FITNESS BLOG: Keeping Workouts Fun

Read our fitness blog on how to keep workouts fun by Sydney Durso.

As a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader and a role model to many people, it is important for us to stay healthy and fit all year long. We must look and feel our best for our annual swimsuit calendar shoot, appearances, USO tour, children's camps, football games, and much more.

This week we will be shooting our 2013 DCC Swimsuit Calendar in paradise! With that in mind, many of you have asked on Twitter, how the DCC stay toned, so I thought I would share a few of my personal secrets.

I have incorporated health and fitness into my daily lifestyle. While a killer workout at the gym is great, I wouldn't necessarily call myself an addict. It is important to change up a fitness routine from time to time in order to stay motivated and focused.

Growing up in the Rio Grande Valley, a short drive away from South Padre Island, I often reminisce about morning runs on a beautiful beach, skimboarding, and doing yoga in the sand. I crave sunshine! While these "beachy" activities are not necessarily something you will find here in Dallas, I have discovered other great things to do around the Metroplex that keep me moving.

Jay Johnson offers many great outdoor (and indoor) boot camps for people of all ages to get fit and stay fit. Like I mentioned in my previous article, Skinny as a Frog, Jay is beyond motivating and enthusiastic when it comes to pushing you to be in the best shape of your life and helping you reach your goals. Also, kayaking, water skiing, canoeing, and stand-up paddleboarding are great water sports that build muscle and improve body alignment. Who wouldn't want to spend a beautiful day at the lake while getting in a great workout at the same time?

Tennis is also an incredible total-body workout. Grab a racket, tennis balls, a friend or two, and hit the courts. And last but not least, my personal favorite, dance. Dancing has always been a passion of mine. It feels great to let loose and have fun while reaping the benefits of the exercise at the same time.

I try to work out four to six times a week, and I love to have fun when I do so. Things such as dance classes, running outdoors, doing yoga, and playing tennis fill me up with the energy I need to keep my interest for health and fitness high.

Here are a few exercises I do at the gym on a weekly basis:

Glutes/Legs
————————————
- Glute Raises (on floor)
- Single-Leg Bridge-Ups or Regular Bridge-Ups (leg at 45-degrees and keep knees together)
- Resistance Band Walking Squats with Kick-Backs (keep your weight in your heels)
- Standing Side Kicks (great for your outer hips, glutes and inner thighs)
- Jump Lunges (keep your abs tight)
- Double Lunges
- Stiff-Legged Dead Lifts (PROPER FORM MUST BE USED!)
- Walking Lunges with a Twist (with or without a weighted medicine ball)

Obliques/Lats
————————————
- Assisted Parallel Close Grip and Wide Grip Pull-Ups
- Hyperextensions
- Back Extensions (with or without weight)
- Wide Grip and Close Grip Lat Pull-Downs
- Assisted Chin-Ups

Core
————————————
- Medicine Ball Twists
- Ab Roller
- Decline Oblique Sit-Ups
- Hanging Leg Raises
- Air Bike
- Standard Sit-Ups or Crunches (and modified sit-ups such as changing your arms to bend above your head or straight above your head and changing your legs to flat out in front of you or up in the air, etc.)

When starting a new workout program, only choose a few exercises with which you are comfortable and do as many repetitions as you can. With practice, you will increase your strength and endurance and be able to add more exercise and/or more repetitions of each exercise.

What is your favorite fitness exercise or activity?