FitSugar

Road Tripping Moves For T-Day Travel

FitSugar — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:00:55 PST

Considered the most travel saturated holiday in the US, many of us will be taking to the road or to the skies to see our family and friends this Thanksgiving. If you're flying try these stretches to keep yourself sane on the plane. And if you're driving I have a few moves to keep your body awake and make good use of your time stuck in traffic.

Steering wheel isometrics: Using simple isometric exercises, you can work your arms. Start with your hands at nine and three on the steering wheel (just like driver's ed class) and press inward with your arms. Hold for five counts, but keep the tension out of your neck. Repeat four times, and then move your hands to 10 and two and repeat. Changing positions of your hands will work different muscle groups.
Belly vacuums: This is a great way to work your abs at traffic lights or waiting out a traffic jam. On an exhale simply pull your abs toward your spine without letting your back round. Keep the abs engaged and focus on breathing into the back of your ribs for three to five breaths.
Glute winks: Your bum can get sore and numb from sitting for so long. This exercise not only works the glutes a bit, it also gets the circulation going once again and can relieve low back pain, too. Simply squeeze your right glute for three to five seconds, release it and switch sides. Repeat for a total of 10 times.

Feeling tense behind the wheel, I have a few remedies so

Travel Tips: 3 Car Exercises For Road Tripping

FitSugar — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:00:00 PST

For the most popular travel holiday of the year, Thanksgiving finds many of us stressed out in airports or on long road trips. But just because you're stuck in a car doesn't mean you should completely neglect your body. I have a few easy car exercises so you can work your body while still focusing on the road.

Steering wheel isometrics: Using simple isometric exercises, you can work your arms. Start with your hands at nine and three on the steering wheel (just like driver's ed class) and press inward with your arms. Hold for five counts, but keep the tension out of your neck. Repeat four times, and then move your hands to 10 and two and repeat. Changing positions of your hands will work different muscle groups.
Belly vacuums: This is a great way to work your abs at traffic lights or waiting out a traffic jam. On an exhale simply pull your abs toward your spine without letting your back round. Keep the abs engaged and focus on breathing into the back of your ribs for three to five breaths.
Glute winks: Your bum can get sore and numb from sitting for so long. This exercise not only works the glutes a bit, it also gets the circulation going once again and can relieve low back pain, too. Simply squeeze your right glute for three to five seconds, release it and switch sides. Repeat for a total of 10 times.

Happy, safe, and fit travels to you all.

Source

Exercise In Your Car: But Don't CRASH

FitSugar — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 15:14:17 PST

In honor of the Oscar winning Best Picture from last year, I created a mini-car workout. Now you must be careful so you don't Crash while doing these 3 exercises. Remember keep your eyes on the road, but you can make any car ride beneficial for your body.

Here's what you do:

Work your abdominals by holding in your belly for 30 to 60 seconds. This will work your deep abdominals and help you on your way to a flatter stomach. Focus on breathing in the back and sides of your lungs while keeping your belly pulled toward your spine.
Squeeze your glutes alternating sides. Left booty for 5 seconds, then right booty for 5 seconds. Keep alternating sides for 10 to 20 reps. This can be a little challenging at first, but it is a great way to create some circulation on your backside while sitting on it.
Put one arm, and one arm only, behind your headrest and push your hand toward your head. You should feel your bicep contract. Hold this for 10 seconds, then switch arms. This is a great exercise to try when you are at a stop light, rather than a curvy road or a crowded freeway.

Try these exercises on your evening commute.

5 Surprising Health Benefits of Being a Sports Fan

Prevention — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 04:19:15 PST

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Prevention here on FitSugar!

By Cristina Goyanes, Prevention

It’s no wonder your friends aren’t available to hang out on Sundays in the Fall and Winter - according to a 2005 Gallup Poll, 64 percent of Americans claim to be professional football fans, and as of 2010, women make up 44 percent of the NFL fan base.

Being a sports fan doesn’t mean you’re expected to know all the players and stats of your hometown teams and destined for a beer gut - it’s about coming together in the name of good times as part of a community.

“Bonding over sports - the highs and lows of the game - strengthens ties, helps us feel supported, and makes it easier for you to open up about personal things,” says Renee Clauselle, PsyD, who runs a private psychology practice in Long Island, NY.

Seventeen Unexpected Side Effects of Exercise

Rooting for the same team creates an immediate sense of family, says Daniel Wann, PhD, a Murray State University professor who has been studying the psychology of sports fans for over 20 years. “If you identify with a local team, you build an instant connection to others around you,” he says.

Beyond the bonding aspects, watching sports can motivate you to pump up your own workouts - and even burn a few extra calories when you jump, cheer, and clap during the highlights of the game. Find out more ways being a sports fan is a winning situation for your health.

