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While I love our P90X training, some of our members swear by the small group training or Beach Body Live events as the most fun. It’s important to enjoy what you do and also to try new things to get fit. In fact, finding more fun ways to improve your fitness is a great addition to any fitness program. It creates variety that even makes your normal workout more enjoyable because you aren’t doing the same thing every day.

Have you considered rock climbing or hiking as an alternative to working out.

You might not want to go rock climbing every day or hike through the hills, but both activities will certainly add to your overall fitness. If you go to the gym every other day, use your days off to do active things when you can. It’s one of the reasons you’re working out, so you have the energy for more fun in your life. The best type of workout from hiking comes when you tackle uneven terrain and keep a brisk pace.

A night of dancing can be fun and a great workout.

Going out to boogie down can burn tons of calories, boost your flexibility and improve your stamina. You do have to make sure you do a ton of dancing. Just sitting at the table and ordering a drink or two is counterproductive. Stick with water or just one drink to help keep calories down. Go with someone who loves to dance so you aren’t warming the chair all night. If going out to dance isn’t your thing, turn on the music loud and dance at home. Get the whole family involved. It doesn’t have to look fantastic, just be energetic.

Swimming is perfect when you want to burn calories and enjoy the day.

Whether you hit the beach or go to a pool, doing laps can be enjoyable and provide great exercise. Some pools offer water aerobics, but if your favorite spot doesn’t, you can use your gym workout in the water. It will definitely be tougher when you try it in water. You can also play water games, such as water polo or race the kids across the pool.

• Get out in nature and enjoy a walk, run or bike ride. Vary the speed and you’ll create a HIIT—high intensity interval training—workout by walking, running or bike riding at top speed for a few minutes and then going at recovery speed for a few minutes.
• Shoot hoops with the kids or play a rousing game of tag or hide and seek. Playing with the kids can be super active and exercise can give you the energy to do it. However, doing it can also be great exercise.
• Try Parkour. You’ve seen kids do it. They use the environment as their training tool. From jumping over tables to trying to run up a wall, Parkour can be a lot of fun, but you have to use common sense and safety, too.
• Take adult gymnastics or adult ballet classes. Both of these will get you into shape, while providing an outlet that’s fun and gives you a special talent you can show off to friends.

For more information, contact us today at The Worx

Everyone has heard of someone that wants a breast implant to get a Hollywood looking bosom, but most people aren’t aware that there are women whose bust size is so big, it causes pain and discomfort. If you’re one of those people, you don’t have to go under the knife to get a bust reduction. There are methods and exercises to reduce breast size naturally.

Excess breast tissue is adipose fat.

Breasts are made of nothing more than supportive tissue, glandular tissue and adipose fat. The glandular tissue is what produces milk after a woman has a baby. The adipose fat is what makes up the size of the breast. The more fat you have, the bigger your breasts. Hormonal changes affect the size of the breast, but so does weight loss. If you’re overweight and lose a significant amount of weight, your breast size will also change. A healthy diet can help you do this.

Exercise can help reduce those large breasts.

The right type of exercises help tone the breasts and makes them perkier, while others can reduce the size, while still improving their appearance. A wall press, incline press and decline press can do the latter and improve your appearance as it reduces pain. A wall press is an upper body push up while standing, using the wall as you would use the ground. If you have weights and a table, lay on your back with a weight in each hand and lift your hands toward the ceiling. It’s an incline press if the back of the table is up at an angle lifting your upper body and a decline press if it’s flat.

A push up builds upper body strength and can reduce the amount of upper body fat.

Add a pullover to that pushup and you’ll tone your chest muscles, while reducing the size of your breasts to improve their overall appearance. A pullover requires a lightweight weight. Hold the weight in both hands as you stand with your legs apart, weight in front of you and back straight. Raise your hands slowly until they and the weight are above your head. Hold then slowly lower the weight behind your head as far as possible. Hold and return to starting position by raising the weight above your head and back down in front of you. Repeat.

