That's Fit

Here are some "kick butt" tips for keeping fit, active and regret free on the Fourth of July from KickYourButtIntoGear.com. As KickYourButtIntoGear.com is owned and managed by a fellow expert in the field of fitness, Exercise Physiologist, Tracy Benham ... the tips are awesome advice for you and you family to adhere to!

• Sports and summertime go together. Plan an activity early in the day. Play baseball, touch football; go to the local pool or beach.
• Get outside early and see if you can think of and do more than four activities before four o'clock to celebrate the Fourth.
• Eat a bowl of fruit before you head for the barbecue goodies. Tons of fruits are in season. Make a Fourth of July fruit cocktail. Blueberries, raspberries, strawberries...
• Use a plate. You will be less tempted to mindlessly snack.
• Skip the cheese and the Mayo on your burger and load up on lettuce tomatoes, pickles, onions and relish.
• Alternate cocktails and other caloric beverages with a glass of water. Or ... just avoid the high calorie beverages all together!

Jack Black might not be the laughable, lovable lug we've come to know for long. No doubt he'll remain laughable and lovable, but the comedian decided it was time to lose some weight after seeing his bare tush on the big screen in Margot at the Wedding.

I can see where that would be some motivation.

Anyway, Jack has joined a gym and is cutting down on fast foods. Though a big part of the priority is to look better, he's interested in health as well, saying "I want to feel good too. Now, if I eat a cheeseburger and fries, it tastes so good at the time and then right after it's like, 'What did I do? Why?'"

Now, as a father of two, I'm sure health is more important to him than ever, so I'm going to wish him all the best on his new, healthy lifestyle.

It's that time of year. We can't wear sweaters that hang low and cover our rear-ends anymore. Shorts and swimsuits draw some attention to parts of our body that, well, we might rather nobody pay attention to. AOL Body has a series of exercises designed to help you get a better backside:

• Hydrants. Kneeling on your elbows and knees, you'll alternately lift legs to the side.
• Bridges. Lying on your back with your knees bent, you'll tighten your buttocks and lift your backside from the floor.
• Squats. Standing with feet hip-width apart, you'll squat down (as if sitting on a chair) and slowly stand back up.
• Sumo Squats. Standing with feet a bit wider than hip-width apart, hold your arms out and in front of your chest. Squat low enough for buttocks to drop below the knees.

Check out AOL Body's slideshow for photos and details on each exercise.

Eva Longoria Parker's booty didn't happen by accident. The petite actress actively works to make sure she keeps a little junk in the trunk. Her trainer, Patrick Murphy, said that Eva does a variety of exercises that work her glute muscles from all different angles in order to get her rear rockin' -- just like regular people. Nice to know it's not all genetics!

Jodie Sweetin (you know, the infamous middle child, Stephanie Tanner, from Full House), is a new mom, and she's acting as a guest blogger at OK! Magazine to "blog about her trials, travails and triumphs as she works hard to get back to into her pre-baby shape."

She wants to lose 25 or 30 pounds of extra weight, and in addition to getting her meals from Nutri-System, she's incorporating a new fitness routine. Can't you just picture her yelling back at her trainer, "How rude!"?

Have fitness questions? Fitz has your answer. Our ThatsFit.com fitness expert -- and now your own virtual personal trainer -- will help you get fit, increase your overall health and do it in a fun way. Drop your questions here in the Comments section below and we'll choose two per week to publish on That's Fit! Learn more about Fitz here.

Q. Hey Fitz. I'm heading out for a week's vacation on a cruise ship next month, and worried that once again I'll gain almost ten pounds while gone. That's what I've done the last few times I've gone on a cruise. How can I get around it? There is awesome food everywhere! Susan.

A. Susan, Susan, Susan. I'm shaking my head. The deal with vacations, cruises especially, is that they're a time for you to relax, get away from the daily grind and have some fun. Pigging out and gorging are simply not what you should be focusing on...wherever you are! Yes, there is a lot of tasty food on cruise ships. There is also a lot of yummy things available at your local grocery store every single day! That doesn't' mean you should run through the aisles like a lunatic shoving everything you can get your hands on into your mouth. Just because food is THERE, just because food is FREE, doesn't mean you have to eat it.

Running off to a seven o'clock meeting tonight, only an hour after getting back from work? Have to shuttle the kids off to soccer practice, but still have to squeeze in a trip to the grocery store, dry cleaners, and the bank some time in between? The list of daily obligations can go on and on, can't it? This is probably why working out may never seem to make it into your daily routine -- It Doesn't Fit!!

This may very well be the case; or, perhaps more accurately, it just may seem like it's the case. Despite what many so-called fitness gurus may tell you, it's not necessary to spend half your life in a gym in order to get in better shape. In fact, working out for over an hour per day can lead to the release of a greater amount of cortisol, a hormone that can actually cause you to gain weight.

Okay ... talk, talk, talk. That's all I've done so far. How about something more substantial, Chris? Sure thing. Here's an exercise you can do that will work just about your entire body. Best of all, you can squeeze it into those in those tiny spaces that exist between junior's academic decathlon quarter-finals and your evening conference call with the folks in the Houston branch who want to discuss the new product roll-out (don't ask ... this scenario was just the first to pop into my head).

What to know just how perfect your butt is? I don't. But for those who are curious, there's an actual formula for grading the female derriere.

Developed by Dr. David Holmes, a psychology lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, and his team of British academics, this mathematical -- but also pretty subjective -- formula will tell you exactly how flawless your bum really is. It goes like this: (S+C) x (B+F) / (T-V). It's not as hard as it looks.

