Fitness tips for women

Fuel for fitness
Planning on picking up the pace tomorrow? Eat food that will help keep you going strong. For breakfast, opt for a high-carbohydrate meal— one similar to what you’ll be eating on race day, so you can find out what foods digest best (for you!).

Try a whole-grain English muffin or a bagel with peanut butter or a low-fat cream cheese. Then, have a well-rounded meal post-workout to help with recovery.

Up your exercise
How do you know when to increase your exercise? “The general rule of thumb is to up the amount of miles run, for races half-marathon length and longer, by 5 to 10 percent each week,” advises Andrew Kastor, an exercise physiologist and ASICS running coach.

Find the best fitness friend
A workout buddy is hugely helpful for keeping motivated, but it’s important to find someone who will inspire—not discourage. So make a list of all your exercise-loving friends, then see who fits this criteria: Can your pal meet to exercise on a regular basis? Is s/he supportive (not disparaging) of your goals? And last, will your bud be able to keep up with you or even push your limits in key workouts? If you’ve got someone that fits all three, make that phone call.

Shake your way slim
Sick of that elliptical or bike or workout DVD? That means it’s time to mix up your routine! Our favorite way: Break a sweat by moving and shaking. Simply make a playlist with your favourite “cut a rug” tunes, then turn up the volume, and start breaking it down. For even more fun, invite some gal pals over and get grooving (and laughing). The best part is that you’ll each burn about 200 to 600 calories per hour. Now that’s something to shimmy about!

Relieve those side stitches
You know it: a sharp pain just below the rib cage that always seems to pop up when you’re working out your hardest. It’s called the side stitch, and it can be a major nuisance—especially when it keeps you from completing a workout. To ease the ache (so you can get on with your run), take your fist and press it beneath your rib cage while taking deep breaths from your belly for about 10 steps. In about 30 seconds, the pain should subside, so you can get on back to (fitness) work.

Swap out your shoes
While we’ve all heard that running shoes break down after logging lots of miles (about 300 to 350), you may still be holding on to your fave pair. (They fit just right! They’re so cushy!) Not a good idea. “Glue has a tendency to break down under ultraviolet light, as do the other materials that make up the shoe,” says Kastor. So even if your sneaks have only 150 miles on them but are more than two years old, recycle them, because chances are they’ve already started deteriorating. And as a rule of thumb, always keep tabs on how many miles you’ve logged on them—tedious, but hey, you’ll be proud of how far you’ve gone.
Courtesy of www.health.com