next one already that will be held on June 16 – so mark your calendars and commit to your next goal.

Thanks to FREGGIES who provided wonderful organic fruit for the community potluck afterwards and to Mean Girls Massage and Communichi Acupunture  for providing door prize gift certificates!

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Special Events

First Annual Spring Soiree!

Jessica

We had a most magical evening at camper Teresa Santerre’s home.  First, their home is amazing – Teresa and her husband run Prestige Custom Builders.  It was pretty incredible to see the photo of the original craftsman home – in which it was pepto bismol pink and well not so purty –   and the complete transformation they did on the whole place –  including a wide wrap around porch and an outdoor covered fireplace where we wound up spending most of the night.

Then there was the fact that the weather held and we were able to be in those outdoor spaces at all!  And a soiree ain’t no good if its not about the food… so many amazing dishes – all yummy AND healthy!  We went home with a stack full of recipes to take home and try.  And I think next year it will also be a bring a container to take home for lunch the next day kind of operation!   To top it off dessert was chocolate tofu mousse (really? yes. so good.) with girl scout cookies!

Many of us also went home with new fitness clothing that everyone brought from their closets – yay for the clothing swap.

Lastly we were also treated to an intimate bellydance performance by Amy Horn of Verbena Bellydance and got to try it ourselves with a little booty belly dancing tutorial!

Thanks go out of course to all the donors of Door Prize items:  Camper JLo brought some lovely bath oils, Mean Girls Massage donated two massages, West Seattle camper Jennifer Guanga brought some of her detoxifying wraps as well.

Also Freggies, an up and coming Organic Produce delivery service, donated one of their boxes.  Freggies is one of our new camp sponsors in general as well (and Trainer Melissa’s husband who operates the business is our connect ; )  A box is sold and delivered for $40 and I was actually incredibly impressed with the variety and the quantity of produce for one box.  Check them out and email the office if you need the camper discount code  ; )

 

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