Harley Pasternak

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar.

If your New Year's resolution to get in shape stalled out fast, you might be panicking right about now since bikini season is right around the bend. Making up for lost time with an aggressive workout routine will likely leave you sore, but begging for more once you see your thighs trim down and take form.

That burn you feel 24 to 48 hours after an intense workout is called delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), and it's enough to make you want to put down the Kettlebell and pick up a cocktail. But press on! We talked to fitness and nutrition expert Harley Pasternak, M.Sc., author of The 5-Factor World Diet, and trainer to celebrities like Lady Gaga, Megan Fox, and Halle Berry, about why (some) pain is good.

"The idea behind resistance training is that you're basically tearing something and creating a micro trauma in the muscle," Pasternak says. "When the muscle recovers, it's going to recover stronger and denser than it was before." So that soreness you feel the day after an upper-body workout — when you're hauling groceries into your car and you can hardly lift your arms — is good.

Just make sure what you're suffering from is DOMS and not an injury. "A good way to tell the difference is if the pain is bilateral," Pasternak says. Having one very sore shoulder after you've worked both shoulders could spell injury.

If you feel normal soreness in a muscle, ligament, or tendon, it's DOMS and you can continue working out around it, Pasternak says. In the case of arms and shoulders, you can work your quads, abs, or glutes and then move back to your upper body in a few days.

Now learn how to avoid post-workout pain with more tips from Harley.

Strapless and backless gowns give a bride an opportunity to show off her shapely shoulders. But a blushing bride doesn't want to look muscle-bound as she walks down the aisle, so one must be strategic when it comes to upper body toning. The trainer behind some of the hottest bodies in Hollywood, Harley Pasternak — he helped Hilary Duff and Katy Perry get wedding-ready — has some tips to help us all look stunning in this season's revealing necklines.

The trick to looking good in a strapless dress is posture. Standing tall with the aid of a strong upper back ensures that all those wedding photos turn out lovely. Harley recommends strengthening the rhomboids and triceps to "pull your shoulders back, give you a natural boob lift, and give you a nice long lean strong upper back and arms." Um . . . yes please! Here are four exercises he recommends to do just that:

• Dumbbell rows to work the rhomboids.
• Cable rows to strengthen the upper back. Here's a rowing variation using an exercise band if you don't have access to a cable pulley machine.
• Lying dumbbell triceps extension for the back of the upper arm.
• Single dumbbell triceps overhead extension will challenge your posture while toning your triceps.

See the exercises Harley suggests brides avoid.

In the November issue of Health, actress Hilary Duff opens up feeling confident and finding the perfect balance between health, happiness, and love. For Hilary, moderation is key — along with a regular dose of Pilates! The hard work she's been doing with trainer Harley Pasternak shows; Hilary looks fantastic on the cover. Check out the highlights here:

• On eating healthy: "Recently, I have been eating a lot of vegetables and hummus and fruit — stuff I never really liked before. If I am hungry before bed, I will grab a handful of blueberries. Greek yogurt is one of my favorite things in the whole world. Sometimes I'll chop up a bunch of veggies and out them in a food processor with Greek yogurt and make a dip."
• On her favorite workouts: "I was a gymnast when I was little, so I think Pilates is really important to helping me stay long and lean. I try to do it three times a week. I also do circuit training. Before I wasn't doing much cardio — just Pilates — and I wasn't getting the same results, so I bumped up my cardio and do circuits probably twice a week."

Find out what Hilary said about her health regrets when you read more

After learning what Skinny Bitch author Kim Barnouin's kitchen staples are, I took a peek in my own cabinets. Besides having a lot of the basics (and everything on Kim's list), I realized that one of my staples is a bit more unusual: soba noodles. Growing up with an Asian mom, I was fed soba noodles as much as other kids were given PB&J. My mom knew that it was an easy way to get essential nutrients into my diet — I mean, what kid doesn't love noodles?

Extremely versatile, soba noodles can be served hot or cold, and work well in soups, salads, and stir-frys. And because they're made from buckwheat flour, they're also good for you. Trainer Harley Pasternak loves soba noodles because they're full of fiber, and I love that they're full of protein, iron, and amino acids.

Soba noodles are in most major supermarkets in the Asian grocery aisle, or you can find them at any Japanese market. Pick some up tonight and use them in this healthy tofu and peanut sauce stir-fry — you'll be a soba convert.

Source: Flick user kadluba

While doing research on Jackie Warner's new television show Thintervention, I came across a video interview with her on Bravo. In it, the trainer gives advice on diet and exercise, with one of her key points being to "ditch processed foods and sugar." For Jackie, it's sugar that's to blame for weight gain. Sound advice for sure, but I was surprised to hear her say that it's for this reason that we need to "get away from yogurt completely." I consider Greek yogurt to be pretty healthy, and it's definitely a staple in my diet. Similarly, Harley Pasternak shared with me in a recent interview that he recommends choosing other fruit over bananas or grapes because they lack fiber and are high in sugar. Both trainers feel that there are better alternatives for nutrients than these foods.

As far as healthy foods go, I stay away from seafood because of mercury levels, fishing practices, and bacteria scares. I know that seafood provides a lot of great health benefits, but for the reasons I mentioned above I don't eat it as often as I should. How about you? What healthy foods do you stay away from and why? Share your answers with me in the comments section below.