Not As Sweet As Sugar

If you want to sabotage your health as quickly as possible, eat lots of refined sugar! Sugar should be classified as a poison. I know. It tastes wonderful. But if you thought about what is was doing to your body, it wouldn't seem so sweet.

Here's a nice list of seven effects of sugar:, with thanks to Diana Walker and her blog.

1. Sugar Depletes Body of Vitamins and Nutrients
Because it depletes the body of vitamins and nutrients, sugar suppresses the immune system, leaving the body little room to defend itself.

2. Sugar Feeds Cancer Cells
Sugar feeds cancer cells and has been linked with the development of cancer of the breast, ovaries, prostate, rectum, pancreas, biliary tract, lung, gallbladder and stomach.

3. Sugar Links to Tooth Decay
Sugar has a high acidic content and as a result, it has a direct link to tooth decay and other dental problems.

4. Sugar Links to Diabetes and Blood Sugar Fluctuations
Refined sugar has a direct affect on your blood sugar levels and is a main cause of diabetes.

5. Sugar and Obesity
With the zero nutritional value and no fiber content in sugar, it’s clearly implicated in obesity, which can cause many other illnesses and conditions. .

6. Sugar and Anxiety Disorders
Sugar can cause a rapid rise of adrenaline, hyperactivity, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and crankiness in children and even adults. One of the first things that a person diagnosed with anxiety disorder is told to eliminate is refined sugar.

7. Sugar and the Aging Process
Another result that stems from the fact that sugar has no nutritional value, is that it accelerates the aging process. In order for a body to remain healthy it must have the necessary vitamins and minerals needed to maintain vigor and energy. Again, sugar is not only void of nutrients, but it also zaps the body of the good stuff that is already there.

I find sugar addicting. When I eat it, I crave it--every day. That's why I've given it up.

Of course, I still eat lots of unprocessed, unrefined sugar from fresh fruits and vegetables. These don't have the same effect on the body.

How can you give up sugar? Slowly. Start reducing your intake of sugar gradually. You'll find that foods with a lot of sugar start tasting too sweet. Then you know you're on the right path.

Another great strategy is to look at a doughnut or a piece of cake or a candy bar and ask yourself if you would feed it to your dog if you cared about his/her health. Aha!

You can also think about how you are undoing all the good things you have done for your body by eating this poison.

Fitness and sugar don't go together. When you crave sweets, eat a banana, prunes or a luscious peach. It's not deprivation. It's delicious.

Fat and Fitness

Fat is necessary to optimal health. That's a fact. However, the kind of fat you eat can make a difference between dumpy and defined.

Man-made fats, trans fats, are the worst. Don't even go near them. You wouldn't eat poisonous mushrooms. Think of trans fats as about the same except you won't die quite as fast.

Animal fat is basically bad. It causes inflammation, which puts you at risk for all kinds of disease, and does not contribute to getting lean. Inflammation seems to be at the root of just about every cardiovascular and neurological disease there is.

Should you eliminate all animal fat? That's up to you. Personally, I eat an egg every now and then, tiny quantities of goat cheese (naturally low in fat) and low-fat feta cheese. That's it.

Now to the good news. Many plant-based fats are great for your health and for helping you lose weight and stay lean.

Peanut butter not only helps you lower cholesterol and reduce heart disease risk; it can also help you lose weight by helping your feel full longer.

Avocados are another great food full of monunsaturated fat that appear to protect your heart and lower your risk of certain types of cancer.

Olive oil, of course, is another healthy fat that should definitely be part of your diet.

Omega-3, the fat found in fish and walnuts, seems to actually help your body burn fat.

To learn more, check out these articles:
"5 foods that should have a place in your diet"
"How Fats Help You Lose Fat"
"Good Fats Make You Healthier and Help You Lose Weight"
"Lose Weight Quickly & Easily By Getting Fat"

Enjoy foods with healthy fats, and know that they are helping you get that lean look you want.

How Do You View Food?

My fitness idol, The Godfather of Fitness Jack LaLanne, famously said, "The food you eat today is walking and talking tomorrow."

It's true. You can tell what people eat just by looking at them, once you become attuned to how what you eat affects your body.

When I start talking about all the things I don't eat, people immediately start thinking, "Oh! I could never deprive myself like that. That's not really living."

What they don't understand is that humans develop and lose tastes for food. What you tend to eat a lot, you tend to prefer. What you don't eat, you eventually stop missing and may even come to dislike. When other people think it's deprivation to turn down a piece of pizza, my response is different. I think about how terrible I'll feel if I eat something loaded with fat from cheese, meat and the added oil poured on top and in the crust. Since my body is not used to it, I would be sick for hours, if not days. Why would I want to eat something that would make me sick? How could I look at the pizza and think, "Yum"?

The truth is that Americans eat foods that they wouldn't feed to their pets. Yet they somehow think that foods loaded with fat, sugar and salt somehow constitute the good life. Where did we get this notion in our society?

I wish I could tel you can eat all the foods you currently eat and get in terrific shape just by strength training. Unfortunately, I would be lying. What I can tell you is that you can learn to love foods that make you feel and look good.

My husband has a measure of the foods we should eat. His theory is that if he can eat a regular meal and then do a hard workout without feeling lethargic or sick, he's eating the right food. When he ate bad food, it was hard for him to work out. No more.

What should you be eating? Stay tuned.

Gaining Definition

I worked out for more than 20 years and only had minimal definition. I always looked soft. Why? Because I had body fat covering up all those muscles I had built up.

The only way to get definition, to be able to see your highly toned muscles, is to reduce body fat. And, sorry ladies, the only way to reduce body fat is to change your diet.

I thought that if you ate fewer calories, it didn't matter so much what you ate (as long as you tried to eat a relatively healthy diet). But a personal experiment has convinced me that this is not the case. What you eat is as important as how much you eat.

About six and a half years ago, my weight started to creep up. I was, quite honestly, appalled. And I was determined I was not going to let the trend continue. Through lots of experimentation, I reduced my food portions and then started eliminating bad foods one by one.

