Cellulite means nothing other than plain fat. Lay people refer to the lumpy fat on the thighs and hip of a female as cellulite. Studies on the subject reveal that cellulites is not just a type if fat, it is fat itself.

About one half of the body is stored under the skin and the rest is distributed elsewhere. Hereditary factors and gender contributes to this system. Problem areas for women are normally the buttocks, the thighs and the breasts.

How does one tackle cellulite and burn it down? There are only two simple rules to break down the cellulites – diet and exercise. It is only the good old exercise and dieting that will help you shake off all the fat from your body. Here are some exercises for cellulites.

For the waist, tummy, bottom and legs the animal walk exercise is recommended. However one must consult a doctor if you have a problem spine. Start the exercise by placing your palms on the floor and if possible, keeping the knees straight. If you can’t manage that, bend the knees a little and try to touch the floor with your hands. Take small steps with the left leg and then with the right leg. This way, take eight steps forward and eight steps backward. If you find it tiring, then take four steps forward and four backward in the beginning.

This is a tough little exercise but don’t give up even if your knees are bent and your hands don’t touch the floor. Daily practice will soon have you walking nonchalantly on all fours.

The next exercise for cellulite is the one-leg squat is really good for the thighs. Remember to do it slowly so that the muscles of the thighs are really stretched. This helps to slim the legs and thighs. First, stand on your toes with your right leg forward, hands on the waist. Now, exhaling slowly, lower yourself to floor level, keeping back straight and chin high, until your left knee is on the ground. Inhale slowly and come back to earliest position and repeat with the other leg.

Cycling posture is another good form of exercise for cellulite. Lie on the floor with your arms and legs raised in the air. Now cycle with your hands and legs forming circles very slowly. If you don’t have a cycle or can’t take it out on the road, this exercise will keep your arms, legs and thighs in shape.

Exercise equipment can be rather expensive and so can gym memberships and for those that cannot afford such a luxury, losing weight and exercising hopes can seem very distant! However there are plenty of ways in which you can exercise without equipment and for the most part, these methods are free and easy to do and will involve things that are simply laying around the house!

First of all, there are plenty of workout DVD’s and Videos that can be purchased which will allow you to perform aerobic exercises in the comfort of your own home without the need for expensive or complicated equipment. These workout programs can be bought second hand for those that cannot afford to buy brand new ones and also come in various varieties with everything from belly dancing to kickboxing, all of which are fun to watch and do and you can get the whole family involved as well, getting the kids to join in and even the partner if you can bear it.

You can use household items to make your workout programs more effective or even to use by themselves so that you can perform some sort of exercise without equipment in your home. These items can include bottles of water or even cans of food, it is up to and depends on the weight you can manage and how creative you are! These can improve the arm muscles when held in the hands during a workout and make the perfect substitute for hand held weights which can be very expensive to buy and also do not normally have a place within the home.

Playing around the with the kids is the perfect way to get exercise without equipment and this could be as simple as taking them to the park to play or running around with them and playing “tag” in the garden. Kids have the most unbelievable amount of energy and for any parent to keep up, it will take an enormous amount of energy and therefore burn off an extreme amount of calories!

Another way in which you can use the family as an exercise to partake in exercise without equipment is to arrange family days out such as going hiking or swimming which are brilliant exercises and are suitable for the whole family. There are a thousand and one things that you can do for this and the ones mentioned are just the tip of the iceberg. There is always ice skating or bowling, fishing and many more things besides.

One last thing that you can do to achieve exercise without equipment is to do the housework more often. Sacking the window cleaner is a good idea as this task alone can burn off more calories than what it is given credit for. You could always try putting more effort in to the housework and put some happy music on and dance along while you are doing the boring daily chores!

A study from Johns Hopkins shows that people who develop very high blood pressure during exercise are the ones most likely to develop high blood pressure in later years (American Journal of Hypertension, April 2004.) These people have arteries that do not expand as much as normal arteries when blood is pumped to them.

