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leg-related stories

Tight Buns, Lean Thighs and Fresh Air

Fitness

Stadiums are not only fantastic places to watch sports. They're incredible places to work out as well. Tune in to this Fit Kick to find out how to make your lower body tight and your waist waste away.

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3 Quickie Moves to Tighten Your Butt and Legs

Diet & Weight Loss, Fitness

squat signIf you're in search of sexy legs and a curvy can, squeeze these three moves into your workouts a few times each week. In fact, even if you aren't going to do a "full workout," just do these moves and your lower body will shine. I do these often myself and often incorporate them into the training sessions of my personal training clients. Each move works a variety of lower body muscles, and all of them will provide results quite quickly!

Squat Jumps: Squat down like a frog and explosively jump up as high as you can. This exercise will also crank up your heart rate, so begin with several sets of five jumps in a row with a short break in between. Increase your reps each workout.

Walking Lunges: Find a stretch of open space like a sidewalk or group fitness room. Alternating legs, take huge steps forward dropping your back knee close to the ground. Keep your back straight and avoid driving your front knee past your front ankle. Begin with 20 lunges and progress by adding steps or distance each time your train.

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Top 10 thigh exercises

Fitness

woman's thighs in jeansI used to have legs that would stay fit and toned without much specific input from me. Sure they got their workout with cardio and other exercises, but I never did specific strength and toning exercises for my legs. My calves are still hanging tough for me, but the thighs ... well, they're not so agreeable. My thighs seem to be saying "You're in your late 30's and this joke's on you!"

So my thighs have been a target area of sorts for me. It may take some effort, but I'll show them who's boss. I found this series of 10 thigh exercises on Fitness Magazine and it's a good one. It's a good variety of squats, lunges, balance moves, and other exercises. All in all, my thighs are aching from the workout and I can't wait to see the results after including this in my workout routine for a few weeks.

AOL Health has more leg exercises for you to try.

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Back yard squatting

Diet & Weight Loss, Fitness

I was able to coax my littlest guy into a jog stroller recently so I could walk the hilly streets in my neighborhood, but I'm not always so lucky. Usually, he bucks the system and refuses to tag along. He and his brother don't love the gym childcare center either. And when I hop on my treadmill at home, it's like an invitation for my guys to start making demands -- they want snacks, want to play a game, need help with something or other -- and if they're not making demands, they're fighting, which isn't too conducive to focusing on exercise. Needless to say, kids and exercise are not always compatible in my house, unless I find a way to combine the two without being so obvious about it. The other day, I found a way.

We were all playing in the back yard when it hit me. My back yard is perfect. It's big, it's fenced, and my kids are completely content in their little slice of nature. Just then, I started squatting. So did Joey, my seven-year-old. Then I did some lunges. I started mid-yard and worked my way all the way to the fence and back. Joey led the way, knocking out his lunges with a speed I've never known. Then I did some leg lifts and used our sliding glass door as a mirror -- I could see my reflection clearly and watched my form the whole time. I'd lost Joey as a workout partner by this time -- he transitioned into a Spiderman game -- but I kept at my workout until my legs felt like Jell-O. The next day, I felt every move I'd made.

Now that I've given this back yard thing some thought, I realize I can do some BOSU work out there too. I can hook my resistance bands to the swing set, lift my light little weights out yonder, even run mini-laps in the grass -- all while my kids romp around in the great outdoors. If I feel an extra jolt of energy, I can join in the Spiderman games too.

Ouch! Growing pains or RLS?

Diet & Weight Loss, Nutrition & Supplements

Sometimes, my kids tell me their legs hurt. Once, Joey even claimed he couldn't walk. He sat still all day and I carried him to the playroom, the bathroom, his bed. A trip to the pediatrician turned up nothing but the old standby: Growing pains. He must be growing, the doc told us. A day later, Joey was back to his usual antics.

When kids begin reaching adolescence, we'd be wise to not dismiss leg pain -- because it could be restless leg syndrome (RLS), a neurological condition affecting about 2 percent of children. Signs of RLS include leg discomfort that interferes with sleep but improves with movement and a tingling or itchy bug-crawling feeling. Since RLS can be genetic, tell your doctor if anyone in your family has the condition.

