Kneeling With No Problem

If you watch little kids play, you’ll notice: A. they love being on the ground and B. they are very comfortable kneeling. Somewhere along the road to adulthood, our love of sans furniture, and our ease in kneeling, goes by the wayside.  Perhaps you think this is just a natural trajectory, and we simply get taller and tighter with each passing year, so by the time we’re twenty-something, kneeling hurts. I’d like to state for the record that, unless there is a legitimate injury or...

Impact-FULL

Remember when fitness studios had classes called High-Impact Aerobics and Low-Impact Aerobics? Also, did you know there was (and is) NIA which stands for Non-Impact Aerobics? I’m bringing the topic of impact up today because “impact” doesn’t get mentioned much anymore. I guess it’s a bit overlooked, but mostly, what has happened I think, is impact level is now getting clumped in under the intensity level umbrella. The problem with this is 99percent of the time, is it assumed that high impact is higher intensity. But is it? ...

Weak in the knees?

“A boat in the harbor is safe, but in time its bottomwill rot out.” – H. Jackson Brown The older I get the more spiritual I feel about the human body. I mean, just wow…what a divinely designed masterpiece, right? We’re lucky to have a body and even when a part of it is injured or out of whack, it’s important to remember there are millions of other parts in perfect flow.  An especially vulnerable part of the body is our knees....

New Workout: Fusion Kick With Phoenix

Every form of martial art, whether it’s karate of jujitsu, integrates. It integrates the muscles of the body, and it integrates body and mind. I’ve always admired martial artistry and it’s, without a doubt, mindful movement, but with a fighting spirit thrown into the mix. Fusion Kick is this month’s new workout, now streaming on Let’s Move! I’ve wanted to offer a 30minute, modern, non-hyper tae bo-type class for a long time, and Phoenix is seriously the most perfect instructor for...

Ellen Barrett Let's Move!

Three Years of Grey Hair (Here’s What I’ve Realized)

I still get a lot of attention for having grey hair. Pretty much every single day, a woman comes up to me when I’m out and about to tell me, “Oh, I love your hair…wish I was brave enough to do that.”  Well, we all know why it is considered “brave” to not dye one’s hair when it’s grey and you’re female. Because grey hair tells the world, “I’m aging.” There’s an unwritten rule that says we...

Ellen Barrett 2024

Add an Earthquake to the list

A man carrying a long ladder walked between me and my students midway through the very first aerobics class I ever taught at age 18. It was awkward to say the least! Since then, so many unplanned, quirky things have occurred during my classes, from power outages to chipmunks scurrying over people’s bodies while they were lying in shavasana. When I was working for Club Med in the nineties, someone sat down on their mat...

My Two-Cents

There are several health and fitness related questions I get asked repeatedly. Some of them, I’ve been asked about since day one of being a fit pro. Some of them, have popped up only recently. Here they are along with a quick answer:  Is there an energy bar you recommend?I’m not a fan of 99.9percent of them. I try to avoid packaged food, and energy bars are packaged food. However, if I have to pick...

You’re in Training

‘Tis the season for parent-teacher conferences and while there is a Zoom option, I really like having them the old fashioned way, in-person. It’s nice to sit face to face with each teacher, in each classroom.  The conferences are set up like this: parents are booked for 10minutes with each teacher, and then there’s five minutes between each appointment to travel from classroom to classroom.  We follow the same order as the child does in...

Ellen Barrett Let's Move!

Optimism is Optimal

I bet you have a pessimistic friend or family member. This is a person who tends to think about the worse case scenario, or perhaps they offer a negative comment here and there. Sometimes this person is super funny and pessimism is part of their humor. They crack you up and their words are benign to your psyche. Other times, this person is bad for your health. (Not kidding!) I’ve recently distanced myself from a...

If You’re Moving, You’re Detoxifying

“Detox” is a buzzword that’s been buzzing for a long time. Some might think it means some sort of drug rehab. Others may think it’s a serious liver cleanse. However, “detox” should be part of our everyday. It simply means getting rid of unwanted stuff, and you know what?  If you’re exercising, you’re detoxifying. Here’s how: 1. Exhalation Every exhale is detoxifying. The amount of inhaled air contains (approximately) 21% of oxygen and 0.04% of carbon dioxide, while...