Randy Couture may be a small-town boy from Oregon but the 46-year-old is huge in the world of Ultimate Fighting. He’s currently the world’s oldest UFC fighting champion and he works hard for those big guns and rock hard abs. He has recently released a collection of songs that he uses while exercising. It’s titled, Don’t Quit Music Presents: Randy Couture’s Workout Mix Volume 1 ((Exercise, Fitness, Workout, Aerobics, Running, Walking, Weight Lifting, Cardio, Weight Loss, Abs) and is available for mp3 download.

“I’m sure I’m showing my age…. but they are all songs that take me back to nostalgic places…… Every single fight I walk out to I pick a new song and usually it’s something old school.”

Here’s what you’ll find on his compilation:

“Everybody Have Fun Tonight” – Wang Chung
“Hair Of The Dog” – Nazareth
“Addicted To Love” – Robert Palmer
“Somebody’s Watching Me” – Rockwell
“Shout” – Tears For Fears
“All Right Now” – Free
“You Keep Me Hangin’ On” – Kim Wilde
“Gimme Three Steps” – Lynyrd Skynyrd
“Saturday’s Alright For Fighting” – Elton John
“The Boys Are Back In Town” – Thin Lizzy
“My Prerogative” – Bobby Brown
“Show Me The Way” – Peter Frampton
“Heat Of The Moment” – Asia
“Caught Up In You” – 38 Special
“All Star” – Smash Mouth

Some research shows that by choosing the right workout soundtrack you can increase your workout’s effectiveness by 34%. There’s nothing like that perfect song that gets the mind and body going and all you want to do it run like the wind and escape reality for awhile.

You may want to check out the Top 100 Workout Songs compiled by Fitness magazine as well as Shiri Appleby’s playlist and Jake Steinfeld’s digital fitness music for inspiration.

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Actress Jessica Alba was crowned “Best Post-Baby Body” in Gold’s Gym’s first-ever Hollywood’s Hottest Bodies Awards. Her personal trainer Ramona Braganza gives a detailed explanation as to how Jessica lost the weight after giving birth to her first child, Honor. Jessica started slowly, and after getting the thumbs up from her doctor just two weeks after giving birth she started short 20 minutes workout for the first few weeks and then gradually worked her way up to a one-hour workout over the course of two to three months. In the end Jessica Alba,

“trained six days a week and used a heart-rate monitor that included calorie counting. One of our goals was to see if we could burn 500 calories in a workout,” says Braganza.

Below is the circuit training workout Braganza used with the actress:

10-Minute Cardio Blast
Walk at a 2.0 incline on a treadmill for a minute or two to warm up, then add a light jog.

Single-Leg Lunge
While holding a dumbbell in each hand put one foot on a workout bench behind you while keeping the other on the floor and lunge down.
Repeat 10 to 12 times on each leg.

Chest Press
Lie faceup on a bench. Holding a light weight in each hand, extend arms upwards and toward each other.
Repeat 10 to 12 times.

Tricep-Dip
With the workout bench behind you, place hands on bench and legs straight out in front of you. Lower your body into a dip using your upper arms to lower and rise.
Repeat 10 to 12 times.

Core Work
Rest your back on an exercise ball and do 30 crunches.

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Reality star Kim Kardashian was voted ‘Best Booty’ in the first ever Gold’s Gym, Hollywood’s Hottest Bodies Awards. Now that’s a title to be proud of!  She is one curvilicious woman and according to celebrity trainer Ramona Braganza we can all have Kim’s booty by incorporating lunges, squats and step-ups. Of course those are the most dreaded in any girl’s workout but the results are fantastic. Here are Braganza’s three suggestions:

Weighted Squats
Hold a dumbbell in each hand and while keeping the weight in the back and heels squat down to the chair position and then stand back up. Be sure to squeeze your glutes when coming up.
Do 10 to 12 reps.

Single-Leg Lunges
Have one foot behind on a bench and the other on the floor and lunge down keeping back straight. Hold weights in each hand for extra intensity.
Do 10 to 12 reps on each leg.

