Guest contributor: Healing Lifestyles & Spas

Get your brooms ready, because it’s time to sweep yourself into shape. Here is the plan: choose one of these exercises each day and do it for 5 minutes over a period of 5 days, and get fantastic results.

1. Marching squat - This will give you a burn that you love and a bum to go with it. You take a broom or a mop and stand it up in front of you at arms length. Squat down so that you have a diagonal line from your tailbone to your grip on the top of the broom. You are positioned like the chair pose in yoga, except your feet are shoulder width apart. Pull your ab muscles toward your spine and MAINTAIN your position. Start marching by lifting your feet about two inches off the ground, keeping your starting position stable. If you are a superstar, you can maintain this mini march for 5 minutes, if you are star, do it in 2 sets of 2.5 minutes.

Play your favorite two songs in a row to get through this beautiful, butt-lifting and quad tightening burn!

2. 5 Stage Plank- 1st stage- Get in plank position- your body is parallel to the floor, wrists under shoulders, hips at shoulder level, buttocks tight, neutral spine. Hold for 1 minute. – Rest 10 seconds. 2nd and 3rd stage- Go back to plank and extend right arm forward and left leg back. The foot will be slightly higher than butt level. Hold for 1 minute. Rest 10 seconds and repeat on the other side. 4th stage- Return to plank but this time, contract the abs and bend your knees until they are about 2 inches away from the floor- hold one minute, then rest 10 seconds. Final stage- go to plank on your elbows with, palms facing down and focus on your fingertips. This great routine will work your whole body by lifting just a little more than a finger.

3. Running Biceps  - Stand with feet shoulder width apart, knees slightly bent, abs pulled to spine. Hold 3 to 5 pound hand weights at your side with palms facing inward. Begin doing alternating bicep curls, keeping your elbows at the waist being careful not to fully extend your arms. Increase the speed of your curls until you feel like you are sprinting with your arms. Do not let elbows move away from the waist and be careful not to move your shoulders side to side. Do this 5 times for 1 minute each and you arms will be faster than your legs!

4. Lateral leg lifts- Dust off your old broom and put it in front of you standing up vertically. Walk your feet back so that your spine is nearly parallel to the floor. Bend your knees slightly. Lift the right leg out to the side and hold it with your foot parallel to the floor for 2 straight minutes. After the hold pulse it up and down for 30 seconds. Repeat on the other side. Try to maintain the shoulders level and even with the hips, think in geometric angles. Body at 90 degrees, Leg should extend at a range fro 45 to 90 degrees out to the side. This exercise gives a whole new meaning to getting in shape.

5. Dead Bug- Lie on you back with your arms and legs extended toward the ceiling. Hold 3 pound weights in your hands with your palms facing inward. Keeping the arms straight, extend them backwards towards your ears about 8 inches from the floor. Keep legs extended to the ceiling and point the toes and lower the legs about 6 to 8 inches depending on your flexibility. Keep the lower spine in contact with the floor. Hold this position for 5 sets of 1-minute intervals. Your triceps may start burning and your legs may shake, but breathe through it and remember…you are just Five minutes to Fabulous.

Courtesy of Tiffany Rothe, Center 8 Studio in Playa Del Carmen, MX. Photos by Cedra Stokes Photography

If Erika Bloom was a character on Gossip Girl, she’d be crowned the Upper East Side Pilates Queen. Blair would run into Lily at Erika Bloom Pilates Plus on Madison Avenue for a dramatic core-toning scene on the Pilates Reformer machine. Chuck would coincidentally be indulging in a Thai Yoga Massage in the other room, and Erika, who is currently pregnant with her second baby, would undoubtedly go into labor and Dorota would rush in and know exactly what to do.

But until the show’s writers get ahold of this blog post, we can rest assured the posh, intimate private Pilates studio is drama-free, even with her large following of celebrity clientele. You can check it out during Spa Week for $50, and I highly suggest you do. Erika’s been featured in Vogue, Gotham, Fitness and Hamptons Magazines among others, and here, she writes for Spa Week Daily:

Pilates is all the buzz now, but did you know it’s actually been around for more than 100 years? It’s proven itself as an amazing method for transforming bodies but still remains a groundbreaking approach. At Erika Bloom Pilates Plus we give sessions that are specific to each individual client’s alignment and goals. Our unique approach yields amazing results! Take a look at our workout on the Pilates reformer and cadillac and read why you should make Pilates YOUR workout!

Erika Bloom’s Top 5 Reasons to Make Pilates YOUR Workout:

1) It’s the source of some of Hollywood’s hottest bodies, from Jennifer Garner to Madonna to Kerry Washington.

