Weirdest Workout Trends

Weirdest Workout Trends

Wonder Woman Workout

It’s not everyday you get to train like an Amazon Princess. Lower body strength, agility and endurance do not come easily. So work for what you want and you will get what you seek.

Instructions: Repeat each move one after the other with no rest in between until the set is done, rest up to 2 minutes and repeat the whole set again as many times as you can depending on your fitness level – maximum of 10 times.

What it works: laterals abs, lower abs, quads, glutes, shoulders, triceps, core, abductors cardiovascular system, aerobic capacity, abs, cheat.

Tips: When performing the sitting cross-punches, exhale forcefully every time you punch out completely emptying your lungs of air. This tightens up the abdominal wall further and forces the body to twist a little more generating more power in the movement and helping you gain more, faster.
http://darebee.com/workouts/wonder-woman-workout.html

Morning waist training workout

Do you want to lose weight in your waist ? Today, we will tell you the morning waist training workout.
Type 1:
1.Lying on mats, your hands naturally placed on her sides, palms down on the mat. Legs, knees, foot stepping on a mat.
2.Lie on your back on the mat, your hands naturally placed on her sides, palms down on the mat. Legs, knees, foot stepped on the mat and abdominal strength, and above the shoulder as a fulcrum on two feet, slightly lift the body, movements for 20 seconds.

3, lying on mats, your hands naturally placed on her sides, palms down on the mat. Legs, knees, foot stepped on the mat and abdominal strength, try to lift the body, movements for 20 seconds.

Type 2:
1.Sitting on the mat, legs, knees and feet step on the mat. Right hand bends forward shoulder height, palms down and stacked on the back of his right hand with his left hand, action for 20 seconds.
2.Sat on the mat, legs, knees and feet step on the mat. Right hand bends forward shoulder height, palms down and stacked on the back of his right hand with his left hand, upper body to the left, action for 20 seconds, then at the other repetitive movements.

Be Fit London: Women's Health and Fitness Festival

Be Fit London: Women's Health and Fitness Festival

An event you wont want to miss!!! Get whipped into shape, Learn from Wellness experts, Free Nutritional checks, Live Cookery Demos, Restorative sports Massages and a Performance and Recovery Clinic.

We would like to give our viewers the chance to attend this prestigious event for women the likes of which have never been done before, bringing together high quality brands that together provide the overall health and fitness solution you need.

The UK's best-kept fitness secret

Imagine beating the stop watch. Imagine strength. Imagine confidence. Imagine 15,000 women becoming healthier and happier. Join the movement.

The likes of Ankh Rah Ltd high quality food supplements will be teaming up with Ex-Olympic champion and Ambassador for the 2012 Olympic Games Tessa Sanderson and Kangen Water in London.

For 3 days, Be:Fit London will take over the Business Design Centre to equip women with the tools to ditch the fads and become healthier and happier.

With everything you need to upgrade your lifestyle under one roof, you’ll train with the UK’s master trainers in our bespoke fitness studio, learn from the capital’s top wellness, nutrition and health experts, meet Olympic icons and discover over 125 hand picked premium brands.

Ankh Rah Ltd will exhibiting at the event, providing you with the Highest Quality in natural nutritional supplements including our Award Winning High Quality Moringa Leaf Powder, amongst others.

Ankh Rah Ltd will be attending this event. We will be at the Tessa Sanderson Foundation Stand #F91, come and meet us.

The UK's only Health and Fitness Festival for Women, tickets starting at £18 for more info or to book your ticket now visit;

http://befitlondon.com/

Brazilian Butt Cardio Workout: Boost Your Butt With Cardio!

Cardio is often forgotten when it comes to toning and shaping the body. However, resistance training doesn’t have a monopoly on muscle building and toning. The right cardio workout will not only burn calories, but will build muscle too, especially the gluteal muscles! Why only work on shaping you butt with resistance training, if you can also target it with cardio? Combining a cardio and resistance training workout (check out the other half of the Brazilian Butt Workout) that targets your butt will ensure maximum results and fast!

