Fund raising races are great because they are typically 5 and 10K distances - accessible for most runners and walkers - and they help raise funds for many worthy organizations.  Check out Spring is quickly approaching.  And in most places, that means that there are tons of races also approaching.

Fund raising races are great because they are typically 5 and 10K distances - accessible for most runners and walkers - and they help raise funds for many worthy organizations.  Check out Active.com for races in your area.

Those of you in Atlanta, consider joining the Excellence In Exercise team and sign up for the 2012 Brookhaven Bolt.  We are sponsoring this year’s race and will have a tent for post-race stretching and foam rolling.  Proceeds of the race go to support Ashford Park Elementary School.  Sign up and shoot us a message or email and let us know so that we can count you in!

If you’re running spring races – with us or on your own – I’ve put together some articles on race training. 

• Hal Higdon provides EXCELLENT training programs for all race distances: 5K, 8K, 10K, 15K/10mi, Half Marathon, Marathon and more.  Higdon’s programs are great because he provides options for beginners, intermediate runners and experts.  (Tip: Don’t let your ego get the best of you – most runners should use a beginner plan.)
• Active.com share 7 Pre-race Planning Tips for a successful race.
• Also from Active.com, check out this free training log.
• Doing a couch to 5K program and need some extra help?  Jeff Galloway has an app for that!
• Also from Jeff Galloway – here are tons of great nutrition tips for training and race day.

Find others?  Have tips or tricks that have helped you with your training?  Share them with us in the comments!

Well, here’s how you can get them!

The Burpee Pushup and it’s big brother The Renegade are two of my favorite upper body exercises and today’s Circuit Busters.

These are tough exercises, but they are super efficient.  So if you have a limited [...]]]>

Click the Image to View the Video Demonstration

Someone tells me almost every day, “I want toned arms.” 

Well, here’s how you can get them!

The Burpee Pushup and it’s big brother The Renegade are two of my favorite upper body exercises and today’s Circuit Busters.

These are tough exercises, but they are super efficient.  So if you have a limited amount of time to work out, they are perfect because you are going to get a complete upper body workout all in one exercise.  CLICK HERE FOR THE DEMONSTRATION VIDEO.

Like the Leg Matrix last week, these exercises are awesome, because you can do them anywhere.  The Burpee Pushup requires no equipment.  And to bump it up to the Renegade, you just need some dumbbells.

Use this exercise in your circuits.  When I started doing Renegades, I could do 3 before I couldn’t do the pushup anymore.  Now, let’s just say I can do more than that.  So do what you can and build from there, making your goal to be able to do a full set.  If you can already do a full set, then do them for time (time yourself for a minute) or increase the weight of the dumbbells.  Always challenge yourself.

Add these Burpee Pushups or Renegades to the Leg Matrix, and you’ve got a great quickie workout that you can do anywhere!

Disclaimer:  All exercise recommendations and videos on this site are for your information only and are not to be used in placed of working with a professional.  Be smart.  If you need help, ask.  And make sure to use caution when doing any type of exercise.

Continuing with [...]]]> Circuit Training is a great way to get your strength and cardio training all in one workout. We do a lot of circuit training at Excellence In Exericse, and we think that the best way to keep your workout fresh and challenging is to add new exercises to your circuits.

Continuing with our new Circuit Busters series, we have a lower body exercise that is one of my personal favorites.  The Leg Matrix.  CLICK HERE FOR THE DEMONSTRATION VIDEO.

This exercise is awesome, because you can do it anywhere, it requires NO equipment, and it kicks butt (literally!). 

Use this exercise in your circuits.  Start trying to do 5 reps each exercise in the matrix, then work up to 10 reps each then 15 reps each. 

I absolutely guarantee that if you add the Leg Matrix to your workouts, that it will help you strengthen and tone your legs.  And it adds a great burst of cardio to any strength workout.

Thanks to our trianer Tara Mulcahy for putting up with me during our video session.  Let’s just hope that the bloopers don’t make it into a highlight reel somewhere! 

Disclaimer:  All exercise recommendations and videos on this site are for your information only and are not to be used in placed of working with a professional.  Be smart.  If you need help, ask.  And make sure to use caution when doing any type of exercise.

Cardiovascular fitness, sometimes called aerobic fitness, is your body’s ability to transport and use oxygen.  When you are more cardiovascularly fit, your body – specifically your heart – is more efficient.  When [...]]]>

Practicing Yoga Reduces Blood Pressure & Improves Heart Health

February is the month for love.  And with Valentine’s Day right around the corner, this article roundup takes health to heart.

