Being a new mom seems to be inconsistent with being sexy. New moms are usually pictured as unfashionably heavy, unmade-up, sluggish, and boring. Understandably, fixing yourself everyday may feel like an exercise in futility as you imagine yourself getting soiled later on by your baby’s usual mess and spills. The assortment of smells and colors from milk, baby food, and diaper contents remind you constantly of your new role as a mom. However, you secretly wish you could be a hot new mom for your partner and for yourself.
Indeed, you can be sexy all over again without having to abandon your role as a mom. Here are five easy and effective ways of bringing back your sexy self, and probably that loving feeling with your partner.
Practice a daily cleansing routine.
Mornings are the best time to shower and moisturize your skin. Focus on your facial skin as it is the first thing that you see in the morning. Most facial washes now come with ingredients that help your skin shed its outermost layer to reveal new and younger skin underneath. Moisturizing it keeps it feeling soft, smooth and young-looking. With clean and clear skin, you can still be beautiful without makeup.
Treat yourself to a hot new nightie.
Wearing something sexy to bed instantly connects you to your sexuality. Don’t let motherhood strip you off your femininity. Creating a visual image of femininity can jumpstart your attitude as well as your sex life. Aside from a new baby, a sexy new nightie should be a welcome addition to your home, too.
Exercise regularly.
Long nights with the baby and lack of sleep leave you feeling exhausted and hardly sexy. Working up a sweat may be the last thing on your mind as you would rather relax and catch up on much needed sleep. While getting some rest is important, finding some time to move your body during the day not only provides it with energy but also contributes to getting it back in shape.
This is why fitness programs are so popular these days. The right routine always promises energy boosting and weight loss benefits. You, too, can reap the benefits by going to the gym or following a good exercise video regularly. You’ll not only feel sexy but you’ll look sexy as well.
Just how often you should exercise is up to you. While getting some exercise daily is best, a thrice-weekly routine is enough to produce some results without disrupting your usual activities.
Reap the benefits of aromatherapy.
Aromatherapy is used here in the loose sense. The idea is to surround yourself with good scents that lift your mood and promote a sense of wellbeing and relaxation. Vanilla scents are said to evoke a feeling of comfort and warmth. Jasmine scents are calming and soothing. Fruity aromas are energizing.
If you look into your bathroom, you’ll find products that can boost your mood. Wash your hair with a fruity shampoo and conditioner. Lather your skin with a scented soap. Once you are dry, bring back lost moisture by applying a lightly scented lotion all over. As a finishing touch, spritz on a fresh smelling after bath body spray or light cologne. Your husband will want to be near you just to get the scent of you.
Socialize with friends.
Sometimes, feeling sexy entails bringing back a part of yourself that you enjoyed most before your new baby came along. Being a new mom is an important part of your life, but it is not the only life that you have. Getting together with friends for lunch or dinner every now and then provides that much needed connection to your fun-loving self.
The prospect of meeting up for some girl talk or bonding time will find you excitedly looking for something flattering to wear. After some time with your friends, you’ll go home looking great and feeling good inside.
While there may be an endless list of things you can do to get your groove back, the idea here is to offer you the easiest, tried and tested ways that you can immediately incorporate into your hectic life. Getting back that sexy feeling won’t come overnight, but with a little effort you should be able to restore it in time.
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This article is for people who want to start personal training in Toronto and who are looking for a personal trainer in Toronto who will help them to get into shape. In today’s world many people have become fitness conscious. Some like to keep fit to look and feel good while others have health conditions that demand it. In either situation a good personal trainer is something all of us look for.
A personal trainer in Toronto offers a personalized and one-on-one service. The combination of proven training methods with the latest advances in the fitness arena makes personal training a highly effective service. A good personal training institute will bring the most functional and effective training techniques for you.
Personal Trainers in Toronto work in different modules and schedules. Toronto personal training sessions take place in local fitness centers, health clubs, as well as in a clients home. Personal trainers also serve as instructors in Toronto fitness training classes. These personal trainers demonstrate various exercises in the correct manner, and this helps clients improve and optimize their exercise techniques and results.
