Who would have thought that a plastic throwing disc could be so much fun AND be good for you? The most popular brand of the molded plastic disc is Frisbee, and thanks to the fun factor, Frisbee throwing evolved into a number of flying disc sports. From a simple game of catch between two people in a backyard or on a beach, to a team sport in a park or on a playing field, the level of physical effort you put into play will help determine your flying disc fitness effectiveness.

Traditionally, the flying disc is tossed between two or more people standing a distance apart. Occasionally, a throw will go astray and the catcher will have to run to retrieve it, but the activity level remains fairly low. To garner more aerobic benefit from your flying disc, try one of the sport versions of play.

Flying disc golf involves establishing markers instead of holes, and keeping track of how many tosses it takes to hit each marker. As in standard golf, the player whose tosses are furthest under par wins. There is also a version of football using the plastic plaything. The rules are similar to flag football, but only passing is allowed. A team cannot advance down the field unless the disc is thrown and caught. A touchdown offers the only scoring point. In flying disc baseball, bases are set up in a diamond pattern and there are fielders and batters, but no pitcher. The player at bat tosses the disc out to the field and runs for first base. If the disc is caught in the air, it is an out. As in baseball, after three outs, teams switch sides and the games continues for nine innings.

There is even a solitary game which can be played in-city. In the game of Seven, as you are walking down a sidewalk, toss the disc ahead of you and count the number of pavement squares that it travels with each toss. Each square is good for one point, unless it lands exactly seven squares away, in which case no points are awarded. However you choose to use it, since people of almost any age can toss and catch one, a flying disc can offer fun and fitness for the whole family.

If you have experienced heartburn while you were in the middle of a workout, then you probably have a tendency to shy away from working out because I am sure that is not a pleasant feeling. The ironic thing is that exercising should get your body even healthier and could most likely decrease the feelings of heartburn, but if it hurts too much to exercise, then you should not put yourself through that much pain.

Hopefully you do not experience these feelings of discomfort all too often. If they are frequent and persistent, then you should probably see a professional. However, here are some tips that will prevent heartburn (hopefully) from occurring while you are exercising.

First thing’s first– watch what and when you eat.

Do not work out too soon after you have had a meal. How much you ate during that last meal is also very important. Your meal prior to exercising should be small so that there will be less pressure between the stomach and the esophagus. Also, you should be avoiding any acidic foods during that last meal that you have before you exercise and you should be avoiding having coffee, tea, or soda too close to your work out. Speaking of liquids…

To avoid heartburn, have water to replenish your thirst over other sports drinks like Gatorade or Powerade. You could also take a DGL (deglycyrrhizinated licorice) tablet about twenty minutes before you eat your last meal prior to exercising. What does it do? Well, DGL will allow help your stomach out by coating and smoothing the lining of the stomach. Another tip is to chew gum while you exercise. Chewing gum will help get your mind off of things, keep your brain cells churning, and prevent you from feeling like you are getting dehydrated.

Of course, you should take an antacid with you to the gym and have one at the first sign of any heartburn.

I know that a lot of these tips are fairly obvious and that people who do not experience heartburn should be following the eating tips as well, but these are a few specific ideas that should prevent heartburn from occurring.

One of the newest fitness crazes involves an ancient piece of fitness equipment. And when I say ancient, I don’t mean pre-21st century equipment, like that vibrating abdominal belt machine that was all the rage in health spas in the 1950s; I mean training for the Greek Olympics ancient. Most of you, however, will remember it as a favorite childhood toy.

The hula hoop was made popular by the Wham-O company in the late ’50s. So popular, in fact, that 20 million of them sold in just the first six months of production. Nineteenth century British sailors are credited with coining the term “hula hoop” when, while in Hawaii, they noticed the similarities between hula dancing and hooping. The term stuck, and was later trademarked by Arthur Melin and Richard Kerr, founders of Wham-O.

Remember the endless hours of fun and frustration trying to keep that round plastic tube on your waist? The more agile among us would wield three or more on waist, arms, legs, and even neck. Turns out that hooping was more than just great fun… it was great exercise.

