The fitness industry is unfortunately "stuck" on the concept of using age to determine max heart rate; you'll find that the formula of 220-age = max heart rate is ubiquitous.  Justs about every cardio machine and every heart rate monitor that asks you for your age is using that formula to determine your maximum heart rate, and to then "prescribe" training zones based on that number.

You're no better off than if you closed your eyes and threw a dart at the maximum heart rate chart.

Studies have shown that maximum heart rate does not correlate well with age, and that it doesn't necessarily decline by one beat on your birthday every year.  That being said, a 70-year old person most likely will not be able to achieve the same peak heart rate that she could achieve when she was younger.  There are a variety of reasons for this, not the least of which is simple unwillingness to push to that level of intensity out of fear and discomfort.  Nevertheless, as long as one maintains fitness, MHR shouldn't decline by much with age.

For more information on MHR and heart rate zone training, join us for the Lactate Threshold Field Test on indoor cycling bikes on Tuesday, March 16, 5:30-7 pm.  This information and more will be presented, along with a ride to determine your threshold.

Most of you already know me or have seen me around the club over the past few years.  I spend a lot of my time teaching or practicing at The Yoga Studio at the Vail Athletic Club and have been with this yoga program since its inception.  It has been amazing to watch what started out as a small seed blossom into something full of beauty, love, and inner power.  And is constantly changing and evolving to support and strengthen our community as a whole!

Change is something that is always happening, everything is in constant movement, flow, and forward motion.  Without change life would be dull, boring, and we wouldn’t grow.   Jessa’s quote from Baron said it wonderfully, “we either grow, or we die.”   We really all know this on a cellular level because the blood cells that are part of us are in constant change and flux just to help us stay alive and keep us moving forward.  Yet in our minds we are constantly resisting change, we want things to stay the same and stay the way we perceive them.  We then get angry, sad, frustrated when things do change. 

This is a huge reason I come to my yoga mat everyday; yoga practice helps me accept all of the changes that are happening within and around me.   When I begin to see that change is just a part of life and of nature, I stop paddling against the current and instead, I start to choose where the flow will take me.  I see the big rapids ahead and then navigate my way through them as best I can, and enjoy the calm water that comes in-between.  

I am so exited to take on the Yoga Studio Coordinator position, and look forward to this wonderful journey with our amazing teachers, staff, and members of the VAC community.   The space that has been created here is powerful and that is due to the strong sense of community that was formed by each and every one of you!

Spring is right around the corner which also means nature will be following her own path and bringing a change in season, that which we lovingly call our “mud season.”   This is a perfect time to recommit to your yoga practice or come see what we are all about if you haven’t yet!  All of our teaching staff are amazing and supportive.   We offer something for EVERYBODY, weather you are a beginner, seasoned practitioner, or somewhere in the middle, come try it out and just see what happens!    You never know until you try!    

Looking forward to seeing and meeting all of you!

In much Light and Love,

Rachel Nelson

My teacher Baron says “ We have two choices:  We grow, or we die.  It’s that simple.  Growth is forward movement; anything else is stagnation or, worse, regression.  I would even go so far as to say that growth is the answer to the age-old question of the meaning of life.  It’s the whole point of our journey: to grow and evolve so we can remove all the parts of ourselves that keep us from living in the light, living from our essence, living as our authentic selves.  When you remove the blocks, you create flow in your life and go into new thresholds of personal potential.  That is the goal, and growth is the only way to get there.”

Growth is happening all the time, every moment, every breath.  It's never ending and always unfolding.   Over the past year our studio and community has experienced an abundance of powerful, positive growth!

We have initiated new members into our teaching tribe and new students into our community, we have created a new diversity in the teaching perspectives we offer our students, and we have incorporated meditation and restorative offerings.   Our teachers offer more than just a yoga class, we have created a community, a place where people come to gather, share, and socialize.   Together, students and teachers, we have created a true community!

The Yoga Studio has an energetic vibe where everyone is valued for the unique gifts they bring to the table.   We recognize that each teacher and student is powerful, and unique.  We equally appreciate the contributions of each teacher and student, and we make space for everyone to contribute in a way that is powerful and meaningful.  We hold firmly to the idea that we all have a right and responsibility to SHINE as human beings.

I feel an intense gratitude when I think about each of the beautiful faces I have had the blessing of being with in our studio.  Your lightness, your smiles, and YOUR growth, has been so inspiring to me!

With that said, I am taking a huge step forward in my own path as a person and teacher.  I will be moving to Park City to work full time with my teacher, Baron Baptiste.  Every action we take creates effects, which ripple out like waves after a pebble dropped into a pond.  One beautiful wave is that Rachel Nelson will move into the role of Yoga Studio Coordinator.   Rachel has been part of this community from the beginning, and will ensure that our great community, our powerful and sweaty practice, our unique and diverse teachers, stay together, and stay centered.