To work your butt muscles, while you’re doing cardio, do the following:

RUNNING/ WALKING

If you want to burn calories, increase your cardiovascular endurance and tone your butt, add hills to your workout routine. Running/ walking on an incline targets the glutes and the hamstrings. Therefore, increase the incline if you’re using the treadmill or if you’re exercising outdoors go for hilly terrain. 

If you’re running/ walking outdoors you can also add some intervals during which you run/ walk sideways. This will work your butt from a different angle. Walking sideways really works your gluteus medius (side butt muscle) and other hip muscles, helping to shape your butt. Walking sideways also requires substantial coordination, which means your all your butt muscles have work incredibly hard to perform this unusual movement. If you’re working out on the treadmill try the butt-boosting treadmill workout below.

ELLIPTICAL MACHINE

Stick your butt out when you’re exercising on the elliptical machine and push down on your heel. This will target your butt, outer thigh and hamstring muscles and lessen the work done by the front of thighs (quadriceps). Also, ramp up the resistance and stick to pedalling forwards (read more about how to use the elliptical to work different areas of your body). This will fire up the glute muscles. Try the butt-shaping elliptical workout below.

BIKE

The recumbent bike will do little to work your glutes. Instead head for an upright bike at the gym or cycle outdoors. Ramp up the incline on the stationary bike or choose a hilly terrain if your cycling outdoors. This will target your glutes and hamstrings.

STAIRMASTER

Position yourself so that you’re leaning forward a little, bending from the waist. Also, take big steps and if you exercise handsfree. If you don’t hold onto the handlebars, it will work your glute muscles harder as they have to also work to stabilize you.

BEFORE YOU START

RPE (rate of perceived exertion), is a scale that allows you to gauge how hard you’re exercising based on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being little effort and 10 being maximum effort.

Make sure that you are fit enough to do this workout and if you have any pre-existing medical conditions clear it with your doctor.HIIT style workouts are incredibly effective, but intense! If you find it too challenging (e.g. especially towards the end) just adapt it and improve as you go along. Aim to do the workout 2 – 3 times a week on non-consecutive days. 

BUTT-BOOSTING TREADMILL WORKOUT

The following treadmill workout is challenging. It is an HIIT (high intensity interval training) type workout, and essentially combines strength work with cardiovascular exercise. In other words, you’ll be working your butt muscles, burning calories and boosting your metabolism. 

During the intense phases of the workout, bend your knees a little, dig your heels into the treadmill and squeeze your butt to really work those glutes.

Beginners can start with a speed of about 3.5 MPH, while more advanced exercisers can go at a speed of up to 5 MPH. Basically, you want to go at a speed that allows you to work at the target RPE. Check out the RPE scale here. As you get more fit, increase your speed and/ or  increase the incline.

BUTT-TONING ELLIPTICAL WORKOUT

This elliptical workout is also a HIIT type workout. During the recovery phase go at a pace that allows you to catch your breath and recover. During the work phase increase your pace, push down with your heels. For more about the elliptical machine and how to get the most out of it click here. The settings on elliptical machines vary, some have a maximum of 10, some 15 or more. The workout below is based on an elliptical with a maximum resistance of 10, so it’s quite hard! If the elliptical you’re using has different settings, just adapt the workout. Basically, you want to work towards the top end of the resistance scale during the work intervals and lower the resistance during the recovery phase.

http://www.superskinnyme.com/butt-sculpting-cardio-workout.html

5 ab moves for a tight stomach

After having 3 kids I was so ready to have my abs back.  First I realized that I will need to shred the fat off by eating clean, second I need to rebuild my abs to make them strong again by figuring out what ab exercises are the best to do.  Who has ever tried to do a sit up a week or two after having a baby? I know I have and It was impossible.  It can become devastating!  Today I want to share with you 5 ab moves that I do weekly. I love these moves because they have made my abs really strong and they are easy to do with little strain to the neck but yet they make your abs scream. These 5 ab moves for a tight stomach will help bring those before baby abs back.

I liked to do each workout 3 sets of 15.  There are a few ab workouts that you will work on each side so each side you will do 15. For example Right side one, Left side one. Right side two, Left side two all the way until you hit 15, repeated 3 times.

