Archive for the ‘Fitness’ Category
Kettlebells can give you great big FAT BURNING workouts! Kettlebells are very versatile and offer great full body conditioning. The best part about kettlebells is you can use them and get fat burning workouts in less than an hour! You are getting strength conditioning and muscle endurance with these short brief intense workouts.
The secret is to select about 8 kettlebell exercises like, The Swing, High Pulls, The Snatch, Reverse Lunges with an Upright Row, Windmill, Circular Clean, Squat and Press, and the Kettlebell Crunch. Do an exercise for 2 minutes, including switching right and left arms when needed and rest for 1 minute. Then move on to the next exercise till you have completed them. These quick moves will keep the heart rate up while you lift and tone your muscles.
Kettlebells are the power house tool for good ‘ol Fat Burning Workouts!
Circuit Training is one of many fat burning workouts! I like circuit training because you can use your weights, apparatus in the gym, and maintain a target heart rate. Plus, you can get in a lifting session and by moving from exercise to exercise without rest makes it a cardio exercise.
Interval Training is another great fat burning workout. Interval training is all about peaking your heart to its max and having some recovery time. Exercising in a way the heart rate increases for a finite period of time, then still performing the exercise allow yourself to recover for a finite period, and alternate in between. It’s like there are hills and valleys in your workout. Interval training is also cardio training.
The cardio fat burning workouts could be done daily. However, it is not suggested to use the circuit training workout daily. The muscles need 24 hours to recover. Circuit training can be used for a “quickie” workout at the gym…get in/get out quick!
One of my favorite water aerobics routines is the one dumbbell routine. I like to use the 1 dumbbell (DB) routine because it forces you to work that arm harder and to get the full range of motion. A couple things to be mindful about is to do the same exact workout with the opposite arm. That should seem obvious.
You can use the 1 DB with both hands when you are transitioning the DB to the other hand. During this transition phase you can do some froggers, or jumping jacks pushing the DB down or out. You could incorporate any of your other exercises in the phase of transition.
You can add another twist to your water aerobics routines by using the noodle in 1 hand. The noodle will give you more resistance than the one DB, because you are displacing more water. You can transition the noodle in front of you doing whatever intermediate exercise you want, then moving the noodle to the opposite hand.
Do let me know how this works for you at my email address: www.suism@aol.com
I’ve been updating you on various kettlebell exercises. I hope you enjoy them, as I enjoy sharing them with you. I am quickly become a big fan of using kettlebells where you would use dumbbells. The thing I like about kettlebells is, is that they offer instability causing you to lock in your core muscles to execute some kettlebell exercises correctly.
This specific kettlebell exercise is an example of lifting dead weight.
- Lay on the floor with 1 kettlebell in your right or left hand. Let’s just use the right first.
- Keep the lower back imprinted in to the floor or mat you are laying on.
- Place the elbow on the floor while holding the kettlebell (KB).
- Palm faces your feet. Push the KB straight up in the air. Bring the elbow back onto the mat and keep repeating. Do about 10 repetitions.
- Then switch arms with the left arm holding the KB. Elbow is on the floor.
- Push the KB straight up in the air, returning the elbow to the mat.
- Work your way up to 4 sets of 10 reps, by alternating each arm.
Use a KB that is going to be a struggle by the 4th set. Feel free to add this exercise to your list of kettlebell exercises for working the chest muscles.
There is so much information out there on different types of water aerobics routines, I thought I’d add yet another one to your list. Every now and then I like to do a 1 dumbbell water aerobics routine. Yes, using only one dumbbell gives each arm a very thorough workout.
What’s nice about this workout is that you are concentrating harder on the arm with the dumbbell. Therefore, you get a greater range of motion when you move the arm. I like to do 3 different exercises with one arm before I switch arms and repeat the same 3 exercises. It’s fun too, because when you are transitioning from one arm to another, you can kick up the cardio a notch. This can be done including some power jacks. Put both hands on the dumbbell and push the dumbbell down as you kick your legs out to the side. During this transition you can also include some travelling.
By alternating the dumbbell from arm to arm and doing the same repetitions and exercises on each side, your upper body workout is complete. Switch up the transitioning and be sure to give each arm adequate rest. Try to add this to your list of water aerobics routines and see how you like it! It sure changes things up and gets everybody working!
