Love Notes by Jari Love

7 Health Foods You Should Stop Throwing Away

by Jari Love

You have no problem spending $20 every week on fresh fruits and vegetables. But when you pick off the “weird” parts of the produce and discard them before cooking, you aren’t just tossing a few bucks in the trash—you’re also throwing away some serious nutritional benefits. Also, just because a fruit or vegetable doesn’t look “perfect” doesn’t mean it’s not full of nutrition. It can save you lots of money in some grocery stores that offer “off” fruits and veggies.

These forgotten spare parts come jam-packed with vitamins and heart-saving amino acids, says Leslie Bonci, M.P.H., R.D., director of sports nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Add them to your kitchen arsenal and reap the surprising rewards.

1. Cantaloupe Seeds – Their Hidden Powers: These seeds are usually the first to go when you crack open a melon, but they’re high in protein, fiber, vitamin E, and magnesium, says Bonci.

 How to Eat Them: Roast them in the oven and toss with olive oil for a nutrient-packed snack.

2. Onion Skins – Their Hidden Powers: These flaky exteriors are high in quercetin, a compound that can help lower your blood pressure and support a healthy immune system, says Bonci.

How to Eat Them: Add them to a stew or broth for extra flavor, then pick them out before serving.

3. Watermelon Rinds – Their Hidden Powers: These rinds contain the amino acid citrulline, which can help improve your blood flow, says Bonci.

How to Eat Them: Throw them in a quality blender with watermelon flesh (the red part you normally eat), strawberries, and a dash of orange juice for a refreshing smoothie.

4. Broccoli Leaves – Their Hidden Powers: These leafy greens are a triple threat with high levels of vitamin A, vitamin C, and calcium, says Bonci.

How to Eat Them: Cut them up and throw them into a stir-fry along with the rest of the broccoli. This is one simple way to make your diet better.

5. Celery Tops – Their Hidden Powers: They’re super flavorful and full of muscle-building magnesium, bone-strengthening calcium, and vitamin C, says Bonci.

How to Eat Them: Use them like an herb and add to a vegetable or chicken soup.

6. Orange Peels – Their Hidden Powers: You already knew they smell fantastic, but they’re also rich in digestive system-soothing fiber and immune-boosting vitamin C, says Bonci.

How to Eat Them: Use a cheese grater to sprinkle some on top of fish or chicken.

7. Swiss Chard Stalks – Their Hidden Powers: Their vibrant, reddish-purple color signals that they’re high in carotenoids, which act as disease-fighting antioxidants. They’re also full of Vitamin K, an important nutrient for boosting bone health, says Bonci.

How to Eat Them: Sauté them with mushrooms and onions for a tasty side dish. Via yahoo.com

Jari Love – original creator of Get RIPPED! DVD series and group exercise classes. The hot-selling and critically acclaimed Get RIPPED! series enables individuals of any fitness level to burn up to three times more calories than the traditional weight-training program, and has received rave reviews from fitness critics throughout North America since the first title debuted in late 2005.

Quiz: Are You Addicted To Sugar?

by Jari Love

Is your relationship with sugar pretty much fine, totally out of whack, or somewhere in between (say, “it’s complicated”)? Our throwback-style quiz—devised with the help of registered dietitian Ilyse Schapiro—will help you figure out the answer.

1. How often do you eat or drink sugary foods or beverages (including ones made with no-calorie sweeteners)?

2. What’s your typical breakfast like?

3. How much sugar or sweetener do you usually add to your coffee?

4. How often do you go out of your way to get something sugary—like stopping at the store just to buy candy?

6. Do you hide sugary foods to eat later?

7. Do you ever feel powerless in front of sugary foods or foods made with refined flour, like white bread?

8. While indulging, do you ever tell yourself that this is the “last time” you’ll ever eat like this?

OK! Now it’s time to add up your score. If you got…

Mostly As: You may be immortal.

You’re definitely not addicted to sugar. In fact, it sounds like you’re practically immune to the sweet stuff altogether, which makes us wonder if you’re even human. What’s your secret?

Mostly Bs: You and sugar are a-OK.

Congratulations! It sounds like you have a healthy relationship with sugar. You enjoy sweet stuff when you’re in the mood, but dessert doesn’t rule your life. So don’t try to cut back—it might end up backfiring by making you feel deprived. “Treat yourself to one small thing per day. If you allow yourself that one treat, you won’t feel like you’re missing out and you’ll be less likely to binge,” says Schapiro.

