So you think that those muscles that Linda Hamilton was sporting in Terminator 2 and the arms that Demi Moore was flashing in GI Jane were pretty sexy, huh? Well, I for one think it was a little overkill, not to mention nearly impossible to obtain without being on a zero fat diet and a very intense workout regimen 24/7, but I do admit, I want to keep “lunch lady arms” at bay as a woman, and I’ll do almost anything to get thinner, more sculpted arms especially since my arms have never been the thinnest most sculpted part of my body, and when they are, it means I’ve worked really hard to get them that way.

I’m five foot four, and I don’t have the long limbs that are necessary to get this kind of look easily, so for me, sculpted arms are a hard thing to obtain unless I am dieting with a fairly low fat diet and eating less calories, and also really focusing on building arm muscle in my workouts, especially focusing on my triceps, which tend to make my arms look “fatter” if I don’t keep them in check.

If you want to have the skinnier, more ripped looking arms, then you have to try to circuit train, and focus your workouts more on your arms, whereas you are probably used to working on the legs and abs as a woman, you just have to retrain the focus if you want your arms to look great and “buff”.

The first time I ever used tension bands in my workout was in a fitness class at the place I work at, which I’m lucky enough to say has a full service gym, complete with yoga classes, cardio classes, and a full array of fitness equipment at our disposal, which is pretty cool.

I was exhausted when we were done, and I was convinced that the tension bands added the extra exhaustion factor also, because I could barely even lift a drink of water to my mouth the next day afterwards, since most of the tension band work we did was on our arms, concentrating on our biceps, triceps and upper body strength in general, which pretty much wiped me out.

I’ll admit, my upper body strength is definitely not my forte, but my lower body strength is, because I was an especially adept swimmer as a kid, and my legs, abs and lower body were always the strongest physical part of my body. The tension bands are just bands of elastic which are attached to handlebars that you can grab with yout arms.

You can even adjust them to work your legs, and also to work different parts of your upper body, and you can manually increase or decrease the tension of the tension bands by either slackening them by letting up on them, or stepping on them further up to increase the tension and the muscle workout.

I’ll tell you what, if you want to take your workout to the next level, then tension bands will leave you feeling like you just got your butt kicked!

Celebrity fitness is a big hot topic right now, especially since celebrities are known for their fabulous physiques, and they all have access to the best personal trainers and the newest fitness equipment, fitness regimens, and diet aids. It’s no wonder they all look ripped, tan, muscular and thin!

I have to admit, I get a little jealous of figures like Jessica Biel, when I see those pictures of her ridiculously toned figure playing beach volleyball in her bikini, and I wonder, what the heck did she do to get that buff and sleek? I mean, surely she watches what she eats, or she just eats very little, but what is her fitness routine like? Does she work out every day of the week for four hours? Or is it something that is a little less intense and easily attained by average joes like us?

Many celebrities will dish on how they look the way they do, while others are a bit coy or misleading, saying they rarely workout or “eat whatever they want” and magically stay thin and toned. I smell some seriously concocted stories there though!

Other celebs like Jennifer Aniston, are more open and less secretive about how they stay thin and nicely toned. Jennifer reveals that she combines yoga and also like to jog, and use the elliptical machine, and that is how she achieves the toned look without getting bulky.

My guess is that many celebrities have forsaken the days of hard core kickboxing and other high impact aerobics that could have a tendency to bulk one up, for more streamlined, gentle on the muscles exercises like the elliptical and other machines that are low impact and don’t easily bulk the person’s muscles up.

Also, yoga and pilates are popular because they will also tone the muscles without bulking you up. Even men are opting for less strenuous and muscle-jarring workouts because they want to achieve a lean look without bulking up to much.

I’ve been practicing yoga here and there now for the past five years, and I have to say, while I don’t think one should exclusively do yoga and abandon cardio workouts on machines like elliptical machines and treadmills and the like, I do think that yoga should be worked into every workout regimen for its relaxation and muscle stretching qualities and simply for peace of mind.

