Power Plate and me...week 1

It's been a week since my Power Plate my5 arrived. So far: YEA.

I haven't lost inches, I didn't expect to in a week. I don't know if I've lost weight (I haven't had a scale in my house in 10 years), but I expect not.

But I do have that lovely long and lean feeling that comes with effective stretching and flexibility. I used to feel like this when I did yoga every morning, a good habit that went by the wayside a year or so back. That routine took an hour. My Power Plate workout is 15 minutes.

The one other, unexpected, result is that I've been going to the bathroom .... a whole lot! I didn't make the connection between the dozens of bathroom breaks and the Power Plate workouts until this morning. Reading articles on the UK Power Plate site, I saw that the gentle massage and stretching I'm doing serves as a mild detoxification. It increases blood flow, circulation, and releases toxins from the muscles. And since I'm staying very hydrated throughout the workouts, the combination has led to my multiple departures from all the meetings I was in. Oh well. Maybe it's helped my complexion?

Anyway, for the past seven days, I've done 15 minutes each morning of basic acclimation exercises. I'm still disappointed Power Plate was unable to find a certified trainer in the area; I somehow expected there would be several. The incredibly helpful Power Plate PR person, Hailey, was fabulous and did come up with one name in Menlo Park. Not exactly next door, but better than having to go to Los Angeles.

There is a Power Plate at the nearby Club One but in typical Club One fashion, they wanted to know if I was going to write about the experience, when, what, etc. Forget it. On a number of occasions I've found Club One's external PR folks to be great. Their internal people have routinely been ...hmmm, dismissive and ineffective. Anyway, a nice Menlo Park person and facility is better than a lousy one close-by.

I considered going to the training myself, but the $275 course fee plus travel, hotel, rental car etc deter me right now.

Here's a brief video about the Power Plate, just in case you aren't familiar with it.

Power Plate and me...and Madonna, and Cindy Crawford and Serena Williams...

My Power Plate machine arrived last Friday, and I'm just now getting around to writing about it...why? Well, I wanted to give it a go for a few days. And at the end of a week, I say, "So far, great!!"

The Power Plate, as I hope you know, is a very impressive piece of exercise equipment: it has a 3 dimensional vibrating plate, and you do your regular exercises on it, which are aided and intensified by the fact that your muscles are vibrating 30-45 times a second. For stars and celebs like Madonna, Cindy Crawford, Hilary Swank, models like Elle MacPherson and athletes like Serena Williams, it's about warming up and exercising in a shorter time. For me, it's about the studies showing how effective it is in helping osteoporosis.

Randy and Ryan (pictured to the right) delivered it to my house and set it up for me. They were so funny and nice, and had just come from delivering a couple of Power Plate machines to Stanford U. Poor guys had to make the drive to my place from Stanford in Friday afternoon rush hour traffic. (A normally pleasant 20 minute drive becomes an hour-long frustration if you run into the Apple workers as they leave for the weekend.)

My only gripe about the machine is how hard it is to get specific training here in Silicon Valley. Some cities have Power Plate studios. In London, posh department store Harrods has in-store Power Plate training in the 5th floor studio. In New York, LA, Denver, and elsewhere, finding qualified trainers is not a problem. Here in Northern California the equipment is mostly found in the training rooms of our pro sports teams: 49ers, Raiders etc.

So I'm scrounging around the web, getting all the YouTube videos I can about different training techniques, and I downloaded the exercise guide from the Power Plate web site. Still, I'd like someone to work out three or four routines for me.

Til I get my own workout, I'll occasionally publish some of the YouTube stuff I've found helpful. I hope you like it. If you have Power Plate videos to recommend, let me know.

Biking safety tips. 7 tips to safe cycling.

I just posted an article on San Jose Fitness Examiner about Bicycle safety tips: 3 smart strategies in which two San Jose chiropractors, Drs. Jennifer and Stephanie Rozenhart of Rozenhart Family Chiropractic give three tips on how to avoid injuries while biking.

Working on that article got me thinking about the overall riding strategies that cyclists should keep in mind.

To that end, I share these additional tips culled from the U. S. Department of Transportation brochure, "Seven Smart Routes to Bicycle Safety for Adults," with the first, "Wear a helmet" repeated on both lists. It's that important, and believe it or not, I see cyclists riding by my house every day without a helmet on.

1. Protect Your Head. Wear a Helmet.
2. Assure Bicycle Readiness. Ensure
Proper Size and Function of Bicycle.
3. Ride Wisely. Learn and Follow the
Rules of the Road.
4. Be Predictable. Act Like a Driver
of a Vehicle.
5. Be Visible. See and Be Seen at All Times.
6. “Drive” with Care. Share the Road.
7. Stay Focused. Stay Alert.

sjDANCEco Dancin' Downtown video

I'm missing the names of some of these groups. If you can help supply them, please do. Just comment on on this post, or go to YouTube and comment on the video posted there.

For photos from the April 25 Dancin' Downtown event, check out San Jose Fitness Examiner

Thanks!

Sex and the City 2 star Kristin Davis on cover of May Fitness

Over on San Jose Fitness Examiner, I talk about Sex and the City 2 co-star Kristin Davis, as she increases her visibility in preparation for the release of the movie on May 27, especially as it relates to her fitness activities:

Kristin Davis steps up profile: hosts half marathon, talks workouts with Fitness Mag (Video trailer of SATC2)

She's spokesperson for the More/Fitness Magazine Women's Half Marathon in New York's Central Park April 25, she gets the cover of May Fitness Magazine talking about her "slammin' abs" workout, and the trailer for SATC2 went up on YouTube this week.

It doesn't have a lot to do with us here in Silicon Valley, other than the fact that the movie, and Ms. Davis, has fans everywhere (including here), but being that I'm a marketing person at heart, it always interests me how a pre-movie campaign is launched and how celebrities are marketed.

What surprised me is that the comments on People Magazine's story about the Fitness cover. The readers just aren't buying Davis' "aw-shucks, I'm just trying to love my body" routine. Head over to the story and see what they had to say about her comment, "I have hips!"