Mostly Cs: You’re a sugar fiend.

Addiction might be a strong word, but it sounds like you have an unhealthy relationship with sugar. Instead of trying to quit cold turkey, try working with a dietitian to help you scale back on the sweet stuff gradually (like, by using just two packets in your coffee instead of three, or doing dessert three times a week instead of every night). “If you just cut it out, you’ll be thinking about it constantly and it will run your life,” says Schapiro.

via prevention.com

Jari Love – original creator of Get RIPPED! DVD series and group exercise classes. The hot-selling and critically acclaimed Get RIPPED! series enables individuals of any fitness level to burn up to three times more calories than the traditional weight-training program, and has received rave reviews from fitness critics throughout North America since the first title debuted in late 2005.

Get Stronger Triceps

by Jari Love

5 Exercises for Stronger Triceps

To get seriously cut arms, you need to devote a fair amount of attention to the biggest muscle in the area, and it’s not what you think. Biceps get a lot of attention because they’re located on the front of our arms, the part we see when we look in the mirror. While keeping them strong is important for everyday activities and overall strength, your triceps actually make up a larger portion of your arm. Neglecting these muscles can lead to imbalance, injury, and even hinder your ability to get stronger as they assist in pushing motions.

Let’s do a brief anatomy lesson to understand your triceps a little better. Tri, meaning three, accurately describes the backsides of your arms. This muscle group comprises the long, lateral, and medial heads. They each connect to the scapula and humerus, then travel down the backside of the arm where they connect at the ulna on your forearm. Together, they work to enable extension at the elbow.

Though many guys target their triceps with weights, often heavy ones, this isn’t necessary. Going for a load that’s too heavy can also compromise your form and, ultimately, lead to an ineffective workout. With nothing more than a resistance band, you can get an effective tricep workout with these five moves. Your arms will thank you.

1. Close-Grip Pushup

Basic pushups do a decent job of targeting the triceps, though much of the work is also done by the chest and shoulder muscles. One of the benefits of this bodyweight exercise is the ability to change the target muscles by altering your position. To increase the load on your triceps, the close-grip, or diamond pushup, is one of the most effective moves; all you have to do is bring your hands closer together.

To perform this pushup variation, start in the standard position with your hands directly under your shoulders and your legs fully extended. Before you start moving, bring your hands close to each other and touch your thumbs and index fingers together. From this position, slowly lower yourself until your chest is just a few inches above the ground, making sure to keep your core tight during the move, then press yourself straight back up.

Even if you can crank out regular pushups at an astounding rate, you’ll likely need to reduce your number of repetitions for this challenging exercise. Men’s Fitness recommends four sets of as many repetitions as possible.

2. Crab Walk

Most strength training exercises move in one plane of motion. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it means you have to rely on a lot more exercises in order to reach all the muscles you want to target. Muscle & Fitness likes crab walks because they target your shoulders and triceps while forcing you to build stability. This means all three muscles in your triceps will be engaged as you work to maintain balance.

Get into position with your chest facing up, hands and feet flat on the floor. Your fingers should be pointed behind you and your knees should be bent. Next, crawl by simultaneously stepping your left leg and right hand forward, then you right leg and left hand forward. Try to keep yourself as stable as possible while you move.

For more of a challenge, you can also move to the side. Perhaps the best part about this exercise is it requires no equipment, which means you can do it in the privacy of your own home. Let’s be honest, it looks a little strange.

3. Plank-to-Triceps Extension

Plank-to-triceps extensions should be your replacement from tricep kickbacks, a move that involves extending your arm backwards with a dumbbell as you lean forward on a bench. In reality, this exercise just isn’t very effective.

Muscle For Life explains that kickbacks are far too easy and you often don’t feel any burn until you’re nearly finished. Additionally, it’s easy to get away with cheating since you can switch to a swinging motion. With the plank-to-triceps extension, you don’t have an opportunity to shortchange the move.

Start in a plank position with your weight resting on your forearms, your palms resting on the floor, and your legs extended as usual. Press your palms firmly into the ground and contract your triceps to raise your elbows off the ground until you’re in the pushup position, keeping your core tight the whole time. Men’s Health recommends aiming for 15 to 20 repetitions.

4. Bodyweight Dips

Everyone likes to load this exercise with tons of weight — without giving much thought to the correct form. It doesn’t matter that you’re holding 60 extra pounds of weight if you barely bend your elbows. For most guys, performing dips without adding any additional load will be sufficient when they cover a full range of motion.

