Creating a habit of regular exercise doesn’t require special gadgets or even equipments. Walking instead of taking the bus and climbing the stairs could be good enough for most folks. But if you’re bored and want to be on your toe with your results or enjoy using technology to enhance ordinary tasks, there is so many electronic exercise gadgets and digital devices available for everyone!

As someone who likes to keep active every day and workout regularly, I have been searching for a fitness band for some time as I have always wanted to monitor and track all my fitness and lifestyle related metrics such as distance walked, distance ran, number of hours slept, and calorie consumption, i do it not to lose weight but just to know my body better.

So my search began and I found out that there are many fitness bands available out in the market today such as the Garmin Vivofit, Basis, Nike+ Fuelband SE, Withings Pulse, Jawbone UP24 and Misfit Shine, among others. They all have different features and each one of them is styled differently. The one that recently caught my eye though is the Fitbit Flex. 

Although there are many other Fitbit style of fitness bands, the Fitbit Flex in my opinion is the best one of the lot as it offers a long list of features making it the most complete product of its kind and the best fitness tracker you can buy. It is also one of the best and most competitively priced trackers available, offering many more features than its competitors, and is priced much cheaper than similar products such as the Nike + FuelBand and Jawbone UP. Alot of my clients are seen with the Fitbit Flex.

Some of its features include the ability to track the number of steps you have taken, your sleep quality, the amount of calories you have consumed, and a silent wake alarm that gently vibrates to wake you at your desired time. The Fitbit Flex also automatically syncs all the data collected wirelessly to either your PC, Mac, iOS device, and select Andorid phones, providing the user with real-time access to all the stats on the Fitbit dashboard at any time of the day. 

As I scoured the net in search of the best price for the Fitbit Flex, I noticed that today was the launch of the LAZADA 100 SALE on http://www.lazada.sg/lazada100/. It turns out that Lazada Singapore are celebrating 100 days since the launch of their website in Singapore and they are having a sale featuring their TOP 100 Best Selling Items at prices of up to 90% off!

Imagine my delight when I found that they are offering the Fitbit Flex at the unbeatable price of only $109.00! Not only that, 3 lucky shoppers who take part in this sale will stand to $100 shopping vouchers!

The sale starts on the 28 August 2014 and will end on 10 September 2014. So don’t forget to check it out where they have many other products besides the Fitbit Flex ranging from mobiles, tablets, cameras, and consumer electronics to toys, fashion, health and beauty products.

Check out the sale here! à http://www.lazada.sg/lazada100/

And grab the Fitbit Flex here http://www.lazada.sg/fitbit-flex-fitness-tracker-lime-98897.html

Don’t forget to like the Lazada SG Facebook for more promotions! https://www.facebook.com/LazadaSingapore

In order for you to get your chin over the bar, i always prefer chest over the bar because i am able to engage my back even more,  there are of course some prerequisites for you to have just for safety sake before moving on to some progression.  I'm not saying don't take risk I'm saying that getting injured is a pain so here are 3 most important ones.

No injuries:
If you do have shoulder pain, back pain or any joint problem especially the elbow its best for you to address the pain! Never my friend let pain decrease your performance as a human being.

Healthy weight and slightly lean:
If you have excess fat, I suggest you focus on a different goals first because trust me pull up is already hard for moderately strong people, having excess weight means you have to work extra harder, its science. I’m not bursting your bubble, you can attempt to get a pull up but its not going to get easy without a certain degree of leanness also extra weight means extra pressure on your joints.

Willing to work for it:
Your not going to get it in one day, therefore keep going until you do if its your goal. 


So here are some progression.

its not a reverse pull up, you should do lat pulldown for a while to develop a basic level of strength in your lats and biceps that will help you with pull-ups down, if your overweight, its best to begin with this for safety , also it teaches you to engage the posterior muscle.

So want to try something more challenging? grab a box and jump up on a pull up bar and slowly lowering yourself down, best to count down to 5 second, do as many as you can until you cannot control your movement because its very demanding,you do want to look after your joints . This was the bulk of pull up practice i did everyday because i couldn't afford bands and there's not many fancy gadgets then!

