There's an ongoing debate about the benefits of stretching, but if you want to stretch, you need to do it properly.

by Stacey Colino

Stretching is an important part of your fitness program, but don’t expect it to alleviate pain. A review of 10 published studies concluded that stretching — before or after a workout — won’t prevent muscle soreness.

But stretching does have other benefits. For one thing, it simply feels good. It also can enhance range of motion and preserve flexibility, says Richard Cotton, M.A., national certification director for the American College of Sports Medicine in Indianapolis. But there are wrong and right ways to tax your muscles.

Here are three tips for stretching properly:

1. Ease Into a Stretch Gently
“Don’t bounce into a stretch because it could lead to a muscle pull or tear,” says Cotton. Instead, stretch to the point of comfortable tension and hold the stretch for 20-30 seconds.

2. Don’t Stretch Cold
“If muscles are cold, they’re tighter and stiffer, and stretching increases the risk of microtears and soreness,” Cotton explains. If you want to stretch during your workout, warm up with a gentle aerobic activity (such as walking briskly) for five to 10 minutes before you do.

3. Stretch After Your Workout
Make gentle stretches part of your cool-down routine to help your muscles retain their exercise-induced greater range of motion.

For the latest on the ongoing stretching debate and to see specific stretches demonstrated, check out “Flex Ed” in the latest issue of VIVMag!

Photo credit: Kristian Sekulic/iStockphoto

Heidi Klum, seen here at Heidi Klum's Summer Run in Central Park in July, stays in shape with personal trainer Andrea Orbeck.

By Ann Wycoff

German-born supermodel Heidi Klum, 38, is in her ninth season as host of Project Runway, which airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on Lifetime. The mother of  four (to Leni, Henry, Johan and Lou, ages 7, 6, 4 and 2), keeps Project Runway-ready with the help of her trainer, Andrea Orbeck, a former Canadian national bobsled champion and physical trainer with more than 15 years of experience. Based in L.A., Orbeck has a roster of high-profile celebrity clients ranging from Reba McEntire to Usher.

“Because of Heidi’s crazy schedule, we work out at her home in Los Angeles,” Orbeck says. “I focus on natural weight-bearing activities and use free weights. We do cardio and interval training using the stairs and exercises like side shuffles and lunges. I require a lot from my hour, so it’s action-packed.”

Klum’s favorite workout move is lateral hip abductions. “Heidi loves this move because it’s challenging and helps define her upper hips and buttocks,” explains Orbeck. “In the beginning, it made her [muscles] sore, but she was able to identify where her glutes resided! After learning this exercise, she could better isolate those muscle groups and call upon them when doing other movements like squats and stairs. And it gives a nice shape to the buns.”

How to do lateral hip abductions:

1. Lie on right side with head resting on right arm, shoulders drawn down and back, knees bent and stacked on top of each other aligned with hips.

2. Lift left leg to hip height, straighten leg directly sideways, then pendulum your leg in back of you with slow, controlled movements, only as far as you can without rocking your torso or rolling forward.

3. Return to starting position.

4. Focus on maintaining stability of bottom leg and keeping a quiet spine; repeat 19 times.

5. Turn over and lie on left side; repeat with right leg 20 times.

Once you’ve mastered that, try progressing to this:

1. Lie on right side with head resting on right arm, shoulders drawn down and back, bottom knee bent and top leg straight with foot resting on floor.

2. Slightly rotate left knee and toe outward.

3. Lifting weight of left leg using glutes, slowly and with controlled form, abduct (laterally lift) left leg to hip height, no farther. Concentrate on initiating and completing the move with your glute muscles. Don’t rotate hips or spine; keep them still by keeping core muscles tight.

4. Slowly return left leg to floor and repeat 19 times.

5. Turn onto left side and repeat with right leg 20 times.

Photo credit: Paul Zimmerman/Stringer/Getty Images

Yoga poses or asanas have both common and Sanskrit names. Triangle pose, for example, is also called Trikonasana.

By Linda Shelton

When it comes to yoga and Pilates, the debate is ongoing as to which one reigns supreme. A number of celebrities are loyal to one or the other. Jennifer Aniston, Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow, Hilary Swank, Christy Turlington and Reese Witherspoon are well-known yoginis. Bethenny Frankel is a staunch yoga advocate and has been known to turn her nose up at Pilates, while Brooke Burke, Jennifer Garner, Jennifer Lopez, Ellen Pompeo and Keri Russell all are avid Pilates fans. According to Kristin McGee, a New York City celebrity trainer, there are a few celebs, such as LeAnn Rimes and Christine Taylor, who straddle both worlds.

