My Second Olympian: Bruce Jenner

On Friday, I met Bruce Jenner, Olympic gold medalist and Kardashian clan step-dad. 

Meeting Dara Torres and then Bruce Jenner got me wondering... so I did a little Google research...

Short athletes, do not despair!  The 2010 US Olympic Team featured five 5' tall athletes (just an inch and a smidge taller than yours truly): Caydee Denney (figure skating), Amanda Evora (figure skating), Erika Lawler (ice hockey), and Michelle Roark (freestyle skiing - moguls) and Laura Spector (biathlon).

Just in case you wanted to know.

-Gym Belle-

Dara Torres and Gold Medal Fitness

"I believe [my tenacity] is the result of living in my body in an active way." Dara Torres, Gold Medal Fitness.Meeting five-time Olympic swimmer Dara Torres felt a bit like meeting a superhero.  Dara has been an Olympic competitor since 1984.  She has consistently broken records throughout the course of her long career, and rocked the world in 2008 when she competed in the Beijing Olympics as a 41-year-old new mom - and took home three medals.  In total, Dara has won 12 Olympic medals, four of them gold.  So far.  Now 43, Dara is considering competing in the 2012 Olympic games in London.  At the moment, she's still recovering from a major knee surgery, but it doesn't seem to have slowed her down much.  Quite frankly, it's hard to imagine what would.  She's 5'11" and as cut as she looks on the cover of her new book.  The woman radiates power. 

In fact, when Dara Torres walked into the room on Tuesday to lead a group of bloggers in a stretching class based on her new book, Gold Medal Fitness: A Revolutionary 5-Week Program,* the last thing I expected her to be was human. 

"It's taken me ten years to truly appreciate the wisdom of recovery as a regular and essential part of my training routine." Dara Torres, Gold Medal FitnessAnd yet, Dara is shockingly relatable.  When asked about her favorite places to swim in New York (Asphalt Green was #1 despite being "nippy"), she told us that she likes the New York Athletic Club because of its location and history, "but sometimes you get these men in there that just hate when you're in their lane." "Even you?" asked one incredulous blogger, clearly a fellow swimmer.  "Yeah, I don't know.  Because they're older men, you know.  And then you get younger men who try to race you."  Wow.  I'll definitely remember that I'm in good company the next time I'm being squeezed out of a lane by some pushy guys at Equinox.

Dara is delightfully down to earth about her body, including her legendary abs.  "It's easier for me because I do this for a living," she explained.  She also credits genetics for her lean frame; apparently her brother has a similar build.  Before we got down to the stretching, Dara noted that she, too, has "problem areas" and, in front of a room full of bloggers with snapping cameras and filming Flip cams, she not only recounted how Wendy Williams had poked fun at the "flab" under her triceps on TV earlier that day - she showed it to us.  I told you; the woman is impressive.

Dara's enthusiasm for her latest book, and for the exercise methodologies she has embraced for the past four years, was evident as she led us through six of the 16 different Ki-Hara stretches in the book.  Ki-Hara is a method of resistance stretching that calls for contracting the muscle at the same time that its being lengthened by the stretch.  Some of the stretches will be familiar to Physique 57 goers, but my favorite that we did yesterday was a quad stretch that I had learned from Court at CrossFit NYC.  We also did something called the "Y Closer" which felt amazing in my tight shoulders.  The book breaks each stretch down step by step, and has pictures, which I personally find really helpful.

Gold Medal Fitness is Dara's answer to "how do you do it?", and Ki-Hara is just one aspect.  Dara also provides a 35-day eating plan with specific meal recommendations, a detailed strength training plan and guidance for cardio workouts.  Recovery also gets its own chapter, which is pretty cool. 

"As your body gets stronger and in better shape, you are naturally going to feel more confident." Dara Torres, Gold Medal FitnessDara's weight regimen focuses on core strength and balance.  The goal isn't merely strength for strength's sake, but efficiency of movement.  Gold Medal Fitness provides progressions for each of the exercises to incorporate as you improve.  Some of the moves require equipment, such as free weights, a medicine and a Bosu.  Dara also uses a handful of machines.  If you don't have access to a gym or a particular piece of equipment, though, you can work around that.  The plan is designed to be adaptable.

Dara stresses that cardio should be fun.  She suggests various activities to try, but tells her readers that the important thing is doing it, so pick something you like.  In this chapter, Dara offers guidance with respect to targeting your rate of perceived exertion, and the length and structure of a good cardio workout.  She also explains how to include anaerobic conditioning in your routine.  In the chapter on rest, Dara talks about hydration, refueling, and the importance of giving your body a break.

