Total Gym

Summer-Inspired Total Gym Surfing Exercises

Surfing aficionados this post is for you! Tis’ the season to get back on the board and Total Gym can help you get ripped and ready to ride the waves this summer. You know, I wanted to include some surfer lingo in this post, so I did a little online research and came across Riptionary.com. Wouldn’t you know there’s an online dictionary dedicated to surfer lingo! I digress…

Total Gym is the perfect piece of equipment to train for surfing. It requires you to recruit your core muscles to stay balanced while riding a killer swell (I had to throw in some lingo here).

Here’s our GRAVITY This Season video with some surfer-inspired Total Gym exercises. GRAVITYThisSeason_Surfing – Part 1

This video is from our GRAVITYClubhouse.com collection. Membership to GRAVITYClubhouse is free and you can gain access to more Total Gym GRAVITY videos and DVDs with new exercises you can do at home. Once you log in, check out the All Programming and Online Extras to get started shaping up for summer!

Hooked on a Good Thing

Hooked on a good thing: when exercise becomes addictive

Exercise…if you were going to have an addiction, it seems like this would be a good one to have. Exercise gives you a healthy high. It’s not illegal. And doing it can keep you fit.

But when a routine sweat session turns into an obsession, there is a problem.

While the rest of the country fights to combat the skyrocketing rate of obesity, there’s trouble quietly brewing in the opposite corner. It is called “exercise addiction,” and those who suffer from it often push the boundaries of what is considered safe exercise.

Read more…

Total Gym Exercises: Tom’s Rehab Series – Lower Body Exercises Part II

Hey all, Tom here! We’re going on Week 3 of my rehab video series. I hope you like what you’re seeing.

Last week I showed you some milder exercises that I’ve been doing to rehab my ankle after surgery. This week I’ve recruited Nicole to demonstrate a more advanced lower body workout for those of you without a bum leg like me! She’ll show you some variations on lower body exercises like squats, calf raises and plyometrics.

A quick disclaimer: be sure to consult your doctor or rehabilitation specialist before performing Total Gym exercises if you are injured or recovering from an injury.

There’s a word we’ve been throwing here that describes your return on investment in a Total Gym and that’s “Shred-ability.” So what does “Shred-ability” mean to you? Leave us a note and start the conversation.

Finding Motivation in Fitness … and Life

“Every artist was first an amateur” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Whether your goal is to lose weight, train for a marathon or (ahem) dust off your Total Gym, Ralph Waldo Emerson poetically writes that we all must start as an amateur. It’s easy to get discouraged if we aren’t meeting our goals from the get-go, but heed Emerson’s advice: everyone starts at the bottom to get to the top. Find your motivation and stick with it – you’ll meet your goals with time. Our greatest successes often come from disappointment.

Here’s a dose of fitness inspiration from Brittany Brees, wife of Super Bowl XLIV MVP Drew Brees. She and her famous quarterback husband train on Total Gym PowerTower at home.

What’s your source of fitness inspiration? Leave us a comment below.

Fitness Wisdom Wednesday: 5 Reasons to Eat Clean

Happy hump day everyone! I’ve talked about exercise and how to trim and tone your body in the gym or on Total Gym, but let’s get down to the heart of the matter…what we are putting into our bodies.

Many think exercise is the magic pill to circumvent the effects of what we consume. Wrong! Consider for a second all of the processed, trans-fatty and sodium-laden foods that are available at fast food restaurants and packaged meals. These foods go straight to the wrong places in our bodies, causing us to keep extra weight on despite hours at the gym.

This summer, try opting for cleaner foods to help achieve your weight loss and fitness goals. “Eating clean” means consuming natural, non-processed foods such as lean meats, fish, fresh vegetables and fruits, complex carbohydrates (whole grains) and healthy fats found in nuts and avocados – the foods nature intended us to eat.