2) Pilates targets the deeper, intrinsic muscles of the body so it tightens, tones, and reshapes your entire body from head to toe (including those stubborn trouble spots!) without adding bulk.

3) Its intelligent exercise. You won’t get bored or burned out and neither will your body!

4) Pilates is a low impact, healthy exercise method so it doesn’t just make you look amazing now, it will also keep you injury free and looking and feeling good throughout your lifetime.

5) Pilates improves posture and alignment, and standing up straight is the easiest way to look long, lean, and beautiful!

Erika Bloom Pilates Plus
795 Madison Ave. 2nd Fl
New York, NY 10065
(212) 288-3410

Photo via Bloomspot

Is the gym passé? A New York Times article begs this question in response to the technology-addicted, wavering drones, who trickle in every so often that have become detrimental to the founding concept of the health club. To credit the culprits or gadgets in any given gym you’ll find people plugged into their iPods, texting on the bikes, or locked into the big flat screens provided by the gym. You tune out the guy working out on the treadmill right next to you,  leave when your play list gets stale, or position yourself right in front of the TV to avoid missing the new Gossip Girl.

Manhattan based gym consultant Jonathan Fields explains, “In the 70s, they came for community. Now they come in and disassociate themselves from everyone in the club. It’s killing the health club.”According to the International Health, Racquet & Sports Association membership is down by 45%. Planet Fitness eliminated all one-on-one personal training sessions from all 406 franchises. Gym goers looking for tailored instruction are stuck with staff trained 30 minute sessions in groups of five.

Hardly the motivated community Fields was referring to. Are you surprised? In the age of  iPads and droids the focus has totally shifted from being there to get in shape, to being there because the facility accommodates your addiction to entertainment.

If you were to survey all the women in the world about their workout routine most would admit they skip exercise to avoid ruining a good hair style. Of course we all want to slim down and to be able to boast about the thrill and adrenaline that comes from a good run, but fear of the the frizz keeps us away. How many of you sacrifice going to the gym to keep up a hair style? The key to getting over your frustration with sweat is to change your mindset. Find time in your schedule to exercise, maybe the Monday morning after a long weekend of running around, when hair is not a top priority. Women’s Health suggest you get active with a few off the face do’s that would look great post warm up. Click here for more effortless styles.

Your time is precious. Especially when you have less than an hour to pick up your dry cleaning, stop for lunch, and attempt to make up for those juicy beef tacos you had topped to the max. It’s okay to turn down the drink invite. Why not turn your happy hour into an hour filled with endorphins and perspiration?

Sixty minutes is plenty of time to do a substantial routine that involves strength, endurance, stability and flexibility… but you have to know what to do.

Introducing your virtual fitness coach Noam Tamir, president of Flex4Fitness Inc. and certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist through the NSCA.

Noam, what’s the absolute best way to maximize 60 minutes at the gym?

1. First start with a 5 min warm up on the elliptical cross trainer or treadmill. This will start to elevate your heart rate and warm up your muscles. Bikes are okay but they mostly involve the lower part of your body and therefore don’t warm up your whole body.

Important: Don’t stop moving. The more you move the more energy you use and the more calories you burn.

2. Next, do 10 min of dynamic stretching movements. Lengthen the muscle through movements such as rolling your shoulders, crossing your arms back and forth to stretch your chest and kicking out your feet to stretch your hamstrings. You can do repetitions of 15-20 for each one. Again, this will elevate your heart rate, create blood flow and prepare your muscles to be worked.

3. The next portion of this workout consists of the 25 minutes resistance training. Most people think that weights cause you to only build muscle, but what they also do is burn fat. Not only that, but it causes you to burn calories at a higher rate for up to 36 hours after your training versus a cardiovascular training which causes your body to go back to normal after just a few hours. The resistance training should consist of high reps, little rest and stability exercises so that your core is constantly being challenged. You can begin with lower body movements such as a squat on an unstable surface such as a bosu followed by a bent over dumbbell row, into a bridge with a swiss ball, into a dumbbell chest press on a swiss ball. Using big muscle groups and alternating upper and lower body allows you to keep moving and lets certain body parts rest a little so you can keep up the intensity.

4. Last is 20 minutes of cardiovascular training–running, biking, elliptical, your pick. Why cardio at the end? The reason being is that it takes most people 10-15 minutes just to start burning fat. The first energy source the body uses is its carbohydrates. At this point the cardio you do is all fat burning and much more optimal.