Perched on the Adriatic coastal peninsula of Istria, Rovinj is a salty, old world town, becoming a tourist Mecca. The streets and alleyways of Rovinj are delightfully twisty, its stacked houses faded and worn, and its harbor bustling with fishing boats, big money cruisers and sailing rigs. Colorful laundry and flowering pots decorate the maze of cobbled streets.

Here are a few of my favorite…

Where will the path lead next?

Words seem inadequate to express cycling Italy from Hotel Belvedere. On the bike…boundless vistas – mountains, the sea, small villages, castillos, endless fields of grains, veggies and herbs, the round-a-bouts and traffic…and yes hills, hills and more hills… Hey, only 2K more – the view is better! Four rides daily ranging from 30k – 120k and you can climb until your heart’s content or your legs can do no more.

On the bike the senses are exposed and magnified to the sights, fragrances that swell every kilometer, the sounds and the feel of the salt air and sea breezes.

And the guides…”well done darling”. Now what woman doesn’t like to be called darling by some strapping man in Lycra with a sexy foreign accent, as she’s huffing an sweating up another hill…those boys know how to keep you pedaling! Ya gotta love those boys!

At the Hotel Belvedere life was completely catered and attended – you wake, eat, ride, sip cappuccino, expresso or cafe frido shakalado, ride again, eat, siesta, eat and share wine with your compadres, pick up your laundered bike clothes, sleep, get up and do it again the following day. A cyclist’s nirvana!

The food is exquisite, service cheerful, guests engaging and global. And the food..oh the food…what it’s time to eat again. They know how to fuel the cyclist after a day in the saddle. It is no surprise that the Belvedere was voted the number 1 bike hotel in Europe.

And then there was the pool party…mama Mia – a five course meal, Brazilian dancers, and Cactus Cycling goes wild on the dance floor. The laddies and lassies from Ireland were having as much fun and joy as the Americanos.

It was just loovely!

Ciao
Gwen

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Italy is like a nurturing mama, it seduces both sexes with irresistible appeal to all the senses. The antiquity, madonnas, female saints, goddesses, lovers, the fashion (oh the fabrics, leathers, and colorful mosaic designs) and yes, the food.

And then there is Venus, – goddess of love, beauty, fertility, and sexual healing. She is that gorgeous gal you see posed naked all over the country. Italy is Venus, a display of freedom, passion and immeasurable possibilities.

These prolific exhibits of female fertility, and wonderful women would be banished in the US by the religious right and christian conservatives…But in Italy women are revered, sanctified and loved.

And then there is Roma! Roma transforms the traveler. The world slips away, evaporates in the romantic lyrics of the language and the sights..va bene! Roma is the launch pad, the gateway to adventure, exposure, a new way of seeing.

Let the journey begin…

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The PEP program (Prevent injury and Enhance Performance) developed by the Santa Monica Sports Medicine and Research Foundation and recognized by the APTA, the NCAA and the CDC has been shown to lower the overall ACL injury rate among female athletes (APTA, 2008). This specifically designed warm-up focuses on stretching, strengthening, balance, plyometrics, and agility and can be performed without equipment or extensive training. Colleges and high schools nationwide have adopted the PEP program with the aim of reducing ACL injuries in athletes. A copy of the complete program can be downloaded from the Santa Monica Orthopedic Sports Medicine and Research Foundation.

For detailed information on the anatomy and biomechanics of the knee, common injuries and conditions of the knee and to learn how to design appropriate exercises to promote knee function and stability check out the DSWFitness Knee Stabilization CE course today.

Syncardia rides the mountain

A blissful 63 degrees a top Mt. Lemmon today, while the desert floor heated to 96 degrees. A primo day to be on the mountain. Life shrinks when you ride the mountain and the space around you magnifies. You become present to the scents, sounds, temperature and wind changes, the vistas, and rhythmic breathing syncing with each pedal stroke.

59 miles, 6300 feet of elevation gain, great sags with pie at the top. Syncardia jerseys dotting the roadway.

Apple, peaches, pumpkin pie - yummy

And cold beer, chips, salsa and guacamole waiting at the finish.

Refuel! Thank you Doug!

Syncardia rehydrates

Saving lives one heart at a time

According to a new study from the University of Colorado, published in the research journal Obesity, women who underwent liposuction for removal of fat deposits from the thighs and lower abdomen found that new fat deposits appeared on their shoulders, arms and upper abdomen. Post-procedure measurements were taken at 6 weeks, 6 months and 1 year to tract fat distribution.

