In the spirit of the 2016 Rio Olympics, WH&F Head Trainer is here to help you train like an Olympic athlete.
This workout takes you through a weekly schedule of strength and conditioning exercises and cardio challenges. Gear up and train like an Olympic sprinter.
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Get a quick boost of energy with this coffee flavoured smoothie.
The goal: Energy boost
The glass: Caffeine can provide a quick energy boost while bananas impart ready glycogen for explosive physical energy. The espresso’s caffeine may also benefit exercise and brain performance by reducing perceived effort and extending workout time. The banana will also help to optimise workout intensity.
The rules: Skip the syrups and other constituents of commercial coffee drinks – they add sugar and kilojoules. If you need sweetness, add a teaspoon of honey.
The foods: Cooled espresso
MAKE IT:
Looking for more healthy recipes. Check out our extensive recipe section.
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Photo: Getty Images
As we anxiously await the gymnastics portion of the 2016 Rio Olympics, here’s a little something to get you totally amped for Team USA…and it comes in the form of a Fifth Harmony video.
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Thats right, both of your favorite Fab 5s appear in the group’s “That’s My Girl” video and it’s nothing short of amazing. The empowering track is the perfect backdrop for a mashup of the U.S. gymnastic team’s most killer moments and it’s a genius move on everyone’s part. We are so here for all of this girl power.
RELATED: Cue the History Lesson in Voluminous Hair, Please
Check out the video below.
This article originally appeared on InStyle.com/MIMI.
For most of us ordinary folk, getting our brows done usually means a quick weekly visit to the nearest threading salon and then it’s business as usual. OK, maybe some brow pencil to fill in the sparse spots and some gel to hold everything in place, but you get the picture. We invest time, but it’s a relatively fast routine, and totes worth it because brows are everything.
As you can imagine, though, when Kim Kardashian needs her eyebrows done, things get a little a lot more complicated.
In a new video for her app, Kim K reveals what it actually takes to have brows that perfect, and let’s just say that it’s not easy. First of all, she works with legendary brow artist and longtime pal Anastasia Soare of Anastasia Beverly Hills, which only comes to show that Kim K takes her brows very seriously. To put it into perspective, this is the woman who invented the Brow Powder Duo. Yeaaaaaah, kinda a big deal!
RELATED: Behold: Kylie Jenner’s Secret to Perfectly Shaped Brows
“Getting my brows done is not only a major part of my makeup routine, but it’s also like a little therapy session. Anastasia will come to my house pretty much whenever, put her light on her head and go to work,” Kardashian says.
Soare starts off by shaping the brows, which includes waxing any excess hair, as well as trimming the hairs with baby scissors. Then, she preps them by applying some eye cream and foundation around them to define their shape. This is a trick we’ve also seen her little sis Kylie test out—successfully, at that.
Soare says that highlighting under your brows will give you an instant lift.
She fills in sparse brows with a pencil and finally applies brow gel to set them in place. See, we told you it’s not easy, but Anastasia clearly knows what she’s doing!
And now, let’s all marvel at the results:
Yep, totally worth it.
This article originally appeared on InStyle.com/MIMI.
Photo: courtesy of BH Cosmetics
Plus-size model and Sports Illustrated cover girl Ashley Graham keeps her curve game strong not only with empowering selfies, but also with a killer workout regimen. Lucky for us, she’s not afraid to show herself sweating it out in the gym with her friends-slash-workout-buddies and personal trainers.
On Monday, Graham—who recently penned a powerful essay in response to her body shamers—posted a video to her Instagram account showing the circuit training routine she did with certified personal trainer Christopher Kadima during a trip to Los Angeles.
While Graham performed the exercises in an LA-based gym, this cardio-strength combo workout can be executed in the comfort of your own home. All you need is a set of hand weights, a yoga mat, a balance ball, a resistance band, a towel, and a bit of space.
Here’s Graham’s full circuit for you to steal: jump roping, side and back foot taps with a resistance band, dumbbell rows, push-ups, slider back lunges, exercise ball plank, slider side lunges, sit-ups, squats, lateral band walks, and dumbbell flys. (We might borrow her energizing song of choice, Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “Who Gon Stop Me,” too.)
Photo: Getty Images
Shannen Doherty has revealed the heartbreaking news that her cancer may have spread.
“I had breast cancer that spread to the lymph nodes, and from one of my surgeries we discovered that some of the cancer cells might have actually gone out of the lymph nodes,” the actress said in an exclusive interview yesterday with Entertainment Tonight. “So for that reason, we are doing chemo, and then after chemo, I’ll do radiation.”
The former Beverly Hills, 90210 star, 45, told People last summer that she’d been diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2015. Since then, she’s had a single mastectomy and also undergone three of eight rounds of chemotherapy, which she described as being especially hard.