For this move, you need two parallel bars that are spaced a few feet apart. The gym is full of equipment for this specific move, but you can find suitable choices in a lot of places, such a local park. Grasp a bar with each hand and begin with your arms fully extended and your feet raised off the ground. Lower yourself down until your elbows reach 90-degree angles, then push yourself up until your arms are fully extended again. Make sure to keep your elbows close to your body as you move up and down rather than allowing them to wing out to the side. ACE Fitness demonstrates the proper form and offers a more detailed outline if you need some guidance.

Though this move is great for strengthening triceps, it can be hard on shoulders, so you don’t want to dip past the point when your elbows are at 90-degree angles. If you’ve had shoulder injuries in the past, you may want to skip this one.

5. Band Skull Crushers

Of all the weighted exercises that target triceps, skull crushers might be the best. Marc Perry, CSCS, CPT, and creator of BuiltLean, even says that it’s his favorite exercise to target the area because it activates all three muscles. Unfortunately, you really shouldn’t perform this move without a spotter. If you swap the heavy barbell for a substantial resistance band, though, it’s much safer to do on your own.

There are a couple ways to set this move up, though the easiest is probably on the floor. Use something pretty heavy to weigh down the middle portion of a resistance band then get yourself into position lying on your back with the band fully extended and your arms pointed straight up at the ceiling. Slowly lower your hands towards your head, keeping your elbows steady, until they’re just a few inches above your forehead. Then, press your arms to extend the band until you’re back in the starting position.

via cheatsheet.com

Jari Love – original creator of Get RIPPED! DVD series and group exercise classes. The hot-selling and critically acclaimed Get RIPPED! series enables individuals of any fitness level to burn up to three times more calories than the traditional weight-training program, and has received rave reviews from fitness critics throughout North America since the first title debuted in late 2005.

8 Weight Loss Mistakes

by Jari Love

8 Common Weight Loss Mistakes You Should Avoid 

So, you’re about to embark on a new weight loss journey, or maybe you’re already into one. Before you get ahead of yourself, here are 8 common weight loss mistakes people tend to make that keep them from reaching their goals. Be prepared so that you know how to navigate through these typical problems.

1. Over-Exercising: I know you’re excited. Your motivation has probably never been higher. Why don’t we keep it that way by not burning yourself out in the first couple of weeks. Exercise is great, and you should be doing a combination of strength training and cardiovascular training, but that doesn’t mean that more is always better.

Make small changes to your exercise program just like you do with your diet. You don’t have to go from nothing to everything overnight. Build yourself up to 1, 2, and then 3 days of strength training a week. Do something you enjoy. Two hours every single day of high-intensity exercise for someone who hasn’t built up to that work load is either asking for injury, or will be burnt out in weeks.

2. Cutting Calories Too Low: Of course you need to eat less than you burn if you want to lose weight, but cutting calories too low will not get you to your goal any faster. In fact, it’s likely to slow down your progress.

Prolonged calorie restriction causes a down-regulation of important fat-burning hormones like thyroid, and appetite-controlling hormones like leptin and ghrelin. Lower your calories, but the smaller the deficit the better. Go too low and you’ll be wondering why you’re not losing any weight.

3. Becoming Obsessed With Your Weight and the Scale: Gotta lose weight. Gotta lose weight. Wrong! Gotta lose FAT. How often do you weigh yourself? Is it weekly? Daily? More than once a day? It’s a great feeling when you see that number on the scale go down, but how do you react when it goes up? I’m going to guess that reaction isn’t good.

The scale is not going to tell you everything you need to know about your progress. It’s only going to tell you how heavy you are. It won’t tell you how much muscle you’ve put on, or how much fat you’ve lost.

Obsessing over your weight can lead to frustrations, which can lead to you giving up on your lifestyle change. Do yourself a favor and only weigh yourself when it’s necessary, such as when you’re taking body fat readings.

4. Changing Up Your Routine Too Often: I’ve been guilty of this so many times I’ve lost track. I try out this eating style for a week or so and then I read somewhere else about another eating style that might be better. I start questioning whether I’m doing everything I can to reach my goals. So I end up changing up my routine, and in the process, I never give the original eating style a chance to work.

I know it’s a hard thing to do, but once you decide on a way to eat and exercise, stick with it. If it hasn’t even been a month, there’s no reason to even consider changing anything.

If after a month your body fat measurements haven’t changed, you can start looking into making small changes to your current routine. That doesn’t mean change every single thing. It means change 1 or 2 things and see if that gets the progress moving forward again.

