Category Archives: Body Sculpting

Body Sculpting

How Effective is a Crunch Free Ab Workout?

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I’ve gotta be honest. When I think of working my abdominal area, it has always involved crunches. In fact, I feel like I really haven’t worked my abs and sculpted them properly unless there are some form of crunches in my routine for ab workouts. I do feel the burn when I do things like planks, but it’s just not the same targeted, uber-sculpting that I feel I personally get from various types of crunching.

However, I’m starting to realize that not doing crunches all the time may be the best way to get the most rounded out and complete ab workout, especially as I get older and the traditional crunches that used to keep my belly flat aren’t quite doing the same trick they used to.

They are starting a new class at our place of employment called the Crunch Free Zone where they do all sorts of ab strengthening moves without actually doing crunches. You see, although crunches have always been the go-to exercise for the abdominals and a flat belly, they also have gotten a bit of a bad rap because they can be hard on the neck and back. Especially if people do them incorrectly, which unfortunately happens all the time.

Crunch free workouts include a lot of movements that are non-traditional that target the whole abdominal area, including the sides of the abs, upper abs and the “girdle” like muscles that a lot of the traditional ab workouts don’t tend to isolate.

They can include things like standing rotations from side to side with a medicine ball, lots of work on a balance or bosu ball, and things like variations of planks. One of my personal non-crunch ab moves is the plank with the elbows on the ground instead of the hands.

This move literally leaves me shaking because it isolates those lower and upper abs so well. In fact, I care barely do this move for more than 30 seconds to one minute, which seems like an eternity to begin with. I’m also usually very sore the next day after attempting to do multiples of these planks or if I hold one of them for a long time.

That really tells you something – that these types of moves go very deep into the abdominal muscles in ways that a lot of traditional sit ups cannot.  In addition to being excellent workouts for the abs, crunch free workouts also tend to mix in other muscles with the abs, which adds to the calorie burning aspect of the workout.

A lot of these moves will incorporate your arms and legs, making them more of a compound move, and torching through a lot more energy and calories in the process, which helps to burn off the belly fat that you’re trying to burn off by doing ab workouts in the first place.

After some serious skepticism, I can honestly say that I’d recommend trying a crunch free workout. It really does have some serious benefits above and beyond the simple crunch workouts.

 

Body Sculpting

That “Pooch” On Your Belly May Be Water Retention

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I remember the days when I was much younger and the best part of my body I felt was always my flat abs. Those days are kind of gone as layers of fat have creeped up over the years and I’m inching closer to my 40th birthday. Not that I don’t work out any more, I most certainly do.

But I just find that I really can’t indulge in the same foods as frequently as I used to without working out like a maniac to counteract these types of indiscretions. I really do enjoy food, and that has lead me down a path of learning to love the curvy hips I was born with instead of trying to starve myself just to whittle them down to what I consider to be “skinny girl” thighs.

I got some back and I also got some hippiness. So be it! But the one thing I always wanted to remain small has now crept on me and I now have that little constant poochie that sticking out of my belly. Trust me, it’s nothing compared to what it could be, but it’s just that I miss my nice flat belly that always seemed so easy to maintain.

So I started to notice what seems to be causing this pouch. I’ve notice that it coincides with a generally spongey appearance on my entire abdominal area, which I’ve learned that for me means that I’m retaining too much water.

I can even see if in my face when I’m retaining way too much water. It usually seems to coincide with my monthly cycles and also with how much salt I’m taking in around that time. Sometimes it can just be a fluke and maybe I haven’t worked out and sweated in a few days and I happen to be retaining a ton of water.

Whatever it happens to be, it’s uncomfortable and I definitely feel like I’m carrying more weight around when it happens.

I’ve found that some ways to alleviate the pooch are the following.

