4 Expert Tips For Beating Belly Fat

If you’re constantly doing crunches to get a six-pack, you may be going about things the wrong way. Trainer Autumn Calabrese, creator of the 21 Day Fix and 21 Day Fix Extreme fitness and nutrition programs, shares four effective tips to help you fight belly fat and keep it off. We love that these are basic, fundamental tips that anyone can incorporate into their lives.

Eat Whole Foods

Calabrese is all about fueling your body with proper nutrients through all-natural “whole foods you recognize.” We’re talking fresh produce, whole grains, and lean protein. For breakfast, she recommends steel-cut oatmeal with almond butter and strawberries. And for snacks, instead of reaching for crackers or chips, nosh on fresh fruit and veggies.

Stay Focused

Calabrese told POPSUGAR that it’s so important to remain consistent with your exercise and nutrition. “By exercising three to five days per week and eating healthy, you can help fight belly bulge,” she said. “Every body responds differently and in a different amount of time. You can expect to see changes as fast as the first week of eating healthy and exercising consistently.” Monitoring your progress by tracking your weight, how your clothes fit, or with monthly photos will keep you on track.

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Get Moving

“Eating clean, healthy foods is a huge step in the right direction, but if you want less belly fat, we need to burn calories and build lean muscle,” said Calabrese. What type of workouts does she recommend? “I’m a big fan of cardio strength training. It’s a workout style where you are using weights in your workout and the type of exercises that you perform combined with the weights keep your heart rate in a cardio zone.” And you don’t need to exercise all day long. “If you really push during your workout, you can keep it to 30 minutes.” Her 21 Day Fix and 21 Day Fix Extreme programs feature workouts like these.

Avoid Processed Foods

Calabrese reminds us that “eating processed food leads to excess belly fat,” so if you’re serious about slimming your middle, say no to “sugar, sodas, chemically altered fats, and packaged, fried, and preserved foods.”

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Overlooked and Underappreciated: How to Use the Rowing Machine

The rowing machine can be intimidating, but once you get the hang of it, it’s an effective way to spice up your cardio routine. But while the rowing machine, also called an ergometer, is a calorie buster (about 280 calories in 30 minutes for an 130-pound woman) and a good leg and core workout, improper form can lead to back injuries if you’re not careful. Read on for our tips on proper rowing form.

Before you start, there are a few things to note about using the rowing machine. Make sure you wear formfitting clothes, otherwise you risk getting fabric caught in it while working out. Don’t set the resistance too high – experienced rowers generally use the rowing machine at 3-5 during their workouts, so setting the machine at 2 or 3 is perfect for a beginner. Keep your strokes per minute somewhere in the low- to mid-20s as well.

There are different ways to measure your workout, so use the change display button on your machine to track your strokes per minute, calories burned, kilometers traveled, or your split (how many minutes it takes you to travel 500 meters).

Beginning Position

1. For your first row, set the resistance low while you figure out your form, then slowly ramp it up on subsequent rows.
2. Secure your feet on the pads with the straps tight enough so your feet don’t move around as you slide.
3. Bring your knees up and slide to the top of the machine. Grab the handle using an overhand grip, but don’t hold too tightly.
4. Pull the handle with you as you slide to the end of the machine. Your legs should be straight, but knees should still have a slight bend in them so they aren’t locked. Lean back slightly and pull your hands up to your chest, holding the handle so it is right below your breasts, with elbows pointing down against your sides. This is the position where you should begin your workout, and it’s also your ending position once you complete a full stroke (see below).

The Catch

5. Move your arms out first, followed by your upper body. Your back should always stay straight, not slumped, with shoulders back and abs engaged as you follow through. As your arms extend out, your upper body position will go from slightly angled back to slightly angled forward.

6. As your arms extend and body leans forward, slide your body forward on the seat by bending your legs. Once you are at the top of the machine, your arms will be fully extended and legs will be bent (see below). This part…

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6 Expert Tips to Help You Get Fitter Than Ever in 2018

If you’re just starting out at the gym for the first time, it can be a daunting task to embark on solo. Just remember, though, that every single fitness trainer and guru you look up to began in exactly the same place you’re in now – and if they can get to where they are, so can you.

Whether you’re training for a half-marathon for the first time or learning how to lift weights, these general fitness tips will help you reach your goals. And they’re straight from the experts, so you know you’re in for something good. Let these nuggets of advice be your greatest allies as you get fitter and healthier in 2018.

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Make Yourself a Plan, but Start Out Slow

It’s always a good idea to start off with a program, whether it’s an online program like BBG, a program created for you by your trainer, or one you made up for yourself. Whatever you decide to do, though, make sure you take your time at the beginning, because biting off more than you can chew will set you up for failure in the long run.

“Rome wasn’t built in a day, so expect to see good but steady results over time.”

