3 Digital Gym Etiquette Tips We All Need to Follow

When you're exercising at the gym, you know there are certain rules of thumb to follow—like, wipe down your machine when you're done. I mean, that's just common sense! But in this world of social media—doesn't almost everyone have her phone somewhere on her person while working out?—there are some digital rules you should keep in mind too, according to Randi Zuckerberg, founder-CEO of Zuckerberg Media and author of Dot Complicated.

* Limit your picture taking. You should be proud of all those milestones you hit at the gym—absolutely! But Zuckerberg says that you should also try to keep the pic-taking to a minimum—specifically focusing on major successes, such as lifting a specific weight. Taking pic after pic (or, ugh, selfie after selfie) is distracting to everyone else.

* If you're going to do a selfie, make it a selfie. It invades other people's privacy when you're posing prettily and they're sweating in the background of your Facebook pictures or Instagrams. Nope!

* Don't stop your workout to text or tweet. If you're on the machine but pause or slow down just to respond to a tweet or text a friend, it's super-annoying—especially for the people who may be tip-tapping their toes, waiting for you to finish, so they can move on with their own exercise sessions.

What are your phone-at-the-gym pet peeves?

Presenting the Best Weight-Loss Tool on Earth

Ever plow through your meal in minutes, only to notice your tablemates are about four bites in? Then pause and hear this weight-loss news: Research shows that fast eaters are as much as 18 pounds heavier than slow eaters, and they’re two and a half times more likely to suffer from type 2 diabetes. In other words, pacing yourself just might help keep you slim.

Why? “Most of the mechanisms involved in satiety, the feeling of fullness and satisfaction, take time,” says Kathleen Melanson, Ph.D., who has studied how eating speed affects health at the University of Rhode Island. “And certain fullness hormones aren’t even released until food starts to empty from your stomach, which can take a half hour or more.” Slowing down allows your body to sense when you’re not hungry anymore. So what’s a reasonable eating speed? A grilled chicken breast with a side salad, fries, and a glass of water should take you at least 32 minutes to eat. (Most of us polish it off in 21.) Some tricks to help you slow down:

Don’t keep up with the guys.
Men down about 80 calories per minute, on average, compared with our 52—and since they need to eat more in a day, the speed’s not a problem for them. But if you match a man bite for bite, you’re eating too fast. (Group meals can also lead you to chow down faster, as you rush to join the convo.)

Chew longer!
A key technique for slowing down, according to Melanson: Chew each bite 15 times (you’ll only have to count at the beginning; then you’ll get used to the rhythm). After you swallow, picture the food traveling down your esophagus before digging in again.

Beware finger food.
Using a knife and fork can slow your eating rate by 54 percent, so try having your pizza with silverware. Smaller utensils help too—say, a teaspoon instead of a soupspoon for ice cream.

Watch out for processed stuff.
But not just for all the usual reasons. People who choose whole-grain carbs eat almost 30 percent more slowly than those who have refined grains, since all that roughage requires extra chewing, Melanson’s research found.

And how about a little candlelight?
When Cornell scientists tricked out a Hardee’s with mood lighting and soft music, people ate more slowly—and ultimately downed 133 fewer calories. A relaxing atmosphere keeps you from rushing, researchers explain, while a bright, loud joint prompts you to eat quickly. Dimmer switch and Michael Bublé, anyone?

Your Brain Burns 20 Percent of the Calories You Eat, and More Reasons Weight Loss All Starts With Your Mind

You knew your brain was busy—but did you know it was this busy? With all that it does during the day, your brain is using 20 percent of your caloric intake every day. But it's picky about the kinds of food it wants, opting for glucose—mostly from carbohydrates that you've recently eaten. 

Crazy, right? But that's not even the beginning of the brain-weight relationship, according to Lifehacker, which has an interesting article about focusing more on your brain and less on your diet if you want to lose weight. 

According to the article, willpower—what your brain uses to help you make (and not make) certain decisions—is like a muscle, which becomes fatigued after too much exercise. At the end of the day, if you've been exercising your willpower to not eat the box of cookies, your brain is tired. It just wants the darn cookies.

So to deal with the exhaustion of willpower, your brain tries to automate decision-making—by creating habits because once they're in place, the brain doesn't have to mess around with willpower anymore. Experts say that up to 90 percent of what we decide to eat every day is because of established habits. (For proof: Think about what you usually eat every morning for breakfast!)