Although my goal was to lose the seven pounds or so I had gained in the previous year, do you know what happened? I kept losing, not only pounds but body fat. Instead of seven pounds, I lost nearly 30, and I wasn't even trying. I have since kept off the weight. More important, I have completely changed my body. All my life, I had a healthy layer of body fat. It was as if it melted off. A woman who hadn't seen me at the gym for some months said she didn't recognize me. Even my husband of 20 years said my body had been completely transformed; he never realized just how small I was under that layer of fat.

How did I do it? I'll save that for upcoming posts.

Stay tuned.

Cardio Options

Even though I believe that strength training is the top priority for fitness, I do think that cardiovascular/aerobic training is essential, too. It's good for long-term brain functioning, endurance and, of course, a strong cardiovascular system.

In my opinion, it doesn't matter what you do, as long as you enjoy it and get your heart rate up for a sustained period.

As for me, since I can't run because of bad feet, my favorite cardio workout is the stairs. I just happen to live in a 15-story building, so I have been walking the stairs once a week: four times all the way up and down. On two other days of the week, I'll ride a stationary bike and use an elliptical machine. I choose the piece of equipment depending upon my mood. This gives me lots of variety. I never have to do the same thing twice in a week, unless I choose to do so.

My rule of thumb is to get my heart rate up to training level (between 65 and 85% of maximum) and keep it there for about 15 minutes. I add five minutes of warm-up and two minutes to cool down, for a total of 22 minutes. This is just about how long my four flights of stairs takes.

Keep in mind that a weight training workout can have a cardio dimension if you don't rest between sets.

Pick your favorite way to get your blood pumping and do it at least three days a week. It may help prevent dementia in old age, and it will definitely make you feel good right now.

What Not to Wear...at the Gym

Here's a tip for any woman who is not under the age of 30 and in fantastic shape. Never wear light gray, white or other light-colored form-fitting pants at the gym (or anywhere else for that matter). This has nothing to do with your workout. It has to do with saving you from embarrassment. If you are tempted to wear any of these light-colored form-fitting pants, first take a look in the rear-view mirror. The sight may not be pretty.

Let's face it. Even if you are in great shape, time and gravity have a way of wreaking havoc on our bodies. Dimples, rolls, wrinkles and sagging are not the features we want to accentuate.

Same goes for the legs. If your legs have that weathered look, ditch the shorts. Go for cropped-length or long pants.

Buy some nice dark-colored pants and do yourself, and everyone else in the gym, a favor.

Working Out When You're Not in the Mood

Keeping motivated to work out is hard work in itself. There are always days when we've had a hard day at work, we've had a bad experience with a friend or spouse or we are just plain-old lazy. How do you keep up your motivation?

Motivation is irrelevant. You must believe you have to work out to stay in optimum condition. Do you have to get motivated to brush your teeth or wash your hair? No. You do it because you know you have to.

Exercise is the same. It's essential to living a healthy life. Go and do it whether you're in the mood or not. Once you start training, you're likely to get into the mood and have a great workout. Sometimes it's just a matter of getting up off the couch and moving.

There may be days when you are just going through the motions. That's OK. What's important is that a mediocre workout is better than no workout. You're likely to have a great workout the next time.

If you have a training partner, that helps. My husband and I have been working out together since we met nearly 26 years ago. But each of us would work out on our own anyway. It's that important to us.

Find a buddy if it helps. Regardless, get up and get to the gym. Chances are, once you're there, you'll be glad you went.

Water Bottles & Workouts

Look around you at the gym. You'll see a slew of people carrying water bottles. Carefully analyze who is carrying a water bottle and who isn't. You'll notice that the most serious people, especially the guys in the free weight area, don't have a water bottle.

I'm not sure, but I think women's magazines have scared women into thinking that if they don't keep drinking water every couple of minutes, they will become dehydrated and end up in the ER.

Don't get me wrong. Hydration is important. But the truth is that most of us don't exercise hard enough to need constant hydration during an hour or hour-and-a-half workout.

What I see is many people, mostly women, using the water bottle as a crutch. After every set, they stop and drink water. It's a nice way to extend the time between sets and work out less hard. After all, drinking water takes time--just enough time to let your heart rate start to go back to normal and to give the muscles a break. Don't do it!

Here are my tips:

• Drink plenty of water before you go to the gym.
• If you do a cardio workout and you're thirsty afterward, go get a drink from the drinking fountain.
• If you get thirsty while doing your weights, find a good time to take a quick break and get a drink of water...at the water fountain.
  
• Drink water when you get home after your workout.
• Leave the water bottle at home. You don't need one more thing to carry around and put down and pick up constantly.

If you are training hard enough to need constant hydration, I'm impressed. You must be training for a triathlon, the Tour de France or the Olympics. Average gym-goers like me don't sweat enough to warrant the ubiquitous water bottle. In fact, I'll work out a lot less hard if I have to carry the bottle around with me and stop every five minutes to take a drink.

My Favorite Exercises: Reverse Flys

Unfortunately, my current gym has no machine for reverse flys, where you pull the handles from the front of the body outward to the sides. This, of course, is the opposite of flys in which you are bringing your arms in from the sides to in front of your chest.

Maybe it's a good thing my gym decided not to include one of these reverse fly machines because I found a new favorite exercise in reverse flys with dumbbells.

This is a great exercise to work the back. Here's how I like to do them:

• From a standing position, bend over until your torso is almost parallel to the floor and perpendicular to your legs.
• With a dumbbell in each hand, start with the arms hanging straight down.
• With a controlled movement, raise the arms keeping them just slightly bent so you don't hyperextend your elbows. Raise them until they are straight to the sides.
  

As you do this exercise, think about lifting with the elbows and squeezing the shoulder blades together. This will help you focus specifically on the back muscles you're working. Try to keep the abdominal muscles pushing toward the small of your back; this keeps your core strong and steady throughout the exercise.

If you're used to using a machine, or you don't do this exercise at all, give the dumbbell reverse flys a try.

My Favorite Exercises: Back Extension

Chronic back pain is one of the most common complaints in our society. Keeping the lower back muscles strong is one way we can avoid injury to our backs and the resulting pain.

