Thursday, June 3rd, 2010
To loose weight (and keep it off) many women use exercise videos. What could be better than loosing weight without leaving the house? Why try to fit your workout into a gyms schedule when you can simply schedule your own personal one-on-one class?
Check out these online exercise videos.
Exercising with videos from home gives you the flexibility to tailor the workout to what you want. Why not, go a little crazy! Try one of those workouts you would never try in a gym – you are at home and they only one who can see you is you. It’s like having your own personal exercise class in your living room.
Whether you want to loose weight or just tone up, find the workout type that will move you closer to the “ideal you.”
Cardio Kickboxing: Jab, punch, kick, upper cut…..This workout works your entire body from head to toe while relieving any stress and tension by using a series of martial arts moves. Not only will you burn fat, but the moves are designed to train both your upper and lower body while strengthening your core – this is a killer full body workout, you should definitely have at least one of the videos in your collection.
Cardio Dance: If you have two left feet, but have always loved to move your body, this workout is perfect – your at home, you get to shake those hips and wiggle your bon bon! Just listen to the music and move! That is dancing. If you’re listening to music you love and moving in a way that makes you feel like a rock star, you are dancing.
Step Aerobics: There is no doubt that Step can be a tough new workout to learn, but learning new things is always hard and like a good friend of mine once said “Confusion is just a sign of learning.” Start slow and get a few beginning step videos and if you need to, simply rewind the video and watch the move over and over until you get it.
Low Impact Aerobics/Jazzercise: There is a reason this workout has been around since the early ’70’s – its just a fun way to move and a great way to burn a ton of calories. And the best part is the workout won’t hurt your knees and it makes you look and feel amazing.
Pilates and Yoga: Besides stress reduction and a more calm state of mind, both Pilates and Yoga are great ways to stretch muscles that have become tight and unyielding. And if you like having a toned and sculpted mid section, try Pilates – Pilates was developed for dancers to have long and lean torsos, because lets face it, we would all love to have 6-pack abs, right?
Start enjoying the freedom that exercise videos will give you. What health club offers an 11pm Yoga workout? With videos, you can do it whenever you prefer. When you are ready, just go to your video library and pop it in the DVD player – the possibilities are endless.
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Monday, February 8th, 2010
Look around you today and study other people’s posture and you will discover a shocking scenario. The vast majority of adults are standing or walking incorrectly to the extent that they could be creating muscle trouble for themselves without knowing it. Too much slouching, shoulders hunched, chest inwards are all too obvious as people are unaware of the benefits of good posture.
If a person’s body is in good balance it can maintain good posture with minimal effort whereby all the muscles are working in harmony to support alignment. In comparison, a body out of balance will find it tires quickly when working to strengthen weaker muscles.
But why should a person wish to discover good posture and then be able to maintain it naturally? By being able to maintain this will assist you in counteracting the effects of gravity brought about by aging. If you’re using your muscles to sit and stand as tall as your skeletal frame permits, you will be able to counteract the worst of the aging process that involves shrinkage and thus a reduction in height. The second benefit is though little effort is required to maintain a good posture, it will far exceed the problems with your feet, knees, hips, back, shoulders and the neck that are a direct result of historic bad posture over many years.
A third and great hidden benefit of maintaining a good posture is quite simply that you are strengthening the body to achieve better health. It really is good to realise that by the simple task of sitting and standing correctly by adopting good posture, you will be benefitting your health. Think of it as a workout. Yet you do not have to attend the gym or copy the action on a fitness dvd, it is continuous as long as you maintain good body posture.
You will need to discover and start practicing the methods of good body posture and to then recognise the body position and feel when the correct posture is attained. This will assist you when at times, and during the early days it is only natural, your body posture slips back to the original positions that the body recognises but has been doing you damage over perhaps many years. In addition, there is a need to become familiar with the correct exercises within your daily routine that will have the effect of reinforcing good posture habits.
With the desire for better posture and the health benefits it brings, many more people are turning to pilates as a natural exercise programme that can be undertaken in their own home at their convenience, which concentrates on complete muscle toning and ensures that a good body posture becomes the norm.
Michael Tasker
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/good-posture-leads-to-good-health-726576.html
Technorati Tags: Aging Process, Alignment, Bad Posture, Better Health, Body Position, Correct Posture, Good Body Posture, Good Health, Good Posture, Gravity, Hidden Benefit, Hips, Knees, Minimal Effort, Muscles, Posture, Shoulders, Shrinkage, Skeletal Frame, workout
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Thursday, February 4th, 2010
Most ab workouts designed for home use usually involve nothing except a variety of boring and oftentimes useless floor crunches. I can assure you that these very typical workouts never deliver the results that we are looking for.
For starters, the floor crunch only provides enough resistance to cause a training effect in beginners. Once you develop a base of strength, the crunch will only serve as an exercise capable of maintaining your current strength level.
Secondly, the crunch only trains the abs in one range of motion: flexion of the trunk. Flexing the trunk is only one of the many ranges of motion that your abdominal muscles are capable of. Any well designed ab workout will include exercises that target all major ranges of motion. The bottom line is, the crunch alone can never provide a complete ab workout.
Instead, you need to perform several different ab exercises, each targeting a different abdominal function and/or region. This may sound confusing, but once you understand the anatomy and function of your abdominals, designing an effective ab workout is quite simple.
