Best Way to Get Into Shape - Total Body Workout Without Weights For Fat Loss

When I first started with bodyweight training, I started off with basic pushups, pullups, and bodyweight squats. For the first few weeks, I experienced incredible results. However, soon my body was getting used to the stimulus, and I was getting mentally bored. When you're bored with your training program, you're less likely to stick to it.

And when you don't stick to a training program, you don't get results. It's as simple as that. So, I started searching for a replacement program, something that would challenge me and produce better results. I soon discovered the Circular StrengthTraining (CST) method of training.

CST is all about moving your body in a variety of different ways. For example, when you perform pushups, pullups, and bodyweight squats, you're basically moving your body up and down. In reality, your body is capable of moving in a variety of ways. And most programs don't take advantage of the full range of motion your body can move in.

The goal of CST is to train your body through a cyclical approach of varying intensities through and varying movements. Their bodyweight exercises are derived from dance, gymnastics, and yoga. If you ever notice the bodies of gymnasts, dancers, and yogis (people who practice yoga), their bodies are incredibly strong, agile, and lean without ever setting foot in a gym!

My first CST workout left me absolutely exhausted. But that was because I was training muscles I haven't trained for years. My body was twisting, and turning, jumping, and tumbling. It was insane! I felt like I was gymnast practicing for some competition.

For more information on CST and their great bodyweight exercises, you should check out a recent program they developed called the Bodyweight Blueprint for Fat Loss. You can find out more information about this incredible bodyweight fat loss program on my site, workoutwithoutweights.net WorkoutWithoutWeights.Net

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Teaching Hatha Yoga - Order in the Class

Yoga teachers should establish control over their classes. A Yoga class is not an "open campus." If you expect everyone to follow along without structure, order, and guidelines, you will be disappointed. It will not take long for "one bad apple" to show up and distract your lesson plan.

Here's an example: You have no rules or official policy in your Yoga classes because you believe adults know how to act. Wrong - Why do you think we have traffic lights? We have speed limits too, but how many adults obey them?

However, let's give your theory a chance. Without any guidelines, a Hatha Yoga class will quickly disintegrate into an informal stretch class. You are no longer seen as the Yoga teacher.

You just become the person who pays the rent, and overhead, for the Yoga studio. After all, you are independently wealthy, and you do not need money for heat, air conditioning, signage, furniture, fixtures, other teacher salaries, rent, liability insurance, other utilities, taxes, and continuing education.

It will not take long before a significant number of your Yoga students are late for their donation, late for class, and want to leave early before meditation starts.

Therefore, Yoga is a discipline. Many Yoga teachers fool themselves into thinking otherwise, because they are naturally self-disciplined in the first place. Yoga teachers differ from the average student, because they have turned pro-active health into a lifestyle. Most people are not pro-active about their health at all.

About difficult students: Design rules for them, distribute them, and say good bye to those who cannot follow them.

© Copyright 2007 - Paul Jerard / Aura Publications

Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500, has written many books on the subject of Yoga. He is a co-owner and the Director of Yoga Teacher Training at: Aura Wellness Center, in Attleboro, MA. riyoga.com riyoga.com

He has been a certified Master Yoga Teacher since 1995. To receive a Free Yoga e-Book: "Yoga in Practice," and a Free Yoga Newsletter, please visit: yoga-teacher-training.org/index.html yoga-teacher-training.org/index.html

Stressed? Take Up Yoga Classes!

As we go about our fast-paced lives, it's unavoidable that we encounter pitfalls such as stress and anxiety. Anxiety is defined as feeling ill at ease and apprehensive about the uncertain future. As a result, we always want to find ways of preventing it by burdening ourselves with more tasks and material things to make us feel safe and connected to the world. What we fail to realize is that we are slowly disconnecting ourselves from what really matters most in our lives. Yoga deals with living in the moment, and the beauty of it is that it provides us with the peace of mind that we all strive to attain in our daily lives simply by breathing, stretching and meditating.

Let's get started on describing a typical yoga class.