If you’ve decided to try one (or both) of them for the first time, here is some of the terminology you’ll need to know.

YOGA

Practice Yoga name for a workout; a yoga practitioner is someone who regularly practices yoga.

Asana Any physical pose or posture. Each pose usually has two names — a common name like “chair pose” and a classical name (i.e. Utkatasana) in Sanskrit, the original language in India of yoga.

Prana Life energy force. Pranayama is traditional breathing in Hatha yoga meant to bring fresh vitality into your body, balancing the flow of prana to open blocked areas in your body.

“Active” muscles Muscles are not lax but contracting and working even in a held postion, like Warrior II, which keeps the mind/body connection intact and energy stimulated.

Chaturanga Yoga-style push-up.

Ujjayi breath Audible breath achieved by both inhaling and exhaling through the nose, gently constricting the throat. This creates a soft sound which helps you move deeper into a pose and focus your mind on your practice.

Vinyasa A series of poses completed one after the other, which creates a more movement-oriented, “flow” practice. A sun salutation, for example, is a Vinyasa.

Mantra Repeated sound or phrase that stimulates sensory changes in the brain to help focus the mind; the best-known one is “om.”

Namaste A Sanskrit phrase said at the end of many yoga classes, which is an acknowledgment of respect to another and literally means, “I bow to you.”

PILATES
Powerhouse The muscles from the bottom of the ribs to the top of the pubic bone that work together to form a supportive girdle or corset for your torso — all three layers of abdominals, lower back, pelvic floor and the glute muscles that attach at your hips.

Engage Contract or tighten a muscle or muscle group so that it actively is working, e.g., “engage the core.”

Pilates stance Refers to a slightly turned-out position of the feet with the legs squeezed together, about 15 degrees, used to engage the glutes and inner thighs.

Neutral spine/neutral pelvis The position of the hips and pelvis where the hipbones and pubic bone are held in the same plane, without tucking the tailbone or arching the lower spine.

Imprinting When the lower spine is “flattened” into the mat during a supine move to protect the lower back during certain exercises.

Pull navel to spine How to actively engage the abdominals, by pulling your navel in and up as if trying to place your belly button on your spine.

C-curve Where the spine flexes or “rounds” to form the shape of the letter “C.” This helps to create a strong feeling of core engagement and prepares you to roll through the spine smoothly.

Tabletop When lying faceup, legs are bent at a 90-degree angle both at the hip and at the knees, forming a “tabletop” with calves, legs squeezed together to engage inner thighs.

For more on the differences and similarities of yoga and Pilates, read “Yoga vs. Pilates” in VIV’s July/August 2011 issue.

Photo credit: Zee Wendell

Don’t crash diet. If you fast in the weeks before your trip, you’ll just end up slowing your metabolism, which leads to rapid weight gain when you start eating normally during your trip.

Stroll around the airport. Nix the moving sidewalks and stroll laps around the terminal when you have a roller bag. Window-shop while you kill time. Anything to make up for the calories you won’t burn sitting on a plane.

Bring healthy snacks for the flight. Nuts, protein bars or fruit are great choices. Or eat a satisfying meal, such as a sandwich or salad, prior to departure.

Drink water. Hunger and thirst can feel similar, and since air travel dehydrates you, drink plenty of water before and during the flight. And minimize alcohol and caffeine consumption on travel days.

Plan snacks ahead. If your hotel has a fridge, find a local market and get some cottage cheese and fruit to snack on. Bring nuts, fruit or energy bars when you go sightseeing.

Live a little! Feel like having dessert or wine? Skip the bread and potatoes. Splurge on regional food items and house specialties, not chips or junk food.

Skip sugary beverages and cocktails. Margaritas and daiquiris contain up to 500 calories and can easily pack on 1-2 pounds a week. Is it really worth it? Treat yourself to one on your first day; then avoid drinking your calories for the rest of the trip.

Stay true to your eating plan. Stick with protein-based meals and snacks, high-quality carbohydrates and reasonable portions most of the time.

Get extra physical activity each day. Swim, snorkel, bike the countryside, go for walks after dinner, go dancing.

Back home, go food-shopping ASAP. It’s important to get back on track with your nutrition program right away. By filling the fridge with healthy food as soon as you return, it guarantees you’ll stick to your plan.

According to Liz Elliott, co-founder of Cyclists Inciting Change thru Live Exchange (C.I.C.L.E.), an estimated 40 percent of auto trips are two miles or less, a distance even the most inexperienced cyclist can ride. Considering that motor vehicles contribute almost a quarter of annual U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide (and that the U.S. is the No. 1 global-warming polluter in the world), riding your bike is a great way to go green and save green — gas money, that is.

