The women's fitness blog

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Continuing our theme of exercises you can do on the gym ball, let’s take a look at some stomach and abdomen tightening workouts you can do.

Number 1 – The gym ball crunch

Sit yourself on the ball with your feet flat on the floor. Let the ball roll back slowly and until your upper legs are parallel to the floor. The part of your back resting on the ball should be slightly above the small of your back. Contract your abdominals and raise your upper body as far as you can. slowly relax and repeat. Go for 3 sets of 10 at first. To work the oblique (side ab) muscles, move your feet closer together while performing the same technique. This will put you off balance, and your obliques will have to work hard to stabilize you.

Number 2 – The gym ball leg raise

This one will attack your lower abs, the lowest 2 of the six pack. The crunch isn’t so good at getting these muscles, so you need to do this in addition to the crunch exercise above. Lie on a bench or the ground, with your legs apart, and the exercise ball gripped by the inside of your feet. Keeping your legs straight, slowly raise the ball as far as you can and return. Do this for 3 sets of 10. You may find it helpful to hold some dumbbells in your hands to balance yourself.

Number 3 – Gym ball Exchanges

In this exercises, you will pass the ball between your hands and feet. Start off by lying on the ground with the ball held in your hands, with your arms straight. Bring your hands and feet together smoothly, passing the ball to your feet and lowering both your arms and legs to the floor smoothly. Repeat this exchange again, completing the cycle with the ball in your hands. Do 20-30 cycles.

This is a great exercise, and you will feel your abs working hard. Your inner thighs and shoulders will be working to grip the ball.

It’s important that you maintain good form during the exercise – don’t arch your back or strain your neck. Your arms and legs should move together, meet in the centre, and move away together.

Number 4 – Gym ball trunk extension

This exercise is for your lower back. Get down on your knees beside the ball and drape your upper body over the top of it, with your hands behind your head. Lift your chest off the fitness ball until your spine is straight or slightly extended. Return to starting position. Go for 3 sets of 10 repetitions.

Number 5 – Abdominal Rolls

Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. With your hands on top of the ball, roll it up to near your knees. Lift your shoulder blades off the floor, roll the ball to the top of your knees, pause, then go back to starting position. This will work out your abs. You can probably comfortably do 4 sets of 12.

That’s all for now!!

Labels: abs, gym ball, swiss ball

Following up on a previous post covering a few beginner gym ball exercises, I'd like to focus on the swiss ball again, as we continue our series of exercise guides. This time, I'll focus on upper body exercises using the swiss ball.

Upper body swiss ball exercises

Most traditional upper body exercises can be performed on the gym ball to add an extra degree of difficulty. This includes all dumbell exercises, as well as most stretching exercises. Bodyweight exercises (where you work against gravity) are also commonly used to help core strength and flexibility. Lets look three key upper body exercises.

1 - Exercise ball tricep dips
This exercise works your forearms and back. Let's have a look at the right posture:


Main technique

• Squat down with your back to the ball
  
  
• Place your hands on the ball. They should be pointing just slightly off of straight forward, and should be shoulder width apart. Your arms should be straight.
  
  
• Bend your elbows up behind you and lower your butt towards the ground. Don't sit down.
  

• Hold your position at the bottom of the motion for a few seconds.
  
  
• Push yourself back up using your arms until you are back in the starting position.

• Perform 10 repetition, for 3-4 sets.

Variations

• You can increase the difficulty of this exercise by putting yout feet up on a bench rather than having them flat on the floor.

2 - Exercise ball push up
This again works your arms. It's also great for your chest. Let's have a look at the technique:


Main technique

• Assume the traditional pushup position, with your legs on the ball.
  
  
• You can vary the degree of difficulty by adjusting where your legs are on the ball. To increase the difficulty, move forward, so that your shins are resting on the ball. Alternatively, move yourself onto your quads (upper legs) to decrease the difficulty.
  
