What is Barre?

This blog was originally featured on Maria Haymandou’s website here.

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Barre is a ballet-inspired, low-impact workout regimen. Within the last decade, barre workouts have become increasingly popular. PureBarre, a fitness studio franchise that specializes in barre workouts began in 2001 with a single location. They now have over 450 within the United States and Canada.

Barre is so popular because it’s possible to get a full-body workout that combines strength training and cardio within an hour. Barre might be an excellent option for people who are new to fitness, short on time or need a switch-up from their daily gym routine. Also, barre is entirely safe for pregnant women but always check with a doctor first.

During workouts, you will actively burn fat, tone muscle, improve posture, develop core strength, and correct balance issues. The beginning of a barre workout usually involves a combination of typical mat-based exercises like planks and push-ups. Then, the majority of the workout is completed at the barre. The barre is used for balance while a series of isometric movements are performed. This just means that instead of doing the more extensive motions typically associated with workouts, (squats, jumping jacks, or burpees) you’re performing smaller movements, usually around an inch while holding the rest of your body still. These smaller movements, almost like pulses, target your muscles in a way that most fitness enthusiasts aren’t used to. Expect to work each muscle group separately and to experience a little bit of shaking in the beginning, before your body gets used to holding barre positions. The workout is usually finished with core exercises and stretching. A typical barre workout lasts about an hour.

The majority of a barre workout will be bodyweight only (along with the use of the barre), but some may include the use of resistance bands, an exercise ball, or light hand weights. Some studios require socks with grips on the bottoms to be worn during barre classes, while some will allow you to be barefoot.

The typical cost for a barre class is between $20-$30. Some gyms and fitness studios offer them as free add-ons, and some offer unlimited classes for one price. At-home barre workouts may require a barre to be installed, but you could also use a banister or railing of some sort. Barre workouts need minimal equipment, which makes barre a popular at-home workout choice.

Fitness Products That Don’t Actually Work

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After a few too many holiday cookies and a with a brand-spanking-new fitness resolution on our lips, January finds many would-be couch potatoes gearing up for their summer bod. Unfortunately, weeding through the good, the bad and the ugly of favorite fitness products can encourage a more significant sweat than the proposed workouts. So what’s the word on wacky workout gear?

The Shake Weight: This twenty dollar, barbell-esque device claims to deliver your upper body workout in just six minutes a day by just shaking the device. However, as witnessed in this cool muscle chart by Interbody, the upper body is composed of the chest, back, shoulders and arms, each with anterior and posterior major muscles as well as assistor muscles. While shaking this two-pound object might encourage a little burn in the biceps, anterior deltoids, and a few pectoral fibers, sacrificing proper form while shaking your groove could lead to injury. Not to mention the fact that you’ve missed several key muscle groups along the way which could lead to muscle imbalance. Best advice for building upper body strength? Participate in an educated, free-weight session addressing all muscle groups and proper alignment.

Ab Belt by Sport Elec: Heading south of the upper body to the abs, we find this fifty dollar gadget with claims to firm and tone abs in two weeks. The best part? Once you strap on the belt and hit the “on” button, you’re done! The magic behind this belt is electrical-stimulation does the work for you. Great concept, but a bit too narrow-minded. As shown on Healthline.com the complex group of muscles that make up the core go deep and wide. And, with muscle growth comes the need for progressive resistance. Unfortunately, while binge-watching your favorite series, the targeted electro-stimulated muscles will quickly plateau.

Ab Circle Pro: Although a smaller price tag than the above ab-buster, this fifteen dollar piece of equipment isn’t going to do the trick for you, either. Not only does it not target the critical portion abdominal musculature (see above chart), this quick, pendulum-style exercise can be a tricky maneuver for the hips and back risking injury to these areas.

Bottom line? Don’t sweat the small stuff. Instead, find a gym with educated trainers and get your year going right.

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Fitness Products That Don’t Actually Work

This blog was originally featured on Maria Haymandou’s fitness website here.