“You’re throwing up every single second,” she said. “After my first treatment I lost 10 pounds, instantly. You’re throwing up and the last thing you want to do is be in a car. You don’t want to be moved, you can’t eat.”
The actress’s husband of five years, photographer Kurt Iswarienko, has been by her side during her treatments. “My husband has to, you know, pick me up,” she said. “He puts me in the car, he buckles me in, and he drives me to my oncologist and they hook me up to an IV and I get hydrated.”
When Doherty shaved her head last week, she credited her support system, including Iswarienko, her close friends, and mom Rosa, for helping her get through “an impossibly tough day.”
“After my second treatment, my hair was really matted, like in dreadlocks. And I went to try and brush it out, and it just fell out,” Doherty told ET. “I just remember holding onto huge clumps of my hair in my hands, and just running to my mom crying, like, ‘My hair, my hair, my hair, my hair.'”
Doherty documented the difficult process in a series of photos on Instagram—first cutting her hair into a pixie, then a mohawk, and finally shaving it completely. And although Iswarienko was in Mexico for work, he was still able to offer support.
“He was texting nonstop in the middle of his photoshoot like, ‘Give me pictures, and are you OK? I wish I could be there,'” she said. “He was so stricken that he wasn’t there with me but I sent him pictures and videos and he was like, ‘Oh my God. You’re hot with no hair.’ So you know, everybody kind of made me feel better about it.”
“Any time someone is told they have breast cancer, it’s a very scary thing, emotionally and psychologically,” Sharon Rosenbaum Smith, MD, a breast cancer surgeon at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Medical Center in New York City, told Health. (Dr. Rosenbaum Smith has not treated Doherty.)
Based on Doherty’s chemotherapy comments, Dr. Rosenbaum Smith says it’s possible that the actress is experiencing particularly bad side effects. “Chemotherapy affects people in very different ways, and the side effects vary widely from person to person,” she explains. “It sounds like unfortunately Shannen could be having a very severe reaction.”
“We have a lot of great treatments out there for breast cancer and very good survival statistics,” says Dr. Rosenbaum Smith. And even though these treatments can make patients feel extremely run-down, they’re helping to fight the cancer cells and prevent them from coming back.
She adds: “The most important thing is to remember that hopefully this is a very short period in a very long life.”
In the ET interview, Doherty said that “the unknown” has been the scariest part of having the disease. “Is the chemo going to work? Is the radiation going to work?” she said. “You know, am I going to have to go through this again, or am I going to get secondary cancer? Everything else is manageable. Pain is manageable, you know living without a breast is manageable, it’s the worry of your future and how your future is going to affect the people you love.”
Doherty’s hope is that her story will help others who are fighting the same battle. “If I could help one person then it makes me go, ‘Oh OK,'” she said. “It’s easier to live with having cancer if I know I’m helping at least one person.”
Not sure what to eat pre-workout? Gear up for a solid workout with this banana protein smoothie recipe.
The glass: Banana smoothie made with slow-releasing protein
The rules: Use casein in place of the more common whey as it digests slowly, delivering a consistent supply of amino acids during a workout according to dietitian Dr McMillan. Include carbohydrate to increase available energy and enable maximum intensity.
The foods: Banana supplies ready energy to facilitate maximum intensity while natural yoghurt and skim milk provide protein and carbs. Honey is essentially sugar, so give it a miss if you find the fruit flavour sweet enough.
What you'll need:
Looking for more smoothie recipes? Try this super green smoothie today.
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Photo: Getty Images
In their breastfeeding selfies, celebrities always look so joyful and serene. But the reality, as always, is more complicated. Many famous moms deal with the same issues as non-famous nursing moms, from the logistics of round-the-clock pumping to the judgmental stares of strangers. Here’s what 14 stars have said about breastfeeding their little ones—the good, the bad, and the painful.
“It took us a little back because people actually looked at us in a shameful [way], and we were like, ‘Oh my God,’ because it’s so not a sexual act. It didn’t matter to me what other people thought. That’s what I chose to do, but I think it’s unfortunate that people are so hard on women who choose to do it and do it in public. In the States and in our culture, we sexualize the breast so much that there’s an aspect of it that people just don’t know how to wrap their head around the idea of showing your breast in public. But I respect the opinions on both sides. If it’s not for you, don’t look.”
—Mila Kunis, Vanity Fair, July 2016
“The only time he cries is if he’s hungry. We all have nipples. I don’t care who I offend; my baby wants to eat. If I can’t get a cover over me quick enough, so be it.”
