Blog With Sally

Okay, it’s your move!

Right now, make a list of eight (8) different just-move activities that you can do at the workplace. 


Here are a few of my favorites to help you into the Just Move work style:

• one favorite yoga pose
• ten push-ups
• ten sit-ups
• two minutes of kettle bell or weight swings
• one minute of deep breathing
• 15 chair dips
• a five-minute walk, steady or fast
• a minute of jumping in place
• 3 minutes doing reach-and-stretches
• 10 kettle bell thrusts



 and if you don’t have one use a thick book

The real beauty of Just Move activities that they take essentially no time. ANY of us can spare one minute out of sixty to just move.

I want to share with you this personal story of someone who just reached out to me to share his story. When he told me that he’s lost and kept off the weight for nearly 3 decades I was impressed and asked him if he would share the story.  So, I asked him by email if he would share his story and the city/state that he lived in. This is what he wrote:
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Dec 2, 2009, at 8:35 PM, Rob Walton wrote:
Dear Sally, It is just great to come across your name while downloading indoor workouts for this winter from the Saris website.I sure have a warm spot for you as your book, Triathlon, a Triple Fitness Sport, was given to me September 4, 1983 and I read it overnight, stopped eating meat and started training for triathlons and wound up doing the Ironman four times (once in Florida and three times at Kona) over the next few years. I dropped a lot of weight and for these 26 years since have maintained a variable but high level of fitness. I found I was a better cyclist than runner and with old knees am only doing that now. However, I have finally started bicycle racing pretty seriously, hence the downloading activity. I am planning on a big year this year and am getting off to a good start.Thank you for inspiring me. I am sure my life will be longer and happier for the fitness you motivated me to pursue. I do hope this finds you doing well. Best regards, Rob Walton
Hi, Rob. I appreciate your kind email.I’d like to share it with others…on my blog, as a sidebar in a book, but I need your permission.I am touched by your story – and I want to thank you for it. Others need to hear partiularly about the 26 years of living this lifestyle…they think that it’s just for now and then they can go back to bon-bon lifestyle. Oh yes, would it be possible for you to provide me with a photo? And a city where you live so I can say”Rob Walton, xyz city/state”. Thanks, SALLY
Dear Sally, You may use the email and even clean it up a bit for clarification if that helps. I try to keep a pretty low profile so would prefer to not provide much more than that. City/State should be Bentonville, Arkansas. I am Chairman of the Board of Wal-Mart Stores by the way. Regards, Rob
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I appreciate Rob sharing his story that one of the best ways to keep weight off is to live the fitness lifestyle. And, you never know when someone reads a book that you have written, a speech, or just meets you, it can, as Rob says, “I am sure my life will be longer and happier for the fitness you motivated me to pursue.”

Read the rest of this entry »

