Guest Fits: Married to Fitness - Fathers Day Edition

Guest Fit by the D-man


It's been a little while since I've had an opportunity to share my insights on what it's like to be married to fitness, but my unique father's day present seems a good topic.  


In case you haven't figured it out from Cool J's posts, she's rather fond of trying out whatever new fangled fitness studio rolls into our hood.  Her most recent focus has been Pure Barre which she covered it in a recent post .   It turns out they were offering free classes on Father's Day for ladies to bring their men, so guess where I ended up.  


Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of yoga and will try anything once but I was a slightly more nervous than usual for this one.  I will point out is that it's small isometric movements using a ballet barre set to motivating music meant to tone and firm which apparently involves frequent hip thrusts, "tuck freeze, tuck hold".  The only thing I could picture was just just about every 80's aerobics stereotype, best exemplified by Jamie Lee Curtis in 1985's Perfect:

The reality was far more normal and reminiscient of yoga poses with small movements to really work the hell out of your small stabilizing muscles.  My only complaint is with Cool J.  Every time she takes me to one of these type classes she gets a kick out of grabbing me weights about two sizes too big (but small to the untrained eye) only to watch me fall apart on the 100th repetition of tiny tricep extensions. 


Will I go again?  Perhaps but my dance card is pretty full these days.  As a fan of whole body fitness, work outs like that go a long way to stabilizing joints and helping to prevent muscle imbalances.   For the moment I plan on working more climbing and paddle boarding into my routine but variety is always welcome.  


Speaking of which, when I finally get Cool J into vertical endeavors, it'll be my turn to humble her a bit....

Fits for Men: Craft Beer Festival

By Jessie

It seems very timely that LL just wrote about beer and running here, and then the next night, my husband and I were at a local Craft Brew Festival  I have titled this post "Fits for Men" because even though I enjoy a good microbrew, my husband is definitely the beer "connoisseur" of our relationship. He loves beer- loves drinking it, brewing it, talking about it, reading about it; this event was right up his alley.


The festival was held at the beautiful Minnesota History Center in downtown St. Paul.

Tickets sold out in about 10 minutes, but like I said, the D-man really likes beer, so he ensured we had two tickets in hand for this event.

This craft beer sampling event celebrates beer brewed in Minnesota by the breweries and brew pubs that are current members of the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild. Chase out the winter chill with a multitude of Winter Warmers, hearty food, beer education, entertainment and music.


The participating breweries are listed below. Each one offered up endless 2 oz samples of some of their most unique and limited brews. We tried quite a variety of different brews, some good...some not so good. But fortunately the not so good ones could go straight into this "dumping bucket"

A casual event like this craft brew festival was the perfect opportunity for me to try out my new Stella and Dot necklace!

In fact, these two "German" beer girls said they loved my necklace...or did they love my husband?

There were quite a few people at the event. It spanned three floors of the museum. 

We also talked to some local "celebrities", like Omaur Ansari, owner of Surly Brewing. He also loves beer. And he is a runner. He ran the NYC marathon last year- check out his time here)

It was a fun event, especially for people who are interested in all the different varieties of beer.


And did I run better this morning, as LL's article would suggest? No, I definitely did not.

Participating Breweries:

• August Schell Brewing Co.
• Barley John’s Brew Pub
• Big Wood Brewery
• Boom Island Brewing Co.
• Brau Brothers Brewing Co.
• Carmody Irish Pub & Brewing
• Castle Danger Brewery
• Cold Spring Brewing Co.
• Finnegans
• Fitger’s Brewhouse
• Flat Earth Brewing Co.
• Fulton
• Granite City
• Great Waters Brewing Co.
• Harriet Brewing

• The Herkimer
• Leech Lake Brewing Co.
• Lift Bridge Brewing Co.
• Lucid
• Mankato Brewery
• Olvalde Farhouse Ales
• Rock Bottom Brewery
• Staples Mill Brewing Co.
• Steel Toe Brewing
• Summit Brewing Co.
• Surly Brewing Co.
• Third Street Brewhouse
• Town Hall
• Vine Park

Fits for Men: Investing in Custom

By: LL
It is amazing how quickly women's fashion changes. The leggings that you bought in September are outdated by Thanksgiving. Or how about that pair of wide leg trousers or the oxford wedges? How long will those last?

Men's fashion is different. I admit, they do have their fashion trends, mainly related to the cut of suits, length of ties, and length of shorts (which also seem to be age-related, not just trends). Either way, comparing apples to apples, style for women shifts faster and more frequently than that of men, which is one reason why women shop so much more often than men - because we HAVE to (seriously!)

I like fashion, but sometimes it would be nice to be able to wear your favorite boots from last fall or wear that tunic that fits so amazing just one more time without feeling outdated. If that were possible, if fashion were more stagnant at times, I think that more women would invest in custom pieces, as many men invest in custom suits or shoes. It would "fit the bill" better to spend a bit more on a solid piece that you would be able to wear for more than one year. Men have it lucky in this sense. Normally they can get 2 or 3 seasons out of a pair of shoes or a lifetime (weight dependent) out of a polo shirt.

Case in point - Last fall, my husband purchased a pair of custom boots from Quoddy. He had been looking for awhile to find a stylish, durable, and comfortable pair. Finally, he stumbled upon Quoddy when he was looking for replacement boaters. Instead, he ended up purchasing their chukkas. A great thing about Quoddy, and many other men's shoe companies (Johnston & Murphy, Hewlett & Dunn , etc.), you can get shoes (at not too crazy a price) that are custom made to fit your foot - including your arch type, width, and foot length. At some stores, you can even choose the leather color, texture, and sole type. It might seem expensive, but once you run the numbers, purchasing such a pair of shoes - and getting exactly what you want and being able to wear them for multiple seasons - it is actually much cheaper than the amount women spend on multiple shoes, year after year. And funny enough, my husband's shoes are still stylish, even getting a feature in the most recent J. Crew catalogue...more than a year and half after my husband first got his.

Seriously, men might be onto something with this custom thing - but then again...

Fit for Men: Let's go to the "barre" with MEN!

By Jessie

So, the entire month of October is FREE barre classes at Align Pilates for men. So...that means my husband is a lucky fellow (not just because he's married to me) as he gets to go to barre with his lady.

The studio at Align is small- only 20 people per class. The teacher today was "Michelle", who was a cutie, which seemed to increase my husband's enjoyment of the class.

Michelle had us use "Magic Circles" (pictured below), which I had never used before. Most of the moves required the circle to be placed between the thighs, and squeezed while doing squats. It definitely increased the intensity, though the same effect was achieved with the playground balls (see below)

The class started with traditional mat pilates, some cardio (jumping jacks, cardio boxing) and then the Magic Circle. Then came some pushups (oh boy, am I weak!), planks, and upper body work with 3-4 lb balls like this. Now, I know 3 or 4 lbs is nothing (especially for the 6 MEN in the class) but after many sets, you definitely feel the burn!

We also used "playground balls" for leg work, squats and pulsing while squeezing the ball.

I love the concentration of the booty work. And, let's just say the D-man was pretty sweaty by the end of class, so I think he liked it!

In closing, I think that barre is probably a little more appealing to ladies, who enjoy the concentrated butt toning. However, I think the D-man would agree that it was definitely a workout for men too!

Thanks hubby for joining me at the class!

Readers- does your husband or boyfriend ever tag along with you to try out a new workout that you love? What does he like/dislike about the workouts?