It's hard to find good exercises to work the lower back. Personally, I like to take advantage of the back extension machines found in most gyms. This is one of the few times I prefer a machine, It ensures I control the movement, and I can use weights to increase intensity.

Most of these machines work similarly. You sit on an incline and have a pad behind your shoulders. You complete the exercise by pushing the pad until your back is straight. The important things to keep in mind as you do this exercise are as follows:

• Don't overextend when pushing back. Only push far enough so that your back is straight at the end.
• Go forward as far as possible. This is where you get the benefit of the exercise, moving from the forward position to the straight position.
• Don't use too much weight.
• Use a controlled motion, no momentum. Go slowly.
• Focus on using the muscles of the lower back and not the legs to do the work.
  

Strong muscles support our bodies properly and help prevent injury and pain. Don't focus totally on the abdominals and forget the opposing muscles of the lower back. They work together to keep our core strong.

My Favorite Exercises: 45-Degree Leg Press

Squats are always touted as the greatest exercise for the glutes (rear end) and the entire upper portion of the legs (especially the thighs). Unfortunately, they seem to aggravate my knees. I don't like pain, and I don't like injuries, so I avoid squats.

What's a girl to do? My favorite leg press exercise is done on a 45-degree sled with plates. In this exercise, you are pushing the weights upward while lying on your back rather than pushing the weights horizontally while seated.

Either version of the exercise is good. I simply prefer the 45-degree sled. I feel that I get a slightly better leg workout in this position.

To ensure you use good form and don't injure yourself, follow these guidelines:

• Keep your knees aligned over your toes to prevent knee strain.
• Only bend the knees as much as you can without putting strain on them. You'll have to determine where that point is through careful trial. If you feel a twinge, stop immediately and don't bend that far again. You may also need to lower your weight.
• Extend your legs all the way on the exertion, but never lock your knees.
  
• Keep your feet flat on the platform about shoulder width apart.

Especially if you have knee problems, you want to work to strengthen the muscles around the knees with leg presses, leg extensions and leg curls.

You can exercise injury-free at any age.

Working Out as You Age

As we age, we need to make changes in our workouts. While it's good to push yourself hard, if you injure yourself, you won't be able to work out at all.

The shoulders and knees seem to be most prone to injury from lifting too-heavy weights.

Here are some basic tips to help prevent injury and still get a great workout:

1. Decrease weights and increase repetitions and sets. You can get the same benefit from your weight training with lighter weights if you increase reps and sets. If you do 8 reps, push for 12. If you do two sets now, try three. You should also minimize the time between sets. Keep it to 30 seconds maximum.
   
2. Avoid exercises that put too much stress on joints. For example, I cannot do squats because it hurts my knees. I also cannot do triceps dips (on a bench or a dip machine) because it places too much strain on my shoulders.
   
3. Find exercises that don't put unnecessary strain on joints. Do a leg press machine instead of squats. Do any of a score of triceps exercises (machines, cable pulley, bars or dumbbells) rather than dips. See my post on the triceps rope pushdown.

Don't try to prove anything at the gym. There is no one worth impressing if it leads to injury that sidelines you for months. Be aware of your body's limitations, especially as you get into your late 40s and beyond. You can be buff and injury-free. Just use common sense.

My Favorite Exercises: Triceps Rope Pushdown

Everyone likes to work the biceps. We need to make sure the triceps get equal time. We don't want our arms to be unbalanced.

While there are many triceps exercises (with machines and without), one of my favorites is the triceps rope pushdown done on the the cable pulley machine.

You can do the triceps pushdown with a rigid bar, but the rope gives you an extra bit of work.

Here's how to do the exercise:

1. With the pulley set in a high position (near the top of the machine), attach the rope. The rope attachment should be available in your gym.
2. Holding the rope at about chest level, push down keeping your elbows in and hands close together. Don't let your arms go too high in the bent position; this is too much of a muscle release. The range of motion is in the downward position.
3. At the bottom of the motion, continue to push down, letting the hands extend away from each other toward the outside of your hips. This is the extra push that really works the triceps hard.
4. Return to the starting position, controlling the motion throughout the exercise.

I feel this gives the triceps a much more complete workout through the range of motion rather than restricting the movement to the straight down and up of most triceps machines.

Be sure you keep the shoulders relaxed and pressed down throughout the exercise. You want to work your triceps, not your shoulders and neck.

Try the triceps rope pushdown the next time you're at the gym. See if you agree that it gives your triceps an incredible workout.

My Top Ten Gym Pet Peeves

We're supposed to stay focused on our own workouts at the gym, but let's face it, we can't help but watch other people. I'm the worst offender. Today I'm going to share my top ten pet peeves from the gym.

Pet Peeve #1: People who wear street clothes to the gym. We have functional clothes for a reason. Why do some people insist on wearing jeans or pants and a belt to the gym? Besides restricting your movement, part of your workout is psychological. The right clothes put you in the mood to work out.

Pet Peeve #2: People (usually guys) who sweat all over the machines and don't wipe them off. Enough said!

Pet Peeve #3: The exercisers who do circuits and you have no idea when they are actually finished with a machine. They do one set on one machine, move to another, then another and then go back to the first and start over. We've discussed this before: you get maximum benefit when you do one exercise until failure or inability to use correct form. You can't do that with a circuit. You must do multiple sets of one exercise with minimal rest in between. Which brings me to my next pet peeve.

Pet Peeve #4: Those people who sit on the machines for five minutes between sets. There was one fellow at our gym who actually read magazines and books between sets.

Pet Peeve #5: Following up from the last pet peeve, it drives me crazy when people sit on the machines playing with their iPods and cell phones.

Pet Peeve #6: People who have wear iPods and dance and/or sing during their workouts. They have no idea how loud and annoying they are. You would think they'd be embarrassed.

Pet Peeve #7: Almost as bad as the singers are the grunters. I'm talking about the extraordinarily loud grunters. You can hear them across the gym. It's really not necessary. You can breathe instead of grunting.

