Total Gym

TOTAL GYM WEEKLY WORKOUT: PREVENT INJURY AND INCREASE YOUR POWER BY STRETCHING

Hey Total Gym Insiders and my fellow golfing fanatics!

I want to talk about the importance of stretching. As I’ve mentioned before, in golf, the more flexible you are, the more range of motion you have and the more powerful your golf swing will be. But this applies to fitness in general.

Stretching will also help prevent injury, which is why you need to make sure you are incorporating a stretching regimen into your fitness routine.

This month I am demonstrating some core exercises and low back/hamstring stretches using one of my favorite Total Gym accessories: The Leg Pulley System. Not just for Pilates (this wonderful accessory also allows you to transform your Total Gym into a versatile Pilates studio apparatus), these really help to get a focused stretch on areas that are often tight or stiff.

Remember, take your time when stretching, don’t rush. Enjoy the stretch. The leg pulleys allow you to perform multiple types of stretches from static stretches to PNF stretching without a partner.  Whatever type of stretching you do, you will benefit from increased flexibility and range of motion, greater core strength and body awareness.  All great for improving your golf game or the overall health of your body!

Enjoy and Hit em’ Straight,

JayDee Cutting III

JayDee Cutting is a GRAVITY Master Trainer, certified personal trainer, Pilates instructor and creator of the “Core Golf Fitness” program. JayDee’s Core Golf Fitness DVD offers on-course and warm-up exercises proven to help advance your golf game and is available for purchase at http://coregolffitness.com.

TUESDAY TESTIMONIAL: FIFTY AND FABULOUS

For the past 13 years, Paula Harvatine has found the time and motivation to workout on her Total Gym and we think her results speak for them self.

Read Paula’s story of success and find out how she incorporates Total Gym into her life.

“I’ve been using my Total Gym for 13 years and it’s my absolute favorite form of exercise. I enjoy it so much and it works! I used to work out on a Nordic Track and a stationary bike, but everything I was doing was aerobic exercise.  At that time I thought, “working out is working out”— it did not matter what you did.  But I was not doing any strength training and I was not seeing the results I wanted even though I was using them long- term on a regular basis.

My friend had a Total Gym and said she really saw a difference, so I bought one. I started out using it 4 – 5 times a week and in a short time I could see the results! Now I just do it 1-2 times a week, but I am able to maintain a fit physique and it’s fun!

Even after horrible injuries stemming from an assault three years ago left me with joint issues and ongoing pain from injuries, I can still get on my Total Gym and workout because of how it works; the mechanics of it. I can’t run because it’s too jarring on my injuries, but the Total Gym has helped me. I have to keep a tight core in order to be in less pain and working out on the Total Gym allows me to do just that. The Total Gym is so good at helping me focus on my core because every move you do on it requires you to keep your core engaged.

Raising two kids and running a business, it just wasn’t possible for me to get to a gym – I wanted to spend time with my family when I wasn’t working. Having the Total Gym has allowed me to do that and still stay in shape.  I put on some Backstreet Boys, hop on my Total Gym and get my ‘40-minutes of me time’ and I have a ball while I’m doing it!

My husband and son have even used the Total Gym after they saw the results I was getting. In fact, my son got many comments about his ‘six-pack’ abs when he was using the Total Gym and my husband often gets comments about how fit he is. It has truly made a difference for all of us.

I turned 50 this year and just the other day I overheard a woman talking about how the ‘belly roll’ just comes with being over 50 and I wanted to say ‘No it does not! Not with Total Gym!’

Basically, I love my Total Gym!”

Story submitted by Paula Harvatine

Edited by permission only.

“BACK IN THE SADDLE” WITH TOTAL GYM FOUNDER TOM CAMPANARO

One step forward, two steps back…. 

TOTAL GYM WEEKLY WORKOUT: TOTAL BODY STRETCHING

Aerobic exercise, strength training, and nutrition are three components of a balanced fitness regime, but there is one often neglected component too – stretching.

Stretching is important for every work out.  It improves balance, stability, and circulation; aids athletic performance, relaxation, and posture and helps you to avoid injury by maximizing the range of motion of your joints; minimizing unnecessary strain and cramping; and increasing your overall flexibility.

Without stretching, tendons, ligaments and muscles will shorten, causing damage over time.

Total Gym Inside blogger and “Fytness Fanatik” Amanda Lynn Mayhew demonstrates how to use your Total Gym to get a total body stretch for your back, arms, hamstrings glutes and thighs.

These stretches isolate specific muscles for a few breaths. Hold each stretch at least thirty seconds to lengthen muscles and lead to flexibility.

Amanda Lynn Mayhew has been a Total Gym user since 1998. Amanda Lynn is here to share her enthusiasm for healthy, fit and fun living.

TOTAL GYM INSIDER QUOTE

“Each of us are our own greatest inhibitor. And, at the end of the day, if you just get out of your own way and let things come to you, it’s amazing what will come to you. ”

- Laird Hamilton, champion surfer

TUESDAY TESTIMONIAL: WORKING OUT ON TOTAL GYM SAVED MY LIFE

When James Driver, now 49-years-old, decided to buy a Total Gym, little did he know it would be the best decision of his life – a lifesaving one in fact – but not for the reasons you might think.

