Womens Health, Fitness, Weight Loss, Beauty and More

Summer Body

Swimsuit season is just around the corner: Time to get serious about looking good in your favorite tankini. If it feels a bit snug, we have the perfect antidote: a workout that produces major results — namely, sexy shoulders, a flatter tummy, and a firmer butt and thighs — in 6 short weeks.

Plus, “All of these exercises involve multijoint movements, so you’re firming up individual muscles while training them to work together,” says Benjamin Hendrickson, an American Council on Exercise-certified personal trainer at the Sports Center at Chelsea Piers in New York City, who designed this innovative strength-training circuit. And because you’re moving your body weight instead of sitting stationary at a machine, you’re also getting a metabolic boost. Best of all, you can do all these moves right in your living room.

Workout basics

The Equipment

A kitchen timer, or a clock with a second hand that you can easily see, and either a staircase or an 8- to 12-inch step (beginners use a one-level step, advanced exercisers, a two-level version).

The Routine

Warm up for 5 minutes by marching or jogging in place. Then do the five exercises, devoting 1 minute to each. Rest for 1 minute and repeat the circuit. Beginners: Do three complete circuits. Advanced: Do five complete circuits.

The Schedule

Do this workout three times a week, on nonconsecutive days. Once a week, skip the timer and do 10 reps of each exercise, concentrating on form.

A Cardio Kick to Boost Your Metabolism

Canadian researchers report that intervals of high-intensity physical activity are necessary to burn body fat. In fact, their findings suggest that spurts of intense exercise are nearly 900% more effective than the slow-and-steady approach in reducing fat.

You can experience the difference yourself, using aerobic exercise equipment such as a stationary cycle, stairclimber, elliptical stepper, or treadmill. First, warm up by going at about half-speed, or 50% of your perceived maximum effort, for at least 3 minutes. After that, begin a sequence where you go close to all-out for 5 seconds, then slow to your warm-up speed for 10 seconds, then follow with another 5-second spurt near maximum. Repeat the fast-slow-fast cycle as many times as you can, up to a maximum of about 10 minutes. Once you have a sense of the time frame, you can count to yourself instead of watching a clock. Finish with a cool-down, gradually slowing your pace for several minutes or more.

Do this 5 x 10 workout three times a week to start. Over time, you can add intervals until you’re exercising for a total of 20 minutes, including a 5-minute warm-up and a 5-minute cool-down.

With the 5 x 10s, you take your metabolism and energy to a whole new level. Don’t be surprised if you feel more alert and alive after this workout.

Elbow-to-Knee Sit-Up

Works: Abs

A. Lie on floor with knees bent, feet flat on floor. Place hands behind head and lift head and feet a few inches off floor, pointing elbows toward knees.

B. Contract abdominals and rock up so elbows meet knees and you’re resting on your “sitz” bones, literally the bones you sit on. Hold for a second, then lower. Keep head and feet off floor during entire minute. If this is too challenging, keep midback on floor and lift hips and shoulder blades to bring knees and elbows together.

Why It Works

Bringing elbows to knees forces you to coordinate your upper and lower body, increasing abdominal strength and body awareness.

Mountain Climber

Works: glutes, quads, hamstrings, calves, core, chest

Assume a push-up position, with hands flat on floor beneath shoulders and feet hip-width apart, balancing on toes. Bend left knee and plant ball of left foot beneath torso, as shown. Spring off toes and raise hips into the air, switching legs, so left leg is extended and right is bent. Repeat, alternating legs.

Why It Works This oldie-but-goodie keeps your heart rate high, cranking up your calorie burn to melt fat.

Step-Up

Works: glutes, quads, hamstrings, calves, core

Stand in front of step or staircase with feet together, arms at sides. Place left foot solidly on step, keeping head up and abs tight. Lift body onto step, raising right knee until thigh is parallel to floor, as shown. Hold for a second. Lower right foot to floor behind step, then left. Repeat with right foot and raise left knee. Continue alternating legs.

Why It Works

In addition to mimicking real-life demands, such as climbing stairs, the step-up forces you to engage your core; raising the knee challenges your balance.

Rotating Side Lunge

Works glutes, quads, hamstrings, calves, core, chest

Stand with feet hip-width apart, arms extended at chest level, hands clasped. Take giant step to left, rotating upper body toward left. Bend left knee and lower hips, keeping left knee over foot, as shown. Press into left foot to return to starting position and repeat. Do a full minute, then switch sides.

Why It Works

This move forces you to balance and coordinate your upper and lower body while moving side to side. “It’s a great exercise for strengthening muscles that often go underused in daily life,” says Hendrickson.

Push-Up

Works: chest, shoulders, triceps, core

A. Place hands on floor beneath shoulders and balance on toes, feet hip-width apart. Bend elbows out to sides and lower body almost to floor, as shown. Keep abs tight and body in straight line from head to ankles.

B. Rest knees on floor, keeping toes tucked, and push back up, as shown. At the top of the movement, straighten legs and repeat.

Why It Works

This hybrid of the standard push-up and the less-demanding knees-down version allows you to quickly build upper-body strength, for a flattering figure.

Provided by Prevention

Lose the Diet Habit

Brown bag it. When you eat lunch out or grab a sandwich from a deli, you never really know what’s in it. Packing your own midday meal is a great way to control calories and fat in your diet. If you find weight creeping on, try two weeks of bringing lunch from home. Then see how those pants feel.

