Well, the arm of the federal government who governs health and fitness has recommended that citizens get at least two and a half hours of exercise per week or more, depending on the type of exercise they get and their fitness levels and age. I think this is not nearly enough personally for optimal health, but I suppose that it would make sense for the general public in the US who are largely not used to exercising and need to get off the couch more often in order to ensure they are as healthy as possible.

I know you’ve all been there, and I know I certainly have been there. Heck, even the most dedicated exercisers, runners and fitness addicts go through phases like this in their life, or so I’ve heard because I’m not one of them. We all have periods in our life that are simply too busy, hectic, or emotionally draining to be able to dedicate our time and energy the way we should to our exercise and fitness regimens.

Tony Little makes a new little stepper that is supposed to help sculpt the problem areas on women – their butts and thighs (aka saddle bags) away with using the piece of equipment regularly. Of course, anything that is reasonably priced that claims to help sculpt and tone these huge problem areas for me, I’m a sucker for, so I got online and purchased one, except I found that the reviews on that particular product were mixed, so I ended up going with something called a Body Slender machine that was very similar but looked more sturdily constructed and costs about $60 used.

I got my thigh rocker machine in the mail today. It’s basically the same thing as Tony Little’s Rock n Roll Stepper, but it’s supposed to be a little better quality and didn’t get as bad of reviews for rocking around on the floor too much and bunching up the mat below it. I bought it off Amazon (imagine that), and ended up getting free shipping because the seller happened to live only ten or so minutes away from me! I was pretty delighted with that as well.

Since gyms today face competition from other public and pay gyms, and also from the ever increasing range of home fitness equipment like elliptical machines, treadmills and recumbent bikes as well as more sophisticated equipment, like pilates machines and weight machines that look like they belong in a professional gym, they are trying to offer more incentives to get your business. And who can blame them? T

I have to admit I was thrown for a loop when I started to hear about how something called “zumba” was getting to be a new exercise sensation, but I figured it had to do something with dance, since the latest exercise crazes seem to be all about dance. Take belly dancing and the new striptease workouts that seem to be uber popular today, zumba is along the same lines, only it takes another spin – an international one, and makes it more of a fun, funky workout that also tones abs, thighs and ever those flabby arms, plus proponents say you’ll have a blast doing it.

I just saw an interesting headline on how the practice of yoga, one of my favorite switch up exercises for when I’m sick of the old treadmill or elliptical routine with my floor work that I do most of the time, can lead to a better sex life. I could sort of see how this could be true, simply because of the way yoga helps you control your breathing. Sometimes, especially with men, their breathing is so uncontrolled that they can’t properly come to a climax, and with women, breathing very much matters in her enjoyment and utilization of sex as well.

I have been experiencing that familiar old exercise boredom in the past few weeks, where I literally have to peel myself out of my office chair or off the house sofa to either go to the gym, or go downstairs to our basement ellitpical machine to get my workout in. It’s familiar to everyone who works out. It’s called workout stagnation.

Well, there’s a relatively new expression for the way a woman looks in tight pants when she’s either had too much to eat or when she has more flab than knows where to go in the midsection. You know how those low riding jeans are so popular now? Well they’ve also spurred a new pheonomena in the world of fashion don’ts called Muffin Tops.

A “muffin top” is exactly what is sounds like. Just like muffins often spill over their circular tins or their muffin paper cups when you cook them or buy them at the bakery, our bellies and sides of our bellies can balloon over the sides of our pants. They can also spill out the front, creating an even less appealing protrait of lack of fitness.

There’s no denying that pop star Madonna looks great for her age, now 50 years old. Heck, I’m sure there’s lots of fifty year old women who’d love to look like her, but I almost wonder if it’s too much. I mean Madonna is sculpted, but sometimes I feel like she looks overly sinewy to the point of wondering if she just goes totally overboard in her workouts and has so little body fat that God forbid she got very ill, she may be in trouble if she lost a lot more weight.