Why You Should be Lifting

Strength training gets a bad rap among females sometimes. The assumption is that if you lift weights, you become too bulky. This is not necessarily true. Strength training has a lot of benefits, from calorie burn to protecting your bones. So here are just a couple of reasons why you should be paying attention.

Dumbbell February: Dumbbell Wall Sits

Want to work those quads? Try dumbbell wall sits! Get into the position by leaning your back on a wall and then lowering down. When you get to a point where your thighs are parallel to the floor, that's a good place to stop. Make sure your feet are about hip-width apart. Try to make the knees square so they don't go beyond your toes. Now, place the dumbbells on your groin area to add in even more resistance. Extend your arms in front of you, hold this position for about 30 seconds and repeat 3 times.

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Do You Even Lift?

Women tend to like to do all the cardio because they want to see the maximum number of calories burned in one single session. But cardio is not everything. So let's talk about strength training a bit, shall we? Why is strength training so important? 

Our Own First TribeSports Challenge!

You guys know about the affair I had with the TribeSports 12 days of fitness challenge last month, right? Yes, I loved it. And so how about we do our own challenge on TribeSports? The purpose of this challenge is to get you thinking about your inner thighs as you run and do other forms of cardio exercises. I always say it is important to protect your joints by strengthening your muscles. 

This exercise works both your inner thighs and your core as you are forced to work on your balance. What do you do? 

1. Stand on a Bosu ball or a disc (or anything unstable) and tighten your abs
2. Lift one leg in front of you till your knee is at a 90 degree angle to the floor 
3. Move the same knee back as far as you can keeping your upper body straight 
4. Do 30 reps on each side

Do this every day for 7 days and let us know how you did. Check out the entire challenge on the TribeSports site, register, and mark it off as complete when you are done!

Cheers Eights & Weights!

PS. I promised to share a tip every day this week to keep you on your toes as you work on your fitness resolutions for the new year. 

Tip #1: In doing a front lunge (lunging forward), always push back on your front heel before you get up. This reduces the pressure on your front knee. If you are not comfortable with front lunges, stick to back lunges (lunge backward).

Pole Dancing: Yes, I Did It!

Pole dancing has been gaining popularity in the media lately as a form of exercise because a lot of celebrities are beginning to be interested, and a lot of women are beginning to see it as empowering. As you are aware, it has been pretty much associated with strip clubs in the past, and so it is still sort of a "taboo" topic in some circles. But pole dancing is more than just shaking your bum and grinding in a man's lap.

In fact, in places like China and India, they have different forms of pole dancing that is predominantly performed by men, and is a very intense sport. In many other countries, including the US and the UK, pole dancing was a competitive sport before it became the thing you did in strip joints. However, most pole dancing fitness classes offered to women incorporate a lot of the sexy bit as well.

Why did I give you a little of that history? To lead into my next point. Pole dancing is not easy. You require a ton of upper body strength, flexibility, and the ability to endure pain. Why the last bit? Because you need that to use various parts of your body to grip the pole.

Usually, you start by learning basic little teasing moves, and then it gets a little harder as you learn strength moves, and how to grip the pole to hold yourself steady. At my first class, for a beginner like me, it was a little confusing to focus a lot on strength moves before the class started, mostly because I didn't know how much upper body work was required. But I followed on anyway, secretly wondering if we were going to ever touch the pole.

And then the instructor showed us the first spin. My mind was blown at something so basic. How was I supposed to spin around the pole without my legs touching the floor? This was the first class, no? But after trying and trying, I realized that just like any exercise, the bulk of the process is getting comfortable doing it. So after a few tries, I did the basic spin well.

Spinning!

We did a few other kinds of spins as she showed us how to place our hands and feet to make it easier, and not to hurt ourselves. By the end of my first class, I thought I was getting the hang of it, and my arms and core were starting to feel the burn, until the instructor said "Okay, it's time to climb the pole". Huh? I thought I was in a beginner class? I seriously did not believe there was any way I was climbing a slippery pole without falling on my butt. But I was determined to give it a shot. 