V UPS

Move 1. Lay down flat on your back with arms extended over your head. Then you want to slowly move your hands and your feet into a V position, meeting together at the top. Then going back down to the starting position.

move 1

move 1

Mason Twists

Move 2.  You will need a light weight with this move. Start by sitting on your bottom with legs bent in the air and hands holding weight in front of your stomach. Then you’re going to want to drop the weight to your right side almost touching the floor , back to middle, then to your left side almost touching the floor. Remember each side you do 15 reps to equal one set.

move 2

move 2

move 2

 Plank Twists

Move 3. Start in a plank position on elbows, make sure you keep your whole body inline. Then you’re going to drop your hips to the right side touching the floor, back to center and then to the left side touching the floor. Remember each side you do 15 reps to equal one set.

move 3

move 3

move 3

Scissors

Move 4.  Start with laying on your back, placing your hands by your bottom (you can place them under your bottom too), legs about a foot off the ground. Then your going to open your legs and cross your left foot on top like scissors. Open your legs and cross the right leg on top like scissors. Remember each side you do 15 reps to equal one set.

move 4

move 4

move 4

One Leg V Up

Move 5. Start by laying on your back with your right arm extended over your head and left arm by your side. Then you want to slowly move your hand together with your right foot into a V position, meeting together at the top. Do right side first then left side. Remember each side you do 15 reps to equal one set.

                                                                                        move 5

move 5

Abs are something we all want and think we can’t have after we have kids but I want to help you know that you can have abs again. Of course these work for everyone, not just the people that have had kids! It will be through your daily diet and working your abs out 3-4 times a week that gets you there!

http://www.ohsweetbasil.com/5-ab-moves-tight-stomach.html

Weight Training

Once thought an activity for men only, weight training is becoming popular with both sexes as its benefits are learned.

• Weight training increases the strength of your connective tissues (tendons and ligaments), muscles and bones.
• It increases muscle mass, helping your body burn more calories so weight maintenance becomes easier.
• It increases your general strength, making daily tasks easier to perform.
• Your body becomes defined and toned.
• It decreases the risk of bone loss as you age.

When you decide to start your weight training program, consult a trainer or someone at your local gym and have him show you proper form. Lifting weights improperly can cause serious injury.Beginners Weight Training Program:

• Train 2-3 times per week, training your full body in one session
• Be sure to train on non-consecutive days. Example: Monday - Wednesday - Friday
• Be sure to warm up for 5-10 minutes prior to weight training. eg: Treadmill
• Do 1 light warm up set of 15 repetitions prior to the workout set on every exercise
• Rest after every set as long as it takes to recover from the previous set

The following is an example of a beginners weight training program
(it is strongly advised that you use caution and only proceed with the following exercises under the supervision of a qualified personal trainer)

 http://preventdisease.com/fundament/articles/types_exercises.shtml

Shoulders	Machine Shoulder Press	3 sets / 12-14 reps
Back	Machine ~ Pull Downs	3 sets / 12-14 reps
Biceps	Barbell Curls	2 sets / 12-14 reps
Triceps	Machine - Cable Pushdowns	2 sets / 12-14 reps
Chest	Pec Dec	3 sets / 12-14 reps
Legs	Leg Curl	3 sets / 12-14 reps
Calves	Machine - Standing Raises	2 sets / 12-14 reps
Abdominals	Crunches	3 sets / 12-14 reps

The Best One Piece of Exercise Equipment for Home Use : Working Out Hard - Video

Jacques Laventure  Best One Piece of Exercise Equipment for Home Use : Working Out Hard

This Inspiring Fitness Video Celebrates Real Women Working Out (Yes!)

BY EMI BOSCAMP


A new video, which features a bunch of sweaty women busting their butts outside, at the gym, on the field, and on the court, has gone viral. Why? It could be because any video that plays "Get Ur Freak On" by Missy Elliott in the background is bound for success. Or, as a more likely option, it's incredibly inspiring.

The women are of all shapes and sizes, and they're determined to get into shape. And that doesn't mean they're trying to get stick-thin. They're striving for health. They want to get their blood pumping, to sweat, and as one can tell by the look in their eyes, they're not apologizing for it.