The age-adjusted maximum heart rate formula (also known as the “age regression formula“) was developed a half century ago, at a time when the science of exercise physiology was in its infancy and the technological means to create a more accurate exercise prescription or testing protocol was scarce. The result was that the “220 Minus Age” formula was neither created nor validated based on supported research or clinical testing. Today, the health and fitness industry continued support of an archaic, unproven formula is (a) potentially hazardous to the public, (b) a severe blow to our effectiveness and credibility, and (c) a tragic undermining of the proven advances and discoveries in exercise physiology over the last half century.
Here ten reasons why “220 Minus Age” gets a failing grade.
1. The formula’s inventor acknowledges its unscientific development.
The equation was created in the early 1970’s by scientists Fox, Naughton, and Haskell who intended it to be a rough formulation and not meant to be representative of the entire population. All subject in the studies referenced were under 55 years of age and male. Although the equation has become accepted and the standard in the literature and is used widely in clinical and fitness settings, its validity is uncertain.
2. There is no scientific research to support it.
There is no scientific validation of this formula. There is simply no research to support it.
3. It is physiologically nonsensical.
There is no physiological reason why everyone of the same age should have the same maximum number of heartbeats in a minute’s time. In fact, we KNOW this isn’t true. For example, as fit individuals age, their maximum heart rate drops very little.4 Research has shown that the maximum heart rate of individuals of the same age can vary by 11 bpm based on many variables especially sport activity.5 Yet this formula claims to scientifically prescribe intensity-based training levels for individuals, even as it ignores their scientifically established individuality.
4. It is useless.
There is a common assumption that any of the equations that predict your individual maximum heart rate will be both reasonably accurate and reasonably useful. Such is not the case with “220 Minus Age.” Intended to guide users to exercise in the right cardiovascular training zones (CVT), in fact, the formula doesn’t accomplish this. “The 220-age formula designed to predict maximum heart rate is useless” according to Carl Foster, Ph.D. and past president of the American College of Sports Medicine, “because it simply is not accurate.”
5. It is elitist.
Don’t believe Dr. Foster? Well, how about trying to convince pro athletes that they should go back to using “220 Minus Age,” if they ever did. Why do we think that pro athletes somehow deserve more accurate training regimens than fitness exercisers? There is value to increased precision, especially for those seeking weight loss or true aerobic benefits from their physical activity.
6. It may be dangerous.
The formula is built into and displayed on the consoles of most pieces of cardio-equipment. But, if followed, it can be dangerous overestimating maximum heart rate in young adults and underestimating it in older people. Using 220-age forces finess enthusiasts, with the air of scientific authority, to exercise at too high or too low a cardiovascular intensity.
Similarly, the formula also leads some individuals to exercise at intensities too low to achieve needed health benefits. As finess professionals, we need to ask ourselves if we could be at legal (not to mention ethical) risk for using an equation to prescribe exercise intensity which we have ample reason to suspect is inaccurate.
7. It is an embarrassment.
Savvy consumers can prove for themselves that their Max HR isn’t what the formula says it is, so how much credibility do you think they give training professionals who say otherwise? Yet working this formula is a requirement to pass most personal trainer certification tests. And, worse still, the formula is posted in most health clubs. Using dogma, instead of evidence-based science, makes health and fitness professionals appear to be naïve at best and, at worst, incompetent in their chosen field.
8. It allows us to be lazy.
In the early 1990s, I created the original five heart rate training zones, each built on 10% of your maximum heart rate. Those zones were first published in my work, The Heart Rate Monitor Book, and have subsequently been adopted as the standard CVT zones programmed into millions of cardio machines. I acknowledge that at that time, almost twenty years ago, I, too, was unwilling to change and to recommend alternative methods for prescribing CVT zones. Accepted by the ACSM, this mythical formula was just too easy, and it was even then a dogma. I have subsequently confessed my error in recommending the formula and apologized for supporting such a simplistic means of determining such an important value.
9. There are scientifically validated alternatives that are safe and effective.
To the best of my knowledge, at this time there is no equation that has been proven accurate enough in predicting maximum heart rate. None whatsoever. This does not mean that we don’t have any proven means of achieving the same end, because we do.
Sub-maximum testing protocols, or “sub-max tests,” are a straightforward method of estimating maximum heart rate, based on a physiological response to a safe level of exercise stress. One such test, “The Can-You-Speak-Comfortably Foster Test” is scientifically validated by Carl Foster, Ph.D. There are others.
And, yes, I have a business that promotes these alternative tests and protocols, yet I’m sure there are many other means of setting CVT levels that I haven’t even heard of and from which we would all benefit. Let’s open the doors to actual innovation, and let the best exercise intensity prescription win!
10. We have a responsibility to do our best.
Because the estimation of maximum heart rate comes from a professionally supported mathematical formula, it carries an air of scientific authority. If we health and fitness professionals want to continue to be seen as authorities, we need to do our best for our clients, whether it’s easy for us or not. Supporting the use of this outdated formula is simply not the best we can do.

Sally Edwards, MA, MBA
CEO, Heart Zones USA

This summer I struck out on my annual birthday-celebration backpacking trip with my two hiking partners both who are Seattle marine biologists. The first hiking partner travels with trail names Hi-Fi-Di (she’s a high fidelity gal) and the second, with trail name Aye-Aye-Aye (one of the most positive women I know). My chosen trail name is The Head Heart. We began our ten day and 125-mile adventure on the Pacific Crest Trail excited to be away from our daily lives. Long term, our goal is to hike the 2,600 mile Pacific Crest trail from Mexico to Canada by hiking it 125 miles each summer for however many summers it requires.

