If you’re lucky enough to live near the ocean (jealous!) you might want to spice up your spring and summer workout routines by exploring a workout that’s also an undersea adventure: free diving.

Free diving is often likened to scuba diving without the mask; divers head down to the ocean floor on the power of their own lung capacity alone. Frequent divers enjoy all the benefits of swimming (cardio and muscle training galore), plus a respiratory workout you just can’t get anywhere else. Divers call the practice soothing, exciting, and way more raw than running on a treadmill or swimming in a chlorinated pool; after all, the floor of the gym may be harboring life forms, but they’re probably not fish and coral.

Celebrity free-diving devotees include Hayden Panettierre - make like her and give it a try!

To find classes near you (this is one sport you definitely don’t want to go DIY on) check out the info on freediving at the USAA.

Sunday mornings can be rough.

Everyone has those nights where you somehow end up in a fast food restaurant at 4 AM and then when you get home, you decide it’s a good idea to smear chocolate frosting from your roommate’s cake onto the leftover bread from your sandwich. Right??? Don’t answer that one.  Or, you know, you wake up the next day with Tyson’s pet tiger in your bathroom and realize you have a baby and a hooker wife and missing tooth.

We’re all entitled! But once you put the pieces back together (or not), does it make it all better if you motivate yourself to go to the gym the next day? I think yes. So when I arrived at Equinox on 19th and Broadway in NYC yesterday at 2pm, my trainer Tom took one look at me and introduced to me:

The 6 All-Time Best Hangover Exercises

1. FOAM ROLLER: This isn’t so much of an exercise as it is a self-massage. By letting your body weight do the work, roll your glutes, legs, back and obliques back and forth on a foam roller. You’ll be releasing toxins from the night before. (Otherwise, we recommend a massage)

2. ROWING MACHINE: Rowing machines are just more fun that most cardio machines. Instead of setting a time goal, set a distance goal of 1000 meters. This will take you about 5 minutes to complete (more or less depending on your hustle) and will seem like less. Do this twice, giving yourself a 5 minute breather in between.

3. MEDICINE BALL (THE SLAM): They don’t call it a medicine ball for no reason. Slam it down! The morning after a rough night calls for some fun. And there’s nothing quite as fun as slamming a medicine ball down to the floor and letting out a booming ARGGGG!!! Do 10 in a row— it gets your heart pumping and provides sensational release! Go back and forth 3 times between this exercise and #4:

4. MEDICINE BALL (PLAY CATCH): You’re not done with your meds. You’ll need a partner for this one. Stand about 8 feet apart, and toss the medicine ball to one another underhand. Now, do this while trotting back and forth across the width of a room 20 times. You’ll forget you’re even working out!

5. SPRINTS: This morning is all about baby steps. Don’t even think about a treadmill… just run back and forth! Do 3 sets of 10 laps— across a gym classroom, or any clear straight path where you can see the other end and don’t think “oh man, that’s far.” On the way there, sprint it. On the way back, jog it out.

6. JUMP ROPE: If you did it on a playground in grade school, chances are you’ll be able to handle during a hangover. Make it to 100 without skipping a skip! Every time you mess up, that’s one push-up you have to do afterward. 4 trip-ups? 4 push-ups. Do this twice, and make sure you’re listening to some good old school music to add to the experience.

Don’t forget to DRINK LOTS OF WATER! Or do better, and drink something with electrolytes like Gatorade. And when you look in the full-length mirror, don’t hide. Embrace the dishevel. You could have gone back to sleep, but look at you, superstar!

Training sponsored by Equinox on 19th and Broadway, NYC

It’s aphrodisiac season and Cupid is confused. Cupid is pressuring you to reel in your Valentine by eating aphrodisiac-filled chocolate (Yikes! Not THAT much), showering in Axe (use at your own risk), hanging out with Rhinos (questionable) and sweating out your good ol’ natural stank. Right?

Well, it came to my attention that for many people, cleanliness can be the biggest aphrodisiac of all. “I like a girl with a nice fresh lemony scent,” a friend explained last night. “Being clean is the #1 thing I look for in a girl.”

So today, to help you land a Valentine, find love, maintain a healthy relationship, or at least kill 99.99% of the germs in your life… we’re going to be giving away 5 bottles of Clean Well Hand Sanitizer.

