myfitnesshut

Yes, I said Thanksgiving Week! The holiday spirit really starts this week—Thanksgiving week! Enjoy the family and THE FOOD! Just plan your meals and keep exercising (emphasis on exercising)….good workouts can cover alot of eating mishaps!

Anyway, there’s no reason to make yourself miserable by “hating to eat” or “binge eating.” Personally, I’m going to eat pretty much what I want on Turkey Day…I’m also going to workout morning and late evening….it’ll be “a wash” at worst as they say.

You can come up with your own strategy but here are a few pointers to get you through Thanksgiving week:

1) Don’t stop or slack off on your exercise program! And, if you aren’t exercising, this would be a great time to start.

2) Try to at least maintain your pre-Thanksgiving weight during the long holiday week.

3) Go easy on the food condiments and other sauces. They are loaded with calories.

4) Stick to your normal nutrition plan as much as possible during the long Thanksgiving holiday.

5) This rule always applies to any day—if its fried, let it slide!

6) Alcohol has calories too—7 calories per gram to be exact. Don’t tank it too much!

7) You don’t have to eat until you are stuffed! Just eat enough to satisfy yourself.

Don’t spend all of your time eating on Thanksgiving Day! Walk around the mall for a couple of hours, walk the pets everyday, play flag football, rake all those leaves in your yard, etc.

9) Drink lots of water and unsweetened tea. No sugary drinks! And, allow yourself one dessert (or a sample of a few) on Thanksgiving Day.

10) On Thanksgiving Day: start your day with a workout and toward the end of your day take a long walk in the park.

Be safe!

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Okay, let’s look at some strength exercises…I’m not going to cover body types here…again, if you want that information, just subscribe to my Fat Blaster eNewsletter and you will get a free copy of “Her Fitness Hut’s Fat Blaster Guide For Women.” Your body type does matter when it comes to sculpting your body, especially your lower body. Two people following the same program can get different results.

As with any strength training, you need to train your lower body in all 3 planes of motion to insure balance and maximum toning. You definitely want your butt, hips, thighs and overall legs to look good in 3-D space!

As for strength training? You can’t leave out squats! Do your squats—bodyweight squats, dumbbell squats, barbell squats, split squats, lateral squats, one-legged squats, etc. Mix it up but do them. The benefits of the squat exercise extend beyond your legs. The same can be said for deadlifts (traditional, stiff-legged or other variations). Other top glute/hip/leg exercises are:

1) Step ups (front, side, transverse)
2) Lunges (front, side, transverse)
3) Standing cable or ankle weight hip abductors/leg adductors
4) Standing cable or ankle weight leg kickbacks
5) Various jump training exercises, such as box jumps and squat jumps
6) Good mornings
7) Glute/Hamstring Drops
Standing, prone or floor hip extensions
9) Floor lateral thigh raises
10) Glute bridges and marching glute bridges

If these exercises become easy for you, then increase resistance or intensity (such as full speed power versions of some of these exercises).

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You can use cardio to blast the butt fat and overall body fat—-just do the right type and intensity…top cardio exercises to blast butt, hips and thighs fat are:

1. Sprint Intervals: Sprinting activates the bulkier fast-twitch fibers. Just check out the lady sprinters at the next track meet you attend. You may not go to that extreme, but you get the idea!

–on grass (incline)
–on grass (flat surface)
–on sand
–on astroplay
–DO NOT RUN ON CONCRETE, ASPHALT OR OTHER HARD SURFACES

If you play soccer, it is a great change-of-pace exercise activity…..basically, all you do is sprint and jog the whole game.

2. Leg Circuits (also a strength and/or power exercise)

3. Intervals on Stepmill

4. Intervals on Treadmill

5. Intervals on Bike (preferably outside)

6. Forget about doing cardio on elliptical machines. There’s just not enough benefit when it comes to burning fat—especially butt, hips and thighs fat.

When you have a choice, choose non-machine cardio. That way, you won’t have a machine generating momentum for you. Don’t go beyond 30 minutes on a cardio session—20 minutes is better because you can push yourself harder.

Leg circuit cardio is great because you can incorporate exercises like squats, lunges, step ups and jumps. And, to get even more fat burn, do some of these exercises as full speed power exercises. Make sure you have mastered proper jumping and landing techniques before incorporating power exercises into your cardio routine. Again, all it takes is 20 minutes per session.

Its pretty simple. Just do 3-4 days per week of intense cardio and you’ll be fine (hot)! I’ll talk about strength training in the next articles.

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Okay ladies, this week’s articles are related to helping you “sculpt” your butt and hips (thighs and legs also)! I’m not going to cover the body fat issues related to women…..if you want that information, just subscribe to my Fat Blaster eNewsletter and you will get a free copy of “Her Fitness Hut’s Fat Blaster Guide For Women.”

Every woman I know is concerned about:

–the size and shape of her butt,

–”saddle bags” forming on the hips and

–”jiggling jelly” thighs (including cellulite).

