Try Pilates – Stretch and Tone Those Muscles

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Try Pilates – Work Your Way To A Healthier Body.

What is Pilates.

One of the hottest trends in fitness today is Pilates. It is  a combination of different body movements designed to strengthen, stretch and balance the body.

This body conditioning routine is designed and founded by Joseph H. Pilates. He designed his exercise program by including precision, breathing, concentration, and control.

One of its benefits is the improvement of lung capacity because the exercise incorporates deep and heavy breathing. The mind and the muscles are both coordinated in an effective Pilates workout so the strength and flexibility of the abdomen, back, and stabilizer muscles is achieved. Furthermore, the body’s posture, strength and balance are also improved. With these many benefits, overall health and well-being will surely be improved.

Many gyms, spas, and studios who offer Pilates training and equipment have sprouted everywhere. There is no doubt that it already gained a cult following.

The rich and the famous are also drawn to this mind and body exercise. Jamie Lee Curtis, Marissa Tomei, Jennifer Aniston, Julia Roberts and Rod Stewart are few of the many celebrities who are practicing and reaping the benefits. So if celebrities are paying big bucks to certified trainers in the country, then this really must be a great exercise.

Yes indeed! It is one great workout. It would not be this popular if it isn’t.

How do you practice Pilates.

There are two ways to exercise Pilates. One is to focus on floor exercises. Most people are doing floor exercise because it is less expensive and more convenient. The only equipment you will need is a floor mat and a trainer. If you can’t afford to hire a personal trainer, there are many home videos available in the market that features instructions on how to exercise Pilates. Just make sure that you select videos from reputable instructors. Also be careful when doing the exercises and routines yourself, doing Pilates without a trainer could cause you injury if you don’t perform it cautiously.

The other way to practice it is through the use of equipment that will tone and strengthen the body. Most gyms have the equipment and usually you have to pay a yearly fee to avail the use of  it and trainers.

During your workout wear light and comfortable clothes. Tights and a tank top are a good choice.

Stay focused on the routines and exercises. Your instructor will teach you ways on how to breathe properly and combine it with the body movements. You will not be able to achieve your fitness goals if you do not stay focused and disciplined to practice the right way of making the routines.

Start from the simple routines and work your way up to the more advanced and more rewarding routines. This way your body could adjust slowly and possible injuries will be prevented.

Because Pilates focuses on strength and flexibility and new studies show that two 50-minute sessions only burn about 250 calories, combine it with other cardiovascular type workouts like running and step aerobics for even better results.

Final thoughts.

Lastly, don’t join the Pilates bandwagon just because you think it is the “in thing” nowadays. Stick with the program, be disciplined and stay focused. Pilates has many benefits and soon enough you’ll notice that your body is improved. It is indeed one great work out, it not only helps in enhancing your daily tasks through flexibility and improved body strength it also make your mind and spirit feel relaxed and rejuvenated.

Try Pilates

 

 

 

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Core Exercises for Women – 6 Great Examples

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Core Exercises for Women – See Results Quickly.
Core Exercises for Women

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Because you’re a woman, you are interested in tightening and strengthening your core. Therefore we have grouped  six great exercises for your fitness routine.

Core exercises for women will tighten and strengthen your entire mid-section. Consequently, your overall balance and back will become stronger.

First of all, a word of caution: it is wise to talk to your doctor before taking on new exercises if you have back problems.

Here are six core exercises for women..

1. Pilates – Pilates develops long and lean muscles. It is one of the most popular core exercises for women. Pilates can be done just about anywhere, do crunches and waist flexibility routines with it. There are varying degrees of difficulty, that makes Pilates good for beginners and for those who are more advanced.

2. Yoga – Yoga core exercises will improve flexibility and deep breathing which in turn, will strengthen your core.

3. Abdominal crunches – Crunches are highly effective core exercises for women and men alike. Crunch those ab muscles and strengthen them. Different types of ab crunches target your upper abdominal muscles and / or your lower abs as well.

4. Bridge – Laying on the floor do pelvic tilts in addition to bridges, you will exercise your legs and glutes as well.

5. Fitness ball core exercises – For  many women, a stability ball is a basic piece of exercise equipment. Use it to do crunches, push-ups, and flexibility exercises.

6. Plank – Plank exercises are excellent for your core.

When doing any core exercises for women or men, hold your core muscles tight. Try sucking in your belly and continue breathing, rather than holding your breath. This will optimize the entire workout.

Adding cardio to your core exercises is smart, too, so you can burn fat and begin to reveal the muscles you’re building underneath.

These Six Core Exercises for Women will Change your Appearance in no Time. Ty them Now!

