If you live in or near st.louis, missouri, we are planning a meet-up in april, 2010, and we would love for you to join us.
For the lastest information about our get-together, please join us on facebook.

If you’re like most of us, winter is starting to get very, very long. Know how to cheer yourself up? By adding a little kick to your workouts with some new music or new workout ideas. Below are a few things worth looking at:

• iSweat2theBEAT: This fitness app (which costs $.99) sounds pretty cool, especially if you like to workout at a certain pace. This site has a database of 70,000 song titles categorized by beats per minute. You can also search by your desired BPMs for common activities like walking, running, the elliptical and more. The app gives you a link to iTunes to download songs or a notification telling you if you already have it in your library. I haven’t tried this one, so be sure to leave a comment if you have any experience with it.
• Asskicking Music: The name speaks for itself. This site promises, “The world’s most Complete & Total Asskicking Music. Whether it’s Rock, Power-Pop, Metal, Punk, Techno, Industrial, Hip-hop, or Crossover.” You can search for music by genre or browse through their categories which include Hottest, Hardest/Heaviest, Fastest Tempo and more. You can listen to previews of each song and then buy/download the song from Amazon or iTunes. What’s missing are the BPMs for each song, which would be a nice bonus, but it’s a great way to find new workout music.
• Techno Sweat: This is another interesting music site for exercisers. Here you can find workout and fitness music for all types of workouts and there are a variety of things you can do at this site. You can search through their available albums and view songs along with BPMs, purchase songs from Techno Sweat or from iTunes or buy entire albums. They can also change the speed of your songs ($.99 per song) to match whatever BPM you prefer or create albums for you based on the songs you like.
• My Gym Trainer: This is actually a book rather than a website or app for music, but worth mentioning. I recently reviewed this one and found it to be a solid workout companion for anyone experiencing gym confusion. It’s actually a binder with 4 weeks worth of workouts and you can take the cards out and bring them to the gym. You can also get them in 3 different fitness levels: Beginner, intermediate or advanced. It may be a little too one-sized-fits-all for some exercisers, but a good choice for beginners who need some guidance.

What about you? Heard about anything new lately? If so, leave a comment and tell us about it.

What’s New in Fitness Music, Apps and More originally appeared on About.com Exercise on Friday, February 26th, 2010 at 05:00:44.

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Our latest weight loss success story covers a cringe-worth situation that is a great reminder to all of us: Never assume a woman is pregnant. That’s exactly what happened in Chiklet’s case. She wasn’t pregnant and had had her third child a year earlier, but strangers kept asking her when her baby was due. It bears repeating: Never assume a woman is pregnant.

Chiklet took control of her situation by joining a gym. She started using a treadmill and lifting a few weights, with some mediocre results. She then tried a kickboxing class and everything changed from that point on. She also found some success by joining Beachbody (a company which has created popular fitness programs like P90X) where she could track her calories and find support.

Read more about Chiklet’s story and be sure to share your own if you’ve got one. Have you ever mistakenly thought someone was pregnant or been the recipient of such a comment? Leave a comment and tell us the cringe-worthy details.

Reader Success Story: How Chiklet Lost 30 Pounds originally appeared on About.com Exercise on Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at 05:00:49.

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Yoga and physical therapist Marlysa Sullivan’s first instructional yoga Cd uses simple yoga poses to strengthen and lengthen the core…

I like staying in my comfort zone because it’s so nice there. I get up, I put on my workout clothes and I do a workout I’ve probably done a hundred times before. If it’s Monday, I run. If it’s Tuesday, I do kickboxing. If it’s Wednesday, I…snore. Routines and habits are good, but the comfort zone can eventually become a rut if you don’t shake things up from time to time.

This week, challenge yourself with something new and different. Do something that pushes the boundaries a little, whether it’s working harder or, for some, backing off and doing something easy.

Challenge Yourself

• Change Your Workout Schedule - Throw the usual schedule on it’s ear and, for just one week, do something you would normally never do. If you do cardio 5 days a week and strength training 3 days a week, flip them and do cardio 3 days and strength training for 5 days (with different muscle groups, of course). Throw out all your cardio and strength workouts and do yoga for an entire week or do only body weight exercises and see how hard you can work using just your own body’s resistance.
• Work at a Different Intensity - If you usually work at a steady, lower intensity, try high intensity interval training like this sprint interval workout. If you do high intensity workouts, try working at a slow, comfortable pace for some of your workouts. Or try a pyramid approach: Start your week with a hard cardio workout and make each subsequent workout a little easier.
• Trade Workouts With a Friend - If you know someone who works out regularly, trade workouts with them for one week. This can actually be fun, pushing you to try activities and workouts you’ve never done before.
• Try the 30-Day Fitness Challenge. If you’re looking to shake things up even more, this e-course offers both physical and mental challenges for the next 30 days.

What other ways could you challenge yourself? Think about it and make a plan. Shake things up and do something different. You may just find a whole new way to exercise.

Stuck In Your Comfort Zone? Challenge Yourself originally appeared on About.com Exercise on Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 at 05:00:36.

