The sedentary lifestyle is clearly being linked to early death and more and more health issues as time goes on. As science gets more sophisticated at pinpointing the problems that lead to shorter lifespans and higher risks of certain types of deadly disease, we are seeing clearly how important it is that we do what we were made to do since the dawn of time – MOVE!

Whenever I read a new story like this, it makes me cringe to be honest because I happen to have a desk job during the week where I sometimes am completely unable to get up from my desk for a few hours.  I try to make it a point to stand up, stretch, take walks and move around as much as I can, but I can feel (and see) the effects that having a desk job for ten years has had on my body.

I used to wait tables and work in fast food sorts of jobs for years before I landed my cushy desk job. I was a lot more in shape when I had my active jobs of course. But I was also younger. I still think that having the desk job for all these years has added weight to me and also taken away a lot of my former muscle tone.

I also feel like I have to fight twice as hard to keep weight off now. Again, that is a symptom of aging as well, but I know that it has something to do with the fact that the only time I get true, constant exercise is when I’m working out. If I don’t work out every single day, that means I’m only getting adequate movement when I make sure I work out.

Sometimes that may not be much, maybe 3–5 days a week.  I just was watching the show “The Doctors” where now they are linking the sedentary lifestyle to an increased risk of breast cancer in women.  This makes sense, since cancer of all kinds is usually a higher risk for people who don’t get enough exercise.

This is because so many other things go along with the sedentary lifestyle.  Excess weight and fat, which creates excessive estrogens in the body, which fuels certain types of cancer is one for instance. Another is the fact that exercise is a huge stress buster, and those with less stress and anxiety tend to have better immune systems and healthier cells in their body which lessens their risk of cancer.

It is clear that living a non-moving lifestyle is dangerous to your health these days. Not heeding these clear signs would be dangerous to your longevity, mindset and your generall health and well being.

I am long overdue in writing about this, but my husband got me an Everlast boxing equipment punching bag (the long kind), which hangs from a self supported stand in our basement. I wanted the stand instead of attaching this huge 80 pound heavy bag to our rafters in the basement.

Something about that just didn’t sit right with me. I imagined my whole house collapsing, which of course I know is completely ridiculous and far-fetched. So he bought both the stand and the bag I wanted.  He also got me a new pair or red punching gloves. They work pretty well, but I’ll warn you, your wrists have to get used to it because my wrists were sore the next day after the first time I used it simply from the shock absorption of hitting the bag over and over again.

Another tip I would like to give if you’re in the market for a punching bag and the accompanying accessories needed, is to buy the most padded gloves you can find. The bag is not by any means very giving, especially if you do squat punches like I do and are punching the bag near the bottom where the sand settles and makes the surface much more firm.

All of that being said, my punching bag is pretty freaking awesome. I love to use it when I’ve had a bad day at work, or if I’m feeling particularly ornery or like I need to get a lot of anxious, nervous energy out.  It does help you to build sculpted, lean muscle on your arms pretty fast too. It helps with that flabby arm syndrome that me and many other women suffer from for sure.

I also love that you can get a really good cardio workout in on it.  I like to do fast punches, combined with slower ones.  I also like to use it for roundhouse kicks. You can’t do many of them, because they do hurt and they do get the heart rate way up, but they are excellent both for your muscle tone as well as for your heart conditioning.

One thing I’ve learned how to do is to release the tension in my neck and shoulder area as I’m punching. This was something I also had to learn the hard way. If you happen to have a lot of neck pain in your every day life, you likely tend to really stiffen those muscles up when doing this exercise.

So make sure you concentrate and focus on loosening the neck up. Don’t tense the neck muscles, make sure instead you focus on tensing up your core (your abs), and use this as your center for strength and your stabilizing force instead of focusing on the neck area too much.

I really love this piece of exercise equipment though. I love using my punching bag for stress release.  I feel tough and powerful when using it, and I actually feel like it helps to train me for self defense a bit too because it teaches me how to use force with my own body weight. LOVE IT!

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.