—Selma Blair, People, March 2012
“#JamesKnight is now 8 months old! These are the moments a mother lives for. Breastfeeding should not be a taboo- and bottle feeding should not be judged-it’s ALL fun for the whole family:)”
—Jaime King, Instagram, June 2014
RELATED: 4 Things New Moms Don’t Need to Feel Guilty About, According to an Ob-Gyn
“I’m breast-feeding now so thats a really wonderful experience—challenging, but wonderful.”
—Hilary Duff, Us Weekly, April 2012
“Breastfeed if you can but don’t worry, [formula milk] Aptamil’s just as good. I mean, I loved it, all I wanted to do was breastfeed and then I couldn’t and then I felt like, ‘If I was in the jungle now back in the day, my kid would be dead because my milk’s gone.’ It’s not funny that’s how some of us think.”
—Adele, at a concert in London, 2016
“As a new mom, I was determined to … nurse as long as possible, but when her teeth came in she started biting me. I talked to other moms, my doctor, and a lactation consultant in search of a solution, but nothing helped. I even tried hand-expressing my milk directly into her mouth, in a desperate hope that I could nurse without letting her little piranha teeth anywhere near me, but in the end, I decided it was time to wean.”
—Ali Landry, People, 2012
“Wait! I don’t get it. No disrespect to Kim but… people are offended by my breastfeeding selfies & are fine with her (amazing) booty cover?
—Alyssa Milano, Twitter, November 2014
“All I ever heard was everyone bitch about it—nobody ever said, ‘You are not going to believe how emotional this is.’”
—Jennifer Garner, Allure, 2007
RELATED: Chrissy Teigen Breastfeeds Her Baby Luna in Her Latest Glam Selfie
“My new backstage beauty routine: #pumpit #pumpumpitup”
—Kristen Bell, Twitter, June 2013
“I’m, like, driving down the road, pumping.”
—Blake Lively, Allure, April 2015
“I was breast-feeding my son 13 months, and I plan to do the same with my daughter. [Nursing] is addictive. It’s hard when the day comes when you have to stop.”
—Penélope Cruz, Allure, December 2013
“I think I stopped early because my sisters were like ‘OK, it’s time, it’s time. I did 14 months…. I miss it, I loved it.”
—Kourtney Kardashian, Today, 2011
RELATED: 5 Myths and Facts About Sagging Breasts
“I breastfeed and I’ll be breast-feeding until my son is finished and he weans.”
—Alanis Morissette, The Billy Bush Show, May 2012
“Breast-feeding is the most natural thing. I don’t know, now it feels like Otis should always be on my breast.”
—Olivia Wilde, Glamour, September 2014
“Screw the scale,” reads the caption of fitness blogger Kelsey Wells’s viral Instagram post. Earlier this week the founder of My Sweat Life and avid practitioner of Kayla Itsines’s Bikini Body Guide (BBG) posted three side-by-side photos of her body at different weights to remind her 312,000 followers that the number on the scale doesn’t mean much.
The first photo was taken when Wells began the BBG program. “I was 8 weeks post partum and 145 lbs,” she says in the caption. In the second photo, she is down to 122 pounds, her original goal and the number at which she could fit into her “skinniest jeans.” In the third and most recent selfie (about 21 months after she took up the BBG program), Wells appears as sculpted as ever, with a defined core and toned arms. The kicker? She’s gained 18 pounds since she reached her goal weight.
“I have gone up two pant sizes and as a matter of fact I ripped those skinny jeans wide open just the other week trying to pull them up over my knees,” Wells explains in her caption. The blogger also notes that although there’s only a 5-pound difference between her starting weight and current weight, her body composition has changed completely. At 140 pounds, she has more muscle mass and less body fat than ever before.
RELATED: 5 Things the Scale Won’t Tell You
The BBGer’s bottom line: Health is measured by strength, ability, and endurance—not a number. Wells writes, “Last week when I stepped on the scale, I say SCREW. YOU. And I think you should probably say the same to your scale too.” Mic drop.
Give your whole body a strength and cardio workout in one with Ashley Azevedo's resistance band workout.
The workout
Circuit training simply means performing exercises back to back with little to no rest in between. Its elevator pitch is maximum perks in minimum time. Due to the fast-paced nature of circuit training, it elevates heart rate and couples cardio and strength training.
Even if you’re solely a weights girl, resistance bands are a great way to keep your body guessing and prevent plateaus. The resistance, reps and number of circuits can all be varied to meet your goals and fitness level.
What you need to do
Consider the list a sequence, not an a la carte menu. Perform a set (10 to 15 reps) of the first exercise and move immediately to the second exercise. Perform one set and move immediately to the third exercise and so on. Keep rests as short as possible. After you complete one full circuit, rest for about 60 seconds and start again. Available time and current fitness level will determine how many cycles you do, but aim for one to five.