As for cellulite, it is actually collections of fat just underneath (subcutaneous fat) the skin which causes it to dimple, pucker up or lump up. There are many factors that determine whether you have cellulite—your genes, gender, skin thickness and amount of body fat all play a part. What you need to know is that there are no quick fixes for cellulite (despite what some commercials promote)! Some treatments such as liposuction and mesotherapy may give you some TEMPORARY relief from your cellulite. Liposuction is actually meant to remove deep fat tissue (visceral fat) and not cellulite. In my opinion, your best bet would be to reduce overall body fat through weight training and high intensity interval cardio.

Some exercises that you are wasting your valuable time (very little benefit) when it comes to toning your butt, hips and thighs:

1. Seated hip abductor machine (skip this machine),

2. Seated adductor machine (skip this also),

3. Slow, long cardio sessions (there is evidence to suggest that this type of cardio shifts a woman’s weight from the upper body to lower body),

4. Any fitness gadget that supposedly “tones” your butt and thighs,

5. Elliptical machine cardio sessions,

6. Seated hamstring machine (there are better alternatives),

7. Seated leg extension machine (there are better alternatives) and

8. Leg exercises done on BOSU balls, balance discs, etc. (overrated).

In the next articles in this series, I will tell you what you need to do to “blast the fat” from your butt, hips and thighs.

Be sure and visit my site, Your Fitness University, to see my exercise and nutrition program specials, including:

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You don’t have a plan?…..you’d better get one or you could come out on the other side of the holidays not looking or feeling too well….

You see, that’s what it means to make a lifetime commitment to fitness. Fitness just becomes a natural part of your life—no matter what time of year it is! There’s plenty of ways to enjoy the holidays and still “get in” your exercise. And, you can “reasonably follow” your nutrition plan and still eat enough of holiday goodies. Just be creative like:

1) exercise during your favorite T.V. show….each T.V. show is at least 30 minutes,

2) take a brisk 20-30 minute walk at some point during the day,

3) matter of fact, walk as much as you can (Americans definitely ride too much to places they could walk to),

4) take advantage of the holiday season and use heart-healthy spices like cinnamon, peppermint and ginger to flavor food (instead of high-calorie, fattening sauces and dips),

5) hold to your regular workout schedule at least 90% of the time during the holidays,

6) be sure to keep your daily food journal during the holidays—don’t let November and December become one long eating binge,

7) keep in contact with your accountability partner during the holidays,

commit to fitness now—don’t wait until January,

9) exercise while your kid practices her or his team sport (its boring to just sit there anyway), and

10) its not rocket science—just stay active and eat sensibly during the holidays! Come up with your own creative ways to stay fit.

When I played football in college, coaches always came up with exercises (bear crawls to name one) to torture us and make us tougher….we hated those type of exercises….so now, I do those exercises that I like, when I like them. For instance, the other day, my cardio workout consisted of 20 minutes of step ups for interval cardio. Why? Because that’s what I felt like doing that day. And, it was tough but I didn’t hate to do them.

The lesson? You are more likely to stay with your exercise program if you pick exercises that you enjoy. There are tons of exercises out there so you can be creative. If you dread your workouts, then you will quit sooner rather than later.

Check out this comment from my friend Corey (follow her at See Corey Run) also known as Cyberpenguin. She loves to run. So, guess what? She runs alot for exercise and she will run you into the ground!

Hi Mark,

Thank you so much for writing this article! We need more people like yourself, who are strong advocates of moderate, natural, & credible approaches to fitness & nutrition!

Of course, you are absolutely correct that taking superficial shortcuts won’t give us long-lasting health/fitness. Taking this path is almost always counter-productive!

I think the larger issue is that people get so focused on obtaining results by any means necessary, that they forget to enjoy the process itself.

While health & fitness are undoubtedly important, I think that the means are just as important as the ends. It’s so important to find the fun in fitness; yes, it takes effort, but too often people treat the activity like it’s some form of corporal punishment. It doesn’t have to be that way!

It’s ultimately more effective to retrain our brains, refocus our energies, & start thinking about fitness & health in more productive & sensible ways.

Bravo!

-C

Enough said! Now, go have fun and stop dreading your workouts!

Train hard and smart!

I think this is my week to let you know “what not to do” when you’re trying to get fit and burn fat….one reason that you get frustrated with your fat loss results is that your expectations are unrealistic. If you expect fat-burner supplements to give you a lean and toned body, you will always be disappointed! Save your money!

At best, fat-burner supplements might give you a short-term boost. At worst, they could kill you (remember the Ephedra horror stories)!

Don’t be a “scale junkie.” What’s a “scale junkie?” My definition of it is a person who is so worried about losing weight that they lose sight of the fact that fat loss and inches loss is much more important. Permanent fat loss takes longer and you have to really work hard and smart to achieve it. Pills, powders and patches won’t get the job done when it comes to permanent fat loss/weight loss.

Credible personal trainers want health, injury prevention and permanent fat loss/weight loss for you. Doctors, health professionals and personal trainers agree that the only safe and surefire way to good health and fitness is through good nutrition and regular exercise. Enough said!

Train hard and smart!