Motivation Monday

February 13, 2012 at 3:19 pm , by Maggie Young

Let’s start the week off strong and focused with a positive perspective! Get moving with these tips to stay healthy and fit. Here is your weekly dose of inspiration to jump start your Monday.

This Week’s Work-Out Move: incline push-up. This week, try the king of arm exercises—the push-up. It targets the chest muscle and is challenging because it forces you to control your entire body weight. The body flexes during the movement and the core tightens to keep all of the limbs in alignment. The incline movement puts more stress on your triceps and the back of the shoulders as well as the chest. Find a couch, bed or the edge of a chair and place your hands shoulder width distance on the bench. Lower down so that your chest touches the surface. Rise up to the starting position and make sure to keep the neck relaxed and in alignment throughout the movement. To help with this, try to find a spot on the ground a few inches forward to focus on. It takes some time to build up your chest muscle endurance, so start slow and work up to more repetitions each week. Begin with 3 sets of 5 to 10 repetitions.

Healthy Snack of the Week: power-up antioxidant trail mix. Package up the trail mix into separate Ziploc bags with the appropriate single serving size in each one. That way, when the week gets away from you, you can provide your kids and yourself with something nutrient dense to snack on. Grab a handful of almonds, a handful of Goji berries and a square of dark chocolate chips (preferably 70 percent or above). This mix is packed with protein, free radical-fighting antioxidants and a little sweetness.

Young woman doing pushups in a field via Shutterstock

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