The Reach Out: Liz Mair
The political strategist and communications consultant has a favorite piece of cardio equipment (hint: it's not the ubiquitous Peloton!), but also likes ropes courses and hiking.
Liz Mair is the owner, founder, and president of Mair Strategies LLC., and a long-time political and communications consultant.
Mair is a frequent commentator on politics and policy, appearing on MSNBC, CNN, Fox News and Real Time with Bill Maher. She is UK broadcaster ITN’s regular GOP contributor during its presidential election night coverage.
Mair served as the online communications director at the 2008 Republican National Committee and has been a political strategist for a number of Republicans, including Carly Fiorina and Scott Walker.
I spoke with Liz Mair about juggling a busy career with an intense exercise regimen.
Is exercise and fitness a priority for you?
I go to the gym five or six times a week. I'm very lucky that where I live in Connecticut, there is a really good athletic club that I can get to in about 15 minutes.
In October 2020, several months into the pandemic, I realized that I'd put on quite a bit of weight. When we were locked down, I wasn't doing nearly as much exercise as usual, nor was I getting as many steps in per day, but I really love food.
So I decided to start doing really intense workouts. My favorite piece of cardio equipment is the Precor — I’ll do 50 to 70 minutes on a high setting, while wearing a weighted vest. I follow that with weights and body-weight exercises. I also have certain days dedicated to abs/core, legs, and arms, and I try to walk a few miles outside whenever the weather isn’t awful.
What time of day do you like to exercise?
When I was trying to lose weight in 2020, I was at the gym at 5:30 am and worked out until 7:30am. I did that every day for three months and lost 30 pounds. But I'm otherwise not a morning person, so I will work out at different times of the day. It just depends on what’s going on.
One commitment that my husband and I made is that we will go to the gym on both Saturday and Sunday. If things get too busy during the week and we can only get there four days, we will make up for it on the weekend by doing really intense workouts.
Do you wear a fitness monitor?
I have a pedometer on my phone which I use when I'm on the Precor. I input my weight and age, and it calculates the data I want. With the cardio I get on the Precor, and the 15 to 20 minutes of weights and core work I do afterward, I know that I’ve burned a lot of calories and had a good workout, so I don’t feel like I need to wear a fitness monitor.
What motivates you to exercise so diligently?
I really did freak out when I put on so much weight — and so quickly — during the early stages of the pandemic. I've generally been somebody with a pretty high metabolism, so it didn't occur to me that it was even possible.
Also, since I’ve had a few respiratory health problems, I was motivated to lose the weight because I knew it would reduce my risk for COVID, and just improve my health in general.
I also want to be able to keep up with my high-energy kid — he does baseball, soccer, swimming, karate — and it’s easier when I’m not carrying around an extra 30 pounds.
So for me, exercising is a deliberate choice. I organize my life in such a way that allows me to get my butt to the gym and work out really hard.
You mentioned how active your son is. How do you think we can get other young kids and teens to be more active?
Yeah, my kid is very active and actually enjoys it. He’s a really good role model for us. When he does his swim training — he's too young to be on the swim team now, but he’s building up to it — my husband and I will swim laps in the pool.
He also got really into Ninja parkour, which includes a lot of ropes courses. I think kids who aren’t interested in organized sports would like it. It’s fun and it’s challenging. I’ll do the ropes course with him and afterwards, I need to take a nap.
I think parents need to think more broadly about different ways for kids to get exercise and let them figure out what they enjoy. It doesn’t have to be going to the gym and becoming a weightlifter or training to be a ballerina. My grandmother was a Vaudeville dancer and my mother was a tap dancer. I grew up doing Scottish Highland dancing and I did Flamenco dancing while living in Spain. Dancing is a really great aerobic workout and kids enjoy it.
When you exercise, do you tune out the news completely?
I always have a huge volume of news clips to read every day, so what I actually do is hit the gym and do my reading while on the Precor. I typically have music on in the background. I’ve even found a way to respond to email while doing my cardio!
Is there a fitness trend that you would still like to try?
If I were to develop more upper body strength, I’d love to learn how to swim the Butterfly stroke across the pool, like my son does.
We’ve done a lot of hiking trips, which I want to keep doing. It’s great exercise and we get to see so much wildlife and scenery. When we hiked in Zion Canyon we saw a really rare kind of woodpecker.
When we traveled to Japan, rather than taking the bus, we decided to hike into Snow Monkey Park. It was tiring, but even my kid thought it was awesome when we got to hang with the snow monkeys.
Thank you, @LizMair
I visited Utah’s Zion Canyon (along with Bryce Canyon and Arches National Park) when I was a teenager, and I loved it (no, I was not wearing a weighted vest!).😄
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