HEALTH FITNESS

Find All The Best Fitness And Nutrition Programs

2020-05-29T19:03:00.004+05:30

Find All The Best Fitness And Nutrition Programs On The Men's Health Shop

You've trusted Men's Health as your go-to authority on all things fitness and weight loss, from workouts to meal plans. Now, you can maximize your results with top-notch materials straight from our brand new online storefront, The Men's Health Shop.

The shop offers the latest and greatest our workout programs, nutrition plans, and large-scale fitness guides to take your training to the next level and transform your body from the inside out. You'll also find an easy way to subscribe to Men's Health magazine and our All Out Studio streaming service, and other offers from our sibling brands Esquire, Runner's World, Good Housekeeping, and more.

Some highlights from the store includes our most successful initiatives to date, like:

Muscle After 40

This best-selling, 12-week workout training plan is geared for guys over the age of 40 looking to get (or stay) fit and shredded. The plan features workouts customized to build muscle and avoid injury by avoiding risky exercises and focusing on shorter, but more frequent routines.

Kettlehell

One kettlebell is all you need for this workout to get absolutely shredded. Starring Kettlehell master trainer Eric Lejia, this program includes six 20-minute workouts for total body conditioning that will blast away fat and build muscle.

The New Rules of Muscle

With a bench and a set of dumbbells, Men's Health fitness director Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S. Will help you get jacked. His four-week training plan was designed to shock your muscles into serious growth.

Superhero Shred

Celebrity trainer Don Saladino brings his expertise from training Hollywood's most famous superheroes straight to you. This program features Saladino's 28-day workout plan with 30-minute workouts aimed to hit every muscle. And all you need is a set of dumbbells.

The Men's Health Guide to Intermittent Fasting

Fast, feast, repeat, and get lean. This informative guide to intermittent fasting will help you drop fat while still building muscle. It will introduce you to the main principle of intermittent fasting—it's not just what you eat, it's when you eat—and inform you how to do it to start dropping pounds.

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Your Women's Health Live Event Guide: Workout With Kayla Itsines, Kelsey Wells & More

© Provided by Women's Health UK Women's Health Live Virtual is your one-day event of workouts, yoga and interviews with the likes of Kayla Itsines, Kelsey Wells and Simone De La Rue.

Women's Health Live Virtual begins at 8.30am 23 May

Stream sessions on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter

Kayla Itsines, Kelsey Wells and Simone De La Rue are among the famous faces

Women’s Health Live Virtual is back with a line-up that will get you sweating, lunging, laughing and zenning out with some of the world's best trainers.

What you expect?

We’re beaming fitness, health and wellness sensations like Kayla Itsines, Kelsey Wells, Dianne Buswell, Simone De La Rue and Jessica Skye straight into your living room.

The event starts at 8.30am and will finish at 7.45pm.

Women's Health Live Virtual 2020 May schedule 8.30am – 9.15am BBG Bootcamp With Kayla Itsines

Get ready to sweat! Kayla's at-home bootcamp is a full-body workout that targets your legs, arms and core with high-intensity exercises. The workout is split into sections that really challenge each area before throwing it all together to finish with a 7-minute total-body blast. You’ll need a sturdy chair and a yoga mat for this one.

9.45am – 10.15am Q&A: At Home With Kayla Itsines

In this exclusive chat, global fitness inspiration and entrepreneur Kayla Itsines will discuss her workout ethos, what it’s like growing an empire as a new mum and her plans for the future. She’s also happy to provide tips for home workout strategies and nutrition hacks – so have your questions at the ready!

11.30am – 12.15pm Jive HIIT With Dianne Buswell

Get sweaty and have a laugh in this tough dance-style HIIT workout with Strictly star Dianne Buswell. You’ll learn different kick combinations in this total-body session, and put them together at the end to make a full swinging jive routine. Get a sweat on and learn a new party trick. Win.

12.45pm – 1.15pm Q&A: Love In Lockdown With Dianne Buswell

Dianne and her beau (and one-time Strictly dance partner) Joe Sugg may have had to postpone their UK dance and comedy tour until next year, but they’re still keeping fans entertained from home with partner workouts, ambitious baking projects and haircut fails. Here, Dianne talks falling in love in the limelight, navigating lockdown as a couple, and what the future holds for Strictly’s favourite pairing.

2.30pm – 3.15pm Body By Simone Full-Body Blast With Simone De La Rue

Join celebrity trainer Simone De La Rue as she takes you through a 45-minute workout created for her clients in LA and London. Cardio intervals mixed with toning circuits will target your upper body, lower body and core to torch calories, build long, lean muscles and leave you feeling happy and invigorated.

3.45pm – 4.15pm Q&A: Mum’s The Word With Simone De La Rue

There’s a reason her Body By Simone workouts are a go-to for A-listers looking to get red-carpet-ready post-baby. Celeb trainer and pre- and post-natal specialist Simone De La Rue talks everything you need to know about navigating fitness as a new mum or mum-to-be. Ask away!

4.45pm – 5.30pm PWR At Home Full-Body Sweat With Kelsey Wells

Who says you need a gym for resistance training? Sweat app sensation Kelsey Wells will put you through your paces in a muscle-achingly good body-weight session designed to help you build strength and power – no kit required. The workout is structured just like her famous PWR At Home sessions and consists of a warm-up, two activations, a circuit, two supersets and two burnout exercises, as well as a cool down. Not bad for 45 minutes! You’re going to feel this one tomorrow…

6pm – 6.30pm Q&A: How To Get Strong At Home With Kelsey Wells

She’s helped thousands of women find their strength with her PWR and PWR At Home programmes – so Kelsey Wells knows a thing or two about getting strong. In this chat, she’ll discuss her own fitness journey, the nitty-gritty of strength training without a gym and, our personal fave, why working with weights won’t make you ‘bulky’.

7pm – 7.45pm Deep, Dope, Dynamic Flow With Jessica Skye

Let the sound waves wash over you in this 45-minute feel-good flow, suitable for all levels and abilities. Expect creative sequences, good vibes and heaps of Zen, all to the soundtrack of DJ and yogi Jessica’s tailor-made Fat Buddha playlist. Next level chill, unlocked.

How to access for Women's Health Live Virtual 2020

Everything – workouts and Q&As – is available via our YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter channels.

Head to your channel of choice and check latest videos or posts and stream to your yoga mat, garden or your couch.

What if I can’t make it to the workout or interview I want to see?

Fear not – the videos will be available on all the platforms above for you to watch whenever suits you, as soon as the session is over. Again, you'll have the option of being able to watch on our YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter channels.

What equipment do I need for the workouts?

No weights, resistance bands or fancy gym kit is required for any of the workouts, but we do advise you have some water nearby and a yoga mat for each session.

For Kayla Itsines’ BBG Bootcamp workout, you’ll also need a sturdy chair. But other than that, you’re good – even Kelsey Wells' PWR session is completely bodyweight.

Are the workouts safe for me if I’m pre- or post-natal?

These workouts are not specifically created with pre- and post-natal women in mind.

For more advice for mums-to-be, read: Pregnancy Exercises: 11 Dos And Don'ts of Prenatal Workouts. If you've recently given birth, make sure you get clearance from your doctor at your 6-week check-up before you exercise.

Are the workouts family friendly?

Want to get the kids or your gran involved? Simone De La Rue’s workout (at 2:30pm) is appropriate for kids under 18 and seniors over 60.

How can I access the workout playlists?

Your workout playlists are available here:

Women's Health Live Playlists on Apple Music

Women's Health Live Playlists on Spotify

Each unique playlist link will be in the description box of the virtual workout. Open it up on say, your Alexa, laptop or your phone (if you're streaming via desktop) and turn it up. Loud.

I have a question I want to ask one of the stars – where can I do that?

We’re taking questions on our Women’s Health Get Fit Done Facebook Group, in the announcement section. Not part of the gang yet? You’re missing out.

Join the Get Fit Done Group

How can get involved with Women's Health Live on social media?

You know us, we love a hashtag. So make sure to use ours, #GETFITDONE, so we can keep up with you during the event.

Tag us on Instagram @womenshealthuk and share your pictures and updates in the WH Get Fit Done Facebook group, as mentioned above.

The WH Get Fit Done Facebook group is a safe space for WH readers to take part in workout challenges and support one another through their exercise journeys. We want this to be a group for you, by you.

So, share your experiences, engage with each other and offer one another a warm, friendly space in which to be proud of your achievements – which, of course, includes your sweaty selfies following our challenging live workouts.

The group is also a hub for our regular fitness challenges, the first of which was a 28-day plan by Alice Liveing, which we got stuck into in April. The next one will be launching soon!

But, for now, rest up for Women's Health Live 2020 and get ready for three days of fitness and wellness fun! Not a subscriber? Start today and get 3 issues for £1.

Your Women's Health Live Virtual Event Guide

Cut through the noise and get practical, expert advice, home workouts, easy nutrition and more direct to your inbox. Sign up to the WOMEN'S HEALTH NEWSLETTER .

A Guide To 2020's Most Popular Diet Trends For Fitness

People are always intrigued by the latest trends when it comes to losing weight fast, and this has become especially true with all the time spent sitting idle and stuffing our faces while in lockdown. So, let's review some of the top diet trends quarantiners have turned to thus far

One of the greatest challenges faced by people all over the world who have spent the past couple of months self-isolating at home has undoubtedly been the few extra pounds they've put on from not getting enough exercise. This was inevitable given how much time we all have been spending in the kitchen and on the couch. However, with the world gearing up to reopen and with summer on the horizon, there is no better time than now to change our focus from pampering ourselves to preparing our bodies to achieve optimal fitness and health.

Thus it is now time to turn the tables on our bodies and take this opportunity to try out some of the many dieting methods trending for losing weight and feeling fit. Interestingly, the Mediterranean diet, which is what prevails across Turkey, is actually considered to be the most successful and popular diet trend worldwide. Consuming a balanced mix of fruits, vegetables, seafood, nuts and legumes, and – on rare occasions – meat, has proven to be a much healthier way to eat than typical diets in countries like the U.S. And U.K. That said, those of us living in this region are already a step ahead if we stick to the Turkish home-cooked meals of beans and vegetables, served with a portion of yogurt and fruit for dessert. However, there are a number of new trending dieting methods that may be worth incorporating to jump-start your metabolism to combat those extra pounds gained while self-quarantining.

The following are some of the most popular methods for feeling healthy and fit while shedding those extra pounds right now:

Intermittent fasting

One of the most popular current health and fitness trends is intermittent fasting (IF), which, put simply, means refraining from eating for 16 hours in any 24-hour period. One example of this requires one to eat all meals between the hours of 2 p.M. And 8 p.M. There are variations on implementing the method, such as “periodic fasting,” which is followed for just two days a week, “alternate fasting,” which involves fasting on alternate days or daily “time-restricted eating.” Studies show that fasting can have powerful effects on the body and the brain. As such, people are embracing this technique to lose weight, improve their health and simplify their lifestyles. This method is more of an eating plan than a diet, with the exception of variations on the practice such as the 5:2 diet, in which two days a week dieters restrict their calorie intake to 25% of their daily needs (approx. 500 to 600 calories). Another variation is fasting for an entire 24 hours once or twice a week. Nonetheless, the benefits of fasting include the release of the human growth hormone which benefits weight loss and muscle gain, a lowering of insulin levels and the spurring of cellular repair, the latter of which both prevent the onset of diseases and results in greater longevity. Ironically, this healthy lifestyle method is not so different than the fast recently embarked upon and concluded by Muslims all over the world as part of the holy month of Ramadan, while intermittent fasting is also practiced in a variety of religions all over the world.

Suggested reading: Dr. Jason Fung and Jimmy Moore’s “The Complete Guide to Fasting” discusses the overall benefits and practice, while Dr. Fung’s latest “The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss” does just that. “Delay, Don’t Deny” by Gin Stephens and Brad Pilon’s “Eat Stop Eat: Intermittent Fasting for Health and Weight Loss” describe the science behind the method, while Sarah Amber Patterson’s “Intermittent Fasting for Beginners” serves as a practical guide for the different variations of the method.

The Keto diet

The Ketogenic diet (often referred to as the "Keto diet") places emphasis on fats and proteins and limits the consumption of carbohydrates in order to force the body to burn fat rather than carbohydrates. The premise is that if carbohydrates are not available to be converted into glucose, aka blood sugar – which is the norm – then the liver converts fat into fatty acid and ketones to replace glucose as an energy source. This is what is referred to as being in the metabolic state of “ketosis.” Weight loss results as your body begins to break down protein and fat for energy. The keto diet necessitates maintaining a 4:1 ratio by weight of fat to combined protein and carbohydrates and is similar to other popular low-carb diet fads such as the Atkins diet intended for a higher intake of healthy fats and protein while curbing the intake of carbohydrates. This diet involves excluding high-carb foods, such as bread, pasta, grains and sugars as well as starchy fruits and vegetables, and increasing consumption of healthy fats such as nuts and dairy. Believed to assist in faster weight loss because it takes more calories for fat to be turned into energy than for carbs, the diet is more satisfying due to its high protein and fat content, thus leading to eating less overall. Originally developed as a treatment for epileptic seizures, this diet is linked to lowering insulin and increasing “good,” rather than “bad,” cholesterol, which is beneficial in combating cardiovascular diseases. It is believed to be good for acne and is also purported to be therapeutic for diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, as well as sleeping disorders.

Suggested reading: “The Complete Ketogenic Diet for Beginners” is an informative guide to the practice by Amy Ramos. “The Dubrow Keto Fusion Diet” by Heather Dubrow combines guidelines for interval and keto eating, and “The Starch Solution” by M.D. John McDougall explains how to incorporate the foods you love into this weight-loss program.

The Paleo diet

Regularly referred to as the “Caveman Diet,” the Paleo diet is more of a lifestyle than a diet, per se, and infers consuming foods in the manner that our ancestors from the Paleolithic era once did. In practice, the diet involves consuming the basic sustenance that our ancestors must have hunted, fished and gathered millions of years ago and avoiding foods that weren’t prevalent before the discovery of farming. The premise behind the Paleo diet is to refrain from processed foods, which are believed to have led to the development of obesity, heart problems and diseases such as diabetes. The Paleo diet advises sticking to locally sourced products such as fresh fish, grass-fed cattle and fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, resulting in a diet high in protein and fiber, average in fats and low in carbs. In this diet, dairy, wheat products, potatoes and legumes as well as sugar, salt and all processed foods are avoided. With the added intake of Vitamins A, C and E, this way of eating is believed to boost your immune system and lower the chances of having heart disease and cancer. Its benefit for weight loss is that the types of food consumed will be more filling and thus you will feel less hungry throughout the day.

Suggested reading: “The Paleo Diet: Lose Weight and Get Healthy by Eating the Foods you were Designed to Eat” by Dr. Loren Cordain discusses the logic behind why our bodies were designed to eat this way, while “The Paleo Solution” by Robb Wolf shares how to utilize the original human diet to lose weight and feel great

downlode> fitness tips

11 Walking Tips to Lose Weight Faster

2020-05-24T20:09:00.003+05:30

11 Walking Tips to Lose Weight Faster

If you’re looking for an easy way to lose weight, getting started with a walking program is a great way to do it. It’s low-impact, easy to fit into a busy schedule and accessible for almost any age or fitness level.

Use these seven walking tips to burn more calories and shed pounds:

WALK MORE THROUGHOUT THE DAY

A power-walking workout is a great way to get in shape. And while a 30–45-minute power walk 4–5 days per week should be your focus, don’t stop there. To reach your weight-loss goals, try including short walks of 20 minutes or less throughout your day when possible. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Try a short walk following meals, which can help control your blood sugar, prevent cravings for more food and give your metabolism a boost.
When completing daily errands, walk between destinations instead of driving when it’s a mile or less.
Take a short walk when you feel frustrated or stressed. It can help your mood while you burn a few more calories.
Always take the stairs instead of the elevator.

INCREASE THE INTENSITY

Upping your walking speed from a leisurely at-the-park pace is one way to get the heart pumping and burn more calories. In addition to picking up the pace, researchers at Ohio State University have also found that varying your walking speed during your workouts can help you burn up to 20% more calories than maintaining a steady pace.

During your walk, include one 30-second burst every 5 minutes, walking as fast as you can without jogging. Follow this with a slower 30-second recovery walk before you get back into your normal power-walking pace.

HIT THE HILLS

Walking on a hiking trail with hills is one way to include intervals in your walking routine without making it feel like torture. Walking uphill also burns more calories and helps you build muscle in the lower body, which can help speed up your metabolism, too.

If you don’t have a walking trail nearby that you can access 2–3 times per week, try a staircase workout or set the incline on the treadmill. Just remember to change your technique slightly. Lean forward as you climb, take shorter steps and bend your knees more than you would normally.

USE YOUR ARMS

While it might look silly, exaggerating your arm swing while you walk has additional benefits. It’ll help to speed up your pace, work your upper body and burn up to 10% more calories when compared to a normal arm swing.

To perfect your arm-swing technique, use these tips:

Bend your arms to 90 degrees and maintain this form.
The arm should extend behind the body as far as you can comfortably and naturally.
On the upswing, the hand should rise to the level of the chest.

FOCUS ON FORM

Emphasizing correct posture can help improve your workout and calorie-burn, as well as prevent fatigue and common walking-related injuries. Focus on keeping your back relaxed, elongating your spine and keeping your shoulders neutral. Make sure to focus your gaze on the horizon, which helps keep your neck and head aligned.

You’ll also want to pay attention to how your foot strikes the ground. Your heel should strike the ground first to “help absorb the impact and minimize stress on the joints,” explains Dr. Michael Gleiber, a board-certified orthopedic spine surgeon. From there, your foot should roll smoothly forward and “push off of your toes using the toe flexors,” says Gleiber. By taking a few minutes to check in with your form, you can maximize your walking workouts to lose weight more efficiently.

HAVE A STEP GOAL

Setting goals is important to stay motivated. One of the best goals you can have as a walker is to work toward increasing the number of steps you take per day. The more steps you take, the more likely you are to burn calories. And shortening your stride to take more steps can actually help you speed up the pace, too.

Unlike distance and speed goals that can lead to an injury when progressed too quickly, increasing your steps is safer and can be amped up more rapidly. If you’re serious about losing weight, aim for 10,000 per day to start and increase your step count from there as you can tolerate.

KEEP CALORIE CONSUMPTION LOW

Walking can be a great way to destress, improve your health and strengthen your bones and muscles without risking injury. But for weight loss, you’ll need to concentrate on diet to make it happen.

Focusing on lean proteins and vegetables and limiting sugary and processed foods is where you should start. Keeping track of your daily caloric intake helps you shed pounds quicker and more safely than opting for one of the many fad diets instead.

INCLUDE STRENGTH TRAINING

A good way to break up your walks, strengthen your muscles and burn more calories is to include bodyweight exercises during your workout. Two or three times per week, stop and perform one of these exercises every five minutes during your walk. How many you do is up to you:

Pushups (do them inclined on a park bench or against a wall to make it easier)

Squats, bending the knees to 90 degrees

Walking lunges

Front or side planks

AVOID SUGARY SPORTS DRINKS

One common mistake walkers and other endurance athletes make is opting for sugary sports drinks during their workout. The calories from these beverages negate most of the calories you’re burning, and in most instances they aren’t needed to sustain your activity. Unless you’re exercising at a high intensity for more than 90 minutes, stick with water, and save the sports drinks for your most difficult workouts.

CONSIDER A WALKING PLAYLIST

It can be difficult to keep your intensity high and stay focused during the duration of your walk to maximize calorie burn if you’re alone all the time. For those days when you need an extra boost, try some tunes. An upbeat playlist can be surprisingly motivating, so you’re motivated to walk further and faster while staving off boredom.

TAKE RECOVERY SERIOUSLY

A big part of losing weight with any activity is being consistent. That means walking regularly, and to do so you’ll need to minimize injury, illness and muscle soreness. By taking recovery more seriously between workouts, you’ll be able to exercise more frequently and burn more calories. Icing sore spots, stretching and foam rolling post-workout, eating a well-balanced diet and prioritizing quality sleep are all essential elements of a smart recovery plan to stay in tip-top shape.

7 High-Fiber Work-From-Home Snacks Under 255 Calories

2020-05-21T11:18:00.001+05:30

7 High-Fiber Work-From-Home Snacks Under 255 Calories

Fiber is an important nutrient that can aid weight loss, contribute to heart health and protect against diseases. To make sure you’re getting enough fiber (the daily recommended intake is 25–35 grams), snack prep is key. These seven delicious recipes feature up to 21 grams of filling fiber per serving — all under 255 calories.

