Tag: workout
As someone who hasn’t owned a car for quite a while, I must admit I haven’t given much thought as to what happens to used car tires when they are thrown away. When it was brought to my attention that just disposing of them means that thousands of tires are just ending up in landfills, it was scary to think about. I feel I’m pretty aware of how much garbage I create in terms of packaging, clothing and the like, but tires, that’s a significant level of waste, to put it mildly.
Knowing this, I was happy to learn about the good work of Ontario Tire Stewardship; since 2009, their Used Tires Program has diverted close to 100 million tires from landfills! How does it work? Well, when you have old tires to get rid of, rather than dropping them at the dump or tossing them with the trash, you bring them to a registered collector and they’ll have your tires hauled so they can be responsibly recycled into new products.
I didn’t realize that tires can be made into other useful items, such as surfacing for playgrounds and flooring for gyms – which you know speaks to me! I had the opportunity to test out recycled rubber flooring in a gym I worked out in recently. The flooring is super soft underfoot and provides a lot of cushioning, it’s easy to keep clean, and it’s slip resistant.
And that cushioning is great not only for any high impact exercises you may do, but also, say, if you drop a heavy dumbbell (which my weak arms have been very close to doing more than once) It’s also a budget-friendly option, so I’d definitely want this in my home gym, if I were to have the space at home.
With winter here (and perhaps you’ve made some fitness New Year’s resolutions), you may be wanting to do more of your workouts indoors. Consider looking into the repurposed rubber flooring option and remember, you typically don’t need much space to get in a good workout. So carving out a corner where you can get Zen or do some strength training using your own body weight won’t call for much flooring.
Many of the other ways the tires are repurposed are for the outdoors such as rubber landscape tiles and rubber mulch, which I didn’t even know existed but plan to try in my potted plants in the nicer weather. It can also be used for landscaping bricks, paving, planters and roofing shakes – something to keep in mind for spring when you decide to do some renos or updates. I’m also thinking these tiles would be an easy way for me to spruce up my downtown balcony floor, which I’ve left as the builder made it: plain and grey. A soft rubber flooring would be much more inviting.
So enough daydreaming about the nice weather… and back to the resolutions. In addition to hitting the gym in 2017, remember to Rethink Tires and ways that repurposed tire products can be used in your life. You’ll be doing the planet some good, which is a great way to make 2017 even better than last year.
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January 4, 2017
“We do???” I meant to mumble this to myself during my Nike+ Training class last week. Nike Master Trainer Eva Redpath had us doing some side squats using resistance bands around our ankles and my quads were burrrrrrning. Except I accidentally said it much louder; I must’ve lost control over how to speak at the volume I wanted to as I was working my muscles into exhaustion. That is how hard this workout was.
“YES, we do, Karen!” laughed Eva in reply.
I was one of the first to check out the new Nike+ Training Club platform, which has more than 100 new workouts from trainers and athletes including Skylar Diggins, and yes, Eva Redpath! (Love Eva!) And the app learns how you work out as you use it, so it can better provide you with personalized training plans. The visual cues have been improved as well, so it’s easier to follow along to make sure your form is proper, and there are audio cues (so you don’t have to have your eyes stuck to your smartphone screen). Also new: you can enter your other activities, too, so now all of your fitness can be logged, because most of us do a variety of workouts, after all! Oh, and the boys can now get into the Nike+ Training app, because there are workouts they’ll want to work up a sweat to. It’s not geared to just us ladies, anymore.
And does a workout count if you don’t share it? Nope! Haha! And for all you social media fiends, there are new ways to customize your photos to share with friends and community. Yesss, new ways to not-so-humble brag! Tee hee. Or you know, keep yourself accountable (that’s a big reason I share my workouts!).
With Eva last week, we did a strength workout, which is perhaps one of my biggest weaknesses when it comes to training. The lightest weight in class: 15 lbs. I generally aim for something about 5 lbs, so my arms were essentially limp noodles after class (I was so pooped that I listlessly dropped the entire sugar packet into my post-NTC coffee!) and it took me about three times as long to walk home because I was just so spent.
I’m excited to try out the NTC app in its new and improved format on my own at home. Have you tried it out yet? Thoughts? Any fave new features?
Photos: Tyler Hayward/@tilore
June 27, 2016
When I arrived at Lucid Health & Fitness in Toronto to try their X-Body workout, I didn’t know at all what to expect. I hadn’t had time to research it or electric muscle stimulation (EMS) workouts, and in fact, was semi-expecting it to be more like a massage versus an actual workout.
But I quickly learned it’d be a workout. Aman took it a little easy on me, though, as I had an appointment after Lucid and didn’t want to arrive a hot mess. Putting on the cotton base layer (it’s best if you don’t even wear a sports bra, so that the sensors can better make contact with your body), I wasn’t nervous, but upon seeing and donning the wet training suit that hooks you up to the computer, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t thinking wth have I gotten myself into?
I’ve only tried the X-Body EMS workout once, but later that day, my body felt like jello (and I know I didn’t necessarily feel like I’d exerted myself that much) and the following day, as I completed my 23k run, and my legs felt heavy and tired, it definitely seems like X-Body put me through quite the ringer in a mere 20-minute workout.
For more about X-Body, check my dose on Vitamin Daily.
February 15, 2016
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