Building healthy new habits means creating rewards for your brain—and not overwhelming it with too much change at once. Like switching out your daily whole-milk lattes for ones made with almond milk, for example—setting a small goal like that and actually attaining is a great reward for your brain. It's so proud of itself! And the new change should be a healthy habit anywhere between two weeks and six months, setting the stage for your brain to take on another one.

The Diet and Exercise Plan Lauren Conrad Uses to Get Fit, Fast

You know what's especially cool about Lauren Conrad's "Get Fit Quick" plan? It's actually really sensible and doable, which--let's face it--can't be said of every star's method of dropping a few LBs. 

And if you're still plugging away on your New Year's fitness goals but feeling like you might need an extra push, or maybe just something a little different in order to shake up your routine a bit, this could possibly do the trick.

Lauren breaks things down into categories, starting with some ground rules, such as:

• Stay focused and remind yourself daily of why you want to get fit and healthy! Flex that willpower.
• Drink lots of water. Aim to drink an ounce for every pound you weigh.
• As soon as you wake up, have some lemon water. Try to do this at least 3 times a week. (If you do it every single day, it can make your teeth a bit sensitive.)

She has a list of foods to avoid--candy, baked goods, soda, white bread, fried foods--and also some recipes that are seriously things you might want to eat anyway (like watermelon-feta salad, and overnight oats). I think the exercise options are within reason, too, like these:

• Run for 30 minutes or powerwalk for 1-hour
• Alternate walking and sprinting for 60 seconds for 20 minutes
• 1 hour of yoga, kickboxing, Pilates, hiking, or spin

...and she also shares some customized workouts--like the "Calorie Blast"--from her trainer, which you can do at home. 

Today's Workout Motivation

Not feeling it today? If you need a little motivation to get to the gym or go on that lunchtime jog, here you go...

This Under Armour commercial has to be one of the best ever made:) There's something inspiring about seeing all these strong women working hard and feeling great.

The Spice Girls' Diet and Fitness Secrets

If you wannabe as fit as a Spice Girl (heh! ... Oh, guys, it has been a very long week), you'll be interested to find out exactly what the fantastic five eat and do to stay in shape...

 

The poshest of the Spices Victoria Beckham keeps her energy levels up with healthy snacks, like fresh fruit, and stays hydrated with coconut water. 

Geri Halliwell has reportedly snipped the string on her history of yo-yo dieting and reportedly "feels better than ever," staying in shape with plenty of yoga and "healthy eating." Meanwhile, Emma Bunton works out three times a week, usually running on a treadmill.

US Weekly's diet and exercise report on the ever-sporty Melanie Chisholm: she feels "more feminine than ever before." So I'm not sure what that means. But as of last year, she was training hard to compete in a triathlon, doing total-body circuits that included step jumps and declined bench press-ups--and, like Victoria, plenty of coconut water. After having baby Harper, she also reportedly ran six days a week and had a "strenuous exercise regime" under star trainer Tracy Anderson.

Mel B does one- to two-hour treadmill workouts and likes to go for hikes--complementing her workouts with sessions of 600 sit-ups. She told People: "I’ve always been obsessed with doing abs. I change positions every 10 reps. I like how quickly--if you stick to it--you can see results.”

The Surprising Thing That's Making You Pack on Belly Fat

If your problem area is your tummy, you may think you've tried every option to whittle away fat. But wait, have you considered this surprising advice? 

"When stress is high, a hormone called cortisol shoots up," write the editors of Women's Health. "And high cortisol levels equal high belly fat." Here's the surprising advice that has nothing to do with exercise or diet: "Take at least 10 to 15 minutes a day to decompress and reduce your cortisol levels, and a flat stomach will be one less thing to worry about."

Beware of the "OMG Diet"

Have you heard of the "OMG Diet"? It's gone viral in Europe and will be coming our way soon. What you need to know...

Health experts are worried about a new diet book targeted at teens that has topped the bestseller charts in England. The self-published book, Six Weeks To OMG: Get Skinnier Than All Your Friends, reportedly has garnered its author, a personal trainer in the UK, a seven-figure book deal in the U.S. 