On day four, Hi-Fi-Di, age 48 years, opened the conversation and shared that she couldn’t figure out the next step in her life. She said that she is dissatisfied and frustrated with her home life, her work, her relationships. She asked us, her dear and trusted friends, “I thought I’d be further ahead in life than where I am now and it is my birthdayt?” That is one bodacious question. How many think that they should be further along than where they are finding themselves as they head toward the half-way point in life – age 50?

I suggested that we use the Hippocratic method of asking questions rather than giving opinions or solutions to try and solve Hi-Fi-Di’s question. Hi-Fi-Di was suffering from a loss of direction and a frustration with her current life’s location. After a full day of our questioning Hi-Fi-Di as we hiked through nature and mountains, she was able to come to a definition of her life’s problem. That was our first step.  The next day and the next step, Hi-Fi-Di brainstormed 25 strategic actions. We helped her prioritize the strategies by selecting which would most help her accomplish her life’s mission. Then, she whittled the list down to five strategies that she believed she could successfully accomplish in the next year.

That’s when it came together that she couldn’t do it alone. Hi-Fi-Di proposed that we form a personal board of directors, a P-BOD to support her. And, as we ticked off 10-15 miles a day of rugged trail hiking finishing each day with a swim in a mountain lake, a hot dinner under billions of stars, and falling asleep happy in our sleeping bags, we repeated the process. In turn, we each spent a day sharing our issue, defining it, creating a mission description, making a list of strategies, and whittling them down to what could be accomplished, and signing up to members of each other’s P-BOD, personal board of directors. We signed up to be there for each other.

The result is that now have a support system and accountability plan with our new P-BOD. We have each written our personal life statements and shared them with each other – and I posted mine in my office so I read it everyday. We have agreed to support each other by checking in quarterly, and to hold a P-BOD meeting to assess quarterly progress. The official annual meeting is next summer as we again hike another 125 mile segment of the Pacific Crest Trail. It is our plan to be each other’s support system and P-BOD members for the next 20 years (well, it probably will take us a bit longer than that to complete 2,600 miles.)

I thought I’d share the final mission statement that I created with my P-BOD during the hike through Northern California’s Sierra Nevada mountains.  After six decades of living (yes, I turned 62 years of age) and given my current location and direction, the mission statement is as follows:

PERSONAL MISSION STATEMENT – Sally Edwards, August 2009
To be highly successful getting America moving while living a fulfilling and productive life with my loved ones.

Sally Edwards,
trail name “the Head Heart”

Sitting for long periods of time is hazardous to your health. Even if you  are active, you still need to get up often and move. That’s because there is a strong association between sitting too much and mortality risks. Exercise does not cancel out the ill effects of too much sitting. Rather, SBAs, or short burst of activity frequently takes you from couch potato to improved metabolic health.
Here are the steps to getting started with daily SBAs:

Step 1. Strap up to get aware. Strap on a training tool like a heart rate monitor or activity counter and use the coutdown timer to alarm you every hour that it is time for your 5 minutes of SBA – short bursts of activity.
Step 2. Fall in love with SBAs, Short Burst Activities. Discover and make a list of SBAs that you can do at the office. There’s a sample list of 8 SBAs at the end of this Activity Tip Sheet.
Step 3. Stand More means Sitting Less. Throughout your day, find ways to stand more.
Step 4. Get NEAT. NEAT stands for non-exercise activity thermogenesis which is any movement activity that gets you moving that is not exercise. Example: Walking over to another’s office to talk to them rather than calling or emailing them when they are nearby.
8 Short Burst Activities or SBAs:
1. Stand up and get some water.
2. Walk around the room when you are talking on the telephone.
3. Add 5-minute walk break with every coffee break.
4. Stand up and walk the length of the hallway every 30-minutes.
5. Take the stairs to the next floor to use the bathroom.
6. Don’t email office colleagues; instead walk to their desk.
7. On the phone, stand and do the flamingo (balancing exercise).
8. Use your chair as a piece of exercise equipment – dips, etc.
And yes, wear your heart rate monitor and record your data all day.

