Want those rocking ladies legs?

Are you wanting to get those hot ladies legs? With it almost being swimsuit season, it might be time to do a killer leg routine to get them ready. Throw this leg day into your routine for the next 6-8 weeks to walk with confidence.

Box Jumps

Start out with the box jumps to help your legs get warmed up. Perform 5 sets of 20. Keep the box height to right below knee level.

Elevated Reverse Lunges

For these reverse lunges, keep your box around 6 inches high. Start on top of the box and step backwards, lowering your knee as far as you can. Really stretch those hip flexors. Do 3 sets of 12. If you can, use dumbbells.

Body Weight Squats

Looks easy enough, right? Well don't be to happy yet. We are going to do something called Tabata Squats. Do the squats and in control. Perform 20 reps as quick as you can, rest 10 seconds and repeat. I want you to do this 3 times, so you will be doing 60 reps per set. Complete 3 sets and expect to transform your lower body into hot ladies legs.

Stiff Leg Deadlifts

This exercise is a form exercise. Keep your back straight, shoulders back, and head up. On the contracting movement, focus on pulling with your hamstring and butt. Do 3 sets of 12.

Calf Jumps No video for this one yet. It's a simple exercise though. With your feet side by side, jump as high as you can only using your calves. Don't allow your legs to bend other than on impact of landing. As soon as you hit the ground, explode back upward as high as you can. Perform 3 sets of 25. Finish it off with a set of quick explosive calf jumps, only coming off the ground a half inch. Something like a boxer does when jumping rope quickly. Do this for 30-60 seconds.

Give this workout a try for a while and watch those ladies legs shape up.

Combine this routine and some healthy foods to eat and you will see results in no time. You can find more nutrition and fitness articles from my blog, Go Healthy Fitness

Bad effects of energy drinks.

Everyday in your local gym you will find energy drinks being sold. These drinks are known to give the consumer an energy boost and help prolong a workout. Recent research has shown the effects of energy drinks may be worse than we have thought.

An Australian medical team did a study using 30 young adults. The experiment was designed to test the effects of stimulant drinks on a human's blood system. The subject's blood was tested before given 1 can of sugar free Red Bull. One hour later, they tested the blood again.

One of the researchers, Scott Willoughby, said "One hour after they drank Red Bull, their blood systems were no longer normal. They were abnormal like we would expect to see in a patient with cardiovascular disease?" Does this sound like a good effect of energy drinks? No way. Willoughby believes if you have high blood pressure or are under a lot of stress, the drink could be life threatening. Other studies have shown it increasing heart rate and blood pressure, which is a common effect of caffeine.

This isn't the first time stimulant drinks have been linked to health troubles. These drinks are banned in Norway, Uruguay, and Denmark. An Irish student drank 3 cans of Red Bull after strenuous exercise and died. After 3 more people died in Sweden in 2001 who drank it with alcohol, the product was under review. BBC Northern Ireland released a report about recommendations when consuming a stimulant drink. This report was created by the Food Safety Protection Board (FSPB).

The report recommends:

Children under the age of 16 should not be allowed these beverages

Take caution when combining stimulant drinks and alcohol

They should not be consumed during exercise or a sporting event

They should be classified with other beverages of high caffeine content

Next time you are looking for an energy booster, think about what you're doing to your body. Good substitutes for stimulant drinks are green tea or ginseng.

If your trying to get the motivation to lose weight, don't rely on energy drinks. It all depends on proper nutrition and exercise. You can read more fitness and nutrition articles at Go Healthy Fitness.

Rotator Cuff Anatamy explained

I thought I should do a short article of what exactly is the rotator cuff anatomy. Hopefully this will help people understand how to prevent common injuries to the shoulder.

There are four points in the shoulder where bone meets bone. Two of these cause most of the problems with exercisers. The A/C joint and the gleno-humeral joint..

A/C Joint
The A/C joint is where the shoulder blade meets the collarbone. These two bones are held together by only a ligament. With too much pressure or a large impact, you can stretch or tear this ligament allowing the bones to seperate. This is what happens when someone separates their shoulder.

Gleno-humeral Join
The Gleno-humeral joint on the other hand is where the shoulder blade meets the arm bone, the humerus. This joint is what most people think about when they think of the shoulder. It includes the glenoid fossa which is the depression into which the ball of the upper arm bone fits. This is a ball and socket joint. The muscles and tendons in this area are what keep the bones in the correct position.