  
• Place your hands directly below your shoulders at a comfortable width.
  

• Keep your back straight - don't let your lower back sag downwards.
  
  
• Lower your head to the floor, maintaining a straight posture - let your feet point to the sky.

• Pause at the bottom for a few seconds before returning to the start

• Perform 10-15 repetition, for 3-4 sets, depending on what you feel comfortable with.

Variations

• Only leave your feet on the ball to make this exercise even more challenging.
• Use push-up bars to allow a greater range of motion and enhance toning and muscle development.

3 - Exercise ball dumbbell press
This is just like a traditional dumbell press, except there's no bench, so your core muscles are forced to balance you - this causes hundreds of tiny contractions per second, which really helps to tone your upper body. It also works your arms and shoulders:


Main technique

• Rest yor shoulders comfortably on the ball, with your feet flat on the ground.
  
  
• In the starting position, you should be holding the dumbbells level with your head, with your palms facing inwards.
  
  
• With a smooth motion, push the dumbells upwards, simultaneously rotating your arms so that you end the movement with your palms facing forwards (see picture above).
  

• Don't lock out your elbows; instead, you should slowly and smoothly return the dumbbells to the starting position without pausing.
  
  
• Repeat this 12 times (choose a weight that will allow you to do it 12 times). Do 4 sets of 12.

Variations

• Increase the weight of the dumbbells when you fee that your usual weight has become to easy.
• Do pyramid sets - do your normal weight for 12 reps; then use the next heaviest weight for 10 reps; then the next weight for 8 reps, and so on...

That's all for now. Next time, I'll show you some swiss ball exercises for the trunk (abdominals, back and core muscles). Please try these upper body exercises, and let me know your thoughts in the comments, as well as what other exercises you'd like to get more information on. Enjoy!

Labels: exercise ball, Exercises

I'm beginning a series of posts which will cover individual exercises, explaining and demonstrating why you should do then, how to do them, and what they can do for you. Number one is the Overhead Squat.

This exercise is one of my personal favourites. It's amazing for building strength and toning all over your body. It also promotes symettry, balance and coordination. It also sheds tons of fat. On top of that, it's useful for warming up at the start of your exercise session.

Let's jump in at the deep end. How is the overhead squat performed? Watch this informative video to learn the correct technique:

Some tips for performing squats

Start out with only a little weight on the bar, or no weight at all. The Overhead Squat takes a bit of getting used to, so you should practice the technique before increasing the weight to a level that will start toning your muscles. At certain times you will be doing squats for a warm up (as mentioned above). Again, in these instances, heavy weights aren't needed.

Squat Technique

• Use a wide grip on the bar to aid your balance


• Lock out your elbows after you snatch the bar


• Gently move your shoulder blades together


• Smoothly pull your hips back and begin squatting


• Keep your weight on your heels


• Get as low as you can (without falling over)


• When you come back up, push through your heels


• Don't use your back or shoulders

If you haven’t tried this exercise before, don't be discouraged if you can't get the hang of it first time. Perhaps you have not attempted to get down that far before and feel that you are unbalanced. Keep doing sets of squats, and it will feel easier in no time.

Benefits of Overhead Squats

• Strengthens and tnes over amost areas of your body


• Gives you increased flexibility and range of motion


• Great for weight loss


• Works the trunk (a.k.a. "core") muscles, giving you more strength, balance, flexibility, and better posture

What to do next

So you've mastered the overhead squat technique? Great! Next, you can add more weight and range of motion. When you started, you may not have had the full range of motion, and therefore may not have been able to squat very deep. Chances are, you can now move your hips through a greater range of motion. The weight can be increased too. Trying to always be lifting a weight that you can repeat 10 times, over three sets. This will increase as you get better at the technique. Don't worry about building hulk-muscles, as a woman, you don't have enough testosterone.

Once you have mastered overhead barbell squats, you can give the Single Arm Overhead Squat a whirl (use a dumbbell). the technique is similar, but you are adding a lot of core work because your body needs to correct the fact greater imbalance.

