It might be one of the strangest pieces of fitness equipment, but you can get a good workout using it. The BOSU ball total body workout offers your body a challenge. Continue to read this article to start learning more about this workout.

The BOSU ball is a balance trainer. It looks like half of an exercise ball in a frame but it is actually quite effective. Have you ever tried to stand on an exercise ball? This is what it’s like to stand on a BOSU and balance.

Exercising on a BOSU ball works the entire lower half of the body as well as the biceps, triceps, chest, and abs. Those areas amount to all the major muscle groups in your body. Begin the experience with a warm up and a stretch. BOSU workouts are harder than they look so take it easy.

Cardiovascular exercises can be done on the BOSU ball. Find your balance in the center of the ball. Then, jump up and down, maintaining your balance each time you land. You can also jump on and off the ball.

Now that your heart rate is up, you can switch to weight work using the ball. Triceps dips can be performed on the ball side while pushups are usually done on the flat side of the BOSU. Holding the sides of the bottom, you have to balance your body in order to perform the exercise. Starting with knees on the ground helps you find your center on the BOSU before performing straight leg pushups.

The lower body is challenged on the BOSU with exercises like lunges and squats. Squats can be done standing on the ball with or without weights. For lunges, you can lunge onto the ball or perform reverse lunges from the ball to the floor. With each exercise, the abs stay tight for posture and to keep you from falling off the ball.

Just like with an exercise ball, abs exercises can be performed on the BOSU. Sitting below the top of the ball, you can perform upper body crunches. Sitting on the top of the ball is better for V sit ups when you bring your knees up into your chest to work the lower abs and while doing your upper body crunches also.

In class or using a DVD, a variety of cardio routines can be implemented with the BOSU trainer. It provides a good workout for the entire body, especially the abs since they work overtime to just to keep you balanced.

For BOSU Balls, and other balance training programs and DVDs, please click here.

The American Heart Association wants to keep you moving. Heart disease doesn’t happen overnight. Instead we help it along with poor nutrition, high cholesterol, and a sedentary lifestyle. Find out about the AHA exercise programs that promote physical activity at every age for the health of your heart.

Choose to Move®

This is a 12 week fitness program promoted by the American Heart Association. The program is designed to show people how to get started with physical exercise and slowly increase it to a level that will be beneficial to their health. Getting physical everyday reduces the risk of heart disease and other conditions associated with it.

You can sign up for the program at the American Heart Association website where registration is free. As a participant, you’ll receive a handbook, biweekly emails containing fitness and activity tips, information on heart disease, and motivational emails to help you stick with it. The program also promotes a healthy eating regimen to help you lose weight and lower your risk factors for heart disease.

When the program is complete you will be able to sustain the results you have achieved. By the end, you will be performing at least 30 minutes of exercise at least five days a week, making better food choices to promote health, and learning to engage in more intense exercises for variety.

Choose to Move can be started as a family, with a social group, or done alone. It begins at your current level of physical activity and proceeds according to your needs making it great for young people and people of advanced age.

Start!®

This workout program is also recommended by the American Heart Association. It is a walking workout geared towards those who spend a lot of time in the workplace. As our jobs require less and less movement and longer and longer hours, we are less inclined to perform physical activity. The world is becoming more sedentary and overweight each and every day.

According to most health professionals, walking is one of the best forms of exercise. It gets your heart rate up and works the entire body at one time. Walking can be done anywhere and you can easily fit the activity into any schedule. It is easy and has great benefits.

The hardest part for most people is getting started. This walking workout encourages companies to get their employees moving. Healthier employees mean lower insurance costs and medical bills.

All the company has to do is set up the program and offer it to their employees. Employers will receive a guide to help the company program administrator keep everyone on the right track. Walking trails are set up and marked at work so employees can use them on their lunch hour or whenever they have spare time.

The American Heart Association wants to see the incidence of heart disease decrease and physical activity increase. Both of these workouts are geared towards doing just that. Check them out at www.heart.org.

Tae Bo has been around for several years. In the 80s, Billy Blanks, a former Tae Kwon Do martial arts champion brought together his martial art training and boxing to create the groundbreaking workout that is still a phenomenon 20 years later. The workout has continued to evolve to promote fitness in all shapes and sizes of people.

