Fitness to Go

All of the products listed on this page have been used successfully by me or my clients, and I am happy to recommend them.  Email me at helen@fitness-togo.com if you want to hear about my personal experience with anything on this page.  Contact the vendor directly with any customer service issues.

Please let me know if you have suggestions for products/sites to add, or if you have comments about your experience with any of these products or vendors!

Need Help Getting and Staying Motivated to Eat Right & Exercise?

Hypnosis isn't magic; you still need to change your diet and add exercise, but using these CD's makes it much easier to stay motivated and enthusiastic about a healthy lifestyle.  I have used these personally, and found they completely took the stuggle out of eating healthfully for me.

Great in combination with the Weight Watcher's Progam or BalanceLog Software.

Wendi.com offers a variety of other self-hypnosis programs for issues from improving self-confidence to eliminating procrastination.

Weight Watchers Online

Weight Watchers TurnAround allows you to choose the approach that fits you best:

The Flex Plan gives you a full range of food options, while encouraging better choices with the POINTS system.

The Core Plan focuses on wholesome foods without all the counting. Eat to satisfaction from a list of healthy "core" foods and use POINTS to add extras.

I am a lifetime member of Weight Watchers and have successfully used several iterations of their program, but I've personally had my best success with Core.  What's great about TurnAround is that you can try both plans and make the choice that suits you best. I ocassionally switch from one to the other just to mix thing up - Flex tends to make me more aware of portion sizes, while Core helps me focus more on whole, healthy foods.

The Most Versatile Piece of Fitness Equipment Ever

Stability balls allow you to do hundreds (thousands?) of exercises that emphasize core strength and stability.  I use them with every one of my clients - from the least experienced exerciser to the elite athlete, and it's the one piece of equipment I personally couldn't do without.

They alse make great desk chairs - I am sitting on one as I type this!

N.B. Be careful if you have toddlers in the house - the "running dive to head bonk" exercise is a big temptation!

Six Pairs of Dumbbells in One

18-lb dumbbells adjust from 3 to 18 lbs in 3-lb increments; 30-lb set adjusts from 5 to 30 in 5-lb increments.  Great space saver.

Great Tool for Posture,
Balance & Stability!

Foam rollers have a variety of uses, from stretching to advanced Pilates exercises.  Particulary effective for improving posture by stretching the intervertebral muscles and mobilizing the shoulder girdle.

Discount rollers are fine for most users - premium rollers are recommeded for heavier use and multiple users.

Triathlete's Bible: The Definitive Resource for Serious Triathetes
Joe Friel has written a thorough, readable, and technically precise book.  If you are looking for the most comprehensive Tri book out there, this is for you.  Warning!  If you have no desire to become a spreadsheet wielding tri-geek, you may find it OVERLY comprehensive.  If you would rather skip the technical stuff and see lots of sample plans instead, try Gale Bernhardt's Training Plans for Multisport Athletes instead.

Or buy them together, and use Friel's book to help you tweak Bernhardt's plans.

Training Plans for Multisport Athletes:  A triathlon book that's actually user friendly!

Gale Bernhardt offers a variety of training plans for all levels of triathlete - from beginner to ironman.  She provides plenty of explanation without getting overly technical, and her plans are well thought out. 

I used her 28 Weeks to Ironman program (with a few personal tweaks) to train for my first iron distance race - I was well-prepared, and did not suffer from any overtraining or overuse injuries.

I've also used the treadmill workouts in the appendices with a number of clients and they have had great results.

Learn how to run with less effort and fewer injuries

ChiRunning teaches you to run with less effort and more efficiency.  Focuses on running from the core and using your "chi" to make gravity work for you.  Highly recommended for beginning runners; more experienced runners should experiment in the off-season as performance may suffer slightly before it improves.

A Metronome can help runners of all abilities develop foot speed and consistent pacing.

Hydration! Hydration! Hydration!

Another one of my personal "can't live without"'s.  Every runner should have one. Period.