Fit Women Staff on March 2nd, 2010

CrossFit is my new fitness regime of choice. Simple & sweet, here is their mantra…
World-Class Fitness in 100 Words:

Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat.

Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast.

Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense.

Regularly learn and play new sports.

Then check out this video…something to strive for…CrossFit Filthy Fifty Video

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Fit Women Staff on February 20th, 2010

While numerous studies have touted the benefits of exercise in reducing breast cancer risk for younger women, a new study by Dutch researchers has specifically focused on its benefits for older women. And they are significant.

Writing in the journal Cancer, Dr. Miranda Dirx of Maastricht University in the Netherlands and colleagues reported on their study of the exercise habits of more than 62,000 women aged 55 and 69. Over the seven-year study period, they found a remarkable 19 percent reduction in breast cancer incidence among women who biked or walked for more than an hour each day.

“Physical activity is one of the few modifiable, protective factors for breast cancer,” they wrote, noting that this is especially important for postmenopausal women because more than 75 percent of all breast cancers occur in that age group.

An earlier study in the American Journal of Epidemiology documented the benefits of lifetime exercise for women in reducing breast cancer risk. Dr. C.M. Friedenreich of the Alberta Cancer Board in Canada and colleagues compared the long-term exercise habits of 1,200 postmenopausal breast cancer patients with a comparable number of women without the disease.

They found that the women who reported the highest levels of physical activity were 30 percent less likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer than women with the lowest activity levels.

Interestingly, they found that household and occupational activities could confer similar-if not greater-benefits than recreational pursuits such as sports or exercise classes. This was important, they noted, because many women may not be athletically inclined but they should realize that walking, gardening and other home-related activities can also provide important benefits.

SOURCES:
Cancer, September 15, 2001; 92:1638-1649
American Journal of Epidemiology, August 15, 2001; 154:336-347

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Fit Women Staff on November 4th, 2009

Just a few startling facts about our health insurance system.

1. According to the World Health Organization, the U.S. spends more than $2 trillion a year (roughly 16% of the gross domestic product) on health expenditures yet has a healthcare system ranked 37th in performance in the world.
2. The Census Bureau estimates that some 46 million Americans were uninsured in 2007 that’s 15% of the U.S. population.
3. In just three years, the Medicare and Medicaid programs will account for 50 percent of all national health spending.
4. Over the last decade, employer-sponsored health insurance premiums have increased 131 percent.
5. Rising health care costs correlate with significant drops in health insurance coverage, and national surveys also show that the primary reason people are uninsured is due to the high and escalating cost of health insurance coverage.
6. Elsewhere, insurance and drug companies are making stunning profits. Health insurance CEOs averaged $8.7 million in 2006 compensation and pharmaceutical company CEOs pulled down an average of $4.4 million.
7. In 2004 (the year for which the most recent data are available), Cuba had the lowest infant mortality rate in the world at 5.8 per 1,000 births, compared with Russia’s 11.5 and Detroit’s 15.5.
8. Starbucks spends more money on Health Insurance for employees then on their coffee beans.

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Fit Women Staff on October 20th, 2009

Check out this video from Diet.com. It shows basicly what a typical bootcamp workout is like. Cardio, then high intensity exercises and weights.

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Fit Women Staff on August 15th, 2009

Healthy Fat Burning Foods contain the omegas and are found in fish like small wild salmon, sardines, herring and mackerel and in nuts, pecans and pumpkin seeds. Foods with trans fats or hydrogenated fatty foods block our metabolism, slacken the fat-burning process, increase fat storage and intensify your food cravings.
Refrain from eating carbohydrates after 3pm, as they inhibit your body’s production of human growth hormones which release insulin. When you eat fat burning foods they tell your fat-burning genes to maintain lean muscle and prevent the production of stress hormones which could keep your body from losing weight.
Click Here to read 8 More Ways to Burn Fat Fast:

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Fit Women Staff on August 15th, 2009

and she suggests ways you should get moving too. She’s sold more than 20 million exercise videos and DVDs, starred in fitness television shows since the 1980s and written 10 books. And at 52 she’s still going strong and she’s still helping women to achieve their fitness goals.
She has always promoted a well-balanced workout plan. Part of it is cardio, part strength training and then flexibility. You really need all three. You have to make your muscles feel surprised. Mix in interval training, boot-camp-type workouts, a little yoga, a little Pilates. I personally have switched my routine to be a little bit of everything.
Situps & Crunches: Fitness Guru helps burn fat & lose inches without going to the gym!

Denise says a woman can get a fit, toned and sexy body at 50, but she has to work out for it. Fight gravity all the way. Exercise is a must. Especially muscle-conditioning moves. To keep up your muscle tone and firm up, work out at least three times a week with weights, your own body weight, Pilates or boot-camp-type exercises that focus on strength.

Of course, cardio is so important too, as well as stretching for flexibility.

Online Diet Program: Let America’s favorite fitness guru help you with recipes, tips, more.

Denise says, I see people who are always in their cars, always driving. I encourage them to walk more — walk to the post office, walk to lunch. Even if it is a 10-minute walk, it’s so good for you.

I also tell people to wake up 10 minutes earlier and do some calisthenics. Mentally, you prepare yourself to have a healthier day.

