Exercise of the Week: Butt Kicks!

Butt kicks are a fun exercise to do as part of a dynamic warm-up or even as a fat burning interval. The nice part is that after a long day of sitting this movement of trying to kick your heel up to your butt will allow your quads to stretch and help to realign your thigh muscles.

Here’s how to complete the butt kicks exercise:
1. Stand with your feet hip width apart
2. Stay on the balls of your feet
3. Kick one heel up to your butt
4. Lower that leg and kick up with the opposite leg
5. Repeat for 20 reps or 10-20 seconds

Tips to remember:
1. Keep your chest up
2. Breathe naturally
3. Kick as high as you can with your heel but don’t overstretch
4. Land softly on the balls of your feet
5. Stop if you feel any pain

Butt kicks can also be done moving forwards and backwards in a straight line. I would first recommend getting comfortable doing them in place and then you can try moving in space. Have some fun with them!

How Weight Loss Reduces Cancer Risk

I know a lot of the advertisements and reports you see focus on weight loss for vanity reasons, but you’d be surprised to find out how maintaining a healthy weight can do wonders for your health and longevity.

A special report that was just published by the Mayo Clinic Women’s Health Source in the November issue goes through a number of ways to prevent cancer. One of the big ways was to lose weight because they estimated that "excess weight is a factor in 14 to 20 percent of all cancer-related deaths in American adults."

The Mayo Clinic also recommended being physically active since there is now evidence to demonstrate that people who are physically active have a lower risk of some cancers than those who are more sedentary. Did you know that just 45 to 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity a day is considered optimal to reduce the risk of breast and colorectal cancers? This is pretty powerful information if you take advantage of it…

Circuit Training Workout

I created this sample beginner circuit training workout that you can do right at home:

1A. Push Ups x as many reps as possible (you can do them inclined if you’d like)
1B. Backward Lunges x 15 reps on each leg
1C. Band Horizontal Row x 12 reps
1D. Jumping Jacks x 30 seconds

One you complete 1 round of all 4 exercises rest for 1-2 minutes before completing 1-2 additional sets of the circuit.

This sample circuit training workout will work your entire body in just 4 moves while getting your heart rate up. Remember to move at your own pace and improve with each workout. Enjoy the circuit!

What is Circuit Training for Weight Loss?

I saw that one ND reader said they enjoyed circuit training for weight loss and then it dawned on me that many of our readers may not know exactly what circuit training is.

Circuit training typically consists of a group of high-intensity exercises grouped together. Each exercise is completed in succession with as little rest between them as possible.

Although you can come up with aerobic training circuits, when most people describe circuit training they are referring to a group of resistance-based training movements (machines, free weights, body weight exercises, etc) that will keep their heart pumping quickly for an extended period of time.

It’s actually simpler than it sounds and can be a great way to increase strength, improve muscle tone, and burn body fat. Tomorrow, I’ll give you a 4 exercise sample circuit so that you get a better idea of what one looks like!

3 Progressive Ab Exercises

Today I want to safely guide you through 3 different exercises you can do to strengthen your abs and core before moving on to traditional crunches.

A good example of a level one exercise to master is the "plank." It's a powerful static exercise to engage your entire mid-section and tighten your waistline.

After you master the plank I would move onto an exercise called a "chop." This adds a little bit more of a dynamic movement where you're resisting rotation and as a result strengthening your core.

Once you master both of those you can try a more challenging traditional ab exercise called "reverse crunch" or leg lift.

Although I don't believe you need to do crunches or sit-ups to get great abs you should be more balanced through your core and lower back after mastering the previous 3 exercises and will now be more equipped to safely handle these types of crunching movements.

Don't Just Work Your Abs!

I know you want to work your mid-section to flatten your stomach, but did you know all those ab exercises can be bad for your back?

Every time you do a sit-up or crunch you are flexing your spine and potentially putting your back at risk. This doesn’t necessarily mean you shouldn’t work you abs, but there is a right way to do it to stay safe.

One tip I like to give my clients is to choose an abdominal exercise to complete first and then immediately follow it up with a lower back exercise. That way there you will strengthen both the front and back of your mid-section and create a healthier and stronger core.

In my next post I'll show you 3 ab exercises to work your way up safely from beginner to advanced!

Bridging Workout for Your Glutes

In my last post I explained how to do a static bridge to strengthen your glutes and posterior chain muscles and today I want to give you a few variations on how to do that exercise:

Static Bridging:
• Hold for 30-60 seconds
• Rest for 60 seconds and repeat 1-2 more times

Dynamic Bridging:
• Lift your hips off the floor and then lower them to 1 inch above the floor completing 10-15 “up and down” repetitions
• Rest for 60 seconds and repeat 1-2 more times

Dynamic Ball Bridging:
• You can use the same form and technique as the static or dynamic bridge except you are keeping a stability ball under your shoulders and head while completing the exercise
• Complete either variation on the ball and then rest for 60 seconds and repeat 1-2 more times
• You can keep your arms by your sides, overhead, or folded across your chest

Enjoy the bridging workouts and feel free to add them to any warm-up or use them at the end of a workout when you’re exercising your ab and core muscles!

Exercise of the Week: The Bridge

The exercise called the “bridge” is a great posture to help realign your hips from sitting all day. It’s also fantastic for strengthening your glutes, lower back, and other posterior (back side) muscles. I often use this exercise as part of a dynamic warm-up to “wake up” the glutes and get them firing.

Here’s how to complete the bridge:
1. Lie flat on your back
2. Pull your feet into your hips
3. Lift your hips high off the ground into a full “hip extension”
4. Squeeze your glutes and hold for 30 – 60 seconds

Tips to remember:
1. Keep your feet, shoulders, and head flat on the floor
2. Make sure to keep your feet under your knees and not too far out in front of you
3. Breathe naturally throughout the exercise
4. Concentrate on squeezing your glutes together and lifting up
5. Start by keeping your arms by your sides stretched out straight – eventually you can fold your arms across your chest

This is an example of how to do a “static” bridge where you are not moving up and down. It’s the best way to start to activate your glutes and hip muscles. Once you advance up you can get into more dynamic bridging movements. In my next post, I’ll be back with a bridging workout you can do 1-2x a week!

The Most Effective Workplace Wellness Programs Do This

After studying about 38,000 participants researchers have found that employee wellness programs do work. It was discovered that employees were able to lower their cholesterol, decrease stress, improve absentee days, and increase their fitness levels through these programs.

The trick, through, is making sure they stick.

Here are the 3 most effective ways to make sure the program has the best chance of succeeding:
1. The exercise center must be on the workplace premises
2. The program must have strong company participation
3. Employees must have the ability to exercise during the work day

If your workplace has been thinking about developing a wellness program or looking to revamp an old one, I hope these tips allow you to make it more effective!

Read the full story here

Exercising Keeps Visceral Fat from Returning

After a year long study by exercise physiologists it was found that only those who continued exercising kept visceral fat from returning.

These results were tracked after participants went on a strict diet and lost an average of 24 pounds. They split the study participants into 3 groups of aerobic exercisers, resistance exercisers, and non-exercisers. After seeing great results in weight loss maintenance from the exercising group, the achievements of the non-exercisers were discouraging.

The group that did not exercise after losing the initial 24 pounds averaged a 33% increase in visceral fat within the next year. The point of the story is that exercise + diet is the key to long term success – not dieting alone.

Source: University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Department of Human Studies