When a personal trainer in Toronto is hired by an individual trying to get into shape, they are trained on a one to one basis. The professional and focused approach offered by a one-to-one trainer in a private setting produces far greater results as compared to those experienced in a regular gym. In a regular gym a client is trained by a less-qualified instructor that simply cannot produce the same results in a busy, crowded area. In a private gym setting, a trainer is more readily able to provide motivation and support to an individual while they are following an exercise program, as well as give proper technical instructions.
A Toronto Personal Trainer is also very professional and keeps up-to-date records of their clients’ exercise schedules. This enables them to monitor progress and improvement. While conducting Personal Training in Toronto the Personal trainer also advises the client about modifying and re-organizing their lifestyle to improve their health and fitness.
There is no better way to keep fit and healthy than hiring a Qualified Personal Trainer in Toronto. The person who gives you personal training in Toronto to keep fit and healthy is no ordinary, regular, fresh-out-of-college girl or guy. These are certified, qualified individuals who have studied as well as gained experience in the field. They therefore have advanced knowledge about fitness and exercise techniques. A Toronto Personal trainer examines your body type, listens to your challenges and goals, considers other factors like age, gender, and exercise preference, and then works out an effective plan for you.
There are personal training Toronto based Institutes which also help you get into shape by providing state of the of art quipment and qualifed and disciplined professional personal trainers. So if you want to get fit, look good and feel confident, go ahead and find yourself a personal trainer in Toronto who has a personal training Gym with the latest equipement and services. If you can find one who has a team of physiotherapists and dieticians assiting them, all the better!
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There is nothing women do better than go shopping but when a new baby is thrown into the mix the bills start adding up. When it comes to picking up lunch anything fast and cheap become the only option. If you want to lose weight after giving birth, however, you can’t depend on those low price high fat goodies or high priced gym memberships.
A. Ditch the Gym Deal: It’s the same old story when it comes to gyms, lots of people have memberships but never go. You don’t need to leave your house to lose weight after giving birth, you can tone and trim without flying the coop. Staying creative can include everything from tricep dips using a chair or pushups in the kitchen and crunches on an exercise ball or lunges across the living room.
B. Cut out the Cappuccino: When you are trying to lose weight after giving birth try not to drink your calories. It isn’t cheap filling up on coffee either and if you are a regular at the local coffee shop you could be shelling out up to 20 bucks just on beverages. If you can’t pull the chord on your favorite haunt then try and stick with the juices or good old H20.
C. Your own Personal Trainer: Now with fitness DVDs you can have your own personal trainer at home to lose weight after giving birth. There are many varieties to get your heart racing. If you buy the DVD once you can use it over and over again unlike buying a set of classes at the gym. It’s a cheap and easy way to get professional training in your own home.
You don’t have to be swimming in it when losing weight after giving birth. Trim your tummy by cutting back on spending frivolously on fad diets. Instead make the personal training very personal by creating your own routine or schedule your own snacks but no matter what take time to treat yourself as a new mom!
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Posted on 4 May 2009 In: Fitness Trainer

Fitness Trainer: Six Fitness Tips For Men

The best fitness tips for men include guidelines that enable you to flaunt a well-toned and muscular body 24 hours each day during a week. Women find such a body irresistible and men find it most motivating and a sure shot confidence booster. There are a few considerations that need to be addressed to ensure the success of a fitness regime.
These six best fitness tips for men will definitely help you to improve you physical shape and stay fit and healthy for a very long time:
I. Adopting the right regime
It is very important to exercise correctly and dedicatedly. Adopting exercise routines on a random basis and without the guidance of your doctor and trainer will only end up in your doing the exercises incorrectly and not deriving the desired shift. You need to understand the exercises, the basics involved and the strength training that the routine is designed for, prior to adopting one. This will not only help you stay motivated and perform the routine set exercises safely, but also execute each move correctly.
II. Consider theory and advice from sportsmen
It will do you good to pay heed to the various online and offline resources that make fitness tips and valuable advice from a number of sportsmen available 24 hours a day. Depending on the intensity of the routine and the desired change in a particular muscle group, the advice could help to address mistakes and reduce the risk of running into any health hazards due to a possible faulty approach.
