A Great Workout for Boomers!

I am not an athletic person and I don’t enjoy doing exercises.  But as a retired boomer, I need to exercise regularly as I have found that some of the pains I  experienced recently was caused by my inactivity.

I have been going to a gym every week if possible working with a personal trainer. I don’t really enjoy the experience but I have no choice if I want to control the pains on my body.

Today, I had a great workout session and I truly enjoy the exercises that my personal trainer designed  for me. I did the following exercises in my hour long workout this afternoon:

1.       Warm up with circling my arms – 2 minutes

Eccentric Pull Up

       1. Eccentric movement on the pull up bar

First with underhand grip –  2 sets  of 10

Followed by overhand  grip – two sets of 10

I loved this exercise as I could feel that my grip strength improved after only two sessions  with Joyce.

Clean Weight Exercise While Stepping up on the Risers

      

2   2.   Step up with 6 risers – a set of 10

Step up with weight ,  a 15 lb dumbbell on each hand-  a set of 10

Clean the weight.; step up with weight on shoulder – 2 sets of 10

I was running out of breath by the end of each set of exercise. My coach told me  a short rest of 1 ½ minutes was important and needed to regain my strength.

   

  3    Renegade Row 

   

      First with  a 12 lb dumbbell . alternating hands, a set of 10

Followed by  15lb, alternating hands, a set of 10

Followed by 20 lb, one hand at a time, a set of 10

There was a 30 seconds rest after each set.

      4/   3 sets of Burpee – Each set was 1 minute and I was asked to do this exercise without stopping within the duration. It was not easy. I was a little dizzy after each set and needed more than the 30 seconds of rest allowed.

     5.   Body Weight Squats

     

       A set of 10 squats, as fast as I could do it.

    3 sets of 10 squats, a 30 seconds rest after each set.

 

Instead of feeling exhausted and defeated after some workout sessions, I felt energized and accomplished this time.  I did something that I never thought I could do before. I never thought I could ever pull my own body upward on a pull up bar. But I did! ( With Joyce’s spotting me.)

I really enjoyed my workout session today!!! I never thought I would ever say that. I now look forward to the next workout session with Joyce, my personal trainer.

R.T., Toronto

Dec. 2012

Strength Building Exercises

I have been away for a month from my workout routine and now I am back with Joyce, my personal trainer.
She measured me again today and I was happy to learn that since I started my training program with her a few months ago, I have seen great improvement in my physical strength, a loss of five pound and more than four inches on my waist. The loss of body weight and inches might not be significant, but I have been able to keep them off.

This morning Joyce introduced to some strength building exercises that I really liked So I would like to share them with those who are interested in building strength and muscles. Here they are:


1. Ab thruster - 3 sets of 12

I had my feet placed on the surface of 3 riser height. I started with just thrusting my ab as high as I could for about 1-2 seconds, 12 times.
During the second and third set, Joyce added weight for me. With  a weight disc placed on my abdomin, I did the ab thrust 2 sets, each set 12 times.

Step Up with Riser Steps

2a. Riser Step Up

I first started with the Riser Step without weight, but with increased risers after each set of 12 exercise.

Step Up with Weight

2b. Riser Steps with Weight 

 After a warm up on the riser steps, I started stepping up with weight, first with a 15 lb dumbbell on each hand then increased to 20 lbs.  I started stepping up with 6 then increased to 8 riser height. Great exercise for hamstrings if your hamstrings happen to be hurting. Mine were hurting pretty badly, but since I started exercising, the pain has disappeared but it returns when I am not exercising! So I have to keep up the program.

An Eccentric Movement

3. Eccentric Movement on the Pull Up Bar

Since I did not have a lot of strength with my hands and had difficulty pulling myself up to the bar, Joyce tied an eccentric movement band  on the bar to assist me to complete this exercise.

With my two hands on the pull up bar and my right foot on the band, I had to jump as high as  I could and control the descend down to the surface. I have often seen young people especially men doing this exercise but never attempted it on my own. I attempted it today. Though I could not raise myself too high but it was a good start.

This exercise will definitely help me build my upper body strength which mature adults need in order to perform the daily chores and be independent in their daily activities. My goal is to be able to live an independent and productive life without becoming a burden to anyone in my retirement life.