People who have followed Tae Bo since the beginning are still getting their money’s worth from the workout. Not only does the kickboxing portion ramp up the heart rate, but the kicks and punches also build muscle and burn fat. It is a total body workout that is suitable for men, women, young and old.

Tae Bo videos and DVDs are sold in major stores all over the country and online. The workouts begin with a warm up and a stretch which is crucial to any workout. Beginning workouts demonstrate the moves in slow motion and then in time with the music so that everyone can get used to moving their body in these ways. More advanced workouts follow when you master the beginning videos.

Through each workout, Billy Blanks performs the moves with the class and talks the audience through each move, encouraging everyone to continue and not give up. He combines his faith with his fitness expertise to get even the most sedentary people off of the couch and moving their bodies. The Billy Blanks Tae Bo workouts have changed many people's lives.

The Tae Bo series continued with Tae Bo Boot Camp®. These DVDs are meant to combine resistance bands with cardio boxing moves to ramp up your fitness level. The routines are demonstrated slowly and then you move faster for fitness.

Tae Bo also has a series entitled Tae Bo Amped®. These series of routines use a weighted resistance bar to add weight to the workout for muscle building. Periods of intense cardio are mixed with kickboxing routines for increased fat burning.

The latest DVD series is Tae Bo T3®. Each new series adds another component to the kickboxing moves to enhance fitness and keep the body constantly changing. No two routines are the same and with this type of workout, tapes and DVDs can be alternated for an entire week of great workouts that won’t become monotonous. You are encouraged to perform a different workout five to seven days a week with a day or two off for rest.

On the Tae Bo website, fans can find workout schedules to help them alternate for muscle confusion and to avoid boredom. With any of the workout programs you purchase, there is an eating plan included to maximize results.

Tae Bo workouts do not use professional fitness trainers, but real people, to demonstrate the workout. They sweat just like you do. Billy Blanks keeps the workouts fresh and motivating so that participants will continue until they reach their goals.

Exercise is important for a number of reasons. It provides cardiovascular health which keeps the body looking and feeling younger. Exercise helps improve immunity and keep disease at bay. Pilates’ workouts are a part of that exercise equation.

What is Pilates ? Many people think that it is just a dainty workout for people who are already in shape. These people believe it involves stretching, bending and eating celery to maintain the body, but don’t believe it has anything to do with fitness. For those who think along those lines, you might actually be surprised by the truth behind Pilates.

Pilates is a workout developed by Joseph Pilates that uses the idea of contrology. It balances the body through a series of controlled movements designed to stretch and build muscles in the body.

Anyone can do Pilates. The moves sound intimidating like the downward facing dog, but it isn’t sinister skinny people speak I promise. Your body might need a bit of time to adjust to the positions in the beginning, but that’s usually the case with any exercise routine. Those who have taken up the Pilates workout have come to love it and swear by its results.

The way Pilates was developed involved using a series of ropes and pulleys. More modern Pilates styles like the Windsor Pilates workout program don’t use such a contraption, but a mat and other small pieces of equipment to bring the amazing results some people have experienced.

The main target of Pilates is the core. Our core is the center of our body. It supports the rest of our body and resists injuries that are a result of poor muscle development in the core which includes the abdominals and the back muscles.

Pilates’ workouts keep the core muscles in mind through every movement and routine. As you work, you’ll see your stomach become shapely and defined. You can even get a six pack if you want it from the help of a workout like this. Building muscle through Pilates burns fat when combined with a decent eating plan.

Pilates has six principles that are built into the workout routines: breath, concentration, control, centering, flow, and precision. The entire body is connected and by working all of the muscle groups, the body becomes a lean machine that can handle anything.

Pilates’ classes can be taken at a gym, a private studio, or through a DVD series of workouts if you exercise at home or are limited on time. With Pilates, you won’t be running around or lifting heavy weights, but your body will get a deep workout that will change its shape. Pilates works well for people who can’t handle vigorous exercise.

For everything you could need for Pilates, please go here.