Here we have four of the basic yoga positions.  They are simple, and you can easily transition from one to the other.

Set in a kneeling position with your bottom on your feet and back straight; then take 3 cleansing breaths.  Lean forward over your legs into a child pose (much like a fetal position), head on floor.

Reach your arms out in front of you, then unfold to a prone position, and raise your head and torso up into the cobra position.  If possible, do not let your front touch the floor during the transition.

Now bring your head and torso back towards the floor and lift your legs up with your arms stretched down the sides of your body into the grasshopper position.

Now, lift your legs higher, bending at the knees.  Reach back with your arms and catch your ankles.  This is the bow position.

Slowly lower back into the bow position, down and forward into the cobra position, then shift back into the child pose.  Slowly pull  up into the kneeling position and breath.  Repeat 3 or 4 times.

See how simple it is to make a routine? Until you feel knowledgeable about yoga, I suggest you get a good set of yoga DVDs such as Wai Lana’s (see right column).

When one starts exercising after being inactive for quite a while, usually the recommendation is to start by walking each day, going a little further and/or faster each day until your endurance builds up. This is a good plan.  Where do you go from there?  As I outlined in my post 8 Types of Exercise Workouts,  there are many types of exercise programs to choose from.
Let’s look at Yoga.  Whenever I think of yoga, my mind goes to the movies of the ninja’s in training doing the movements, or the documentaries of everyone in China meeting in the town square first thing in the morning  to do their yoga movements.  My early experience with Yoga is you go at  your own pace, gently stretching in different poses until your muscles become more limber.  Probably one of the ‘easiest’ exercise types to begin with (in my mind) is Yoga. This is a simplified look at yoga.

Now that I have been looking into Yoga, I find it is a very complex subject.  First, it originated in India.  The word ‘Yoga’ means union.  There are many types of Yoga.  The ‘limb’ that we would be interested in this blog is called ‘asana’ which is the physical postures or poses and the movement from one to the other.  Asana (and yoga) is about creating balance in the body, developing strength and flexibility.  The movements can be fast or slow, and can  focus more on stamina or on alignment.  Yoga goes on to include correct breathing and meditation.  I will focus in my posts more on the physical side of yoga rather than the spiritual.

How does Yoga fit into losing weight and getting fit?  Iyengar yoga, where you hold poses for several minutes, helps to build muscles and improve posture – we all need that.  If you want to do Iyengar type yoga, you will have to combine it with other aerobic type exercises to lose weight.  The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn.  This is a good combination.

The Vinayasa style of asana yoga includes many styles itself.  For weight loss Ashtanga, Power Yoga, and Hot Yoga give you the physical workout needed for weight loss.  I have found it is recommended that you do three 90 minute sessions a week for weight loss. 

One more thing about yoga.  This can be a family activity.  There are special programs for children that Mom and Dad can do with them.  I bought kits for my grandchildren here which include dvds.  They love it!

I have been researching and have combined several charts for calories burned per different exercises/activities. I have it put together on a spreadsheet so you can enter your weight (in pounds) and the minutes expended to come up with the calories you burned. Since it is in a spreadsheet, you can put several activities in and it will give you the total calories burned at the bottom of the spreadsheet. I also have a converter to convert kg to lb. Then enter the pounds value in the spreadsheet.

You can download the spreadsheet – right click here and save to your computer. It is in the 2003-2007 excel version and can be opened in Google documents also. If you do not have excel or have an older version of excel, you can get the excel viewer for free from microsoft. Click here.

Leave a comment an let me know how you like it!

Do you spend most of your time in front of a computer? I do both at work and at home. I become engrossed in what I am doing, and the time is gone. That’s OK if I am forgetting binge, but it’s not if I don’t stop to get my physical activity. The question is – how can you exercise while sitting at a computer, or desk, or watching TV.

I have seen some articles suggesting ways to get exercise at work. They include taking a walk, doing simple stretches standing by your desk, etc. What if you cannot do this at work – your boss objects to you standing up at your computer? I have a couple suggestions – you can at least do some of these at home.

1. This is rather easy. Get a fitness ball, either medium or large, fill it to its fullest, then sit on it instead of a chair. You can roll it back and forth or bounce on it. This works on your leg, abdomen, and other muscles as they work to keep your balance. I have yet to be brave enough to try it at work, but I have used one at home. .
2. When you go to the restroom as we all do during the day, take the ‘long’ route. Go to another floor using the stairs, or to the building next door. You can even be brave enough to walk around the building and back in. You can walk several flights of stairs up to the restroom.
3. Likewise, when you go to a meeting or to lunch, find a route that gives you more walking time. Every step helps.
4. Of course, there is still the old trick of parking a couple blocks away to walk to work. Or take a more distant subway or bus stop and walk from there to work.
5. Keep hand weights handy at your desk. When you are waiting for a program to come up or finish executing, pick up your weights; do some arm lifts.
6. Put weight bands on your ankles and lift your legs up straight from time to time. Hold them straight once in a while.
7. Instead of rolling your chair back and forth to the different machines (printer, fax, etc), stand up and walk over to it and back. Just standing up and sitting down is activity.

There are some of my ideas. What type activities can you work into your schedule at work for exercise?

When we decide to exercise or become more fit, the first decision is what type of exercise to do.

