Posts Tagged ‘ Exercise ’

With gorgeous actress Kate Beckinsale claiming that she has “fat ass” days – when she feels so insecure that she won’t leave her house – is there any hope for us lesser mortals? If, like Kate, you have your own hang-ups about your bum, read our seven celebrity tips to help you tone up and get the perfect behind

1. USE A POWER PLATE LIKE MADONNA

Madonna is continually re-inventing her image, but one thing that has stayed constant over the years is her toned figure. She’s a fan of horse-riding, which is great for toning your bum and burning calories. Her energetic dance routines also help to keep her in shape, along with her regular Pilates and Ashtanga yoga sessions. According to reports, Madonna has now become a fan of the new celeb fitness must have – a power plate – joining the likes of Sadie Frost and Jemima French. The plate is a cross between scales and a gym bike. It helps to tone muscles and reduce cellulite, with users standing on a vibrating platform to wobble the pounds and inches away. The only downside is that it costs a whopping £2,600. But, if Madonna’s leotard-clad figure in her video Hung Up is anything to go by, then it appears to have had the desired effect.

2. HIT THE DANCE FLOOR LIKE BEYONCE

Hitting the dance floor for an hour can burn up to 500 calories, so it’s no wonder that Beyoncé has a rather pert behind. Her bum began to rival J Lo’s after her bum-shaking dance routine for the Crazy in Love video two years ago. And judging by pictures of her recent performance at the World Music Awards, her dance moves are certainly helping her behind defy gravity.

3. TAKE UP HORSE-RIDING LIKE JORDAN

The great thing about horse-riding is that you don’t feel like you’re doing exercise – that is until you get off and can hardly walk! Jordan is one celeb whose figure has reaped the rewards of plenty of horse-riding – and don’t we know it. She’s not shy when it comes to flashing her pert bum in revealing outfits. Horse-riding is great for toning the bum and you can burn between 300-400 calories an hour – even more if you help mucking out the stables.

4. CUT OUT ALCOHOL LIKE J-LO

Jennifer Lopez is naturally curvy so she has to work hard at keeping weight off her bottom and thighs. She regularly exercises, doing kick-boxing, jogging and other high-impact aerobics, which reduce fat and give her lower half a slimmer, sleeker look. She’s also teetotal, which helps to reduce the signs of cellulite. Alcohol is full of toxins that contribute to cellulite. So if you want a cellulite-free bum, you could start by cutting out your favorite tipple.

5. GO FOR A SPIN LIKE RACHEL HUNTER

If you make your living out of modeling lingerie like Rachel Hunter, you really need to keep your bum in shape. The model mum keeps her behind in tip-top condition with a combination of spinning and Pilates. She says: “When I have something like a photo call for Ultimo to do, I really do have to watch what I eat. I make sure I exercise regularly; I’ll usually do spinning about
three or four times a week and I do Pilates.”
Spinning, the gym-based cycling, is a great way to tone the legs and bottom. Spinners cycle for 30 minutes to an hour on a special program to build up stamina and tone up bottom and leg muscles. And an hour on the bike can burn off a whopping 300 calories.

6. DO A RUNNER LIKE NELL McANDREW

It doesn’t cost a thing and if you end up with a curvy figure like model Nell McAndrew then running is definitely worth a try. Nell is a keen runner, having taken part in a couple of marathons. She doesn’t believe in dieting and thinks that healthy eating, the odd naughty treat and plenty of exercise is all that’s needed to keep you in shape. But beware – don’t overdo the running. We might think that Nell’s got a perfect behind but she thinks otherwise. When I asked her what her least favorite body part was, she responded by saying: “My bum – I want a bigger one! It’s gone a bit flat since I’ve done two marathons.”

7. THE ANTI-AGEING DIET

Eating a diet rich in fruit and veg – especially aubergines, spinach, cabbages, celery, onions, leeks, cherries, grapes, melon, prunes and apples – not only helps you lose weight but also fights wrinkles. These anti-ageing properties are put down to the mix of vitamins, minerals and super-nutrient antioxidants, which protect against sun and pollution damage – great news for a slimmer, more youthful you!

- GO FOR THE BURN

Just 500mg of vitamin C daily will boost your fat burn by up to 30 per cent. A red pepper has 210mg; 200g/7oz of frozen berries, 110mg; a large orange, 100mg; a glass of grapefruit juice, 50mg; and a serving of broccoli, 50mg.

- DID YOU KNOW?

Laughing for just 15 minutes burns a whole 50 calories.

- WALK YOUR FEET OFF!

I’ve worked out how far I’d have to walk to burn off a 200g tube of Pringles Light, with 976 calories – it’s 11 miles (17.6 kilometers). So don’t give in to temptation!

