Body Blog: The Ultimate Pre-Spring Break Fat Burner

So Spring Break is coming. That means it’s time to strip off all those layers and see what your body’s been up to during this long, brutal winter. Not happy with what you see? Welcome to the club. But what the hell are you supposed to do about the extra flub on your midsection when your flight to Panama City takes off in just 10 days?!

There may be a way….

According to Women’s Health magazine, it’s possible to burn 400 calories in 15 minutes. Now, if you’re a regular gym-attendee like me, and have spent 30 minutes on the treadmill only to burn 300 calories, this may seem simply impossible. According to WH columnist and physiologist Amy Dixon, however, it’s all about a special workout called the superset, in which you complete two fitness moves back to back without resting.

Not only do supersets cause a serious metabolic spike, they’ll cause you to continue burning fat and calories at a higher rate for up to 16 hours after your workout is over, according to researchers at Colorado State University. All you have to do is complete these exercises twice a week using weights that make it almost impossible for you to finish your last rep. Read More »


Body Blog: Burn More Calories in Less Time!

Between classes, clubs, and work, my days start early and end really, really late. My stress levels are so high it’s no surprise I often choose ice cream over vegetables and Degrassi (shh, don’t tell!) over gymming it up.

So when I do finally muster up the energy to make it to the gym I know I have to make it count. I don’t want to waste any time so I’ve started streamlining my workout by doing exercises that combine cardio and weight training. The cardio aspect gets my heart rate up, allowing the strength training exercises to burn more calories and be even more effective.

I’m all about the multi-tasking and after this workout I feel stronger and skinnier and happy. In fact, I can feel the endorphins kicking in already…

Jumping Lunges
Don’t settle for typical lunges if you want a great butt! Speed up the process by doing jumping lunges. These will spike your heart rate while also toning, so you’ll see results a lot faster. I usually do these in one-minute intervals with a 30 second break between.

How to:
1. With your hands on your waist, lunge forward with one leg.
2. Jump, pushing off both feet and switching your legs in mid-air.
3. Land in a lunge with the opposite leg forward.
4. Repeat. Read More »


Working Out Won’t Make You Thin?

Running

Despite all the diet mumbo jumbo that overwhelms women on a daily basis, weight loss is a rather simple formula: burn more calories than you eat. The end.

How do you burn those calories? Duh, you workout. You run, you swim, you blade, you work so hard your shirt is soaked with sweat and you smell like one of the guys asking you for money on your way to class. It’s brutal and it’s annoying, but you gotta do it if you don’t want all those late night pizza runs to stick to your booty.

But a new study from LSU has proven that exercise may not help us lose weight after all. In fact, what it does do is make us all hungrier so we end up consuming all those calories we just worked so hard to burn…and end up with the same results we would have had if we had simply stayed home and watched Real World Cancun on the couch. Read More »


Snap Into Shape: Jumpin’ Rope Is All the Rage

jumpsnap-final.jpgJump roping has been typically viewed as a “girly activity” for elementary school kids. Recently, however, the jump rope has become a popular tool for fitness, as fitness experts everywhere have acknowledged that the act of jumping itself is the perfect way to burn off the fat.

Men’s Fitness magazine featured an article entitled, “Jump rope like a girl—and melt fat like a mother: skipping rope is the cheapest fat-burning workout around—and the best”. Let’s ignore this sexist viewpoint. The excercise applies to both guys and girls, and as we all know, females are sooo much more coordinated than males. Shouldn’t that make Justin Timberlake a girl, then? That boy has got the MOVES! Read More »