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Tracy Anderson

Try This Rebounder Workout At Home

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Celebrity trainer Tracy Anderson will put a bounce in your workout with a rebound routine that’s free on YouTube.

Tracy Anderson

 

FIT FOR FREE | Don’t hate her because she has an unattainably perfect body and fabulous celebrity best friends like Gwyneth Paltrow. For the past 11 years, Tracy Anderson has worked damn hard for her money, developing workout studios both in New York and L.A. and creating a series of eight killer DVDs based on the Tracy Anderson Method. And while her lifestyle advice and exercise routines continue to have their detractors—who feel her views on dieting are too extreme and her routines for dance-based workouts too quick and complicated to follow—her program has been proven to work if you can hunker down and stick with it. Read more

Interlacing Fingers And Toes - C. Phaisalakani

Use Your Fingers To Wake Up Your Tired Toes

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Here’s how to wake up your feet by interlacing your fingers and toes.

Interlacing Fingers And Toes - C. Phaisalakani

 

FIVE-MINUTE-YOGA | Perhaps we lose touch with our feet because they’re so far from our heads. How else could we shove them into narrow shoes and ignore them until they hurt?

Good yoga feet with active, mobile toes bring life to every pose. They help you connect with the ground in standing poses and pull your energy upward in inversions.

In fact, if there were just one practice you were to take on for five minutes a day, this one would give you the biggest and fastest rewards.

How To Wake Up Your Feet Read more
Marathon Walking - iStock

There’s More Than One Way To Do A Marathon

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There’s more than one way to do a marathon—and every kind of victory is sweet.

Marathon Walking - iStock

 

JUST DO IT | Marathon walking is a pretty big deal right now, and it’s getting bigger because fitness fanatics who’ve been jogging their shins off are finding that while finishing a 42-km race may be an accomplishment, it isn’t necessarily the best thing for the body. Read more

Eve Johnson, Half-Hero Pose

Stretch Tight Thighs With Half-Hero Pose

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Try half-hero pose to give your thighs a good and effective stretch.

Eve Johnson, Half-Hero PoseOne of the most fruitful areas for a new yoga practitioner to explore is something I call television yoga. It’s not a formal practice. You don’t have to put on special clothes, roll out a mat or light a candle. And if you watch TV, talk on the phone or sit and listen to music, you don’t even have to make time for it. You just have to be willing to devote some of your sitting-down time to gentle, intelligent work with your body. Any seated hip opener will do. But if you’d like to stretch your front thighs, it’s hard to beat the half-hero pose. Read more

Reverse The Curve - C. Phaisalakani

Reverse Your Curve With This Easy Pose

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We’re becoming a nation of stoopers; “reverse the curve” with this challenge.

Reverse The Curve - C. Phaisalakani

 

FIVE-MINUTE-YOGA | Most of what we do, including typing, cooking, driving, reading and gardening, encourages us to lift our shoulder blades, jut our heads forward and round our backs. Don’t get stuck there. Instead, reverse the curve with a chest-opening pose. You’ll make more space for your lungs, bring your shoulders back into place, relieve upper back tension and stretch your front chest muscles. Even five minutes a day makes a difference—as long as it’s every day. Read more

Stair Walking - iStock

Sit 23+ Hours A Week? You Must Move Now

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When you sit all day, you may need more than dedicated workouts to keep yourself in good health.

Stair Walking - iStockFITTER BY THE MINUTE It is well known that heart disease is one of the leading causes of death among Canadians. But a recent study was shocked to find that going to the gym does not make up for all the sedentary time we spend. This is bad news for professional sitters (i.e., those of us who sit at desk to make a living). A recent New York Times article indicated that even if we live reasonably healthy lives but sit for more than 23 hours a week, we are 64 percent more likely to die from heart disease. According to the study, even for those who have nixed cream and go jogging, it is not enough to counteract the effects of all of that sitting. So unless you are planning on a career change to bike courier or rickshaw driver, insert a bit of activity into your office hours by giving your daily grind some heart.

This simple active routine will boost your heart rate (not to mention your popularity and productivity). Read more

Hardcore Circuit Classes Are The Bomb

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Top level circuit classes are a solid alternative to personal training.

Running ShoesFIT FOR LESS | Anyone addicted to personal training can rattle off the benefits: great personal trainers keep you motivated and driving hard toward a level of fitness that always feels just out of reach; PTs teach proper strength training techniques, then push you like you would never push yourself to perform exercises correctly and with intent; ongoing work with a trainer means your abs will ripple but your tush will not (or not much anyway), that whatever health conditions, body image issues or training goals brought you there in the first place will be studiously addressed. So personal training is a good thing, and if you have been doing it, you probably don’t want to stop even when it starts to feel like the black dog of recession is nipping at your wallet. Read more

3 Fun Ways To Switch Up Your Workout

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Three novel ways to get fitter by injecting some fun into your usual fitness routine.

Zumba dancers - Gold's Gym FITTER RIGHT NOW Let’s face it, like anything good for us, fitness routines can get boring after a while. Plus results from even the most fantastic regime will eventually plateau. Here are three fun ways to shake up your routine, or get back into one, and keep you engaged body, mind and soul. And with these great deals, you can’t afford not to give them a try. Read more

Sticker Shock—In A Good Way

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The turn on: We get a kick (literally) out of drinking Emergen-C’s energy boosting powder-blend packets of vitamins, antioxidants and minerals that are made to be stirred into common tap water. More convenient than popping vitamin pills, this fizzy drink product is a great way to ward off a cold. It is also the perfect pick-me-up water-bottle drink for during or after a workout. Once drunk, twice addicted is all we can say.

What’s the deal: $7.99 for a box of a 30 packets.

Why we’re excited: More like stunned, really. But hey, ours is not to question why this product costs $20.99 (this is the sale price; it is regularly $22.99) at Whole Foods in Vancouver and only $7.99 at Trader Joes in Bellingham; ours is but to buy in bulk on our next trip south.

How long will the pleasure last: Always. This is the regular price a Trader Joes.

Where’s The F Spot: In Bellingham, take exit 255 to Trader Joes, 2410 James Street, (360) 734-5166; open 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.

— Submitted by M. Phelps