For many people, stretching is a chore. Touch my toes? Do a yoga pose? Forget it, you say — I’m tired after my gym workout and just want to head home. But stretching can reduce your recovery time after a workout, promote healthy joints, increase flexibility, and decrease muscle tightness. Remember, if you feel good after a workout, you’re more likely to head back to the gym again!

Staying flexible can help keep a bounce in your step as you age. There was a woman in my yoga class who was 60 years old (as she liked to let everyone know), but she had the body and attitude of a 30-year-old. I like to think it was because of her faithful yoga practice, which incorporates stretching.

Want to get started? Try these options:

Yoga class.  You’ll get a good full-body stretch in each yoga class. In the yoga class I used to take, the instructor would ask the students where they felt tight that day, and would customize the session to target those muscles. Yoga Finder can help you locate a class near you.

Online instruction.  About.com: Physical Therapy offers instructions and photos for dozens of stretches, including sports-specific stretches.

Tai chi. This is a calming martial arts workout that can help improve flexibility. Tai Chi Central lists some schools, and you can also find martial arts schools in your local Yellow Pages.

Videos.  There are several free stretching videos on YouTube, such as this 5 Minute Stretch Routine.

 You can also find stretching videos for rent or purchase on Amazon.com. Besides stretching, look for keywords like Tai Chi and Chi Kung (an ancient Chinese health care system that includes physical postures and breathing techniques — also spelled qigong).

Books.  Amazon.com and the sports section of your local bookstore offer books on stretching and flexibility. Try The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Stretching.

Whatever kind of stretching you opt for, follow these three easy tips to get the most out of it:

• Stretch warm. I used to take a karate class where we’d do extreme stretches before the main workout. Ouch! Stretching cold muscles can cause injuries, so be sure to save your stretching for afteryour workout. If you’re doing stretching exercises from a book or video at home, warm up with some light cardio first.
• No bouncing! Use a steady pressure.
•  No pain, all gain.  A slight discomfort is fine, but pain is a red flag.
• Hold it.  Hold each stretch for at least 30 seconds.

I’m lucky that I love stretching, but even if it’s not your thing, you should give it a try. You probably didn’t like cardio or weight training when you first started, either, but you kept them up because you know they’re key for a healthy lifestyle. Add some stretching to your day, and your body will thank you.

Back in the olden days, the only way people knew how many calories were in Ye Olde Bigge Mac , how many calories they burned hoeing the fields, or whether their BMI was on target or over the top was to guess. Now, though, we have the Internet, which has tons of free resources for the health-minded among us. As a freelance health writer, I use many of these resources when I’m researching articles, and they can also help you in your quest for fitness. Here are my favorites:

1. The USDA Nutrient Data Laboratory : This website is truly amazing. Type in a food, and the site will bring you to a list that lets you further refine you choice. For example, if you enter “beef,” it will bring up all the different cuts of meat, both raw and cooked. Choose one, enter the amount — and you’ll get a spreadsheet listing the number of calories and the amount of everything from saturated fat to vitamin C to selenium. You can use this site to keep very detailed track of what you’re eating and make the best food choices.

2. Wondering how many calories an hour of water polo will torch? InternetFitness.com’s Calorie Burn Calculator lets you enter in your weight and  the amount of time you do a certain activity, from aerobics to shoveling snow, and calculates how many calories you’ll burn.

3. NutritionData lets you analyze recipes and creates a nutrition label for the entire dish. You need to register, but it’s free.

4.  YouTube has more than funny videos of cats — You can also find free vids of cardio workouts that you can use on days you can’t make it to the gym. For example, SparkPeople.com offers this 10-Minute Jump Start Cardio Workout.

(I’ve done this video — it really does kick my low-endurance butt!) Just search on YouTube for keywords like “aerobics workout” or “cardio workout” to find free vids.

5. No need to search the Wendy’s website to dig up nutritional data on its salads: The Calorie King Food Database boasts the nutritional information for over 50,000 American generic and brand name foods, including over 260 fast-food chains.

6. The National Institutes of Health offers this BMI calculator so you can find out whether our Body Mass Index says you’re fit or fat. Just enter your height and weight and the calculator will do the rest.

7. If you’re sick of your workout music mix, check out PodRunner, which offers “free exercise music mixes for runners, joggers, power walkers, cyclists, elliptical trainers, or anyone who can use nonstop, fixed-tempo music when they train.” These free techno and house beats will keep up your energy while you work out.

Fitness Model James Ellis

This not only has been building my abs back to where I want to see them but it has also been increasing my overall workout stamina. Putting your body in constant motion for an hour and fifteen minutes to an hour and a half is a great workout. When doing this I am able to complete my full workout without relinquishing any amount of time to an abs workout because I am getting my ab workout in while I rest in between sets and because my rest time is spent doing abs, my endurance is getting even stronger.

