I was first introduced to the foam roller in my pilates class and since then we have had a love-hate relationship.
I love how my muscles feel after rolling them along the foam, but the process kills!
Here are some tips from Shape.com to using the foam roller and reaping the benefits. Remember when it really hurts is probably when you need it the most.
Stretching Exercises
The foam roller is an effective tool for anyone that experiences tightness in the quads, hamstrings, or calves. “A client can complain of knee aches and in just 3 minutes of rolling out the IT band, they report greatly diminished pain,” says Jackie Warner, fitness trainer and star of Personal Training with Jackie: Power Circuit Training.
If you’re using the roller to release tightness in the legs, position your body over the roller and lower yourself down. Aim to hold each foam roller exercise for about 20-30 seconds. Rolling these muscles can be painful, but you’ll feel much better after. “Avoid direct contact on the joints and focus more on the deep muscle and connective tissue right above or below the joints,” adds Warner. This technique shouldn’t be used to treat injuries. You might cause more damage when muscles and surrounding ligaments or tissues are inflamed.
Correcting Posture
Stand taller by using the roller to correct postural imbalance. Try lying on the roller with your body in a bridge and slowly roll up and down your vertebrae. This foam roller exercise will help release tension in the muscles surrounding your spine. Many people also roll their upper backs in lieu of going to see a massage therapist.
Strength Training
You can focus on your balance and core muscles with the roller too, but it’s a bit more advanced. “Some instructors use them as a balance strengthener by doing squats and kicks while standing or kneeling on rollers, but do so with a professional instructor that can help you get the most out of it,” adds Warner. Looking for a more basic move? Try focusing on your triceps with this foam roller exercise.
Pelleres weighted arm-sleeves are the secret to getting fit fast!These biomechanically designed weighted arm-sleeves are proven to strengthening your core, burning more calories and it events prevents injuries!
This is a great solution for athletes who want to train at an advanced level, but it’s also great for busy mothers who want to lose weight while working around the house.
Here’s how it works:
“By applying weights to the forearms an imbalance is instantly created in the upper body which overloads the body and engages your core. As the core muscles work harder to compensate for the imbalance, the core is simultaneously strengthened and stabilised. When the body is overloaded with weight it is forced to adapt and become more powerful.”
Be sure to start with a weight that’s right for you and to check out the website Here.
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Do you treat your cool down in the same way that you treat your post-workout stretching? You know you’re suppose to, but you usually skip it.
Women’s Health Magazine decided to ask their experts if this golden rule was an established fact from science or just the automatic set-up of the treadmill. Here’s what they discovered:
“Cooling down is not a joke according to Adam Friedman, Gold’s Gym Fitness Institute expert.
Though not mandatory, it is helpful to cool down when you’re working at a high intensity—which is at or above 85 percent of your maximum heart rate*.
When you’re pushing hard, your blood is moving quickly around your body to provide nutrients and oxygen to the muscles. When you stop immediately, the blood can sometimes draw back into the stomach area, occasionally leaving you feeling dizzy or nauseous.
But even if you feel a bit woozy, it’s not necessarily dangerous or harmful to your body—just a little uncomfortable.
What about the idea it can relieve muscle soreness?
It might relieve cramping, says Jordan D. Metzl, M.D., sports medicine physician, Hospital for Special Surgery, but it’s a myth that cooling-down can ease muscle soreness.
“When you’re sore, it’s really because you’ve made tiny tears in your muscles,” says Metzl. “Cooling-down won’t help that, and it won’t really help from an injury perspective.”
To sum it up: The next time you hit the treadmill, don’t worry about completing the 5-minute cool-down unless you’ve really been pushing yourself and need that time to catch your breath and stretch out your rubber legs. “
Celebrity fitness trainer, and author of No Gym Required: Unleash Your Inner Rockstar, Jennifer Cohen goes back-to-basics. Her focus on using body weight instead of the latest gadgets, coupled with a clean-living diet to maximize health and strength, has created clear results. In this video, she explains to WatchMojo.com how the most basic exercises are the most effective and how easy it is to stay in shape without going to the gym. For more information click Here
I came across this diet that I had never heard of before. It looks simple enough.