Elliott believes that bicycling should be as promoted and encouraged in America as it is abroad in cities such as London and Copenhagen, Denmark. “We have to begin emulating these examples here in the U.S., and make the transformation into healthier and more vibrant urban environments,” she says. Here, a guide to get you started.

BIKING BASICS If you’ve never been urban biking before, start off slow. Do short trips (a few miles) before you decide to go on longer rides to work (some urban cyclists commute up to 25 miles one way!). If your daily commute is longer than that, consider taking the bus or train and bringing your bike along with you. Ride with friends who bike regularly, or take an urban street skills class from a cycling instructor in your area. For local resources, log on to bikeleague.org.

Make sure you are comfortable on your bike when in traffic, and wear bright colors and use lights and reflectors when cycling at night. Elliott says all cyclists should be prepared for common mechanical failures, such as flat tires or broken chains. “These repairs are simple to make,” she says. “And it’s tremendously empowering to know that you can take care of it yourself.”

SAFETY FIRST The most obvious danger when urban biking is traffic, so avoid high-traffic streets when you can. Watch for pedestrians and moving vehicles, but also parked ones. One of the most common accidents is what Elliott refers to as “getting doored,” when a parked motorist suddenly swings his or her car door open and hits an oncoming cyclist. To avoid this, always allow 3–4 feet between you and parked cars.

EVERYDAY ESSENTIALS Don’t leave home without the following nine items:

•    Mini air pump

•    Good bicycle-specific multitool

•    Patch kit

•    Spare inner tube

•    Lights for night riding

•    Horn or bell

•    Good bike lock

•    Backpack or basket

•    Helmet

FOR MORE INFO Click here for advice on choosing the right bike, clothing and safety gear. For more tips and information on biking, go to cicle.org.

1. Know all your important numbers with Tanita’s new BC558 Ironman Body Composition scale ($299.99 thecompetitiveedge.com). Smart exercisers know that weight only tells a small part of the story: Just as important are muscle mass, bone mass, visceral fat and body fat — all of which the Tanita tells you.

2. How does one jump without a rope? With a JumpSnap ($59.95 jumpsnap.com), a ropeless jump-rope that calculates the calories you burn. No more tangling (or tripping)! Bonus: easy to pack.

3. Listen to tunes and lose pounds with the Sansa Clip (2 gigabytes, $59.99 sandisk.com), an MP3 player that has a built-in microphone and recorder so you can note the distance and time you ran before you forget.

4. Get in shape with the bodybugg (from $399 veritasfitnessgroup.com), a calorie-counting armband (the contestants on NBC’s The Biggest Loser are fans). Simply strap the bodybugg to your arm and go about your daily routine. The display shows how many calories you burn — whether you’re jogging a mile or vacuuming your living room. Also, take advantage of two free personalized phone sessions with a bodybugg coach and a three-month subscription to bodybugg.com.

5. Slide on the MIO Motiva watch ($100 miowatch.com), which records calories consumed and burned throughout the day. It comes with an alarm to let you know if you’ve gone over your daily calorie target and monitors your heart rate, too.

The study, cleverly designated the A to Z Weight Loss Study, compared four popular diets: Atkins, Ornish, LEARN (a diet-and-exercise-oriented plan for behavioral change) and the Zone. Researchers assigned 311 pre-menopausal women to one of the four diets for an entire year. At the end of that year, they found that women on the Atkins low-carb diet lost significantly more weight and had an overall decline in heart-disease-risk factors. But before you ditch that apple for a block of cheese, it’s important to examine the whole story.

As a weight-loss doctor who also specializes in reducing patients’ heart-disease risk, I was not surprised by the findings, but very interested in speaking with the lead researcher at Stanford University, Christopher Gardner, Ph.D., to learn what might not have made it into the final published paper. Here are three important points from our conversation:

• The women on the Atkins diet drank the most water, which is emphasized in that diet more than the others due to the fact that dieters tend not to replace the calories from high-sugar liquids like sodas by eating more food. Therefore, they were likely to be the most successful at cutting total calories.
• The participants found the Zone diet the most confusing, which suggests that they probably did not fully comply with its rules. Gardner noted that all the dieters had some trouble sticking with the diets’ dictates, either because they were too complicated or too onerous.
• All four diets resulted in losses of 30 pounds or more for some participants, although twice as many participants lost large amounts of weight on Atkins.

