Cardio Workouts That May Even Make You Smile

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You already know that one of the most important things you can do for your weight loss goals is regular cardio exercise. You also know that cardio workouts are indispensable to an effective training program and general good health. But, did you know that you don't have to suffer through boring cardio workout experiences day after day?

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Check out this post on PersonalTrainerz.com for Five Fun Cardio Workouts to Trim Your Body. These are great ideas for getting out of an exercise rut.

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If I have to spend ONE MORE minute putting one foot in front of the other on the treadmill or gliding on the elliptical, I think I'll explode. Honestly, I'll become the very first victim of B.C.B. (Boring Cardio Burnout), and I'll simply vanish into thin air. I have tried everything to make these monotonous cardio workouts exciting...magazines (print is too small to read while in motion; gives me headaches), books (too loud in the gym to concentrate; book won't stay open on the little magazine rack), books on CD (expensive to buy, horrible selection at the public library; too embarrassed to carry my old CD walkman), cell phone (not cute to carry on a conversation while breathing heavily)...Get my point? Today, I'm vowing to stop the madness. No more boring work outs for me!

About Cafe Physique:
The mission of Café Physique is to help clients reach and exceed their personal fitness and nutrition goals. If you’re in need of an a nutritionist in Atlanta or an Atlanta personal trainer – Café Physique is the perfect solution. We offer Atlanta yoga instruction, Atlanta prenatal workouts, and Atlanta personal training. We also have private sessions of pilates that Atlanta residents are raving about. We invite you to let a member of our Atlanta registered dietitian staff or personal training team develop and implement a realistic and healthy lifestyle plan to meet your personal goals.

Fitness On a Budget #2

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Many of us have been trained to feel like we're not working out unless we're actually at the gym or using expensive infomercial equipment in our basements. The truth is that you can create your own workout anywhere, at any time.

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You don't necessarily need special equipment like a treadmill or elliptical machine to get a great cardiovascular workout. With a little planning, some of the daily activities you take for granted can become part of your exercise routine:

Get in extra steps whenever & wherever you can. Take a brisk walk every day, whether it's a path through your neighborhood or laps in a local mall. Take the stairs instead of the elevator or make a full workout of climbing the stairs. Sneak in extra steps whenever you can by parking farther away from your destination.

Pick up the pace as you do your household chores. Mow the lawn, weed the garden, rake the leaves or shovel the snow, but make the movements intentional and try to maintain a quick pace while you’re working. Even indoor activities such as vacuuming and scrubbing count as a workout if you increase your heart rate.

Don’t sit on the sidelines. If you have children, don't just watch them play. Join them for a game of tag or kickball. Walk them to the park. Dance. Take a family bike ride.

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Many of my clients are under the impression that an activity doesn't count as a real workout unless they're going for at least an hour. I'm not quite sure where this thought pattern originated, but it's not true. Feel free to break your workout into 15-minute increments throughout the day. Something is ALWAYS better than nothing, so get moving whenever you can.

About Cafe Physique:
The mission of Café Physique is to help clients reach and exceed their personal fitness and nutrition goals. If you’re in need of an a nutritionist in Atlanta or an Atlanta personal trainer – Café Physique is the perfect solution. We offer Atlanta yoga instruction, Atlanta prenatal workouts, and Atlanta personal training. We also have private sessions of pilates that Atlanta residents are raving about. We invite you to let a member of our Atlanta registered dietitian staff or personal training team develop and implement a realistic and healthy lifestyle plan to meet your personal goals.

Tips for a Leaner Midsection

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There’s no secret to getting the abs you want.

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A significant chunk of people start working out because they hope to get those movie star-quality abs. Unfortunately, that’s often a lot harder than it sounds, so it’s a good idea to keep these basic tips in mind as you get started.

Don’t Do Endless Reps – Don’t make the mistake of thinking that doing crunches or sit-ups for hours will give you the six pack that you desire. The abdominal muscles are just like any other, and if you can do hundreds of crunches at a time, you may not be challenging them enough to grow. If any ab exercise get too easy for you, you should consider making it more challenging by adding weights. For example, you might hold a dumbbell or medicine ball to your chest while you do crunches. You should also learn how to do other ab exercises beyond the basic crunch. Try bicycle kicks, leg lifts, planks.