Pair carbs with protein. Adding a little protein to a carbohydrate-based meal or snack can give it a bit more staying power. When protein has to break down, the stomach empties more slowly. Try adding a few chicken strips and a sprinkle of cheese to your pasta bowl or a spread light smear of peanut butter on your toast.

Feel fuller with a tad of healthy fat. Fat molecules slow down digestion so including a little fat in your meal can make it more satisfying. Be sure to choose heart-healthy unsaturated fats like vegetable oils and nuts. And, if you’re watching calories, be moderate. Drizzle bread with a little olive oil, toss carrots with a bit of tasty dressing, sprinkle slivered almonds on your salad.

Give up all-day grazing. Eating regularly helps prevent feeling deprived and hungry, but noshing all day can easily supply a binge’s worth of calories, a little at a time. Plan four “eating episodes” each day spaced at regular intervals to avoid going long stretches without eating (which can also trigger binging): breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus a 250-calorie midafternoon snack. At each, include a little protein for staying power.

Eat with intention. Have all your meals in a designated place without distractions (e.g., not in front of the TV). That way your eating episode has a beginning and an end. Eat slowly, stopping to put your fork down between bites, feeling yourself becoming fuller. Making an effort to be mindful no matter what you’re eating can help break the tendency to binge.

Get more satisfaction. Always hungry? Try not to go more than five hours without eating, so your appetite stays on an even keel. To make your meals more satisfying, make sure to include a little protein—like peanut butter on your morning toast or a sprinkle of beans on your salad at lunch. Protein moves through your digestive tract more slowly than carbohydrates do, so you’ll feel fuller longer. Getting more fiber-rich foods and at least three servings of whole grains daily can also boost your satiety quotient.

Find healthy outlets for emotions. Turning to food to “numb out” emotions like anxiety works temporarily, but after the food is gone the stressful stimulus still remains—along with a hefty dose of guilt. Find ways to experience negative emotions with a response other than eating. Try deep breathing or meditation, calling a friend or going for a brisk walk. The more you practice these healthy habits, the easier they become. Eventually, reaching for a bag of chips can stop being your default reaction to stress.

Choose fruit. A cup of fruit juice offers vitamins, minerals and other phytochemicals, but if you’re watching your weight, whole fruits are smarter choices. They contain more fiber, which helps you feel full, and fewer calories. For example, one medium orange has 62 calories and 3 grams of fiber, whereas an eight-ounce glass of orange juice has about 120 calories and no fiber.

One Gene May Be Key to Myeloma

Cancerous myeloma cells are so “addicted” to a gene known as IRF4, they simply can’t live without it, new research has revealed.

Reducing the activity of the gene by only 50 percent is enough to kill myeloma cells without compromising other healthy activities, said scientists reporting in the current issue of Nature.

“This pathway is so critical to the growth of myeloma that, potentially, if you turn it off, you’ve found a chink in the armor,” said Dr. Bart Kamen, executive vice president and chief medical officer at The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

The gene could present a target for future drug development.

“IRF4 is absolutely a target in myeloma. This is not an easy target but not an impossible target,” said Dr. Louis Staudt, senior author of the paper and chief of the Lymphoid Malignancies Section, Metabolism Branch, Center for Cancer Research at the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

“It’s obviously a little bit away, but we have the ability to fairly quickly figure out how to block [genes],” added Dr. Mitchell Smith, head of the lymphoma service at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia.

Multiple myeloma, a cancer of the white blood cells, primarily affects older adults and, partly for that reason, often doesn’t have a good prognosis.

What’s more, there are least seven different “flavors” of multiple myeloma, each having its own unique genetic abnormalities, Staudt said. “One worries that would mean we’d need different drugs for each of these.”

While there has been an explosion in new drugs to treat the disease over the past five to 10 years, there is still no cure, Smith said.

The authors took advantage of a genetic screen devised several years ago. This “Achilles’ heel screen” uses RNA interference to spot particularly vulnerable parts of cancer cells

“It allows you to inactivate one gene at a time in a cancer cell and then ask what happens,” Staudt explained. “We looked simultaneously at thousands of different genes . . . and then asked which one prevents the proliferation and survival of cancer cells.”

In this study, the screen identified one gene, IRF4, which surfaced no matter what type of multiple myeloma the investigators looked at.

“Basically, every type of myeloma cell for which we have in vitro models is completely dependent on IRF4, such that, when we inhibit it, they die a swift death within a few days in the lab,” Staudt said. “This is better than we hoped.”

Interestingly, however, the gene is not mutated when cancer is present. “In the vast majority of cases, there was absolutely nothing different between the IRF4 gene in cancer cells compared to any normal cells,” Staudt said. “They were completely normal, yet the cells were totally dependent.”

Of course, this begged the question, why?

IRF4 turns out to be a transcription factor, meaning it regulates gene expression — how a gene produces proteins. In this case, IRF4 regulated the expression of about 35 other genes, including MYC, a well-known cancer-causing gene.

“We found that this IRF4 transcription factor was turning on MYC, which itself is a transcription factor that was turning on IRF4. So, you can see that this is a vicious cycle,” Staudt explained. “They cycle out of control, and so this is at least part of how it works.”

IRF4 is in charge of so many processes, in fact, that the study authors described knocking it out as “death by a thousand cuts.”

“If IRF4 is a master regulator of the working of a myeloma cell, this would be a great drug,” Staudt said. “We want people to sit up and take notice of IRF4, because it would be effective across the board in all types of myeloma.”