DANCER FIT: dancing fitness back into your life

Got 10 minutes?

This vid is a scorcher HIIT workout that will get you working in a short period of time.
Great workout to do when you don’t have enough time for longer!

Summer is here.

It has to be official, I mean I am sweating and I’m just sitting.
I love that when summer hits, all of a sudden you see people outside, going running, taking advantage of the outdoors and the great weather!
On that note, there are some moves that will take your sweat session to the next level. Not only does it include strength training, but they can also be used to get that heart racing for a full on HIIT (high intensity interval training) workout or even a tabata workout, OR just a workout!

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Moderate Intensity Minute: 1, 2, 3 Squat and Rear Lunge

How to do it:Stand with your feet hip-width apart, hands clasped behind your head. Push your hips back behind you and bend your knees to lower into a squat, then quickly step back into a rear lunge with your left leg. Step back into your squat and return to standing. Repeat on the other leg. Continue for one minute, alternating legs each time you lunge.

Tip: Your tempo for this move should be on a 1, 2, 3 count: count one squat, two lunge, three squat, and then stand. Be sure to track your knees over, but not past, your toes on your squats and lunges.

Moderate Intensity Minute: Side-to-Side Lunge Chops

How to do it: Stand with your feet together, hands clasped, and your arms overhead. Take a wide step to your right, and bend your right knee, chopping your arms to your right foot. Push off your right leg and return to standing, reaching arms overhead. Repeat the movement on your left leg. Do as many reps as you can for one minute, alternating sides each time.

Tip: Practice good lunging form and be sure to track your knee over your toes as you lower into your side lunges.

High Intensity Push: Plank Pike Jumps

How to do it:From a full plank position, bend your knees and jump your feet into your hands, landing in a crouch on the balls of your feet. Jump up and extend your legs back out to your plank position. That’s one rep. Repeat as quickly as you can for one minute.

Tip: Keep your weight in your arms to make jumping in and out easier. If it’s too challenging to jump, you can quickly ‘run’ your feet in and out instead.

Moderate Intensity Minute: Tabletop Dip

How to do it: Sit down and bend your knees into your body with both feet flat on the floor, hip-width apart. Place your hands on the ground behind your hips, fingertips facing in. Brace your abs in tight and lift your hips off the ground, hovering just above the floor. Lift your hips up to the ceiling so that your body resembles a tabletop. Without letting your hips drop, bend your elbows and lower into a dip. Extend your arms and then lower hipsback to hover position, without touching the ground. Repeat as many times as you can in a row for one minute.

Tip: Keep your arms fully engaged and avoid sinking your weight into your wrists during this move.

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For HIIT: do each move for 1 minute 5X

For Tabata: do each move for 20 seconds with 10 seconds rest between 5X

For Workout: do each move 3 sets of 20

Insulin is a hormone released from your pancreas in response to increases in blood sugar levels. Insulin’s job it to get sugar out of the blood and into fat or muscle cells. If you constantly have high blood sugar levels, your muscles can become numb to insulin, resulting in insulin resistance. Chronic high levels of insulin, sugar, and insulin resistance pose a major problem to your health (i.e. impact your risk of heart disease and cancer). Here’s how:

Low Good (HDL) Cholesterol

While women tend to have higher levels of HDL (the good) cholesterol compared to men, insulin resistance is linked to low HDL. HDL is protective against heart disease so the more the better.

High Triglycerides

Triglycerides are a measure of the level of fat in your bloodstream, but what might surprise you is that the amount of fat in your diet has little to do with your triglyceride levels. Instead, the amount of sugar in your diet (and bloodstream) has a major impact on your triglyceride levels. How? Your liver takes the sugar in your bloodstream, turns it into fat, and then dumps it back into your blood. Controlling the sugar and total amount of carbohydrates in your diet can significantly impact your triglyceride levels.

Breast Cancer Growth

Researchers estimate that 60 percent of breast cancer tumors are hormone dependent (insulin is one of these hormones). Insulin plays a role in the production of a group of compounds that directly impact tumor cell growth. Additionally, insulin works in concert with estrogen to regulate key growth factors that are essential for promoting tumor cell growth.

It is amazing to think that these major diseases are all impacted by insulin and sugar. The good news is that you can control both of them very easily: Stop eating sugar! I’m not talking about the sugar that you allow yourself to indulge in once or twice a week. I’m talking about all of the other sugar and simple carbohydrates that sneak into your daily diet:

• Added sugar in beverages: Frappuccinos, lattes, sweetened teas, soda, etc.
• 
Most breakfast cereals: Check the ingredients list, you’ll be mortified at all the sugar in “healthy” cereals.
• 
Refined grain products: Rice cakes, white bread, refined and processed baked goods, etc.

• Energy and granola bars: While some are good for you, a majority of them are packed with sugar by one name or another (i.e. high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, corn sugar, brown rice syrup, glucose, etc).

The problem is that our brains get addicted to sugar (they really do). So making the break from eating sugary foods and foods with fast acting carbs can be difficult—but it has to be done.

So if you want to make one diet change to improve your health as a woman, steer clear of the sweet stuff!

(Source: shape.com)

Did You Know?…

Cinnamon is another compound that can improve your body’s ability to metabolize and use carbohydrates. Research shows that you can experience this effect with one tablespoon of cinnamon added to a meal.

Work It Out Wednesday: Abs!

Do a 10 minute workout this morning as soon as you are up and get those abs and that metabolism firing up for a strong day!

Eat Fruit! It’s good for you :)

Did You Know?…

Being optimistic has repeatedly been linked to a stronger immune system, longer life, higher quality of life, and a host of other health perks. If you weren’t born with the sunshine gene, swinging a kettlebell might be just as good. Researchers found that exercise “promotes positive thinking and encourages self-efficacy”.

Make it happen: The key is consistency. Working out over time can help retrain your brain to look on the bright-side. Scientists say it takes about 21 days to restructure your neural cortex, which is a fancy way of saying “make a habit.”

(Source: shape.com)