When your heart beats, it squeezes blood from inside its chambers to the large arteries. This sudden bolus of blood causes normal arteries to expand like balloons do when they fill with air. The walls of arteries have sensors that allow arteries to expand with each pulse of blood. If the arteries do not expand enough when blood enters them, blood pressure can rise very high. Blood pressure is determined by the force of the heart’s contraction times the resistance in the blood vessels. Normal blood pressure is 120 when the heart contracts and 80 when it relaxes. During exercise, the heart beats with increased force to raise blood pressure. It is normal for blood pressure to rise up to 200 over 80 during running, and to 300 over 200 while doing a leg press with very heavy weights.

People with normal resting blood pressures who develop very high blood pressure during exercise are the ones most likely to develop high blood pressure later on. If your blood pressure rises much above 200 during running, you are at increased risk for developing high blood pressure.

Ninety percent of Americans will develop high blood pressure, which increases risk for heart attacks, strokes, kidney damage and sudden death. High blood pressure usually occurs in people who have normal blood pressures when they were young. If you have an exaggerated blood pressure rise during exercise, you should go on a heart attack prevention program that includes a diet that is high in plants and low in saturated fats and refined carbohydrates, regular exercise, losing weight if you are overweight, not smoking, and avoiding stimulants and drugs that raise blood pressure.

Everywhere you look you will find exercise information. It can come in fitness magazines, the beauty salon, your co-workers, the Internet, and infomercials.

You will see snappy headlines such as, “Lose 10 Pounds in a Week with No Exercise at All!”, and “Melt Pounds without Dieting.” These marketing ploys don’t end. They will use any tactic to get you to buy their product.

Along with the vast amount of exercise information coming to us at every conceivable angle, there are many myths leaving the consumer thoroughly confused. In this article I will be discussing several exercise myths, giving you the facts and dispelling the fiction.

Myth #1: Exercising with weights will bulk you up. Fact: – Excess calories from protein, carbohydrates, and fat will bulk you up, not resistance training. Fat is bulky and inactive while muscle an active, lean and dense tissue. The more muscle you acquire, the more fat you will burn at rest and during activity.

Myth #2: Muscle weighs more than fat. Fact: – A pound of muscle and a pound of fat weigh the same, a pound. As previously stated, muscle is more dense, and takes up less space than fat. Adding muscle to your physique will create curves and make you appear smaller in the absence of excess fat.

Myth #3: If I stop weight training, my muscle will turn to fat. Fact: – Muscle cannot turn into fat any more than fat can turn into muscle. The two are not interchangeable. They are two completely different tissues. You can increase or decrease fat and muscle, but the two cannot change into the other, ever!

Myth #4: Crunches will make my abs visible. Fact: – Crunches will build the abdominal muscle, but your abs won’t shine through until you remove the layer of fat covering them. When it comes to “ripped” abs, they are built with balanced nutrition, coupled with proper exercise.

Myth #5: Weighted crunches will make my midsection thick. Fact: – The abdominal muscle is a thin layer of muscle tissue, and not able to grow much in size like other body parts. Therefore, adding resistance to your abdominal training will just increase your midsection strength. It is the side bends and twists that can contribute to a thick waist.

Myth #6: Exercise burns fat. Fact: – Exercise burns calories, and eating correctly with added exercise can aid in fat burning. Weight loss is not a one-shot approach. There are many angles, and you have to tackle each of them in small to moderate amounts. Knowing the right food combinations can give you the advantage on fat burning.

Myth #7: Exercising with light weights and a lot of reps will get me defined. Fact: Training with light weights will build muscle endurance. If your goal is to get defined, you should also incorporate a healthy diet balanced in macronutrients and add some cardiovascular exercise.

Myth #8: I just want to tone up, not build muscle. Fact: When you weight train you build muscle. There is no “toning” about it. As a woman, you have the ability to control the amount of muscle you add to your frame to a certain extent. Hormonally, women will not build a large degree of muscle mass. However, you can add more muscle size by increasing your protein intake and overall calories. For a woman to add a lot of muscle, it takes a lot of hard work and dedication, and sometimes steroids.

