Personal trainer at the exclusive Reebok Sports Club in NYC, Melissa Paris has your secret to great abs by swimsuit season, but if you are picturing endless amounts of crunches, think again.
Great abs are the hallmark of a well rounded athlete: low body fat, a muscular core and a clean, healthy diet. “It’s a combination of exercise and diet that ultimately fights fat,” says Paris, “so stock up on those fruits, veggies and protein packed snacks.”
“Nutrition is 85% [of results], so if you’re not fueling yourself with lean meats, lots of fruits and veggies, and healthy fats you will not get the abs you desire no matter how many exercises you do,” says Paris.
While great abs are a sign of a clean eater, they are also a sign of an athlete that knows good form- no matter what workout they are doing. While crunches are good for hitting your superficial ab muscles, the exercises that are going to get you great results aren’t traditional ab exercises at all.
Pamela Hernandez owns Thrive Personal Fitness in Springfield, MO where she focuses on weight training for weight loss. She writes a blog for her web site, www.thrivepersonalfitness.com, sharing vegetarian recipes from her kitchen, exercise strategies, lifestyle tips and stories from her own journey. You can also follow Pamela on Twitter @ThriveFit or pick up more tips on Facebook, www.facebook.com/thrivepersonalfitness.
Want to know my favorite piece of exercise equipment? I’ll give you a few hints.
Sometimes called a fitness ball or a Swiss ball, a stability ball is an extremely versatile and inexpensive piece of exercise equipment. It can allow you to do a variety of exercises by subbing for a weight bench, by keeping you off the ground and your back if that causes you discomfort or by adding a new challenge to an old exercise by engaging more core and stabilizer muscles.
Most people are actually intimidated by the stability ball. That comes from not knowing what to do with it or seeing people doing really dumb things with it on YouTube. But most stability ball exercises are easy to learn. If you workout at home and your budget is limited, the stability ball should be the first piece of equipment you purchase. You will be able to get a great workout with just your own body and the ball. Add a pair of dumbbells and the possibilities are endless.
Stay-at-home dads want to stay fit, just as their female counterparts do. One dad, in particular, Gavin McInnes, solves this problem by creating a video that gives you ideas aboutworkouts that you can do right in your own home, with “equipment” found around the house.
McInnes keeps the workout interesting and funny by getting creative with his choice of “equipment.” This video was originally shot in 2009. McInnes used his children, now 5-year-old daughter Sophie Whiterabbit and now 3-year-old son Duncan Whitethunder, as the “equipment” or weights.
Blame it on Kim Kardashian, although I would like to think people are actually realizing that a high, tight butt is the ultimate sign of a fit, healthy person, but butt enhancement surgeries have claimed the top spot as 2011′s top cosmetic procedure.
Big butts have long been praised by men as a sexy asset, while women have strived for tiny, tight rear ends for years. Now, it seems women are starting to get the message that big butts are in, and are willing to go under the knife to get one. There are two types of big rears, however: the dimply, flat and wide butt that comes with a sedentary lifestyle and high BMI and the round, pert rear that looks awesome in your favorite pair of yoga pants. While surgery may get you the latter by injecting fat into strategic areas, the only way to get a butt you can be proud of is to put in the work.
The glutes are terribly, horribly, outrageously overlooked in most people’s fitness routines. Many think that your butt is the shape it is meant to be, and you just have to deal with it. Not so. Your glutes are completely under your control, and if you want a firm, tight butt, with no crease below your buns and upper thigh, you gotta work for it, and cardio isn’t going to do jack to get any results.
By putting in just a little effort and focusing on the muscles that give you a more shapely backside, you will be shocked how quickly you see your butt lift and round out. While traditional squats and lunges will hit them a bit, really focus on the glutes with these easy to do exercises you can perform anywhere.
How would you feel if you just spent your entire life savings on gastric bypass surgery only to realize that you were actually losing weight the old fashioned way, through diet and exercise?
The following story is a tale of will power and faith, as it is a classic example that what we believe, we can achieve.
Karren Knight, mother of two from Cheshire, England one day decided she was going to get a gastric band tied around her stomach, as no other method of weight loss seemed to work for her. Trying several diets and exercise programs in the past, Knight could not lose weight. At nearly 200 pounds overweight, Knight realized she had to do something, or the quality of her life was going to continue to get worse.
Determined and believing that having a gastric band fitted to restrict her appetite would be a success, Knight followed the doctor’s orders to eat very little and got some exercise. Even thought Knight expressed that it was no easy feat to take her mind off of food, she remained loyal to her recommended eating schedule.
After complaining to her sister about her desire to eat, think about, and be obsessed with food, Knight decided to do something enjoyable to keep her mind off of her hunger. She found a Zumba class that was offered just down the road from where she lived, figuring it would be an easy way to keep attending because it was nearby, not to mention very fun.
Personal trainer at the exclusive Reebok Sports Club in NYC, Melissa Paris has your secret to great abs by swimsuit season, but if you are picturing endless amounts of crunches, think again.
