In a workout rut? Exercise like a superhero.

Drop and give me 10 -- because push-ups are one of the most effective exercises out there.

This may sounds like an April Fool's joke, but I kid you not: In Santa Monica, a man was recently arrested for doing push-ups and sit-ups on a popular running and jogging path. What's the problem here? There's just one issue -- a sign that clearly states that running and jogging only are allowed on the strip of land.

OK, I guess the better question is: Why? Years ago, the running-only rule was established to keep homeless people and vagabonds from camping out on the strip of land so legally speaking, the police do have a right to stop people from exercising. Still, it's awfully silly to arrest someone for doing something good. Couldn't they implement some sort of 'no stopping' rule?

(via Calorie Lab)

Source

Source

Curious to know how celebrities squeeze fitness into their daily lives? Want to know the secrets of the stars? Bi-weekly, our That's Fit fitness expert Fitz sits down with the celebs we want to know more about, and digs out their great and not-so-great methods to staying healthy.

My guest this week is a man who's made a career out of crashing and smashing both people and things. What fun! Ron Pitts' first career had him smashing into other large men as an NFL defensive back. This lead him into his second career as a Fox Sports Sportscaster, a job that kept talking about other men crashing into each other. Most recently, he's joined the team at Discovery Channel as host of the thrilling Destroyed in Seconds. As you can imagine, there's lots of crashing, exploding and worse during this exciting show.

Beyond all of this, Ron has pursued fitness for his whole life and after 17 years retired from the NFL, the guy is still pretty buff. He's a working father and husband, though, and struggles just like every other man in this world to squeeze it all in. Read on and learn how you can manage your life and rock your body too.

Fitz: You've been out of the NFL for 17 years but still look like you could step on any field and compete today. How do you do it?

Jack LaLanne is known as the godfather of fitness, but don't think he's the only person in his family leading the fitness revolution. Chris LaLanne, Jack's grand-nephew, is spreading the word about the importance of fitness, and whether it's because of his famous last name or the fact that he really knows what he's talking about, people are listening.

He's developed a perfect workout formula, and it's not that different from the kind of workout Jack himself would prescribe. Here are five workout tips:

• Jump rope. It's cheap, easy and effective.
• Mix it up. Routine and boredom will be a drain on your energy level.
• Stick to the basics: Push-ups, sit-ups, lunges and so on.
• Make it intense. It's better to do less reps of more weight than vice versa.
• Stretch before and after every workout.

There's more where that came from -- click here for more tips.

Source

How many push-ups can you do? I'm guessing you probably can't do as many as you want to be able to do. I feel your pain -- push-ups are hard! It took me months of training before I was any good at them.

What would you say, then, if I told you that in 6 weeks, you could do 100 consecutive push-ups? I'm being serious here -- The Hundred Push-Ups Training Plan is a detailed plan that will have you cruising through the push-ups portion of your workout in no time ... even if you can barely manage a few at a time.

Head over to the website for more details on the plan ... and then get to it!

(Via Fitsugar)

Source

Sometimes, we're our own worst enemies. We can come up with hundreds of excuses to not exercise. "It's raining outside." "Gyms are too expensive." "I don't want to buy/don't have room for fitness equipment." The list of excuses can go on and on. But there is one reason to exercise that totally trumps any excuse you can come up with: your well-being. Exercise will improve your health, boost your energy, help achieve/maintain a healthy weight, reduce your risk of many chronic conditions, and manage your stress level.

Lauren from laurensfitness.com gives us a list of 20 exercises you can do -- without equipment, without a gym membership, and without weights. She walks you through different varieties of squats, lunges, push ups, and dips. Though Lauren admits it's not the ideal workout, it will do in a pinch. So even if you're busy or whatever other I-can't-exercise reasons you can come up with, this is a workout you can do... no excuses.

Source

The push-up is one of those exercises that's enjoying a boom in popularity these days for one simple reason: it works. And it's for this reason that I do push-ups regularly. Or at least I try to--sometimes it's harder than it looks. But I recently discovered something about my push-ups that's helped me get a handle on them.

For months, out of fear of hurting my wrists, I insisted on spreading my hands only as wide as the short end of my fitness mat was in order to cushion them properly. But my fitness teacher recently alerted me to the fact that my hands were too close together -- they should be as wide as your elbows, and I had mine at shoulder width. Since I figured this out, push-ups have been much easier on me.

Yeah, I know. You probably already know that your hands should be wide. My point is this: We all get used to doing certain exercises a certain way, and sometimes we forget to check what the proper way to do them is. So if you're struggling with the push-up, I would recommend checking out eHow's instructions on the proper push-up technique.

Source

When you're stuck in a rut sometimes all you need to do to get back on track is to switch things up and try something new. I've tried a lot of different ways to workout, like with a stability ball, resistance bands, free-weights/dumbbells, a stepper, etc, but here's something I have yet to try: a workout using a foam roller.

Foam rollers can help with strength, balance, and even stress relief. Foam rollers themselves are very similar to the foam "noodles" kids use in swimming pools, but they're thicker and shorter. The primary benefit of adding foam rollers to your workout is an increase in calories burned and better core strengthening due to the balance challenges added to traditional moves like squats, arm exercises, and even massages. Try some of these foam roller moves from Alive.com and see if you don't feel muscles working that you didn't know you had!

Source

These days, we have access to an overwhelming amount of fitness gadgets and gizmos, not to mention snazzy programs and classes that incorporate everything from martial arts to hula hoops to modern dances and the like. But, like many things in life, we are often exposed to so many flashy and new ways of doing things that we eventually come back to the inevitable truth: that the old way of doing things is sometimes the best way. Another way of putting it? Simple is best.

Don't mistake me for old fashioned--I've tried the super cardio hip hop dance kickboxing classes, and some of them really do work at whipping you into shape (and they're fun too!) But at the end of the day, some of the best exercises are the ones that we, and our parents, and our parents' parents all learned in school: Things like running, jump-rope, calinsthetics and so on.