III. Understand and be sensitive to your body
People are built differently and what works for one may or may not suit you. This needs to be understood prior to adopting a fitness routine. You need to identify and respect how your body works and the correct exercises to benefit more from them. You should educate yourself on the routine and work with dedication to improve your lifestyle and ability with the right knowledge. If ever in doubt, it will help to learn or ask someone who is confident about the same and never waste time in the effort to correct something wrong.
IV. Engage a trainer
It helps to engage the services of a trainer either personally or at the local gym you access. Before embarking on an exercise regime, you should take into confidence two important people - your doctor and a qualified trainer. While one helps you to determine and understand your fitness level and risks attached, if any; the other assists you in the endeavor towards a fit and muscular body. You should consider your physical well being prior to adopting a regime and compliment it with a well balanced diet.
V. Consider warm up and cool down exercises
It is very important to develop the habit of dedicating at least 5 minutes of the exercise time, before and after, to indulge in some warm up and cool down exercises. While the former help the body to adapt to the required postures and activity within the regime, the latter help the body to cool down and easily adapt to the post regime chores that you would have to deal with.
VI. Monitor and track progress
It is important to monitor and track progress by either self-designing a graph, pie chart or diary where you can mark each level crossed. This helps you to stick by realistic goals and appreciate every level of competence achieved. When you appreciate the effort made and feel the surge of confidence in application, you automatically also deal well with drawbacks and change. Your ability to monitor the improvements you are making makes planning an integral part of the process and helps you to successfully target time frame bound goals. The right attitude determines the level of achievement and training.
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When you talk about getting a flat stomach, most people tend to think of exercises like crunches, leg lifts, sit ups, knee raises, etc., or the ab machines at the gym. These are very good for developing the muscles of the abdominal region, it is true. However, for the majority of people wanting to flatten their stomach, developing their abs isn’t what will get them there.
What these people, and most of the rest of us need, is to lose the fat around their midsection. This will give them that flat tummy, and if they also want defined ab muscles, that will come from the traditional ab exercises such as the crunch.
If you’ve been going to the gym for any length of time, you probably know of a couple of people who spend the majority of their time on the ab machines. But their waists never get any smaller. These people probably have great six pack abs - but nobody can see them under the layer of fat that covers their stomach. And one doesn’t have to be obese, or even overweight, to have this fat layer.
Now, which are the best exercises for losing that layer of fat in order to have a flat stomach? Indisputably, they are the cardio or aerobic exercises. You have a number of choices here. Running outdoors or on the treadmill, bicycling on the road or a stationary bike, using an elliptical machine, jumping rope, playing racquetball or basketball, and many more.
When it comes to cardio exercise, these days you’ll find a lot of experts who blast the long slow distance (LSD) technique that’s been in vogue for the past twenty years or so. LSD requires you to exercise in your ‘fat burning zone’, which is at 50 to 75 percent of your maximum heart rate.
These experts are saying that instead of long cardio workouts in the fat burning zone, we should all be doing intervals for fat loss. To do intervals, you intersperse periods of intense exercise with periods of easy recovery (not stopping, however). The intervals are said to rev up your metabolism so that your body will burn fat around the clock, rather than just during and right after the exercise, as is the case with longer slower cardio.
So which is the best option for getting a flat stomach? Well, that depends on you. If you like to go out for an hour run because it frees your mind and lets you think about things, or think about nothing, then you should concentrate on the longer less intense workouts. If you become totally bored or don’t have the time for these workouts, then you’d want to try intervals.
If you like to get your workouts over quickly, and can concentrate on the exercise and work out intensely during the ‘work’ periods, then intervals might be your best bet. But if you find working at your maximum intensity for short periods to be highly unpleasant, then lean towards longer slower workouts.
Finally, if you’re a person who likes variety in your workouts, then you should consider mixing longer slower runs with interval sessions. This is probably the best option anyway, so if it fits your personality and lifestyle, go for it. Regardless of the exact workout format you choose, remember that fat loss through cardio exercise is the key to getting a flat stomach.