If you're in Kamloops and you're interested in doing yoga, there are lots of places and groups that you can join. Gyms, studios, ashrams, community centers and schools are all good places to find yoga classes. A typical yoga class is a group composed of anywhere between four to forty people, and they can attend whenever they like. Students usually pay a fee per lesson or for a series of lessons. Make sure you find out the description of each yoga class to find out which one is best for you, depending on your experience. Here, you will learn the basic poses and be introduced to breathing methods and meditation to help you empty your mind of stressors and other problems from the daily grind. The teacher instructs you on how to perform a certain pose as well as modify your breathing. He or she will help you if you find a pose too difficult to perform. If you're concerned about the schedule, many places that offer yoga have a range of schedules that you can choose from.

There are also places that offer yoga group therapy sessions.

These classes differ from regular yoga sessions by centering on your emotional well-being. It combines elements of yoga with psychotherapy, and the groups are usually smaller and more intimate. In this class, issues that stem from your emotions are discussed. Under the supervision of a trained psychotherapist/yoga teacher, whatever the students talk about remains strictly confidential. Yogic breathing, poses and practice accompany the sessions as students talk about and process the daily goings-on in their lives. These classes are a good way to establish connections with new people and to reconnect with yourself. Students are able to quell the feelings of depression and anxiety that they have previously suffered in a safe, intimate environment while regaining a sense of lost calm and peace of mind. Coupled with the life-giving movements of yoga, these group therapy sessions allow the student to feel that he or she is not alone and most of all, establish a connection with people who can relate to what they are going through.

When we lose touch with what is truly important in our lives, we tend to become anxious and lost. Stress and depression set in because of the buildup of negative emotions. Finding a way to channel these feelings via yoga class will help you reclaim your happiness and feel whole again.

Denise began her journey through health and spirituality by taking up yoga. She is a big fan of Katrina Ariel, who teaches yogawithkatrina.com yoga in Kamloops.

She highly recommends taking a look at Katrina's squidoo.com/yoga-kamloops-10-fitness-tips-for-beginners Kamloops yoga class video on Squidoo.

Yoga Teacher Training Aspects - How to Teach Your Students About Presence

When teaching students about "living in the moment," where do you begin? When a student has just come into your class from work, he or she may still be stressed out over commuter traffic, deadlines, quotas, or a family crisis.

All of the talk about finding pure consciousness "goes in one ear and out the other." On top of this, some of your students are worried about tomorrow. There are plenty of reasons for people to worry, with the present state of relationships, job security, finances, health care, raising children, and more.

So, where do you start to explain or demonstrate living in the moment? It starts with the very first time your students become present for their practice. The first level of existence, the average Hatha Yoga student can feel, is the physical body. You will waste your time teaching a student about intuitive enlightenment, until he or she has made a connection with the physical body.

Is Asana the first step? Not exactly, and not according to the eight limbs of Yoga, as described by Maharishi Patanjali. Should we teach our students the values of Yama and Niyama first? Sorry, but that will not work in Western cultures.

Asana is part of the answer, but Pranayama (Yogic breathing technique), is the key. It is Pranayama, during Asana practice, which joins physical and mental awareness. Some students claim they had not reached this level of awareness since they were children. Better yet, some students have admitted that they were living on auto-pilot, until they discovered this level of mental and physical awareness.

At this point, some literature about the values of Yama and Niyama will benefit your students. Please consider that we have not yet discussed basic meditation or higher levels of meditation. Is a student ready for meditation, if he or she has not learned to be present for the physical practice of Yoga? Truthfully, it is doubtful that he or she will be able to relax enough to meditate.

Beginner Yoga students have to learn to "unplug" from the technological world around them, and develop a basic level of level of mental and physical awareness, before learning to successfully meditate.

There is an old saying: "Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time, and it annoys the pig." Now, I am not comparing people to pigs, but if a pig mastered mental and physical awareness, it might be possible for him or her to sing next. In other words, there is a time for everything, in the learning process, but it must happen in the proper sequence.

If you want to help your students, teach them to be present for practice, and teach them how to relax. The higher aspects of Yoga will always be there, but Pranayama is the first key.

© Copyright 2008 - Paul Jerard / Aura Publications

Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500, has written many books on the subject of Yoga. He is a co-owner and the Director of Yoga Teacher Training at: Aura Wellness Center, in Attleboro, MA - aurawellnesscenter.com aurawellnesscenter.com - He has been a certified Master Yoga Teacher since 1995. To receive a Free Yoga e-Book: "Yoga in Practice," and a Free Yoga Newsletter, please visit: yoga-teacher-training.org/index.html yoga-teacher-training.org/index.html

The Importance of Wii in People's Daily Fitness

Wii, a home video game console released by Nintendo, primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. A distinguishing feature of the Wii is its wireless controller, the Wii Remote, which can be used as a handheld pointing device and detect movement in three dimensions. Another distinctive feature of it is WiiConnect24, which enables it to receive messages and updates over the Internet while in standby mode.

