Laila Facusse (left) was one of the instructors Steve met while taking classes there for 2 weeks. You can read more about her background on her Zumba profile. She also posts to her fitness blog talking about nutrition, dance, weight loss, and general well-being.

Other awesome instructors at Studio VIDA! included Gabi Mendez, and Carla (CarliBoom) Aranguren. Also, during a quick weekend in Austin between jobs he took a class with Laura Battle.

• ValSlide
• Zumba
• Laura Battle – The Dance Institute
• Strong Sarah

If you’re not familiar with the BB, it’s a unit that you wear strapped to your upper left arm all day long. At the end of the day you plug it into your computer, upload your data, and the website will present a graph with your calories burned throughout the day. A HRM is more straightforward – you wear a strap around your chest just under your pecs and it transmits your heart rate to a wrist watch (or other device).

My Polar FT7 came in the mail today. I read the manual, configured it for my weight, height, age, and gender and it dutifully reported that my max heart rate was 188 beats per minute (BPM). You can find yours by subtracting your age from 220. I ran the center portion under water, attached the WearLink® unit, and headed to Zumba. The results are in a letter to my trainer; Jason Tucker; and of course; my Zumba instructor, Kelly Emerson of Vancouver Zumba.

========================================================
Hi [there],

Today I wore a Polar FT7 during an hour of Zumba and came up with the following: 619 cals burned, 59:53 duration, 146 average bpm, 161 max bpm, 10:36 spent in fat burn range, 49:17 spent in fitness range. I uploaded my Body Bugg data and selected the same ~1 hour period and it reports 784 calories burned.

The Body Bugg site says the skew is due to having multiple data points instead of a single data point “which is what other calorie estimation devices such as pedometers and heart rate monitors rely on.” So, is an HRM inferior technology for measuring calorie burn? Maybe, but it’s possible it’s marketing hype. For me, it’s all relative. Whether it’s the scale, Body Bugg, HRM, or Omron body fat tester – their efficacy isn’t in question because as long as you’re using the same device to measure each data point you can tell when it’s going up and down.

I’ll continue to wear the Body Bugg to collect the waking-hours data and the HRM for workouts where intensity is something I’m interested in maintaining. That would be anything other than kickboxing and Zumba since I don’t have much control over the routines. I always squat a little bit lower and squeeze the abs a little bit tighter because I know that’s what is going to get me the most bang for the buck, but I don’t need an HRM to tell me that.

I’m looking forward to hitting the elliptical and seeing how consistently I can keep my heart rate in the fat burn zone. From what I’m seeing from the Zumba data my cardio fitness time is already covered.

/sk

Steven interviews Kelly Emerson, the owner of Fit on 1st, Vancouver’s most awesome Zumba studio. He’s been going there since February 10th and really enjoys it. Coming from many hours on the Dance Dance Revolution arcade game he describes Zumba as “playing DDR on random, but instead of colored arrows you get your cues from a room full of women.”

Fit On 1st 17908 SE 1st St Vancouver, WA 98684 360-909-3331

• Steve talks about his upcoming vacation at Kahneeta (that teepee thing).
• Jason and Steve talk about geocaching & letterboxing.
• Steve talks about on the road vs. at home for workouts.
• Jason starts going back to the gym – day 2.
• They both pay homage to NewGrip gloves.
• Cory Gilday at Accel Human Performance tortures Steve with lunges on the TRX.
• Jason promises to do a Zumba class at his new gym.
• Steve talks about the upcoming Zumba interview with Kelly Emerson.
• Steve talks about Larry Winget – the Pitbull of Personal Development.
• Steve talks about reading people’s expressions (ref: Paul Ekman).
• They’re up on audioboo.com – check it out.
• Much love for the FitBook.

Twitter:
http://twitter.com/geekfit
http://twitter.com/jasontucker
http://twitter.com/mrxinu – Be sure to message Steve when you add him

Episode 41

• Step, Zumba and the New Gym
• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
• BodyBugg
• Body Fat meter

Your Mission

This weeks mission, leave us an iTunes review and tell someone about us, we tell people about you all the time!
http://www.itunes.com/podcast/geekfitpodcast [Link loads in iTunes]

Twitter:
http://twitter.com/geekfit
http://twitter.com/jasontucker
http://twitter.com/mrxinu – Be sure to message Steve when you add him

Episode 41

• Step, Zumba and the New Gym
• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
• BodyBugg
• Body Fat meter

More show notes to come.

