FitSugar

Get Physical: Tandem Biking

FitSugar — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 02:30:00 PDT

When you bike with your man does he have trouble keeping up with you? Well, I have a solution - a tandem bike. If you are on the same bike there is no playing catch up.

There is a certain amount of teamwork involved, so it is great for those team building skills. You can share the bike with just about anyone - husband, friend or child, but just make sure the larger rider is up front steering. This is important for handling and balancing a much longer bike, and this rider is known as captain. The person riding in back isn't getting a free ride, they provide constant pedal power and are known as the stroker.

Now if you do choose to venture off on a bicycle built for two, know ahead of time the communication between cyclists is very important. Since the stroker cannot see the road, it is the captain's job to warn the stroker of upcoming bumps in the road. The stroker must also leave the steering to the captain. Tandem biking is really equal part trust exercise and part fun. Definitely a little give and take.

If you are interested call up a local bike shop and see if they rent tandem bikes. Then make a date, make a picnic and head out on the road. Be sure to wear helmets (unlike the couple in the photo)!!!!

3 Sexy Valentine's Day Dates to Keep You Healthy and Fit

Michele Foley — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:32:16 PST

Valentine's Day is always a good excuse to heat things up, and there's always a healthy, fun, and sexy way to celebrate the love-filled day, whether you're spending the holiday with friends or that special someone!

Girls Night Out: Pole Dancing Class
A pole dancing class is a frisky way for friends to celebrate Valentine's Day together. It's a little intimidating to swing around a pole while also letting out your sexier side, but when doing it with a group of your favorite girlfriends, it becomes easier. Besides being a great excuse to get together, this dance-inspired workout will help you tap into your sensual side while also helping tone muscles, firm the body, and increase flexibility. Once class is over, head out together for a glass of heart-healthy wine.

Group Date: Salsa Dancing
If a perfect date night for you involves getting together with other couples, charge things up by going salsa dancing. Besides being an easy way to burn calories, salsa is like flirting on the dance floor. From the rhythmic Latin beats to all that hip shaking, things are guaranteed to get hot. Don't be afraid to switch things up during the night. It's almost expected that you'll dance with different partners while out for a night of salsa dancing.

For You and Him: Couples Massage . . .
If you're going the traditional route and spending Valentine's Day with that special someone, indulge by getting a couple's massage. It will help you both relax, offer relief from stress, and ease muscle soreness that comes from exercise or the demands of the day. From there, cook a healthy dinner together and don't forget to get physical - and not at the gym! Valentine's Day is a good excuse to be intimate with your partner, especially given all the health benefits of having sex.

Relationship Rehab: 12 Steps To Becoming A Happier Couple In 2012

YourTango — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 04:00:30 PST

We're happy to present this excerpt from one of our favorite sites, YourTango.

What's your New Year's resolution for 2012? To exercise more? To be more productive? We bet "a more honest and open relationship" isn't on many of your lists. That's because tons of people put their relationships on autopilot, hoping the kinks will just work themselves out - and then they argue each and every day, and end up resenting each other. The best way to have a happy relationship is to keep working on it, so even if you're not currently in a relationship rut, follow these 12 tips from our staff and you'll keep being happy.

Say "please" and "thank you." This shows your partner you appreciate them and keeps you from taking each other for granted.
Grab your partner's butt every day (or at least every other day).
Kiss every morning!
Say "good morning" every morning.
Cuddle.
Spend at least one night a week with your significant other and family/friends, i.e. don't hole up all by yourselves.
Use baby talk/pet names very sparingly. If you overuse these, you could damage your relationship since you won't be able to relate to each other seriously.
DO THE DISHES. Set up some type of system for who does them when.

Get the final steps when you finish reading the rest of the story on YourTango: Relationship Rehab: 12 Steps To Becoming A Happier Couple In 2012

Written by Natalie Gontcharova for YourTango.

Do You Prefer to Exercise Alone?

