Over the course of the past 6 months, I have been rehabing a broken patella… by climbing stairs. Yep, that’s right… stairs.

Stairmasters, stadium facilities and even the famous Santa Monica stairs have all been outlets for my cardio and rehab.  The low impact, high intensity nature of the workout allows me to move safely and protect my joints all while elevating my heart rate and the results have been fantastic.

If you want to tone your glutes, strengthen your thighs and increase calorie burn, then take it to the stairs….any stairs. Try to hustle on the way up where the main effects occur and take it slow on the way down to reduce impact.  You’ll be amazed at how winded you get and how strong you’ll feel shortly after. Get climbing!

- Christina Malizia

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Our family just returned from a vacation, full of rest, in Southern California.  We all feel more relaxed and I can see it in our faces. It made me wonder if, we realize the importance of resting.

At the end of the first day we arrived at the beach in Santa Barbara. Our over-tired children were misbehaving and too loud for our hotel, although it was only 8pm.   My husband even spoke about turning around and heading back home in the morning. “It will all get easier,” I assured everyone.

When we woke with fresh eyes, we embraced the new surrounding and different daily life. As we settled into a routine of family time, walking, and seeing new places and faces, everything SLOWED.

With no house to clean and no meals to cook, there was a real ease to the day. One of the boys still naps and it was a blessing for us all.  We discovered we all needed to put our feet up and chill out.  A daily “siesta” happened for me… ahh sleep.

The late afternoons were filled with walking, swimming, beach time and an energized family. While we had imagined late nights, our bodies kept reminding us to rest. We did mange to stay up for a hotel movie or later dinner a few nights, however mostly we slept, deep sleep.

It was the first time we have travelled together and not over done it.  No BIG adventures. What I learned was being together in our family is a lot.  All the “things” I thought we had to DO to fill our time just melted away and never happened.  We shared laughs, enjoyed nature, each other and best of all came home excited and well rested.

Sleep, it is essential to happiness!

- Rebecca “Bex” Urban

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I did an interview with a fitness magazine this week and one of the questions they asked me was what my secret was to losing weight besides Pure Barre.

Of course diet and exercise are the obvious answers but I truly think the secret ingredient to weight loss is happiness. I don’t know if there are any studies out there that can prove this, but I do know from my own body, that it is absolutely true.

There have been times when I have lost weight and other times when I have gained weight, when my exercise regime and diet have been exactly the same. I can trace it back and find that it correlates directly with my mental state of mind and what is going on in my life emotionally. Something seems to just let go when you are happy and the weight lets go with it.

In a way weight loss is like love. When you stop trying so hard to make it happen, it happens!

- Carrie Rezabek

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“I do 500 crunches and my abs aren’t flat…what gives?”

As a trainer I hear over and over “oh I ate a lot last night, can we do ab work?” My answer is always no. The abdominals are an area of the body that should be worked just like the biceps, quadriceps and even the back muscles – in conjunction with the whole body.

For example, to get toned arms, its best to work the shoulders, triceps as well as the biceps….not just the biceps alone. Same goes for the abdominals. Crunches are fine as long as you are doing stabilizing exercises such as the plank, side plank and core holds.

Planks can be done on your forearms, knees off the ground with your back and head in a neutral position. A good starting point is the hold 3 sets for 30 seconds long…advance from there.

Side plank is the same position just on either forearm, with the other arm raised above head, hips are held high for a 30 second count each side.

A core hold can be done best on the edge of a bench on your sits bone…lifting your feet and hands off the bench, chest is held high….extending legs straight for a more advance move…again 30 seconds long.

Crunches are fine when wanting to work the core but remember to have a flat stomach, drink lots of water eat a balance diet and make sure you are getting 30-45 minutes of cardio 5 days a week!

- Christina Malizia

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