A fitness star on the LES

  (Pristine, airy, LUDLOW FITNESS, accomodates working and ‘sometimes working’ actors, with grace and style)

 When we think of affordable gyms in the city, we usually think of kinda tacky, dark, somewhat dank, and sadly, often dirty (at least in my experience) places.

You know, the kind where the meatheads spend all their time loading their bars with weight to do a million different types of chest presses (I’ll lecture them on the redundancy of that another time), and none of their time UNLOADING THEM so the rest of the non-300lbs-bench-pressing-public can use the equipment…

Enter Ludlow Fitness, owned and operated by Mason Goldberg. 

Mason understands a few things that other fitness-world proprietors don’t seem to, namely: 1. How to cater to his particular demographic. 2. How to keep you smiling before, during and after 3. Oddly, how to keep a clean, user-friendly club for UNDER $500 a year… whoa… seriously?

LUDLOW FITNESS (100 Delancey Street at the corner of Ludlow, off the F, J, M, Z trains), offers top notch, state of the art equipment, with a full class schedule, clean and comfortable locker rooms, and a convenient location (even for the Brooklynite). And Mason will even give you an apple as a reward for a good workout!

“Do you know how much I spend on apples every year?” asks Mason. “Between Ludlow and Wicker Park [his Chicago Satellite club, aptly named due to its location in Chicago's hip Wicker Park neighborhood], A LOT”…. but he’s happy to put a smile on the faces of his members and see them coming back.

His membership rates at $449 for the whole year are outrageously low considering the quality and shine of LUDLOW FITNESS. “It’s the Rolls Royce of fitness,” explains Mason, describing the equipment at LUDLOW.

Mason also believes that the no-pressure, come-as-you-are demeanor of LUDLOW helps  keep his membership coming through the doors.

“It isn’t intimidating like other clubs. It’s a great community at LUDLOW; no one cares what you are wearing, and it’s a comfortable environment, so you go more often.”

And it would have to be, given its location on the L-E-S of Manhattan, which is known way more for its artist community and rock music club nightlife (Bridges and Powerlines has played every club on Ludlow St. between Delancey and Houston) than the average neighborhood, where people like to get in their ‘post work aerobics class.’

But according to Mason, that’s all part of the fun.

“We get a lot of the artist, actor, and musician types, and they don’t care about the frills of other places that cost $150 a month…”

In addition, Mason himself, is almost ALWAYS at the club, overseeing its day to day operations. “You walk through my club and there are NO out-of-order signs,” says Mason. “People wanna know that there is someone attentive, who cares.”

And that he does. Flying between New York and Chicago, he spends a couple days here and there at Wicker Park and is also opening a second Chicago location called Southport Fitness very soon! And to my regional-working cronies, while you are working in Chicago you can enjoy the clubs there if you are member of LUDLOW.

And just in case you need an extra push to get you started, LUDLOW FITNESS has in-house personal training at the most competitive rates I’ve seen on the market, he offers $60 for a single session and $55 if you purchase packages.

“You’ll pay $150 for the same guy at Equinox,” Mason tells me… and it is literally the SAME GUY! He has top certified personal trainers working at LUDLOW FITNESS, many of whom also work for other fitness giants in the city but love going to LUDLOW because of the comfortable atmosphere Mason provides.

So check it out! The website is www.ludlowfitness.com. For us not-always-working-artists, Mason will also let you split up your payment over a period of a couple months; most other clubs will not.

I don’t know about you, but from now on, I’m workin’ out at LUDLOW FITNESS! See ya there!

Ready: Set: Goals!

Image via Wikipedia

 No doubt at one time or another throughout the course of your career as an actor you’ve taken a class on goal setting, right? Well if you haven’t then get to it!

Knowing  how to set goals is one of the most important things  you can do as an actor because it’s all about taking control of  your  business.

Just in case you haven’t, I’ve got some really good friends over at The Savvy Actor, and they’d  be more than happy to set you off in the right direction (www.thesavvyactor.com), but I will leave this to them, as it is their realm.

