Monthly Inspiration: Pilar Sanders

Pilar Sanders; can you say PROTOTYPE?!

Deion (Pilar’s husband) most definitely picked himself a winner. Winner …hmm, what an understatement! This insanely gorgeous body birthed 5 children, yes, FIVE. Amazing and amazing. I really can’t speak on how much I admire her. I’ve always given much respect to fit, strong bodied women but when you can achieve this, after childbirth …5 times, then damn it my hat goes off to you! I’m waiting for Shape magazine to drop an article on her training secrets and exercise regime because we have a lot to learn ladies!

I’m quite aware that this video went viral & circulated many blog sites a few weeks back but here it is again, and I know you ain’t mad either.

Workkkkk Pilar!

Shout out to Sasha Jackson!

GLUTE EXERCISES w/Vida Guerra

There isn’t too much for me to say because Ms.Guerra says it all in her video post below. She talks us through her favorite gluteus maximus workouts that keep her rump shaker tight and toned. With a booty like this I think it’s fair to say we can adopt her advice with confidence!

Are you trying to look correct in those jeans? Well pay attention, these movements might just bring the pain to your backside BUT the plus is they’re going to be kind to you come Summer 2012!

 

Hurting yet?!!!!

Thanking you Vida!!! Ladies …get it!

Stacy Dash

Pix Fix: I know they are oldies but damn they are some GOODIES! An image of the beautiful Ms. Dash passed my eye and it caught my attention …3 times! So let’s make her our daily inspiration because this body is gorgeous…

I’m lunging, squatting & will beast out on the Ab RipperX tonight. What’s on your work out list?!

DAILY INSPIRATION: STACY DASH

Thank you Stacy!

ESPN: THE BODY ISSUE, 2011

Extracting & Instagraming a few of my absolute favs from this years special edition, The Body Issue, 2011. Yes, I know. Amen.

Hope Solo, goalkeeper – soccer

Natasha Hasting, sprinter – track & field

Apolo Ohno, speed skater

Alicia Sacramone, gymnast

Gretchen Bleiler, snowboarder

Belen Mozo, golfer

Blake Griffin, basketball player

BIG SHOUT OUT TO @aprellashops FOR FINDING GIVING ME A COPY OF THIS YEARS ESPN ISSUE!!! Never again will I wait last minute to go hunting news stands for the annual edition again!

3 Ways To Lose Cellulite

Just because Summer is behind us doesn’t mean it’s time to sit on the bench! Many of us are caring less about cellulite seeing that long pants & heavy coats with soon replace our bikinis and daisy dukes, but let’s not wave for the bench & call ourselves out of the game. I won’t have it! Winter weather is no reason to quit! Listed below are 3 ways to help you lose cellulite, get familiar…

CELLULITE, THE COTTAGE CHEESE-LIKE DIMPLE that usually clings to our thighs and hips, are notoriously difficult to eradicate. Even elite-level athletes with minimal body fat can have cellulite. Yet those who train like bodybuilders tend to have fewer struggles with cellulite than most. What’s their secret? Here are three top tips, try them & see noticeable results in as little as 30 days.

1. Focus on muscles around your trouble zone. Select five exercises for your lower body, namely hips, buttocks and hamstrings. These are the areas where women are genetically predisposed to have more surface fat than others, so by focusing on these key muscle areas with the proper exercises you will indirectly work and support greater cellulite tissue breakdown between the skin and muscle. I will post some of my favorite exercises that target cellulite trouble zones in a later post, stay tuned…

2. Circuit Training. By doing a circuit, that is, 15 to 30 reps of each exercise without resting in between, you’ll add a card component to anaerobic exercise, which maximizes your fat burning capacity an burns more calories and cellulite.

3. Include Reverse Butt Thrusts, Single Leg Kick-Backs and Step Lunges in your weekly leg exercises regimen. These are exercise movements that are going to help harden and condition trouble zones and give you the most bang for your buck in terms of time at the gym.

Video: Plank Position Kickbacks Single Leg Side

Stay tort and tight under your winter coats and long johns this winter. No excuses! – Lita

WATER ME DOWN

Top 10 Water Facts

If you are unaware of the benefits of what water does for our bodies I gotto ask… Where have you been?!  Midst the summer heat waves and especially during pre & post workouts we want to keep ourselves hydrated for optimal performance, avoid headaches & for replenishment. Here are 10 facts you mightn’t already know about the benefit of maintaining hydration.

Muscle consists of 75% water, Brain consists of 90% of water, Bone consists of 22% of water, Blood consists of 83% water, Giselle’s dress consists of 100% water!

ONE: Drink six to eight 8-ounce glasses of water per day. Pregnant and lactating women and athletes need more. Coffee, tea, and sodas do not count toward your daily water requirement. These drinks act as diuretics and lower the amount of water in your body.