1.) Drink plenty of water. Seems counterintuitive but it’s true.
2.) Limit salty foods
3.) Increase fiber intake so that you can rid your body of excess water more quickly and effectively
4.) Work out more so you can sweat more and get rid of both excess water weight and excess salt

Body Sculpting

Ab Work Needs Constant Upkeep

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Well, I’ve come to the conclusion that just working your abs a couple time a week isn’t gonna cut it if you want flat, sculpted abdominal muscles. This goes especially for people who are over 30 years old apparently because after I turned thirty was when I realized that my always naturally flat tummy was no longer a luxury I could take for granted.

The sad thing is that your abs require constant work to remain flat and sculpted. It’s not a body part that you can work twice a week and still expect the abs to remain pulled in. You see, there are several muscles that hold your “gut” in.

When these muscles aren’t being worked in a manner that really gets them toned and tight, they begin to let go.  When they let go, this is when you start to get that fun little pooch that no one likes to have.  Add a little PMS to that and you’ve got a downright puffbelly!

What I’ve found is most effective for me is doing my ab work at least 4-5 times a week that  my abs do start to get softer and the muscles holding it all in tend to get looser.  I can literally feel my gut hanging over my pants if I even go a day or two sometimes without doing an intensive set up crunches or modified planks that help to keep it toned.

The good news is that you don’t have to do an entire workout to work your abs. You can just parse it out into abs only and you still get the benefits that you need in order to keep your abs tight and toned and all pulled together. 

Your ab muscles aren’t just in the front. They actually wrap around your midsection like a sort of girdle, so there are tons of tiny muscles that must be kept toned in order to keep everything as flat as possible.  This is likely why you need to continuously pay attention to this area in order to keep it in shape.

As long as you can keep your attention on getting ab workouts in wherever possible, you should maintain that awesome flat, washboard look as long as possible – even into your forties and fifties (and beyond). And isn’t that what we all want? 

Oh by the way, the idea that keeping your abs in shape will also keep your back in top shape is true. The strength of your abdominal muscles has everything to do with the comfort and support of your back. When you have weak abs, you are more likely to get back injuries, soreness and muscle tears and strains much more readily.

Body Sculpting Weight Loss Fitness

Taking the Stairs Great for Thighs, Butt

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I’ve taken to doing an odd little regimen every weekend. I sit down a lot at work. Then I come home and since I run some blogs online, I also sit at a computer for a good portion of the weekend. In order to keep from getting a bigger butt and increasing secretary’s spread, I really have to keep on my toes about making sure I get up pretty often and do something that will get my hear trate up and tone my muscles.

Sure, I may look like a total freak doing these little exercises, but hey, at least I’m not going to stop my metabolism dead in its tracks by not moving for several hours per day. In fact, it only takes something under an hour to put your metabolism in neutral, so getting up once every hour or even better once every half hour is really imperative to keeping the calories burning and preventing obesity and weight gain.

I literally feel like my butt is atrophying when I sit still for too long.  I get very restless and it just doesn’t feel right to sit in one position for too long. So what I’ve taken to doing is taking our flight of about 12 stairs up and down a few times to get my heart rate up and work my glutes and thighs, which are some of the largest muscles we have.

Not only does getting the blood pumping feel great, but this little burst of activity really gives me energy. Rather than sitting at my desk feeling like I’m going to fall asleep, my energy reserves are renewed when my body realizes “oh  yeah, this is what I was meant to do, not sit and rot away at a desk all day barely moving a few inches”!

Another activity I take part in which really cracks my hubby up is to take a launching run down our hallway back and forth (it’s a pretty short hallway but I can get a pretty good sprint going, especially if I have a lot of nervous pent up energy in me) a total of about 15 times round trip or 30 times back and forth.

This really gets my heart rate up, especially if I’m sprinting with all my power. I love the feeling it gives me getting my muscles moving and just knowing that I am capable of such fast sprints, which is a really difficult thing to a lot of people!

