FitBritt's Favorite Fitness Items

Before I start sharing specific exercise suggestions, I wanted to introduce my favorite fitness items. They are somewhat in order (with #1 being my top suggestion) however it will really depend on your goals and interests for fitness and health, as well as your budget :).

10. Stretch strap

A stretch strap can be as simple as a belt, or can have various loops like the example above. Stretching is something that you can do 7 days a week, and we all need it to lengthen our tight muscles and stretch out our muscular imbalances that are caused by both sitting for prolonged periods and performing the same movement repetitively. The strap is great because you no longer have to contort your body to reach your foot. You can perform many stretches while keeping your body in the right alignment by hooking your foot in the strap and pulling with your hands. Examples of stretches that would use the strap: sitting and trying to bend forward and reach toes, laying down and lifting one foot straight up in the air (keeping the knee straight), the standing quad stretch where you pull one foot up to your glutes (keeping your knees together), or various arm stretches circling your shoulders or reaching around your back.

COST: ~$30

9. Yoga block

If you are going to do yoga, in addition to having the stretching strap, you should also have 1 or 2 yoga blocks. These are also great to keep your body in the proper alignment while reaching towards the ground while stretching. Because of the shape of the block, you can set it at three different height levels depending on what you need for support. While standing and folding forward for stretches, it is not best to let your body "dangle," the gravity can cause more of a strain then a stretch. You should find a height where you are in a mild stretch, and if your hands cannot reach the ground, use yoga blocks for support. Examples of yoga poses that can utilize yoga blocks: forward fold, triangle, pyramid, deep lunge, half moon (balancing pose).

Yoga blocks can also be used as a prop to squeeze between your knees when performing crunches to help activate your abdominals and strengthen your inner thighs, as well as between your knees while standing and squatting to keep your knees in proper alignment.

COST: ~$10

8. Resistance Tubing

This is a great and portable tool to have at home and take on travel. There are different thicknesses (depicted with different color bands) to increase the resistance, but you can also shorten your grasp on the band to make it more challenging. Stand on the band to perform bicep curls, front/side lifts, upright rows, etc. Have someone hold the band behind you (or get one that ties to a door) to push forward in a chest press, fly, or overhead triceps extension. Have someone hold it in front of you to pull back and perform rows or straight arm pull downs. Step on a thicker band to perform squats. You can even use a tube AND dumbbells together to increase the challenge and instability factor.

You can also get flat, thin bands called TheraBands that are often used in physical therapy. These can be tied around your thighs to perform outer thigh exercises, held in your hands pulling in various directions to do shoulder exercises, etc.
COST: under $10/ea.

7. Foam Roller

Foam rollers have dramatically increased in popularity over the past year. You may finally start seeing them at your gym and I believe many major sporting goods stores have started carrying them. Another item that started in physical therapy, foam rollers can be used for both stretching and stability work. You can buy them in 1 foot or 3 foot length. The longer length is good if you want to lay lengthwise down the roller, otherwise I believe the 1 foot length would work for all other needs. You can also buy the full circle diameter or a half circle (one side is flat). The full diameter is used for stretching, the 1/2 diameter is used for balance (practice standing on either side for 30-60 seconds, then work on standing on it while performing other exercises such as biceps curls or shoulder press).

For stretching and working out muscular imbalances, the foam roller is a must. There will be future posts specifically on "foam rolling" but the basic idea is that you put the roller on the ground and place a muscle (such as your calf) on top of it and gently roll out the knots (NEVER ROLL OVER A JOINT!). This is similar to using tennis balls to massage your back, but I believe more effective.

COST: $10-20 depending on size and material

6. Dumbbells

Whether I am working out in the gym, or at home, I prefer to use dumbbells. While weight machines at the gym can be good for teaching your body the right motion, the dumbbells provide a few added challenges that will benefit your muscles. First, each arm is responsible for its' specific amount of weight - on a machine it is very likely that one arm is pushing more of the weight than the other, unbeknownst to you. Second, dumbbells require your body to use more control, therefore using more stabilizing muscles (ex: all of your shoulder and rotator cuff muscles have to work to stabilize while you are doing a chest press) and even require you to tighten your core to achieve control. And what happens when you are using more muscles at one time??? You burn more calories!! And you work more muscles at one time - what great time management!

Two problems with dumbbells at home are the expense and the space. You would be lucky to find dumbbells around $1 per pound. Therefore, with each set of weights that you purchase (5 lb set, 8 lb set, 10 lb set, etc.) this can get pretty expensive! One solution to this is to purchase an adjustable dumbbell set. If you only need up to 25 lbs, Target has a pretty good Reebok set which I think is under $100. I have heard good things about PowerBlocks, but they are very square and might feel weird to work with. If you start looking at these, especially getting up to 50-60 lb sets, we are talking 100's of dollars, but if you think about the number of dumbbells these replace, you will quickly see how much more efficient they are.

5. Stability Ball

Oh, my dear friend the Stability Ball. If there were a device that you knew that everytime you were on it you'd be working your abs... would you be interested? This is it, my friends! There are SOO) many things that you can do with this ball: crunches, pushups with your thighs on the ball, sitting on the ball while performing dumbbell arm exercises, kneeling on the ball, laying your shoulders on the ball with your feet on the ground and yes - even using it as an office chair, which I prefer. (Most of you know that I have a lower back disc issue, which is often exacerbated by slouching. When I sit on the ball all day, I am required to keep my abs tight and use good posture - alas, no back pain!) There will be many suggested exercises in the future utilizing the ball, so for now let's discuss selecting a ball.

