Certified holistic health coach, Ling Wong, shares with us the reason why dieting can actually be harmful to our health. Learn why we are ditching diets for good and have focused on creating healthy habits instead.
We’ve all experienced it. We do an everyday activity and all of a sudden—boom—we feel a stiffness or pain. It usually comes from lack of movement. We live and work in a very sedentary environment. Most of us have a schedule like this: arrive at work by 8 a.m., plop down at desk, get up around 10:00 a.m. for a quick coffee break, then sit back down again until 12:30 p.m. and get up for lunch. Outside of an occasional meeting or break, most people don’t move until 6:00 p.m. What’s wrong with this picture?
Our bodies were designed to move, not to stay in one position for hours on end. Exercise is a healthy habit that should be part of each day. When we don’t move, our flexibility wanes and our bodies react with stiffness and pain. Corrective exercise and a variety of stretches can help loosen up these muscles and bring your flexibility back to where it should be.
If you have yet to make exercise a part of your daily routine, start small: make it a point to take several breaks during the day to get up and stretch. Do it at your desk, take a walk or go up and down a few flights of stairs. Here are some stretches to do every day in order to keep your body limber and working properly. The trick is to make the commitment to do them frequently and ongoing – from there, build up to adding more cardio and strength training exercises to your routine.
Chest (pecs)
Place your right arm shoulder height, palm forward at a 90 degree angle with the inside of your elbow touching the wall. Your right foot should be facing forward. Turn your chest to the left. Hold the contraction for 30 seconds before switching sides. Do 1-2 sets on each side.
Lats
Get down on your hands and knees. Extened your right arm on a foam roller or stability ball. Your chest should be off the ground and your other arm off to the side. Hold the contraction for 30 seconds before switching sides. Do 1-2 sets on each side.
Shoulder (Posterior)
Stand up tall and place your arms behind your back with your hands resting on top of each other. From this position, push your elbows forward and feel the stretch in the back of your shoulders. Hold this position for 30 seconds before switching sides.
Ryan Krane, Fitness Consultant and Certified Corrective Exercise Specialist, Ryan Krane, Inc.
How have you created healthy habits by incorporating exercise into your routine?
It is so tempting for us to go through phases of eating any way we please, frequenting fast food joints and eating loaded salads from the corner popular chain restaurant. Life gets busy. And we get lazy. So, let’s talk about ways to create healthy eating habits that last and ditch our roller-coaster dieting plan for good.
Our guest blogger tells us today how to learn the connection between what we eat and how it makes us feel. Our body tells us in its own way what it needs. Are you listening?
Self defense begins with the right attitude and confidence level. Learn how our expert guest blogger suggests you avoid an attack entirely by using your attitude.
Using Yoga as an intense form of cross-training can be extremely beneficial to a number of sporting activities. Not only does it strengthen, tone, and elongate our muscles, it teaches us to be present in the moment while placing our focus on our breathing.
Learn how our expert guest blogger incorporated this technique into her training and how it improved her performance.
Try using this super shredding exercise for a set of incredible abs you love to show off!
The Ab Shredder
Even thinking about this exercise makes me feel sore. I had it dubbed the ab-shredder because it literally feels like someone is flailing my stomach with a cheese grater.
I start by lying down flat on my back (with my arms stretched out straight behind my head), I take a Swedish exercise and hold it between my feet. Keep it still, you don’t want it to fall out.
Then, I raise it straight up in the air so my legs are perpendicular to my body and the ball is directly above my midsection. I lift my hands flat up in the same direction and grab the ball. Then, I slowly lower my hands and legs at the same time so the ball has effectively been transferred.
Then, you do the same thing in reverse-raise your arms until they are perpendicular to your body, bring your legs up, and transfer the ball. These are killers and I can only do 15 before I want to cry, but they are the most effective ab workout I’ve ever done. I’ve gained a ton of strength this way, and the results look amazing!
Written by Joe Vennare
Kettlebell training promotes the development of lean muscle and strength while revving up the metabolism. For anyone looking to develop lean and tone muscle, while torching away stubborn body fat, kettlebell training is the ideal exercise solution.
The Benefits
Kettlebell training fits into the busiest of lifestyles. By training multiple muscle groups at the same time, kettlebell training provides more significant benefits than traditional exercise programs in a fraction of the time. Exercises like the kettlebell swing engage the entire body, increasing the heart rate and teaching the body to work as one unit, instead of isolated muscles. Training with kettlebells, it is possible to reshape your body with three 20 minute workouts each week.