 

Body Sculpting

Being in Water Torches Calories, Sculpts Lean Muscle

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My husband and I just returned from an Outer Banks, NC vacation recently. What I instantly noticed about being right on the ocean and constantly playing (or even just floating around) in the water made it so that I could eat more freely what I wanted without worrying so much about the calories staying on my thighs.

The entire time we were in the Outer Banks, we really did spend a lot of time either walking on the beach, floating or swimming around in the pool or hot tub, and swimming (or being pummeled by waves) in the ocean. We also were consuming alcohol almost every night since we were on vacation and celebrating a wedding of close friends of ours.

And yet somehow, I didn’t put on any weight over an entire week!  We were eating sausage, burgers, hot dogs and other fattening food and we both maintained our weight. I dare say I even felt a bit slimmer than I normally do at home when I’m working at my desk job and not getting the constant exercise (that doesn’t really feel like exercise) that I was on this beach vacation.

In addition, we were overheated a lot since the temperatures were pretty  high while we were there. So on top of our bodies being in constant opposition to water and torching calories that way, our bodies were also being forced to burn more calories because we were constantly trying to cool off via sweating which burns calories faster.

Remember when you were a kid and a total water rat?  I remember swimming literally for hours in our pool or at the beach, splashing in the water, constantly treading water.  I also remember that I was absolutely RAVENOUS at the end of the day when the water fun was over.

That is because simply being in the water puts your body in a position where you are constantly trying to “right” yourself. You may not even realize it because water makes you virtually weightless, but you are constantly burning calories in water, even when you’re not feeling like you’re exerting yourself.

It is one of the best calorie-burning exercises, and if you are a frequent swimmer your body will be absolutely ripped in a relatively short period of time. It gives you nice, lean muscle because it burns so many calories and tones the muscles in such a graceful way. I mean, look at the incredibly body on most swimmers.  Michael Phelps, anyone!?

Anyway, it was nice to take a week off and relax and still not put on the weight that I  may have on any other vacation where I didn’t have easy and constant daily access to water.  I had fun AND I maintained – what a great combo!

Body Sculpting

When is Smart Lipo a Good Idea?

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Ideally, you would be able to sculpt away fat pockets on any part of your body by doing the right exercises and eating the right foods. However, many people (like me with my never ending saddle bags) simply have problem areas that are really tough to address simply through diet and exercise.

In other words, sometimes genetics can really be a B word, and you have to resort to other alternatives to short of shift the tide of what nature gave you.  This is where the procedure called Smart Lipo comes in for many men and women who are having problems with certain areas just not responding to anything they try.

I’ve actually considered it for my upper arms and my thighs before since I’ve been to the point of just giving up when I can’t seem to get them sculpted down to what I consider reasonable.  However, I’m not heavy by any means. Sure, my weight can yo yo a bit due to my love of food, but other than that I’ve never really had a weight “problem”.

The cost for this procedure is still relatively high in my opinion, which accounts for a lot of people’s decision to try other options. Also, it is less invasive than real, deep liposuction, but it is still invasive nonetheless due to the fact that your skin is still being punctured with a canula and your fat is still being broken up and sucked out through a vaccum like device.

It’s just a much less painful procedure and takes much less time to heal from thanks to laser technology which first liquifies the fat then sucks it out to minimize the surrounding tissue trauma and to help cauterize the wounds that are created instantly.

In addition, the wounds created by the canula are very minimal whereas the wounds created by the larger vaccum tools typically used in traditional liposuction are larger and may lead to greater scarring.

Then there was the recent story about how people who have gotten these fat removal surgeries are more likely to obtain and retain deep abdominal fat, which is a known factor in increasing heart problems, stroke, and other issues related to proper blood flow.

Smart Lipo typically costs about $3,000 per body part, which means that you could be spending a pretty penny if you want more than one body part done at a time. Also, if you ever consider this procedure make sure the Doctor that administers the treatment does the kind of surgery where he actually vaccums the fat out and disposes of it. This has a higher success rate than the procedures that just break the fat up with the laser and rely on “nature” to expel the fat from the body. Too risky if you ask me.

