Fitness in the Tub

When all is said and done, possibly the most Epicurean arena for exercise is the bathtub. Get some bubbles going, maybe some scented oils, a candle, who knows — maybe even an exercise partner (the size of your tub and energy levels permitting).

Assuming a solo experience, however, try some of the suggestions given below. They come recommended by

Carolyn Maxwell, who after a day of being chef, manager, bookkeeper, and sometimes bottle washer at her own restaurant admits she can begin to feel a little sautéed herself. “Especially nice about the bathtub workout, in addition to being so relaxing,” she says, “is that you needn’t follow it with a shower.”

Tub Stretches and Strengthening Exercises

The hot water of a bath con make ”tubbing” ideal for stretching.

1) Gently pull your right knee in as close as you can to your chest, hold tor several seconds, then repeat with the other knee. (This is good for stretching the muscles at the back of the upper leg — the hamstrings ——
plus those troublesome muscles of the lower back.)

2) Grab your right wrist with your left hand, raise your hands over your head, then lean slowly from side to side as far as you can, concentrating on stretching the muscles at your shoulders and neck. Switch your grip and repeat.

3) Lean as far forward as you con, keeping your legs straight, and grab your toes. Hold for several seconds, then release. (This stretches the lower back, the hamstrings, and the calves.)
You can also do some strength training in the tub, if you’re in the mood:

4) Place your palms on the rim of both sides of the tub, and press yourself upward until your arms are straight. Lower yourself, then repeat until fatigued. (Good tor the triceps ——- the muscles of the back of the upper arm — and also the chest muscles,or pecs.”)

5) With legs slightly bent, grab behind your knees and try to pull your knees into your chest, providing resistance, however, so that you feel considerable tension in your forearms and biceps.
Hold this position of exertion for about 6 seconds, relax, then repeat until you’ve done a set of 10.

Fitness For the Fun of It

Beginning to see a pattern here? Paul can’t wait to break a sweat with his next renovation project, climb on the jungle gym, or give an after-dinner piggyback at the request of his three-year-old, And as Joan says of her time running around like a teenager in her duties as a volunteer coach, “It’s the most rewarding part of my day.”

Which says it in a nutshell. Some people participate in a sport; others discover a hobby. Whatever it is, it should be something that satisfies you and that you actually look forward to doing. Fitness after 5 o’clock, in short, should be for the fun of it.
But nothing that comes even close to inducing a sweat could fill that bill, you say?

l challenge you to test that claim. Below are some ideas for leisure»time activities that are fully capable of providing substantial fitness and fat burning benefits, yet would be very difficult, indeed, to classify as one:

If you have children, involve them. Take them for nature walks, or even just walks to the nearest ice cream store if you live in the city (and don’t worry, you’ll have earned yours). Or do sporting activities with them — play ball, Frisbee, tennis, badminton, even horseshoes or croquet. You’ll at least be doing more than watching Wheel of Fortune, and you’ll also be getting your children into the healthful pattern of being active — very important for influencing their exercise behavior as adults, studies show.

If you own a home, improve it. And don’t worry if you know as much about dovetail joints as Joan.

Hoodwink a friend who does know, and work along as a helper. Or hire a professional if no such friend exists, and work along on weekends until you know enough to go it alone. (That’s the way Paul got started. He took his vacation one summer to work alongside the carpenter building his deck and learned enough to remodel his family room. Not only did he lose five pounds during those two deck-building weeks, but he also saved himself about $40O!)

If you’re a competitive type, compete. Sports can be especially suitable for those of us who inherently seem to get ourselves too busy, because they can help channel the aggression that makes us overbook ourselves in the first place. Besides, activities such as tennis, softball, racquetball, and squash can be great exercise as well as fun.

Why come home and crunch more numbers when you can crunch the likes of a tennis ball instead? Research confirms that we aggressive types do best when we let our aggressions out, so we’d be foolish not to do so in ways capable of bettering our health along the way.

If you like animals, show it. Amazing but true: Studies show that pets can help us live longer; they are sources of comfort more important than we realize. So what better way to grab a few extra years than by taking Fido for more of those walks he craves? Or even Morris?

Undertake the care and riding of something as large as a horse, and you could really have some exercise on your hands. As the American Council on Exercise poster that pictures a dog states, “Think of him as an exercise machine with hair.”

If you like vegetables, grow them. How many avid gardeners do you know looking plumper than their tomatoes? Not many, and the reasons are simple: Vegetables are virtually fat»free, and gardening can make for some awesome exercise. The digging builds cardiovascular endurance as well as muscular strength, and the weeding and picking are great stretching movements. Start delivering all those extra tomatoes to neighbors by foot, and you’ll really have a victorious garden on your hands.

