FitSugar

Do You Suffer From Exercise Equipment Buyer's Remorse?

Heather Dale — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 15:40:46 PDT

Pop into a Saturday garage sale and you'll surely see one of these exercise machines for sale. Price tag? $50 or best offer.

These high-ticket items used to be all the rage until they started collecting dust in our basements when we decided we'd rather get fit outside or go to the gym. After our Guess the Fad Exercise Quiz, I couldn't help but think of the exercise equipment I no longer use but had to have back in the day. Are there any machines that you wish you had never bought? Or maybe you are one of the few who has a shiny new elliptical or treadmill that gets used every day?

Does Watching TV Motivate You to Work Out Harder?

Michele Foley — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 03:47:16 PDT

I used to think that watching TV while exercising was a big no-no because it was too distracting. I take it back. Not only is it not distracting, it can be hugely motivating. For those of you that don't care about baseball or live outside of San Francisco - newsflash: the Giants are going to the World Series! And since watching the playoffs became distracting to my fitness routine, I skipped my local sports bar and watched a few games at home while working out.

A funny thing happened during Game 4: my casual 30-minute routine on a portable stair climber, turned into all-out interval training. I was so amped from watching such an exciting game that the extra adrenaline made me want to work harder and longer. Suddenly I was alternating time on the stair climber with powerful multitasking strength moves. I also gave myself mini-challenges along the way: I'd do bicycle crunches the entire time someone was up to bat or use the stair climber at a high rate through an entire inning. In total, I worked out for almost two hours and was still bursting with energy when it was over.

After telling my story to a friend of mine, she said that this is exactly why she works out to the Real Housewives of New Jersey. The drama gets to her so much that she runs faster. What about you - is tube time the perfect trainer?

Step Up Your TV Routine

FitSugar — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 07:30:02 PDT

Watching television is just one of the many reasons people exercise less and eat more. And with so many great shows on TV, it's an easy routine to get caught up in. I already told you about my friend that jogs in place during commercial breaks to burn calories, but she's upped the ante even more by exercising during entire shows. Like Buzz, my friend enjoys guilty pleasures like the Real Housewives of New York and Gossip Girl, but now she only watches them if she is being aerobic at the same time.

After weeks of jogging in place, my friend's challenge started to get a little stale. To remedy this, she went out and bought herself a small stair climber ($79). The machine is portable, light, and fits right under her couch. And whenever one of her guilty pleasure shows comes on, she hops right onto it and gets to work! Besides giving her legs a great workout, the machine also has resistance bands attached to it that you can use to work your arms. If you're looking for an easy way to fit some more exercise into your life while at home or in the office, investing in a small piece of cardio equipment might be the answer. The one my friend bought is under $100, and lately she is more motivated to work out than I've ever seen her before. Best of all, there's no reason for her to feel guilty about watching her shows now!

Steppin' Out: Pros and Cons of the Stair Climber

FitSugar — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 03:00:01 PST

With daylight saving time, those who used to fit their workouts in after work will be left in the dark. So working out in a gym is a great option. There are so many cardio machines to choose from, ranging from the ever-popular treadmill, to the lower-impact elliptical, to the stationary bike. The stair climber is another option that I don't see too many people using. Check out the chart below to see what's good and not so good about this machine.

Pros	Cons
There are two types of stair climbers: one with pedals (often called a stepper) and one that has a rolling set of stairs (called a stepmill), so alternating between the two different types can keep boredom at bay.	If you don't belong to a gym, buying a new stair climber is will cost between $1,500 and $3,000 for a good one.

To see the rest of the pros and cons,

Extreme Sport: Stair Racing

FitSugar — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:00:00 PDT

If you love the StairMaster, you're going to love stair racing (also called stair or skyscraper run-ups). If you enter a race, you start at the ground level of a gigantic building, and you run up the stairs with hundreds of other people, often ascending thousands of steps in a few minutes. Just recently in the Taipei 101 race, a German athlete sprinted up 91 floors in 10 minutes and 53 seconds! Talk about major cardio.

You can find stair-climbing races in all the world's skyscrapers including the Empire State Building in New York City, the Sheraton Wall Center Hotel in Vancouver, Canada, and the Menara Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. Many of these stair climbs are for charities, so not only are people getting into the physical challenge of stair racing, but they feel good knowing they're raising money for good causes.

Even if you're not into racing, you can still benefit from climbing stairs. There's no need to buy an expensive StairMaster or join a gym. You can climb the stairs in tall buildings near you, or if you don't have access to multiple flights of stairs, you can go up and down one flight of stairs. You'll tone your quads, buns, and calves, and your heart and lungs will get an amazing workout as well. Not only that, it's totally free.

Source

Get it Up, Your Heart Rate That Is: Become a Stair Master

FitSugar — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 12:30:00 PDT

My absolute least favorite cardio machine to use at the gym is the StairMaster. I don't know what it is about it, but I get so bored and I just don't like it. Today, I stopped avoiding it and tried out this new workout, which applies a modified pyramid technique (when you gradually move from low intensity for a longer time to high intensity for a shorter time, then back down again). The workout actually wasn't nearly as boring as I thought it would be and my heart rate sure was up where it needed to be.