But, health experts are very concerned about the so-called diet, which encourages girls to drink multiple cups of coffee, take ice cold baths and skip breakfast--all in the name of weight loss.
A physician in England, Dr. Ian Campbell, is very concerned. "My first thought is OMG! This book is encouraging extreme behavior," he said to the Daily Mail. "Teens are very vulnerable to diet fads, especially quirky ones like this. ...In reality will have little effect on weight loss and some of the advice like taking ice cold baths can be very dangerous. This is a cynical attempt to sell huge numbers of books and I certainly wouldn’t recommend it."

Yee Haw! Would You Work Out on a ... Mechanical Bull?

Recently I heard about a new fitness trend that looked ... sort of fun! 

 Would you try a mechanical bull workout class? Attention: Fitness First ;)

At Travaasa, a destination resort and spa in Austin, Texas, you can take the Bull Riding Workout class, which is said to burn about 200 calories per hour and increase core strength and flexibility. But, all of that aside--it just looks like fun, doesn't it?

This Fitness Trainer Gained 75 Pounds to Show the World How to Lose It!

Talk about job dedication! A fitness trainer is making headlines this week after he decided to stop exercising and eating healthy so he could gain 75 pounds to show the world how anyone can come back and get fit. The interesting story...

Imagine being fit--really fit--and then stopping your healthy eating and exercise completely and gaining 75 pounds ... to prove a point. 

Personal trainer Drew Manning decided to give up his healthy lifestyle and start subsisting of a diet on fast food and sugary drinks for six months to show his clients how to work their way back to health. 

He writes about the experience in his new book, Fit2Fat2Fit: The Unexpected Lessons from Gaining and Losing 75 lbs on Purpose, and blogged about the journey.

Interestingly, as he saw his cholesterol and glucose skyrocket, he was most impacted by the emotional component of weight gain: "His self-confidence, that completely went away and depleted," his wife said, noting that he was "becoming lethargic, lazy, not helping around the house."

“I was in denial at first until she kept pointing out the things I was doing,” Manning said on “Good Morning America.” “But I did become lazier. … I had less energy so I did become exhausted and I kept seeing how it affected our relationship because of that. And so that’s where the biggest surprise was, the emotional [part]."

Get More Sleep! Here's The Important Reason Why

Can't lose weight? If you've already focused on diet and exercise strategies, consider this surprising culprit..

 

Sleep!

Yes, you've heard that getting enough sleep is healthy, and you've heard the sleep = healthy weight rumors, but it's time to believe them. Here's why: Researchers at the University of Washington just concluded a major study of how sleep affects our weight, and the findings may make you want to hit the hay early. According to the report, getting enough sleep can keep you slim, even if you have a family history of obesity. The takeaways from the study:

*Go to bed early! People who sleep longer at night have lower BMIs than short sleepers (less than 7 hours a night). 

*Sleep seems to "turn off" your genes' role in obesity, which means that if your mom, your grandma, and your great grandma are all obese, you can fight genetics (to some degree) by making sure you're getting plenty of zzzzsss.

*Don't feel lazy about sleeping longer than 8 hours! So what if you're a "long sleeper"--according to this study, sleeping 8 hours or more a night has slim-body benefits. 

Good night and Sweet Dreams Squammies!

The Best New Exercises You’re Not Doing

There's a popular saying among fitness experts: "The best exercise is the one you're not doing." The take-home message? To achieve the best results, you need to regularly challenge your body in new ways. So while classic movements like the pushup, lunge, and squat are the staples of any good workout plan, varying the way you perform these exercises every 4 weeks can help you avoid plateaus, beat boredom, and speed fat loss. 

You can start today, with this list of the best new exercises for every part of a woman's body. 

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ABS: Mountain Climber with Hands on Swiss Ball

The benefit: It's one of the simplest yet most effective ways to tighten your tummy. In fact, you'll barely have to move a muscle.

How to do it: Assume a pushup position with your arms completely straight, but place your hands on a Swiss ball instead of the floor. Your body should form a straight line from your head to your ankles. Tighten your core and hold it that way for the duration of the exercise [A]. Lift one foot off the floor and slowly raise your knee as close to your chest as you can without changing your lower-back posture. Then repeat with your other leg. Alternate back and forth for 30 seconds. If that's too hard, place your hands on the floor or a bench, instead of a Swiss ball.