 

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Thigh Workout Exercises – 3 Great Examples

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3 Great Thigh Workout Exercises

Thigh Workout Exercises

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Want to work out your thighs and get toned and smaller thighs? Here are some thigh workout exercises that will help you with that, as well as some important advice..

1. Squats

Squats are a great thigh workout that can be done any time and just about anywhere. They will help with your thighs and your glutes. Squats are a versatile exercise and to do a squat, simply pretend you are about to sit but don’t sit right down. Hold it. You’ll feel it in the back of your thighs and in your butt.

Deeper squats will equal more intense results and you can find a variety of exercise aids to help you intensify it, such as exercise balls and weights. Plyometric squats (jumping into a squat) can be good, too, once you’re proficient at squats. An exercise ball can stabilize you by being put between the small of your back and the wall.

Thigh Workout Exercises2. Lunges

Any type of lunge can help you with your thigh muscles. Adding weights into the mix can increase the intensity. To do a lunge, stand with your feet slightly apart and then step forward with one foot. As your foot comes to a stop, lean forward resulting in the back knee bending.

The deeper you go and the closer your back knee gets to the ground, the more intense the lunge. Walking lunges across a large area could be great, alternating which leg will bend.

3. Pilates

Various Pilates thigh workout exercises can help tone the thigh and lengthen them so they’re long and lean. Single and double leg circles are great workouts for your legs and aren’t very difficult to do and help with your thighs, glutes, and your core midsection. Pilates is great as a beginner workout and are great for advanced fitness buffs as well.

To do this exercise, simply lie on your back and point your big toe at the ceiling. One leg will be straight up and you’ll draw circles in the air with your toe while keeping your hips on the floor. Rotate clockwise, several revolutions and the counter clockwise, several resolutions. Then switch legs. As you do each Pilates exercise, stabilise your core muscles by sucking in your belly button toward your spine for a count of five while breathing in and then exhale for a count of five.

Tips for Thigh Workouts

  • Make sure you do adequate stretching to warm up and stretching to cool down after your thigh workout (or any other workout for that matter). This reduces injury dramatically!
  • Too many lunges and squats could be bad for your knees. Be sure to mix up your exercise regimen so you don’t work too intensely on any one specific muscle group, increasing chances of injury and pain. All over exercises such as cardio will also help you burn calories and this will be evident in your thighs as well.

In conclusion, These Thigh Workout Exercises are great examples on how to get results fast.

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Love Handle Exercises that Yield Results

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Love Handle Exercises

Love Handle Exercises

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If you are wanting to get rid of your love handles, it can certainly be done by implementing a great exercise regimen.

Here are some simple and effective love handle exercises to add into your exercise repertoire.

Cardio

Add walking, running, cycling, aerobics exercises, and so on. The best way to burn fat is to do cardio on a regular basis.

Pilates

Love Handle ExercisesVarious Pilates love handle exercises are great for working the obliques and tone your muscles. Making your sides look better and smaller.

One simple but effective love handles Pilates exercise involves sitting on the floor with your feet wide apart and doing a seated twist.

Hold your arms straight out at your sides with palms down and slowly twist as far as you can one way so that your one arm moves to your front and then twist slowly the other way, too so that the other arm moves to the front. You’ll feel the twisting motion in your sides.

Crunches

Regular crunches do good things for your abs but some crunches are especially helpful for love handles. Elbow to knee crunches are great love handle exercises and they work the obliques. You can use a stability ball for many love handle exercises, too.

Side Bends

Side bridge bends can be an effective love handles exercise but are difficult on their own. Using a stability ball makes it a bit easier.

Tip: Use hand weights while doing side bends to help with the intensity of the love handles exercises.

Swimming

Swimming is an invigorating workout that works great for the whole body. Laps can work well, the side stroke as well and many people find that aqua fit classes help them tone up all over.

Leg Flutters

This exercise involves a sort-of dry land swimming and involves lying on your tummy and lifting your arms and legs up off the floor.

This helps strengthen your stomach and your back therefore, it and can help you eliminate excess fat around your midsection.

Weight Lifting

It might sound like weight lifting builds muscles in your arms more than anything, but strength training exercises can do great things for your whole body.

Hence, it is a great way to burn fat anywhere and everywhere you’ve got extra.. such as those stubborn love handles.

Consider counting calories and ensuring that you work out regularly and you’ll lose inches all over. Love handle exercises can help as that midsection might be stubborn. Do your best to eliminate stress, reduce salt, and increase your water intake and you will enhance results.

Finally, with regular work, Love Handle Exercises will reduce your waistline.

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How To Tone Your Thighs for Great Looks

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How To Tone Your Thighs

How To Tone Your Thighs

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Want to know how to tone your thighs? Thighs are one of those areas of the body that seem to stubbornly hang onto excess unwanted mass. Here are some tips to help you tone up your thighs..

