John Di Bartolo’s House of Step

Alex (the crazy Venezuelan stepper we all know and love) has generously arranged to have the address of my site switched to johndibartolo.net. The old address still works, but the new one is a little easier to remember. Thanks Alex!!!

Why .net and not .com? Well johndibartolo.com is unfortunately already taken. It automatically forwards to fathom.tv, the “official homepage of Celtic Rock’s Fathom.” Trust me when I tell you that there are no step aerobics schedules posted on that site.

Another long trip back to the city, this time on the train back from Boston. You know what that means… I spent the time editing another CD for class. It’s called “Best of 2003,” and despite its slightly dated music, I think you guys will like it.

If you’ve been trying to contact me by email, I haven’t been getting your messages because the “contact” link has been sending mail to the wrong address! Sorry about that. The link has now been fixed, so please resend any messages from the past several weeks!

Some of you have been asking how to get to the Battery Park NYSC location (for the lunchtime classes I’m subbing for Gilat). Click here for a map. As you can see, it’s West of ground zero, across the West Side Highway. (It’s in the same building as the United Artists movie theater.)

Friday people, I still love you! Due to the holidays and other school-related business, the next Friday class I’m going to be able to teach is on 1/21. I’m sorry!!

(My extended absence from 80th & Broadway has nothing to do with that location’s stereo sounding horrible, although if it still sounds horrible when I return, I may have to throw another tantrum.)

I can’t teach tonight at 80th and Broadway! Kathy Habert will be covering my class for me.

Is a person’s height, age, and gender enough information to determine what that person’s ideal weight should be? That’s what the majority of doctors (including my own) seem to think.

If they’re right, then I’m 20 lbs. overweight, according to the following website which calculates ideal body weight. (At least the site assures me that I should “feel good about myself” even though I’m overweight. Thank God!)

New York is the 21st fattest city in the country in 2004, according to Men’s Fitness. (New Orleans is 22nd. How the heck are we fatter than New Orleans??) I wonder if all those “overweight” guys in Chelsea are the reason for our city achieving this dubious distinction.

This body mass index stuff is, in my opinion, a pile of garbage. I recommend a much more degrading technique: get naked in front of a mirror and bounce around — whatever shakes that shouldn’t shake is what you should lose. Just be sure to do this when no one else is around.

Behold, the weather report for Cancun while I was down there. (Luckily the report for Friday and Saturday was way off.)

On my flights down and up, I spent the time editing the “naughty beats” out of a new CD for class. Appropriately so, it’s called “Soakin’ Wet.” I plan on using it in tonight’s step class…

Holy cow. Literally. I can’t believe what an evil show The Biggest Loser is. Please promise me that if you watch this show, it’s purely for entertainment value and that you will not use it as a personal model for weight loss.

Some excerpts from recaps of the show:

“After the meeting, Bob [the trainer] turned his frustration into an especially grueling workout for The Blue Team. They went to a school football field to run the stairs – over and over. Gary’s knee conked out after one trip up the steep stairs. Maurice couldn’t participate at all because of his bum ankle.”

“Back at the house, both teams arrived to find a mountain of cupcakes in the living room. A card in front said: ‘Whoever eats the most cupcakes in 15 minutes gets dinner at the beach with a loved one from home.’”

On top of all this, each “team” has it’s own personal trainer, and the advice given by one often contradicts that of the other. If this show isn’t enough to make the average fitness newbie throw in the towel and eat an entire chocolate cake, I don’t know what is.

The next East Coast Alliance convention, held at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square, is coming up soon (Friday, 3/11/05 – Sunday, 3/13/05). They are already allowing people to register.

https://www.ecaworldfitness.com/con0.html

The conference is a great resource for instructors, but it’s also a lot of fun for those who love group fitness and want to take classes from some big names in the industry.

Some of my favorite presenters: Calvin Wiley, Hugo Diez, Ulises Puiggros, Magnus Ringberg, Marcus Irwin, Patrick Goudeau.

Two down sides to the convention: it’s a little pricey, and the other attendees are, for lack of a better term, “fitness people.” Enough said.