Focus on Cardio and Diet - As with anything else, it’s a mistake to think that resistance training alone will get you the tummy that you want. Most people aren’t happy with their abs because they simply have too much fat in that area. Fat around your midsection is typically harder to get rid of than fat from other you parts of your body. And women, because they have a naturally higher body fat percentage than men, might actually find it to be even more challenging. The only way to get rid of that fat is by doing plenty of cardio and watching what you eat.

Stand Up Straight – Most people can improve the appearance of their midsection simply by improving their posture. Standing up straight will naturally cause you to pull your stomach in, and it will also activate more muscles, helping you burn a few extra calories during the course of the day.

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I’ve noticed that the #1 thing people neglect while heading down the path to rockin’ abs is a good diet. All of those commercials on television for ab machines sometimes give the impression that exercising is enough to make your abs visible, but it just isn’t. In order to get your body fat percentage low enough, you need to cut out the sweets and excess junk while making sure that you burn off more calories throughout the day than what you take in.

About Cafe Physique:
The mission of Café Physique is to help clients reach and exceed their personal fitness and nutrition goals. If you’re in need of an a nutritionist in Atlanta or an Atlanta personal trainer – Café Physique is the perfect solution. We offer Atlanta yoga instruction, Atlanta prenatal workouts, and Atlanta personal training. We also have private sessions of pilates that Atlanta residents are raving about. We invite you to let a member of our Atlanta registered dietitian staff or personal training team develop and implement a realistic and healthy lifestyle plan to meet your personal goals.

How to Walk More

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A little more legwork can add up to a lot more weight loss.

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While those super sweaty, high intensity workout sessions you can get in the gym should be an integral part of your overall weight loss strategy, that doesn’t have the be the only way to increase your physical activity. If you can find ways to take extra steps while going about your daily life, you can burn extra calories without exerting much additional effort.

Wear a Pedometer
A report published in 2007 in the Journal of the American Medical Association by a Stanford University doctor showed that several studies suggested that just wearing a pedometer, a small device that counts your steps, makes people want to walk more. In fact, the journal reported that the average person got twenty seven percent more physical activity while walking an extra mile every day. Walking for a mile at four miles an hour can burn around three hundred calories, depending on your weight.

Park Far Away At the Grocery Store
Instead of fighting for the closest space you can find, go ahead and park way in the back. The parking spots will be more plentiful, plus you will be able to walk an extra distance to the store.

Window Shop
Window shopping at the local mall with your friends can make walking a social experience. Plus, walking indoors means that you don’t have to let bad weather prevent you from getting more exercise.

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I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: fitness is a lifestyle. Getting more fit shouldn’t necessarily rule your life, but it’s a mistake to think that a certain time of the week is “fit time.” If you think of health and fitness as something that you weave into your life, you will find getting fit to be a much easier and more natural task.

Why Exercise?

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Exercise can be a powerful way to improve your life.

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Sometimes I’m asked, “Why work out?” To these people, a healthy lifestyle seems like all work and no benefit, a constant struggle for nothing. But of course, nothing could be further from the truth.

So what do you have to gain by working up a sweat?

You Will Be Happier – Exercise will decrease you body’s supply of cortisol, also known as the “stress hormone,” and increase your amount of dopamine, which helps increase your sense of well-being. In fact, some studies have shown that working out just three times a week for half an hour can be just as effective as anti-depressants for relieving the symptoms of depression.

You Will Be Smarter – Scientists used to think that we lose brain cells as we get older, and nothing can be done about it. New research, however, shows that regular exercise can actually grow new brain cells, helping improve memory, concentration, and even intelligence. That sort of puts a new spin on the idea of a “scholar athlete.”

You Will Sleep Better – People who work out spend more time in deep sleep, which allows them to concentrate better throughout the day. Sleeping well can also have a positive effect on stress, making your everyday problems feel that much more manageable.

You Will Have More Energy - You will be able to approach every task at your job with zest, getting more done in less time, and still having plenty of energy to have fun and take care of your responsibilities at home. If you have never experienced it, trust me, it’s a great feeling.

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You might be wondering why I didn’t include “You Will Be Happier With Your Body.” Well, pretty much everyone knows this reason, and let’s be honest, this is the reason most people decide to start working out at all. But it’s important to remember that hopping on the treadmill doesn’t have to be all about slimming your waistline. Fitness can be a major part of improving your life in every way - physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Fitness Advice You Should Avoid

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Be wary of the advice you hear on the internet.

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Bad fitness advice abounds, especially on the internet. While this is not the only advice you should ignore, these things are particularly frustrating for me to hear coming from fitness “experts.”

