[Exercise, health and fitness are an important part of every woman's life. But how do you know if you're doing it right? And what new findings, tips and advice will help you reach your health fitness goals? Kelly, our fitness guru, will keep you updated every Monday with the latest and most beneficial news and advice for your health and body. We've covered cardio fitness before, but this week we turn our attention to the often neglected workout of weight lifting.]

While most people tend to focus on the right types of cardio to get their most successful workout on, it’s not the only way to tone, shape and define our bodies into what we want them to be.

Lifting weights can often get a bad rap; lots of women think that weight lifting is designated for those big, steroid looking macho men that hang around the gyms. But, little do some know, weight lifting is perfect for all shapes and sizes; it’s just a matter of finding what works for you.

According to the lovely safe-weight-lifting-for-women.com, weight lifting can help women:

• Have easier weight loss or weight maintenance

• A leaner, stronger body

• Improved appearance

• Better posture

• Lower blood pressure

• Increased resting metabolism rate

• Improved balance and coordination

• Stronger bones, and protection against osteoporosis

Bet you didn’t know that, eh? Read More »

[Hey all. It’s your fitness guru here, ready to keep you up to date with this week’s workout tips. I hope you found last week’s Elliptical vs. Treadmill article helpful to your road to a new bodddday! This week I am going to be discussing the pros and cons of working out at a gym, versus buying your own equipment and working on your own, at home.]

Working out at the gym:

Pros: It can be great motivation to see people you know, or strangers, pushing themselves to lengths that you want to push yourself too. Creating a sense of unity, a gym can group individuals together that have the same mentality: getting and staying healthy. You can even make gym dates with your friends or spouse as a way to bond, workout, and push each other. Additionally, there’s more of a variety at a gym; you can take classes or use machines that really work for you.

Cons: The competition can get to you. Some people go into gyms to flaunt their bodies, while sizing up the other men and women, making you, say a less healthy or thinner individual, feel inadequate. Some people view gyms like sororities; you have to look a certain way to fit in. Also, there can be lines for specific equipment, which can cause a time constraint. Depending on where you join, a gym can cost you an arm and a leg; the local gym by me is $100 bucks a month – yikes!!! Too rich for my blood.

Working out at home:

Pros: You can work out when you want, however you want, in your sweats or in your undies. Yes, buying equipment is expensive, but the lump sum you pay will add up to less than a annual gym membership. I splurged three years ago on a treadmill for the holidays, which ON SALE, cost me $500 bucks. However, three years down the road, it’s still alive and kickin,’ which is more than I can say for my uber expensive monthly gym membership. Read More »

Dear Ladies,

Men here, as a collective. We thought we’d get together and write you guys some letters about a few things that we’ve been thinking about. Today’s letter is about us men being confused! Yes, smirk, and press your tongue against your canine (its hot).

We’re confused about what you lovely ladies are wearing in the gym. More specifically, why you’re looking so damn hot in up in that! To us, the gym is about a few things. It’s about working out, making loud grunting noises (FYI, makes you stronger), and sleeveless narcissism.

Or at least, that’s what we go there for. We aren’t specifically there to look at, or pick up, women. There’s an assumption that most of us aren’t going to look our best in there anyways, so we aren’t super concerned with finding ladies to woo. But hey, thats us, we’re dudes and we think a certain way. Beyond ‘the gym isn’t for dating’ we also have a few collective rules that we feel like you may or may not have given us.

1. Gawking is creepy
2. Sweaty dudes are creepy
3. Gawking, sweaty dudes are super-duper creepy.

So you could see our confusion when you ladies show up to do some leg lifts or swiss ball crunches in what basically adds up to a bikini with more support. We want to be clear, we like you in bikinis. Hell, we love you in those things. But when you wear those in the gym, and you’re being all active, you’re really creating a dangerous situation for us. Again, we’ve got focused, mostly one-track minds. Here’s a short list of things we cannot do at the same time. Read More »

While biking up an extraordinarily large and difficult hill in Spin class this morning (made even more difficult by the night of binge drinking that preceded it), I was startled out of my zone by a rather raucous shout of, “COME ON, BABY!” I wasn’t sure who was screaming, or who baby was, but I didn’t care; I lost my groove. I started feeling the pain in my legs, the burning in my quads, and my whole ride was off. But I kept going. And so did she.

“WOO”“LET’S DO THIS!”“PEDAL. DO IT DO IT DO IT.” It was quite clear that this loud and rather burly woman was screaming at herself – pushing herself – but, why? Was there something wrong with internal dialogue?? With all the adrenaline pumping through my body, I wanted to pull a Christopher Carter and knock that bitch off her bike. Read More »