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Stop by our online health and fitness video store. We carry a wide variety of exercise videos, dvds, books, and accessories. Get moving with aerobics, toning, yoga, stretching, martial arts, and dance! It's time to start your new exercise program! Find hereThe original lyrics are deconstructed and reassembled at will by a rapper riding shotgun on the groove. Fitness is a good thing to have in your life. The instructor--a striking woman dressed in an oversized black T-shirt and baggy black sweatpants, with a shock of braids tied up overhead--glides effortlessly to the right in an intricate sequence of hip-hop dance steps. The 30-odd students behind her mimic each move to a T. “Turn it, turn it!” she yells, and everyone reverses field. “Grapevine! Do it!” Only by screaming into a handheld mike can she momentarily raise her voice above the music. “Grapevine, grapevine! One more, one more! Five, six, seven . . . Whe-e-e-e-e-e-e-w! All right!” After 10 minutes of this, the instructor stops the tape. By now her students are sweating rivers and sucking wind, but they appear to be having the time of their life. The top 10 activities that don''t count as warm-ups. Some of the following ideas may be incorporated into your warm-up, but none should be used as the sole activity when preparing for higher intensity exercise. What counts "The idea is simple. A muscle in a resting state has a certain length. Warming up improves the ability to move the muscle through its entire range of motion without injury. While warmth applied to the outside of the body warms the skin and parts of the muscles close to the skin''s surface, it doesn''t effectively warm the muscles, particularly the deep-seated muscles and tendons." When it comes to selecting a class, this person identifies two particularly important variables: an instructor’s personality and his or her selection of music. “The music really helps make it fun,” she says. “If you like the teacher’s personality and choice of music, chances are you’ll hang in there; if you don’t, you’ll probably have a hard time sticking with it.” Any gym offering aerobics classes should be able to explain which ones most closely meet your own needs and interests. VIRTUAL REALITY OR VIRTUAL WORKOUT? Just as the world of aerobics classes has grown increasingly diverse and sophisticated in the ’90s, cardio exercise machines have become more elaborate in recent years. ©2003 www.exercise-books-tapes.com. All rights reserved. |