Pet Peeve #8: The ones who grunt for the entire neighborhood to hear are usually also the ones who use humongous weights and drop them when they can't do any more reps. I can't tell you how many times I nearly had a heart attack when taken by surprise by crashing weights.

Pet Peeve #9: The people who come in pairs (or packs) and spend most of their time chatting instead of working out. I'm glad they are having a good time, but they are not serious.

Pet Peeve #10: People who have outrageous body odor. No further comment

What are your pet peeves? Post a comment here. It will be fun.

My Favorite Exercises: Bench Press

The bench press is a classic! It's the exercise that never goes out of fashion--with good reason. The bench press works all the muscles of the chest. Since you use a barbell (or dumbbells), you also need to incorporate your core for stability.

I like to do my bench press with a barbell. Almost every gym has benches with racks for the barbell.

Here are some tips to keep in mind as you do bench presses.

Tip #1: Keep your back pushing into the bench. If you try to lift too much weight, you will compensate by arching your back. This places tremendous strain on the back and can cause injury. As you do your press, focus on exhaling and pushing the small of the back toward the bench. Bodybuilders trying to impress often use way too much weight on the bench press. Don't be impressed if you see them arching their backs like crazy. Feel sorry for them and the back pain they may have to endure later.

Tip #2: Relax your shoulders. As I've mentioned before, we tend to transfer our tension to the shoulders. Unless you want to develop bulky muscles around your neck, think about your shoulders relaxing and pulling down.

Tip #3: Choose a natural grip with your hands slightly wider than the shoulders. Adjust until it's comfortable for you. The length of your arms will make a difference.

Tip #4: Exhale as you press up. Inhale as you return.

Tip #5: Use the full range of motion. Lower the bar almost to the chest and raise it until the arms are fully extended without hyperextending the elbows.

If the barbell is too heavy, or you just want variety, you can also do the bench press with dumbbells. The added benefit of using dumbbells is that you have to stabilize both arms individually. You do the exercise exactly the same way except holding a dumbbell in each hand rather than using the barbell.

Keep in mind that most of the barbells in the gym used for the bench press weigh 35 pounds before adding any plates. That may be plenty of weight for you (or even too much to start). Start easy and build up if you have not done classic bench presses before.

Try the bench press as an alternative to the chest press machines at the gym. Don't be intimidated by the free weight area. Most of those muscle-y guys don't know anything you don't. Considering how often they do their exercises incorrectly, they probably know less.

My Favorite Exercises: Iron Cross Two-Arm Cable Curls

Everyone seems to love to do some kind of bicep curl. I have found a new biceps curl exercise that has become one of my favorites: I call it the iron cross two-arm cable curl.

Most biceps curls involve starting with the arms down and then bending the arms to bring the hands to the shoulders. These are great, but they do get boring year after year!

My new favorite bicep curl takes an entirely different tack. Here's how it's done.

1. On the cable pulley machine, set the handles on both sides to be about ear height or a little higher.
2. Standing in the middle, grab both handles and let the arms fully extend straight from your shoulder.
3. Holding the upper arms completely still, bend the arms and bring the hands toward your ears. This is similar to that classic bodybuilder pose to show off the biceps. Say, "Cheese" as you do this.
   
4. Return the arms to the beginning position and repeat.

With the usual dumbbell curls, it's too easy to use momentum and get other muscles involved; i.e., it's easy to cheat. So often, I see this as the exercise people use to try to impress the other gym-goers. They often use dumbbells that are way too heavy and compensate by trying to swing them and contorting their bodies in the strangest fashion.

I like the iron cross cable curl because you are forced to isolate the bicep muscles. It's hard to work anything except the biceps.

Like most other pulley exercises, you may find you need to lower your weights significantly. That's OK. You'll still see the muscles working hard, and you will feel it! If it burns, you're getting a maximum workout. Stop looking at the numbers and focus on how the exercise feels.

Try this cable curl and add some variety to your upper-body workout.

Relax!

One of my pet peeves is watching people at the gym lift up and tense their shoulders while doing upper body exercises. You might see this if someone is doing a seated chest press. The arms go out: everything's just fine. The arms come back: the shoulders suddenly rise up.

The shoulders are the most common place where people transfer their tension. Sometimes they screw up their faces, too. You've probably seen that.

Relax! As you do any exercise, focus intently on the muscles you are working. Try to relax the rest of your body. This will help you isolate the muscles and maximize the benefits of the exercise. It will also help prevent building up unwanted tension and bulk in the shoulders. If you hold too much tension in the neck and shoulders, it also often leads to headaches.

Sometimes we strain so hard, we don't realize what we are doing with out bodies. If necessary, lower your weights, take a step back. Always shoot for good form rather than trying to impress others at the gym with how much you can lift.

One way to make sure you are relaxing is to scrunch up your shoulders purposely. Raise them as high as you can, all the way to your ears. Then let them drop and feel the difference.

Doesn't that feel better already?

My Favorite Exercises: Pulley Fly

Have you ever used the cable pulleys at your gym? If not, you need to give them a try. You can do a wide assortment of exercises with them giving you variety in your workouts. Like free weights, you need to use your core muscles to help stabilize the cables. One of my favorite exercises to do on the cable pulleys is a chest fly. With a mirror right in front of you, you can see all the chest muscles working as you do the exercise. While you can't increase the size of your breasts, you can build the muscles of the chest to add a little heft. It will give the illusion of being a little better endowed. You'll look better in low-cut dresses and blouses, too. A strong body always looks good! To perform the chest fly properly, you'll need a cable pulley machine that allows you to stand in the middle and work both sides at once.

1. Make sure you attach handles for gripping.
2. Set the handles so that they are about level with or just above shoulder-height when you are standing.
3. Set your weights to be the same on both sides. You may not be able to go too high. I do these with my weights on 10 pounds.
4. Grab both handles.
5. Get into a lunge with the body slightly leaning forward and back straight.
6. Bring the handles together keeping the elbows just slightly bent. Pretend you have your arms around a beach ball and have to hold them there.
7. Slowly return to the starting position. Your elbows should be even with your shoulders and back at the completion of the motion.
8. Repeat.