Read about James’ harrowing tale and find out how he attributes his workouts on Total Gym to saving his life:

“My name is James Driver and this is a testimony to how working out on a Total Gym actually saved my life – literally.  I am now 43 years old and a year ago I was looking into buying some home fitness equipment.  I had narrowed my search to a free weight system and a Total Gym.  The costs were comparable, but after viewing a video on the Total Gym I decided it would offer me the best work out.

For almost a year I have been working out faithfully on the total gym.  I knew I had more strength and flexibility than I had achieved working out at a gym on free weights and machines.  I now know that the total gym workouts actually prepared me to handle a life and death situation far more than free weight system could ever do.

On June 26, 2006 my church group, comprised of 18 adult and youth, entered the Ocoee River (Class 3 and 4 rapids) for a whitewater adventure. I had been white watering before and was looking forward to another river experience.

In the midst of a rainstorm, we headed down river. I was sitting in the right front and the very first rapid we hit sucked my section of the boat down and then popped up leaving me airborne. I did not panic since I… knew what I had to do. With my feet faced down-river I went toes and nose up in the air.”

I was going along OK even though my backside was beat by every rock down the river. Then things turned suddenly bad at a large rock with a strong hydraulic. This part of the river literally sucked my feet to the bottom and as I went through the rapid, my right ankle became entangled in a loose end of rope that was attached to the rock.

My body continued down the river but the rope had firmly wrapped around my ankle and violently twisted me around so that I was facing the rush of water. Unable to breath, I placed my loose foot under a rock at the bottom of the river and turned my body so that my face pointed down river.

The rush of water was so strong it forced my head into the water and I was submerged.

I am 6’1” and I was barely able to get my head out of the water. Using my free foot and the free end of the rope that was floating next to me, I was able to keep my head above water and push against the current.

People were quickly working to free me. I was in a difficult location with little accessibility. Several times rescuers were swept past me as they attempted to reach me. I began to see the panic in my rescuers’ eyes and I realized I was in trouble. Later, they told me that 20 minutes had passed without any success.

Looking back, I can see how the Total Gym workouts gave me the strength to hang on while my rescuers figured out a way to save me. Specifically, the Total Gym exercises that gave me the muscle strength and flexibility that no free weight or machine system could give me were:

1. Twister [torso rotation]:  This allowed my lower abdominals and upper and lower back to be able to twist and stabilize myself in the water against the current.
2. Seated Row and Seated High Pull: Allowed me to develop the muscles that pushed against the water (upper back and rear shoulders).
3. Butterfly and Biceps Butterfly [lat pull down or triceps pushdown].  These muscles were the ones that I needed most as I pulled myself out of the water using the same motion I used working on the Total Gym.

These exercises cannot be duplicated [on other] weight machines. Plus, I had the added bonus of the cardio workout that Total Gym gives. I definitely had to have the muscle strength and cardio combination to withstand the constant pressure of the water.

Finally, a rescuer reached me and cut the rope. I was now once again free floating through the rapids. I am not sure how far I went before eventually making it to the shore.  I was exhausted and I was told that hypothermia was setting in.

My rafting guide looked at me and said that in over 13 years on the river, she had never seen anything that scared her more.  I [was beat up] with obvious loss of body heat.

I’m not sure how much longer I would’ve been able to remain above the water, but I do know this—a year of working on Total Gym, and the specific exercises I’ve been using, gave me the strength to stay above water until my rescuers could reach me.

Total Gym and the exercises only it provides, saved my life.”

Story submitted by James Driver, Frankfort, KY

Edited by permission, for length only.

“BACK IN THE SADDLE” WITH TOTAL GYM FOUNDER TOM CAMPANARO

When I tell people I had a total ankle replacement, the first reaction is, “I didn’t know they did that.” Knees and Hips are common, but ankles – that’s new!

After a motor cycle accident when I was 16, a broken leg that was just set with traction and a cast, (now steel pins would have made the alignment perfect) and all the sports, plyometrics and heavy weight lifting I’ve done, my left ankle had had enough! It was gone.

Four years ago the doctors said just get it fused, but I wanted full mobility – I am an active guy after all. So, I figured, why not an ankle joint replacement? However, ankle joint replacements were then very new and did not have a lot of success.

Pre-op. Getting ready to go into surgery.

After doing the research I found the STAR system out of Scandinavia, (Scandinavia Total Ankle Replacement). Although the medical technology had been used for over 25 years in Scandinavia, the STAR took nine years to receive FDA approval for use in the US, finally getting the go-ahead in 2009. I found Dr. Clanton at the Steadman Clinic in Vail Colorado, he was one of the doctors who took the STAR system through the FDA process.

Off Joy and I went to Vail on May 12th for my ankle replacement surgery on the 17th. The results were instant and awesome, that is until I got an infection in the surgical wound.

So it was back to surgery (twice) to clean it out. Fortunately, the infection was not in the joint, (if it had been they would have had to take the replacement hardware out!), so this was only a two week set back.

Now, nine weeks “post-op”, I’m onto rehab (yes on the Total Gym), and my physical therapist says it’s looking really good. And while I won’t be running, jumping, biking, snowboarding, or playing golf any time soon, I’m walking with no pain and no limp (be it at a slow pace).