I really like battle ropes. They're so versatile; you can get a terrific workout doing a ton of different exercises with them. My clients like them because they're a good way to get aggression out, too. Had a bad day? Take it out on the ropes!

If you think you're going to do 100 crunches and a plank and burn away belly fat, you're not. Yes, you're going to make the area stronger, but it's not going to get rid of the fat. So do yourself a favor and, once and for all, let that idea go.

I think that when moms just give themselves up, the kids know. They feel guilty; they resent their mother for making them feel guilty, and then they grow up and do the same thing. Whereas my mother showed me that it's okay to focus on yourself.

There's so much you can do with bodyweight alone. The basics always come up for a reason: sit-ups, planks, push-ups. They'll always give you results. The way to take it up a notch is to compound the basics to work multiple muscle groups at once.

Jessica Alba to me is on the top of the food chain. She's gorgeous, she's smart, and she really takes care of herself. I think that she looks great. I think that as Jennifer Aniston gets older, she looks better and better, and I really like that.

For years, I always thought it was hilarious that I was this fitness guru, because fitness was just a tool I utilized to help people improve their confidence. For me, it's never been about fitness. It's always been about helping to empower people.

I usually suggest that people do their steady-state cardio on the days that they're not with me; they really don't need a cardio babysitter. When working with athletes, I try to pair the interval with the exertion patterns of their respective sport.

I was an overweight kid, and my father struggled with his weight, too. We would go for a ride on his motorcycle on Sunday morning to get doughnuts, to make pizza together, or go get ice cream. I quickly learned that food equalled love and attention.

Life is all about balance, and there are certain times of the year - birthday, anniversary, holidays - that are meant to be enjoyed without guilt. That being said, Thanksgiving is a meal - it's not a Thanksgiving day, and it's not a Thanksgiving week.

Researchers found that sharing your workout results - whether it's through actually being friends on a specific app or calling friends to tell them how you did, even posting your results on a social platform - usually pushes people to work even harder.

Think about how you are going to feel if you eat the healthy food, how you are going to look in a bikini next summer or in skinny jeans. Think about feeling strong, healthy, confident. You'll be more confident in the bedroom, more confident at the office.

When I came out, when I was 17 years old, it was one of those things where I realized that there was going to be so many obstacles, but being gay doesn't mean being weak. And being gay doesn't mean that you are less than anybody else. It's just who you are.

Do something active that's fun. On tour with Kanye and Common, we would have basketball games on a court in every city we went to. With Alicia Keys, we would mountain-bike across Vancouver Island. With Lady Gaga, we would explore all the cool neighborhoods.

The Gunnar Challenge offers new workouts every day, a meal plan and daily 'verbal vitamins,' which are a motivational video or workout tip. The thing that really makes the program work is the forum, where Challengers can communicate with each other and with me.

Visualize what you want out of life and think big. Don’t feel undeserving. We're all deserving of living our dreams—some of us realize it and some don't. You’re not doing anyone any favors by living small. Embrace these truths and step up. The world is waiting.

I don't want anyone to ever put himself or herself in a box of, "I lost my second chance!" Because life brings you ebbs and flows, and if you miss out on this second chance, guess what, you're going to get another one if you decide that you're ready to have one.

Don't let yourself get stuck without a healthy snack option. If you allow yourself to get famished at work, you're going to be more likely to get your snack from the vending machine, and when was the last time you saw something fresh and healthy in one of those?

The key is to master a few simple ways to exercise that will burn the most calories in the least time. And you also need to figure out how can you eat more of the good stuff and less of the bad stuff without feeling deprived so your diet regimen feels manageable.

Whether you want to lose 20 pounds or 200, what the contestants on 'The Biggest Loser' have learned - and taught me - holds true: You've got to make a break. You've got to divorce yourself from the past and find a different way of living. And you can never go back.

Multi-joint movements - squats, push-ups, bent over rows - all put a greater metabolic demand on the body and can be effective when performed with very light weight to get you back up and running. Think bigger movements, not bigger weight, when you are on the mend.

Hydration is everything. Think of this: your muscles are 70-plus percent water - how are you not drinking water during a workout? I get the whole, 'Let's challenge ourselves; let's do that prison, tough guy thing,' but at the end of the day, you're underperforming.

Our bodies have a finely tuned, built-in detoxifying system: It's called our liver, and it can detoxify our bodies better than any cleanse or fast without the unpleasantness and danger of muscle cramps, dehydration, and diarrhea associated with artificial cleanses.

The past doesn't define you, your present does. It's okay to create a vision of the future because it affects your behavior in the "now," but don't dwell on past mistakes. Learn from them and focus those lessons in the moment. That's where change can really happen.

We focus way too much on the front of our midsection, which, in the process, over-strengthens and draws the torso forward so you end up with shorter-looking abs. Focus on lengthening by working your lower back instead. This will give your midsection a full overhaul.

When you look at the fittest, leanest populations like Japan and Scandinavia, they don't even go to the gym. The average person in Sydney takes 11,000 steps a day, and the average person in Houston does 4000. Guess who is going to be leaner, regardless of their diet?

Ask yourself this: How much deprivation, how much self-effacement must you suffer through before you act on your desire for meaning and fulfillment? Before it’s your turn to thrive in your life, instead of barely surviving it? Some people live their dreams. Why not you?

