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Enlist in Jack Holleman’s YMCA’s fitness boot camp; stretch to the max with yoga teacher Shoshanna Marks; race against cancer with triathlon trainer Stephanie McDoulett; punch into high gear with cardio kickboxing master Kenneth Pitts; and paddle the bay waters with kayak instructor Sou Saephan. They’ll help you maintain the motivation and momentum to get the job done. These highly experienced trainers are known for being great teachers and motivators. Each program is appropriate for adults at any fitness level without serious medical conditions, but check with your doctor before starting any new exercise program.
Sandwiched in between their credos for improved athletic performance are nuggets on healthy eating, organic shopping outlets and massage etiquette.You’ll even find a few inspirational words for helping a loved one stricken with cancer. Follow these tips to the direct route to a healthier lifestyle.
Jack Holleman - Fitness Boot Camp
WHAT IS IT? An early morning workout that includes calisthenics, stretching, jogging and playful exercise games. Six-week classes meet at 5:30 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
WHERE IS IT? YMCA, Downtown Oakland Branch, 2350 Broadway Ave., (510) 451-8041, Ext. 126, www.ymcaeastbay.org.
WHAT’S THE COST? A $61 monthly YMCA membership.
INSTRUCTOR’S CREDENTIALS: A bachelor’s degree in physical education, National Strength & Conditioning Association certification,YMCA Fitness Instructor certification and others.
FITNESS PHILOSOPHY: “I believe that everyone wants to be in better shape, but some people lack the motivation or education. As a trainer, I provide you with friendly motivation to go beyond your comfort level. I create a team atmosphere where everyone feels positive about what he/she can do. I start cheering when the first one finishes a run and don’t stop until the last one finishes.”
TRAINING TIPS: “Get into a group. Camaraderie really helps your training.Work to the best of your ability—without hurting yourself. Find an activity that also builds you up emotionally and psychologically. Don’t compete with anyone but yourself.” (510) 710-2298, jholleman@ymcaeastbay.org.
Massage 101 - Your First Time
People remember their first time. For one woman, it was on the beach at Big Sur. Another recalls her honeymoon in Hawaii.
And then there’s Carol Robidoux, who after a soothing massage with rosemary oil, raced to work for an important meeting. “I left [the massage] feeling relaxed—and smelling like a pork roast,” she recalls. At the office, a colleague “even commented out loud that someone’s lunch smelled good.”
Timing, as they say, is everything, even with massage. And, as with the first time for most things, you naturally have questions. Do you request a masseuse (a woman) or a masseur (a man)? Will it be Swedish or Shiatsu? Because massage is perceived as such an intimate experience, most of us are afraid to ask.
The biggest question? Well, let’s get down to it—should you wear your underwear?
“Yes, you do need to remove your clothes—all of them is best,” says Heidi Kestner, a physicians assistant from Maryland who was visiting the Bay Area recently and indulged in a “Sugar Daddy” massage in San Francisco’s Chinatown, in which she was covered with sugar, massaged, left to steam and then rinsed in a warm shower of water. “They get in the way of a good massage”.
Massage therapist Jessica Dorrington, who works at About Face and Body, a small neighborhood spa in Rockridge, says it’s up to the client to decide whether to completely disrobe.
“Usually, I say to people to take off up to your comfort level,” she says. “Everything’s going to be covered anyway.”
On the point of masseuse v. masseur, it’s also up to the client, and some may feel more comfortable with the same sex or the opposite sex doing the massage. “Whether to request a man or a woman is a question,” says Kim McKeon, a San Francisco firefighter and Alamedan. Gender with regard to massage makes no difference to her. “It’s a good experience, as long as you like someone to touch you.”
Tipping is also tricky ground for firsttimers. Tip if you choose. At most spas, however, a tip is de rigueur. Twenty percent is acceptable, says Dorrington.
However, if you are getting a massage from someone who works for themselves, it is not necessary to tip, because the entire payment goes in their pocket.
The cost of a massage varies, but the going rate averages about $65 an hour. Most massages are 30 or 60 minutes, although Dorrington gives 80 minute massages, too.
Her best advice? “Just relax and enjoy—and I really mean that. A lot of times, people come in for their first massage, and they want to help you move their limbs around. Just let your body relax.”