If you like dancing, just do it. Dance instruction has come a long way since Arthur Murray taught the tango.

There’s now improvisational jazz dance to be learned, disco, ethnic, and of course square dancing and ballet, in addition to the ballroom types that Arthur stepped so well. So if you like to move to rhythms — which a lot of us do, as demonstrated by all the Walkmans we wear — dance is the best way to do it. It also can be a real sweetheart of a calorie-burner, as the physiques of the great dancers attest.

Fitness For The Busy People!

Are you a traveler who is always rushing from here to there? Are you feeling mentally-drained, experiencing insomnia, or overeating at fast foods at the airport? Do you find it difficult to overcome the discomfort and tiredness of traveling?

This book was written as a survival guide for all the fellow travelers who want to claim control over their busy lives by a salesman who clocks over 200,000 air miles a year. In this useful book you will learn:

1) 10 amazing ways to find exercise where there is none.
2) How to lose fat and have fun at the same time by being more active on the road.
3) How to exercise without having to go to a gym.
4) The secrets of a super-fit salesman
5) Fitness at 40,000 feet
6) How to run two miles in a hotel room
7) De-stressing techniques which you can use anywhere and anytime.

Buy now at a introductory price of just $25USD! We can’t promise that the price will stay there forever!

Fitness After 5 P.M

Work is supposed to be over when you get home time to relax and be with the family, to stretch out and catch up on the day, to unwind, not switch directly from your work clothes into a sweat suit.

True. But remember: lf you’ve already been nibbling away at your DER (Daily Exercise Requirements) in some of the ways recommended in this book, you won’t need that sweat suit. If you’ve already managed to squeeze in two 10-minute cardiovascular workouts, in fact — one in the morning and one at lunch — you can consider anything else you do for the day to be icing on the cake.

Take the case of Paul. He gets a short walk in the morning and another one at noon; thus, his precious evening hours are open for any number of highly pleasurable activities involving his family or requiring his services around the house or yard.

“Some nights I’ll take a walk with the kids to the park and get some strength exercise messing around with them on the jungle gym,” he says. “Other nights I’ll do something physical in the way of yard work, such as clipping hedges, working in the garden, cutting some grass, that kind of thing. Or if the weather’s bad, I have a set of weights I’ll push around for a while in the basement, I’ve gotten myself in the habit of always doing at least something, even if it’s just helping my wife with some of the housework. She also works, so she really appreciates any help she can get.”

Atta boy, Paul! Your fitness program certainly gets high marks.
“But best of all is the difference it’s all made,” Paul hastens to add. “What I’m doing hardly feels like any sort of structured program, yet I’ve lost close to 20 pounds in the past year, and I seem to have so much more energy.”

Aha! Therein lies the secret of fitness when approached in the easy-does-it style I’ve been recommending since the opening pages of this book. When pursued at a pace the body finds comfortable, fitness begins fitness. The more active you are, the more active you will feel like being and your fitness level will spiral upward in an exponential fashion.

“I used to get home from work and head straight for the TV because I felt too pooped to do much else,” Paul confesses. “But now I get home champing at the bit to get into one of the projects I’ve got going.”

Handy and healthy. That’s Paul. You don’t have to be a Bob Vila to burn calories pleasantly and productively in your leisure hours, though. Consider joan, a 36 year-old working mother of two, who also gets her evening exercise in fun and meaningful ways but wouldn’t know a dovetail joint if it flew in her face.

“Two nights a week in the summer,” says joan, “I’m the manager of a softball team, which one of my daughters plays on, and I make sure to get plenty of exercise during our warm»ups for the games. We also practice on Saturdays, so I get another workout there. We all do stretching exercises together, and some running. It adds up to a pretty good workout.”

With the turning of the leaves, Joan turns to coaching soccer, in which both her daughters participate. “I certainly get my cardiovascular workouts there,” she says. “And not just during practices. Even during the games, I find myself running up and down the field to follow the play.”

In the winter, Joan’s fitness turns to coaching basketball. “I just love working with kids,” she says. “They have such energy, and it’s contagious. I find myself doing all this strenuous exercise, but it doesn’t feel like exercise. I guess it’s because I get so involved.”

Tips for Lunchtime Fitness

You can get more out of your lunch break than food. With imagination and resourcefulness, it can be the key to fitting in fitness.