The video opens with the text "I jiggle therefore I am," which sets the tone for the entire campaign.

And get this: The video wasn't created as an attempt to sell you anything. Instead, it's message to all women around the world that it's perfectly normal and acceptable to have some some jiggle happening as you work out.

The campaign, called This Girl Can, was created by Sport England, a U.K. government agency. The agency did some research and found that 75% of women want to be more active, but they don't because of a "fear of judgment." So they figured that the best way to get women to feel comfortable working out would be to make a video with realistic-looking women — dimpled legs and all — who look powerful, strong, and most importantly, proud.

With sassy one-liners like "Sweating like a pig, feeling like a fox," "I kick balls, deal with it" and "Damn right, I look hot" popping up throughout the video, the message is clear: This is what real workouts look like. There's nothing glamorous about them — no makeup, no perfect hairdos, no uniform body type.
Exercise may not be "pretty," but it's necessary. You've got to keep your body moving in order to stay healthy. And no one can judge that — no matter what you look like. So keep kicking asses, ladies.

Watch the video below to get inspired:

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-17099/this-inspiring-fitness-video-celebrates-real-women-working-out-yes.html?utm_campaign=recommendation&utm_medium=popular&utm_source=feature

Inner thigh gap and slim waistline workout - video

Inner thigh gap and slim waistline workout

10-mistakes-women-make-in-the-gym

Tags: 

For Women

Here's what you need to know...

•  Too many women, because of poor exercise choices or practices, end up building a body that's "skinny fat," a condition where they appear thin in clothes, but actually have a higher body fat percentage than they did before they started exercising.

•  Women generally need to use heavier weights. Stop with the delicate little flower thing. Your muscles won't grow – won't get curvy – if you're pressing, squatting, or curling with weights that have roughly the same heft as your iPhone.

•  The one exception to working with heavy weights is the waist. The waist is comprised of muscles and muscles respond to heavy weights by getting bigger.

•  It's virtually impossible – no matter what you eat – to gain any fat in the post-workout period. While gaining fat during this period is highly improbable, it's highly probable that you will build some muscle during this same timeframe, provided you give your body the protein (and calories) it requires.

For anyone knowledgeable about exercise, walking into a public gym is kind of like stumbling into a nudist camp – you quickly just want to slap on some horse blinders because there's so much that you don't want to see. In the case of the nudist camp, it's usually a lot of flabby, pasty-white guys that should never be naked, even when they're alone in a secluded cabin on a mountaintop. In the case of the gym, you want to restrict your view because people are often doing the lamest, silliest, most illogical exercises and practices imaginable and it hurts your sensibilities as a fitness expert.

Guys are probably the biggest tools in the gym because they're driven by ego instead of logic, but women make their own share of mistakes that are unique to their sex. Women are torn between what they read in Shape or on some insane aerobic queen's blog, their unqualified husband's or boyfriend's pontifications on diet and exercise, or society's conflicting and confounding expectations of what a woman should look like. It's no wonder women can't decide between lifting weights, becoming a Crossfit wind-up toy, doing aerobics until they're thin as a waif from Oliver Twist, or practicing so much yoga that their seven angry and overworked chakras pack up their things and go to Cabo for a weekend of volleyball, sun, and suds.

Too often women end up blending elements of all those practices and as often happens when you combine too many recipes, that dish won't cook. Women make little progress and often end up looking worse than when they began, sometimes developing a body that's "skinny fat," a cruel, paradoxical condition where they appear thin in clothes, but actually have a higher body fat percentage than they did before they started to exercise because they lost muscle instead of body fat.

I'm going to assume that one of the reasons women go to the gym is to look better, and looking better usually means becoming leaner and/or acquiring more curves. Bodies, at least the most aesthetically pleasing ones, are a combination of convex and concave curves instead of straight lines. You're a delectable and enticing mammal, not a tree. As such, you want to build muscle to build or accentuate convex curves. If you're already blessed with convex curves, you want to create concave curves by losing fat. You accomplish either or both by smart weight lifting. Plenty of women have accepted this wonderful reality, but I still see stuff that makes me want to wear blinders. Here are some of the regrettable practices I see women making all the time.

