Archive for March, 2010
We all look for little things that can help us with weight loss. I’m going to share with you a few weight loss secrets, you can incoporate into your diet or your day to day activities.
Get rid of the soda, diet and regular soda plus, the sugary fruit juices/drinks. These liquids are simply empty calories. That means we add more calories to our daily intake and get no real hunger relief benefit. It’s extra calories we do not need. You could knock off at least 300 calories/day!
Ok, so you say, ‘But I’m drinking, diet soda.’ Guess what, research is showing signs that the artificial sweeteners in diet sodas or drinks stimulates the brain into thinking you are hungry as do caffeine drinks! To be honest with you, I’m a 4 cans of Diet Pepsi a day drinker and it’s got to go!!
How about increasing the number of steps you take each day. The goal is to take at least 10,000 steps every day. Get a pedometer, (they’re inexpensive) clip onto your pants and see how much you walk on an average day. Then think of ways you can increase the number of steps gradually… Taking the stairs instead of the elevator is a good place to start. Take a walk on your lunch break or park farther away from the front door.
All these little things can be done to cut and burn calories without much effort on your part to kickstart little stages to your weight loss journey.
There is so much information out there on different types of water aerobics routines, I thought I’d add yet another one to your list. Every now and then I like to do a 1 dumbbell water aerobics routine. Yes, using only one dumbbell gives each arm a very thorough workout.
What’s nice about this workout is that you are concentrating harder on the arm with the dumbbell. Therefore, you get a greater range of motion when you move the arm. I like to do 3 different exercises with one arm before I switch arms and repeat the same 3 exercises. It’s fun too, because when you are transitioning from one arm to another, you can kick up the cardio a notch. This can be done including some power jacks. Put both hands on the dumbbell and push the dumbbell down as you kick your legs out to the side. During this transition you can also include some travelling.
By alternating the dumbbell from arm to arm and doing the same repetitions and exercises on each side, your upper body workout is complete. Switch up the transitioning and be sure to give each arm adequate rest. Try to add this to your list of water aerobics routines and see how you like it! It sure changes things up and gets everybody working!
Abdominal Exercise Equipment
There are several peices of abdominal exercise equipment that can be used to help achieve a flat stomach. One of the peices happens to be the BOSU! The BOSU is an anocronym for “Both Sides Up” or “Both Sides Utilized.” Which means you can use it on the blue domed side or turn it over and use the black flat side. Either way you choose to use it, it will give you a great workout.
The BOSU can be used for many balancing workouts, aerobics workouts 
and for our purposes today abdominal workouts. You could sit on top of the BOSU and do crossovers, opposite elbow/opposite knee. You could sit on top of the BOSU, place your hands behind you on it, and bring both legs to your chest. You may even want to flip it over, place elbows on the flat surface and do a plank.
BOSU is a very versatile peice of abdominal exercise equipment that could work for you!
Kettlebell Workouts offer you a complete cardio and resistance training routine in one session. You could make your kettelbell workout like an interval workout, by alternating cardio exercises with resistance exercises using kettlebells.
Sometimes, I like to warm up my clients by doing a few kettlebell exercises first to get the heart pumping and the blood flowing. I may have mentioned before, when doing cardio exercises with kettlebells, you must engage your core at all times to prevent injury. That has to be one of the best features of kettlebell workouts, keeping the core locked at all times. Because you have the swing of the kettlebell, you could be constantly off balance unless you stabilize the abdominal muscles.
Kettlebells come in a variety of sizes. Some even have a rubber colorful coating on the rounded part or the plain ‘ol black cast iron. Kettlebell workouts definitely add a different dimension to a workout and can offer some endurance training! You can get more bang for your buck with a kettlebell workout!
Ah yes, dumbbell workouts are a great alternative to change things up! Dumbbell Workouts can be used for all body parts. I like to use them for a couple of reasons. I like doing exercises unilaterally every now and then. When you constantly use a barbell, sometimes the dominant side takes over. I feel like I get more balanced with a dumbbell workout, that my right and left sides are more in sync.
