6 Steps to eliminate Your Love Handles

Let’s face it – unless our full-time jobs involve dancing or instructing at a gym, we all have love handles. Our partners think they’re cute, until they blow up to Aunt Marge a la Harry Potter proportions, and then all hell breaks loose. Stop hell from breaking loose, lose your love handles with these simple tips and exercises:

1. The Flutter Kick: Find a Yoga mat, lie on your tummy. Lift your feet and knees off the floor. Now “flutter kick” as if you’re swimming. Do this 15 seconds, then stop for 30 seconds. Repeat twice.

2. Cut down on the Sodium and Drink Water Sodium leads to water retention, which makes love handles more prominent. Drinking 8-10 glasses of water a day helps by suppressing the appetite and metabolize stored fat into energy. It also cuts down the water retained by sodium.

3. Do the Trunk Twist: Bend your knees slightly and stand with your feet as apart as your shoulders. Place your hands in front with palms facing upwards. Twist your body to the left as much as you can, then twist it to the right. Repeat until you’ve done enough reps.

4. Do Cardio-Vascular Exercises: No matter how many ab exercises you do, they won’t work unless you’re doing a strong cardio exercise – running, cross-trainer, cycling. Pick one you like and stick with it! If you can afford it, get a treadmill or cross-trainer at home. That way you can get your daily cardio requirement whenever you’re free.

5. Increase Your Protein Intake: Have one gram of protein per pound of body weight. Our body uses the most calories to burn protein, thus reducing more calories than retaining. It will help you control your weight like very few other food items!

6. Reduce your Alcohol Intake: This one is the most obvious one – alcohol is a lot of empty calories, and they go straight to your stomach. So drink in moderation, and have “light” versions. If you must drink, Vodka is the least calorific.

So good luck with those love handles! Once you’ve started practicing these tips, you’ll realize that they aren’t that tough to get rid of.

© Text: Healthy Times Blog.

7 Ingenious Excuses To Avoid A Gym

Yes, don’t get shocked at the title of this post. We aren’t suggesting you to quit the gym by offering excuses, but have more ingenious ways to workout and not feel bad about skipping the gym. For many of us, affording a well-equipped gym or health club might be little difficult or location of it might be a problem. But, that should not stop you from engaging in a full workout, daily at your own convenience. Let’s take a look at some simple, engaging and totally-without-gum workouts.

#1. RUNNING

Nothing beats a good workout, than running. Yes, just grab some good shoes, comfortable clothing, some music if you like and out of your house. All you need a park or a quite neighborhood and you could be burning more calories than almost any other cardiovascular exercise. Ask any runner, and they would swear by the fitness, stamina and self-realization of strength, that running gives them. You can also see Running in the USA for training camps, races and more.

 

#2. PLAY SOME GAMES

Whomsoever thought, games are for children, is certainly not aware of benefits of a little team sports/games. Yes, its not about going professional, but competing with your peers for a little relaxation; and you could choose any activity like baseball, soccer, volleyball, hand ball, even swimming and video games. In fact, anything, that brings your heart rate up considerably and makes your sweat, it just enough to lose some calories, along with some fun. Try something like The Adult Sports League or Sports Monster for more information on recreational activities and games.

#3. GOOD’OL HOUSEWORK

Yes, now you could get lean, while you clean around your house. Concentrate on household chores, by making them more strenuous, like vacuuming, mowing lawn by hand, washing windows or cleaning garage. You can always turn to some peppy music to keep thing interesting and or ask a friend to join in.

#4. GO HIKING

If you have access to mountain trails, then you couldn’t have asked for a better workout. Hiking burns calories, gives you fresh air, beautiful views and a great time along with a aerobic workout. And you don’t need to go all-professional; just plan a day-long trip with a like-minded friend, pack food-water and set-off! You can be rest assured that the experience will be much better than an hour spent in a stuffy gym on a treadmill.

#5. CIRCUIT TRAINING

Circuit training is a useful option when you want to combine your strength and cardio training. You could buy a set of related circuit training cards or buy blank cards and create a workout of your own. The method is even simpler. Each set of 10 cards should have 5 strength-training exercises (lunges, push-ups etc.) and 5 cardio moves (jump rope, high knees etc). Warmup in place for 5 minutes and then shuffle the deck, to mix the cards and pick one. Whatever the exercise you picked, do that for 1 whole minute. Now pick another card and repeat for another minute. Go through the entire deck once, swinging between, cardio and strength training. It is essential to work through-out the deck, at least once, but if you feel like it, you can repeat the entire set, twice or even thrice. 

#6. THE UBIQUITOUS WORKOUT DVD

Now, who doesn’t have time for a workout DVD? Stay-at-home moms, recovering patients, celebrities, all can count the benefits of a workout DVD on their fingertips. And why not, a great way to workout during winter months, when you don’t want to get out of the warmth of your home, a DVD can come to your rescue. Pick from a wide array of workouts like Pilates, dance, aerobics, belly-dancing etc and get the advantage of a full workout with little or no equipment in the comfort of your own home. Even if you are not a beginner, you can always fine something to suit your requirement.

#7. DIY BOOTCAMP
Though indoor bootcamp classes are fast on their way to become a fad, but an outdoor bootcamp is definitely a lot of fun, with fresh air and tough challenges. It’s always beneficial to rope in bootcamp enthusiasts, who could pitch in with ideas for workout schedules with a balance of strength and cardio exercises. Then, the main part is selecting a suitable spot, like a local park with trees, benches and equipment or even a beach where you could gather old supplies like tires, ropes, weights. Even creative inputs you can come up with exercises like push-up on a park bench, timed runs to a pond and back, dragging a tire on the beach and more. Always remember to warm up first with a 5-minute walk and cool down with some gentle stretching.

So, get down to planning your next non-gym workout.

© Text: Healthy Times Blog.