Soooo, so many people I know are loving the whole Zumba workout craze. And I must admit, while I am one of the most uncoordinated people I’ve ever met in my entire life, it does look like it’s a lot of fun, especially once you start to get the hang of it.

And isn’t that sort of the point of fitness and exercise?  It should be fun so that you keep doing it and don’t get bored. You should also feel powerful, playful and yes a little sexy when you work out, so why not have it be in great clothes doing some great dances moves that also shape your bum, your belly and your legs.

Not to mention, Zumba gives you an excellent non stop cardio workout, which many people don’t even realize because they are having so much fun with the music and moves that the time flies by.  This is an example of the ideal exercise – one that combines fun and working out, because that way you reel people in and they forget that it’s all about doing something good for their body – it begins to be more of a fun pastime.

Zumba is a workout that you can get on DVD as well. I’ve seen plenty of them available for sale online and I’ve also seen quite a few available at second hand DVD stores and trade in types of places too.  A great tip to make sure you get one you like is to rent it from a video store or online rental service before you buy it.

Many online rental outlets will also give user reviews of the workout DVD’s they offer, which gives you a good idea how other people perceived it so you can figure out if you’d like it or if you’re just wasting your time. Time is precious, that is definitely not something you want to waste doing a workout you hate!

Zumba may not be the best at target toning, I’d still leave that for the gym equipment and weights, but it certainly can offer you a butt kicking, heart pumping workout that will leave you breathless and having lots of fun from what I’ve heard. I’m gonna take one, I just haven’t found time yet!  Check out the other post I did on Zumba when I first started to hear so much about the craze from friends.

I can’t tell you how many times my husband tells me he’s pulled or otherwise strained a muscle when working out. It’s pretty common, especially the older you get and the less you stretch. As I always remind my hubby when he complains of this, you MUST stretch your muscles adequately before working out.

Read this past story about the importance of flexibility as you age for more on how vital this is to continued health and mobility as you age.

You can do a more dynamic stretch, like jogging in place or doing something that gets the blood moving, or if you’re going to do something like yoga, static stretches should be just fine. The key is in holding them long enough to actually stretch the muscle. Many people don’t hold the stretch long enough, and the muscle isn’t “pliable” enough to avoid injury or strain when they begin the hard stuff.

Stretching after your workout is absolutely crucial, and too many people either skip this step or they don’t do it for a long enough period. Stretching the muscles back out after they’ve been contracted for long periods of time is important in stretching the muscle back out and avoiding later pain and discomfort.

You should have a stretch session of at least five minutes after every workout, and make sure your muscles feel loosened back up when you’re done.

One of the worst muscles on me after working out tends to be my hamstrings. They are always tight. So I find myself stretching those several times throughout the day when I’ve worked out. It really helps to make my whole body feel loose and relaxed when just stretching that one large muscle.

Getting in a sauna is also a huge help. We use our infrared sauna all the time after a hard workout. It really relaxes you and deeply penetrates your muscles so that they stretch much more easily and are less prone to soreness and injury after a hard workout.

You can also sweat out some of those toxins that you may not have gotten out of your system during the workout, which helps to reduce muscle pain and discomfort after working out.

I love to get a massage when my muscles are tight. I actually prefer to get a massage after a hard day at work, which is when my muscles are most tight. I have a desk job, but sitting all day is far worse for your muscles than moving around all day. They stiffen up and become painful and contorted from stress and sitting in one position for too long.

If you want to read more about back pain and sitting too long – read about how exercise helps control back pain, a previous post I wrote about the challenges of having a desk job and having neck and back pain as I do from previous car accidents.

My husband and I are a bit ridiculous when it comes to movie rentals. We really enjoy watching movies and since it’s one of our biggest pastimes and something we immensely enjoy doing together, we’ve both gotten memberships to online DVD rental services.  Both of them are pretty well known services.

And both are chock full or workout DVD’s good and bad as well.  Have you ever bought a fitness DVD that you got home, tried out and absolutely hated? How angry were you that you already opened it and were likely now stuck with an exercise DVD that would probably just sit on your shelf and collect dust?

