Fitness Tip of the Day: Friday's Facts/Saturday Stretch -- The Benefits of Hatha Yoga

I decided to combine the Friday and Saturday posts today because of a new post from Dr. Melissa West from Namaste Yoga that I saw on Facebook.

It is the first video of a 20 class series that she will be doing on Hatha Yoga; what is it and what are it's benefits.  She is going to cover not only the benefits to the physical body, but also the energetic body.  It is very informative.

It is based on two books:  Yoga Beyond Belief, Insights to Awakening and Deepening Your Practice and  a main Hatha Yoga text:  The Hatha Yoga Pradipika

From the text with the video:

"What is Hatha Yoga? Over the next several weeks we will be exploring Hatha Yoga and its benefits. Ha means sun and tha means moon. Ha is masculine, heating, expanding and strengthening. Tha is feminine, cooling, contracting, and flexible. We need both in our practice to create balance. Flexibility without strength leads to fragility. Strength without flexibility leads to rigidity. Too many heating practices would cause you to burn out. Your inhalation for example increases energy, tightens and strengthens (HA), while your exhalation releases energy, softens and lengthens.

The style of hatha yoga we practice on Namaste Yoga encourages long holds anywhere from 30 seconds to one minute to several minutes. Ideally without the time constraints of computer download file sizes I would have you holding yoga poses for at least 3-5 minutes

Long holds allow for deeper openings. Long holds release deeply held stress and tension. Long holds release holding patterns in your musculature that leads to better alignment of your muscles, bones and nerves. Long holds allow you to penetrate to deeper and subtler areas of your energetic body. This allows you to tune into energy and receive the messages from your body, ultimately allowing you to strengthen, heal and balance."

Her website is listed on the right side bar.  You can also follow her on facebook.

Fitness Tip of the Day: Thursday's Total Body/Cardio Workout -- Full Body Band Workout

Today's workout uses a resistance band.  It is a video from PopSugar featuring Lacey Stone who is Amanda Seyfried's trainer.  She will demonstrate 5 exercises that will incorporate the resistance band and will work most of your entire body.

Once you get the hang of the exercises, I would recommend trying to do 3 sets of 8-12 repetitions for each of them (the last 2 reps should be challenging).  You can do this by doing all the sets in a row with a bit of rest in between, or you can do all 5 exercises, 8 reps each and repeat 3 times with no rest.  Doing all the sets in a row will fatigue and work the muscle more because there won't be as much rest time.  Doing the whole workout 3 times without rest will be more cardiovascular.

Either way, please warm up first and stretch after.

Fitness Tip of the Day: Wednesday's Wild/Warrior Workout

Most of the workouts that I've been posting on Wednesday have been HIIT (high intensity interval training) or tabata (20 seconds on 10 seconds off for a set number of rounds) or AMRAP (as many rounds as possible).  These are all shorter, high intensity workouts that use intervals to rev up the calorie and fat burn during and after the workout.

Today's workout is part interval, part endurance training.  It is called the 1,000 rep workout from Kathy Porhoroff that I found on YouTube.

Yes, you read correctly--1,000 rep workout.  The beginning is a quite intense ladder-type interval.  Then you go into 10 different exercises doing 100 reps each.  There is rest time in between while the instructor gives modifications and alignment cues for the next exercise.  If you can't do every rep, don't worry about it, do as many as you can.  She considers the beginning a warm up, but as I said, it's quite intense, so I would do a separate warm up first.

Be very careful with the jumping lunges.  You have to make sure you jump straight up and land straight down.  Only do this if you don't have knee issues.  I prefer switching legs each time if you are jumping, again though only if there are no knee problems.  Otherwise, eliminate the jump and just go as deep as you can go keeping in alignment.

I have to say I don't agree with her regarding her comments regarding sweat.  How much or how fast you sweat has nothing to do with your fitness level.  Some people sweat tying their shoes!  I don't sweat a lot, it's never pouring off of me even at my highest intensity.  Not to say that I don't sweat at all.  It's just more about your sweat glands than your fitness level.

I found her entertaining, and very knowledgeable.

There is no final stretch included.  Please do the full body stretch video posted in the right side bar.

Fitness Tip of the Day: Tuesday's Trunk and Core -- 10 Minute Ab Burner

Today's core workout comes from BeFit GO.  It is a 10 minute Ab Burner routine.  No warm up is included, so please do that on your own.

As usual, this workout can be done on it's own, or along with a cardio and/or strength training workout.

