Building Better Bodies Fitness

Chances are good that you probably love to receive a massage. It helps to ease the tension that stress can bring to your body and it’s also a great way to relieve sore muscles from working out. But have you ever thought of giving a massage as a workout for you?

That’s right.

If you spend about 8-9 minutes a day rubbing your favorite person the right way, it’s a calorie burning activity. You stand to burn off about 50 calories from giving a good massage.

So get rubbing!

You say you want a vigorous workout that is easy on your knees and joints while firming up your core muscles, legs, abs and butt. It also has to strengthen your lungs and heart and, of course, burn calories. Consider yourself introduced to speed walking or power walking. This low impact cardio workout allows you to burn as many calories as possible without running. And it’s cheap too.

With speed walking, speed is obviously the key ingredient. If you’re able to carry a normal conversation then you are walking; not speed walking. To speed walk, you have to push yourself to walk 4 mph or faster. Normally, a person can walk anywhere from 3.3 to 3.8 mph. Bypicking up the pace a person can burn about 500 calories an hour, depending on age an heart rate. Can you imagine speed walking for seven days and burning one pound of fat (3,500 calories=1 pound of fat)?

When speed walking, remember to stand tall and check your posture–making sure your chest is open, your shoulders are back, your abs are slightly contracted and you bend your arms at a 90 degree angle. Finally, when power walking, just like any other exercise routine, warm up for about five minutes to adequately increase muscle temperature and blood flow to all your muscles. Once fully warmed up, begin to gradually increase your walking pace until you are speed walking about 150 steps per minute. Have fun and get to stepping.

Do you ever look back on pictures from the 50s and 60s and wonder how people stayed so thin? Maybe it was all the hoop action–the Hula-Hoop that is. It’s a fun and productive way to burn calories. If you spend eight minutes hooping it up, it’s not only a great cardiovascular workkout but you can also burn about 50 calories in the process.

One of the most common reasons men and women turn to fad diets or return to working out is to finally rid their stomach of the flab that’s accumulated. Stomach fat seems to be a common problem that women and men share. Often times women battle the bulge after childbirth. Is there a way to finally overcome this problem?

There is, but it’s not about crash diets. By combining nutrition and exercise men and women can come out ahead with a flatter tummy to show for it.

3 tips for getting rid of tummy flab

• Eat fiber. Foods high in fiber help to aid digestion, which helps to eliminate any enlarging of intestines, which is what often times gives the tummy a bulging look.
• Do a complete body workout. People trying to flatten tummies or gain a 6-pack stomach tend to focus solely on ab exercises, but a whole body workout is more advantageous for fighting the battle of the bulge–even in your stomach. It creates balance in your body that is more effective in toning and weight loss.
• Drink water. Water is another natural digestion aid. By keeping your body hydrated you’re creating a natural flush system that works similar to fiber. Drinking water is beneficial to your entire body and helps in getting rid of the unwanted fat accumulating in your stomach area.

While it’s a common problem, getting rid of belly fat cannot be accomplished with crash diets and ab exercises alone. It’s important to combine proper nutrition with a whole body exercise routine. It’s the best and most productive way to get and maintain the flat tummy you’re after.

Married couple, Paul and Amy Kreidler run their weight off as the last contestants of the the USA Today Weight Loss Challenge. Many people turn to running to shed unwanted pounds. It is usually a quick and easy way to see a difference in your weight. But is running the best way to shed unwanted pounds and is running enough?

With Paul and Amy Kreidler, along with their running routine, I’d also suggest they incorporate some body weight exercises into their exercise routine. For example, push-ups, body squats, lunges, chin-ups/pull-ups and planks are all great ways to add body weight exercises to a running routine for a complete body workout.

• Push-ups offer a full upper body workout that targets the chest, triceps,shoulders, abs and the back
• Body squats and lunges target the lower body including quads, hamstrings, glutes, calves and abs
• Chin-ups/pull-ups target the back musculature, arms, shoulders and abs
• Planks workout all of the core muscles that help to strengthen the abs and back

Incorporate these routines with your running by completing 1-3 sets of each exercise for as many reps as possible. Not only is it free, fast and fun but it also builds muscle and burns even more fat than running alone.

There are many options available to you if you’re trying to lose weight. Some turn to crash dieting and others cringe at the thought, but add some kind of exercise to their daily routine. One of the best ways to get the weight off and keep it off is to walk it off.

Walking (at a steady, rapid pace) is an aerobic exercise that causes your heart and muscles to work harder. It assists in circulating the blood that is pumping around your body at a faster rate. The circulation helps to bring oxygen to your muscles to keep them in a good and healthy working condition.

If you devote one hour to walking three times a week, you’ll quickly see the pounds drop off and stay off. If you can’t devote one full hour at a time, then break your daily walks into mini ones. Walk for 20 minutes in the morning, 10 minutes before you eat lunch at work and 30 minutes at night. The key is to walk at a steady and rapid pace and to do it consistently.

