Most people remember professional roller girls playing roller derby from TV during the 1970’s. Skaters race around an oval track and score points as the jammer laps members of the opposing team. Spokane’s modern roller girls are not paid or on tv but they play because they love the sport. In 2001, long after America forgot about roller derby, a group of fierce women from Texas set about reviving the sport. In 2006, Spokane’s own group of fierce females banded together to create Spokane’s first and only roller derby league. Three years later the Lilac City Roller Girls continue to whip, block, jam and skate women of all ages into shape.

Benefits of skating like a Spokane Roller Girl:

· Skating works every major muscle group on the body

· Great for your core stability and cardio

· Skating moderately will burn 330 calories

· Under the vigorous training of the Lilac City Roller Girls, your body will burn 600 calories in one hour (that’s more than 1 hour running or biking)

What will it take for you to join the roller girls of Spokane?

To play with the roller girls of Spokane, you must first have the right equipment. The Lilac City Roller Girls list quad roller skates, knee and elbow pads, wrist guards, mouth guard and a helmet as your best bet for staying safe. Once your gear is secure, the “fresh meat” coach will take you under her wing to teach you the ropes. There are physical tests you will have to pass to join the ranks of skaters. Spokane’s roller girls are ready and willing to teach you the skills to pass the test necessary for team placement.

· Endurance 20 min of skating to warm up

· Posture and stride

· Speed 5 laps in one minute 20 laps in five minutes, 3 second recovery from falls

· Agility crossovers, stops, hopping from foot to foot, whips and pushed, pacing lines, weaving lines, and one foot gluides

· Falls left and right knees, baseball slides, single knew and turn and four point fall

· Blocking giving and receiving hits

Under the Spokane Lilac City brand, roller girls range in age from 18 to 47 in the adult league.They also have a junior league designed for girls 10-18. Being a roller girl in Spokane is not about age, career or grades, it’s about the love of skating roller derby. These women come together to form a non profit league that is completely run by the athletes. It takes physical dedication, a commitment to the league and your team, a competitive edge and a love for the community that supports them.

I am not ready to skate like a Spokane Roller Girls but think I might want to skate recreationally …

Sin Amen Vengeance, of the Lilac City Roller Girls and a member of Physzique, emphasizes the roll of off-skates training as well as on-skate training. “I started coming to Zach Hunt (owner, Physzique) because I wanted to get serious about my skating. I was overweight and had an injury I was told might take me out of the game permanently. Zach helped me set my goals and made me commit to myself through fitness and proper eating. He helped me see the importance of building muscle to help burn fat. I can’t do that on my skates alone, I need to work in the gym as well. After months of dedication, and motivation through Zach, I have been back on the track and stronger than ever.”

Zach Hunt, personal trainer at Physzique, can help you become ready to strap on the skates. Whether you want to become a Spokane roller girl or you just want to skate recreationally, a proper diet and exercise regime off-skates will add speed to your wheels.

Go to Spokane Fitness Coach Home Page…

Are you looking for a new physician in the Spokane, WA area?  Do you need a doctor to prescribe you a medication for an illness?  Spokane is home to a vast array of physicians.  Each practicing in family medicine, urgent care, pediatrics and many more specialties.

Although each physician has a very different specialty or style of practice most will prescribe exercise as the leading most important thing you can do for your life.  Life without exercise is a life full of illness, heart failure, diabetes, high cholesterol, sleep apnea, depression (and other mental illnesses), childhood obesity, adult obesity, musculoskeletal deformities/defects, and many other chronic conditions.  Not all exercise programs are alike, so make sure to check with your doctor to find out what program is right for you.  Are you ready to be healthy?  Drop clothing sizes?  Live without chronic fatigue and illness?  If you answered yes, then look no further because Zach Hunt of Physzique will be there every step of the way to help you make sure those things happen.