“Rome wasn’t built in a day, so expect to see good but steady results over time,” Kristi Castlin, bronze medalist in the 2016 Rio Olympics for the 100-meter hurdles, told POPSUGAR. Rather than trying to run five miles on your first day, slowly work your way up to it. The same goes for strength training. You won’t be able to squat your bodyweight in the first month, so make sure you’re slowly leading up to those big goals.

Start Strength Training More Often

Cardio is a great way to burn calories, build endurance, and strengthen your cardiovascular system, but if you want to get really fit and see significant changes in your body, you have to lift weights more regularly. That’s how you build visible lean muscle and achieve that gorgeous toned look.

“Weightlifting raises your resting metabolic rate, which simply means the amount of calories your body burns in and out of the gym increases,” added Ridge Davis, a personal trainer in West Hollywood, CA. If weight loss is on your agenda for 2018, weightlifting is for you.

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Do More Compound Lifting Than Isolated Movements

Although exercises like donkey kicks and bicep curls have their place, it makes much more…

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5 Trainer-Recommended Tips Every Gym Beginner Needs to Know

Whether joining a gym or working out at home, there is a long list of beginner fitness mistakes we’ve all made! And for those joining the gym, there’s the added pressure of figuring things out in a public place. If your brand new gym membership is already starting to lose its luster, the following tips from one of Fitness First’s personal training ambassadors, Alex Chaple will help smooth the bumps in your fitness journey, and make your goals feel a lot easier to attain.

Cardio Comes After

There is a never-ending debate on when to perform cardio if you’re strength training, but Alex strongly recommends you do so after, because performing resistance exercises before cardio will give you a greater fat loss effect.

Get Off The Treadmill

Cardio machines aren’t the be all and end all when it comes to working up a sweat. You can avoid plateauing and getting bored by taking advantage of free classes your gym holds, or adapting your training style to include elements of HIIT, and Tabata. Training this way allows your body to burn more calories in a shorter space of time than traditional machine cardio.

Think Big

There are so many benefits to strength training, but some moves are better than others and some are better combined. Focus your training on large muscle groups and big ranges of movement to capitalize on the time you spend at the gym. You can start with a simple move like adding bicep curls to basic squats, whether you use low or no weights, you are still engaging different muscle groups (your arms and legs) in one move.

Use Your Own Body

Adding weight to your workout is beneficial to sculpting and growing lean muscles, but training with just your body weight for resistance is just as beneficial, because it allows you to perfect your form and perform higher reps when it comes to certain moves.

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Book Time in With a Trainer

You don’t have to buy a block of expensive sessions with a personal trainer to reap the benefits of their expertise. If you need advice from a professional on your form, how to use certain machine, or simply gaining the confidence to walk into the weight area, book one session with a trainer and go armed with a list queries. You can use this to help structure your future solo workouts.

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Finally, an Expert Tells Us Exactly How Often We Should Be Working Out

Working out is full of so many numbers, from reps to sets to seconds in between exercises. It’s a lot to keep up with! It’s like trying to color-coordinate your closet after a huge vacation – no easy task. To make the effort you put in worthwhile, it helps to know you’re doing the right amount of exercise in order to see results. Once you’ve figured out whether to do cardio or strength training, you’re left with one important question: “How often should I work out?”

To get you a straight answer on this ever-elusive question, we got expert advice from certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and Youfit Health Clubs’ Master Trainer, Philip Cruz.

How Many Days Per Week?

A great place to get started is making a calendar and scheduling out all the workouts you plan to check off for the week. Cruz recommends you aim for at least three workouts a week on nonconsecutive days.

“If you choose to work out more often, plan on changing up the intensity of the workouts so that your body can recover after a tough workout,” he told POPSUGAR. That means if you just tackled a day full of lower-body exercises, like squats, lunges, and deadlifts, you’ll want to balance out that workout with a lower intensity cardio session to help with recovery.

Cruz also cautioned that, if you do work out on back-to-back days, you shouldn’t train the same muscle group intensely, so your body can recover and come back stronger.

How Long Should Each Workout Be?

We’ve got the number of days down; now how long do you need to buckle down for each day? Cruz recommends that “workouts last anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes.” The range depends on the intensity of the workout. The rule of thumb is, the more intense the workout, the shorter it should be.

For longer workouts Cruz suggests splitting them up into 30 to 45 minutes of weight training, then finishing off with 20 to 30 minutes of cardio. If you’re a bit squeezed for time, Cruz’s go-to workout is a 30-minute circuit or high intensity workout.

What Type of Exercise Is Best?

Alright, we know how many days and how long to sweat, but how exactly should you be breaking that sweat? Thankfully, planning workouts is a little easier then perusing meal prep ideas, so you don’t go crazy eating the same thing every day.

“There are many different ways of working out,” Cruz told POPSUGAR. “You can do an interval style workout on the elliptical, resistance train using…

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