1. AVOCADO, KALE AND SPINACH SMOOTHIE | MYFITNESSPAL’S RECIPES

Nutrition (per serving): Calories: 210; Total Fat: 6g; Saturated Fat: 1g; Monounsaturated Fat: 4g; Cholesterol: 3mg; Sodium: 43mg; Carbohydrate: 35mg; Dietary Fiber: 7g; Sugar: 18g; Protein: 7g

2. OVEN-ROASTED CHILI LIME CHICKPEAS | MYFITNESSPAL’S RECIPES

Nutrition (per serving): Calories: 149; Total Fat: 7g; Saturated Fat: 1g; Monounsaturated Fat: 2g; Cholesterol: 0mg; Sodium: 275mg; Carbohydrate: 18g; Dietary Fiber: 6g; Sugar: 0g; Protein: 5g

3. CARROT WHITE-BEAN HUMMUS IN CUCUMBER BOATS | MYFITNESSPAL’S RECIPES

Nutrition (per serving): Calories: 234; Total Fat: 10g; Saturated Fat: 2g; Monounsaturated Fat: 0g; Cholesterol: 0g; Sodium: 290mg; Carbohydrate: 22g; Dietary Fiber: 8g; Sugar: 6g; Protein: 11g

4. BANANA SMOOTHIE | MYFITNESSPAL’S RECIPES

Nutrition (per serving): Calories: 189; Total Fat: 5g; Saturated Fat: 0g; Monounsaturated Fat: 0g; Cholesterol: 0mg; Sodium: 301mg; Carbohydrates: 35g; Dietary Fiber: 7g; Sugar: 15g; Protein: 4g

5. BAKED PARSNIP FRIES WITH CURRY-LIME YOGURT DIP | MYFITNESSPAL’S RECIPES

Nutrition (per serving): Calories: 132; Total Fat: 4g; Saturated Fat: 1g; Monounsaturated Fat: 2g; Cholesterol: 4mg; Sodium: 257mg; Carbohydrate: 17g; Dietary Fiber: 21g; Sugar: 8g; Protein: 5g

6. AVOCADO HUMMUS STUFFED TOMATOES | MYFITNESSPAL’S RECIPES

Nutrition (per serving): Calories: 254; Total Fat: 13g; Saturated Fat: 2g; Monounsaturated Fat: 4g; Cholesterol: 0mg; Sodium: 176mg; Carbohydrate: 25g; Dietary Fiber: 7g; Sugar: 4g; Protein: 7g

7. VEGAN COCOA CHIA SEED PUDDING | MYFITNESSPAL’S RECIPES

Nutrition (per serving): Calories: 225; Total Fat: 10g; Saturated Fat: 1g; Monounsaturated Fat: 1g; Cholesterol: 0mg; Sodium: 99mg; Carbohydrate: 30g; Dietary Fiber: 11g; Sugar: 15g; Protein: 6g

10 Walking Mistakes to Avoid if You Want to Lose Weight

2020-05-20T13:31:00.003+05:30

10 Walking Mistakes to Avoid if You Want to Lose Weight

A consistent walking routine can be an excellent way to get rid of excess belly fat and tone your body. But if you’ve reached a weight-loss plateau, don’t worry. From simply strolling leisurely to omitting strength training, these common walking mistakes can easily be fixed to help you reach your weight-loss goals:

While walking at a leisurely pace is better than no exercise at all, research shows walking at a brisk pace is the best for torching calories and weight loss. If you find it hard to up the pace, try doing so for shorter intervals of 1–2 minutes, with a minute of recovery in between. This HIIT-style workout can help rev your metabolism and break through a weight-loss plateau.

If you stick to the same route, over time your body adapts and it won’t be as challenging. To boost weight-loss (and keep things exciting) change your scenery a couple days a week. This could be a hilly trail, the beach, an urban hike or even a new park. Not only will you feel mentally refreshed, but different terrain also engages different muscle groups to burn more calories.

Strength training is a key part of weight-loss since it helps build muscle, which burns more calories at rest compared to fat. Whether it’s with simple bodyweight exercises or using equipment like kettlebells, strength training can help you build the core, glute and hip strength needed to walk further and faster. It can also help prevent injury, which means you’ll reach your goals sooner.

Poor walking technique slows your pace, causing you to tire more quickly, and potentially results in injury. Since this can affect how far and long you are able to walk (or keep you from walking altogether), working on improving your form is essential to losing weight. Pay attention to the following on your next walk:

Stride length: A lot of walkers overstride. If your steps are too long, your speed can suffer and more stress is placed on your joints. To check your stride length, lift a foot and lean forward. Where the foot naturally falls is where you should be striking the ground. Shorter steps increase your cadence and make it easier to walk faster.
Arm swing: Swinging your arms helps you get more power and propels your forward motion
Standing tall: Slouching as you get tired is a common problem when walking. While you might need to strengthen your core to make it happen, work on keeping your back straight and your head up.

A hard walking workout can sometimes make you feel hungrier than normal. While you want to fuel your walks with smart snacks, it’s important to pay attention to your overall diet, too, to make sure you’re in a calorie deficit for weight loss. The MyFitnessPal app is a great way to track your food intake and keep you motivated to reach your goals.

Many people use ankle weights to burn more calories and make their workouts more challenging. However, if you prefer this style of workout, adding weights should be done with caution. Ankle and wrist weights can place extra stress on your lower back, hips and knees, causing muscle strains and other injuries. If you choose to use ankle weights, limit it to no more than one or two days per week. Keep it to easy walks, and avoid using them on days when you have a longer duration or high-intensity interval training. If you want to increase the intensity of your workouts without relying on ankle weights, trying hitting the trails, where hills and other challenging terrain can boost your calorie burn and help build strength.

Studies show a direct correlation between sedentary behavior and obesity. Even if you are getting out for a daily walk, it’ll be harder to lose weight if you’re sedentary for the remainder of the day. Setting an alarm reminder to get up and walk for 5 minutes every hour can help counteract the negative effects of sitting. Moving more throughout your day will also up your step count, help you lose more weight and contribute to overall health.

Goals are almost always a good thing. They can provide motivation to exercise daily and push you to challenge yourself. However, it’s important to avoid habitually setting unrealistic goals. For instance, your goal may be to walk a marathon. But if the event you want to complete is only a month away and you’ve never walked more than a few miles at a time, it’s going to be difficult to ramp up your mileage for a marathon without getting injured. Failing to meet your goal or expectations can lead to disappointment and negative thinking.

Instead, set smaller, more realistic goals that lead to a bigger goal. If you want to walk 26.2 miles eventually, your more immediate goal should be to work toward walking a 10K or half-marathon first. Give yourself plenty of time to prepare and expect some setbacks. Once you’ve accomplished a smaller goal, take the time to celebrate your progress, and then make a new one.

Whether it’s mindlessly surfing the internet or not using social media to your advantage, it can be easy to procrastinate and avoid your walk. If you don’t have a set routine it can be easy to say, “I’ll start tomorrow” or procrastinate until you end up shortening your workout or skipping it altogether.

To avoid procrastinating, set a schedule and try your best to stick to it. Whether it’s waking up early, exercising during your lunch hour or making a post-dinner walk a habit, you’ll be more likely to make your daily walk a consistent part of your routine if you set aside a dedicated window of time when you can make it happen. If you miss one day, don’t beat yourself up, simply resume your routine as soon as possible.

At least once per week, try to include a longer walk. This could be a weekend day when you have more time or first thing in the morning. You can even include your family (on part of all of your long walk) to help you stay on track. Each week, increase the distance by about a mile, or 15 minutes. Not only will a longer walk improve your stamina, but it will also help you build up to increasingly longer distances and burn more calories in the process.

10 Walking Mistakes to Avoid if You Want to Lose Weight

How Much do You Really Need to Walk to Lose Weight?

2020-05-19T17:43:00.003+05:30

How Much do You Really Need to Walk to Lose Weight?

Regardless of age or fitness level, a dedicated walking program coupled with proper nutrition can be an excellent way to lose weight. To do it right and reach your goals, you’ll need to make sure you’re walking far enough, at the right intensity and paying attention to your diet.

Here’s what you need to know and how to get started:

WALKING DURATION AND WEIGHT LOSS

According to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), individuals should aim to participate in a minimum of 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per day or 150 minutes per week. While this can help you get on track in terms of cardiovascular fitness and combating other health conditions, if you’re looking to lose weight, you’ll probably want to do a little more.

For individuals who are obese and trying to lose weight, or anyone looking to keep the weight off, the ACSM recommends bumping this number up to 200–300 minutes per week (3.3–5 hours). Breaking this down, a one-hour walk 4–5 days per week will be sufficient to achieve your weight-loss goals. Any additional time you spend exercising on top of this adds to your overall calorie burn and fitness level.

WALKING INTENSITY

Not all walks are created equal. It’s important to make sure your heart rate reaches a moderate-intensity level during your walk. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), moderate-intensity exercise is defined as an activity that raises the heart rate to 50–70% of your maximum heart rate.

If you decide to up the intensity — either by adding resistance training in the form of weights or including short periods of running — exercising at a vigorous activity level (70–85% of your maximum heart rate) requires the duration of your walk to be cut in half to achieve the same benefits. In other words, a 60-minute moderate-intensity walk is the same as a 30-minute walk/run at a vigorous intensity level.

The most accurate way to measure intensity level is to use a heart rate monitor, but you can also keep track of perceived exertion. On a scale of 0–10 (0 is sitting, 10 is the highest exertion possible), moderate intensity is a 5–6, and vigorous activity begins at 7.

HOW WALKING COMPARES TO RUNNING

Walking can provide many of the same health benefits as running (and comes with a lower risk of injury). However, when it comes to weight loss, the duration is key for folks who prefer walking. According to the American Council of Exercise (ACE), a 150-pound (68kg) runner burns 340 calories on a three-mile (5k) run when averaging a 10-minute mile (for a 30-minute run). This averages out to about 11.3 calories per minute. On the other hand, a 150-pound (68kg) walker exercising at a moderate pace of three miles per hour burns 224 calories during a three-mile (5k) walk (60-minutes total). This averages out to 3.7 calories per minute.

While this shows running is, indeed, a more efficient activity for burning calories, if you walk longer you can make up the difference. In the example above, you’d need to walk for about one hour and 30 minutes, or roughly 4.5 miles, to achieve the same calorie burn as a three-mile run.

TRACKING MEALS

Calculating and recording your daily steps, mileage, time and exercise intensity is all important when you’re trying to lose weight. But the last part of the equation — nutrition — is equally crucial. Logging your food intake with MyFitnessPal as well as your workouts can help you get a more accurate picture of the quantity and types of foods you’re consuming. That way you can make informed decisions regarding smarter portion sizes and where you can cut excess calories to find a healthy deficit that allows you to lose weight and keep it off.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Start by walking a little more than you normally do each day until you can do an hour or more 4–5 times per week. If you keep to a brisk pace and pay attention to your nutrition, you’ll set yourself up for effective weight loss.

To become more active, try setting a simple goal to increase (and track) your daily steps. Go to “Plans” in the MyFitnessPal app and choose a 28-day step plan to learn tips to boost your activity.

10 Mood-Boosting Ingredients to Stock Up On

2020-05-18T11:02:00.002+05:30

10 Mood-Boosting Ingredients to Stock Up On

In times of stress, research shows it’s beneficial to reach for nutrient-dense foods. In particular, certain foods build neurotransmitters, which can help boost our mood and energy. While there are more than 70 different neurotransmitters that help control appetite, memory, mental function, energy and sleep, there are three specific hormones — serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine — that are especially important in mood and energy regulation.

Here are 10 foods high in these healthy hormones and other nutrients to keep you energized:

Nature’s multi-vitamin, eggs are full of vitamins, minerals and protein. The yolks are a great source of choline, which is believed to improve memory and overall mental function.

With high levels of omega-3 fatty acids and magnesium, flax seeds can be easily added to a variety of meals to ensure a healthy brain and proper levels of neurotransmitters. Pro tip: Add some ground flax to oatmeal for a quick boost of these nutrients.

Packed with protein, zinc and B12, Greek yogurt is a great snack for providing nutrients to support nervous system health. It’s also a versatile ingredient that can help you increase your protein intake at any meal.

Legumes are a perfect combination of complex carbohydrates and protein to help increase absorption of tryptophan, while their high iron levels help enhance neurotransmitter activity, important components for stress and fatigue.

Sometimes referred to as “nooch,” this plant-based powerhouse is packed with energy-enhancing, stress-reducing B-vitamins — essential to make sure neurotransmitters are made in proper amounts in addition to converting tryptophan to serotonin.

A good source of neurotransmitter-building magnesium, which is also good for digestion and muscle soreness, pumpkin seeds contain a mixture of healthy fats, protein and carbohydrates, making them a perfect snack to balance your energy and mood throughout the day.

With an abundance of vitamin C and fiber, raspberries help fill the increased need for vitamin C when our body is stressed-out. The fiber keeps our gut working well to support digestion and overall health.

Full of phytochemicals, antioxidant-rich red cabbage may help the body deal with stress. These nutrients are also known to protect the brain from memory loss.

With high levels of omega-3 fatty acids, studies suggest eating salmon a couple times a week helps prevent depression and dementia. Specifically, consuming adequate levels of monounsaturated fats is essential in boosting serotonin levels and maintaining adequate brain health.

Eating animal protein along with a whole grain like quinoa can help increase the absorption of the amino acid tryptophan — an essential building block for increasing serotonin. Not only will it help boost your mood and improve sleep quality, but quinoa is also a great source of magnesium and B-vitamins, key actors in neurotransmitter creation. ROCK

Essential Guide to MyFitnessPal

2020-05-17T20:26:00.001+05:30

Essential Guide to MyFitnessPal

Nearly 180 million people use MyFitnessPal to live healthier, happier lives.

Whether you want to lose weight, tone up, get healthy or just get in sync with your eating habits, MyFitnessPal provides the tools, support and motivation you need to succeed.

The key to success on MyFitnessPal is consistent tracking. There are a few things to keep in mind when tracking on MyFitnessPal:

The more you track, the more likely you are to reach your goals.
Tracking gets easier the more you do it.
It’s always better to track something versus nothing at all.
You can build the habit of tracking by logging one meal at a time.
When you can’t find an exact match for what you want to track, pick something similar.

As you track, you’ll learn about your eating habits and how to make healthier choices. You’ll also gain a better understanding of the impact of exercise on your progress toward your goals.

Simply download the MyFitnessPal app and add your pertinent information — enter your gender, height, weight and your target weight. We’ll provide you with a daily calorie target that’s personalized to help you reach your goals. After that, you’re ready to start tracking.

As you get going, you’ll realize how important it is to not only set goals but also to hold yourself accountable. Tracking becomes habitual — as if you’ve always done it. And finally, you’ll discover you’re a part of a like-minded, supportive community that’s cheering you on, especially when it gets tough.

MYFITNESSPAL TIPS: YOUR THREE-PART PLAN FOR SUCCESS

I. SET GOALS AND HOLD YOURSELF ACCOUNTABLE

1. ESTABLISH REALISTIC GOALS

Thinking you can undo years of habits in a week only leads to frustration. Think SMART with a series of small, attainable goals to help you stay motivated and reach your bigger goal.

2. JOIN A PLAN

Go beyond logging and daily meal recommendations and join a MyFitnessPal Plan, which offers the coaching, actionable tips and education you need to achieve a health and fitness goal.

3. KEEP YOUR GOALS IN VIEW

Tap Complete Diary: When you’re done tracking for the day, tap the “Complete Diary” button. This gives you feedback on how the choices you made during the day impacted your progress.
Update Your Weight: As your weight changes, so will your calorie and macronutrient goals. It’s important to update your weight at least weekly. Be sure to weigh yourself on the same day each week, at the same time, in the same clothes.
Visit the Progress Screen: The progress screen has graphs and charts of your progress over time. This can help you identify healthy changes you can make to your eating habits and exercise routine

4. CREATE AND SHARE YOUR MEALS

Create custom meals — those things you eat all the time because they taste great, fill you up, and meet your health goals — it makes tracking easier and allows you to share them with your friends.

5. CONNECT YOUR APPS AND DEVICES

Users who connect their MyFitnessPal account with another health app or device are twice as likely to succeed.

6. GO PREMIUM

MyFitnessPal Premium offers advanced tools (food analysis, macronutrients by gram, quick-add macronutrients), an upgraded experience (ad-free, priority customer support), more customization (different goals by day, exercise calorie settings, home screen dashboard) and a broad offering of coaching Plans.

II. DEVELOP A HABIT OF TRACKING

1. TRACK EVERYTHING

Not tracking something doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. The more honest and consistent you are in your tracking, the more useful the app becomes because you start to see patterns. Only you can hold yourself accountable and doing so makes it more likely you’ll be able to meet your health and fitness goals. The MyFitnessPal staff offers insider tips on tracking here.

2. USE TIME STAMPS

Not only can you track what foods you eat, but you can also specify when you eat it. This helps you monitor how when you eat could affect your mood and hunger levels, performance, sleep, you name it.

3. SET CUSTOM REMINDERS

Set custom reminders so you never forget to track meals. Choose when you want to be reminded, and we’ll send you notifications so you remember to track.

4. SAVE YOUR FAVORITE MEALS

Whether it’s yogurt and granola for breakfast, celery and peanut butter for a snack or a turkey sandwich for lunch, many of our users eat the same meals regularly. Save your favorite meals so you can add them to your diary with one click.

5. LEARN TO EYE PORTIONS

Portion control is key to accurate tracking. The more you log, the more you’ll be aware of serving sizes and the more practice you’ll have eyeballing your portions, which leads to better tracking.

6. SEARCH THE DATABASE

We have the biggest food database in the world. With roughly 12 million foods and new options added daily, you should find what you want to log. Just in case you don’t, you can add foods directly to our database.

Look for this symbol when you search for a food. This icon appears next to items in our database that have been vetted and include complete nutrition information.

7. USE THE BARCODE SCANNER

Simply scan a food’s barcode to enter it into your diary. It’s that easy.

8. FIND RECIPES

Recipe Discovery lets you save recipes from anywhere on the web without having to manually add each ingredient. You can also use this tool to calculate the nutrition information for any recipe. Users who track recipes on MyFitnessPal lose nearly 40% more weight than users who don’t.

III. BUILD YOUR COMMUNITY

1. ADD FRIENDS

When you add friends on MyFitnessPal, you’re more likely to succeed since you have an extra layer of support, motivation and accountability. You can decide your privacy levels and whether your friends can see things like your weight, diary entries and amount of weight lost.

2. VISIT THE FORUMS

The forums are a lively online community where you can find advice, support, tips and tricks from fellow MyFitnessPal users.

3. CELEBRATE NON-SCALE VICTORIES

Not all victories happen on the scale. Progress toward your goals is everywhere: Did you climb the stairs with ease? Skip the donuts at work? Reduce your blood pressure? Fit into a smaller size? Make sure you’re reflecting on how your healthy habits are having a positive impact on your life.

4. TRY OUR OTHER APPS

MyFitnessPal is part of Under Armour Connected Fitness, a suite of apps that work together to seamlessly deliver a 360-degree view of your nutrition and fitness. Try one of our other apps including: MapMyFitness, MapMyRun, MapMyRide and Endomondo.

WHERE TO GET MORE INFORMATION

If you’re interested in learning more about MyFitnessPal, nutrition, exercise or how to reach your goals, try these MyFitnessPal-approved resources:

MYFITNESSPAL ESSENTIAL GUIDES

From nutrition basics to workout tips, these guides are a great place for newbies to start and long-time MyFitnessPal users to refresh their health and fitness know-how.

Nutrition & Weight Loss

> Losing Weight
> Healthy Eating
> Portion Sizes
> Metabolism
> Macros
> Fat
> Carbs
> Protein
> Sugar
> Fiber
> Micronutrients
> Meal Planning

Workout & Wellness

> Hydration
> Getting Moving
> Walking and Steps
> Running
> Avoiding Running and Walking Injuries
> Running Nutrition
> Running For Weight Loss
> Strength Training
> Cycling
> Sleep

FOR MORE ON HEALTH, FITNESS AND NUTRITION

THE MYFITNESSPAL BLOG

This is your go-to source for healthy living. Here you’ll find articles with helpful tips and information about eating, moving, living and learning.