 

HAMSTRINGS: Single-Leg Dumbbell Straight-Leg Deadlift

The benefit: Besides targeting your hamstrings, this exercise works your glutes and core. It also helps eliminate muscle imbalances between your legs, reducing your risk of injury. And as a bonus, it can even improve the flexibility of your hamstrings.

How to do it: Grab a pair of dumbbells with an overhand grip, and hold them at arm's length in front your thighs. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and knees slightly bent. Now raise one leg off the floor [A]. Without changing the bend in your knee, bend at your hips (keep your lower back arched), and lower your torso until it's almost parallel to the floor [B]. Pause, then squeeze your glutes, thrust your hips forward, and raise your torso back to the start. Do all your reps, then repeat with your other leg.



 

CALVES: Single-Leg Donkey Calf Raise

The benefit: This simple exercise helps shape your calves in the comfort of your living room.

How to do it: Place the ball of one foot on a step, block, or 25-pound weight plate. Cross your other foot behind your ankle. Grasp a sturdy object for support. Then keeping your back naturally arched, bend at your hips and lower your torso until your upper body is almost parallel to the floor [A]. Lift your heel as high as you can [B]. Pause, lower your heel, and repeat. Complete as many reps as you can--or for a duration of 60 seconds--then switch legs.

 

 

CHEST :Single-Arm Dumbbell Bench Press

The benefit: This exercise works your glutes and abs as hard as it works your chest and triceps. So you'll tighten your hips and core as you tone your upper body.

How to do it: Grab a dumbbell in your left hand and lie on your back on a flat bench, holding the dumbbell over your chest with your arm straight. Your palm should be facing out, but turned slightly inward. Place your right hand on your abs [B]. Lower the dumbbell to the side of your chest. Pause, then press the weight back to the start. Want an even greater challenge? Slide over so that only your right butt cheek and right shoulder blade are on the bench. (Don't let your hips sag; you'll have to place your left foot wider to maintain your balance.) Do all your repetitions, then repeat on your right side.  
 

SHOULDERS :Scaption and Shrug

The benefit: When you raise the dumbbells to start this exercise, you target the front of your shoulders as well as your rotator cuff. Then comes the shrug. This part of the move helps better balance the muscles that rotate your shoulder blades. The end result: Great-looking shoulders and better posture.

How to do it: Stand holding a pair of dumbbells with your feet shoulder-width apart. Let the dumbbells hang at arm's length next to your sides, your palms facing each other [A]. Without changing the bend in your elbows, raise your arms until they're parallel to the floor, keeping them at a 30-degree angle to your body (so that they form a "Y") [B]. At the top of the movement, shrug your shoulders upward [C]. Pause, then reverse the movement to return to the start, and repeat.

 

TRICEPS :Swiss-Ball Lying Triceps Extension

The benefit: Lying on a Swiss ball forces your core to work harder to keep you stable. So you work your abs as you shape the backs of your arms.

How to do it: Grab a pair of dumbbells and lie on your back on a Swiss ball so that your middle and upper back are firmly on the ball. Raise your hips so that your body forms a straight line from your knees to your shoulders. Hold the dumbbells over your forehead, with your arms straight and your palms facing each other [A]. Without moving your upper arms, bend your elbows to lower the dumbbells until your forearms are beyond parallel to the floor [B]. Pause, then lift the weights back to the start by straightening your arms.
 

BICEPS :Split Stance Dumbbell Curl

The benefit: Placing one foot in front of you on a bench forces your hip and core muscles to work harder in order to keep your body stable. That way, you engage more muscles and burn more calories than you would if you did the exercise in a regular standing position.

How to do it: Grab a pair of dumbbells and place one foot in front of you on a bench or step that's just higher than knee level. Let the dumbbells hang at arm's length next to your sides, your palms facing forward [B]. Without moving your upper arms, bend your elbows and curl the dumbbells as close to your shoulders as you can [B]. Pause, then slowly lower the weights back to the starting position. Each set, switch the foot that you place on the bench.

 

FOREARMS :Plate Pinch Curl

The benefit: Strengthens the muscles of your forearms, hands, fingers, and thumbs, while also shaping your biceps. Bonus: Makes you better at opening jars, too.

How to do it: Grab a pair of light weight plates in your right hand. Hold the two plates together with your fingers and thumb by pinching the smooth side of the plates. Let the plates hang at arm's length next to your side [A]. Without moving your upper arm, bend your elbow and curl the weights as close to your shoulder as you can [B]. Slowly lower the weights back to the starting position and repeat.

