Circuit training can be very effective.  It shouldn’t be the only type of workout that you can do, but a couple of times a week can be excellent for fat and calorie burning, strength building, and improving your cardiovascular system.  There are many types of circuits you can do.  Here are 3 types of circuit workouts.

Set Time Density- Perform the exercises you pick as many times as you can in a given amount of time.  Here’s an example of this circuit:  Do 30 push-ups, 15 jump lunges, and 5 pull-ups.  Then start over.  You go through this as many times as you can in 10 minutes.  You’ll know your fitness level has increased as your density increases.  (This means you are able to do more sets of this in 10 minutes.) You can rest as long as needed, just make sure you go the full time you set originally.

Variable Time Density- The difference between the Variable Time Density workout and the Set Time Density workout is that here you do 4 sets of the example I gave previously and see what time it is at the end.  You know you improve when your time goes down.  Remember on both of these that you can rest as long as needed.  This one you just don’t end until you complete the number of sets you set for yourself.

Set Rest Circuit- In this type of circuit you don’t rest more than the allotted time you set in the beginning.  Here’s an example.  Perform Burpees for 30 seconds, rest 30 seconds, jumping jacks for 30 seconds, rest 30 seconds, repeat from the beginning.  You would also set how many times through you will do this routine before you start.  In this example you can perform the exercises for a set number of seconds or reps like the first two examples. (The first two examples have to be done with reps because the variable is time and if you say you’ll do an exercise for 30 seconds in that one then you can’t improve.)  A major difference between this one and the previous two types of circuit workouts is that here you rest no more than the time allotted.

Another way to modify the previous three circuits is to use heavy weight instead of body weight.  Perform heavy squats or heavy shoulder press or heavy bench press for a set number of reps (5) or set number of seconds (10).  Also, remember the key on these is speed.  Slow reps will not get you the results you are looking for.  This means you need to choose exercises you are good at keeping good form.  That being said, form is important, but can be sacrificed a little for speed.  It can’t be sacrificed a lot, but a little is fine.

These circuit routines would go perfectly along with my book The 6 Week Workout Program.  If you are interested in that please click here.  

You have taken it upon yourself to change your lifestyle to a healthy lifestyle. There are days that you have a hard time getting out of bed for your morning workout, but you do it. If it is hard for you to get physical, think about how hard it may be for your children considering all the cool gadgets and toys they have. The trick is not to make it a work out, but to make it fun. Pulling them away from their video games and TV shows is tough but possible; here are some ways to get your kids active:

Little League: Most cities have little league sports available and at a low cost. Check your local parks and recreation site for different sports that your child may be interested in. There are teams for basketball, T-ball, soccer, dance, football and many more. This will get them to be active at least once or twice a week when they attend practice and play their game. An added bonus is that it teaches them how to socialize and interact in a team setting.

Ride Bikes: Take a bike ride with your kids and hit the bike trails! Riding for at least 30 minutes a day after school is very good for you and your child’s health. Don’t forget the helmets!

Swimming Pools: Summers are great if you are a kid because that means they are home all day and not in school. In order for them to avoid becoming zombies in front of the TV, get them a pool pass to your local swimming pool. Kids can spend hours splashing and swimming around, you may even have to pull them out of the pool. Pack water guns and noodles to make it more fun!

Dog walking: Take your family pooch on a daily walk. Assign the task of dog walking to your child, they will feel vital in the health of the family dog and will get them moving.

Head to the Park: Grab some bread for the ducks and hit up the swing sets. Giving your child a large playground to play on will get them excited to try everything. Best of all there will be dozens of other children playing. Your kid will get his or her physical workout without even knowing it.

According to www.heart.org ‘all children age 2 and older should participate in at least 60 minutes of enjoyable, moderate-intensity physical activities every day that are developmentally appropriate and varied.’ So keep these tips in mind when you are getting your kid off the couch and active. Remember to make it fun and enjoyable!

Author Bio:

This is a guest post from Laura Backes, she enjoys writing about all kinds of subjects and also topics related to internet service providers in my area. You can reach her at: laurabackes8 @ gmail.com.

These are great tips and ideas about how to get your kids active.  Kids rarely need a structured workout program, but always need to move and be active.  ~Nick Rainey

It’s the start of a new year, and we all know that, with a champagne-induced hoorah and high hopes for our new summer bodies, fitness resolutions are some of the most common goals we set. Most people, however, also tend to break their New Year’s resolutions. We slack. We get busy. Until we eventually decide that it’s just too late in the year to get a hot body before swimsuit season and that it would be better to just give up. Repeat. So, if you want to stay ahead of the curve and actually hold on to that resolution (and the hot summer body), try applying these four easy tips to your plan. If you do so, you may just be able to keep those fitness promises you have made to yourself way too many times.