Today I bump with my very first gym instructor in my gym that I came across when I was 16, back in the days when I got curious about exercises and what others was doing, I kept all my question to my gym instructor, though most of his answers was very straightforward that I thought I already know, I guess I just wanted to hear a magic exercise or a magic repetition to get a certain result.

 I always wanted to do pull ups! I would see all the massive dragonboaters performing them in the gym and I wanted to do just 1! Basically I just wanted to be the first girl in the gym to do a pull up, I’m competitive like that.

Its all hard work that is also why you don’t see many people using the pull up bar but just isolating their upper body to appear more cut or whatever they call it and many of this ripped guys, not all but many cant string 10 proper pull up.

One of the best back exercise along side with heavy deadlifts and row the pull ups are said to be the foundation of a solid back program and hey your bicep would get some work too while pulling yourself up!

According to fat loss expert, let me just quote him :

“Josh Hillis notes that a woman who can do three pull-ups and three dips almost always has her bodyfat issues locked down. Strength in this movement seems to have an odd correlation with a woman being “rockstar fit”, as Josh says.”

 
So will you lose fat while doing pull ups? Most definitely, they are so physically demanding that it requires the effort of the entire body, your core and even your butt is engage when pulling yourself up!

Will you get strongers? If you can bench a decent amount of weight but you cant crank 1 pull up, then you need to readjust your programing unless of course if you are a power lifter. Balancing the amount of pulling and pushing exercise is essential to prevent any injury of the shoulder.

The best thing I love about pull ups, it take so little time to hit so many major muscle of the upper body plus a girl who could do pull up in the gym is always a badass and guys it’s a requirement in the army need I say more.

 

So stay up for part 2 and tips on getting your very first pull up!


photo credit :DS SAY / LEE (FITBODYASIA) 

There's no shortcuts to weight loss, some people lose weight just by taking the stairs everyday and some change their entire lifestyle, but at the end of the day if you can create a calorie deficit on a daily basis, simply put it if your activity outweigh what you consume, lets not go in depth on how different food secretes different type of hormones that increase fat burning blah blah blah.

This 3 tips can be practice year round that have work for me in keeping a healthy weight and maintaining my muscle mass ( this my friend is very important) once you start lifting weight your body becomes a furnace, it burns more fats throughout the day even when your not doing anything, your muscles are helping you burn your fats.

Drink when your thirsty, drink a gallon a day, whatever work for you just make sure you drink up, it keep you full, helps you with your digestion and your body is mainly made up of water.

Every month i would do a food log sheet and save it on my desktop and at night before i sleep i would type every single thing that went in my mouth, some days i would notice that i have eaten more than required some days i could do with more food, therefore writing it down and seeing exactly what i eat help with making tomorrow better and being more cautious with what i am allergic too. 

I am never hungry because i travel with snacks every where i go! i have a protein bar and a bag of nuts , if i have a little more time i would pack some eggs with me! but the idea of having a snack is never keeping your body from starvation because you would eat way more during your next meal to fill the void, never deprive yourself from food, listen to your body if its hungry, feed it even if its 10pm i would eat nuts, yes its calories but i care for my well being and i never want to be HANGRY(angry because i am hungry)

Sorry for spoiling this folks to those who have yet to catch Hercules! The Rock look so massive in the movie! i wonder if he actually ate all of his 12 labors during his battle with them. If you don't know the legend, i'm still confused, there is so many versions of Hercules but this one is probably one of my favourite not because of the Rock, but because of Ingrid Bolsa Berdal, also know Atalanta from Amazon, at first glance you could mistaken her for Nicole Kidman, but this Norwegian actress look so solid in her warrior costume and also being the only female , i was just looking at her abs throughout the whole movie.

What stole my attention was that she's fair and she didn't need any tanned skin to make her abs or arm definition look visible. So i came home and did a bunch of research about her. (stalker mode) i am mesmerise by strong character in movies especially women! because that body wasn't given she work her as off, but abs my friend are made in the kitchen! i know  i know i  still don't have much but following a bunch of fitness model on Instagram, they pretty much eat the same thing day in and out, a lot and a lot of protein! the main building blocks of muscles.

 curious to know what she eat?....

look at her arms and yet so feminine! 