As far as personal fitness is concerned if you are just showing up without a particular goal in mind it’s like, well it’s like going to an audition but not really preparing… I mean what do expect to get out of that?

You gotta have a goal guys!

In my experience as a personal trainer, there was never a better client than the one that came to me with a clear goal in mind, and I don’t mean the garden variety ‘oh-I-just-wanna-lose-weight-and-tone-up’ person.

No! It’s the client who comes to me because she is getting married, or he has a competition to train for, or the actor who is filming a movie.

A personal trainer can certainly help organize and help you achieve your goal, but no one can REALLY set the goal but you!

A word to my fellow actors, you have an advantage, you already understand goal setting… now put it into practice based on your personal fitness!

Here’s a great example! Actress/Singer Rachel Kopf, recently trained for a sprint triathlon, and found her results were through the roof!

“No joke! Find a race or something to train for. Working out with a goal in mind helps so much!  My body changed dramatically”, exclaims Rachel.

Find a race, find a competition, play games to see if you can beat your last workout in weight or speed, challenge yourself!

Go out and go for your goal every time! Even if you don’t get there or you feel a little tired, try! There comes a time when ‘just showing-up’ stops being good enough! Show up and do your best every time.

Straighten yourself out!

STAND UP STRAIGHT…. do I sound like your mother? Sorry, but she was right, kids….

Straightening your posture can help protect  your body from injury, and it even helps to reverse injuries you may already have, depending on their severity and where they are in your body.

Strengthening and extending your spine will help develop a body that can withstand a whole lot of activity.

The truth is, guys, we do a lot running around, most of us do some form of heavy activity–dancing, running, or the like–and MOST of us have experienced some sort of minor injury due to overuse. You’ve had a pain in your knee, in your hip, in your ankle, even headaches or  a pain in your neck (of course that could be coming from outside yourself too!).

With the exception of a clear  and direct blow to some area of the body, most injuries occur due to uneven strength and weight distribution in your body.

Each of us has  a dominant side and tends to put more weight or apply more pressure to that side. If you run or do other forms of high impact exercise you probably hit harder one side or the other, causing your muscles to develop unevenly. If you sit a lot or carry things often, it’s likely you favor one side, therefore compacting and compressing the muscle tissue more severely on that side.

Believe it or not these factors could be (and it’s likely that they are), most of what’s causing that pain in your knee cap when you do your dance numbers, or it’s the reason you have a sharp pain in your hip when you try to run.

I think you are getting the picture.

Beyond all of this, as an actor you want to exude confidence and composure when you walk into a room. And how can we achieve this goal? YES, GOOD POSTURE!

So, straightening your posture will allow your body to work more efficiently,  helping you to avoid injury;  to work out harder, stronger and longer, letting your metabolism rev up even more; to look leaner and hotter; and to feel more confident about yourself when you go out and audition or meet with agents and casting directors. All of this  allows you to have more success at everything you do! WHOA…. all that by just adjusting your posture… yeah! FOR REAL!

But WAIT! Before you can move forward into shangrala, you have to be AWARE of your body. Pay attention to your weight distribution when you walk and notice where you are putting more pressure. Take a look at your shoes and see where they are most worn. That will give you a hint as to where you tend to put pressure and work on lengthening and strengthening those areas.

NEXT: Stretch it out using your whole body… huh?

Don’t just make the stretch about your hip or hamstring. Extend your whole body, even your fingertips. And think of stretching as extension rather than ‘pulling.’.

Finally, take up yoga, particularly ‘Power Yoga.’ I found that because so much of the emphasis in Power Yoga is on lengthening AND strengthening your body, it really helps you to understand how to move and how to keep your spine extended and posture beautiful!

So actors, walk tall and stay lean and mean for your next audition, film or business meeting!

Take a principal role in your workouts

To be successful on stage, or when you’re auditioning, you have to stay focused. Every muscle in your body should be intent on getting what you, or rather what your character, wants.

In fact, the same is true for working out.

It’s kinda my pet peeve to walk around the gym and see the legions of people getting on their cardio equipment with the latest issue of US WEEKLY or turning on the TV to watch their favorite bravo program while they workout.

