Stretch/Strength tip :: Simple standing twist. Here is a neat one. Standing with your arms raised straight out to the side and parallel to the ground. Place your feet close together underneath you. Holding your arms perfectly still so that your torso and arms do not move. Twist your hips forward and back. Feel the ab workout after 16 to 30 reps. It’s a great workout for your hip rotation muscles and it stretches things out too.
We’re blogging, twittering and facebooking! You can find links to our Facebook and Twitter pages at the bottom of our website. It’s all good fun. Lately on both twitter and on the blog I’ve been discussing the negative effects of walking while carrying hand weights. We’ve had some lively discussion on the blog – check it out and join us with your own comment.
Exciting changes :: We’ve been thinking about you and making some changes to ensure the WoW Power Walking experience continues to be a really big WOW for you.
First, we are introducing a sessional membership for fall. For one low price you can attend as many classes as you want, including walking strength and balance classes. Even if you can make only one class a week, you’ll still be getting a price reduction on that class if you intend to take 2 sessions of classes over the fall. Because it is helpful for us to know the main class you will be attending, you will find the membership ordering option in the same area as specific class ordering. (There is no membership associated with strength and balance – you must be taking one of our walking classes to get a membership deal, but with that membership you can attend strength and balance classes.)
Second, we are changing our classes to reflect the need to have a stream for people who want to walk for fitness and those who are hooked on the race experience. All classes will be under the umbrella title Walk Your Butt Off. We will have one stream for fitness (F) and one stream for high performance (HP). Walk Your Butt Off: HP will have three levels. Level 1 will be very similar to our old Marathon Training Level 1 class but it will be 8 weeks in length. We will also offer Walk Your Butt Off: HP Levels 2 & 3. For these two classes we will post recommended walking paces. These paces will serve as a guideline as we know that joining a class is often about the day and time of the class (not to mention the people you know in the class!). Still, we do want to strive to offer transitional classes for people who have just completed an entry-level program and would like to ramp up the challenge appropriately.
Our Walk Your Butt Off: Fitness stream will offer two levels. The first level will consist of a comprehensive 6-week program that meets 3 times per week for 60 minutes. This course will be perfect for people who want to commit to an exercise program but have never managed to follow through on that commitment. We’ll be there for you for 6 weeks helping make your intention a habit that sticks. After that, Our Walk Your Butt Off: Fitness 2 will help you maintain your great start with regular 60-minute walking workouts.
Take a look at the classes section of the website to become familiarized with all the great opportunities for fabulous coached walking workouts.
And one more change. Our office is moving so we will be closed for phone calls from Friday August 14 to Monday August 17 inclusive. We can be reached by email over those 4 days. As of Tuesday August 18 we can be reached at 416 766 0774.
Words to walk and live by . . .
"Isn't it really quite extraordinary to see that, since man took his first step, no one has asked himself why he walks, how he walks, if he has ever walked, if he could walk better, what he achieves in walking... questions that are tied to all the philosophical, psychological, and political systems which preoccupy the world."
- Honoré de Balzac,
Theorie de la Demarché |
View from the Back by Janet Cawley :: Power walking is a contact sport. Albeit gentler than rugby moves, when walking, things still "connect" with me. Through my senses, spirit and mind I connect with my environment---both outer and inner.
The effect can be pleasant ; other times I can be in a nasty mood and see everything as irritating. Sometimes I write down how I feel. Lots of people I know keep journals---even Oprah, although I don't know her. According to Funk and Wagnall, journals must be daily writings. Some believe journals should contain dreams, aspirations, and inspirations. Although I often write about such things: I say, write whatever you want, whenever you want.
I do enjoy writing about my walking excursions. When I write about going out, I especially like filling in details of the weather, what I wore, to whom I spoke, where I went, how many raisins I ate - facts, as such. And I love the journals themselves; the smooth, silky, cool feeling of their protective covers, the way the white pages fan out as I run my thumb from front to back. They have so much potential.
Before I wrote this, I thought I'd count all of my lovely journals: my Moulin Rouge journal, my van Gogh journal, my Running for Women journal, my Olivia journal, my Grateful Abundances journal, my Wimpy Kid journal, my three journals with dogs on the covers, my Thoughts journal, my Wow journal - fourteen in all. Some of them contained about fourteen words in all. Others were jammed with stuff.
Sometimes, I have difficulty writing. I don't want to mess up the virgin pages. Other times, I write as fast as a bug spinning on its back, smudging and smearing as I go. Sometimes I want to read the words. Other times, I am almost afraid to review them.
Yesterday, when talking about journaling with a friend, she told me she had boxes of her writings. She has set aside her retirement to read them (although she's retired and hasn't started on them yet). She did, however, once want to recall how she had felt at a certain time in her life. She looked in the specific journal of that time, and she found she had written nothing. Even the silence of the blank page told her something.
I think we journal to connect with our human experience and even if our musing inspires only ourselves – it is enough. |