Shoshanna Marks - Yoga (Iyengar, Ashtanga, Anusara)
WHAT IS IT? Three yoga forms are taught through a Vinyasa style (which means active, fluid movement between positions) to add a cardio component to the normal strength training and flexibility benefits of yoga.
WHERE IS IT? Monkey Yoga Shala, 3215 Lakeshore Ave., (510) 465-6357, www.monkeyyoga.com.
WHAT’S THE COST? $13 for 90 minutes.
INSTRUCTOR’S CREDENTIALS: 14 years of yoga practice and training; Registered Yoga Teacher certification; some classes taught in Spanish.
FITNESS PHILOSOPHY: “The physical practice of yoga helps us to find more physical freedom in our bodies and more freedom in our lives. If you are happy in your body, you have a better chance at having a happy, healthy mental state.”
TRAINING TIPS: (510) 714-4872, shoshannamarks@hotmail.com.
Stephanie Mcdoulett - Team-In-Training Triathlon
WHAT IS IT? Six months of training to complete a triathlon in one of three categories: sprint (.25 mile swim, 12.4 mile bike, 2 mile run), Olympic (.9 mile swim, 24.9 mile bike, 6.2 mile run) or Ironman (2.6 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run). Classes include fitness training and fundraising.
WHERE IS IT? Various locations in the East Bay. Call (800) 78-TRAIN, www.TeamInTraining.org.
WHAT’S THE COST? Investment in personal equipment for swimming (wetsuits are provided), biking and running. Fundraising requirements start at $2,000. Team-In- Training provides training, event entry and travel arrangements. In exchange, participants raise funds for cancer research and patient services at the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
INSTRUCTOR’S CREDENTIALS: 5 years of endurance sports, triathlon coaching certification, CPR, first aid, water safety.
FITNESS PHILOSOPHY: “I enjoy working with TNT because we take ordinary individuals and help them to achieve extraordinary personal accomplishments. It is very rewarding to take someone who comes with a very limited athletic experience and watch them transform into a triathlete. They come to realize through this experience that they can accomplish just about anything they put their minds to.” (510)409-0171; mcdouletts@yahoo.com.
Go Organic
Susan Freeman has been eating organically for about 30 years. She shops for organic dish soap, uses dye-free paper towels and buys organic toothpaste and hair products. A technical writer living in Alameda, she makes her own grocery bags so she doesn’t have to carry her organic groceries home in plastic bags.
Why? “It’s just as well not to have as many chemicals in our food,” she says. Maria Young Alders started eating organically in 1997 when her children were little. “Not only is eating organic better for us… because of the pesticides and stuff, but it’s better for the world,” she says.
Still, Young Alders, a martial arts instructor in Alameda, finds herself making compromises. When her daughter insists on having chicken from a fast-food place, Young Alders sometimes relents.
“I’m not always real strident,” she says. Eating organically is getting easier, Freeman and others say, with more stores providing organic foods. And while there are no statistics on how many people are eating organically, the Organic Trade Association reports that it has seen a 20 percent a year growth rate since 1990. At the same time, more land is going into organic production.
“It’s definitely easier,” says Young Alders. “Back when I started, it was so limited. I’m just thrilled I can find organic packaged chocolate milk.”
Still, it can be difficult on a family budget to eat organically. Organic produce costs 15 percent to 57 percent more than non-organic produce. (An example: organic artichokes were $1.49 each recently. At Trader Joe’s, non-organic artichokes were $1.99 for six artichokes.)
“I close my eyes and pay the bill,” says Young Alders. “It’s OK if more of our disposable income goes to food. It’s worth it.”
While advocates say organic food is safer and more nutritious, there is not a lot of scientific evidence that it is better for us.
“There really is not good science behind the claim that organic food is healthier for you,” says John Swartzberg, M.D., a clinical professor of medicine and director of the Joint Medical Program of the University of California’s Berkeley and San Francisco campuses. He is chairman of the editorial board of the UC Berkeley Wellness Letter, an online newsletter focusing on nutrition, fitness and health.
“The biggest public health issue is [that] people eat the wrong kinds of foods,” Swartzberg says. “People should eat whole grains and whole foods.”