Conclusion to Exercise Myths

Now that we have dispelled exercise fact from fiction, you are better equipped to get in the shape you desire. Always strive for excellence and keep a positive attitude.

Copyright 2006 Karen Sessions

Always make sure to keep a detailed training journal. By keeping a journal of your training sessions, you will have a detailed log of your every exercise you perform along with reps, sets and how much weight you lifted. It’s also great to document how you felt before, during and after your training session along with any food/supplements you took before and after you trained. By keeping an exercise journal, you will have access to a wealth of information and be able to detect specific areas in your current training routine which can be changed or improved upon.

One of the biggest mistakes most people make is to continue on with a training routine that simply does not work well for them. As the old saying goes, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results”. Don’t let exercise insanity set in. Make sure to always switch up your training routines and document each one of them into your exercise journal. When you look back on your training journal, you will see specific patterns where you are succeeding and also where you’re falling short. One of the most important pieces of exercise advice is to figure not only “what to do”, but more importantly “what not to do”. When you know the areas to avoid, your progress will skyrocket!

You can download our FREE exercise journals by visiting our websites below.

We have heard often in life that quality is better than quantity. Whether it’s referring to things that we purchase (shoes, clothes, etc.) or food that we eat, quality often reaps more benefits than quantity. Well with exercise, the key is to increase the quality and quantity at the same time to receive the greatest results.

WHAT!! Does that mean I should exercise all day with good technique and eat as much food as possible as long as it is healthy? Well not exactly.

When regarding nutrition quality obviously refers to the nutrient profile of the food. Generally meals moderate to high in protein, moderate amount of healthy carbs (mostly fruits, veggies, whole grains), and moderate amounts of healthy fats (fatty fish, olive oil, nuts). Nutrition quantity refers to the amount of nutrients in your foods. Now this does not mean you have to go through and look up how much of what type of vitamins and minerals each of your foods have, but rather boost your brain power and learn about healthy eating. Nutrient dense foods will have infinite benefits in maintaining a strong, healthy functioning, high performance body.

When referring to exercise quality, we are talking about exercise that has benefits that out-weight risks. For instance a back squat on a smith machine can reduces the activation of stabilizer muscles in the hip, knee and ankle thus making them weaker, but you can probably lift more weight. Duh!! The risks out-weight the benefits. The preacher curl acts like a level in the shoulder joint as you lower the weight, this pulls yours shoulder girdle forward and weakens the rotator cuff. Exercise quantity is simple, exercise every day. Don’t kill yourself in the gym but do something moderately active every day. This will keep your muscles flexible and strong. Supplement your every day activity with some joint training exercises to maintain good body posture and movement health and you will be right as rain.

You burn off more calories when you exercise compared to when you don’t. It is very easy – if you exercise more, you will lose more weight and fat. Following are several solid reasons for beginning an exercise program now.

It is verified from scientific investigation worldwide that physical activity helps with weight loss. You will lose weight if you burn off more calories than you eat. You burn off more calories when you exercise compared to when you don’t. It is very easy -if you exercise more, you will lose more weight and fat.

Disease Prevention

Exercise has been shown to decrease the risk of developing a number of diseases. These diseases consist of heart ailments, cancer, diabetes and strokes. Approximately 4 out of 5 deaths from heart ailments and cancer are connected with issues that consist of stress and inadequate exercise. Everyone knows that diabetes increases the risk of having a heart attack or a stroke. What this indicates is that a lot of the risk factors and ailments that result from lack of exercise are working together to ruin your health. Begin exercising for the prevention of this occurrence.