Today, companies all over are manufacturing specialized adult-sized hoops for fitness. These hoops come in varying diameters and weights to accommodate every fitness level and need. Hooping is truly a total body workout. Just maintaining one hoop around your waist works your core, arms, legs, hips, back and neck. Hooping offers more than just muscle toning; it helps you establish and maintain balance in your body. Your brain gets a workout, too, providing the focus it takes to stay coordinated as you hoop. And, in case you need one more benefit to convince you to try it, hooping also relieves stress by releasing endorphins as you laugh at yourself and your friends having so much fun getting fit.

When I was little I used to have competitions with my sisters to see who could hula hoop the longest. Sometimes we would add in multiple hoops and other times we would use them to “jump rope” with. There were some times when I became bored with my hula hooping, but I continued to swing my hips and let the hoop go round and round. Keeping track of the count was hard at times, but it definitely gave us something to strive for.

Well, I did not realize this, but apparently, hula hooping is making a comeback. I used to think that it was just a thing that little kids did, but that is not the case anymore. Even Michelle Obama is into hula hooping! Last October she hooped for health and was able to get 142 swivels in! She definitely kept up with the best of them!

Why the hula hooping craze? Well, it is a really good source of exercise! The hula hoops used during exercising are not your standard little kid hoops. The exercising hoops are a little bigger and are weighted. This weight, about 2 pounds, will help a lot because you will not really have to worry about the lack of rhythm or being clumsy. Hula hoops are used in exercises to firm, tone and burn body fat.

Using a hoop has a lot of benefits. For instance, they massages your intestines and organs as it circles your waist. Hula hooping can help you have some meditative times, allow your heart rate to go up so you can lose weight, it increases the flow of blood to your brain, increases your energy level, enhances spinal flexibility, and more.

Hula hooping, according to the American Council on Exercise, burns about 200 calories every 30 minutes. That is not too shabby for a childhood “sport!” A lot of people prefer hooping because other sports put too much stress on the body. Another thing about hooping that people enjoy is that it puts a lot of emphasis on strengthening the abdominal area and torso. These are two areas that most people strive to trim down.

Hooping will bring back the old memories while getting fit!

Cross training. Well, what is it? The words should give it away to some degree; cross training means that one would partake in different sports while focusing on their main sport in order to improve overall performance. For instance, some runners cross-train by riding their bike or doing laps in a pool once or twice a week.  Cross-training is really important in order to become stronger overall. This is because with cross-training you are able to exercise some muscles that may not typically be used during your typical exercises. By working out muscles that you do not typically use, your other muscles will become stronger as well, and your body will be a lot stronger.

It is extremely important to cross-train. Even if you are not training for a big race or event, it is imperative to do something else at least once a week. Most people pick up running thinking that it is a quick and easy way to burn some calories, blow off some steam, build up their muscles, and so on and so forth. They think that “Hey, at least I’m running” and that it should be enough, but in reality, they could be doing so much more for their bodies by taking a day off from running and going, for instance, swimming.

If you are looking to achieve overall health, cross-training is the way to go. It prevents injuries by correcting muscular imbalances, it prevents boredom, and it also keeps people from burning out. According to scientist Bill Pierce, Ed.D, “Cross-training develops cardiovascular fitness, training the systems that deliver oxygen to working muscles, while reducing your risk of injury by preventing overuse.”

Cross train by lifting weights once or twice a week or maybe even pick up yoga or racquetball. If you are a runner, try to find some sand in the area and run in that! Running on soft sand will improve your turnover and speed. Make sure to go on the trails when you can or even go for a walk at a solid pace. Walking will help heal small muscle tears.

Cross-training is really important to your health. It is important to have some variety in your exercising world; you know what they say about having too much of one thing and what that leads to!

I have decided to try a new form of exercise this summer. One of my really good friends is a dancer and loves Pilates. I’m more of a running on the treadmill kind of girl, but I have recently found that it is getting kind of repetitive and I need something new to keep my interest in working out. I did a little research and here’s what I found out about it:

The main purpose of pilates is to obtain strength within the individual’s core. The majority of the core muscles are located in the abdomen and in the back. Pilates helps strengthen these muscles and helps give support to the movement of the spine. This helps with alleviating back pain and helps strengthen the torso.