Michele Foley — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 14:09:12 PDT

With the exception of spin class, I don't like exercising alone. I rely on my workout club as a way to stay motivated, and I also like that it gives me time to hang with my friends. In general, working out alone has never appealed to me: hiking is always more fun when I have someone to talk to; biking with a partner is great because I unwind with someone at the end of a ride; and, having a friend go with me to a fitness class helps calm my nervousness.

Compared to a lot of people, I seem to be in the minority. Most people I've spoken with prefer to hit the gym alone because they can better focus on their workouts. For them, working out with other people leads to distractions either because they're too busy talking, or they work out at entirely different levels and then have to compensate. How about you?

The Best Time Investments You Can Make

LearnVest — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:15:57 PST

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

We all agree that time is more valuable than money.

At least, that’s what we say.

Then we turn around and spend hours watching bad TV we’re not even that interested in. Or 45 minutes on the phone with customer service fighting a $5 charge. Or years in a relationship or friendship we stopped feeling fulfilled by long ago.

But I’m convinced it’s not for a lack of good intent that we often end up treating time as our most fungible asset. (Hey, there’s plenty more where that came from, right? Well, not really . . . ) I think we simply get too busy to think about it, or don’t think we have the resources to make more time in our lives. We do have the resources, though. All it takes is a fresh look at how we really spend our days, hours and moments.

I’ve been thinking about time as a tangible asset not unlike money in many ways, and about ways to invest our time to yield higher returns - better memories, more hours well spent, even minutes that nourish us instead of fly by. After much research, experience and reflection, below are what I found to be the seven best investments you can make with your time. Think of these as blue-chip time investments that can’t go wrong - and that will yield high dividends for a more fulfilled life.

1. Invest in “Life-Extending” Time

Investing time in caring for your health is an obvious one that will certainly yield you more time, literally - in days, months, if not years tacked on to your life. Yet we often take our health for granted until we experience a wake-up call. Proactively invest your time in your health by eating well, exercising regularly, getting plenty of sleep and regularly seeing your doctors. Invest heartily in those non-physical markers of well-being as well: emotional, mental and spiritual health - you will reap many hours of well-lived life from them. Learn the habits of the Blue Zone people, from the regions in the world where people live the longest. Some common lifestyle traits they share? Building in natural movement and activity, lowering stress and being part of a faith-based community.

Read on for more great time investments.

Top 10 Signs It's Time For a New Workout Buddy

Jenny Sugar — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 03:19:13 PST

Finding the perfect workout buddy can be as challenging as finding the right pair of sneaks. Whether they push you too much or not nearly enough, here are some signs it's time to "break up" with your fitness partner.

She calls you five minutes before you're supposed to meet her outside for a morning run and invites you over for pancakes instead.
She obnoxiously screams out random numbers while you're trying to count out reps.
You hop on the treadmill next to your buddy, and while punching in your weight, she glances over and exclaims, "Holy crap, you weigh _____!!"
She tells you to bail on your group session with the hot fitness trainer because she wants to "make her move."
While doing your dumbbell sets, she continually asks, "Are you done yet?"

Keep reading to see the last five signs it's time to find a new workout buddy.

Reese Witherspoon Goes For a Pre-Holiday Walk With a Friend

Lindsay Miller — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 02:30:00 PST

Reese Witherspoon took a sunny stroll with a friend yesterday in Brentwood. The actress, who frequently fits in outdoor workouts, traded her usual jogging routine for a walk as she chatted up her exercise partner. Reese has been taking a break from work in recent months and has been spending lots of time with her loved ones during the hiatus. She regularly attends Sunday church services with her husband Jim Toth and kids Ava and Deacon Phillippe, shops at the Brentwood Country Mart near her home, and meets up for casual meals with her friends.

Not all of her outings are low-key, however. Earlier this month, she stepped out in a sexy LBD for the LACMA Art + Film Gala's red carpet, and she also made a showstopping appearance in Nashville at the recent CMA Awards. Reese was an attendee rather than an honoree at both events, but it was recently announced that she'll be given an award by the Gene Siskel Film Center in 2012, and she's also currently up for a People's Choice Award.