 

 

UPPER BACK :Swiss-Ball L Raise

The benefit: This exercise targets your upper back. By working these key muscles, you'll improve your posture, shape the back of your shoulders, and look great in a backless dress.

How to do it: Lie facedown on top of a Swiss ball so that your back is flat and your chest is off the ball. Let your arms hang straight down from your shoulders, your palms facing behind you [A]. Keeping your elbows flared out, lift your upper arms as high as you can by bending your elbows and squeezing your shoulder blades together. Your upper arms should be perpendicular to your torso [B]. Without changing your elbow position, rotate your forearms up and back as far as you can [C]. Pause, then reverse the movement. If you can do more than 12 repetitions, use dumbbells.


 

LATS : Band-Assisted Chinup

The benefit: This exercise allows you to do full chinups, even if you've never managed a single one. Plus, it more accurately mimics the movement than lat pulldowns or the assisted chinup machine. All you need is a chinup bar and a large rubber band called a SuperBand.

How to do it: Loop one end of a SuperBand around a chinup bar and then pull it through the through the other end of the band, cinching it tightly to the bar. (The thicker the band you buy, the more assistance it will provide.) Grab the bar with a shoulder-width, underhand grip, and place your knees in the loop of the band. Hang at arm's length [A]. Perform a chinup by pulling the top of your chest to the bar [B]. Pause, then slowly lower your body back to the starting position.


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LOWER BACK : McGill Curlup

The benefit: This exercise works your entire abdominal muscle complex while keeping your lower back in its naturally arched position. So it minimizes stress on your spine while increasing the endurance of the muscles, which helps prevent lower-back pain.

How to do it: Lie on your back on the floor with your right leg straight and flat on the floor. Your left knee should be bent and your left foot flat. Place your hands palms down on the floor underneath the natural arch in your lower back [A]. Slowly raise your head and shoulders off the floor without bending your lower back or spine, and hold this position for 7 to 8 seconds, breathing deeply the entire time [B]. That's 1 rep. Do 4 to 5 reps, then switch legs and repeat. To make it even harder, raise your elbows off the floor as you curl up.

3 Cool Ways to Bring At-the-Gym Workouts to YOU

I love learning about the newest ways of working out--whether the methods are crazy-good or just plain crazy. Do you? But there are days I'd just as rather stay home from the gym.

There are obviously tons of creative ways you can work out at home--DVDs, running around your house, standing on one leg. Here are a few others to add to the list:

1: Trampolining
I've wanted to try a trampolining class for just about ever. The problem? No classes near me, boo. Besides the insane fun that comes with boinging around for an hour, it's also an amazing workout choice: a study in the Journal of Applied Psychology has shown that just 10 minutes of trampoline jumping is equal to the health benefits of running for than 30 minutes. Also, trampolining is also supposed to be low-impact and gentler on your knees. Experts say that you can get a great workout at home on your own, performing simple muscle-strengthening moves like jumping jacks or tucks, where you pull your legs into your chest during the jump.

2: ElliptiGO
Is it an elliptical trainer? Is it a bike? It's both, kind of! If the at-gym ellipticals have one big fault, it's that they don't actually go anywhere. This little machine does--while seriously engaging your core muscles (which you have to do to keep from falling over), burning calories, and going easy on your joints at the same time. 

3: Juggling
It's not exactly a standard-issue class at every gym, but JuggleFit is a real workout that's all about--you guessed it--juggling. Why? Well, check out these health benefits: it helps improve coordination, strengthens your core, aids in warding off stress, and a study in Nature magazine even found that learning how to juggle could help build brain matter. Oh, and it also burns 280 calories an hour. Neat.

What's your favorite at-home workout? Is there a class at your gym that you'd like to replicate--in some fashion--at home?

Your Fitness: Could This Exercise Actually Make You ... Smarter?

You think of exercise as a way to tone your body and maybe slim down, even give you a boost of happiness--but make you smarter? Researchers say this exercise (and this easy move) can actually do the trick...

German researchers say that people who a.) bike or b.) stretch often have better memories and thinking skills than those who don't. And, even better if you stretch and bike! The good news is, according to the study, you can reap these same rewards in as little as two hours a week of biking and/or stretching. And, who doesn't want to stay sharp, right?