This is how I have been doing my workouts. On a day where I would do biceps I would do four sets of curls with about 6-7 max reps on each of them. But in between the sets I would do a set of 25 crunches regular crunches. The when I switch to another exercise like hammer curls for instance, I would follow the same regimen but instead of doing normal crunches I would do a set of 25 side crunches and then vary on the next muscle exercise I did. I haven’t found a way to incorporate weights into the ab work out without using machines and taking up two things at once at the gym, but just working my abs by way of crunches and other non-weight involved exercises, I have been able to see a clear result. For about the first week and a half I thought this workout was too exhausting, but that was because I was trying to do too many ab reps in between sets. I was trying to do 50 crunches instead of 25. But after I lowered the amount that I was doing I was able to finish both workouts in the time it takes to do one and not feel like I had absolutely no energy left. When I am at the gym at my condos where there is never anyone there and I can use two machines at once without holding anyone up, I will also try to incorporate running for my rest time. Like I mentioned before, I only do this when I am doing my normal routine and not when I am varying from routine to routine, because it really only personally works for me when I am doing my normal lifting sets. But this can be a good thing to incorporate into cardio or leg workouts as a break that is not really a break.

Proper Crunches Thanks to YouTube ID masterblevins

Hi! My name is Linda Formichelli, and I’m the newest blogger on the Designer Whey blog.

I’ve gone through a lot of life changes lately: I recently turned 40, and my husband and I adopted a baby boy. As an “older mom” (though I don’t feel old), I’m interested in both boosting my energy and in keeping off the pounds that tend to creep on with age. My challenge — as for many working moms and dads — is time. It’s hard to find time to exercise and cook healthy meals when you work all day and take care of a baby at night. In this blog, I plan to explore ways to fit fitness into even the most hectic days.

Right now, I have even more of a motivation to get fit: I’ll be profiling a martial artist for a major magazine, and as part of the article I’ll be attending a couple of very intense martial arts classes next month. I have five years’ experience in the martial arts, but I quit last year when I hurt my back — and since then, my cardio has consisted of — well, pretty much nothing. As a point of pride I’d like to kick some butt in these classes, so I’ve made it my mission to build up my endurance and add some lean muscle — and to keep going even after my article is done.

Another challenge for me: nutrition. I’ve been writing about health, fitness, and nutrition for newsstand magazines since 1997, so I know what I should and should not be eating. But knowing and doing are two different things! I love eating at restaurants, and I’m sure you know how difficult it is to eat healthfully when you’re confronted with a menu full of creamy sauces, fried foods, and desserts that are bigger than your head.

My final challenge: I have an anxiety disorder, and it’s easy for me to get overwhelmed with stress. Stress has been implicated in causing health woes (like irritable bowel) and in making illnesses worse (like asthma). Stress also makes it difficult for us to lead healthy lives — after all, when we’re feeling stressed and rushed, it seems much easier to pick up a burger and shake at the drive-through than to create a healthy meal — so I’ll incorporate healthy mind-body tips into my blog posts.

I’ve already started making positive changes, which I’ll talk more about in future posts — and I’ve lost seven pounds in the last month!

My blog posts won’t be all about me: As a health writer, I have access to a lot of studies and experts, so I plan to include information you can use in every post. As I get healthier, hopefully you will too!

Stay healthy,

Linda

   Recently I have been on this kick to try and find different workouts that allow me to accelerate my personal physical achievement levels while at the same time renewing my enjoyment of going to the gym on a daily basis. My main goal is to steadily increase my body and muscle mass while maintaining a solid physical appearance, which so far is going great. But I have found that if I don’t constantly mix up my routines I physically peak and the burn out rate sets in. Now you may call it something else, but everyone faces that burn out rate at some point or another. Its that pivotal moment(s) when you have come home from a ten hour day at work and still have other important things to do like studying, making time for that significant other in your life, grabbing a beer because you need one, or even catching a show that you like, and you need to decide if you want to go to the gym or not. This moment is huge, because you know you will feel like crap if you don’t go but you have no real motivation to go because it is the same old song and dance every time you go to the gym. Well, I found something as of late that has not only been a good motivator for me when this decision pops up but also an extremely effective workout tool, and that is immediate muscle compression workouts.
   One of the main reasons why this workout cycle is so appealing to me is because it gives me a break. Normally, I do heavy lifting six days a week, targeting different muscles each day. But with IMCW’s (we are moving this into an acronym) I only have to do three or four days of heavy lifting. Here is how it works. IMCW’s are simple they are just workouts that target your complementary muscles in a single more effective, more intense session. For example, normally I would work back (secondary biceps) one day and chest (secondary triceps) the very next because they are complementary muscles, and by working these muscles this way you are causing a compression on the body which slowly after time increases muscle mass. But IMCW’s are different, because you would be doing both chest and back in the same day rotating from one set of one exercise on back immediately followed by one set of one exercise on chest. You would then do this until you finished up your sets on both exercises and then move onto two more exercises, and then so one and so fourth. Then the next day you have off, to do cardio or abs or legs or just simply have it off (it is absolutely imperative that you do not work any of the muscles that you worked the day before, as you risk permanent muscle damage: work other muscles the next day or simply take the day off). I usually try to get four sets in on each exercise and about ten exercises per workout (five exercises per each of the two complementary workouts). Sometimes these workouts are referred to as blitz workouts because that is what you are doing; you are blitzing/shocking your system. Now because of this I would recommend throwing one of these cycles in a month as a break from the ordinary routine. Some people’s bodies can handle these on a constant basis, but other’s can’t so it is important to find that balance. You can do this with all the different complementary muscles in your body, like triceps and biceps, back and chest, etc. It is in fact effective and you will see results if it is done right (depending on diet and nutrition of course). Remember I am by far no expert, just an average Joe who likes to go to the gym and try new things and with anything new, I recommend that you do a little research first and make sure that this type of workout will yield the results that you are in fact looking for. Also, make sure you ease into these workouts, you will probably be at the gym for about an hour and fifteen minutes or more, and you will be working out the entire time, because there really is no rest.