Your Mission

This weeks mission, leave us an iTunes review and tell someone about us, we tell people about you all the time!
http://www.itunes.com/podcast/geekfitpodcast [Link loads in iTunes]

Twitter:
http://twitter.com/geekfit
http://twitter.com/jasontucker
http://twitter.com/mrxinu – Be sure to message Steve when you add him

The Hot Womens (aka The Instructor Whose Butt Defies Physics)

You’d think being the one of the only guys in a Zumba class is awesome. You’d be right. I spent a lot of money playing an arcade game called Dance Dance Revolution – you know the one, colored arrows? and the four arrows on the floor you step on? Zumba is like playing DDR on random mode only instead of colored arrows you get to follow pretty ladies. =) It doesn’t get much better than that and they really make me feel welcome at every class.

The Weight Loss

When I started I weighed 450 and now I’m down to 350. That’s a lot of hours doing mind-numbingly boring cardio. In an hour of Zumba the average person burns 500-600 calories. At my current weight I’m burning 850-900 calories and I have the body bugg graphs to prove it. Since I started with at Fit on 1st doing Zumba I’ve lost another 15 lbs, inches all over, and I had a blast doing it!

Great Classes (aka The Gym We Do Not Speak Of)

I had been going to a local gym’s Zumba class and – whew, crowded. The instructors were great, but when you have to be careful not to move your arms away from your side so you don’t thwap your neighbor. Yes, it’s that bad. When I found Fit on 1st I was so excited! The class sizes are manageable and the energy is amazing. Each instructor adds their own flare to the class so you’re never bored. Two thumbs up – come give it a try! The first one’s free. =)

Give it a read:

http://www.stevenklassen.com/2010/03/10/going-up/

It turns out that what I thought were bent-over barbell rows were more like almost-passable upright rows. He demonstrated the exercise and then nudged and pushed me into the right position while I did a couple reps. The minute he let go I almost fell over. It’s hard to hold yourself in that position! Needless to say I had to come down in the weight (again) but I could feel it in all the right places.

Alwyn Cosgrove‘s workouts (from New Rules of Lifting for Men) include periodic cycles: 3 weeks on the weights, 1 week off. I think it would be worthwhile to get some training at the outset of each 3-week run of weight training. I don’t feel bad about 3 weeks worth of upright rows, but it would have been nice if I hadn’t done double-duty on my shoulders.

Now, should I go through my Fitbook and cross out bent-over row and scribble upright row over the top?

Let’s back up a little. What the heck are front squats? Well, they’re not what I was doing. Instead of having the bar on the top of my chest I was kind of cradling it in the crux of my arms. That worked, sort of. When I did it today Cory Gilday, co-owner and exercise physiologist, swooped in and offered some tips. He corrected my form, but I had to come down a bit in the weight. The exercise felt much better with the right form (more quads and a lot less back), but whew I’m going to have a pair of bruises on my upper arms I’m naming Cory and Gilday.

So far we’re enjoying the new venue. The staff is supportive and the they keep the place nice and clean. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a misplaced weight or anything else out of sorts.

If you mention GeekFit when you sign up, you’ll get all the water you can drink. Y’know, from the water fountain. It was funnier in my head.

This was my response (written first thing in the morning, so bear with me):

I wish I could say it’s all muscle, but that only accounts for maybe an extra quarter calorie per minute (225 calories over 15 hours)**. I burn ~2750 calories a day at an idle, so that extra 500-1000 comes from deliberate daily exercise. 30m on the treadmill, a couple 15 minute brisk walks, etc. The 4500 calorie days are a Zumba class or a combination of weights and some intervals.

I’ve had a couple surplus days though – no exercise and usual intake. That’s good food, too. After tracking with a Body Bugg like this it’s really easy to see how tossing a Double Bacon Western Cheeseburger in the mix (or something similar) would EASILY pack on the pounds.

So, why 3000 calories at an idle instead of 2000 (USDA break-even calorie number)**? I’m carrying 100 lbs of extra ballast. I’m used to carrying it, so it’s like a workout you do for too long and plateau.

If I had to guess I’d say 2000 is a average, 2500 (extra 500 for the muscle composition), and then an extra 250 for carrying the extra weight brings us to 2750.

