Why Coffee Can Actually Make Your Workout Better

If you’re a Starbucks lover who needs a little motivation to get back to that Zumba class, we are here to provide good news that’s just as sweet as your latte.

It turns out coffee can boost your workouts, so the next time you head to Planet Fitness, make sure you have a nice cup of Joe beforehand.

Look at science gifting us with fantastic findings! This is totally a practice we can all get behind. Let’s be honest — does the treadmill really seem that inviting sans coffee?

Not that you’d need any further convincing before trying out this method for yourself, but, just in case, we’re here to provide.

According to The New York Times, caffeine makes it easier for your muscles to burn fat (score!). It increases alertness, which in turn makes that round on the elliptical seem less grueling.

As delighted as scientists were to discover this, some used to believe there is a catch — it only works if you give up coffee some time beforehand.

OK, OK, stop hyperventilating and listen to what Dr. Bruno Gualano, a professor of physiology and nutrition at the University of São Paulo, has to say. He identifies himself as a “good Brazilian” who loves a cup of Joe, so he is totally in the know.

To see if this frightening theory was true, Dr. Gualano gathered a group of 40 male cyclists for a study. After extensive questioning, riders were divided into groups — low, moderate, and high caffeine consumers. They all received caffeine pills that boosted their performance.

Dr. Gualano concluded that the workout results were the same for all consumers — light, moderate, or heavy.

He provided The Times with very promising news and said, “No matter the habitual caffeine intake in the diet, acute caffeine supplementation can improve performance.”

However, he did mention that results might vary for women.

In honor of Dr. Gualano’s findings, I’ll go treat myself to a cappuccino… but Planet Fitness is kind of far away from my apartment, and it’s raining out, so I’ll save that whole pesky exercise thing for another day and just stick to getting my coffee.

6 Steps To Help Kids Fall Asleep Fast

Sleep is something everyone needs. In order to stay healthy, our bodies require an adequate amount of rest. Kids, especially, need sleep in order to grow and develop properly. If you tend to have a hard time falling asleep at night, maybe it's time to try some techniques to help you fall asleep faster. There are several methods you can try. Adequate amounts of sleep may help you improve your concentration and perform better at school.

Step 1

Stay away from chocolate and sugary foods before bedtime. Chocolate contains caffeine, a stimulant that causes alertness and elevates your mood. And sugar gives you a sugar rush, making it more difficult for you to fall asleep.

Step 2

Keep a routine sleep schedule. This means you need to wake up and go to bed at the same time each day. Your body will adjust to a steady sleep schedule, making it easier for you to fall asleep faster.

Step 3

Sleep in your bed and avoid eating, watching television or doing homework in your bed. You body will learn that when you lay in your bed, it's time to fall asleep. Doing other things on your bed will make it harder to fall asleep when you're ready.

Step 4

Avoid taking naps during the day. A nap will make it harder for you to fall asleep at night and harder to wake up in the morning, affecting your sleep schedule.

Step 5

Play soft, soothing music at bedtime. Classical music, lullabies or soft yoga music will help soothe your senses and relax you. If you're relaxed, you will have an easier time falling asleep.

Step 6

Try doing yoga or basic stretches right before bedtime. Dim the lights and breathe deeply while you stretch. These exercises will slow your heart rate and relax your muscles, making it easier to fall asleep.

6 Triceps Exercises to Tone Your Arms For Beach Season

Yes, biceps curls are great for making you feel like a low-level action hero, but you're a wily gym veteran, so you know that the key to super-swole arms is the triceps. In honor of the suns-out-guns-out season that is nearly upon us, we asked some fitness pros for a few new triceps exercises to try instead of the old, reliable EZ bar skullcrusher. The names may not be as cool, but the workout will be just as good.

Idalis Velazquez: Dumbbell skullcrusher. Stick with the same exercise, but use dumbbells instead. This variation requires each arm to work independently of the other. The fact that dumbbells are harder to control than an EZ bar provides an additional challenge to your muscles (so yes, this means you should use less weight!). You can also experiment with different grips on the dumbbell, which affects how the triceps are recruited.

