Wednesday's Workout

Hey all you frugal fitness fanatics, lose 8 lbs for *free* this month at home!! Just log onto SELF Magazine's website and sign up for the 8 lb Slimdown. Signing up is free and SELF will guide you through your daily workouts including cardio and strength training. You also will get a meal guide and free videos demonstrating strength and cardio moves. All you need is a pair of dumbbells! Don't forget to log your eating habits and workouts into the food and workout log provided on the website. With all of this at your fingertips, you have no excuses for losing those pesky 8 lbs . . . FOR FREE!

FIT TIP: Want to take your workout to the gym? Don't worry, SELF has a plan for gym rats as well!

Wednesday's Workout

If you are looking to shake up your workout routine without leaving your own home then check out Hulu! Hulu is a website that allows you to watch tv shows on your computer for *free!* Best of all, Hulu offers a ton of full-length fitness classes including power yoga, Denise Austin's series, SELF Magazine workout routines and much more. Check out all the free workout videos you can watch and you'll never be bored with your workout again!

Wednesday's Workout

This Wednesday's Workout is a great *freebie*! Most of us love going to the beach so now use the beach for your workout! The beach offers so many versatile options for staying in shape. Grab a pair of running shoes and hit the sand. Running in the soft sand creates a lot of resistance meaning more calories, more toning for your legs and more results. If you are looking for something a little more relaxed and fun- try beach volleyball, frisbee, paddle ball or football. Just make sure to run after the ball!

If the water is more your style, bring along a kickboard and try swimming laps back and forth parallel to the shore or grab a boogie board or surfboard and fight the waves.

Cost to you-nothing. Results-priceless!

Wednesday's Workout

This Wednesday's Workout is completely free and focused on stretching. Stretching is an important part of staying fit and avoiding injury but many people overlook stretching. Here are a few stretches to try after a workout or maybe just after a long day when you want to unwind.

1.) Runner's lunge- Start with right leg in front with right knee bent and step the left leg back with the heel lifted off the floor and leg straight. Drop your hands down to the floor and hold this lunge position for 30 seconds. Switch sides and repeat.

2.) Butterfly Stretch- From a seated position bring the soles of the feet together in front of you so knees are pointing out to the side. Try to press the knees to the floor while keeping your back straight. You can use your elbows to help you. Hold for 30 seconds.

3.) Hamstring stretch- Lie on your back and bring the right foot straight up in the air. Keep the left foot flat on the floor with your left knee bent or for a more advanced option, straighten the left leg. Grab hold of the right leg that is in the air either at the calf, ankle or foot and draw the right leg in towards you shoulder. Keep your right leg straight and do not go to the point where the leg hurts. Hold for 20 seconds. Switch sides and repeat.

4.) Straddles- Sit on the floor and bring your legs out wide into a straddle position. Lean over to the right and hold for 15 seconds. Repeat to the left and in the center.

5.) Back stretch- Lying on the floor with legs straight out in front of you, grab the right knee and hug it into your chest. Allow the knee to drop over to the left side until the knee is touching on the ground. Extend your arms out to the side and if you can turn and look to the right side. Hold for 30 seconds. Switch sides and repeat.

6.) Hip Flexor Stretch- From a runner's lunge position with the left leg straight behind, drop the left knee to the ground. If you can bring your hands up and place them on the right front knee. Lean forward into the right knee but do not let your right knee go past your toes. You should feel this in your left hip flexor. Hold 30 seconds and repeat on the other side.

7.) Quad Stretch- From the hip flexor position, bend the back knee and catch the back foot in your hand. Pull your foot in towards your butt and hold it there feeling a stretch along the quad. Switch and repeat.W

Wednesday's Workout

This Wednesday's Workout is another *free* workout. A fun way to stay in shape is kickboxing. You can do your own workout by trying these shadowboxing moves in your own home.

1.) Jabs- Stand with feet a little wider than shoulder width apart and knees bent. Bring hands up to chin height and keep hands in tight fists. Throw a punch forward with the right arm and then immediately retract and repeat to the left.

2.) Hooks- Staying in the same position, this when you throw your punch keeping your elbows at a 90 degree angle.

3.) Uppercuts- From the same standing position, bring you arms down to stomach height. This time throw your punches upwards and away from your body.

Try to do 50 punches of each. Then try putting the moves altogether.