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After a few too many holiday cookies and a with a brand-spanking-new fitness resolution on our lips, January finds many would-be couch potatoes gearing up for their summer bod. Unfortunately, weeding through the good, the bad and the ugly of favorite fitness products can encourage a more significant sweat than the proposed workouts. So what’s the word on wacky workout gear?

The Shake Weight: This twenty dollar, barbell-esque device claims to deliver your upper body workout in just six minutes a day by just shaking the device. However, as witnessed in this cool muscle chart by Interbody, the upper body is composed of the chest, back, shoulders and arms, each with anterior and posterior major muscles as well as assistor muscles. While shaking this two-pound object might encourage a little burn in the biceps, anterior deltoids, and a few pectoral fibers, sacrificing proper form while shaking your groove could lead to injury. Not to mention the fact that you’ve missed several key muscle groups along the way which could lead to muscle imbalance. Best advice for building upper body strength? Participate in an educated, free-weight session addressing all muscle groups and proper alignment.

Ab Belt by Sport Elec: Heading south of the upper body to the abs, we find this fifty dollar gadget with claims to firm and tone abs in two weeks. The best part? Once you strap on the belt and hit the “on” button, you’re done! The magic behind this belt is electrical-stimulation does the work for you. Great concept, but a bit too narrow-minded. As shown on Healthline.com the complex group of muscles that make up the core go deep and wide. And, with muscle growth comes the need for progressive resistance. Unfortunately, while binge-watching your favorite series, the targeted electro-stimulated muscles will quickly plateau.

Ab Circle Pro: Although a smaller price tag than the above ab-buster, this fifteen dollar piece of equipment isn’t going to do the trick for you, either. Not only does it not target the critical portion abdominal musculature (see above chart), this quick, pendulum-style exercise can be a tricky maneuver for the hips and back risking injury to these areas.

Bottom line? Don’t sweat the small stuff. Instead, find a gym with educated trainers and get your year going right.

New Year, New You: How to Actually Stick to Your Resolution

This blog originally appeared on Maria Haymandou’s website here.

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How many of you have started a New Year’s resolution — and kept it all year long? Anyone? Resolutions always seem like they’re difficult to keep. Life can get in the way, things change, or sometimes you lose momentum. No wonder 80 percent of New Year’s resolutions fail by February. In fact, with this statistic, it’s no surprise that many people don’t bother to make a resolution at all!

Don’t fall into the trap of failure. You want to be in the 20 percent of people who’s resolutions make it to February. But how do you do it? Read below for my tips to make your resolution last.

Make It Manageable

Have you heard the expression “don’t bite off more than you can chew?” This phrase applies here. If you want to have success with your New Year’s resolution, you need to take small, but manageable steps to achieve your goals.

For example, if your goal is to lose 50 pounds, it will be hard to keep your mind focused on a goal that will take quite a long time to achieve. Instead, tell yourself that you would like to lose 10 pounds. Once you’ve reached you’re smaller, more manageable goal, you’ll be able to up your momentum to 20, 30, 40, then finally 50 pounds. Not only is the goal more manageable, but you will gain more self-confidence along the way!

Forgive Yourself

Was your resolution last year to start your side-hustle? Did you achieve your goal? If not, did you forgive yourself? Sometimes life just gets in the way, and it will throw you for a loop. Don’t put yourself down too much if you don’t achieve your resolution. After all, you may want to pick it back up another time!

Find a Schedule that Works for You

One of the best ways to keep a resolution is to block out time each day (or every other day!) for your dedicated activity. However, you want to make sure it’s time that works for your lifestyle. If you’re not a morning person, don’t force yourself to wake up even earlier than you have to achieve your goal — vice versa if you’re not a night owl.

Are you ready to start 2018 off on the right track?

New Year, New You: How to Actually Stick to Your Resolution

Maria Haymandou’s latest blog post is here!

How many of you have started a New Year’s resolution — and kept it all year long? Anyone? Resolutions always seem like they’re difficult to keep. Life can get in the way, things change, or sometimes you lose momentum. No wonder 80 percent of New Year’s resolutions fail by February. In fact, with this statistic, it’s no surprise that many people don’t bother to make a resolution at all!