5. Overdoing Your Cheat Meals: Cheat meals are a double-edged sword. On the one hand they can keep you sane and possibly even improve your fat loss progress. On the other hand, they can keep you in a never-ending binge/purge cycle where one cheat meal makes it hard to get back onto your healthy eating plan.

Cheat meals should not be binge fests. They should still be controlled. Eat what you want, but remain mindful of portion sizes. A bad day of binge eating can knock out a week’s worth of progress, or worse, can make you revert back to your old unhealthy lifestyle.

6. Having Unrealistic Expectations: Let’s see, you want to lose 50 pounds, so at 2 pounds per week, that would mean you will hit your weight loss goal in 25 weeks. Wrong. I’m not going to go so far as to say it can’t be done, but realistically, it’s not going to happen, and you’re going to get discouraged when you start falling behind that pace. So much so, that when your expectations aren’t met, you end up giving up because it just takes too long.

Set a goal of .5-1% body fat loss every 1-2 weeks, with the lower number being the most realistic. Take a bigger view of your timeline and remember that this is a lifestyle change and not a 2lb/week weight loss plan. The weight will come off, but you have to get out of the day to day weight loss mentality.

7. Obsessing Over Calories and Macronutrient Ratios: How many calories should you eat? How much protein, fat, and carbohydrates are optimal for weight loss? Don’t worry about it! At least don’t worry about it yet. For now, focus on improving the quality of your diet and getting active. Once your diet is 90% whole foods and you’re exercising consistently, you can start playing around with meal timing, carb cycling, or various macronutrient ratios.

In the beginning, it’s quality over quantity. At least that should be your main focus. Cutting calories to an already bad diet will further lower the amount of nutrients you get, and if you add exercise in at the same time, the nutrient deficiencies get even worse. Block out all that noise and focus your attention on one thing only – eating healthier food.

8. Only Focusing on External Appearance: It’s been a month of eating healthy food and being active, but you haven’t lost any weight, so you haven’t made any progress – or so you think. It’s hard to think about all the positive changes you’re making to the inside of your body and to your health because you can’t directly see them. However, all that hard work is changing your body from the inside out.

Even if your weight hasn’t moved in weeks, take solace in the fact that you are a healthier person than you were just weeks ago. It’s only a matter of time before those internal changes start reflecting on the outside. Be patient, smile, and love the new person you are becoming.

h/t coachcalorie.com

Jari Love – original creator of Get RIPPED! DVD series and group exercise classes. The hot-selling and critically acclaimed Get RIPPED! series enables individuals of any fitness level to burn up to three times more calories than the traditional weight-training program, and has received rave reviews from fitness critics throughout North America since the first title debuted in late 2005.

3 Moves for Rocking Abs – Fitness

by Jari Love

3 Moves for Rocking Abs – Fitness

We all know that doing 1000s of sit ups won’t give us a six pack. In order to have a six pack we have to shed the layer of fat over our abs. That being said however, ab exercises are a must not only to strengthen your core, but also to tone, shape and reduce your waistline. Regular ab exercises are an essential part of your strength and conditioning. Here are three top ab exercises to help strengthen your core and help you get that swim suit ready body.

1. Knee Tucks:

• Start on your back, bend your knees into your chest, point your toes together, and open knees out to the sides in a diamond shape, keeping toes touching.
• Extend both arms overhead on either side of your ears, palms facing up.
• Lift your hips off the floor and bring your knees up towards your armpits.
• Slowly lower your hips back down to start position. Careful not to use momentum. Repeat 2 sets of 12 reps.

2. Plank:

• Lie face down on mat resting on the forearms, palms flat on the floor.
• Push off the floor, raising up onto toes and resting on the elbows.
• Keep your back flat, in a straight line from head to heels. Tilt your pelvis and contract your abdominals to prevent your rear end from sticking up in the air or sagging in the middle.
• Hold for 30 to 60 seconds, lower and repeat for 3-5 reps.

3. One-Arm Full Sit Ups:

• Start lying on your back with your right knee bent, foot flat on the floor, and left leg extended straight out on the floor.
• Extend your right arm to the ceiling and reach your left arm towards your left foot. Sit all the way up, rolling through your back, keeping your right foot on the floor, and your right arm up over your shoulder.
• Slowly roll back down to the floor. That’s one rep. Repeat 15 times on one side, 15 times on the other.
• For an extra challenge hold a dumbbell in your extended arm.