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A BEAUTY pageant finalist from Harpenden is using her newfound fame to raise awareness about the chronic skin disorder she suffers from.
Abigail Rose, aged 14, of Hillside Road, was talent scouted for the Teen Princess UK pageant at the Clothes Show in Birmingham last December and after having successfully got through the first round, she is now in the final heats of the competition.
St George’s Secondary School pupil Abigail, who lives in Hillside Road, entered the pageant to raise awareness about vitiligo, a condition she has suffered from for nearly …

One of my favorite ways to add intensity to my workouts is with tri-sets - Three different exercises for the same muscle group, performed one after the other with no rest. I especially like this for the smaller muscles of the arms, particularly the triceps. It’s a great way to work the muscle from different angles and positions and doing different exercises (rather than resting between sets) makes the workout both intense and efficient.

Below are my three favorite triceps exercises, skull crushers, one-arm incline extensions and kickbacks. I like doing these together because they involve different angles, positions and types of resistance, giving you an intense and well-rounded triceps workout.

Skull Crushers: Lie on a bench and hold a light-medium barbell in a narrow grip (hands about shoulder-width apart). You may also want to keep the thumbs curled over the bar and next to the fingers if you feel safe doing so. Begin with the bar straight up over the chest, palms face out and the elbows are slightly soft. Bend the elbows and lower the weight down towards the head, stopping when the elbows are at about 90 degrees and the bar is just above the forehead. Push the weight back up and repeat for 1-3 sets of 8-12 reps.

One-Arm Incline Triceps Extensions: Lie with the left side on the ball with the bottom knee down for support. Hold a medium weight in the right hand with the arm straight up, palm facing out.  Bend the elbow and lower the weight behind your head to about 90 degrees. Squeeze the triceps to straighten the arm and repeat for 8-12 reps before switching sides.

Kickbacks: Stand with feet about hip-distance apart and bend over at the hips, back flat and abs in until your torso is parallel to the floor. Pull the elbows up to the torso and extend the arms straight out behind you. Lower and repeat for 1-3 sets of 8-16 reps. You can also do this one arm at a time which works better if you’re lifting a heavier weight.

Exercises of the Week: Tri-Set Triceps originally appeared on About.com Exercise on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 at 05:00:13.

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After a devastating natural disaster compounded an already dire situation in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation, Yogis all over the…

I was recently visiting with some fellow trainers at a bar and a civilian nearby heard we were personal trainers and wanted to know how much exercise we did to look the way we do. We all had different answers, but the average turned out to be about six days a week with a mix of cardio, strength training, flexibility, yoga and Pilates. From the look on her face and the, “You’re kidding?” muttered under her breath, I got the feeling that was more than she anticipated.

Losing weight and maintaining weight loss takes a lot of work, although it’s important to keep in mind that every person is different. Some people don’t have to exercise as much because of age, genetics, body type, metabolism, lifestyle and other factors. Others have to work harder to keep off the weight for the same reasons. How much exercise you need depends on your goals and what you can handle, along with the factors mentioned above.

Diet is also a crucial factor and maybe the most important one, but exercise is right up there when it comes to weight loss. I’m curious about you. If you’re an exerciser losing weight or working to maintain your weight, how much exercise do you do? Is it more than you thought it would be? Do other people seem surprised at how much you exercise? Vote in this week’s poll and tell us how much exercise it takes for you to maintain your weight.

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Vote in This Week’s Poll: How much exercise do you do to lose weight/maintain your weight? originally appeared on About.com Exercise on Monday, February 22nd, 2010 at 05:00:45.

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Can seeing the calories in different foods change your choices? One study says it might, at least for parents making food choices for their kids. A study published in Pediatrics recruited 99 parents who took their toddlers to fast food restaurants on a regular basis. In the study, parents were given a sample McDonald’s menu and asked to choose items for themselves and their kids. Half of the menus included calorie information for each food while the other menus didn’t. The results? The parents who had the calorie information chose an average of 102 fewer calories than the other parents.

That’s a good thing, considering that 100 extra calories a day could lead to a 10-lb weight gain in a year. Another thing that caught my eye about the study was this fact: “There was no difference in calories between the two groups for items the parents would have chosen for themselves.” Wonder why the parents made better choices for their kids, but not themselves?

We talked about the issue of posting nutritional information in restaurants in a previous post and some commenters disagreed with the idea of posting calorie information. As one reader said, “It is not necesssary to see the nutritional information to really judge a menu. If you order a burger and fries, you know what you’re getting.” This study, as small as it is, does show that seeing the numbers really can make a difference.

What do you think? Would you make different choices for your kids if the calories were listed next to the food choices? Would you make different choices for yourself? Leave a comment and tell us what you think.

_Source:

_{Tandon P; Wright J; Zhou C. Nutrition Menu Labeling May Lead to Lower-Calorie Restaurant Meal Choices for Children. PEDIATRICS Vol. 125 No. 2 February 2010, pp. 244-248}

Fit Fact: Calorie counts on menus help parents make healthier choices originally appeared on About.com Exercise on Friday, February 19th, 2010 at 05:00:21.

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