Don’t fall into the trap of failure. You want to be in the 20 percent of people who’s resolutions make it to February. But how do you do it? Read below for my tips to make your resolution last.

Make It Manageable

Have you heard the expression “don’t bite off more than you can chew?” This phrase applies here. If you want to have success with your New Year’s resolution, you need to take small, but manageable steps to achieve your goals.

For example, if your goal is to lose 50 pounds, it will be hard to keep your mind focused on a goal that will take quite a long time to achieve. Instead, tell yourself that you would like to lose 10 pounds. Once you’ve reached you’re smaller, more manageable goal, you’ll be able to up your momentum to 20, 30, 40, then finally 50 pounds. Not only is the goal more manageable, but you will gain more self-confidence along the way!

Forgive Yourself

Was your resolution last year to start your side-hustle? Did you achieve your goal? If not, did you forgive yourself? Sometimes life just gets in the way, and it will throw you for a loop. Don’t put yourself down too much if you don’t achieve your resolution. After all, you may want to pick it back up another time!

Find a Schedule that Works for You

One of the best ways to keep a resolution is to block out time each day (or every other day!) for your dedicated activity. However, you want to make sure it’s time that works for your lifestyle. If you’re not a morning person, don’t force yourself to wake up even earlier than you have to achieve your goal — vice versa if you’re not a night owl.

Are you ready to start 2018 off on the right track?

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The Best Strategies to Workout Indoors

Maria Haymandou’s latest blog post is here!

When the weather is nice outside, you may love working out outdoors by jogging, cycling or doing other activities. However, rain, excessively hot or cold temperatures and other factors throughout the year can drive you indoors to workout. You may think you have to join an expensive gym to benefit from an indoor workout, but this is not the case. In order to get an incredible workout while inside your home, consider these tips.

Find Great Workout Videos

You can easily find some fitness CDs at local stores or online that have lengthy workout sessions that you can follow along with, but there are also free programs available. You may have exercise channels or viewing apps available on your TV right now that are free for you to use. If not, you can load workout programs to your tablet or other device. Many of these are also available free of charge. These can help you to get a varied workout at home, and this may be ideal for individuals who may not feel inspired to create their own workout routine.

Invest in the Right Equipment

Some workouts can be completed without weights, bands, balls or other equipment, but you may get more out of your workout if you invest in a few important items. You can buy used equipment to save a few bucks when outfitting your home workout area. If funds allow, you may even invest in a glider, indoor bike or treadmill. When you have access to a full range of equipment at home, you can easily take your workouts to the next level.

Create Ample Space

One of the most significant challenges that many people will face when working out at home is finding space to complete a solid, intensive workout. You should clear away furniture so that you have room to do lunges, burpees and other intensive exercises. The last thing you want is for your workout to be limited because of the small amount of space available in your home.

Working out at home can be just as productive and beneficial as working out outdoors. However, none want to spend time doing a mediocre or boring workout. It can take some planning and strategizing to get an incredible workout at home. Put these tips into action today to begin enjoying your indoor workout. Remember to vary your workouts to work different muscle groups and to keep things interesting and fun.

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Next Day Meals From Thanksgiving Leftovers

Maria Haymandou’s latest blog post is here!

Every Thanksgiving, the family gathers around to feast on a meal that isn’t served on a regular day. On the dining table that is an array of food that all look so delicious: turkey, green beans, cranberry sauce, mash potatoes, gravy, dinner rolls, stuffing, and a yummy pumpkin pie. Everyone gathers around to give thanks and gobbles up everything that’s in front of them. The whole family is stuffed with turkey, mash potatoes, and green beans that everyone has had enough and there is still a great amount of food left. Thanksgiving has left tons and tons of leftover in the refrigerator that no one seems to know what to do with it.