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INTRO
Out of all competing strategies for losing weight exercise remains the best. When it is attuned to your body type as recommended by a trainer and is vigorous it has many benefits. It raises metabolism for several days after the workout. Calories are burned at a higher rate in a smooth, natural way. Fat is converted into muscle mass which in turn raises metabolism in the long term. And, of course, you will feel great. This will reflect on how others see you and will up the level of your self-esteem even if you are confident. You will be more successful if your approach is structured.
Step1
Take a look in your kitchen and assess the volume of unhealthy and fattening food in stock. Estimate how long it’s going to take you to consume it all. Mark the following day in your calendar as the start date of your exercise program. Tell your friends how you commit yourself to the plan and ask them to cheer you. Replace the old food with healthy food.
Step2
Decide how many pounds you want to lose. Make sure it’s a realistic number. In the first week, aim for the nearest round number. So if you weigh 165 pounds, try getting to 160. Your next week’s goal can be bigger.
Step3
Start the exercise routine and repeat it each morning for 21 days. 21 days is the magic habit building number. Experts say that by the 22nd day whatever you practiced will have become a habit that you do more roboticaly. Imagine how proud you’ll feel when the exercise habit replaces whatever other bad habit you were doing before the exercise.
Step4
Stay motivated. Although exercise might become a habit for you it doesn’t mean you can’t slack off. Keep your mind fixed to a vision. If it’s winter, think of the beach. If it’s summer, think of the new outfit you always wanted for Christmas. Whatever you imagine, make sure it’s powerful enough to help you stay motivated.
Step5
Complement your efforts with a membership at a health club. You will have access to better equipment. You’ll be able to work harder. You will be in a supportive environment with others around you doing the same thing you are doing. Extra services like spas will add value to your experience.
Step6
Hire a personal trainer. A trainer understands your body type and can make recommendations about what exercises you need to emphasize. Muscle groups that were weak will become stronger. More blood will circulate in areas that were neglected. Chronic tension you might have not been aware of will leave certain areas of your body. You may decide to complement your workouts with therapeutic massage.
Step7
Monitor your progress diary. Record parameters such as type of exercise, workout duration, food eaten and weight lost. Soon, patterns will emerge and you will know what works best for you.
Step8
Invest in a spinning bike with a 40 pound flywheel. It has many benefits. If you can’t get to the gym because of a flat tire or bad weather you can still do quality exercise in the comfort of your home. It works the legs and waist which are the areas most frequently afflicted by the office life-style. It helps prevent back problems. It forces you to burn lots of calories. Modern bikes are safe, comfortable, adjustable, have timers and come with pre programmed workouts.
Step9
Don’t forget to have fun!
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Every woman worries about bulking up when they work out.
If you workout the wrong way, you have a good chance of gaining size where you don’t want it.
The real shame is that you haven’t been taught how to workout to tone muscles and how to workout to gain size!
If you want to gain muscle size, then you should workout like a bodybuilder. If you don’t, then you shouldn’t. Unfortunately this isn’t as simple as it sounds.
Chances are you don’t want to be the next WWE female wrestler, but chances are also good that nobody has been able to tell you how to create different changes other than to say workout at a lower intensity’.
Are you working out like a bodybuilder? Do you know the difference?
Here’s what to look for - Bodybuilders usually work out in the following manner:
Isolated muscle groups (using machines that work just one muscle at a time - e.g. leg extension for the quadriceps muscle at the front of the upper leg or the bicep curl for just the bicep).
Split Routines (workouts that specialize the workouts to upper or lower body - e.g. chest and triceps, back and biceps).
High Intensity workouts such that they have trouble walking/opening doors/feeding themselves the next day
Either of the first two look familiar to your regular workouts?
If you are interested in gaining muscle, then you would be best served to avoid all of the above. However, that leaves you with a dilemma.
Isolated muscle groups are used in almost every exercise in your average gym workout or aerobics class!
If you do a dumbbell bicep curl with proper form’, you have effectively isolated the bicep and have therefore given it the signal to grow.
You are essentially sending the signal to your body to give you bigger arms.
If you do it with improper form then you have an increased risk of injury! Surely there must be a solution that gets us where we want to be without turning us into the next Chyna along the way!