Yoga is an ancient practice that was originated in the Hindu religion as an actual part of a philosophy. It is supposed to be a path to discovery of one’s own higher powers as well as a path to self-enlightenment and discovery. I suppose this is because one tends to be in a state of deep relaxation with many yoga moves and also the internal quiet of yoga helps one reflect on their own life and enjoy a state of relaxation and deep breathing that is simply not possible in the everyday hectic lifestyle most of us have fashioned for ourselves.

For me personally, after a hard day on the job (I have a desk job, but many times I come home with a headache and a lot of muscle tension from sitting down all day and gazing at a computer monitor for hours on end), yoga is a welcome relaxation experience.

Not only does it stretch my shortened muscles back to where they should be and relieve the tension in my neck and back from sitting and being stressed out all day, but it also lets me mentally check out for a while, forcing myself to not think about work, my problems, what I have to do when I’m done, or anything else that causes mental stimulation (of the bad variety).

When I’m done with my yoga session, which varies from about a half hour to 45 minutes, I feel rejuvenated and relaxed, and ready to face the next day of stress and inevitable issues that are thrown my way! I’ll talk about yoga lot in the blog, because I feel it can really help people achieve that state of mind they find so elusive nowadays, as well as help sculpt and stretch muscles.

Well, my motivations for writing about this topic are the fact that right now, I’m sitting at home, sick, taking a day off from work, and was just wondering if I should work out or not. I have a really bad cold and am congested in the chest, and I’m thinking that working out could either make me feel better or could make me feel worse. So which is it, should I work out or not while I’m sick?

Well, most people and fitness experts advise against working out vigorously when you’re sick, especially if you’ve got some sort of virus that elevates your body temperature or involves congestion, because your body is essentially already working overtime to try to combat the fact that your body is being assaulted by a virus, and working out only can aggravate the situation.

However, if you’re just getting over a cold, or you’re at the tail end of your flu or sickness, it may be to your benefit to do a light workout because this can actually help boost your immune system.

It is a well known fact that regular exercise actually can help increase one’s immune system and immune reactions to disease and illness simply because of the positive effects on both the physiological aspects of the body as well as the positive effects on the psychological mind, both of which can dramatically improve the health of your immune system.

So, use common sense, if you have a fever or are in the stage of sickness where you are feeling cold, then hot a lot, it is not wise to do a vigorous workout. In fact, your muscles may be a little more susceptible to being sore the next day or the very same day if you choose to do this because of the tendency to build up more lactic acid.

Balance/Fitness balls, as they are marketed, are a simple and yet very versatile piece of fitness equipment that you can add to your home gym or even start utilizing at your regular gym outside your home if they have them. You just have to be careful, because the first few times I tried the balance ball, I actually hurt my back and my neck because I didn’t understand how it should be used.

The fitness or balance ball, as it is altnernately called by some makers, is a fairly large ball that looks bigger than any ball you ever played with as a child. It’s pretty squishy, so it gives enough leeway when you are doing crunches or some other type of balancing exericise, but also gives enough firm support so that you’re not doing a back bend while trying to do ab work on it.

And that brings me to the trickiest part about the balance ball. If you’re not careful, you will end up doing something that looks like a modified back bend and can seriously injure yourself or cause a muscle pull if you’re not mindful of your body’s positioning while your exerting your contortionistic moves on the ball.

The balance ball offers a lot of versatility for you abs because it actually makes your abs work harder, which is why many fitness enthusiasts insist it is one of the best ab workouts you can buy. You don’t even realize it, but when you’re trying to balance yourself, your abs are working twice as hard as they are if, say, you are working out on that same old, safe workout mat that your body knows like the back of its own hand.

All in all, the fitness ball is a great way to get in some good ab workouts, but we’ll also talk about how it can help immensely with those love handles, and saddlebags. Oh yeah, you can get pretty creative with your moves on these things, trust me!

I used to be one of those people who did not like to go to the higher end, gourmet or “healthy” restaurants. It wasn’t because I didn’t like the food, or that the atmosphere was not to my liking, it was because they served, in what had become my Americanized idea of meal portions, “skimpy portions”.

