by Tina Ding
The world is filled with causes, and folks hop on board with a humanitarian spirit – whether working behind the scenes to plan an event, participating in a sponsored walk /run or as a recipient of the monies raised. Locally, groups brainstorm for ways to help their event stand out as well as to raise significant amounts of funds for various causes. Here are just a few. (more…)
by Jeff Eslinger
“Would it kill you to go outside and move around a little bit?” asked every 1960s mother of cartoon-watching kids (like me). This was back when TV first began killing children in earnest, but it’s a proud tradition still carried out by today’s mothers of video-gamers. The answer, I have come to believe, is “yes, it might kill me.”
My fitness story is one of pain and injury. If “no pain, no gain” was true, I would be heading for Vancouver this winter to win all the Olympic events. I’ve had enough pain for that much gain.
My fitness experiences can be broken down into four distinct genres, each with its own hazards.
Good Old-Fashioned Hard Work
My first clear memory of feeling fit is back when my parents slaved me out to our family farm for summer work. There’s nothing quite as effective for turning 100 pounds of baby fat into lean muscle mass as picking 100 pound rocks from a field in 100 degree heat. I was doing the job of a front-end loader. About a week after returning home, when the swelling went down, it felt great to be in shape.
Sports
For me, competing in sports returned the most fun for my fitness investment. That’s why adults use sports so effectively to trick kids into fitness. Of course, today’s youngsters start working with a professional trainer at age two. I generally didn’t start training for a sport until the day practice started. Thus the term, “hell week.” My sporting years were, sadly, all too brief. I played football until I had a neck injury and concussion, I wrestled until I dislocated a disk and I ran track until it aggravated my back injury. Glory days!
Outdoorsman/womanship
The biggest enemy of fitness in adults is adulthood. When you become an adult, there are fewer sports to be involved in, and no coaches screaming at you to keep going. That’s when you become a “weekend warrior” in the great outdoors. I hunt, which is great exercise involving strenuous walking while carrying a heavy weapon and staying out of range of the Vice-President. I also enjoy cutting, stacking, splitting and burning firewood. This, too is great exercise, and the only hazards are chainsaws, axes and fire. But weekends are not enough, even for warriors. Without consistent exercise, you risk injury. For example, you might tear your ACL on a family ski trip simply because you remember how easily you could charge moguls when you were younger. I’m not saying it happened to me, but it could happen to anyone. Trust me on this.
Exercising
The least desirable way to get and stay fit is by exercising. I’m referring to exercise “As Seen on TV,” where you can look great for only five easy payments of $29.99. The greatest hazard of this form of fitness is that you may die of boredom. My advice on exercise equipment: buy the device that hold the most laundry. That’s what my Nordic Trak® is doing right now.
My point, if I have one, is that fitness hurts, but it’s worth it. I know, because I’ve tried that weekend warrior thing, and it just isn’t enough. I’ve gained weight, lost energy, don’t sleep well, and, yes, I have just as much pain not exercising as I had when I was in shape. Guess I’m just injury prone.
So now I have to get fit, and it won’t be easy. According to a height/weight chart my life insurance company sent me, I should be at least 6 inches taller. I guess I’ll hit the Nordic Trak® again…as soon as the sweaters are dry.
A few more words from Jeff: While my article about my painful experiences trying to stay fit over the years IS truthful (and I hope humorous) I would like to add that I was serious, at the end of the article, about getting back on the ol’ Nordic “rack” (after the laundry was dry of course.) Between the ski machine and REAL skiing, I have maintained a commitment to ski at least three times per week, and I’ve managed to lose back all the weight I gained over the holidays and then some.. I didn’t follow all that good advice about how to avoid holiday weight gain, obviously. More important than pounds, I feel better. My dislocated shoulder and post-surgical knee are stronger and less painful, and my clothes fit better. Snow ROCKS when it comes to workouts!
by Maxine Herr
The calendar dates are highlighted. You’ve already started packing. A break from all that hard work is finally near – it is time for a much-needed vacation. For many, that translates to sandy beaches or exotic destinations. But how about a 400-mile bike ride? It may not sound like a relaxing get-away, but it could be just what you need to rejuvenate and recharge.
When Lori Finken takes a vacation from her position as a CPA for Eide Bailly, she likes to shift her thoughts from the bottom line to the finish line. She enjoys taking part in the Cycling Around North Dakota in Sakakawea Country (CANDISC) event, a 426-mile bike tour throughout picturesque North Dakota. “You feel so good about going somewhere and working hard; every day is such an accomplishment,” Finken says.
