Full Water Bottles Press

Lie on your back with your feet flat on the floor and a 16-32 oz water bottle or dumbbell in each hand. Push the water bottles up so your arms are directly over your shoulders and your palms face away from you. Pull your abdominals in but don’t jam your back into the floor; don’t let it arch way up, either. Tilt your chin toward your chest. Lower the water bottles down and a little to the side until your elbows lightly touch the floor. Push the water bottles back up, taking care not to lock your elbows or allow your shoulder blades to rise off the floor. (you can also fill up the water bottles with sand)

Popularity: 31% [?]

Incline Fly

Lie on the floor with your head, neck and upper back propped up against several large pillows. Hold a water bottle or dumbbell in each hand and press the weights directly above your chest, palms facing each other. Tuck your chin to your chest to align your neck with the rest of your spine, and maintain your natural back posture, neither arched nor flattened. Spreading your arms apart so that your elbows travel down and to the sides, lower the weights until your elbows lightly touch the floor. Maintaining a constant bend in your elbows, lift the weights back up.

Popularity: 31% [?]

Crunch & Fly

Lie on your back on a bench, knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Hold a dumbbell in each hand above mid-chest with your palms facing in. Keeping your elbows bent slightly, lower the arms outward until the elbows are just below the level of the bench. Contract the abdominals and allow your shoulders, head and neck to lift slightly off the bench. At the same time, press the arms back up the starting position. Slowly lower the torso and repeat

Popularity: 32% [?]

You’re in the middle of a diet, but you’re restless to look thinner or you simply have a more robust body and there is nothing you can do about it. Don’t worry; there are little tips that work even in your case! Here are some of them:

• In what concerns women, things can be worked out without difficulty: make-up can be an ally and a special tool to make some changes in your favor. It is essential to get a tan! Stay in the sun or go to a beauty saloon, use a tanning lotion or whatever it takes to color your skin. If you use a tanning lotion include more under the cheeks, as the colored areas always look deeper and this will make your face look thinner than it really is. Use a lot of eye make up in order to make your eyes bigger, because the bigger your eyes look, the smaller your face seems. Also, give special concentration to your eyebrows for the same reasons as the ones mentioned above. You can even make up your legs: lay a vertical line of oil on the middle part of your legs, so that it makes your bone shine. You’ll discover that you’re legs, due to the extra shine, never looked longer!

• This trick goes well both for men and women. It has to do with the manner in which we put together our hair. The more volume we give to our hair, the better. Your face will look smaller than it really is and it will give you a certain charm, particularly if you don’t forget to play with it, from time to time.

• The clothes you’re wearing can indeed make a difference! Don’t use clothes that are too colored, they will only be a magnet for more eyes on the areas that you plan to hide. Chose black or dark blue clothes, as they will make you look up to 5 pounds thinner. In what concerns the right length for the skirt, women who intend to look a lit thinner than they really are should stick to the skirts that go up to the knees. Shorter ones show how heavy their legs are and longer one show thick ankles. Both men and women should wear clothes with vertical stripes (they go for pants, skirts, shirts, dresses etc.). Use blouses and shirts with buttons, because they create a vertical line. The same effect is created by long zippers. Loose the pockets or avoid filling them up. They will only make those areas look larger than they are. Both men and women wear jeans from time to time, so make sure you have in your wardrobe at least two pairs of jeans that are not unflattering on you.

• Pay attention to the position of your body. A correct position can make you up an inch taller than you are.

• Reduce the quantity of alcohol that you consume. It will not only improve your health, but also help you get rid of one to two pounds, in no time.

• Keep in mind these tricks and use your imagination to determine more!

Popularity: 31% [?]

"Why Do Some Affirmations *Work* – and Others Don’t?"

By definition, an affirmation is a statement repeated time and again either verbally or mentally — or written down. The words of the affirmation statement – in themselves -when spoken, thought of, or written *without* a pictorial (visualized) or emotional connection – make a very weak affirmation. Affirmations, when worded correctly — and when emotionally charged – are able to tap into the unlimited creative power of your subconscious mind, and manifest your desires. Affirmations are not all created equal. Some are, of course, better than others. There are *power affirmations* that have been proven again and again to work – and I’ll reveal some of them in a moment.

When you examine the structure of these power affirmations, you, too, can learn how to create your own powerful affirmations for your specific purposes. Consider the following: "I am what I choose to be." "All my needs are met instantaneously." "I love and accept myself exactly as I am."

(Fill in the blank with what you desire.) "I am now perfectly healthy in body, mind and spirit." "I now create my wonderful, ideal life." What do the above power affirmations have in common?

1) They’re stated in the present tense. An affirmation is more effective when stated in the present tense. For example; "I now have a wonderful job." Avoid affirming something in the future tense, e.g. "I am going to have a wonderful job" or the results will always be waiting to happen.

2) They express a positive statement. Affirmations need to be stated in the most positive terms possible. Avoid negative statements. Affirm what you do want, rather than what you don’t want. For example: "I am no longer sick." This is a negative statement. Instead, affirm: "I am now perfectly healthy in body, mind and spirit." This statement is much more powerful as it is positive and reinforces your desired goal and doesn’t confuse your subconscious mind with the mention of the undesirable condition.