I’ve been using it for a month or so, and believe me, this stuff is as fresh and lemony as it gets, and no illnesses to report… not even a sneeze! Are men falling in love with my clean, lemony self left and right? I’ll get back to you.

To Enter:
In the comments below, tell us the germ-iest thing you’ve touched recently. The 5 of you who we think need it most will win a 4 ounce bottle of Clean Well All-Natural Hand Sanitizer. That’s 900+ sprays of sexy, germ-free clean! Enter until Monday, 2/8, 11:59 pm EST.

PS. Bonus points for our friends on Facebook and Twitter who already carry around hand sanitizer to keep aphrodisiac-quality clean! We asked about it last week. Su’Ona Johnson Thompson carries around Purell, @heavensfear and Ravinder Kaur like their germs killed by stuff from Bath & Body Works, Kim Hopkins keeps Germ-X Wipes in every possible spot she could be, and @amymartinG told us Clean Well is her favorite because it’s great for kids and it’s non-drying. (Because all kids could use a good aphrodisiac…)

Update: THE WINNERS

Congratualtions to the 5 of you, you’ve won a bottle of CLEAN WELL Hand Sanitizer! (There are a lot of germs to kill - I hope you guys use this stuff regularly! Contact me with your address to claim your prize - michelle @ spaweekmedia.com or DM me @michellejoni.

Susan @grumpy1970 - I had to dig through our outside garbage can for my sons lost tooth that was wrapped in a napkin. Ugh! Thanks for teh opportunity to win your giveaway!

Dianestokes - I was going to say grocery store carts, but I remembered reading once that elevator buttons and escalator rails are actually the germ-iest things we touch. They never get sanitized. :/

JM @pbrandpbj - I have an adorable 3-year old Yorkie who will eat and chew on pretty much anything. Most recently, on one of our evening walks he sniffed out a half eaten chicken wing that someone so lovingly discarded for him on the sidewalk. I had no choice but to pry open his mouth and pull out the food item with my bare hands.

Melissa Finley @mymendinghands - New York City Subway Poles and Handles….multiple times a day….every day.

Zachary Adam Cohen @zacharycohen - I touched a homeless persons mouth the other day, i was taking a cigarette out of their mouth because smoking is bad for you.

Many of you may have seen this video that’s gone viral of a woman fainting on The Price Is Right when she hears she may win a trip to Minneapolis and a rockin’ Dodge car. Her swooning is rather spectacular, but she was fine (and she won!)

Doctors call fainting an episode of “syncope”, or a sudden loss of consciousness. Fainters lose consciousness when blood stops flowing to the brain, and it can be caused by a number of factors. Environmental factors (think hot, crowded rooms), stress or threat, and physical factors (particularly standing too long with locked knees, dehydration, or low blood sugar) are the most common culprits, but fainting can also be a sign of illness or more serious underlying medical conditions.

If you faint repeatedly and/or for no reason with no other symptoms, head to the hospital to get checked out! If you’re prone to fainting and have been cleared by a doctor for more serious conditions. And while there’s no direct link between regular spa visits and fainting, we do know body treatments can improve circulation and nervous system function - so putting in your time at the spa sure can’t hurt!

When it comes to getting to the gym in the mornings, when I make it there I’m usually a broken record - I’ll run on the track or use the elliptical before rotating through a few weight stations. It works, but it’s far from thrilling.

I know I usually never cast a glance towards the other cardio equipment, but this Fitsugar article convinced me that I should give these lonely pieces of equipment a second chance. 

All this equipment blasts calories and mixes intense strength training with all the heart-healthy benefits of cardio, which means you can knock out boredom at the same time that you turbo-load your workout.

If you’re neglecting the following equipment, you might want to think again:

1. Rowing machine
2. Arc trainers (like a stair-stepper, elliptical, and treadmill all in one…my gym doesn’t have one or I think I would have given it a try! Who doesn’t love exercise machines that mimic that hamster-in-the-wheel feel?)
3. Stationary bikes
4. The Stairmaster or “StairMill”/endless staircase
5. VersaClimber (another one my gym doesn’t have - this machine mimics the effort required to mount a vertical incline.)

As an added bonus, most of these machines have all the benefits of running but are much more gentle on the joints. Thanks for the reminder that we can shake up our workouts even without taking classes, Fitsugar! 

What piece of gym equipment - traditional or not - is your favorite to work out on?