Melanie Carvell, Director of MedCenter One Women’s Health Center, organizes a cross-country ski trip each winter for about 30 women. “It is an informal ski trip that allows you to ski with people who can teach and inspire you. It is always motivating when it’s a team approach,” she says. The women head to Maplelag Resort near Detroit Lakes, MN for a weekend of skiing, camaraderie, and home-cooked meals served family-style. Not only is some snowy exercise a great way to fight the winter doldrums, it can be an opportunity for relationship-building. “It’s just like men who go hunting together. There are times when you go off with family, but it’s good to go on vacation with the girls too,” said Lisa Kudelka, Human Resources Manager for the Bismarck Public Schools and a frequent attendee of the Maplelag ski trip.
Some call this kind of time off from the daily grind – a fitness vacation. It’s a hot new trend in travel. “People are more fitness conscience and they want to get more out of a vacation,” said Katherine Satrom, owner of Satrom Travel & Tour.
A travel agent can help you book adventure-type tours, and you can grab great ideas from the internet and the local library. For instance, National Geographic Adventure magazine provides details on destinations and activities to get you moving. The magazine even indicates what levels the different activities are geared toward, so you’ll know if your kids can participate. “You don’t have to be a super athlete to do these things,” Carvell said.
A fitness vacation can benefit more than just your life, too. Through TEAM in Training trips, you can help fund cancer research and give others a chance at a healthy life as well. Carvell has participated in this sports training program that takes you to locations like Tahoe, Honolulu, Anchorage or Chicago. They offer training and clinics on fitness, nutrition and injury prevention. “It offers a chance to learn how to do things correctly with a personal trainer,” Carvell said. “You get one-on-one attention.” She has found if you pick a goal and plan a fitness vacation for a fun place, you have something to work toward. “It keeps you motivated all winter long,” Carvell adds.
But you don’t have to stray far from home for a worth-while vacation. North Dakota state parks provide mountain bike and hiking trails, and you learn to appreciate our winters when it means the opportunity to go skiing or ice skating. When the snow starts to pile up, Finken often sees it as a pick-me-up. “I say, ‘Hey, it’s cold and snowing! We can ski!’ Because if you’re going to live here, you have to find something you enjoy,” she said.
One of the biggest attractions of this type of vacation is the chance to do it with others. “Sometimes taking a vacation can be lonely, even if you go with family. When you do something like this you get to meet people and have great conversations,” Kudelka said. She fondly recalls people she met on a white water rafting trip. “When you get in a raft with ten other people, you really get to know them as you work together as a team. We met a couple from Michigan and kept running into them during the vacation,” Kudelka said. Making new friends adds to the fun for Kudelka. “Especially when you can meet the local people that you might not meet otherwise,” she said. “It gives some local flavor.”
As Finken discovered, the people you meet are often what makes the whole trip memorable. “One day I was nearing the end of a 110-mile bike ride, it was 100 degrees outside, and I had a huge hill to climb. I didn’t think I could do it and then another cyclist came to cheer me on and said, ‘Give me your camera and I’ll take pictures of you as you come up the hill.’ He really picked me up when I was down,” Finken said.
Sometimes it takes another to show us what we can achieve. And with that newfound confidence, we may not even dread the return to work.
Bonnie Torrance leads her class
By Amanda Mack
Peaceful warrior is not one of the warrior poses practiced by yoga practitioners. But if such a pose existed, it would look like Bonnie Torrance on any given day: heart open, arms and fingertips spread wide as if on the verge of embrace, spine lengthening up toward the sky, smiling.
The owner of Pinwheel Creative Movement Center, Torrance has taught yoga, tai chi and dance in Bismarck and Mandan since 2000. Her primary focus these days are the yoga classes taught out of her studio located kitty corner from the public library in downtown Bismarck.
Torrance exudes the calm joy a disciplined yoga practice can instill. She wears bright, saturated colors like coral, deep yellow, and mahogany brown that conjure up images of the hot desert or the colors of Indian saris. She looks you in the eye. She always has a smile a mile wide for her friends and her students.
Her mop of curls, small stature and boundless energy make Torrance seem almost otherworldly, but she has two feet firmly planted on the ground. She is a shrewd businessperson unafraid to speak her truth. This straightforwardness is accompanied by a gentleness that puts you at ease even as you realize that Torrance doesn’t suffer fools gladly.
Ken Johnson, a close friend, values Bonnie for her lack of sentimentality, her understanding presence, and her ability to withhold judgment. “She’s a beautiful person,” he says.
Finding yoga
A child of the sixties, it was the Beatle’s George Harrison who introduced Torrance to yoga following high school. Harrison’s travels to India to practice yoga, transcendental meditation and music inspired her.