1. Give Yourself Appropriate Motivation

Okay, so, how many of us have ever thought, “If I run for ten more minutes, I’ll let myself have a donut at work this morning.” Right. You know you have. And, if you’re reading this, you probably also know that it’s not the best way to stick to a fitness regimen. You definitely need some kind motivation outside of your fitness goals to keep you going, but make sure that the rewards you give yourself are actually consistent with your fitness plan. Treat yourself to a movie, a magazine, a new pair of shoes, anything other than unhealthy food and drinks, as you reach small fitness goals. Hanging a photo of Lara Stone above your bathroom mirror never hurts, either.

2. Start with Manageable Goals

If you’ve been out of shape for years, it’s ridiculous to think that you will be able to suddenly snap back to being a fit and healthy person. It’s just not going to happen, and that mentality is probably the biggest reason people give up on diet and fitness programs. You have to first think realistically about a main goal, such as feeling hot in a miniskirt, or losing a certain amount of weight in six months. Then, you have to break down that main goal and outline each step of the process by setting small goals. If reading this sounds overwhelming, splurge and pay a personal trainer or nutritionist to help you figure it out.

3. Get Some Accountability

Don’t rely on only yourself to keep you motivated. I mean, that sentence doesn’t even make sense. There are going to be times when you just want to give up. There will be times when you want more than anything to turn off your alarm and keep sleeping. And, if you aren’t accountable to anyone, slacking off on one small thing can be pretty risky. Instead, work out with a super motivated friend, join a group, or get a trainer.

4. Work Out in the Morning

This is some of the best fitness advice I have ever received. Once I started actually doing it, though, I realized why. The best part about working out in the morning is the accomplishment and relief you get to feel for the entire rest of the day. Work out at night, and what have you got? Dread. Also, working our gives you energy, so when you hit the gym in the wee hours of the morning it really pumps you up for the rest of the day. You feel better, look more refreshed, and get more done.

By-line:

Alvina Lopez is a freelance writer and blog junkie, who blogs about accredited online colleges. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: alvina.lopez @gmail.com. 

I like what Alvina has written because it gives practical tips on how to make sure you workout.  It’s not as important how you workout, but that you do workout!

~Nick Rainey 

The slump.  The plateau.  The why-aren’t-I-losing-weight-like-I-used-to?  It goes by many names, but no matter what you call it, it stinks.  After starting an exercise regimen and sticking to it for many weeks, people are often very disappointed (to say the least) to find that they aren’t losing weight or gaining muscle at the rate that they were when the exercising started to pay off.

Many people are convinced when they hit this fitness plateau that they have simply reached the lowest weight (or maximum muscle mass) possible for them—this is just not true.  The truth is that after a period of time, even if you’re working out as hard as you can, your body will acclimate to the demands you put on it if you aren’t mixing up you’re routine.

As you become more and more fit, it becomes more and more difficult to challenge your muscles and continue to burn fat using the same exercises.  This means that you can’t just add more weight or make your runs longer to continue on your journey to fitness, but instead means that you have to surprise your body by doing something completely different.

So, what’s one excellent way to totally surprise your body?  It’s called sprint training.  Adding higher intensity periods of exertion during exercise, even if the total workout time is shorter, will give you explosive results in your training.  It confuses your muscles by not allowing them to find a rhythm, and by so doing, keeps your metabolism high.  It also builds muscle in a way that regular exercise won’t—and more muscle makes for a higher metabolism as well.
Researchers at McMaster University have determined that a series of 30-second sprints three days a week is as beneficial for your health as an hour of endurance training five days a week, if not more.

If you’ve hit that plateau, and are ready to keep burning fat, try this workout and you’ll be surprised by how explosive you can be.  Alternate these workouts doing each only once in a week, and change the order in which you perform them every week.