Well, I was tired of that happening. And Lord knows there are plenty of workout DVD’s sitting on my shelves that have not been used in the years since they were purchased. So I decided to start renting the videos before I bought them.

If I rented them, tried them out and could see myself doing them without hating every minute of it, or I wasn’t totally annoyed by the instructor or the background music, or even the exercises themselves, I would then go out and buy them. I would likely buy them from Amazon.com because they usually have the most competitive prices on DVD’s and blu rays that I’ve found.

Or you may get lucky and get them on sale or have a great coupon for a brick and mortar store too, who knows. At any rate, before wasting any more of your money on these types of DVD’s, if you have a membership with Blockbuster or Netflix, they have quite a few workout DVD’s in their rental libraries.

Plus they often have user reviews so you can see what others thought about the workout before you even rent it. Sometimes just the reviews are enough to convince me to not even rent the video.  This way, you can have DVD’s around that will make you actually want to work out.

I especially love the condensed, hard workouts that use plyometrics and other hard moves to elevate heart rate quickly and get you more of a workout in less time.

I’ve had a cold – a pretty bad one – for a few days now. However, I’m starting to feel a little better. I actually don’t feel like sleeping all day like I did just a day or two ago. So my energy levels are a little higher now, which is nice.  A lot of people question whether or not they should work out when they’re not feeling well.

It’s actually quite a common question because most people think they might make themselves sicker if they work out.  Especially since we are in the thick of flu and cold season, those who work out often are feeling it since they feel trapped into being a couch potato when they’re not feeling good.

But the answer to the question is very simple. You can certainly try a light workout, but if your body is telling you STOP then you need to stop.  Your body often needs all of its resources to fight a bug such as a flu or cold, and when you work out, you are demanding energy and resources from your body.

This is how you actually burn calories from exercising – you are demanding resources of your body such as increased blood flow, heart rate, and increased oxygen circulation. All of this takes energy, and if your body is telling you no during your attempts at working out while sick, then you simply have to stop and not push boundaries.

When you start to feel better, try doing something really light and therapeutic, like a yoga DVD.  This tends to be more calming and less demanding than a hard cardio and weight workout, but you have to choose an easy one because things like hot yoga or ashtanga can be every bit as demanding nad physical.

One thing I’ve found that helps me recover from a flu or cold quicker believe it or not, is our far infrared sauna.  Because it heats my body, it creates a sort of artificial fever. The reason our bodies get a fever when we’re sick is because this is the body’s attempt at killing off the bacterial or viral infection that is making you sick.

Heat kills many viruses and germs, so getting into the sauna can definitely help you to fight off the bug better. I also increase my intake of vitamin C and other antioxidants simply to make myself feel better and more energized.

Drinking plenty of water – I add lemon juice, freshly squeezed to mine – it also good for recovery as often you feel dehydrated during a cold or flu.  Also, see our past post about coconut water for better hydration – interesting read.

Once you start to gain your energy back, that’s when you can try to work out, but working out when the flu or cold has its hardest grip is probably not a good idea – this is your body’s way of telling you it’s down for the count.

As we age, there are of course a variety of undesirable things that happen not only to our physical appearance, but also to our mental facilities. As with most everything else age-related though, there are many ways you can help slow the inevitable process of aging, and even to help reverse some of the not so grand signs of aging.

One of the things that men and women alike complain about as they get older is that their muscle mass seems much more difficult to maintain. At the same time, fatty tissue builds more easily on the body as our levels of HGH, or Human Growth Hormone start to wane.  The one-two combination of higher levels of fatty tissue and less muscle mass really does a number on our bodies – and our ego.

But what about the likes of people who never seem to age and seem to retain muscle mass and be able to successfully keep a lot of fat from forming on the body? Well, they likely not only eat the right diet, but also take part in the right combinations of exercise that will help them to maintain that muscular, lean look.

