How to Make Exercise Fun

People have a million excuses why they slack off on exercise like, "I don't have time," "it's too much work," "it's boring," or "I'd rather be with my friends." But what if exercise was fun? What if you enjoyed it so much that you made the time, looked forward to putting in the effort, found it exciting, and could do it with your friends and family?

These tips will make exercise fun again:

Make it a game. Soccer, tennis, golf, dodge ball, track meets, bowling, racquetball, and basketball are part of an endless list of sporting events that turn plain-old-exercise into game time with friends. These sporting events provide excellent opportunities to bump up your heart rate and stretch those muscles while you go out to play.

You can burn about 280 calories with a half-hour pick-up game of basketball and about 240 playing racquetball. Don't worry if none of your friends are game to join you. Exercise provides plenty of opportunities to meet new people.

Call your local golf course and ask to be added to a foursome. Show up at the park with your ball or sign up for your gym's handball tournament. Once you've found your buddies, schedule regular workouts to keep your game on.

Make it a party. When you exercise with other people, doing something you enjoy, suddenly, is no longer tedious. Try out the Zumba® class at your local community center or sign up for Tango lessons. Dance, kickboxing, spinning, and other group fitness activities pack all the exercise you need into super-social, fun events. Gather a group of friends and host a Wii^TM fitness party in your living room or take turns in each other's homes doing a new workout DVD every week. Nobody says you can't follow your fitness with a glass of something sparkly if that's what it takes to keep the party going.

Make it creative. If you've been doing the same old fitness routine for too long, it's time to mix it up. Get off the treadmill and try something new. Challenge yourself to try things you've never done before like kayaking, Pilates, ballroom dancing, power-yoga, swimming, skiing, and even wrestling. The point is to make your fitness routine challenging, motivating, and rewarding. If you try something and discover it's not for you, cross it off your list and move on to something else. Before you know it, you'll be toned, fit, and inspired.

Barre and Ballet Workouts: Get a Leg Up on Fitness

Using a combination of ballet moves, weight training, stretching, and isometric body-weight exercises, barre/ballet workouts kick you into ballerina shape. It's not just for dancers, though. This workout may be the toughest one you've ever done in a leotard.

Three popular barre exercise methods are being taught in studios and on DVD all over the world. They all stem from The Lotte Berk Method total body workout. Developed by the late dancer Lotte Berk, this combination of strength-training, dance, back exercises, and Hatha yoga (choreographed to fast-paced, pulse-pumping music) provides an intense, hour-long (or longer) mind-body workout.

Newer methods like The Bar Method, Physique 57, and barre 3 all offer varying intensities on Berk's basics by adding hand weights and/or exercise balls.

Don't worry if you don't have a barre studio nearby or a barre in your own home. A sturdy chair in your living room, some hand weights, (three or eight-pounds, depending on which method you choose) and an exercise ball are all you need.

Each workout includes upper body/arm exercises using hand weights interspersed with stretching exercises.

The Bar Method uses three-pound hand weights while Physique 57 uses eight-pounders. Next, they focus on lower body/leg exercises that mimic those performed by dancers.

This is no lightweight workout. Be prepared to feel your leg, hip, and seat (that's ballet-speak for butt) muscles work harder than they've ever worked before. Then, you'll focus on abdominal exercises.

Physique 57 and barre 3 use an exercise ball for their six-pack workout. You'll finish with a cool-down and leave class feeling long, tall, tired, and toned.

The Bar Method studios have been around since 2000 with franchised studios all over the world. Classes last as long as 85 minutes and provide a solid workout using three-pound weights, push-ups, planks, tricep dips, and more. By focusing on safety and alignment and offering seven different fitness levels, the Bar Method is a good choice for dance or exercise beginners.

Physique 57 (Classic 57-minute workout) uses a wider variety of movements and eight-pound weights. The DVD shows several dancers at various fitness levels, which makes this workout do-able for beginners and non-dancers. Expect to feel the burn at the end of this one-hour workout, but also expect to see sculpted muscles and tight abs with diligent practice. Physique 57 is said to be Kelly Ripa's workout of choice.

Barre 3 is popular with celebrities like Madonna because the challenging workout also focuses on posture and elongation. This 40-minute workout could provide a nice supplement to your cardio workout.

Will Beetroot Juice Improve Your Running?

Beetroot is the bulbous, reddish-purple part of a beet plant. The other part of the plant is the beet top (or beet greens), which are also highly nutritious. Beetroot juice is obtained by putting beets through a juicer and extracting its liquid.

This liquid is high in nutrients including folate, potassium, and vitamin C. It also has a high nitrate content, which is being credited for boosting runner's performances. Scientists aren't certain, but they think having more nitric oxide (a byproduct created by metabolizing nitrate) in your body helps athletes exercise with less oxygen.

Beetroot's impact on athletic ability was tested in two small studies performed at Exeter University. In these studies, athletes drank a half liter of beetroot juice several hours before taking part in cycling. Tests performed on the athletes determined they were able to exercise using less oxygen than normal and for twenty percent longer than control subjects who drank a placebo of black current juice.

The scientists concluded that the beetroot juice allowed them to reduce the amount of energy their muscles required, which increased their stamina.

Casual runners shouldn't expect that drinking beetroot juice will turn them into marathoners, but scientists think it can improve performance for serious runners. It might also help athletes bump past stubborn performance plateaus.

Beetroot juice provides benefits for athletes and non-athletes alike. Studies show that drinking beetroot juice lowers blood pressure and keeps it low for up to 24 hours.

It may also help fight inflammation, which is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease.

What's the downside of drinking beetroot juice? It takes a lot of juice to receive all the athletic and health benefits that have been attributed to beet juice and it has a strong, distinct flavor that not everyone loves.

You can mix it with other juices to improve its flavor, but watch out that you're not adding too many extra calories to your diet by drinking all that juice.

Can you get the same benefits by eating beets? Beets are high in antioxidants, fiber, and vitamins and are a healthy ingredient for any diet, but it appears it's the juice (consumed in high quantities) that's responsible for increased athletic performance.

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Sources:

A toast to health and performance! Beetroot juice lowers blood pressure and the O₂ cost of exercise
Journal of Applied Physiology, December 2010
Leonardo F. Ferreira and Bradley Jon Behnke