Women often avoid upper body and arm exercise because of a fear that lifting weights will make them look like some huge bodybuilder. Really there is nothing to worry about. Any guy will tell you that growing huge muscles is not that quick or easy!
In fact, exercising the arms is a great way to firm up. Toned arms and shoulders will simply make you look fit. If shoulder and upper arm size increases a little that is a good thing, especially for larger hipped women, as you will look more balanced.
Arm exercise pretty much always involves lifting weights. However, you do not have to go to a gym. There are two types of weights: barbells (the long bar with a weight on each end that you see weightlifters raising over their heads on TV) and dumbbells (the mini version that you pick up with one hand). You only need dumbbells for these arm exercises and you can find a cheap set at a garage sale or local store. You can even buy pink ones if you want!
So here are 3 simple exercises that you can do using dumbbells. You should do them all so that the whole area is strengthened. Focusing on one muscle group alone can cause injuries in the others.
All of the exercises should be performed slowly. This is very important! Your muscles will work harder with 3 slow repetitions of an exercise than 6 fast ones.
To avoid muscle strain, start out with the lowest weight. If you don’t feel any effects of your workout later or the next day, you can move to the next weight.
Bicep Curl
This exercise tones the front of the upper arms. Hold weights with arms straight down, palms inward (facing thighs). Rotate arms so that palms face forward while slowing raising the forearms, bending the elbows until your hand with the weight is up near your shoulder. Slowly release back down. You can do arms separately or both together. (25 reps)
Tricep Press
This exercise tones the back of the upper arms, the part that is flabby in many people. Stand holding the weights, feet shoulder width apart. Take a big step forward with one foot. Lean forward a little, and slowly raise the weights behind you. Palms face the ceiling. Raise as far as you can and slowly lower back down. (20 reps, changing legs at half way)
Deltoid Press
This exercise tones the muscles that run along the top of the shoulders, which are important for arm strength and bicep development as well as many activities of daily life. Hold weights a little higher than shoulders, palms facing forward. Simply raise the weights up overhead and lower back down, slowly. (25 reps)
For a stronger workout, after a few days you can increase so that you do 2 and then 3 series of these exercises, resting between. If you do this 3 times a week you should soon see your arms and shoulders toning up.
Always consult with a doctor before starting any arm exercise or other fitness program.
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Most of the exercises making up an abs workout on the exercise ball will strengthen the back as well as the abdominals and other core muscles.
An exercise ball is a piece of equipment that you will find at any gym. You can also buy them for home use. They are not expensive.
Exercise balls work by requiring you to use your muscles to balance or keep stable. Therefore they are also sometimes called stabilizing balls. The exercises may sound easy, like children’s games, but if you try them you will find that a lot is required of your abs. If you do not feel this at once you probably will feel it the next day!
How to pick an exercise ball
It is important to choose an exercise ball that is the right height for you. When you sit on it your feet must be flat on the floor, knees and hips forming right angles, thighs parallel to the ground.
Before you begin your stabilization abs workout on the exercise ball, you should warm up the muscles of the back. This is easily done with a few minutes gentle exercise on a treadmill, exercise bike, elliptical trainer or simply walking or marching on the spot.
Abs Workout Stabilization Exercise
Sit on the ball with feet flat on the floor. Keep your abdomen tight, including the deepest ab muscles that you can feel when you cough. Do the same number of reps for each exercise, starting with 10.
First, lift one heel, keeping toes on the floor, then the other.
Then lift one whole foot off the ground, keeping it flat, then the other (as if you were marching on the spot, but slowly).
Then raise and lower each arm in turn.
Finally, raise and lower each arm in turn while lifting the opposite foot off the floor (slow marching with arm movements).
Abs Workout Stabilization Exercise
Lie with your stomach on the middle of the ball, hands flat on the floor, arms going straight down from the shoulders. Again keep the abdomen tight. Start with 5 reps of each.
First, walk forward on hands until the ball is under the thighs. Walk back to starting position and rest.
Then repeat walking forward on hands until the ball is under the thighs but this time stay there and slowly raise each arm in turn. Do the reps then walk back to starting position and rest.
Finally, repeat walking forward on hands until the ball is under the thighs, stay there and do pushups. Do not go too low at first. Do the reps then walk back to starting position and finish.
Cool down with some stretching, because the abdominal muscles and the muscles of the back will be very tight after this back and abs workout on the exercise ball.
