Vintage Exercise Techniques

[jayem]

I'm currently in the process of losing 60+ lbs. One thin I've noticed I'm having a hard time with is shrinking those pesky saddle bags! All pictures I see of vintage women seem to not have them. Does anybody know any vintage exercise techniques they used to rid them or keep them off? The good ol' fashioned exercises seem to be the ones that work!

 

[Laura Chase]

Women have always had those, I'm sure.

In my opinion, pilates is one of the best types of exercise for women, and it's "vintage"!

 

[KittyT]

Plain ol leg lifts laying on your side. You can combine them with some ankle weights.

 

[Paisley]

I think losing the saddlebags (fat) is as important, if not more so, than increasing the muscle mass they're sitting on. Fat burning exercises are those that get your heart rate and breathing rate up. You can dance, run, swim, ride a stationary bike, jog up and down stairs, skip rope, shadow box--whatever you do, though, you'll need to work up a sweat to burn fat.

I also recommend brief, intense workouts on an empty stomach. I do Body for Life, which isn't vintage, but the cardiovascular exercise I do (Charleston) is.

 

[Mrs. Merl]

My understanding is that there is no such thing as an exercise that will specifically remove fat from any portion of your anatomy. The only way to lose saddle bags (or any other fat deposit) is to lose overall body fat. And unfortunately, if you are like me, that means all the rest of you will shrink before you get the area you want to shrink to look better. I would recommend a very good "diet" (change the way you eat for life - for example less sugar, carbohydrates, etc.) and up your cardio. If you are willing, weight training is one of the best avenues for sculpting any body and it is very vintage! It also adds the bonus that muscle burns calories at a much higher rate!

 

[Carlisle Blues]

Lifestyle ie diet, exercise regimen and spiritual perspective are what works for me.

Classes such as spinning, zumba or kick boxing are great. A balanced regimen of weight training and aerobics combined with a balanced diet will work just fine.

Now back to my :coffee: and

 

[KittyT]

The points about burning the fat are very important, and the point about muscle burning more calories is also important, so doing the 2 in tandem might be good for you.

For that particular area... and something that's VERY vintage... I recommend roller skating. Inline skating burns up to 600 calories per hour and I imagine that it must be comparable for roller skating. In addition, you will tone up your butt and the outside of your thighs like you never imagined possible.

 

[Fleur De Guerre]

I reaallly want to do rollerskating, but I don't want to do roller derby and I don't know how practical it is to rollerskate around where I live. Hmmmm.

 

[Laura Chase]

My understanding is that there is no such thing as an exercise that will specifically remove fat from any portion of your anatomy. The only way to lose saddle bags (or any other fat deposit) is to lose overall body fat. And unfortunately, if you are like me, that means all the rest of you will shrink before you get the area you want to shrink to look better. I would recommend a very good "diet" (change the way you eat for life - for example less sugar, carbohydrates, etc.) and up your cardio. If you are willing, weight training is one of the best avenues for sculpting any body and it is very vintage! It also adds the bonus that muscle burns calories at a much higher rate!

This is so true! Just looking at your measurements will tell you a lot about where your major fat deposits are, the really sturdy ones that always go last. For many women, it's hips and thighs. For me, it's my waist-line! My weight can go up 15 pounds and my waist line increase 2-3 inches, all the while my bust and hip measurements are pretty much stable! It's a pain, so I think you ladies who gain on your hips and thighs are lucky - much more feminine!

 

[KittyT]

I reaallly want to do rollerskating, but I don't want to do roller derby and I don't know how practical it is to rollerskate around where I live. Hmmmm.

Are there any bike or jogging paths around where you are? Other options include outdoor hocky rinks and basketball courts. Maybe look to see if there are any roller rinks around, because those are the easiest and safest places to skate. If there are, they should offer at least a few open skates per week - I love just skating at a rink, even if the music is terrible. Rollerskating is so much fun and really was a huge craze in the 1930s - 1950s.

Another option is to contact the London roller derby girls through their website and someone there should be able to let you know where there are good places to skate.

You can buy an inexpensive pair of starter skates for around $100, and there are always rink rentals.

EDIT: Here is a map/listing of roller rinks in the greater London area -

 

[Paisley]

The points about burning the fat are very important, and the point about muscle burning more calories is also important, so doing the 2 in tandem might be good for you.

For that particular area... and something that's VERY vintage... I recommend roller skating. Inline skating burns up to 600 calories per hour and I imagine that it must be comparable for roller skating. In addition, you will tone up your butt and the outside of your thighs like you never imagined possible.

Lindy will also tone up the outside of your thighs and your rear. In fact, most dances will to some extent, I think. Ever see a dancer with a flat butt?

 

[Paisley]

My understanding is that there is no such thing as an exercise that will specifically remove fat from any portion of your anatomy. The only way to lose saddle bags (or any other fat deposit) is to lose overall body fat. And unfortunately, if you are like me, that means all the rest of you will shrink before you get the area you want to shrink to look better. I would recommend a very good "diet" (change the way you eat for life - for example less sugar, carbohydrates, etc.) and up your cardio. If you are willing, weight training is one of the best avenues for sculpting any body and it is very vintage! It also adds the bonus that muscle burns calories at a much higher rate!