Cardiovascular fitness, sometimes called aerobic fitness, is your body’s ability to transport and use oxygen.  When you are more cardiovascularly fit, your body – specifically your heart – is more efficient.  When your heart is more efficient, it doesn’t have to work as hard to provide the oxygen your body needs to function and survive.

What does that mean to you?  An article from Livestrong.com sums it up easily, “According to the National Strength and Conditioning Association, cardiovascular fitness is linked to a reduction in blood pressure, reduced risk of developing coronary heart disease, lowered incidence of diabetes, decreased risk of stroke and heart attack, lower fat mass, increased bone mass, improved energy levels and greater resistance to illness and fatigue. These benefits are attributed to cardiovascular exercise as much as they are cardiovascular fitness. Benefits decline if exercise is not regular and consistent.”

So, we now know how important cardiovascular fitness is – now you can find out just how healthy your heart is.  CLICK HERE for the American Heart Association’s “My Life Check” assessment and find out where you stand and how you can live a heart-healthier life.

Want more ways to improve your heart health?  Fitbie gives us 50 – count them – 50 ways to improve heart health. CLICK HERE for the article (and try to overlook the fact that this list somehow morphed into a giant Quaker Oats commercial).

We’ve got the tips now, so what about the workouts?!

Most of us know that yoga helps us to stretch and strengthen.  But did you know that yoga can help you get Heart-Healthy?  Yoga helps to lower blood pressure and helps participants manage stress.  This American Heart Association article gives an in-depth look into how yoga can improve your heart-health – CLICK HERE to read more.  And to try yoga for yourself – join us for one of our classes!  Message us for details.

Want an easy way to rev-up your cardio workout?  Try adding intervals.  CLICK HERE for information from the Mayo Clinic on Interval Training and how it can improve aerobic capacity.  The best thing is that you can add intervals to ANY workout.  Need help?  Ask us!

And check out our fitness tips for exercises including a new “Circuit Buster” series with exercises that can help you take your workout to the next level.

Now for the fun – No Valentine’s Day is complete without a little chocolate.  And guess what?!  Dark Chocolate has antioxidants that help reduce the risk factors for heart disease.  Now that’s a Valentine’s gift!

But don’t go hog wild yet – make sure to use these guidelines from the Mayo Clinic: “Choose dark chocolate with cocoa content of 65 percent or higher. Limit yourself to around 3 ounces (85 grams) a day, which is the amount some studies have shown to be helpful. Because this amount may provide up to 450 calories, you may want to cut calories in other areas or step up the exercise to compensate.”  Want more info on possible health benefits from chocolate?  CLICK HERE

Want lots and lots – did I say lots? – of chocolate recipes?  Click Here for a Chocolate Calzone recipe from Teaspoon Communications, and be sure to scroll down the page for links to lots of chocolate recipes in celebration of Valentine’s Day.  And I must thank our friend Regan and her blog, The Professional Palate, for leading me to this treasure trove of chocoholic recipes.

Looking for Valentine’s Day Treats & Recipes that are Healthy?  Look no further:

EatingWell.com provides us with Valentine’s Recipes & Menus.

And SheKnows.com gives us recipes for Healthy Valentine’s Day Treats, including one for tiramisu that looks super good.

Last but not least, check out one of my absolute favorite websites – SkinnyTaste.com – for their Valentine’s Day Recipes.  The one that caught my eye and I may have to try myself is a recipe for Dark Chocolate Chunk Bread Pudding.

Have other Valentine’s related health, fitness & nutrition related information you want to share?  Let us know in the comments – we’d love to hear from you!

Our meal criteria is that it has to be healthy and nutritious, but it absolutely has to taste good.  We are a family of three busy, active folks, and recipes [...]]]> This New Year our family made a recipe resolution – a commitment to find new, good, healthy recipes to add to our repertoire. 

Our meal criteria is that it has to be healthy and nutritious, but it absolutely has to taste good.  We are a family of three busy, active folks, and recipes also have to be filling and give all of us the energy that we need to make it through our days.  In our house, we are also focusing on trying to incorporate more veggies, more fish & seafood, and less poultry, pork and beef.

As I continue trial and error, I found a winner with two Skinnytaste.com recipes for Thai Coconut Red Curry Shrimp & Coconut Rice.  

Now, don’t let the word “curry” scare you.  When paired with the coconut milk, this is a very mild, creamy curry with just a little spice.  It’s really, very yummy.  And let me tell you the best thing about these recipes – they are super easy.  Honestly, the most time consuming thing is peeling and deveining the shrimp.