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Stretching is a great way of stopping or at least doing a large part in the prevention of sports injuries. The simple act of stretching will give you more benefits than simply cutting your risk or injury it will also help you to gain muscle, agility and coordination. I have stressed in the past that stretching is very useful but here is an article that I found that gives you even more reason to stretch everyday.
Overcoming & Preventing Sports Injury
If you’re involved in the health & fitness industry, whether it be participating in your favourite sport, coaching, training or just keeping fit, you’ll know how annoying and debilitating a sports injury can be. In reality, when you have a sports injury you’re actually losing on two fronts. Firstly, you’re losing simply because your body has been hurt and now needs time and care to repair itself. And on top of this, you’re also losing the time you could have been putting into training and improving your sporting ability. Read the rest of this entry »
This is a busy time of year for a lot of people and I am no exception. I slacked a little over the last couple of weeks with my workouts and here I am at 5:30 in the morning, when I should be sleeping sitting on the computer.
I am pretty happy though because I just got a workout in.
Nothing feels better than working successfully towards your goals and so I am pretty excited to be back on track. You could get on track to and if you are smart about it you can get in some short 10 minute workouts and feel like I feel this morning (although you may not want to get up this early for a workout).
How can you get any kind of workout in 10 minutes?
Well Craig Ballentyne, the Turbulence Training guy, gave me this 20 page guide that gives you a four week plan of 10 minute workouts to get yourself going. Not only is there 5 sample 10 minute workouts but there is also 10 tips to safe workouts and a some stretches to get you all limbered up. The guide has lots of pictures to so that you don’t have to guess what the exercise should be like.
The best thing about the 20 page guide is that it is free. Just click this link and the guide will open up the pdf right in your browser window, it is an Adobe Acrobat file.
This is a great deal (free is always good in my book). Let anyone that you think is interested know about it and we can all get in great shape by the new year
Your chest is a large muscle muscle group the more scientific term is the pectoral muscles. The funny thing is that for most people the chest is undeveloped because we really don’t use it as much as a arm muscle or leg muscle.
The best chest exercises are Bench Presses and Flyes.
There are also different ways to hit the chest muscles using angles. Think about bench presses as an example. If you change the angle of the bench so that it is higher at the end then it will put more tension on the upper pecs, flat bench presses are great for hitting the entire pectoral muscle. If you can find a decline bench then bench presses on this will really hit the bottom part of your chest. You will find declines are easier to do heavier weights with and this is because there is just more muscle there. Read the rest of this entry »
I have been meaning to start off a series of articles on the best exercises for each bodypart and a bit of a write up on each muscle group but I just found a great page with little animations of 70 core exercises
As you are probably aware the core of your body, your midsection has a lot of muscles. You use core muscles for bending over, getting up, standing, walking leaning to either side. an a host of other ways as well.
So check out the exercises. They may help a bit with weight loss, they will definitley help your posture and how large you look and these exercises are critical for getting you in better physical condition
If you are bored of your exercise routine or are too busy to spend long hours in your local gym, or if you are simply terrified at the very mention of exercises, then this article is for you. In this article I will tell about some simple workouts that won’t take much of your time and yet will help you lose a lot of weight very quickly!
According to this exercise plan, you will need to do about two exercises. The first one requires you to spend just five minutes per day, which I hope is not too much for you. The second one requires you to spend twenty minutes per day for three or four weeks which again, I hope, is manageable. Okay, let me now get down to the facts straight.
Like they say, age gracefully. No matter how old you are, would you like to have wrinkles, age spots, uneven and sagging skin? Definitely not! Everyone wants to hide their age as much as possible, and celebrities are more ‘at fault’ in this regard than us. Look at Demi Moore and Cameron Diaz-do they really look their age?
Time was when anti-aging tools were the prerogative of the celebrities. Not so any more! Today anyone can use them! In fact, I will tell you of a simple way to look more beautiful and hide your age.
You already know that exercises can help you lose weight and become fit. However, do you know that there are also special types of ‘facial exercises’, which would help you fight against aging? If you do these facial exercises regularly, you will look several years younger! In this article I will tell you about them.
1. Neck exercise: Tilt your neck backwards and then in a roundabout way. This is a great exercise for quickly shedding the extra pounds from your face; plus your blood circulation would also improve with this exercise. Make sure you do not move your neck in a jerky way or in any awkward position as it can cause neck injuries.
2. Jaw exercise: Open and drop your jaw, then open and close your mouth. Do this at least 20-25 times. This is yet another way to get rid of facial fat, particularly the fat around your chin and neck! For best results, jaw exercises should be done early in the morning.