Better sleep habits and minimizing TV and computer time before bed can help milder RLS cases. But if these strategies don't work, be sure to see a pediatric sleep specialist, a developmental pediatrician, or a pediatric neurologist who can help you chart a course toward pain-free legs.

For more information about children and RLS, visit rls.org.

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Ask Fitz! Your Fitness Questions Answered--Training with Arthritis & Doggie Fitness

Healthy Habits, Womens Health, Ask Fitz!, Obesity, Diet & Weight Loss, Fitness, Celebs & Entertainment, Motivation, Nutrition & Supplements, Men's Health

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. Hi Fitz. I have a question in regards to squats and lunges for working out. I am 29 years old and last year I was told that I had arthritis under my knee caps, so I should no longer do squats and lunges as part of my work outs. Is there a way to modify these exercises or something else that I can do that is just as effective? Thanks, Mindy

A. Hello Miss Mindy. Great question. Arthritis can be very frustrating, and I'm sorry you're having to deal with it! Squats and lunges are specifically stressful to a fragile knee, because they require you to place about 100% of your body weight on them while performing each exercise. Not a good idea when the knee is already sore.

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Need a remedy? Try vinegar

Diet & Weight Loss

My grandma was a sucker for vinegar. She used it for everything, even had a listing of how to fix just about any ailment with a touch of the stuff.

While modern medicine may not endorse my grandma's practices, vinegar does have a long history of alleged healing. Believed to help cholera, urinary infections, heartburn, brittle nails, and more, vinegar has quite a reputation.
Among its powers, it can potentially reach those stubborn aches and pains. Here's how.

Backaches
: A tub full of hot water, two cups of vinegar, and 30 minutes is all you need to relieve a minor backache. It will soothe sore muscles too.

Headaches: Lie down, apply a compress dipped in a mixture of half warm water and half vinegar to the temples, and feel that headache slip away.

Leg Cramps: A soft cloth soaked in full-strength vinegar and used as a compress can ease the pain of a leg cramp.

Muscle Sprain: A paste of white wine, vinegar, and bran can help a recent sprain.

Of course, if any such health issues persist beyond your vinegar treatments, please see your physician. If they do not persist, however, perhaps vinegar is all it's cracked up to be.

For more vinegar cures, click here.

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Advice is plentiful on shin splint topic

Fitness

I wrote the other day about my recently-developed shin splints and asked readers to send their words of wisdom my way. A few did. Then I sent an e-mail to my friends and family about the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer 5K event I hope to run in less than one week. Hoping my leg pain doesn't prevent me from pounding the pavement in the name of breast cancer awareness, I was in search of even more advice. I got it.

It's pretty good stuff, all the insight I've gathered. And I'm sharing it with you, just in case you need to know, today or in the future. Here goes.

A friend and neighbor says, "Ice bath for about 20 minutes twice a day. Use a large (very large!) bucket full of ice water. Submerge the shins. It only feels like they might just freeze off for the first 3 or 4 minutes, then it gets so numb you can't feel it. Good luck!"

Help Wanted: Shin splints running the show

Fitness

Ouch! I have shin splints. It's a common running-related injury with the official name medial tibial stress syndrome. This highly medical term really just refers to pain along the shinbone (tibia), the long bone in the front of the lower leg. The pain is caused by an overload on bones and tissues. The bad news is that the discomfort I feel when I run is slowing me down. The good news is that my problem can be alleviated.

Rest is one treatment plan. I don't mean giving up on exercise altogether, but switching to a low-impact program is certainly wise. I could try swimming, biking, walking, and weight training, for example, while my legs heal. I can ice the affected area for 15 to 20-minute intervals, four times per day, for several days. I can elevate my shins above my heart, take an over-the-counter pain reliever, make sure my shoes fit my foot, my stride, and my sport, look into arch supports to disperse stress on my shinbones, strengthen the area with exercises such as toe raises, and then gradually resume running. I can also broaden my running horizons -- which I plan to do starting this week.

A free series is being offered here in town to prep area runners for a local marathon in February. I don't have any big plans to run 26.2 miles anytime soon, but there's no doubt I can learn a thing or two about proper running. So I'm headed to the first seminar on Tuesday. The topic: Core Strengthening, Form Running, and Dynamic Flexibility. I'll be back to report on what I learn. In the meantime, tell me what you do about shin splints. Any words of wisdom about how you prevent or treat this irritating injury?