The Burpee - An Effective Cardio Exercise

4. Burpee

This exercise look seasy but it is not.

A cardio exercise - Joyce timed me with her stop watch and I had to perform as many burpees as possible within a 1 minute timing.

 After each minute, I was given a 30 seconds rest. It was a strenuous exercise.  By the time I did the three sets, I was sweating. A very effective exercise indeed!

I paid dearly for each session of exercise with my personal trainer. I hope that by writing down these exercises in my blog, I will be able to remember these exercises and share them with others.

Happy exercising! Hope these exercises will help to ease the pain in your hamstrings like they did for me!

R.T.  Goodlife Gym, Toronto
Dec. 2012

An Ontario Play Based Kindergarten Classroom

I landed  in Toronto, Canada on a Sunday evening and it felt so good when I spotted my wonderful husband's smiling face from among the crowds waiting at the Pearson Airport! It does not matter where I have traveled, the best part is always coming home and seeing my loved ones. It was just fabulous seeing my husband and son again after almost a month away from home.  We had dinner together at an Ethiopian restaurant downtown and we had a lot to catch up! My family was very interested in learning about my trip to Cambodia and I had a lot to tell them!

Working with the Visiting Principals from China

I did not have much time to rest from my Cambodian trip as I was scheduled to work with the visiting principals from China for the next week!

Though I had worked as a public school administrator for the past decade, my passion is still teaching! Therefore, when I was asked to do some teaching for the principals by OPC, I immediately accepted the assignment.

A Pictorial/ Visual Schedule for Kindergarten Students

I love the opportunity of teaching and sharing my knowledge and experience with other educators.

I have had the privilege of  being involved in a program for international principals visiting Ontario schools. I just love it!

A Question / Challenge Posted for the children at the Sand Table

One of the Learning Centers in the Kindergarten Classroom

 I worked with a group of  kindergarten principals from Asia. These visiting principals were here to learn about the Ontario education system and to gain first hand knowledge by visiting schools in the greater Toronto area.

Each time when we receive a group of visiting principals, I could hardly wait to start my seminars with them and exchange ideas about our education systems and schools.


                                                              




These principals were eager and interested to learn about our students, school organization, curriculum, and the problems and challenges facing our school principals. However, nothing could compare to how excited they were when they visited the schools!

Another Question for the Children at the Music Table

The principals were especially very interested to learn about our play based kindergarten program and how teachers use play to teach students in their classrooms.

The principals observed that there were many learning centres set up in each of  the kindergarten classrooms they visited.

The Crafts Table Where Children Experiment Their Art Ideas

They observed that when the children were playing, they were not just playing but learning while doing so.

At many of the learning centres, there was a question or a challenge posted  and children were encouraged to find answers for the question by actively engaging in the playing/ learning process.

Children were encouraged to come up with their own creative ideas and experiment with them while playing /working on their tasks.












Though the children were working on the same theme, they were not asked to produce the exact picture, therefore no two pictures made by the children were exactly the same.

Children Placed Their Movable Teddy According to Instruction

In the area of reading and building up new vocabulary, the teacher made it fun and interactive by asking the children each to make a story book with a movable teddy bear.

After the children cut and paste the book together, they each had their own story book and were asked to place where Teddy should be by reading and following the instructions as stated on the pages.

A Math Question for the Kindergarten Children

The visiting principals gained an understanding of how the play based program and were very impressed how well disciplined and focused our students were when they were playing/ learning in the classroom.



R.T.  Toronto, Canada
Dec. 2012

If You Only Had an Evening in Hong Kong

The Famous Night Scene of Hong Kong

 Since there was no direct flight from Cambodia to Canada, I needed to stop over in Hong Kong and make a connecting flight to Toronto.

I boarded the DragonAir with Candy and Henry at the Phnom Penh International Airport and after a 2 1/2 hour flight landed in Hong Kong a little after 3:00p.m., local time.

Bilingual Signs are Everywhere - No Worry of Getting Lost

Both Candy and Henry had family members in Hong Kong so we said good bye and parted our way. I was grateful that I had them as my traveling companions and they looked after me really well helping me with everything.


The Hong Kong International Airport is a huge and modern airport with bilingual signs everywhere so foreign travelers with knowledge in English will have no problem navigating their way there.