Keep reading to learn how being a sports fan benefits your health.

Mistakes You're Making on the Pilates Mat

Susi May — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 02:51:53 PST

Mat classes are the most affordable way to reap the benefits of Pilates. Taught across the country at gyms and private studios, group classes mean you don't have an instructor cuing and correcting your every move. Make the most of your time on the mat and be mindful of these common mistakes I've seen in classes over the years.

Not Going Deep
There are many benefits to Pilates, but getting in touch with the deep abs, aka the transverse abdominals, is, to me, the most important. If the deep abs are working, then all four layers of ab muscles will be working right along with it, making for a very stable torso. In class, use every exhale as opportunity to reengage your abs and pull them into your spine with a little lift up. If the abs are pooching outward, you're only working the top layer of the abs and training them to pull away from the spine - the opposite effect of what you want.

Momentum Is Not Your Friend
Deliberate pauses are built into the choreography of many Pilates exercises to prevent momentum from taking over the motion. The Pilates method was originally named Contrology (the study of control) to emphasize this very concept. Going slowly is key. Jayme Boyle, the group fitness coordinator and Pillates mat instructor at the SF Equinox, explains the importance of forgoing momentum like this: "Slower pace means you’re turning on stabilizing muscles and you’re creating more isometric contractions." And I have to agree. Pilates is not a race.

Keep reading for more common Pilates mat class mistakes.

From the Community: a Total-Body Toning Circuit

Fit Community — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:57:49 PST

FitSugar reader FitFabCities has a circuit workout that works your entire body. She shared the video with us in our Fit Community.

Grab a resistance band and a pair of dumbbells, and you're good to go for this full-body circuit-training workout . . . and the best part is you don't even have to leave your living room to do it. That said, this is also a great workout to try at the gym if you're looking to switch up your regular routine.

Circuit training means you move from exercise to exercise and take minimal breaks between the moves so you keep your heart rate up the entire time. This helps to burn a lot of calories in a short amount of time, something I love. There are eight exercises total in this workout, and we are going for about 15 reps per exercise. You'll notice there are a lot of multimuscle group exercises meaning you'll work more than one muscle at once, which is perfect if you're short on time. Let's be honest, who's isn't?

Strength training is so important since it helps to prevent injury, increase bone density, increase muscle mass (meaning you burn more calories just doing things like driving your car or watching Bravo) and, of course, it helps you feel fab in your jeans.

You might want to watch this workout video once to preview the exercises then follow along for a kick-butt, total body workout sure to burn lots of calories and tighten and tone every muscle in your body!

Keep reading for the video and workout breakdown.

8 Small Ways to Lose Big Pounds in 2012

Prevention — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 04:06:22 PST

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Prevention here on FitSugar!

Quadruple your weight loss by making one easy tweak to your routine per week
By Alyssa Shaffer

If your goal is to lose weight and exercise more, forget the deprivation diet and marathon workouts. New research shows that taking baby steps - not giant leaps -is the best way to get lasting results. A study published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine found that participants who made one small, potentially permanent change in their food choices and/or physical activity each week (such as drinking one fewer can of soda or walking five more minutes each day) lost more than twice as much belly fat, two and half more inches off their waistlines, and about four times more weight during a four-month program, compared with those who followed traditional calorie-restriction and physical-activity guidelines.

"When you focus on just a couple of small changes at a time, you begin to ingrain some healthy habits that last for a lifetime, rather than trying an all-or-nothing approach that more often than not fails because it's too hard to follow," says Lesley Lutes, PhD, an assistant professor in the department of psychology at East Carolina University. We've uncovered these simple steps (with proven results) to help you move more, eat less, and look and feel better than ever. Add just one or two a week to your regular routine and you can lose nearly three inches off your waistline and be about 10 pounds lighter come in a few months. Even better: Once these healthy habits become second nature, they'll benefit you for a lifetime.

1. Pick Up a Pen After Every Meal
Mindlessly munching on a bag of chips could result in easily polishing off the whole thing; write down how much you've eaten and you're more likely to practice portion control. Keeping a food log helps control extra calories in two ways: the combination of plain old reality check (I just ate 30 minutes ago!) and awareness that what you're putting in your mouth will soon be recorded for posterity. In a recent study, people who kept a food journal lost twice as much weight as those who didn't. When they combined it with a moderate diet and exercise plan, they lost an average of 13 pounds in 6 months. Journaling also gives you insight on your eating habits, says Lutes. Do you skip meals? Eat the same during the week as on the weekend? Binge when you're feeling stressed? "Knowing your routine helps you figure out what changes are right for you," she adds.

Avoid these 14 "health food" diet disasters.