Sally Edwards, The Head Heart, Heart Zones USA, Exercise Scientist

compliments of Dynastream ANT+ Alliance        November 2009

On November 7th in St. Louis (Chesterfield), Missouri, Heart Zones USA is hosting THE SHOWCASE. The event is an opportunity for you to participate in four new programs and certifications. One of them is targeted to provide personal trainers, coaches, and teachers with the tools to lead programs to get kids active. If you don’t believe me, then read these statistics on just how bad inactivity in America’s youth has become:

• An average child spends less than 15 min of vigorous activity per day.
• An average child spends 20% of wake time watching television.
• Obesity and super obesity up 36% and 98% in last 20 years.
• The average child consumes a 20 oz soda pop every day.
• 9 out of 10 parents think their children are fit; 1 in 3 really are.
• 30% of youth 10-19 y/o have negative/neutral attitudes towards physical activity.
• Only 27% of a typical PE class in actual motor activity.
• The average heart rate in a typical 30 minute PE class is 90-129 BPM or very, very low cardio exercise.
• The older girls get, the less likely they are to exercise.
• Children exercise less as they get older: 3% drop/yr in boys, 7.5% drop/yr in girls.
• The two biggest reasons kids participate in sports and exercise are fun and socialization.
• 54% of students state their PE class is very important to them
• 50% of students want more PE time in middle school.
*Source: Fitness for Youth, University of Michigan

I want to invite you to attend, to learn how to lead programs and activities to get kids cardio-fit and to help them have fun, lose weight, and enjoy a health adulthood. We all need to take part and get trained to help our future, our youth.

Sally Edwards

www.TheSallyEdwardsCompany.com

In 1989, Gene Nacey created the first automated Bed Tracking® system for acute care hospitals. Workflow automation was a new concept in healthcare back then, and Mr. Nacey’s work provided the basis for an entire niche now extant in that industry. Now, twenty years later, Mr. Nacey is turning his passion for cycling into his next entrepreneurial challenge. In November, he partners with industry giant, Sally Edwards to launch the first ever Power Training Curriculum for indoor cycling sponsored by Keiser at the Heart Zones Showcase.

Pittsburgh, PA, October 16, 2009 –(PR.com)– Since training with power meters hit the professional circuit, there has been a steady “trickle down” effect to the rest of the cycling community. Because they still represent a considerable investment to training, these options are generally only used by competitive cyclists. The training and interpretation of results are also not for the recreational rider. The entire field has its own vernacular with terms like Coefficient of Drag (CdA), Normalized Power, Critical Power, Functional Power, Maximal Accumulated O2 Deficit (MOAD), etc.

Nevertheless, there is recognition that this is the most productive way to improve performance, so there is a continual effort to bring this to as many cyclists as possible. This lead to power finding its way into the indoor market with the latest bikes designed for group cycling. There have been few innovations in recent years, but with the spate of bikes on the horizon in 2010, everything is about to change.

“Three years ago when I opened Global Ride Training Center, I could only find 2 manufacturers that offered bikes with power. Now there are at least 6 on the market. These bikes have heart rate monitors built in as well, so training tools are finally making their way indoors.” Said Gene Nacey, founder of Cycling Fusion, a new system for training outdoor cyclists with indoor tools.

This is great news for cyclists, even recreational riders, since power training will do more to help bicyclists than any other tool in their arsenal for one important skill; hill climbing. Even though many participants of indoor classes do not ride outside, their desire to improve their fitness, gain strength, and lose weight is generally universal. The one thing that holds them back though, is that bikes without power meters have no gauge or indicator to show how much resistance they are putting on the wheel. As a result, indoor riders can put in hours of Spinning® each week, and see little to no increase in strength or power (pools of sweat notwithstanding). In addition, they limit their calorie burn by limiting how hard they their bodies can work (see http://www.sgfitness.com/site/1388195/page/851086 for more details on this.)

With the industry on the cusp of entering into the “power zone”, Gene Nacey has created a completely new approach to training indoors with power, directed at the non-competitive population of recreational riders and non-cyclists. Gene has teamed up with Sally Edwards to make this into a brand new Power Training Certification for indoor cycling instructors who will soon be faced with bikes with power meters and the need to both teach, and interpret them for their students.