TWO: A lack of water can significantly decrease work performance. It can also cause constipation, and can increase the risk to kidney problems and urinary tract infections.

THREE: Don’t drink unfiltered tap water. Chlorine is the most dangerous element in most water supplies. It has been implicated in cancer causation, heart disease, and other health problems. Fluoride may also increase cancer risk.

FOUR: Highly sweetened drinks are not absorbed and used by the body as quickly as plain water. Cold water, between 40 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit, is absorbed best.

FIVE: Drink water regularly throughout the day. Don’t wait until you are thirsty to replenish your body’s water supply.

SIX: Fresh fruits and vegetables contain a lot of water. People who eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables can drink less water.

SEVEN: Switching to a diet higher in fiber increases your need for water.

EIGHT: Athletes should not consume high-fiber foods such as whole grains, whole grain cereals, or apples right before exercise, as high-fiber foods can pull water from the body into the intestinal tract.

NINE: Older Americans have decreased thirst and need to pay special attention to drinking enough water.

TEN: Drinking more water does not increase your tendency to bloat. In fact, drinking water will decrease bloating. Salt and sodium-rich foods, imbalanced female hormones, and poor cardiac function are the most common causes for bloating.

Lose Weight or Lose Fat?

Lose Weight of Lose Fat? …

When a person says he or she wants to lose 5 or 10 pounds, it’s understood that this means 5 pound of fat, not 5 pounds of muscle, bone mass or body water. But when the typical dieter sheds pounds, barely half of that weight is fat. The other half is, in fact, muscle, bone mass and body water.

Losing weight is not as good as losing fat. If you lose 5 or 10 pounds of mixed fat mass and lean body mass, your health, appearance and performance (in your sports/gym/work) will not improve as much as if you lose an equal amount of pure fat.

Here are some tips to ensure you only lose body fat in pursuit of your ideal weight.

Track Your Body Composition

Ensuring that fat loss accounts for all of your weight loss begins with consistent monitoring, easily done with a body fat scale. Step on the scale once a week. Multiply your weight by your body fat percentage in decimal form to obtain your body fat mass. If changes in your total body weight equal changes in your body loss, then 100 percent of your weight loss is fat loss.

For example, suppose your body weight four weeks ago was 160 pounds, and your body fat percentage was 15. This means your body fat mass was (160 pounds x 0.15 =) 24 pounds. Now suppose your body weight today is 156 pounds and your body fat percentage is 12.9. This means your body fat mass is now (156 x 0.129 = ) 20.1 pounds. So your total weight loss is 4 pounds and your body fat mass loss is 3.9 pounds. Congratulations! Almost all of your weight loss has been fat loss.

Cut Calories Moderately

The surest way to lose lean body mass is to cut your daily calorie intake drastically. In a study performed at Tufts University, one group of subjects cut their energy intake by 700 calories a day, while a second group cut their calories by 250 calories a day. The first group lose more total weight, but it was only 48 percent fat – the rest was lean body mass. Meanwhile, the weight lost by the second group was 91 percent fat.

When trying to lose excess body fat, limit your daily energy deficit to roughly 300 calories per day. This is especially important during periods of intensive training, when you need plenty of energy to fuel workouts and recovery.

Eat Plenty of Protein

Anytime you reduce your daily calorie intake to promote fat loss, you should also increase the percentage of your daily calories that come from protein. This measure will help you preserve muscle and lose only fat. Muscles are made of protein, after all!

You can increase protein’s contribution in a way that doesn’t sabotage your training by simply maintaining your current level of protein intake (in terms of grams per day) while cutting fat and carbs to achieve your desired calorie reduction.

Strength Training

Strength training will also help you retain muscle during periods of weight loss. It should be a part of your routine at all times, for its injury-prevention and performance-enhancement benefits but when you’re trying to shed fat, there’s a third reason to do it. A little goes a long way – just two 30-minute, full body strength sessions per week are much better than nothing.

By Matt Fitzgerald for Triathlete Mag, July 2011

Body Vs. Body

Ahh slightly off topic but as you peep below it’s all worth a good derail. I’m talking body Vs body so I am practically still on beat here!

Conan The Barbarian is most definitely one of my most cherished childhood films. I vividly remember watching it after school along with my sister and cousins (you’d need both hands to count us all) in my aunt’s living room. We’d fight over the most central piece of carpet in front of the TV then lay bellies down, heads up, hands on chins watching as Arnie conquered his enemies on the telly. So naturally with the rise of this new rendition of Conan I’m feeling a little skeptical. Who is this Jason Momoa character and can he portray the almighty Arnie as Khal Drago, warrior of all warriors?! Let’s take a little peek shall we …Enjoy!

