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.

We started our session sans skates much like a typical yoga class with a meditation and stretching. Since the other writers and editors in the class were also novice skaters, we laced up and started with easy beginner techniques. Once we were comfortable on our Rollerblades, Kris challenged us to add in little aspects of yoga like connecting the strokes to the breath, skating in a rolling prayer position and lunging into a warrior position.

If you’re really looking to practice yoga, Mobile Yoga might not be for you, but I do love it as new motivation to get outside and get on Rollerblades. Even if you’re not near Ohio, you can try out the practice by downloading the workout or watching a video. Or to get started, the next time you go inline skating, focus on your breath and notice the rhythm and flow behind your technique.

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. Right now, I’m on day 8 of a forced break as I’m recovering from surgery that I had to repair a hip labral tear last week (the same injury A-Rod had earlier this year). Maybe a little break months ago would’ve done some good?

So go on, take a workout vacation and enjoy the time off! That said, when you go on your fitness break, don’t breakaway from your diet at the same time–you might not feel the benefits if you return after indulging in a bunch of ice cream cones and umbrella adorned drinks!

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.

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.

Next, warm up your joints: What you do here depends on what muscles you’re planning to work on, but you should perform non-weight loaded movements for each of the joints that will be involved in your training session. For example, warm up the knees with squats, knee circles and knee figure-eights. 10 reps each is a good guideline to follow. It’ll help you develop an awareness of your joints and in turn enhance proper movements in strength training. It can even improve joint health by increasing fluid within the joints.

Finally, prepare your muscles: Rather than jumping right into a super set lifting your maximum weight, start by performing low reps of the first few exercises in your program. Do 6 reps at 50% of the weight to be lifted for the first set, then 4 reps at 70%, and 2 reps at 90%.  Rest 2 minutes and then begin your workout.  Example:  If your first set of bench presses will be 150 lbs, then warm up by performing 6 reps at 75 lbs, 4 reps at 105 lbs and finally 2 reps at 135 lbs.

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.

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.

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.

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.

3. Alternate upper body exercises with lower body exercises. This is a good way to fit a lot of exercises in when you don’t have a lot of time. Plus alternating between upper and lower body exercises vastly increases the metabolic boost that you’ll get from the workout. In other words, you’ll burn a heck of a lot of calories and continue to do so for up to 38 hours after you’re done.

4. Do any low-rep exercises (used to increase maximal strength) at the beginning of your workout. Maximal strength is defined as using 5 repetitions or less. Always perform the lower reps exercises before the higher reps exercises. This will enhance the progress of both goals.

5. Train opposing muscle groups together. By alternating between opposing muscles, pressing and pulling movements for example, you can increase both the efficiency and effect of the workout. You’ll also save time because you won’t need to rest as long in between sets of different activities such as the chest press and seated rows. And when one opposing muscle relaxes, the opposite is contracted so you’re better able to increase strength since there’s less resistance from the opposing muscle group.

6. Complete any power weightlifting movements first. If you do any quick lifting movements with a barbell such as power snatches, power cleans, push-jerks or sled chest presses (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, you probably don’t do them) it’s important to do them at the beginning of your session. They’re very technical and require a lot of coordination, which can decrease with fatigue later on in your workout.