Competing in this category is purely based on the contour and definition of your muscles.

I also increase my daily exercise regimen to incorporate twice as much cardio to burn calories.

I started my new diet Monday:
1 scoop DESIGNER WHEY Orange Mango protein in water
1cup oatmeal plain 3 egg whites
1tbsp peanut butter salt free and brown rice cake salt free
1cup chicken plain 1 cup orange and yellow peppers
DESIGNER WHEY Protein Water 20g Pomegranate
1cup chicken 1 cup red and green peppers with onion fajita seasoning no salt
10 cashews
1cup of cottage cheese no fat

Workout:
1hr run
1hr eliptical
Biceps and Abs, 5 sets, 10 reps each:
5lbs dumbbell hammer curls
5lbs dumbbell decline
Roman chair leg lifts 20lbs between feet
Reverse crunch on the ball
Oblique twist on cable machine with 60lbs
Regular crunch on the ball with 125lbs
5 sets, 6 reps 12lbs dumbbell isolated curl
5 sets, 12 reps 8lbs reverse grip

This is me….

Our church is having a diet and nutrition course for the next few weeks. I am learning a lot and thought I would share with you all what I have learned in just one session.

To stop cravings – eat every 3 hours small meals that include protein.

Exercise: How much and how long – You only need 30 minutes a day of cardio. Cardio is simply raising your heart rate higher then your sitting heart rate. Here is something interesting… you do not need to do 30 minutes in a row. I never seem to fit in 30 minutes a day then felt bad but if you do 3 – 10 minute work outs or even if you start out doing 5 minutes – 6 times a day that works! You can jog in place, jump rope, dance, rebound or anything that will get your heart rate above your sitting rate even… sex… LOL. OK, now run home and tell your husband its exercise time!

You need 1 hour each week strength training – it does not take very many pounds for strength. 2 – 5 pound weights is great! Carry a weight in your car and do bicep curls driving…ummm… one arm at a time! You can use soup cans or water bottles. I say use water bottles that you refill then after you are done doing reps, drink the water!

You need flexibility every day – stretching, bend touch your toes when you get out of bed, stand up from your computer. Practice flexibility anytime. Just get some stretching in wherever you can. That’s it to stay fit.

It’s best to exercise …ANYTIME! Morning does revs up your metabolism and helps keep it going all day.

The figure below is how to figure out how many calories you need to lose 1 pound a week just by your food intake. **Add exercise and you lose more!

1. Add 655 to this calculation 4.35 X Weight in Pounds
2. Add your answer to this calculation 4.7 X Height in inches
3. Subtract your answer to this calculation 4.7 X age
4. Subtract 500 calories

This equals the number of calories you need to take in each day to lose 1 pound a week. Not doing anything but this formula you could lose 52 pounds a year!

My weight is 278, Height 69 inches and I am 41
655 + 1209.3 (4.35 X 278) + 324.3 (4.7 X 69) – 192.7 (4.7 X 41) – 500 = 1495.9 calories a day. (1500 is close enough!)

To figure out how much water you need to drink a day it’s your weight divided by 2. My weigh is 278, I should be drinking 139 oz of water a day… whoa sure will be pee’n a lot! That’s over a gallon a day! That is hard to see doing but I think I will make it a goal to drink a gallon of water a day… Or lose weight so I don’t have to drink that much!

I hope this helps you with your weight loss journey. Start with figuring out your resting heart rate add a little more movement every day and before you know it you will have worked yourself up to 30 minutes of cardio a day. I will close for now…

Until next time… Camille from Michigan