“They looked so peaceful doing it. I thought there is something going on there. I started doing the asanas [or yoga postures],” Torrance reflects. “As a dancer, I connected with the physical process.”
She remembers her budding yoga practice: “I would get up early to avoid interruption. I had never spent that kind of quiet time with myself. It was a real eye opener. I became more aware of my personal reliance on my own inner truth.”
It wasn’t until the nineties, however, that Torrance began to truly approach yoga as a way of life. After earning a dance degree in Dallas, Texas, she owned a dance studio and also danced with various dance troupes and for choreographers in the area.
“After finishing my degree, there was no way to stay in shape unless I started doing yoga,” she says. “The meditation and introspection [of yoga] gives you relaxation. There is no exterior goal like in dance that is so competitive. It’s how it feels from the inside out, not the outside in.”
Teaching yoga
Torrance continued teaching yoga, tai chi and dance after her return to Bismarck in 2000. While her studio moved from space to space over the years before landing in its permanent location in 2007, many of her students found their yoga home with her early on.
“I find all of the spaces that [Bonnie] has been in to be very conducive to the spiritual and mental aspects of the practice,” says Janis Cheney, who has practiced yoga with Torrance exclusively since 2003.
Elizabeth Gross, who faithfully attends class four times a week, says, “When I first arrived at Bonnie’s studio I had no idea what to expect. What I found was an array of people from all walks of life looking for a way to be healthy in mind and body. I felt very comfortable and very much at home in that kind of setting.”
Gross continues, “There is a sense of tranquility when you walk into the studio. There’s a sense of peacefulness and acceptance. When you put all that together, you really have an amazing environment in which to grow.”
Students can expect variety in a week. For example, Torrance will focus on backbends in one class, do hip openers and twists in the next, and then do a flow class. She likes to focus on the whole body.
Torrance says, “I’ve been doing this long enough that I can come to a class with an idea of where I want to lead students and then modify it depending on who is in the class.”
Mahesh Mantri, who began practicing yoga at Pinwheel in 2007, says about Bonnie’s teaching style that, “She is a very good teacher. She tries to incorporate all the methods. Not just Shivananda but other styles like ashtanga and Art of Living too. She also incorporates things from Yoga Journal and Yoga Magazine. It’s not just a routine. Every class is a new class.”
“I really appreciate the fact that Bonnie is always looking for ways to challenge us,” says Cheney. “She is open to input and suggestions [from her students] for new ways to do things. She works to continue her growth and to share that with others. She is just an open and expansive person in her work in this field.”
Living yoga
Although students initially may walk in the door for stress relief, with regular practice, yoga can become a way of life.
Gross reports feeling better now than she did ten years ago. “One of the things I really appreciate [about yoga] is the balance of getting time to gain peace and gaining physical stamina. I feel stronger and more confident because of the practice of yoga.”
“It’s a cornerstone of my life,” Cheney says. “Outside of my family and church, it is the priority in my life. I don’t feel as good, organized and centered if I don’t get there.” She continues, “There are times when it’s dark and cold outside and I don’t want to go to class. But I do go 100 percent of the time and I never regret it.”
Mantri says he is calmer since he began practicing yoga in 2007. He says, “I feel a change in me. Not only my body perspective but also my mind. I find myself a little more calm. Meditation and pranayama [or breath work] help me with that.”
Embracing spiritual growth
Torrance says her mission is “to inspire individuals to engage in their own process of moving in a healthy and joyful journey throughout their life.”
To keep herself and her students inspired, Torrance says, “I read to expand my mind, to think thoughts that I haven’t thought before, and affirm things I already know. I attend or host workshops when possible. My students also inspire me every time they walk in the door. I know how hard it is to get out of the chair. In class, I channel the masters and listen to my own body.”
Yoga practice goes beyond the physical benefits. For Gross, it is a very spiritual activity. “I think yoga can really enhance your own spirituality. You allow yourself time for reflection and quiet and peace, which I think brings you closer to God.”
Torrance’s own journey reflects that concept as well. “Yoga totally changed my life. Before yoga I had a glimmer of who I really was. To access [that person] it took yoga…Every single person has that knowledge or truth inside of them. Yoga helps create that opening.”
That Torrance provides such life changing possibilities to her students is something Gross appreciates. “As a yoga teacher, I think Bonnie is very courageous. Creating a studio like this takes courage and wisdom.”
The very attributes of a peaceful warrior.
Pinwheel Creative Movement Center offers beginning, intermediate and adaptive yoga classes as well as tai chi. Schedules are available at Pinwheel,420 East Avenue B, Bismarck.