Looking Out from My Room at the Kowloon Regal Hotel

My husband booked a hotel room for me at the Kowloon Regal Hotel and they ( and a number of hotels) even had their own counter set up right on the Arrival Floor at the airport.

Hong Kong has a very well developed public transit system. Passengers can easily take either the airport/ downtown express bus or subway train that would take the travelers right into the downtown district of Hong Kong at a reasonable cost.

The Regal Hotel has its own shuttle bus, not free, but very inexpensive at HK$ 130.00 ( around US$ 20.00.

 Many Christmas Decorations on the Streets of Hong Kong

The hotel staff kindly informed me that it would be  faster taking the subway as the hotel shuttle bus would be stopping at all the other Regal Hotel stops and dropping off passengers. Since I had no family members or friends in Hong Kong, therefore I was not in a hurry, I decided to take the one and a half  hour scenic route and waited for the shuttle bus.

The shuttle ride was comfortable and it took the passengers through many streets of Hong Kong.

Hong Kong - A City of 7 Million People ; Skyscrapers Everywhere

 Hong Kong is a modern, clean city with many skyscrapers scattered throughout the entire area.

Its population is around seven million and the public transportation system is efficient, accessible and very reasonable in cost.

One can pretty well get to anywhere they want to go with the public transit system.  No wonder it has been voted as the most livable city in the world recently.

Avenue of Stars - A Nice Walk Along the Waterfront

As the bus took us into the city, it passed by mountains and green areas. I did not realize that Hong Kong is so mountainous.

It is also a very busy seaport with many loading stations, huge cranes busy loading and unloading huge containers from numerous cargo ships.

As I observed sitting in the Shuttle bus, the streets were very clean, traffic was busy but very orderly. There was no crazy driving or vehicles going in all directions.When we were near the downtown area, I saw few people walking on the streets. In fact, I was wondering where did all the pedestrians go? Ah, as I looked around, I realized pedestrians used many of the walkaways built and dedicated specially for them high above ground. This way, it is much safer for pedestrians as they do not have to compete with the huge volume of traffic on the road.

Avenue of Stars - A Nice Walk Along the Harbour

I walked around the area, then along the harbour and visited the Avenue of Stars where it explained the movie history of Hong Kong through a series of sculptures and concrete hand prints of famous Hong Kong movie stars.

Honouring Bruce Lee in the  Movie History of Hong Kong

Bruce Lee, one of the most famous stars in the 1970's and was hnonoured by a bronze lifelike sculpture was the most popular spot where people paused, imitated his actions and took pictures.

10p.m by the Harbour - Lots of People Walking Around

                                           
  I strolled and shopped on the streets of Hong Kong for the entire evening and I actually felt quite safe being alone. There were a lot of countries and cities where I visited and did not feel comfortable walking at night even with friends around.

 In Hong Kong I felt  fine walking around by myself at night. It could be I was in a tourist area and there were a lot of people. People looked happy and everywhere I went, it was well lit so that I knew there was nothing lurking behind somewhere.


It was a fun evening enjoying the night scene and the harbour view of this famous city. I found people here were friendly and polite. Even if they could not understand you, they would at least make an effort to help you. It was a very pleasant experience for me indeed.

R.T. Hong Kong,
Dec.1, 2012

The Childrens'' Camp, Cambodia

After the youth training camp, the youth leaders and  we received over one hundred and fifty children from the various local churches to the Children's Camp.

The children were mainly from the nearby villages and  they were bussed in by church buses and were very excited when they got to the camp site.






 Excited they were yet the children were very cooperative and enjoyed all the activities we planned for them.

We were amazed at how fast they learned the English songs we prepared for them and they especially loved the actions that went with these fun songs.






These children might look a little shy but when they sang, they really sang with gusto and participated in all the games with enthusiasm!

Boy, could they ever limbo dance! There was so much excitement generated from this one game that required few equipment and could be played practically anywhere!

The Youth Leaders did an excellent job leading the singing, helping with many activities and especially looking after the children.

They were very responsible, mature and were outstanding role models for the children.

The Youth Leaders were Excellent Leaders!

The Youth Leaders demonstrated great leadership skills and displayed a lot of patience with the children.

