The new year is the time to take on new challenges, so for the month of January and beyond, The Huffington Post Canada's Living team brings you Fine Tuning: daily workouts, with tips on how to tone up, get healthy and stay fit for the whole year. Each workout will focus on one fitness goal or body part, with our favourite trainers showing you simple ways to get stronger and healthier in less than 45 minutes.
THE GOAL: Losing body fat
THE EXPERT:Kyla Gagnon, Team MAGNUM athlete of Inside Out fitness in Victoria, B.C.
THE INFO: Body fat can be one of the most stubborn and toughest things to eliminate from our bodies. Gagnon says if you want to tone down body fat, it starts with your rejigging your diet. For example, losing one pound of fat is equivalent to omitting 3,500 calories from your diet. Depending on how much you eat, and how much you'd like to lose, Gagnon recommends cutting out anywhere from 400 to 700 calories from your daily diet, but never go below 1,200 calories a day. Eating whole grains, fresh fruit and vegetables and cutting out excess sugar and fatty foods is a good place to start. Gagnon adds the worst thing you can do is starve your body by eating a small amount of calories, so look for healthy foods that fill you up.
THE MOVES:
How To Get Fit In 2014
Squats: Keep all of your weight in your heels. Keep your knees behind your toes. Hold your shoulders back and keep your core muscles fully engaged.
Lunges: Keep your weight in the forward stepping heel. Dropping the back leg to a 90 degree angle. Keep core muscles fully engaged. Stack shoulders over hips.
Rows: Remain strong in the core. Do not round the back, keep the spine straight. Pull weight up in towards the ribs. Squeeze the shoulder blades together.
Deadlifts: Hold weight in the heels. Keep spine erect. Core muscles fully engaged. Drive through the heels while forcing your shoulders and head straight up
Burpees: Begin standing straight up, bend down and place your hands on either side of your feet. Engage the core and jump both feet back into a push up position. Quickly jump both feet back into place between your hands and jump straight up.
Try three to five minutes of each move with a one minute break in between.
Have something that needs fine tuning? Let us know in the comments below.