In terms of public health, Swartzberg is reluctant to advocate going organic. Because organic fruits and vegetables are more expensive, he fears that people will eat less of them because they can’t always afford them. The health risks posed by pesticides and herbicides are also unknown, he says.
For Holly Gillette, an interpreter for deaf students at Berkeley High School who lives in Alameda, that’s enough reason to try to eat organically.
“It’s just making an effort to be a little healthier,” she says. “I just think my body doesn’t need those things.”
Kenneth Pitts - Cardio Kickboxing
WHAT IS IT? Kicking, punching, jumping rope and bag work set to music.
WHERE IS IT? 3298 Lakeshore Ave.
WHAT’S THE COST? $15 for a one-hour class.
INSTRUCTOR’S CREDENTIALS: National Association of Professional Martial Artists kickboxing certification.
FITNESS PHILOSOPHY: “Be consistent. Don’t let your fitness be determined by the seasons. Whether you do an indoor or outdoor activity, pick something you can vary, depending on the season. There are all kinds of excuses not to do it. You can always do better than you think you can.”
TRAINING TIPS: “Get your body in the habit of exercising and it will look forward to it. Consistency will get you past feeling the stiffness when you do something new. Train with someone to help you get out of your comfort zone—you’ll tend to work a bit harder with a partner or instructor.” (510) 836-4929, pmaa1@earthlink.net, www.kpmaa.com.
A Ray of Hope - Tips for Helping People with Cancer
Oakland author Lori Hope’s book, Help Me Live: 20 Things People with Cancer Want You to Know is a helpful resource for families and friends of those who are in treatment for cancer. The book contains interviews, anecdotes and helpful advice from real people with cancer, from doctors and researchers, and from Hope herself.
“Cancer is seen in society as such a death sentence. There’s still a stigma,” she says. Hope, a documentary producer and managing editor of Bay Area BusinessWoman, knows from firsthand experience; she is a survivor of lung cancer and learned the hard way how it feels when people say the wrong thing—or disappear from your life altogether when you need them.
Hope says people with cancer want us to know that “I am more than my cancer. Treat me kindly, not differently.” Remember the difference, she says, between pity and compassion, and think twice when speaking with someone who has cancer. “When you have cancer, you are more sensitive. You’re traumatized,” she says. Simple remarks can be very painful. Thoughtless words can cut deep. Hope found it helpful when her visitors used humor. She wanted to laugh, so that helped.
She also wanted her family and visitors to “please forgive me,” she said, because she wasn’t feeling well, had a lot of sad or negative feelings and was often too tired to reciprocate a phone call or visit.
“It’s hard to be alone at a time when you need companionship and support,” Hope says.
What visitors or friends can always do, no matter how uncomfortable it makes them, is be truthful. “Honesty is the best policy,” she says. “Say, ‘I don’t know what to say or do.’ If you say that, [the patient] will appreciate it.” Your honesty can also diffuse the situation and make it easier to talk.
With such helpful advice as “It’s OK to say or do the ‘wrong’ thing,” “I like to hear success stories, not horror stories,” and “I don’t know why I got cancer, and I don’t want to hear your theory,” Hope’s book makes good sense for anyone living with cancer as caregiver, friend or family member.
Help Me Live: 20 Things People with Cancer Want You to Know, by Lori Hope (Celestial Arts/Ten Speed 2005, 258 pp., $15.95)
Sou Saephan - Kayaking
WHAT IS IT? A full body workout for your upper body, midsection and legs in a kayak with paddling offered on weekends or in an early morning weekday group.
WHERE IS IT? 409 Water St. (Jack London Square).
WHAT’S IT COST? $15 an hour or $50 a day to rent all necessary equipment; $1,000 to buy beginner equipment, including a kayak.
INSTRUCTOR’S CREDENTIALS: American Canoe Association instructor certification, first aid and CPR.
FITNESS PHILOSOPHY: “The fun of kayaking in a group will bring you back again and again. Paddling by yourself is a really peaceful way to exercise. If you can walk a mile, you can paddle a mile.”
TRAINING TIPS: “Stretch. All sports require a warm-up. Make sure to know the safety regulations. Stay relaxed. If you are stiff, the boat won’t be stable.” (510) 893-7833; class hotline, (800) 366-9804; www.calkayak.com.