Workout got its name for a reason guys! It should be WORK!

Just for kicks; Let’s do a little mock case study to illustrate my point: We have person A who comes into the gym grabs his/her favorite treadmill in the corner (yeah, you know those people), sets it at 4mph pace and opens up IN TOUCH magazine.

Now person B: grabs … well any old working treadmill, starts with a 2min light jog at a 5.4mph pace, then hits the incline to a 4.0 grade and runs up hill for a few minutes, then sprints for a few minutes, then back down to a walk for a few minutes and repeats this several times throughout the next 30minutes. Person B is sweating, working and focused on what he/she is doing.

Person A: has just read all about Lindsay Lohan“s latest faux pas.

OK! Hard cold facts: Vo2 max or maximal oxygen uptake is the best way to burn fat. This means, you are working as hard as you can for as long as you can … which case study do you think is hitting this point? Well, it isn’t person A.

“But hold on Anna- We’ve heard of the ‘fat burning zone’… and we know that keeping your heart rate elevated just a tad for long periods of time burns fat “….

Yeah, this isn’t real… at least not in the way that you think.

What we call ‘steady state‘ cardio, does burn fat, at an EXTREMELY SLOW RATE, in fact so slow, that  you will probably start burning muscle too, oh yeah, and make sure you don’t have any calories before this workout (if we can even call it a ‘workout’) because then you’ll just be burning THOSE calories and never even touch the french fries and cheeseburger from yesterday you actually CAME to the gym to burn off.

Also, without getting too technical on you, you can’t stimulate glucose at this level of exercise, which means you aren’t really heating up your body, which mean you aren’t really helping your metabolism, which ultimately will dictate your muscle to fat ratio and your ultimate fitness. WHEW. Okay no more technical stuff. You get the point.

In addition to starting to look better with more challenging exercise, you are also, quite literally, getting fitter! You are increasing the amount of oxygen that can get to your heart per minute, which means increased blood flow guys, which means lower blood pressure… you don’t even need me to finish this…

Finally, I’m sorry, but I’m much more likely to stick to a program that’s fun, challenging and goes relatively quickly. How boring is walking on the treadmill for an hour… cause that’s how long it’s gonna take to even burn your last 300 calorie snack at that pace…. mmhmm.

We, as actors, wouldn’t expect that we can zone out and walk through a performance and do well, no, you have to be focused! Give your body the same focus when you workout and you will find it’s a much stronger choice!

Raise the bar on your snacks!

Many a discussion have I had with friends and clients about the ever popular and oh-so-convenient ‘nutrition’ bar.

It’s fast, convenient they seem to have lots of vitamins and minerals, pretty packaging, and they taste… well, like a candy bar.

Seems too good to be true. As my daddy always says, ‘if something seems to0-good-to-be-true, it probably is’, right again, ole’ dad!

“But Anna. Seriously. We run around all day, as  actors we need tons of energy. And you are really gonna sit there and tell us this convenient little delight is off limits????” At the risk of lots of dirty looks, I would say; they should be.

I’ll tell you what, I’ll give you the facts and let you decide, but I think you’ll begin to see why I don’t recommend them as a means to whole nutrition for people who really want to be and look their best (eh’ em… code for actors).

I can pretty much sum up most of my distaste for these bars in one word: SUGAR!

Remember in my last entry how I mentioned sugar gets stored as fat…. uh huh… did you think cause you buy it at GNC it’s any different… nope!

So in one fell swoop I’ve taken the word ‘nutrition’ right of those bars!

How about the other kind, the ‘protein’ type bars, if you will…. ahhhh…. the ones that have like 40 grams of carbs 30 of which belong to something called ‘sugar alcohols’, the other 10 of which are not clearly identifiable to any normal consumer.

Ok, go back ‘sugar alcohol’? ha, yeah…. malitol, sorbitol etc. does that even sound like something you want floating around your intestines for… oh I don’t know, a few days? They hang out for a while.