I find this exercise works the chest muscles better than the seated fly machines or dumbbells on a bench. Give it a try and see if you agree.

What Topics Would You Like to See?

This post is to help you, whether you are new to strength training or an old hand looking for some new tips and tricks. Tell me what topics you would like to see discussed. Are you interested in specific exercises? Do you want to find your way around the gym? Are you interested in healthy eating to get the most from your workouts? Are you concerned about what to wear at the gym? Join in the conversation by leaving your comments below this, or any, post on this blog. I look forward to hearing from you.

My Favorite Exercises: Shoulder Raises

I don't know about you, but I hate those ultra skinny arms that most fashion models have. You want to look toned, not emaciated. Since women can't build bulky muscles, we can do lots of arm exercises that add definition to our arms and shoulders.

Today, I want to talk about two more of my favorite exercises: lateral raises and front raises. Both work the deltoid muscles in the shoulder. You have front, middle and rear deltoids, but today we'll focus mostly on the middle and front.

Lateral raises are basic and are great for the middle deltoids:

1. Holding a dumbbell in each hand, let the arms hang down at your sides.
2. Lift your arms straight up to the side with palms facing down.
3. Lift just to the shoulder level and keep arms fully extended (without hyper-extending the elbows).
4. Lower slowly to the starting position.

Front raises are similar, but focus the exercise more on the front deltoids:

1. Holding a dumbbell in each hand, let the arms hang in front of your thighs, palms facing in.
2. Lift your arms straight up to the front with palms facing down.
3. Lift just to the shoulder level and keep arms fully extended (without hyper-extending the elbows).
4. Lower slowly to the starting position.

As you do these exercises, make sure you are not using momentum and that you are keeping your abdominal muscles tight. Think about pulling your stomach muscles toward the small of your back. This will help ensure you are focused on the shoulder muscles and using your core muscles for support. Keep your knees slightly bent. Use good posture.

Start with light dumbbells. Lots of repetitions with light weights will get you the results you want without injuring your shoulder joints. I use five-pound weights for both exercises. If you do them in a slow, controlled fashion, you will feel them. Trust me.

With summer here, work on those arms and then you can show them off in sleeveless blouses and dresses.

My Favorite Exercises: Pull-ups

While our society tends to focus on other areas of the female form, the back is one of the most beautiful parts of a woman's body. Ballet dancers know this.

Work to build a lean, strong, sensuous back. I love shoulder and back exercises. And, after push-ups, my favorite exercise is pull-ups (or chin-ups).

Since I am a normal woman with normal strength, I have never been able to do a pull-up unassisted. Therefore, I have to rely on having a pull-up machine at my gym. If you have one of these at your gym that has a pad you stand or kneel on and weights to assist you, take advantage of it.

Pull-ups work a lot of muscles in back and arms. However, I feel them most in my latissimus dorsi, the broad muscles across the back and above the waist. See the picture here from Wikipedia. They work most of the same muscles as the lat pull-down machine, but they work more muscles and work them better, in my opinion.

With the assisted pull-up machines, you have to think of the weights in the opposite way you normally do. The more weight you use, the easier the exercise gets. That's because the weights are the amount of assist. Think of it this way. If you weigh 130 pounds and you set the weights at 30 pounds, it means you are pulling up 100 pounds. With a 100-pound assist, you are pulling up only 30 pounds of your own weight. Over time, you want to decrease the amount of weight you use on this machine. Keep in mind that these machines vary. On some I have had to use 70 pounds of assist, on others 40 or 50. They don't all work the same way.

One of the nice things about these machines is that they usually allow multiple grips. This allows you to vary your pull-ups and work your muscles differently, for a better workout. I sometimes do four sets with four different grips. Or I might do four sets alternating just two grips.

If you are not a well endowed woman (if you know what I mean), then work the back and accentuate this beautiful and feminine part of your body. A good place to start is with pull-ups.

My Favorite Exercises: Push-ups

Let me share with you some of my favorite exercises, year in and year out.

Today, I want to talk about probably my favorite exercise, push-ups.

When I do an upper body workout, I warm up and then my first exercise is push-ups. Why?

Engages all your upper body muscle groups. Push-ups work every muscle in your upper body: your chest, back, shoulders and arms.

Gets your blood flowing. Even with good breathing, my entire upper body turns red from all the blood pumping when I do my push-ups. I get warmed up fast!

No equipment required. You can do push-ups just about anywhere, any time. You are using your own body weight for push-ups. Do these when you travel.

So what kind of push-ups should you do? Do you have to do "men's" style or can you do them on your knees? It really doesn't matter. If you can't do the full-body push-ups, by all means, do them on your knees. The important thing is to use good form. Lift and lower the entire body. Often, I see women (and men), lifting and lowering only the shoulders. Funny how people like to cheat themselves of the full benefit of an exercise. Do it correctly or don't do it at all. Your body should remain straight, and it should move like a see-saw, in one piece.

Can women get strong enough to do full-body push-ups? Of course. I have never been able to do pull-ups unassisted, but I built up sufficient strength to do full push-ups. If you want to learn to do them, try what I did.

• Get in a good push-up position with arms full extended and body straight.
• Lower as much as you can and then push back up.
• Next time lower as much as you can and then go a little lower. At first you may collapse. Over time, You will be able to go a little lower and then a little lower and then push back up. One day you will surprise yourself by going to the point where you can just about touch your chest to the ground and then lift yourself back up. That's when you will have achieved the full push-up. Once you can do one, adding reps is easy. You'll see.

You may want to build up to full push-ups for no other reason than you'll impress yourself and your friends. Not that many women do them. But I know you can.

I do four sets of 12 push-ups. I change up my hands to get a slightly different workout for my muscles. I generally do a set with my arms directly under the shoulders on my knuckles (left over from karate days) and then a set with flat hands. Then I do two sets, knuckles and flat hands, with my arms wider apart.

Knuckle push-ups have the added benefit of strengthening your wrists. They are really no harder than flat push-ups. Give them a try.

