NikeWomen’sFitness

Be active. Live well.

Winter 2008

HOLIDAYGIFTS For Outdoor Lovers

NIKEMARATHONRun theRace

YOGA Is For You

ZERO WEIGHT GAIN ON YOUR NEXT CRUISE Cruising Healthy

COACHJAY

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East means bestPosition yourself for flexibility and strength with

authenic Indian yoga

There’s also the matter of mindfulness. Bringing full awareness to your body during yoga will reaquaint you with your ribs, organs and breathing tendencies. Power-yoga leader Tony DiCicco, formerly on the Boston Breakers coaching staff, taught his players of the women’s professional soccer team alternative training methods through yoga. The players became more agile and saw a dramatic reduction in their rate of injuries. In addition to preventing sprained ankles, back spasms and sore joints, yoga helps reduce stress; too much stress can have a negative impact on athletic performance. There are different types of yoga, and they center on different things. To focus on anatomical alignment, Iyengar and Anusara yoga are your best bets. After you’ve sampled some yoga classes and found the approach that works best for you, consider taking an immersion class, which can include everything from weekend training with a noted instructor to a visit to an ashram in India. If you do opt to attend general classes, you can also take a one-on-one lesson with a teacher who can design a unique program for your body that you can practice at home. Be sure to follow up with the instructor periodically to tweak your regimen. Maintaining a daily practice or even 10 to 15 minuates rather than just attending a long yoga class one or twice a week is how you’ll really see some improvements.

Think yoga is for gentle peacemakers and has no impact on the hardcore lifestyle you play? Think again. This ancient Indian practice, passed down from teacher to student, can help all hard working stressed women. From runners and skiers to tennis players and swimmers. Yoga is a system for improving the wellness of the body, mind and sould, but even people who aren’t looking for spiritual enlightenment can receive the benefits from the physical poses. Known as asanas, the poses firm weak muscles,

loosens tight muscles, reduces stress and improves balance and posture. The difference between practicing yoga and plain old stretching is that stretching is isolated. It focuses on lengthening one muscle

at a time. Yoga however, is more integrative because it uses

elongating movements accompanied with core work, full-body balance and isometric dynamics to build

your strength.

Openings Your Workout Improved

The Ultimate Gear if you’re looking to deepen your practice, then consider the new nike calma yoga shoe.

The Calma yoga shoes by Nike ($50) are made of synthetic leather with non-marking Nike Regrind rubber, making these yoga slip-ons not only stylish and comfortable, but also pleasing to your mind, body and soul.

Winter2008 What’s Inside

Features

28 Our Gift Guide We make your holiday shopping easy with a slection of gifts for the active folks on your list

20 Ship-Shape HolidayWant to go on a cruise and not gain weight? Our writer tells you how do it.

COVER STORY

38 Nike MarathonFinal reminders for the Nike Women’s Marathon is just around the corner!

34 Coach Jay: Tip of the Week“Running tall” is important for all types of runners. Get more tips about training for the big race.

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24 Improve your Workout We make your holiday shopping easy with a slection of gifts for the active folks on your list. Try the new yoga stretches to be stress-free and energized for a full day of work.

OPENINGS

30 Air Pegasus+ The shoe that has defined over two decades of running, we’ve created the Air Pegasus+ 25.

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It’s 9 a.m., and the

S a FSee, Eat, Conquer, Indulge While Still Eating Buffet Food And

Not Gaining Weight. It’s Possible.

Caribbean Sun is beating down.

It’s hard enough to find time for the gym as a full time mom, nurse, maid, cook, and employee, but to find time to stay fit when you’re on vacation is out of the question for most women. Vacation is a time to relax from the hectic life at home and eat all the

It’s a big-splash vacation, after all, and who want to pass up the great food? But there’s also the chilling reality of coming back home and getting on the bathroom scale after a week of pure fun. We’ve all heard the dismaying cruise legend about the overindulgent vacationer who goes on a cruise and come back needing to shop for bigger clothes. Cruises are designed for passengers to live well and have fun. Although the abundance of great food is part of the experience, deliberately fattening up guests is not. Meals are planned around the idea that people want to end the voyage with some semblance of the physique that they started with. Some cruises such as Disney Magic have a different perspective on how to dine on cruises. “We like to think that you can dine with

amazing food you want without gaining weight. That’s right ladies, the word that we all dread and hate doing - Dieting. No worries, without the hassel of running 6-miles along a seldom-traveled path in the Bahamas in 80 degree weather when all you want is to stop for a drink is a thing of the past. Today you can plan to indulge

in the dessert buffet, four-course dinners, an occasional poolside cheeseburger, and yes, some pina coladas and whatever other fruity drinks strike your fancy. Simply, put it this way, you’re going to have your cruise and eat it too without gaining any weight. Each year, nearly 9 million Americans hit the high seas to vaction. And lets face it: Most want to indulge.

us and still have enough energy left over to go out and do a little dancing,” says Daniel Cowen, the food and beverage service manager on the Disney Magic. “The portions are not outrageous, and there are plenty of options for passengers to enjoy lean menu items.” Of course, you don’t want to do the lean-and-mean menu - hey, you are on vacation! You’re plan should be to eat what you want and carefully compensate with exercise. You don’t want to feel deprived. So how many calories can you

Ship Shape How the cruise industry is cutting the fat

o oe d

Staying fit on a cruise has never been easier. With more passengers unwilling to give up their exercise routines or healthful eating habits, cruise lines are responding faster. Trans fats have been tossed overboard. Low-cal, low-sodium, vegan and sugar-free items are no longer special-request-only. Buffets boast deck-long salad bars, fresh fruit, steamed vegetables and lean meats. Twenty-four-hour fitness centers and exercise classes froms tep aerobics to tai chi are the norm. Some cruises even offer cruisers ice skating, surfing and inline skating on the mega-ships.

eat and reasonably expect to keep the weight off? A study was done with a 44 year old woman Bobbi James of Coumbia, Md. who was given a body composition test that reveals daily metabolic rate by Matthew Holden, an athletic trainer from South America on one of the new disney bahama cruise lines. The result: 1,372. Her body will burn that many calories in a typical day without any physical activity. Let’s say Bobbi burns around 310 calories walking around the ship and playing with her son in the pool. Add that to her metabolic rate, and she can burn about 1,700 calories a day with little effort. She can also factor her typical exercise routine - running about 6 miles, at a pace of 8 or 9 minutes per mile. She can hop on a treadmill in the ship gym; at the end of her run, it can tell her that she’s burned about 975 calories. Add that to the 1,372 and she can expect to burn at least 2,347 calories on days that she runs. Increase the amount of physical activity, and I she can eat more calories. All you have to do it find ways to expend some energy. Spend a good amount of time getting around the ship by taking the stairs. You can also spend time snorkeling, surfing or body boarding when your cruise stops to burn calories and there are even shore excursions that are devoted to biking, kayaking, and running. When in doubt, just keep moving. In theory of course, it should work. But does it? A bathroom scale on a cruise ship is very uncommon, but the moment of truth comes when you return home.