THE MAPMYRUN BLOG

Everything you want to know about running and cycling. Here you’ll find articles with helpful tips and information about injury prevention, training for weight loss, basic techniques and more.HRM

if you want intrest this page Click now

15 Healthy Baked Goods Under 275 Calories

2020-05-16T10:19:00.005+05:30

15 Healthy Baked Goods Under 275 Calories

Even when you’re trying to lose weight, occasionally indulging in dessert can actually help you lose weight. If you’re looking for healthier takes on classic baked goods like banana bread, brownies and cookies, these recipes all clock in under 275 calories per serving.

Discover and log these recipes and more in the MyFitnessPal app!

1. LOW-CARB BANANA BREAD | MYFITNESSPAL’S RECIPES

Nutrition (per serving): Calories: 130; Total Fat: 6g; Saturated Fat: 5g; Monounsaturated Fat: 1g; Cholesterol: 70mg; Sodium: 126mg; Carbohydrate: 15g; Dietary Fiber: 4g; Sugar: 6g; Protein: 4g

2. FUDGY BLACK BEAN BROWNIES | MYFITNESSPAL’S RECIPES

Nutrition (per serving): Calories: 137; Total Fat: 6g; Saturated Fat: 3g; Monounsaturated Fat: 1g; Cholesterol: 29mg; Sodium: 57mg; Carbohydrate: 20g; Dietary Fiber: 2g; Sugar: 14g; Protein 2g

3. GLUTEN-FREE ORANGE ZUCCHINI, & ROSEMARY CAKE | MYFITNESSPAL’S RECIPES

Nutrition (per serving): Calories: 183; Total Fat: 8g; Saturated Fat: 1g; Monounsaturated Fat: 5g; Cholesterol: 46mg; Sodium: 154mg; Carbohydrate: 26g; Dietary Fiber: 1g; Sugar: 17g; Protein: 3g

4. DOUBLE-CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI BREAD | MYFITNESSPAL’S RECIPES

Nutrition (per serving): Calories: 219; Total Fat: 11g; Saturated Fat: 3g; Monounsaturated Fat: 4g; Cholesterol: 32mg; Sodium: 187mg; Carbohydrate: 25g; Dietary Fiber: 4g; Sugar: 7g; Protein: 5g

5. CHICKPEA-PECAN BLONDIES | MYFITNESSPAL’S RECIPES

Nutrition (per serving): Calories: 112; Total Fat: 6g; Saturated Fat: 2g; Monounsaturated Fat: 1g; Cholesterol: 31mg; Sodium: 51mg; Carbohydrate: 15g; Dietary Fiber: 2g; Sugar: 8g; Protein 3g

6. GLUTEN-FREE CHOCOLATE TAHINI COOKIES | MYFITNESSPAL’S RECIPES

Nutrition (per serving): Calories: 64; Total Fat: 2g; Saturated Fat: 1g; Monounsaturated Fat: 0g; Cholesterol: 0mg; Sodium: 92mg; Carbohydrate: 10g; Dietary Fiber: 1g; Sugar: 8g; Protein 2g

7. PEANUT BUTTER OATMEAL BREAKFAST COOKIE | MYFITNESSPAL’S RECIPES

Nutrition (per serving): Calories: 230; Total Fat: 11g; Saturated Fat: 3g; Monounsaturated Fat: 4g; Cholesterol: 1mg; Sodium: 83mg; Carbohydrate: 28g; Dietary Fiber: 3g; Sugar: 14g; Protein: 7g

8. VEGAN ORANGE PECAN MUFFINS | MYFITNESSPAL’S RECIPES

Nutrition (per serving): Calories: 275; Total Fat: 14g; Saturated Fat: 1g; Monounsaturated Fat: 7g; Cholesterol: 0mg; Sodium: 195mg; Carbohydrate: 45g; Dietary Fiber: 5g; Sugar: 20g; Protein: 5g

9. AVOCADO BROWNIES WITH AVOCADO FROSTING | MYFITNESSPAL’S RECIPES

Nutrition (per serving): Calories: 196; Total Fat: 9g; Saturated Fat: 2g; Monounsaturated Fat: 2g; Cholesterol: 23mg; Sodium: 39mg; Carbohydrate: 27g; Dietary Fiber: 1g; Sugar: 21g; Protein: 2g

10. PALEO COCONUT FLOUR COOKIES WITH COLLAGEN | MYFITNESSPAL’S RECIPES

Nutrition (per serving): Calories: 65; Total Fat: 5g; Saturated Fat:3g; Monounsaturated Fat: 1g; Cholesterol: 11mg; Sodium: 17mg; Carbohydrate: 5g; Dietary Fiber: 1g; Sugar: 3g; Protein:1g

11. VEGAN BANANA MUFFINS WITH ALMOND-APPLE SPREAD | MYFITNESSPAL’S RECIPES

Nutrition (per serving): Calories: 125; Total Fat: 8g; Saturated Fat: 1g; Monounsaturated Fat: 2g; Cholesterol: 0mg; Sodium: 22mg; Carbohydrate: 12g; Dietary Fiber: 2g; Sugar: 7g; Protein: 3g

12. SAVORY SWEET POTATO MUFFINS | MYFITNESSPAL’S RECIPES

Nutrition (per serving): Calories: 206; Total Fat: 7g; Saturated Fat: 1g; Monounsaturated Fat: 4g; Cholesterol: 0mg; Sodium: 196mg; Carbohydrate: 31g; Dietary Fiber: 4g; Sugar: 8g; Protein: 5g

13. MINI BANANA BRAN MUFFIN | MYFITNESSPAL’S RECIPES

Nutrition (per serving): Calories: 150; Total Fat: 2g; Saturated Fat: 0g; Monounsaturated Fat: 0g; Cholesterol: 44mg; Sodium: 183mg; Carbohydrate: 29g; Dietary Fiber: 3g; Sugar: 14g; Protein: 4g

14. PUMPKIN SPICE BUNDLETTES WITH CHAI TEA GLAZE | MYFITNESSPAL’S RECIPES

15. OAT, BANANA, CHOCOLATE CHUNK MUFFINS | MYFITNESSPAL’S RECIPES

Nutrition (per serving): Calories: 233; Total Fat: 11g; Saturated Fat: 3g; Monounsaturated Fat: 4g; Cholesterol: 17mg; Sodium: 150mg; Carbohydrate: 29g; Dietary Fiber: 3g; Sugar: 11g; Protein: 5g

How to Start a Fitness Blog – Everything You Need to Know

2020-05-13T20:16:00.000+05:30

How to Start a Fitness Blog – Everything You Need to Know!

June 19, 2018

Thinking about starting a fitness blog or a wellness blog? Yahoo for you! Running my fitness & food blog is one of the most gratifying jobs I could imagine. Don’t get me wrong; it’s a lot of hard work – but when you enjoy what you do, it makes life pretty amazing.

But it was also overwhelming at the beginning trying to nail down all the specific logistics of how to start a fitness blog. I’m hoping I can help make the process smoother for you, now that I’ve been rocking and rolling in this for the last five years.

Disclosure – This post contains affiliate links. This means that I may make a small commission if you make a purchase using them. It doesn’t change your user experience in anyway.

There are 6 steps that will help you starting your fitness blog:

Decide your niche.
Choose a fitness blog name.
Choose a blogging platform and hosting.
Set up WordPress.
Change from HTTP to HTTPS.
Start writing and publish a post!

Let’s break each one of these down…

1. Decide if you’ll start a general fitness blog or have a specific niche.

Even though “fitness” or “wellness” seems like a niche itself, there are so many areas within those topics that you can focus on.

For example, from the fitness angle: Are you into crossfit? Do you love yoga? Are you a passionate runner or triathlete? From the wellness angle: Are you going to be blogging about weight loss? Mindful eating? Self care?

Think about what you want to write about and consider if narrowing down to a certain niche makes sense.

Choosing a very specific niche generally helps you to grow more quickly. You become known for that topic. This helps you to grow more quickly on social media. It doesn’t mean that you can’t also bridge in other related topics, though. If you’re a running blogger, for example, you might also incorporate some information about yoga to balance out training.

Narrowing down to a certain niche also doesn’t mean that other people outside of that audience won’t read your content. For example, my fitness & food blog focuses on runners and triathletes. However, I still get plenty of people visiting the site to read recipes that don’t necessarily fit that audience. I just make sure that I’m intentional with my writing with that audience always being in mind.

You can also choose to be a general wellness or fitness blogger and cover a whole host of topics. The downside to this approach is that it can be harder for you to become established as an expert across all realms of fitness. The upside is that it may be easier for you to think of lots of topics to write about.

2. Choose a blog name.

Once you have decided on your blog theme, next comes the key step picking out a great name. Consider these factors when choosing a wellness or fitness blog name:

Personal name versus blog name.

Some people will simply set up their website domain as their personal name. If you’re already a well-established expert in the fitness realm – that can be a great strategy since people already know you.

Many people take the route of choosing a catchy blog name, though. If you’re not personally well known, a catchy name might be easier for readers to remember. It’s also the right strategy if your own name is particularly hard to spell.

Consider your niche and audience.

Choose a name that will be relevant to what you’re writing about and/or who you’re writing it for. For example, I love Run Eat Repeat – you know that she’s going to be sharing info about running and eating. Same with The Fitnessista – it’s clear that she’s going to be providing fitness tips for the ladies.

Consider length and spelling.

You don’t want your blog name to be super long, because it’s something people have to remember to type in their web browser. Don’t go longer than a few words. You also want to make sure that it’s easy to spell and not confusing.

Brainstorm on paper.

The best advice I ever got was to just start writing down lots of names on paper. Anything that comes to your mind. It will help get the creative juices flowing, and then you can start thinking of synonyms and variations on what you wrote down. Eventually something will just click and you’ll find your name!

Make sure it’s available.

Once you have a name you’d like to stick with, make sure that both the domain name (as a .com) and social handles are currently available. You can check domain availability on GoDaddy – just visit their site and you’ll see a screen like the one below where you can enter your name choice to see if it’s available for sale.

While some sites will tell you to look beyond the .com, I recommend sticking with .com – at least for now. While you can look for things like .fit or .co, 90% of the population is used to typing in .com at the end of a website, and that’s what they are likely to remember.

Pro Tip –> Secure your blog’s domain name and social handles before telling anyone the name. I’ve seen many cases of aspiring bloggers sharing possible name choices in Facebook groups, only to find out that someone else swiped an amazing name idea.

If you’ve got your name all set, it’s time to purchase the domain and move onto the next step! You can easily purchase it through a site like GoDaddy if you just want to buy it but aren’t ready to get your site up and running just yet.

Or, purchase the domain and hosting all at once (as described below). This is simple and easy to do!

3. Choose a blogging platform and hosting.

First, let me give you a metaphor that might make all of this easier to understand. Think of a blog like a house:

Your domain name is the address of your house. (For example, for this site, you have to type in www.buildawellnessblog.com to get here.)
All of your content and information is the house itself.
And hosting is the land that the home is built on.

Hold that in your head for a minute, because I’m going to get back to it.

There are two primary categories of website hosting for bloggers – self-hosted sites and hosted sites. Self-hosting (for most people) involves using a blogging platform like WordPress.org and then paying a hosting company. That hosting company stores all of your website data on a server. When someone types in your site address in a web browser, the server connects and displays the site.

Hosted sites, on the other hand, include all-in-one blogging platforms like Wix or WordPress.com. You build the site on their blogging platform and then they also include hosting right on their own servers.

If you have plans to monetize your blog (and not just use it personally for fun) you’re going to want to use WordPress.org and be self-hosted. When you are self-hosted, you retain full control over your website and have more flexibility for including advertisements or for customizing your site.

If we get back to the house analogy, you can think of it like this:

Self-Hosting = Owning the land that you build your house on, you can do whatever you want – woohoo! – but you also have to take care of any issues that come up.
Hosted = Living in a condo. You still have lots of amenities and a place to live and a lot of support, but there are rules that must be followed and limitations that may be put into place.

So again – I highly recommend that if you want to make money with your blog, you choose WordPress.org and choose self-hosting.

As far as hosting companies, there are several major ones to choose from, including:

The first two are a bit more targeted towards beginners, while the later two have more comprehensive options for bloggers with quite a bit of traffic. That said, all four can be used from the start depending on your budget and preferences.

My personal recommendation? If you’re just getting started, it’s probably easiest to start with Bluehost or Siteground – simply because it’s a low cost investment when you’re not yet making money.

I’ve always used Bluehost for my websites. The hosting plan for the first year is very inexpensive. In fact, when I started this website, I paid for my domain plus 3 years of hosting for under $100. The prices may fluctuate a bit here and there, but you can easily grab a domain plus a year of hosting for around $50-75.

Yes, this is a little bit of money up front – but it’s worth it if you want to make money from your fitness blog eventually. Think of it comparably to building the foundation for a house – you don’t want to skimp on that.

Here’s everything you need to know to get started with BlueHost:

First step is to just visit their site and click the “get started” link:

It will bring you to a page with a few different hosting packages. If you’re familiar with hosting and the technical side of things, feel free to evaluate these options thoroughly. For most people just getting started, though, I recommend selecting the basic plan.

After you choose the plan, you’ll be taken to the page where you can purchase your domain name. Type the name you are hoping to use into the “new domain” box. If you already purchased it through another site, then you can enter it into the “existing domain” box.

Once you’ve got your domain selected, you’ll get to the checkout page where you can confirm the time frame for hosting and any add-ons:

A few helpful notes about what you’re seeing on this checkout screen:

The default drop-down box for the account plan is 36 months. You can change this to 12 months, 24 months, or 60 months. The breakdown of the monthly rate increases if you choose a shorter time frame.
It’s completely up to you whether you’d prefer to lock into a longer plan for a lower rater or select a shorter plan for a higher rate. I have usually just purchased the 36 month plan up front because a) it brings the monthly breakdown to a very low cost, and b) the renewal costs are generally higher than these intro offers, so it assures you the cheapest hosting for the longest period of time.
The plan is broken down per month in the drop-down box but note that you are charged up front for the entire time frame. This is displayed in the “total” at the bottom.
Domain privacy protection is an optional add-on. There is a large database called the “whois database” that holds information about website owners, including contact info like your address and phone number. Privacy protection helps keep some of this private from those searching the database. I’ve never used this option, but if you worry about privacy – feel free to enable that at a low additional cost.

PS – While I have heard from some other bloggers that they aren’t huge fans of Bluehost, I can only speak to my experience which has been quite positive. I’ve never had any serious issues with them in the last 5 years. Some small hiccups occasionally, but that’s par for the course with most technical things.

PPS – You can always change the hosting type (like from a basic to premium plan) or hosting company later on, so don’t feel like this is something you are locked into for life.

4. Set up WordPress

Once you’ve purchased your domain and hosting, you are ready to get your fitness blog started. If you’ve purchased hosting with BlueHost, you should be directed to set up your password and login to WordPress right after you complete your purchase. It’s very simple now because they pretty much get everything set up on the backend for you.

If you’re using another hosting company, my guess is that they’ll have easy instructions for you to set up WordPress after you purchase!

Here’s what the backend of WordPress looks like when you’re logged in – you can kind of ignore whatever is in the center for now; just now all the tools and menu options you’ll need are on the left-hand side.

There are a few areas here that you’ll want to address before publishing content (also, you’ll want to complete the next step before publishing as well!):

a. Change your permalink structure.

Permalinks are the structure for your blog post links after your domain name – for example, this post is set up as: www.buildawellnessblog.com/start-a-fitness-blog.

Choosing the right permalink structure is important because it impacts SEO (search engine optimization). Ideally, you want short and sweet permalinks that contain the keywords for your blog post.

To check your permalink structure, hover over “settings” in your menu on the left. Then click on “permalinks”.

When you click on that you should see a screen that looks like this:

The default permalink structure is usually set to “plain” and this is not ideal for SEO. Instead, change this to the “post name” structure. Then just click “save changes” and you’re all set.

You want to make this change before publishing any posts because if you do it after, it will “break” links and then you’d need to redirect them.

PS – You can always change an individual post’s permalink within the post itself when you’re drafting it, but it’s best to have the general structure in place too in case you’re not familiar with how to do that.

b. Choose a theme.

There is likely a default theme that was put into place when you signed up for your site, but you probably want to choose something that you find visually appealing. To start, hover over “appearance” in the menu bar on the left side, and you’ll see an expanded box – choose “themes” from this box.

This will bring you to the free themes which are already installed. You can also click “add new” and look for free themes which you can install.

Play around with these by selecting the live preview to see what your site would look like in each case. You can upload media with any logos and/or headers that you have at this point to see how they would fit and look within the theme – but if you don’t have that ready yet, just play around and find something that looks nice to you.

Free themes are great for getting started, but eventually you will probably want to upgrade to a paid theme. Paid themes deliver extra customizability, better customer support, and are generally updated more frequently to keep them secure. That said, there are definitely some people that have managed to build a successful site while sticking with a free theme.

For now, feel free to choose any free theme that works for you. You can always change these later. Themes can be updated at anytime!

5. Change your site from HTTP to HTTPS

This sounds techy and a lot of it is above my head, but hopefully I can make it clear why you should do this.

Google announced in 2017 that they would penalize websites in search results if they did not have https (rather than http) enabled. Essentially, it’s just a more secure version of your website using an SSL certificate – a “secure sockets layer”. And if you signed up for hosting with BlueHost, you can enable a free SSL certificate right in your account. Some other hosting companies also provide a free SSL; just contact them to find out.

Note that this conversion needs to be done after your domain registration is fully completed, which can be anywhere from an hour or two up until a whole day. Try visiting your domain name a few hours after you purchase it. If it stays written as is without forwarding to a long, strange looking domain address – you’re all set.

At this point, you can go ahead and switch from http to https.

Here’s how to switch from http to https with BlueHost:

First, login to your BlueHost account. When you login, click on “my sites” in the menu on the left site. You should see a box with the name of your website. Hover over that box and two options will appear over it – you want to click on the “manage site” option.

Then click on the security option in the top row of menu options that appears. From there, just toggle the “free SSL” button to “on.”

It may take a few hours for the change to process on your website, but it should be all set fairly soon.

Many tutorials on enabling your SSL here, but there is an additional step you need to take!

You’ve installed your SSL certificate but you still need to “tell” WordPress that when it displays your site, it should use https rather than http. You can do this by adding a line of code (something I don’t know much about), using the “Really Simple SSL” plugin, or simply calling BlueHost or your hosting company and asking them for help with this part (that’s the route I went, haha!).

You can check in a few hours by typing your domain name into your browser. If it appears with an i with a circle around it, it’s still unsecure. That would look like this:

If it appears with a green padlock, the SSL certificate is working and it’s all set!

If you’ve gone through all these steps and a day later your site is still unsecure (i.e the transition from http to https doesn’t seem to have happened) – call your hosting company or find a tech support person to help you.

Pro Tip: Some people will ask if you MUST change to https. The answer is no; your site will work with http. However, you will be penalized by Google in search rankings now – and I have a feeling that within a few years this will become a mandatory requirement. Taking care of this now is much easier than doing it down the road and dealing with site redirects!

6. Start writing and publish a post!

Now that you have taken care of all these important logistics, it’s time to start writing!

A lot of us go through analysis paralysis when starting a fitness blog. We tweak every little design flaw, rewrite drafts of posts, and hem and haw about when to “go live.”

Stop that. Right now.

Don’t worry if your design isn’t perfect or exactly how you want it. There is always time to fix those issues later.

Get your first post up, publish it, and share it. Then aim for consistency – set a certain number of posts that you have a goal of publishing each week. I recommend a minimum of one per week, with most bloggers aiming for 1-3 posts per week depending on their niche and the depth of the content.

Blogging is really a long-term game when it comes to building traffic and income, so the sooner you start publishing content and getting viewers, the faster you will grow.

There you have it – everything you need to know about how to start a fitness blog! Once you get through all these basic steps, you’ll want to learn more about growing your traffic and different methods of monetizing your blog. I’ll be sharing more of those tips in upcoming posts. But for now, focus on just getting started!

Feel free to pin this post so you can refer to it again later and let me know any questions you might have in the comments.

Share with me: What other questions do you have about how to start a fitness blog? If you’re just getting started, what will your fitness blog be about?

Top 20 Health and Fitness Blogs

2020-05-13T20:10:00.002+05:30

Top 20 Health and Fitness Blogs to Follow in 2018

FITNESS

January pass you by? February go by in a flash? If so, you aren't alone. 2018 seems to be flying but that doesn't mean it's too late to stick to your New Year's Resolution of getting into better shape. Whether you're getting a late start or looking for new ways to up your fitness game as the year goes on, health and fitness blogs are a great resource for your fitness journey. Run by everyone from health and fitness experts to total novices with an affinity for fitness, health and fitness blogs are useful online tools that help you get in and stay in shape.