Jari Love – original creator of Get RIPPED! DVD series and group exercise classes. The hot-selling and critically acclaimed Get RIPPED! series enables individuals of any fitness level to burn up to three times more calories than the traditional weight-training program, and has received rave reviews from fitness critics throughout North America since the first title debuted in late 2005.

Foolproof Ways to Make Exercise a Habit

by Jari Love

Here's how you can turn a once-in-a-while workout into a lifelong habit.

Think tracking the numbers on the scale motivates you? Think again. “External feedback, like focusing on pounds lost or how your clothes fit, isn’t sustainable for most people,” says Michelle Segar, Ph.D., a psychologist and the author of No Sweat. “You may see results one day or week, but when you don’t, you won’t want to exercise.” Segar, a University of Michigan researcher who has spent her career studying motivation and behavior change, has identified science-backed solutions that do work.

Think of exercise as your secret weapon. You have to give physical activity extra importance if you’re going to make time for it. One way to do that: “View it as an escape from your day that brings you energy and well-being,” says Segar. “In studies I’ve conducted, women who do this make exercise a regular practice, while those who don’t end up skipping it.” Finding an activity that you love and combining it with other things that make you feel good, like running through your favorite park or listening to a funny podcast while you work out, can make it even more enjoyable, which ups the odds that you’ll do it again tomorrow.

Be single-minded. It’s tempting to overhaul several areas of your life at once—starting a new workout the same week you cut sugar from your diet, for example. But that sets you up for failure. “We don’t have the cognitive capacity to change lots of things at one time and sustain what we’ve changed,” says Segar. If you’re new to exercise, give yourself a few months to stay consistent, then move forward with other goals.

Ditch the weekend-warrior mentality. It’s better to exercise for 10 minutes four times a week than to hit the gym only for an hour and only on Saturday. “Research clearly shows that the people who stick with exercise for life are the ones who make it a staple of their week,” says Segar. “Consistency is what helps you keep at it during life’s ebbs and flows. When exercise is a part of your day, just like showering or sleep, barriers such as bad weather, work issues, kids, and even a bad mood don’t stop you from getting at least a little activity,” says Segar.

Stop saying yes all the time. Life is hectic; people and events will unintentionally hijack your goals if you let them, says Segar. You don’t have to automatically say no when someone asks you to do something that interferes with your workout. But do pause before you respond and ask yourself, Is this request important enough to trump my feeling good and fueling the rest of my life? As Segar says, “You don’t want your default to be yes if it’s at the expense of your well-being.”

via realsimple.com

Jari Love – original creator of Get RIPPED! DVD series and group exercise classes. The hot-selling and critically acclaimed Get RIPPED! series enables individuals of any fitness level to burn up to three times more calories than the traditional weight-training program, and has received rave reviews from fitness critics throughout North America since the first title debuted in late 2005.

Benefits of Walking Daily

by Jari Love

If you want to add seven years to your lifespan, set aside 20 to 25 minutes for a daily walk. This simple habit, which can also arguably be one of the most enjoyable parts of your day, has been found to trigger an anti-aging process and even help repair old DNA.

The research, presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress, followed 69 people between the ages of 30 and 60. Those who engaged in daily moderate exercise, such as a brisk walk or jog, high-intensity interval training (HIIT), and strength training experienced anti-aging benefits that could add an additional three to seven years to your life.1

The researchers recommended a 20-minute daily walk to reap these benefits, but while I agree a daily walk is a phenomenal health tool, I don’t view it as a form of exercise.

It’s an essential movement that we all require – and you likely need more than 20 minutes of it a day in addition to a regular exercise program. As noted by Katy Bowman, a scientist and author of the book, Move Your DNA: Restore Your Health Through Natural Movement.

As mentioned, walking may help to slow down the aging process, and it works no matter what age you get started. Study author Sanjay Sharma, professor of inherited cardiac diseases in sports cardiology at St. George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in London, told The Independent.

“We may never avoid becoming completely old, but we may delay the time we become old. We may look younger when we’re 70 and may live into our nineties. Exercise buys you three to seven additional years of life. It is an antidepressant, it improves cognitive function, and there is now evidence that it may retard the onset of dementia.”

Part of what makes walking so beneficial is that when you’re walking you can’t be sitting. Sitting for more than eight hours a day is associated with a 90 percent increased risk of type 2 diabetes, along with increased risks of heart disease, cancer, and all-cause mortality.

