I’m having one of those days now. I planned on, even recited what I was going to do when I got home tonight as far as my fitness routine. My significant other and I were going to do a DVD that was pretty tough, but also slightly abbreviated, so we could at least fit a little cardio in at the end of the day and also some muscle building exercise. However, plans got a little fuzzy when I got home, we ended up downing a glass and a half of wine each with dinner, and here we are, sitting like bumps on a log on the internet!

I’m not advocating it, don’t get me wrong, but I’m saying that sometimes you just really don’t want to move. Is it apathy? Laziness? Or just a sheer desire to just not worry about things for the night after you’ve had a long day at work? I certainly had the steam to blow off, it’s just that I never quite made it there and would rather have enjoyed a glass of wine with the man on my last day at work before my weekend (I work 4 day weeks by the way).

Sometimes, you shouldn’t force yourself to workout if you’re just not feeling it, trust me, the gym or the DVD will be there the next day!

I was in a used record shop the other day, and decided to purchase this hybrid yoga and pilates toning DVD. I had high hopes for it, but I should have known by the low price of $2 and someone else unloaded this awful excuse for a “workout” just so that they didn’t feel totally screwed by paying full price for it, and then probably using it one time, as I did. I won’t say what the name of it was, but it was lead by a woman who’s name I had never heard of and I believe she was Australian.

The series was supposed to help you drop weight and sizes within 28 days, the only problem was, I barely broke a sweat during the exercises, and they barely challenged me. You’d think that even for someone who was used to doing yoga and pilates that something that said it was going to help you torch calories and fat in a month, would be at least a little more physically challenging than you sitting there waiting to feel like you’re somewhat pressed to do the right moves. At no point did I feel challenged, and that disappointed me, since I expected to.

I used to think that swimming was one of the biggest fat burners there was when it came to aerobic training and fat burning – aka calorie burning, but then there were challenges to that saying that cross country skiing may outweigh the fat and calorie burning capabilities of swimming because not only were you constantly moving and using all muscles – the arms and the legs, but you were also most likely trying to keep warm, which burns extra calories, because the weather outside is probably going to be pretty darn cold when you find the conditions suit cross country skiing.

That was a long time ago though. Now you have all kinds of exercises vying for that coveted “best fat burning exercise” or best calorie burning exercise title. I mean, who didn’t think that Tae Bo was the best invention ever when it came to burning fat and calories in a relatively condensed period of time and at a very intense rate. Tae Bo made you sweat, and sweat hard, and you were working the entire body again, the arms, the legs and the abs, for a super fueled workout that got you toned as well as doused in sweat and starving afterwards, which means you definitely burned some serious calories.

Not the fat and calorie burning buzzword in the world of exercise is circuit training. Circuit training, as well as training where you alternative high with lower impact, such as where you run really fast, then slow down, and follow with another fast burst of running, are the new fat and calorie burners that have everyone talking. And not just because they do make you burn up energy (aka calories), but because they are also excellent ways to condition the body to get used to more constant, higher impact workouts, and also to maximize the effectiveness of your workout, in the least amount of time possible, but also with the best results.

If you maintain a higher heart rate for at least thirty minutes, it is after that when your body really kicks into high burning mode, and your body really lets go of extra calories in the form of fat. You also do have to take in less calories if you want to lose fat though, it’s not just a matter of working out, although of course exercise is also vital to long term weight loss because it skims off a significant amount of calories form your days expenditures, which means it scales down your weight.

I think it is said that for every pound you want to lose, you should take about 300 calories out of your diet daily, and you should also do at least 45 minutes of cardio, for a grand total of a net loss of 600 calories per day, which in a weeks time alone should net you a pound of weightloss. If you can continue that for a while, you could lose significant weight in a relatively short period of time. Hey, for some extra weightloss boosting, you can try to jump in a far infrared sauna and sweat off a little extra water weight and help to rev up the metabolism and waste elimination from the body as well.