Count Your Steps

Are you walking regularly? Set a daily goal that is progressive so you can increase your walking. Take the stairs instead of the elevator, walk at your lunch hour, take the dog for a walk, etc. If you can walk daily for 30+ minutes you’ll soon see a difference in your thighs. It’s especially helpful if you can hike with mixed terrain, such as a bit of uphill walking and downhill walking, too.

Cycling

Take a spin class, buy a stationary bike, or ride your bike outdoors. This is a great leg toning exercise that will show up in your thighs.

Join A Gym

How To Tone Your ThighsJoin a gym and talk to a trainer who can set up an exercise regimen that focuses on areas you want to reduce. Any trainer will tell you it’s almost impossible to spot reduce but if there is an area that’s giving you a particularly hard time, chances are that a fitness trainer will have good ideas to change up your routine enough to jump start results.

As you get fitter and healthier, you will start to see a difference in stubborn places such as your thighs and belly. There are some great machines in a gym that help you use weights and resistance that will help you in your quest for finding ways to get fitter and for learning how to tone your thighs.

Stretching

Stretching exercises, such as Yoga and Pilates are both very helpful for those of you who want to know how to tone your thighs. And Yoga is easy to do just about anywhere. Yoga can help tone the body all over and improve your balance and stability, making you better able to succeed at your thigh toning efforts. Many people who take up Yoga comment that it’s also a great stress reliever.

Squats And Lunges

Squats and lunges are ideal for those wanting to know how to tone thighs. Do these exercises regularly.

Whichever exercises you choose to help you focus on things, don’t forget to track your progress. It’s not just the number on the bathroom scale that will tell you that you are doing a good job of getting in better shape; use a measuring tape, too, and see how many inches you are around the thighs. Measure weekly and you’ll start to see progress. Remember, just like it’s not only about the scale number, it’s also not only about inches lost, too. It’s also about toning and improving the shape of your thighs, too. It will happen if you keep at it and you’ll see great results with your overall shape.

Learning How To Tone Your Thighs will lead to increased fitness and better looks.

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What are The Benefits of Pilates

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Benefits of Pilates

Benefits of Pilates

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To begin, there are quite a few benefits of Pilates.  This conditioning set of exercises, designed by Joseph Pilates, are great for strength and toning.

They work especially well for your abdominal muscles, back and legs.

It also is extremely beneficial for the cardiovascular system, because of how you breathe during the workout.

Benefits of Pilates

Woman Practicing Yoga Positions

One of the great benefits of Pilates is that you can do it in about 20 minutes and just about anywhere.

If you’ve got a space of about three to four metres, then you can do Pilates. Pilates can be done with and without equipment.

Optional equipment include resistance bands, blocks, and a Pilates apparatus table.

Beginners and even experts however can benefit from doing Pilates without any equipment.

There are several versions of some of the popular exercises, enabling practitioners to vary their intensity level.

People who do Pilates regularly reach a dramatic increase in their core strength and balance.

Several Pilates exercises focus on core strength specifically and most of the exercises will benefit the mid-section of the body.

Other workout routines give you long and lean muscles — great for legs and arms!

Most important, Pilates improves: breathing, concentration, and control. Focusing on the area you are working on is important and Joseph Pilates firmly believed in the control aspect of the exercise for mind and body connectivity.

With the stomach, focus on that part of your body and control your movements with your belly button sucked in as far as you can. Count to five as you breathe in and five as you breathe out. Breathing out happens to be the hard part.

In fact, concentrate on breathing and it will be easier to exercise. Hence, you will ignore of how tired you feel or how much your muscles burn.

Slow, controlled and focused movements will help you master and maximize all the benefits of Pilates.

A stronger core or powerhouse (as Pilates called it) will benefit your health in many ways, including posture and helping with strengthening of your back.

The benefits of Pilates can be seen after just a few sessions.

Finally, there are many Pilates exercises with varying intensity levels keeping you from growing bored with the routines.

 

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Strength Training Exercises for Beginners

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Strength Training Exercises for Beginners

Strength Training Exercises for Beginners

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If you want to get fit and lose weight, strength training exercises are a great way to burn fat fast and to help you sculpt your body as you shed inches. The end result will be weight loss that has the pleasant side effect of you looking and feeling both good and strong.

Whether you’re male or female, you should be doing strength training exercises as a part of your weight loss and fitness regimen. There are a variety of strength training exercises you can do. Here are some suggestions for strength training exercises for beginners:Strength Training Exercises for Beginners

  • Bicep Curls
  • Lunges
  • Resistance Bands
  • Pilates

Let’s look at some of these popular strength training exercises a bit closer:

Bicep Curls

Do bicep curls with large or small weights, it is a great progressive exercise for beginners. Start small and increase the reps and when you’re comfortable, increase the weight.