1) If your company has a fitness room, for heavens sake, use it. Many corporate fitness facilities today rival even the finest health clubs, so you’d be silly not to cash in. For a cardiovascular workout, use either a stationary bike, stair—climbing machine, treadmill, rower, or cross-country skier. For a strength-building workout, use free weights (barbells and dumbbells) or one of those bizarre—looking weight machines (studies are equivocal about which of these two approaches is better, so let your preference be your guide). Ask the instructor at your facility for assistance in putting together a workout suited to your cardiovascular or strength-building needs and put together a workout on your own.

2) Explore the great outdoors. This may not be feasible in certain urban environments, but if your place of work is in a reasonably safe and natural setting, kick off your heels or wing tips, lace up your walking shoes, and get strolling. An advantage of walking for your lunch time exercise, as opposed to doing something more strenuous such as jogging or getting a tough cardiovascular workout at the fitness center, is that you can do it after you eat, thus boosting the number of calories you burn. You also spare yourself the time and trouble of having to shower.

3) Explore the great indoors. If weather conditions are unfavorable, or you simply don’t like the locale of your place of work, stroll the corridors (if your complex is large enough) or head for the nearest mall.
Maybe even do some quick grocery shopping while afoot on your midday spree. You’ll be increasing the calories you burn by carrying those bags, and you’ll save yourself from having to do it at night.

To Eat Before Or After Exercise?

lt’s an often asked and very good question: When’s the best time to eat in relation to noon time exercise?

Answer: That depends on the intensity of the exercise, and why it’s being done. If your primary goal is to burn calories for the purpose of weight control, research shows it’s best to eat before you exercise, so long as you’re not going to be exercising too hard. By eating before you exercise, you increase what’s known as the thermal effect of food. That means calories are more readily available for immediate use as fuel when consumed shortly before exercise. Food should be eaten within 30 minutes before exercise begins for this increased calorie-burn to occur, studies show, and the increase can be substantial — as much as 30 percent, in fact.

But if your reasons for exercising are more performance oriented - perhaps you’d like nothing more than to whip a colleague or two in the next corporate SK — you’d do better to eat after your lunch-hour workout. The greater intensity with which you’ll be exercising could cause digestive discomfort if you eat beforehand.

Secrets of A Super-Fit Salesman

Are you a traveler who is always rushing from here to there? Are you feeling mentally-drained, experiencing insomnia, or overeating at fast foods at the airport? Do you find it difficult to overcome the discomfort and tiredness of traveling?

This book was written as a survival guide for all the fellow travelers who want to claim control over their busy lives by a salesman who clocks over 200,000 air miles a year. In this useful book you will learn:

1) 10 amazing ways to find exercise where there is none.
2) How to lose fat and have fun at the same time by being more active on the road.
3) How to exercise without having to go to a gym.
4) The secrets of a super-fit salesman
5) Fitness at 40,000 feet
6) How to run two miles in a hotel room
7) De-stressing techniques which you can use anywhere and anytime.

Buy now at a introductory price of just $25USD! We can’t promise that the price will stay there forever!

Lunch: Remember The Side Order of Oxygen

Twelve noon. Time for . . . the usual tuna sandwich and rice pudding from the company cafeteria? Lunch out somewhere with coworkers? Yogurt at your desk along with a juicy novel?

Whatever it is that you do for lunch, you can do more. Even if you get only 30 minutes instead of an hour, you can fit fitness into your lunch break. How long does it take, after all, to eat?

If you really need a full hour, l’m going to guess that might be one of your fitness problems right there. Yes, we should chew our food thoroughly, but that’s a lot of food chewed.

The point is simply this: Today’s lunch hour offers itself as one of the richest opportunities for exercise.

Think about it:
1) It doesn’t dip into family time. Don’t you hate those dinners messed up by having to get to the health club, health—rider, fitness video, or whatever other nighttime exercise obligation you’ve come to despise?

2) If can give you the energy you need when youneed it. And don’t you regret those late-night workouts that rev you up only so you can stay up too late watching how to make fattening meals on the Food Network? Working out during lunch can iuice you up for the rest of your money—making day.

3) It can be free. lf your company has a fitness facility, and many do nowadays, some of those unaffordable exercise gizmos you lust for probably are there just waiting tor you. And even it your place of business doesn’t have a fitness facility, you’ll be exercising on company time. Your lunch hour is built into your contract; you may use it however you see fit.

