Rollerblade invited me to try a new workout recently called Mobile Yoga–as you might guess it’s yoga on Rollerblades. They provided the skates and I brought the mat. At first, I thought the concept was crazy, but I’ve never been afraid to try the latest hybrid workout so I took the challenge. I expected to attempt downward dogs and standing splits on skates, luckily Mobile Yoga 101 is much more doable.

Cleveland-based yoga and skating instructor Kris Fondran created the workout not to impress others by putting pretzel-like poses in motion, but because she noticed that both yoga and skating have similar qualities of balance, rhythm and flow. By blending the two, Kris adds cardio, muscular strength and endurance to the meditative yoga practice.

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A summer vacation? Definitely. A workout vacation? It may sound weird, but taking a week off from your fitness routine could actually be worthwhile. If you’re a fitness junky and it doesn’t sound like much fun, a workout vacation is an even better idea.

If you’ve been hitting the gym hard, completing grueling workouts, your body can actually benefit from a little time off. I’m not talking about the day you took off last week, or the several days you took off when you had that awful cold back in March. A week off after 3 months or 6 months when you’re on top of your game can give your body some much needed R & R. Experts say you’ll return stronger, more energetic and reduce your risk of injury. Read the rest of this entry »

You don’t always have to do your ab workout lying down. This challenging exercise from Prevention is a great full body stabilization exercise, but will especially work your abs, obliques and lower back.

You’ll need two small towels for this move. Start in a plank or the position you’d assume at the top of the push-up, keeping your body in a straight line. Then as you use your abs to stabilize your body, make a small clockwise circle with your left palm and then your right. Continue alternating back and forth. Make 3 clockwise circles with each hand, then switch directions and make 3 counterclockwise circles with each hand. Rest and repeat.

Recently I asked our contributing personal trainer and coach Jason Onserud (remember his great rundown on how to create a resistance training program?) to talk about the best ways to warm up before you start strength training. Here’s what he said…

First of all you should know why it’s important to warm up. It’ll help improve the performance of your session and in turn the result of your hard work. Warming up helps reduce the chance of injury and wear and tear on your joints too.

Start with a cardio warm-up: Complete 10 minutes of a low intensity exercise at 50% of your maximum heart rate. If you aren’t tracking your heart rate, this is a pretty easy pace–think a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10. Try jogging, biking or skipping rope. This will increase your heart rate and actually warm up your body and muscle temperature as well as your mind. Read the rest of this entry »

Anytime you add an element of instability to your ab workout, you’ll make it more challenging. The Prone Jackknife from Oxygen Women’s Fitness is one way to do it.

Start in a plank position with your arms slightly wider than shoulder width apart and your feet and the tops of your shins balanced on an exercise ball (choose a ball that’s at a comfortable height). Keeping your arms and back straight, engage your abs to bring your knees toward your chest rolling the ball along with your feet. Keep squeezing your abs and return to the starting position. Do 2 to 3 reps of 15.

If you’re looking for a new innovative and HARD workout to try, sign up for Budokon. Developed by Cameron Shayne, Budokon is a fusion of martial arts and yoga that’s designed to create a healthy body and a sound mind which rings true to the JivaFit motto. And celebrities like Courtney Cox and Jennifer Aniston have been fans for awhile.

It’s a workout that requires you to use every inch of your body and every single muscle from head to toe. This class will help you get stronger without lifting a single dumbell–it’s all about using your body. The class starts with a yoga session, though you’ll do dancing dogs in addition to your downward dogs and classic Vinyasa movements will be modified to the rolling wave. The moves get progressively more challenging as the class gears up for the martial arts set. The crocodile for example requires you to jump to a fighting stance from lying flat on the ground. The practice finishes with kicking, punching, blocking and so on in a martial arts series.

If you want to give it a try, search the site for an instructor near you or watch one of Shayne’s workout DVDs. I tried a couple of them and unlike some fitness videos that aren’t don’t even compare to taking an actual class, these were pretty challenging.

Here’s a nice mind-body workout I found from MyYogaOnline. The ten minute routine will help you relax after the long holiday weekend, find inner balance and ease your mind and body before you start another hectic week.

There are plenty of abdominal exercises that can make you feel a little silly when you’re doing them at the gym, but it’s all in the name of flat abs, right? Here’s one of those exercises–the Wicked Wiper straight from an Olympic trainer as shown in Women’s Health. Only thing is, if you can actually pull this exercise off any snickering will be replaced by worship. Something to work towards…I’ll try it tomorrow, I swear.

If you’re up for the challenge, hang from a pull-up bar (you may want to enlist a friend to spot you) with your arms shoulder-width apart and palms facing outward. As you continue to hang, raise your hips, back and shoulders as much as you can to try to get your body parallel to the floor. Lift your legs up into a pike. Now like a windshield wiper, lower your legs to the right, raise them to the center and lower to the left. Amateur variation: Do the same action on a mat.

Have you ever wondered what order you should do your strength training exercises in, if it matters what muscles you work first or if you should mix up your routine each time? I asked our new contributing personal fitness trainer and coach Jason Onserud (check out his bio here) to give us the answers. Here’s Jason…

When you’re starting a resistance training program, there are guidelines to consider when you plan your routine. If you follow them, you’ll see better progress and reduce your risk of injury. You should change your training program every 5-8 workouts to prevent reaching strength plateaus and reduce the risk of injuries like tendinitis.

1. Start with your weak spots. The strength of the muscles you train at the beginning of your workout will improve the most. So if you feel your shoulders are weaker than your chest muscles for example, do the shoulder press before the chest press.

2. Train larger muscle groups before smaller muscle groups. For example, do squats (quadriceps) before sit-ups (rectus abdominus) and chin-ups (latissimus dorsi – upper back) before curls (biceps). If you train smaller muscles first, you’ll fatigue the auxiliary muscles and in turn limit your ability to train the larger muscles to the fullest. Read the rest of this entry »

With the vast array of Pilates moves and crunch variations out there, it’s easy to forget that a lot of other activities strengthen your core too. That’s why I love this plyometric exercise from Runner’s World that proves bursts of cardio can work your abs.