Gold Medal Fitness was written to be accessible to people of any fitness level, at any age.  It's clear and very easy to follow, but, refreshingly, it's not dumbed down.   She explains the logic and mechanics of each of the exercises, as well as how to put them all together into a routine.  Gold Medal Fitness is more than a five-week plan; it's a blueprint for an active life.

I'm not in the market for a total exercise makeover right now, but I'm really excited about trying Ki-Hara.  I'm not a good stretcher, and I wonder how much that's to blame for the pinched nerve that's been cramping my style for the past few weeks.  I keep saying that I need to incorporate more yoga into my routine.  Ki-Hara may be more my thing, though.  It's certainly worth a shot, and Dara's book is the perfect introduction.

I'll keep you posted

-Gym Belle-

*I received a complimentary copy of the book as part of the event.  Thank you, Random House!

Trainer Talk: My Interview with Jasmine Johnson

"I always want to be healthy and fit and into the lifestyle."Meet Jasmine Johnson.  She used to be my twice a week trainer until I got all flighty and decided to explore the wide world of NYC fitness.  Lucky for me, she understands my commitment issues and still fits me in for sessions or boot camps once in a while.  Yesterday, I stopped by her new digs, a private training studio around the corner from my apartment, for a kickass session and interview.

Jasmine's personal training career began five years ago, while she was studying biology in college.  She had initially contemplated working in a lab or becoming a biology teacher, but quickly realized that the three hours a day she spent at the gym were what really made her happy.  She began working as a personal trainer and graduated college with a degree in exercise physiology.  Jasmine taught yoga on the beach in Key West before moving to NYC, and spent three years at the Equinox on 63rd before going out on her own.  She now trains out of Boaz Fitness, a private training studio on East 72nd that oozes upper east side pre-war walk-up charm.  (It's spotless and it has the original crown moldings!)

To be a good trainer, Jasmine believes you have to care about your clients and live the lifestyle.  "You have to have a vested interest in the people that you're working with.  You have to really want to see them make changes," says Jasmine.  "Someone's trusting you with their body.  You have to take that seriously."  You also have to be into fitness yourself, she cautions.  No one's going to a listen to a trainer that they see outside the gym smoking a cigarette and eating a Snickers bar.

Since it's been on my mind, I asked Jasmine for her views on lifting, and what she thinks of heavy weights versus lighter weights.  "People lose sight of what really matters when it comes to weight loss and how to sculpt your body, " Jasmine explained.  It all comes down to what you're doing to your metabolism, the overall amount of calories that you intake and the total amount that you burn, and what that adds up to at the end of the day.  If you lift heavy and you really break down muscle fiber, because you did so much damage to your body, it's going to take a lot of energy to recover from that workout.  It's that "after-burn" over the next day or two that really makes a difference.  The lighter weights have their place, but that's almost more like doing cardio.  You might burn a lot of calories doing the light weights, but once you're done, you're done burning.

I also asked about diets.  Jasmine says that the biggest change in her own body that she's seen from dieting happened when she was bodybuilding.  She was eating small, 300 calorie meals every three hours that had lots of protein and not a lot of carbs.  Although there's no one diet that she would swear by, she believes that diets can be good because they offer people structure.  Jasmine stresses that diets should be simple.  "And if you want to eat something, eat it."  Then move on. 

Bodybuilding also taught Jasmine about rest.  She was trying to lose weight and gain muscle in a really short time to get ready for a competition.  She thought that she was doing everything she was supposed to do and more, but it wasn't working.  When she finally took a weekend off and slept a lot, everything changed.  The next week, her body really started responding.  "All of a sudden, I was walking down the street just dropping pounds." 

These days, Jasmine works out six days a week.  Like me, Jasmine goes through phases with exercise.  After years of heavy lifting and kettlebells, right now she's into yoga, running and body-weight lifting.  She practices yoga at Sangha Yoga Shala in Williamsburg, which she loves.  "Some days I just want to come in and breathe and stretch, and some days I want to come in and kick my ass," says Jasmine.  At Sangha, you can interpret what they're telling you to do the way you feel like doing it that day.  

To wrap thing sup, I asked Jasmine if there was one thing she wishes she could get through to her clients.  "Sometimes we spend so much time looking in that mirror and picking on ourselves. 'Oh, I should be smaller here.'  'This should be more cut here.' 'G-d, I only made it to the gym three times last week; I'm really failing at life.'  All these small things can make you lose track of what it's all really about.  It's about more than what you look like. It's about feeling good, loving yourself and doing great things for your body and treating yourself well.  It's about so much more than how many minutes of cardio you did and how much better your friend looks in her Lulu[lemon] pants than you do.  I want people to not lose sight of the bigger picture." 

Well said, lady.

-Gym Belle-

Update on April 20, 2010 by Gym Belle

Jasmine can be reached at jasminefitness@tmo.blackberry.net.