FitSugar

Get a Jump on Fitness

Susi May — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 09:00:45 PDT

If your workouts are feeling a little lifeless these days, it's time to leave the ground. I am talking about jumping. Adding a little levity to your workout brings tons of benefits as you fight gravity for your liftoff. As long as your joints are sound, here are reasons for adding some jumps and hops to your fitness life.

Tone your legs in record time. Jumping recruits all the major muscles of the lower body. We're talking calves to glutes, and everything in between. Not only does jumping strengthen your muscles, it is great for your bones too. Landing quietly, makes the return to ground a workout too so channel your inner ballerina on the rebound.
Jumping burns crazy mad calories. Think about jumping rope and you know lifting your body off the ground is a workout. Ten minutes of jumping rope burns almost 100 calories.
Get your heart pumping: Exercises used in elementary school, like jumping jacks and skipping, are great for getting your heart rate up. Jumping really challenges the cardiovascular system and is a great way to get the blood flowing before a workout.
It's a balancing act: Leaving the ground on your own volition and returning with grace ultimately improves your balance and agility. Staying upright in one-legged hops works your legs and core, but this simple yet challenging workout trains your body to recover when you trip or lose your footing. Jumping can help improve your reflexes and reaction time.

Get creative with your jumping and add skipping to your treadmill workout like Madonna, or get back to the basics and throw in some jump squats to your training circuit. Jessica Biel's trainer Jason Walsh thinks jumping stairs is the perfect plyometric move for toning the legs and booty. Ask your Pilates instructor to teach you jumping on the Reformer - it is so much fun.

Do you jump regularly?

Healthy Dose Link Time

FitSugar — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 11:30:01 PDT

Smoked pumpkin chili equals comfort in a bowl - (never) home maker
Study shows that many obese people consider themselves healthy - Diet-Blog
Start your morning off right: vegan apple berry muffins - Fit Chick in the City
Cut your workout time in half with Plyometrics - Physique Speak
A few tricks to help you avoid too many Halloween treats - Self

Turn a Hike Into a Mini Boot Camp

FitSugar — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 03:47:04 PDT

While hiking in the Sequoia National Forest recently, I was inspired by a post from the Get Fit For 2010 community group. FitSugar reader caffeinecaptain adds variety to her workout by turning a nearby playground into an outdoor gym. I thought, "what the heck, I'm turning this hike into my own mini boot camp!" By the time I reached the end of the trail, I was feeling pretty worked. I was also pretty elated: exercising outdoors boots self-esteem levels, and it's good for the planet! Here's how I turned my weekend hike into a kick-ass boot camp:

Plyometrics. Adding up and down movement to a hike adds a new level of intensity. I included short intervals of skipping and hopping, which helps engage muscle groups that may not be used otherwise. To really step things up, I also did short bursts of trail running.
Make use of trees and boulders. It's amazing how easy it is to turn nature into gym equipment. Do incline push-ups off of trees, and use boulders for triceps dips.
Why walk when you can lunge? Really challenge yourself when hiking up an incline by doing a set of walking lunges. Work your arms by using rocks as dumbbells to add bicep curls or lateral raises.

Get the Bod: Sandra Bullock

FitSugar — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 05:50:07 PST

At this year's Golden Globe Awards, Sandra Bullock was looking lovely in a purple evening gown and glowing from her win for Best Actress for The Blind Side. When I saw the red carpet pics of Sandra that night I was impressed by how toned her arms and upper body look - her fitness routine must be paying off!

To stay in shape, it's all about variety for Sandra, and though she also tries to work out every day, she doesn't beat herself up if she misses a few weeks. Besides running and biking, the star incorporates Pilates, plyometrics, weights, and kickboxing into her fitness routine - phew! Sandra must know that changing up your workout is a great way to stay motivated and not get bored with a fitness regimen. If you're not familiar with plyometrics, or jump training, I encourage you to give it a try. You can easily add it into a walking routine or when strength training. By including jumping exercises like jump roping or jumping squats into an existing workout, you use new muscle groups and burn more calories. It's also just a lot of fun!

To learn what Sandra's diet is like,

I Tried It: Shape's "Drop 10 Pounds This Month" Circuit Workout

FitSugar — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 10:00:00 PDT

I like to head to the gym with a plan of action so I don't unconsciously skip some difficult exercise that I have not yet learned to love. I printed out Shape magazine's workout and headed to the gym.

The workout, from the article Drop 10 Pounds This Month, promised to burn 400 calories in 30 minutes. How could I pass up the opportunity to burn that many calories while strength training?

