by expertvillage

Learn tips on a great lower body cross fitness exercise that will keep you healthy in this free health and fitness video.

by expertvillage

Free workout tips. Learn how to do a workout with an exercise ball to develop back muscles in this free online personal training video and fitness workout.

by psychetruth

Be My Friend - http://www.myspace.com/psychtruth What is Pilates? Is it Yoga? Aerobics? Fitness? Exercise? Heather explains what Pilates is how it is different from other types of physical fitness and models some of the Pilates workout exercises. Some of the benefits include a more flexible body and better health and wellness. Heather is a dance student who is working becoming a certified Pilates instructor. Music By Jimmy Gelhaar http://myspace.com/bonjimmy http://youtube.com/jgelhaar This …

by expertvillage

Learn tips on a great lower body cross fitness exercise that will keep you healthy in this free health and fitness video.

by Kimberly Thomas

The goal of six pack abs mainly depends upon losing weight by completing exercises that focus on the muscles in the abdominal area. There are literally dozens of such exercises including many that are meant for other major muscle groups, but that can be modified to include a workout for your abdominal muscles. Here are just a few of the major abdominal emphasis exercises.

CRUNCHES

Crunches are done by lying on the floor either on a mat or not, with your arms crossed in front of your chest. Many people do crunches with the hands behind the head, but this can create lower back problems because of the pull on the head and neck.

A slightly different position has the finger tips placed behind the ears, rather than crossed on the chest. It is important not to pull on the neck or on the ears for assistance in rising off the floor. Instead, suck the abdomen back toward the spine and inhale through the nose at the same time.

Raise the shoulders toward the knees using only the muscles in the abdomen. The entire back should not be lifted from the floor, as this is likely to create back strain. No additional benefit to the abdomen is gained by raising the entire torso. The key part of the crunch is the initial flexing of the abdominal muscles as the shoulders are lifted off the floor.

As the shoulders clear the floor, exhale through your mouth. Complete the exhalation with a gasp to expel the last of the air from the lungs as your shoulders stay clear of the floor. Lower the shoulders back to the point where the shoulder blade touches the ground while inhaling. It is important to maintain the proper breathing control and muscle flexing to get maximum benefit from crunches.

SIT UPS

Once again start in a position on the floor with your feet flat and your knees bent. The fingers should be placed behind the ears, or you can cross your arms on your chest.

Slowly raise the entire back off the floor while inhaling deeply and exhale as you reverse the move. This exercise can be made more challenging in several ways. For instance, you can do sit ups from an incline with your head lower than your lower body.

You can then add weights on the chest to lift while you are sitting up. Weights can become heavier on an incline bench. The next difficult step can be attained by holding the feet off the ground while doing sit ups or making a bicycle peddling motion while doing sit ups with your legs. These exercises may not be easy, but are very beneficial to the abdominal area.

LEG LIFTS

Leg lifts begin with the legs straight and the hands at your sides while lying on the floor. Lift both legs up at the same time without bending the knees until the legs are at a ninety degree angle or a close as possible.

Not everyone is flexible enough to reach the ninety degree angle. Lower the legs as close as possible to the floor without actually touching and repeat several times. Increase the challenge of this exercise by adding weights to the legs while lifting them.

Another challenging exercise for improving definition and musculature in the abdomen is to hang from a pull up bar while lifting both legs to a ninety-degree position. As with most other exercises, try to stay conscious of breathing while slowly doing the routines.

JACKKNIFE SIT UPS

This exercise begins by lying flat on the floor with the hands at your sides in order to provide better balance. At the same time you raise your knees, bring your torso up slowly till the face and knees meet.

Return slowly to the original position while in full control of the movement. The jackknife name comes from the natural tendency of the legs to bend at the knee with the feet dropping to the hips presenting the shape of a jackknife. The difficulty level of this position can be increased by holding a weight between the feet while performing the sit ups.

V UPS

This exercise begins with you on your back on the floor with the arms extended over your head. Bring both legs and torso up at the same time without bending the knees or the arms. Keep the pace slow and steady and reach for your feet with your extended hands at the top of the arc.

