The world record hasn’t been broken since 1999, and is still held by Hicham El Guerrouj from Morocco at 3:43.13 minutes.

Below is a link to a video of the record setting race, my favorite part is that he is contested by someone keeping pace with him on the final stretch. It is a good watch and well worth the 4 minutes.

Hicham El Guerrouj Sets a World Record in the Mile at YouTube.

General

• Running – Ask someone where a safe route would be to run, as you may not be familiar with the area and the roads. Go out during daylight hours to be safe.
• Pushups – Make a rigorous pushup routine to do in your room, use different hand positions to work out different parts of your upper body. Including shoulders, triceps, and chest.
• Crunches – There are so many ab workouts you can do in your hotel room or lodging that your abs can get just as good of a workout on vacation as they would at home or at the gym. Plus the fact that your eating habits may abnormal (more grease, more fast food), crunches and running are great for burning those excess calories.
• Squats/Lunges - Doing some weightless squats will help your legs stay active and not lose to much of your hard work.
• Swimming – Swimming is a great workout for the entire body. Most hotels have pools (and maybe a hot tub for some relaxing after a hard swim or day) and you can get some laps in. Make sure you bring goggles so you don’t run into the edge of the pool! If you are camping, there is also a possibility of swimming, call ahead and ask.

Hotel

Quite a few hotels have access to weight rooms with a few basic machines, which could include treadmills, bikes, and a few weight machines. Use the machines to your advantage, usually they are not the best quality or most useful but if you can get a few upper body exercises in, it will definitely help keep those muscles active.

Camping

While camping you can do various activities including hiking, mountain biking, canoeing, swimming. Call ahead to where you will be staying and see the activities that they would recommend doing to stay active. Camping is usually a relaxing vacation choice, but that does not mean that you should take the entire trip off, get out and do something, be active, there will be plenty of time to relax at other points of the day.

Relatives or Friends

Ask your family or friends if there is something you can get out and do to stay active during your visit. Maybe they will get out and do something with you. Ask them for good running routes to avoid high traffic areas and other dangerous areas.

Conclusion

As you can see there are so many options to stay active when you are out on the road and there really is no reason to not even attempt to get 15-30 minutes into a day, even if you are busy most of the day. It will make you feel much better and could help you sleep better on that awful hotel bed you have to stay on for a week.

I am on the road while writing this and I must say I have felt much better on the days that I got up and did some running and pushups compared to the days I did not. Leave your traveling workout tips in the comments.

Biking

This has to be my top activity to do with children. Most kids love being out in the neighborhood on their bike, but also don’t hesitate to take them to the park, or on a nearby trail and let them enjoy the outdoors from a young age.

Canoeing

The lake or the river are a great destination for this activity, make sure you have an adult with the children and be patient with them. Teach them to proper way to paddle and any safety information you need to pass on to them, before going out. Don’t forget the life jackets!

Frisbee

Go to the park or the beach (my favorite) and play Frisbee, don’t leave the little ones out either, it is also fun to play in knee deep water.

Or you could just go out and throw a ball around, be it a basketball, baseball, nerf ball, play tag with your kids. They will probably brag about it at school that their mom and dad come out and play tag with them, or duck, duck, goose even.

Have fun with them, on whatever activity you decide.

These are just a few examples of activities your whole family can enjoy, add your suggestions to the comments!

The post that actually brought me to this blog is a post about “Do You Help Others With Fitness and Weight Loss” and it made me think about going to the gym and people’s attitudes there. She writes:

It seems that when someone gets a good piece of information or advice they hoard it for themselves when they know that a lot of other people could benefit from it.

I do not believe to this to entirely true however, because I have seen many people willing to help out at the gym with each other. I do not however, impose my ways of working out upon others unless I am asked, but if someone where to ask me how to work a machine, or how to do an exercise correctly I would be more than happy to share. The reason I am writing this blog is to share my knowledge with as big of a crowd that will read me.

Part of Positive Fitness’s goals is to provide people with the knowledge so that they can pass it on to others. I hope more people would do the right thing in the situation that Real Women’s Fitness writes about and give the person the correct information.

Squats

The ultimate leg exercise, squats work the whole body, squats especially work your thighs, hips, and butt. I prefer normal squats (bar on shoulders) going to close to parallel. Make sure you keep your back tight and have a spotter. Check out About.com’s and WikiHow’s excellent squat guides for more in depth information.

You will not want to do very much weight, find a good weight that you can do 15 reps of. I prefer to do four sets of squats, a warm up set (ex. 15), then 3 more sets, 15, 15, 12 (reps). Take a good 1-2 minute break between sets. If the weight is to easy add a few pounds.