I'll be covering more of my favorite exercises in upcoming posts. In the meantime, send me your comments. Let me know what your favorite exercises are and why.

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Warm Up. Work Out. Stretch.

Stretching is an important part of your workout. MayoClinic.com notes these benefits of stretching:

• Increases flexibility to make everything you do easier
• Increases range of motion to help prevent injuries
• Improves blood flow to your muscles
• Releases tension to relieve stress

Oh yes. I would add that it also feels so good.

But when should you stretch?

1. Before your warm-up
2. After your warm-up but before your workout
3. After your workout

If you chose number 3, after your workout, congratulations.

One mistake that many novices make (and experienced exercisers) is to stretch while the muscles are cold. When the muscles are not warmed up, they cannot relax and lengthen. If you try to pull a rubber band beyond its limits, it can snap. You increase the risk that the same thing will happen to your muscles if you try to stretch them out when they are less flexible from being cold. When the muscles have lots of blood flowing in them and are warmed up, they stretch more easily, and you'll get the maximum benefit from your stretching.

It's a myth that you need to stretch before you work out. In fact, some studies have shown that stretching before a physical activity can actually decrease performance.

How should you structure your workouts?

Before your workout. Warm your muscles up with five to 10 minutes of aerobic activity like riding a stationary bike or running on a treadmill before lifting weights. Any aerobic activity is fine. Work to get your heart rate up to a good training level. Almost all the cardio machines at the gym have guides on them showing 65% and 85% of your maximum heart rate based upon your age. Anywhere between these two is fine.

If I don't warm up before my workouts, I feel an injury threatening to come on every time. I especially feel the strain in my shoulder joints. Get your blood flowing to prevent injury.

On days when I do cardio, I do the cardio before my weights. If you choose, you can do a quick warm-up, do your weights and then do your cardio afterwards. I like the first option. To me, it saves a little time, and it seems silly not to do the whole thing since I'm on the machine anyway.

After your warm-up. Now you can move to your weight exercises. The muscles have lots of blood flowing in them, and they are ready to go.

After your workout. When you're finished, be sure to stretch while the muscles are still warm. Don't wait.

Here are some tips for getting the maximum benefit from your stretching while preventing injury.

Never bounce. When you stretch, you are working to relax and lengthen one muscle while the opposing muscle naturally contracts. For example, when you stretch the hamstring on the back of your thigh, the quadriceps on the front of your thigh contracts. Any quick motion and you'll be trying to stretch a muscle in the middle of a contraction. Remember that rubber band that snapped? Ouch! Once you pull that muscle, it could take weeks or even months to heal. And in the interim, you'll have to limit your activities. No fun!

Relax. Focus on the muscle you're stretching. Hold the stretch for a count of 15 or 20. Focus on the muscle and try to relax it. You'll find that as it relaxes you will be able to keep stretching it farther.

Exhale. Believe it or not, breathing helps you stretch. Exhale as you relax and stretch the muscle. You'll be amazed at the difference it makes in your ability to stretch the muscle when you exhale.

Lengthen the muscle. Try to fully extend whatever muscle you're stretching. Let's say you're stretching your hamstring muscles. You have both legs extended on the floor and you are gently hanging your body over your legs. Think about pushing the back of the knee all the way to the floor and making your leg as long as possible. At the same time, imagine the chest reaching toward your knees and your head beyond your knees. Keep breathing and relaxing. Try this stretch with the toes pointed and the toes flexed to feel the difference.

So forget the stretching before your workout. Warm up. Work out. Stretch. Ahh!

"Don't forget to breathe."

"Don't forget to breathe." That's what my ballet teachers are always reminding me.

The same holds true in strength training. When you are exerting yourself and focused intently on your lift, you may sometimes hold your breath. Never do this again. Learn to breathe during your exercise. Holding your breath can cause your blood pressure to rise rapidly and dangerously.

Mayo Clinic emeritus hypertension specialist Sheldon G. Sheps, M.D., notes that physicians used to tell patients with high blood pressure not to lift weights. Now they have found that if done properly, weight lifting can actually help lower blood pressure over the long term. (Sheps, 2007)

What is the effect of weight lifting on blood pressure? According to Richard Weil at MedicineNet.com, "...in a recent analysis of multiple studies (called a meta-analysis) involving 320 male and female adults, resistance-training programs produced significant decreases in resting systolic (the top number) and diastolic (the bottom number) blood pressure. The decreases were equivalent to reductions of approximately 2% and 4%, respectively." (2007)

Just one more piece of evidence that strength training is good for you in more ways than you had ever imagined.

If you have high blood pressure (or even if you don't), here are some great tips from Dr. Sheps on the MayoClinic.com website:

• Learn and use proper form when lifting to reduce the risk of injury.
• Don't hold your breath. Holding your breath during exertion can cause dangerous spikes in blood pressure. Instead, breathe easily and continuously during each lift.
• Lift lighter weights and do more repetitions. Heavier weights require more strain, which causes a greater increase in blood pressure. You can challenge your muscles with lighter weights by increasing your repetitions.
• Listen to your body. Stop your activity right away if you become severely out of breath or dizzy or if you experience chest pain or pressure.

(Source: "Weightlifting: Bad for your blood pressure?" Dec. 20, 2007. MayoClinic.com.)

Consciously think about your breathing as you do your exercises. Exhale on the exertion. Inhale on the return. Not only will you make your workout safer, you'll also be getting essential oxygen into your system and to your working muscles.

Reps and Sets Revealed

At the gym, you're likely to see someone running around from exercise to exercise like a chicken with his head cut off while some body-builder type spends an hour doing the same exercise over and over. Which approach is better? What do you need to do to get the most from your workout?

If you are a complete gym novice, take heart. You'll have it all explained for you here.

Reps refers to repetitions or the number of times you perform an exercise. If you then take a short break and repeat the exercise, each group of repetitions is a set. That's easy enough.

How many reps and how many sets should you do? Like most aspects of strength training, it depends on your goals and the amount of time you have. Let's look at some general guidelines.

