exercise

Tips for Healthy Hiking

Hiking is one of my favorite pastimes. And it feels so much better when your body is ready to trek up a mountain. So how do you train for a hike? Here are some tips:

Pack Your Weight

Wear your pack when you train and put some weight in it. If you know how much weight you’ll be carrying on hike day, build up to that quantity. Getting a pack filled with weight can take time and extra effort. If that’s getting in your way of prepping, start moving without the pack.

Trekking Poles

Trekking poles are a lifesaver. If you want to hike into your 70’s and 80’s you want to get trekking poles today. Not only do they save your knees, but they turn the hike into a more full-body workout. On a typical hike, the arms aren’t that involved. Add trekking poles and now your arms and shoulders get a workout too.

Cardio

Any hike will feel better if you are ready for the cardio it will require. You can build up by hiking, biking, running, or picking up the pace when you go for a walk.

Core

It’s easy to forge

Tips for Healthy HikingMaggie Downie2023-08-01T14:00:29-04:00

Where is My Body in Space? Aerial Circus Class

Taking an aerial class has been on my bucket list for a while. This involves two silks hanging from a tall ceiling that you use like Cirque du Soleil would (please don’t think for a second I think I’m ready to join Cirque du Soleil). They refer to it as ‘circus.’

Most of the Personal Euphoria team wasn’t available to attend, but Jeannine and I thought we’d go anyway. After a dynamic warm-up, they got us in the silks. Honestly, I was surprised at how much we could both do. I was a little worried this might wind up like the pole dancing class we once took as a team. None of us could even begin to do the moves. But here, Jeannine and I could actually (with assistance) get into the positions they prepared for us. A big part of that was that they selected moves that were manageable but still made us feel like we were doing something cool—flipping upside down, arching into a backbend like a crescent moon hovered in the air.

I’ve never been able to climb a rope—not in […]

Where is My Body in Space? Aerial Circus ClassMaggie Downie2023-06-29T23:32:12-04:00

Keep Kids Moving This Summer!

Your kids are home from school. You’ve played all the board games you can. And, maybe it’s even a rainy week. What can you do to burn off a little of that excess energy building up in both you and the kids? KEEP MOVING, of course.

You probably have items in your home that can help create a playful, imaginative workout. Here are some ways to help kids stay active with household items:

Painters Tape

Put a strip on the floor—young enough kids can use it as a balance beam. They won’t be balancing, but they can try to walk along it and stay on the line. You can make it straight or zig zag it.

If you have a hallway, use painters tape to turn the floor into a hopscotch. Swap a bean bag for the rock you’d use outside and now your child can hop their way down the hall.

Or, in the hallway, put tape at different intervals and different angles to create a “Mission Impossible Laser” hallway. Your child has to try to get from one end to the other without touching the tape. This one is easy to make easier […]

Keep Kids Moving This Summer!Maggie Downie2023-06-21T17:05:02-04:00

Forest Bathing

Last week some of the Personal Euphoria instructors went forest bathing. I didn’t know what to expect. Really, it has a terrible name. For me it brings thoughts of nudity, a bit of hokeyness, or potential images of cleaning the forest with sudsy bathwater. I know it’s none of those things, but the name does the practice no real service. My basic understanding was that it was meditating in the forest. Knowing that trees make humans feel better, I thought this might be a good excursion. It was.

We met at Pleasant Valley Preserve in Lyme, CT (a location I can’t recommend enough if you haven’t been there). This is a quiet treasure near the southern border of our state. We walked slowly through these beautiful woods, took deep breaths, did gentle stretches, and sat or wandered in specific areas—all guided by Regan Stacey. She invited us to hone into all our senses and encouraged us to explore. It was always an invitation to do something, not an order.

Forest bathing is not hiking. I’m one of those hikers that likes to move. I like to get to the top, to the view. […]

Forest BathingMaggie Downie2022-07-30T22:21:29-04:00

Plank Form

I always tell people to KEEP MOVING but one of the best exercises you can do involves no movement at all. I’m talking about planking. Planking may seem like a fad when world leaders are doing it (remember Canada’s Prime Minster Trudeau planking on a desk?) and the world record for longest plank is over 9.5 hours. But the research on the benefits of planking is so significant that the US army swapped out sit ups for planks this year!

Benefits of Plank

What they found is young recruits flinging themselves up and down to crank out as many sits ups as possible were injuring their backs, using other muscles besides their abdominals, and basically by-passing the ab muscles. (I should note: sit ups don’t have to be a bad exercise when performed with proper form, but at superspeed it’s hard to do them properly.)

In plank, no other muscle is going to pick up the slack. Your abs are going to do the work, or they are not. According to research, planks activate more ab muscles and engage them more intensely than sit ups. So, you build strength, definition, and endurance. […]

Plank FormMaggie Downie2022-05-21T23:04:36-04:00