Category: Fitness

Swimming Noodle doubles as a foam roller!

I read the following on Diet Blog

about foam rollers:

….The sensation of rolling will range from a gentle pressure to somebody taking a jackhammer to your muscles. This will vary from one area to another. I keep having to tell my clients (and reminding myself) that the more you feel it, the more you need it. That said, do what you can tolerate and build from there.

Try using the foam after a cardio warm-up (and before your weight training) or at the end of your workout. Either replace or add these exercises to your regular stretches that you do already. Although it may feel slightly uncomfortable, my personal experience is that I feel much better afterward and so do my clients…MORE….

The page referred, Sport Fitness Advisor, gives some excellent free information – to wit,

…

Self myofascial release techniques (SMRT), although not new, have become more and more prominent amongst athletes and fitness enthusiasts alike.

Both allopathic and alternative Therapists have embraced the use of myofascial release massage to reduce chronic pain and rehabilitate a range of injuries. Some therapists claim a long list of benefits, from curing tennis elbow to IBS relief. While some claims may be contentious, it seems likely that many sports men and women can benefit from this regenerative therapy.

It’s important to understanding two key terms in order to appreciate how self myofascial release technique acts favourably on the body. They are ’fascia’ and ’trigger points’. Both are explored below before moving on to some sample self myofascial release exercises…..MORE…..

I loved reading about this! Months ago, my husband cut up one of our kids’ swimming noodles and attached it to his chair back. That worked so well, he made one for his car seat. That worked so peachy, he made one for sleeping!

Try it yourself! You can either spend big bucks, or just go to your local dollar store for a swimming noodle. In any event, it might help should you have back pains.

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – craving a foam roller are you?

Fitness Fountain of Youth hot tub spa, only a mere 40K!

Morning,

I want one.

Plain and simple, I want one. :) You can Swim and Train and Stretch and Row and ….

…..Aquafit.jpgThe amazing Aquatic Fitness System, AFS, is more than just a swim spa. Use it to swim-in-place, of course. But you can also use it to walk, run, stretch, row, strength train and more! Speaking of swimming, the AFS serves as an exceptional training tool that you can use to help you teach your children how to swim.

Low-impact exercises strengthen, tone and shape your body while you’re suspended in buoyant weightlessness. Advanced aquatic engineering pampers and soothes. The AFS combines the benefits of a fitness center with the rejuvenation benefits of home hydrotherapy.

The AFS provides fun, fitness and relaxation for the whole family!…MORE….

If anyone wants to send me one, please, I shall graciously accept. :)

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – and if you’d like hot tubs, enjoy:

Barbara Ling’s 10 tips for making family exercising fun

You know exercise is good for you

but how do you make it fun for your family? Try out these great tips I do with my own!

10.) Dance Dance Revolution. DDR (or Dance Dance Revolution) is a great way to bring all family members together. Even when it’s not your tun on the mat, you can practice the moves behind the family member who is currently participating! Kids of all ages adore this game, and parents too can have a blast with it.

9.) Add music! Do you have a favorite family CD that everyone loves to listen to? Get the kids together and tell them to make up their own exercise moves to it (the sillier the better!). Your children will try to outdo each other in making them laugh…which will make them exercise more. :)

8.) Go to Family Swim. Do you have a local YMCA? If so, did you know there’s family swim every day? My family goes there at least once a week and has a blast splashing in the kids’ pool with their parents.

7.) Make an Obstacle Course in your home. We live in a ranch house that has a staircase to the basement on either sides. I’ve set up obstacle courses that had things to jump over in the basement, things to dodge in the hallway, and things under which to crawl in the living room (you can hang a pole over two chairs for that, or use a bo-staff if you’re into martial arts). One by one, I’ll let the kids dash through the course, while their siblings cheer them on.

6.) Do a Family Walk! Back when I was starting my get-healthy plan, I began walking 2.4 miles around my home. Then I figured, why not have company? So I brought my kids along. The side benefit to this is that we have an hour of solid family time together, where we can talk about many things that happened during the day.

5.) Take karate as a family. Besides being a great skill for all kids to master, it’s a wonderful way to keep active. I’m the only mom who takes it with my kids at my dojo, and they’re quite proud of me. Never mess with Samurai Mom!

4.) Go roller skating. Talk about zooming! Roller skating is great tame fun (especially if the music is from the 70s!). And the added benefit is when summer rolls around…your kids will already have the skills to roller skate on the boardwalk.

3.) Put on fun exercise DVDs. Think Billy Blanks is just for adults? Your kids will try to outdo you in any exercise DVD you put on. My kids want to tell Billy, your DVDs are very painful and we love them. Gotta love kids.

2.) Have silly competitions. How many pushups can YOU do? How many jumping jacks will level your children? Challenge your kids to the last one standing; you’ll be surprised how far they’ll push themselves.

and the number 1 fun family exercise tip is:

1.) Be creative! Ask your kids for what they’d love to do if computers didn’t exist. Then see if you can recreate it at home. Quite often with a little bit of big huge minds, you’ll be able to make it happen as a family. The family that laughs together, lasts together.

Enjoy!

Barbara

ps – need some great exercise DVDs?

Diet and Fitness and Weight Loss Bloggers – post your blogs for free!

Morning,

I’m pleased to announce that our new diet/fitness community, BigHugeMinds, now offers the ability for diet bloggers and fitness bloggers and weight loss bloggers etc. to have snippets of their blogs automatically reposted to the forum:

Community Member Blog Posts

This is an excellent way for you to increase targeted traffic to your blog and get your name known as someone who has experience in dieting and fitness. Come on by and post today!