So the secret is to either be 100 lbs overweight (I really don’t recommend this one!) and/or lift weights to get the added benefit of the extra burn.

** This is a complete WAG (wild @$$ guess) based on what I’ve been heard from other bodybugg users who average 1-1.5 calories/min at an idle.

Weigh In

• Steve’s Progress this Month – 360

• Jason’s Progress this Month – 229 lbs

Content!

• Steve:
  • 100 books in 2010: 5 so far, plan on catching up on the road.
  • Upcoming travel for Steven: Austin, Virginia (Kris!!), and St. Paul, MN.
  • Meetup dot com @ Sci-Fi Group: read The Time Machine, and Perdido Street Station.

• Jason:
  • Birthday party, went ice skating
  • Rollerblading at the park with my daughter while she was learning to ride her bike.

• Step Aerobics – Nancy
  • Zumba (www.zumba.com) [d]
    Zumba: Jennifer S., Shawna, Rachelle, Ginger G., Tiffany
    Using a mic? Visual cues? Type of music? 16 count or more freestyle?

• Accel Human Performance [d]
  Uses the TRX for group classes, machines, free weights, and kettlebells.Books read?
• LibraryThing dot Com
• Enter The Kettlebell! Strength Secret of The Soviet Supermen [d]
  As you go through the book learning Swings, Get-Ups, the Clean, the Press, and the Snatch, he takes you through intermediate steps to master the entire movement. It would be like learning how to drive a car by first practicing getting in and out of the driver’s seat. Once you have that down, you move on to the over-the-shoulder reach to retrieve your seat belt to put it on. Then the key-into-the-ignition maneuver.
• The New Rules of Lifting: Six Basic Moves for Maximum Muscle [d]
  6 movements: Squat, Dead lift, Lunge, Push, Pull, Twist, and Combo Moves (the 8th movement)

Promo – The GeekCast

@GeekFit Twitter bot

Product reviews

• Walkmeter App – Steve & Jason – [d]
  The KML links for your walk are very cool and are mapped over Google Maps. Each walk can be associated with a route, or not; there’s an ‘All Walks’ bucket that unmatched routes will go into. If you walk the same route multiple times, associating them with a route gives you best and worst times for your walk. You have the ability to start a walk, stop it for a time (going in to buy something, for example) and then start again. The walk doesn’t conclude until you hit ‘Done’ when it’s uploaded and a message sent to Twitter. We both liked this app.

• EatSmart Digital Bathroom Scale w/ Extra Large Backlit 3.5″ Display and Oversize Platform – Steve [d]
  Easy to read display, gives you your weight in 10ths of a pound. Wide enough to get both feet on easily. 330lb limit, so I made my sister Amanda play guinea pig.

Your Mission

This weeks mission, leave us an iTunes review and tell someone about us, we tell people about you all the time!
http://www.itunes.com/podcast/geekfitpodcast [Link loads in iTunes]

Twitter:
http://twitter.com/geekfit
http://twitter.com/jasontucker
http://twitter.com/mrxinu – Be sure to message Steve when you add him

Disclosure What the heck is this [d] thing? We’ll be using this mark to indicate our full disclosure with the product we review. Click the link and its shows our disclosure. Its it overkill? Sure but we don’t wanna get sued.

Beginning 12/1/2009 bloggers, advertisers and their agencies need to disclose when they have marketing arrangements or other material connections. Review copies, samples, paid posts, affiliate links and paid posts are the most common examples. If you are reviewing or endorsing products and you are being given products or compensation relating to those posts, you must disclose those relationships. [read more]

Weigh In

• Steve’s Progress this Month – 360

• Jason’s Progress this Month – 229 lbs

Content!

• Steve:
  • 100 books in 2010: 5 so far, plan on catching up on the road.
  • Upcoming travel for Steven: Austin, Virginia (Kris!!), and St. Paul, MN.
  • Meetup dot com @ Sci-Fi Group: read The Time Machine, and Perdido Street Station.

• Jason:
  • Birthday party, went ice skating
  • Rollerblading at the park with my daughter while she was learning to ride her bike.

• Step Aerobics – Nancy
  • Zumba (www.zumba.com) [d]
    Zumba: Jennifer S., Shawna, Rachelle, Ginger G., Tiffany
    Using a mic? Visual cues? Type of music? 16 count or more freestyle?