3. Smiling: Not the half-heated smiles; I mean, smiling with a wide open mouth – smiling like that can help you get rid of facial fat.
4. Other things: While these facial exercises can work on their own, there are other things you need to take care of. For example, you need to watch your diet! If you can survive only on juices then there is nothing like that! Fruit juices are good for your health since many of them are rich in vitamins! A strict fruit-juice diet would help you achieve a glowing skin quite fast.
If you cannot survive on a juice-only diet then you can eat vegetables and fruits. If possible, eat fruits and vegetables in their raw forms; if not, you can boil them! Junk foods are obviously a strict no-no. Sugar and salt intake should obviously be reduced and regulated.
Looking young is not all that hard! You don’t need to buy the latest and greatest cosmetics or go under the knife in order to look beautiful! Just follow the four simple tips I outlined above and relive your youth.
Motor fitness is a more inclusive term than physical fitness.
Physical fitness combines strength, stamina, and cardiovascular reserve. Motor fitness includes these and adds agility, balance, “explosive” power, and speed. This concept has more limited value for the sportsman but approaches an even higher level of general fitness. Because more parameters are measured, these tests tend to become increasingly complex and complicated.
Perhaps the simplest of these is the JCR Test. This is intended to assess basic motor skills such as jumping, chinning, running, and dodging which presumably require power, stamina, speed, and agility.
The J of JCR stands for the vertical jump. This is performed by having the subject stand erect, reaching as high as he can without standing on tiptoes, and making a mark
the wall.
Next, he squats down and then leaps as high as he can—making another mark on the wall. The distance between the two chalk marks is recorded.
The C is for chinning. With palms facing forward, the subject grasps a bar above his head. He then chins himself as many times as possible, making sure that his elbows are straight before each chin. Wiggling, kicking, and jerking are not allowed.
Running accounts for the R in JCR. This is a hundred-yard shuttle run. The subject runs a ten-yard course ten times—back and forth between two walls ten yards apart. His time is then measured in seconds.
In all types of fitness measurements, experts generally deplore self-testing. Unintentionally the subject may count partial movements as complete. Or the ability to time oneself may be askew. However, these objections do not apply to sportsmen provided that they always perform the test in the same manner, under the same conditions, and are measuring for comparison—improvement or deterioration. The sportsman competes only against himself in fitness tests; he is not concerned with what other individuals or other groups can or cannot do. He is checking his own progress.
Position: A supine position on the bench or on the floor with a low box or stool under the shoulders. The arms are held with locked elbows straight over the chest and a dumbbell is grasped in each hand.
Action: Keeping both elbows locked, the weights are lowered directly to the sides until the hands or weights floor. They are then brought back to the starting position over the chest, keeping the elbows locked during the entire movement.
Breathing: In this exercise, as in the Straight Arm Pull Over, the breathing is very important. As the arms are lowered, the lungs must be filled with air, and the air must be expelled as the arms are raised to the starting position.
Progression: This movement should be started with 10 counts and 2 counts added each week until 20 have been performed, then 2½ lbs. should be added to each dumbbell and the movement begun again at 10 counts.
Goal: Girls and women should work up to a resistance of 10 lbs. in each hand. Boys and men should work up to a resistance of 20 lbs. in each hand.
Results: The results from this exercise are the same as from the Straight Arm Pull Over but in addition has a more direct effect upon the development of the muscles on the front of the chest (pectoralis major and minor) .
Comments: In this exercise, also, it is better not to use too much weight on the dumbbells, but to concentrate on the breathing and the stretching of the chest. Few children will be able to use over 10 lbs. in each hand until they are over fourteen years of age.
Note: Instead of starting with both arms over the chest, have only the arm on the low side over the chest. The other arm is kept straight out to the side holding to a dumbbell or other object on the floor. We then lower out to the side and down to the floor the arm over the chest. Breathe in as it goes down and out as it is raised. The movement is the same as with both arms except that one arm (the one on the high side of the chest) is kept extended to the side with the hand or dumbbell kept on the floor. The other arm (the one on the low side) is raised and lowered the required number of counts. In this manner the lower side will be developed and raised to balance the higher side.
These three exercises, the Straight Arm Pull Over, the Lateral Raise on Bench or Stool, and the Alternate Dumbbell Pull Over will bring about a fine development of the rib box.
All back and leg exercises aid in chest development by placing a demand on the muscles of inspiration to meet the great need for oxygen in the tissues. This movement, like the two before it, should follow a back or leg exercise in a program for best results.
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