There are also supplements that can help you build lean muscle as well as help keep fat storage to a minimum.  One of them is Nitric oxide, which a lot of body builders use to help them get that pumped muscle look that they typically have, and to help minimize body fat storage.

Combining supplements, a high protein low fat diet and very little carbs will also give you the lean, mean look as well. Just performing high impact short burst exercises makes your body go into overdrive when it comes to natural HGH production, so simply getting those high intensity, shorter workouts in a couple times a week will help your body get that look you desire.

Also getting the proper amount of sleep with help with maintaining muscle mass while decreasing body fat since one of the main times your body repairs itself and its muscle tissues and pumps out human growth hormone is in the deeper stages of REM sleep.

You may have seen these strapped on contraptions that people can wear to increase their sweating during workouts in targeted “problem areas” like the arms (lunch lady arms – a typical problem for women), or outer thighs or of course the huge buzz word – the abdomen or belly area.

The “bands” are designed to be tightened around the area which you want to spot reduce during your workouts. This way, they make that area sweat more, supposedly increase the circulation to the area and the sweat output, and result in helping you zap the cellulite and extra fat cells and weight that you carry in that particular area.

Of course, experts may say there is no truth to these claims, but people swear by these contraptions and I’ve actually worn one before and noticed that it seemed to take a few centimeters off my designated area, so no complaints here. Plus, these workout accessories are very affordable, which helps.

Well, arm bands that are worn typically on the upper areas of the arms where the arms tend to be flabby, where women tend to hold extra weight a lot, may actually be interchangeable and used on the thighs for women too.

These are two very common problem areas for women, and using these sweat bands can help to increase the sweat and the circulation, and over time can also work by the mere principle of compression to compress the tissues and make the area smaller by force essentially.

Sweating is an important part of working out. Whether or not you believe sweating in localized areas increases your odds of losing weight in targeted areas, the fact is that where there is sweat, there is increased and improved circulation of blood. This means that cellulite and fat are easier to break up, and it’s overall a really good thing for your body.

It helps your body to detox as well, since you need good circulation in order to detoxify your body and carry toxins out via your body’s natural waste elimination processes – and sweating is a major one. The next post will be about a product called Sweet Sweat. I know I know, the name is kinda gross, but the product gets some very interesting feedback from users.

We’ll give you the scoop on that next time we talk.  Tootles!

Compound moves are one of my favorite ways to really cut down on my exercise time while not cutting my body short on the cardio effects it needs to keep my metabolism humming and get my bodily functions working to their best ability.  Not only does doing these two-punch moves help me to elevate my heart rate into fat burning territory, but they also help me to work on my coordination.

I’m terrible with coordination usually. So much so that I used to really shy away from any type of hand-eye coordination sport in high school and grade school. I was so bad that I couldn’t see a ball coming until it practically hit me in the face.  Of course, some of this had to do with naturally poor eyesight which got resolved a little later in life, but a lot of it has to do with my natural inability to coordinate body parts in an orchestrated fashion.

Compound moves, which usually make two levers of your body work at once – ie legs and arms, are really hard and they’re a great way to amplify your weight training. They make your heart work more in a short period of time. So in the end, you can really cut your workout in half by doing them because your body is outputting so much more effort in figuring out how to coordinate sending blood to several areas of the body at once.

The blood sends oxygen to these areas, and that burns calories in turn, which makes us all happy campers because in the end, that’s what exercise is for – burning calories, burning fat, and keeping a fit, healthy body in the process that isn’t overburdened with extra fat layers.

When you are doing a move like a sumo wrestler squat with dumb bell rows or shoulder rows, you are really forcing your body to send that blood to all those areas, making it work harder and making it go through way more calories than if you were just moving either the arms alone or the legs alone.

This is a great thing for those of us that are busy (who isn’t these days really).  I love compound moves because they allow me to do in about a half hour what I previously couldn’t do in an hour. They really work me hard, and I feel it the next day.  They also get my endorphins going almost as well as the “runners high” I experience when I run, which really lets me know I’m doing something great for my body.