If your goal is to get big muscles, you need to use enough weight so that you can only perform five to seven reps of an exercise before you can no longer keep good form or lift the weight. The latter is referred to as exercising to the point of failure. The last thing most women want to do, including me, is to develop big, bulky muscles. If you fall into this category, read on.

If you want to develop strong, toned, lean and well-defined muscles, you should use enough weight so that you can perform eight to 12 reps of your exercise before failure. When you can do 12 reps in each of your sets, it's time to increase your weights.

This leads to the obvious question, "How many sets do I need to do?" The general guideline is that the optimal number of sets is anywhere between two and five. If you only do one set, you are not working the muscles effectively. Remember, you are trying to push them beyond what what is needed to weed your garden or pick up a laundry basket. Beyond five sets, you start to experience the law of diminishing returns. It's OK for body builders with specific goals to do lots of sets, but for the rest of us, it's really just a waste of time.

Start out slowly. You may want to start with two sets at first and increase to three or more as you build strength. The more sets you do, the more you work the muscles to increase strength. I used to do a lot of exercises but only two sets of each. When I doubled my sets to four, I noticed a dramatic increase in muscle strength and definition. I may switch this around for variety and do three sets and more exercises or five sets and fewer exercises sometimes.

Variety is good. At some point, if you do the same thing over and over, your muscles get too accustomed to the activity and they no longer need to work as hard. You stop seeing improvement Change things up.

Finally, you need to consider the break between sets. Too many people start wandering around, chatting with their gym friends or playing with their iPods between sets. If you give the muscles too long a break, the next set will not give you any added benefit. It's like you're doing the first set again. You need to build on each set. That said, you should take no longer than a 30-second break between sets. You will not only work your muscles much harder much faster, but you'll also be building up your endurance.

Keep in mind, if you do lots of sets with little or no break between sets, you may not be able to lift as much weight. That's good. It means you are working your muscles efficiently and effectively. The number of pounds you lift is irrelevant. What matters is that you are making the muscles work harder than they are used to.

Don't be impressed by the guys at the gym pumping 80-pound dumbbells. They are the dumbbells. They usually don't use good form, can't control the weights and take a five-minute break between sets. Sure they get big muscles...eventually. They also usually spend long hours at the gym when they could get the same results in half the time.

If you're like me, you like to get in, work out hard and get out.

How Much is Enough?

Do you have to go to the gym every day to get into great shape? Absolutely not.

How many days a week you go to the gym depends upon your goals, your available time and your personal preference.

What are your goals? If you want to get fit and maintain that level of fitness, you can do strength training as little as twice a week. If you want to really improve your strength and feel better than ever, shoot for three to five times a week. If your goal is to make strength training an integral part of your life, you may want to go to the gym six times a week, or even every day if you mix up your workouts enough.

Of course, you can supplement gym workouts with other healthy activities that you enjoy. As an example, here's what I do. I generally go to the gym four to five times a week. Once or twice a week I may opt to work out in the fitness room in my apartment building. I generally focus on cardio and core on these days since the weights in the fitness room are minimal, at best. Once a week, I take an hour and a half ballet class. Ballet is great for core strength, stamina, flexibility, speed, coordination and grace; sometimes it can even be quite an aerobic workout.

Before you decide to go to the gym every day, you need to consider some additional important points.

Never work the same muscle groups two days in a row. You don't actually build muscle while you're lifting weights. What happens is that as you stress the muscle, it breaks down at the cellular level, which starts a process in which the muscle begins to repair and strengthen itself. The muscle needs up to 48 hours to complete this process. You're actually strengthening the muscle in the time between workouts, not at the gym. If you work the muscle while it's in the process of repairing itself, you start breaking down the muscle fiber before it's had a chance to rebuild and strengthen, thus losing the benefit of your previous workout. It's also easier to injure yourself. Don't do it.

Work different muscle groups on different days. If you only go the gym a couple of times a week, you can work all your major muscle groups during your workout: chest, back, shoulders, arms, legs, core (abdominal muscles and lower back). This strategy can make for a long workout session. But, if it fits your schedule better, then, by all means, do it this way.

A better option may be to split your workouts. I generally do my upper-body workout on one day (about 10 to 14 different exercises). This always includes a five-minute cardio warm-up to get the blood flowing to my muscles. I find this absolutely essential, especially as I've gotten older. On alternate days, I focus on cardio, core and lower body. I do many fewer exercises for lower body and core since there just aren't as many options or as many different muscle groups as in the upper body. The lower body/core workout, even with 20 to 25 minutes of cardio, still usually takes slightly less time than the upper body workout. In general, I spend about an hour and fifteen minutes to about an hour and a half working out. This includes about 10 minutes of stretching, at the end of my workout. (That's a topic I'll tackle on another day.)

If you're just getting started, you may want to start slowly. Regular strength training is a lifestyle change, not a temporary fix. Give yourself time to build strength and confidence, and to rest. Make it enjoyable and rewarding so that you will want to keep doing it the rest of your life.

Start Big. Stay Focused. Don't Faint.

You're ready to start your workouts. Now what? Today, we'll look at some basic principles to consider, even before you start thinking about what exercises you need to do.

Work large muscle groups first. Let's say you are working your upper body when you visit the gym today. You will likely want to work the chest, back, shoulders and arms.

Work your largest muscle groups first, the chest and back. Then move to the shoulders. Finish by focusing on the triceps and biceps and even the forearms. Why? Think about it from the opposite perspective. Let's say your started with triceps and biceps. Now these two small muscle groups are worn out (if you've worked hard enough). Now you go on to work the chest. When you work the chest, you also involve the arm muscles. Take a bench press, for example. When you lift the barbell, the triceps contract to help you lift, even though the focus is on the chest muscles. If your triceps are already fatigued, they can't help with the bench press. This means you won't be able to work the large chest muscles effectively. If you start with the large muscle groups, the smaller muscles are also involved. When you finally get to these smaller muscle groups, you are adding to the workout they have already had.

One exercise at a time. I see people at the gym all the time running around from machine to machine with no apparent plan. They will do a chest press, then a leg curl, then ab crunches, then bicep curls. They always seem to have a vacant look in their eyes that's a little scary. The look says, "I have no clue what I'm doing, but if I do enough exercises, it must be good. Right?" Wrong!