I don't know what she's doing here but you might see a lot of guys dressing like that guy at the back for haloween this year! 

so beside her intense training with her stunt double, who look just amazing on set,google (Dayna Grant) she my friend had to clean up her diet to look that lean and below is the only thing i could find about what she said regarding the diet she follows.

so yes she did eat the same way The Rock ate, not the same amount of course, but to break it down to simply understand her diet a little bit more here it is, this is base on the Rock working for 12 hours on set and training 2x per day! reason why they can consume that amount of carbs in 7 meals is due to the intense training throughout the day and to sustain such energy definitely require more food, after all we are not killing  a Nemean lion or slaying enemies on the battle field, so adjust the amount of food according to you activity needs.

MEAL 1
PROTEIN ( fillet and egg whites)
CARBS( oatmeal/cream of wheat ) (high carb)

MEAL 2
PROTEIN (chicken)
CARBS(white rice,broccoli) (high carb)

MEAL 3
PROTEIN (fish)
CARBS(white rice, asparagus) (high carb)

MEAL 4
PROTEIN (chicken)
CARBS (bake potato, broccoli) (high carb)

MEAL 5
PROTEIN (fish)
CARBS( white rice, asparagus) (high carb)

MEAL 6
PROTEIN (fish)
CARBS (bake potato,salad) ( high carb)

MEAL 7
PROTEIN (casein, egg whites) 
CARBS ( onion,pepper,mushroom) (low carb)

also who wants to know the Rocks Training Routine?
till then  :) 

Glitters is always an option but tights is a must have! Print are here to stay! unfortunately Nike Singapore takes a while to bring in all the latest design , i promise myself not to shop before my holiday, so here i am window shopping, hoping santa will send me some of this goodies. Here Nike take all my money! click on the image to purchase them for me , haha. i'm a size S also please throw in either one of those black beauty below i am a size 8! 
Have a good day !  

Being a fitness trainer it's my job to keep my client being challenged,engaged, motivated and at the same time giving them results! i always believe that functional movement out rule every other fancy movement but typical weekend warriors and desk jocks get bored and lose focus and motivation if you get them to squat and do push up and planks at every session! Don't get me wrong all my clients do squat,deadlift, press, pull, rotate, and lunge at every sessions according to a program but there are a bunch exercise out there that you could do to keep them interested! Also the fitness industries have made all sort of fancy equipment for you to use, so why not use it safely in between your main exercises, if you do have excess to a gym of course. I've mention, I love working with balancing exercises with my client, because its such a simple exercise but it can be a taxing to some.

So today I'm going to show you some example of exercising using just 1 dumbbell, i am sure all of us have 1 dumbbell at home, or a water bottle, or if your at the gym, pick up something heavier and challenge yourself! this may look simple but throw in a circuit or add a couple of burpees in between those sets!you will get your heart pumping, so here we go

3 sets of 10 reps

OR 

Pick 3-5 exercise and repeat for 3 sets of 10 reps! between every exercise throw in 20 jumping jacks!
(you know jumping jacks right?, i don't have to show you or burpees if you love it like i don't ) 

1. WARRIOR FRONTAL RAISE 
   
2. 20 SECOND BOAT POSE HOLD 
   
3. LUNGE AND RAISE (CHANGE SIDE AFTER FINISHING 12)
   
4. BOAT POSE CRUNCH (CHANGE ARM OF STARTING POSITION OF DUMBELL)
   
5. SINGLE LEG BACK ROW
   
6. SINGLE LEG HIP EXTENSION (CHANGE SIDE)
   
7. WINDMILL(CHANGE SIDE)
   
8. SINGLE LEG BACK ROW TO HIP EXTENSION ( CHANGE SIDE)
   
9. 20 SECOND BOAT POSE HOLD(AGAIN YES!)
   
10. HIGH PLANK ROW(CHANGE SIDE)

It is not easy to find quality workout/yoga apparel under the price range of $70. And today, i am  excited to share with you a local active-wear label in Singapore!

I'm super particular when it comes to workout clothes! hey also because its my uniform. Having a top that isn't to long and a bottom that isn't ridding up my butt makes a hell load of difference. I want to be able to do my exercise in comfort and not keep adjusting my top every repetition, also i want something that i can wear out looking chic. 