Here are 5 reasons to start eating clean:

1. Eating clean is a lifestyle – not a diet. The word “diet” can be a downer. It seems restricting and can often result in a yo-yo weight gain/loss pattern. Eating clean is a lifestyle that requires dedication, but once you adopt a cleaner diet you’ll  start to crave more wholesome, nutrient-rich foods that are naturally lower in calories. Recruit your significant other to eat clean with you. Having a partner makes adopting this new lifestyle a lot easier.
2. It can be less expensive than buying processed foods. Often the more processed the food, the higher the cost. It seems chemicals can be expensive? Eating cleaner foods can actually save you money on your food bill.
3. Body benefits. Experts agree that eating clean is effective for weight loss, can reduce body fat, boost your energy and decrease the risk of certain diseases like diabetes and stroke.
4. Aesthetic benefits. Eating cleaner foods can also give skin and hair a healthier glow. Ladies, forget those expensive skincare products that promise the fountain of youth. A cleaner diet can boost your health and complexion!
5. The 80/20 rule. If you follow through with eating clean 80 percent of the time, you’ll still see significant benefits. The other 20 percent includes an occasional cheat meal or alcoholic drink. Let’s be realistic – no one is a saint!

For more information about eating clean, visit www.eatcleandiet.com.

Total Gym Exercises: Tom’s Rehab Series – Lower Body Sequence

Tom here with the second video in my new rehab exercise series. In the coming weeks, you’ll watch as I walk through strength and conditioning exercises for those of you like me who are rehabbing from injury. If you’re just tuning in, I’m newly out of a cast after having surgery on my left fibula (what a pain, literally). These videos are also great for those new to Total Gym and veteran users who want to refresh their at-home workouts.

In today’s video, I show you some warm-up exercises to do before starting your lower body workout:

Click here to watch the intro for this rehab series and get a sneak peak of next week’s video “Progression of Lower Body Sequence.” Leave a note for us if you have any suggestions for future exercise videos. We’d love to hear from ya!

Remember, it’s best to start with a visit to your doctor or a physical therapist before you start exercising after injury.

Fitness Wisdom Wednesday: Making the Mind/Body Connection

I consider this blog an “exercise confessional” of sorts. A place to air my exercise and diet confessions that surely others out there in the Internet world share with me.

Today on this “Fitness Wisdom Wednesday,” I must confess that I am addicted to the endorphin high of endurance exercise; mainly a long run, bike ride or swim. This endorphin high supersedes any other form of exercise that is supposed to be good for me, such as mind/body practices like Pilates or yoga – that in my opinion, were too slow for my current cardio-centric exercise routine.

Mind/body exercise is physical exercise that utilizes four principles: breathing, precision, control and concentration. Often in the whirlwind of my busy life, making the time to focus my mind on my body went out the window. I wanted to get a good sweat and calorie burn with the limited time that I had in the day. But now with tendinitis in both my knees, due from my intense exercise regimen, I thought it may finally be the time to slow down and do my body some good.

I had the pleasure of meeting one of our GRAVITY (remember, GRAVITY is our health club workout on Total Gym) Master Trainers, JayDee, at an international fitness convention in San Diego this March, who just so happened to be a Pilates instructor. It was then that I decided to stop resisting mind/body exercise and start taking private Pilates sessions with JayDee.

JayDee teaches Pilates in his home on the Total Gym GTS (the commercial version of Total Gym), which acts like a Pilates reformer with the added ability to blend mat, reformer and Cadillac exercises on one machine. And because JayDee can change my incline resistance on the GTS, I can do more advanced exercises earlier in my Pilates training.

Thanks to JayDee, I can now appreciate feeling both energized and relaxed (yes, it’s possible) after our one-hour Pilates sessions – that by no means are a cake walk I assure you! I’m so busy focusing on my breath and contracting my muscles throughout various exercises that our weekly sessions fly by.

Here are some of the benefits of mind/body exercise like Pilates:

• Improved range of motion, core strength, flexibility, circulation and posture
• Decreased anxiety
• Enhanced sleep
• Reduced recovery time
• Stronger immune system and enhanced ability to heal
• Increased sense of control and well-being

It’s hard for cardio-high seekers like me to understand how a workout that doesn’t leave a sweat stain on your shirt could make you feel so energized and empowered? Trust me, it’s a feeling unlike anything you’ll every experience. You’ll feel stronger, invigorated, happier and less anxious.

I can officially say I’m addicted to a new exercise “high” from my Pilates sessions. If you are like me – or the occasional exercise enthusiast looking to incorporate mind/body exercise into your routine – take the time to add a Pilates or yoga session into your weekly workouts. Trust me, your body and mind will thank you!

Here’s to a healthy and “mindful” rest of the week!