Supernatural Botanicals

Here’s a great lower body workout by our friend Zuzanna across the pond.  It’s hardcore, but only three minutes long.  Push yourself, push through the pain.  Yes, your muscles will be screaming tomorrow.  But the up side is that your glutes, thighs, and quads will feel sexy and lean.  It’s worth it!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDddazp5f4M

If you do a moderately strenuous workout for at least 30 minutes a day (and by moderately strenuous, that means sweating most of that 30 minutes), you can reduce your risk of developing breast, colon and endometrial cancers by 20% – 30%.  Sweet!

Did you know that anxiety causes an upsurge in stress hormones that can worsen acne or other skin conditions?

If you skin is prone to breakouts and rashes, it’s time to check your body/mind/soul meter.

It’s scientifically proven that stress can cause skin eruptions and even make you susceptible to deadly  diseases.

If this is happening to you, put yourself on your to-do list and get serious about about having some downtime doing something that relaxes you (yoga or Pilates is so good for this.)  After all, your beauty is at risk here, girlfriend.

Shape magazine features the adorbs, LeAnn Rimes this month.  Want to know how LeAnn gets those killer abs?  It’s all about boxing for her.  Check out her step by step workout here.

LeAnn and her trainer box for about 20 minutes—after doing 40 minutes of resistance training interspersed with cardio intervals.  The result is an intense hour-long workout.

Her body is the result of hour long intense workouts.  It can be achieved with that simple addition to your life, hour long intense cardio workouts.  …how bad do you want it?

Researchers at Tufts University found that even a 1% to 2% dip in hydration, the point at which you feel thirsty, can make you sluggish.  Your cells rely on water to make and use energy.  It is recommended to drink at least half a cup every hour, or 8 cups throughout the day. 

If you want to literally carve an inch (or more!) off of each side of your waist, the Woodchop move will be your new best friend.  The Woodchop, as demonstrated in the video below, targets all of your abdominal muscles.  With slow, controlled movement, the woodchop is one of the most effective abdominal moves of all time.  Not only does the Woodchop target abdominal muscles, but it also works the glutes, hamstrings, calves, arms, shoulders, and tops it off with a good cardio burn.  In short, it’s a total body move that burns fat, sculpts muscles, and turns you into the brick house you’ve always wanted to be. 

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J3NZEYP1Es

If you have access to sand, kick off your shoes and go walking in it.  Walking in sand is a great way to exfoliate the skin on your feet, making them baby soft (use a great moisturizer afterwards).  Walking in sand also helps strengthen your ankles and calves, making you super-sexy from the knees down.  What’s not to love about that? 

Did you know that simple old-school hand-stands like these are super-beneficial for you?   Hand-stands are fantastic to strengthen your arms, shoulders, and wrists.  Once you get comfortable with hand-stands, you can go further into the move by bending your elbows and attempting to lower your forehead to the floor.  It also helps stretch the abdomen and improves one’s concentration, coordination and balance.  Through focused effort, it helps calm down the brain thereby helping relieve stress and tension and mild depression through the meditative effort involved.  When you feel like you have midday “fuzzy-brain”, where you’ve been over-stimulated and cannot focus, try doing a hand-stand to alleviate stress and get blood flowing to your brain again.  Don’t worry, you don’t have to be a gymnast to attempt a hand-stand.  Use a wall to put your feet against in the beginning.  As time goes on, you can inch away from the wall.  And as you do, you’ll be building your abdominal muscles (try it now…you’ll feel it instantly.)  When I’m feeling unfocused and overloaded with stress, I simply do a hand-stand for a minute or two to regroup and get my mind flowing again.  The stretch in the shoulders, back and arms feels so good.  And talk about instant results…you feel it immediately.

Stretching is to exercise as dessert is to dinner.  It’s the icing on the cake.  It’s the feel-good part of both exercise and dinner.    After a great workout, be sure you are stretching every muscle that you worked.  This is one of the best stretches for the tricpes, the back part of your upper arm.  Place arm up and behind your head, as shown below, and slightly push the elbow back with your other hand.  Stretch and breathe into the movement.  Take your time.  Hold the stretch from 30 seconds to 1.5 minutes.  When you feel like you can’t go any further, take a deep breath and stretch just an inch more.  Toned tricpes look gorgeous in a cute summer dress or bikini.  Lose the giggle and get your arms looking hot.

Want Jennifer Aniston’s body?  Because you can have it.  Did you know that?  Okay, you can’t specifically have Jenn’s body, but you can have one that looks just like hers.  Jennifer’s celeb fitness trainer, Mandy Ingber, dishes on how she trains Jennifer.

Tips from Mandy:

• Start with cardio:  Ingber suggests 30-60 minutes, three times a week.  “Try running, cycling or even walking.”
• Work thighs:  “Temple pose is essentially a yoga squat.  You plant your feet wide, then plie squat and hold for 30 seconds.  Then plie deeply 8 times, followed by 8 quick shallow pulses.  Repeat.”
• Tone calves:  “Lovely calves are underrated.  Repeat this series slowly twice.  Get on the balls of your feet, then lift and lower yourself 8 times followed by 8 quicker pulses.”

For more exercises, get Mandy’s DVD (and Jennifer Aniston’s workout), Yogalosophy.