Vivre Activewear is a local start-up by a super talented yoga enthusiast who seeks to bring affordable and beautiful clothing to yogis in Singapore and all over the world. Choose from a wide range of tops, bottoms, sports bra, and yoga towels from their store! Prices range from $30 to $60. Vivre also offer exchanges within 7 days should items received does not fit/ is not up to your expectations, so you can have a worry-free online shopping experience with them.

I swear that the material for the tops are to die for, and with an in build bra you do not need to buy another set of sport bra. I have another top that I've yet to get a photo with, its a toga top and I've been given compliments that it accentuate my shoulders!

Here are 3 of my favourites! YES it is that affordable!  I've got 2 pairs in my closet and you should too since you will be getting a discount!


No its not only for yoga! i workout in it and felt so much cooler in the top! perhaps its the material!

Follow them on their Instagram and Facebook to be updated of their new arrivals, events, and promotions. * From now till 31st July 2014, use coupon code “jd10dc” to be entitled a 10% discount when checking out! Do support local brands!

Website: www.vivreactivewear.com
Facebook: Vivre Active Wear
Instagram: @vivreactivewear
Enquiries: [email protected]

 

What is free.
Can be done anywhere.
Can be done by yourself or with someone else or even an entire country.
Comes with some health benefit.
A truckload of bad reputation. 
Distintive knees and joint injury.
A total waste of time to some and an addiction to many.

Running or Jogging!

 I had to go look up on the difference between those two, beside the pace/speed, Jogging is usually done more leisurely and comes with a slight more bounce as compared to Running which sounds more competitive, a little less more demanding than Sprinting.  

Just google jogging the minute you insert "jogging is" the word bad follows through. I wouldn't associate jogging with being bad, every sport that we play have a little element of jogging/running/sprinting, so is sports bad? 

Reason why running may be bad, because there is no follow through or planning or progressive training. People see running as a way to lose weight and they beat themselves up and start going for miles and hours for their first run, they do it a couple of days, every day! get tired, pull a muscle, and blame it on running! To much of every thing is not good and too little of everything is not good either, therefore building up miles takes time, i wouldn't do marathons, maybe 1 and get it over my bucket list but thank god its not in it. haha 

If you are planning to start running,because its cheap, free and makes you feel good, always start of with a 5-10min warm up. Run/jog no longer than 30 minutes for the first time and if you need to stop then stop! listen to that poor body that sit on a desk an entire day , you can't just force it to run immediately, Let it get accustom, let the joint and muscle start developing and firing up. 

For the first week plan to run 2-3 times per week depending on individual , get ample of rest and remember to hydrate, try not to run more than an accumulated to 2-3 hours a week unless if you are planning to compete in a race, but if you are just planning to stay fit, and if that 30 min is getting to easy, instead of increasing the time of the run why not increase the speed! 


Why i don't run anymore? i find that i can do more efficient exercise in the gym and my knees are not in the best shape since my netball days! but just for you and to prove that running is safe if done correctly, i'll try adding it into my program and let you know how i feel after running bur of course you're not gonna get 10km per week from me, maybe 2km if you're lucky! on my next post i will find a suitable APP to use via your phone to track the distance and speed and if you do know of any, drop me a comment. 

Below are some pointers to remember when running! yes there is an efficient way to do everything, no right or wrong. When i workout or when i participate in activity, first thing that i love to address is that it shouldn't hurt you, nothing is safe, people die while running, but people die getting choke with a fish ball too, we just need to be more well prepared and aware to actiivites that we can control. 

till then.
j.d

 I recalled netball training, my coach made us toss around 5 kg medicine balls countless numbers of repetition until your arms literally died, but hey it did get me stronger, it made the netball lighten and in crossfit! we would usually toss a 5kg or 10kg medicine ball up against a wall while dropping into a squat way too many time until you have no more gas.

 I am sure you would be able to find a medicine ball in any gym you visit, it comes in a variety of weight range depending on how atas(classy) your gym is,  here's a bunch of exercise you could do with a ball and not just use to sit on it like i do at times :) 


Feel free do 3 sets of this circuit anyway you fancy in 12-15 repetition, throw this in after your weight training or do it as your total body workout or just pick 3 that you like and keep doing it for 30 second intervals!


1) ball plank ( hold for 30 seconds)
2)ball stability lunge
3)ball push up
4)ball pike ups
5)ball power pike ups
6)basic ball lunge
7)ball sit ups