• Accel Human Performance [d]
  Uses the TRX for group classes, machines, free weights, and kettlebells.Books read?
• LibraryThing dot Com
• Enter The Kettlebell! Strength Secret of The Soviet Supermen [d]
  As you go through the book learning Swings, Get-Ups, the Clean, the Press, and the Snatch, he takes you through intermediate steps to master the entire movement.  It would be like learning how to drive a car by first practicing getting in and out of the driver’s seat.  Once you have that down, you move on to the over-the-shoulder reach to retrieve your seat belt to put it on.  Then the key-into-the-ignition maneuver.
• The New Rules of Lifting: Six Basic Moves for Maximum Muscle [d]
  6 movements: Squat, Dead lift, Lunge, Push, Pull, Twist, and Combo Moves (the 8th movement)

Promo – The GeekCast

@GeekFit Twitter bot

Product reviews

• Walkmeter App – Steve & Jason – [d]
  The KML links for your walk are very cool and are mapped over Google Maps.  Each walk can be associated with a route, or not; there’s an ‘All Walks’ bucket that unmatched routes will go into.  If you walk the same route multiple times, associating them with a route gives you best and worst times for your walk. You have the ability to start a walk, stop it for a time (going in to buy something, for example) and then start again.  The walk doesn’t conclude until you hit ‘Done’ when it’s uploaded and a message sent to Twitter. We both liked this app.

• EatSmart Digital Bathroom Scale w/ Extra Large Backlit 3.5″ Display and Oversize Platform – Steve [d]
  Easy to read display, gives you your weight in 10ths of a pound.  Wide enough to get both feet on easily.  330lb limit, so I made my sister Amanda play guinea pig.

Your Mission

This weeks mission, leave us an iTunes review and tell someone about us, we tell people about you all the time!
http://www.itunes.com/podcast/geekfitpodcast [Link loads in iTunes]

Twitter:
http://twitter.com/geekfit
http://twitter.com/jasontucker
http://twitter.com/mrxinu – Be sure to message Steve when you add him

Quick note regarding this episode. We recorded this episode over Skype video and will be posting the video version first with an audio version the following day. Soon we will be providing both an audio and video feed but for the time being this will have to do – Jason

Disclosure What the heck is this [d] thing? We’ll be using this mark to indicate our full disclosure with the product we review. Click the link and its shows our disclosure. Its it overkill? Sure but we don’t wanna get sued.

Beginning 12/1/2009 bloggers, advertisers and their agencies need to disclose when they have marketing arrangements or other material connections. Review copies, samples, paid posts, affiliate links and paid posts are the most common examples. If you are reviewing or endorsing products and you are being given products or compensation relating to those posts, you must disclose those relationships. [read more]

GeekFit Listener Survey

Steve - The Lightening

• Paula’s 30 Day Challenge continues to rock – stay accountable! [I'm Steve]
• Steve talks about hitting the Smith and how it kicked his butt
• Jason discusses his daily walks and how scary it is walking near his work.
• Walking with others and how annoying it is for a music / podcast listening.
• Return of the McRib! (ick!), Jason mentions In-in-Out and how awesome it is.
• Talking in mixed company we almost shared to much!
• Steve’s weight update from the month in Dallas. Treadmills, stairs and low carbs Oh My!
• Low carb is the way to go, Steve’s trying it.
• Thanksgiving recap, we both did pretty well staying away from the overeating.
• Living the Fit Life [link] [link] [link] DC’s Toughest Trainer @livinthefitlife
• The BodyBugg tweets now and its personal network
• Being scared of taking a class at the gym, neither of us have done it
• Steve mentions Zumba [link] [link]
• Jason wants to have Strong Sarah on the show. He’s very curious about Kettlebells @strongsarah [link]
• New Grip gloves Steve loves these: no bunching & no hurt!
• Internet connected scales: [Daily Burn - Wifi Body Scale] [Withings] [Body Trace] we’d love to test either of these.
• Steve wants to be able to use the Wii Fit.
• Our review of the New Balance 1906 we’re both pretty impressed with them. We both like the fact that these shoes “breathe” and have great support. We love that they are jam packed full of tech!
• Swing by the website we’ve done some redesigning!
• Audio on this recording was wonky, sorry about that!
• Got an app, website or product you want us to discuss or review? Email / VM us: 360-450-5026
• Do you want to be on the show? Email / VM us: 360-450-5026
• Do you Twitter? We do, feel free to add us and ping us, our links are below.

