Baby Got Back!…

“I like big butts and I can not lie. You other brothers can’t deny, that when a girl walks in with an itty bitty waist and a round thing in your face you get sprung!”  Well, you get the gist.  Men like tiny waists and shapely booties, and you won’t find us girls complaining about a nice firm behind on our men!

As women, we usually have two main target areas: bellies and bums.  And most men tend to neglect the muscles of the bum, concentrating more on the muscles of the legs such as the hamstrings and quads.  The muscles that are located in your behind are called the gluteals.  There are actually three muscles that compose this powerhouse muscle group: The gluteus maximus, gluteus minimus, and the gluteus medius. The glutes are actually the largest muscle group in your body.  This is due to the functions that the glutes provide such as running, jumping, walking, walking stairs, turning from side to side, sitting, stability, posture, and the list goes on and on.  It doesn’t make sense to ignore this muscle group, or to not put it on your top priority list in your training.

In this video I demonstrate a glute workout with options that you can do in your home without any equipment.  I am going to warn you that some of these exercises may seem a bit strange and may seem like I need to rent a room for myself…I don’t suggest dropping to the ground and doing these in public.  But, they are strictly glute focused, with the exception of the squats.

If you chose to use no equipment, believe me, you are still going to get a good butt-focused workout.  Just make sure to really focus on squeezing the glute and performing the exercise to failure, which may require you to do more than 10-12 reps.

Some of these exercises I was doing for years, but after coming across an article a little over a year ago, I read some pretty interesting information on exercises that really only focus on glute activiation, rather than hamstring and quad.

Give this glute workout a try!  You can also turn it into a butt-blasting circuit…follow the instructions at the beginning of the video.  And share it with your friends!  This is one you have no excuse not to do!

And I’ll put this directly on MY WORKOUT page under LOWER BODY & CIRCUITS for future reference.

 

Create Your Own Arm Workout…

In this video I put together 8 Bicep and Tricep Supersets.  The first 4 supersets only require you to have a dumbbell.  The last 4 need a little more equipment.  Pick 4-5 supersets and either perform them traditionally, with 3 sets of 10 reps of each.  Or perform it as a circuit, going through each superset once with no rest between sets.  Once you have gone through all of your supersets, return to the beginning and go through it 2-3 more times for an arm-exhausting circuit!

If you need further explanation of the exercises, go to “MY WORKOUT” page and under UPPER BODY exercises you will find a longer video with demos, along with this one.

Go get strong arms!

 

Gabby Douglas’ Hair, Haters Gon’ Hate!…

As most of my friends know, I suffer from Alopecia Universalis.  In 2008, I could not figure out why I was starting to look different.  My right eyebrow all of a sudden had a gap in it.  I thought I must have over-plucked it.  I used pencil to fill it in.  That gap never went away.  It continued to grow.  I then noticed a freckle on my forehead that I had never seen before in my life.  I didn’t realize it, but my hair was receding.

The next thing I know, I’m spending the summer of 2008 dying my hair blond to conceal bald spots, wearing hats and bandanas, getting my eyebrows tattooed because I had none (I lost my eyelashes, too), and searching for wigs.

I also lost hair everywhere on my body…which, was not too bad for grooming purposes…saved me some time in the shower!  But, it was a horrible time because you look in the mirror and do not even recognize yourself.  To this day I still lose my hair and it never grew back to the way that it had been my entire life…and I still don’t have eyebrows!

This brings me to Gabby Douglas.  I could not believe when I read on Alopecia World’s website that there even was a topic of conversation regarding this young lady’s hair.  Gabby Douglas just accomplished and experienced one of the greatest events that will happen in her lifetime-not only did she win the Gold for the US in individual all-around Women’s Gymnastics, but she was the first African-American to do so.

The reason I bring up African-American is because of this- instead of being honored for her amazing accomplishments, she has been criticized throughout the media and across the interwebs because of her hair!  Can you believe this?  I was seriously dumbfounded, not even being able to guess what the “problem” might be.  Here is one comment you will find, amongst others, that fuels the negativity in light of her Gold medal win: “With all those pins and gel … I wish someone could have helped her make it look better since she’s being seen all over the world.”

There are a few reasons I was really bothered by people discussing this young lady’s hair.

First off, if you have noticed, every female gymnast has their hair “slicked back with pins in it”.  It is a rule of the sport.  Google it.  What makes Gabby’s hair any different than Aly Raisman’s, Jordyn Wieber’s or McKayla Maroney’s?  The answer is: Nothing.

Second, SHE IS 16 YEAR’S OLD!  BACK OFF!  How many can add Olympic Gold Medalist to the list of their accomplishments at 16?  When I watch these athletes it makes me very emotional.  How I wish I could have accomplished something so impressive by using my physical and athletic talents and abilities as these athletes do.  The training and dedication that Gabby put into this is more than what most people put in to anything in their lifetime.  It’s refreshing to see someone focused on their talents and strengths, rather than putting these on the shelf because they are too focused and consumed with their appearance.

And my final reason for really feeling enraged about this is simply because “Haters Gon’ Hate”!  Can’t we just be happy for people when they are successful? Why do we always have to find negativity in everything? The people making these comments most likely need to take a step back and look at their own lives and stop inflicting their personal unhappiness on to others.

TALENTED AND BEAUTIFUL  🙂