When it comes to working out your abs and really taking full advantage of that term you hear more and more often these days, the “internal girdle”, there are certain muscles in the abdominal area that it is more important to make sure you are working that will pull you in more and make you your own personal corset that slims the whole waistline. These muscles are what pull the belly in, and get rid of that little pooch that so many of us, women and men, tend to get, especially in older age, and women who have had children often have to rebuild these muscles in order to get back to their flattened belly.

These muscles are the transversus abdominis, which are termed part of your deeper internal abdominal muscles. These muscles often don’t get worked hardly at all or nearly enough with traditional ab crunches and other things like sit ups, because they require a different positioning of the body in order to work those deeper muscles, and often require much more intense and challenging movements, of the variety that make you shake when you’re on your way up and down, but also that you don’t need as many reps for because you are working them so deeply and more targeted.

These deep abdominal muscles not only pull everything in and sort of cinch the waist in further, creating a thinner, leaner midsection, but they are also pivotal to our core strength, our posture, and the strength and well being of our back. Many people with weak backs that tend toward back injuries would benefit greatly from adding some deep core abdominal strength moves to their workout, it’s just kind of tricky when you first start doing any kind of hard core workout with the abs, because most people genuinely are not accustomed to the level of strength you have to exhibit to just do a few reps, but once you start incorporating them into your routine more often, trust me, they do get easier, and your core does get much stronger.

The outermost layer of the abdominals is usually the one that gets worked most often, those are called the rectus abdominus muscles, and they are the ones that create that phenomena known as “washboard abs”. They are more easily and therefore way more often manipulated rather than the deeper core muscles simply because most people don’t know how to work the deeper ones. However, I’ve noticed that a lot of the newer waves of workouts and videos are incorporating more nontraditional types of crunches that will not only get you rock hard abs, but will also get you that slimmer core you’re looking for.

Have you ever heard of the antioxidant quercetin? Well, unless you’ve lived a life completely void of fruits of vegetables, you’ve definitely taken in some of this powerful antioxidant at some point in your life. Quercetin is an antioxidant that finds it’s way to you via berries, apples, green and black tea, cabbage and broccoli. It is believed to have anti inflammatory properties, which may help explain why it helps the body go longer during exercise bouts, because it helps the body to quickly recuperate from muscle exhaustion. It also may likely help the body to repair itself after the body has been through a rough workout, which means that you can go ahead and work out quicker after having a heavy workout in the next days following.

A study was done on college students, some of whom took the supplement over a short time period of days and some of whom didn’t, and the students who took, the supplement exhibited a higher tolerance and endurance for the strenuous exercises they had to perform. But how can an antioxidant, whose primary function is to help kill of the free radicals that destroy healthy cells within the body, help you with your exercise endurance? Well, I thought that was a good question too.

Well, the improvement in cell oxygen uptake, which makes you winded or not winded when you are working out, was modest, but marked, in the patients who took the quercetin at 500 milligrams, versus the patients in the study who took a placebo. What improves your stamina and endurance during rigorous exercise like running or weight lifting, is the ability of the cells to carry oxygen to the muscles and the organs quickly and efficiently, so it is thought that somehow these dosages of quercetin help the cells be more able to carry oxygen to the muscles where they are needed.

The benefits may extend beyond just the gym though, in that quercetin supplementation may also enhance the energy levels and stamina levels in every day life, and may actually be used for those with chronic fatigue syndrome and low energy levels, to help them feel more energetic and able to do activities than they are without the extra supplementation. The benefits may be a lot wider than we are noting now, so stay tuned for more (hopefully promising) news on quercetin. And eat your apples, broccoli, and berries every day!

I’ve never mowed the lawn in my life. That is, until now. As a fairly new homeowner, within the past two years, I have started helping my boyfriend out with the lawn. Mind you, we have just over an acre, so mowing the lawn at our house is quite the chore! Since I’m not really all that comfortable mowing with the tractor, I’m in charge of doing the majority of the push mowing in the yard. I push mow everywhere that the riding mower can’t get, which means I’m weaving in and out of trees, going up and down embankments (we have a very odd lot), and basically doing the rough labor!

