I was in my very busy gym the other day and saw (mostly because I first heard) a guy doing an exercise called rebounding.  The sound was actually really distracting and sounded like it could put you in excruciating pain if you hadn’t properly warmed up. I have never tried rebounding, so I thought I would look into it and see what it’s all about – and share it with all of you.

Rebounding is a bit different than jumping on a trampoline, which I personally think is both fun, good for you and brings out the kid in you.  I remember jumping on trampolines as a kid and how silly I felt and giddy.  See our past post on trampolines and how much fun they are.

We had a huge one in our neighborhood in the back of a restaurant, so while my parents could sit on the patio, my sister and I could jump and have hysterical fun. And get winded, and also get a really great cardio workout – but we didn’t care about that – we just wanted to have fun.

Now, I realize that there are probably rebounders of various quality, and the one I heard at the gym likely was not of high quality. It was squeaky, and didn’t sound smooth at all.  There are premium rebounders though that I’ve read really good reviews on. I think you have to go a little higher end with this piece of exercise equipment or you’ll be sorry.

Rebounders are essentially mini trampolines. They come in either a straightforward upright model, or one that is sort of sideways that is designed to be pushed up against a wall for support so you can rebound off of it sideways and do plyometric-type exercises.

The benefits of a GOOD rebounder are that they provide excellent, high intensity workouts that burn quite a few calories in a relatively short amount of time because of their high intensity.  You absolutely need a smooth one that is easy on the joints though, or these rebounders can really do a number on your joints and make your neck and back sore if these areas are already sensitive on you.

You also need to get a really sturdy one. Remember, you are putting all your weight on it over and over, and you are impacting it in a big way when you come down on it, so you need something of solid, high quality construction.

Rebounding can be a great, short workout.  It’s high intensity, so it burns fat, and you can also really sculpt your leg, thighs, butt and ab muscles and work on your core strength with some of the exercises provided.

I have to admit, when I first saw the name of this curious jar of workout improvement, I thought “ew”, that’s kind of a gross name for a product. But I was even more curious about the actual use of the Sweet Sweat product and why some people who were training for big events or trying to cut weight fast were so gaga over this particular product.

I saw a lot of comments from fitness enthusiasts that they don’t ever work out without it, and that some trainers and people who play sports for a living swear by it.  So, what is Sweet Sweat exactly and could it fit into your fitness plan for weight loss and other goals?  Here’s a product review and overview.

Well, it is a tingly body emulsion that you apply topically to your skin. You are supposed to feel the tingle. I think the idea is, much like some tanning products on the market that provide that tingly feeling when applied to the skin, to increase your circulation and also to superficially increase your body temperature in that one area where the product is applied to produce a sort of thermogenic effect and kick your body in to a higher calorie and fat burning gear.

Some people totally swear that Sweet Sweat really invigorates their workout and gives them better weight and fat cutting results. Apparently you don’t need a whole lot of the product applied to get it it work correctly, so it may also be economical.

I personally like to use my infrared sauna to get my sweat on, and I think I’m a pretty good sweater to begin with during my workouts, so I don’t really think I need and therefore have never tried it, but for people who have a hard time working up a sweat and getting into that increased state of internal heat that helps you burn fat and calories, Sweet Sweat may be a pretty sweet deal for you!

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.

When it comes to playing sports, I’m the first to admit, I pretty much suck at anything that requires a whole of of hand eye coordination.  If you take me to play tennis, you’d probably be winning even if you’re just a mediocre player.

I can run allover the court all day, but when it comes to making contact with any ball in any sport, I’m pretty terrible. But that’s not what playing sports is really all about. It’s not about winning and competition all the time, but to me, even trying to play sports is fun and it also has a lot of benefits for my fitness.

One of the best calorie burners is tennis. Tennis is a game where you are running allover the court the whole time, and this is where the exercise comes in. You may not be hitting the ball all the time, but just running sideways takes a lot of coordination, and you are focusing the whole time.

Another sport that involves a court and a ball that is excellent for your cardiovascular fitness is basketball. Basketball players notoriously have some of the best physical conditioning when it comes to cardio fitness in the world.

If you look, you’ll also notice that they are almost constantly sweating, which means they are always exerting themselves.  They are running the ball up and down the court, playing defense and offense, and since it is such a high scoring game (unlike football), the game goes on forever, and many of the players stay on the court the majority of the time.

Basketball players can probably eat pretty much what they want because they literally burn calories the whole time they are on the court.  Another great sport is swimming. Although this could also be categorized in the pleasure category, swimming is a tough sport.

It conditions the muscles without you even feeling it, because you are weightless in water.  It also conditions your lungs and gives you compact, sleek muscles.

I just got done with a very hot and sweaty day of mowing the lawn, weeding, and doing all that other fun summer stuff that sometimes feels like a bit of a stress reliever, and when you’re not in the mood, feels like a major ball and chain.

Sometimes it can be the bain of home ownership, which is otherwise pretty freakin awesome if you ask me. But if I’m not in the mood to sweat it out, watch out because I tend to pout about it.

I’ve grown to really like sweating though – especially outdoors, where you really feel at one with nature and you can just kind of turn off everythign else about your life and listen to the hum of the locusts, the buzzing of the bees, and the hum of crickets, and just shut everything else out. It is then that I don’t mind sweating, and when I feel my most in the element.

Do you have to sweat to burn calories though? Well, it certainly doesn’t hurt. The mere act of sweating means that your body temperature is elevated. When your body is working to keep itself cooler, or trying to warm itself up in the cold, you automatically switch into a higher metabolism gear.