Lower Abs Exercise: Flatten abs with this great abs exercise. Get a tight stomach!

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Fit Women Staff on August 5th, 2009

Two Bouts of Exercise before Meals, but Not after Meals, Lower Fasting Blood Glucose Levels says scientists in the August 2009 issue of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.

Participants were nine healthy postmenopausal women who were given two hours of treadmill exercise at 43% of their maximum effort twice a day and 1 hour before a meal.

They conclude that the Before-Meals exercise, but not After-Meals exercise, reduced glucose levels by 20%. And there was a 49% increase in insulin-glucagon ratio during meals.

The nutrient-regulated control of the release of insulin and glucagon manages metabolism and blood levels of glucose, fatty acids, triglycerides and amino acids. These are responsible for homeostasis; the minute-to-minute regulation of metabolism leading to a stable inner milieu. The mechanisms involved are extremely complex. Yet, unfortunately these are still not completely understood.

After a meal, fat from food is stored and carbohydrates from the diet are burned. Between meals stored fat is released from fat cells and supplies fuel for most of the body’s organs until the next meal. Blood cells and the brain must use glucose as their energy source. We say that “fat spares sugar” so that an even supply of fuel is available to all of the body’s tissues. This is possible only through the minute-to-minute adjustments in the ratio of insulin to glucagon.

These results demonstrate that exercise performed in postabsorptive,( Before meals) but not in postprandial ( After meals ) state, lowers the fasting blood glucose levels.

Also sustained lowering of blood glucose are most likely the consequences of reduced carbohydrate availability during exercise.

See more articles on weight loss through exercise >>

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Fit Women Staff on August 5th, 2009

Findings published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, suggest that training the brain may be as helpful as training muscles in preventing knee injuries.

Scott McLean of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor says experiments indicate the shift from performance to prevention training to prevent injuries to the anterior cruciate ligament of the knee may need to focus above the neck.

“These findings suggest that training the central control process — the brain and reflexive responses — may be necessary to counter the fatigue induced ACL injury risk,” McLean says in a statement.

The researchers had subjects perform one-legged squats to the point of fatigue and then tested the reactions to various jumping and movement commands. They found both legs — not just the fatigued leg — showed equally dangerous and potentially injurious responses.

But sharpening the brain’s anticipatory skills reduces the likelihood of these dangerous responses.

See more Brain Articles >>

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Fit Women Staff on July 20th, 2009

We ended our 6 week Boot Camp by doing our “testing out” day on friday. We tested in when we first started and now to see how we have progressed we do the same tests again. Most people dropped inches off of their various measurements. Unless I saw it for myself I might not have believed it, but it happened for me as well. My hips, waist and butt especially. I lost over 4 inches just on my waist.

Mind you I didn’t lose a lot of weight on the scale, but I know I gained a lot of muscle and since muscle has more metabolism boosting properties I feel good about that. I know I lost inches, since all of my clothes fit better and people have noticed a difference especially in my face and to me that’s more important.
I also ran my mile, a whole 1 minute faster.

I did twice as many pushups (66) in 2 minutes, more than my testing partner who was a spritely 28 years old! And I did 3x as many situps in the 2 minute test as when I first started. My stomach muscles have improved immensely and I’m very happy about that. One of my biggest goals is to reduce my belly fat and I’m well on my way to doing so.

We have a week off and then I’m starting my next 6 week Boot Camp. I’m hooked and I feel great and I want to keep my momentum going. My increased strength and stamina has been very helpful to my tennis game and to my overall feelings of well being.
Stay tuned for more updates over the rest of the summer….

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Fit Women Staff on July 5th, 2009

So friends have been telling me how different I look lately, not because I’ve lost that much weight but because getting stronger your weight shifts and you carry yourself differently. I feel great, I feel stronger, I know I have more endurance and more energy and I’m definitely already contemplating carrying onto to the next session of Boot Camp.

For one because I’ve motivated several friends to join. And also because its such a high, and it feels like I’m reshaping myself in a way I haven’t done for many years. And this whole process is working, its steady, its grueling at times, its painful on these old knees, but I can tell its worth it.

And if I continue on to a 90 day program, I know I’ll meet even more of the challenges I’ve set for myself. And the biggest challenge I know that most people face and can’t meet is the first step to any plan. And that is to just show up….if you show up, at your gym, yoga class, soccer practice or whatever, you know that is the biggest part of the battle right there. Then why wouldn’t you go ahead and work out.

So take that first step and show up somewhere…soon, for yourself….

Killer Boot Camp No No’s List – Foods to avoid at all cost during Boot Camp:

  • Alcohol
  • Bacon & Sausage (unless lean turkey)
  • Butter, Margarine & Mayonnaise
  • Whole Milk, Cream, Creamy Soups, Dressings, esp. Caesar Salad Dressing
  • All Cheese, unless low fat
  • All Sweets, Cookies, Cakes, Candy
  • Croissants, Scones & White Breads
  • Fast Food & Fried Foods
  • Ice Cream, Milk Shakes & Frozen Yogurt ( unless fat & sugar free)
  • Lamb & Veal
  • Movie Theatre Popcorn
  • Pizza

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