The Hands-Down Winner: Yoga Paws

These mini-mats will take up about as much room in your bag as a pair of socks.

When you’re traveling, the last thing you need to worry about is how to stuff a yoga mat into your carry-on. Our suggestion: Lose the mat and toss in a set of Yoga Paws (.95 per pair) instead. Made of a nonslip, matlike material, these gripping gloves slide onto your hands and feet to keep them firmly planted during even the slipperiest downward dog. You’ll still need some padding for resting poses (try a towel), but at least you’ll have room in your bag for your favorite yoga pants and that novel you’ve been dying to read. Details: 866-964-2790 or www.yogapaws.com.

By Erin Ryan

Last Updated: February 20, 2009
Filed Under: Yoga

Meet Yoga Blogger Sara Ivanhoe

A yoga teacher since 1995, Sara Ivanhoe began her in-depth study of yoga while receiving a BFA from New York University. She went on to complete teacher training with Erich Schiffmann, YogaWorks, and John Friend in the Anusara style and will graduate from the Yoga Philosophy Program at Loyola Marymount University in 2009.

She uses this training in her work as a contributing editor to Health, Shape, and Fit Yoga magazines. Sara is the instructor on DVDs including Yoga for Dummies, Crunch Yoga, and Russell Simmons’s Yoga Live, selling more than 4.3 million units worldwide. She is currently on Fit TV’s All Star Workouts and recently appeared on VH1’s Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew as well as the self-produced new video series Yoga on the Edge.

Read Sara’s weekly posts here: http://living.health.com/tag/sara-ivanhoe

Last Updated: February 19, 2009
Filed Under: Yoga

How to Jumpstart Your Winter Yoga Routine

You’ve heard about it for years—how it can improve posture, strengthen and tone muscles, and soothe stress away. You’ve watched friends trotting off to class, toting neon mats and dropping mysterious phrases like “downward dog” and “half cobra.” But you, yoga? Now, in the middle of winter? With these articles, tips, and resources, now there’s no excuse.

Last Updated: February 19, 2009
Filed Under: Yoga

BodyWork: Bikini Workout

Q: What can I do to look better in a bikini top?
A: You can tone up the area many women neglect: your chest. Strong chest muscles are key to maintaining good posture, keeping your upper half looking fit for swimsuit season, and helping you do all the pushing life demands, whether it’s a vacuum, wheelbarrow, or grocery cart. These 3 moves give you a thorough chest workout—without having to wait in line for the bench press at the gym.

Incline Dumbbell Press A Beginning in a seated position and holding a dumbbell in each hand, slowly walk your feet out from the ball until your upper back is resting comfortably on it and your hips are lower than your shoulders. Raise your hands to shoulder height; elbows should be in line with your shoulders and pointing toward the floor.

Trainer tip: Because of their size, chest muscles are surprisingly strong. So use a pair of your heavier dumbbells (5–8 pounds).
  
Incline Dumbbell Press B Keeping your abs and glutes contracted, slowly extend both arms (don’t lock your elbows). Pause and return to previous position. Do 3 sets of 8–12 repetitions.
  
Kneeling Push-Up A Kneel facing a stability ball (use a mat if desired). Place your hands shoulder-distance apart on the ball.
  
Kneeling Push-Up B Keeping abs tight and without arching your back, slowly lower your body toward the ball (the ball shouldn’t move). Your elbows should stay glued to your sides. Pause and return to starting position. Do 3 sets of 8–12 repetitions.
  
Single Arm Chest Fly A Beginning in a sitting position and holding a weight in your left hand, slowly walk yourself down the ball until your upper back and neck are resting on it. Extend your left arm toward the ceiling, directly above your chest.

Trainer tip: Doing this move one arm at a time challenges your balance and calls on your core to keep you steady.
  
Single Arm Chest Fly B Keeping your abs and glutes tight and allowing your elbow to bend slightly, slowly lower your left arm out to the side until it is just above shoulder height (don’t let your hips roll to the side). Pause and return to starting position. Do 3 sets of 8–12 reps, then switch sides.

Last Updated: May 21, 2008
Filed Under: Fitness

Your Best Body: Workout Central

Ready to get your moves on? We’ve pulled together some of our best workouts—all expert-tested and designed to help you get in shape. Whether you want to get your best beach body or target your trouble areas, we’ve got the move for you.

Last Updated: February 20, 2009
Filed Under: Workout

Love That Workout! Iron Yoga

Our rating: 2 hearts 

The workout: In this 60-minute class, you use hand weights during traditional yoga moves.

The claim: It’s yoga, but the weights make it more challenging. 

Reality check: Our tester says she struggled with boredom. Despite the hundreds of yoga poses out there, the instructor led them through the same moves class after class. Still, she appreciates her newly found upper-body strength. (Iron Yoga definitely delivered on that promise.)

Expert take: It’s true, the added resistance of the hand weights makes this class more challenging for your upper body than traditional yoga. But you’d need to build in specific exercises for your lower half to make this a total-body experience.

Is it love? Our tester says she wanted to make this a just-friends relationship long before the 6-week trial was over. She knew it was helping her upper body, but that wasn’t enough to offset the boredom factor.

The bottom line: If you’re looking for the total-body (and mind) challenge of a traditional strong yoga class, this isn’t for you.

