About Us

Commercial Break Exercise!

Posted on November 27, 2011 by sandra

Do you find yourself watching TV in the evening and saying these words to yourself: “sitting on this couch is doing nothing but wreaking havoc on my body, but I just can’t muster up enough energy to go to the gym? That would require just too much effort.”

A quick way to get a workout in and thus make good use of your time involves toning your butt and legs. This exercise is called the donkey kick. At every commercial break during a 30 minute segment get on the floor and do 2-3 sets of this exercise. Not only will you feel less guilty about not going to the gym, but you will get a great lower body exercise in without leaving your living room. Here is how:

1. Start by getting on your hands and knees with your shoulder lining up over your wrist, and your knees lining up under your hips.

2. Look towards the floor in order to keep your spine in a neutral position parallel to the floor.

3. Shift your weight to one side. Bend your knee and extend your leg backward in a kick (just like a donkey). Make sure your foot is flexed and not pointed.

4. Slowly return to the starting position, repeating the same movement on the opposite side.

5. Perform 15 – 30 repetitions for 2-3 sets.

Tips: Don’t let your stomach drop to the floor when you extend your leg, creating an arch in your low back. You can also add weight to your ankle to help increase the resistance and maximize the burn in your buns.

LiveLiving 615

LiveLiving387

To view more exercises like these, visit LiveLiving’s eMagazine.

Posted in Fitness, Health | Tagged | Leave a comment

Tired of seeing lumps on the back of your legs!

Posted on October 24, 2011 by Tonya

Everyone hates to see cellulite on the back of their legs. There are all kinds of creams and gadgets out there that promise to leave you with smooth shapely legs, but at what cost and do those promises really hold true?  There is one proven way to get rid of cellulite on the back of your legs and that is to work your hamstrings and glutes.  This exercise targets both the hamstrings and the glutes and will reduce that unsightly look of lumps on the back of your legs. 

Here’s how:

Step 1: Lie on your back with left leg bent and right leg straight.  Arms are extended by your side palms on ground. Put the heel of your right leg on a weight plate, or a towel with a gallon jug of water on the opposite end.  If you are using a towel it will have to be on a wood or tile surface so the towel will slide.

Step 2: Tighten your abdominals and lift your hips off of the floor.  Do not hold your breath when you tighten your abs. 

Step 3: Bend your right knee bringing the plate / towel towards your butt, keeping your hips up in the air.  Then push the weight / towel back out to the starting position.  Do 10 to 15 repetitions and then repeat on the other leg. 

Tips: You can put anything heave on the end of the towel to drag across the floor.  Do this exercise with shoes on to get better control of the plate or towel.  If you do use a weighted plated put the heel of your shoe in one of the holes.

Posted in Wellness | Leave a comment

5 Reasons You Need Your Body

Posted on October 4, 2011 by Etta

I need to lose this weight because I have a three year old I have to keep up with. I need to get fit so I can have more energy. I need to be healthy because I now have diabetes. I need to be able to provide for my family. These are some of the reasons I have heard from individuals on wanting to lose weight, be healthy or fit. So what’s your reason?

To Read More of Etta’s Blog Click Here

Posted in Christianity, Religion, Spirituality, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Health and Wellness Bible Study: The Ten Commandments for Living a Healthy and Fit Life

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Etta

I’ll never forget the song by Tina Turner “What’s Love Got to Do with It”? What if this same question was asked in the context of health and wellness? And the answer would be: EVERYTHING. The Ten Commandments given to Moses was the moral code showing the Israelites how to love God and how to love people. From loving God to loving people lies the motivation for living a healthy and fit life.

Loving God

Just the other day I was talking to a friend who happened to be 52 years old and was about to do her second year of fitness competitions. We were talking about training and how the body can be pushed to do far more than we think. It was then I remembered a comment by a lady. It was about five years ago, I, too, was training. I was in the gym doing dead lifts. Just as I had completed lifting 180 pounds, a lady walked by and said “you look like you’re training for the Olympics”.

