It's pretty commonly known that it's best not to stretch a cold muscle before you warm up. However, more than half of the folks I see at the gym stretch before they work out. This made me wonder about you guys and your stretching habits. I am curious to know . . .
Stress can get the best of us all. One of my favorite stress busters is to sit in bed with a good book. Unfortunately that's not always an option, but food is. Women's Health recently uncovered the top stress reducing foods that you may want to stock up. So relax, I've already rounded up the highlights in this slideshow.
Sitting at your desk doesn't mean you can't work on toning your mid-section. You can work your belly at work without your boss ever knowing you're doing some strength training on the job. All you need to do is pull your navel to your spine, the most basic Pilates move. Here's how:
Sit up straight, keeping your back away from the back of your chair.
Exhale and pull your abs to your spine without curving your back. This will feel a little like a corset. It should feel a little like you are bracing for a punch to the abdomen.
Focus on your low abs; these you can definitely keep engaged while you breathe.
Breathe into your back ribs, wherever you have ribs you have lungs. This is a nice stretch for the intercostals, the muscles between the ribs.
Hold for 30 seconds. Do twice an hour.
Oblique Variation: To challenge your obliques (the abs on the side of the torso) a little more simply tilt your torso slightly to the right and hold that position for 30 seconds. Then, of course, reverse the action by tilting to the left so you can keep even.
Fit's Tip: You can also work your abs when you're waiting at a long traffic light, when stuck in traffic, or heaven forbid, out on a boring date! Try it right now and let me know how it feels.
Have you entered yet to win a $100 Gift Card from Nike? If not, read on and take the quiz after logging onto TeamSugar!
Nike's now iconic tag line "Just do it" seems like an inspirational coach distilled into a three word phrase, but Nike wants to give you even more coaching support.
They created the Nike+ Coaching Mixes to inspire the athlete in you. You can listen to coached runs with voice-overs by Serena Williams, Lance Armstrong and others. How nice to have these athletes in your ear telling you to get moving and go faster while listening to their favorite playlists, available for $10.99.
Nike would also like to give you the chance to win one of five $100 Nike gift cards. To enter the contest just take this short quiz below by 1:00 p.m. PDT on May 12, and five winners will be selected at random. Your eligibility is not based on answering the questions correctly, just on taking the quiz after you are logged in. You do, however, need to be a TeamSugar member to enter. So if you're not already one, just register here for an account. One quiz entry per person; all repeat quizzes will be ignored. Prizes can be shipped to US destinations only.
Remember: You must be logged in to TeamSugar for your quiz to count. For the complete rules, click here. Good luck!
Baking is one of my favorite pasttimes, and I just entered the realm of meringues.
With meringue, you either love it or leave it and my girls love it. I tried this simple dessert recently and was quite pleased with the results. It was interesting to see which dinner guests ate the sorbet and which ate the meringue; my family certainly ate both. After taking a vote, I decided to only cover half the torte with almonds and this decision pleased the five and under set. This is a wonderfully light dessert. You might just want to make it for your mother for her big day.
It is Mother's Day and here at FitSugar we want to know if fitness for you is a family past time with a matrilineal leaning. My mom is into walking and swimming, and she's even a Jazzercise regular. She inspires me, just as I hope to inspire my girls.
It's pretty commonly known that it's best not to stretch a cold muscle before you warm up. However, more than half of the folks I see at the gym stretch before they work out. This made me wonder about you guys and your stretching habits. I am curious to know . . .
Evans
Lyie Van Rycke
Southpole