Improving Disease

Regular exercise can improve or be the cure to a great number of serious and trivial diseases. This includes the diseases in the list above. When you follow a regular exercise schedule, your HDL cholesterol levels and triglyceride levels can go down, and you can lower your blood pressure, also. In addition, regular exercise reduces the chance that prostate cancer will develop in men, and that breast and uterine cancer will develop in women, as well as other benefits. You should begin exercising right away because all of this has been scientifically proven.

Improve Your State of Mind

Everybody is aware of the various scientific research about regular exercise causing more endorphins to be dispersed in the body. These chemicals can battle depression and increase feelings of euphoria. The body introduces these endorphins twelve minutes after you start working out. Serotonin increases as well when you workout and afterwards. The elevated serotonin levels in the central nervous system are connected with good feelings and less mental depression. This chemical can improve your ability to fall asleep.

Improve Your Wellness

You will have increased energy and a better overall mood when you are fit and in good shape. You will feel like you can reach way beyond your personal limitations and you realize that you can accomplish more than you believed you could.

Persistence

You will have more energy when you exercise regularly, and that may make you more productive both at home and at work. Exercising can assist you in creating goals with purpose and something to concentrate and strive to achieve. This can support your endurance and you can avoid going off track when you are reaching for your goal.

Social Capabilities

Once you work out on a consistent schedule, you can increase your self esteem. This will help you feel better and look more attractive. You will become more active and meet more people when you exercise, which will help keep you from feeling isolated and unsupported.

Exercise will also enhance your libido, helping to improve your marriage or relationship with your romantic partner. You should have no hesitation with regard to exercising now that you are familiar with all these tips and reasons to do so. You can become a member of a gym, or do home exercise.

There are a variety of ways to do exercise, so you can pick the ones you enjoy. Schedule some time in your day for exercise; you will feel better than ever and your body will benefit.

Most of us are not happy with our buttocks. They are small, too big, and too saggy. But we need not to worry because there ways to solve this aesthetic problem. With the right nutritional diet, right exercise you are surely going to achieve the desired buttocks.

Walking

You can do this anywhere and it is very easy to perform with no equipments, no monetary issues involved. If walking up hills, the target muscles are your glutes.

Step Ups

Step ups are another great exercise for the glutes. To perform this, rest one foot on the step or a platform and move forward through the heel to lift the body up, your knees is at about a 90 degree angle. Concentrate all your weight on the working leg. Lower down gently and concentrate on the stepping leg.

Lunges

This is a challenging exercise because many muscles are involved. On the front leg, the glutes and hamstrings are involved and on the back of the leg, the calves and quads.

Kickboxing

This is an excellent exercise for the whole body, including the hips glutes and thighs.

Biking

Riding a bike is a great exercise for the heart and the muscles of the body.

Running

This form of exercise is equally accessible with walking. Running is easy to perform, easy to learn and very effective especially if done regularly in an up hill slope. It targets the butt and it is also good in burning calories if you are trying to loose weight.

One- Legged Lifts

Another great exercise particularly targets the hamstrings, lower back and butt. Do not perform this if you have problems on your back.

First, you must move the left leg back just a bit, slightly resting on the toe. The weights in front of the thighs incline the hips and slowly lower the weights till your flexibility permits. To protect your back, keep your abs contracted and maintain with a natural arch.

Hip Extensions

This exercise aims the gluteus maximum, the largest muscle in the body. Simply just extend your hips. For added intensity place a dumbbell or use ankle weights behind your knee.

Your head must be spinning after watching all the commercials on TV that promise flat abs in just days. Can they really be true? Are there really abdominal exercises that will help you shape your body? Do they work for women? The good news is there really are easy exercises for women that will help you get rid of your love handles.

Abdominal exercises can help you gain strong stomach and back muscles, which can reduce the likelihood of back pains and provide protection against injury. All effective ab exercise programs progressively increase in their intensity. Ensure that your back is adequately supported while you are exercising.

If you are going to start an exercise program, remember that abdominal exercise should be followed religiously. It’s more about frequency rather than intensity. Don’t continue if you experience pain or extreme discomfort though.