Notice how two of the above pictures are doing the same exercise? Wouldn’t it make sense to add extra muscle groups such as in the squat with bicep curl example on the left?
If you were looking for completely different (in fact OPPOSITE) results, wouldn’t it make sense to do a completely different exercise?
If you do side shoulder raises then you are asking your body to build you some natural shoulder pads.
If you split your program up by body parts then you are again stepping into the bodybuilding world.
Is there a solution that allows women to get the toned athletic body they are after?
The solution can be found through functional exercises’. These are exercises that are based on using muscles together to help you with your daily functional activities. The good news is that functional exercises also burn more fat than traditional isolating exercises.
How to tone muscles without expanding them:
Rule #1: Always combine muscles together.
Do a bicep curl with a squat. Do a tricep press into a lunge. Discover exercises such as the woodchop, the bent leg dumbbell deadlift, the standing chest fly and these three exercises:
The following video shows three exercises for runners, but they are also my three favorite that I have every client do that walks into my studio. Just these three exercises work almost every muscle in the body
Rule #2: Mix up the combos, not the body parts.
If you do a new exercise then you are working the muscle in a different way. If you want to workout 5 times a week then compile a list of 30 functional full body exercises and do 6 exercises each day. If you want to hire a trainer at your local gym for a session then do that and ask them for a list and have them show you how to do it.
if you don’t know where to start or what to do then you could set up an in-home session - click here to understand how an innovative personal training company can help you workout from home on your own schedule
Rule #3: A little soreness and a little grit is good.
Some soreness the next day is good - the intensity of your workout doesn’t have to be such that you crack a filling, but does have to be enough that you give a slight grimace at the end of the set (think tight jeans’ grimace but not compressive evil high heels’ grimace) .
Because we are no longer isolating muscle groups your capacity to grow muscle is significantly reduced. Because we are also working multiple muscles every time, the toning of these multiple muscle groups also becomes the primary focus of your body. So once you feel confident with the technique, fire up the Gloria Gaynor on your ipod and get into the workout.
Rule #4: Remember that you are working more muscles, which means burning more calories
If you do a isolating bicep curl, you burn one muscle group. If you do a ’squat with a bicep curl to overhead press’ then you just worked about 15 more muscles in the same time period. Which one worked more muscles? Which one burned more calories? Which workout style is going to get your body leaner and meaner in a shorter period of time?
Do I ever use these muscle-isolating machines? No, I don’t.
Do I ever have any of my clients use there machines? No, I don’t.
Every workout I ever do has a functional training focus to it. But I dont do it because I want to stay lean. Nor do I work in a functional movement system to have toned muscles.
I do functional workouts because they are fun.
At the end of the workout I have a sweat on my brow and a smile on my face - what more could I ask for than that?
Yours in health,
Jamie Atlas
http://jamieatlas.wordpress.com
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A big myth in the bodybuilding world, especially amongst beginner weight lifters, is that the more you train the better. You will see those guys who seem to be at the gym every day, working out for long hours on end. Yet they don’t seem to be getting anywhere, and they aren’t really getting bigger and more muscular at all.
Do you wonder why? They are simply over-training their muscles. You must understand that when it comes to weight training, less is better. Ok, I’m not saying you can just walk into the gym, lift some weights for 15 minutes, then leave the gym and see amazing gains. But the reality is, so many people are robbing themselves of the gains they deserve due to the common mistake of over-training.
You could be doing all the right exercises and training correctly, eating a great healthy diet rich in protein, and doing everything else that you’re supposed to be, yet still not be seing any results just because you’re training too much!
How Often Should I Workout?
Well firstly, you may be wondering why going to the gym everyday will get you nowhere if you’re looking to build up size and strength.
Ok, when you train your muscles hard at the gym with heavy weights you break down muscle tissue. So your body then has to rebuild that muscle tissue larger and stronger. But for them to rebuild, your body needs rest. If you don’t give your body enough rest you won’t let your body build muscle mass.
Going to the gym everyday won’t give you enough rest time for the muscle growth process. You need to give your body more rest than that. So aim to hit the gym 3-4 times a week, with a rest day in-between each workout day.
