Butt Lift with Swiss Ball

Way back I blogged about a standard exercise where you lift your hips from the floor. Want to make it harder? Try it with a small- or medium-sized Swiss ball!

Lie down on the floor. Have your arms by your side or a little away if you want to support yourself with your hands. Keep your lower back on the floor. This will engage your abdominal muscles. Put your feet flat on the ball. They should be about shoulder-width apart. Keep your knees at a 90-degree or close to a 90-degree angle. Lift your hips off the floor in a steady pace. Repeat for five sets of ten repetitions. Trying to keep the Swiss ball in place will engage your abdominals as secondary muscles while you work your gluteus maximus.

Do you want to make it more difficult? Use one foot and leg at a time to lift your hips. Your other leg can be straight or almost straight up, or have the ankle of the passive leg rest over the knee of your more active leg. Repeat for five sets of ten repetitions for each leg.

Sitting at Work Promotes Obesity

See link for new research

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0019657

New York Times Article Bikini Ready? Who's Judging?

Catherine Saint-Louis wrote a great article in yesterday's New York Times about bikini season preparation. Health is number one. After that, feel good about yourself. Don't go to extreme (or any really) diet or exercise plan. Have integrity in health and connect with yourself and intuition to know what is good for you. Feel energetic and love how you look whether you are there yet or on your way. If you really feel bad about an area of your body and want a procedure or surgery, that is your call. But first be healthy, feel good and be in action. Then silence yourself and know what you want.

Remember, many people out there feed off people whose lives are not going how they want. Many life coaches, plastic surgeons, etc. are good people and want to help other people. But money is always a motive and sometimes the number one motive. So be careful. Feel good about yourself!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/26/fashion/the-bikini-as-a-badge-of-fitness.html

Side Lunge

Conduct a lunge to the side. Start with the right leg. Keep your head and spine centered and back straight. Keep your left leg straight. Do not lock your knees or put the toes of your right foot beyond your right knee. Come back up slowly. Repeat to the left.

You can incorporate arm exercises with free weights. For instance, do biceps curls or overhead press, butterfly or chest press while you lunge.

Do four sets of ten repetitions.

Never Too Old to Lift

Check out this 86-year-old gal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9baGr99bvA&feature=share

Check out my Facebook book page for Pocket Guide to Fitness!

http://www.facebook.com/louiza.patsis#!/pages/Pocket-Guide-to-Fitness/194203747271646?sk=wall

Video on Human Being Dietary History

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dw1MuD9EP4

Check out my Facebook book page for Pocket Guide to Fitness

http://www.facebook.com/louiza.patsis#!/pages/Pocket-Guide-to-Fitness/194203747271646?sk=wall

Study by American Academy of Physicians Shows That Exercise Boosts Children's Adademic Success

http://www.aap.org/advocacy/releases/pas2011/movementsun.pdf

Check out my Facebook book page for Pocket Guide to Fitness

http://www.facebook.com/louiza.patsis#!/pages/Pocket-Guide-to-Fitness/194203747271646?sk=wall

Ten Health Tips from Mayo Clinic

http://www.linkedin.com/news?viewArticle=&articleID=508705466&gid=134566&type=member&item=53115222&articleURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stonehearthnewsletters.com%2F10-fresh-health-tips-from-the-mayo-clinic%2Fproactive-prevention%2F&urlhash=U-JE&goback=.gde_134566_member_53115222

Check out my Facebook book page for Pocket Guide to Fitness

http://www.facebook.com/louiza.patsis#!/pages/Pocket-Guide-to-Fitness/194203747271646?sk=wall

I Recommend the Insanity DVDs

I saw [most of] an infomercial on this. I rarely watch them. Many fitness equipment infomercials are for gimmick products. You can exercise well on a mat. I have not bought these products, but, judging from the infomercial, they are excellent training DVDs. One must be fit to do the exercises and will only get more fit, all other factors like diet remaining the same or being enhanced. Many exercises involve interval training and plyometrics. If you are a beginner, get a physician's approval before you start. Do not forget to stretch before and after the exercises.

http://blog.extremefitnessresults.com/workout-guides/insanity/

Fat Returns

There is an interesting story in the New York Times today about fat returning after liposuction. This may have something to do with a gene from the caveman times where food was not so plentiful. Our body wants to be ready for cold or days of little food. I am sure people differ here, too. It seems that, after liposuction, the amount of fat cells will increase in other areas. If one has had liposuction in the hips and thighs, the fat usually appears in the abdomen. I recently read that fat stores increase in the abdomen for menopausal women. These fat cells make estrogen as the hormone's levels decrease. In this article, physicians explained that fat cells do not reappear in the thighs because liposuction destroys the surrounding structures that would allow that.

To read the article, click here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/weekinreview/01kolata.html