So I lifted my right knee so that my foot was on one side of the pole, and my knee was on the other (pressing my shin against the pole and grabbing it with the upper part of my foot). And then as the instructor said, I jumped up and put my other leg on the front of the pole so that I was cross-legged and the pole was now between my knees and ankles. And then I gripped the pole with both hands. And then she said to climb up the pole like a caterpillar. So basically, you grip with your knees and slither up one step at a time. And yes, I did it! That was probably my proudest moment in her class :)

Oh, but that wasn't all. Once we were up, we had to figure out how to stay up and then slide down sexily. We had to grab the pole between our inner thighs and just sit there that way. It may sound easy, but this is probably the part of all the classes I've taken that hurts the most. Gripping on to a steel pole with your inner thighs is not easy at all. Imagine the friction!

I'm smiling but it hurts!

I must admit, the funnest part of class is the humor of the pole dancing instructors. They are a lot of fun. I couldn't believe it when my instructor was training us to the "My Neck, My Back" song. A couple of us couldn't stop laughing. And then when they do some poses and you see how flexible they are, you come back down to planet earth.

Pole dancing has been a great experience and I will definitely be doing more. If you haven't tried it, you should. It is a good strength workout. You may not sweat too much because there is not too much cardio involved, but you build a lot of upper body strength, core strength, leg strength, and endurance. There are several classes being offered in different cities now so use Google, Groupon, Living Social, or one of those sites, and you'd be sure to find one near you.

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Photos by Oby Enyia

Tricks to Firm up Fast

You don’t have too much time to spend in the gym? I’ve heard that story countless times. We always make time for what’s important, but the truth is we do also have pretty busy lives. The good news is that there are some tricks to get the most out of your workout in the least time. As I said a few weeks ago, there is no use sitting in the gym for hours on end just to be there, when you can stay for a short time and max out your workout. Your time is tres important, so being smart about it is the key.

Don’t slow down: It seems easy enough, right? But you do firm up the most when you go at your max for a short time, rather than go at a medium energy level for an extended period. Going at your max means intense bursts of cardio, and circuit strength training. Have you ever seen the people that do interval training when it comes to cardiovascular exercise? Like a burst of energy and speed, and then medium speed, another burst, then medium speed, and so on? Or the people that do a circuit of like 5 strength exercises over and over without a break in-between? Yes, they know a secret that you don’t. What’s the secret? You build muscles by tearing up your muscles to the max and then giving them time to repair. So if you lift as much as you possibly can, run around on different machines and really tear up your muscles without a break, and then go home and rest, that rest would be so good on your body that you would actually see the difference. The only negative is that this type of intense workout session should not be done every day because then your muscles are not given the chance to repair themselves.

Five is better than Zero: Well, a 2 year old can tell you that. We get so caught up in “looking for time to exercise” that we don’t realize that we could do bursts of exercise anytime, especially strength training. You know what's better than 5 minutes of nothing? 5 minutes of exercise! We’ve been blessed with our own body weight, right? So if your favorite TV show is on a commercial break, why not do 5 minutes of pushups? If you’re waiting for someone to show up to drop something off, do some sit-ups or squats. It does add up. You could find that you go from 0 minutes of exercise in your day to 15 minutes.

Hang out plus exercise: You dance, right? No? Well, you do now! Multitask by hanging out with your friends and getting a workout at the same time. I know you move around in your seat when [insert most recent club-banger here] comes on when you’re out with your friends. Get up and dance to it then!

Change your abdominal exercises: Yea, we all know how to crunch, but you could benefit so much more (and faster) if you vary the exercises you do for your belly. In fact, you could even incorporate tools like a stability ball that help to target all the different abdominal muscles at once. Don’t just do crunches and sit-ups; that would take you forever, and could hurt your neck as well.

Slow down your strength training: Yes, yes, I noticed that this seems to contradict the first thing I said, but let me shed some more light. A lot of people rush through their reps when they strength-train, and don’t give their bodies time to get the most out of the workout. For example, when you’re doing a squat, do you pulse quickly just to get over with it as soon as possible? Try a different approach. Slow it down. When you go into a squat (or any other repetitive exercise), go as far as you can, pause in the position for one second, and then come up. Tell me how your muscles feel after. You could be doing exactly the same exercise as someone else and not letting yourself feel all the benefits of the exercise. So when next you strength-train, give yourself time to feel the burn in the contracted position before you extend. Tear up those muscles a little bit more. But don’t use the excuse of doing fewer repetitions because you feel more pain. Do the same as you would have if you were going fast.

So what did we learn today, class? Go faster, harder, and tear up your muscles in a shorter span of time than going at an average intensity, and exercise wherever and whenever you can no matter how little.

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Photo credit: Becomegorgeous.com