When you’re ready to fill your physicians prescription for better health here’s a checklist to help make it happen:

• Contact Zach at Physzique right away
• Ask him any questions you may have about the intensity and duration of the program
• Contact your physician to make sure the program is right for you
• Show up for all of your appointments at Physzique
• Follow Zach’s recommendations for cardio exercise outside of personal training sessions
• Eat a well balanced, healthy meal plan frequently throughout the day
• Rest your mind and body at night while sleeping 6-8 hours each night
• Take small breaks throughout the day to relieve stress from work and home life
• Drink half of your weight in ounces of water each day

Once you’re ready to start a new, healthy fulfilling life by contacting Physique you’ll be so glad you did.  Doctors/physicians appointments get expensive and the prescriptions they write while you’re there can be just as expensive, but at Physzique Zach believes in giving the gift of better health.  Zach will be there to push you to try new things and he’ll hold you accountable for your eating habits, personal training seasons, and workout intensity.  Even when you want to give up or give in, he won’t let you.  Isn’t that really what we all need to help us achieve better health?  Somebody that is going to be there for us when we don’t feel well?  A lot like a doctor, Zach will be there when you don’t feel well.  Physzique will be just what your Spokane physician prescribed for better health-EXERCISE!

It’s that time of year where, if you grow zucchinis, like some of us do in Spokane, you have to start doing something with them, and if instead, you find copious quantities available at the farmer’s market or the grocery store, it’s time to enjoy them a lot, while they’re fresh, in season, maybe local, and inexpensive.

But healthy, good tasting, low fat recipes can be a challenge even for a basically healthy vegetable like zucchini. And, eating healthy is an important part of dieting, and diet is an important part of fitness. So let’s get started.

For myself, I have just one zucchini plant in my Spokane garden, and apparently not enough bees, or neighbors also with zucchinis. This requires me to manually go out and help fertilize every morning at dawn. The male flowers and female flowers last only one day and are open for only a short time in the morning, so unless you get both types blooming and successfully doing their mating thing every day, the little zucchinis never grow up to become big zucchinis. So, I’m out there with my paint brush helping them along at first light. The reward is a decent crop and a need for good recipes.

Zucchinis are low in fat and cholesterol, high in fiber, and have an assortment of good vitamins and minerals, such as Vitamin A, Calcium, Vitamin C, and Iron, also useful amounts of Folate, Potassium, and Manganese. Keep them that way, by not smothering them in cheeses, butter, and salt, and by cooking them gently. I found this recipe in Vegan Planet, by Robin Robertson. It was way better than I had originally expected and so had to share it (and the finished product) with friends and now with you.

Tuscan Style Pasta with Chickpeas, Zucchini, and Rosemary (from Vegan Planet)

2 tablespoons olive oil (the best for heart health!)

2 small zucchinis, halved lengthwise and cut into ¼ inch thick half moons

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon chopped, fresh rosemary leaves (I used half that of dried, ground)

One 14.5 ounce can plum tomatoes, drained and chopped

1-1/2 cups cooked or one 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes

Salt and fresh ground black pepper

1 pound penne or other short tubular pasta

1. Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the zucchini and cook until slightly softened, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the rosemary, tomatoes, chickpeas, red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes to blend the flavors.
2. Meanwhile, cook the penne in a large pot of boiling salted water, stirring occasionally, until al dante, 8 to 10 minutes. Drain and place in a large, shallow serving bowl, Add the sauce and toss gently to combine. Serve at once.

My variations. I did find the recipe to be a bit long on pasta and short on sauce. So, the second time I made it I doubled the recipe for the sauce for 1 pound of pasta (alternatively, you can use only ½ pound pasta). To me, it was perfect this way.

The other thing I did was use canned diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, and oregano, instead of plain, and requiring no additional chopping. And I didn’t drain them. Rather, after the 10 minutes of cooking, I spooned out the veggies into a colander to drain, and poured the liquid that drained off back into the pan to cook down to a thick sauce. After the veggies and pasta are tossed together, this sauce makes a nice, flavorful addition on top.

This recipe is amazingly quick and tasty, as well as healthy. The only fat is from the olive oil (plus a very little bit in the zucchini itself and a little in the chickpeas), which is an excellent, healthy form of fat—low in saturated and trans fats, and high in monounsaturated fat. The chickpeas provide good protein. The not-so-secret ingredient is the red pepper flakes that keep it interesting. My friends want me to make it again, and even liked eating it cold (although I prefer it warm). And what do you know? I’ve got plenty of the main ingredient, Spokane-grown zucchini!

If you want to learn to eat healthy, train properly, and achieve your weight and fitness goals, besides eating zucchini in low fat recipes, come and check out Physzique in Liberty Lake, Washington. Zach Hunt will augment your Spokane zucchini recipe with a complete recipe for fitness!!