Black women exercise

Has old man winter gotten your waistline a bit off kilter? No need to fret! Here are 8 ways to whittle your waistline, just in time to bare some skin for spring.

Leg Lifts

Leg lifts are usually performed upright using a Captain Chair but for optimal results with little strain on your upper body, try them laying down. Begin by lying down face up. For beginners, bend knees, feet flat on the floor as the starting position. Inhale and lift knees towards chest, pause for 2 seconds and return feet to start position as you exhale. Raise the knees as close to chest as possible without using momentum.

To advance the exercise, raise knees towards chest, pause and exhale as you straighten the legs vertically. Inhale again before lowering the legs in a straight position gently down to the ground, exhaling as they descend. For the super strong core, target your lower abdominals by completing the exercise with straight legs entirely.

As the obesity rate continues to rise in this country, the market for health and fitness has evolved into an industry estimated to be worth $17.6 billion. African American adults have the highest obesity rates at 37 percent among men and nearly 50 percent among women. With alarming rates such as these, more Black fitness stars are devising innovative ways for people to get off the couch and burn calories while having fun. Here are seven of the best bodies and business models among African American fitness gurus:

Billy Blanks

While working out in his basement in 1976, martial artist Billy Blanks accidentally developed what would later become known to the world as Tae Bo, an aerobic routine that incorporates martial arts, boxing and dance. After opening the Billy Blanks World Training Center in Sherman Oaks in 1989, word traveled about the infectious workout, bringing in celebrity clients such as Paula Abdul. Blanks introduced the first Tae Bo workout video in 1998 and within a year, had sold 1.5 million video sets. Although competition has tempered the popularity of the Tae Bo DVDs now-a-days, it remains one of the top selling workout regiments. Banks now lives in Japan where in 2007, he reportedly sold more than $130 million worth of merchandise, including more than a million copies of his ‘Billy’s BootCamp’ series.