There are many muscles that cause movement of the shoulder and make up the rotator cuff anatomy. Most of these muscles are responsible for more than one movement. An example of this is the bicep. It is used for flexing the arm, but it also assists in raising the arm forward. Other muscles involved in shoulder movements include the shoulders(duh), chest, triceps, and the lats.

To prevent injury or perform rotator cuff therapy, try my small exercise routine. You can find more exercise and nutrition tips at my blog, Go Healthy Fitness.

The 300 Workout, are you up to this advanced workout?

If you've seen the movie 300, you know what workout I'm talking about. It's been quite a fad ever since the movie release. Who wouldn't want that chissled look all the actors display in that movie? But this routine is an advanced workout so be ready.

This routine was created by Mark Twight. Mark is a former world-class mountain climber. He took the cast of actors and stuntmen to Gym Jones in Salt Lake City and had to whip them into shape within 12 weeks. By the look of his routine he is a strong believer of "no pain, no gain", just another tactic of an advanced workout.

The Workout:

• 25 pull ups
• 50 deadlifts with 135 lbs.
• 50 push ups
• 50 box jumps with a 24 inch box
• 50 Floor wipers at 135 lbs.
• 50 Kettle Ball clean and press at 35 lbs.
• 25 pull ups

Now before you hop in the gym and try and do this, you have to realize this isn't the workout they did 5 days a week for 12 weeks. This "300″ routine was built as a graduation workout to test the cast at the end of their training regimen. Twight says, there were months of training involved. He had to transform the actors and stuntmen physically and mentally for this advanced workout.

This routine will be grueling and exhausting but if you want to give it a try one day, go for it and let me know how you did. Each exercise doesn't need to be completed in 1 set, you can use as many sets as needed, but your wanting to complete the entire workout in as little time as possible. Andrew Pleavin, who played Daxos, completed the routine in 18 minutes and 11 seconds.

Training to be able to handle this involves many forms of exercise. The participants did an assortment of high intensity interval training, heavy load/small volume training, and sometimes a series of smaller workouts that when put together made an interesting amount of load and volume. Twight even says, "some days were used to break the guys pyschologically." They liked to call thse punishment days.

The training required 90 minutes to 2 hours a day at 5 days a week. They were also required to undergo fight training. They were only given enough food to recover from their workouts. This helped burn any extra fat on their bodies. Nutrition is always a must for an advanced workout.

William Kraemer, PhD, is a professor of kinesiology at the University of Conneticut in Storrs. Here is what he had to say about the program to WebMD: "This program was done for a stylistic effect, to look like a Spartan. The out of shape person who starts this 300 test is going to be dead the first day. No one could do this without prior training. You have to progress."

Dr. Kraemer says the amount of breakdown to muscle fibers taking place in this program may be severe enough to be toxic for the kidneys. He says, "If you have heart problems, you could have a variety of problems with this workout" He mentions anything from serious tissue break down to a heart attack. "It's too extreme for the average person."

If you are looking to prepare for this advanced workout, then you need to prepare your body. Try out this 4 day weight lifting workout to help get your body ready. You can find more fitness and nutrition articles from my blog, Go Healthy Fitness

4 Day Weight Lifting Workout

This weight lifting workout is great for all levels of weight lifters. It has the right proportion of compound and isolation exercises to get the muscle development we are all looking for. For the beginner, this routine is great for learning many exercises and preparing the ligaments and tendons for heavier weights and lower rep routines later on. The intermediate to advanced lifters out there should consider using this routine as an 8-12 week buffer between low rep, heavy weight routines. If exercises are to be substituted, replace with compound exercises with compound exercises and the same goes for isolation movements.

Many times I will be asked if this weight lifting workout is more for someone wanting to lose weight, or for someone wanting to gain muscle. When it comes to lifting weights, nearly all routines will be beneficial for either goal. Diet and cardio are what play the major role in weight management. The 3 off days in this routine are great to do cardio if your goal is to lose some weight and along the way this routine will help build muscle. If your goal is to gain muscle mass, use the off days as rest days for maximum recovery.

This routine should be performed for 8-12 weeks. The first two weeks are used to find the maximum weight you can perform and complete each exercise. The 4 day split will increase strength rapidly and efficiently if you focus and complete the entire workout. Your working to complete all sets and reps at the maximum weight you can handle. For example, On week 3 you bench press 185 lbs. 3 sets of 8 reps. Week 4, you will increase the weight to 190 lbs. If only 2 sets of 8 reps are completed and the last set produced only 2 reps, 190 lbs. will be used on week 5 as well.

If you're looking for another weight lifting routine, check out my blog, Go Healthy Fitness.