Translation: First, a woman must assess her assets on a scale of 1 to 20 (1 is worst; 20 is best) in the following categories.

S = overall shape (a ripe peach being just about right)
C = circularity (rounder is better)
B = bounciness (less wobble is preferred)
F = firmness (too much push to that cushion loses points)
T = skin texture (no cellulite, please)

Then she must calculate V, which is the ratio of her hips to waist. Then she simply does the math and determines how close she is to 80 -- a perfect score.

I'm not sure this little math problem does much for the scientific community. But it could be useful for comparison purposes if you're in the market for fine-tuning your physique. So if you need a little motivation -- perhaps you're a 60 and want to upgrade to a 70 -- this might do it for you.

Are you a squatter? No, not someone who illegally takes up residence on someones property and then refuses to leave. What I'm asking is if you are a fan of the exercise, the squat. If so, I have a great fit tip for you.

Come to think of it, it's a great fit tip for anyone who performs this exercise, not just those who enjoy doing it. At any rate, this little variation to the movement can help recruit more of the muscle fibers in your glutes, which are actually among your strongest muscles. Enough talking, here's the tip.

When you are completing the concentric phase of the lift (this is the part when you're standing back up), imagine that you are squeezing a piece of paper in between your glutes. Strange, I know, but effective. Well, more like butt effective. Anyway, before I completely revert back to being a 12-year-old, pretend that you must hold the paper in place with your butt cheeks. Don't worry, nobody will know that you're thinking this, so you don't have to feel weird about it. Getting this extra squeeze in will help firm and tone your derriere (see, now I'm purposely using the most adult terms possible).

When it comes to working out, I definitely prefer cardio to weights. Don't get me wrong, I do the weights, they're just not my favourite. I prefer to pop in my headphone, blare the tunes on my iPod and run my worries away on the treadmill. Yes, weights are important, but cardio is also important, so don't feel bad if you're a fellow cardio junky -- it's definitely one of the better habits to have.

There are plenty of ways to get your cardio in, but the most popular cardio exercises at the gym seem to revolve around the treadmill, the elliptical trainer, the stationary bike, the recumbent bike and the Stairmaster. Which one do you love the most? Or at least tolerate the most?

Have fitness questions? Fitz has your answer. Our ThatsFit.com fitness expert -- and now your own virtual personal trainer -- will help you get fit, increase your overall health and do it in a fun way. Drop your questions here in the Comments section below and we'll choose two per week to publish on That's Fit! Learn more about Fitz here.

Q. Dear Fitz, I want to take one of the BOSU classes at my gym, but I've never done it before and I'll feel like a total dork if I bust my butt on one of those things. Plus I'm a guy. Mostly girls take those classes. Should I bother? Eric.

A. Ahhh! Eric, you are too cute. First of all. The BOSU is a balance tool and is designed to make people wobbly. Until that is, they earn the strength and control to not only stand on top of it, but do some tricks too. Second. You can stand in the back of the classroom if you don't want to be a spectacle. Third. Most people in a BOSU class are too concerned with their own balance to have the time and ability to look at what anyone else is doing.

So low brow, I know. But my sister sent her fabulous fitness trainer counterpart (me) this ridiculous photo today and I had to share it with you. I suppose, bubblegum could be bad for more than just your teeth!

I've never looked at the stability ball this way before, but I promise I will never look at it any other way again!

One of my favorite colleagues in the fitness industry, Tracy Benham, M.E.S.S. has just launched a spectacular program designed to keep you on track and maybe even get you fitter for the holidays. HolidayBootCamp.com offers a free e-course jam packed with the best information from degreed and experienced fitness professionals (including myself) who are dying to change your life.

You'll receive a daily Kick in the Butt via email to keep you on track, and train your brain to make the best of your body. Ready for real-deal gimmick free fitness advice? Sign up at HolidayBootCamp.com,

This week, I'm going to talk about something controversial: Butts. Everyone has one, and they vary from person to person -- some are small, some are large, some are extra, extra large. Some are flat, some are round and ... well, you get the picture. And when it comes to butts, some think that bigger is better (Sir Mixalot is one obvious example) -- some even get butt implants to fill out their derriere. Me, I don't know if I'm in the 'bigger is better' school of thought, but I do think that a toned bum is the way to go.

So, in honour of making your backside look as good as it possibly can in that Christmas dress, here are a few ways to shape up your tush.

I just finished reading a feature on Kelly Ripa in Fitness magazine. The focus of the article is on Kelly's new fit body and her favorite workouts. But of course, when it comes to Ripa, we can always expect the unexpected.

Kelly says she wears jeans that are very tight in the butt, because they give her some extra lift. She wants her jeans to smoosh her cheeks together and raise em up. I've never actually thought about jeans that way, but the idea has the capacity to make sense.

Just be careful when you're trying on denim that the jeans squish you up, and don't smoosh you down. Flat fannies are not so hot!

I've always been skeptical of workouts that promise results in short amounts of time -- it just doesn't seem possible, does it? But the truth is, if you work out hard, a short workout can be more effective than a long one that you only do half-heartedly.

My point is, eDiets has put together a set of exercises that they say can get you a better butt in only a minute. A minute? Really? Everyone has an extra minute to spare. The key is resting, or rather a lack or resting -- your one minute will be tough but hey, it's only one minute.

Want to know the workout entails? Click here.