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Earn sexy abs like Usher's

Womens Health, Celebrities and Entertainment, Diet & Weight Loss, Fitness, Celebs & Entertainment, Nutrition & Supplements, Men's Health

One of the most popular questions I'm asked as a fitness trainer is "how do I get abs like Usher's? You know.....I want the grooves inside his hip bones!" Ahhhhhhh yes. I know exactly what they're talking about, and yes.....I too love those abs. In fact, the particular body parts folks are truly desperate for are his hip flexors and psoas. Mmmmm yummy psoas.

Usher is the role model for a sexy midsection, and if you're eager to have yours look like his......you're going to have to earn it. Truly earn it. Just being skinny isn't enough. Just doing crunches isn't enough. You're going to have to work! This is a two factor type accomplishment. First of all, you'll have to be pretty lean. If you're not lean, we probably won't be able to see any of your muscles with such great definition. So dropping pounds and body fat may be in your future.

The second component to earning abs like Usher's is working the proper muscles. Crunches will never ever give you such provocative hips. You're going to have to do more. Those interior hip muscles are responsible for lifting your legs, so that's what you are going to have to do. But, simple leg lifts are not enough. You are going to have to strain the hip flexors and psoas severely. Not in a dangerous way, just in a "ahhhh! this is tough" way. I recommend doing double leg lifts on the roman chair or while hanging from a pull-up bar. To do this, hang from a bar and lift both legs to at least a 90 degree angle at the same time. Hold that lift as long as possible and lift. If this is too difficult at first (which it probably will be) do a double knee lift instead.

Get sexy thighs now, before the real heat hits

Fitness

As we head into the dead of summer the weather gets hotter and the shorts get shorter. There will come a day when the capris just aren't cutting it anymore and you'll have to bust out the shorts, so maybe now is a good time to start doing some thigh moves in preparation. You don't need weights (although you can add them in for a more challenging workout) and the only equipment you have to have for these moves is yourself, a chair, and a broomstick. Click here for instructions on how to do the thigh-toning Hack Squat and Standing Chair Leg Extension and get yourself some sexy summer thighs!

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Starting from scratch for leaner legs

Fitness

Looking for leaner legs? Who isn't these days. Even if you're not necessarily looking to lose weight (and who isn't these days!) you'd probably still like some more toning and definition to go with all your cute shorts, skirts, and swimsuits waiting to be worn this upcoming summer season.

There are a lot of leg exercises out there, but some of the old staples like squats and lunges might be too strenuous if you're just getting started or have a lot of weight to lose. This 3 step plan intended to be added to whatever you're already doing will help you not only lose weight, but also shape your legs along the way without worry about over-doing it or getting hurt.

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Bubblewrap used to make prosthetic limbs!

Reviews & Products, Alternative & Green Health, Nutrition & Supplements

A 15 year old kid in Nashville, TN has invented an artificial skin-like covering for prosthetic limbs using bubble wrap. The kid, Grayson Rosenburger, found his inspiration through a combination of his parents' work with prosthetic patients in Africa and the Sealed Air Corp's inaugural Bubble Wrap competition for young inventors. Many amputees in Africa can't afford anything but the metal rod version of a prosthesis, but later this year Grayson plans to travel with his parents to start putting his invention to use in the real world by offering people his low-cost bubble wrap alternative.

I spend my time popping the bubbles and giggling anytime I get a hold of bubble wrap packaging, so it's good to know there's people out there doing things that are seriously worthwhile!

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Faster healing for common injuries

Alternative & Green Health

In today's fast paced world, getting hurt or injured can put a serious kink in your plans. Whether it's something major like a broken bone, or minor like a paper cut, I'm sure most of us would agree that the faster it heals the better.

So, what if you do break your arm? Believe it or not, there is something you can do to help that cast or sling come off faster than it would with usual methods: ask your doctor about ultrasound therapy. Ultrasonic waves stimulate cell growth in the broken bone, and can save you as much as one third the time, or 2 months, of invalid status.

Other remedies for speedy recovery? Put antiperspirant on a nick from shaving, have steak and cranberry juice for dinner to cure a urinary tract infection, and moisturize moisturize moisturize a skin scrape. Click here for other creative healing ideas for things like headaches, blisters, and side stitches.

I'm seriously curious now if any of these really work?

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