Week 1
 Jog 1 mile
 Sprint 200 yards at 50% of your maximum pace
 Jog 200 yards
 Sprint 100 yards at your fastest pace (100%)
 Jog 200 yards
 Sprint 200 yards at 75% of your maximum pace
 Jog 1 mile

Week 2
 Sprint 400 yards at 100%
 Rest
 Lunge walk for 100 yards
 Rest
 Do 3 sets of 10 pull ups
 Rest
 Sprint 200 yards at 100%
 Jog 1 mile

Week 3
 Run 2 miles at your fastest jogging pace (approximately 50% of your maximum sprinting pace)
 Rest
 Bear crawl for 100 yards
 Rest
 Do 5 sets of 10 push ups
 Rest
 Jog 1 mile

If these exercises prove too difficult at first, cut the numbers in half, but keep the workouts the same.  And, of course, if they’re too easy, you can always add more, or combine the workouts in one day.  The point is: be explosive, and always keep changing your routine.

Author Bio:
Maria Rainier is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at First in Education where she writes about education, online colleges, online degrees etc. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

*This article was written by Maria Rainier. While the opinions

expressed are hers I would like to say that I advocate high-intensity

interval training.

I don’t know why I haven’t written an article about this sooner. You can speed up your metabolism! I’ve discussed many exercise and nutrition topics with my friend Mike T. Nelson. He is the creator of, “Metabolic Flexibility and the Truth About Proteins, Fats, and Carbs”. The goal is simple: your body will be able to burn WHATEVER you put into it for fuel. This will increase your energy and allow you to burn more fat! (Click the link to find out HOW!)

I listened to Mike’s audio recording about metabolic flexibility (you can read it, but I chose to listen to it) and loved it.  It is easily the most practical, research based, usable, and results producing program I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen many, many, many of them).

“Metabolic Flexibility and the Truth About Proteins, Fats, and Carbs“ uses intermittent fasting, correct fat choices, and minimizes unnecessary carbs among other things to help you have a faster metabolism. It’s unbelievable. (Click the link to find out MORE!)

Below you will learn of how learning to be metabolically flexible will do EVERYTHING I say it does.

Practical

You don’t have to eat something strange that you can only find at a weird health food store at certain points in the day to see results.  It’s actually quite the opposite.  The goal is to be able to eat whenever is convenient for you and be able to burn it.  Mike’s program (I call it a program, but that’s just for a lack of a better term, it’s not really a program) makes this possible for you.

Research Based

Mike does an excellent job of understanding which scientific research is important and which scientific research isn’t.  He references studies constantly and tells you exactly what it means for you.  It is NOT a boring lecture.

Usable

Metabolic flexibility is a concept that is to be used immediately.  It’s not just theories of how weight loss occurs.  He makes losing weight and being healthy easier than any other diet I’ve ever seen.

Produces Results

“Metabolic Flexibility and the Truth About Proteins, Fats, and Carbs” gets results.  Mike gets better results with clients than anyone I’ve ever known. You are bound to get the same results!   If it doesn’t work for you, he promises to refund your money so you can’t lose.

 Please feel free to email me via my contact form with any questions you have.  I have personally used many of the concepts and methods that Mike details in “Metabolic Flexibility and the Truth About Proteins, Fats, and Carbs“. Click the link to speed up your metabolism! This is the easiest program ever to follow and it gets the best results. You may wonder if I have any incentive of this selling.  Yes, I do.  I do get a portion when you click on the previous links, but if you have a problem with that then click this link.  I really do believe in this and I want you to get results.

Do you need to take breaks from weight training? The concept of detraining. 

Do you know someone that could use a  personal trainer on the go? Check out The 6 Week Workout Program!

“Pain! Why does it hurt when I…”

Do you know someone that could use gym workout routines for women? Check out The 6 Week Workout Program!

1) You pass your health off to someone else.

2) You eat mindlessly.

3) You eat processed pastries.

Reading this article may help you in your own life or how to help someone you know that is overweight.  I hope you enjoy!

Do you know someone that could use gym workout routines for women? Check out The 6 Week Workout Program!

You may think that food addiction is an overrated term for those who love to eat. We have to admit, eating is a necessity to live a healthy and robust life. Some people consider it a pleasure, especially when tickling their taste buds for trying something new. However, there are individuals that crave for more than what they can chew, even when their body tells them that they had more than enough. It may happen to you or to anyone else. This needs to be avoided to become free from obesity, depression, and low self-esteem.

Food Addiction is Psychological

Being addicted to food has nothing to do with your tummy grumbling and succumbing to its demands. Your brain has the power to control it, and that is where everything starts. If you are eating at times, where you are not supposed to eat, like experiencing depression, sorrow, anger, guilt, and stress, that is where the bad habit forms. Your mind is giving you the impression that eating will make you feel better. However, you will notice that you are more inclined to take it repeatedly because your body is getting used to the joys of eating; just like taking prohibited drugs.