00:00-05:00 Warm-up, Level 4
05:00-10:00 Level 6
10:00-13:00 Level 8
13:00-14:00 Level 10
14:00-15:00 Level 6
15:00-20:00 Level 8
20:00-23:00 Level 10
23:00-24:00 Level 12
24:00-25:00 Level 8
25:00-30:00 Level 10
30:00-33:00 Level 12
33:00-34:00 Level 14
34:00-35:00 Level 10
35:00-40:00 Cool Down, Level 4

Looking a little intimidating? For a beginner's version just

read more 00:00-05:00 Warm-up, Level 3 05:00-10:00 Level 5 10:00-13:00 Level 6 13:00-14:00 Level 7 14:00-15:00 Level 5 15:00-20:00 Level 6 20:00-23:00 Level 7 23:00-24:00 Level 8 24:00-25:00 Level 6 25:00-30:00 Level 7 30:00-33:00 Level 8 33:00-34:00 Level 9 34:00-35:00 Level 7 35:00-40:00 Cool Down, Level 3 Try it out and definitely let me know what you think. Not into the StairMaster, then check out these other cardio workouts.

4-5-6-6-5-4: Cardio Plan

FitSugar — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 04:00:00 PDT

In the fitness world, they say if the mind is bored, the body must be too. Really...they say that - I have heard it and lived it. If you suffer from boredom or have a body that easily adjusts to however you challenge it, I have a workout plan that might just be for you.

Gunnar Peterson, trainer to the stars (like Jennifer Lopez, Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck), likes to mix it up for his clients cardio-wise. This keeps the body guessing and the mind occupied. Instead of spending 30 minutes on just one piece of cardio equipment, spend your cardio time on different machines for different amounts of time.

The cardio plan looks like this:
4:00 minutes on treadmill
5:00 minutes on elliptical
6:00 minutes on stair stepper
6:00 minutes on treadmill
5:00 minutes on elliptical
4:00 minutes on stair stepper

This totals 30 minutes, 10 on each machine. Each workout you should try to use different machines, so add rowing machine, StepMill, and stationary bike into the mix as well. You know really mix it up. this way you might fel compelled to use your least favorite piece of equipment since you won't be on it the entire workout - just 10 minutes broken up into doable chunks.

Get it Up - Your Heart Rate, That is: StairMaster Interval Training

FitSugar — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 10:15:00 PDT

Looking for a change to your workout? Maybe you should hop on the StairMaster for this heart pumping program.

00:00-05:00 Warm Up Level 3
05:00-07:00 Level 6
07:00-09:00 Level 8
09:00-11:00 Level 6
11:00-13:00 Level 8
13:00-15:00 Level 6
15:00-17:00 Level 10
17:00-19:00 Level 8
19:00-21:00 Level 10
21:00-24:00 Level 8
24:00-26:00 Level 10
26:00-28:00 Level 8
28:00-30:00 Level 10
30:00-35:00 Cool Down Level 3

Remember: Don't hold on for dear life, just for balance if needed. Holding on is not only cheating but it also puts you at risk for injury as your body is not in proper alignment. If this program seems too hard (you're holding on) or easy (you're hardly breaking a sweat) you can go up or down in levels based on your personal level of fitness. Let me know how it goes!

Source

Don't Wake the Neighbors! Apartment-Approved Cardio

Anna Monette Roberts — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 12:31:23 PDT

Living in a tight-spaced apartment with creaky wooden floors pretty much rules out large movements or foot-stomping cardio workouts. However, with Winter storms brewing, at-home workouts may be on the rise. Put away the Zumba and floor-shaking DVDs, and opt for these three cardio workouts instead; you can do each workout indoors without disturbing a soul - your downstairs neighbors will thank you.

Yoga at home: Baron Baptiste is a great Vinyasa yoga instructor, and his books Journey Into Power ($12) and 40 Days to Personal Revolution ($12) offer heart-pumping sequences and pictures of correct alignment. If you stick to his regimen (each sequence is between 20-60 minutes), you'll enjoy a great yoga workout and may even master advanced poses that you never thought possible in a public class.

See more apartment cardio exercises!

How Stacy Keibler Got Those Killer Legs

Shape — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 04:16:35 PDT

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

Before she danced with the stars, romanced George Clooney and literally “wrestled” her way to stardom, Stacy Keibler had an impressive career as an actress and model. But, the 5’11 blonde beauty is perhaps best known for one of her most enviable assets: a great pair of legs. We all know that, genetics aside, it takes some hard work to get sculpted stems like Keibler’s. So, we went right to the source to find out exclusively how the former WWE diva keeps her legs looking so fab - her own personal fitness guru!

Get Keibler’s Killer Calves
"Juliet has a gift of hyper-focusing on each muscle to make them 'pop' perfectly, keeping my legs long and lean," says the 31-year old Keibler, of Juliet Kaska, her trusted personal trainer and a Hollywood heavyweight known for keeping a bevy of boldfaced names lean and mean. But in Stacy’s case, Kaska says, she can’t take all the credit. "Stacy was born with stunningly long, athletic-looking legs. But, my job is to work on sculpting them so that she has more muscle definition and shapely calves," Kaska says. "Most women avoid focusing on calves fearing it will cause them to bulk up and make legs appear thicker," she adds, "but with Stacy, it's the key to her gorgeous gams." And their routine starts with something ever so simple that you can do at home - take the stairs!

See the rest of Stacy's leg workout after the break!