Fast tips for fitness
By Fitness magazine
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Wish you had a personal trainer who could tell you what to do? Fitness asked 35 of the best to share their advice on how to make all your fitness goals come true.
7 EASY EXERCISE SHORTCUTS
1. Use heavier weights, do fewer reps.
2. Work multiple muscle groups together — perform biceps curls with lunges, or shoulder presses with squats.
3. Add 60-second cardio bursts (jumping rope, running in place, shuffling) between weight-lifting sets.
4. For six-pack abs: Do all of your standing exercises on a Bosu ball (bosu.com).
5. Mix several two-minute high-speed intervals into your standard cardio routine.
6. Alternate three to five minutes of cardio with 30 to 60 seconds of squats, lunges, sidekicks or push-ups.
7. Perform an upper-body, a lower-body and a core exercise with no rest in between, then jump rope for one minute; repeat circuit.
6 FAVORITE FUEL-UP FOODS
1. Apple with one tablespoon of peanut butter
2. Bowl of whole-grain cereal and skim milk
3. Tuna salad on a small whole-grain pita
4. Greek yogurt with blueberries or ground flaxseeds
5. One-half wheat bagel and almond butter
6. Banana smoothie with soy milk
12 SNEAKY WAYS TO BURN AN EXTRA 250 CALORIES A DAY
1. Keep sneakers at work and pick a place for lunch that's a brisk 15-minute walk away.
2. Fidget! A lot. One study showed that you could burn up to 350 more calories per day.
3. Shop for two hours.
4. Stand when talking on the phone.
5. Ride your bike (or walk) to do errands.
6. Have more sex.
7. Plant flowers.
8. Join a recreational sports team — soccer, softball, tennis.
9. Take five 10-minute "stroll breaks" throughout the day.
10. Conduct meetings at the gym or on a track.
11. Do three sets of 25 push-ups, lunges and crunches before you get ready in the morning.
12. Take the stairs. Everywhere!
9 WAYS TO AVOID THE OUCH
1. Take a shower after working out, alternating 30 seconds cold and 60 seconds hot.
2. Get plenty of potassium (think bananas and yogurt).
3. Do a two- to three-minute meditation, envisioning your body as healthy, beautiful and pain-free.
4. Roll out muscles with a foam roller for 3 to 10 minutes before and after exercising (find one at performbetter.com).
5. Build recovery into your program. Do yoga or stretch on your days off.
6. Warm up and cool down before and after every workout.
7. Go swimming the day after a tough sweat session.
8. Drink lots of water.
9. Soak in the tub with two teaspoons each of baking powder and Epsom salts.
8 WAYS TO REACH AN EXERCISE GOAL
1. Assess where you are at the beginning. How many push-ups can you do? Sit-ups? How long can you run?
2. Ask yourself these questions: What's my goal? Why do I want to achieve it? When do I want to obtain it? Will I do what's required to succeed?
3. Break your big goal into four smaller ones.
4. Recruit a friend to go through the process with you.
5. Schedule your workouts for certain times and days — just like everything else that's essential in your week.
6. Lose the all-or-nothing attitude.
7. Write your goal in a daily planner and tell it to at least two friends.
8. Put money in a jar every time you train. After every 10 to 20 workouts, buy that pair of shoes you've been lusting after.
5 WAYS TO BOOST YOUR METABOLISM
1. Eat breakfast.
2. Lift weights! A pound of muscle consumes twice as many calories as fat does.
3. Add more lean protein, such as chicken or fish, to your diet.
4. Eat smaller meals more often.
5. Mix up your cardio regularly.
7 BEST WAYS TO MEASURE YOUR PROGRESS
1. Start an exercise diary. Write down what you did and how it made you feel.
2. Take a "before" picture and post it on your refrigerator, then take an "after" shot every month or so and compare.
3. Try on your skinny jeans every other Friday.
5. Do push-ups twice weekly; once weekly, write down your number of reps.
4. If your energy level's up and you're sleeping better, something's working!
6. Take note of how many times you can say "I feel great" every day.
7. Recognize how much less winded you get walking up stairs.
6 SIGNS YOUR WORKOUT ISN'T TOUGH ENOUGH
1. You leave the gym without taking a shower.
2. You're reading as you exercise.
3. You feel mentally stressed afterward.
4. Your heart rate doesn't go up.
5. You haven't increased your speed or the amount of weight you're lifting in more than three months.
6. You're bored.
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