Step-Ups
Have one foot in front of you on a bench and the other on the floor and step up on to the bench so that you’re standing on it, and then step back down. The higher the bench the harder the workout.
Do 10 to 12 reps on each leg.

Also this month, Gold’s Gym recognized Kelly Ripa for Best Arms, and Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie, for Best Legs.

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Talk show host Kelly Ripa was voted ‘Best Arms’ in the first ever Gold’s Gym, Hollywood’s Hottest Bodies Awards. She is one lean and sexy woman and according to the gym’s star trainer Mike Ryan, only three key exercises are needed to get Rippa’s guns.

Straight Curl
Stand holding a barbell in each hand with palms facing up. Curl barbells toward your chest and back down for one rep.
Do three sets of 12 to 15 reps.

The 21s
Start as the same exercise above but when you’re in the curl only curl up until arms are parallel to the ground. Do not go all the way up to the chest.
Do one set of 21 reps.
Then do the exercise again but start at the half-way point and curl all the way up to the chest.
Do one set of 21 reps.

Triceps Kickback
Holding a dumbbell in one hand, place the opposite knee on a bench. Pull the arm with the dumbbell straight back and up to your side. Then lower back to the starting position.
Do three sets of 15 reps.

Incorporate these three exercises into your regular workout routine just three times a week and you will soon see results.

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He may have just started flexing his muscles on the teen TV show Vampire Diaries, but Sean Faris has been training for years. He once had to put on 15 pounds of muscle for a movie role, and even broke a bone in his lower back when he trained for his MTV Movie award-winning ‘Best Fight’ scene in Never Back Down. But he made it through and developed a baseline level of fitness and shares his fundamental fitness tips.

1. Start small
Sean says anybody can be fit but you have to give your body time to adjust and take on reasonable goals. Don’t overwork your body. Only once you’ve reached your goals can you begin to make your workout more challenging.

2. Embrace unsteadiness
Sean works out with weights, but doesn’t use a belt – this way you are forced to focus on keeping your midsection tight and your lower back in its natural position. Every exercise you do this way works your core, which strengthens your midsection and endurance levels.

3. Amp up your reps
Stick to your usual repetition ranges, but occasionally challenge yourself with an ambitious one of say 50 to 60 reps, depending on what you’re doing. But if you feel you can’t do another rep with good form, rest a little and then continue.

4. Lift lighter and better

“I see so many people in the gym just slinging weight around,” Sean says. “You can accomplish more if you squeeze the reps out in perfect form, instead of going big and trying to kill it every time.”

5. Play anything
Try new moves, add a little more weights or reps, but if you’re bored don’t continue doing the same exercises or you’ll plateau. You can take your workout outside the gym by giving a new sport a try.

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We know Fergie exercises while she’s on tour with her Black Eyed Peas band mates, and that she double’s up on vegetables to maintain her figure. But just how does Us magazine’s “Best Legs” celebrity get those sexy legs? Star trainer Mike Ryan, from Gold’s Gym, explains exactly which exercises you can do to get the 34-year-old singer’s pins.

Squats
With feet a little wider than your hips, a straightened back straight and lifted chest, bend your knees as if to sit in a chair, and then straighten. Do 3 sets of 12, but as the week’s go by (or if you need a challenge sooner) add 3 to 5-pound dumbbells.

Walking Lunges
Standing with legs hip-width apart, step forward with your right leg – but don’t overextend your stride. Bending your knee, push down into the stride with your body. Now bring your left leg forward to stand. Next, repeat the step forward with your left leg. We all have different strides, so don’t count the number of lunges, but rather the distance – you’ll need to do 10 to 15 yards in each direction.

Step-ups
To shake things up a bit and focus on your thighs, a series of steps can help them. Face a bench and lift one leg onto it. Then lift the other leg to meet it. But don’t rest that leg on the bench, because you have to return it to the starting position for one rep. Do two sets of 10 reps on each leg.