If possible, try to touch your feet, but this move can be tricky until your level of flexibility increases. As with other exercises, adding weight between the feet increases the difficulty level.

by Ian Worthington


What are the most important factors in your life? Being healthy and of excellent fitness should be a major goal for all of us - at the end of the day the way we feel reflects the quality of our life we will lead - and what’s more important than your life?? Feeling good, in essence, entails maximising your PHYSICAL and MENTAL state. This article will solely focus on the physical perspective (maybe I’ll post an article about the mental factors if I receive a positive response to this one !). To make this exercise as pain free as possible I’ve broken down being healthy into 3 easy-to-use tips, which anyone can follow. My aim in doing this has been to eliminate factors which people tend to use as an excuse for not ‘following through’ with the suggested action. These factors can include financial, time and commitment restraints. The beauty of these tips is they are extremely easy to implement and most people already know that they are correct. Therefore, why do the majority of people ignore such common sense or even do the complete opposite? The answer is simple, they have been conditioned, by themselves or society, to act and perform in a certain way. This article is not intended to change your daily routine, which may be poor or excellent, but to simply input additional easy and quick activities to that routine to improve your physical health. Here goes (please note, these are tips which have worked for me, and whilst they follow ideas extracted from extensive reading, they are not all specifically backed by proven data - that’s the beauty of having an opinion folks!):-

Tip 1

Drink between 2-4 litres of water daily. Replace all carbonated, cordial, tea, coffee etc with water (don’t like water? Drink it long enough you will!). I personally add a large slice of lemon to all water I consume - 1) because I adore the taste 2) lemon is alkaline, which is widely accepted to be healthier than acidic produce. Also, you should never feel a severe sense of thirst if you are intaking enough water, as this is a sign of the onset of dehydration. Therefore, drink or sip water at regular short intervals throughout your day, increasing the intake where water is disposed from the body via sweating or increased physical activity has occurred. A water source not available to you all the time? Easy - always prepare a large bottle of water at the start of your day and keep it close to you throughout the day.

Tip 2

Don’t just have your ‘five a day’ fruit / vegetables - ensure it outweighs the rest of your daily intake. Therefore, if you really need that juicy 12oz steak, make sure you offset it with a large salad, or a portion of vegetables which dwarf the steak in size! I’m not going to be the guy to tell you not to have certain foods, we all have our pleasures, but if you learn how to offset the pleasure (or better still, make the healthy options the pleasure - but that’s delving into the mental perspective I promised not to!) with fruit / vegetables you will be on the right track.

Tip 3

BENCHMARK. Do you know someone who is supremely healthy, either by appearance or the vitality they exhibit? If you do, this is someone you want to interrogate (in a nice way!). Find out how they exercise, what they eat and how they operate. They have proven their method, now apply it yourself. If you don’t personally know anyone who meets your specification of desired health, widen your search. Perhaps a celebrity or sportsperson has what you want. Research them, the web holds a lot of info as I guess you know, so I’m sure a person of your means can collect the ‘benchmark’ data you require.

Final Thought:

Actively acknowledge when you are feeling healthy. Many people do not notice the results they are achieving or believe it’s pure coincidence - coincidence and health rarely co-exist! Thank you for time, I hope this article will be of some benefit to you and that you live a healthy and successful life.

by Daniel Millions


There are lots of tips to help you lose weight, but there is only one true way. You need to use more energy than you get by the food and drink that you eat. That is you need to create an energy deficit so that your body has to look to its own stores of energy to make up the difference. By its own stores of energy we usually mean fat.

There are two main ways we can do this; the first way is to eat less. The second way is to burn more energy. Most diet programs take the approach of combining the two, but whatever diet program you want to follow there are a number of tips that can help you.

Drink more water: Everyone needs to drink at least eight to 10 glasses of water every day, which is 64 ounces. Your body is approximately 70% water and you lose a lot of it every day. You lose it in the obvious method (going to the toilet), through sweating, and every time you exhale. There are also less obvious ways your body uses water, for example a lot of fluids need to be made by your body, and of course there’s the lubrication in your mouth and eyes.

Your kidneys need plenty of water in order to easily flush out waste, including the by-products of using your fat for energy. You also need plenty of water to enable processes to use your fat. If you drink ice-cold water then there is an added benefit in that your body needs to heat up the water, and so uses energy!

Work out with weights: You don’t need to go to an expensive gym; you can buy weights to use at home. You don’t need to use them obsessively and become muscle-bound. We have already said that you need to exercise to help lose weight, but if you exercise with weights then you are tackling weight loss on two fronts. Building up your muscles will mean that your body will naturally use more energy every day by increasing your metabolism whether you are exercising or not. Of course during the workouts will also cause you to use more energy actually doing the work out. You will also be gaining in fitness at the same time as you are losing weight.

Read your labels: Many food products today try and lure you into a false sense of security by proclaiming their health benefits. On the front of the packaging there may be a large sticker proclaiming that an item is fat-free, however, if you examine the nutritional information you may easily find that the fat has been swapped for sugar. Another product may proclaim low carb; however, looking at that packaging you’ll find that the project has a lot of fat. What all of this means is that you need to read the labels so that you can choose foods that aren’t either sugar or fat dense.