Below are several easy ab exercises that can be very effective for women:

- Short Crunch: The short crunch conditions your rectus abdominis through a short range of motion, requiring a concentrated contraction as you press upward. Lie on your back with your knees bent, feet flat on the floor, and hands placed behind your head. Begin with your upper body lifted midway and the abdominal muscle held in tight. Keep your head and neck in alignment and moving as one unit. Lift your upper body a short distance, keeping the abdominal muscle contracted. Concentrate on the lift upward. Breathe and repeat for 8 times. Progress to 3 sets of 8 times.

- Combo Crunch: The combo crunch emphasizes both the upper and lower region of the abdominal. Although the full length of the muscle is contracting, you should perform the exercise slowly to emphasize isolating the lower region of the abdominal. Lie on your back with your legs elevated, knees bent, and ankles crossed. Place your hands behind your head. Keep your head and neck in alignment as you perform the exercise. Slowly and gently contract the upper body toward the lower body while lifting the hips off the floor. Slowly lower to starting position. Repeat for 8 times and progress to 3 sets of 8 times.

- Oblique Curl: The oblique curl involves bending and rotating at the waist to isolate and contour your waistline. Tighten the oblique muscles on the side you are lifting toward, and always move slowly. Lie with your lower back relaxed into the floor, knees bent, left foot flat on the floor, and left arm under your head. Rest your right foot on your left knee and extend your right arm out to the side. Keeping your hips squared and your lower body motionless, lift and rotate your upper body, aiming your left shoulder to your right knee. Repeat for 8 times. Repeat with the other side.

- Beginning Back Extension: The beginning back extension conditions your lower back and should be performed slowly and gently. Try to keep your hip bones on the floor and lift only as far as you can keeping your elbows on the floor. Lie on your stomach with your forehead resting on the floor. Place your hands under your shoulders with your elbows bent alongside the body. Extend your legs. Slowly and gently lift your upper body, keeping your forearms and elbows on the floor, exhaling on exertion. Return to your starting position and repeat for 8 times.

Once you’ve mastered these easier ab exercises, you can move into the intermediate and advanced arena. As you start seeing results, you’ll have a lot of incentive to keep on exercising.

Breast size is something on which many women concern about. Some of them want to have bigger size of breasts that they have now, but some of them want to have the smaller ones. To make it true, many of them do the breast surgery. In this matter, surgery might not the best way for it. There are some risks and side effects that might be dangerous for body.

When you want to have smaller size of breasts, there is a safe thing that you can do. In this case, you can do the exercise. You will find that this is much safer than breast surgery. There are some easy exercises that you can do in your own house in order to have smaller breasts.

Running is a cardio workout that you have to try when you want to get smaller size of breasts. Since breasts are fatty tissue, doing exercise that will burn calories will be very great try to reduce their size. In this case, running is one of exercise that you can do easily and is able to burn the calories in your body. However, there are other exercises that you can do instead of running such as swimming, and riding bike.

Another exercise that you can do for getting the smaller breasts is doing push ups. For the first time, this might quite hard to do, but if you do it regularly, you will find that this exercise is very easy to do. Train yourself do that you will get used to this exercise.

The next exercise that you can do to reduce your breast size is performing incline presses. To do this exercise, you need weight bench and dumbbells. All you have to do in this exercise is laying on the bench and start lifting the dumbbells for several times. To make it easier, you can ask the instructor to show you the right way to do the movement.

Furthermore, reducing breast size can also be done by doing some chest flies. This is another cardio workout that needs dumbbells to do it. The way to do it is almost the same with incline presses.

Instead of working out your chest, you must also work your back when you want to reduce the size of your breasts. You might risk your muscles when you only work your chest. This can cause rounded shoulders. To work your back, you can do rear deltoid extensions, back rows, pullovers and lat pull-downs.

Those are some exercises that you can do to reduce your breast size. When you do those things regularly, you will be able to get the ideal size of breasts that you want.