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I'm sure you've heard the saying, "a calorie is a calorie," and that when weight loss is the goal, you can probably loose weight on a 1,200 calorie/day diet whether it is 1,200 Twinkie calories or apple calories. At this point, you might be thinking, "Cool! I'll go on the Twinkie diet!"   Our bodies are smarter than that though, and I say, thank goodness. I know - I'm no fun at all :-). Last week at the grocery one of my kiddos held up a box of Twinkies and had the audacity to ask me to purchase them. I nearly burst a vessel in my forehead trying to restrain myself from smashing the box with......
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Being that it is summer, and there are vacations, kids home from school, camps, a lot of running around in circles...sometimes a workout is hard to knock out, even when intentions are high. When that happens, I have a 30-minute, total body workout that requires very little equipment, yet will leave you dripping in sweat. Wanna hear it? Here it is... You'll need:  a set of 10 or 12lb wts (lighter if you like), a resistance tube 5-10 minute warm up @ 40-50% max heart rate Set 1: 10-14 Burpees (also called pop squats) 3-way lunges w/ dumbbells: Start with weaker leg leading. Take one lunge forwa......
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Stumbled upon a few deals I'd like to pass along: 20% off planners! For all of you planners out there (you know who you are, planning each workout weeks in advance), get a head start on school year planning at MomAgenda. MomAgenda is offering 20% off small School Year books (use code: schoolyearsmom) Visit MomAgenda.com, offer expires 7.31.2011 *P.S. I LOVE MomAgenda planners. Seriously, love them - totally created by moms, for moms. Enough said. EatingWell magazine has a new book out: EatingWell 500-calorie Dinners for $22.45 (10% off the regular price). While you are planning workouts in you......
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Check out this video if you are unfamiliar with trigger point therapy... TPR Therapy, Ironman competitor Have you ever wished you could afford a personal masseuse? One who could come to your home, preferably daily, to help relieve you of the knots and muscle tightness that inevitably occur from daily workouts and, well, being a mom? In search of a solution to my IT band issues, I tried a chiropractor (not money well spent), stretching, massage therapy (therapist too gentle to release deep tissue), and my O.D. The O.D. provided the most valuable information: without proper biomechanics, the bod......
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The mysterious " fat burning zone " continues to confuse many gym-goers. The theory goes something like this: working out in a "zone" of intensity that is less intense for at least 20 minutes will burn more fat calories than calories from carbohydrate. Is this true? Yes and no, but mostly no. You actually burn more calories from fat right now, sitting still, reading this post, than you do on the treadmill. That is because in the resting state, the body burns a higher percentage of fat calories. As you crank up the exercise intensity, you burn a little less fat per calorie. However, it really c......
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I love them! Resistance tubes are sometimes thought of as “not real equipment,” or too simple to really be effective, but the truth is, tubing is awesome. And since this happened to be the subject of my morning radio chat (airing every Friday morning on WIMA-AM Lima), I thought I’d share with you, my readers, what I raved about to my listeners.

Resistance tubes are terrific. They are inexpensive, portable, easy to use, and relatively cheap to replace. And can you think of any other piece of equipment (besides the TRX) that can give you a total body workout? They are the ideal choice for home use, travel, or as part of your gym routine. (Cheap and easy: 5 low-cost items every home gym needs)

Any exercise you do with a fixed machine, free weights, or a cable system can be duplicated using resistance tubing. Throw in a stability ball or weight bench, and you have all you need to get a great, total body workout.

In general, a tube’s color gives some indication of how much resistance it provides. For example:

Yellow – very easy
Green – easy
Blue – somewhat difficult
Red – difficult
Grey – very difficult
Black – NFL football players use these ;0)

If you haven’t used resistance tubing, a great book to have on hand is “The Great Stretch Tubing Handbook” – chock full of pictures and detailed descriptions of nearly any exercise you can think of. Available at Amazon.

If you haven’t used resistance tubing before, begin by replacing one or two of your strength training exercises with a tubing exercise. For example, bicep curls using dumbbells can easily be switched to bicep curls using a resistance tube. Simply place the tube under your feet (make sure you wear athletic shoes), grasp the handles in each hand, keep elbows tucked in close to the body, and using the tube as resistance, do 10-12 bicep curls.

Start with single joint exercises before progressing to more complicated, multiple joint exercises or combination exercise.

For example:

Tricep extensions and bicep curls before learning overhead presses; Hip extensions before squats; Flyes before ax chops, etc.

It is also best to learn with a lower resistance tube, such as yellow, green, or blue, before progressing to higher resistance tubes.

The same rule of thumb for increasing resistance applies to tubing: if the 10th or 12th repetition is easy, it is time to either add more repetitions, or increase the resistance. If you can’t complete at least 6 reps with good form, the resistance is too much – switch to a more elastic tube.



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