Wells of useful information, stories, tips, anecdotes, products, and ideas, these blogs can teach you new exercises and recipes, answer any questions or concerns you may have, as well as offer you a community to connect and interact with. In fact, there are so many blogs out there, you should be able to find one for every health and fitness need you may have. Of course, with so many choices, things can get overwhelming and you may not know where to start. Luckily, we've compiled the top 20 health and fitness blogs to follow in 2018.

Check Out The Top 20 Health and Fitness Blogs for Your 2018 Fitness Journey

1. ACE

Known formally as the American Council on Exercise, the ACE is a nonprofit organization that certifies exercise professionals as well as health coaches. Their blog focuses on various fitness topics such as exercises for the lower body, strength training, exercises for agility, and the benefits of these exercises. The ACE is dedicated to helping people move throughout their day to day life as well as providing scientifically supported education and information to fitness enthusiasts, professionals, coaches, and trainers. Their end goal is to make an impact on preventable diseases related to inactivity and sedentary lifestyles by 2035.

2. The Fitnessista

You've heard of a fashionista, but what about a "fitnessista?" This clever blog is run by fitness director, personal trainer, and weight loss specialist from San Diego, Gina Harney. Harney's lifestyle blog takes inspiration from her life as a mother of two who also makes time for quick and effective workouts throughout her day. She writes about healthy and family-friendly recipes you can make, how she incorporates workouts that can be done anywhere (like in the store or on a park bench!), and more. Her words are for everyone, but mothers will find her blog especially helpful and enlightening!

3. Born Fitness

Born Fitness was developed as a program designed to make taking care of yourself easier and stress-free. This means that all the headache around your health, nutrition decisions, and fitness practices are taken away in favor of easy and effective lifestyle changes. The blog is perfect for readers looking to lose weight, eat a better diet, live longer, gain muscle, or achieve another fitness goal. In addition, the blog is perfect for readers in all stages of their fitness journey whether they are beginners or fitness experts and enthusiasts. The posts are comprehensive, fun to read, easy to understand, and simple to execute.

4. Run To The Finish

We get it -- running is the Worst, but Run to the Finish might just change our minds on that. This blog is all about motivation and handy tips about running for beginners, experienced runners, and seasoned runners. Whether you're training for a 5k, looking to take a jog around your neighborhood, or just running from the idea of running itself, Run to the Finish has awesome information that you can really use. The majority of their blog posts talk about ways to get your body in shape with the help of running as well as warm-up tips, training exercises, and more. This site also has recipes, product reviews, profiles of well-known runners, and much more. Whether you love running or hate it, this blog is one to watch.

5. Fitness on Toast

Fitness on Toast was founded by Faya Nilsson, a personal trainer who writes about nutrition, fitness, health, fashion, and travel. Her blog's clever name was born when she moved to the UK and was taken in by how many foods are eaten on toast - and you can expect the same amount of cleverness in her posts. Due to her wide range of topics, there are sure to be relevant posts for a variety of readers to enjoy and learn from. Her blog is all about inspiration, advice, and useful tips to live a happy, healthy lifestyle, so add her to your bookmark tab asap.

6. Love Sweat Fitness

Created by a certified personal trainer and group fitness instructor, Katie Dunlop, Love Sweat Fitness is all about finding inspiration to live your happiest life in your healthiest body. Dunlop began her blog because she felt she needed a lifestyle and health change after college. Discouraged with fad diets and workout trends, Dunlop began the search for a simple yet effective workout and fitness lifestyle that offered real results. Her blog is fun, informative, and honest, offering readers a weekly workout, inspiring quotes, delicious and healthy recipes to create as well as all the information you might need about weight loss struggles, how hard a fitness journey can be, and the fruits of one's labor when they stick with it. If you want a healthier you in 2018, you have got to follow this blog.

7. Travel Strong

Traveling might seem like the absolute worst time to stick to a diet or fitness routine: you're sitting long hours, trying new food, and looking to relax rather than work. Travel Strong, however, thinks that traveling is a great time to stay fit. How? Travel Strong is all about providing their readers with useful nutrition advice and fitness information that you can use no matter where you are. Many of the posts offer tutorials and how-to guides for 20-minute workouts, healthy food choices when dining out, and healthy lifestyle choices that are especially important when traveling. If you travel frequently for business, have a big trip coming up this year, or just find this information useful, this blog is perfect for you.

8. Workout Nirvana

Workout Nirvana is one of the top fitness blogs on the web. Its articles cover everything from strength training and workout routines to how to prevent injuries and lose weight. Workout Nirvana also offers excellent information on how to improve your fitness journey and keep pushing your goals, information specified for women's and men's health, as well as emotional support articles for when the fitness journey gets stressful. If you want to reach Workout Nirvana, follow this blog.

9. Nerd Fitness

If you've ever felt out of place in a gym or just in life, this is the blog for you. Nerd Fitness is a community of "outcasts" and "misfits" ready to help you get into shape. No matter where you are on your fitness journey, Nerd Fitness has something for you. Whether you want to learn how to eat better, are overweight and looking to lose some pounds, facing weight-related health issues, or just looking to find a community while also enhancing your health, Nerd Fitness is ready to come alongside you and help. This blog offers uplifting fitness stories from community members, workouts to make you superhero strong, helpful information to explain why and when a diet or workout routine might not be working, and much more. Whether you're nerdy or not, this is a great blog to bookmark so you can "level up your life!"

10. 12 Minute Athlete

12 Minute Athlete itself is not a blog but an app that helps users do HIIT workouts without having to hit the gym. Founded by Krista Stryker, this app makes the workouts quick and easy for users on the go. On her blog, Stryker writes about different workout routines and examples while also offering inspiration to readers about how they can meet their own personal fitness goals. The workout examples also come with handy illustrations for visual learners looking at the app or the online blog.

11. Cranky Fitness

If you've ever felt cranky about your fitness journey, this blog shares your sentiments. Informational with a touch of well-placed humor, Cranky Fitness is a blog all about nutrition, weight-loss, and of course, overall fitness. With posts written by the hilarious "Crabby McSlacker," you'll definitely be able to relate to all the ups and downs that come with getting in shape. You can even reach out to Crabby directly if you have any questions, comments, want to share your story, or thank her for all the laughs she provides when things are feeling extra tough. Even if you have the highest hopes for your fitness journey, you know there will be times when you feel annoyed, tired and just downright cranky. Luckily, this blog is ready to commiserate, encourage, and inspire. Our 2018 list wouldn't be complete without it.

12. Simply Shredded

This blog was founded by James Follacchio and has gained popularity in recent years thanks to its insightful featurettes and interviews with well-known bodybuilders. A great blog for men and women looking to lose fat, gain muscle and sculpt their bodies into their ideal shapes. The blog comes with motivational pictures, great articles on how to lose weight, tone, gain muscle, and more. If you're into developing and accentuating your assets, this is a great resource.

13. Gym Talk

Gym Talk combines humor with great information into one super cool blog. It offers great posts about health, fitness, nutrition, workout tips, supplement reviews, and much more. Their various posts have amazing advice for readers at all points of their fitness journey and a whole humor section to ease the stress when the fitness journey gets a little bumpy.

14. Yoga Dork

Yoga is one of the oldest forms of exercise and meditation in the world, so of course a blog dedicated to Yoga deserves to be on our list. Yoga Dork is all about Yoga, from stories and tips about Yoga to ideas, fitness programs, and workouts created around Yoga. Of course, while Yoga is the main topic, it is not the only topic. Yoga Dork's blog goes over a range of topics that deal with health, physical wellness, spiritual wellness, and social movements. This blog is also a great way to stay up to date with different facets of life in 2018, making it a great one to follow.

15. The Lean Green Bean

Founded by Lindsay Livingston, a registered dietician, The Lean Green Bean is a blog about nutritional advice for a healthy lifestyle. Livingston's posts are especially helpful for parents looking to help picky eaters find nutritious meals, recipes for healthy snacks, and advice for keeping a fit and healthy life while raising children. The recipes, tips, ideas, and meal reviews offer a wide array of new things to try and encouragement for the ups and downs of your personal fitness journey.

16. Black Girls Run!

Founded by Toni and Ashley in 2009, Black Girls Run has blossomed into an amazing community that reaches out to women and encourages them to get out and run. Black Girls Run! was founded to combat the obesity epidemic amongst the African American community, where diseases like diabetes and hypertension can be prevalent due to lifestyle and genetics. On their blog, you'll find tons of useful information on running and other cardio workouts, as well as access to running groups across the United States. In addition, this blog offers cool product and gear reviews, interview with women who have actually changed their lives and transformed their health by running. Of course, this blog is for all readers, men and women. Black Girls Run! is a movement, so check it out in 2018.

17. Fit Bottomed Girls

If you're looking for fitness tips from real people and not fit and perfect Instagram models and influencers, Fit Bottomed Girls is perfect. Founded by two women as a simple blog with a title reference to a Queen Song, Fit Bottom Girls has basically gone viral and is reaching thousands of readers, men and women, from all around the world every month. The focus of this blog is that "fit bottoms" come in all shapes and sizes and that there is no such thing as looking perfect because each body is perfect in its own way. With great fitness workouts and tips for various exercises, useful motivational content, nutrition facts, tips, recipes, and resources, Fit Bottom Girls really has it all. In addition to their great blog, Fit Bottom Girls' site has coaching resources, a podcast, reviews of products and workout routines, workout playlists and music suggestions, and much more. If you're going to follow any blog in 2018, this has got to be it.

18. Blogilates

One of the best exercises out there is Pilates. Great for toning, strength training, cardio, and calisthenics, Pilates hits all the right spots and can help you along your fitness journey in major ways. Blogilates combines the popular fitness trend with the usefulness of a blog by offering all the great information on the topic in one place. Videos, how-tos, personal stories, and workout calendars are just part of what this blog has to offer, making it a great hub of information, tips, and even activities. When you follow this blog, you can join in on challenges, find awesome recipes, and get inspired by before and after photos of other people on their fitness journeys.

19. Spot Me Bro

Need a little humor with your fitness blog? Spot Me Bro has you covered. This site and blog offer informative and humorous articles on all things fitness and tailored especially for "bros." With articles about famous actors and bodybuilders, the effects of steroids and testosterone injections, and different fitness routines, this fun and funny blog offers some useful information. Even if you're not a "bro," you may find you'll learn something new from the guys at Spot Me Bro.

20. Roman Fitness Systems

Roman Fitness Systems is all about helping their readers achieve their fitness goals through the use of sound information and helpful tips. The site focuses on two things: "making people hot," or "getting people huge," which means losing weight or gaining muscle. Roman Fitness Sytems was founded in the early 1970s by John Romaniello and designed to transform clients into better and stronger versions of themselves. In addition to their hard-hitting articles on topics ranging from how to stop overeating, doctors, and even fostering healthy friendships, the site also offers great products, coaches, and fitness programs.

We hope these twenty healthy and fitness blogs will be useful to you, fun to read, and sites you'll want to share with your friends and family when they begin their own fitness journeys. No matter where you are on your 2018 fitness journey, it never hurts to have an online community around you--and now you've got twenty to choose from!

Upper Chest Workout

2020-05-13T20:07:00.000+05:30

Upper Chest Workout

UPPER CHEST WORKOUT-

If we talk about a good body shape our chest should be in good shape, today I will tell what is the best chest workout at home for beginners. Our chest muscles are so strong in the upper body and play a lead role in doing any activity.

Upper Chest Workout

As a start, your main focus is to safely carry with proper form and lightweight. Once you have tacked down, you can start applying different sets and reps.

Why are your chest muscles important?

The chest area is made up of two primary muscles - pectoralis major and pectoralis miner - often known as 'pecs'. the pectoralis major is larger than two muscles and spreads in the upper chest, which is connected to the shoulder and looks like a breast and a fan. On the other hand, pectoralis minor is a small, thin and triangular muscle that sits just below the pectoralis major.

So what do these muscles do right? When it comes to controlling your hand movements, they are very important. To lift your arms, stretching and rotating your hand towards the center of your body. Think of lifting a child in your arms, dangling a tennis racket or pushing a heavy object away from you.

In addition, since these muscles raise most of the wall of the chest wall, so they will be able to burn a lot of energy by working them. If you want to shed some pounds, then this is a particularly good muscle. It will modify your metabolism quite well.

Keeping in mind the importance of this powerful muscle, we have prepared two custom workouts - with equipment and without - which you can do with the convenience of your four walls, for a tooth and muscles chest.

TOP UPPER CHEST WORKOUT AT HOME FOR BEGINNERS

It's an old one but it's a goodie - classic push-ups and all its diversity are one of the best practices that you can do to improve the strength and shape of your chest. Balancing the amount of body and condition of your body, the different areas of your body will be hit for the strength of the upper body.

Push-ups

Before we come into the workout, how to do different push-up variations here.

1. Regular push-ups

This classic bodyweight exercise is excellent for starting as well as keeping the training as a staple in any full-body or upper-body exercise. Be sure to use a wide grip, because it will work more than narrow grip technology to your chest muscles.

2. Incline push-ups

If you find a standard push-up more challenging than before, you can start with a tilt push-up. Stylizer, you will need to work push for less body weight. It is also a good exercise to target your lower chest.

3. Plyometric push-ups

Are you ready to explode in action? These push-ups can be executed in a variety of fun and fantasy manner. These explosions of powerful plyometric movement will fire your muscles on all cylinders.

4. Decline push-ups

The one who goes up also comes down too. These push-ups will help you target your upper chest and deltoid muscles in particular. This will add weight to your body as compared to a standard push-up, which will make it difficult.

5. Time under tension push-ups

Believe it or not, to slow down a movement and pay attention to the correct form, great conditioning will result. Decreasing yourself slowly in a push-up and gradually pushing back equally in your starting position will increase your muscles.

Chest workout at home without equipment

For this exercise, make three rounds of the following eight exercises. Be sure to execute each exercise well, even when your body starts to exhaustion - remember, more than speed!

15 regular push-ups
One-minute star jumps
15 incline push-ups
One-minute star jumps
15 decline push-ups
One-minute star jumps
15 regular push-up with time under tension
35 mountain climbers

Chest workouts at home with dumbbell

While Bodyweight Exercise is an easy way to work with your muscles at least with the fuss, adding a bit of extra weight in the form of a dumbbell can lead to your chest exercise to the next level.

This next chest can be done at home or in the gym, and you only need a pair of dumbbells. Adding weight will also open the door of a wide range of other effective chest workouts like chest press and chest flies.

If you are new to it, then first start with a very lightweight to master the technique. When you feel confident, then gradually increase the weight so that the last 4-5 representatives are hard to execute.

Different body muscles will be targeted, with push-ups, when the body's position is different when blowing chest presses or chests. Below are some major, weighted movements.

1. Regular chest press

Lie on a flat bench holding a dumbbell in your hands. Keep your arms aside from your shoulders, shoulders. From this initial condition, breathe and slowly move until your elbows are parallel to the floor at an angle of 90 °. Then push the weight back to breathe in order to return to the starting position.

2. Incline chest press

Lie on each bench with a twist in each hand with a dumbbell. Then lift the dumbbell apart from the shoulder width, extend the arms and rotate your wrist so that the hands of your hands are facing each other.

Stay in control of dumbbells at all times and gradually reduce the weight while breathing. Then push the dumpling upwards with the help of your chest.

3. Decline chest press

Protect your feet at the end of the previously rejected bench and then lie down with a dumb in each hand. Once you lie down, place your shoulders (aside from the width of the shoulder), and put the palms in front of each other.

Gradually reduce the weight until your elbows are parallel to the floor. Then take out your chest and bring back the dumplings while shrinking.

4. Chest fly

Lie on a flat bench with a dumbbell in each hand, palms facing each other. Spread the arms over your chest, separate the shoulder width, but keep your elbow elastic at all times (do not lock your elbow). Then keep both of your arms in the wide arc as long as you do not feel the strain in your chest and then bring the dumbbell back up. Keep in mind that the movement should be done to the level of the shoulder joint, not the arms and elbows.

5. Incline chest fly

Lie down on a bench with one tilt in each hand with one dumb, palms facing each other. Spread the arms up to the width of your shoulders, above your chest, but keep your elbow flexible all the time (do not lock your elbow). Then keep both of your arms in the wide arc as long as you do not feel the strain in your chest and then bring the dumbbell back up.

Keep in mind that the movement should be done to the level of the shoulder joint, not the arms and elbows.

6. Decline chest fly

First, secure your feet at the end of a bench and then lie down with a dumb in each hand, palms facing each other. Spread the arms up to the width of your shoulders, above your chest, but keep your elbow flexible all the time (do not lock your elbow).

Then keep both of your arms in the wide arc as long as you do not feel the strain in your chest and then bring the dumbbell back up. Keep in mind that the movement should be done to the level of the shoulder joint, not the arms and elbows.

7. Chest Dips

Chest dips are a fantastic exercise to make a strong chest, and some people argue that this is the Best Chest Exercise. This exercise not only adds depth to the chest but also adds width. Also, as your body is not supported by the bench, such as in chest press, it means that other muscles are worked out because you have to work hard to stabilize your body weight.

For this exercise, another piece will not need dumbbells, but devices - either between the parallel bars or two flat parallel surfaces you can dive between) can also work feces (stable times. Hold the bars or place hands on the flat surface and keep your body on the length of the arm (arms closed), turn the knees so that you do not touch the floor.

With control, keep your body slightly slower until you feel a slight tension in your chest. Be careful not to go too low; You do not want to hurt your shoulder joint. By breathing, contract your chest to bring your body back to the initial position.

At-home weights for chest workout

Like a push-up workout, it's also three rounds, and the form is important at the speed! You will need a set of dumbbells and tools mentioned above for those chest dip.

15 regular push-ups
One-minute chest dips
Half-minute rest
15 chest press
Half-minute chest fly
Half-minute rest
15 incline chest press
Half-minute chest dips
Half-minute rest
15 regular push-ups with time under tension
One-minute rest

Although we have shown some love to the chest area in this article, as if anything in life, it is all about balance, so to use all types of muscle groups to avoid muscle imbalances, injury, and postural issues Just make sure to devote as much time to the bottom of the line.

Now that you have got these two workouts in your proverbial pocket, why not start adding it to your regular 8 fit workout routine so that you can improve the power, performance and everyday functional movements around you.

These are the best chest workouts for better results and keep in mind take a good diet. For living a better life your health and fitness should be good.

Top Biceps Exercise - Get Fitness first

2020-05-13T20:05:00.002+05:30

Top Biceps Exercise - Get Fitness first

Everyone wants to Build bigger biceps. But only next time you need to feel in the weight room that their desires are not fulfilled. The one main reasons are that sticking to simple dumbbell biceps curls every time you work out just won’t get the job done.

Your body is very good enough to say what you want to do, so it's great to force your Biceps to push them out of your comfort zone and force them to blow up in development.

Today, there are many exercises to take out every nerve, bulge, and peak in your biceps muscle, and few people who do not include at least one or two of these in their workouts.

What is the most effective bicep exercise?

Incline Inner-Biceps Curl

This practice also spreads the long head of the biceps. The more horizontal the bench during your workout, the longer the long head of the muscles during the rips.

These are great for adding your isolation workout because they actually separate the biceps muscles!

Incline Dumbbell Hammer Curl

Inline bench position biceps increase the stretch on the long head of the muscle and lock your body against the bench so that you can not cheat excess weight during the rips by rocking backward. An added benefit for hammers is that your wrists and elbows are weaker than stress during other curl rips.

EZ-Bar Curl

Many people think that EZ-bar curls are the best all-around besides your biceps workout. It impairs both the small and long arms of the biceps muscles and for some people, it is much more comfortable on joints and forehead compared to a straight barbell.

Standing Concentration Dumbbell Curl

Concentration curl keeps the arm in the front of the body with a twisted brace and shoulder rotation. Although it reduces the recruitment of long head, it potentially increases the thickness and peak of the biceps by better recruitment of surrounding muscles during your workout.

To support your body weight, with your free hand on your off-leg, when you hit failure, you can switch to a hammer hold and burn some additional reps.

Wide-Grip Standing Barbell Curl

This is definitely one of the most common ways to hit this muscle group. By taking a broad-to-normal catch, you start moving on the shoulder externally, so your upper arm changes its position, causing the biceps to attach to the small head of the muscle.

During your workout, you can overload the band, chains, or forcing representative by using a partner, which you can not do very well using only the dumbbell.

Regular-Grip Barbell Curl

Excellent. If you have only made this move in your biceps workout, you will still be out.

Of course, you can play with your grip width, which can reduce the problem that some people experience with Barbell, as well as emphasize a different part of the biceps. A narrow grip will emphasize the long head of the muscle, while a wide hold will emphasize the small head of the muscles.

