Saturday fitness post: Yoga

Last week I wrote about High Intensity Interval Training (HERE), so I decided to do the same this week about Yoga.


What is Yoga?
Is one of the oldest teachings about harmony in the body, mind and spirit. It's a state/practice where those three aspects come together. When the ease comes, the feeling of unity and blissfulness follows. Yoga has different techniques which help you come to this state, those techniques are: body positions (asana), controlled breathing (pranajama), meditation (dhyana), singing, reading of ancient writings ... They all have the same purpose - to free oneself from distractions (negative thinking, disease ...) and find inner peace or samadhi - spiritual state of consciousness.
Yoga is much more than just a workout.

Source: Pinterest.

How to Yoga?
Yoga doesn't need much equipment. You need comfortable clothes without trainers, yoga/exercise mat, elastic band and a block or a pillow for beginners.


Benefits of Yoga

Yoga provides overall body health and well being. As any other practice, yoga is great for conditioning, balance, flexibility, helps you sculpt the body and is great for losing or maintaining weight. Yoga is bodyweight exercise and you're using your own weight to move from posture to posture and in certain poses, you're lifting every pound (I've noticed how quick triceps got defined from practicing chaturangas).

Source: Pinterest.

Yoga improves your posture and strengthens back muscles. It also helps to open hip flexors, calm muscle pain and reduces joint pain in general (I've noticed that myself). Just 15 minute back stretching or hip flexor opening yoga practice can do wonders.

Yoga leads into inner peace and balance in life. Like meditation, yoga is spiritual experience connecting with one's true self - the Soul, which leads into calmness and improves life in every aspect. Yoga provides space for spiritual growth.

Another great benefit is that it reduces stress and helps to cure diseases caused by stress. It also slows down ageing and relieves ageing problems (you can also do face yoga, which is great for erasing lines, wrinkles and helps to maintain a young looking skin). Plus, yogis are known to be happier :).

Another benefits are better sleep (I think that is common with any other workout regime), more focus in life in every aspect, helps you fight food cravings and encourages you to make better eating choices ... Overall, yoga provides better life and many yogis say that yoga is a way of life, not just a workout :).


I could go on and on about yoga. I do practice yoga, but I don't say I'm any good at it. But I can assure you that is challenging, you will probably have muscle pain the next day and I also is a nice change from regular HIITs I usually do.

Do you practive Yoga? Or have you ever tried it?

 

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Saturday Fitness Post: Favourite fitness and health sites

I received a comment from lovely Numra A in my last Saturday Fitness post. She asked me who do I follow for my workout routine. I replied and the next comment I received was from Bright Town Girl and she found my previous reply useful. I got inspired to write today's post. Thanks girls ;)


*I got all pictures on google.*

I've already mentioned Zuzka Light, but she was my inspiration to start working out on regular basis. She does HIIT - high intense interval training, about 10 minutes up to 30 minutes per day. If you remember, I done her Zcut power cardio series this year and gave me amazing results in just one month (read a review: here).
Even though she's now charging to excess her workout's, she has few new workouts every week. She's still much cheaper than any gym membership and she does that for a living, so you can't really be angry at her :).
If you're not ready to pay for the membership, she still has 70 charge free workouts (ZWOWs - Zuzka's workout of the week) on her YouTube channel, has a lot of recipes, tips, trick and advice + she also has 3, 4 or 5 minute short workouts for busy days. I like her zen and happy persona. She's a cool chick, check her out :)

Zuzka Light website: http://www.zuzkalight.com/
Zuzka Light YT channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/ZuzkaLight/

My favourite health channel has to be Lean Secrets. I already mentioned her in my Favourite YouTube channels post and I'm going to mention her one billion times more. Brenda has very informative videos (why you should stop eating wheat, drinking coffee, about carb cycling ...), gives advice for fitness chicks, how to get ready for fitness, gives the best recipes, motivates you, shows you workouts, what equipment should you use, reviews fitness and health stuff ... To sum up - everything fitness and health related :).
She also has a program called Lean Secrets, which you can purchase on her website. She radiated positive energy and strength. Amazing woman.

Lean Secrets website: http://leansecrets.com/
Lean Secrets YT channel: www.youtube.com/user/leansecrets

I've been into yoga lately, because I injured my knee awhile age and I wasn't able to exercise for more than a month (miss my muscle definition!), and yoga just feels right for me right now. I found Yoga with Adriene on YouTube and I've been doing her flows and I can assure you that they're not easy. Yoga is really challenging, because you have to control every movement, finding your breath and some transitions are really hard. People who say that yoga is easy, apparently they have never tried it :).
Adriene is really sweet, funny and gives useful advice. I think you'll like her if you're into yoga.

Yoga with Adrienne YT channel: www.youtube.com/user/yogawithadriene/

I also follow Blogilates, but never done her workouts, since I've been doing mainly HIIT, but her workouts look challenging. I love her recipes though. She does Cheap clean eats and shows you that eating healthy doesn't have to be expensive. She's really bubbly and funny as well.

Blogilates YT channel: www.youtube.com/user/blogilates/

 

I cannot finish this fitness post without mentioning the taughest fitness trainer, Jillian Michaels. I think that everyone knows her 30 day shred exercising programme. I did them myself, but I get bored if I have to repeat the same exercise for few days in a row. Anyways, I love her story (she was a fat kid), became extremely successful, has written best selling books ... Inspirational :) You can also watch The Biggest loser on YouTube, she was one of the trainers.