1. Fear of Appearing Butch

You've heard this one before, but it doesn't look like it's sinking in. You need to evolve beyond using rubber-coated dumbbells that have a clump of iron the size of a baby's fist on either side. In other words, you need to use heavier weights. Stop with the delicate little flower thing. Your muscles won't grow – won't get curvy – if you're pressing, squatting, or curling with weights that have roughly the same heft as your iPhone. Say hello to the 20 and 30-pound dumbbells, aspire to the 40 and 50-pound ones. Use weights that allow you to do between 8 and 15 repetitions.

And don't play the age-old, "I don't want to get too big" card. Unless you're the one woman in a million that has such high Testosterone levels that female horses start to whinny nervously when you walk by, you're not going to suddenly sprout muscle from your ears and everywhere else. Neither will your muscles grow beyond your aesthetic ideal unless you start feeding them a lot more. Muscles don't grow out of thin air; you've got to supply them with protein and carbs. That's why men who lift weights eat barnyards of fowl, ranches of cattle, rivers of fish, barrels of protein powder, and vats of Cocoa Puffs. If you don't eat that way, you won't get "too big." (See mistake #9 for advice on when you should eat big.)

2. Fear of Making an Ugly Face

We just discussed using heavier weights, but we didn't discuss intensity. When you're lifting weights, you shouldn't be able to maintain the same facial expression as when you're getting a mani-pedi. Too many women just don't get down and dirty. There's rarely even a grimace or a bit of semi-feminine grunting. Look, building muscle requires some discomfort; it requires some pain. You might be able to look all pretty and composed for the first few reps, even while using an appropriately heavy weight, but you're ultimately going to have to make an ugly she-wolverine face on the last few highly-productive "money" reps where you coerce muscle into growing. No ugly face, no curvy muscle. No ugly face, no increased strength. Tank your outdated views of femininity. Screw how it looks or what anyone thinks.

3. Absession

Absession is not a new scent from Calvin Klein. Rather, it's being obsessed with working the abs or the waistline in general. Here's a shocker: everyone has a six-pack; you just have to whittle away enough fat so that it shows. Granted, you may want to build the abdominals so they're more pronounced, but stop thinking that you need to dedicate half your workout or more to working abs. Three or four hard sets of 15 to 20 – using resistance or using more challenging angles as necessary – a few times a week is all you need. Spend the rest of the time building overall muscle and doing activities that burn fat in general.

4. Working the Abs Like a Powerlifter

I know mistake #1 said to use heavier weights, but ab work is the one exception. For some reason, a lot of women already use heavy weights when working the midsection. Oddly, they think that working the waist with heavy weights is somehow going to make it smaller. Maybe... if we all lived in the Bizarro world. The waist is comprised of muscles and muscles respond to heavy weights by getting bigger. If you want a waist that's as broad as a tree stump, then have at it. If, however, you want the mythical wasp waist, stop working your abs with heavy weights. As mentioned in the previous tip, stick with weight or resistance that allows you to do roughly 15 to 20 reps. Most importantly, don't use weights while working your "side muscles," otherwise known as the obliques. The surest way to build a blocky waist is to do side bends while hanging onto dumbbells. Instead, work your obliques by doing a few sets of side planks a couple of times a week.

5. Balancing on the BOSU

I'll grudgingly admit that the BOSU ball probably has some merit in developing balance. As such, it might be useful for Cirque du Soleil performers. It also makes for a lovely post-modernist style chair. Beyond those functions, I see little use for it.

Okay, I'm being overly snarky. Yes, the BOSU has some application for abdominal work or rehab work for people with hinky ankles and it can probably help with balance issues, but somewhere along the line, exercisers, most often women or their enabler-slash-trainers started using the BOSU as a weight-training accessory. They either put one foot on it to use with lunges or they put both feet on it while doing any number of traditional weight training exercises like dumbbell curls, lateral raises, overhead presses, or squats. Some morons have even taken this a step further by doing these same movements on a Swiss ball. (If you see someone doing the latter, feel free to hip check the ball and send them crashing to the ground.)