To Read More of Etta’s Blog Click Here

Posted in Christianity, Health, Religion, Spirituality, Wellness | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Are you training for power or strength?

Posted on September 12, 2011 by Tonya

It is important to include power and strength training into your workout.  Knowing the difference in how you are training your muscles will improve your overall health.  Our muscles are made of two particular types of fibers: fast twitch (power muscles) and slow twitch (strength muscles).  Each type needs to be trained.  Power lifters like the world’s strongest man, or line men on football teams focus their training on strength, other athletes like sprinters and basketball players focus their training on power, however each of these incorporate the other training method into their workout to make them well rounded as so should we.  Knowing the difference in the way you are training will help you refine your training to achieve the best results.   

Power is the ability to generate as much force as quickly as possible. Training for power includes exercises such as vertical or box jumps, the swing of a baseball bat or weighted sprints. Each of these actions requires speed to be successful with light to moderate weight. 

Strength is the ability to generate as much force as possible without time as a factor.  Exercises like squats or bench press uses a slow purposeful movement to lift or move the most amount of weight possible.  Training for strength involves lifting very heavy weights, low repetitions, and no time factor.  Including drop sets (Doing as many reps as possible with a heavy weight, then gradually reducing the weight performing as many repetitions at each weight load) into your workout will improve your strength.

Posted in Wellness | Leave a comment

180 Rotation

Posted on August 29, 2011 by Tonya

180 Rotations

Your posture communicates many
things that are going on inside of you such as your feelings of confidence,
tiredness, weakness, stressed, or joyfulness. 
Being aware of your posture will help you become more aware of what you
are feeling inside and what you are projecting to other people about yourself.  One way to improve your posture is maintain a
strong back and shoulder muscles.    

 

Here’s how:

Step 1:  Lie face-down on a mat with your arms
extended alongside your ears. 

Step 2: Slowly lift your head and
upper chest off the mat and circle both of your arms outward and back until you
feel your fingers touch your glutes. 

Step 3: Reverse the motion bringing
your arms to the starting position, then repeat.

Posted in Uncategorized, Wellness | Leave a comment

Scissor Jumps

Posted on August 2, 2011 by Tonya

I like to consider this a modified jumping jack.  A scissor jump is a combination of a jumping jack with a lunge, and like these two exercises the best thing is that it can be done anywhere! No equipment needed just a willingness to burn some calories.

This two for one move will work up a sweat quickly and tone those legs, so you can wear those summer shorts with confidence.

Here’s how:

Step 1: Begin in a lunge position (right foot forward). Knees should be bent at a 90 degree angle. Your right knee should be over your ankle not your toes / thigh parallel to the floor. Your back leg (left leg) should be close to the floor but not touching.

Step 2: Jump Up, switching
your legs in a scissoring motion. When you land your right foot should be back and your left foot in the front position.  Repeat doing 10 front leg positions on each leg.

 

Too Easy! Add weights by holding dumbbells in your hands or increase your speed of jumps or number of repetitions.

Posted in Fitness | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Making a Change!

Posted on July 24, 2011 by Tonya

Do you have the desire to make changes in your lifestyle such as going to the gym, losing weight, changing your eating habits, increasing your cardio or start lifting weights?  At one point or another we have all seen things about our lifestyle that we would like to change, however the thoughts of changing them or thinking of the plan to make the change can make our desire feel overwhelming causing us to give up.  Or we may think I will make the change when I have time to make a plan, however most of us never find time to plan because the thought of what we want to attain can seem so far out of our grasp or unattainable that we so very often give up on our dreams.  Here are 3 easy steps to get you on the road to your new healthier lifestyle change.

Here’s how to get started:

Step 1:  Begin with making 1 small change at a time.  So often we try to change everything at the same time only to feel like a failure and give up when we can’t follow the recipe to the exact ingredient.  Take Baby Steps to reach your goal so that it is a true lifestyle change and not a quick fix. 