Body Sculpting

Body Wrap’s Inch Loss Temporary

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I’ve seen some pretty wild claims about herbal body wraps. I’ve actually gotten several before, with interesting near-term results that never last, although they are quite effective if you want quick inch loss for a big event.  Keep in mind, even for quick inch loss, you may need several body wraps in a row before you see any significant difference in your actual measurements.

Herbal body wraps are basically herbal solutions that are applied either before your body is wrapped up like a mummy on its target spots, usually with ace bandage types of bandages. Either that or it may be a cream or solution that is applied directly to the skin before the dry wrap is applied.

The type I got was where the cloth bandages themselves were soaked in an herbal solution then applied to my skin, so basically I had to sit in a dark room with a giant plastic sauna suit on for an hour, wrapped like a mummy. It’s definitely not for people who are claustrophobic in any way or in the least bit fidgety like I tend to be.

I couldn’t stand laying there for a full hour, with just my thoughts and relaxing music. It’s different if you’re getting a massage or something, but body wraps really are not that relaxing to me because all I do is think about all the other things I could be doing while I’m just laying there, unable to fall asleep.

Then again, I’m kind of a nervous-energy type of person anyway, so that may not be everyone.  I did notice that my inches were being lost after about the sixth body wrap. I went to get them once a week, usually on the weekend since that was most convenient for my schedule.

They would measure me every time after the wrap and tell me how much I lost.  Of course, keep in mind that right after the wrap, your measurements will of course be smaller simply because your fatty tissue is still compressed from being wrapped up for an hour.

I unfortunately didn’t notice much of a long lasting difference from my experience with herbal body wraps. I did notice some improvement in my cellulite, but that’s about it. I wish I could say they are a miracle, but of course, just like everything else, true weight and inch loss that is lasting comes from dietary changes and fitness discipline as well as making sure you are not sedentary.

 

Body Sculpting

Brown Fat vs. White Fat : Which is Better?

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When it comes to the fat on your body, there are actually two types that can cause huge differences in the way you burn fat and maintain weight. Numerous studies have corroborated that brown fat cells actually burn more calories than white fat cells, making them the more desirable of the two types of fat to have.

A recent study actually showed that mice who have higher concentrations of brown fat over white fat cells burned more calories and maintained a trimmer physique than the mice that had more white fat cells.

Brown fat is found a lot in newborns, and is found a lot more in thinner people, leading researchers to find that this type of fat is much more beneficial than “white fat” is on the human body. 

So what accounts for the brown color of brown fat? Well, it contains many more cells, and it actually contains iron stores, which makes it appear the brownish color versus the white color.

It is thought that due to the higher energy need of brown fat, it helps the body to burn more fat by having a higher thermogenic property than white fat. This means it generates more heat and burns a lot more calories and therefore a lot more “bad fat”.

Brown fat actually “takes” energy from white fat cells, and is therefore an excellent mode of burning extra fat and thinning down the body, as well as sculpting the body and helping to reduce things like big thighs, jiggly arms, and reduce cellulite on the body.

In short, there are sure to be more studies on white vs. brown fat, and I’m sure we’ll see more ways to take advantage of this for our weight loss goals. For now, there are really no published ways that we can figure out how to increase our good body fat while decreasing bad body fat.

Body Sculpting

Aerial Yoga

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There are people who love yoga for either part or all of their exercise routine.  And then, there are some people who will do any other form of exercise yet avoid yoga.  Often, the reason for this is that they have difficulty mastering yoga because of balance or flexibility deficiencies.

While traditional yoga has been around for ages, aerial yoga is a new style and form of doing yoga.  In aerial yoga, instead of doing poses on a mat, you do the poses with the help of a long soft fabric loop that is suspended from the ceiling.  Aerial yoga can convert certain people to yoga lovers because of the trapeze to help support your pose.