The redistribution of fat appears to be modulated by adipocyte hyperplasia (the growth of new fat cells) or hypertrophy (the increase in size of existing fat cells). Since liposuction destroys the structures under the skin, this could explain why fat cells don’t grow back in the same place from which they were removed.

The take home message is that if caloric intake and energy expenditure (or lack of) remain constant pre and post liposuction, the surgical procedure will reduce the fat from the localized area, however, only temporarily reduce total body fat. When more calories are taken in than expended fat accumulation occurs by hypertrophy of existing fat cells or the creation of new adipocytes to store fat.

According to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, liposuction is the number one plastic surgery and makes up 18.8 percent of procedures (200,000 in the US in 2010).

Just think, the money spent on liposuction could be used to hire a personal trainer and nutritionist for 6 months and produce significant weight loss, a gain in lean mass, create a greater sense of well-being and establish life-long exercise and nutritional habits.

Or do you get in the car and drive to pick it up or dine out at the pizza parlor? Most of the time we call and have it delivered! Why? Because, it’s convenient, it’s fast, it’s efficient, and it fits our lifestyle. When pizza first started being delivered, many people thought this was a crazy idea. No one would pay for this. However, pizza delivery service is now a main revenue stream for many pizza businesses.

Just as there are thousands of pizza parlors serving up oh-so tasty pizza there are 30,022 health clubs serving 45.5 million members in the United States (IHRSA, 2009). However, there are over 304 million people in the US and that means 85% of the population is not being served by a gym or health club.

Mobile fitness, an exercise delivery service, provides a great opportunity to reach a large percentage of the population that are not exercising in the gym or that are not exercising at all.

Mobile fitness is appealing to many people because it is convenient and eliminates many of the barriers to exercise such as:

Lack of time
Lack of professional instruction
Family and work commitments
Inaccessibility
Weather
Safety

Mobile fitness is one of the fastest growth areas in the fitness industry and you too can be a successful entrepenuer with your own mobile fitness business.

I use an in-home trainer because it saves me time, it’s convenient, it fits my schedule, and the money I would spend on a gym membership fee is applied to training sessions, plus the program is specifically tailored to my needs.

So check out the new 2011 Be a Successful In-Home/Mobile Trainer CE course for all of the information you need to start your own mobile fitness business. You’ll learn how mobile training differs from gym training, questions to ask before deciding if entrepreneurship is for you, how to write a business plan and find your niche market, how to set up your legal structure and financial business planning, strategies for marketing and selling your services, scheduling and staffing a mobile fitness business, plus so much more.

There is strong evidence that the mind-body practice of tai chi, which originated in China as a martial art, has value in treating or preventing many health problems. “A growing body of carefully conducted research presents a compelling case for tai chi as an adjunct to standard medial treatment for the prevention and rehabilitation of many conditions commonly associated with aging,” Says Peter M. Wayne, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Tai Chi and Mind-Body Research Program at the Harvard Osher Research Center. When combined with standard treatment, tai chi has been shown to be helpful for a variety of medical conditions including arthritis, low bone density, breast cancer, heart disease, heart failure, hypertension, Parkinson’s disease, stroke and sleep problems. Another example of exercise as medicine.

Tai chi differs from other types of exercise in several aspects. The movements are usually circular and never forced, the muscles are relaxed rather than tensed, the joints are not fully extended or flexed, and connective tissues are not stretched. Tai chi can be easily adapted for anyone, from the most fit to those confined to a wheelchair or recovering from surgery.

For more in-depth information on tai chi and how to implement the practice into your fitness training – check out the Arthritis Foundation approved and DSWFitness CE course, Tai Chi for Arthritis by Dr. Paul Lam.

I’m a low cadence rider and have been working at increasing leg speed by pedaling a higher cadence in a moderately big gear. I find this pyramid interval with constant gearing challenging and beneficial. It also nudges my lactate threshold and VO2max.

After warming up, begin the interval with a cadence of 85 rpm. Every 60 seconds, maintain your gearing and increase your cadence by 5 rpm. Increase cadence three times on the minute (85 rpm to 90 rpm to 95 rpm – ascending the pyramid)). Then reverse the interval by three times decreasing the cadence by 5 rpm every 60 seconds (95rpm to 90 rpm to 85 rpm – descending the pyramid).

Recovery spin for 5 minutes and repeat for a total of three intervals.

You’ll find over 20 high impact cycling workouts in the Training and Coaching the Competitive Cyclist CE course by Tyrone Holmes, a competitive cyclist and USA Cycling level 2 coach.

Check it out today!