Brain experts say that as we get older, the part of our brain associated with memory, the hippocampus, actually shrinks. Frequent exercise and use of your bod (be it cycling, stretching, etc.) can help mediate this process a bit. 

Sort of makes you want to grab your bike and go for a spring ride, huh?

The Superfood Diet

Say you've tried every fad diet out there to lose weight ... and failed. Here's an idea: eat superfoods--exclusively. It worked for this woman!

Editor-in-chief of SELF magazine, Lucy Danziger, says that she tried to lose weight for more than 10 years. All the fad diets? She tried them, with zero success. Then, about five years ago, she decided to ditch dieting and opt for a more wholesome way of eating, focused on so-called superfoods--high-energy, high-nutrient foods like nuts, seeds, whole grains, berries and fruits and veggies. And guess what? In less than six months, she dropped 25 pounds. She details her journey and weight loss plan in her new book, The Drop 10 Diet. 

This is simply a good reminder that when your weight-loss efforts are stalled, try refocusing back on a diet of whole foods. A cup of blueberries packs a lot more potency when it comes to health and nutrition than a low-fat, low-calorie, newfangled diet food product. Just sayin'!

New Study Proves That Bicycles Are Slowly Destroying Your V

In today’s edition of “Everything Is Bad For You,” a new study has found that women who ride bikes consistently may experience reduced sensation in their vaginas and possible fertility issues over time, juuuust to make sure you weren’t feeling too good about being healthy and active:

The new research, published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine, expands on a 2006 Yale study which found that female cyclists experienced less “genital sensation” compared with female runners. This time around, scientists tested 48 hardcore female riders who cycled at least 10 miles a week to measure their soreness, numbness, and tingling sensations…
…the new study found that “Women on bikes with handlebars positioned lower than their seats experienced more pressure in an area of soft tissue called the perineum, and had decreased sensation in the pelvic floor…the lower the handlebars in relation to the saddle, the more a woman has to lean forward, forcing her to put a greater percentage of her body weight on the perineum. “

When asked how doctors finally got around to studying the female aspect of this story, the lead scientist explained “I was trying to Google something about bike parts and typed in ‘Do b’ and it autocompleted ‘Do bicycles hurt your vagina?’” 

Fortunately, the study also offers some helpful tips on minimizing bicycling impacts, plus it does sort of fall into the “Everything you do hurts you somehow if you do it a lot” category; Every day on the internet there’s another study about how the sun is terrible for your skin, and saccharine gives you rat cancer, and heroin is “addictive” and “life-threatening,” blah blah blah. At some point, you just have to decide to do something with the knowledge that it will in some way impact your long-term health, and that’s how I’ve developed this awesome saccharine-cancer-heroin addiction.

Anyway, hope this article and/or my advice helped!

7 Fitness Myths, Busted

If you haven’t moved many muscles since high school gym class, you might not be up to speed on fitness myths, a stubborn bunch that just won’t die. A dose of reality right about now might strengthen your resolve.

Here’s a rundown on the seven top evergreen exercise myths that you’ll probably hear but can safely ignore:

No Pain, No Gain

Maybe this one took on a life of its own because it rhymes and is so easy to remember. Forget it. If an exercise causes pain, you’re either doing it wrong (a session or two with a personal trainer can set you straight) or you’ve already managed to hurt yourself.

Be sure to separate pain from muscle soreness, which comes on after you tax a lax muscle and will wear off in a few days. Actual pain can mean that you’ve exhausted a muscle or torn a ligament. If what you’re doing really hurts, stop.

Stretching Before Exercise

The idea here is that stretching before and after you exercise can prevent injury while you’re working out and muscle soreness afterward.

While stretching does promote flexibility (something you should strive for as an element of overall fitness), a study published in British Medical Journal found no scientific evidence to back up the notion that stretching before a workout reduces injuries or that stretching before and after can prevent muscle soreness.

Exercise Speeds Metabolism for Hours

While partly true--your metabolism does amp up during exercise and for a few hours afterward--the truth can be a big disappointment: the number of calories you can expect lose thanks to the afterburn is negligible, only 20 extra ones for the whole day according to one study.

But (and this is a really big “but”) you may be able to set your metabolism on high for hours after your workout if you can exercise intensely enough to reach the top of your VO2 max (the maximum amount of oxygen you can take in during exercise) and continue at that high level for 45 minutes. A tough prescription, but if you can manage that, a recent study found that you could burn as many as 190 extra calories in the hours after exercise.