Growth does not come without growing pains, and it deeply pains me to leave such a beautiful energetic yoga tribe, but I will carry you with me in my heart at all times.  You have truly touched my life and made me smile!   I am so proud of what we have become, and am so confident in your combined ability to continue to hold the space and grow the community!

If you ever need anything I’m only a phone call/face book/email/text away!  Most of all, stay the course….keep breathing, keep moving, and keep practicing yoga.  Love yourself, love your practice, love your life!

After calming the mind by one of the methods described above, consciously put aside the meditation object. Observe the flow of mental images and sensations just as they arise, without engaging in criticism or praise. Notice any aversion and fascination; contemplate any uncertainty, happiness, restlessness or tranquility as it arises. You can return to a meditation object (such as the breath) whenever the sense of clarity diminishes, or if you begin to feel overwhelmed by impressions. When a sense of steadiness returns, you can relinquish the object again.

This practice of "bare attention" is well suited for contemplating the mental process. Along with observing the mind's particular "ingredients," we can turn our attention to the nature of the container. As for the contents of the mind, Buddhist teaching points especially to three simple, fundamental characteristics.

First, there is changeability (anicca) - the ceaseless beginning and ending all things go through, the constant movement of the content of the mind. This mind-stuff may be pleasant or unpleasant, but it is never at rest.

There is also a persistent, often subtle, sense of dissatisfaction (dukkha). Unpleasant sensations easily evoke that sense, but even a lovely experience creates a tug in the heart when it ends. So at the best of moments there is still an inconclusive quality in what the mind experiences, a somewhat unsatisfied feeling.

As the constant arising and passing of experiences and moods become familiar, it also becomes clear that -- since there is no permanence in them -- none of them really belong to you. And, when this mind-stuff is silent -- revealing a bright spaciousness of mind -- there are no purely personal characteristics to be found! This can be difficult to comprehend, but in reality there is no "me" and no "mine"-- the characteristic of "no-self," or impersonality (anatta).

Investigate fully and notice how these qualities pertain to all things, physical and mental. No matter if your experiences are joyful or barely endurable, this contemplation will lead to a calm and balanced perspective on your life.

Contemplating Your Practice

These meditation exercises all serve to establish awareness of things as they are. By bringing your mind fully onto experiences, you will notice more clearly the state of the mind itself -- for example, whether you are being lazy or over-eager in your practice. With a little honest appraisal, it becomes evident that the quality of the meditation practice depends, not on the exercise being used, but on what you are putting into it. Reflecting in this way, you will gain deeper insight into your personality and habits.

There are some useful points to bear in mind whenever you meditate. Consider whether you are beginning afresh each time -- or even better, with each breath or footstep. If you don't practice with an open mind, you may find yourself trying to recreate a past insight, or unwilling to learn from your mistakes. Is there the right balance of energy whereby you are doing all that you can without being over-forceful? Are you keeping in touch with what is actually happening in your mind, or using a technique in a dull, mechanical way? As for concentration, it's good to check whether you are putting aside concerns that are not immediate, or letting yourself meander in thoughts and moods. Or, are you trying to repress feelings without acknowledging them and responding wisely?

Proper concentration is that which unifies the heart and mind. Reflecting in this way encourages you to develop a skilful approach. And of course, reflection will show you more than how to meditate: it will give you the clarity to understand yourself.

Remember, until you've developed some skill and case with meditation, it's best to use a meditation object, such as the breath, as a focus for awareness and as an antidote for the overwhelming nature of the mind's distractions. Even so, whatever your length of experience with the practice, it is always helpful to return to awareness of the breath or body. Developing this ability to begin again leads to stability and case. With a balanced practice, you realize more and more the way the body and mind are, and see how to live with greater freedom and harmony. This is the purpose and the fruit of Insight Meditation.

Living Insightfully

With the practice of Insight Meditation you will see your attitudes more clearly, and come to know which are helpful and which create difficulties. An open attitude can make even unpleasant experiences insightful -- for instance, understanding the way that the mind reacts against pain or sickness. When you approach such experiences in this way, you can often unwind the stress and resistance to pain, and alleviate it to a great degree. On the other hand, an impatient streak will have different results: becoming annoyed with others if they disturb your meditation; being disappointed if your practice doesn't seem to be progressing fast enough; falling into unpleasant moods over insignificant matters. Meditation teaches us that peace of mind -- or its absence -- essentially depends on whether or not we contemplate the events of life in a spirit of reflection and open-mindedness.

By looking into your intentions and attitudes in the quiet of meditation, you can investigate the relationship between desire and dissatisfaction. See the causes of discontent: wanting what you don't have; rejecting what you dislike; being unable to keep what you want. This is especially oppressive when the subject of the discontent and desire is yourself. No one finds it easy to be at peace with personal weakness, especially when so much social emphasis is placed on feeling good, getting ahead and having the best. Such expectations indeed make it difficult to accept oneself as one is.