Lunges

Lunges have quickly became one of my favorite leg exercises. Lunges do a great job on many major muscles in your leg. Lunges work your butt (glutes), calves, quads, and hamstrings. Proper form is critical on lunges, I recommend again About.com’s Perfect Butt Guide for more in depth look at lunges if you are not familiar with the proper technique.

I like to do very high reps with weights on lunges. I would recommend starting with 15 each leg to start, using 5lb weights (if you can’t use the weight at the start, just use your body weight). My legs are usually burning after 3-4 sets of squats at high repetitions, it is a great exercise.

Biking/Running

Biking and running are great ways to get in shape and lose weight.  But they are also great for your legs. Biking really works your thighs, hips, and butt, and will help tone up your legs. Being a cyclist myself, I would recommend doing faster paced spinning classes (or ride in a higher gear) so that your legs are moving faster, it should really help tone up your legs. I would recommend the spinning class if possible since I know I look pretty silly riding my bike and my legs just going at a high RPM.  Remember to wear your helmet!

A good site with the benefits of cycling is Bicycling Info. Head over there for some good information.

Conclusion

There are many other great exercises out there that can help you achieve your goals for your legs. Different workouts and exercises work for different people. Remember despite what exercises you choose working hard is the most important thing, your legs should be burning and sore after your workout. Make sure to warm up properly and to stretch afterwards so you don’t become to sore. There really is no substitute for hard work, especially when you are working towards a goal is important.

About.com’s Top Ten Butt Exercises is a great resource for some more information regarding this subject.  Best of luck looking good this summer!

I hope that today’s quotes will provide you with some positive and motivational insights.

Motivational Quotes

“If you can’t rise to the highest level of enthusiasm, passion, and
professionalism, and grasp this task as if it is the most important thing that you have ever taken on in your life, you aren’t worthy of the task. We have been blessed with this opportunity.” - Richard Taylor

My favorite quote as of late, I find it to be a very motivational quote for a big sporting event or a big occasion in someone’s life.

“Never talk defeat. Use words like hope, belief, faith, victory.” - Norman Vincent Peale, Source: Positive Thinking Every Day.

I love this quote because it can be about pretty much anything, a rough day at work, personal relationship, or weight loss.

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence. – Helen Keller Source: The Book of Positive Quotations by John Cook

Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly. – Robert H. Schuller Source: Positive News NetworkPositi

The euphoria of an energetic workout may tempt us to further push our levels and try our hands and legs on exercises that drain us off which is the first mistake that must be avoided. After a morning workout session, the heartbeat rate must pacify itself. This is because we do not want a palpitating heart forever which is very uncomfortable to deal with, not to mention unhealthy.

It is advisable to do simple stretches immediately after the morning workout because the muscles stretch during the workout and contract at the same rate after the workout. Hence a heavy morning workout implies heavy contraction, which may lead to shrinking. This mandates the necessity for light stretches after which we will feel brisk, fresh and great after a morning workout. So jog off to work, ride a bicycle, and enjoy the fruits of labor.

Workout naturally results in working the water out of the body. Morning is considered to be the best period to work out, but that is also the time when the body is yearning for water. So it is absolutely essential that we stay hydrated during the exercise duration and more necessarily after the workout, throughout the day.

Instead of protein or carbohydrate-rich drinks that may sometimes nullify the purpose of our fitness regime, it is better to drink at least 4 glasses of water more than the usual consumption, for there is no greater elixir of life than the clear liquid itself. It is the artery through which nutrients are circulated in the body after a perfect workout and we don’t want to wag our tongues for want of water. Instead, we want to feel the flow of strength and potential that is begotten by a good morning workout.

If there is one great benefit of morning workout that stare into our face, then it is the food pattern that can be easily followed. To feel great after a morning workout, we must eat very soon after the workout. The perfect timing would be within 1 hour of doing the workout, which would be a cakewalk for us because we can have our breakfast within 1 hour of the workout.

The nemesis, in other words, the 3-letter villain FAT should be avoided during the breakfast session because fat slows down digestion, which is the complete opposite of our intent. Intake of proteins and carbohydrates is highly recommended because carbohydrates provide the much-needed glucose to refurbish our muscles and give us that pep to start our day with enthusiasm, feeling great about ourselves. In short, any food that helps in easy digestion of food is preferred because our ultimate requirement is energy and not to be a storehouse of unwanted fat.

Even without a workout, it is rejuvenating to take a hot water bath. With a workout, it is a treat to bath in hot water to feel all the stress ebbing away. The reason behind this is that, hot water dilates the muscles and immediate cold-water bath contracts the blood vessels. This vacillation between hot and cold water will clean up the tissues and helps get rid of impurities.

It is not enough to have a great morning workout, it is absolutely important to feel great after a morning workout and all these steps are necessary to aid in our quest for a healthy and happy living.