- WHAT’S HOT

SKINNY LATTES – one “grand” cup gives you 33 per cent of your daily calcium requirement.
PITTA OR GRANARY BREAD – they have a low GI, keeping blood sugar down and stopping hunger pangs.
GOOD OLD WATER – tap or bottled. It is sugar and calorie-free. Aim to drink a litre a day and an extra litre for every hour that you exercise.

- WHAT’S NOT

VENTI HOT CHOCOLATE - with whipped cream.  That’s 719 calories and 27g of fat per cup.
WHITE SLICED BREAD – It has a high GI and sends blood sugars soaring. You will be hungry again in half an hour too.
FRUIT-FLAVOURED WATER – they can have as much sugar as cola; that’s 13 teaspoons per 500ml bottle.

Words by Nicki waterman. For more information on losing weight and getting active, check out: www.nickiwaterman.com

In days gone by, it would have been very difficult to find a senior citizen looking for a gym. The idea of taking responsibility for ones fitness was not a common one in the general population anyway, and was even rarer among the senior citizens who would always feel that if they had gotten to the ages where they could be considered ‘seniors,’ then they were doing things right and there was no use ‘fixing it if it wasn’t broken.’

Then somewhere along the way, the idea of taking responsibility for one’s own fitness took hold and with time grew to a point where many people, including senior citizens are now to be seen undertaking exercises aimed at taking themselves to a higher level of fitness.

Now by the time a person attains an age at which they would be considered senior citizens, they usually have dispelled the notions which would make them subject to ‘mob Psychology’, that it, just doing something because others are doing it. Because of this, there must be something else to explain the proliferation of senior citizens taking more responsibility for their physical fitness.

Indeed, as it turns out, the reality of living in today’s world calls for a new level of fitness for senior citizens.

People are living longer, for one, and today it is considered realistic to expect to live to an age like 80 or 90 in many countries, at least if the life expectancy statistics are anything to go by. Now considering that someone who is 60 (and who already qualifies to be considered a senior citizen) might have another 20 or 30 years to live, it is only fair that such a person would take responsibility for their personal fitness – lest they end up spending the last years of their lives on a wheel chair, which to many people is a very off-putting prospect.

People are also working for longer – and this is another factor leading to the need for a new level of fitness for seniors. The International standard retirement age has progressively been lifted from 50 to 55 and lately to 60, with most countries have lifted theirs even higher to an extent that it is not rare to find a person who has clocked 70 still on a company’s or a government’s payroll. Challenges of the modern workplace on the other hand call for a higher level of fitness and the senior citizen who has to stay at their work place has to conform to this new degree of physical fitness requirement to work effectively.

Beyond the workplace, living in today’s world – which is becoming ever more fast paced – also demands for a new level of fitness for seniors who find themselves having to rush from place to place to get various things they need to be done, a great difference from the past when they would have just sent a child or some other youngster to get the same done for them.

Pedometers are electronic devices that count your walking steps and from the same steps work out the distance you have traveled in the more advanced pedometer models.

The working of a pedometer largely depends on a motion sensing mechanism – which is implemented using a coiled spring set-up in the most basic models, a hairspring mechanism in the slightly more advanced set ups and a piezo-electric accelerometer mechanism in the most advanced set ups.

The main role of pedometers in personal fitness is motivation. Success breeds success, or so we are told. Noticing that you managed to walk 5000 steps yesterday, and then 6,000 today can motivate you to do some 7,000 tomorrow. That build up of figures can lead to a sense of accomplishment – which can be considered a form of success, even before the success starts to show up on the weight scales, for those who want to use walking exercises as a part of their weight loss effort. As it turns out, many people using other exercises for their weight loss would be glad to get such a way of getting motivation before their weight loss starts showing up on their weighing scale – and unfortunately, this is something that only people using walking exercise can get, thanks to pedometers. This is to say that through a pedometer, you get a way of enjoying the exercise journey, as well as the destination (weight loss) – which is consistent with the sage’s advice of enjoying the journey as well as the arrival at the destination.

The more advanced pedometer-models can convert the steps that one has walked into actual distance (in terms of kilometers and miles) and this way one can get a way of enumerating their weight loss efforts to their friends (or more usefully to their physician) in a way other people – even people who are not involved in weight loss efforts, can relate with. Saying that you walked 10,000 steps yesterday might be meaningless to someone who is not conversant with the recommended walking steps for weight loss. Saying to the same person that you managed to clock some 10 kilometers obviously sounds much more meaningful.

The even more advanced pedometer-models can even convert your walking in terms of calories (albeit approximations) you are likely to have lost through the effort. In this way, coupled with a monitored calories intake, you are in a position of working out whether your are expending the calories you are taking in your exercise regime and whether you are even going beyond expending the calories you are consuming to burn up those stored in form of fat in the body, which is what will ultimately result in weight loss from your exercise effort.

