Some people will avoid walking the steps like the plague. Why though? Walking steps is one of the greatest ways to get a quick blast of heart pumping cardio work into your day. I personally try to take the stairs whenever I can at home and at work. At work, I only take the elevator if I’ve already worked out for the day and I’m just tired, or if I have a tons of bags I have to carry up and going up the steps is just too hard on my back.

This has been something I’ve struggled with for the last year. Ever since I heard, about a year ago, the first murmurings from friends that liked to work out like me, that static stretching was actually found to do more harm than good before a workout, it blew my mindset that had been present for years.

My mindset since I started working out at the age of 16 (now 19 years ago), was that you needed to stretch your muscles in a static fashion before every workout, or you not only risked injury, but you also risked great cramping and discomfort after your workout. Now, experts are saying that static stretching is a no-no before working out, and instead you should do dynamic stretching.

It seems that more and more women are taking to the pole these days. No, I’m not talking about that women who lost their day jobs and resorted to stripping at night to make (probably much better) money in the mean time. I’m talking about the growing fitness craze that involves donning those high spiked heels (or none at all sometimes), and dancing on the pole. It’s the exotic dance workout, and you may have seen some of these hot DVD’s online or in stores.

In a move that I think will have a lot of unlicensed martial arts and yoga instructors relieved, NY has decided to allow unlicensed practitioners to keep practicing without threats of fines of closing down, something that hampered a lot of very talented people from continuing their business and helping people learn their trade, get healthy exercise and intense, or relaxing physical activity and empower themselves.

They are looking to treat martial arts and yoga as something like what it is, which is a self improvement measure. It’s not rocket science, and it doesn’t require a degree. Some people have been doing these trades their whole lives, and their experience and passion alone make up for any lack of a silly license of formal education in the matter.

I’ve probably talked at nauseum about the benefits of interval, or circuit training. Why? Because I truly believe you get the exact same benefits out of intense, shorter workouts that you get for an hour to an hour and a half just going through the motions at the gym or at home on you treadmill or elliptical machine. I’ve seen the benefits of interval training for myself many times, both in helping me to shed weight quickly, and to help me get on the path to a more toned and less body fatted physique.

This piece of info really came as no surprise to me. Look, I’ve been working out literally since I was about 14 years old. Don’t ask me how that happened. I remember reading a book called Fit for Life, that I picked up for ten cents at a local book sale when I was with my grandma and grandpa in Cleveland, and ever since then, I became a sort of somewhat obsessive health nut – at a very young age.

Well, us women really have it crappy in this department, among others. I mean, not only do we get periods and unfortunate accompanying fluctuations in our hormones that make us feel like we’ve gone temporarily insane from time to time. We also now supposedly have to get about one hour of moderate exercise per day to keep the average pounds that tend to creep up with age from being added to our frames.

Apparently women are a little more prone than men to put on weight simply due to our age and the changes that come with aging, than men are. Sheesh, and we thought the changes that come with and after pregnancy were bad!

This P90X workout series really blew in like a blustery sandstorm, didn’t it? One minute I had never even heard of the workout DVD series, the next, everyone I knew was talking about it. I guess that’s how these mini exercise phenomenon occur though, right? This one is a series of DVD’s that are designed to really rip and tear your muscles and build them to new levels. Also, the trainer who has designed the DVD’s put together a special nutrition plan that some people follow as well, which is supposed to really make you more cut and reduce even more body fat.

I know for us women, sometimes we want to keep our biceps toned down a bit. We want definition, but we usually don’t want to look like we’ve been taking steroids. We want to look feminine, yet strong, and we want to definitely get the lean definition that so many women envy in arms – like the arms of Sarah Jessica Parker for example. But guys are a little different. First of all, men’s biceps are one of the easiest spots to firm up and bulk up because they are just very easily targeted in workouts.