Personal Training Benefits Any Fitness Routine:
Adds variety, motivation, and results
By Kylie Blanchard
With the New Year underway, exercise is on the minds of many looking to meet resolutions or establish new routines. For those who need a change of pace, or even a change of lifestyle, personal training may be the answer to creating variety, building motivation and producing results.
“A lot of people exercise, but they may not be putting everything together right,” says Emily Vasey, certified personal trainer and lifestyle and weight management consultant at Medcenter One’s Women’s Health Center. “Many people get stuck in the same routine and quit seeing results.”
Vasey says personal training brings variety to an exercise routine and helps participants reach new goals. “Working out with a personal trainer is a great option because I can change what they are doing and switch their routine.”
Vasey works with clients of all ages and experience levels, and develops fitness routines to meet individual abilities and goals.
Kami House, 26, trains with Vasey once-a-week and says she initially chose personal training to get in shape for her upcoming wedding. “I wanted to get back in shape and get toned,” she says. “I wanted to make it a lifestyle thing and the wedding was good motivation to get started.”
Vasey set up a variety of workout plans that House incorporates into her weekly fitness routine. “She gave me a couple of different programs to follow that I refer to when I’m working by myself,” she says. In addition, House attends weekly group fitness classes.
House says she has noticed many positive changes in her daily life since she began training with Vasey. “I feel better, I feel stronger and I don’t feel tired at work,” she says. “My clothes fitting better is also a plus. I’m just happier overall.”
Having a trainer to explain correct equipment usage and set up an appropriate exercise plan has also increased House’s commitment to exercise. “It has helped me to stay motivated because I see her every week. It just helps to get to know different machines and exercises you wouldn’t have decided to try.”
Kat VanLishout, certified personal trainer at the Women’s Health Center, says personal training is designed to meet the needs of all types of participants. “Anyone can use personal training and just work at their level. It benefits everyone in their own way.”
The number of times a trainer meets with a client depends on the client’s needs and schedule, explains VanLishout. “It depends first on motivation levels,” she says. “If you get a trainer to work out with you a couple times a week that can really help.” She adds other clients meet with a trainer once every six weeks just to develop a new program and then continue to work out on their own.
Cheryl Rising, 55, has trained with VanLishout since September 2009. “I meet with the trainer once-a-week, and she also has a program developed for me that I do on my own time,” she says. “Every time I meet with her she does something different, it works very well.”
Rising says she has always been active, but realized she needed to make a change in her fitness routine. “I just felt like I was at a plateau. The older I got the easier it was to gain weight even if I was exercising.”
Rising adds it was often difficult to commit to exercise classes, and personal training has fit her schedule well. “To meet once-a-week and then have an organized plan to follow, it has really helped increase my strength and endurance.”
Both Vasey and VanLishout say there are many benefits to regular exercise, especially for women. “Osteoporosis is one of the most common reasons I see women,” says Vasey. “There are certain exercises we can do to prevent that – women need to strength train, too.”
Personal training also helps women focus on certain muscle groups, explains VanLishout. “A lot of women have their ‘problem areas’ that they can’t seem to improve,” she says. “If people have a certain body part they want to work on, we can focus on that and get results.”
Fibromyalgia, a syndrome marked by widespread pain in muscles and soft tissues, can also be helped with regular exercise, says VanLishout. This is a lesson she learned personally in her battle with the condition. She was diagnosed after four years of unexplained pain, and soon learned of the benefits of regular exercise in controlling her symptoms. “You hurt all the time so you are scared to exercise, but it actually makes you feel really good,” she says. “Now that I know what to do to make me feel good, I can help others feel better.” She is now focusing on helping others with fibromyalgia and developing programs specific to clients with this condition.
House says working with a personal trainer has changed her outlook on exercise and given her the motivation to maintain an active lifestyle. “Exercise is really important and I realize that now,” she says. “Emily has brought me to the point that if I wasn’t working with her, I would still be working out myself.”
Vasey and VanLishout say personal training isn’t restricted to individuals, and there are mothers and daughters training together as well as groups of friends. Both trainers enjoy helping others develop active and healthy lifestyles.
“I love being able to teach people to exercise,” says Vasey. “The most rewarding aspect for me is teaching those who are completely new to exercise, because it is truly a lifestyle change.”
VanLishout says helping others was a key reason she chose to become a personal trainer. “I love working out and I love helping people, so I thought ‘why not help people get physically fit?’”
For more information on personal training or to set up a free personal training consultation with Vasey or VanLishout call the Women’s Health Center at 701-323-6376.