Wednesday's Workout

This Wednesday's Workout is a lot of fun and completely *free*. FitBritt suggests putting on a great playlist of music consisting of all of your favorite upbeat songs and dancing around the house. Its like that hip hop class at the gym you always wanted to take but didn't have the courage, only now no one is watching you so you have no excuse! So you think you can't dance? No problem! Just move to the music. The important thing is to keep going to burn some calories. Try to keep it up for at least a half hour.

Looking for more structure? There are plenty of exercise dvds offering to teach you dance steps. One of FitBritt's favorites is Julianne Hough's (from Dancing With the Stars) Cardio Ballroom. Another option is to check out YouTube for some dance videos and see if there are any moves you can pick up. Or just watch MTV or VHI for an afternoon (that is when they actually play music) and see if you can get some ideas from some of you favorite celebrity singers.

Tuesday's Trim Down

This Tuesday's Trim Down is another *free* workout. Most of us know iTunes as a source for downloading music for our iPods, but what you may not realize is that iTunes also offers Podcasts. Podcasts are digital files that can come in audio or video form and are available in episode format. There are Podcasts for a range of subjects including the news, market information, arts and crafts, language learning and much more. Most importantly for our purposes, there are a wide variety of Podcasts on Health and Fitness. You can find a Podcast for almost any type of sport or fitness interest. Some great examples are Elsie's Yoga Class and Dave Farmer's Power Yoga, both of which offer free full-length yoga classes through audio instruction. Or a personal favorite of FitBritt's is the Pilates on 5th video Podcast, which offers instruction on Pilates moves and has 10 min and 30 min Pilates classes. IndoorCylcingPodcast offers an audio indoor cycling class including music and instruction, which is a great substitute for an indoor cycling class. And for all you runners, there are a multitude of Podcasts providing coaching on everything from how to run a 5K to tackling a marathon or triathalon.

In addition to fitness instruction, there are Podcasts on nutrition, such as Vegetarian Food For Thought and Dishing Up Nutrition, which offer information and suggestions on eating healthy. You can also find Podcasts for workout music mixes or motivational speaking.

Once you have found a Podcast (or two) that you like, you can choose to watch or listen to the individual episode streaming online or you can subscribe to the Podcast and have the episodes automatically downloaded to your iTunes library daily. And of course, the best part is that all of this information and instruction is *free!*

Readers, any Podcasts you enjoy?

In addition to

Tuesday's Tone Up

This Tuesday's Tone Up is another great way to enjoy *free* yoga! Yogatoday.com offers streaming video of free yoga classes on a weekly basis. The classes are one hour in length and can be watched on your computer in full-screen mode just like a dvd. Each class usually has a focus, which is a great way to help you learn new yoga moves. For example, last week's free class introduced headstands and shoulder stands as part of the one hour class. This week's free class focuses on sun salutations. Other classes might focus on core strength, stretching your hamstrings, alleviating knee, neck or back pain or even on yoga for a specific purpose like sports or jet lag. The classes are also broken down by level from beginner to guru (advanced), so these classes are suitable for everyone! Another great bonus is that most classes have reviews by other users so you can find out if the class is right for you or what other people thought of the class before selecting the class.

Yogatoday has three instructors; Sarah Kline, Adi Amar, and Neesha Zollinger. Each instructor has her own style and type of practice. The types of yoga featured are usually Anusara, Ashtanga, Hatha Blend, Kundalini or Vinyasa. (For more information on any of these types of yoga click on the links provided.)

If you decide that you like one of the classes you have watched, you can own the class by purchasing it for $3.99. This means the class will be saved to your computer and you can watch it anytime. Or, if you prefer to have access to the entire library of yoga classes, you can join for $9.99 a month for unlimited access or use Yogatoday's special promotion of 25% off and join for one full year for $89.99. This is a particularly great way to get used to practicing yoga if you are too nervous to go to a live class since you can do it in the privacy of your own home. Another bonus? You can take it with you wherever you go! So get your downward dog on today!

Wednesday's Workout

After a much needed vacation FitBritt is back with more frugal fitness tips.

This Wednesday's Workout is a tip inspired by recent travels. Traveling and vacation can mean difficult maintaining your workout regime. Try this workout to stay fit while on holiday (especially good if you are going to be at the beach!).

In the pool:

If the hotel you are staying at has a pool (indoor or outdoor), try these moves to get in a good workout.

First, you can warm up by swimming some laps or treading water for a few minutes.

Then get some toning exercises in by going to a shallow end of the pool and holding on to the side of the pool. The natural resistance of the water will make these ballet inspired moves even more difficult than on dry land.