3) They’re short and specific. Short affirmations are easy to say, and have a far greater impact at the subconscious level than those which are long and wordy. Keeping them specific and to the point adds power as the idea is uncluttered by extraneous elements. The mechanics that make affirmations powerful are:

* Repetition The importance of repetition cannot be overemphasized. It imprints the affirmation into your subconscious mind.

* Emotions Get involved, be passionate, and use your emotions. Think carefully about the meaning of the words as you repeat them rather than just writing, typing or saying them.

* Persistence Practicing affirmations with persistence achieves results much sooner than practicing them periodically. Successive sessions will have a compounding effect.

* Belief You don’t necessarily have to believe your affirmation initially, in order for it to work. Belief will grow with your forthcoming successes. What you do need is the ability to *feel* what it would be like when the desire you’re affirming is fulfilled, or your need met. Every time that you have a need — and that need is met — a certain "feeling" is produced in you. You need to evoke that same feeling when you state your affirmation. In other words, you need to feel with every fiber of your being that what you desire has already happened. Without this feeling, your affirmation is powerless.

* Impress Yourself Personalize your affirmations. They must *resonate* with you — feel right for you. The stronger your connection with the affirmation, the deeper the impression it makes on your mind, and the sooner you will experience positive results. So there you have it – the simple formula for creating affirmations that work. Based on the above, you can easily create your own affirmations to manifest any desire or need you have in life.

TIP: Although the practice of affirmations is easy, some people find it challenging to repeat the affirmations continuously while maintaining the highly charged emotional state necessary in making affirmations work. DID YOU KNOW… that you can use your computer to make the affirmation process effortless – and that you can automate those challenging aspects (such as maintaining highly charged emotions), and thereby, manifest your desires more quickly? Go to Affirmations To find out how.

Join the millions of People Around the World Who Have Discovered the Power of Affirmations. Send for FREE subscription of "Affirmations For The Mind" Tips and Techniques Newsletter, the premier publication on self-improvement & personal growth.

Popularity: 30% [?]

Total Leg Workout

To improve leg muscles first sit straight in a chair. Your back should be absolutely erect. Keep your feet on the floor and slowly stretch your legs out as far as is possible. The feet and knees should be together. Now raise your legs until your feet are off the floor and your knees are completely straight. Keeping this position, bend the feet towards you, pushing your heels out as far as possible and then point the toes down as much as you can. Do both these movements about six times each. Now relax. For the next step, raise your feet once again, and keeping them together, turn them outwards until the soles support each other. Then turn them inwards until the ankles and big toe joints touch each other. Repeat each of these movements six times and relax.

Popularity: 31% [?]

Want Great Legs? Tips to Strengthen Legs

• Bend your knees deeply to reach an item on a low shelf, then straighten up
without leaning forward or holding onto anything for support.
• When you get into or out of a chair, don’t depend on the arms for help. Instead, let your thigh muscles contract to lower and raise your body while your back is kept straight.
• Climb stairs two at a time, with a straight back and without leaning dependently on the handrail.
• In the theater, on a bus, or during a meeting, sit with your lower back against a chair, then press your two legs tightly together as if they were one for as long as possible.
• To increase your walking speed, take longer strides rather than shorter, quicker steps. By lengthening your pace you’re using more of your thigh and hip muscles.
• Just before you retire at night, stand with your knees slightly bent and grip your pillow between them. Squeeze the pillow for 8 counts as if trying to crush it.

Popularity: 31% [?]

Tips for Perfect Blush

Blush is an important part of make-up. With the help of an accurate applied blush you can refresh your face, make it looking much better and healthier. To make blush look natural, you should put it on just enough to highlight your cheeks, but not be able to tell it is there. The color of blush must match to the skin and hair color and lipstick and nail polish color also. Palette of beige and pink tints is appropriate almost to everybody. All tints of beige and pink are suitable to light skin; more dark tints (coppery and coral colors) are suitable to brown sunburned skin. Orange tints are suitable to red-haired women.

Popularity: 35% [?]

Tips

• If you use powder blush apply it after powder to blend it in lightly and achieve more accurate shading.

• Apply cream blush before you put on powder and blend well to define your cheek bones. Now follow with powder.

• Blush is put on at few directions. If you have an oval face put blush on the cheek-bones.

• Round faces seem to be longer if the blush is put on from temples to lip corners like triangle. There is the simplest way to put on the blush, which is appropriate to everybody. Put blush on the cheek like an oval at the nose level. If you put on too much blush, cover cheek with some quantity of light powder. The color of blush becomes softened.

• How to find more suitable color. The most important thing for choosing the right color is skin color, hair color and shape of your lips. For light skin and blonde hair: all shades of orange, pink, purple. For dark skin and dark hair: all shades of red, violet. For light skin and dark hair: all shades of brown and beige. For red hair women: coral-red, brown and bronze colors.

• To slenderize a round face, Sweep bronzer over temples, cheekbones and under your chin. Use a fluffy brush and light powder to highlight forehead, cheekbones and tip of chin.

Popularity: 37% [?]

Blush Mistakes

Lots of mistakes are made and here are just a few of them.

• Choosing too light a color. It makes no difference because you can’t see it.

• Choosing too dark a color. I have seen this happen a lot. Women have two spots on their faces of color and you can spot them from 100 feet away.

• Choosing the wrong color entirely. Red lipstick and apricot blush doesn’t work but you will be amazed at how often that combination has been used.

• Cream blushes used on oily skin. You might have a little color but the shine would blind you.

Popularity: 34% [?]