The thinking is that lifting weights on an unstable surface makes the muscles work harder to keep you from doing a face plant, but balancing isn't the type of muscular effort that builds muscle. And, in order to keep your balance, you have to use lighter weights than you would otherwise.

Lifting weights – even light ones – while standing on a BOSU will make your muscles fatigue much faster, forcing you to abort the set earlier than you normally would. You end up missing out on the "money reps," those reps at the end of a set where you activate the muscle fibers most responsible for growth. If all of that falls on deaf ears, consider that none of the major studies conducted on the BOSU have found it to build muscle any faster than doing the same exercises on solid ground.

6. Too Much Aerobics

I've got a question for you: Have you ever see a marathoner or even an accomplished jogger with a really good body? Probably not. They're either slightly emaciated, have a body with very few curves, or are plagued with the skinny-fat condition I talked about in the intro. They also have really ugly feet.

Without going into all the hormonal or evolutionary permutations, let's just accept the scientific fact that the body would generally, during caloric deficits, rather sacrifice muscle than fat, and what is excessive endurance exercise but an artificially induced caloric deficit? Regardless, women especially are saddled with the myth that the more aerobic exercise they do, the better they'll look.

Remember, you want muscle, and excessive aerobic exercise is death to muscle. There are far more effective ways to burn fat. Going for a brisk walk first thing in the morning is incredibly effective and it saves muscle. Similarly, brief bouts of high-intensity exercise in the form of sprinting or Tabata-style exercise-bicycling or weight training build muscle and burn fat simultaneously. In case you're not familiar with Tabata, it's a simple but brutal protocol where you do an activity as fast and hard as you can for 20 seconds, rest 10 seconds, and then do another exercise/rest cycle of 20 and 10 seconds. You do this for 4 minutes straight and then collapse into a spent but proud heap. You can do Tabata workouts with kettlebell swings, dumbbell squats, stationary bicycle sprints, or any number of other exercises.

Related:  Hard Body Training for Women

7. Workout Monogamy

Mating for life, as swans, wolves, turtledoves, and Catholics are wont to do, has some biological advantages. Mating to your workout for life, however, has none. Too bad so many women ignore this fact. Whether it's from a lack of imagination or a misguided belief that "exercise is exercise" or that "there's only one way to lift a weight," some women keep doing the same routine year-in and year-out. They may have torn it out of a Shape or Cosmothat was lying in the doctor's office and since they've been healthy and haven't gone back to the doc's office and read some new magazines, they're still doing the same routine a year or two later.

That's unfortunate because the body adapts to workouts whether they be weight workouts or aerobic workouts. That's why there are so many fat aerobics instructors. They've done the same routine for years and their neurological system is so accustomed to it that it costs them little in calories or effort to complete the workout. You need to cycle your workouts every four to six weeks. Emphasize legs in one cycle, shoulders or arms the next. Get new routines from articles right here on T Nation.

8. Workout Promiscuity

The opposite of the workout monogamist is of course the workout slut. While much more common among males, there are plenty of women who can't stick with a workout for very long. They try out a workout a few days, see that it hasn't yet given them an NFL cheerleader body, and then try something else. One manifestation of this is "CrossFit Fever." These women, not entirely sure of what constitutes CrossFit training, do a bastardized version where they perform non-stop, often non-sensical, semi-aerobic, semi-anaerobic conditioning work for 1 to 2 hours for no apparent reason, save to exorcise or exercise some professional or personal demons.

In either case, their workouts are chaotic and ultimately produce rotten results. Find a logical, progressive workout that addresses your particular needs, builds muscle, burns fat, and makes you the queen of curves and give it 4 to 6 weeks to work. Then and only then should you change it up, even if it worked well (see step #7).

9. Fear of Food

Ready to have your dietary beliefs shaken, Jell-O like, to their core? Okay, here goes: It's virtually impossible – no matter what you eat – to gain any fat in the post-workout period, which is roughly defined as the hour-long timeframe after you finish lifting weights. While gaining fat during this period is highly improbable, it's highly probable that you will build some muscleduring this same timeframe, provided you give your body the protein (and calories) it requires.

