Back aches? Headaches? A runny nose? No one really likes going to the doctor but if these symptoms occur more often than not it may be time for you to make an appointment with your doctor in order to avoid the long term affects of these symptoms. Read the full story

Beach season is FINALLY here! WOOhoO!! Beach season also means a a COMPLETE wardrobe change. No more bulky sweaters – its shorts, tank tops and cute summer dresses. Are you beach body ready?

For some women the changing of the season means is a miserable time as the shorts from last summer are too tight or your arms no seem to be a bit more ‘jiggly’ than they were in your favorite tank top last year. Its a time for a quick scramble to the gym to try and shed those few pounds to avoid buying a whole new wardrobe.

Need some suggestions to get beach body ready?  I’ve created a quick series of three videos with some of my favorite flat stomach workout moves to help you get beach body ready – with a flat stomach – in time to feel confident and sexy in whatever you wear and wherever you go this summer.

Today’s video has three of my favorite exercises to help you get a flat and sexy stomach. Add these moves to your current routine or do them quickly at home and you will be on your way to a flat stomach in NO TIME!

With summer around the corner – which means tank top season and sleeveless dresses – its time to pump up the upper body workouts and get our arms tight and toned. This week’s flat stomach workout of the week is a change from the usual routine – spicing up your usual routine and increasing results.

Read the full story

There is always a reason why you aren’t getting the results you want – especially when you are trying to get a tight and toned, cellulite free butt.  Its figuring out WHY you aren’t getting these results after working out week after week that becomes the challenge.

When you don’t see results you want – in this case you’re butt just doesn’t seem to get firm no matter how many lunges you do – it becomes frustrating. This frustration can often lead to you giving up on your goals – never really getting the butt that you want.

But no more – there is something you haven’t taken into consideration yet and there is one muscle group that is prohibiting you from getting the butt of your dreams.

Your hip flexors are preventing you from getting a tight and toned butt.

How?

Your butt is the biggest muscle in your body – made up of three different muscle groups. In order for the glutes to work properly you need to make sure that your hip flexors are not tight.

When your hip flexors (located in the front of your hip) are tight your glutes basically shut down.  When your glutes shut down it is nearly impossible to get a tight and toned butt.

Why?

If you have tight hip flexors it prevents your glute muscles from firing properly.  This means that your glutes to work to the best of their ability. The tightness of your hip flexors causes your glutes to become weak as you cannot work your glutes properly.

Not only will tight hip flexors not get you a cellulite-free butt – it can also increase the risk of injury as your hip flexors start to take over some of the jobs that your butt is suppose to do. Such injuries include back injuries, knee injuries or even injuries to your hamstrings.

You can do squat after squat, lunge after lunge or even bridge after bridge and you will not get the butt you want.

What to do?

The only way to get rid of tight hip flexors – to prevent injury and get a cellulite-free butt is to stretch them.

The best stretch? The Warrior Stretch.

• Kneel on your right knee – with your left foot on the ground in front of you.
• Place your hands on your left knee.
• Without moving your body – tilt your pelvis forward so you feel a stretch in your right hip flexor.
• Hold for 10-15 seconds.
• Switch sides and repeat for opposite side of your body.

The Warrior Stretch is an important stretch to end to the end of your your workouts to get your glutes working again. This one simple move – to fix the one little muscle that has been preventing you from getting the butt you want – will help get your but working again so you have the tight and toned butt you want in no time.

If you’ve been keeping up with me on Twitter you know that Saturday mornings are one of my favorite workouts of the week. I’m not 100% sure why especially considering my gym has been getting busier and busier these last few Saturday mornings, but there is just something about training on Saturdays that gets me excited.

Well, there are a few reasons that I love my Saturday morning workouts:

• I’m up early but not TOO early
• I have more time to be in the gym than any other day of the week (even though my workout will probably be the same time frame)
• I don’t have to ‘do’ anything (like go to work) right after so I push myself EVEN harder
• There is just a great energy

Saturday morning workouts get me PUMPED for the rest of my day and the rest of my weekend. I want to start your weekend off the same way – so I thought I’d share one of my favorite Saturday sweat sessions with you. So that you too can start your weekend off the right way! Read the full story

Everyone likes surprises – I know I do! In fact, your muscles need a bit of a surprise every once in a while in order to continue effective weight loss.  Ladies, since you’re already lifting weights because the benefits of lifting weights for women are endless, you need to make sure that you keep your muscles surprised and working. You can change your routine completely or you can make minor changes to your current routine.

If you’re in the middle of a flat stomach workout, I have at least two ways to surprise your muscles that don’t require a whole routine change. Try one of these two methods to keep the fat burning and your muscles growing.

1. Slow Down – Changing the tempo of exercises helps to stimulate the muscles differently.  Instead of just lifting the weight up and down – take a bit more time – push for a two count and bring the weight down for a four count.  For example – when doing a chest press – count two when pushing the barbell up towards the ceiling and then count to four as you lower the weight back down.  Or, if you are doing a squat count to four as you go down and two when you come back up. Slowing down the exercises makes your muscles work longer and therefore burn more fat.
2. Mix it Up with Cardio – Keeping your heart elevated helps you burn more fat. Doing cardio in between sets of weight exercises helps you burn even more fat calories during one workout as it keeps your heart rate up for a longer period of time. Instead of resting after a weight exercise, head to the treadmill for a one minute of sprint or if working out at home try jumping rope for 30 seconds or high knee lifts.  This quick bout of cardio will help you burn even more fat and reach your flat stomach goals even faster.