No funny science or calorie accounting involved, just a few simple and mnemonic tricks for giving your willpower the upper hand.
There are just three rules and one exception:
No Snacks
No Sweets
No Seconds
Except (sometimes) on days that start with “S”
Yoga and pilates are both great forms of exercise for stress, flexibility and killer abs!
Check out these moves that take the best of both yoga and pilate moves to create yogilates from Women’s Health. The fusion was created when Jonathan Urla, instructor at The Sports Club/LA in New York City realized his yoga class was so much easier after having completed a pilates class right before.
Three Great Yogilates Moves for Your Abs
1. Hammock
Targets abdominals as well as glutes, arms, chest, and shoulders
a) Sit tall with your legs bent and feet flat on the floor; place your hands on the floor behind you at about a 45-degree angle; lean back.
b) Keeping your arms straight, inhale as you lift your hips until the front of your body—knees to shoulders—is in one straight line.
c) Lower your hips to the floor, straightening your legs out in front of you as you come down to a seated position.
d) Place your hands next to your thighs and lean forward, pulling your abs in toward your spine.
e) Then push down through your hands to lift your hips off the floor. Hold here.
Repeat 5 to 10 times.
2. Double leg stretch
Strengthens and tones the abs
a) Lie on the floor, bend and hold onto your knees, and curl your shoulders up off the floor.
b) Keeping your hips down and your lower back pressed into your mat, extend your legs up and out at a 45 degree angle to the floor as you reach your arms straight up (biceps near ears) forming a wide “U” shape with your body.
c) Hold this position, pressing your ribs down toward the floor.
d) Use your abs to bring your legs and arms back to starting position with your knees bent.
Repeat 5 to 10 times.
3. Side twists
Works all ab muscles, in particular the obliques
a) Lie on your back with arms extended out at your sides, knees bent, and feet flat on the floor. Lift your bent legs to form a right angle with your torso.
b) Keeping both legs together and both your shoulders pressing into the floor, twist and drop your legs to the left until they’re halfway or nearly touching the floor.
c) Bring your knees back to center and twist and drop them to the right side without bringing them to the floor. Return to center.
Repeat 3 to 5 times per side.
Muffin tops, bra-fat and thunder thighs will be a thing of the past when you zap your trouble zones with these workout tips!
FITNESS magazine asked its readers for the trouble zones they most wanted to sculpt and then they asked their fitness experts for their ultimate slimming moves.
“For a total-body makeover, do all the exercises on these pages. Or pick and choose a few to target specific problem areas. Whether you do the all-over or a la carte workout, add a one-minute jog or jump-rope blast between sets to burn big calories. Perform the plan twice a week on nonconsecutive days to give your muscles mending time.”
Visit FITNESS for a workout that will tone your trouble zones.
You can also watch WatchMojo.com’s Bikini Body Workout
While it is still important to see you doctor every year for a physical, it’s also just as important to do your own check-up of your own. Evaluating everything from your flexibility to your waist line are great indicators of your over all health and great ways to pin point any problems.
Here are easy tests from Fitness Magazine that you can do at home. Follow the link for more details.
1. Test Your Flexibility
2. Monitor Your Menstrual Cycle
3. Count the Number of Moles on Your Body- Beware if you have more than 50
4. Feel the Backs of Your Arms
5. Inspect Your Arches
6. Record How Much Weight You’ve Gained Since High School
7. Track Your Toxic Fat
8. Measure Your Waist-It should be no more than 32 inches
9. Test Your Attention Skills
10. Note How Often You Have a Headache or an Upset Stomach- More than once a month is a problem
11. Check Your Eyelids for Allergies
12. Take Your Temperature When You Wake Up- if it’s below 98.6, that could indicate a condition known as hypothyroidism, or an underactive thyroid
13. Monitor Your Breathing
SUP or stand-up paddle surfing is the latest workout that will tone your arms and abs in no time.
This calorie-burning workout can be done anywhere that there’s a body of water. You can sign up for water lessons or even enroll in a SUP training camp.
Shape Magazine has a list of possible courses you can take Here.
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