You don’t. In addition to the fact that these sugar alcohols can cause gas, bloating and other minor tummy trauma, they have to use so much of it to get that sweet sugary taste, that guess what… yep, it still acts like sugar in you system… and class, how is sugar stored? I don’t even have to say it.

The other 10 carbohydrates… what are they… wait, did you say sugar? Collect a gold star!

Now that I’ve beat these bars to a pulp, let me go back for the knockout, they often come with a whopping 300-400 calories… whoa! You can get a Starbucks turkey sandwhich for that (and actually put useful food into your body).

Just to be completely clear, ANY calories your body can’t use whether it’s protein, fat or carb is stored as… drum roll please…. FAT!

Okay, I will own that most bars are seriously fortified with lots of vitamins and minerals… but they are super duper hard to digest, and since they are synthetic (the vitamins), lots of em’ will come out next time you run to the poddy.

Next time you are running around the city, and you get that little twinge (which is probably today for most of us), grab a nice natural plain yogurt, an apple or a handful of raw nuts, even trail mix. You will be giving your body so much more and yet so much less, it will thank you!

Treat me right!

One of the first questions I ask new client is  ” so what have you eaten today”. Sadly, this question is  nearly always met with a long pause, and then followed by… well, nothing much, or an odd lack of memory for anything substantial.

People please, we are in the business of expressing ourselves through movement and language, we have to get from one place to another very quickly and we often have days that start in the VERY early a.m. and run til’ curtain call around 11p.m.

My point behind  this preamble; if you want your body to perform, you have to treat it right! A cup of coffee with milk and sugar and a banana ain’t gonna help you much in your 10a audition.

As actors we are asking our bodies to perform overtime, and go above and beyond for us,therefore, we in turn, must do right by our bodies.

Let’s start with breakfast, remember that coffee with milk and sugar and the banana? So you’ve just put about 5 packets of sugar into your gas tank, a little bit of caffeine and minimal vitamins and minerals, ok, bananas have potassium, but they  also have one of the highest sugar content of any fruit.

Just for the record,it takes about 30 minutes to digest sugar, which, just FYI, is also stored as fat.

So, wait, if you eat the banana and coffee at 8a, and your audition is at 10a… ah, you see where I’m going with this?

Not only have you sabotaged your audition, but now you have a whole 13hrs of ‘day’ left, how’s that happening?

No wonder people don’t have the energy to add workouts to their schedule, right?

Without giving all my tricks away free-of-charge, let me just give you a few pointers on a slightly better start to the day; it’s not hard…

Try a bowl of oatmeal or oatbran (oatbran take LITERALLY a minute to cook), 1/2 cup of skim milk, skip the banana and throw in some blueberries and yes, have the coffee.

You’ve just added a quarter’s worth of your daily fiber intake, about 30% of your calcium intake, vitamins B,C and A, about 12-15 grams of protein, antioxidants, potassium, and oh yeah,  slashed that sugar intake to about a 1/3 of what it was.

My prediction: that 10a audition is gonna go much better, and the other 13hrs won’t seem quite as daunting.

To eat or not to eat… before a performance

Every actor seems to have their take on meals around a performance.

Some actors I’ve talked to absolutely DO NOT eat before performance because they believe the hunger will give them that extra edge on stage.

Others are 180 degrees the other way, and MUST eat before performance or they insist they are low energy on stage.

I, personally, had been on the fence with this one, until last June, when I was faced with my most challenging stage role to date.

Two and half hours of playing the boisterous Rita in EDUCATING RITA.

I spent over two hours bounding around the stage belting out my best Liverpudlian accent, reciting speeches that went on for a half page before they were interrupted.

Each scene required a 30 second quick costume change (there were 15 scenes!) and often retouches on makeup and hair.

Though on fence, I’d really mostly been in the DON’T eat column, just because I felt a little lethargic if I had a meal before going on stage.

But don’t eat before this kind of performance? Uhm…

That’s when I realized it was time to put on my athlete hat and mix its colors with my acting hat.