“Gene has created a system that not only anyone can learn, but anyone can teach. He has demystified the numbers, translated them to everyday language and analogies, and added an entire new dimension to conducting indoor classes. Power training isn’t just for the pros anymore. We are delighted to imbed his methodology into our overall Heart Zones system of cycling instructor certifications. I can’t wait to launch this on November 7th, at our Showcase in St. Louis.” Said Sally Edwards, founder of Heart Zones, USA.

A complete agenda of this new Power Training launch at THE SHOWCASE in St Louis November 7th and other Heart Zones events can be found at http://bit.ly/Yg2Al. CEU credits are available.

Training indoor or outdoors with a power meter simply makes sense. Power Training is the latest Heart Zones application. In a collaboration that puts two great minds fused with high energy together to develop the state of the art indoor and outdoor cycling application, Gene Nacey of Global Riding and Sally Edwards are a team. With the new Schwinn, Lemond, Keiser, Cycleops, and other hard good manufacturers connecting their bikes to estimated (formulas) or direct (measured) power meters, the state of indoor cycling is fusing with outdoor cycling. The two, Nacey and Edwards, have developed the first-ever power cycling coursework with a new power training, a 60 page Manual, and new field tests anchoring power zones. The new certification Manual incorporates the fusion of these two worlds – fusing the world of indoor with the world of outdoor cycling. It’s a powerful approach to power training with power leaders, Gene and Sally, using the unique American twist of innovation and creativity in health club programming and to the outdoor enthusiasts. Take part in the fusion, the power revolution, attend the next certification at the Heart Zones SHOWCASE, November 7th in St Louis led by these two dynamic expert. It’s the leading edge of cardiovascular training using power. The power of power is being released in pounds of kilojoules and kilograms of sweat!

Don’t trust your treadmill or your wrist top heart rate monitor when it comes to distances walking or running or calories burned. Both are enormously inaccurate. Dr. Emma Ross warns of the dangers for exercisers like pregnant women and those with high blood pressure because they could be working out at too high an effort according to the Brunel University, UK physiologist. The error, according to experts, is often higher than 20%.

According to Sally Edwards, Heart Zones USA CEO, the companies that exaggerate these numbers by creating formula’s intentionally that over estimate caloric expenditure are probably doing so as an insidious form of advertising. Wouldn’t you buy the heart rate monitor or treadmill that burns more calories?

The reasons that calories burned is so inaccurate is twofold. First, the formula that calculates the calories assumes that everyone is the same. That formula is typically calculated using your age, weight, and gender. When a 5’5” woman who weighs 150 pounds and is 20% fat is measured next to a woman the same height, age, and weight but is 35% fat the former burns more calories because she is more efficient. But the monitor will say that both women burned the exact same number of calories. Test this yourself. Run on a treadmill with your wrist top monitor and compare the results with what your treadmill displays at the end of the workout. In a 60-minute workout the error could be 250-500 calories. That’s just not accurate enough. So, don’t rely on calories burned in your monitor – it doesn’t work.
Sally Edwards, The Head Heart, Heart Zones USA

The inaugural year of the Trek Women Triathlon Series 2009 came to a finish when former professional triathlete Sally Edwards crossed the finish line today, September 20th. The Seattle, WA stop was the culmination of an 8-city national tour of America’s new and premier all-womens, yes xx-chromosome, triathlon adventure. According to Maggie Sullivan, Series Director and one of America’s most accomplished and successful race directors, “This first year shows just how much women love the sport of triathlon events because they are fun, doable distances, and for every woman from the just-off-the-couch to the elite age-grouper.”

Sally Edwards, the Series Chief Inspiration Officer and 132 time finisher of womens-only triathlons is pictured here. She is shouting with her bull horn as the sun rises over Lake Washington, Seattle, Washington as she starts 13 waves of 100 women each. She gives each wave of women a cheer, a high five, and a countdown to a new lifestyle – one that gets every woman to the starting line and yes, to the finish line in a safe and fun event. Join The Xxtra Mile, owners and producers of the Trek Women Triathlon Series for the 2010 race series by visiting their website.

Sally Edwards, The Sally Edwards Company