However, with the practice of insight meditation, you discover a space in which to stand back a little from what you think you are, from what you think you have. Contemplating these perceptions, it becomes clearer that you don't have any thing as "me" or "mine;" there are simply experiences, which come and go through the mind. So if, for example, you're looking into an irritating habit, rather than becoming depressed by it, you don't reinforce it and the habit passes away. It may come back again, but this time it's weaker, and you know what to do. Through cultivating peaceful attention, mental content calms down and may even fade out, leaving the mind clear and refreshed. Such is the ongoing path of insight.

To be able to go to a still centre of awareness within the changing flow of daily life is the sign of a mature practice, for insight deepens immeasurably when it is able to spread to all experience. Try to use the perspective of insight no matter what you are doing -- routine housework, driving the car, having a cup of tea. Collect the awareness; rest it steadily on what you are doing, and rouse a sense of inquiry into the nature of the mind in the mist of activity. Using the practice to centre on physical sensations, mental states, or eye-, ear- or nose-consciousness can develop an ongoing contemplation that turns mundane tasks into foundations for insight.

Centered more and more in awareness, the mind becomes free to respond skilfully to the moment, and there is greater harmony in life. This is the way that meditation does "social work"-- by bringing awareness into your life, it brings peace into the world. When you can abide peacefully with the great variety of feelings that arise in consciousness, you are able to live more openly with the world, and with yourself as you are.

Congratulations to the close of a successful American Bouldering Series season for the VAC Climbing Team!  The season culminated at ABS Nationals over the weekend of February 13-14, with five VAC climbers and one coach competing at this level.  And the results are (in respective age and gender categories):

Adam Markert, coach, 6th, Qualified for the World Cup again!

Julia Heid, 10th

Logan Jauernigg, 13th

Mac Kelsall, 19th

Becca Wirth, 26th

Luke Rasmussen, 30th

Congratulations!

For complete results, please visit http://www.absnationals.org/08/details/index.htm

Success is in the air, along with a cloud of climbing chalk dust and the sound of psyched kids. Even with snow on the ground, the children of the Vail Athletic Club are rock climbing, on plastic holds at indoor gyms statewide each weekend as part of the American Bouldering Series (ABS) local competitions. The local competitions qualify the athletes for the Regional Championships held across the nation and locally in Boulder, at the Boulder Rock Club on January 16, 2009. This year the VAC Climbing Team took 14 competitors to Boulder to pull down with some of the strongest climbers in the nation, and several of the US Climbing Team members, for a chance to qualify for the National Championship.

The VAC Climbing team is comprised of three teams, ranging in age from 5 to 18, accommodating the beginning climber as well as Nationally ranked competitors, teaching proper technique and climbing safety. The VAC had 14 athletes attend Regionals: Luke Rasmussen, Becca Wirth, Athena Bowe-Janssen, Annika Heid, Logan Jauernigg, Mac Kelsall, Hannah Patterson, Dudley Ottley, Axelina Manning, Julia Heid, Jonah Zeigler, Amalia Manning, Alex Raichart and Abby Townsend. Half of these athletes had never been to Regionals and have been climbing for 3 to 15 months, which is a testament to their dedication and competitive spirit!

ABS Regionals is a two stage format, with all of the competition based on difficulty, with ages and genders matched for fairness. Less than half of the competitors qualify for the finals round and only the top 3 or 4 finishers receive an invitation to the ABS National Championships in Alexandria, Virginia. The top three finishers in each gender/age division at Nationals are chosen for the US Climbing Team to compete internationally and eventually in the Olympics!

The competition in Boulder was fierce, as Colorado is part of the strongest Region in the US, with several US Climbing Team members and loads of super strong kids from the Southwestern states. Of our 14 athletes, five of them qualified for finals and all five received an invitation to Nationals!! Luke Rasmussen and Logan Jauernigg are veterans at Nationals, each having been there several times all across the nation, but for Becca Wirth, Mac Kelsall and Julia Heid, this will be their first National Championship!

Congratulations to all of the competitors for making the season long commitment to improve their technique, to get stronger and to put themselves up against some of the best climbers around. VAC coaches Larry Moore and Adam Markert would like to thank the families for all of their support, each of the athletes who work so hard, as well as all of the other incredible coaches for this tremendous success!!

This photo includes (L to R, back to front) VAC coach Larry Moore, Luke Rasmussen, Logan Jauernigg, Becca Wirth, VAC coach Adam Markert, Mac Kelsall and Julia Heid.

Thank you VAC members and guests!  Thus far, we have raised $491 in funds to help with the Haiti Relief Effort thru Mercy Corps.  Please continue to give at:

http://mercycorps.org/fundraising/vailathleticclub