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.

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.

An interesting piece of workout equipment to help us achieve better muscle tone and weight loss goals is called The Rack.  It is a portable and versatile style of workout apparatus that can be used in three different positions: flat, standing or for bench style exercises.

The Rack is made of heavy duty steel and can support up to 300 lbs.  The Rack, itself, weighs 30 lbs. and it is easy to assemble.  The Rack can be folded for the purposes of storage and transporting it.

With the purchase of The Rack, you receive a fitness guide and journal to plan out 12 weeks of exercise routine.  This journal helps to direct you on which combination of DVD’s to go through and in what order to reach your goals.

Also included with The Rack are many different workout DVD’s: Intro to The Rack, Fat Shredder, Big Arm Blast, Explosive Chest, Ripped Abs, Into The Zone and Bartendaz Workout.  The Intro DVD covers how you can do multiple levels of exercises to attain a sculpted physique.

The Fat Shredder DVD involves exercises done in all directions at a fast pace so you will work up a sweat and increase your heart rate and increase your metabolism.   The Big Arm Blast DVD goes at a fast pace also and is directed at pumping up your biceps.   The Explosive Chest DVD emphasizes exercises for building up your pectoral muscles so you can get a sculpted body.  The Ripped Abs DVD utilizes The Rack at all three levels and it is aimed at developing a tough, hard core for your body and it lasts for 10 minutes.

The Into The Zone DVD involves progression training and it’s focus is on the entire body.  The Bartendaz Workout DVD lasts for 15 minutes and it is a challenge and it does work to build muscle and strength.

The Rack is available online at a cost of $159.96 that can be done in one payment or you can do a $14.99 trial followed by 4 monthly payments of $39.99 each.  The Rack is also available at retail stores such as Target if you are not an online shopper.

The  workouts offered with The Rack are effective and the schedules and calendars make sense.  The Rack workout programs go over a period of 90 days and it specifies which workouts to do on which days.  The Rack is also very specific in it’s nutritional guide and it is strict.  It eliminates guesswork as to what you are expected to do if you want to meet your fitness goals.

It is the specific directions and instruction for the workouts and nutrition that make The Rack a stand out fitness package.  It is the supplemental directions that make The Rack worth the money invested.

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.

Review : Ripped in 30 with Jillian Michaels

In a good way of course. Jillian Michaels has outdone herself with another DVD that’s a kick butt workout compressed into a half hour. Just what I love, because I hate sweating it out at the gym or in my basement with the precious little time I have in my day for too long. Sure, I want to look good – even great – but I just don’t always have that standard hour that everyone seems to think works so well when it comes to working out.

The DVD is called Ripped in Thirty. It uses the same principles as her 30 Day Shred video, but it kicks things up yet another notch in my humble opinion. Case in point, I did the first workout and was sweating profusel as well as cursing Jillian and her damned cohorts within the first five minutes.

These are a lot more dynamic and have some more complex moves, but they really do get the job done. They are a little more ab-focused as well, which is what I’ve always felt was missing from her 30 Day Shred DVD.  I love to get an ab workout in every since time I get in exercise mode because my abs are one of the first areas of my body that starts to feel like squishy mush when I am lazy for a couple days and just taking it easy.

When my abs are tight and toned, I feel much leaner, sit and stand much taller, and tend to look much thinner (not to mention more confident) so kudos to Jillian for focusing more on the core in these. Mind you, you might not be doing tons of crunches, but the exercises are built to engage the core a lot more.

Level 2 is definitely harder than level one with some more compound moves and a little more explosive movements than the first segment. The DVD contains 4 workouts, and they are progressively harder, so you really have to be in shape to get through them and to practice them regularly.

She does a lot more stretching and cooling down in these ones, perhaps because she got feedback that there was not enough of a warm up in the first ones and people may have been getting injured. I know when I first did 30 Day Shred, I really felt it in my ankles, and they actually swelled a bit because of all the explosive movement.   In comparison, this one does a lot better job on warming you up and preventing injury.

All in all, Ripped in 30 is a GREAT DVD. I really love these DVD’s too because they’re inexpensive. I got mine for just under 9 bucks on Amazon and will be doing it for years to come. Can’t beat that!

One thing I’ve come to realize, which was actually a major paradigm shift for me, is that crunches are not the end all be all when it comes to flat abs and core strength. It wasn’t until I really pushed myself during one workout session on a Fit TV television show that I realized the power of the plank when it came to my abs.

My abdominal muscles had never been so sore before!  I only did what seemed like a minute of holding, then going down into a downward dog type of position for about twenty seconds, then going back into the plank position, but this time lower to the ground, so my elbows were flush with the ground rather than my hands holding me up in the plank position.

This burned out my abs more than any crunch had ever done.  Needless to say I was pretty impressed, and have made planks a necessary part of my weekly ab training regimen ever since that fateful day several years ago.