Zottman Curl

In this movement, you catch a dumbbell in each hand and the way you lose weight, in the same way, the palms hold up (above) and a palm down (pronounced), so there is an injury to the elasticity of your elbow!

Some of your elbow flexors also work as a supinator, so instead of curl, the wrist and fore-side rotation will load that function during the curl.

Dumbbell Biceps Curl

A classic too! Dumbbells allow the wrist to move freely, so most people adopt a slight rotation of the wrist and move forward in the form of curls, which thicken the muscles group.

You can do the exercise that starts with both palms in front of the torso and then moves the movement forward. On the top of the movement, the palms should be forward and the little finger should be more than the thumb for an extreme contraction.

Overhead Cable Curl

This is a great way to practice double biceps pauses on your front while you train. You can make both cables simultaneously, or alternate between weapons!

To begin, set one weight that is comfortable on each side of the pulley machine.

Stand between the two sides and use an underhand grip (facing palms towards the ceiling) to grab each handle. Your arms should be fully stretched and your feet should be parallel to the floor with the shoulder width apart from each other. Your body should be aligned to handle evenly. This is the starting position.

When breathing, gradually squeeze the biceps on each side until you touch your forefinger and biceps.

Hammer Curl

Normally the hammer will be our strongest curl during a biceps workout. The reason for this is that all the flexors of our elbow are actively involved, and the forearm and wrist are in a state of strength. Doing this movement as a concentration curl or precautionary curl (on a preacher's bench) will reduce the fraud and maximize the recruitment of muscles during exercise.

There are many possible variations for this movement. For example, you can exercise exercises sitting on the back or without a back, and you can do it with alternative weapons; First, raise the right hand for a repetition, then left, then right, etc.

Fat-Grip Hammer Curl

Select two dumbbells, and wrap towels. Another option is to use rubber-grip sleeves. Keeping your upper arms stationary at your sides and your palms facing up, curl the weights.

Cheat Curl

Choose the most dumbbell you think you can curl and perform, as you had curled the traditional dumbbell, but use the speed up to the power of your hips through the sticking point (half-up, when weights It is most difficult to raise). As soon as you lift, do not bend behind, but rather reach a rhythm where you tilt your torso forward and then complete each of your hips. Close each set of total failure a representative shyly.

Side Curl

Attach them to two bands who face strong objects at the height of the shoulder. Stand among them, and hold one end in each hand. Raise your arms with elbows 90 ° - You should feel some tension on the band in this initial situation. Curl the band toward your ears, and hold the contracted position for two seconds. You can also do this practice with cables.

Suspension Trainer Biceps Curl

Face the suspension point of suspension trainer and face handles with palms. Lie down on your back, straight body, and bend with extended arms in front of you. Curl your body up to the handle. Keep your hips straight - do not twist or turn. If you need to make this practice easy, then increase your feet so that you are in a more honest position; If you want to make it more difficult, then raise your legs slightly forward in front of you.

HOW DO I GET BIGGER BICEPS?

Unless you are underweight, you will never have big weapons. No matter how many biceps you curl. To build bigger arms, consolidate and eat a lot, first increase your overall muscles.

Eat More: You need to eat more calories to gain weight. Most people will need at least 3000kcal / day, more people with sharp metabolism will need more. Start eating at least four meals in a day - breakfast, lunch, dinner, post workout. Eat your meals at every meal.

Get Stronger: Increase your squat to 140kg / 300lb, increase your bench press to 100kg / 220lb and increase your deadlift to 180kg / 400lb. This will increase your overall muscles.

Take Rest: Muscles relax when resting. Pause your arms, they are small muscles. Check Strong Lift 5 × 5: The routine allows for a lot of rest.

Taking right nutrition is best for your health and fitness. Make sure your diet is good for your workouts. This is the key of bodybuilding.

Kriti Sanon Beauty Tips, Fitness

2020-05-13T19:47:00.002+05:30

Kriti Sanon Beauty Tips, Fitness Regime And Diet Secrets Behind Her Gorgeous Skin And Hair

One word comes to mind when someone mentions Kriti Sanon is "gorgeous". The leggy model-turned-actress is blessed with natural beauty and those desired curves. While she has just entered the film industry, she is doing wonders regarding the number of films and the way she is shinning as an actress.

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Kriti Sanon was born in New Delhi. After a stint in modelling, she turned to acting, starring in a Telugu psychological thriller titled Nenokkadine. As we all know, her first Bollywood film was Sabbir Khan’s Heropanti, alongside Tiger Shroff. We must say, she simply dazzled in her Bollywood debut, setting the silver screen on fire with her classic good looks and her beautiful smile.

Image Courtesy: Instagram

So, if you’ve been wondering what the actress does to maintain her beautiful visage and her lean and fit body, read on! We have for you the beauty and fitness secrets of Kriti Sanon.

Her beauty secrets

Image Courtesy: Instagram

Kriti takes wonderful care of her skin. She cleanses, tones and moisturises her skin every day. At the end of each day, she uses a makeup remover, followed by a dab of moisturiser in order to restore her skin with lost nutrients.

Image Courtesy: Instagram

Kriti indulges in hair spas on a regular basis. She believes that pollution can cause serious damage to the hair, which is why she also oils her hair often

Image Courtesy: Instagram

In terms of makeup, the products she uses consist of the basics such as mascara, lip balm, concealer and a little bit of blush. She advises all non-vegetarians to eat fish, as it is considered to be very good for the skin and the hair.

Do Check Out: Anita Hassanandani Fitness And Diet Secrets Behind Her Stunning Weight Loss Transformation

Kriti also drinks a lot of water, to keep her skin healthy and glowing.

Her fitness secrets

Image Courtesy: Instagram

Weight Training:

Image Courtesy: Instagram

Kriti undertakes weight training for about 4 to 5 times each week.

She believes that doing this helps keep her body toned.

Yoga And Pranayam:

She does not do cardio as she tends to lose weight really quickly. But, she indulges in both yoga and pranayam to keep her body supple and fit.

Kickboxing:

Kriti loves kickboxing. It keeps her more agile and is excellent for balance. Since she loses weight drastically, especially around the face, this is the reason that she prefers kickboxing as it does not leave her with hollow-looking cheeks.

Salsa

The actress balances her workout sessions with a round or two of salsa. Dance can be fun and it also helps lose weight according to her!

Her diet

Kriti’s diet consists of eggs, brown bread, chicken/fish, dal, vegetables, sweet potato, protein shakes and brown rice. She also likes to have a fresh salad with every meal. She consumes 2 cups of green tea daily. She generally prefers to stay away from spicy and oily food. In fact, Kriti eats something in every two hours as that is the best way to stay fit and healthy.

So ladies, now that we have spilled the beans on Kriti Sanon’s beauty and fitness secrets, go get up and implement the same in your lives. It’s time to make yourself feel super-beautiful.

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33 Simple Diet and Fitness Tips

2020-05-13T19:33:00.001+05:30

33 Simple Diet and Fitness Tips.

Everything in This Slideshow

Diet and workout tips that work

We all want to be our fittest selves, but with so much advice floating around out there, it can be hard to hone in on what healthcare tips actually work. To make your life a bit easier, we’ve rounded up a number of our go-to healthy strategies, to help you reach your most ambitious fitness goals even quicker.

Say hello to H20

Whether you're heading off to spin class, boot camp, or any other exercise, it's always important to hydrate so you can stay energized and have your best workout. Electrolyte-loaded athletic drinks, though, can be a source of unnecessary calories, so "drinking water is usually fine until you're exercising for more than one hour," says Newgent. At that point, feel free to go for regular Gatorade-type drinks (and their calories), which can give you a beneficial replenishment boost. But worry not if you like a little flavor during your fitness: There are now lower- cal sports drinks available, adds Newgent, so look out for 'em in your grocery aisles.

Find the best fitness friend

A workout buddy is hugely helpful for keeping motivated, but it's important to find someone who will inspire—not discourage. So make a list of all your exercise-loving friends, then see who fits this criteria, says Andrew Kastor, an ASICS running coach: Can your pal meet to exercise on a regular basis? Is she supportive (not disparaging) of your goals? And last, will your bud be able to keep up with you or even push your limits in key workouts? If you've got someone that fits all three, make that phone call.

Stock up on these

While there are heaps of good-for-you foods out there, some key ingredients make it a lot easier to meet your weight-loss goals. Next grocery store run, be sure to place Newgent's top three diet-friendly items in your cart: balsamic vinegar (it adds a pop of low-cal flavor to veggies and salads), in-shell nuts (their protein and fiber keep you satiated), and fat-free plain yogurt (a creamy, comforting source of protein). "Plus, Greek yogurt also works wonders as a natural low-calorie base for dressings and dips—or as a tangier alternative to sour cream," says Newgent. Talk about a multitasker!

Relieve those achy muscles

After a grueling workout, there's a good chance you're going to be feeling it (we're talking sore thighs, tight calves). Relieve post-fitness aches by submerging your lower body in a cold bath (50 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit; you may have to throw some ice cubes in to get it cold enough) for 10 to 15 minutes. "Many top athletes use this trick to help reduce soreness after training sessions," says Andrew Kastor. And advice we love: "An athlete training for an important race should consider getting one to two massages per month to help aid in training recovery," adds Kastor. Now that's speaking our language!

Curb your sweet tooth

Got a late-night sugar craving that just won't quit? "To satisfy your sweet tooth without pushing yourself over the calorie edge, even in the late night hours, think 'fruit first,'" says Jackie Newgent, RD, author of The Big Green Cookbook. So resist that chocolate cake siren, and instead enjoy a sliced apple with a tablespoon of nut butter (like peanut or almond) or fresh fig halves spread with ricotta. Then sleep sweet, knowing you're still on the right, healthy track.

Buy comfy sneaks

You shouldn't buy kicks that hurt, bottom line! "Your shoes should feel comfortable from the first step," says Andrew Kastor. So shop in the evening—your feet swell during the day and stop in the late afternoon, so you want to shop when they're at their biggest. Also make sure the sneaks are a little roomy—enough so that you can wiggle your toes, but no more than that. They should be comfy from the get-go, but Kastor says they'll be even more so once you have a good 20 to 40 miles on 'em.

Pick your perfect tunes

Running with music is a great way to get in a groove (just make sure it's not blasting too loudly, or you won't hear those cars!). To pick the ultimate iPod playlist, think about what gets you going. "I know several elite athletes that listen to what we'd consider 'relaxing' music, such as symphony music, while they do a hard workout," says Andrew Kastor. So don't feel like you have to download Lady Gaga because her tunes are supposed to pump you up—go with any music that you find uplifting.

When to weigh

You've been following your diet for a whole week. Weigh to go! Now it's time to start tracking your progress (and make sure pesky pounds don't find their way back on). "It's best to step on the scale in the morning before eating or drinking—and prior to plunging into your daily activities," says Newgent. For the most reliable number, be sure to check your poundage at a consistent time, whether daily or weekly.

Police your portions

Does your steak take up more than half your plate? Think about cutting your serving of beef in half. That's because it's best to try and fill half your plate with veggies or a mixture of veggies and fresh fruit, says Newgent, so that it's harder to overdo it on the more caloric dishes (like cheesy potatoes or barbecue sauce–slathered ribs—yum!).

Combat cocktail hour

Is it ladies' night? If you know you'll be imbibing more than one drink, feel (and sip!) right by always ordering water between cocktails, says Newgent. That way, you won't rack up sneaky liquid calories (and ruin your inhibition to resist those mozzarella sticks!). But your H20 doesn't have to be ho-hum. "Make it festive by ordering the sparkling variety with plenty of fruit, like a lime, lemon, and orange wedge in a martini or highball glass," adds Newgent.

Eat this, run that

When you have a 5- or 10K (you get to eat more with a half or full marathon) on your calendar, it's important to plan out what you're going to eat the morning of the big day—something that will keep you fueled and also go down easy. While everyone is different, "We always have good luck with a high-carbohydrate breakfast such as a small bowl of oatmeal with fruit or a couple of pieces of toast with peanut butter or cream cheese," says Andrew Kastor, who also advises eating around 200 to 250 (primarily carb) calories about 90 minutes before you warm up for your run . And don't worry about nixing your a.m. caffeine fix on race day. "Coffee is great for athletic performances," Kastor adds, because it makes you sharper and may even give you extended energy. Talk about buzz-worthy!

Turn your cheat day around

Feeling guilty about that giant ice cream sundae you enjoyed at your niece's birthday party? Don't beat yourself up! It takes a lot of calories—3,500—to gain a pound of body fat. "So really, that one off day doesn't usually result in any significant weight gain," says Newgent. It's about what you do the next day and the day after that's really important—so don't stay off-track. So be sure to whittle away at those extra calories over the next day or two, preferably by boosting exercise rather than eating too little. Starvation is not the healthy answer!

Run with this

Before you hit the road, make sure you're packing these key staples: a watch to log your total time (or a fancy GPS to track your mileage), an iPod with great amp-you-up music, a cell phone if you don't mind holding onto it, and a RoadID (a bracelet that includes all your vital info, $20; roadid.com). And on a sunny day, wear sunglasses. "They reduce glare, which can decrease squinting, ultimately releasing the tension in your shoulders," says Andrew Kastor. And that's a performance bonus, because relaxing them helps conserve energy on your runs. Hey, we'll take a boost where we can get it!

Be a weekend warrior

You've been following your diet plan to the letter, but enter: the weekend. To deal with three nights of eating temptations (think: birthdays, weddings, dinner parties), up your activity level for the week. For instance, try taking an extra 15-minute walk around your office each day, suggests Newgent. Then, go on and indulge a bit at the soiree, guilt free. Another party trick? Enjoy a 100-calorie snack before a celebration, which can help you eat fewer munchies at the event.

Fun up your food

It's easy to get in a diet rut, even if you're loading up on flavorful fruits and veggies. The solution? Have plenty of spices, fresh herbs, and lemons at your cooking beck and call. "It's amazing what a little dash of spice, sprinkle of herbs, pinch of lemon zest, or squirt of lime juice can do to liven up a dish—and your diet," says Newgent. The best part: They contain almost no calories. Experiment with your dinner, tonight!

Up your exercise

How do you know when to increase your exercise? "The general rule of thumb is to up the amount of miles run, for races half-marathon length and longer, by 5 to 10 percent each week," advises Andrew Kastor. See our training schedule at Health.com/yes-you-can, which guides you on how to increase your mileage.

Have a fruity ice cream sundae

Next time your family or friends decide to make an ice-cream run, don't worry about being left out of the fun! Order a fresh (and super-refreshing) ice cream sundae, piled high with diced kiwi, pineapple, and strawberries. You'll get a serving of delish fruit—no hefty calorie-laden toppings required.

Swap out your shoes

While we've all heard that running shoes break down after logging lots of miles (about 300 to 350), you may still be holding on to your fave pair. (They fit just right! They're so cushy!) Not a good idea. "Glue has a tendency to break down under ultraviolet light, as do the other materials that make up the shoe," says Andrew Kastor. So even if your sneaks have only 150 miles on them but are more than two years old, recycle them (try oneworldrunning.com or recycledrunners.com), because chances are they've already started deteriorating. And as a rule of thumb, always keep tabs on how many miles you've logged on them—tedious, but hey, you'll be proud of how far you've gone.

Snag the right support

Sure, your yoga sports bras works great for downward dog—but when it comes to running, you'll need one that's designed to lock them in for all that pavement pounding. So what should you look for? "The best sports bras are loose around the chest so you can expand your ribs and diaphragm more effectively. But they should also be form-fitting," says Deena Kastor, an American marathon record holder and 2004 Olympic marathon bronze medalist. Just make sure the cup is made of comfy material (like a soft compression fabric; look for descriptions that include the terms "breathability" and "compression")—you don't want to be itching at mile two!

Relieve those side stitches

You know it: a sharp pain just below the rib cage that always seems to pop up when you're working out your hardest. It's called the side stitch, and it can be a major nuisance—especially when it keeps you from completing a workout. To ease the ache (so you can get on with your run), take your fist and press it beneath your rib cage while taking deep breaths from your belly for about 10 steps. In about 30 seconds, the pain should subside, so you can get on back to (fitness) work.

Shake your way slim

Sick of that elliptical or bike or workout DVD? That means it's time to mix up your routine! Our favorite way: Break a sweat by moving and shaking. Simply make a playlist with your favorite "cut a rug" tunes ("Girls Just Want to Have Fun"? "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)"?), then turn up the volume, and start breaking it down. For even more fun, invite some gal pals over and get grooving (and laughing). The best part is that you'll each burn about 200 to 600 calories per hour. Now that's something to shimmy about!

Fuel for fitness

Planning on picking up the pace tomorrow? Eat food that will help keep you going strong. For breakfast, opt for a high-carbohydrate meal—one similar to what you'll be eating on race day, so you can find out what foods digest best (for you!). Try a whole-grain English muffin or a bagel with peanut butter or a low-fat cream cheese. Then, have a well-rounded meal post-workout to help with recovery. Andrew Kastor's favorite? One to two slices French toast with a side of fruit. "The protein-to-carbohydrate ratio is perfect for enhancing my recovery," he says. We like that it's super-yummy, too.

Say goodbye to peer pressure

Even if you've been eating right on track, it may be tough to stay on track if your partner, coworkers, or friends don't share your healthy-eating habits. What to do? If your partner loves pizza, try ordering a pie that's heavy on the veggies and light on the cheese—then supplement it with a side salad. Or, if your friends are having a girls' night out, suggest a restaurant that's got healthy appetizer options, instead of the typical fare of onion rings and cheese dip. And at work, instead of Friday baked-goods day, suggest a Friday "make it healthy" day, and swap in baked pears with cinnamon or mini fruit-and-nut muffins for brownies and blondies.

Savor your carbs

When trying to slim and trim, you may be tempted to take drastic measures like cutting out your carbs. But before you go and add dinner rolls and chips to your "no" list, remember that yummy foods like brown rice, pumpernickel bread, and even potato chips contain Resistant Starch, a metabolism-boosting carb that keeps you full for longer. And that's great for maintaining a fit you because you won't have to eat as much to feel satiated. So go on, rip open that (single-serve) bag of Lay's!

Ditch your working lunch

Munching on your lunch while at the computer could lead to mindless grazing, according to a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. People who ate their midday meals while playing a computer game ended up eating more cookies 30 minutes later than those who hadn't been gaming. So carve out 20 minutes a day (we know, you've got a million things to do, but … ), and eat in your conference room (or outdoors!). Your whittled waistline with thank you.

Slather up!

There's no denying it: Getting the fresh air from exercising outdoors is great! But along with it, you also get the harmful UV rays. To keep yourself shielded while still having fun in the sun, opt for a sweat-proof screen with SPF 30 or higher (look out for types that say "water-resistant" or "waterproof" on the bottle, terms regulated by the FDA), a lip balm with SPF 15 or higher, a lightweight hat, and sports shades. Also consider trading in your white tee and instead going for a shirt with built-in UV protection (a rating of 30 UVP is necessary to be awarded the Skin Cancer Foundation's "Seal of Recommendation"; a white T-shirt has a rating of 10). And remember, the rays are at their brightest from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., so try to plan a before-or post-work sweat-session.

Slim up your snack

It's hard to avoid that 3 p.m. stomach rumble, when nothing can stand between you and the office vending machine. And while it's fine to eat something to hold you over until dinner (in fact, we encourage it!), some choices will help you keep on your weight-loss track—while others can surely derail you. So at the vending machine, instead of choosing that ever-so-tempting pack of Twizzlers, try a 100-calorie cookie pack or a Nature Valley granola bar. Better yet, bring a snack from home! We're fans of sliced veggies dipped in hummus. Delish!

Run chafe-free

There's nothing fun about chafing. You can get the rash (caused by moisture and constant friction) on your thighs, around your sports bra, and even under your arms, to name a few hot spots! To prevent the next occurrence, try rubbing on an anti-chafe stick like Bodyglide For Her Anti-Chafing Stick ($9; amazon.com)in any spots that have the potential to chafe. Moisture-wicking fabrics help, too, so if you have a few quick-dry shirts (Nike, Asics, and Under Armour all make 'em), save those for your long runs or tough workouts, when chafing is most likely to occur.

Find healthy fast food

Have to work late tonight and need dinner—in a hurry? Not to worry. If you find fast food is your only option, pull up the restaurant's nutrition facts online before you go; you can make an informed decision ahead of time about what to order. "Nearly every quick-service restaurant has a relatively healthful option or two," says Newgent. We're thinking salads, chili, or grilled chicken. Some low-cal, healthy, on-the-run dishes: the vegetarian burrito bowl at Chipotle, the Bangkok curry at Noodles and Company, and the tomato basil bisque at Au Bon Pain.