Step 2: Develop achievable goals with realistic timelines. Write out small goals that can be reached in a reasonable amount of time.  Your small, short goals should be the steps you are taking to reach your big goal (which is a new healthier lifestyle).  Be flexible to modify your goals for the road bumps you will hit along the way.  Remember this is not a short term fix but a long term change. 

Step 3: Identify your potential road blocks and be willing to overcome the obstacles.  We all have things that put a glitch in our health, wither it is your love for ice cream or your late night fatty snacks, the key here is that you can identify the habits that are holding you back and resolve to make the necessary changes to move forward.  It will take will power and hard work but your health is worth it. 

I have always said life is about decisions.  The decisions we make will either take us one step toward our goals or take us one step away from our goal.  One will never take all his/ her steps towards the goals but must be willing to take more steps toward than away from the ultimate goal.  

 

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.  Philippians 4:13

 

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Reverse Crunch on a Bench or Floor

Posted on July 11, 2011 by Etta

 

This abdominal exercise works the rectus abdominis muscle, the long muscle that is referred to as the six-pack muscle of your abdomen.  Most people think you abdominals are separated into upper and lower abdominals, but the muscle is the same you can just pick exercise that may target the upper or the lower section of the muscle which is what we see in the reverse crunch which targets the lower portion of the rectus abdominis muscle. 

Here’s how:

Step 1: Lying on your back either on the floor or a bench.  If you are on the floor lie near something secure so you can hold on with your hands.  If you are on a bench hold on to the edge of the bench at your head. 

Step 2: Lift your legs straight up and point your toes towards the ceiling.

Step 3: Contracting your abdominals raise your hips / tailbone up off of the surface, moving your legs towards the ceiling. 

Step 4: Slowly lower your hips / tailbone back down to the surface to your starting position. 

Tip: Do not allow momentum to take over when lifting your hips off of the surface.  Make each move slow and deliberate focusing on contracting your abdominal muscles. 

Modifications: Legs can be bent, crossed, or straight.  If you begin to feel pressure in your lower back then you can place your hands under the small part of your back just above your tailbone. 

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 1:7

Posted in Fitness | Leave a comment

Chair Pose

Posted on June 20, 2011 by Tonya

There are many benefits to the chair pose in yoga. What I especially like about this pose is that for those of us that have abused our knees in our younger years this pose can help relieve osteoarthritis symptoms. To be clear it is not the pose that affects the osteoarthritis in your knee joints it is the pose that strengthens the muscles supporting your knee joint, thus putting less pressure on the joint with your everyday activities. As with any joint the stronger the muscles all around the joint causes less pressure on the joint. Less pressure equals less pain. The chair pose targets multiple muscles including: hamstrings, quadriceps, glutes, and erector spina muscle of the back.

Not only does this exercise strengthen the upper leg muscles but it also targets muscles in the lower leg such as: tibialis anterior, extensor halluscis longus, extensor digitorum longus, and peroneous tertius (a group of muscles that primarily pull the foot up (dorsiflexion) and extend your toes. The importance of strengthening this group of muscles is for the on balance and stability you gain with this pose.

Here’s how:

Step 1: Standing with your feet together, clasp your hour hands together and bring them up towards the ceiling keeping your elbows straight. (You can bring your feet apart;  hip or shoulder width apart. Keep your toes pointing straight forward).

Step 2: With your arms up, back neutral, slowly begin to bend your knees. Push your butt backwards keeping your knees from coming over your toes and lower to a position that is comfortable for your knees. Your arms will come forward slightly as you slowly lower your butt backwards and towards the floor resulting in about a 20 to 30 degree angle form the ceiling. Your arms will remain straight to help keep your chest open and your air way clear.

Step 3: Take 4-5 deep breaths then slowly return to your starting position. Do up to 10 to 15 repetitions.

Tip: Keep your weight balanced throughout your foot, do not allow your toes or heels to come off of the floor in the lowering or raising movements.

Posted in Fitness | Leave a comment