This is because your body is forcing something that isn’t coming naturally. Much like when you work out really hard. You are pushing your body’s boundaries, and testing it. It rewards you with a higher metabolism, even if only for a few hours. This is how you can lose weight if you combine diet and exercise.

Sweating can be incredibly detoxifying as well. It rids the body of excessive toxic buildup in the body by taking it and transporting it out, along with lots of water and lots of salt, through the skin’s pores and out onto a towel, the back of your shirt, your hand, or evaporated out in to the air.

Have you ever accidentlly tasted your skin after sweating? You’ll notice that it tastes salty, and you can even feel the grit of the salt crystalizing on your skin as it dries out sometimes. It’s pretty cool!  This is your body’s way of ridding itself of excess sodium as well, so sweating also benefits you by ridding it of water retention and excess sodium intake, which can help with hyptertension.

If you are primarily focused on exercise as a way to burn calories, then there are some things you should know about which activities can give you the most bang for your buck. What does that mean in this day and age?

Well, it means what can you do to burn the most calories possible in the least amount of time, so as not to use up too much time for little return.  Time is really, really precious, and that seems to go doubly so for the people of today’s rushed and harried world.

Women are a large part of the work force as well, and men share in more of the child rearing duties these days, so both women and men are under the gun in these modern times to get a ton of other things done besides just getting their workouts in for the week.

So, what are some of the acitivities that you can partake in that will really burn calories, in your every day life, errand running and more?

If you have a handy jump rope around, or a punching bags, these are two quick and fun things that you can literally pick up in a few minutes and burn mega calories while you’re doing it.

They are both super high intensity (especially if you picture someones face you’re not happy with in place of the punching bag), and they burn a lot of calories in a very short period of time. More bang for your buck!

Swimming is a great calorie burner. The best part about swimming is that you don’t even realize you are torching hundreds of calories after swimming all day until you get out of the water and your day is over. Not only are you usually famished and dying to restore the calories you lost, but you also will sleep like a baby.

Jump on the recumbent bike for a bit if you want to amp  up your calories burned for the day and keep that metabolism up higher during the day time as well.  The bike is a great way to tone and burn calories because it works the quads, some of the biggest muscles in the body, very hard, and these muscles take up a lot of calorie consumption.

When you’re trying to lose weight, it is really imperative that you follow some simple rules with your workout regimen to develop the most effective fitness plan for weight loss. The first one is very simple, and hopefully very common sense for most people. That is, make sure you get in a ton of cardio, and go easy on the weight training until you start to lose the weight.

I like to approach it this way, because I know that the cardio is going to help me burn off those excess calories, and I know that weight lifting and doing things like pilates isn’t offering me as much bang for my buck when I’m not yet at my target weight and I’m essentially building lean muscle over the fat I want to get rid of first.

The second rule is to make sure you are getting your heart rate up high enough so that your body goes into maximum overdrive when it comes to torching those excess calories off the body, and reducing fat.  Your heart rate is really what makes your body work harder, and that is what makes your calorie burning ability go into hyper time.

Also, make sure you are not eating ANY carbs for a while after your workout. This is when your body is still in high burning mode, and it’s basically attacking and burning all that stored fat and stored energy instead of taking in what you just crammed in your mouth as carbohydrate fuel.

If you do this, then you will notice a big difference in your weight loss efforts. This means also stay away from those sugary energy drinks or replenishment drinks unless they are sugar free, during and immediately after your workout .It is strictly H20 and nothing else, so that you get the most bang for your buck.

By the way, by using this practice of no carbs after working out, you are also pushing your natural HGH production into overdrive. HGH is a natural hormone that the body emits a whole lot when you are younger. It is responsible for more muscle tone, less body fat, and a higher metabolism, so producing more of this does your body good.

One of the biggest reasons that people don’t get enough exercise is that they simply can’t find enough time.  It is true that we are a deadline driven society and that, due to tough economic times, many of us work two jobs and barely have time to do basic housework, sleep and go back to work.

There are ways to fit more physical activity into your day without spending hours at the gym.  During break time at work, instead of getting coffee and a snack, take your break outside and take a walk.  Ask a coworker to come along to make it more enjoyable. 

If the weather is bad, you could simply walk indoors at work.  This habit will be particularly important if your job is in an office where you are sitting at a desk all day.Another way to boost your activity level may seem small, but if you do this daily, it will make a difference. 

Most of us go around a parking lot multiple times looking for the closest parking space.  As long as the weather is nice, you can park your car further away so you’ll get a little more walking time in before you either go to work, the grocery store or whatever your destination is.

Here’s another good tip to increase your activity level.  While sitting at your desk, stop and stretch every so often to use your muscles more, decrease tension and increase circulation.  Isometric types of exercises can be done also while seated at your desk without disrupting your work. 

You can tighten your abdominal muscles by just consciously pulling your tummy muscles in while still remaining seated and working.  If you work in a building with multiple floors and an elevator, you can opt to use the stairs instead. 

Climbing stairs daily is an excellent way to increase your fitness and improve your circulation.  If you so this every day, it will improve your muscle tone over time.

When you so have some down time after work and you’re watching television, you can do some floor or chair exercises instead of just stretching out on the couch.  If you want to improve the effectiveness of these exercises, try adding some light weights or resistance bands. 

You can choose to stand instead of sitting when at home while doing your usual household routines such as folding laundry or chopping food to prepare dinner. 

It may seem as though these are just tiny increases in your activity but if you add just a few of these items to your daily habits, you will notice a difference in how you look and feel. 

Ideally, we would all like to fit in a good workout at the gym daily, but when that doesn’t fit into your everyday schedule or finances, some of these small simple tips will enhance your general health.