1-Day Energy Makeover

by Kathy Smith

Kathy Smith, New York Times bestselling author, has stood at the forefront of the fitness and health industries for over 30 years. The numbers speak for themselves: Kathy has sold more than 20 million exercise DVDs - landing her in the Video Hall of Fame - and $500 million in Kathy Smith products. With her revolutionary approach to fitness, Smith has touched millions of people, inspiring them to move, live, and love.

1 Missing Link to Flat, Firm, and Fabulous Abs

by Kathy Smith

There’s more to killer abs than just exercise and abdominal crunches. Turns out that there’s a direct relationship between a healthy digestive system and your overall look, too. Not only does what you eat affect whether or not you pack on pounds, but what you eat can also impact how your digestive system works, how it processes and eliminates waste effectively, as well as how it helps support the surrounding muscles and tissue.Don’t you love when you notice the results from working out and eating healthier? You catch a glimpse of new definition in your arms and your legs and all the effort is worth it. But if you’re still noticing some tummy jiggle, you’re not alone. And one potential solution might surprise you.

Abs and an Upset Stomach

Gas, cramps, bloating, general aches and pains, and even a distended abdomen are common complaints. What’s happening inside your body is gut inflammation from food allergies and food intolerance.

Here’s that potential solution I mentioned: The greater the level of inflammation in your digestive system, the greater the likelihood that your abdominal muscles will not respond to exercise.

Why?

Well, when you’ve got a stomach that’s inflamed, giving you pain, that inflammation can affect the abdominal muscles that are supposed to be stabilizing your core. In other words, those pain impulses that come from your digestive system can result in weakness and more pain in those regions of the abdominal wall. And when those muscles become weak or disabled due to your (sick) digestive system, they aren’t much help to you and they won’t respond very well to your attempts to work them.

Just about any problem you might have in your digestive tract is called a “digestive disorder” – indigestion, heartburn, or simply an upset stomach. Highly processed, poor-quality foods and fast food don’t make the situation any better.

A Diet That Agrees With Your Core

You know you have to make good choices when it comes to food, beverage, and getting proper exercise. It can be a challenge to eat well and exercise for purposes of losing or maintaining your ideal weight. But I bet you’ve never thought about how your digestive system can change the way your core responds to exercise.

The goal is to get the internal workings of your core to be in harmony with the rest of your body so when you perform a core workout, and work those abs, you see the rewards in a tighter, flatter belly. And you can accomplish that with some slight changes to your diet.

The Cleveland Clinic offers the following suggestions:

• Eat at least 7 servings of fruit and vegetables per day.

• Choose whole grains whenever possible.

• Limit consumption of higher fat meats like beef, pork, lamb, and processed meats.

• Cook by steaming, poaching, stewing, braising and boiling more often. Avoid fried foods.

• Spicy foods, alcohol, soft drinks (including zero-calorie soft drinks), corn and dairy products are the foods that the majority of people have problems with. Review your intake of these items and completely eliminate them to determine if they could be causing digestion problems.

• Drink lots of water! Dehydration leads to a host of problems. Being fully loaded with water will also allow you to get the most of your workout.

And of course, don’t forget to keep up with your exercise and abdominal work routine. The road to a flat belly entails a combination of efforts. You’ll not only look better, but you’ll feel better, too!

Try this 5-minute crunch-free ab routine from my Flat Abs over 40 Program as a way to maintain your workout routine while you take a closer look at your digestive health:

Purchase Kathy Smith's Total Body Turnaround complete workout (clip above) HERE.

Kathy

Walk Off Belly Fat Before Breakfast

by Kathy Smith

Supercharge your step and take your ab routine to the next level

How would you like to get rid of belly fat and kick crunches to the curb? For a workout that really trims your midsection, it’s time to get walking. Studies show walking is one of the best ways to banish the belly bulge, in less time than you think. There are four decades of studies on exercise and belly fat that show just 2 1/2 hours of brisk walking a week–only about 20 minutes a day–can shrink your belly by about 1 inch in 4 weeks!