You can vary your usual routine by changing the exercises when you use dumbbells. Perhaps you want to focus on a specific body part. Then all the exercises done are done with dumbbells. For instance, use dumbbells only for tricep extensions instead of using the curl bar. Only use one arm at a time focusing on the muscle. How about using the dumbbells for Arnolds over head presses for the shoulders, or incline chest press with dumbbells.
Everything you do with a barbell or a machine can be done with dumbbells. Also, anything that can be done with dumbbells, can be used with kettlebells. So it’s good to utilize dumbbell workouts for the variety you may need to spice things up!
Fitness takes no vacations! There is no excuse for not maintaining some kind of routine. These are the times to utilize your body weight workouts. You could also incorporate a band or tube routine. They weigh nothing and it’s easy to throw one in your suitcase.
A couple of body weight exercises you could do is push-ups, crunches, calf raises, dips, pull ups, squats and lunges. For cardio, you can always walk or jog. Just do a little interval training. Walk for 2 minutes, then jog for a minute and keep alternating adding time to the walk and/or jog time your recovery time would be the slower pace.
Then there is stretching. Which is really good for your muscles. When you are weight training, the muscles shortened. Stretching elongates the muscles and being on vacation, we can take the time to hold the stretch. No matter where you are, there’s always time for some fitness!!
Here is yet another abdominal exercise that works the entire abdominal area and is very challenging. It’s called the ab Roll out. It uses one of those little ab wheels. This exercise can also be executed on a stability ball too, but not as intense.
What you have to do for the ab roll out is hold onto the wheel with both hands. Get on your knees,
and push the wheel forward. As you are leaning forward, do push the hips forward and extend as far forward as possible and then roll back in. Do as many as you can until you work up to 4 sets of 10 reps.
If you want to isolate the obliques, roll out to one side and back, for a set, then roll out toward the other side and back for a set. The ab roll out is a more advanced exercise, so start slow.
One sure proof way to target the abdominals with 1 abdominal exercise is the PLANK aka the HOVER! The plank or hover never seems to get any easier, but the more you do it you should increase the length of time for the hold. Start with a 30 second hold, for 4 sets. Gradually building up to 1 minute planks.
Another really effective abdominal exercise that targets the obliques is the Side Plank. Try to
build the time of holding the side plank on each side up to a minute. Now, for a real 1-2 punch, hold a side plank, and then turn the body into a regular plank/hover, followed by the other side plank and one more hover. OOOO-EEEEE are you going to feel that!! It is very effective combination!
I’ve noticed lately during my aqua aerobics classes, I’ve incorporated designated segments that specifically targets the arms and/or targets just the legs. It works out really well. There is a way to target just the arms with out any extra equipment, so the routine is safe for all. The obvious way to target the arms is using the noodle or dumbbells with in your routine.
Just like you can always get specific leg targeted workouts using the noodle. However, with my leg specific workout there is no equipment used but you get a serious workout. You can definitely feel your quads and near the end of the aqua aerobics routine, pray for relief. Checkout www.fitnessfromthepro.com for all the details on this aqua aerobics workout!
Have you changed your weight training workouts lately? If not, change it TODAY!!! Your muscles have a memory and will not be challenged to grow. It’s impossible to continuously improve your weight training at the same rate using the same routine. That’s why I’m introducing periodization which systematically adds variety to any weight training routine.
Periodization is not just for highly trained athletes, it is for everyone who wants to increase their health and fitness level. You can do this by altering the training variables. These variables include changing a specific exercise, the intensity level, the number of sets, the length of rest between sets, the number of repetitions or using any combination of the above. You can expect long term gains and reduce the risk of overtraining injuries.
So take the time now to reevaluate your weight training program and use any or all of the above variables to take your training to the next level.