How Long Should I Workout For?
Just like going to the gym every day is considered over-training, working out for a long period at a time would be considered over-training as well. Keep each session at the gym between 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes max. Training for longer than this will is simply a waste of time, assuming you’ve given your all your energy during the workout.
So to recap, avoid overtraining your muscles by training only 3-4 times a week, and keep your workouts under 1 hour and 15 minutes each. If you think your current routine may be over training and you’re not seeing the results you want, then try this approach and I bet you will see improvements straight away. Train less for more muscle gain!
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You want to get into better shape, but joining a gym is just not for you. You’ve walked on the treadmill in front of the television, but it left you flat. You need something that will have you excited and looking forward to exercise. You need to play.
Playing with your exercise routine will make it much more exciting. Make a list of five or six physical activities you enjoy. Decide on at least three to start doing regularly and get the equipment for the other two or three together in the next few weeks. Consider activities such as riding a bike, taking a morning or evening walk, playing a game of basketball or tennis at the local park, or swimming.
Take into account the facilities and people around you. Swimming would be great If you have a local pool. Basketball will work If the Park by your house has Basketball hoops. Tennis is an option with Tennis courts and bike riding is an option If there is a safe place to ride. some of these require a friend or partner. Finding a friend who also wants to get into shape shouldn’t be to hard. there are lots of us out there. If there are No facilities nearby, consider buying one of those outdoor Basketball hoops or a cheap volleyball net and ball.
Plan to play. there are things you do every day because they need to be done. I’m hoping you brush your teeth, Take a shower, and get dressed. Making time for these things is Not negotiable. Apply that same level of discipline to your Workout schedule. This is time for you, make it fit.
If you need to plan to include your children, then get a jogging stroller for those walks or a bike trailer for that bicycle. You can even bring a bucket of sidewalk chalk to the basketball court for the children’s entertainment while you play. If children are not your speed bump then figure out what is and then figure out how to make it work. It won’t happen on its own, you need to make a plan and then make it happen.
Play with your plan. while it may be easier to do the same activity every day, you’ll add a level of excitement If you Vary your routine between a few enjoyable activities. go Swimming once a week, ride your bike once or twice, and then have a friend meet you at the Park for a Basketball game the fourth evening. you’ll feel so much Better both physically and mentally.
-Now, play with your work. If you have tasks that you have to do regularly such as cutting the grass, put that on your list of activities. You may not consider it play, but you should definitely consider it exercise unless you are using a riding lawn m
If you enjoy gardening, then figure out which gardening activity would count as exercise and add it into your schedule. If, on the other hand, you are spending an hour or two at the ball field while your child practices, next time bring your walking shoes, or your bicycle, or your tennis racket. Use that time to your benefit; you were going to be there anyway.
Keeping your exercise routine interesting and fresh will help you enjoy it. Whenever your interest starts to lag, change out one activity for another. When your schedule gets particularly tight, figure out what activities will allow you to achieve your goal to get moving. Even if the pounds are slow to come off, you will be doing your body a world of good.
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Most of the people go for their workouts as if they are going out for a stroll along the road to relax themselves. The commitment is entirely missing. Entering your gym is only the first step to muscle building, it is not enough to go to gym daily to get a godlike physique, you need much more desire and commitment than that. What you do before, during, after your workout all contribute to the success or failure of your muscle building quest.
Your muscle building success is defined by a lot of factors inside and outside your gym. Your selection of exercises may be taking away your muscle growth instead of contributing to them. Similarly, your food habits or personal social life may be effecting it in more of a negative way than helping you with it. Combine, all these together and you may will get to know why your muscle building program has not yielded the way it has for some other people.
Out here we are going to take five of the factors that make some contribution in some way to your muscle building success and at the same time try to identify the possible problems and their solution. The balance between your muscle building plans and sports performance should be well defined. You need to prioritize, if you are in middle of a season and can’t miss a game then go down on your bodybuilding workouts. Over training is only going to decrease your muscle weight. Give your muscles proper time to rest and balance with sports accordingly. For more details visit www.soundbodytrainer.com
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