Check out the “Crane!”

Yoga: Crane is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

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1. Give Peace A Chance: Try Yoga
2. Yoga: Firebird
3. 5 Things I Learned From Practicing Yoga

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Post tags: exercises, workout at home, workout routine, Yoga

The Plié Squat is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. 8 Count Lunge and Squat
2. Good Mornings

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Post tags: exercises, Legs

Walking Lunges is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

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2. Vote For BGG2WL: SHAPE Mag’s Best Weight Loss Blogger Award
3. Welcome to A Black Girl’s Guide To Weight Loss!

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Post tags: Booty, exercises, workout at home, workout routine

Plank Position Kickbacks is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Triceps: Dumbbell Kickbacks

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Post tags: Booty, exercises, Legs, workout at home, workout routine

I started this one doing 10 of them back to back in three different sets. Give it a shot! Great for the booty, too!

The Reverse Crunch is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Building A Home Workout Routine: Reverse Crunches
2. Building A Home Workout Routine: Hip Extensions
3. Black Women, Our Bodies & Perceptions of Beauty: The Booty

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Post tags: Abs, Booty, exercises, Legs, workout at home, workout routine, workout tips

Yoga: Sun-Moon is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Yoga: Half Moon
2. Yoga: Riding The Wind
3. Yoga: Dancing Sun

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Post tags: exercises, workout at home, workout routine, Yoga

Give the “Lotus Link” a shot!

Yoga: Lotus Link is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

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1. Yoga: Half Moon
2. Give Peace A Chance: Try Yoga
3. Yoga: Riding The Wind

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Post tags: exercises, workout at home, workout routine, workout tips, Yoga

Leg Curls is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

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1. Hammer Bicep Curls
2. Vote For BGG2WL: SHAPE Mag’s Best Weight Loss Blogger Award
3. Welcome to A Black Girl’s Guide To Weight Loss!

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Post tags: exercises, Legs, workout at home, workout routine

Q: Hey girl, I love your blog and I subscribed to get them by email b/c I have an office job for 9 hours a day.  I was wondering if you could do a post with exercises that can be performed at the desk in the office during breaks or anytime. I am thinking you could use a water bottle, a towel, and your chair.

I love this question. Really, I do.

As a single parent, I was pretty limited in my resources as far as quality workout time. Sure, there’s a gym in my apartment complex that I could take my little one to, but there’s always that time frame in the year where everyone is in the gym. Having people trip over or run into her stroller… wasn’t working for me. My answer to this was simple: formulate a workout plan that I can execute at home, and if it didn’t require me to purchase any products, that’s even better. I’d imagine the limitations are similar at the office, with the added issue of limiting the amount of sweating going on. I was extremely successful using this kind of workout, so hopefully my little bit of insight can help.

I’ve written a little about this before, three of the ways that I really took advantage of what I had at home to get fit. However, in the spirit of this week’s “Ten More Minutes” challenge, how’s about I give you ten new exercises to get into right at your desk or in your office. Pack a lunch, close your office door, use ten minutes to get in these exercises and the other 20 (or 50, whatever you’ve got) to enjoy your lunch!

• Triceps: Dumbbell Kickbacks (uses a water bottle)
• Dumbbell Bicep Curl (uses a water bottle)
• Good Mornings (uses a broomstick or tall umbrella or a tightly-pulled towel)
• Steam Engines
• 8 Count Lunge and Squat
• The Superman
• Seated Calf Raise
• Vertical Jumping Jacks
• Standing Oblique Twists

Pick a couple to do each day and if you couple them with proper stretches afterwards, that’s a great way to make use of your ten minutes!

Q&A Wednesday: Doing It At The Desk is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

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1. Q&A Wednesday: What Do I Need For An At-Home Gym?
2. Q&A Wednesday: Creating Your Weight Training Routine
3. Q&A Wednesday: Share Your Experiences With Video Game Fitness!

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: exercises, saving money, workout at the office, workout tips

Yoga: Gate Opening is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

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1. Give Peace A Chance: Try Yoga
2. Yoga: Firebird
3. Video Vault: The “Whole Foods Parking Lot” Guys Fall For The “Yoga Girl”

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Post tags: exercises, workout at home, workout routine, Yoga

Having said that, here is another clip from Namaste Yoga, a sequence titled “Firebird.” Enjoy!