Be a mighty maintainer

The end is here! Three cheers for all your hard work. But that doesn't mean it's time to put on the brakes. To maintain your weight, you still have to make those smart choices at restaurants, work, and home. Look into getting a diet confidante, who you can chat with once a week about your eating highs and oh-no's. And stick to using that scale so you can be proactive if a few extra pounds creep back on. Don't let your exercise routine change, either, because even if you don't have any more pounds to lose, you'll still be working out your ticker. And we heart that!

Up your fiber intake

Along with protein and good-for-you fat, fiber is one of those nutrition elements that keeps you full and fueled all day long. And if you’re trying to get fit and shed pounds, fiber is your best friend. In fact, in one an American Heart Association study, participants who consuming 30 grams of fiber a day ended up losing weight and improving their heart health. So when it comes to staying healthy and slim, aim for that 30 gram fiber goal!

Work out in the morning

Sure, it can be a pain to drag yourself out of bed for a morning workout. But according to a study from Appalachian State University, opting for a 45-minute a.m. sweat sesh could cause a metabolic spike, helping your body continue to burn an additional 190 calories throughout the day.

Have a hearty breakfast

By now you’re probably tired of hearing how breakfast is the most important meal of the day—but this tired piece of advice couldn’t be more true! In one study completed at the Imperial College of London, participants who skipped breakfast were more tempted to reach for unhealthy, high-calorie foods later in the day. And in case you need more evidence to eat that a.m. meal, further research found that women had a larger drop in ghrelin (the hunger hormone) when they ate a hearty breakfast versus a small one.

14 Super Foods to Help Shed Pounds

2020-05-13T11:05:00.003+05:30

14 Super Foods to Help Shed pounds..

The truth is you can lose weight eating just about any food. A nutrition professor at Kansas State University famously demonstrated this when he lost 27 pounds eating Twinkies alone.

Although it's possible to lose weight eating almost anything, some foods make it really difficult. Why? Because these foods create self-sustaining cravings. (A fact you're familiar with if you've ever consumed three too many bowls of cereal in one sitting). Processed carbs—like cereal, desserts, potato chips, pasta and bread—wreak havoc on your blood sugar, the appetite centers in the brain, and, ultimately, your waistline.

Some foods, however, do just the opposite. The following items pack a ton of nutrition into a relatively small number of calories while filling you up at the same time. Plus, every one of them has the added advantage of stabilizing your blood sugar, making it far less likely that you'll go on a waist-busting binge.

Rather than focusing on what not to eat, try building your diet around foods like the ones below. The only "side-effect" of this weight-loss plan is a major improvement in your overall health and well being.

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Beans

1 of 15

Fiber is the secret weapon in weight-control. It fills you up and prevents the blood sugar spikes that frequently lead to further hunger. No food on the planet supplies as much fiber as beans, typically 12 to 17 grams per cup. Beans are also a great source of protein and antioxidants. Research on the four areas of the globe (called "Blue Zones") where people routinely live to 100 in good health shows that beans are a staple in all of their diets.

Grapefruit

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Turns out there may be a grain of truth to the infamous "grapefruit diet." In a recent study at the Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, researchers found that eating half a grapefruit before every meal helped people drop weight. As an added benefit, grapefruit contains cancer-fighting compounds, and red grapefruit has been shown to help lower triglycerides. Half of a grapefruit has only 39 calories. What's not to love?

Grass-Fed Beef

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Meat is a great weight-loss food, but for a nutritionist, it's difficult to recommend, as it's so often loaded with antibiotics, steroids and hormones. Get grass-fed and avoid the unhealthy additives while reaping all the benefits. Higher protein diets are associated with weight loss for a variety of reasons: protein stimulates the metabolism, helps you feel fuller longer and decreases the desire to overeat. Additionally, grass-fed beef has higher levels of anti-inflammatories, a big plus for runners.

Sardines

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These little fish are one of the biggest health bargains of all time, and they're definitely a boon to anyone who wants to lose weight. Why? First, sardines are loaded with protein. Second, they're a great source of omega-3 fatty acids, which boost mood and strengthen the cardiovascular system. (Not to mention making hair, skin and nails look better!) Third, sardines are convenient, easy to find and cheap.

Blueberries

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Berries are one food that virtually all nutritionists agree upon; they're on everybody's list of super foods. They're very low in calories, extremely rich in nutrients, high in fiber and best of all, have a minimal impact on your blood sugar. Blueberries, in particular, contain a plant compound shown to have cholesterol-lowering properties, and they boast the highest antioxidant rating of any fruit.

Nuts

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Nuts are often given a bad rap as a "fattening" food. While nuts are high in calories and probably shouldn't be eaten by the fistful, a moderate intake won't cause weight gain. In the Nurses' Health Study, frequent nut consumers were actually thinner than those who didn't indulge. The "magic" amount seems to be five ounces per week. Also, a number of studies have shown that nuts can lower your risk of heart disease dramatically.

Apples

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The apple's reputation for keeping you out of the doctor's office is well deserved. This fruit is loaded with fiber. Here's a great trick that will help you keep your weight down permanently: if you're about to go out to a party or meal where you may be tempted to overindulge, eat an apple with a glass of water half an hour before arriving. It's one of the greatest natural appetite suppressants on the planet.

Eggs

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Choosing eggs for breakfast helps manage hunger while lowering calorie consumption throughout the day. And feel free to ease up on the egg-white omelets. The yolk is loaded with good stuff that helps support brain and eye function. The small amount of fat in the yolk contributes mightily to the feeling of sustained fullness and satisfaction. Don't be afraid of it.

Perfect your nutrition to boost your performance. Sign up for a race near you.

Workout Milestones Every Fit Person Should Reach

2020-05-13T10:40:00.002+05:30

14 Must-Have Moves for Toned Abs

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You've been a workout warrior for a while, putting in time at the gym each day to reach a specific goal or just improve your overall health and fitness. While staying motivated and committed can be tough, celebrating milestones along the way will keep you inspired.

Check out these 15 classic workout milestones and see how many you've already checked off the list.

CLASSIC WORKOUT

WORKOUT MUST HAVE ABS AND

2-Week Workout Plan to Lose Inches

2020-05-13T10:06:00.002+05:30

2-Week Workout Plan to Lose Inches

You want to drop a few pounds and tighten up trouble areas, but you're not sure where to begin. How do you start your weight loss journey?

It's simple: Exercise.

That's not to say that getting fit is easy. Exercise is work. You have to make the effort to move more. But you can definitely lose inches and create a more active lifestyle with this two-week workout plan.

Laying the Groundwork

Let's be honest, lots of people plan to start an exercise program. From the group that actually does start, only a portion of those individuals stick with their plan long enough to actually alter their lifestyle.

Why? There are two reasons. First, people never prepare themselves for a new exercise routine. What is the goal? How long will it take? People just show up at the gym without a plan. They go through the motions and a few weeks later give up because they don't see results. No plan, no goals, no progress, no results.

Second, people overestimate their abilities. Training twice a day sounds better than once. Training seven days each week is better than five. Right away people want to lift heavier weights, go on long runs and bring more intensity to their workouts. This might sound great, but it's completely unrealistic and unsustainable. Going from relaxing to doing intense workouts is a recipe for disaster.

The trick to creating an effective routine is to be honest about your current fitness level. Ask yourself what are your goals, how long will it take to get there and how much time can you commit to exercise. With those thoughts in mind, give this two-week exercise plan a try. Make these workouts work for you, on your schedule and based on your fitness level.

Two-Week Workout Plan

Week One

Day 1

Complete five rounds.

Push-ups (10 reps)
Bodyweight squats (20 reps)
Forward lunges (5 reps each leg)
Plank hold (30 seconds)

Rest for 30 seconds and start again.

Day 2

Warm Up: 8 to 10 minutes of an easy jog and dynamic movements: high-knees, butt-kicks, bounding and reverse run.
Run at least 30 minutes. Use a walk/jog method if needed. Jog until you need a break, then walk and repeat for 30 minutes.
Try to increase your mileage over time. Don't push too far, too fast.
Cool Down: Do an easy jog for 10 minutes and then stretch.

Day 3

Complete five rounds.

Bodyweight squats (20 reps)
Leg raises (20 reps)
Lateral lunges (10 reps each leg)
Plank hold (30 seconds)

Rest for 30 seconds and start again.

Day 4

Complete four rounds.

Push-ups (60 seconds)
Side plank—right (30 seconds)
Side plank—left (30 seconds)
Incline push-ups (30 seconds)
Decline push-ups (30 seconds)

Rest for 60 seconds and start again.

Week Two

Day 1

Complete one round.

Jump squats (50 reps)
Sit-ups (50 reps)
Push-ups (50 reps)
Jump lunges (20 reps each leg)

Rest for 2 minutes and then complete two rounds of the next circuit.

Russian twists (30 seconds)
Mountain climbers (30 seconds)

Rest for 30 seconds and start again.

Day 2

Warm Up: 8 to 10 minutes of an easy jog and dynamic movements: high-knees, butt-kicks, bounding and reverse run.
Do a 400-meter run 4 to 8 times at maximum effort.
Rest for the amount of time it takes you to complete a 400-meter run.
Cool Down: Do an easy jog for 10 minutes and then stretch.

Day 3

Complete this circuit as many times as possible in 15 minutes.

Box jumps (5 reps)
Burpees (10 reps)
Sit-ups (15 reps)
Bodyweight squats (20 reps)

Rest for 30 seconds and start again.

Day 4

Complete six rounds.

Squats (20 reps)
Jump squats (10 reps)
Forward lunges (10 reps each leg)
Jump lunges (5 reps each leg)

Rest 2 minutes and then complete two rounds of the next circuit.

Push-ups (60 seconds)
Sit-ups (60 seconds)

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Expert Fitness Tips

2020-05-12T11:08:00.003+05:30

Expert Fitness Tips

25 Expert Fitness Tips and Strategies Every Lifter Should Know

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1. Make sure you're eating healthy

Ask almost any personal trainer and they’ll tell you that regardless of your training goals, healthy eating is the backbone. Food is what fuels your body to reach your goals, and without proper nutrition through quality foods, you’re likely to stall. Maintain a balanced diet consisting of fruits, vegetables, complex carbohydrates, complete proteins, and healthy fats like fish oils and flaxseeds.

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2. Prepare ahead

Preparing meals in advance gives you the best chance to accomplish your nutrition goals, says Micah LaCerte, a personal trainer and fitness competition world champion. That way, he says, you won’t feel pressured to eat unhealthy foods or skip meals. Check out 10 of our favorite simple meal-prep recipes.

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3. Eat more clean food

Eating only three daily meals? Not a great idea. “Half the people I deal with aren’t losing weight because they don’t eat enough,” says veteran personal trainer Mike Duffy. Duffy advises his clients “to eat five times a day, about every three hours, to stimulate their metabolism” including two mini-meals between three basic meals. With activity levels decreasing throughout the day, he advises to “eat less as the day goes on.”

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4. Control your portion sizes

You’ll be eating more often, so paying attention to portions is extremely important. “Make sure chicken breasts, (and) meats, are no larger than your palm, and that pastas are no larger than your fists,” says Jay Cardiello, a personal trainer to countless celebrities and professional athletes. He also suggests using “smaller bowls, plates, and cups” because studies show people “serve themselves 20-40% more food when they’re using larger plates.” Here’s how to estimate portion sizes.

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5. Eat with purpose

Everything you consume should have substantial nutritional value. “You want the most nutritional bang for your buck,” says Dan Trink, C.S.C.S., a strength coach and trainer. “Everything you eat should serve some sort of nutritional purpose in your body, fuel your workouts, and (be) geared toward optimizing your body.”

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6. Understand the basics of building muscle

Talk to any personal trainer and they’ll tell you there are certain muscle-building basics. First, increase your caloric and complete protein intake, so your body has enough building blocks to get bigger. Then, when you enter the gym, focus on your form. Perform compound movements and train with weights on average around four times a week. Never underestimate the importance of rest. Remember, muscle tissue grows outside of the gym when you’re giving your body time to relax and recover following your workouts.

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7. Work your full range of motion

Don’t take any shortcuts. “Aim for the largest range of motion you can achieve in your exercises,” says Lee Boyce, C.P.T. “Your muscles will do more work per rep, and it will result in your breaking down more tissue by the end of the workout.”

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8. Don’t go too heavy

Wondering how to get the most out of lifting weights? “Use a weight that will have you failing on the set between the 30- and 40-second mark,” Duffy says. Time under tension causes muscle to grow. “If you’re failing at 20 seconds, you know that weight was too heavy.”

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9. Carefully consider cardio

If getting huge is your goal, then throttle back on your cardio workouts, says LaCerte—chances are, you’ll be burning far too many calories. So what should you do if you still want to get in some cardio? LaCerte says “a light jog a few days per week for 20 minutes is adequate.” If you’re aiming to burn fat, of course, then focus on getting enough protein every day (usually one gram of protein per pound of ideal body weight), while still keeping your overall caloric intake low.

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10. Choose supplements intelligently

Some trainers and lifters feel supplements can play a key role in boosting muscle gains. If you subscribe to that theory, then chances are, you’re already taking protein supplements—but what else? Creatine, for one, “seems to be about the most effective strength- and size-building supplement,” Trink says. To boost your performance, you may also want to try peppermint. Cardiello explains that the scent “alters the perception of how hard you’re working out,” making it seem “less strenuous, slower-paced, and easier to complete.”

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11. Prepare yourself for endurance training

When it comes to training for endurance, you’ll need to be hydrated and be sure you’re eating properly because, by its very nature, this form of training is very demanding on your body. You should be doing a good mix of cardio and weight training. And, to increase your aerobic capacity, you should incorporate high-intensity interval training, or HIIT. You’ll likely be sweating buckets and burning calories galore, so be prepared.

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12. Heart rate monitor

If you already own a heart rate monitor or fitness tracker, then this is a good time to start using it. If not, you may want to either go out and buy one, or learn how to do it yourself. “Don’t just exercise for a set amount of time and call it quits,” Duffy says. “You need to bring the intensity with it, and a fitness tracker can help you get a sense of exactly how hard your heart is working.”

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13. Exhaust for endurance

To further your endurance training, you need to put in total effort. “You’re going for muscle exhaustion, so remember to fully exhaust the muscles,” Boyce says. How can you do that? Boyce suggests that you “get good at the bodyweight staples—pullups, chinups, pushups, inverted rows, (and) squats. If you can master these movements for high reps, your muscles will get well-conditioned.”

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14. Consider reducing rest time

It’s always tempting to take a break when training, but LaCerte advises that you should “stick with rest times of 30 to 45 seconds between sets, because this will help increase your overall endurance. If you are strength training, lift moderate to heavy weight and keep your rep range between 8–15 reps. If you’re running, mix low-intensity, steady-state cardio with sprinting.”

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15. Learn how to fight fatigue

Fatigue may be your biggest enemy when endurance training, but there are some ways to combat it. First, drink beet juice, which is packed with healthy nitrates that can improve your cardiovascular functioning. “Beets can actually increase stamina by up to 16%, and it helps your muscles produce more energy, more efficiently, making exercise less exhausting,” Boyce says. Another way to boost your performance is by carefully selecting your music. “When people listen to favorable music their blood vessels expanded 26%,” according to a study, Boyce says.

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16. Understand strength-training basics

If you want to build strength, you have to set goals and be patient. As you’re starting off, it’s important to be consistent and stick with your plan. When you’re in the gym, don’t get distracted. Stay focused on the task at hand. When you leave the gym, make sure you get proper rest and keep track of your progress. If you stay determined, your goals can be accomplished.

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17. Find your motivation

Motivation is key. Some good ways to stay motivated while you’re working out: Count down, not up, when performing reps. Another trick: “Look at your dominant hand while you’re pushing up,” Cardiello explains—it “automatically includes a positive reinforcement” because the dominant hand more easily and quickly moves the weight.

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18. Carefully focus on form

When strength training, you’ll be putting your body through very strenuous activity, so it’s important to maintain proper form. By maintaining proper form, “you’re guaranteed to activate the muscle groups that you are looking to train and, most important, you’ll stay healthy and injury-free,” Trink says. “The guy who can stay healthiest can train the most, and, in the long run, make the most progress.”

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19. Be mindful of the little things

Ever notice how a bunch of seemingly insignificant things can make all the difference? Strength training is no different. When you’re strength training, you have to “pay attention to the little things, because you’re only as strong as your weakest link,” Boyce says. “If you notice a deficiency, address it in conjunction with your program.”

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20. Change helps

If you want to make progress, sometimes you have to change things up. “Ensure your body never gets adapted to what’s coming next,” LaCerte explains. Once that happens, you may notice diminishing strength gain results. To avoid this possibility, “switch up how heavy you’re lifting, your tempo of an exercise, your rep/set count, or what time of the day you’re lifting,” he says.

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21. Understand the basics of fat loss

Forget calorie counting, and start thinking of food as fuel for your body. Getting six-pack abs is usually a function of fat loss, not a lack of muscle definition—and burning fat all boils down to a simple equation: Calories in versus calories burned. That means going beyond calories and studying your macronutrient intake—fats, protein, and carbs—to understand how much you consume relative to how much you burn during a workout.

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22. Take photographic evidence

Can’t get the scale to budge? It’s possible you’re gaining muscle and shedding body fat—and that means your net weight change will seem “stuck,” even though you’re making progress. “Take pictures on a weekly basis—front, back, (and) side pictures all from the same angle, same lighting, same clothing.” That way, you’ll see change over time, even though it may not look like it day to day.

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23. Understand how to use carbs

Say it with us: Carbs are not the enemy. Unless you’re on an extreme nutrition plan like the keto diet, carbs are an essential source of your body’s energy. That said, you need to be mindful about how you consume those carbs, because eating too many carbs—or eating carbs at the wrong times—can cause your body to store the excess energy as fat. Here’s how to eat carbs for more muscle and less fat.

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24. Attack your lower body to burn fat

To flatten your belly, “go below your navel,” Cardiello says. “In a Syracuse University study, people burned more calories the day after they did a lower-body resistance training exercise than after they worked their upper bodies, simply because legs have more mass.” Here’s our roster of lower-body workouts on Men’s Fitness.

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25. Hydrate properly

An often-overlooked factor, and one stressed by Trink, is to make “sure that your GI tract is healthy, because that’s how you absorb all your nutrients.” Do so by consuming vitamins, fiber, minerals, a probiotic, and water. Cardiello suggests you drink “ice cold water first thing in the morning” adding “you’ll naturally boost your metabolism by up to 24% for 90 minutes.” LaCerte recommends you “drink at least one gallon of water per day.”

Expert Fitness Tips

Health Clubs And Fitness Studios

2020-05-12T10:04:00.001+05:30

Health Clubs And Fitness Studios Are Prepping For A Comeback. But Will People Feel Safe Getting Off Their Pelotons And Sweating Next To Strangers?

© John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune/TNS Two people wearing face masks walk past an XSport Fitness center at 3240 N. Ashland Ave. Wednesday, May 6, 2020, in Chicago. All fitness centers statewide are currently closed because of the COVID-19, or coronavirus, pandemic.

For nearly eight weeks, Lakeshore Sport & Fitness has been overhauling its two Chicago clubs, spending more than $200,000 on new cleaning equipment and making other changes to meet new standards for hygiene and personal space, even as members’ dues stopped flowing.

But like other fitness club operators, Lakeshore managing partner Peter Goldman still has little sense of when he’ll be able to roll out the changes, even after Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced a five-phase plan to reopen the state’s economy.

That’s a problem for gyms that have seen little if any revenue while forced to shut their doors to slow the spread of COVID-19. When they can reopen, it’s uncertain how eager people who have spent weeks avoiding physical contact with others will be to start working out with a bunch of sweaty strangers — especially if they’ve bought home workout equipment while cut off from their favorite studio.

© John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune/TNS An XSport Fitness center at 3240 N. Ashland Ave. Is devoid of activity, May 6, 2020, in Chicago. All fitness centers statewide are currently closed because of the COVID-19.

At Lakeshore, members will be able to reserve 10-foot-by-10-foot workout “pods” with a piece of cardio equipment, exercise mat and their choice of bands and weights, all of which will be sanitized between uses.

© John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune/TNS Sayre Masters poses next to a stationary workout bicycle placed behind a sheet of plexiglass at Studio Three, May 7, 2020, in Chicago. When the fitness center reopens, it will use plexiglass sheets as dividers to mitigate the possible spread of COVID-19.