(Fit tip: Don’t try to do too much too soon. It’s false economy.) Make sure you warm up the muscles you’ll use before any workout and cool down and stretch out afterwards to avoid injury and consult your doctor before starting any new training regimen.
Targets: Biceps, Delts
Perks: This compound movement allows multiple muscle groups to be worked with one exercise, making it time efficient and adding to the difficulty of your workout. Sculpt the arms with this two-in-one exercise.
Move: Stand with both feet on top of the band, about hip-width apart.
(Fit Tip: You can control how easy or hard the exercise is by where you stand on the band to create more or less tension.) Start with both arms straight and begin to curl the arms up and towards the chest. Keep your elbows locked at your side. Once you get to the top of your curl, rotate your arms outward and turn your hands so palms are facing away. Press straight up, pause at the top, lower back down and repeat.
Words and workout by Ashley Azevedo.
Photography by James Patrick.
Upright row
Targets: Delts, Biceps, Traps
Perks: sculpts shapely shoulders
Move: Stand with both feet on top of the band, about hip-width apart and criss-cross the bands in each hand to create an ‘X’. Start with your arms down, palms/handles on top of thighs and a slight bend in your elbows. Keep the handles close to your body and pull them straight up towards your chest. Come up until your arms are parallel with the floor, pause for a second at the top, lower back down, and repeat.
(Fit Tip: Be sure that your elbows do not come up higher than 90 degrees, as this puts added strain on the rotator cuff.)
Words and workout by Ashley Azevedo.
Photography by James Patrick.
Bent over row
Targets: Lats, Rear Delts, Erector Spinae
Perks: Builds a strong, toned back and reinforces proper hip flexion. The bent-over row requires flexion at the hips and not the waist. This is often a strange and difficult position to get into for a beginner, but with practice and constant form checks the position will become second nature. (Fit Tip: Try to work out next to a mirror so you can see your form with every rep and ensure that proper form is being used throughout the entire workout.)
Move: Keep the bands in the same position as the upright row, but hinge your upper body forward at the hips to about a 45-degree angle. Start with your arms hanging down. Keep your elbows tucked close to your body as you pull the band back towards your waist. Pause at the top, lower the arms back down and repeat.
Words and workout by Ashley Azevedo.
Photography by James Patrick.
Glute kick-back
Targets: Glutes, Hamstrings, Core
Perks: Tightens, strengthens and sculpts the backside.
Move: Starting on all fours, place the resistance band under one foot and hold one handle in each hand. Slowly kick back the foot that has the resistance band. Pause at the top and lower the leg back almost to starting position (but don’t drop the knee all the way back to the floor) and repeat.
Words and workout by Ashley Azevedo.
Photography by James Patrick.
Band squat
Targets: Quads, Hamstrings, Glutes, Core
Perks: Squats are a compound exercise (using multiple muscle groups) that sculpt the legs and help shape the butt.
Move: Stand on your band with your feet about hip-width apart. (Fit Tip: The width of your stance can vary; find what is most comfortable for you. A wide stance works best for some while others find hip-width most comfortable.) Keep your head and chest up as you lower into a squat position. Return to a standing position and repeat.
Words and workout by Ashley Azevedo.
Photography by James Patrick.
One arm overhead tricep extension
Targets: Triceps
Perks: Isolates, strengthens and tones the triceps (goodbye, wings!)
Move: You’ll only need to grab one handle for this exercise, so step on the band at your desired tension level and let the other handle just stay on the floor. Start with your handle arm straight up overhead. Slowly bend your elbow, bringing the handle down towards your head and your arm into a 90-degree angle. Push up to the start position, pause at the top and repeat the lowering movement.
Words and workout by Ashley Azevedo.
Photography by James Patrick.
Tricep pushdowns
Targets: Triceps
Perks: Allows you to isolate, strengthen and tone the triceps.
Move: Find something sturdy and stable to loop your band around and grab one handle in each hand. Keep a slight bend in your knees and start with your arms in a 90-degree angle. Keep your elbows at your side as you push the handle down until your arms are straight (but don’t lock your elbows). Your forearm should be the only part of your body moving with this exercise – make sure you keep the upper arm steady against your side. Pause for a second at the bottom and repeat.
Words and workout by Ashley Azevedo.
Photography by James Patrick.
Chest flys
Targets: Pecs
Perks: Strengthens and tones the chest muscles (and improves hugging technique)!
Move: Loop your band around a sturdy and stable object. Step one foot out in front of you and grab a handle in each hand, with your arms at chest level. Bring the bands forward so that your arms are straight (but don’t lock your elbows). Slowly return to the start position and repeat. The fly movement is similar to the movement you use when hugging someone.
Words and workout by Ashley Azevedo.
Photography by James Patrick.
Check out these top 14 exercises for toned arms.