Arnie Vs. Jace

Arnold Schwarzenegger as Khal Drago, 1982

Original Trailer: Conan The Barbarian, 1982

…I had to add this, gives me goosebumps! Arnie’s Training, 1970s:

Jason Momoa as Khal Drago, 2011

Jason in this picture reminds me of a New Zealand native, Maori warrior after performing the Haka, warrior dance!

2011 Trailer

Interview with Jason as Khal Drogo:

Who wants to go and see this with me?!

Daily Inspiration: Jada Pinkett-Smith

She admits to facing the same challenges we all do: keeping her career hot, her marriage hotter, and her body hottest.

When you meet Jada Pinkett Smith, it’s kind of hard not to be awestruck –happily married for almost 12 years to Hollywood heartthrob Will Smith, three kids, a successful career and a killer bod!

Jada talks openly about how she really does it all. “I won’t lie to you,” the Baltimore native admits. “I have a lot of help. It takes a village to run my life successfully!” It also takes a focused mind, total honesty, and a great sense of humor.

Ever since she was kid, Jada’s been physically active, something her mother, a single mom and nurse, encouraged by enrolling her in classes for gymnastics, dance and horseback riding.

“Sitting at home on a Saturday or Sunday was never an option,” says Jada, who has passed the torch for fitness workouts on to her own kids, Trey [from Will's first marriage], Jaden and Willow. “They love to go to the gym with Will and me, but surfing and snowboarding is what we do together as a family for fun.” Her mom gets in on the action when she’s in town, hitting the gym with Jada at 6:30 a.m. “She’s Miss Workout,” says Jada proudly.

Jada Pinkett Smith happily shares three important tips in living a healthy lifestyle

Healthy lifestyle tips # 1: EMBRACE THE UNKNOWN

This shift has also created a sense of balance in Jada’s relationship.”Will and I are yin and yang,” she says. “He’s all sky, vast and bright and soaring, and I’m all earth. I’m here to ground him, and he’s here to help me fly.” Case in point: When Jada put her acting career on hold between 2004 and 2005 to go on the road with her metal band, Wicked Wisdom, as part of the Ozzfest tour, Will not only supported her, he and the kids also went along for the ride.

Healthy lifestyle tips # 2: NURTURE ROMANCE

While family is the couple’s main focus, Jada makes sure she and Will’s love life stays, well, lively. Besides doing her daily Kegels (“It keeps the sex hot,” says Jada), she takes time to nourish their relationship. “Last week we were stressed out, so I packed a picnic and took Will to a place we hiked to on one of our first dates. We sat and reminisced on that time in our life. Then we went home and made love. Thank God Will has simple tastes. Even the littlest thing for him is like, ‘Wow!’”

Healthy lifestyle tips # 3: FUEL YOUR BODY

Jada admits she is lacking in one area: “I can’t cook!” she says. “It’s genetic. My grandmother can’t cook, my mother can’t cook. can’t. I was raised to believe you eat because your body needs fuel for energy, so I eat superfoods.”

Jada does love to bake, however; her specialty is 7-Up cake, but she has to be careful about having desserts around the house, for Will’s sake. “He has a horrific sweet tooth,” she says. “If there’s cake in front of him, he’ll eat the whole thing!”

Healthy lifestyle tips courtesy of Shape.com

Follow Jada on Twitter: @JadaPSmith

MY FAV AB WORKOUT

We’ve all heard about the Ab Ripper X before, right?! If you answered no, you’ve probably hit the wrong blog! The P90X exercises show no mercy and this AWESOME core workout they’ve developed is no exception. I am often asked what my favorite ab workouts are and I couldn’t sum it up any better than mentioning the Ab Ripper X. I corporate this routine 3-4 times a week to help build a strong, firm core.

This would be me, in purple draws …lol

What I love about the Ab Ripper X is that the consecutive exercises target the entire core, back and front, including your obliques (side core muscles) & leave your feeling like you’ve rescued planet earth with your belly button, yes, it hurts! But as the cliche goes, where there is no pain, there is no gain. Each movement is relatively simple and anyone with a decent fitness level can maintain good form trying to mimic each move. The biggest challenge is trying to complete all 25 reps in each set! Can you manage 25 reps?!

All you need is 15mins to give this routine, 15mins! I’m not going to sugar coat it, it’ll be 15mins of pure hell but the rewards will be heavenly. I promise you.

Due to copyright issues you won’t find a legit P90X video online so I picked out these clips below, Part I & Part II that make up the entire Ab Ripper X routine. These three gutsy amigos do a brilliant job of getting through the workout without compromising their form & keeping up with the instructor (miss thang in the red shirt is a slight exception but kudos to her for sticking it out till the end!). OK, enough talk LET’S DO THIS!

Part I

Part II