Remember to modify if needed.  If you can't come up as high as she does in the V-Ups, then only come up as high as you can, hold it for a second and then go back down.

For the Flutter Kicks, you can place your hands behind your head if needed, but remember to keep your elbows back--you don't want to pull on your head or neck.

Planks both front and side can be modified by placing one or two knees on the floor.

If this is all you are doing, then the two stretches at the end are enough.  If you are doing this along with another workout, finish with a full body stretch.

Fitness Tip of the Day: Monday's Muscle Work -- Lower Body

Today's workout comes from efit30.  It is a 15 minute workout that targets the thighs, butt and abs.
No warm up is included, please do that on your own for at least 5 minutes.  You can use the video that I have listed in the lower right hand side bar.   This workout can be done on it's own or combined with a cardio workout done before or after.

Make sure to cool down if doing a cardio workout and do a lower body stretch.  Again, for convenience you can follow the video I have listed in the lower right hand side bar.

Fitness Tip of the Day: Sunday Recipe Share -- Ravinia Recipes

Last night we spent the evening at Ravinia listening to Josh Groban.  It was a wonderfully relaxing concert.  He has such a beautiful voice.

Today I thought I'd share the recipes for the food I brought for us to dine on, and no, it wasn't just a cheese plate and wine (that's for you Pete Granger)!

We did start with cheese--my lighter cheese spread/ball recipe:

1 8oz. package of light cream cheese
1 green onion chopped (finer if you don't like the bigger pieces)
1 Tbls. minced garlic (I like it garlicky!) you can do less if you'd like
salt to taste

Mix it all together in a bowl.  You can put it on a piece of saran wrap and shape it into a ball, or you can put it into a container and make it more of a dip.  Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.  Serve with crackers or crudites of your choice.

For our main dish, we had lemon chicken pitas with sauteed kale.  I have to admit, we had this for dinner the night before, and I made these sandwiches from the leftovers.  I used the recipe for Chicken Francese from skinnytaste.com.  This is another great website for lighter, healthier versions of recipes.

I did change a couple of things from the original recipe.

Chicken Francese -- Lightened Up

In my version, I used one whole egg mixed with a little bit of water (yes, that increases the calories and fat, but not by much).  Egg yolks are actually not the bad guys of the past, but are good for you, plus the fact that it was being divided between 6 servings makes it worth it for the added flavor.

I seasoned the flour instead of the chicken.  I used homemade chicken stock.  I did have to cook the sauce much longer than 2 minutes to get it to the right consistency.  I just served the sauce over the chicken.  It was delicious!

For the kale, I put about a Tbls. of olive oil into a non stick pan and heated it up.  I added a bunch of chopped kale (ribs removed), approximately 2 cups.  I sauteed it for a few minutes.  I then added about a tsp. of chopped garlic (again, I love my garlic--plus it's good for you).  I added salt and pepper to taste.  I continued to saute until it wilted to about half the size of what it started at.  A lot of people don't like kale, saying that it has a bitter flavor--make sure you remove the rib that is down the leaf--that's where the bitterness is.  If you're still not a fan, you can sub spinach or swiss chard for the kale and prepare it the same way.

To make the sandwiches, I simply filled a whole wheat pita with a piece of chicken, about 1/4 cup of kale and some of the leftover sauce.  It was just as tasty served cold.

For dessert, I prepared a ginger cookie stack.  My inspiration came from a recipe from Woman'sDay.com.  Again, I changed a couple of things based on what I had in my fridge and pantry.

I made 4 servings.  First off,  I used plain Greek yogurt instead of lemon flavored about 1 cup.  To the yogurt, I added about a Tbls. of sugar free instant vanilla pudding mix.  This flavored the yogurt and thickened it up to a custard consistency.  I didn't have any whipped topping, so I eliminated it.  I have made it both ways, the whipped topping makes more of a mousse consistency.  I used paper cupcake liners.  I stacked the ginger cookies adding about a Tbls of filling between each cookie--I used 4 cookies total.

I had some mixed berries in the freezer.  I put about a 1/2 cup into a small pan and heated them up to make a topping.  I sprinkled a bit of stevia over the top.  I placed this topping over the last cookie.  I refrigerated the stacks for a couple of hours.  The yogurt softened the cookies--they are really delicious.  I think I'm going to try adding some pumpkin for a Thanksgiving dessert.  YUM!!!

Here's the original recipe:  Lemon-Ginger Cookie Stacks

We had a great time, great company, great music and great food!!!