Jillian Michaels website: http://www.jillianmichaels.com/fit/ 
For her workouts I just typed Jillian Michales and you can check them here: YouTube


Other sites I use for motivation are:
- my blog :P (sometimes I need to reread my own advice, recipes etc.). Shameless self-promotion :) ;
- if I'm searching for more motivation, pictures, quotes etc., I go through Pinterest (no sh*t ;)). Check out my boards: http://www.pinterest.com/booogeywoman/. I use Google for those, too ;)
- Cut and Jacked has a lot of fitness stories, interviews, recipes ... Even though those girls and guys are all bulky (and I'm not), I still find it as a great source of information. Check out their site: http://www.cutandjacked.com/
- Another site for recipes, diet tips, advice ... is Shape Magazine. http://www.shape.com/
- Tone It Up - I'm subscribed to them, but somehow I always forget to watch their videos (too many subscribtions problem). They are nice chicks, they have workout videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/ToneItUpcom


I hope you found this post useful. Tell what fitness/health sites and YouTube channels do you follow?

Thank you for reading and commenting <3

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Workout routine: the workout

I decided to do whole series around my workout routine: the workout, pre-workout, post-workout routine, favourite workout, why do I workout, gear etc. Let's start with the workout today. I will introduce you to some of my favourite workout routines and how I got introduced to working out.

My all time favourite workout routine is HIIT workout (high intensity interval training). This means short time (from 10 - 20 minutes), but you have to give it your maximum, workout should feel intense. I am not "one hour in the gym" girl. I like my workouts to be short, intense and fun. Also, fast anaerobic workout boosts your metabolism and you are burning calories for a long time after you finished your workout. You don't need any equipment (I use basic), so it's actually for free.

My workout diary and Gymboss interval timer.

I got introduced to HIIT when I discovered BodyRock.tv. After that I started working out on regular basis. I didn't had an interval timer when I started but I always managed to do a workout. I also did most of them in modified version, I was in such a bad shape, let me tell you.

BodyRock.tv YouTube channel: click

BodyRock.tv blog: click

I like bodyweight workouts, no equipment needed or minimal equipment, that's why I don't like BodyRock workouts so much anymore. I still follow them and get inspired by their videos, blog, pictures they post (I like their yoga flow workouts a lot though), but I prefer Zuzka Light's workouts much more (she is one of the co-founders of BodyRock and she started her own Youtube channel). She's my superhero! :)

Zuzka Light Youtube channel: click

Jillian Michales 30 day shred is also HIIT, which I have also tried. It's fun, but I can't imagine I could be doing same workout for 10 days in a row (there are 3 levels, you suppose to do every level for 10 days). I like dynamic thing, like mixing up my workouts, so I don't get sick and tired of it.

In general, I really like lifting weights and skipping with a jump rope. I like having strong arms, which I never had in my life. You can use weight in many other ways, too. They are so handy (I will tell you about that in "my gear" post). And skipping is such a great cardio training, you can burn much more calories with it than with running.

I bought You are your own gym book last year and it covers basically everything you need to know about nutrition, why bodyweight exercises, what is "fitness", expains some myths, and the most important part: it has explained exercises and also a program for workingout. I recommend this book, it's a good starting point!

You can buy it here: click

I go jogging every now and then, but it's not so fun. I prefer going for long walks, walking is such a great cardio and always helps me to clear my mind.

 I got this book about yoga as a gift from a friend. Thanks :) <3

This summer I discovered yoga, I've been doing it every now and then when I don't feel like sweating too much, but I still want to do a badass workout. Yoga is great for your body and soul (well, I would say that any other workout is), it's good for toning your muscles and flexibility. And you can lose weight with yoga, too. I was actually thinking about taking a yoga class.

Here are some sites/YT channels I like to follow:

YogaJournal.com videos: click

Sadie Nardini Youtube channel: click

Now, that I have been working out for quite a few years now, I usually put together my own workout. I always combine cardio and strength training. Some days I do just cardio or extra cardio after the main workout, or I incorporate some of my equipment or I just do bodyweight. However I feel like it.

Official Gymboss interval timer site: click. I bought it on eBay though.

I believe there are interval timer apps for your phone, but I'm not familiar with those.

I do interval training, for example: 10 seconds of rest to write down my reps or take a sip of water and 50 seconds of work, 12 rounds in total, that means 12 minute long workout.
Or I do workout for time, for example I do 10x pushups, 20x jump squats, 10x pull ups, 30x side lunge jumps (this is one cycle) and I repeat that 5 times. When I finish I stop my timer and write the time down in my workout diary.
Third option is that I do for example the same exercises as I written before (pushups, jump squats ...) but I do a countdown, usually 12 - 15 minutes and try to do as many rounds a possible within that time.
I make sure I always give it my maximum effort. This is the most important thing about HIIT.

Other Youtube channels I follow:

Blogilates: click

TheLeanMachines: click

LeanSecrets: click

ToneItUpCom: click

I have never gone to a gym, ever. I hate working out in crowded places anyways. When I do my workout is just me and I, so I can give 110 %. And that's basically it :).

What kind of workout do you do? Have you ever tried HIIT? Yoga?

Have a lovely day,