The average American actually spends nine to 10 hours of their day sitting, and certain occupations, such as telecommunications employees, spend an average of 12 hours sitting each day.

For many years, exercise was promoted as the solution to this largely sedentary lifestyle, but research suggests it can’t counteract the effects of too much sitting. The more you move around and get up out of your chair, the better, and walking is part of this.

Research even shows getting up and walking around for two minutes out of every hour can increase your lifespan by 33 percent, compared to those who do not. According to the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), the average person only walks between 3,000 and 4,000 steps per day, but aiming for 10,000 steps is a better goal.

One study found that walking for two miles a day or more can cut your chances of hospitalization from a severe episode of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by about half.

Another study found that daily walking reduced the risk of stroke in men over the age of 60. Walking for at least an hour or two could cut a man’s stroke risk by as much as one-third, and it didn’t matter how brisk the pace was.

Taking a three-hour long walk each day slashed the risk by two-thirds. Walking has additional benefits as well, including to your mood. Walking triggers your body to release natural pain-killing endorphins, and the more steps people take during a day, the better their mood tends to be.

Walking is even known to improve sleep, support your joint health, improve circulation, and reduce the incidence of disability in those over 65. Research has also shown that walking 30 minutes a day may:

– Reduce the risk of coronary heart disease

– Improve blood pressure and blood sugar levels

– Improve blood lipid profile

– Maintain body weight and lower the risk of obesity

– Enhance mental well being

– Reduce your risk of osteoporosis

– Reduce your risk of breast and colon cancer

– Reduce your risk of non-insulin dependent (type 2) diabetes

Jari Love – original creator of Get RIPPED! DVD series and group exercise classes. The hot-selling and critically acclaimed Get RIPPED! series enables individuals of any fitness level to burn up to three times more calories than the traditional weight-training program, and has received rave reviews from fitness critics throughout North America since the first title debuted in late 2005.

Fitter, Stronger, and Faster with Age

Plus, tips for turning back the clock on your body

Your body—and fitness—changes a lot sooner than you thought. Read on to learn when you burn the most calories, if your muscle is already waning, and how you can become fitter, stronger, and faster with every decade.

In Your 20s…
Your Body’s Built for Exercise

The 20s are prime time for fitness, says Janet Hamilton, a certified strength and conditioning specialist and exercise physiologist at Running Strong in Atlanta. (Okay, maybe you’ve gained a few pounds since you ran high school track, but some of that weight is probably from muscle.) That’s because, during your 20s, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, human growth hormone, and thyroid hormone are all working together to keep you in tip-top baby-making shape. As an added bonus, they improve your body’s muscle-building power, she says. Meanwhile, during your 20s, you are at your peak cardiorespiratory capability, says board-certified internist Sue Decotiis, M.D., a medical weight-loss and bioidenticial hormone-replacement therapy expert in New York City. Bring on the endurance races.

But Your Metabolism Is Already Slowing

Womp, womp. After 20, the average basal metabolic rate (BMR), the number of calories you’d burn if you stayed in bed all day, drops by one to two percent per decade, according to the American Council on Exercise. Most of that dip may be due to the unfortunate fact that when most women enter the “real world,” they sit at a desk more and walk around less, says ACE-certified personal trainer Kathy Kaehler, a health and wellness expert for USANA Health Sciences. At any age, increasing your activity levels and muscle mass can help keep your BMR high. Muscle makes up a large part of your body’s “engine,” so the more muscle you have, the more fuel you’ll burn, whether you are hanging out with friends or powering through a workout, says Hamilton.

Levels of this guy, which is a precursor to both estrogen and testosterone, peak in your 20s and start tapering off once you hit the big 3-0. While it’s not clear if DHEA supplementation can have any effect on anti-aging, according to the National Institute on Aging, the loss of DHEA as you age may slow your exercise recovery time and increase your body’s muscle-to-fat ratio, says Decottis. To help combat fat gain, focus on strength training. In a new study from Harvard University, men who lifted weights each day for 20 minutes put on less belly fat as they aged compared to guys who spent the same amount of time doing cardio.

