Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Some Bar Exercises

Gyms usually have several bars of different weights: 8 pounds, 10 pounds, 12 pounds and 16 pounds. You can use these bars for a variety of exercises with your arms, abdominal muscles and legs. Use a bar weight that will work out your muscles, and will not give you pain. Here are some of these exercises:

1. Biceps: Do biceps curls as per the biceps section.

2. Triceps: Hold the bar over your head Keep your elbows straight above you without locking them. Your arms are facing forward. Bend your elbows so that the bar is lowered beneath your head. Return to start position. Do four sets of ten repetitions.

3. Shoulders: Keep your legs shoulder-with apart. Bend your knees slightly. Hold the bar with your palms facing you and your hands touching. Bring it under your chin as you exhale and inhale when you extend your arms. Do not bend your elbows. Do five sets of ten repetitions.

4. Abdominal muscles: Do abdominal crunches with the bar on your belly. Do four sets of ten repetitions.

5. Transverse obliques: Hold the bar behind your neck. Keep your legs a little more than shoulder width apart and bend the knees slightly. Twist side to side slowly. Twist behind on each side beyond 180 degrees without feeling stress on your side. Do four sets of ten repetitions.

6. Either stand up straight or support yourself against a wall with one arm. Lift up one leg at a time, as a sort of leg extension. Hold the bar wit one or two arms over your quadriceps muscle. Lift your leg from the floor to a little more than 90 degrees above your waist, or start about one an a half feet from the floor and lift to the start. Do four sets of ten repetitions with each leg.

7. Lean a little forward and place the bar over the back of one leg. Hold the bar with one arm. Repeat [5.], but lift your leg backwards. Do four sets of ten repetitions with each leg.

8. Do leg abductor exercises by holding the bar, suing both arms, so that the bar is “inside” the knee of the leg that you will extend outward, and “outside” the ankle of that leg. Do four sets of ten repetitions with each leg.

9. You can try to hold the bar so that you can do adductor exercises, but holding it in a way that will keep it in place and will give you a work out may be difficult to do. If you can do this, do four sets of ten repetitions with each leg.

10. Do squats with both hands holding the bar over your quadriceps. This is like a pliette ballet move. Keep your legs shoulder-width apart. Keep your back straight. Sit down and then come up as in a squat. Do five sets of ten repetitions.Some of the information for this section was taken from http://www.self.com/.Accessed in 2005

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Some Swiss Ball Abdominal Exercises

Swiss balls can be great to use because one often needs to incorporate many muscle fibers and muscles to keep one's stability and balance during performance.

Here are some abdominal exercises one can do with a Swiss ball:

1. Get a medium-sized Swiss ball and balance yourself so as to "lie down" on it with your lower back as a pivot point. Place your feet on the ground, with your knees bent 90 degrees. Proceed with abdominal crunches, as described in the first abdominal exercise blog. Do five sets of ten repetitions.

2. “Lie down” sideways on the Swiss ball. One let will be in front of the other on the ground for balance. Put your hands behind your head. Do side abdominal crunches for your obliques. Exhale when you move upward. Do five sets of ten repetitions one each side.

3. Lie down on the ground. Put the Swiss ball between your ankles. Keep your palms facing downward on your side. Use your lower abdominal muscles. This is a subtle and effective exercise. Bring your hips off the floor about two inches. When you lower your hips, do not have them fully touch the floor. Keep them off the floor for about an inch. When you lift your hips, lift them up two about two inches from this position. You want to target your lower abdominal muscles. Do not use your legs or back to lift the Swiss ball. Do ten sets of ten repetitions. After every five sets, stretch your lower abdominal muscles by hugging your knees for ten seconds.

Thursday, June 08, 2006

TV Exercises!

Many times people complain about not having the time to work out. Here you will see that there are no excuses! There are exercises that you can do while watching television! Here are just a few:

1. Get five-pound weights and do some biceps curls, even while sitting on the couch. Sit on the edge of the couch with your back straight and proceed as per the biceps blog.

2. Get five-pound weights and do some triceps extension exercises, even while sitting on the couch. Sit on the edge of the couch with your back straight and proceed as per the triceps blog.

3. Use free weights for any of the shoulder exercises described in the upper arm and shoulder blogs.

4. Use free weights to work out your latissimus dorsi as describe in the latissimus dorsi blog.

5. Do jumping jacks! Do four sets of ten repetitions, and walk around for ten seconds in between sets. This basic interval exercise can work out your cardiovascular system quite well!

6. Sit against the wall That's right, sit against the wall. Keep your knees at a 90-degree angle. This is an isometric squat exercise. It may seem easy, but it may nto end up being easy for you! Sit with your back against the wall for ten seconds. Do five sets of ten repetitions. You may break out in a sweat, more than you would jogging!

7. Do the good old abdominal crunch exercise described in the abdominal blogs.

Educate yourself!

There is so much power in knowledge. And there is even more power in knowledge and experience and knowing yourself. I was t a recent gathering of beauty queens and their consultants. I was so happy to hear these young women talking about inner beauty, eating what they want in moderation according to what they need and not wearing a lot of makeup.

Much of health, fitness and beauty is about loving and standing for yourself. One way to do this is to spend the time to go to the library, search the Internet or ask an expert like a physician, dietician, yoga teacher and personal trainer about fitness. There is so much power in knowing what is happening inside your body when you eat or exercise, in knowing about different exercises and in knowing your body and how it works with food and exercise.

As with working out, there may be a hesitance or phobia of science or reading or doing the work. Remember, the only way to know how anything is going to be and if you will like it is to take the step and do it! You may find out that you love learning, researching and working out! They are your power! And they are fun!