Jumping Jacks

A traditional cardio exercise with proven benefits. This simple but effective maneuver not only stimulates all your muscles but also elevates your heart rate which increases your metabolism. Your body enters into an "aerobic" state burn cycle and maintains it for some time. Maybe you cant run for 45 mins, or cycle for an hour, but 4 sets of 50 jumping jacks will have great benefits none the less. Remember to warm up first by stretching, especially your ankles and calves. Arms, back, and shoulders should also be stretched. Deep knee bends is suggested as a warm up if that needs to be addressed. Ready...1, 2, 3,....

Pole and chair exercise

Here's another exercise for the calfs, legs, and gluts. Take a pole (for balance) and place a firm chair in front on you to stand on. With a tall pole in your right hand stand on the seat using your right leg. That's right hand pole (for balance), right leg stand (on chair). Then switch the pole and leg for the other sides. You should do some stretching before performing and after doing the exercise. Try 3 sets of 10 reps for each leg if you can. Refer to the video below for demonstration.

Door Jam

Here's a great exercise for the upper body that my friend Harold turned me onto (I call him 'Harold the Great').

Stand in the doorway..have your hands shoulder high, palms facing the door frame and push as hard as you can against the door frame for 10 seconds and release. Rest 1 minute and do again. Do this three times. Good upper body workout that takes only 2 minutes and 30 seconds.

Make ugly faces

Ever wanted to exercise your face muscles. Studies show that exercise, even facial muscles, helps reduce the looks of aging and wrinkles. Making facial exaggerated expressions such as smiling, frowning, anger, glee, moving your mouth from side to side, puckering (as to kiss), raising and lowering eyebrows, tight blinking, are just some of the movements. Doing these exercises repeatedly will help improve skin elasticity and can help reduce stress in the face. Suggested routine: pucker-smile, frown-happy, anger-glee. Give it a try, show us your expressive side.

Common Sense Tips

Wow, I wish I could tell you something that you don't already know. I've checked other sites and blogs and have discovered the same message for most of them. So allow me to give you a quick 'cliff-note' summary for those common sense things (I think you'll know the reasons behind them). Become more active, cut out bad foods, don't smoke, consider what you drink and how much, wear seat belts, avoid prolonged exposure in polluted environments, relax and meditate, brush your teeth and floss, get good sleep, consider your genetic link to parents for possible health issues. These things are simple but powerful. If you explore each item you will find a wealth of healthy opportunities to change your life.

Pole exercise for core area

This is a great exercise for the stomach, hips, arms, back, even the area under your arms. Using a pole (broomstick, mop stick, tent pole, etc.) stand with your legs more than shoulder width apart. Bend your knees, keep your back straight, and lower your stance (almost bar stool height). Take a pole and hold it chest level with both hands and your arms out straight. Begin to bring the pole around your chest/stomach area from side to side until one end of the pole is pointing to the front and the other end points to the back (the middle of the pole should brush against your waist slightly). As your doing this, turn your knees inward slightly and rotate your feet on the balls of your feet. Now raise your arms (while still performing the side to side maneuver) so that one end of the pole moves in front of your face, then the other end. Repeat the maneuvers: hip cross hip (4 count) shoulder cross shoulder(4 count). Be sure to start off slowly and then increase the speed. Afterwards, slow down and then stretch all worked muscles. See video demonstration below by double-clicking play button.

Ball hip-to-hip exercise

Stretch before doing this exercise by slowly leaning towards one side of your body, letting your hand slide down the side of your leg past your knee, then lean to the other side and slide your hand down the other side of the other leg past your knee about 5 times each. Once you feel limbered up take a basketball, volleyball, or even a football and hold it between your hands. Stand with your legs open about shoulder width, bend your knees slightly, your back straight, and move the ball from one side of your hips, to the other side of your hips, passing the ball in front of your stomach without twisting your hips. If done correctly, only your arms should be moving and you should feel a slight 'pull' across your stomach and sides. This continuous motion is actually firming up your stomach muscles while tightening your belly and obliques. Increase the rhythm to a comfortable interval (if you like, do it for the length of your favorite rhythmic song) and keep the motion steady. Afterwards stretch by leaning from side to side letting your hand slide down one side of your leg, and then the other hand down the side of the other leg (just like in the warm-up) Double-click play button below for exercise demonstration.