The downturn in the mortgage industry affected Julie Murdock, of the the USA Today Weight Loss Challenge, with more than her job loss. It also caused her to pack on the pounds. If you haven’t been following the Weight Loss Challenge, each week a weight-loss candidate presents their personal health or weight struggle and how they overcame it. Recently, Julie shared her story about hibernating in her apartment munching on junk food all day after she was laid off from her mortgage job. By limiting her calorie intake and starting an exercise routine, she learned to put down the junk food and lost weight too.

I would suggest to Julie what I recently told one of my friends. He would workout constantly but never see any change in his weight or shape of his body. Similar to Julie, his problem was that he was constantly eating sweets and fried foods.

Combat the junk food munchies

Many people struggle with the same problem. To combat the need to consume junk food, instead pack several healthy snacks each day to take with you to work or school. Put the snacks in your car, purse or office, so when hunger strikes you have something healthy available to eat.

• Almonds
• Peanuts
• Fruits
• Yogurt
• Veggies
• Protein bars
• Protein shakes

It’s OK to eat fried foods or junk food every once in a while. Try to eat these types of foods immediately after you finish working out. At this time, your body is carb depleted and eating the carbs you eat will quickly be absorbed by your muscles, so it’s like eating for free!

I get this question at least three time a week. What is the best time to do cardio to burn more fat?

It all depends on one compenent–time. If you can do it, the best time to do the cardio portion of your exercise is before breakfast–on an empty stomach. Since you have been asleep for the past seven to eight hours, you body is carb depelted. Cardio at this time taps the fat your body is storing more quickly. Your only sacrifice is time, so if you can wake up 30-45 minutes earlier and use this time for a steady cardio workout, then you’ll reap the benefits.

The second best time, or the time you should do cardio if you cannot do it in the morning on an empty stomach, is at the end of your regular weight training workout. A session of moderate to high intensity cardio lasting 20-40 minutes helps spur your metabolism and tap into the fat your body stores.

Using one of these two techniques turns your body into a fat burning machine for hours following your cardio workout. If you really want to push it to the limit, do 20-30 minutes of cardio when you first wake up. Then do another 20-30 minutes of cardio later in the afternoon following your weight training workout. This intensifies your body’s ability to burn calories and fat. And that is your goal–to burn baby burn.

Losing weight can feel like an uphill battle. Keeping the weight off once you lose it can be just as hard. There are techniques that you can turn into habits that will help you to accomplish both of these goals. Incorporate these five tactics into your daily routine for a lighter side of life.

1. Drink plenty of water. Water is a natural drink that works well with your body. It keeps your body hydrated and flushes the toxins out of the body. Water is also very filling, so if you drink your six to eight glasses of water a day, you’ll stay hydrated, toxin free and avoid unnecessary snacking because water fills you up.

2. Eat fruits, vegetables, and natural foods. Fruits, veggies and natural foods are better for your body than fried and processed foods. The bonus of eating fruits and veggies is these foods help you to burn body fat in the long run–helping you to lose weight and keep it off.

3. Avoid fast food or make healthy choices. If you can avoid eating fast food, this is the best way to go. There are times, however, when you may have to make the dreaded drive-thru. When you are forced to eat fast food, opt for grilled, low fat and healthy menu items.

4. Walk it off. An exhilarating 20-30 minute walk in the mornings before work, during your lunch, or in the evening helps to clear your head and refresh your mind. It also helps you shed the pounds and keep the weight off. Walking is the perfect complement to any exercise routine.

5. Rub yourself the right way. Give yourself a massage, or better yet, get someone to give you a massage. Massages assist in blood flow and circulation, which aids in burning calories and building a healthier heart.

Whether you’re trying to lose weight or keep the weight off, these five techniques make your battle much easier. Incorporate these five methods into your daily routine and you’ll quickly see the difference in the way you look and feel.

I’ve been following the USA Today Weight Loss Challenge. If you haven’t been following it, each week a weight-loss candidate presents their personal health or weight struggle and how they overcame it. A little over a week ago, the challenge featured Ebony Lugo, a switchboard operator who exchanged her habit of eating fast food and restaurant meals for healthier homemade meals. Ebony lost 48 pounds and saved money while doing it!

As a NFPT Certified Personal Trainer, I would suggest that Ebony incorporate High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) into her cardio routine. This type of training increases the heart’s ability to pump more blood and increase stress hormones that promote the deterioration of fat. HITT also increases muscle temperature faster than low intensity aerobics, so HITT promotes the fat blood flow and deterioration by being used by the body. More than 100 calories are burned during a HITT workout.

Suggested HITT Program

• Warm up for 5 minutes on a cardio machine (treadmill, stationary bike, elliptical trainer, or stair stepper)
• 10 sets of 1-minute sprints, resting for 1 minute in between sets
• Finish off with a 5-minute cool down

Another option is to spend 25 minutes at the end of a cardio workout with:

• 10 sets of 1-minute sprints, with a 1-minute rest in between sets
• During the 1-minute rests, take a brisk walk and then turn it into your sprint when the resting period is done
• Followed by a 5-minute cool down

HIIT programs help you to speed up the use of fat in your body, so it doesn’t settle in your problem areas, or create new problem areas. Use HIIT in conjunction with your normal cardio workout or use it as your cardio workout. It’s a better way to build the body you want.