Jack Lalanne, the infamously energetic health and fitness guru who started it all in the world of motivating people to stay fit, get fit, and eat right. He’s 92 years old, and he still lifts weight, and works out for two hours a day!

This guy is sharp too. To hear him talk, you’d never know his age. I’ve seen footage of Jack decades ago, when fitness was still a novel concept and not practiced by everyone, especially women, who didn’t lift weights and work out like they do now.

You barely see the difference between Jack Lalanne decades ago and now. His face hasn’t aged like normal 92 year olds, his body is still pretty tight, and his energy levels are off the charts. He didn’t start out that way though.

Jack says he started off as a skinny kid with a temper that was hot due to his consumption of sugar. He said he almost killed his brother, because of his uneven temperament due to poor diet and inactivity. He actually invented many of the pieces of home exercise equipment you see today, and many of the professional gym pieces as well, but just never really got them patented.

Jack says “inactivity is death” and he’s right. He says our most prized asset is our body, and yet so many people wake up and start the day with coffee, a cigarette and a donut, and we wonder why we feel sick all the time and have no energy to get up and move.

To watch this 92 year old only brings me optimism and motivation. He is a true inspiration, and I’m sure he’ll live to be over 100 years old at this pace.

Many people think that doing the same routine every day is going to keep them at optimal, peak fitness. In fact, doing the same workout will not.

Although admittedly doing the same workout every day is better than doing nothing at all, if you’re interested in pushing your body to be strong, and to look and feel how you want it to, it’s essential to diversify, just like you would in an investment portfolio, if you’ll allow me to use corny cliches!

This is usually a little different for guys, as I understand it, because guys are supposed to do a body part a day with weight training, while women can do their arms, legs, thighs and everything else all in one workout and it works the same.

I still don’t quite get this methodology, but hey, it’s been working for men, so I don’t question it.

Since I do my cardio workouts at the gym where I work during the week, I do my Yoga videos on the weekend, so I’m actually doing yoga 2-3 days a week, and alteranting this with the cardio, so in total I’m getting 4-5 days of working out, but it’s with a variety of movements.

The variety of movements not only keeps me from getting bored, but it also helps tone and sculpt my muscles in different ways, since they don’t become “used to” certain movements and they can keep getting better and better with more challenging movement, different angles, longer reps, etc.

If you continue the same old exercise regiment, this is when your muscles tend to get used to the same movements. Your muscles will stagnate, and not become more defined, which is most likely what you would like out of your workout. It’s essential to changes things up a bit every once in a while, both to keep it interesting and to keep those muscles stimulated.

Some of my friends will keep their workouts from getting boring or repetitive by taking books or magazines with them that show them different workout movements, like calastetics for the thighs, arms and abs, or they will hire a personal trainer to keep them motivated and also to keep them doing different things all the time, tapping the potential of a muscle group out for maximum results.

That’s right, we all know there are constantly new fitness trends coming around, and thank God for that, or we’d all get really bored with the same old exercise routine, and resort to being couch potatoes all the time.

This newest fitness routine involves something that is already somewhat of an active sport to begin with unlike some of it’s other leisure sport counterparts like bowling, golfing and other sports where one barely moves around and gets the heart rate up. It’s tennis, more specifically it’s called “cardio tennis”.

The cardio tennis workout combines the use of cones, tennis and several other endurance and heart conditioning exercises that are meant to get you into cardiovascular shape, while having fun and performing moves that will definitely get you sore in places that you don’t think about working very often for the simple fact that you just don’t “think about” them that often.

The games of tennis are more focused on building cardio endurance than actually hitting the balls and playing what would be considered a killer game of tennis, and they usually run anywhere from $10 to $20 for a session (which unfortunately could get a little pricey if you ask me, but the price of fitness sometimes doesn’t come cheap, especially if you don’t want to get bored and enjoy being pushed to perform, rather than constantly working out on your ellipticals and treadmills at home all the time, which can get old).

There is a stretching routine that is done at the outset of the whole routine, and it really is treated more as a workout than as a tennis game, with more attention placed on the movements of the legs and feet, which are all meant to train and condition the body, get the heart rate up, and burn some serious food off.