There is no need to worry about the all the leftovers from Thanksgiving still sitting in the refrigerator because there are many unique recipes out there that will help you make use of the leftovers that are too good to throw away. From turkey soup to turkey pot pie, there are a ton of ways to make use of your Thanksgiving leftovers. Here are some unique recipes that won’t bore your tastebuds:

• Turkey soup with green beans, sweet potato, and thyme
• Turkey Bolognese
• Waffle and turkey with gravy and cranberry sauce
• Turkey Nachos
• Cranberry carrot muffins
• Turkey, cranberry, and fontina panini
• Eggs in Purgatory with mash potato pancakes
• Sweet potato pita dip
• Roasted turkey lasagna
• Turkey chili with mash potato
• Fried turkey topped with gravy and mushrooms
• Turkey dumpling stew
• Fried stuffing bites with cranberry sauce pesto
• Grilled turkey sandwich with brie, apple butter, and augula
• Turkey and string bean pot pies
• Hot Turkey Sammies on whole grain stuffing bread with maple sausage and cranberry sauce
• Turkey vegetable soup with stuffed dumplings
• Extra Veggie Frittata
• Turkey Waldorf Salad with apples, celery, and toasted peacans
• Potato cakes with fried eggs and turkey red pepper hash
• Turkey Frittata
• Deep fried green beans
• Turkey, mushroom, and corn Mexican casserole
• Turkey hash with gravy
• Sweet potato Shepherd pie
• Turkey Tetrazzini
• Stuffing-stuffed mushroom
• Thanks Benedict on stuffing cake with Sage Hollandise
• Hot brown turkey sandwich baked in onion gravy
• Vegetable Samosas

With all of those creative and unique recipes, your Thanksgiving leftovers won’t be left over for too long.

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Scary Books to Read This Season

Maria Haymandou’s newest blog post!

As Halloween fast approaches, you might be wondering about some scary books to get you into the holiday spirit.  Something that will chill your bones.  People have been talking a lot about the new “It” movie, and how it scares the wits out of people, but if you’ve already seen it, or would rather just stay home and read, here are some terrifying books:

Ghost Story (Peter Straub): A book titled “Ghost Story” could be pretty cheesy in the hands of the wrong writer, yet Straub is able to make it anything but.  It’s the story of a group of old men who gather to tell ghost stories, only to be set upon by the horrors of their past.  

The Exorcist (William Peter Blatty): While it’s since become a cliche of pop culture, “The Exorcist” movie caused a sensation when it first hit theaters.  A level of graphic and terrifying as yet unseen in film, it sent audience members over the edge.  And the book it’s based off of is even scarier and more graphic.  

House of Leaves (Mark Z. Danielewski): This book takes the horror cliché of a haunted house and delivers it in a truly unique way.  It uses unusual page layout and style, meant to disorient the reader.  The way that text is arranged on the page is meant to mirror events in the story and create a unique effect mirroring agoraphobia and claustrophobia.  

The Witches of Worm (Zilpha Keatley Snyder): While the story of a girl who buys a kitten and nurses it back to health has a lot of potential for a heart-warming tale, “The Witches of Worm” is anything but.  After the main character, a girl named Jessica, buys a kitten, she comes under its malevolent spell, and begins to act increasingly violent towards her family.  It’s a creepy enough story to get banned from school libraries.  

Diary (Chuck Palahniuk): Chuck Palahniuk is known, for good reason, for deeply disturbing books.  This one, about an aspiring artist who becomes embroiled in a generations-old conspiracy theory as her deeply disturbed husband falls into a coma and reveals his dark side, is written in a diary-style format that gives it a special degree of spookiness.  

Voices in the Night (Steven Millhauser): This collection of short stories take unique and terrifying looks at daily life.  Whether it’s a look at gossip in a small town or a man obsessed with his wife’s image in a mirror, these are stories guaranteed to spook you.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (Alvin Schwartz): This trilogy of ghost stories might be meant for children, and indeed some of them can come across as a bit hokey, but what truly makes them are the illustrations by Stephen Gammell, which are able to make everything from a staircase to a mouse look creepy.  