The assistance of a well qualified instructor will make a big difference in how well you like and master aerial yoga.  The biggest difference between traditional yoga on a mat and aerial yoga is that, with the aerial form, the suspended cloth loops hold and suspend some of your weight.

The aerial yoga is referred to as Unnata aerial yoga as the word ” unnata” in sanskirt means elevation spiritually and physically.  Even for a seasoned yoga enthusiast, the support of the low hanging fabric trapeze can enable the yoga students to achieve correct postural alignment while  relaxing.

This enhances the true peacefulness of the yoga experience since you are relaxed instead of exerting a huge effort to maintain a pose.  Mental serenity is more likely to accompany this form of yoga.

Unnata aerial yoga doesn’t have to replace traditional yoga.  It can be done as a supportive alternate form together with it.  Often, the more challenging yoga poses, such as deep backbends, can be achieved with the support of the aerial trapeze.

Deeper stretches can be achieved more readily with the aerial yoga.  There is less risk of yoga related injuries since aerial yoga strengthens core muscles while avoiding compression of the spine.  Most unnata yoga classes are designed to be specifically tailored to all levels of experience for their students.

You can still take these classes even if you have no experience in the yoga, acrobatic or aerial areas.  Their instructors are trained to work with all different ranges of experience including the absolute novice.

Many students find the most challenging part to starting the aerial yoga is trusting the trapeze fabrics to hold even part of their weight.  This is an area where the instructor can reassure and encourage you until you realize they are firmly anchored.

 

Body Sculpting Fitness Product Reviews

Weight Loss Pants? And Cellulite Too?

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Usually, when we lose weight, we think of how we will look better in our favorite pair of pants.  We don’t often think of our pants as a means to lose weight.  There are pants on the market that help us to reach our weight loss goals.  There are several types and brands of weight loss pants.

On Amazon.com, you can find Neoprene Workout Pants for $52.95 to help you get more out of your workout.  Neoprene is a synthetic rubber that traps your body heat which causes your body to sweat while trying to cool off.  If you wear neoprene pants while working out, you’ll probably find you have lost several pounds right after your workout from water weight loss.

You must rehydrate if using neoprene pants or suits during a workout as excessive sweating can lead to dehydration.  Since your workout could lead to dehydration, and this kind of weight loss will be temporary, the best method would be diet and exercise for lasting and safer results.

Another type of weight loss pants are called the LipoContour pants.  They were designed by an Italian cosmetic surgeon.  Initially, they were designed to help liposuction patients recover faster and more comfortably after surgery.  Then, it was noted that an extra added effect of wearing the LipoContour pants was a slimming effect and possibly even a cellulite reduction as well.

The LipoContour pants are made of 2 thin, tight layers of mesh with a reinforced panel for the tummy that extends to the knees.  The LipoContour pants need to be worn 8 hours per day for a period of 8 to 12 weeks to see the slimming effect.  The pants, themselves, do a massage action that increases blood flow and helps to break down fatty deposits thus decreasing cellulite.

Another kind of weight loss pants are actual caffeine pants called Lytess leggings.  This type of weight loss pants are manufactured with fibers of caffeine and shea butter microcapsules.  The slimming action is caused by the friction of everyday activities.

According to their website, after 18 days of use, you should look visibly trimmer.  They state that clinical trials showed up to a 1.2 ” reduction on thighs and up to a 2.1″ loss on hips after 21 days of use.

Lytess leggings do not make you sweat and they are designed to use either as an undergarment or they can be used as activewear by themselves.  They are like a second skin and are form-fitting.  The price of Lytess leggings is $70.00.

There is no replacement for smart and sensible eating and an active lifestyle to maintain a healthy weight.  But, if you are looking to accelerate your weight and cellulite reduction, you could try the addition of weight loss pants, read the reviews and decide for yourself which type is safest and best for you.