My favorite glutes exercise...

Possibly TMI, but it's not every day that my mom comments on how nice my bun looked... followed by asking me what exercises are best to get hers firm & perky too.

While squats & lunges are great (especially with added resistance from weights or elastic bands), I think my favorite one to target the glutes is the bun lifter/bun kick (or as my friend put it less eloquently, "dog raising its leg.")

Pardon the 90s cheese factor of the below video (the music, the outfits, omg!), but it's the best one I found to illustrate the move.

A few more tips to this move:
1. Keep your back neutral in its natural arc for stability and to maximize ths move's effectiveness
2. For added resistance, shift your weight to the towards the side of your moving leg
3. And if you got the balance, put a dumbbell on the back of your knee for the working leg (I use 10-12 pounds), of course, keep your knees bent throughout the move - instead of actually kicking - to keep the dumbbell in place.

Motivation Monday: Don't 'Phone In' Your Workouts!

While I'm pretty vigilant about working out 5-7 days out of the week, there are certainly days when I haven't given it my all. I'm sure everyone has these moments, just slogging through the motions without paying attention to precise positions, proper postures, or a complete follow-through of the movements.

So, I was rather inspired to hear personal trainer Angela Parker (of Body Inspired Fitness) to tell me and others to NOT PHONE IN YOUR WORKOUTS.

When I did a weekend bootcamp workout with her last week (more on that in a near-future post,) Angela made it loud and clear that she expects 100% participation and focus out of her attendees. And I definitely agree that the more mentally-engaged I am with my exercise, the more effective it felt and the more satisfied I am after since I *knew* that I did give it my all, pushing through limits I didn't think I could do (this time, it was doing 100 bicycle crunches in one session! Yowza for my obliques!)

I do yoga regularly so I'm aware of the mind-body connection (it takes a lot of willpower to maintain those postures!) but I was floored by how that can be channeled into a helluva active interval cardio & strength routine.

And it's not just all in the head too, if you're not focused on the workout, you're not truly engaging your body in the exercise... which means less effective fat burn & muscle-building and even a greater risk of injury (esp. if you mindlessly let momentum carry you through the motions.)

So next time you workout, instead of challenging yourself by upping your reps or sets or how many pounds you can lift... see if you can stay mentally focused on your exercises throughout the whole session. And once you notice how making that 100% effort feels, you may never wanna go back!

Equipment Highlight: Resistance Bands

Image courtesy of Stuart.Robbins via flickr

The resistance band is one of my favorite exercise equipment for when I'm traveling and on-the-go. Cheap, lightweight and portable, they definitely easier to shlep around than dumbbells and can provide a decent strength-toning workout. And it's definitely reassuring to know that there's one in my baggage, so I won't feel stressed looking for a gym out-of-town (that charges a fair price) and I feel less compelled to "slack off" during vacations.

They're great for home workouts too, since I can exert as much (or little) force as I want -- some days I might want to test my other strength to the max while other times I just want to do some easier moves for toning and adjustments, or to give my cardio workouts a little extra oompf.

So something to keep in mind when you're traveling next time or just looking for a light-to-moderate toning workout. For some nice basic moves you can do with the bands, check this out.

Overwhelmed By Workout Length? Then Break It Up!

If your face is bawling at the recommendations of 30 to 60 minutes of daily exercise to lose weight, stay healthy and maintain fitness, you're not alone -- I was right there too, especially a few years ago when I began exercising. And one of the best things I did to make it more manageable was breaking it up into shorter segments. Sometimes it'll be 20 minutes in morning, 30 minutes after work -- or maybe three 15 segments throughout the day, and if I'm feeling particularly energetic I'll do the whole 60-90 minutes in one go.

And I always try to squeeze in at least a little in the morning soon after waking up, since I would've already felt like I made progress and will more likely continue to make healthful choices throughout the day.

Some people may feel better with a single continuous long routine and just get it over with in one fell swoop, I'd rather do it in two or three segments that's more manageable and not so overwhelming ("OMG, I got an HOUR of running PLUS strength training?") And breaking it up makes it easier to work around my schedule. And before I knew it, those daunting exercises became habit and I could do longer routines with less effort because I am becoming more fit. But when pressed for time, I still fall back on those multiple short segments. It's definitely better than not being able to exercise because I can't carve an hour out.

Bike Two Ways for Great Abs

Believe it or not, having a nice tapered waistline and a little sexy ab muscle definition doesn't take a whole lot of work. All it takes is a combination of fat-burning cardio and muscle-building core workouts -- or as I call it "bike two ways".

The first "bike" is basically any cardio workout that helps burn the fat, letting the muscles underneath in the torso (and everywhere else) show through. Whether you choose to actually bicycle, run, kickbox or dance your way into a cardio-burn, incorporate this for at least 20 minutes a day/3 days a week to give your fat cells a run for its calories!

The second "bike" is the bicycle crunch, demonstrated below:

I absolutely love this move since it engages all the major core muscles: front, sides, upper and lower. No surprise that it's considered one of the best ab moves to do!

While this and other targeted-muscle exercises will not "spot reduce" and shrink the fat specific to that area, it will show some really nice lean and mean cut and definition once the fat does go away (which is what the cardio is for.)