Keep a journal: Keeping a written down record of everything you eat, drink and the exercise that do each day can be valuable in a number of ways. The act of keeping a journal knowing that you’re going to have to write down everything you eat and drink will help you avoid bad choices. You can also analyze your journal at the end of every week, spot weaknesses, and plan to make improvements. If you are seeing a dietitian then your journal will also be useful for them to look at and make suggestions about.

Don’t be too hard on yourself: Everyone has lapses; indeed it may even be an idea to have an easy day once a week. The trick is not to punish yourself of these lapses, as this can often lead to feeling even worse about yourself and ending up binge eating to cheer yourself up!

If you have a bad day then just chalk it up to experience and begin again tomorrow. It took your wild to gain this weight, so it will take your while to lose it again. One bad day is not a disaster, letting one bad day affect the rest of your diet is.

by beautybrief

Beauty Brief has compiled a list of the best tips for 2009 on how to look great and feel great!

Tip#1: Myth: Eating Causes Wrinkles?!? Fact or Fiction?

It’s true! Overtime, eating sugar can actually make skin appear wrinkled and dull. A chemical process takes place in our bodies to cause this wrinkling effect known as glycation. Glycation occurs when sugar in the blood stream attaches to proteins and forms molecules called AGE (advanced glycation end-products). The easiest way to minimize the effects is to avoid eating foods high in sugar, and to definitely always wear sunscreen. Additionally, vitamins B1 and B6 inhibit the formation of AGE molecules, so try getting 1 mg a day of each.

Tip#2: Know Your Food Portions!

Portion control is an integral part of dieting and maintaining a healthy weight. To help identify what correct portion sizes are we have outlined proper serving sizes and related those portions to everyday items.

* 1 serving of meat (6oz) is about the size of a deck of cards

* A single serving of pasta, rice or potatoes (1/2 cup) is roughly the size of a golf ball or a small scoop of ice cream.

* 1 serving of vegetables or fruit is about the size of a tennis ball or a fist.

* 1 serving of cheese is just the size of 2 dominoes or 4 dice.

Tip#3: Get Lots of Sleep!

Getting enough sleep is essential to look younger, lose weight and feel great. Unfortunately, a recent survey found that 75% of Americans believe they are not getting enough sleep on a regular basis. Sleep deprivation causes our skin to look older and drier because during sleep is when our skin renews itself. So, make sure you are getting enough sleep every night. Make it a priority!

Tip#4: Eat Foods That Make Your Skin Glow!

Our skin is the body’s largest organ and it requires proper nutrition to stay healthy, beautiful and youthful looking. A, C, E & Selenium are necessary vitamins to help you look your best!

Foods Rich in Vitamin A: Broccoli, Spinach, Hale, Kale, Halibut, Red Peppers

Foods Rich in Vitamin C: Strawberries, Citrus Fruits, Tomatoes, Cantaloupes

Foods Rich in Vitamin E: Almonds, Asparagus, Avocados, Seeds, Olives

Foods Rich in Selenium: Nuts, Garlic, Poultry

Tip#5: Get Your Body Moving!

When you feel like there’s not enough time in the day or you just don’t know where or how to begin, we’ve put together a few tips on ways you can sneak exercise into your busy life without having to sacrifice anything on your to-do list.

1) If you take public transportation, get off a stop or two early and walk. Or, take the stairs instead of the elevator. And if you work in a high rise get off the elevator a few stories early and take the stairs the rest of the way. When going shopping, park at the far end of the parking lot.

2) Join a health club near your work so that you can more conveniently get a work out in during your lunch or before/after work.

3) Use you speaker phone at work and walk around the room while speaking.

4) Make sure you either stand, walk around or stretch at least once every hour, for even just a minute. It’s important to keep your blood circulating.

5) When traveling, walk around the airport while waiting for your flight instead of just sitting at the terminal.

Just doing a little bit of exercise every day counts. While you should try to get in at least 30 minutes a day, sometimes you just can’t, remember these simple tips and try to work them into various times throughout your day.

Remember, every little bit helps! Use common sense and reward yourself with a good book or iced tea instead of grabbing an unhealthy snack when you are following your diet. Take little walks around the building on your break, and call a friend to walk on the weekends. If you use these tips this year you will be on the road to not only looking beautiful but feeling good!

by expertvillage

Learn the basic “Swinging Circles” moves used in Indian club training in this free online fitness video.

by expertvillage

Learn tips on a great lower body cross fitness exercise that will keep you healthy in this free health and fitness video.