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| The Body and Machine Section is the place to hang out and grab pertinent information for everything from motorcycle maintenance to fitness to very cool stuff to know about! |
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Upper Body Toning
By Sara Liberte
We have been waiting all year for the warm weather, well it’s here now, time for shorts and tank tops. Are you comfortable in these clothes? Add some upper body training to your workouts and you’ll be sportin’ some totally toned arms in no time and be ready for this summer’s fashions.
It can be easy to ignore muscle toning when hitting the gym for a quick workout. 30 min on the treadmill and you feel like that’s enough. You should be working your upper body along with your lower body, its important for making sure your body is in balance.
When training your upper body with weights, you want to work ALL of your muscles including your chest, back, shoulders and arms.
Getting started…
When you can, train your larger muscles (chest and back) first. These muscle groups can handle heavier weight, this will leave plenty of energy for targeting the arms.
You should do an upper body workout 2-3 days a week, preferably resting a day in between. |
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Make sure you choose a heavy enough weight so that you can ONLY complete the desired number of repetitions (6-8 for muscle building, 10-12 for muscle/endurance and 12-16 for endurance). The last few reps should be pretty hard to get in, work almost to failure.
You can work your entire body in one workout or alternate muscle groups between days, IE. Monday upper body, Tuesday lower body, Wednesday rest, Thursday upper body, Friday lower body, etc. etc.
If you don’t have a gym membership all you need to do is invest in some dumbbells, usually a 3, 5 and 8 pound set is good to start with, it won’t take long before your ready to jump to 10 or 12. I usually find good deals at Marshall’s, if you have one near you, check with the store to see what they have.
Here is a great set of basic reps for upper body toning.
(Modify according to your fitness level.)
Before starting these exercises, do a Warm up with light cardio for at least 10 minutes. (bicycle, treadmill, elliptical, etc)
- Incline Chest Press, if you have a stability ball use this for more of a challenge. Lay your back on the ball, knees bent for support, grab your weights start at your chest and raise arms straight, repeat for 2 sets of 12 reps.
- Bent over rows, grab your weights palms facing up, bend at the knees, keep back straight abs pulled in, start with arms relaxed down by legs, pull arms into stomach, elbows extending all the way back, control the weights back down to starting position, do 2 sets of 12 reps.
- Bicep curls, bend at the knees, arms relaxed straight, hinge at the elbow and curl the weight in, squeezing at the top, control the weight back down. 2 sets of 12 reps.
- Tricep extension, stand feet hip width apart, take your weights extend arms above overhead, hinge only at the elbow, lowering weight down bend your head, control the weight back up to starting position. Do 2 sets of 12 reps.
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Book Review - Skinny Bitch
By Sara Liberte
Fellow Garage-girls Kathy Gentile turned me on to this book and I finally grabbed a copy. With a description like this I had to get this book,
If you can't take one more day of self-loathing, you're ready to hear the truth: You cannot keep shoveling the same crap into your mouth every day and expect to lose weight.
Authors Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin are your new smart-mouthed girlfriends who won't mince words and will finally tell you the truth about what you're feeding yourself. And they'll guide you on making intelligent and educated decisions about food. They may be bitches, but they are skinny bitches. And you'll be one too-after you get with the program and start eating right.
The book delivers the message clear and simple, you are what you eat and you probably have no idea what you’re eating, I know I didn’t have any idea; this book has really opened my eyes. Do you really know what is in artificial sweeteners? How about Soda? Think your ahead of the game by drinking diet soda, your actually worse off drinking that! I won’t even get started on the USDA, I’ll let you discover all of that on your own. Rory and Kim get the point across with their simple and foul language. I especially like that they had footnotes to show where the information was coming from, they have proof to back themselves up, this was nice to see as sometimes people deliver a message with no proof. Since reading this book I have made a few diet changes in my life and am liking the direction I’m headed. I genuinely recommend this book to anyone who is starting to think about his or her food choices. |
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Samantha Morgan ……
By Sara Liberte
Our motorcycling community has suffered a huge loss with the passing of my good friend Samantha Morgan….
It’s not very often in life that you get to meet a hero, never mind form a friendship and share so many magical memories with that hero. I had that opportunity when I met Samantha Morgan. The timing couldn’t have been any better, in need of a little inspiration myself, Sam showed me what true passion was about, and she showed me that people still held respect for those that paved the way for us all to enjoy the sport of motorcycling.
Sam shared with me her life story, sorrows, hard times, good times and no better time than when she was riding up on that 90 degree wooden wall she called home. I’ll share with you a little about the passion this girl had inside her…..