10 Tips to Teach Your Children Healthy Eating Habits.

There is a rapidly growing problem in parts of the world, especially America, with child obesity. Most obesity comes from bad habits learned at a young age. By teaching your children healthy eating habits, you can help your child develop a longer healthier life. Helping kids eat healthy isn't difficult. Take a look at these 10 tips on how to help teach your children healthy eating:

Make your food kid friendly

Cut your kid's food into shapes. Cookie cutters come in hundreds of shapes. Let your child pick the shape.

Don't treat dessert like a reward

If you present sweets as a reward for good behavior, they will associate dessert as being a better food. Offer fruit as a reward instead. "If you eat all your peas, you get an orange"

Ask them

When your doing your grocery shopping, ask which fruits and vegetables they want. When deciding on dinner, ask them to choose a healthy food.

Snack in the kitchen

If your kids want to eat snacks, keep them in a designated area. This will discourage chowing down on some potato chips in front of the television.

Mix and match

Add a healthier food to a tastier food. You could chop up onions or green peppers and use them in a spaghetti sauce. Serve raw vegetables with a fat free ranch. My mother always added fruit to my cereal which worked great.

Healthy on the go snacks

Do your kids want a snack when they go out and play? Skip the junk food and give them a fresh fruit, a cereal bar, or some string cheese. This really helps teach your children healthy eating habits.

Lots of variety

Don't stick to the same old healthy foods. Add something new every once in a while to spice it up. Put an assortment of roasted almonds, rasberries, and pineapple.

Use your blender

Add some skim milk, fat-free yogurt, and a scoop of low fat ice cream and make your very own protein smoothie. The kids will love it and it's a good snack after they've been playing.

Whole grain is your friend

Offer some good carbs to boost your childrens energy. A whole wheat pita with peanut butter is one of my favorite snacks. There are many other choices out there like whole grain pretzels and cereals.

Set an example

Don't expect your children to eat healthy if you aren't. Don't eat anything you wouldn't want your child to eat. Let your kids catch you snacking on a healthy snack like a bowl of grapes.

Everyone wants their children to live a long and healthy life. Help them achieve that by teaching children healthy eating habits at a young age.

Don't forget to eat healthy yourself! If you find yourself getting bored with your diet, check out my list of healthy foods. It's easy to make quality meal plan with these good food choices. You can find more nutrition and fitness articles from my blog at Go Healthy Fitness.

How to test your body fat percent.

When people think of getting in shape and toning up, they think of weight loss and the scale dropping. This isn't necessarily the case. Body fat percentage is the real figure you should be paying attention to. Let's just think about it for a minute. If the scale dropped 10 pounds and your body fat percentage stayed the same, you would have lost a majority of muscle. Muscle is the component that gives us that nice shape. There are many ways to test your body fat percent.

In this article, I will give a brief explanation of each measuring practice. Soon I will add more in depth articles of each method.

Underwater Weighing - A.K.A. Hydrodensityometry Weighing

This method is known as the most accurate. It measures your body density by determining your volume. The person is first weighed outside of the tank. Then they are weighed again completely submerged under water. The density of fat is lower than water while the density of muscle and bone is higher than water. They can determine the body density by using standard formulas.

Underwater weighing may still have its flaws. Athletes tend to have denser bones and muscles than non-athletes, which may lead to a lower body fat percentage than is accurate. While the body fat of elderly patients suffering from osteoporosis may be overestimated. This is still the best way to test your body fat percent.

Skinfold Measurement - Calipers

Calipers are a hand help device used to measure several skinfolds. The measurements of these skinfolds are entered into an equation and your body fat percentage is determined.

I've always been a big fan of calipers. They are cheap and they are easy. I have used an electronic caliper for years. It only asks for 3 sites instead of the standard 7, but I find it gets me a solid consistant number. The accuracy of the measurements are going to depend highly on the person actually using the calipers. It takes quite a lot of practice to find the right areas to measure. This is the most convenient way to check body fat percent.

Total Body Electrical Conductivity

This method sends a weak electromagnetic pulse through your body. The pulse reacts to the amount of water in the person's body. This measurement is based on lean muscle tissue being a better conductor of electricity than fat.

Bioelectrical Impedence

Bioelectrical Impedence measures the electrical signals throughout the body as they pass through muscle, fat, and water of the body. With the readings given and proven scientific formulas, body compositions can be determined.

Which methods have you guys tried?

Learn how to really transform your body with these 10 strategies. You can read more articles on losing weight and toning up at Go Healthy Fitness.