Although statistics from the study do seem to point to Atkins as “the winner,” Gardner’s two final conclusions, which echo what I see in my own practice, were more complex: First, all diets work for some people for some period of time, but the weight loss can only be permanent if you find an eating strategy that you can live with long term; and, second, that lower-carbohydrate diets can improve some aspect of dieters’ health (heart health, in Atkins’ case) just by reducing the consumption of refined, processed carbohydrates.

So what should all this mean to you when you go to pick “the best” diet of the bunch? Based on Gardner’s study and other research, it appears that some diets do work better for certain women than others. Specifically, women who carry their extra weight around their midsection, aka “apple shaped,” may do best with a higher-protein, lower-carbohydrate approach. Apple-shaped women tend to handle refined and sugary carbohydrates less effectively than pear-shaped women, who carry their extra fat mostly in the hips, thighs and buttocks.

But excess fat around the midsection isn’t just a cosmetic issue; it’s also more dangerous from a metabolic standpoint and often leads to a condition known as insulin resistance — which simply means the body becomes less and less sensitive to the role insulin plays in regulating blood sugar. This condition, also known as “pre-diabetes,” increases the risk of heart disease and stroke and can eventually lead to full-blown diabetes and all its complications.

ARE YOU AN APPLE OR A PEAR?

To identify your body type and determine which diet you should choose, take this simple test.

1.    Have you been prescribed medication for high blood pressure?

2.    Have you been prescribed medication for high cholesterol?

3.    Do you have diabetes or high-normal blood sugar?

4.    Is your waist size greater than 35 inches?

5.    Do you have high triglycerides or low “good” (HDL) cholesterol?

If you answer YES to at least three out of five questions, you are considered an apple and a lower-carbohydrate diet is probably best. If you answer NO to at least three out of five questions, you are a pear and carbohydrate restriction is less important for you, which gives you the option of choosing a diet based more on lifestyle and food preferences. (No matter which shape you are, you should still limit refined carbohydrates for optimal health.)

WHICH DIET IS RIGHT FOR YOU?

Now that you know your body type, think about your lifestyle and eating habits. It is important to find a diet that you can stay on long term or the weight will creep — or flood — back on when you return to your old eating habits. And don’t forget about regular exercise. That is just as important as diet for keeping the weight off!

Diet: Atkins, South Beach
Description: Low-carbohydrate
Best for Body Type: Apple
Pros & Cons: Difficult for women who travel, entertain or dine out often

Diet: Ornish
Description: Very lowfat
Best for Body Type: Pear
Pros & Cons: Good for women who enjoy larger portions; hHard dining out

Diet: French Women Don’t Get Fat
Description: Portion control
Best for Body Type: Pear
Pros & Cons: Great for the foodie who loves to cook; not great for women with portion-control issues

Diet: Zone, Sonoma
Description: Lower-carbohydrate
Best for Body Type: Apple or pear
Pros & Cons: Slightly more time-consuming; less flexible for travel and dining out

Diet: Weight Watchers
Description: Portion control
Best for Body Type: Pear
Pros & Cons: Convenient, easy, on-the-go options; great for busy women

NOT ALL GUILT IS BAD

Guilt has its place, according to behavioral experts. “It is an important emotion,” says Karen Reivich, Ph.D., co-author of The Resilience Factor: 7 Essential Skills for Overcoming Life’s Obstacles (Broadway, 2003). Reivich also is the co-director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Resiliency Project, a 15-year ongoing series of studies that aim to help participants increase positive emotions and decrease feelings of depression and anxiety. “If you were to eradicate guilt, we would be doing the human race a disservice,” Reivich says. “[It’s an] emotional system signal that we’ve caused harm. People experience anticipatory guilt. You start thinking [of the consequences]. [You realize] uh-oh, you’re veering off course.”

“Having mild guilt is very helpful in a lot of situations,” says psychologist Judith S. Beck, Ph.D., director of The Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research in Philadelphia, and author of The Beck Diet Solution (Oxmoor House, April 2007). “If we feel guilty it is because we violated a rule we have. That nudge of negative emotion can tell us that next time we want to do things differently.”

HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?

Guilt becomes unhealthy, however, when it takes over your life. The guilt-prone person who is late to a meeting assumes she has ruined her boss’s day, for example. She tends to overreact, Reivich says. “Instead of having guilt that’s in proportion to the event, she has overblown guilt. That really undercuts health and resilience. If [your] guilt is out of proportion, you are unable to do anything about [the situation].”
Magnifying a negative event can send you on a downward spiral that petrifies you with anxiety and shame, leading you to sabotage your goals. Suddenly, that bagel with extra cream cheese you had this morning means you’ll never lose weight. Cognitive psychologists call these absolutist thoughts “all-or-nothing thinking.”

