Taking Advantage of the Mood-Boosting Benefits of Exercise

October 22nd, 2008 Shaka

Women Fitness Tips >> Women’s Training

Women’s Training Tips: Taking Advantage of the Mood-Boosting Benefits of Exercise
Women often times overeat in response to psychological stress, whether it is bad news, work-related pressure, boredom, or feelings of loneliness or sadness. Research has shown that exercise releases endorphins, which is a chemical that elevates mood and alleviates psychological stress. By working out in the morning, you can take advantage of the mood-boosting benefits of these endorphins to help keep you from overeating all day. This is one of the ways you can help control negative emotions through healthy activities like exercise instead of indulging in excess food.

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Using a Balance Ball at Work

October 22nd, 2008 Shaka

Women Fitness Tips >> Women’s Training

Women’s Training Tips:
Using a Balance Ball at Work
To maintain good posture and keep your core muscles from atrophying while you sit at your desk all day, try sitting on a balance ball, a method that is known as active sitting. Using the balance ball will not only help you gradually strengthen your core muscles and burn a few extra calories, research shows that the posture active sitting encourages is more ergonomically correct. This means sitting on the ball may help prevent the wrist, forearm and eye strain that can accompany long hours of sitting at a computer. Women especially can benefit from ergonomically correct active sitting because they generally start with weaker muscles and ligaments and as a result tend to suffer higher rates of tendonitis and other office-related overuse injuries.

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Making the Most of Office Workouts

October 22nd, 2008 Shaka

Women Fitness Tips >> Women’s Training

Women’s Training Tips: Making the Most of Office Workouts
Office workouts tend to be crammed into an incredibly short period of time. You may only have 45 minutes or an hour to get changed, workout, and get cleaned up before you have to get back to work. Make the most of the time your boss allows you by doing a high intensity workout during your break. Research shows that high intensity exercise causes the body to create more growth hormone (GH). One of the benefits of growth hormone is that it helps keep metabolism high. High intensity exercise is important because it can help counteract the natural decrease in growth hormone production and the resulting decrease in metabolism that women can experience as early as the age of 30.

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Making Your Workouts Work for Your Schedule

October 22nd, 2008 Shaka

Women Fitness Tips >> Women’s Training

Women’s Training Tips:
Making Your Workouts Work for Your Schedule
Don’t paint yourself into a corner when it comes to scheduling your workouts. A night owl should not schedule 5 a.m. workouts nor should an early bird exercise at night. Although there are many benefits to exercising in the morning, you can reap the rewards of exercise no matter what time of the day, so schedule a time that works for you.

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Getting the Most Benefit from Short Training Times

October 22nd, 2008 Shaka

Women Fitness Tips >> Women’s Training

Women’s Training Tips: Getting the Most Benefit from Short Training Times
Setting aside an hour everyday for cardio exercise, as is suggested by the USDA, can seem daunting at best. Instead of focusing on getting an hour of cardio, try to fit in exercise a little at a time. For example, you may consider taking up jump roping. Jump ropes are cheap, light weight, extremely portable and skipping can get your heart rate up in a hurry. It is a great way to get some high intensity work when you only have a few minutes to spare and you can jump rope from almost anywhere. Furthermore, jumping rope is a great weight-bearing exercise, which studies show can help prevent some of the degenerative diseases that plague women later in life like arthritis and osteoporosis.

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Secret tip that will help women sculpt a lean and sexy body

October 22nd, 2008 Shaka

Women Fitness Tips >> Women’s Training

Women’s Training Tips: Secret tip that will help women sculpt a lean and sexy body
Combing both cardiovascular and weight training will increase your metabolism. Most women I find just do cardiovascular which is good, but if you really want to turbo-charge your metabolism you need to do weight training too. I recommend at least 3 times a week. Weight training helps tone and sculpt your whole body and creates more lean muscle. The more lean muscle you have the faster your metabolism will be.

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Set Realistic Goals and Reward Yourself

October 22nd, 2008 Shaka

Women Fitness Tips >> Women’s Weight Loss

Women’s Weight Loss Tips: Set Realistic Goals and Reward Yourself
If you are trying to lose weight, it is important to set realistic goals. When you reach a goal, reward yourself. If you set realistic goals, you will be more likely to stick with them and be successful. This in turn increases your motivation to lose more weight or improve your health. Instead of trying to lose 60 pounds in three months, shoot for one pound per week or four pounds per month. It can also help to have broader goals like running a 10k or bike seven miles without stopping.