It all has to do with insulin, the hormone that carries glucose and amino acids to muscle cells. Broadly speaking, insulin has two choices, it can either shuttle glucose and protein to storage in fatty tissue and the liver, or it can deliver those nutrients directly to muscle cells where they're used to fuel, repair, and grow muscle. The path it takes is determined by exercise – if you're lifting weights or just finished lifting weights, insulin will take the nutrients directly to muscle instead of storing it.

Muscle is particularly sensitive to insulin during this workout/post workout period, so if you want to build muscle/curves, it's imperative that you eat during what we call the "peri-workout" period, which is comprised of the period just before, during, and after a resistance workout. So temporarily forget your calorie fears. Temporarily forget your carb fears, too, because this is when you definitely need to provide your muscles with the material it needs to build those curves. In general, have a protein/carbohydrate drink about 45 minutes to an hour before a workout and a substantial amount of protein and carbohydrates after a workout. In an ideal world, you'd also sip a protein/carb drink during the workout, too, but at the very least, make sure you don't skimp on that post-workout meal.

10. Juicing

No, not juicing as in steroids. I'm talking about the plastic cups of pulverized, Osterized, barely palatable concoctions of kale, seaweed, wheat grass, and whatever other obscure vegetables or fruits the juicer is able to buy at a discount that so many women have permanently affixed to their hands when they walk into the gym.

I know it seems contrary, even heretical, to suggest you stop or limit your consumption of these drinks, but hear me out. Vegetables and fruits contain simple sugars and more complex, harder-to-digest carbs. No problem there. However, when you blend up fruits and vegetables, you're breaking down all those normally hard-to-digest carbs into infinitesimally small pieces. Drink that stuff down and you're virtually bypassing much of the digestive process. All those sugars are presented to your bloodstream like flowers to your momma on Mother's Day. They get absorbed super quick, and your pancreas releases a surge of insulin to counteract all that sugar. It's virtually the same effect you'd get from shot-gunning a 24-ounce 7-11 Slurpie.

Insulin shuttles off some of the sugar to muscle cells and the rest are stored (in the liver or as body fat), but then insulin levels dip below baseline and you get hungry again pretty fast. If you give in to that hunger, you're ingesting more calories than you might normally have and extra, unnecessary calories get stored as fat. What's more, if you do the juice thing often enough, you may actually develop some insulin resistance, which is the first step down the path to Type II diabetes.

There's one more thing to consider, too. You probably wouldn't be able to eat all the fruits and vegetables that are in a typical fruit or vegetable smoothie if they were sitting there on a plate. They'd take up too much room in your stomach and even all that Spandex in your Lululemon pants wouldn't be able to flatten out your belly. However, pulverize all those fruits and vegetables down into primordial ooze and they, and all the calories they contain, fit in your stomach just fine. Juicing allows you to eat more than you normally could, which is never really good if you're trying to keep tabs on your body fat levels.

I'm not suggesting that you give up all juices. Drink them in moderation, eat them in their un-pulverized, natural state, or simply employ one simple trick: just have the juice junction, jamboree, or whatever add a scoop of protein (whey or casein) to your drink. The protein will ameliorate the big insulin surge, not to mention giving your muscles some extra building blocks.

http://www.t-nation.com/training/10-mistakes-women-make-in-the-gym

Printable Workout: Quick, Effective Cardio — No Running Required

by Susi May

Yes, you can get your heart rate up without running. With this quick workout you don't need any equipment at all — no elliptical, no weights. Get ready to hop, skip, and jump your way to fit by doing bodyweight exercises that burn calories and tone you all over.

First, learn the details of the moves here, then simply print out the PDF, and you're ready to go. So what are you waiting for? Get at it!

http://www.popsugar.com/fitness/Printable--Equipment-Cardio-Workout-35589694

10 Songs That Are Scientifically Proven to Amp Up Your Workout

ALANNA GRECO

Maybe you’re one of those people who loves going to the gym. Maybe you’re one of those people who only loves it after the fact, once your workout is over and you can get the heck out of there. No matter your exercise m.o., integrating music into your routine has been proven to increase the efficiency of your workout. 