When you think like this, you relinquish the opportunity to do anything about the mistake you’ve made, Reivich says. The result is helplessness.

MINIMIZING GUILT

So what’s the answer? You’ll feel better if you look for solutions rather than expend time and psychic energy blaming yourself, Beck says. “Ask yourself, ‘What should I do the next time?’” Stop seeing your shortcomings in black-and-white terms and search for shades of gray, the experts here advise.

Take the judgment off of yourself, Beck suggests. Don’t label yourself lazy or think you’ll never get in shape if you’ve missed a workout. When you have a setback, you can either beat yourself up over it and use the mistake as an excuse to stop working toward your goal, or you can address the problem, says Joseph R. Ferrari, Ph.D., professor of psychology at DePaul University in Chicago, who studies the emotions of guilt and shame. “All successful people know that it’s not whether you win or lose, but how well you pick yourself up after failure” that counts.

Benefits: Strengthens back muscles, opens entire front of torso and boosts energy.

“Bending backwards, opposite to everyday forward bending, reverses all of that gravity pulling us down, opening the heart to bountiful potential.”

Movement:

• With legs and toes extended and elbows bent, press hands down onto the mat. Inhale, lifting your chest as if to pull your torso forward through your hands.
• As you straighten your arms, keep your spine long and shoulders down and away from your ears
• Keep hipbones on the floor to support your lower back.
• Exhale, bending elbows and lowering torso back down onto the floor.
• Keep elbows close to the body, so shoulders can roll back.
• Keep elbows slightly bent so that they can hug into the body.
• Keep hands flat on the floor, not bubbling up, to protect the wrists.

DOWNWARD FACING DOG
Sanskrit: Adho Mukha Svanasana

Benefits: Increases leg and core strength, and hamstring flexibility; increases circulation.

“When we put ourselves physically upside down, we have the opportunity to see things from another perspective.”

• From Cobra, turn toes under, pressing hands into the floor, straightening arms and legs. Exhale, lifting hips up toward the ceiling in an inverted V.
• Bend knees as much as needed to extend spine by pressing thighs back and chest toward the floor, aligning head, neck, shoulders, back and hips.
• Once the spine is extended with knees bent, begin to press the heels toward the floor as much as you can.
• Press down the inner edges of your hands and squeeze upper arms together; draw shoulder blades back and down; rotate shoulders open so insides of forearms face each other.
• Stay in this pose for 3 to 5 breaths.

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Benefits: Strengthens leg and back muscles; stabilizes hips; stretches hip flexors; and improves balance.

Movement:

• Bend knees (if needed) to place hands flat on floor, wrists in line with shoulders on either side of your feet and arms straight. Inhale and step back with your right foot, placing ball of your right foot on the floor, leg extended behind you, heel lifted.
• As you step, bend your left knee to align with your left ankle, foot flat on floor.
• If you can balance, sweep your arms up overhead, forearms parallel; keep breastbone lifted, spine long, abdominals in and tailbone down.
• Otherwise, keep hands on the floor. Exhale and hinge forward from your hips as you lower hands to place them on the floor on either side of your left foot.

PLANK POSE
Sanskrit: none

Benefits: Strengthens core, upper body, leg and hip muscles.

“A lot of us give away our energy and end up feeling depleted. Creating core strength is about more than getting flat abs, it is about bringing new energy into the center of ourselves, recharging and getting stronger.”

Movement:

• Keeping arms straight but not locked, inhale and step backward with left foot to meet right, balancing on the balls of your feet, legs straight, feet hip-distance apart and pressing back through your heels.
• Lower your hips if they’re hiked up and press them gently forward until your body is parallel to floor and in one straight line from head to heels.

YOGA PUSH-UP
Sanskrit: Chaturanga dandasana

Benefits: Strengthens core muscles and upper body, particularly triceps and chest; boosts confidence.

“It is amazing what can happen when a woman develops upper body strength. Not only does it change her whole posture, but she gets a spring in her step, a boost in confidence.”

Movement:

• Maintaining plank position, exhale and bend elbows, hugging them close to your sides all the way down, lowering your body toward the floor without rounding your shoulders, lifting your butt in the air, or letting your hips sag.
• Use your abdominals to maintain equal body weight between your torso and legs as you “hover” above the floor with elbows close to body and bent at a 90-degree angle. Don’t let the belly sag or the butt stick up.
• Continue to exhale as you lower your body to the floor, elbows in line with your shoulders, forearms and hands on the floor, palms down, toes turned down.

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