The circuit workout was created by Eric Von Frohlich, founder of RoadFit, and it is full of moves to improve balance, power, agility, flexibility, strength, and aerobic fitness. To see how the workout worked out for me,

read more. I really enjoyed this workout and felt pleasantly worked afterward, with sore hamstrings for a couple of days - that's a good thing in my book. For reasons unknown to me, the online printable version begins with exercise number two, so I decided to warm up with five minutes of cardio on an elliptical in lieu of exercise one. I was then only able to go through the workout two times due to time constraints (picking up my daughter from ballet), when it is recommended that you do the workout three to four times. Doing the eight-exercise circuit straight through the first time required a bit of reading to learn the moves. After resting the recommended three minutes between reps of the entire circuit, the second round went much faster. In the 25 minutes I was able to devote to working out, including the five-minute elliptical warmup, I burned 200 calories. I am quite certain with two other rounds of the circuit I could have gotten close to burning 400. I love the plyometric moves, like jumping lunges, mixed with souped-up squats. Now that I know the routine, I will definitely be doing it again. This workout requires a medicine ball and a step - two things easily found at the gym, but not at my house. Try it and tell me how many calories you burn.

Fit Tip: Add Plyometrics to Strength Training

FitSugar — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 03:30:00 PST

I'm constantly looking for ways to make my workouts more efficient and varied, and when I come across something that works, it makes me even more excited for my next workout. A workout that inspires me to work out again - yes, please!

Lately I've been mixing plyometrics into my strength training regimen and it has been a fun change to my typical workouts. Adding plyometrics will allow your body to burn more calories, just as it does when you add intervals of jumping or skipping to a walking workout.

Integrate jumping exercises like jump squats, jumping lunges, jump roping, or good old jumping jacks after you've finished a set of whatever you're working on with weights. Jumping intervals of 30 seconds to one minute will do the trick.

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Fit Tip: Add Plyometrics to Your Walk

FitSugar — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 10:00:00 PDT

Walking is one of our favorite ways to get moving. This is good news because it's a great method of getting some movement into each and every day. If you really want to get the most out of your walks, then it's time to step it up. Literally.

Adding plyometrics to your walking routine will bring variety and intensity to easy walking. Plus, adding intervals of jumping or skipping will kick different muscles into gear and the more muscles working, the more calories being burned. So next time you're feeling like pumping up your walk, incorporate 30 second intervals of skipping or hopping and work your way up to one minute intervals.

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Do You Know Plyo?

FitSugar — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 11:45:00 PST

All you fitness freaks (and I mean that as a compliment, ya know) I have a simple one-question fitness quiz for you that might just make you want to jump for joy.

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Take the Quiz

Running and Endurance

FitSugar — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 11:45:00 PDT

Whether you are new to running and just want to increase the amount of miles you can do in a run, or if you are an experienced runner looking to improve your speed endurance – Runner's World has some advice for you. Here are three very different techniques to use to log the miles you want.

Gradual Adaption: This principle is simple and should sound familiar – you take one step at a time and gradually increase the amount of steps you take. This allows your body to adapt to the new stress you are putting on it. Add a distance, like a mile or a half a mile, to one of your runs a week.
Yasso 800s: Named after the avid runner Burt Yasso's training method. Running multiple 800s (two laps of a regulation track) in the minutes and seconds version of the hour and minutes of your marathon goal. So you need to run two laps in four minutes and 30 seconds if your marathon goal time is four hours, 30 minutes. Start at an appropriate pace and run four 800s in your first week (jogging in between for recovery), and add one lap a week until you are doing 10 laps a session.
Plyometrics: Try some explosive plyometric exercises focusing on your lower body. Form and quality trump quantity, so do few repetitions well or short rounds of the exercises. Selecting exercises that work the body in the same range of motion as running are preferable. So jumping forward and up onto a box (or step) will be more effective for your running than jumping side to side over a box. For video example of many plyo exercises check out Power Exercises from ExRx.net.

There are many different approaches to increasing your endurance and you should shop around and try an approach that works for you. If it is not helping your running, try a new technique. There are four more explained at my favorite foot race finder on the web, Active.com.

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Definition: Plyometrics

FitSugar — Wed, 23 May 2007 11:00:00 PDT

Plyometrics: Also known as jump training, plyometrics is a form of conditioning aimed at created controlled impact and maximum power and is used primarily by athletes.

This method involves stretching the muscles prior to contracting them and done correctly it strengthens muscles, increases vertical jump and decreases impact forces on the joints. Consciously practicing the technique of landing from a jump in a controlled environment teaches your body how to "land" and your muscles memory will kick in when you cannot focus all your attention on your technique (because you are chasing a rebound or opposing team member). It is great for sports that involve jumping like basketball, volleyball and tennis, but is also really effective for training to ski moguls (especially jumping sideways onto or a "step"). Upper body plyometrics are used to condition for boxing (pack a power PUNCH) and pitching in baseball.

Designed to increase muscular power and explosiveness, plyometrics are not, however, for those who are in poor condition or have an orthopedic condition. Since so much jumping is involved plyometrics can be really hard on the knee joints.

Check out Force Sport Fitness Advisor for some animated explanations of plyo exercises.

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