Some people, like myself, can’t work out without music — though others can somehow run for hours to the sound of silence. And even though I thought that those types of people were simply insane, it turns out that this is actually because there are two distinct kinds of work out personalities, as ABC News points out. The first type, associators, turn their attention inward while they are exercising, and focus on their heart rate, breathing, and muscle tension. Dissociators, on the other hand, turn their focus to anything that can distract them from the work that their body is doing, be it with a book, television or music.

If it sounds like you are a dissociator, music might be your best choice for a better workout for many reasons. First, you are distracted by the music so you aren’t focusing on how hard your body is working or the strain and effort associated with that work, allowing you to have a longer work out. Music with high beats per minute, or BPM, will also help you keep a faster pace. Additionally, music with inspirational or motivational messages can keep you positive and reduce perceived exertion during a strenuous work out, encouraging you to push yourself harder. 

In fact, Dr. Costas Karageorghis of Brunel University, London, told TIME Magazine that listening to music can result in a more intense workout and improve endurance by up to 15 percent. Karageorghis also shared how to chose the best workout music. Apparently, you should choose a song that builds up to the same BPM as your target heart rate, with the target range between 120-140 BPM. You should also make sure that the songs have a positive or motivational messages and keep your iPod on shuffle so you don’t get bored of your playlists. 

Dr. Costas Karageorghis’ song suggestions:

“Eye Of The Tiger” (109 BPM), Surivior

“Don’t Stop Me Now” (154 BPM), Queen

“Beat It” (139 BPM), Michael Jackson

“I Like To Move It” (123 BPM), Reel 2 Real feat. The Mad Stuntman

“Push It” (130 BPM), Salt-N-Pepa

My song suggestions:

“Rock That Body” (125 BPM), Black Eyed Peas

“Turn Around (5,4,3,2,1)” (128 BPM), Flo Rida

“Here It Goes Again” (146 BPM), O.K. Go

“Feel It” (133 BPM), Tiesto

“Pop That” (138), French Montana

You can stream this playlist here on Spotify, and you can find the BPM of any song with this website.  Happy calorie burning!  

http://www.bustle.com/articles/11323-10-songs-that-are-scientifically-proven-to-amp-up-your-workout

4 Surprising Pre-Workout Foods

We all have our go-to pre-race foods, from a simple bowl of oatmeal to a peanut butter and banana sandwich. But those meals can be a little too filling right before boot camp. That’s where these surprising foods and drinks can help when you’re pressed for time. Read on to find out which foods you should eat to ensure an all-star workout at the gym.

Watermelon Juice
Forget Gatorade—researchers suspect that an amino acid called L-citrulline found in watermelon can provide relief to sore muscles after an intense workout. A study published earlier this year found that athletes reported less muscle soreness on days they drank watermelon juice. The same has been found of drinking cherry juice, which contains anti-inflammatory antioxidants.

Chicken Noodle Soup
Some runners take salt tabs when running in the heat to prevent muscle cramping, but salty food works too, according to a study published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism. Researchers found that men who ate chicken noodle soup containing 1,362 milligrams of sodium before cycling in the heat retained more water and thus stayed hydrated during their workout. But note: The average recommended sodium intake is 2,300 milligrams per day.

Coffee
That afternoon cup of joe may not be such a bad idea, especially if you plan on hitting the gym after work. A 1992 study published in the British Journal of Sports Science found that runners who drank a small amount of coffee before running 1,500 meters on the treadmill ran 4.2 seconds faster than those who took a placebo. The coffee drinkers also experienced enhanced oxygen intake.

Watercress
The leafy green that’s often just used as a garnish has some surprising muscle relief powers, too. The antioxidant-rich watercress has been proven to prevent DNA damage caused by high-intensity exercise. A British Journal of Nutrition study also found that eating watercress two hours before a workout provides the same benefits as consuming it for eight weeks.
http://www.healthdigezt.com/4-surprising-pre-workout-foods/

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