I did make a few adjustments to the recipes – nothing major, so if you make them exactly as the recipe says, I’m sure it will still be wonderful.  But, I made two easy recipes even easier. 

I made the rice in my rice cooker.  If you don’t have a rice cooker, get one.  Seriously.  They are not expensive, and a rice cooker makes cooking rice, quinoa, and steamed veggies SO easy.  Pop the food into the cooker, turn it on, and then eat it when the machine beeps.  Really, it’s just that easy.

Anyway – for the Coconut Rice recipe, I put EVERYTHING in the rice cooker, stirred it around, turned it on, and when it was done, I stirred/fluffed the rice again to evenly distribute the cilantro.  I also tweaked the ingredients a little - we love jasmine rice, so I used regular/white jasmine rice.  I also did not use the flaked coconut.  I used minced garlic instead of mincing the cloves myself.  And I used sliced ginger in water and then finely chopped it, instead of grating fresh ginger.  I did, however, use fresh cilantro (it smells soooooo good when you chop it!).

Also, I doubled the recipe for the rice.  We love rice.

For the Thai Coconut Red Curry Shrimp, I also made a couple of tweaks.  I did not use the scallions.  I didn’t have them, and I’m just not really crazy about them anyway.  So, I left them out.  Again, here, I used minced garlic instead of mincing the cloves myself.  Otherwise, I followed the recipe directly.

I served the shrimp over the rice, and drizzled some of the sauce from the shrimp dish over the rice.

One addition that I would recommend to finish the dish is to serve with a slice of lime.  I loved the way that the little bite from the citrus mixed with the wonderfully creaminess from the coconut milk.

For both of these recipes, you can find the specialty ingredients - the sliced ginger (it comes in a jar), along with the Thai Red Curry Paste, the Lite Coconut Milk, the Fish Sauce – in the asian section of the grocery store.  I found all of these ingredients at my neighborhood Publix.  No special trips necessary.

A note on the shrimp – and really all seafood – be aware of where it is from.  Ask your grocer if it’s wild or farm-raised and ask where it comes from.  Other countries may not have the same standards for their farm-raised fish & shrimp as we do here in the US, so I always try to choose wild shrimp from the USA.

I made the photos shown here – nothing super fancy, but I guarantee, if you put a nice salad with it and serve it to company, they will leave happy.  But it was easy enough and good enough for me to make it just for the three of us twice in the past two weeks.

If you try it – let us know what you think!  Enjoy!

Thai Coconut Red Curry Shrimp
from SkinnyTaste.com • Servings: 4 • Serving Size: 1/4th • Calories: 135 • Fat: 4.4 g • Protein: 18.5 g • Carb: 4.7 g • Fiber: 0.9 g

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp oil
• 4 scallions, whites and greens separated, chopped
• 1 tbsp Thai red curry paste
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 6 oz light coconut milk
• 2 tsp fish sauce
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• salt to taste

Directions:

In a large nonstick skillet, heat oil on medium-high. Add scallion whites and red curry paste and sauté one minute. Add shrimp and garlic, season with salt and cook about 2-3 minutes. Add coconut milk, fish sauce and mix well. Simmer about 2-3 minutes, until shrimp is cooked through. Remove from heat, mix in scallion greens and cilantro. Serve over rice and enjoy!

Coconut Rice
from SkinnyTaste.com • Servings: 4 • Serving Size: 1/4th • Calories: 206 • Fat: 5.4 g • Protein: 3.1 g • Carb: 35.1 g • Fiber: 1.8 g • Sugar: 1.3 g • Sodium: 154.3 mg

Ingredients:

• 1 cup uncooked brown rice or jasmine rice
• 1 cup lite coconut milk
• 1 1/4 cup water
• 1 tsp grated fresh ginger
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1/4 tsp salt, or more to taste
• 2 tbsp sweetened grated coconut
• 3 tbsp cilantro

Directions:

In a medium sized heavy pot, add coconut milk, rice, water, ginger, garlic, salt and coconut; bring to a bowl over medium heat.  Reduce heat to low, cover
and simmer until all liquid evaporates, about 40-45 minutes. Remove from heat, keep covered for 10 more minutes. Fluff with a fork; toss with cilantro.

These [...]]]> We do a lot of circuit training at Excellence In Exericse, and the best way to keep your workout fresh and challenging is to add new exercises to your circuits.  I’m working on a new series of posts – Circuit Busters – that will help you do just that.

These circuit busting exercises may be just what you need to break through a plateau and take your fitness to the next level.  Besides, if you are always trying something new, adding something different to your workout repertoire, you won’t ever get bored, right?!