Give yourself an incentive to reach your goals by rewarding yourself. Dieting can be exhausting, but resist the temptation to reward your new healthy habits with a calorie-laden meal or dessert. This will just put you on track for another treadmill workout. Instead, put away money for every pound you burn so that when you reach your weight goal you can buy yourself something. You could also go get a manicure or pedicure, massage, see a movie or go to the beach and enjoy a good book in the sunshine. A reward will serve as a reminder for all the hard work you put into reaching your goal. It is an opportunity to throw out the calorie chart for a day, relax and enjoy your success.

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Counting Calories

October 22nd, 2008 Shaka

Women Fitness Tips >> Women’s Weight Loss

Women’s Weight Loss Tips: Counting Calories
Calorie counting can be frustrating for women, but it doesn’t have to be. The amount of calories you need depends on your weight, age, height and activity level, but calorie estimates can still be helpful. To lose weight, you first need to determine how many calories you need to maintain your current weight. This is also called your basal metabolic rate (BMR). Once you know your BMR you can cut calories and factor in the amount of exercise you need in order to lose weight. The formula for BMR for women is:

655 + (4.3 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) – (4.7 x age in years).

If you do little to no exercise, multiply your BMR by .2. If you are lightly active, multiply your BMR by .3. If you exercise most of the days in a week, multiply your BMR by .4. If you exercise everyday at a high intensity, multiply your BMR by .5. This is your BMR and the amount of calories you need per day to maintain your weight.

One pound of fat is equal to 3,500 calories. In order to lose one pound of weight per week, you need to cut 500 calories from your daily diet or integrate exercise into your weight loss plans to burn fat and calories. No matter what your weight goals, do not consume less than 1,200 calories a day. When you eat less than 1,200 calories per day, your body will most likely go into starvation mode and store your calories instead of burn them. Use a calorie chart to keep track of what you eat and join a fitness gym to kick your body and metabolism into shape.

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Getting Started

October 22nd, 2008 Shaka

Women Fitness Tips >> Women’s Weight Loss

Women’s Weight Loss Tips: Getting Started
Congratulations on your decision to lose weight and become a healthier person! Although it can seem tedious at times, if you stick with a solid weight loss program you will be successful no matter what.

To figure out how much weight you need to lose, first calculate your Body Mass Index (BMI) by using this formula: (weight/height in inches) x (height in inches) x 703. If your BMI falls between 18.5 and 25, then you are considered to be at a normal weight for a woman. If your BMI is between 25 and 30, you are considered overweight. Once you have figured out your BMI, you will be able to determine how much weight you need to lose to fall within the “normal” weight range. It is okay to diet if you are within the “normal” weight range and still want to lose a few pounds or maintain your weight.

Remember that weight loss is a life decision, not just a diet decision. Incorporate both exercise and healthy eating into your daily life. Change your attitude towards your body. If you see your weight as something impossible to transform, you will not succeed. Think of yourself as able and ready to change and you will be on your way to your weight loss goals. So love your body, have confidence in yourself and get to that treadmill workout!

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Don’t Think of it as a Diet

October 22nd, 2008 Shaka

Women Fitness Tips >> Women’s Weight Loss

Women’s Weight Loss Tips: Don’t Think of it as a Diet
You’ve been on a diet since you were 14. You’ve tried the grapefruit diet, the low-carb diet, the no-carb diet, the starve-myself-until-dinner-and-then-binge diet and perhaps even the popcorn diet. Throw all the fad diets out the window and re-think the way you lose weight. Diets have been proven to cause compulsive eating and give you a sense that food is forbidden or dangerous. If you deprive yourself of something as natural as eating, you will only want to rebel and eat more.

When you yo-yo diet you put your metabolism through a loop, making it impossible to keep weight off. Change the way you look at your nutrition and rely on your natural hunger to do its job. Eat (healthy) food when you are hungry and stop eating when you are full. Trade the ice cream, fries and candy for fruits and vegetables, and all you will have to reach for in the refrigerator are healthy things. If you change the concept of the way you exercise, lose weight and feel about yourself to focusing on what you can do and can eat, you will no doubt be more successful at your weight loss goals.

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