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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......
Apr

27

I’ve taken lots of yoga classes. Lots. They have ranged from challenging, to utterly amazing, and also awfully B-O-R-I-N-G, hard, and frustrating. The difference is in the instructor. The right one will send you off feeling like a taller, tighter, more energetic (yet, strangely relaxed) version of yourself. A not-so-great instructor might send you off feeling no different than when you arrived, and since the whole point of mind-body fitness is to alter both the mental and physical state, you want to enter each class knowing that your hour won’t be wasted. Many of the best instructors are registered through Yoga Alliance.

Yoga Alliance® fulfills the duel function of registering individual yoga teachers and yoga teacher training programs who meet minimum educational standards. Studios employing Registered Yoga Teachers (RYTs) and Experienced Registered Yoga Teachers (E-RYTs) have met the minimum training standards. Studios who employ instructors meeting Yoga Alliance® standards usually note this somewhere on their website or in their marketing materials. You can also do a bit of homework on your own before you take a class.

4 Questions to ask your Yoga Instructor or Studio

1. Yoga Alliance recommends a minimum of 200 hours of training before teaching yoga. If you aren’t sure if your studio’s teachers meet this minimum requirement, ask the studio owner or director whether any of their instructors do. At least three years of regular practice is ideal prior to teaching.

2. Yoga instructors should be comfortable doing the poses. Does the instructor demonstrate all of the poses before queuing the students? Is the instructor dedicated to his/her own yoga practice? How does the instructor further his/her own knowledge and skill level

3. Classes should be small enough that the teacher can get around the room to correct form and alignment. If you have any special needs or health problems that might interfere with safe yoga practice, ask the teacher if she would be willing to show you modifications.

4. A good teacher teaches in “stages,” explaining postures and poses in detail, from the simplest version of the pose, to the most advanced, so that each student in the class can tailor the pose to match their level of training.

Note: A good teacher should be willing to bring new students up to speed, rather than leave them to fend for themselves in a class full of more experienced participants. When you attend a new class or decide to experiment with a different type of yogaM, arrive a bit early, introduce yourself to the instructor, and point out that it is your first class. In most cases, teachers are more than happy to accommodate novice yogis.



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