Robin Arzon: Incline single-arm dumbbell skullcrusher. Using an incline bench recruits core muscles to help develop balance, while focusing on single-arm movements addresses any imbalances that may have arisen on either side.

Jay Cardiello: Crisscross push-ups. Begin in a push-up position, but with your arms crisscrossed. Your right hand should be directly under your left shoulder, with your left hand slightly behind your right shoulder. To check your positioning, lower yourself to the floor until your forearms rest flat on the ground — your right hand will be in front of your left elbow, and your left hand will be behind your right elbow. Press through your palms and raise your body back into a push-up position. Repeat as many times as possible for 30 seconds.

Ben Booker: Single-arm cable push-downs and pull-downs. Skullcrushers are great for working the triceps, but I see many people performing them incorrectly due to shoddy elbow placement or poor shoulder mobility. Try single-arm cable push-downs and pull-downs instead. Switching up the positioning of your grip during cable work targets a different part of that magical triceps horseshoe.

Gideon Akande: Bear plank push-up. It’s as nasty as it sounds. Assume a bear hold position, with your hands under your shoulders and your knees under your hips, like so. Lift your knees one inch off of the ground, and then perform a push-up in that position. Keeping the elbows close to the body will smoke the shoulders and ignite the triceps. Besides, this looks way cooler than regular skull crushers.

Alexia Clark: Standing rotation triceps extension. Start with your arms bent at a 90-degree angle and your palms facing each other, holding dumbbells. Keeping your arms at that degree angle, rotate your arms so that your elbows are pointing straight up to the air and your biceps are by your ears. From this position, straighten your arms to perform a tricep extension, as shown here. Rotate your arms back down to a 90-degree angle at chest level and repeat. The rotation helps develop shoulder mobility, and standing while doing the extension engages the deeper end of your triceps.

The Workout You Need to Do If You Sit All Day

It’s no surprise that sitting all day does some undesirable things to our bodies. Research has linked excessive sitting with an elevated risk for health conditions such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Of course that doesn’t mean you’ll get heart disease just because you have a desk job—but sitting isn’t doing your body any favors.

Sitting all day can also impact us physically. Sitting for long periods of time, especially with poor posture, makes your hip flexors tight, which causes the glutes (butt muscles) to lengthen to compensate. Over time, this compromises the ability of the gluteal muscles to activate properly, leading to a condition called gluteal amnesia, AKA dead butt syndrome. When your glutes can't do their job, other muscles in your body have to work harder, which ultimately can overwork them, leading to poor body alignment and aches. Tight hip flexors also make it harder for your pelvis to rotate properly—inhibited mobility in this area can cause compression and pain in the lower back, physical therapist Dan Giordano, D.P.T., C.S.C.S., and co-founder of Bespoke Treatments Physical Therapy in New York City, tells SELF.

If you spend most of your time sitting, there is some good news. While it is true that sitting for most of the day isn’t healthy, there are some ways you can help undo the damage, Noam Tamir, C.S.C.S., founder of TS Fitness in New York City, tells SELF. For starters, Tamir recommends standing up for at least 30 to 40 minutes a day. “A standing desk is also a good option as it will help you become more aware of your posture and engage your core muscles,” he says.

In addition, doing certain exercises when you’re off the clock can also make a huge difference, especially ones that focus on strengthening the posterior (back) part of your body—like your back, glutes, and hamstrings—while stretching the anterior (front) muscles such as your hip flexors, pelvis, and chest. This helps counteract the tightness that ensues when you're in a seated position, plus strengthens the muscles that we need for good posture (read: to be strong enough to simply sit upright and stand up straight).

We asked Tamir to put together a great workout that can help undo some of the negative effects of sitting all day. “These exercises are designed to strengthen the core, work the posterior muscles of the body, engage the legs, and help with proper pelvic and spinal alignment,” he says. “Together, these moves help to offset the imbalances associated with long periods of sitting.”

So what are you waiting for? Hop up off your butt and try this routine STAT.

Repeat the below circuit three times.

