From sit to fit
Michael Finn, senior trainer and owner of Finn Fitness and Wellness works with client Kim Warner in his Petaluma facility, Jan. 19, 2010. Finn works to help his clients be successful in improving their health and fitness levels.
Crista Jeremiason / PDPublished: Saturday, January 30, 2010 at 3:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, January 30, 2010 at 2:56 p.m.
Just as Americans began to work on those annual resolutions to really, truly, this year for sure get fit, we learned that our sedentary lifestyle is not only causing an obesity problem — it's killing us.
The American Heart Association reported earlier this month that every hour spent in front of the TV, computer and office desk may increase the risk of dying earlier from cardiovascular disease. Even people who maintain a healthy weight, according to the heart association study, negatively affect their blood-sugar and blood-fat levels by prolonged sitting.
Fitness trainer Michael Finn in Petaluma knows about marathon sitting.
“Most people sit in their car and then sit at a desk and then sit in the car again, then come home and sit on the couch. They're exhausted because their body hasn't done anything all day. Just sit. And if they pick up something to eat on the way home, they don't even stand long enough to cook dinner.”
Proof that too much sitting can stop your heart is the good kind of “negative reinforcement” that Finn says some people need to finally go to a gym, find a personal trainer, sign up for the latest trendy fitness class.
But, he warns, you can get hurt in the process. He lists a number of mistakes people make when they get into exercise for the first time or after a long hiatus.
They try to do more than what is appropriate for their own body. They follow what their friend does or what they see others doing at the gym. They go for the quick fix rather than a healthier lifestyle. They try to jump back into what they did years before. They do the same thing day in and day out, get bored and give up. Or they injure themselves and it's back to the couch.
Marc Sebastian, a Novato businessman, who spent years competing in extreme sports, knows how easy it is to give in to the couch.
He slackened off his exercise regimen during his father's illness and death and said the long stressful experience “made it a challenge to get back into the swing of things.”
When you're loaded down with stress, he said, “It seems so easy to sit on the couch and do nothing, eat poorly and not take care of yourself, even for me.”
Just now getting back to his routine, he works out at the gym with trainer Finn and runs and bikes several times a week with friends. His fitness goal for the new year is to do more off-road triathlons and adventure racing.
The only way to do that, he said, is to consider his health and fitness program “a way of life, not some quick fix to a problem. I try to set goals that are achievable and realistic but definitely a reach to get.”
Finn, who is trained in an exercise and nutrition program called Corrective Holistic Exercise and Kinesiology or CHEK, has his own motivation for being active.
“No one on my father's side of the family is under 275 pounds. Plus there's a history of people dying from cancer and Type 2 diabetes. I had a lot of negative reinforcement.”
Finn has always pushed himself to be physically active even though he's legally blind, having lost 85 percent of his eyesight as a very young child.
He trained in track for the Paralympics, but his current sport is beep baseball, which is softball for the visually impaired. Finn's resolution is to work on his lateral explosive jumps and his sprinting for the next beep baseball tournament.
“We are all as unique on the inside as we look on the outside and we should treat ourselves that way,” he said, which is why he believes there is no one-size-fits-all exercise that can benefit each person and will not lead to injury.
Except for breathing, he said.
“Even something like walking is bad for someone with a pelvis that is tilted too far forward or backward or has tight or weak hip rotators. Watch people out running and see how long it takes before you see someone running with a limp, knee brace or ankle brace. They're running injured because they weren't conditioned well enough to run in the first place.”
In working with someone new to exercising, Pilates instructor Chantill Lopez in Sebastopol said it's important to “investigate what else a person is doing in their life” and try to encourage them to do a variety of movements.
For example, she said Pilates is good for strengthening the core and gaining balance, but it's not a cardiovascular or aerobic workout. Many of her students also work out at the gym and do weight-bearing exercises.
Lopez thinks people are more sophisticated about what they want in an exercise routine, that it not just work to improve their abs or another part of their body but will in general “make them feel better in their bodies.
“They want to feel more vibrant, have more energy and vitality,” she said.
Lopez, who has been teaching Pilates for 15 years, stresses the importance of body awareness.
She likes to quote James Joyce's description of a character in “The Dubliners” named Mr. Duffy, of whom it was said he “lived a short distance from his body.”
“That's it,” Lopez said. “Most people don't pay attention to their bodies. They're not aware of their bodies. In Pilates we talk a lot about alignment so people can think about how they're holding themselves.”
Pilates student Linda Sundheim recently started a new regimen after a long period of caring for her mother and going to culinary school and “feeling pretty beat up. I was stiff, it was hard to stand straight and just about everything ached.”
She began with private Pilates sessions, moved onto group classes and added in chiropractic work and massage.
Lopez' advice is to choose the exercise that keeps you interested.
“If people don't like going to the gym and putting in 30 minutes a day, they won't do it,” she said. “If Pilates doesn't resonate with you, go find something that does and do it.”
Denise Ilmanen from Novato spent years rotating through fitness strategies and gyms. Her favorite way to move her body is clog dancing. But for fine-tuning, she began working with Finn in Petaluma, initially because she wanted to lose weight. He came up with a nutrition plan and a fitness program that includes exercises to help flatten the curvature of her spine and strengthen her upper body and stretches for her back and legs, many of them based on Tai Chi moves.
She's been doing her exercises for a year, has lost weight, given up soft drinks and other cravings and thinks one reason she's stuck with the program is because it was customized for her needs and started out “non-stressful.”
Her resolution for 2010 is to keep doing what worked in 2009.
Sundheim's is more of an ongoing resolution “to just keep moving,” she said. “That was the advice from my 91-year-old mother who had more energy and positive attitude than anyone I know.”
Susan Swartz is a freelance writer and author based in Sonoma County. Contact her at susan@juicytomatoes.com.
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