What’s So Different About Planks?

Plank positions force you to hold your entire body weight with your arms and your abdominal muscles solely. This is quite a strain, and you really have to focus all your core strength in order to take pressure off the back, neck and arms as much as you can, which is what I think is a very natural reaction to the move.

You are using your own body weight to work your abs, whereas with crunches, you are only doing a repetitive up and down motion which does not use the weight of your own body and gravity to make you work ten times harder. Sure, after a hundred crunches you feel the burn a lot, but after a mere minute of the plank, you feel the serious burn in a fraction of the time it takes with crunches.

One of the tricks I’ve learned with crunches too is to take a five to eight pound weight and lay it across my abdomen. This tends to make it harder for your abs to work, and you can really feel the difference in effort, which means you are burning more calories and working the muscle much deeper than without the weight.

Another cool thing about ab planks is how versatile they are. This is actually something the plank has in common with the crunch.  They both have many different positions, angles and degrees of difficulty you can work with.  You can even do inverted crunches in a plank position by twisting the legs up toward the body one at a time – just watch that back!

If you are looking to get fit and are interested in fast results to getting the toned and sculpted muscular look, Rushfit is a possible way to achieve your goals.  Rushfit is a fitness program designed by George St. Pierre, who is a mixed martial artist champion, and his trainer, Erik Owings.

This is a good solid exercise regimen that is actually quite practical in terms of time and money invested.  The recommended amount of time to be spent each day working out is 45 minutes.  The cost for obtaining the material needed is 3 payments of $29.99 plus shipping and handling for the 8 week home training camp materials.

The only other thing you will need is a set of dumbbells ranging in weight from 2 lbs. to 25 lbs.  You will not need any weights greater than 25 lbs., since you gain most of your strength from reps, not from heavier weights.

The eight week home training camp consists of 7 workouts on 6 DVD’s, a workout guide book, a nutrition guide and training plans.  The fitness and conditioning program has workouts that include: strength and endurance, explosive power, fight conditioning, abdominal strength and core conditioning, full body strength and conditioning and bonus workouts.

The workout guide book contains instructions on how to reach your fitness goals within 8 weeks step by step.  The nutrition guide informs you of the best nutrients to focus on to go along with a tough workout routine.  The training plans enables you to choose a workout calendar to mesh with your schedule and still meet your training needs.

This program is designed to help you build muscle and lose weight and it promises faster results for body toning and conditioning.  George St. Pierre is known for the intensity of his workouts.  He uses a mixed martial arts training style and his workouts are broken down into 5 separate 5 minute rounds.

This fitness program focuses on areas of strength, endurance, core stability, power, flexibility, balance and agility.  Each of his workout videos can be purchased separately online for a range of $14.99 to $19.99, if purchasing the entire 8 week home training camp is too expensive. The website for Rushfit is gsprushfit.com and it is comprehensive on what is offered.

The workout videos emphasize quality and intensity of each move.  They address all of the areas that are needed to build strength, both upper and lower body.  In addition to the five round divisions, there is a warm up and cool down to each exercise.

It is not an easy workout, but with eight weeks of really staying with this and following the nutrition guide, you would almost have to lose weight and gain strength.

One of the most ridiculous things I ever read about working out and drinking water is that you should try really hard to just avoid drinking water or beverages at all.  The one thing I do agree with is that you shouldn’t drink sugary electrolyte replenishing drinks during workouts, unless you need the carbs and you are doing something extremely intensive like running a marathon, a triathlon or something like that.

During the course of “normal” working out though, that is not advised.  Why? Well, working out, you’re burning calories and carbs. You don’t want to add more of the very thing you’re trying to burn while you’re working out.

There is also evidence that you stop producing HGH, the precious Human Growth Hormone, that you taper off on producing with age, when you work out. But the catch is you only produce it much more during workouts when you’re not also simultaneously carb loading.

Some recommendations actually say to wait a few hours after a workout to even eat or drink any carbs.  So what about just drinking plain old water during a workout?  Nothing wrong with that, right?

Definitely not. You actually need to replenish some of the lost water through the sweat you’ve been putting out during a workout. The more you sweat, the more you’ll need to drink.  The argument from the non-water drinkers is that you are hurting your body’s natural mechanism for putting the body into high calorie burning mode during a workout.

They claim that you are bringing the body temperature down and defeating the purpose of heating it up. That’s only if you’re drinking severely cold water though, and the effect is momentary, trust me.  So, I think this can be safely debunked.

One thing you don’t want to do is drink too much water. This can lead to cramping and a belly full of water that can be uncomfortable to carry around when you’re moving around vigorously.

Too much water, or food for that matter, when you are working out vigorously lends itself to cramping.  Plus it just plain weighs you down. When your body is using energy to burn off food AND work out, you are inevitably going to have a mediocre workout that you can’t put 100% in to.