Get Your Partner to Exercise: No Nagging, Bribing, or Insulting Required

FitSugar — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 00:03:28 PDT

Fitness may be a priority for you, but your husband, boyfriend, or partner might be another story. If you wish your better half would include more exercise in their day whether it's to relieve stress, drop a few pounds, or as a way to spend more time together, I'm sure you've discovered that nagging, bribing, or insulting them are surefire ways to get them to shun sweating it out. Plus, it won't make you feel very good if you're constantly pressuring your partner to get moving. Your significant other is more likely to start working out and stick with it if he or she feels like it's their idea, so give these tactics a try.

Work the money angle. Mention that the gym you want to go to offers huge deals if you join with a friend. Who doesn't jump at the opportunity to save a little moolah?
Speak their language. If saving dough isn't exciting enough, lure your significant other with talk about air-conditioning, deals on massages, and huge TVs to watch sports and The Food Network.
Make it about your dog. If you have a four-legged friend, mention that you went to the vet, and your doc is really concerned about recent weight gain leading to a doggie heart attack. That'll pull on the old heart strings a little, and will certainly inspire regular walks or runs with Fido, but really, Fido will be walking or running them (wink).
Surprise, you're exercising! There's no backing down if you casually sign the two of you up for a Partner Yoga retreat, salsa dance class, or dodgeball team.
Throw them a compliment. Come home from the gym all upset and say, "I really wish you were with me to spot me on the machines because you're so patient and strong. I'd much rather have you help me than one of the random muscly dudes at the gym. Could you meet me after work tomorrow?" Flattery can work wonders and maybe once they show up, they'll do a few sets and like it so much that you'll have yourself a permanent spotter and gym buddy.

Keep reading for more ideas.

Commemorate Veterans Day With Chin-Ups and Push-Ups

Susi May — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 09:04:27 PST

Today is Veterans Day and to commemorate the day I thought we should cover where the fitness world and the military collide and that's the ever-popular boot camp. I talked recently with vet Ruben Belliard, co owner of Warrior Fitness Boot Camp in NYC. A former Marine (but I think Ruben would say once a Marine always a Marine), Ruben met his business partner Alex Fell at basic training, and now these two train for triathlons together. Both have seen action overseas but now spend their days helping us civies get our sweat on.

When I think military workout, I think pull-ups. Ruben clarified for me something you might already know: the difference between a chin-up and pull-up is not how high you go, but the grip. With a pull-up, your palms face away from you and this grip means you're relying on your back muscles to pull you up to the bar. The palms-facing-in grip of the chin-up means the biceps and the pecs can assist you in your upward motion. According to Ruben regardless of your grip, if you want to pull your head up toward a bar you need to strengthen your muscles by doing assisted pull-ups first. He suggests using the assisted pull-up machines (our fave way to tackle this move at the gym), superbands (a big rubber band that helps you up), or a friend to push your legs from below while you pull with all your might.

To learn why push-ups are important, keep on reading.

Lazy Boyfriend? How to Stay Healthy When He's Not

Michele Foley — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 03:06:39 PDT

Being in love is a fun way to pass the time. Dates, kisses, and cuddles - who doesn't like that kind of stuff? But what if your boyfriend is more into Cheetos than crunches? Before picking up his habits, follow these tips so you'll stay healthy even when he's not.

He's a Cuddle Monster
There's absolutely nothing wrong with time spent under the covers, as long as you remember to come up for air! The more time you're spending cuddling on the couch watching TV and movies probably means you have less time for yourself. Often the first thing that goes when you're in a relationship are your daily visits to the gym, Sunday morning yoga classes, or Saturday evening runs. Instead of sacrificing your entire fitness regimen, schedule it into your life the same way you treat your time together. Fit in a yoga class before you meet for dinner or use these tips to squeeze in a workout during a lunch break. Wake up a little early to hit the trail for a run, or let your partner know that you're dedicating a few hours of each week to your fitness regimen.

More tips on dealing with his junk food habit and those fun, fattening dates after the break!