No stranger to the marathon an other endurance sports, I have always known the rules of endurance athletics and food; a small meal an hour before you start and then a quick top off (easily digestible carbs, like gatorade), every 45 minutes to an hour while training or competing, plus adequate hydration.

Then… LIGHTBULB!

Wait! Hold up…. so performance is an endurance sport? You bet your stage makeup it is!

Acting is our sport, and it is so necessary to maintain the proper amount of energy and hydration to perform our sport.

My suggestion would be to treat it just like an endurance training session.

For those that don’t know how that works, here are your guidelines:

Firstly; make sure you eat a balanced diet all day, and drink plenty of water

Next: have a light meal which consists of lowfat protein, like white meat chicken or tuna, and a carb, a slice of whole grain bread or serving of brown rice will do it.

Keep it lowfat, cause just like in a workout, you are jostling about on stage, and you don’t want…. well let’s just say, there’s often not a lot of time between scenes for poddy breaks.

Keep a piece of fruit or a small bottle of gatorade backstage and take a couple of swigs before you go on, during intermission and after the show.

Finally; stay in shape to begin with! I can’t tell you the number of audience members that asked me after the show how I stayed in shape to play a role like that!

You have to have energy.

Feed your mind and body the way you should, and I have no doubt you will be able to stay the course

Me as Rita (at the Winnipesaukee Playhouse)

You CAN make time….

Believe me, I know how challenging the day can be; running from one audition to the next, rehearsals, submissions and then, there’s balancing that nasty ‘survival job’…. workout, you say? Yeah right!

Ok, I know it’s challenging, but it can be done, with a little discipline, fortitude and tiny bit of that other yucky; word … ‘planning’, you can make it to the gym or at least get outside for a 20 min power walk.

First of all, we are actors, we are perfectionists, I know, I live it too… but let it go, and understand that although it would be nice to get that 60min power workout in the gym 4 days a week, when it comes to fitness, something really is better than nothing.

Take at look at your schedule, and find 3 (yeah just 3), times per week you can set aside for exercise. They should be at least 20 minute increments.

Now, choose an exercise, or type of exercise that’s realistic for you. Remember I mentioned that 20 minute power walk… come on that’s an easy one in NYC!

Partner up with acting buddies and do a little exercise in accountability. We use it for help in our acting business planning, why not for our workouts as well? Report your progress on a daily basis.

Write it down guys! You are more likely to do it.

Hold yourself accountable for one month, there’s the discipline part.

This should be a sufficient time frame to get yourself in the mind set of fitting in that workout…. once you’ve got this part down, your golden, remember 85% of the job is showing up.

Once your showing up for your workouts…. well then we can get down to business….

How to Get Fit When “Gym” Isn’t in the Budget

Living in New York City gets very expensive. Between food costs, rent, electricity and the morning cup of coffee, there is often not much, if any, left over. But New York’s cost of living doesn’t have to keep New Yorkers from getting and staying in great shape.

Start with the stairs. With very few exceptions, New Yorkers live in buildings that have stairs, and climbing them is a great way to get fit.

Take twenty minutes and walk up and down the stairs. To keep it interesting, every other trip up try double stepping—taking two stairs at a time—or even running.  It’s also a great way to work out if the weather outside is bad.

Take a walk combined with a run in the park.  Most New Yorkers live within walking distance of a park, which are excellent resources for workouts.

Start with a brisk walk to warm up and get your heart rate up to about 125 beats per minute.  To check your heart rate, simply count your pulse beats for 15 seconds and multiply by 4. Every 3-5 minutes, burst into a run for one to two minutes. Faster is better, but start slow if you are not used to running. Repeat for 30 minutes.

Jump around in the grass. Find a nice lush spot of grass in the park, grab a twig or something that won’t blow away, and jump back and forth over the object with your feet together, moving from side to side as if you were on skis. Add sets of ten to 15 push-ups between the jumps. Walk in place to rest for 15 to 20 seconds.  Repeat 5 times or as many as possible.

New York City has some wonderful fitness centers, but if the budget just won’t allow it, there are creative and effective options to keep New Yorkers in top shape—and they don’t cost a thing.