Don’t worry, I promise I’m not to give you a boring anatomy lesson. Instead, I’m going to take all of the guesswork out and provide you with a ready to use workout. Additionally, this workout will require no equipment at all, making it “just what the doctor ordered” for those of you who train at home.
1a) Reverse Crunch On Floor 3×20-25 30 sec rest 1b) Straight Body Side Crunch On Floor 3×12 (5sec hold) 30 sec rest 2a) Plank 3×60 sec 30 sec rest 2b) Seated Russian Twists With Leg Cycle 3×20-25 30 sec rest
Now I will give you a detailed description on how to properly execute each exercise:
Reverse Crunch On Floor- Lie on your back on the floor. Bend both your knees and your hips until they make 90 degree angles. Bring knees toward chest by contracting your abdominal muscles. You butt will rise off the floor. Be sure to maintain a constant knee angle throughout the range of motion. Return until hips are again at a 90 degree angle. Repeat for the prescribed number of reps.
Straight Body Side Crunch On Floor- Lie on your side on the floor. Keep your hands straight out above your head, in line with your body. Keep legs straight. Lock your hands together. Simultaneously raise your arms and legs up so that neither are in contact with the floor. Hold this position for the prescribed number of seconds.
Plank- Get on the floor in a push up position. Support your body on just your forearms and your toes. Be sure to keep the abs flexed and hold your body in a perfectly straight horizontal line. Do not let hips drop or raise them up at all. Hold this position for the prescribed number of seconds.
Seated Russian Twists With Leg Cycle- Sit on floor and cross your arms across your chest, grabbing the opposite shoulders. Lean back until your upper body makes a 45 degree angle to the floor. Rotate trunk to the right while simultaneously bringing your right knee towards your chest. At this point your left elbow will be touching your right knee. In a smooth motion rotate to the left and repeat this on the other side. Continue to alternate until you finish the prescribed number of reps. One full rotation equals one rep.
Now you have a result producing ab workout you can perform with no equipment whatsoever. Do this workout two or three times per week for the next month. After this month is over, it will be time to progress to a more advanced ab workout.
A great six pack is only a few weeks away! Start today and sculpt your stomach faster than you thought possible!
John Alvino
http://www.articlesbase.com/fitness-articles/killer-ab-workouts-you-can-do-at-home-727358.html
Technorati Tags: Ab Exercises, Ab Workout, Abdominal Muscles, Abdominals, Anatomy Lesson, Bottom Line, Degree Angles, Detailed Description, Flexion, Guesswork, Hips, Killer Ab Workouts, Knees, Range Of Motion, Reverse Crunch, Russian Twists, Starters, Straight Body, Strength Level, Workouts You Can Do At Home
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Friday, January 22nd, 2010
Lower abdominal exercises for women are an important part of women’s health. While everybody talks about how wonderful it would be to have six pack abs, it is not the only reason to make sure that you work out this part of your body. Having strong abdominal muscles can also improve your health in other ways – for instance, giving you better posture and reducing back strain. Most people do some abdominal exercises – however, the lower abs are often overlooked.
By using one or two effective types of lower abdominal exercises for women, you can make sure that this important muscle group is also getting worked out effectively. Several of the exercises may require more equipment than you have readily available – however, most lower abdominal exercises are easy to do at home and do not require much extra equipment.
Effective Lower Abs Exercises For Beginners
Lying Leg Raises – Lie down on a flat bench. Raise your arms above your head and have your hands hold the edges of the bench or (if you have one) the hand-grip behind your head. With your legs slightly bent at the knee, raise them all the way up to the vertical position. Pause a second and then slowly lower them. Try not to touch the ground at the bottom. This control will keep tension on the abdominals throughout the exercise and will therefore increase the intensity. Repeat for your designated number of reps and sets.
Reverse Crunch – Lie face up on a flat exercise bench, raise your arms and firmly grasp the edge of the bench above or alongside your head. With your knees bent (and locked in this position), contract your abs and lift your hips to bring your knees in toward your chest – hold for three seconds and lower your hips back to the bench. Repeat for your designated number of reps and sets.
Leg Lifts Are More Advanced Exercises For Lower Abs
First of all, the hanging leg raise is one of the most effective types of abs exercises. For this exercise, however, you’re going to need a lat pull-up bar to hang from. This bar is going to need to be high enough that you can hang from it with your arms fully extended (with your hands shoulder width apart) for long enough to do the exercise – without your feet touching the floor. Then, use your abdominal muscles (you will need to focus) to move your legs up until you are sitting in the air.
Important Notes For All Abs Exercises
• Do not over train your abs. Remember that success is always a result of many efforts. Never train you abs if they are still very sore from a previous workout. Mildly sore is okay.
• Keep your abs pulled in tight through each repetition to get the maximum benefit of each rep.
• Keep your range of motion between 30-45 degrees from the floor or bench (the horizontal position). This helps to minimize the hip-flexor area movement and makes sure that the abs get their full workout.
• Always keep your spine, neck, head and shoulder in alignment to prevent strains.
• When you do sit-ups and crunches, or any other exercise that requires your hands to be behind your head, never interlock your fingers as this causes you to pull on your head and will put your spine out of alignment – which may cause strains to your spine.
Julia Mahler
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/lower-abdominal-exercises-for-women-improve-your-posture-with-exercise-22324.html
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