Fitness and proper nutrition truly go hand-in-hand. Focus on eating clean and filling your plate with veggies, fruits, whole grains and lean proteins. And, everyone hates to do it, but calorie counting is crucial to weight loss as well as maintaining a healthy physique.

Don't shut down your emotions. Embrace them. Your emotions are your internal compass telling you whether or not you are on track. Use them to help cultivate your passions or motivate you to change situations and circumstances that hold you back from achieving your goals.

There are 168 hours in a week, and even if you're working out two, three, four, or five times a week for an hour, you're still not working out at least 95 to 98 percent of the week. So it's what you do during that time that's far more impactful than what you do in the gym.

I had a second-degree-blue-belt test, and I broke two boards with my right foot, and the next day I walked into school, and no one ever picked on me again. I suddenly believed in myself and respected myself. I had some inkling of my power, so the bullying stopped instantly.

By default I am the good parent. I've used my own personal experience. I came from a world where I was in need and starving for the good parent, so it's like I'm bringing my own persona issues into that. I am the parent that I always wanted to have; that's how I look at my role.

I choose to not ignore or push away emotional pain. Instead, I allow it to move through me. Sometimes, that's quietly working on a puzzle and listening to an all-strings Pandora station, and others, it's being vulnerable with a trusted friend. Either way, I let it have its place.

It's the fact that no matter how bad it's gotten, the body wants to be healthy. The body wants to bounce back. When you do these changes, you do these small changes every single day, and you trust the process of what you're doing. You really do make lasting changes onto your body.

Both belly bulge and love handles are about excess body fat, not lack of muscle. Crunches and ab exercises are therefore not the solution. The best way to reduce these problem areas is to reduce your overall body fat percentage, and we all know that that requires diet and exercise.

Every human being has gone through a tragedy of sorts. And the idea is that you have two paths you can take, you can find that alchemy that turns lead into gold, find that magic where you can see the loss as an entry point for learning and grow from it and become wiser and stronger.

There is almost a 60-year age difference between Miley Cyrus and Jane Fonda, and one day I trained them both. I would say I trained Jane in her 70s even harder than I did Miley, who's a teenager. I think, as you become older, it's not about working harder: it's about working smarter.

If you were inactive due to an injury or a surgery, then common sense rules the day when inching closer to the area that was hurt. That is very different from inactivity due to being ill. After illness, be aware of how taxing your workout is cardiovascularly and err on the side of less.

You want to try to keep your sleep and meal patterns attached to the time zone that you're in. It's important so you don't feel disoriented. If we take a red-eye and land in Singapore at 8 A.M., we're not going to bed. Force yourself to stay awake, have breakfast, power through the day.

I've always believed fitness is an entry point to help you build that happier, healthier life. When your health is strong, you're capable of taking risks. You'll feel more confident to ask for the promotion. You'll have more energy to be a better mom. You'll feel more deserving of love.

I'm an organizational fanatic. I created a locker room that the children pass through when they come in the house. Each child has a personal locker, and every day when they arrive home from school, they dump their stuff there-backpacks, shoes, soccer uniforms. I organize them by season.

At some point you have to stop acting as though life is happening to you and acknowledge the ways you are happening to it. Once you take responsibility for your side of the street, you grant yourself the power to improve every aspect of your life by simply acting and behaving differently.

Through my work as a nutritionist and trainer to celebrity clients, I've had amazing opportunities to travel the world. In my experience, I made what seemed to be a remarkable discovery: the farther I travel from the U.S., the easier it is to find foods that are both nourishing and slimming.

Everybody comes in with a certain goal. Some are performance, some are aesthetic. Even athletes have aesthetic goals, but first and foremost, they have performance goals, and those need to be addressed. They have weaknesses that need to be shored up. You have to manage expectations sometimes.

Don't repress your needs and feelings. They fester, becoming corrosive and destructive in your relationships. In a calm, loving way, tell the people in your life what you need. Don't expect people to read your mind. It only leads to disappointment and frustration. Empower them to empower you!

Kellan Gillis was the first celebrity that I worked with - that didn't hurt. Working out after that with Jennifer Lopez was huge in terms of just the platform it gives you. So I think when you get those opportunities, you have to be respectful of them, and you have to try not to just cash out.

To ensure maximal fiber intake and to identify true whole-grain products, do the 'flip-and-check.' Flip to the nutrition facts label and list of ingredients on the back, and check that the product has at least three grams of fiber per serving and that whole grains is first on the ingredients list.

I try to do the right thing. If you do what you know is right, and you're a good person, you might not win short-term all the time, and financial gains might not be there all the time, but ultimately, you can be pretty happy, and you can do some pretty good things in the world. Keep a positive outlook.

Sometimes people will hear you and be able to change their behavior, but often their behavior has more to do with their own need for approval than with your need for support. No matter what their response, you need to be firm and hold your ground. At the end of the day, your health is your responsibility.

You need to lift weights and do more resistance training. Get more sleep. I'm the first one who's guilty of not doing that, but I work on it, and I'm aware of it. And drink more water. Drink Propel. You have to hydrate. You simply can't perform at the level you could perform at if you're dehydrated. Period.

Do you realize that there is nothing in our genes that tells us when to die? There are genetic codes that tell us how to grow, how to breathe, and how to sleep, but NOTHING that tells us to die. So why do we? Because we literally rust and decay our bodies from the inside out with poor food and lifestyle choices.

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