So, next time you’re in the gym, try one of these two methods to keep your muscles guessing what you’re going to do and make sure that with every workout you are burning fat and building muscle.  All to help you reach your flat stomach goals.

I was watching TV the other day and a commercial came on for a lotion and pill that will help you get rid of cellulite.  The part that bothered me was when the small print came on with all the warnings – there were SO many! I know we all like quick solutions – especially to get rid of the cellulite, that we commonly refer to as ‘cottage cheese’, that may plague our bodies, but a quick fix, like a lotion with all sorts of cautions, isn’t going to help us get rid of this wonderful addition to our bodies.

In order to get rid of cellulite on our body we need to first understand what it is and how it comes to appear on our bodies.

What is Cellulite?

Cellulite is the collection of fat cells in the body, just below the surface of the skin. These fat cells come together and push against the tissue that is beneath the skin, thus creating dimples in the skin, making it look lumpy – like ‘cottage cheese’ (AWESOME! Please note the sarcasm).

Why do I have Cellulite?

Cellulite affects women of every shape or size – tall, short, overweight, and thin – and usually affects women after puberty. It even affects models, celebrities, athletes, women in their 20s and women in their 50s!

There are several causes of cellulite:

- Genes: If your mother had cellulite then you will most likely have cellulite. Our genes predetermine our body type and how our cells function – thus determining whether or not we have cellulite.

- Diet: Poor diet that consists of too much sugar, too much fatty foods or processed foods can affect how much cellulite you have.

- Water: Water helps flush your body of toxins (that can be produced by a poor diet) – the more water you drink = more toxins getting flushed out of your body = less signs of cellulite.

- Smoking: It’s never been a good thing! It damages tissues in your body thus increasing the sight of cellulite.

- Lifestyle: An un-active lifestyle is not beneficial in more ways than one. How does it affect cellulite production?  If you lack muscle tone you’re the connective tissues in your body will harden thus creating the looks of cellulite, as well as poor circulation and blood flow throughout the body.

How Can I get Rid of Cellulite?

There are a few ways to get rid of cellulite – there is the quick and easy fix – like the commercial I saw on TV for the lotion.  However, what they fail to mention on the commercial is that you still may have signs of cellulite if you are a smoker, you never drink water or you sit and watch TV all day.  The cellulite is just not going to go away because of some lotion.

If you really want to get rid of nasty cellulite then I’m afraid you MAY have to do some work, but honestly – it’s better for you in the long run.

GET RID OF MY COTTAGE CHEESE!

Here are Five Quick Tips to help you Get Rid of those Toxins and start to saying ‘bye bye’ to cellulite.

1. Start drinking more water – they recommend drinking at least eight, eight ounce glasses of water daily, personally don’t stop at that –just keep drinking – this will help flush those toxins out of your body!
2. Eat more vegetables – yes your mother was right – especially the green ones. Green vegetables are full of fiber and goodness for your body.
3. Lunge and Squat, Lunge and Squat – These two exercises (done with or without weights) will help to tighten and tone the muscles in your body and in these trouble areas.  It will also help you lose weight, decreasing the number of fat cells you have, thus decreasing the collection of these fat cells in your trouble spots.
4. Stay away from processed foods and foods with too much sugar – these foods aren’t going to help you lose weight, they are only going to enhance the storage of fat in your body – in ALL the wrong places.
5. Drink Green Tea – Well, it may not have a direct link to losing cellulite, but I’m drinking a cup right now, it’s delicious and it’s GOOD for you! It not only helps prevent cancer, but it can help you lose weight.

Now I feel better, knowing that since you read this you are better prepared to make an informed decision as to how you want to get rid of cellulite. Stay away from the lotion aisle…start lunging away from the computer!

If you still choose the quick fix and it doesn’t work – don’t say I didn’t warn you!

About to go out for a walk with the dog and I made this quick video for you.

Life gets busy sometimes and we can’t always make it to the gym – it’s okay.  There are other options – take a look!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4Umyp3sqz4[/youtube]

I switched it up this week and made Monday my Upper Body Workout day. I’m training with a friend tomorrow and we’re doing legs, so instead of skipping a day I just flip-flopped the workouts. My arms are beat after this workout today. I could still feel the leftovers from Saturday’s workout, even though I didn’t do anything yesterday. But that’s the BEST part.

What’s even more exciting is I’m starting to really notice some major changes in my arm definition and strength – which for me are my two biggest measures of the effectiveness of my workouts.

So, instead of writing down my workout for you, because I love sharing what I’m doing in the gym, and because I’m a visual learner – I made a quick video of my workout for you to check out.  Please let me know if you have any questions about the exercises, my workouts, or would like some help with your workouts – I love helping and talking about fitness – so please don’t hesitate to let me know!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWOLS56sKtQ[/youtube]