Crunches Lead to Sixpack Abs

Sure they will as long as you also get rid of any belly fat that obscures your abdominal muscles. While crunches strengthen muscles, they won’t burn off the fat in your belly.

To flaunt your newly crunched abs you’ve got to trim the fat via diet, cardiovascular exercise and resistance training. And, of course, for crunches to work, you’ve got to learn to do them right.

Running on a Treadmill is Easier on the Knees

Sorry, but it is the running itself that stresses the knees, not the surface you’re pounding.

To ease the impact on your knees, experts advise varying your aerobic activities: mix running with riding a stationary bike or using the elliptical machine at the gym. 

Ice Eases Muscle Pain 

Applying ice to a sore muscle can numb it so it feels better, but a new review of evidence from 36 earlier studies concluded that icing doesn’t help heal muscle tears and can actually reduce muscle strength and power temporarily. This makes it a poor strategy for football players and other athletes who are itching to return to the action immediately after icing.

The researchers suggested that it is okay to ice sore muscles provided you don’t go right back to exercising. And they noted that more study is needed to learn more about the effects of icing, but this will be tough to accomplish since, for comparison purposes, there’s no placebo that feels like ice.

Using Exercise Machines is Safer

If you know what you’re doing, using machines at the gym can help you get the most out of your workout. But first the machines have to be correctly adjusted for your height and weight by a savvy coach or trainer. Otherwise, you’re as vulnerable to injury and as you would be if you were doing the same type of exercise with free weights or without any devices.

Nor is an expensive gym membership essential to get in shape, since jogging gives you a great cardio workout, while investing a pair of dumbbells to use at home helps with strength training.

Contrasting Colors Could Help You... Lose Weight?

This is totally convenient: I just learned that surrounding yourself with the color blue might pay off in weight-loss benefits. Well, now there's more news...

...and this time, it's got everything to do with portion sizes.

A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research found that when people serve food on a plate with a highly contrasting color, they serve about 21 percent less. For example, pasta with red sauce onto a stark-white plate, or pasta with white sauce on a bright red plate, contrast bigtime--tricking the server into serving less.

The study also found that, when asked to serve a specific amount of food onto both small and large plates, people will overestimate how much to put on the big plates and underestimate how much to put on the small plates. Meaning: smaller dishes, smaller portions. 

The researchers say that this research could help people who want to lose weight keep their portion sizes down, and that it also reinforces the famous Delboeuf Optical Illusion (which, if you haven't seen, you must do--I'm pretty sure that I am now hypnotized).

4 New Amazing-Looking Workout Classes

Do you have any favorite fitness classes? Yoga? Spinning?  Take a look at some of the newer classes on the workout scene, and tell me which you'd like to try... (paging Fitness first haha)

SurfSet Fitness:  This new class just opened up at Chelsea Piers in Manhattan--and it looks awesome. You don't use a real surfboard, but a piece of surfboard-like equipment that it looks like it takes serious muscle control to stay on. In the class, you bust out lots of cardio as you mimic paddling out to sea and riding the waves. 

Hoop-ercise: Were you a hula hoop master as a kid?  The only equipment needed in this class is a hula hoop, which you use to "swirl, twirl, and trim your way into a fun and exciting workout.

Zenergy: Ahhh... this class is a mix of strength-building yoga poses and calorie-burning jumps and lunges--it's supposed to help get your body and mind balanced, somehow both calming you and energizing you at the same time.

Beaming: This class has actually been around for a year. It's all about balance, as it has you perched on your own low-to-the-ground padded bar. You have to engage your ab muscles, tuck in your butt, and try to stay on the beam while going through a series of poses.

You'll Work Harder, Burn More Calories If You Drink This Before Exercise

If you have trouble with exercise motivation (don't we all) or maybe you just get really tired halfway through a jog, drink this. It will help...

The beverage of champions? Coffee, apparently! The New York Times reported on the latest research linking caffeine with impressive, increased exercise stamina (so much so, that the research subjects were more apt to want to work out longer and more frequently after they'd had a sugar-free, caffeinated beverage).

Olympic athletes have known about the caffeine-stamina trick for some time, of course. The Times points out that in urine tests, the majority of professional athletes have caffeine in their bodies. Hey, it's legal and it works.