I recently read in the book Rome 1960 that weightlifting was around at the time, but it was barely respectable. But it is a good way to increase bone density, increase metabolism, and build up those areas that shrink with fat loss. I do weight training three days a week. I think the key is to use sufficient weight. A lot of women use dinky little one-pound weights. Here, again, I recommend Body for Life--along with the biggest weights you can lift without hurting your joints.

 

[MarieAnne]

A skipping rope!

I did kickboxing in university, and it's an excellent combination of strength training, cardio and endurance. I really enjoyed it and it got me in great shape. It's intense like spinning but there's more interaction, talking to people, and laughing.

 

[MarieAnne]

I think the key is to use sufficient weight. A lot of women use dinky little one-pound weights. QUOTE]

And how! A lot of my friends are afraid of getting too 'bulky'. Unless you really really desperately want to get 'bulky' it's not going to happen. It's just not that easy! You need a very strict diet plan, a very strict workout plan and the resulting lifestyle is pretty extreme. I knew a bodybuilder once and she ate nothing but peanut butter and honey for a few days before a competition. She had to drink several liters of water a day followed by not drinking ANY water (I think she called it water loading). And then she did carb loading so she ate tons of potatoes. She spent hundreds of dollars on supplements and specialty food. Bottom line, pumping iron alone won't make you 'bulky'.

 

[Mojito]

Yes, unfortunately "spot reduction" isn't possible, and women tend to store fat in certain areas (for me it's upper arms and thighs). Annette Kellerman had a great, practical regime in the 1920s involving nutrition and exercise advice. Naturally, she favoured swimming, but she also had some other excerises as well and what we'd now call a combination of cardio and resistance training. One of the booklettes in the series is going into the upcoming National Maritime Museum's swimwear exhibition, but I should have the rest back soon and will transcribe/scan some of her advice.

Love KittyT's suggestion of rollarskating - I was a keen rollarskater as a kiddie, spending hours in Central Park when we lived in NY, and took up inline skating in London doing the Wed and Fri skates around the city with a group of hundreds of people. I have a copy of a letter written by a young officer who would go on to serve on board RMS Titanic in which he mentions going "rinking" with his brother when ashore - a reference to rollarskating, which was popular even then. There is some lovely footage of the Romanov children skating on the decks of the Royal Yacht Standart.

 

[Paisley]

Steroids help women who want to bulk up, too. lol

When I first started lifting weights and doing cardiovascular exercises, along with eating a balance of carbs, protein and vegetables, some people said, "You're wasting away to nothing." Not really--I was just losing a lot of fat.

 

[RetroModelSari]

I love to hula hoop. It is fun when I listen some favourite tracks with that, it really helps to improve my waistline and I lose a little bit everywhere else, too. I do that every evening with a weighted one (don´t care about the ones you can get in toy-stores - they suck) for 15-20 minutes and I get fab results. And if you go a bit down on your knees while doing it, it does something for your legs, too.

 

[Viola]

I do some with weights, not as much as I should.

And I don't get a chance to swim, which I would love, and I physically can't run/jump/dance.

But the most major things I did to drop a LOT of fat (over a long time) are VERY vintage and very low-cost: diet, and walking. I do some other exercise sometimes, sporadically, but I walk ALL the time, don't have a car. Right now I'm doing 4 miles a day. And I overhauled my diet.

Seems stupid, especially for someone like me, who's fatty area was never my legs, but I just need to keep moving and keep burning fat, that way there's nothing to store, and thus it doesn't store in my stomach and back.

My fat-loss has always been very, very slow, but it's not yo-yoed, either. I've sloooowly crawled down from a 14 to a 4. (Modern sizes not vintage) and it is mostly off of the diet, honestly. No matter how much I exercised when I was younger - and back then I could run and do aerobics - I could never outrun the way I was eating.

 

[pretty faythe]

A skipping rope!

I did kickboxing in university, and it's an excellent combination of strength training, cardio and endurance. I really enjoyed it and it got me in great shape. It's intense like spinning but there's more interaction, talking to people, and laughing.

I had started doing lil burst of jump roping before I got sick and bit. During commercials, breaks from the computer, etc. Now that Im starting to feal better, I need to start doing it again.

 

[jayem]

I'm way ahead of you with the diet change suggestions! I've completely revamped my diet and eat more fruit and veggies than any other food group. I've cut out the sodas and fruit juices and drink mainly water (and lots of it). I've always been a light eater, so I average about 900 to 1,000 calories a day (I tend to burn average 1,200 per gym visit). This sounds extremely unhealthy, and it may be, but honest to goodness I am full the entire day and I really do feel like I am stuffing myself like a Thanksgiving turkey!

I invested in a good heart rate monitor, so this helps a lot.

Roller skating, eh? Last time I roller skated, I fell more times than I actually kept up! It's worth a shot though.

Also, I have an hourglass figure. Right now my measurements are 42-30-42. I was advised to stay away from kickboxing, the stairmaster, weight lifting with high resistance, and walking/running on an incline. Is this true?