Fitness takes no vacations! There is no excuse for not maintaining some kind of routine. These are the times to utilize your body weight workouts. You could also incorporate a band or tube routine. They weigh nothing and it’s easy to throw one in your suitcase.
A couple of body weight exercises you could do is push-ups, crunches, calf raises, dips, pull ups, squats and lunges. For cardio, you can always walk or jog. Just do a little interval training. Walk for 2 minutes, then jog for a minute and keep alternating adding time to the walk and/or jog time your recovery time would be the slower pace.
Then there is stretching. Which is really good for your muscles. When you are weight training, the muscles shortened. Stretching elongates the muscles and being on vacation, we can take the time to hold the stretch. No matter where you are, there’s always time for some fitness!!
Have you changed your weight training workouts lately? If not, change it TODAY!!! Your muscles have a memory and will not be challenged to grow. It’s impossible to continuously improve your weight training at the same rate using the same routine. That’s why I’m introducing periodization which systematically adds variety to any weight training routine.
Periodization is not just for highly trained athletes, it is for everyone who wants to increase their health and fitness level. You can do this by altering the training variables. These variables include changing a specific exercise, the intensity level, the number of sets, the length of rest between sets, the number of repetitions or using any combination of the above. You can expect long term gains and reduce the risk of overtraining injuries.
So take the time now to reevaluate your weight training program and use any or all of the above variables to take your training to the next level.
Weight Training Workouts
There are so many different weight training workouts that you could do, I can see where it could be overwhelming and confusing. The first thing you have to do, when developing a weight training workout, is define your end goals. For some, their weight training goal might be to build muscle. Other goals could be to develop strength, endurance or just toning.
There are different weight training workouts to help achieve each goal. The workout used to build muscle is completely different than it would be for developing muscle endurance. Even the routine you would use for men and women would be augmented. For instance, men just like to work their chests and arms, whereas, women concentrate more on their legs…go figure. So, determine your goal, and come back here or www.Fitnessfromthepro.com for more info on how to get there!
Exercises for a Flat Stomach
The best exercises for a flat stomach starts with good nutrition and cardio. Hoping to achieve the 6 pack abs and flat stomach for this upcoming warm weather season all starts with a good cardiovascular routine. We cannot “spot reduce”.
So exercise for your heart at least 30 minutes most days. Throw in some strength training, followed by abdominal exercises. Continue to train your abdominals, because as you shed your weight with the cardio workouts, your nicely toned abs will soon appear!
As promised, I’ll go over a list of low back exercises to keep the muscle balance between the abs and low back. There are plenty of yoga and pilates moves that are an excellent choice for the low back.
A good low back exercise taken from yoga is the Cobra.
- Place your hands directly under your shoulders, while laying on your stomach
with your legs fully extended out behind you. - Pull your belly button into your spine and inhale.
- As you slowly push up and lift your upper body off the mat, exhale and push your pelvic bones into the mat.
- Push up as far as you can comfortably go without lifting the pelvic bones off the mat.
- Keep head and neck in align with your spine, by keeping your chin parallel to the mat/floor looking forward.
- Hold the pose, and then lower the upper body on the mat and repeat 3-5 times.
The Double Leg Lift is an excellent exercise to strengthen the lower back.
- Lay prone(on your stomach), rest your forehead on the backs of your hands, one on top of another legs are extended out behind you with your heels touching.
- Pull belly button to your spine and inhale.
- As you exhale and push pelvis into the mat, lift both legs off the mat, heels stay together, legs are straight and remain extended.
- Hold the lift for 10-20 seconds while continuing to breathe.
- Lower both legs back to mat, and repeat 3-5 times.
A more aggressive move for the low back is the Bow Pose from Yoga.
- Lay prone on the mat, legs extended behind you, and arms by the side of you body, palms up.
- With each hand, reach for the foot behind you, bending your knees.
- Right hand holds right foot, left hand holds left foot.
- Exhale, and lift upper and lower body off the mat, pushing the pubic bone into the mat and hold 10-20 seconds.
- Lower body and repeat 2-3 times.
All of the above low back exercises will help strengthen the low back so there will be limited muscle imbalance between the abs and low back. Practice these moves, every other day and your lower back will get stronger. Then you can add more to your routine. Good luck and keep that low back strong!