2. Limit High-Fat Foods to One Per Week
Tag the high-fat/high-calorie foods that are typically your favorites (our top five: cookies, candy, ice cream, potato chips, and fries) and gradually downshift. "If you're eating six of these foods a week, try to go down to five," says Lutes. Each week, drop another until you're at no more than one or two; at the same time, add in a good-for-you choice like baby carrots, sautéed broccoli, oranges, and other fresh fruits and veggies.

Keep reading for more simple tip to help you lose big.

How to Create a Financial Vision Board

LearnVest — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 00:15:40 PST

We're thrilled to present this smart LearnVest story here on Savvy!

What if there were a fun, free, creative project that could help you reach your financial goals faster?

Well, there is. And the holidays-when there’s no shortage of catalogs lying around-are the perfect time to whip out the scissors and glue, and kick off the new year right by creating a financial vision board.

What is a vision board? Basically, it’s a poster or bulletin board you fill with images and words that illustrate your ideal life. You can tear photos from magazines, put up cards or print Google images, or draw whatever it is you need.

The goal is to choose five to ten goals you want to focus on. Maybe your board will include a new job and a perfect house, a dream wedding and a healthy baby, or you, smiling because you’ve finally gotten out of debt or saved up an emergency fund. Then again, maybe it will be filled with all of the above.

The benefits of this exercise are twofold: Not only can mapping out your priorities help you determine where your money should go, tapping into your deepest desires can set you on a path to achieving what may seem out of reach today.

After all, just the simple act of writing down your goals helps you focus your energy on making them a reality.

What You’ll Need:

- Poster board or corkboard
- A glue stick or rubber cement (plain old glue tends to cause magazine pages to
ripple) or, if using cork board, thumbtacks
- Catalogs and magazines. The more variety, the better.
- Peace and quiet.

Read on to learn how to create a successful vision board.

Nutrition Myths That Can Cause Weight Gain

Shape — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 04:04:23 PST

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

Myth: Going Vegan Will Make You Lose Weight
"While various research shows that vegetarians and vegans, on average, consume fewer calories and less fat than omnivores (a 2009 Oxford study found that vegetarians weigh 3 to 20 percent less than their meat-eating counterparts, and a National Cancer Institute study found that subjects who consumed four ounces or more of red meat weekly were 30 percent more likely to die of any cause than those who ate less), these numbers may be misleading," says Rania Batayneh, MPH, a certified nutritionist and owner of Essential Nutrition for You.

Going vegan solely for weight loss can backfire, big time. If you aren’t vigilant with a vegan diet, it’s easy to lack in vital nutrients, vitamins, and proteins, which give you energy and help keep your metabolism stoked. Many first-time vegans may also find themselves reaching for more processed foods like vegan cookies, chips, or even ‘ice cream’ more often with such a restricted diet, and many end up packing on the pounds instead.

If you do decide to adopt a vegan diet, be sure to keep the ‘treats’ to a minimum and plan balanced meals (we love ‘Domestic Vegan’ Diva Jessica Olson’s tips for "going veg"). "Aim to get about 10 to 20 percent of your calories from protein (or about 1 gram per kilogram of body weight), replacing animal protein with healthy plant proteins, like those found in beans, legumes, nuts, seeds, and soy products," Batayneh says. "And, whether you are vegan or not, eating more green, leafy vegetables is great for your health and your waistline."

See which other diet habits may also being causing weight gain after the break!

Lil Gift Guide: Great Gifts For 4-Year-Olds!

Rebecca M Gruber — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 08:33:43 PST

By 4 years old, tots know what they like, and they're already forming their own wish lists for the holidays. Chances are that many of the items on that list are the hottest toys of the season - including the LeapFrog LeapPad and the VTech InnoTab, Lalaloopsy, and Hot Wheels Wall Tracks. If mama's looking for a few new ideas, we've got her covered. Check out our favorite finds for these preschoolers!

The Orb Factory's StoryCraft The Frog Prince ($20) allows for creative storytelling, as tots add shapes and jewels to a 10-page story book about the Frog Prince fairy tale. LeapFrog keeps expanding its popular Tag reading system to do more than just teach tots to read. The LeapFrog Solar System Adventure Pack ($14) uses the Tag stylus to teach lil ones about the solar system - exploring planets and educating tots about life beyond Earth. Exercise doesn't feel like a chore with Diggin's Wobble Deck ($45), which plays music and games while tots try to balance on the board. Mini American Idol fans will love First Act's Voice Rockrz Mic ($25) that not only changes the singer's voice, but provides drumrolls and applause. Kids will rule the neighborhood with Fisher Price's Power Wheels Stinger XT ($250), a motorized car with room for two.