Cardio Before Breakfast – The idea behind “fasted cardio,” or doing your cardio first thing in the morning before you’ve had anything to eat, is that the exercise will work directly towards burning fat, rather than burning the calories in the meal you just ate. There are a couple problems with this. Firstly, most people don’t have much energy to exercise before eating anything, so it might make the exercise difficult or even painful. Second, doing this might cause you to metabolize muscle, which will slow down your metabolism.

Take This Supplement – Not all supplements are bad. But for every nutritional supplement that might actually be useful, there are a thousand that are total garbage. Besides, who has the money to spend on all those pills and powders? Despite what ads on the internet or television might have you believe, they have yet to invent anything that will help you lose weight and get lean as quickly, safely, and effectively as a smart diet and exercise plan.

Drink A Gallon of Water a Day - Most people need to drink more water, but the actual amount you should be drinking for optimal hydration depends upon your body weight, the amount of physical activity you get, your altitude, and a few other factors. While it’s very difficult to drink too much water, you shouldn’t really be drinking so much that you feel the need to go to the bathroom every fifteen minutes. A good hydration measurement is the color of your urine: if it’s clear, you are drinking enough.

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If you ever hear fitness advice that sounds a bit off or just too good to be true, try to seek out a second opinion. There is nothing worse than spending months or years trying something to lose weight, only to discover it is totally ineffective. I certainly don’t like to waste my time like that, and I know my clients don’t either, so I always double check the sources and data on every piece of fitness or diet advice I hear.

Dealing with Fitness Sabotage

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Don’t let your family and friends lead your fitness plans astray.

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If you are like most people, you've probably cheated on your diet because of your family and friends. Maybe someone from the office brought a batch of homemade cookies and insisted that you try a few because they were so good, or your friends made you miss a workout to go see a new movie. While an occasional treat or missed workout isn’t a big deal, it can become a problem if it happens too often. Here are a few ways to deal with fitness saboteurs:

Assume the best - Your family and friends aren’t doing these things because they are malicious; they probably just don’t understand. Don’t let your fitness plan become a source of stress in your social life, and assume that your loved ones actually have your best intentions at heart.

Just tell them - While not everyone appreciates the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, some might stop pressuring you to ruin your fitness plan if you just tell them how important it is to you.

Meet them halfway - If you're being pulled to a movie, ask if you can see a later showing so you can still spend time on the elliptical. If your co-worker is always bringing in pastries full of saturated fat, just have a little nibble and throw the rest away. And don’t feel bad about wasting food. It’s better in the trash than on your thighs, right?

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Fitness, like any long-term goal, is really just about overcoming a series of obstacles. Sometimes those obstacles come in the form of those closest to you. But at the same time, family and friends can sometimes be a fantastic source of support. If you find that certain people are sabotaging your diet plans, try to surround yourself with a more supportive crew so you can have the confidence you need to achieve your fitness goals.

Cardio You Haven't Tried

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Finding new ways to get your heart pumping will make exercise more fun and more effective.

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If you are starting to find the treadmill tedious and the stair stepper to be a snooze, it’s time to add a new cardiovascular exercise to your repertoire. Here are few simple things that you may not have considered.

Jump Rope - This grade school recess favorite can be surprisingly effective at shedding calories. After you’ve mastered the basic “single hop” (where the rope goes under your feet once per rotation) try the more challenging “double rotation,” where the rope has to fly underneath you twice before you touch the ground.

Handball - Sports are always a fantastic way to get your body moving, mostly because it feels more like fun than exercise, and handball works well because all you need is a wall, a ball, and two players. Just be sure to wear goggles or a sturdy pair of glasses while you’re playing to protect your eyes.

Hiking or Rock Climbing - If you haven’t already, check out the parks in your area to see what kind of hiking trails and climbing areas are available. A nice outing on a hiking trial not only lets you engage in a lot of low intensity cardio but also gives you some neat areas to explore. Rock climbing can be a bit more intense, so take it easy if you’ve never done it before.

Rowing - A rowing machine can get you into your target heart rate quickly and work your back at the same time.

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I think that boredom is the number one killer of fitness motivation, so I always have my clients trying out new exercises. Sometimes, like in the case with hiking or rock climbing, it can lead to a lifelong hobby. Try a little bit of everything and eventually you’ll find something you’ll enjoy sticking with.

Consider the Source

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Believe LESS of the crazy stuff that you hear in the media. Consider the source, and evaluate statements accordingly.