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – did you know you can download fitness apps to ipods like:

Sensei for Weight Loss, Cellphone Personal Training Workouts and more!

It wouldn’t be the cutting edge unless

people had the option for high tech weight loss gadgets! Forbes ran a fascinating article about it, to wit:

No Excuses
A major way these services appear to help users is by eliminating their excuses for falling off the health wagon. The Sensei for Weight Loss program, which delivers customized meal recommendations, weekly shopping lists, fitness tips and motivational messages to a mobile phone or personal Web page, aims to get involved in as many of your daily decisions as possible.

Have a tendency to snack at night? For a weekly fee, Sensei will send you a variety of messages reminding you to brush your teeth after dinner to quell your sweet tooth. Get invited to a hastily arranged business lunch at a steakhouse? Alert the program and you’ll get advice on healthy choices the restaurant offers.

If you’re on the road frequently and can’t stand hotel gyms, you can pay a small fee to have PumpOne Mobile send your cellphone traveling workouts that use hotel furniture, water bottles and luggage as props. IPhone or iPod touch users also can access the just launched Pump10, which offers weekly, 10-minute video workouts, fitness tips and personal training advice for free.

And if your downfall is eating out, try texting DIET1 for free instant nutritional information. Part of Diet.com’s Nutrition on the Go program, the service can tell you calorie, fat, carbohydrate and protein counts for items on more than 1,700 restaurant menus nationwide.

“It’s not that easy to eat healthy,” says Carol Davies, a partner at Stamford, Conn.-based consultant group Fletcher Knight. “Anything that can help consumers do that on the spot is very on target.”

You can’t discount the fun factor either.

For instance, for a subscription fee Weight Watchers Online for Men shares customized advice, including which beers are the most diet-friendly and whether you’re better off snacking on wings or nachos at the bar. It also lets users constantly manage their food intake and monitor their weight loss progress with charts and statistics sheets, not unlike tracking the stats of an athlete for fantasy baseball, says Jason Carpenter, site editor.

While you can’t discount the benefits of face time with a dietitian or a personal trainer, who can give you advice with a human touch, experts say these services are a good option for those who are time-crunched and have enough discipline to consistently log in to them.

“These things aren’t going to give you willpower or determination,” Davies says. “They’re tools to help you make good decisions…..MORE….”

The goodies they reveal are most intriguing indeed! Do check them out.

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – Want a good cellphone for your personal training?

P90x Fitness Review – Core Synergistics, Week 8, Day 2 – Total Days – 51

Morning!

I was able

to get to my beloved P90x workout this morning and tackled Core Synergistics. This is my rest week, so it went really well. I confess to missing bashing my body with the weights, but I remember the last rest week really helped me recover.

I hate the Supermans but they work quite well. :)

And that’s Day 51,

Barbara

ps – some nifty P90x goodies:

Wii FIT – The little white balance board of beauty!

Morning!

I’ll be the first

one to confess – I adore my DDR (dance dance revolution) but can see…the Wii is really starting to gain popularity. And in my never-ending quest for giving my children even more reasons to come in out of the fresh air and plop themselves down in front of the TV, I’ve been researching the Wii FIT for awhile. Check out this story!

…My second week of daily Wii Fit training has come to a close. This week was a lot busier than the first so I am learning not only how to balance n the little white board, but also how to balance Wii Fit into my life.

After the first week I had lost no weight, but I was still very optimistic about the program. This week I have continued to build that positive mental attitude as you can read in the logs below. But is there any weight loss to go with it? Read more to find out….

…

Day 8 (February 12th)
BMI: 25.34
Body Age: 22
In game training time: 45 minutes
Actual playing time: 54 minutes

I have unlocked almost all of the exercises at this point. Some of the later ones can really be put into the “silly” category. For example one of the exercises has you lie down on the floor with the Wii remote pointed at the ceiling and you are to repeatedly stand up and fall back to the ground while shaking the remote as little as possible. It is perhaps good for leg training, but it really looks stupid.

Focusing more on yoga is starting to pay off. I am seeing definite improvement in my yoga poses. I really hope my balance is actually getting better and not that I am just learning how to trick the board….MORE….

What do YOU think?

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – want some cool Wii games?

P90x Fitness Review – Xstretch, Week 7, Day 7 – Total Days – 49

I’ve completed

7 whole weeks! YAY!!!!!!!

P90x rocks! Today was ‘give my body a rest’ day, so I did the XStretch while really felt good.

Next week (okay, tomorrow) starts my rest week. It’s about time. :)

And that’s Day 49,

Barbara

ps – Tony Horton has other goodies like:

P90x Fitness Review – Kenpo, Week 7, Day 6 – Total Days – 48

Work work work

I’m running out of time to post! I forgot to update my workout yesterday – ’twas Kenpo and as always, P90x delivered. It’s great exercise! And after tomorrow, it will be Week 8 – recovery! Yay!

And that’s Day 48,

Barbara

ps – some cool P90x goodies:

P90x Review – Leg Backs, Week 7, Day 5 – Total Days – 46

Howdy,

Today was P90x Legs and Back and it went peachy! I think I really have this down now…I do P90x either after the kids go to school, or in the afternoon, and boom, it takes care of my strength training/etc. It’s a very good workout.

I still have to get better with pullups, mind you. But I figure that will come in time.

And that’s Day 46 (coming soon to recovery week, yay!),

Barbara

ps – some P90x goodies!