Both the total number of members in clubs at a time and participation in group classes will be limited and require registration through Lakeshore’s app. And the facilities will step up cleaning procedures, spraying disinfectant throughout the day and using ultraviolet light to clean overnight.

Under Pritzker’s plan, announced Tuesday, health and fitness clubs can begin conducting personal training sessions and outdoor classes in the third phase of recovery, when the rate of infection is stable or declining. That phase would begin no earlier than the end of the month, when the state’s stay-at-home order is set to expire.

To reach the following phase, which would allow gyms to open with capacity limits, will require “a continued decline in the rate of infection” and enough capacity in hospitals to keep up with surges in new cases. It’s not clear how long that could take.

That’s a tough pill to swallow for fitness clubs that hoped the next step would mean reopening their doors, even with strict limits, for something closer to normal operations.

“This solution does not keep us in business or help us reopen and pay people,” Goldman said.

Just how tough it will be depends on the gym.

At Runaway Fitness, which has offered classes that mix treadmill running and strength training at a studio in Streeterville since late 2018, being a small, independent studio makes it easier to adapt and host workouts that comply with Illinois’ limits, said owners Ted and Kristine Theodore.

But they’re unlikely to break even on outdoor workouts and personal training alone. That usually requires five or six busy classes a day.

Without help from their landlord on rent, “we have a real problem,” Ted Theodore said. “That’s why it’s day to day. Those kind of rules could paralyze us.”

Personal training was never a big source of business for Runaway Fitness, and people struggling with the financial fallout from the pandemic will be even more hesitant to pay for it. There’s a park nearby where the company can hold outdoor classes, but it would likely have to cut fees since participants wouldn’t have access to the usual equipment and facilities.

The Theodores had hoped to open sooner with limits on the number of participants in a class, which could be offset with more frequent sessions.

“At least then they’re getting on the treadmill and slinging weights. They can do a lot of the outdoor stuff on their own,” Ted Theodore said. “We have a loyal following, but they pay for the experience here and you don’t fully get that outside.”

Larger gyms with spacious facilities and a variety of activities, including individual workouts, are more confident they can weather the shutdown, but said they weren’t sure it was worth reopening for the earliest, most restrictive phase of the governor’s plan.

Life Time Fitness, which has more than 150 clubs in the U.S. And Canada, has chosen to wait to reopen clubs in other parts of the country that have started to allow gyms to operate. In some cases, that’s due to local restrictions like closed locker room and shower facilities. Life Time also waits until employee and member surveys indicate most people in a particular location are ready to return.

The first reopened Friday in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

When clubs reopen, in addition to stepped-up cleaning and capacity limits, group fitness classes will require reservations and there will be half-hour breaks between each class so instructors can sanitize equipment. To encourage social distancing, fitness equipment has been spaced out and in the locker rooms, every other shower and certain lockers are off-limits.

During personal training sessions, employees will stay six feet away from clients and sanitize equipment before and after each use. Basketball courts will be open but games, at least initially, will not be permitted and on tennis courts, only pros — not players — will retrieve balls.

“We want to get back in business as soon as we can in all markets, but we need to do it in the right way,” Bushaw said.

David Blitz, CEO of Chicago-based Studio Three, which has studios in the Park West and River North neighborhoods, said the company’s high intensity interval training, cycling and yoga classes would be hard to conduct outside. It likely wouldn’t be worth resuming operations on such a limited scale, he said.

“Consumers want more from us than that,” he said.

First Ascent, an indoor rock climbing company with five Chicago-area gyms and one in Peoria, could provide something close to its usual experience if climbers can visit in groups of two while practicing social distancing, said co-founder Dan Bartz. Climbers usually work in pairs, with one person on the wall and another holding their rope, ready to catch them if they fall.

But if each member must be paired with an employee, it likely wouldn’t be worth reopening until later phases of the recovery because so few people would be able to take advantage of the one-on-one sessions, he said.

Mike Flanagan, CEO of Chicago-based LifeStart, which has 100 fitness centers that operate as amenities in office buildings across the country, said the company likely would offer outdoor programs like walking and running clubs in Illinois as it awaits a full reopening. But he would rather see Illinois follow the lead of other states that have let gyms allow members inside, with restrictions.

“What we’re seeing as a better plan is member management — ensuring people can keep six feet apart and opening activities that allow that,” he said.

In Texas, for instance, fitness centers will be allowed to reopen at 25% capacity May 18, but locker rooms and showers must remain closed. Gyms in Georgia were told to limit capacity to a level that allows for social distancing and to check members’ temperatures at the entrance. Group classes, pools, basketball courts, hot tubs and saunas are also off-limits.

LifeStart is preparing to reopen a handful of gyms in Atlanta, Dallas and Nashville, Flanagan said. Members can sign up for access in 45-minute slots, separated by 15-minute periods when clubs will close for cleaning. No group classes are planned, but members can reserve studios and take virtual classes on their own.

LifeStart also purchased $4,000 electrostatic disinfectant sprayers for all 100 locations and is providing reusable antimicrobial hand grips members can use to avoid directly touching equipment.

While they wait, fitness clubs and gyms say they are investing in protective equipment like masks and new cleaning equipment and planning to allow extra time for cleaning between classes.

Studio Three, like LifeStart, plans to check people’s temperatures before they can use facilities and install plexiglass partitions, like the “sneeze guards” at grocery store checkout counters, between cardio equipment.

Runaway Fitness has been buying extra dumbbells, kettlebells, benches and ropes so people won’t have to share as much equipment and developing cleaning protocols.

First Ascent is setting up a reservation system that will let gyms control capacity and plans to split the day into morning and afternoon sessions, with a mid-day cleaning break. Different climbing routes would be open during each period, both to encourage social distancing and help employees keep up with cleaning.

Gyms have also been creating virtual workouts and fitness challenges for customers who can no longer visit in person. Some charge reduced rates for online classes. Others make them available for free to keep members engaged.

But online, they’re competing with gyms across the country and companies that specialize in virtual fitness, like Peloton, which makes indoor bikes and treadmills that let users stream live or pre-recorded classes.

On Wednesday, Peloton reported a 66% increase in sales during the quarter that ended March 31, despite canceling some planned advertising because it was having trouble keeping up with demand.

Overall sales of fitness equipment rose about 130% in March compared with the same month last year, according to market research firm The NPD Group.

Chicago-area fitness club owners said they are confident people will be eager to return and reconnect with friends or a favorite instructor. But some were concerned regulars will be slow to come back, whether because the shift to remote work means the gym near the office is no longer convenient, or because they remain wary.

“We need to figure out how to tamp (the fear) down at some point, or consumers aren’t going to come back,” Lakeshore’s Goldman said.

Fitness Clubs, Sports, Make Case To Re-open, Masks In Courts

Kathy Mccormack, Associated Press

Updated 5:50 pm PDT, Tuesday, May 5, 2020

A woman walks a dog on a cart path of a golf course, which was closed along with many other nonessential businesses due to the COVID-19 virus outbreak, at the Atkinson Country Club in Atkinson, N.H., Tuesday, May 5, 2020. Golf courses across the state are expected to reopen for New Hampshire residents and members on May 11, as some virus lockdown measures are lifted. Less A woman walks a dog on a cart path of a golf course, which was closed along with many other nonessential businesses due to the COVID-19 virus outbreak, at the Atkinson Country Club in Atkinson, N.H., Tuesday, ... More Photo: Charles Krupa, AP

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Fitness clubs, sports, make case to re-open, masks in courts

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CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Representatives of fitness clubs, amusement parks and youth baseball on Tuesday told a task force on reopening New Hampshire’s economy that they are prepared to make a variety of health and safety adjustments so they can operate during the coronavirus pandemic.

Health clubs, which have a relationship with its members, can rearrange floor plans, cordon off areas, lower group exercise participants, and stagger appointments, said Mike Benton, CEO of the Executive Health & Sports Center and owner of other facilities. Saunas, steam rooms and areas that allow contact sports such as basketball and racquetball would be closed.

Overall occupancy would be reduced by half and visits would be limited to New Hampshire members. The hope is that clubs could re-open May 18, Benton said.

Charyl Reardon, president of the White Mountains Attractions Association, suggested a “soft re-opening” of outdoor attractions that naturally provide for physical distancing requirements, like Lost River Gorge and the Polar Caves; canoe, kayak and bike rentals; standalone driving ranges and mini-golf courses; zip lines, and guided tours for ATVs. Activities would be limited by group size and just to New Hampshire residents, at first.

The next phase would allow the opening of attractions such as Canobie Lake Park, Santa’s Village and the Cog Railway, allowing for social distancing, face masks for workers and guests, more hand-washing areas, and more visible “clean teams.”

Rick Harvey, chairman of the New Hampshire American Legion Baseball Program, proposed a season starting June 20. He said players’ temperatures could be taken before a game and that face masks be worn in the dugout. But he said a number of teams haven’t yet bought accident liability insurance for the summer and are waiting for more guidance on whether children will be able to play.

“We don’t want these kids in the field to be in danger,” he said.

COURT MASKS

New Hampshire's Supreme Court has issued an order requiring people to wear a face covering when they enter a court because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“This rule applies to all who work in the Judicial Branch as well as litigants, lawyers, members of the media, and members of the public," according to the order issued Monday.

Judicial branch staff and judges aren't required to wear masks when they can consistently maintain at least 6 feet of social distancing, the order said.

It remains in effect until at least Monday, May 25.

___

SAND SCULPTING POSTPONED

The annual sand sculpting competition at Hampton Beach in June has been rescheduled for Labor Day weekend, Sept. 3-5.

New Hampshire’s beaches have been closed since the end of March when Gov. Chris Sununu announced his stay-at-home order because of the pandemic.

___

THE NUMBERS

As of Tuesday, 2,636 people in New Hampshire have tested positive for the virus, an increase of 50. Ninety-two people have died.

For most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and the infirm, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, or death.

Wolves Players Report For Individual Fitness Sessions At Club's Training Ground

Wolves players report for individual fitness sessions at club's training ground as they take first steps in preparing for season to resume following coronavirus pandemic

Wolves players reported for individual fitness sessions on Monday morning

Each member of squad was required to complete running drill with fitness coach

All of the club's squad are in the UK, so there are no problems with absences

Nuno Espirito Santo's men have already played 48 competitive games in season

Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19

By Tom Collomosse For Mailonline

Published: 08:38 EDT, 11 May 2020 | Updated: 11:02 EDT, 11 May 2020

Wolves players on Monday reported for individual fitness sessions as they take their first steps in preparing for the season to resume.

Each member of the squad was required to complete a running drill, overseen by one of Wolves' fitness coaches, at the club's Compton training base.

All players are back in the United Kingdom, meaning there ought to be no complications in that area for Wolves should the 2019-20 campaign return as planned next month.

Every Wolves player was asked to report for an individual fitness session at the club's training ground on Monday. Pictured is forward Diogo Jota

Wolves have taken their first steps in preparing for the Premier League season to return

Wolves were one of the last top-flight clubs in Europe to play a competitive game – a 1-1 draw at Olympiacos in the first leg of their last-16 Europa League tie on March 12 – before the coronavirus pandemic brought a halt to the game across most of the continent.

Prior to the shutdown, Nuno Espirito Santo's men had already played 48 competitive matches after playing three rounds of Europa League qualifiers from July. Should both the Premier League and Europa League be completed, they would have a possible 15 more fixtures ahead this term.

Nuno was one of the most outspoken critics of the decision to go ahead with European fixtures during that week in March.

Before travelling to Athens for the Olympiacos match, the Molineux boss said: 'You play a game of football and then realise what is happening worldwide - people dead and dying. Then we play a game of football - it's absurd.'

Nuno Espirito Santo's side have already played 48 competitive matches so far this season

Fans are waiting to hear when the Premier League will return after the coronavirus shutdown

5 tips for writing a great health care blog

2020-05-09T21:26:00.000+05:30

5 tips for writing a great health care blog

Have you thought about submitting a blog post to a website like Healthy Debate or KevinMD, but aren’t sure where to start? Have you written a few blogs and want to know how you can improve? We love receiving blog submissions (you can submit one here!) and we often get asked what makes for an engaging and effective blog. We give all of our bloggers editorial feedback, and after editing more than 250 posts, I’ve found that many of our bloggers struggle with the same challenges. So to help new bloggers get started and experienced bloggers hone their craft, here are the five most common editorial suggestions I give to our writers.

1. Identify your audience

When sitting down to write a blog, I find it helpful to think about who my primary audience is. Am I writing for the general public? Patients? Doctors? Decision makers?

Identifying who you want to reach can help you shape several important elements of your blog. First, it helps you figure out how much background knowledge about your subject you can take for granted. If you are writing a blog about post-graduate medical training, for example, you can take for granted that doctors will know what residency is, but if you are writing for the general public, you can’t make that assumption.

Different audiences also require different approaches. While decision makers may respond well to blogs that focus on cost and other policy issues, patients are often more interested in how your blog relates to their care.

Identifying your audience also helps you select the best venue for your blog. If you want to reach doctors, you may want to publish on KevinMD. If you want to reach decision makers, a Longwoods essay may be your best choice. For the general public, an op-ed in a major newspaper may be most appropriate.

2. Hook your readers

There are a lot of health care blogs on the internet. To stand out, you need to hook your readers from the very first line. If you can capture a reader’s interest in the first few seconds, there’s a much better chance they’ll read all the way to the end.

One effective tool for hooking your audience is to make a bold or provocative statement right at the beginning. Some of my favorite examples on Healthy Debate are from Yoni Freedhoff about the harm the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s Health Check program is causing children and Michael Law on the price of generic drugs. Their opening lines suck you in and make you want to keep reading.

Another powerful hook is a well executed anecdote. The right story can immediately draw an emotional connection between the reader and the subject, which can carry the reader right to the end. Two of my favorite examples from Healthy Debate are from Ritika Goel on raising the minimum wage and Farrah Shwartz about health literacy. Both of these stories are very effective because they connect readers to the problem emotionally, and humanize what could otherwise be an inaccessible or academic issue.

You can still write a very good, engaging blog without using one of these devices, but it’s important to avoid starting off a blog with “I read an interesting report recently” or “I went to a talk the other day.” An interesting report or talk may indeed be what inspired you to write, but don’t let this be the first thing you tell your reader. Instead, find the idea in the report that you found so interesting, and share that with the reader, so that they get engaged the same way you did.

3. One idea, one blog

When you write a blog, try to have a tight focus. It’s tempting to cram everything you know about a topic into a single blog, but the result is almost always confusing or unengaging.

Let’s say you want to write about genetic testing. There’s a lot to write about here! There are the ethical challenges around reporting incidental findings, the difficulties in interpreting results, costs of the tests, and the tension between the hype around personalized medicine versus the realities of what can actually be achieved with genomic information. It’s easy to feel like you have to address all of these if you are going to engage in the issue at all, because they’re interconnected. But if you try to take all of these on at once, you’ll run the risk of either writing something the length of a master’s thesis or creating a superficial survey of the area. Instead, you need to focus on a single dimension of the area that you can cover well in 500 to 700 words. You can acknowledge the other issues and their interconnectedness, but pick one issue and make that your subject. Gagan Dhaliwal’s Healthy Debate blog on personalized medicine does a very nice job of this. If you find you have important things to say about the other issues you didn’t cover, that just means you should write a few more blogs!

Following this rule can be tricky when you want to draw connections between two or more issues. It’s tempting in cases like this to ignore this rule completely. However, it’s worth keeping the rule in mind, even if you can’t follow it to the letter. In pieces like this, keep your central thesis in mind, and make sure whatever additional issues you are raising are directly relevant to your overall point. If something doesn’t serve your central thesis, cut it out. I tried to do this in this piece that draws a connection between the overprescribing of anti-depressants and the lack of publicly funded, evidence-based psychotherapy (I’ll leave it up to you to judge how successful I was in keeping the focus tight enough).

4. Plain language is essential

When you write a blog, you should always write in plain language. Blogs aren’t the right venue to show off your impressive vocabulary or your command of the acronym soup that plagues our health care system. Blogs are about communicating quickly to a (hopefully) large number of people. Complex sentences and technical jargon just create barriers between you and your readers.

Even if your target audience is primarily members of your own profession, you should still write in as plain language a way as possible. People are in a hurry and time they’re spending processing overly long, complex sentences is time they’re not spending reading the rest of your piece. On average, readers spend only 2 minutes reading a Healthy Debate blog. That’s not a lot of time! If you want to be understood by busy people speed-reading your blog, best to make the language as clear as possible.

One handy tool for gauging the accessibility of your writing is the Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease test. It measures the number of syllables per word and the number of words per sentence, and calculates a score out of 100 (the higher the score, the easier to read). You can copy and paste your blog into a free online readability test to get a quick snapshot of how accessible your blog really is. In case you were curious, this blog scores 65.3 on the Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease test, equivalent to a Grade 9 reading level.

You can find several good examples of plain language blogs on Healthy Debate, but some of my favorites are Ishani Ganguli’s piece about writing condolence letters after the death of a patient and Steve Morgan’s blog pointing out the gaps in Canada’s health care system.

Some quick tips to help you write in plain language:

– Never say with one long sentence what you could instead say in two short sentences. If you are using a semicolon, it’s probably because you are linking two shorter sentences. Don’t.

– Never use an obscure word when a common word will do the job. Say feverish, not febrile. Say painkiller, not analgesic.

– If you absolutely must use a technical term, define it for your readers. Same goes for acronyms.

– Ask at least one person you know who doesn’t have technical training in the area to read it and give you feedback about parts they found difficult or confusing.

Sometimes people confuse making a blog accessible with dumbing-it-down. Grade 10 reading level doesn’t mean Grade 10 level of analysis. You can still write about sophisticated issues, just do it with short sentences and without jargon.

5. Find the personal in the policy

While most of the blogs on Healthy Debate address health care policy, many of the best blogs we’ve published include a personal element. Including the personal can help your readers engage with what you have to say, by humanizing a policy or system issue that they might not otherwise care about. Caring is key. Including some element of the personal is a way of showing the reader why you care about an issue and, by extension, why they should care.

Sometimes the personal comes in the familiar form of the patient anecdote, which can bring an issue to life, establishing for the reader why an abstract policy problem matters to real people. Naheed Dosani & Adam Whisler do this nicely when they put a human face on the link between homelessness and mental health.

Sometimes the personal comes through an author’s reflections on their own experience with the health care system, and how it helped them see the system differently. Craig Roxborough’s search for a long-term care home for his father is perfect example of this.

The personal can also come through discussing your own role in the health care system. Harvey Chochinov’s piece on end of life conversations is powerful because it gives the reader a glimpse of what it’s like to provide care to people at the end of life. For a moment, the reader can imagine themselves in Harvey’s place, and struggle to imagine how they would act in his stead.

2020-05-09T19:41:00.002+05:30

Channel Your Passion For Health And Fitness Into A Full Career

Do you love looking after your health? Are you obsessed with fitness and physical exercise? You may want to think about starting a career in the health industry. There are a number of options that we can look at that might suit you or that you could enjoy. People who love health and fitness are probably ideally suited for a career in medicine. They care about their bodies so they can be a good role model for people and help them with their own problems. Here are some of the career options that you could consider. While looking at these, we’ll discuss some of the benefits, challenges and chores of each health decision. Let’s start by thinking about making your name as a fitness instructor.

Work It

If you’re most interested in the physical fitness aspect of personal health, you might want to think about becoming a trainer. Or, a fitness instructor. Working in this career will hold many advantages. Firstly, you’ll be able to get paid for keeping in shape. By training other people up, you’ll also be working on your own body. You’ll be able to lift weights, run and stretch as part of your job. I’m sure there are plenty of people who will find this incredibly rewarding. Particularly, if they care about the way, their own body looks and feels.

You may also be able to setup as a private business owner. There are plenty of trainers who run their own private, fitness business. They choose what clients they take on, and they essentially decide how successful they become. As such the possibilities are limitless in this healthy career option. You can also think about hiring other fitness trainers to work with you. Basing a business model around the idea of personal fitness could pay off big time. Mainly because there are so many people in the world today who are desperately trying to get in shape and need help.

You will have to invest in marketing if you want to see any type of success. Make sure that you speak to a professional online agency or hire a content manager. Content and releasing content online is one of the best and easiest ways to market a modern business. Marketing a fitness company through content is so easy because there’s such a lot of information that you can provide for your clients. Remember, the best fitness businesses set up a model so that clients feel like they are part of a larger community.