• The chest press is one of the best breast reduction exercises around. Lay flat on your back on the bench with leg on the ground. Hold weights in each hand with arms extended out, then bend the elbows 90 degrees until they’re perpendicular with the body. Hold, return, repeat.
• Do some cardio exercises for shedding weight. Cardio burns calories and the more you can burn, the more fat you use for energy. Run, jump or do a session of HIIT. It’s all good.
• Try a yoga pose for some benefits. The tadasana or palm tree pose is effective. Start with your hands in front of you with fingers interlocked and feet apart. Raise your hands above your head and push the palms toward the ceiling. Push upward hard, lifting your rib cage as you raise your heels.
• Come to the Worx, where we can help you achieve any fitness goal. I’ll be happy to create a workout to help you get the transformation you hoped to achieve and create the body you’ve always wanted.

For more information, contact us today at The Worx by Maia

If you come to The Worx in Alexandria, VA, you know that working out can make you feel great, both physically and mentally. There’s a reason for that. Whether it’s boosting your cognitive functioning or raising your spirits, fitness helps with mental health in a number of ways. One of the biggest ways is to burn off the hormones created by stress, which can clear your mind and help you to think better. Those stress hormones are for running or fighting if there’s danger and the changes they make in your body cause health issues and mental fog if they’re not burned off with exercise that simulates running or fighting.

Studies show that exercise can actually help depression and anxiety.

There’s been a lot of interest recently in using exercise as an adjunct therapy for people who are depressed or anxious. It works for a number of reasons. Eliminating the stress hormones is just one. However, the body also produces hormones that make you feel good. Studies show that for depression or anxiety, even moderate exercise several times a week can get great results and eliminate the need for medication.

If you want more brain power, try working out.

A number of studies show that exercise is good for your mental functioning. It gives you more brain power and increases cognitive abilities. Several studies have been done using exercise as a method of fighting dementia and mental decline. Some show that cardio can actually boost the creation of new brain cells—neurogenesis. That improves how well the brain performs. It strengthens the hippocampus, which also boosts memory.

Lack of sleep can leave you loopy and fuzzy brained.

If you’ve ever tried to sit through a class and tried to learn after staying up late several nights in a row, you know that too little sleep can cause a decline in cognitive functioning. Insomnia or trouble sleeping can interfere with your thought processes, but insomnia can be prevented in many cases. Working out helps you sleep sounder and get the right type and amount of sleep that can improve your mental functioning.

• If you don’t believe that working out can help you eliminate anxiety, consider people who pace. There’s a reason they do that. It’s calming. The next time you’re anxious, run up and down a set of stairs until you feel exhausted. You’ll be amazed at how much it helps.
• Sometimes, lack of confidence can muddle your brain and put it on the back burner. Working out not only improves your posture, it boosts your confidence. Not only will you be looking more confident, you’ll feel more confident, too.
• When you workout, you’ll increase your heart rate and that can stimulate the body to create neurohormones that help improve your mood, while improving cognitive functioning.
• Come into the Worx for a free small group session and you’ll see how great you feel after you’ve exercised. Our six week transformation program not only helps transform your body, but also your mind.

For more information, contact us today at The Worx by Maia

I love to see the changes in my clients at The Worx in Alexandria, VA. While all of them came expecting to see changes in their body, they never realized how good it would feel to be fitter and stronger. In fact, many start with one small goal, which they actually change as they see the changes in their body. Maybe their goal was just to get a little curvier or lose ten pounds, but once they start seeing their muscles tone and the changes in how they feel, they can’t help but to continue long after they’ve completed their goals.

No matter how fit or strong you are, you can always improve.

That’s what keeps people coming, the constant challenge of doing better and getting stronger. That flight of stairs that winded you now doesn’t. In fact, you can take three flights without stopping to catch your breath. That’s a pretty amazing feeling. So is the fact that you can lift more weight safely and easily. You’ll not only amaze yourself, people around you will be amazed at how different you are and how much more youthful you’ve become.