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Haunted Places Around New York

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If you can’t find it in New York, indeed you can’t find it anywhere.  And if you’re looking for a place to catch ghosts, then New York has got your covered.  Here are some of the famous allegedly haunted locations in New York City:

Merchant’s House Museum: This historic townhouse in Noho was long home to the Tredwell’s, a wealthy merchant family.  While the house is now a museum, legend has it that the last Tredwell to occupy the home, Gertrude, still haunts the home.  Reports of strange sights, sounds, and smells abound.  

McCarren Park Pool: After a small girl allegedly drowned at McCarren Park Pool, her ghost has been seen around the premise.  There are no public records of this alleged death, but the child has been seen roaming the area at night screaming for help, and paranormal investigators have noticed strange activity in the water such as drops in temperature.  

St. Marks’ Church-in-the-Bowery: The historic St. Mark’s church in the East Village was once the home of Pieter Stuyvesant, the notoriously cantankerous peg-legged Dutch governor of “New Amsterdam”, whose remains are buried in the churchyard.  According to legend, the devout Calvinist Stuyvesant is angry that his home and resting place is bitter that his home and resting place is now a “heretical” Episcopalian church, and now haunts the grounds.  Parishioners have reported seeing his apparition around the grounds, and some claim to hear him singing Dutch Calvinist hymns when everybody else is singing in English.  

The Ear Inn: The Ear Inn, one of the oldest bars in New York, was once a popular spot for sailors and longshoremen.  One sailor, Mickey, got hit by a car in front of the bar and died, and his ghost now flirts with women at the bar.  

The Dakota: The Dakota apartment building is famous for housing many extremely rich and famous people, among them John Lennon, who was killed in the building.  Residents, Lennon included, have claimed to see the ghost of a young girl wandering the halls.  Other people have reported seeing John Lennon’s ghost as well.  

The Octagon: During the 19th century, Roosevelt Island’s Octagon was an insane asylum, where patients were severely mistreated.  While the presence of ghosts in the upscale high-rise is a topic of debate, some residents have reported strange phenomena, and all the ingredients for a real haunting are certainly there.  

Landmark Tavern: The nearly 150 year-old Landmark Tavern started its life out as a waterfront saloon for Irish immigrant dock workers.  Even as the character of Hell’s Kitchen has changed dramatically, some former patrons have stuck on.  Some famous ghosts include a Confederate veteran who was stabbed to death and a young Irish girl who died from cholera or typhoid.  

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Fall Retreats Near New York

Maria Haymandou’s latest blog post is here!

Summer is now officially over, meaning it’s time for pumpkin spice lattes, uggs, and football.  Yet you can still get out of town for a nice vacation.  There are plenty of great vacation spots less than a few hours outside of New York, offering busy New Yorkers a quick break from their busy schedules.  And the Northeast is a great place to be during the autumn weather.  Here are a couple places that make for great weekend fall getaways that are easy to reach from the city:

Great Sacandaga Lake, NY: Just west of Saratoga Springs is the Great Sacandaga Lake, a peaceful retreat near the mountains.  The autumn leaves here are something to write home about, and it’s right next to the 6 million-acre Adirondack National Park, offering countless hiking trails.  If you’re a fishing enthusiast, the lake itself is filled with fish.  

Hudson, NY: Located right on the Hudson River is the town of Hudson, a great town designed for New Yorkers to visit on the weekend.  The food here is delicious, and the town is located near several breweries, vineyards, and a distillery.  There’s also excellent hiking nearby at Kaaterskill Falls.  

Northampton, MA: The quirky town of Northampton has just about everything: five different schools nearby, a thriving downtown that’s easy to explore on foot, great food and drink, live music, fall foliage, hiking, and more.  The town features performance venues, a brewery with an award-winning beer garden, and even a cocktail bar made from a converted train tunnel.  There are also state reservations nearby for hiking, even rafting and zip-lining.

Beach Haven, NJ: Once the summer is over, the Jersey Shore becomes a quiet, relaxing getaway.  The town features 24/7 food spots, the Museum of New Jersey Maritime History, and laid-back local bars.  It also serves as a great launching point to explore the rest of Long Beach Island.

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