Iron Yoga: Combine Yoga and Strength Training for Weight Loss and Total Body Fitness (Rodale Inc., 2005), .53; also available on both DVD and VHS from GoodTimes Entertainment, .95 and .95, respectively; www.ironyoga.com for class info, www.amazon.com to order book, and 800-433-6769 or www.collagevideo.com to order DVD or video

Last Updated: July 23, 2008
Filed Under: Fitness

Get the Body of Your Dreams: Karen Clark

Karen Clark, 49
Knoxville, Tennessee
Loves: Rowing

Sports were never Karen Clark’s thing as a kid. But when, in her early 40s, she couldn’t budge a large flowerpot, the computer consultant and married mom of two started to long for muscles. Clark hired a personal trainer and enjoyed the workouts, but was looking for more. Then he had her try a rowing machine, and she liked it enough to sign up for a three-day workshop on the Tennessee River. She came home a changed woman.

“You’re working with a team, and everyone’s focused on the same goal. The sun’s coming up over the water. And I’m thinking, ‘I want to do this as often as I can,’” she says.

Clark now rows three times a week, typically in a shell with eight other women. “When a row goes well, you’ve pushed yourself beyond what you thought you could do. That is exhilarating,” she says.

Now, not only is Clark able to move her own flowerpots, but she’s gone from a size 12 to a size 8. The sport has also brought Clark closer to her daughters, Isabel, 20, and Olivia, 17, who delight in cheering her on. “When your children tell you they’re proud of you, that’s great stuff,” she says.

Last Updated: July 23, 2008
Filed Under: Fitness

Get the Body of Your Dreams: Pamela Brown

Pamela C. Brown, 30
Indianapolis, Indiana
Loves: Kickboxing

Pamela Brown’s worst high school grade wasn’t in some brainiac subject like trigonometry or physics. It was in PE. The now-30-year-old, single college administrator barely passed the class after refusing to suit up. “I didn’t like to sweat,” she says.

Brown started running during her college years to lose weight (prompted by a remark from a tactless ex-boyfriend), but gave it up when she moved to Indianapolis in 2001 and experienced her first brutally cold winter. It wasn’t until three years ago, when she walked into a kickboxing class on a whim, that she found a workout she actually looks forward to. The class—turbo kickboxing, a tough, dancelike workout to a hip-hop beat—is a physical escape from day-to-day stresses. “You’re completely in the moment,” she says. “You can’t think about your next move. You just do it.”

Now 20 pounds lighter, Brown says her muscles aren’t her only reward. She hasn’t had a cold in years and has loads of energy. “I’m more upbeat and confident,” she says. “I can do a lot more than I ever imagined.”

Last Updated: July 23, 2008
Filed Under: Fitness

Love That Workout! 5 Exercise Routines to Light Your Fire

Singles searching for love now have Web- and speed-dating to help them sort through potential mates. But would-be exercisers aren’t so lucky when it comes to finding just the right workout. It’s no wonder so many give up hope—and exercising.

That’s where we can help. We pored over all the hot new classes to find the five most promising ones with at-home elements (DVDs, videos, or books). Then we found five women in search of an exercise routine worth sticking to. We paired each with a workout, sent them to two classes per week for 6 weeks, and waited to see if any of them would fall in love.

Read on to see what happened. Who knows? You might just find a routine that’ll become the new love of your life.

All grades are based on a five-heart scale, with five being the best. Our “Expert Take” is from Dixie Thompson, PhD, exercise physiologist and director of the University of Tennessee’s Center for Physical Activity and Health.

By Kathryn C. Kukula
Last Updated: July 23, 2008
Filed Under: Fitness

How to (Finally) Get the Body of Your Dreams

There are plenty of us who don’t think of ourselves as sporty types. Maybe you don’t like to sweat, or maybe you’ve gotten real cozy with your couch. That was the story for these five women until each stumbled onto an unexpected surprise: a new kind of workout that not only got her body in motion but was actually fun, too. Find out how they discovered their fitness passions—and get inspired to explore your own. You just might be a late bloomer, too.

Last Updated: July 23, 2008
Filed Under: Fitness

Top 10 Ways Women Burn Calories in America

From Health magazine

From aerobics to yoga, chances are there’s some kind of exercise that suits you. By far the most popular—and easiest—is walking. Here’s a look at American women’s top 10 favorite ways to work out (and how many calories they burn).

Exercise : Calories burned per half-hour
Stretching : 80
Free Weights : 100
Resistance Machines : 100
Walking : 100
Tai Chi : 130
Home Gym : 170
Aerobics : 220
Stationary Bike : 240
Running : 270
Treadmill : 300

Last Updated: March 16, 2009
Filed Under: Workouts
Also Tagged:

Lose the Saddlebags in Just 4 Weeks

From Health magazine

Slim and smooth your outer thighs with the 45-Degree Circle from Star Quality: The Red Carpet Workout for the Celebrity Body of Your Dreams by Rob Parr.

Lie on your left side, prop yourself up on your left elbow, and move your legs forward about 1 1/2 feet, bending the bottom leg slightly and keeping the top leg straight. Rest your right hand on your hip. 

Lift your right leg 5 inches and slowly, with control, make a clockwise circle with that leg, keeping your hips still. (Be sure that your circle is at least 12 inches wide.)

Start with 3 sets of 10–15 circles per leg and work up to 20–25. You should see results in 4 weeks.

Last Updated: February 18, 2009
Filed Under: Healthier You