1. Activity – I would call this your normal activities that you do more of like playing with the kids, playing sports, walking, shopping, etc.

2. Aerobics – these are available in low impact, intermediate, and advanced programs. Find one you like (Richard Simmons has quite a variety) and have fun doing.

3. Water aerobics – most Y’s, community colleges, and some fitness clubs have classes available. The resistance of the water help to burn calories without putting stress on the joints and heart.

4. Exercise - I classify sit ups, jumping jacks, squats, toe touches, everything they have you do in gym class as exercises. There are a lot of DVDs with exercise workouts available – and some target a specific area such as abs and thighs.

5. Speed walking, jogging, running, bicycling – Some people enjoy this. Basically, your legs muscles are strengthened, you burn calories (thus lose fat), and increase your endurance. You can get more exercise by adding wrist and ankle weights. These are good for your heart also. The only draw back is once your body becomes used to the amount you do, you have to increase the amount you do. At that point, you need to add some other type of exercise to round out your workout plan.

6. Resistance - This can be done in a myriad of ways. You can do resistance just by the way you tighten your muscles, putting an imaginary resistance – like pulling an imaginary rope. There are resistance bands you can buy, and weight machines. Resistance exercise is very effective.

7. Weight lifting - Weight lifting will not only define you body, but also burns calories more quickly. It can help skinny people fill out and overweight people slim down. I would suggest you get a good workout plan such as Tony Little’s or Vince Delmonte’s for the guys and Shannon Clark’s for the gals. Their workouts are formulated for the whole body (you don’t end up with Popeye arms) and if you following their coaching, they are safe. Remember to have a spotter when doing the more difficult routines.

8. Yoga - Yoga is a great way to become more limber while relaxing not only your body, but also your mind. Yoga appears to be an easy type of workout – unless you remember that all the martial arts use a form of Yoga in their workouts. Whew, that could be quite a workout!

When decided which type to start on, keep in mind your present physical condition, your weight, your age, and your goal. One thing is for sure. You workout will never help you until you actually start doing it.

What type would you choose and why?

Hi.  I found a new site that has sources for Women’s fitness and bodybuilding.  There are workouts, all types of exercise equipment, supplements, and even workout apparel.  Also, there are articles about women.

Do you write articles about workouts or body building for women?  The article page has invitation for article submission.  It’s a way to get publicized.

Take a look and tell me what you think.  Pro or Con.   http://women-fitness-weight-workout.com/ 

I originally started this blog to talk about body building and muscle development.  I was thinking the professional type.

Sometimes our paths curve.  I find the purpose of the blog is actually for the ‘ordinary’ person.  We need to know that body building is really just the top level of muscle development.  That does not mean that ‘ordinary’ people cannot bodybuild.

Everyone can benefit by the various activities normally thought to be associated with bodybuilding.  Do we want to look like a model?  I know I will never look like a top model.  My body is a different frame than most models.  But I can use weight workouts, exercise, and  eating habits to make my body healthy, my muscles stronger.

We can benefit also by learning the physical properties of our bodies – what muscles are affected by what activities, how to shape our bodies they way we want, what types of foods help the muscles to work at the top of their performance.

I would like for each of you to leave a comment telling others about what exercise, workout, activity is your favorite and what benefit you receive from doing it.  Let’s do this together.

For those who are now not ‘in shape’ and want to start towards being fit, there are things to do to work up to the body building and muscle toning of the bodybuilding enthusiast. I posted ‘My Favorite Activity – Exercise?‘  on my other blog ‘Be the Weight You Want – And Stay There‘

In losing or maintaining weight, we always run into my ‘favorite’ thing – the need for physical activity. Since my hobbies are scrap booking, photo DVD’s, video DVD’s, websites, blogging, watching TV, playing Wii or PS, my favorite activities involve sitting on my keestir. When it comes to actually moving, I am kind of like Maxine – when my fingers do the walking through the yellow pages, I get exhausted.

To lose or maintain our weight, we have to have some activity to get our metabolism going and keep our insulin level. Since muscle burns more calories than fat, and activity builds muscle, it makes sense to do it. Exercise is a dirty word, so let’s look at it another way – exercise is activity. We get activity shopping at the mall, playing ball or tag with our kids or grandkids, mowing the lawn, and a number of other ways. . .

This article lists activities like the Rock ‘n Roll Stepper, exercise balls, and other fun stuff.

The post ends: “The main thing, as they say in Madagascar, is to “move it move it!” Find something you have fun doing and do it. If you like your activity and have fun doing it, then you will continue to do it. And that is what counts.”

Check this post out at My Favorite Activity – Exercise?

Shape it Up site has just published one of Vince DelMonte’s articles – guess what on? We were just talking about building bigger arms in our last post.

Read his advice on “How to Build Big Biceps”.

Remember, Vince wrote the book  No Nonsense Muscle Building: Skinny Guy Secrets To Insane Muscle Gain

1. Biceps

2. Triceps

3. Forearms

4. Brachialis – this is the muscle that twines between the biceps and triceps. Arnold Schwarzenegger swore this was the secret to building big arms.

5. And don’t forget the shoulders – who wants big arms dangling off shrimpy shoulders? Let your back do the work on your deltroid presses.

I don’t want to see any of you with Popeye arms now, ya hear????