Twitter:
http://twitter.com/geekfit
http://twitter.com/jasontucker
http://twitter.com/mrxinu – Be sure to message Steve when you add him.

Here’s my latest post to their forum:

I’d been hitting the cardio pretty hard and I decided to get some weight lifting in.

Now, I used to lift weights all through that run from 420 to 300. I did squats, and bench pressed, and did all those macho things the big tough guys did. So when I return to the weight room it only makes sense for me to jump right back in. Eh, not so much.

My legs are pretty strong, but I forget that not all muscles are created equal. Just because a few muscles that are employed to get me from A to B are strong doesn’t mean they’re the same muscles used in, let’s say, a squat in a smith with 20 lbs thrown on for good measure. All day yesterday everything from my hips to my toes were screaming. Today it’s worse. Tomorrow – well let’s just not think about tomorrow.

Oh, on top of that I did a shoulder workout. Dumbbell shoulder presses, lateral raises, front raises, and shrugs. They’re sore too and I’m still getting a little leftover DOMS from the chest/back workout a couple days ago.

On the upside, my feet feel better. The balls of my feet were pretty ouchy all day yesterday, hence the push to do resistance instead of getting back on the treadmill. All in all, I’ve been going at this every day and hereby declare today my day of rest. Tomorrow morning I’m back at it, DOMS or not – even if I have to “ouch” *step* “ouch” *step* “ouch” to get there.

Last Saturday I flew home, 6 hours in total, and was eager to weigh myself Sunday morning. I came in at 366 lbs, netting me a loss of 18 lbs. On a hunch I weighed in again this morning and was at 362 lbs for a total loss of 22 lbs. That’s some Biggest Loser weigh-in progress, y’all.

So, what changed? I had been working out half-heartedly, eating “alright” and avoiding the major pitfalls, but not really pressing in any particular direction. I had maintained the 370-375 range until late August when, unchecked for a bit, jumped up to 384. That set off all the bells & alarms. I wasn’t quite back where I had started, but my “eh, it’s maintaining” attitude went out the window. Something had to change, and like now.

Around the same time I had been reading up on carbohydrates, protein, and procrastination in general. That gave me some interesting insights to what starches and carbs would do to my overall intake for the day. I started preferring protein over carbs, veg over starch, and worked out every day. The stairs were the other big thing. I was on the 6th floor of the hotel for a while and then the last couple weeks they had me up on the 7th floor. I took the stairs every time I had to go to/from my room. The only exception being heading down for breakfast in the morning. I was already plenty worked up from the rush of getting out of the shower, getting ready, getting dressed, and then packing out the door with my backpack on.

All in all it was a good trip. I got a lot of work done and kicked my fitness into high-gear. I think I made the most progress on the cardio and now I’ve got to bring the resistance training up a few notches.

Southwest Flight to Austin

Tried seat buddy on the southwest flight. The straps let you roll the display into whatever angle you want. The clown in front of me decided to lean back and that didn’t work so well, so I tried it on the adjoining seat. Having the independent lengths helped – I was able to use the tray on the seat back next to me, kind of at an angle so that the strap closest to me was tucked all the way in while the furthest was pulled out a bit.

Halloween DJing

We headed into Austin to check out the crazy costumes. Of course I fancy myself an iPod DJ so I had my iPhone mounted using the seat buddy in the glove box in front of me while I found music on my friend’s iPhone. I’d swap the audio cable back and forth between the two phones – only having to hold on to the one seat buddy-less.

Teenager-Proof Anchoring

More iPhone DJ’ing at a Halloween party. It made me nervous to put my iPhone next to the stereo where some hapless kid could knock it down. Again, the seat buddy came in useful. Two heavy books atop the straps held it in place while I plugged into the sound system providing the music for the festivities.

Check it out at TheSeatBuddy.com.

You can locate the wave by going here if you have an account already:  https://wave.google.com/wave/#restored:wave:googlewave.com!w%252Bn9h-dQIyB.1

and if you need an invite direct message @jasontucker or @mrxinu on twitter.

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