Unlike typical strength training programs and stationary exercise machines that are designed to increase muscular size. Interval and circuit based kettlebell workouts create lean and tone muscles, while burning up to 20 calories per minute. This type of exercise improves overall fitness levels and reflects the demands we put on our bodies during everyday activities.
Training the Core
There is no need to do “floor work” when using a kettlebell. With a focus on functional exercises that engage the core with every fat burning repetition, you can reveal your 6-pack without doing a single “crunch”. It is the hips and core, not the arms or upper body that are used to move the kettlebell. Using the larger muscles of the lower body, including the quads, glutes, hamstrings and core, you are able to move more weight and burn more calories.
Using the large muscles of the lower body and entire core strengthens and defines the abdominals, while increasing the metabolism allowing the body to burn stubborn belly fat.
Getting Started
When done correctly, kettlebell training is suitable for individuals of all ages and fitness levels. Instead of jumping into an “elite” form of kettlebell training that focuses on the amount of weight lifted or the number of repetitions completed for time, use a kettlebell for functional movements, completed with proper form, to safely improve strength and cardiovascular performance.
Start your training with the kettlebell swing. Keep in mind the legs and hips, not the arms or upper body are used to propel the kettlebell through the swing. Power is created by driving through the heels, using the large muscles of the lower body including the quads, glutes, hamstrings and core.
Kettlebell Swings
Begin in a standing position with feet shoulder width apart, chest up, shoulders back and down, core flexed, back arched (not rounded) with a slight knee bend, and weight distributed to the heels of your feet.
- Grip the kettlebell with both hands over top of the handle.
- Sink into a squat with the weight between the legs. Keep the torso upright, the abs braced and the arms loose. At the bottom of the movement shift your weight back onto your heels.
- Standing up from the squatted position, use your hips to propel the weight to hip level.
- Engaging the hips and core, swing the weight up higher until you reach shoulder level. Focus on using your hips and legs to move the weight, rather than your arms.
What’s Next?
When you begin kettlebell training, it is a good idea to practice kettlebell swings in addition to your normal workouts. Then, when you are comfortable with the movements begin to increase weight and attempt more difficult kettlebell exercise routine [link kettlebell exercise routine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YhzbDVj6P0&feature=relmfu].
When you have perfected the swing form, try this workout.
Warm-up:
2 rounds, 30 seconds each
Body Weight Squat
Jumping Jack
Arm Circles (forward /backward, large/small)
Alternate Lunge (each leg)
Training:
5 Rounds
20x Kettlebell Swing
20x Dumbbell Plank Row
20x Dumbbell Squat and Press
Rest @ 30 sec max.
5 rounds
15x Sit-up
5x Push-up
About the Author: Joe Vennare is Co-founder/Director of Programming at Hybrid Athlete read more →
Learn how using a Kettle Bell for your strength training routine will give you an intense full body workout that strengthens and tones.
As we discuss the many detoxifying benefits of Yoga, we have learned that there is definitely a mind / body connection. Learn what our expert guest blogger, Cammi Balleck suggests which pose will give you the best detoxifying experience, both mind and body.
Top Beginners Dynamic Yoga Pose to Detoxify Your Mind, Body and Spirit
A healthy lifestyle begins within the strength of your mind. Your mind is there to be used. It is the thinking part of your body. When you have positive thoughts you become the optimist who sees the world in a glowing light that illuminates your whole mind/body/spirit and makes you so much stronger and more capable of overcoming obstacles. You are what you believe to be at this moment in time. Believe in your inner strength and that will help you detoxify your mind,body and spirit of disease causing stress. Know that you can make the changes you want to see happen. By consciously changing your thinking, you can change your life because thoughts are the director of the play called life.
Following is an empowering yoga pose that can help you be the director of your life.
SEAL UPS
- Begin in downward dog pose.
- Feet hip width apart, arms stretched out in front with your palms on the ground or on the seat of a chair. Now bring your belly to the ground or hips toward a chair if your hands are on a chair. (Recommend using a chair if you are not very flexible).
- With your forehead up, hands shoulder width apart and legs on the ground, push back onto your heels. Inhale through your nose for 2 counts. Hands stabilizing and stretching forward, hips pushing back.
- Exhale through your mouth for 4 counts. Finish with cobra pose getting ready to do another seal up.
- Begin with one set of 8 and work your way up to doing one set of 15.
Feel the power of detoxifying your mind, body and spirit after just one set!
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