So, let’s look at some exercises you can do using the cable machine.  Often, people are intimidated by this machine because it has lots of different positions and settings and moving parts.  But don’t worry – it’s actually pretty easy to use.  And, all those different settings and parts just mean that you can use this one piece of equipment to do a LOT of different things.

Our trainer, Jason, has demonstrated four different exercises that you can do using the cable machine – Cable Rows, Cable Lap Pulldowns, Cable Rotation and Cable Chest Press.  Click on each of the links below to view the how-to video demonstrations.  And try adding one of these exercises to your next workout.

Cable Row Video

Cable Lat Pulldown Video

Cable Pulley Rotation Video

Cable Chest Press Video

My husband and I are both trainers, and we have a young son.  So our criteria for a new recipe is that it has to be healthy and [...]]]> One of our family’s resolutions for the new year was to try to find new, good, healthy recipes to add to our repertoire. 

My husband and I are both trainers, and we have a young son.  So our criteria for a new recipe is that it has to be healthy and nutritious, but the recipe absolutely can’t sacrifice taste.  Recipes have to be filling and give all 3 of us the energy that we need to make it through a busy day.  In our house, we are also focusing on trying to incorporate more veggies, more fish & seafood, and less poultry, pork and beef.

I’ve had a month now for trial and error, and recently I’ve gotten lucky and hit a few home runs.

One of those home runs was Baked Oatmeal with Blueberries & Bananas.  I found this recipe on one of my favorite recipe sites – SkinnyTaste.com, and we tried it this past weekend.

I did all the prep work on Friday evening – arranging the bananas & blueberries in the baking dish and preparing both the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients.  I placed all of the containers in the fridge, and then Saturday morning, it only took a few minutes to throw it all together and pop it into the oven.

We served it with some scrambled eggs with cheese (one of our staple breakfast items), and the photo included here is one that I took, so this is what the dish really looked like.  It was pretty enough to serve for company, but easy enough to prepare anytime.  It was filling and very yummy with the fruit, nuts & oatmeal, and just a little sweetness.  It kept well and was great warmed up for an easy Monday morning breakfast.

Enjoy!  And if you try it, let us know what you think!

Baked Oatmeal with Blueberries and Bananas
Modified from Ambrosia Baking from Skinnytaste.com

• 2 medium ripe bananas, (the riper the better) sliced into 1/2″ pieces
• 1 1/2 cup blueberries
• 1/4 cup honey (or agave)
• 1 cup uncooked quick oats
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup fat free milk (or any milk you desire)
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

But - a study by Mikael Molin, published in Molecular Cell, shows [...]]]> There is now additional research on how reduced caloric intake can slow the aging process.  Now, this doesn’t mean that we should all slash our calories to nothing.  Food is our fuel, and we all need fuel to function.

But - a study by Mikael Molin, published in Molecular Cell, shows that “consuming fewer calories slows the aging process and the development of age-related diseases such as cancer and type 2 diabetes by protecting select enzymes which can exert effects upon DNA.”

The researched showed that a ”gradual reduction in the intake of proteins and sugars, without a reduction in vitamins and minerals, can potentially increase the lifespan.”

For the research short from the National Council on Strength & Fitness, CLICK HERE.

For the full article from Molecular Cell, CLICK HERE.

Check out this week’s article roundup for motivation and tips for keeping your new year’s health and fitness goals in sight:

Did you know you can burn more calories by [...]]]> We’re half way through the month of January.  Remember those resolutions?  How are you doing more than 2 weeks in?

Check out this week’s article roundup for motivation and tips for keeping your new year’s health and fitness goals in sight:

Did you know you can burn more calories by working out in cold weather?  Get moving outside with these tips for working out in the cold from Women’s Health Magazine.

Had enough of the eliptical?  Need a cardio boost?  Check out these cardio workout plans from Fitness Magazine.

Looking for good work-out tunes for your Ipod?  Check out Fitness Magazine’s list of the 100 Best Workout Songs.  Still need help?  Check out celeb trainer Gunnar Peterson’s training playlist.

During the winter season especially, it’s important to incorporate foods that boost the body’s immune system.  Check out this list of 8 immune boosters from Prevention Magazine.

Women’s Health also gives us a list of their top tips for keeping healthy during the winter season.

Want those comfort foods that are so good in the winter, but don’t want the fat and calories?  Check out Shine.com’s recipes for Classic Comfort Foods Made Healthy.

Have topics that you’d like us to cover?  Let us know in the comments!