Doctor, Doctor

If you are still young or have around five years of your life to kill you can become a doctor. The obvious downside here is the training. To become a doctor you’ll need to get a medical degree. After that you’ll have to go to med school to get more training. Then, you’ll go through at least five years of training in a hospital at which point you’ll finally be fully qualified as an attending. It’s a long road and one that won’t suit anyone. However, for some it can be incredibly rewarding.

First, be aware that as a doctor you’ll gain a deeper understanding of health, fitness and the human body. You won’t just see the symptoms, you’ll understand what’s causing them and how to fix them. You’ll know how to help people who are struggling with health conditions, and you will be part of a team that benefits the lives of individuals.

Again, you’ll have a fantastic shot of making a lot of money…eventually. You will have to power through those first few years and after that you can start paying off your loans. Once you’ve covered that you’ll be in one of the highest paying professions in the world. You will also get to examine and experience health or medicine like never before. It won’t just be a case of research. You could effectively get to explore and cut open someone’s body. If health is more than a worry, if it’s passion, this is the ideal career choice for you. It’s as high as you can go if you want to study health.

Not Just A Nurse

Alternatively if you don’t fancy the idea of nearly a decade of training, you can become a nurse. A nurse will cover a lot of the same information and experiences as a doctor. But they will be ready for the operating room in just few years. The reason for this is simple. They don’t have as much responsibility and therefore don’t need the in depth knowledge. That said you will be helping people and you will also be involved in a number of medical procedures. That’s why we say that there’s no such thing as just a nurse. It’s true to say that nurses are in many ways, just as important as doctors.

Although you won’t get paid nearly as much as doctors, you do have more opportunities available. Remember, nurses don’t just have to work in hospitals or clinics. You can work as an in-house nurse at a business, ready to provide medical aid. Or, there are jobs for school nurses in Staffnurse.com and other similar sites. So, there are certainly plenty of different options to consider here.

Nurses also engage more with patients because they spend more time with them. If you want to really help someone you can’t just zip in and out of their room. You need to be with them, ready to provide the help and support that they want or require. This is the role of a nurse in a nutshell. Doctors may have a more in depth knowledge of medicine. Nurses are the ones who are there for patients in need.

Other Roles In The Medical Industry

Did you think that doctors and nurses were the only ones working in the medical industry. Of course not there are many others from researchers to workers in the morgue. Each individual in the industry has an important role to play and the options are almost infinite. You can look at what caused a death or you can front the latest studies investing new treatments and medicines. You can even work with new technology to improve an individual’s life. Or, you can be behind the scenes organizing a patient’s care and ensuring that they get exactly what they need.

All of these roles will require different levels of training skills and knowledge. But they’re also all available for those who are interested enough to seek them out. When thinking about a career, many people say there’s nothing stopping you doing what you want. Usually, this isn’t the case because there are roadblocks like level of education or experience. But with health and fitness, the possibilities are open. Even if one area is closed off or unavailable, there’s always another.

Write It Up

Or finally, how about just writing about health and fitness online? You don’t need any knowledge or experience to do this. If you want to post fresh information, you just need to research it. The key to being a successful medical writer online is having a unique character that people can connect to. You need something that makes people want to read and follow the info that you release. If you do that then you will attract a wide online readership. This, in turn, will develop into what is essentially a customer base. They’ll be paying you for your thoughts and opinions on health and fitness.

We hope that this article inspires you to start making more out of your passion for health and fitness today.

Fitness ka funda

2020-05-07T17:37:00.002+05:30

inextlive के साथ रहिए खबरों की दुनिया से जुड़े। यहां पढ़िए Fitness Ka Funda से जुड़ी हिन्दी न्यूज़ Fitness Ka Funda Hindi News और ताजा खबरें Fitness Ka Funda Latest News। देखिए Fitness Ka Funda संबंधी ताजा वीडियो। साथ ही Fitness Ka Funda की ताजा तस्‍वीरें। Fitness Ka Funda से जुड़ी ब्रेकिंग न्‍यूज, वीडियो व फोटो एक साथ एक जगह। पाइए Fitness Ka Funda से जुड़ी जानकारी जिसमें है आपकी रुचि या जो आ सकती है आपके काम। Fitness Ka Funda से जुड़े अलग-अलग पहलुओं को छूने वाली नवीनतम जानकारी, खबरें, वीडियो व तस्‍वीरें। राजनीति से लेकर टेक्‍नोलॉजी, एंटरटेनमेंट व संस्‍कृति जगत की ताजा हलचल के लिए बने रहिए inextlive के साथ.

Fitness ka funda

2020-05-07T17:25:00.000+05:30

Fitness ka funda

workout at home for women's

2020-05-05T09:58:00.001+05:30

workout at home for women's

allow individual workouts at team fields starting May 6

Since the Premier League started in 1992, only six teams have ever lifted the Premier League title: Manchester United (13 times), Chelsea (5), Manchester City (4), Arsenal (3), Blackburn Rovers (1) and Leicester City (1).

Liverpool were well on their way to becoming the seventh team on that list when the 2019-20 season went on pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On this week’s episode of the Premier League on NBC podcast, the group got together to pick from the best that the Premier League’s 28 seasons have to offer for a make-believe 6-a-side tournament. True to form, each manager had their own vision for their side with some opting for a more bruising approach (we’re looking at your Robbie Earle) while others vying for a little more panache and attacking flair (Kyle Martino).

The draft went in a snake format with Arlo White getting the first selection, which was quite a doozy.

Arlo White: Jamie Vardy, Paul Gascoigne, Riyad Mahrez, Graeme Le Saux, Lee Dixon, Kasper SchmeichelRobbie Mustoe: Dennis Bergkamp, David Silva, Ederson, Ashley Cole, Rio Ferdinand, Cristiano RonaldoRobbie Earle: Roy Keane, John Terry, Vincent Jones, Diego Costa, Peter Schmeichel, Tony AdamsKyle Martino: Thierry Henry, Eric Cantona, Gianfranco Zola, Gareth Bale, Jaap Stam, Fabian BarthezGraeme Le Saux: Eden Hazard, Paul Scholes, Andrew Robertson, Didier Drogba, James Milner, David de Gea

There certainly were some interesting choices made, especially since none of the all-time top five Premier League goal scorers made the cut.

Nor did the all-time leader in assists (Ryan Giggs) or in clean sheets (Petr Cech) find their way onto any of the five squads drafted above. There was also no spot for players like Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard or even the last Englishman to win the Ballon D’Or as the top footballer in the world, Michael Owen. No love either for current greats Harry Kane (.60 goals per appearance), Mo Salah (.64) or Sergio Aguero (.69 goals per appearance, the highest strike rate in Premier League history).

You’ll have to listen for yourself as to why certain players like these were left off of the lists for each of the pundits on NBC’s Premier League coverage but there are some glaring holes amongst the sides.

For commissioner Rebecca Lowe, it was an easy choice as to who would win this tournament and honestly, it’s not really much of a competition for Robbie Mustoe’s side.

He somehow snagged Cristiano Ronaldo with the penultimate pick of the draft. That should tell you all you need to know.

A two-time Premier League Player of the Year left until the 2nd-to-last pick? The only concern is if they went up against the leg breakers of Robbie Earle.

Beware the two-footed, studs-up tackle.

Unpolished gyms: Olympic plans on hold for Minnesotans, but workouts must go on

© Elizabeth Flores/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS Olympic shot putter Maggie Ewen practices and works out at her family's farm, Thursday, April 30, 2020 in St. Francis, Minn. Ewen has trained for several years in Arizona because she went to Arizona State, but has moved back home to her parents' farm. They have a gym set up in the barn and plenty of open space to throw. She said it s like turning back the clock to high school.

Bruce and Kristi Ewen never threw away their daughter’s homemade shot put ring. After Maggie went to college at Arizona State, they tucked it in the back of their barn in St. Francis, where their home gym shares space with a tractor and a boat.

Maggie didn’t expect to use that plywood circle again. But she also didn’t expect a pandemic to shut down her training facility in Moorhead. With no other options, the reigning U.S. bronze medalist moved back home in March, dusting off her old throwing ring and doing strength workouts in the barn.

“My parents are into fitness, and they have all kinds of stuff: dumbbell sets, battle ropes, a squat rack,” Ewen said. “It’s nothing fancy, but there’s everything you need to get the job done. I’ve been really lucky throughout this whole crisis, with the level of training I’m still able to do even with everything closed down.”

Though the coronavirus outbreak has delayed the Tokyo Olympics until next summer, Minnesota athletes hoping to make the U.S. team are continuing to train. Many are in the same straits as other Americans, with their workplaces — gyms, fields, swimming pools, wrestling rooms — shuttered indefinitely.

That has forced them to figure out new ways of pursuing their Summer Games dreams. Wrestler Pat Smith of Chaska is working out in his garage. Kyra Condie, a climber from Shoreview, built a climbing wall in her attic. Rower Kate Roach of North Oaks moved from her New Jersey training center to California, where there are fewer restrictions.

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee released guidelines last week to help athletes slowly return to normal training conditions in the months ahead. Until then, Ewen will stay in St. Francis, lifting in a barn and throwing from a circle made of scrap wood.

“Everyone is figuring out how to transition,” she said. “That’s all you can do right now.”

———

Before the pandemic hit, Ewen was training with coach Kyle Long at Minnesota State University Moorhead. Long, the school’s throws coach, is Ewen’s boyfriend and moved with her to St. Francis.

She feels lucky in that regard, too. Since stay-at-home orders and social distancing protocols went into effect, many athletes have been able to work with their coaches only through video conferencing. Not all of them have the same access to training venues, either, because coronavirus-related restrictions vary from state to state.

Roach, who is pursuing a spot in the women’s quad for the Tokyo Olympics, usually is based at US Rowing’s training center in Princeton, N.J. The stay-at-home rules New Jersey adopted in March stopped them from taking boats out on the water. Faced with the prospect of rowing only on a machine, she made a snap decision to move to California’s Bay Area, where she can train in a one-person boat among kayakers and paddleboarders.

“I’m still in touch with my coaches and teammates on the phone and by e-mail,” said Roach, who placed seventh in the quad at last year’s world championships. “But I’m a little bit lucky. I think I’m one of the few (team members) able to be on the water right now, which is a pretty big asset.”

In Minnesota, too, facilities closures have limited what athletes can do. Swimmer Regan Smith has had to focus on dryland workouts, including running and strength training. Even being out of the water for a few days makes a difference; when she gets back in, she said, “it feels like you’re swimming through Jell-O.”

Pat Smith, a former Gophers wrestler, is still doing gut-busting runs on a staircase near the Mississippi River and up a hill in a north Minneapolis park. But he has a long wait before he can grapple with an opponent again. Dr. Jonathan Finnoff, chief medical officer for the USOPC, said close-contact sports such as wrestling will be among the last to resume, because of the high likelihood of contagion.

A Greco-Roman specialist, Smith has found inventive ways to practice wrestling moves in the mini-gym in his Lauderdale garage. He uses long resistance bands and a heavy, horseshoe-shaped “Bulgarian bag” to mimic an opponent’s weight and strength.

It helps, Smith said, to envision every run, lift and push as a competition in itself. He also uses his imagination. When he’s gasping for breath during his fourth trip up the hill, he pictures himself feeling that kind of exhaustion at the end of a close match, then fighting through it to score.

“Some of the things probably look pretty funny to the neighbors,” said Smith, who competed at last fall’s world championships. “In my driveway, I’ll get in my stance and move around for three minutes at a time, visualizing a match. With the resistance bands, you can do motions like ducking under a guy and simulating reaching around the body, and the bag lets you simulate lifting a body up.

“It’s hard. I’ve never been in this situation before. But with all the changes, the goal is to keep your mind-set the same. Instead of worrying about when you can get back on the mat, just do what you can every day.”

———

Condie is among a handful of athletes already named to the U.S. team for Tokyo. In her sport, athletes have to be nimble and solve problems on the fly — qualities that came in handy when her climbing gym closed.

She already had a hangboard, which allows her to strengthen her fingers, above a doorway in her Salt Lake City condo. Her attic gave her a canvas for a much larger project. Condie attached sheets of plywood to the underside of the roof, which sits at a 55-degree angle, then studded her makeshift wall with climbing holds she owned or had borrowed.

The padding on the floor gives her a soft landing when she falls, but it doesn’t muffle sound very well. When a neighbor complained that the noise was bothering her husband, who is working from home, Condie explained that she’s working from home, too.

“Home walls are popping up everywhere,” she said. “For me, it’s making a huge difference.”

The USOPC’s return-to-training guidelines outline a four-phase process, with a set of precautions athletes should take during each step. There is no timeline. All U.S. Olympic sports have suspended competition, and few have announced new time frames for national championships or other events.

Even for athletes with good home training setups, Condie said it can be hard to stay motivated. Athletes have no competitions to target, and few or no workout partners. The Olympics, now set for July 2021, feel very far away.

As strange as they are, Pat Smith believes these unprecedented times also present an opportunity.

“At this level, you have to take ownership of your own path,” he said. “It’s a hard situation, with a lot of uncertainty. But you can’t let this time go to waste. There’s too much to do.”

———

Visit the Star Tribune (Minneapolis) at www.startribune.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

For home workouts, trainers suggest using soup cans, water bottles, even your kids as weights

A broomstick for balance exercises. Soup cans for biceps curls and shoulder presses. Bottles of laundry detergent for dead lifts and bent over rows.

Twin Cities personal trainer Amy Verby has used them all in the weeks since gyms were shuttered because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We had to get creative,” said Verby, a Snap Fitness coach who leads free home boot camp classes on Facebook Live and paid online group-training sessions via Zoom. “Not all of our clients had weights and gym equipment at home.”

Like Verby, trainers across the country are coming up with quarantine workouts using household supplies. And people are actually doing them.

More than 870 people viewed a late April Snap Fitness boot camp on Facebook live — complete with soup can triceps kickbacks and kettlebell exercises using a tub of cat litter.

While setting up a home gym isn’t cheap, even those ready to splurge on proper home workout props and weights aren’t finding much in stock. Demand jumped suddenly with stay-at-home orders, and inventory was already low because Chinese factories had been closed during the country’s earlier outbreak. That led Minnesotans to post on Nextdoor, hoping to find neighbors who had weights gathering cobwebs in the garage.

There are plenty of workouts that don’t require equipment at all, but for those who love to lift weights, higher rep sets using household items or even a backpack stuffed with books can provide a great workout, Verby said.

Luke Smith, who owns a Snap Fitness and also teaches classes, said that most of their clients use a heart rate monitor called a Myzone belt to track their workouts.

Those who are now using the monitors at home are racking up similar points, Smith said — even when doing a workout that employed a plastic bag with rolled up towels inside.

“They are the same as we would get in the studio. It’s efficient,” said Smith.

Some gym rats stranded at home are getting even more creative.

Before the lockdown, author and Me Before Mom podcast host Bert Anderson, who lives in Rogers, worked out at the gym four to five times a week.

“I love squatting,” she said. “I can’t wait to get into a squat rack and feel that bar against my shoulder blades again.”

In the meantime, she figured out how to lift that much weight in her living room. She had seen photos and videos online of people squatting while lifting their dogs or cats.

“One night, while we were just hanging out as a family I got the idea to try to squat all three of my kids,” she said. “Why not? There’s nothing else to do, right?”

It “kind of” felt like a real workout, she said. Her two daughters both weigh under 70 pounds, but her son weighs 100.

“While I can squat 230 pounds with a conventional bar and plates, trying to get the right balance, use the right muscles so I didn’t hurt my back and not drop him was definitely a workout,” she said.

The biggest benefit? A little respect from her brood.

“I’m a plus-size gal and my kids have made comments about my tummy and such,” said Anderson. “After squatting all three of them, they’ve looked at me differently. Now my youngest, who’s almost 6, always wants to work out with me and be strong like Mom.”

Bodybuilding in home workout in Hindi

2020-04-30T20:38:00.003+05:30

Bodybuilding in home workout in Hindi

Anyone can make a body by going to the gym, but the real player is the one who makes a body at home. The player remembered, there is also a player in Bollywood, who makes a body at home. Yes, we are talking about Akshay Kumar.

It is said about Akshay Kumar that he does gym at home. He himself has said this. The amazing thing is that they do not even have equipment for the gym. Still, he can compete with many Bollywood actors in terms of body.

If you also aspire for body building without going to the gym, then we are going to tell you some exercises, diet and tips that you can make a body at home. For this, you need to follow a routine exercise routine and a good diet chart.

Exercise At Home For Body Building

Walk and running

The first way to build a body at home is the benefits of Walk and Running. You can walk on the roof of the house and also run in the park near the house. With these two, you can be active and muscles can also be strong.

skipping a rope

Skipping Benefits is the only exercise that activates many parts of the body immediately. Many parts and senses work while jumping rope, including your hand tricks, feet, toes, shoulder, Thai.

Rope jumping reduces body fat rapidly. It makes your feet strong with shoulders and hands. For this you need a rope at home. You can do this exercise on the terrace, courtyard, street or park.

Crunch

The muscles of the body are strengthened by crunches. By regularizing it, the muscles around the waist and around it become strong. In the beginning, you can do 5-10 exercises. Can increase its number gradually.

Your immune system, digestion, is also fine due to the crunch. Crutches prove effective in making abs as well as making stomach muscles beneficial.

Push ups

Push ups are common and popular exercises. You must have seen this while doing it to big brothers or friends. Men first start with this to build a body. It may seem easy to exercise, but it is very difficult to do.

Push ups bring energy to the entire body. This gives strength to the muscles and bones of the upper body ie shoulders, waist, arms and chest. With this new muscles are also created and triceps and biceps also increase.

Dips

Dips also look like simple home exercises like push ups. But it is also very difficult to do. It also has a rapid effect. In the dips you have to lift the weight of the entire body on the hands and feet. This makes both arm and biceps strong.

You can resort to study table, table, bench or chair to hit good dips. You can also resort to a wall or boundary that is 1-2 feet high. In the beginning you can do three sets of 15-20 dips.

Body weight exercise

There are many types of exercises in body weight exercise. You must have done many of these exercises in school too. In these, you can do exercises like jumping, step up-down, squat, high knee running.

Body weight exercise also involves hanging with the feet. All these can also help you to keep fit, increase appetite and gain weight. With this you can get perfect body at home in a few days.

Cycling

You too must have cycled a lot in my childhood. With increasing age, you may have started traveling by bike or car instead of bicycle. But this is a very useful thing. You can go cycling in the park or on the road in the morning.

Cycling Benefits strengthen your body and muscles. It can also prevent heart disease and breathing problems. It also makes your Thai strong.

Best Diet For Body

Fruits, vegetables and sprouted gram and pulses containing fiber, protein and carbohydrates should be eaten to build a body. These nutrients make your bones and muscles strong.
You should avoid oily food while building your body. Fresh and natural food will be good to eat. If you want to eat oily food then try it prepared in indigenous ghee or mustard oil.
Salad is the best option to eat with or without food. Try to have seasonal vegetables or fruits in the salad. In the winter season, you can have carrots, beets, turnips, oranges etc. as a salad. All of these are rich in essential nutrients.
Eating dry fruits is also beneficial to build a body. This gives you natural oils as well as protein and carbohydrates. Nuts like almonds, cashews, chuura give the body about 700 calories. Peanuts can also be taken in winter season.
Fruits are very important to keep the body active and energetic. If you eat seasonal fruits, the body will benefit from it.
Easily digest food at breakfast, lunch and dinner. For this, you can eat tur and moong dal, vegetable khichdi, dal-spinach, spinach-mustard. You can also eat eggs, chicken and fish. But it should not be too spicy or spicy.
Peanuts Butter Benefits Butter will also be good for making body. You can eat it by applying it on bread, roti or paratha. 20 grams of peanut butter provides 120 calories.

Body Building Caring And Tips

If you have made up your mind to build a body at home, then you have to start it with easy exercises. Begin with low and light exercise and increase it gradually. This will not cause extra pressure on the muscles.
Diet is important to take care of to create a perfect body. Not taking proper diet will cause weakness in the body and muscles and bones will not be strong. You will also have to maintain food timings.
Along with exercise, proper rest is also very important. If you exercise for 2 hours, then you must take rest for half an hour. This will give relief to muscles with the body.
Your exercise is also important for exercising. Wear comfortable casual shoes and shoes with good pads before exercising at home. You should wear protective pads and helmets while cycling.
Warm up well before exercise and cool down later. This will not risk your strain and sprain.
Never exercise on an empty stomach or after a full meal. Eat toast for stamina. Skimmed milk and juice can also be drunk.
Take care of the weather. If it is cold outside, do exercise at home. Avoid running or cycling if the air quality is not good. In addition to exercise, get a routine checkup done by a doctor.