In a high quality Pilates workout, there are six principles that are required: centering, control, flow, breath, precision, and concentration. Unlike other forms of exercise such as weightlifting that require many repetitions, pilates builds quality without the need for excessive repetition. In addition, weightlifting, as well as running and swimming, focus on the part of the body that is being trained and if not performed correctly can be strained. Pilates works from the core and trains multiple parts of the body at the same time.

Pilates is a little bit like yoga in the sense that it is performed on a floor mat. It can also be performed with some equipment pulleys and resistance ropes. The use of these ropes uses the participant’s body weight to help increase endurance.

It should be interesting to see how I enjoy doing Pilates. I’m always up to try new things so it should be good!

Muscle and Fitness Magazine released their “Top 9 Muscle Movement Exercises” in their May 2010 issue. I picked 5 of the 9 that I thought were really good, and hopefully you will think so, too!

Flat-bench dumbbell press
In a chest routine, you need to build mass so that you can perform the movements in competition that really help with growth. Many people tend to use the barbell version even though there is a higher risk of injury to the shoulder and elbows. It also burns more muscle fibers while performing the movement.

Barbell bent over row
This exercise helps build muscle mass in your back. It places a a good amount of demand on your lats, rhomboids, and trap muscles. In addition to a thicker upper back, it helps with building more muscle in your deltoids and biceps.

Military press
This movement is a compound exercise for your shoulders. This exercise can be performed sitting or standing, although most lifters prefer sitting. “Lifters say it’s easier to shift the weight when you’re sitting. You don’t have to deal with too much core stabilization. Lifters who perform the exercise standing say that performing the exercise sitting puts a lot of strain on your back and produces some lordosis, a really bad strain on the lower back muscles. Performing the press standing helps promote full body strength and stability.

Close grip bench press
The single joint movements that take place while performing this press majorly help build the triceps.

Standing barbell curl
According to a lot of professional lifters, this basic curl exercise for biceps allows weight to be used in a variety of different motions. When performing this motion, you must remember to pull the weight, not throw it. Throwing the weight will put a strain on your back and cause injury.

Check out May’s issue of Muscle and Fitness to see all 9 muscle movements, as well as a step by step instruction on how to perform each exercise.

Recently, we published a series of articles about exercises that can be done at home for free and that will produce results. Thanks to the assistance of many knowledgeable fitness experts we were able to provide how-to information for upper body, lower body, and abdominal exercises.  What makes these exercises even better is that none of them require the use of equipment.

However, at some point you might desire a little change to your at-home workout regimen.  Maybe you want to challenge yourself more or just want to add some variety.  When that time comes, you could invest in a piece or two of home exercise equipment.  There are many pieces of equipment that you can purchase that guarantee results. . .but that cost hundreds, or thousands, of dollars.  Rather than spending lots of money on equipment, we have some great, reasonably priced options from Shaun Zetlin, a New York metro area master trainer.

1. Stability ball- Probably one of the most popular pieces of equipment at any gym, but this ball is a very affordable 25 dollars. The stability ball can be utilized not only to work the core effectively, but performing any exercise with the ball will result in more calories being burned due to the instability it provides. Depending on your fitness levels, the ball can be used for everything from performing a basic crunch to an advanced push-up. Furthermore, other exercises can be done with the ball, including hamstring curls, jackknifes, leg extensions and ball bridges. The stability ball is an excellent way to track your progress and provides limitless exercises to prevent boredom.
2. Dumbbells – The staple of any home gym, dumbbells provide a multitude of exercises that a barbell cannot do. In addition, the resistance, range of motion and increased muscle fiber recruitment make the dumbbells the obvious choice over a barbell. Also, dumbbells can stack nicely in any corner where a bar obviously would take up much more space. Depending on the weight of the dumbbells, a set could cost you anywhere from 16 to 60 dollars. Efficient exercises that can be performed with dumbbells are presses, rows, laterals and curls. You even could hold them to provide more resistance when doing a squat or lunge. For the more advanced individual, apply the use of dumbbells with the stability ball for a total body workout.
3. Resistance bands – These bands will cost between 10 and 20 dollars but allow for a change of intensity and speed that resistance dumbbell training cannot always provide. Exercises that can be done when using these bands include flies, military presses, tricep extensions and bicep curls.
4. Foam rollers – Many of us do not have time to stretch or even neglect a stretching routine, but it is extremely important to have flexibility in your muscles. The foam roller is used to create a deep, intense stretch similar to a massage. The foam’s hard stable surface helps aid in muscle recovery by creating a powerful release in the stress of your muscular fibers. In other words, it helps improve flexibility by just laying on the area you want to stretch for 30 seconds. The foam roller will cost you 25 dollars but can be well worth it since it helps maintain a consistent stretching routine for those overactive tight muscles. You can stretch your hamstrings, calves, quadriceps, hip flexors and different areas of your back.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, you should exercise for 30 minutes a day, five days a week.  It sounds simple, doesn’t it?  However, there are many excuses:

• I don’t have time.
• I’m too tired.
• My life is too stressful already.
• I don’t have the correct equipment.
• I don’t have time to go to the gym.

I’m sure there are more, but these are some of the most common that I’ve heard.  As with anything in life, we can make excuses and avoid things, or we can analyze our excuses and take action.  So. . .let’s analyze!

1. I don’t have time.

No, you probably don’t.  However, you can make time.  Do you make time in your day to post on Facebook, watch a favorite show, or chat with friends?  If so, take 30 minutes of the time that you spend doing those activities and allocate it to exercising.

2. I’m too tired.

Yes, you may be.  Life is tiring.  However, a thirty minute workout is more likely to increase your energy level than to make you feel more tired.  Find the time of day that works best for you, whether it be first thing in the morning, during your lunch break, or at the end of the day, and fit in a workout.

3. My life is too stressful already.

Adding another activity to your day may seem like adding one more straw to the proverbial camel’s back.  There is no denying that finding time can be a little tricky, but the benefits of finding that time are multiple.  A workout can be a great stress reducer.  Plus, regular exercise can help you lose a couple pounds, improve your blood pressure, and increase your stamina.

4. I don’t have the correct equipment.

What equipment do you need to start a workout regimen?  Not a lot, depending on the exercise you choose.  If you are looking for a simple way to incorporate exercise, all you need is a pair of decent sneakers and comfortable exercise clothes.  You now are ready to start an exercise program of walking.  Thirty minutes a day of walking at a brisk pace, which you can increase as your stamina increases, is the simplest (and least expensive) way to get started.  Add some crunches for your abs after the walk, and you have a decent workout.

5. I don’t have time to go to the gym.

You don’t need to go to a gym in order to improve your fitness.  Reread the answer to question four for more advice on how to start an exercise program simply and inexpensively.

What are you waiting?  It’s time to get started!

No, that is not a math equation, nor is it a typographical error.  It’s a simple way to expand your exercise regimen.

A while ago we posted an article about muscle confusion.  Simply put, if you continue to do the same exercises, they become less effective.  However, the idea of finding new exercises may seem like too much work.  Here is a simple way to take an arm/upper body exercise and make it into three different exercises.

1. Do the exercise the normal way.

Choose an exercise, such as a bench press.  Complete this exercise like you typically would.  Focus your effort on pushing the weights up from your chest until your arms are fully extended.  Then slowly return the weights to your chest. Do 10-15 repetitions of these exercises in a set.  Depending on your level of fitness, you should complete 2-3 sets.

2.  Do the exercise negatively.

Instead of starting with the weights at your chest, start with your arms fully extended.  Slowly lower the weights to your chest.  This should be done very slowly, as you are working your muscles by resisting.  It should take a count of 20-30 to lower the weights completely; this is one set.  Complete 3-4 sets in your workout.

3.  Do the exercise inverted.

For this exercise, you will need to use a workout bench.  Adjust the bench so that it is at a 45 degree angle.  Position yourself head down on the bench and start with the weights at your chest.  When you push the weights up, you still will push toward the ceiling until your arms are fully extended.  Complete 10-15 repetitions of these exercises in a set.  Depending on your level of fitness, you should complete 2-3 sets.  (This exercise will prevent muscle confusion, as you are moving your arms in a different direction than your regular bench press.)