Plies- Hold onto the side of the pool with both hands with feet in a wide plie stance (legs out wider than hips and toes pointing to the side), sink down into a squat then squeeze your glutes to rise up. Complete 15-20 repetitions and then hold the last rep and do small pulses for another 15-20 reps.

Releves- Still facing the wall, bring feet in together so they are touching with toes pointing towards the pool wall. Lift heels off the ground and onto the balls of the feet. Lower heels down then lift and repeat. Do 15-20 reps. On the last rep, hold the releve and see if you can balance by letting go of the side of the pool.

Tendus- Stand with the left hand holding the side of the pool and left side of the body facing the wall of the pool with feet and legs together. Bring right foot in front of the body with toe pointed but keeping the foot on the ground of the pool. Then bring it back in to meet the left. Repeat 10 times. Then do the same move but this time bringing the right leg out to the side. Repeat 10 times. Finally, repeat the move but this time bringing the right leg behind the body to the back. Repeat 10 times. Then turn around to face the other direction and repeat the entire exercise on the left side.

Grand Battement- This exercise is the same as tendus, however, this time when you bring the right foot in front, lift the foot off the ground so that the leg is about hip height (but still under the water). Repeat to the side and back ten times each and then switch sides to work the left leg.

Donkey Kicks- Face the pool wall and hold on with both hands. Feet are together with toes pointing forward. Lift the right foot off the ground to the back and bend the right knee to make a 90 degree angle. Start to pulse the right foot to the back with the toe pointed. Try to keep the right thigh in line with the left thigh so it is just a small movement of the foot and you feel the work in the right glute.

Arm Circles- Step away from the pool wall so you have enough room. Raise the arms out to the sides to shoulder height but keeping the arms under the water. Start to make slow circles forward with the arms. Do this 30-40 times, then circle the arms backwards.

Rows- Start with arms straight down by sides. Bend elbows to a 90 degree angle out to the side, causing the arms to rise away from the sides. Lower and repeat 15-20 times.

Bicep Curls- Start with arms down by sides. Curl hands up 1/2 to 3/4 of the way to the top to perform a bicep curl (make sure your hands stay under the water). Release down but keep the contraction in the biceps by not releasing the arms all the way to sides but almost all the way and then immediately go back into the curl.

Once you have completed all of the moves, you can do a second set or to get some cardio, swim some more laps or tread water again.

Wednesday's Workout

Keeping in theme with our outdoor workouts, this workout is a great way to tone up outdoors. You can pair it with an outdoor jog or walk or one of the workouts from last Wednesday’s Workout: http://fitnessfrugal.blogspot.com/2010/03/wednesdays-workout_17.html. Its best if you do this workout near a park or along a path that has benches and stairs but if you can’t find these things, go ahead and modify the moves by doing them without the equipment.

Walking Lunges- Stop during your walk or run and step the right foot forward and drop down into a lunge with each knee at a 90 degree angle. Bring the left foot in from behind and step it forward bending into another lunge. Repeat with the right leg so that you are lunging forward with a different foot each time and thus “walking” forward.

Pushups- Find a park bench or a tree and place your hands on the bench or tree with feet further out from the bench or tree to create an angle with your body. Bend arms into a pushup and then press back to straight arms.

Step Ups- Find a park bench or a set of stairs and stand facing the bench/stairs. Step right foot up onto the bench/stair and then bring the left foot up. Step the right foot down and then the left. Repeat. Try to pick up your pace to not only tone your glutes but to get the heart rate up.

Glute Squeeze- Stay with your bench or stair. This time step the right foot up and instead of bringing the left foot up lift the left leg straight out behind you thus squeezing the glutes. Then step down with the left leg and right. Repeat 15 times and then go to the left side stepping left foot up and squeezing the right glute with the right leg straight behind.

Ab Tap- This time sit down on the bench or step. Keep hands down by sides and holding onto the step or bench. Bring feet up so knees are bent in towards chest. Keep back straight and slowly tap one foot down towards the ground, switch feet and repeat.

Wednesday's Workout

In honor of the spring weather and the many upcoming 5Ks, ½ marathons and marathons this Wednesday’s workout is based on the classic form of exercise: running. Now some people find running great and swear by it as a form of exercise, while others are less enthusiastic. For this frugal fitness diva, running is like vegetables. You know its good for you, but you’d prefer something else instead. The bottom line is that running is free (if you do it outdoors), it can be done solo or with a companion and it is a great way to burn (lots of) calories.