Babies Block Your Workout

With your doctor’s permission, you can keep up your workout routine with a bun in the oven. But pregnancy is not the time to start a high-intensity training program. Your body is going through enough changes as it is. During pregnancy, your hormones shift, and your body focuses the bulk of its energy on the pregnancy, not your muscles, says Kaehler. After the baby comes, breastfeeding can burn crazy calories, which helps some women lose the pregnancy weight. But still, it’s not the right time to push your workout to the max, says Hamilton. “Trying to train at a high level immediately after giving birth is risky because hormones are not balanced back to ‘normal’ as long as you’re breastfeeding,” she says. “I’ve seen an increased incidence of stress fractures in women who push to train at a high level during the postpartum period. I recommend training be moderated until after breastfeeding has ceased and normal menstruation has returned, which to me signals that the woman’s hormonal balance is back.” Once your baby has permanently detached from your nipples, though, you can crank up your workout’s intensity.

A fancy word for muscle loss, sarcopenia is a natural part of the aging process—but it still sucks. While it doesn’t hit full force until around 75, The Journal of Nutrition, Health & Aging suggests that it can start as early as 40. Researchers believe most muscle loss comes from your fast-twitch muscle fibers, the ones that are responsible for powering high-intensity, largely anaerobic exercise. “In order to minimize the effects of sarcopenia, it is helpful to do strength training, which recruits different muscle fibers [your fast-twitch ones], compared to endurance training activities like biking, swimming, and running,” as those train your slow-twitch, endurance-focused ones, says Hamilton. Increasing your protein intake may also help. Eating twice the current RDA of protein (1.5 grams instead of 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight) increases the rates of muscle growth and lessens muscle breakdown due to aging, according to research from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

You Enter Perimenopause

Menopause isn’t an on-off phenomenon. It happens gradually, typically in the 40s (or sometimes even earlier) with perimenopause. Common symptoms, like irregular periods, are due to fluctuations in estrogen and progesterone, which can also cause weight gain and a lower metabolism, says Decottis. What’s more, during perimenopause, insomnia and night sweats can make finding the energy to work out more challenging, says Hamilton. Still, continuing to exercise will not only help you feel younger—after all, exercise can ease your hot flashes and sleep troubles—it may help you look and perform even better than you did at 20. “Some women don’t even start training until later in life,” says Hamilton. “Whatever your age, you can improve your fitness.”

h/t womenshealthmag.com

Jari Love – original creator of Get RIPPED! DVD series and group exercise classes. The hot-selling and critically acclaimed Get RIPPED! series enables individuals of any fitness level to burn up to three times more calories than the traditional weight-training program, and has received rave reviews from fitness critics throughout North America since the first title debuted in late 2005.

A Simple Workout You Can Do While Cooking

by Jari Love

Cooking is a necessary evil if you don’t want to spend thousands of dollars on takeout each year, but it can also be a time-sucking life killer.
Rather than resign yourself to 30 minutes of mindless stirring and chopping each night, ramp up the intensity on your chef sesh and turn your calorie making into calorie baking workout.
Perform stationary exercises during prep work
It’s harder to incorporate exercise into your cooking routine during active prep work, such as chopping and stirring. This is when stationary movements are effective. Do 15 repetitions of each of the following exercises in a circuit format while completing your food prep.

1. Wide leg squats: Stand facing the counter or stove and step your feet out wide laterally, angling your toes outward. Keeping your core straight and tall, bend your knees and begin lowering your hips toward the floor. When your knees form a roughly 90-degree angle, engage your glutes and thighs and push through your heels to press yourself back to standing.

2. Single leg lunge: Stand facing the counter or stove and step your left leg behind you, planting the ball of your left foot on the floor. With most of your weight in the heel of your right foot, bend both knees and begin lowering your hips toward the floor. Make sure to keep your torso straight and tall. When both knees are close to forming a 90-degree angle, reverse the movement and press yourself back to standing. Perform 15 reps on one leg before switching sides.

3. Lateral leg lift: Stand facing the counter or stove, your feet slightly narrower than hip-distance apart. Shift your weight to your left foot and use your glutes and hips to lift your right leg as high as you can out laterally to the side. Carefully lower it back to start, without using momentum to perform the movement. Perform 15 reps on one leg before switching sides.

4. Calf raise: Stand facing the counter or stove, your feet hip-distance apart. Engage your core and press through the balls of your feet to lift your heels from the ground, pressing yourself up as high as you can on your toes. Return to start.Engage in active exercises while cooking. When your food is cooking and you don’t have to actively stir or monitor its progress, it’s much easier to ramp up the intensity and incorporate bursts of cardio and upper body strength work. Again, perform 15 repetitions of each of the following exercises in a circuit format, continuing the circuit until your food is finished cooking.

5. Jumping jacks: Start standing with your arms at your sides. In a single movement, hop both legs out laterally as you swing your arms up over your head. Hop your feet back to center as you bring your arms back to your sides.