I'm so very tired of hearing all of these so-called experts telling us that we don't have to exercise in order to lose weight. That's true, but it's about as smart as becoming bulimic or smoking crack every day. Those options will help you lose weight too, but folks would snicker if they were suggested to the mainstream.

Listen up: Exercise (strength training AND cardio) is good and necessary to get the results that I know you all want.

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If you don't believe me, take it from an actual bodybuilder (Tom Venuto) who has worked with and talked to thousands of experts on this subject. Don't be intimidated by the fact that he's a bodybuilder...

"For years I have suggested that it DOES make a difference where your deficit comes from. Although you can lose body fat with any calorie deficit, I maintain that it is far superior to “burn the fat” and create a deficit by increasing activity than it is to “starve the fat” by decreasing calories drastically with very low calorie diets. "

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There's no such thing as a free lunch...If it's too good to be true, it probably is...These are just a couple of the sayings that should pop into our heads every time we hear some new guru claim that we don't have to exercise or do cardio in order to lose weight. Cafe Physique is all about being realistic, and to think that you could achieve optimal body composition and health without working your heart and sweating is not a smart move.

Forget About Flying Solo

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Take MORE classes. Participating in group exercise classes at the gym or your local Y can not only help motivate you during tough workouts, it can make burning calories a lot more fun.

Always mix up your workouts with a variety of classes to make sure that you’re working the entire body and to help prevent getting burned out on any one activity.

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Gone are the days of Richard Simmons’ Sweatin’ to the Oldies and Jane Fonda’s leotard-clad videotapes. Today’s fitness and recreational facilities are setting a new standard with updates to our favorite Classics as well as shocking our systems with creative, and sometimes even racy, Newbies.

The Classics
CARDIO KICKBOXING: This high intensity, empowering fitness kickboxing workout will focus on punches, kicks, and boxing maneuvers designed to increase aerobic and anaerobic fitness. A great cardio, core, and overall body work out

CYCLE: Take bike-riding to a new level! Now you can have the same fun of riding a bike you had as a kid with the health and fitness benefits you need as an adult. All levels are welcome as you ride up hills, sprint, and just cruise all without the gym. Set to motivating music with guidance from the instructor, this class will keep you coming back again and again!

HATHA YOGA: A yoga practice popular in the West that combines difficult postures, which force the mind to withdraw from the outside world using controlled breathing.

STEP: A high intensity step class utilizing the latest step choreography and turbo charged combinations for the ultimate step aerobics workout.

The Newbies
JOURNEYS: (Crunch)
If you can’t go on vacation, take a journey. This intense ride class transports you to another land with studio lights, authentic local music and dress. Each week, the class will spin to a new location like the Sahara, New Delhi, or Cabo San Lucas. Journey to Mardi Gras in Rio De Jeaneiro for an hour and feel your mind escape as your muscles get the trip and workout of a lifetime.

Kwando®: (Bally Total Fitness)
Incorporates techniques from kickboxing, tae kwon do and karate.

Cardio Striptease: (Crunch)
Take it off…the weight that is. This class takes some of the basic moves of the strip tease and combines them with aerobic and sculpting elements to create a fun, energizing and sexy workout. Careful, it may also improve your private life!

Cardio Hoops: (Bally Total Fitness)
Low impact aerobics class that utilizes a weighted hula-hoop to promote muscular endurance, balance, and flexibility

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When I was in high school, I started doing step aerobics, and I lost my mind. It was new and fun; I loved the feeling of accomplishment after conquering a tricky routine. My intentions were admirable, but I did step aerobics so much that I literally burned out on it. For those who don’t know me…Once I burn out on something, I don’t want to do it, taste it, go to it, look at it, etc. again for a VERY long time. It took me 9 years, but I’ve recently added a little (key word = little) bit of step back into my cardio routine.

I say all of this to say that while it’s important to find a class that you like, it’s even more important to take several different classes. Take it from me – you don’t ever want the mere mention of your favorite class to cause you to shudder just because you refused to shake things up a little bit.

About Cafe Physique:
The mission of Café Physique is to help clients reach and exceed their personal fitness and nutrition goals. If you’re in need of an a nutritionist in Atlanta or an Atlanta personal trainer – Café Physique is the perfect solution. We offer Atlanta yoga instruction, Atlanta prenatal workouts, and Atlanta personal training. We also have private sessions of pilates that Atlanta residents are raving about. We invite you to let a member of our Atlanta registered dietitian staff or personal training team develop and implement a realistic and healthy lifestyle plan to meet your personal goals.