We were very proud of how the youth leaders conducted themselves and did such an outstanding job in the children's camp.

Youth Leaders Assisting the Kids with their Crafts

We thank God for such a great opportunity to have worked with the Cambodian youths and the children. We had a great time sharing God's love and messages with the young people and their parents

It was a great week!


R.T. Cambodia
Nov. 2012

A Cambodian Street Wedding Tent

A Wedding Tent was Set Up in the Middle of a Phnom Penh Street

I have not had the opportunity to attend a Cambodian wedding since I was only in this county for less than a month.

However, I did have the opportunity to visit a  Cambodian wedding tent while I was in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Inside the Wedding Tent

We were out doing our morning walk early one morning. All of a sudden, we came across a huge beautiful pink tent set up in the middle of the street where we usually take to go to the park.

A huge wedding tent in the middle of a street? How interesting!

Out of curiosity,  we ventured inside the wedding tent to take a look, and some people from the grooms' side were gracious enough to allow us a tour of the wedding tent.

The Tent was Set Up and Decorated Beautifully

The wedding tent turned out to be a reception hall where a wedding banquet was about to take place. There were two sections in this wedding tent. We saw some of the people from the wedding party congregating in the smaller section on the right side of the tent which provided some privacy for whomever were sitting there.

Anybody could apply for a license to have a wedding tent set up in front of his/her house and invite friends and neighbors to the celebrations. How neat is that!

 As for the local traffic and the people who have not been invited to the party. they just have to detour around it while the neighbors are having a ball enjoying the feast and celebrations!

The tent was a beautiful place with many tables and chairs all set up for a big banquet. Waiters were all dressed up and some of the wedding party was already there.

This was about 6:45a.m. when we were out doing our morning exercises!

A Temporary Kitchen Specially Set Up for the Wedding Banquet

There was another tent set up at the back of the wedding tent - a huge working kitchen. This temporary kitchen was well equipped with many cooking utensils and equipment.

The kitchen staff was busy at work preparing food for the banquet.

Some Dishes Were Ready to be Served at the Wedding Banquet

Some of the dishes were already set out to be served.

Unfortunately, I did not have an opportunity to attend a Cambodian wedding, but I learned some traditions about how a bride gets ready for her wedding day.

I was told that that some wedding celebrations may take three days to one week! For some brides, they may take up to a month to get themselves ready and looking pretty for the big day by putting on some special lotions or herbal treatment. For a wealthy bride-to-be, the parents may even build a separate house for her so that she would live separately from her parents for up to a year to get herself ready for the wedding day! There are so many interesting customs and traditions about a Cambodian wedding, I would love to learn more about them in the future!

R.T. Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Nov. 2012

Visiting Churches and Schools in Rural Cambodia

A Rural church in Cambodia

Cambodia is a small country with a population of about eleven million people. Because of its civil wars in the 1970's that destroyed much of its country's infrastructures and wiped out a whole generation of educated Cambodians, the entire country has been pushed back for decades in terms of economic and technological development.

Fortunately, there are many countries and NGOs that are willing to lend a helping hand in this country. We visited Rita and Matthew - two individuals who willingly gave up their comfortable western life style, sold everything they had in Canada eight yearsa ago and moved to Cambodia. They have been living and serving the rural Cambodians in their small village ever since.

A Sparsely Furnished Village Classroom

Besides visiting this missionary couple, we also visited a few other rural churches and their schools. These churches are doing amazing work and providing important services to the villagers. The churches first started classes in their own building and from there they grew into schools to fill the needs of the villagers. The schools are typically free for the children and all the parents have to do is register their children. Some church schools ask parents to pay $5.00 a month for the snacks which the students get daily when they attend school.

Making Balloon Animals for the Kids in the Village

Led by the pastor of the local church, we went to visit the village and and helped promote the church\s new Children\s Centre. As we entered the village, we made balloon animals and gave them to the kids to entertain them. The families and children were happy to see their local pastor and her entourage. The children giggled and just loved seeing Steve twisting his balloons and  making different animals out of them.

The Small Church was Packed with Parents & Kids

Judging from the attendance at that evening's meeting, we did out job and got the parents out for the meeting to learn about the new Children\s Centre!





R.T.
Rural Cambodia