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Beth Riesgraf plays the role of a professional con-artist in the TNT series, Leverage. Her role requires her to work with a team of high tech crooks who are constantly at the brink of getting caught any any given moment. Her physical role requires her to leap from tall buildings from a single bound and all of that superman stuff that a typical con-artist would have to do. She even had to hang upside down from the window of a 44-story building. Yikes!

Because of this tough role she is a hardcore exerciser, and she’ll even hang upside down as part of her workout. Her regular training consists of regular runs with her son and she does Pilates Plus (a combo of sculpting and pilates on a modified reformer) and Barre 3 (a combo of ballet, pilates and yoga). Whew, no wonder Beth looks absolutely amazing.

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This month Kim Kardashian took a trip to South Africa to do a photo shoot (see photo above) for a popular men’s magazine and she’s looking better than ever. After months of having to hear about her workouts, Quicktrim diet plan and all the rest of her diet advice we finally get a good look at her new body and she looks great. Always happy to discuss her body she gladly shared some words in South Africa about her new shape. She said,

“I love my curves. Being super skinny just isn’t attractive to me.”

But just because she’s not ultra thin doesn’t mean she ignores exercise. Just the opposite, she works out a lot and spends a lot of time at the gym. She admitted she likes to do plenty of squats and she’ll even do some in the bedroom when not at the gym. She explained how she keeps her trademark “junk in the trunk” in top form:

“I take a chair into my bedroom and squat until my bum hits it. And when it does, I know that’s as low as I need to go.”

Well, her hard work has paid off and even though her interviews are monotonous and always discuss weight and body image, at least young fans can see that being curvy has its advantages and not all girls have to be stick thin.

Celeb Diet Doc Says…
Kim is obviously blessed with great “ahem” assets:)  – Lloyd’s of London bonded and insured worthy I might add.. but I digress. With a boyfriend like Reggie Bush, I am sure she gets plenty of encouragement to workout… and it shows. Keep up the great work Kim!

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Former 90210 and Charmed star Shannen Doherty is ready to get in shape while competing as a contestant for the 10th season of Dancing with the Stars. The naturally slim actress isn’t a hardcore exerciser and she admitted that she hasn’t worked out since she ended her work with the Charmed series. Likewise, she’s a little worried about her endurance for the dancing reality show. When it comes to the dancing Doherty’s only experience is from her tap dancing days when she was a little girl but she’s looking forward to the challenge. She explained,

“I’m going to get in great shape, and everyone who I know who’s been on the show has had a great time,” she says. “It’s with hesitation and fear, but it’s going to be good to conquer a fear.”

Doherty is very nervous about the idea of performing in front of a live audience and she will often break out in hives and have panic attacks. But for DWTS she had a change of heart and was inspired to do the show when her father, who recently had a stroke, encouraged her to confront her fears.

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As probably the fittest celebrity in Hollywood, actress Jessica Biel not only climbed Mount Kilimanjaro recently, but she was also named the “Best Abs” in Us magazine. You too can get her rock-hard six-pack with these exercises she does regularly. Ramona Braganza, from Gold’s Gym who also trained Jessica for her role in The A-Team, says the 28-year-old is in the gym four days a week for at least an hour doing various moves.

The first exercise Jessica does 10 reps twice of are back extensions on a stability ball. Standing with your back to a wall, then lie forward on the ball, your legs straightened behind you, your soles flat against the wall and your arms extended. On an inhale, raise your torso and legs, hold it for a second or two and lower back down.

The second exercise is pushups. After a set of three on your toes, hold the plank position for five seconds, and then do another set – but you’ve got to keep your abs contracted.

The third exercise is two sets of 10 side-lying planks, which work your oblique muscles. Lie on your side on the floor with your feet stretched. Prop yourself on your right elbow at first and as you exhale, lift your hips off the floor. Hold for a short time, then lower back to the start. Don’t forget to switch sides afterwards.

Braganza says Jessica likes to cook, so she often prepares her own meals which almost always include vegetables and grains like quinoa and kasha.

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