6. Counter push-ups: Place your hands on the edge of the counter, extending your arms. Step your feet out behind you so your body forms a straight line from heel to head. Tighten your core and bend your elbows, lowering your chest toward the counter. When your chest almost touches, reverse the movement and press yourself back to start.

7. March and twist: Stand tall with your hands behind your head, your elbows extending out laterally from your body. Bend your right knee and draw it high in front of your body as you simultaneously twist your torso to the right, so your left elbow reaches toward your right knee. Reverse the movement, placing your right foot back down as you twist your torso back to center. Repeat on the opposite side. This counts as one repetition.

8. Good mornings: Work your glutes and hamstrings with this movement. Stand with your feet hip-distance apart, your knees slightly bent and your hands behind your head, your elbows extending out laterally. Press your hips back as you hinge forward from the hips, lowering your chest toward the floor while keeping your core tight and your torso straight. When you’ve tilted forward as far as you can with good form (you’ll probably feel a stretch through your hamstrings), use your hamstrings and glutes to pull yourself back up to start.

9. Rainbow obliques: Stand tall, your feet hip-distance apart, your hands behind your head, your elbows pointing out laterally. Maintaining this position, tighten up your core and engage your obliques to tilt from the waist as far as you can to the right. Reverse the movement and use your obliques and back extensors to pull yourself back to center before you immediately tilt from the waist as far as you can to the left — as if creating a rainbow arc with your arms as you lean from side to side. One complete “rainbow” is a repetition.

10. Counter dips: Stand directly in front of a counter with your back to it. Grasp the edge of the counter, your arms fully extended, and step your feet out in front of you. Place most of your weight in your palms and engage your core. Bend your elbows and lower your hips toward the floor until your elbows form a 90-degree angle. Tighten your triceps and push yourself back to the starting position.

Jari Love – original creator of Get RIPPED! DVD series and group exercise classes. The hot-selling and critically acclaimed Get RIPPED! series enables individuals of any fitness level to burn up to three times more calories than the traditional weight-training program, and has received rave reviews from fitness critics throughout North America since the first title debuted in late 2005.

Core Exercises that Strengthen Your Posture

by Jari Love

“Correcting your posture not only makes you look better, but it powers up your metabolism which helps melt off your muffin top,” says Lisa Lynn, fitness/metabolic nutrition expert and the author of The Metabolism Solution. “It takes more effort to maintain good posture, which is why proper posture burns more calories than slouching. Proper posture also improves respiration, which improves blood flow and revs up your metabolism.”

Unfortunately the desk jobs most people have makes developing a slouching habit — and eventually back pain — near inevitable. The solution: strengthen your core. With that in mind, we asked Lynn to single out four core workout moves, which help improve posture by working the muscles that help pull our shoulders back to offset the gravitational pull that we encounter sitting at our desk and slouching.

Try these four moves — which all together take less than five minutes — for five consecutive days, and you should already start to feel an improvement.

1. Side core raise: Lying on your side on your elbows, lift your body off the floor using your core. You can use an arm or leg to help at first if this is too much of a challenge. Conversely, if this is too easy, lift your upper leg into the air. Hold this posture for 30 seconds before switching to the other side.

2. The plank: Start on all fours. Come up onto your elbows and toes using your abs to lift your body. Tighten your core and make sure your back is flat. Aim to hold this posture for at least one minute. To make this move more challenging you can opt to lift one leg in the air for 10 seconds and then alternate with the other one for 10 seconds.

3. Lying rear fly: Lying face down with your palms facing your torso raise your upper body up and your arms back and to the sides as if you were doing a reverse fly. Make sure your elbows are at shoulder height and your arms are nearly parallel to the floor. Repeat this move for at least 30 seconds. To make this exercise more challenging, you can opt to have a dumbbell in each hand.

4. Tricep dips: Place your hands at the edge of your seat and lower your body till it nearly touches the floor, using your arms to raise yourself back up. Be sure to keep your body close to the seat/chair and squeeze your arms at the top of the move. To make this move more challenging you can reach your hand to touch your opposite toe each time you lower down. Aim to do this exercise for at least 30 seconds.

via cheatsheet.com

Jari Love – original creator of Get RIPPED! DVD series and group exercise classes. The hot-selling and critically acclaimed Get RIPPED! series enables individuals of any fitness level to burn up to three times more calories than the traditional weight-training program, and has received rave reviews from fitness critics throughout North America since the first title debuted in late 2005.