Symptoms of Food Addiction

Yes, there are signs that tell if you are already suffering food addiction or not. Take not that these symptoms are as less obvious as you think, so weigh it critically. Here are most of them:

• You are already thinking of what you will eat for dinner while you are eating lunch

• Your mind buys the food that you will eat, even though you have never actually taken a thought of buying something in a particular store

• The shop owner or vendor already knows your favorite or usual order

• When you plan on eating a light snack and already including your heavy meal after enjoying the small treat

• When you cannot wait to eat the food you bought from the store, either munching it in the car or eating it in the street

• When you keep going back to the kitchen or the fridge and emptying everything little by little

Breaking Food Addiction

Once you have noticed the signs, which can make you laugh and think it’s time for you to take some action and break it. Do not haste yourself in breaking the habit. Resolve it nice and slow. You can start at home by eating slower and munching your food well. Make sure that you swallow your food before taking in another bite. This advice may seem instructions for a five year old; you will be surprised at how it affects your mind towards food.

Brenda Lyttle is a health expert who began writing for publications in her community in 2005 and now commands an authority in writing on healthy living, fitness, HGH reviews, and anti-aging related topics. She is also a strong believer of the goodness of GenF20 Plus , a popular HGH supplement, but insists that exercising can never be replaced by any supplement whatsoever.

Do you know someone that could use gym workout routines for women? Check out The 6 Week Workout Program!

Staying fit and healthy before and after giving birth is one of the best things you can do for both you and the baby. New mothers require a great deal of stamina just to keep up with the demands of a newborn. Your body has gone through a tremendous amount of change during pregnancy and childbirth which may have left you feeling exhausted and flabby. But don’t despair; with a little patience, time and effort your body and energy levels will return to normal.

You will have given yourself a significant head start if you stayed fit throughout your pregnancy. A prenatal fitness regime that includes moderate cardiovascular and strength-building exercises coupled with good nutrition will make post-partum recovery and weight loss far easier and faster. It will help give you the additional energy you need to care for your new bundle of joy. Women who are sedentary throughout pregnancy have a far more difficult time coping with the early days of motherhood and regaining their pre-pregnancy strength, stamina and shape.

Post Partum Diet and Exercise

If you are distressed when you look at yourself in the mirror and worry that you’ll never get back in shape, resist the urge to go on the crash diet. Losing weight and getting fit are going to take time and if anything, you need extra nutrition during this time. Low calorie diets will delay your recovery and rob you of much needed energy. If you are breastfeeding, it can have a negative effect on your milk supply.

You should not even attempt to diet until six to eight weeks after delivery, and then your daily caloric intake should be between 1,500 to 2,000 calories a day or 2,000 to 2,700 if you are nursing. Although you need extra nutrition while breastfeeding, it can actually help you lose weight. Aside from all the health benefits for your baby, breastfeeding is good for you too, easily burning as much as five hundred calories a day. The number of calories you need, within the acceptable range, is also dependant on your weight, metabolism, and activity level. To keep your energy up, eat five or six small, nutritious meals a day with healthy snacks in between, never skip meals, particularly breakfast and keep yourself well hydrated.

Before starting an exercise program, check with your doctor. Most recommend waiting until two months after delivery, longer if you have had a caesarean. The doctor can also check if you developed a common condition called diastasis during your pregnancy. The stomach muscles separate and stretch apart and the condition can be aggravated by certain types of exercise. Both Pilates and yoga are good post partum exercise options and something you can easily do at home. Focus on exercises that target the muscles most affected by pregnancy, namely, the abdominals, pelvic floor muscles and the muscles that support your back. Gradually add in some cardio and strength training.

It’s important not to rush your recovery. You should set a weight loss goal of no more than a pound and a half a week. Often all that takes is it cutting out about five hundred calories a day through a combination of exercise and diet. Stay active, don’t starve yourself and take it one step at a time.

 Hello my name is Nisha Sharma, I am the Editor for healthypages.co.uk. I love to write about health and beauty, especially Complementary Therapies, please visit our site for more information Hypnotherapy.

This is a guest post by Nisha. I appreciate her contributions to my site. I know getting back into shape after giving birth is important to all women.

Do you know someone that could use gym workout routines for women? Check out The 6 Week Workout Program!