1. Dead Bug — 20 reps, alternating

“This exercise focuses on the stabilizer muscles of the core such as the transverse abdominus,” explains Tamir. “So much of posture starts with the core and this move gives you feedback from the floor” on how to use these muscles properly so your body is aligned.

• Lie on your back with your arms at shoulder level raised toward the ceiling. Bring your legs up into tabletop position (knees bent 90 degrees and stacked over your hips).
• Slowly extend your right leg out straight, while simultaneously dropping your left arm overhead. Keep both a few inches from the ground.
• Bring your arm and leg back to the starting position.
• Repeat on the other side, extending your left leg and your right arm. That's one rep. Continue alternating for 20 reps total.

2. Plank — 30 seconds

“Here you’re working the full body, especially the core muscles,” says Tamir. “It’s important to focus on having good pelvic alignment and not rounding the back," he notes. Planks can help to both strengthen the core and improve pelvic orientation.

• Get on all fours with your toes on the ground shoulder-width apart. Place your forearms flat on the floor in front of you with your elbows directly below your shoulders.
• Keep your core tight so your body is in a straight line from head to toe.
• Squeeze your thighs and butt.
• Keep your neck and spine in a comfortable, neutral position. (Tip: Try aiming your chin about six inches in front of your body.)
• Hold for 30 seconds.

3. Single-Leg Bridges — 12 reps each leg

“Single-leg bridges are great to help engage the gluteus maximus (the largest glute muscle) plus the core and hamstrings,” says Tamir. Keep these bridges slow and controlled. Focus on really using your glutes to do the movement.

• Lie flat on your back. Bend your knees and place your feet flat on the floor about a foot or so away from your butt. Rest your arms at your sides on the floor.
• Lift your right leg in the air toward the ceiling, keeping your foot flexed.
• Push through your left foot to lift your glutes, hips, and back off the ground.
• Slowly lower back down, keeping your right leg in the air.
• Repeat for 12 reps, then switch legs.

4. Kettlebell Deadlifts — 15 reps

"Deadlifts primarily work the glutes, hamstrings, core, lats, and traps,” says Tamir. Strengthening these posterior muscles helps to reverse the poor posture that tends to befall those of us who sit all day. “When performed correctly, without too much weight and keeping the back in a safe position, deadlifts are one of the most useful exercises to improve posture.”

• Stand with a kettlebell on the floor between your legs. (If you don't have a kettlebell, try one of these deadlift variations using dumbbells.)
• Keeping your back flat the entire time, hinge at your hips to push your butt back and bend slightly at the knees to pick up the kettlebell.
• Straighten your legs as you pull the kettlebell up to hip level, locking your hips out at top.
• Slowly lower the kettlebell back down to tap the floor, reversing the hip-hinge movement you used to pick up the kettlebell, then immediately repeat.
• Perform 15 reps.

5. Bent-Over Row — 15 reps each arm

“With this exercise, you’re working back and shoulder muscles including the rhomboids, traps, lats, and rear deltoids. You're even working the core because of the bent-over position,” explains Tamir. “A lot of posture flaws can be attributed to an imbalance of strength between the chest and the back, with the chest being more dominant. Rows can help balance that out.”

• Hold a dumbbell in your right hand. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Bend your knees and hinge slightly at your hips so that your torso is leaning forward.
• Keeping your body in this position, row the dumbbell up to chest level, keeping your elbow toward your side.
• In a controlled motion, lower the dumbbell back down to the starting position.
• Repeat for 15 reps, then switch arms.

6. Goblet Squats — 15 reps

“This exercise primarily works the glutes, quads, hamstrings, and core muscles,” explains Tamir. “When sitting for long periods of time, our hips tend to get tight because they are in a shortened position. Doing squats gets us to sit back in our hips, past the range of motion that we’re used to when sitting at a desk."

• Stand with your feet slightly wider than hip-width apart. Holding a kettlebell with both hands at your chest (you can also use a dumbbell).
• Bend at your knees and hips to lower your butt toward the ground, as if you're sitting in a chair.
• Go as low as you can, then push through heels to stand back up. Make sure your knees don't go past your ankles.
• Repeat for 15 reps.