Wii Fit plays a very important role in people's daily fitness. Wii Fit combines fun and fitness into one product. It can change how you exercise, how you balance, and even how you move. Someone has said before that Wii players live and work in Wii's virtual world. In Wii's virtual world, people can be any one they want to be. They can become a good dancer, an experienced boxer or a rich fisherman. You can gain all kinds of happiness and joy from Wii.

To sum up, Wii Fit has four main important bodybuilding features.

1) Aerobics series. You can play Hula Hoop, Super Hula Hoop, Rhythm boxing - similar to step aerobics but including the Wii Remote and Nunchuk to throw punches, Basic Step, Advanced Step, Free Step, Basic Run, 2-P Run, Free Run.

2) Yoga series: Deep Breathing, Half-Moon, Dance, Cobra, Bridge, Spinal Twist, Shoulder Stand, Warrior, Sun Salutation, Tree, Downward Facing Dog, Standing Knee, Palm Tree, Chair, Triangle.

3) Strength training series: Single Leg Extension, Sideways Leg Lift, Arm and Leg Lift, Single-Arm Stand, Torso Twists, Rowing Squat, Single Leg Twist, Lunge, Push-Up and Side Plank, Jackknife, Plank, Triceps Extension, Push-Up Challenge, Plank Challenge, Jackknife Challenge.

4) Balance games series: Soccer Heading, Ski Jump, Ski Slalom, Snowboard Slalom, and Table Tilt-Tightrope Walk, Balance Bubble, Penguin Slide, Lotus Focus (also known as "Zazen").

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Yoga And Weights - Top Five Myths Revealed

A lot of people hear the word 'yoga' and they think of hippies and men meditating in fields in their underpants.

Well I can assure you that is not the case. Yoga is flexible meaning it can branch off into different disciplines such as using yoga with weights or yoga with dance.

As yoga evolved in India there has been many myths cropping up over the years of what it is exactly entails. Here are what I believe are the top five myths out there.

Yoga is a religion: Now in India and some yoga practices they display statues, burn incense and even chant. With this feel to it you could well understand yoga being a religion, but in reality all these trappings are from Indian descent which shows itself as spiritual with a certain mystique. They are not religious manifestations, it essence it comes down to the fact that yoga comes from a varied spiritual tradition. Connecting with this tradition gives you some depth to your study with yoga with weights. You can practice yoga and become proficient in it without these trappings so do not worry if incense and chanting is not your thing.
I cannot balance and hold weights at the same time: You have to understand that balance is an essential part of the yoga philosophy. By carrying a small amount of additional weight such as ankle and wrist weights makes you stronger and it will challenge you to concentrate more. By combining yoga and weights you are pulling deeper on the core muscles of your trunk and torso as you balance which makes your core muscles stronger.
Yoga is for wimps: I am sure many of you know that over the years yoga has been deemed a passive exercise as it is not a competitive sport. The idea here is too build strength from within not to struggle with opponents and exercise machinery. The fact is yoga is not really a passive form of exercise; it builds upon your strength, awareness and internal energy. It also builds your confidence, relaxes your mind and gives you direction in life. What other exercise programs come near that I hear you ask? The truth is many professional sportsmen and women do yoga as part of their routine training.
You have to be very bendy: You can see why people would say this. Magazines and books often show young models twisting themselves over the page. They were not born with this, this took time and effort over many years. You become flexible and supple with persistence and practice. Everyone has to start somewhere. By improving your flexibility this will in turn improve your circulation, straightens your posture and decreases the risk of muscle injury. But most importantly yoga helps you gain a brighter outlook in your heart and mind.
You have to join a club/practice: This could not be further from the truth, in this society now of the internet you can visit yoga retreats often on exotic places such as spas or woodland. You can do your workout in your front room, you only need a few square feet of space. Yoga is one of the most mobile exercise regimes I would just recommend that you get yourself a good yoga mat.

