Good Workout Music and the Power to Change Your Workout

What is it about music that makes us work a little harder? Maybe it’s the distraction from what you are actually doing or maybe it’s the driving beat pushing us along. Whatever the case, the right workout music can make a big difference in your energy output and the effort behind your exercise routine.
 
Whether you are running or lifting weights the right playlist is vital in making sure you have the right music for your particular workout. Runners make finding the right sequence of songs an art form. By knowing how long their run is and at which points they will need an extra push, they formulate a playlist to hit the right songs at the right time.
 
Weight lifting or strength training could go either way. Hard rocking beats to help you lift heavy, or steady driving ones to keep you controlled can both do the trick. When thinking of what workout music to use in your fitness routine your musical tastes and your fitness needs.
 
If you do fitness DVDs the workout music is already chosen for you. The success or failure of a workout DVD can be based, sometimes, on the quality of the workout music. If the music is off beat or too quiet, it can throw you off. Trying to keep up with a fitness routine when the music doesn’t match up can be frustrating and counterproductive. Working out against the beat can be as hard as patting your head and rubbing your stomach, taking a coordination miracle.
 
Finding a home workout DVD with great music, however, can take your workout to the next level, propelling you to work harder and pushing you when you want to quit.
 

The right workout music is vital, particularly with a home fitness DVD.

 
Take the workout music in TurboJam, for example. Trainer Chalene Johnson choreographed the entire fitness system to give exercisers a feeling of dance and fun. The workout becomes much easier because of the great dance music, the volume of the music, and the well timed choreography. TurboJam is a great example of workout music gone right.
 
When building your own fitness playlist, try getting your music selections from a few different sources.
 

Check out these lists and tools for some great ideas:

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Ashtanga Yoga: Not all Blissful Relaxation

Despite its growing popularity and widespread use, yoga still catches a bad rap in some of the fitness world. Some people still see it as simply relaxation and breathing and have yet to be introduced to a style of yoga that can meet their fitness expectations. Many of these people, however, have not even tried yoga and base their judgments off of the flowing graceful moves they see practiced by professionals. What those people fail to realize is that because of the difficulty of styles like ashtanga yoga, their own yoga would be far from flowing and graceful in the beginning.
 
Ashtanga yoga, also referred to as Power Yoga has its foundations in an ancient manuscript called the Yoga Karunta. In this work the vinyasas of ashtanga yoga are laid out. Unlike some other more relaxed forms of yoga, ashtanga involves fairly continuous movement and flowing succession from pose to pose.
 
Vinyasas, the basic move in ashtanga yoga, are considered the links from move to move in ashtanga. A vinyasa begins with deep breath in while reaching toward the sky and exhaling while bending at the waist. From there, yogis jump their feet back into a plank position, lowering to the ground and then raising their rear end up into “downward facing dog”. Usually after a series of breaths, the move is reversed until the yogi is back to a standing position. This vinyasa is the foundation for ashtanga yoga and is seen as a connection between the breath and the body. One or two vinyasas, and the average person will be winded and wondering how experienced yogis make it look so easy.
 
Ashtanga yoga is a serious workout, made more difficult with the strength of each pose. The poses of yoga allow yogis to get deeper or continually improve on their form and fitness. Just when you think you have mastered a pose, there is a slight change you can bring to it, making it hard all over again.
 
Great for balance, flexibility, and posture, ashtanga yoga also burns serious calories and builds long lean muscles. Even for someone who has tried ashtanga yoga before, the yoga routine in P90X will be a challenge. As part of the total body transformation tool that is P90X, users will see that this yoga is not for the faint of heart. Based on ashtanga yoga and the expertise of celebrity trainer Tony Horton, this yoga workout is anything but relaxing.
 
Trying something new in your fitness program can get you over plateaus and can also make things interesting again. Looking into yoga and ashtanga yoga in particular can be a fun way of trying something new. Don’t let appearances fool you. Yoga is not always about meditation and relaxation, it can also work you hard and leave you with blissfully tired muscles.

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What is Kenpo Karate?

Included as one of the P90X workouts, many people are curious about Kenpo and what exactly it is. If you have done P90X you know Kenpo is filled with quick moving kicks and blocks. In P90X, Kenpo Karate is used as a cardio routine. While this martial art is a great way to work your muscles and heart, it has much older foundations.
 
Depending on where you look you will get a different story of the history of Kenpo. Some sources claim the roots of Kenpo came from China and later moved to Japan before coming to Hawaii. Others say it started in Japan, moved to China, and later to Hawaii. One thing is clear, the foundations of what we know as Kenpo Karate started in the East and was brought to Hawaii with Asian immigrants. Once practiced in Hawaii, it became the martial art form we know in American today as Kenpo Karate.
 
James Mitose is recognized as one of the first major teachers of Kenpo Karate in Hawaii. He instructed William Chow who studied under him until 1947 at which time Chow opened his own school and eventually instructed Ed Parker. Through these first few teachers (the “fathers” of American Kenpo), a new martial art form was born in the United States. Kenpo Karate quickly spread and grew in popularity.