1. When you sit on the ball your knees should be at a 90 degree angle. A general rule of thumb:

- if you are 5' 2" or under, you need a 45 cm ball

- between 5' 3" and 5' 7" get a 55 cm ball

- between 5' 8" and 6' 1" use a 65 cm.

2. You should really invest in a high quality ball (especially if you plan on sitting on it AND using dumbbells) - you'll want something that is burst resistant. I suggest the Versa Ball: http://www.power-systems.com/p-4090-versaball.aspx

3. You need to make sure you follow the directions for blowing up the ball (only inflate it 1/2 way on the first day, then add more air) and make sure that you get it to the right size but not overblown. There should be a little give, but you shouldn't sink into the ball. The Versa Balls come with a measuring tape.

COST: $20-40 depending on brand and size.

4. BOSU ball

Yes I have one of these at home, and you should too! The BOSU ball, standing for "both sides up" would truly be my #1 suggested exercise tool (you'll notice that #'s 3-1 on my list are weight management tools). You can stand on the blue dome, balance on one foot, advance it by adding arm exercises, put one foot on it and do lunges, hop on it, squat from side to side... and then flip it over so the blue wobbly dome is on the ground and the black flat side is up and start all over again! Sit/balance on it while doing crunches. Put your hands on it while doing push ups. Put your feet on it while doing planks or bridges. The options will not end, I promise. You will see that almost all of my exercise suggestions from this point out will utilize dumbbells and either the stability ball or the BOSU ball. As I've told all of my clients (who clearly come to agree with me in the end), the BOSU will be your best friend!

COST: you can get a home use model for under $100 at Target, the professional grade is (amazingly) only $20 more at power-systems.com. Either would be fine for home use.

3. Pedometer

EVERYONE needs help and motivation keeping track of their activity, and my final three suggestions will all do just that. The pedometer is simple and requires very minimal effort for use. Clip it to your belt like a pager and let it count your steps throughout the day.

I encourage all my new clients to get one and use it for a few days writing down their number of steps at the end of the day. THEN I tell them that your goal should be 10,000 steps a day - that is equivalent to 5 miles. Try it yourself... for the first few days, try not to change your activity level so you can get an idea of what a day in your current life is like. Then kick it up a notch! Don't call or email the person in the office two doors down, walk to see them! Park your car a few spots further away and enjoy the extra calories burned. Do a lap around the mall or the store before you start shopping. At the end of the day, take a walk (or a jog) with your family until you have reached your final number.

COST: $10 and up depending on model.

2. Heart Rate monitor

So you hop on the treadmill or the elliptical and take note of how many calories it says you have burned at the end of a workout, right? Oops, that wasn't specific to YOU. First of all, unless you put in your age and weight, the cardio machine is most likely calculating for a 160 lb person (not sure where I heard that number). Second of all, how does the machine have any idea of how difficult the activity is for you? It doesn't know if you are huffing and puffing or if the current activity is a walk in the park for you. Alas, the heart rate monitor. On your watch, you'll plug in your gender, height, weight, age, etc... and you'll wear the chest strap (directly on your skin - under your sports bra) while working out. You'll be able to monitor your heart rate throughout the activity (great for staying in your specific training zone!) and also your watch will be able to tell you how many calories you burned! Polar brand, specifically, will even work with most cardio machines to display your heart rate on the cardio display (but you'll still have to go by your watch to see calories burned). Even better, you don't have to be tied to a cardio machine... go for a run outside or monitor your heart rate and calories burned while doing strength training, you are free to roam!

You can even program your goals for # calories or # minutes of exercise into your watch and it will notify you each week whether you've achieved your goal or not. (When you achieve your goal you get a wonderful trophy icon on your watch for the whole next week! Woohoo!).

COST: $90 and up. Make sure to get a model that calculates your caloric output - check out the Polar Fitness ones. http://www.polarusa.com/us-en/products/fitness_crosstraining/

1. BodyBugg Arm Band

The Body What?? The BodyBugg! How much would you pay to guarantee you'll lose weight each week? (BodyBugg is hoping it's worth a few hundred dollars to you). Seriously, if you keep up with your Bugg, there will be no shock when you step on the scale each week. While there are now many similar brands of this device out there, the BodyBugg is what all the contestants on The Biggest Loser use (and therefore I love it), and one of the company's I used to work for now sells it.

So you have an arm band that is a little bigger than an iPod that you keep on your arm pretty much all the time. It is using your body temperature (and possibly a few other factors) to know how many calories you are burning every minute throughout the day. You will then sync it with your computer (requires a monthly online subscription) and be able to see your activity throughout the day. I hear most people go, "wow, I didn't know I was sitting that much!" But wait, there's more. You will also go online to input everything you ingest. It's a bit tedious at first, but since we are all creatures of habit you will be able to save all of your food choices for easy selection upon future logging. You can even list out all of the ingredients you put into a recipe so it knows the exact nutritional make-up. Again, tedious at first, but in the end you will have the success of weight loss! Finally, you tell the program exactly how much weight you want to lose each week and it will provide you feedback to reach that goal each time you sync.

*Want to learn more about the BodyBugg? I have a few friends/ex-coworkers that use it that would love to share the details with you. Let me know if you'd like to be put in contact with them.

COST: ~$200 comes with a 6-month subscription. http://my.apexfitness.com/vip/bb_enrollment_info_public.php#

There you have it! A lengthy post with my Top 10 suggested items. The best places to find these items?

- Target

- http://www.power-systems.com/

- http://www.fitnesswholesale.com/

Have a HEALTHY Day!

~ FitBritt