Getting fitter takes planning.

Whether you’re trying to lose weight with diet and exercises or focused more on getting healthier, you have to do some planning. Your workout program should be put on your schedule as an important appointment. It is after all an appointment for your good health, like a doctor’s appointment, only better! You’ll feel better almost immediately after working out, since it’s a true stress buster, too.

Planning healthy meals is also important.

If you’re like most people, you’re constantly on the run, often working long hours. It’s far too easy to stop for some fast food, rather than fixing a meal or packing a lunch. To help you eat healthier, plan ahead. Take an hour one night a week and plan a healthy menu for the week and make a grocery list. The next night, after you’ve eaten, do your grocery shopping and cook the meals ahead on the weekend. Make extra to freeze, so you have meals for the future. Before you know it, all you’ll have to do is make one or two meals ahead on the weekend and you’ll be set with quick meals for the week.

• You need to set goals and establish a time frame to achieve them. Only by having a goal that you can measure, can you notice the difference in your body and check to see if your program is working.
• Getting stronger doesn’t mean getting bulky if you’re a woman. You’ll have a sculpted look, but never get that Incredible Hulk appearance. It takes a special diet, program and supplementation to build large bulky muscles.
• You’ll be amazed at how much younger you look and how your posture improves. Just improving your posture can boost your self-esteem, but so does looking great.
• If you’re ready to get stronger and fitter, come to the Worx. There’s a program that is perfect for you, because I believe no two people are alike and create a program for each individual.

For more information, contact us today at The Worx by Maia

We’ve recently experienced extreme temperatures in Alexandria, VA. Those high temperatures combined with the humidity made it feel like 110 to 115 degrees outside. That’s just too hot for anything. Exercising outside in the heat requires more caution and some extra care, just as exercising in extreme cold does. While many clients prefer to stay in an air conditioned gym during excessive heat, if you’re going to workout when the temperature’s turned up, you need to follow some precautions.

Plan your exercise for the coolest part of the day.

Get up early, before the sun has time to warm it up too much or start working out later in the day as the sun sets. Whatever you do, don’t try to workout midday. There’s an old satirical song by Noel Coward that starts with, “Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noon day sun.” While it was a comment on the British not taking a break in tropical areas, it brings a point home. Timing your workout is important.

Adjust your workout to the weather.

Your body already has to work hard to stay cool and working harder than normal. When it’s hot and humid, you simply can’t do what you normally do in cooler, more comfortable weather. Heat and high humidity can wear you out, so rather than running miles, try jogging, walking briskly or alternating to pace yourself. Hot weather is definitely not a place to try a new workout or push yourself to new limits.

Stay hydrated.

Water is your best friend in hot weather. In fact, this should be at the top of everyone’s list, even if they aren’t taking their workout program to the outside. Sip on 8-10 ounces of water throughout every 20 minute session. Stick with water and finish your workout with some juicy fresh fruit to provide the electrolytes necessary. Skip the higher calorie sports drinks if you’re trying to lose weight.

What you wear is also extremely important. Wear light weight clothing that’s light-colored. It should breathe and be loose, which allows the air to circulate, sweat to evaporate and cool you.

If you have a medical condition or taking medication, ALWAYS check with your health care professional first before starting any type of new workout program, especially if the temperatures are extreme.

Hot and humid weather is even worse than hot and dry. Because the sweat doesn’t evaporate, you get even hotter than you would otherwise. Pay close attention to both the humidity and the temperature.

Know the danger signs. Weakness, dizziness, headache, muscle cramps, paling of skin, light-headedness, nausea/vomiting and rapid heart beat tell you that you have a problem. Keep your workout shorter and safer to avoid them.

Want to Learn More?

If you’re ready to take the next step, contact me today here or call me at 540-421-8527.