Yoga: Firebird is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

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1. Give Peace A Chance: Try Yoga
2. Yoga: Lotus Link
3. Yoga: Head To Knee

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Post tags: exercises, workout at home, workout routine, Yoga

I kind of had to develop a split personality, and beat myself at my own game. It sounds like I need psychiatric help, but it’s true in a sense. I needed to identify my own excuses, and start shattering them along the way so that I could begin to see my healthier self. I had to acknowledge, personally, that I was afraid to venture out into the world of working out because I was afraid to face the struggle that comes with it. I won’t lie.. I was also afraid to disappoint myself those weeks when the scale doesn’t move. To avoid the disappointment, I simply wouldn’t bother.

How awful does that sound?

I know not every woman will be able to identify with that, but I know some will. And even if that doesn’t define you, it may define someone you know. It’s important for you to understand this kind of mentality – not saying that it will always apply, but the self-defeating attitude that so many of us carry when it comes to weight loss and overall personal health? The difficulty of incorporating a routine in our lives that we might’ve never saw growing up? We might not’ve ever saw our friends partake? I had ONE friend in all my four years of college that worked out. It felt silly… why it might’ve felt silly? That’s a topic for another post, if you ask me.

Having realized my self-defeating attitude, I had to start slaughtering my excuses as they came. Can’t go to the gym? Fine. I’ll do a p90x workout, or other work out at home. I don’t have to “get dressed.” I don’t have to “look-presentable-even-though-I’m-going-somewhere-to-go-get-sweaty.” I don’t have to waste time in the commute. I can get just as good of a workout in the comfort of my own home.

That’s the purpose behind this series. I’m hoping to post videos from the web that showcase awesome techniques for working out at home without a single machine, barbell, or bendy band thingy. I don’t have them, and I do pretty well. Besides, this is a recession and jobs are here today, gone tomorrow, unfortunately. We want to focus on the ability to be healthy without having to purchase something.

In short, the Home Workout Routine is the excuse killer. If you make it as easy as possible for you to jump into, there’s nothing stopping you from doing so! Enjoy the series!

The Importance of Building A Home Workout Routine is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Building A Home Workout Routine: Hip Extensions
2. Building a Home Workout Routine: Jump Rope!
3. Building a Home Workout Routine: Trunk Rotations

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: exercises, fat loss, mentality, workout at home, workout routine, workout tips

So, for the legs and abs, I present the double leg lifts! I’m not very familiar with Pilates (although I do practice Yoga), but the moves are challenging and leave you feeling like you really accomplished something!

Double Leg Lifts is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

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Post tags: Abs, exercises, Legs, workout at home, workout routine

The Superman is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Building A Home Workout Routine: Hip Extensions
2. Q&A Wednesday: Doing It At The Desk
3. 8 Count Lunge and Squat

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Abs, Booty, exercises, Legs, workout at home, workout routine

Yoga: Riding The Wind is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Give Peace A Chance: Try Yoga
2. Yoga: Firebird
3. Video Vault: The “Whole Foods Parking Lot” Guys Fall For The “Yoga Girl”

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Post tags: exercises, workout at home, workout routine, Yoga

Yoga: Head To Knee is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Give Peace A Chance: Try Yoga
2. Yoga: Firebird
3. 5 Things I Learned From Practicing Yoga

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: exercises, workout at home, workout routine, Yoga

So, my little one and I spent a good amount of time at home. Sad that I couldn’t use the gym equipment – and unwilling to spend money (in a recession, no less) on my own – I had to come up with an effective manner of getting in my exercise. My desire to not spend money on getting fit had only a little to do with the fact that I’m cheap (painfully cheap.) It had much more to do with the fact that I needed to know that the effort I was putting forth wouldn’t be dependent upon how much money I could spend to get it. I needed to know that my business could fail, I could go broke and poor and be homeless living with a friend and that I’d still be able to maintain my health on my own. That I could innovate ways to get it done, and that I was devoted enough to my cause to continue to innovate.

After enough reading and research, I got it. Meet… my dumbell.

Oh, and I’m serious. Two gallon jugs that I could control how many cups are in them? Yes.

Look at it this way – a gallon of water weighs approximately 8lbs. There are 16 cups in a gallon of water. In theory, each cup weighs half a pound. If I pour 10 cups of water in each jug, I have two five pound weights at home to use. Simple as that. Obviously, you might not want that water sloshing around back and forth (if you did, you’d simply have an effective homemade Shake Weight) so feel free to use smaller containers, so long as you can maintain a good grip on it.

I also built a routine around calisthenics. Calisthenics are, in few words, exercises that consist of a series of movements that basically use the body’s weight against itself in order to build muscle. Think squats, push ups, jumping jacks, lunges. While you may not be able to increase the amount of weight (and actually hope that it decreases), you can increase the number of exercises you do and use different variations of the same exercise.