Sam was a young 14-year-old girl when she first watched a wall of death show, once she watched Sonny Pelequin’s act she was drawn in. Sam was adopted and never had a “real” family so she didn’t think twice at the thought of running away to join “the circus”. She would follow the drome truck from one show to the next on her old motorcycle and guitar strapped around her, that’s all she had. Sam persisted and persisted until Sonny finally gave in and let her help out on the road. Sonny instantly became Sam’s mentor and “Dad” teaching Sam not only all about maintaining the Drome, but riding as well. Sonny also taught Sam so many lessons of Life, the important ones, how to respect, share, love, and laugh. She learned about heartache and how to handle what life throws at you. Spending years sleeping under the bikes inside the Drome she learned so much more than just how to ride the wall. She learned how to live and love life riding the Wall of Death.
Sam has been riding since she was 14 years old. She never stopped for over 30 years. She has traveled to Germany and France to ride in Dromes over seas. She has never known another life. Of course as you can imagine with this extreme sport danger is involved and Sam had a few accidents resulting in breaking her back several times. |
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While confined to a wheel chair saving up for an operation Sam along with the help of Sonny spent that time doing something positive, building a website to share with everyone the history of the Wall of death. She and Sonny decided this sport and the riders could not be left to fade away, the families and riders needed to be honored and remembered. The website displays a truly unique look into the history of the Dromes as well as Lion Dromes, trick riders and woman riders. Sam was one of the last two female wall riders left in the United States. After saving and having her operation Sam instantly returned to what she did best and that was being a trick rider inside the MotorDrome. She had ridden for several Dromes and most recently rode inside the American Motor Drome owned by trick rider Jay Lightnin. How Sam and Sonny lived their lives, dedicated to the sport of motorcycling is an example of what this sport is all about. Passion and love. Neither ever gave up on their dreams and stuck it out through the tough times. Watching Sam ride the wall would said it all, what I cannot put into words her expression would make you feel like you were the one high up on the wall, you could feel her passion deep inside as you watched her speed around and around. We often wait to long in life, and like riding the wall I think it’s important to be in that moment and enjoy it fully. Sam Inspired so many people everyday not just when she was riding, but in casual conversation with her. I’m so glad I got to share so many memories with her. I can remember some of the fun times at rally’s past, Daytona, the wall was set up at the infield of the track, there wasn’t much traffic so we had plenty of time to goof around and just be a couple of kids excited about motorcycles. I’ll never forget Myrtle Beach at Jay Allen’s Broken Spoke, Me, Sam and Goth, we had so much fun. Sam would be riding and getting ready to take the dollar bills out of people’s hands, Goth the prankster got a pair of those billy bob teeth during one of our Dollar Store rants and slipped them in. When Sam came spinning around to take the money there was Goth grinning with a big old set of gnarly teeth. Sam was crying she was laughing so hard. There are so many more memories like this I thankfully have and will never forget.
Our community has suffered a huge loss, Sam will be greatly missed and no motorcycle rally will ever be the same without seeing Sam whip past you on that 90 degree wooden wall. Ride in Peace with Sonny Sam, keep an eye out on us all and keep us safe. Please visit Sam’s site www.thrillarena.com for an amazing journey through the history of the Motor Drome. |
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Are You Eating Enough?
By Diane Heinauer
I know this isn’t what you’re used to hearing this time of year, but it’s important to make sure everyone’s got it straight. You’re all trying not to go over your allotted calorie amounts for the week, but how many of you aren’t eating ENOUGH calories? It may seem like a bright idea to cut a hundred or so calories from your diet each day, but that’s a dangerous and incorrect assessment of your dietary needs.
It is absolutely 100 percent essential to eat enough calories! If you don’t it will destroy your metabolism. It’s like telling your body that you’re starving. If your body thinks it’s starving, your metabolism will shut down.
Not eating enough calories will also force the body to cannibalize muscle and hold onto fat. The body considers muscle to be expendable during periods of starvation, and it considers fat to be necessary to insulate your organs for survival. |
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Finally a deficit of daily calories will lead to a horrible cycle of yo-yo dieting. You’ll starve yourself and end up losing muscle, and when you begin to eat the right amount of calories your body will pack on the pounds in anticipation of another “famine”.
What can you do to break the cycle? If you’re a woman, set your calories at 1,400 steady-don’t vary them. I almost NEVER say that, but in order to get your metabolism back up to speed and set your body right again, you’re going to need consistency and time.
Stay on this calorie allowance and exercise at least five hours a week. You probably won’t lose weight for at least four weeks, but the good news is that you won’t gain either, and hopefully we will have gotten your metabolism back on track permanently. After about four weeks or so you should start to lose weight, and then you can begin to vary your daily calorie intake –as long as you never drop below 1,200 calories. Now go get something to eat!
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