So here are some workouts for those of you just starting out and those of you that are far more advanced. Take the workout outside to your local park or high school running track. Just make sure you are always running when it is light outside or you wear reflective gear if you must run in the dark.

Beginner’s Workout
If you can walk, you can run. Try this workout to amp up your normal walking routine.

Min. RPE*
0-5 3-4 Start at an easy walking pace to warm up.
5-7 5 Pick up the pace with a fast walk and pump the arms.
7-9 6-7 Take the pace up to a light jog. If you can’t sustain
for the full two minutes, try jogging and then walking
and then jogging again.
9-10 4 Recover a light walk pace.
10-20 4-7 Repeat minutes 5-10 twice.
20-21 6-7 Pick it up to a jog again.
21-22 8 If you can, try adding some sprints during this minute.
Use markers, like you will jog to the bench up ahead and
then sprint to the tree.
22-24 5 Take it back to fast walk.
24-30 3-4 Slow down the walk and begin to cool down.

Intermediate Workout
This workout is great if you can run steadily without stopping but you do not run regularly.

Min. RPE*
0-3 3-4 Begin with an easy walk to warm up the muscles.
3-5 5 Take the pace up to a light jog.
5-7 6 Maintain a jog but begin to lengthen your stride and
take the pace up a bit.
7-9 7 Take the pace to a run so you are breathless, but you
can maintain the pace.
9-10 8 Go to a fast run or a sprint for just one minute.
10-20 6-8 Repeat minutes 5-10 twice.
20-24 7 Maintain a steady endurance pace for 4 minutes.
24-25 9 Go for one last sprint for just one minute.
25-30 3-5 Take the pace down to a jog and then start walking to
cool-down.

Advanced Workout
If you run regularly and/or are training for a race, try this workout.

Min. RPE*
0-5 4-5 Begin with a jog to warm up.
5-10 6-7 Take the pace up to a steady pace but still below your
race pace or at about 70-75% of the maximum pace you can
run for a period of time.
10-15 7-8 Take your pace up to a race pace or the fastest pace
you can maintain for 5 minutes.
15-17 9 Go all out for two minutes.
17-19 6-7 Take the pace back down a bit and recover.
19-20 9 Go all out again for one minute.
20-30 7-9 Repeat minutes 10-20 one time.
30-33 7-8 Maintain you race pace for three minutes.
33-35 6 Take the pace down a bit to a steady pace.
35-40 5 End with a light jog and little bit of walking for the last
few minutes.


Fit Tip: An iPod is a popular device for runners, but Nike and Apple have teamed up to create Nike + iPod. The kit comes with a sensor that can either be clipped on to your shoes or if you have a pair of Nike+ running shoes, they have a special spot underneath the inner sole of the shoe to hold the device. The sensor feeds data into a chip that is plugged into your iPod (where the charger normally goes). Your iPod then tracks your time, distance, pace and calories burned. You can choose programmed workouts, create playlists and even choose a power song to get you through the really tough part of your workout. You can also receive motivational messages from you iPod by pushing the center button. The price for this device? Starting at $29 for the kit and available at Apple and Nike.

*RPE = Rate of Perceived Exertion which measures how hard you would rate yourself working. Use the chart below to measure your exertion.

1- This activity requires virtually no effort, like watching tv.
2- Light activity you can sustain for a long time.
3- Slightly brisker activity that you can still maintain but its getting a
little harder and your breathing is a little bit heavier.
4- Now you are beginning to feel like you are working out but at a steady pace
and you feel good.
5- Moderate pace, you are sweating now.
6- Harder pace but not so hard that you find it difficult to maintain for an
extended period of time.
7- Hard pace but you are still able to maintain it, although you may need
intermittent periods of rest.
8- Very hard pace. This is fairly difficult to maintain.
9- Hardest burst you can maintain but only for short bursts.
10- The hardest you can go. This is how you feel after you sprint to the finish
line. Impossible to maintain.

Tuesday Trim Down

Today's Trim Down Tip is another *Freebie.* Staying motivated on your own can be extremely difficult, which is one reason why pricey gyms with their huge array of classes and trainers can be so appealing. Enter Lululemon. This popular fitness apparel store (with pricey clothes-yoga pants costing $98!) offers completely free yoga classes (this goes a long way to counterbalancing the expensive clothes). In addition to yoga, many store locations also offer other types of classes such as bootcamp classes, run clubs, pilates classes and more! Some stores even offer free mats for classes so you don't have to worry about bringing your own mat.

Visit lululemon.com and find a location near you to check out their free classes!

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