4) It can put those Lunch-time calories to work rather than just to fat. Sit back down at your desk after one of those four-star lunches intended to impress somebody, and what happens? Calories with nowhere to go generally turn to fat. But by working out- lightly — alter you eat, you give all those chocolate mousse calories in your blood something more productive to do. Research shows that moderate exercise after eating, in tact, can increase calorie-burning by as much as 30 percent.

Desk Exercises

Relieving your body from the stress of sitting increases blood flow, energizes tired muscles, and makes you feel better and more alert. Try these stretches for a more comfortable — and productive— workday.
1) Move from side to side on your chair, raising your hip up towards your shoulder, alternating left to right. This stretches your bock, hips, and shoulders.
2) Keeping your bock straight and your arms on the armrests of your choir, lift your foot until your leg is straight and, breathing, hold it for a few seconds. Repeat with the other leg, remembering to keep your bock straight. You should feel a good stretch behind your knees.
3) Roll your shoulders, one at a time.
4) Push your chest forward and bend your head bock, causing your back to crunch.

Then do the opposite movement: Roll your shoulders forward and lower your chin to your chest as you round your back.
5) If you hold the telephone between your shoulder and your ear, be sure to do so on the opposite side periodically to stretch the muscles that were contracted and contract the muscles that were stretched.
6) Raise your arms in front of you and clasp the wrist at one arm with the hand of the other. Pull forward on the wrist. For a good stretch. Reverse. Raise your arms above your head and clasp the wrist at one arm with the hand of the other. Pull up. Reverse.
7) lf you don’t mind a few stores, or it you have a private office, give yourself a good hug. Wrap your arms around your torso and twist slightly from side to side.
Chin tucks ore a wonderful way to stretch the neck and shoulders as well as to train your body to maintain good posture. Get in the habit of doing a chin tuck every time you stop typing (or start a new paragraph or open a particular drawer).
9) Raise your right arm so that it’s angled to the left. Cup your left hand under your right arm just above the elbow. Pull your right elbow toward your left shoulder for a halt-hug and a good stretch. Reverse.

Coffee Break Alternatives

Cardiovascular exercise is a great midmorning boost: It infuses the body with energizing oxygen, helps remove waste products that have accumulated in the blood, and roots out the kinks that are the bane of the desk—bound.

Try one of these natural perks.
1) A 10-minute walk in the parking lot, or up and down your company’s corridors.
2) Ten minutes at climbing stairs. (There must be some in the building somewhere.)
3) Several minutes of jumping jacks in your office it you have one, in the rest room it you don’t.
4) Running in place for 5 minutes. Take 30—second rests each minute it need be.

Or if your company has a fitness center:
1) Several minutes of stationary cycling. (One enterprising woman I know brought her own to use in the office.)
2) Several minutes of walking or slow running on a treadmill.
3) Several minutes of rowing on a rowing machine.
Strength—building exercises can be energizing and have an advantage over some cardiovascular activities by virtue of not demanding as much space.
Several of these you can do right at your desk.
1) Isometric Curls* tor the biceps and triceps can be done anywhere.
2) Curls can also be done with resistance supplied by your desk.
3) Wall push—ups are great tor those upper arm muscles.
4) Chin—ups are great for those who have already developed arm muscles. (A chin—up bar is necessary for these, of course, but all you need for installing a portable model is a stable doorway.)
5) Forward lunges can be done at your desk.
6) Lumbar stabilization exercises such as the Quadruped help combat desk fatigue.

Flexibility exercises are just what muscles need alter several hours of being sequestered behind a desk, sales counter, or steering wheel. Try these for giving muscles a second wind.
1) Shoulder Rotations* relieve your shoulders and neck ot the stress that builds up all day. Create as much movement in your upper back muscles as you can while you do them.
2) The Reach can be done standing or sitting. Stretch your hands as high above your head as you can while taking a deep breath. Hold for about 5 seconds, then exhale as you lower your arms.
3) The Neck Stretch will relieve your neck and upper back of stress. Simply tuck your chin into your chest. If you like, gently tip your head to the left, return to center, then tip to the right.
4) Arm Circles are good to do whenever you’re standing. Hold your arms straight out from your sides. Move them in circles, increasing the size with each circle. Do about 10 in each direction.
5) The Upper Back Bend feels great alter sitting for a while. Clasp your hands behind your neck and gently lean back in your chair as far as possible. Open and close your mouth to stretch the jaw muscles, then slowly sit back up.
6) The Lower Back Stretch* relieves pressure on the lower back. While seated, grasp your right knee and slowly pull it up into your chest as far as possible while you keep your other leg straight. Hold for about 5 seconds, and then do the same with the other leg.

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