Who doesn’t have time for those kind of results? 

That’s exactly why today I’ll show you how to supercharge your steps with a MUST-WATCH 3-minute waist-whittling walking video.

Although walking is the foundation of this workout, it also includes simple but powerful standing ab moves that will help you blast away belly fat and walk off the pounds. And don’t forget…no more crunches! By incorporating these easy moves into your walking routine, you’ll see an overall tighter core that will also improve balance and coordination.

I’ve seen thousands of women and men use this walking ab routine and melt inches off their waists! Mary uses my walking workouts almost daily, and can hardly describe her incredible transformation. Not only has she supercharged her metabolism, she’s also seeing definition in her midsection where she used to have what she describes as, “nothing but softness before.” Today’s clip gives you a taste of the incredible walking workouts that have helped so many people tone, tighten and fire up their metabolism!

Plus, if you want a workout that’s gentle on your joints, then today’s video is definitely for you. Louise says,“This walking workout is my absolute favorite, because it’s not too hard on my back or knees, but it’s still interesting and fun.”

Purchase Kathy Smith's Power Walk for Weight Loss complete workout (clip above) HERE. 

Kathy

Flatten Your Tummy in 5 Mins a Day

by Kathy Smith

Crunches, crunches, crunches!

What if everything you’ve ever learned about toning your tummy is wrong? 

Studies are continuing to show that the secret  to strengthening your core and tightening your tummy is about doing the right exercises…not spending doing traditional crunches.

In today’s blog, I've developed a science-based ab routine to help you create the abs you want in only 5 minutes a day! I’ll show you the exact exercises to lose fat and inches around your waistline, tone up your abs, and increase your confidence!

Here’s how to do it: Repeat each move for 30 seconds. Repeat twice.

Cannonball

What it does:

• This move is sometimes called the ˙banana,” because of the slightly-curved line your body forms at the start of the exercise. But no matter what you call it, this full-body core-strengthener is a surefire way to fire up the entire abdominal wall.

How to do it:

• Start lying on your back, with your arms reaching out overhead, legs lifted slightly off the floor, and toes pointed. Even here, at the start of the move, you’re activating core muscles by stretching them out. Keep pressing the lower back into the mat or floor to ensure the back doesn’t arch. If this feels like too much tension on the back, try lifting the legs a little further away from the floor.
• Imagine that, as you’re stretching the fingers and toes away from each other, the core is a strong magnet working to pull them back in. Using the force of that imaginary magnet, bring the knees in toward the chest. At the same time, reach your arms toward the legs.

Beginners:

• Start by doing this move just one leg at a time. Resting your left leg on the floor, perform the move as described above using only the right leg. Do 10 repetitions and repeat on the left side.

Advanced:

• At the top of the move, when you’re in ˙cannonball” position, wrap your arms around the shins. The objective is to find your balance point. To do that, you need to strongly engage your core muscles when you hit the top of the movement. Coordinating the arms and legs to hit that balance point is the challenge. 

 Ceiling Stap

Here’s how to do it:

• Lying on your back, squeeze your abdominals and lift your legs off the floor. Extend them up straight, feet facing the ceiling.
• With your hands on the floor for balance, use your lower abdominal strength to push your feet up 1-2 inches toward the ceiling (meaning your hips come 1-2 inches further away from the floor simultaneously). It’s a quick movement, almost a ˙pulse,” as if you’re stamping the ceiling with the bottom of your feet (hence the title).

Forearm Plank With Swivel

1. Start in plank position, but this time, rest on your elbows instead of your hands. Be sure to keep the shoulders depressed back and down and the neck nice and long throughout the movement.
2. Keeping your abs engaged, slowly swivel the hips underneath you to the right. Feel your obliques driving this motion as you swivel to the other side with a slow, controlled motion.

Kathy

4 Moves For A Total-Body Workout In Less Than 15 Minutes

by Kathy Smith

For flat abs, try:

For strong arms, try:

For a toned butt, try:

For increased flexibility, try:

Kathy