Lunges

Lunges are a great way to build strength in your lower body and they can be done just about anywhere.

Resistance Bands

Use resistance bands, they are inexpensive pieces of exercise gear that work well in  a variety of strength training exercises. Buy them with varying degrees of resistance, and they take up about the same amount of storage space as a jump rope.

Pilates

Strength Training Exercises for Beginners

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Pilates is an excellent strength training exercise that can focus on your core, on your arms, your legs, and can produce great results for your glutes as well.

Pilates offers a lot of results without extreme intensity. You can also do Pilates strength training exercises with just a short period of time.

Core Strength Secret:

Strength, in your mid-section, will serve you well in just about any exercise you do. Hold and release your abs repeatedly, even when doing nothing at all and you’ll build strength in this area. When doing any strength training exercises be aware of holding your core tight and you’ll increase results.

If you’re not sure where to start in terms of strength training exercises, it’s worthwhile to read books to get some starting ideas, purchase videos, or meet with a personal trainer.

In conclusion strength training, along with cardio workouts and a good diet will help you reach your health, fitness, and overall wellness goals.

Start off by warming up and by taking rests between sets. Over time you can increase your rep numbers as well as weights, if using weights as part of your strength training routine. Always be well hydrated and be careful about strength training exercises you’re unfamiliar with to avoid injury.

Strength Training Exercises are a great option for beginners, try them for quick results.

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Exercises To Lose Belly Fat – Helpful Ideas

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 Exercises to lose belly fat work, being obstinate however, will yield results faster.
Belly fat can be stubborn and difficult to get rid of. Many people who want to lose weight focus on their belly more than anything. Below you will find some effective exercises to lose belly fat.

Note: You need cardio. A lot of sit-ups, crunches, and other exercises to lose belly fat are good but they’ll often build up the muscle underneath the fat. Cardio, such as walking, running, cycling, swimming, and dancing in addition to the following exercises to lose belly fat can maximise the results.

Exercises to Lose Belly FatYou also need to eat well. If your eating undermines your exercises, you’ll find losing belly fat even more frustrating. Monounsaturated fats are a great addition to your diet (avocados, dark chocolate, olive oil, and some others) for helping you lose belly fat and you’ll want to eat fewer carbs and sugars and more proteins and vegetables. Limiting beer, wine, soda, and other calorie laden beverages will help, as well.

  • Squats – Squats can help you sculpt your lower body and can be done anywhere and without exercise equipment.
  • Cycling – Riding a bike is great for your lower body. You can also do air cycling to help you benefit from cycling while at home. It’s great for the lower belly.
  • Hula Hooping – Hula hooping is a great exercise to lose belly fat, especially in the obliques. Don’t worry if you keep dropping it, just keep practicing. You can find great hula hooping exercises on the Wii Fit gaming device, as well, that counts your revolutions without you having to have a hula hoop.
  • Resistance and Strength Training – Will help you burn fat all over. Resistance bands are inexpensive and you can start this with hand weights as well as using your own weight as resistance with push ups or chin ups.
  • Twists – Twisting exercises are great exercises to help you get rid of belly fat. They can be part of aerobics or Pilates or dancing.
  • Exercises to Lose Belly FatDancing – Dancing is a fun cardio workout that can burn fat all over, including in the mid section. And dancing doesn’t feel like exercise as much as it feels like fun so it’s great for people who don’t find it easy to become a gym bunny.
  • Yoga – There are a number of types of yoga to choose from and yoga exercises can help you strengthen your body and improve your flexibility all over. Yoga, in conjunction with cardio could do good things for sculpting your mid section.
  • Crunches – Good old fashion crunches can help build muscle so that as you lose belly fat you’ll have a better looking mid-section. There are various types of crunches that can target upper, lower, and oblique areas.
  • Sit Ups – Sit ups can also contribute to building muscles and strength in your mid-section.
  • Pilates – There are a variety of great Pilates exercises that can help you with losing belly fat. The one hundred, the warm-up Pilates exercise helps you build strength in your core. There are a number of other Pilates exercises that help you build long and lean muscles throughout your body. Pilates will help you increase your ability for endurance with exercises to lose belly fat. After just a handful of Pilates workouts, you’ll feel a difference.
  • Another Tip – Try to reduce stress in your life. Stress can cause a belly fat increase!

Exercises to Lose Belly Fat will work, but the secret is to maintain discipline.

Belly fat can be stubborn but don’t give up. The above list is not exhaustive but can give you some ideas of how you can get the body you dream of.

With hard work and persistence, stubborn belly fat will go away.

 

 

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