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Strength Training and Weight Loss

So you’ve started out on your weight loss journey. Congratulations on making the first steps. By now, you will have looked at your nutritional needs and added some sort of cardio such as walking, swimming or a fitness class to become more active. It’s time now to make that daunting step into weight (or resistance) training.

There is a common fear among some people, especially women, that if they were to start weight training they will start to look like the next Arnold Schwarzenegger. Truth of the matter is, those kind of results only happen when you specifically train for them.

5 good reasons to add a weight training program to your exercise program:

* It strengthens weakened joints, making them more stable and less injury-prone

* It not only works the muscles - it also strengthens bones

* Results are fast - regardless of age & sex. Your strength can increase by up to 72% in the first 4 weeks

* It not only improves the overall tone of your body, it will also improve your posture - which will help in making you look slimmer

* It helps to burn kJ faster. Lean muscle tissue is 17-25 times more active than fat. This means you will burn more kJ even at rest! By adding 1-2kg of muscle to your body - you'll burn an extra 290-418kJ a day

When you first start a weight program, don't be disheartened if you gain a couple of kilos. It is often said that Lean Muscle Tissue weighs more than fat. Do not listen to this hype. 1kg of fat weighs the same as 1kg of muscle – muscle tissue is more toned and compact than fat so you will start to look much slimmer.

If the scales are not moving, don’t despair. Weighing yourself is not your only means of tracking you progress. Several other ways exist to help keep track of your progress and find out if your gain is muscle or fat.

* Measure yourself. Get out a tape measure and measure various parts of your body - common areas to include are hips, waist, thighs [mid and top], bust/chest, arms, calves & stomach. You won't need to measure yourself every week - once every 4 weeks is usually best, as you won't see much of a difference on a week-to-week basis.

* Use an article of clothing to help measure your progress. That pair of jeans or skirt that is a little tight is perfect.

If you know absolutely nothing about weights and their proper use it is best to visit your local gym and see the staff there. They will show you exactly what to do and even draw up a program for you if you wish. If you are at school, visit your PE department and ask one of your teachers to help you out. Most high schools have their own weights area for student use. They can show you what you need to do, how to do it and help you keep track of your progress.

If seeing someone or exercising with someone is intimidating for you (or you don’t have the money for the gym) you could try an 'at home' video or DVD. You will need to buy some free weights (dumbbells or barbells) check out the program before you buy any equipment. A couple of things to remember if you go this option:

* Watch the video before you actually start participating. This way you can see what you will be doing and the equipment needed to participate.

* Make sure the instructors give a "beginners option". This means there should be someone in the group using no weights - follow them until you are comfortable and confident with the program to add weights. In addition, there should be a section at the beginning of the video (or DVD menu) the focus on showing you the proper form and technique of the lifts required.

* When you first start using the weights, if at anytime, the weights become too heavy for you, STOP. Change to a smaller weight or revert to the beginners’ option. The old saying "No pain, no gain" is completely outdated - you can do more damage then good. Listen to your body, it'll tell you if it isn't coping.

* Another point to keep in mind - the video/DVD should have a cardio/warm-up section at the start - this is important because you shouldn't start a weights session with cold muscles. A warm-up should last between 5-15mins and include gentle aerobic activity. Some programs alternate between cardio and weights workouts but it is important that the starting warm-up gets the heart beating. If you don't feel that it is good enough or you want to make sure you warming up properly - go for a walk [15mins minimum] before you start the session.

* On that same note, make sure that the video/DVD has a "cool down" at the end of the session. This can include a number of things, most usually include mini Pilates/Yoga like sessions at the end to stretch out the muscle groups.

* Aim for good technique when every time. Don't try to keep up with the instructors. If you need to take a break or slow a section down then do it. You want to get healthy not injured!

Weights not your thing? Going on holiday?

Try using resistance bands. These bands are usually used by people in rehab or older people who can't lift weights. They give the same kind of workout as actual weights but they tend to be a little easier on you.

The added bonus with resistance bands is that if you go away for a holiday or for the weekend to visit family, etc they are easy to pack into your bag so you don’t have to miss out on your workouts. They also weigh less and don't take up much space in the suitcase. Add in a daily walk or swim and you’ve got your cardio covered as well, so there's no need to 'slack off' while abroad.

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