It takes me about two hours, with water breaks, to do the push mowing, and let me tell you, it is one of the best arm and leg workouts you can get. Not to mention it’s hard because you’re out in the heat usually, and sweating like a dog, so that adds to the calorie burning aspect of push mowing. The fact that you are going over so many different grades and are also pushing at varying degrees of effort at an alternating pace makes it difficult and almost like a really intense cross training.

I like the fact that push mowing the yard gets me outdoors, smelling the freshly cut grass, getting some great cardio and muscle toning work in, all while accomplishing something that we can be proud that we did together at the end of the day. It’s cool, it’s almost like a bonding experience, and you also happen to be getting stuff done that usually isn’t the most exciting chore that you look forward to on the average day.

We use a Craftsmen self propelled mower, but don’t let that self propelled aspect fool you. You’re still chugging away, pushing with all your might when you’re going over difficult terrain, and sometimes the fact that it’s self propelled makes you have to work harder to control where it goes and doesn’t go, so you’re actually working against the direction of where it’s taking you when you have to back it up, which means you’re working your triceps, delts and lats at the same time. Who ever thought that mowing the lawn could be such a great, diverse workout?

You know, I sit for long periods of time here at my home computer, and sometimes, well, I just get the urge to get up and move. But not just move as in walk around, oh no, I mean move like I’m on a dance floor! So, whatever kind of music my ipod happens to be playing, that’s what kind of dancing I get up and do. I know, it sounds pretty bizarre, and I guarantee that if you were a fly on the wall, you’d get a very good laugh at my expense at the herky jerky dance moves I sometimes pull off!

However, it really gets the heart rate up nicely, it’s fun, and you get to just let go a little bit for a few minutes of pure, unadulterated ridiculousness and silliness that lets you forget all about your problems of the day and escape into a nice little mini cardio boost workout that will indeed help you to keep the calories burning at a higher rate for longer periods of time. Plus, it’s a nice break for your spine since sitting for long periods of time is really bad for you spine, and is at the root of most back problems when you dig further since most people with back problems are usually those with desk jobs who have compressed disks all day.

It also gives you a quick burst of energy, and allows those endorphins to start pumping, so it also doubles as a mood booster. I do it out of pure necessity, because I can’t sit for long with out getting completely wacky since it drives me nuts, and it also helps to break up my long hours at the computer and make it a little more fun – and a little more active!

Us women struggle with the upper arm fat, and boy I’ll tell you, it’s something that I’ve been wrestling with for years now. Even when I whittle my waist and other parts of my body down significantly through exercise and diet, my arms are still there. Mind you, they’re not enormous or anything, but that flabby jiggly part that’s underneath has always drove me nuts. It looks out of proportion with the rest of me, and I’ve always really wanted to just get it sucked out with surgery or something to be honest because I’m convinced that no amount of triceps moves are going to actually get rid of it or cut it down significantly.

However, in the interest of being “natural” I’ve always looked for ways to narrow my upper arms and help sculpt them so that at least the fat up there doesn’t jiggle when I wave to someone. Ugh, there’s nothing more annoying or embarrassing than that! Pilates is one of the ways that you can help narrow your arms down, but you have to make sure you’re doing the pilates at an intense enough rate to get any benefit. The arms rows, or the hundredth is where you rapidly beat the arms up and down, but in a very tight, small and controlled motion, and this does help, but you have to really drive up the intensity and do multiple steps for it to be of maximum benefit.

Pilates is great, but you really have to still also make sure you are getting your cardio in to burn off the fat that is clinging to the arms. This can be your typical running, jogging, exercising on a bike, swimming or whatever you choose it to be, but you need to make sure you are doing several cardio sessions per year. Those of you women who are on the pill, you may want to note that it may be harder for you to shed this fat and sculpt muscle since it lowers your tesosterone levels, which are a big part of developing arm muscle and getting rid of fat.

The key is to be consistent in working out your arms, making sure you work them out every time you do it, and also in switching between lighter weights with many reps and heavier weights with less reps.