 

Kenpo Karate is a martial arts characterized by quick movements made in rapid-fire succession. The idea is to wear an opponent out in Kenpo Karate. This makes Kenpo a great cardio workout, as well as training the muscles of your entire body. As a bonus, when doing P90X you are learning a time honored self defense practice.

 

As a martial art, Kenpo involves strikes to main vital areas of the body. Kenpo teaches practitioners to attack their opponent when they are not expecting it and put them in vulnerable positions through strikes, punches, chops, pokes, and thrusts. Kenpo also employs kicks, takedowns, and throws. Through fast “combinations” Kenpo Karate practitioners can wear their opponents down quickly and unexpectedly.

 

For more information about Kenpo Karate, check out some of these sites:

Also, if you are ready for a total body transformation like no other including the use of Kenpo, take a look at P90X.

 

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Stress Reduction Techniques for the Healthy and Notoriously Busy

Caring for your body is a full time job. From watching what you eat to making time for a regular workout, keeping tabs on your health is a daily effort. For many busy adults, time is a limited resource and fitting all of your healthy habits into the day can be quite a challenge. If you have ever had to rearrange a schedule in order to get a run in or take time to prepare a meal, you know what I mean. Even for some of the most health conscious adults, however, stress reduction takes a backseat.
 
When you consider all the negative side effects of stress, relaxation practices should be a no-brainer. Stress can increase your blood pressure, harm your immune system, cause you to overeat, and possibly take years off your life. However, stress is unavoidable. You will have stress in your life and the key lies in learning how to effectively manage it through healthy outlets, including good stress reduction techniques.
 

Take a few minutes out of your busy day for stress reduction by:

 
1. Slow, conscious breathing. Take 10 long slow breathes, inhaling for 5 counts and holding the breath for 2. Slowly exhale for another 5 counts and repeat. While you exhale, picture all the negativity, stress, and tension exiting your body through the breath. Replace the stress and tension with joy and happiness on the inhale, filling your body with life-giving oxygen.
 
2. Take a quick walk. Weather permitting, leave your office for a 10 minute break and take a quick walk around the block. Increasing your heart rate and getting fresh air will immediately improve your mood and leave you feeling more alert.
 
3. Journaling. When your mind seems to be racing and you cannot focus, a moment spent jotting down your thoughts can clear the mental air and leave you feeling more relaxed. Don’t worry about what you are writing, just get some thoughts out.
 
There is nothing remarkable or new about these stress reduction tips. Sometime we all need a reminder though, on how to keep our mental baggage to a minimum. It is vital that you find a healthy way of reducing stress and relaxing. Whether it is through meditation or exercise, your approach to stress reduction techniques is not as important as the fact that you are actually managing the stress. Making time to reduce stress will not only leave you feeling better, it will also improve your health and your chances at weight loss success.

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Diet Shakes: Meal Replacement with Flavor and Nutrition?

Diet shakes have been around for a very long time. A few decades back, they were all the rage. People were replacing meals with shakes left and right in an effort to drastically lose weight. While diet shakes do the trick when trying to lose weight, the weight loss can be difficult to maintain if the diet shake isn’t a part of a well-rounded program. When your body doesn’t get enough sustenance you may be more likely to go off of your healthy eating plan, counteracting the effects of any diet shake.
 
Meal-replacement shakes are designed to replace a meal. Too many people on a diet shake program are tempted to make a diet shake part of a starvation diet. They are designed to replace a meal in the lives of health conscious but busy adults. A healthy diet should include 3 meals at the least as well as healthy snacks throughout the day. If a meal replacement shake isn’t used correctly, dieters will be famished and not be able to use it as a weight loss tool.
 
By adding a piece of fruit or a half of a sandwich to your meal replacement shake you can ensure that your stomach is filled and you are less likely to reach for candy bar or unhealthy alternative in an hour. If using the diet shake as a true “meal replacement”, some additions may have to be made to reduce cravings and hunger later on. If you don’t want to eat with your shake, have a healthy snack ready for a little later. By supplementing the meal replacement shake with high quality, low calorie food you can reap the benefits without setting yourself for diet failure.
 

Diet shakes should include a good variety of vitamins and minerals to ensure that they are providing you with quality ingredients worth replacing a meal over.

 
One only need to look at the nutritional label of Beachbody meal replacement shakes to get a good idea of what a high quality diet shake should bring to the table. Rich in vitamins and minerals and a good supplement for any healthy diet, Beachbody meal replacement shakes are a great way to get something on your stomach quickly that won’t jeopardize your training and weight loss efforts.

 

Beachbody meal replacement shakes are a good example of weight loss shakes gone right. By using a meal replacement shake as one part of a healthy, well rounded diet, you can lose weight without resorting to measures that aren’t maintainable over the long run.

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