For example – I went from regular lunges to walking lunges. Yowzers. I went from squats to plié squats to frog hops. Double yowzers. I went from doing my push-ups against a wall to doing them with my feet on the floor and hands on a chair to finally doing them on the floor. See? It’s all about time, patience and progress.You’ll know when it starts to feel too easy, and you’ll want more.. or different.. or more challenging.

My last method of infusing my in-house day with exercise? Tabatas.

[begin superhero music]

Tabatas are a four minute long method of interval training. 20 seconds of going as hard as you can, followed by 10 seconds of rest. A cycle repeated with 4 different exercises – totaling 2 minutes – and then your entire 2 minute routine repeated twice. This is great for early morning just-woke-up activity, or “Dang, I missed the gym, let me at least get in a little something” night time activity.

So, for example, on leg day – I’d do those hammer curls with my jug as hard and fast as I could (while trying to maintain my form) for 20 seconds, then rest for ten seconds. Then, I’d switch to my walking lunges for 20 seconds, then rest for ten seconds. Then I’d hit my leg swings for 20 seconds, then rest for ten seconds. Then? Tricep dips for 20 seconds, then rest. Finally, I’d repeat the entire sequence… feeling like I got beat down in the end.

Between tabatas, calisthenics and my gallon jug dumbbells, I was able to get my exercise in at home when I couldn’t get to the gym with the little one. Hopefully, they’ll give you a few options in how to expand your at-home workout, too.

Three Great Ways To Exercise At Home is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 15 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: exercises, saving money, workout at home, workout routine, workout tips

Maybe it’s just her arms.

I’m not playing either. She looks like she puts effort – actual effort – into those bad boys!

I know that the media had a field day with her figure. She was too toned. Women are supposed to be soft, curvaceous [but not too curvy, lawdy lawdy heaven forbid we see too much of a curve], and reflect no form of masculinity. Like muscles.

Forget all that. I am soft. I am feminine. But if I leave these arms the way that my weight loss left them, I’m going to look like an old beat up pillow. Unacceptable. I want arms like hers… not cotton-stuffed appendages like what I’d been stuck with.

For me, I know that in order for me to get my arms looking normal again after this weight loss, I’m going to have to build some serious muscle. There was never any bulk there before – only fat. Honestly, it used to make me uncomfortable – if I really took a good look at myself before I left the house some days, I’d stop and turn sideways… try to flex my arm in hopes that some shape would appear… sigh and shrug it off… then go on about my partying. Not like I could build muscle in ten minutes before doing what I had to do, right?

I must admit, the past 8 months have been exciting for my upper body. I can finally see my collarbone. My spare tire is fading away, and an actual slope is appearing in my backside. My back fat is shrinking, and my breasts have shrunk (from a 42DD to a 34C.) How am I doing on my journey?

I’m sure the next question is, “HOW?” The answer, really, is not a silly shake weight or a “perfect push up” machine.

Between yoga and push ups, I’ve been able to tone up my arms, my back, and even keep the skin of my breasts taut. Why? If you take a look at one of the yoga episodes I’ve posted on the site, you’ll be able to identify how much you have to lift, stretch, pull and tug those arms. The plank position – a common yoga pose that looks a lot like a push up without the drop down – works not only your back, but the ligaments in your chest that tighten and lift your breasts. Add to that the fact that it works both your biceps and your triceps (your outer and inner upper arm area?) You’re in there like swimwear.

For me, these are the best options. These are things that I can do at home without purchasing any equipment and without needing to be at a gym. I just click “play” on a yoga video on this site, and I go for it. I’m still a little flabbier than I’d like for myself, but I’m pretty proud of how far I’ve come.

So, in the meantime… I’m going to continue to stare lovingly at these photos of a sleeveless First Lady Obama (not in a creepy way, though) and keep on with my push-ups and my yoga routine.. and hope that you’ll join me!

Got tips? Questions? Ideas? Share ‘em!

My Quest For Michelle Obama Arms is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 18 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Arms, exercises, workout at home, Yoga

Yoga: Half Moon is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Yoga: Sun-Moon
2. Half Of America Slated To Become OBESE By 2030
3. Give Peace A Chance: Try Yoga

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: exercises, workout at home, workout routine, Yoga

Yoga: Water Light is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Give Peace A Chance: Try Yoga
2. Sponsored Post: Develop A Water Habit!
3. Yoga: Firebird

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Post tags: exercises, workout at home, workout routine, Yoga