It's not a good idea to switch around among the upper body, lower body and core muscles. Focus on one area and on one exercise. There are two reasons this is important.

First, to maximize the benefits of your workout, your goal is to fatigue your muscles. You must tax them to build strength. If you switch back and forth between different muscle groups, you are giving each group too much of a rest. When you finally get back to a previous muscle group, the second set doesn't add to the first. The benefit if not accretive. Bottom line: you're wasting your time.

Second, fainting at the gym is not a good idea. Your body sends blood to the muscles you are working. When you switch between the upper body and lower body, the blood flow can't keep up. This can result in dizziness or even passing out.

You don't have to follow these basic principles, of course. But, if you don't, you are not making the most of your time at the gym. You work out to look and feel good, not to live at the gym. Let other people besides your fellow gym members see how great you look.

Work out hard. Stay focused. Get out and enjoy how great you feel after your workout.

Myth-Busting: Women & Weights

Perhaps you have hesitated starting a strength training program because you have heard the common myths about it: 1) you will lose flexibility and 2) you will develop big muscles. Let's look at each of these myths.

Myth: You will lose flexibility. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, done correctly, you will increase your flexibility. The secret is to use full range of motion when you complete an exercise. Let's say, for example, you are doing bicep curls with a dumbbell. You should begin with your arm completely down (without hyper-extending your elbow). As you do your exercise, bend your arm until your hand is at your shoulder. Using full range of motion, you will build long, lean muscles and improve flexibility. And this helps prevent injury, too.

Myth: You will develop big muscles. To build massive muscles, you need lots of testosterone. Without resorting to steroids, there's nothing most women can do to make their muscles big. No matter how much weight lifting you do, you can't get bulky. Your muscles will be toned and well defined. Instead of those weak-looking, skinny, no-definition arms like you see on most fashion models, you can have healthy, strong arms that look great in sleeveless shirts and dresses. Even better, if you are a bit more mature, you can get rid of those "bat wings" that flap around your upper arm. One of my Japanese friends says that in Japan, they call these "kimono sleeves." Lift weights and say goodbye to kimono sleeves forever.

Where to Work Out

If you are still pondering how to get started with your strength training, you may be considering the best place to work out. Do you buy equipment and set it up in your home or join a gym? Here are some considerations.

If you are intimidated by the gym, you may want to opt to work out in the privacy of your home. The advantages to this include the following:

• No grunting, sweating guys (or gals) to contend with
• No excuses for not being able to get to the gym
• No commute time to and from the gym
• After the initial investment in equipment, no contracts or monthly membership fees

Conversely, there are many advantages to joining a gym:

• Motivation from being around others working out hard
• Separation of your home activities and training (Will you feel guilty about the equipment in your basement when you're not using it?)
• No space needed at home for workout equipment
  
• Variety in the equipment, which allows variety in your workout

This last point is the overriding criterion for me. No matter what you do, if you do it the same way, over and over, week after week, year after year, it's gets boring. If the variety will help you stick with your training, it's worth a lot of money. For example, I can do three entirely different kinds of workouts using machines, free weights or the cable pulley machine. I can also mix up all three any way I wish. This allows me to make every workout different. Also, by using different pieces of equipment, I work my muscles slightly differently. When you do the same exercises all the time, your muscles get accustomed to it and the improvement slows or stops. You have to mix it up to keep seeing results. I happen to belong to a gym, Planet Fitness, with a low annual membership, no contract and a $10 per month fee. My costs are minimal. It has everything I need in terms of equipment. You can't beat a bargain like that. Someday I hope to have my own, well-equipped home gym. I'll use it when the weather is bad or I just can't make it to the gym. However, I'll still keep my gym membership to give me the variety I need. Now that's the perfect solution to the question of where to work out.

Get Off That Elliptical Machine Already!

If I had a dollar for every woman I've seen at the gym on the elliptical machines for an hour or more, I wouldn't have to worry about how to survive the recession.

I know what these women on these machines are thinking, "I'm going to stay on this thing until I burn 500 calories and then I can eat pizza for dinner." Or maybe it's, "I shouldn't have eaten all that ice cream last night. Now I'm paying for it. I have to burn it all off."

Are you one of these women?

The truth is that trying to burn off calories on a cardio machine won't work. When you do cardiovascular training, like running, biking or using one of the machines at the gym, you burn calories while you're active and that's it. It takes a long time to burn even 100 calories. I don't know about you, but I have no desire to spend an hour or two at the gym doing the same motion over an over while being forced to watch Paula Dean stuff her face with a pound of lasagna on the Food Network. It's boring, punishing and self-defeating. I have better things to do with my time. Don't you?

You can boost your metabolism. You can burn hundreds of extra calories all day long, even while you sleep. It's not magic; it's muscle.

It's commonly known that muscle burns calories, and lots of them, much more so than fat. The more muscle you build, the more calories your body burns, even when you are not active.

Women are so obsessed about their weight, yet they don't want to learn the facts. They just keep mindlessly plugging away on those cardio machines. The truth is, to manage your weight, you need to build muscle and eat a healthier diet. There is no substitute.

I know from experience. I was one of those women, maybe like you, who struggled with my weight all my life. But 27 years ago, I started strength training at the gym. In the intervening years, I have reshaped my body, managed my weight and continued to grow stronger than ever. I'm now 52 years old, 5' 3" and somewhere around 105 pounds with all my clothes on.

The more I learn about training and apply those lessons, the more I feel and see the results.

You can do it, too. I want to share with you everything I've learned so that you can get in and out of the gym fast while maximizing the benefits of your workouts. Who knows? Like me, you may even come to consider weight training your favorite hobby. Who wouldn't like a hobby that makes you feel so good?

Each post will focus on one aspect of strength training, or working with weights. We may even expand out to look at other areas of healthy living. If you have specific questions or comments, please post them. Maybe you have great suggestions to share or a burning question. I'll get your questions answered so you can get that great burn at the gym and start remaking yourself into the woman you know you can be.