There are even pedometers that come with a memory feature – that they are able to keep a record of how much you have been walking, and perhaps even represent it graphically in the most advanced pedometer models. Now if watching your walking graph shoot up and up is not motivation, then there is really no telling what motivation is.

Many people assume that swimming is a just a fun activity and are unaware of the potential health benefits of swimming.

Learning how to swim and going for regular swimming work outs can reduce your risk of developing health problems that arise from being overweight – things like diabetes, hypertension and stroke among others – because swimming is a very effective fat loss program, which can in the long run lead to healthy weight loss. The way it works is that swimming tends to aid in the conversion of fat to muscle because while swimming, your whole body finds itself having to exercise to overcoming the resistance posed by the water you happen to be swimming in. Now overcoming this resistance results in the build up of muscles which in the short term might manifest as a weight gain rather than a weight loss. Well developed muscles, however, turn out to be your best weight loss allies in the long run because the kind of tissue that makes up muscle actually burns fat even when you are not doing much. Exercise which build up muscles – and swimming is a very good example of it – is therefore best seen as a weight loss investment because the muscles so built can then help the person who has developed them to lose weight almost on ‘autopilot’.

People who suffer from diseases that are characterized by inflammation like arthritis and who are overweight at the same time are yet another group that can benefit from swimming. This is because swimming offers them the opportunity to lose weight without causing too much pain in their joints, which they would have to do on most exercises on dry land.

The kind of breathing required while swimming, too, can really strengthen one’s heart as well as the lungs – keeping one from the health troubles they would have had from these vital organs.

Learning to swim and then going swimming regularly can also lead to better mental health because swimming, like any form of exercise leads to the release of ‘feel good’ chemical in the brain – resulting in good mental health. Furthermore, as a good weight loss exercise, swimming can help a person who is overweight to attain a better body shape, in turn leading to a better body image and higher self esteem, which is the foundation of good mental health and happiness. The very activity of flapping of arms and legs in water involved in swimming together with the continued soothing feel of water against the skin is itself also very therapeutic.

Of course swimming is an activity that is usually carried out in groups and in this way, it gives the person undertaking it to really go out and meet other people – fellow swimmers, swimming instructors and lifeguards at the swimming site for instance – meaning that they have an opportunity to get outside themselves. This can be a great boost to mental and emotional health, seeing that most mental and emotional health problems have loneliness and self-confinement as their root cause.

With growing number of people taking responsibility for their physical fitness, coupled with growth in E-commerce and the convenience of conducting transactions over the Internet, the number of websites selling fitness and exercise accessories (which is considered a prime niche) is growing exponentially. Exponential too, is the growth in the number of people shopping for fitness and exercise accessories over the Internet.

Most of the people who opt to shop for fitness and exercise accessories of the Internet are allured by the convenience of Internet shopping. With growth in E-commerce transaction systems, it has now become possible to order for the accessories from the comfort of your desk, make payment through your credit card from right there (at the back of your desk) and have the equipment delivered right up to your doorstep, without ever leaving your desktop. Indeed in some websites that promise same-day delivery, it is possible to go through all this process in a single day, and so expeditiously that in some cases, the equipment you order gets to your doorstep even before you leave your desk (especially if you happen to be a heavy browser, and the supplier from whom you buy the equipment happens to be in the same city as you.)

Another factor that makes shopping for fitness and exercise accessories over the Internet attractive is the fact that online vendors tend to be, on average, cheaper than brick and mortar vendors. This is because vendors who are completely internet based have the opportunity to save on some costs – the fixed cost of paying rent for a shop for instance, as well as the fixed cost of paying for showrooms – all of which add up to a quite a tidy sum, which can be passed on to the buyers.

The first step in shopping for fitness and exercise accessories over the Internet is usually the identification of a suitable vendor. The ease with which this can be done is another factor that makes shopping for the equipment over the Internet so attractive, because all you have to do is to enter a relevant search term, for instance, ‘fitness and exercise accessories’ in an Internet search engine, and you get access to scores of online stores doing selling the same, instantaneously. Now compare this with brick and mortar shopping for the same – where you would have to straddle the breadth and width of your city looking for the shops selling fitness and exercise accessories, and you notice just how much more convenient shopping for this equipment over the Internet is.

The second step in shopping for fitness and exercise accessories over the Internet is the identification of the equipment (having gotten into an online store you like), loading the equipment and accessories you have chosen (or rather their graphics) into your online shopping cart and paying for them through credit card or through an online payments account (like PayPal) in case you are averse to revealing your credit card details over the Internet, and the vendor in question happen to offer you the choice of paying through an option like PayPal.

The third step after paying for the accessories is for the vendor to ship the same to you –and the fourth step, if we may call it that, is of course for you to start enjoying using the accessories, upon your inspecting them to verify that they are alright.