Now go and do some overhead squats! Happy exercising!

Labels: Exercises, squats

If you've been losing weight for a while, you may come to a stage where you can't lose any more fat from some areas. For women, this is usually the stomach, hips and thighs. If you want to shift that stubborn fat from these problem areas, it doesn't have to be hard. Even if you are busy, I can show you how to succeed.

My intention with this post is to teach you a few things you can do to shift the fat and how plan out your day to help.

1. Fat Loss Workouts

You may think that in order to get in an effective workout you have to spend hours every week slaving away on the treadmill or going to classes in order to lose that stubborn fat from your stomach, hips, thighs, buttocks and upper back.

Have you attained the body of your dreams by doing that or do you just think that that's what you're supposed to do?

Doing hours of light exercise isn't going to shift that stubborn fat.

All you really need to do is find about 10-20 minutes every day to fit in quality, intense workouts, with little interruption, and you'll be burning fat like crazy.

You don't even need lots of fancy equipment. You could get away with just using some dumbbells, resistance bands and your own bodyweight. Just make sure the dumbbells are heavy enough - you should have to make real effort and work up a sweat.

Here's an example of a female fat loss bodyweight workout. Do these exercises in a circuit format and complete as many of the circuits as you can in 15 minutes.

1A) Bodyweight Squat - 15 reps

1B) Push-up - 10 reps

1C) Hip Extension - 15 reps

1D) Plank - 45 seconds

1E) Forward Lunge - 15 per leg

1F) Push-up - 10 reps

1G) Mt. Climbers - 30 seconds

Do that a few times a week and I guarantee you'll lose stomach fat, you'll lose the muffin top...you'll be losing that stubborn fat like crazy!

2. Fit in quality meals when you're busy

It's tough to fit in quality meals when you're always on the go, but that doesn't mean it's impossible.

You just need to learn to plan ahead and know where your weaknesses are.

Do you always find yourself starving by 9:00? Well, then plan ahead and bring along some almonds and a piece of fruit so you're not tempted to eat an unhealthy snack, bagel or nothing at all.

If you get really pressed for time and are hungry come lunch time, don't head for the nearest drive-thru or to eat a high-fat or high-carb meal. Instead, plan ahead and make something for lunch that's easy to eat on the go like a turkey or chicken breast sandwich with some fruit. Make sure you snack on healthy foods through the morning so you don't get too hungry and can show some self-control.

You should also sit down on Sundays and look at your calendar and plan ahead for the week. If you know you're going to be busy every night of the week, plan ahead and bake up a bunch of chicken breast and have some healthy side dishes prepared in advance so all you have to do is pop them in the microwave and you're good to go.

Convenience is key with this one. If it's not convenient, you'll find something that is...like fast food or a box of cookies.

Learn to understand your habits and follow these two stubborn fat loss tips and you'll be well on your way to getting rid of the stubborn fat that just won't seem to go away.

Labels: busy lifestyle, hips, stomach, thighs

Most people know that they need to lift weights to build muscles. But many women want to have muscle tone and an attractive body, without big muscles, so they just lift light weights with high repetitions.

Unfortunately, this is not going to work. Getting a toned body is a two-step process. First, build up your muscles with intense training. Second, cut fat from your body to shrink-wrap your muscles, giving that sexy ripped look. That's really all muscle tone is - you are able to see the shape of the muscles throught the skin.

Don't worry about getting large muscles - women can't do this, they don't have enough testosterone naturally occuring in their body. So unless you take performance enhancing chemicals (please don't) you have nothing to worry about.

To get nice muscle tone and build an attractive muscular body, you need to commit to a regular training routine, with good nutrition before and after the fat-burning phases. Here are some muscle building tips that you can incorporate into your workouts. (Before you commence weight training, remember to warm up and as well as doing some stretching exercises.)

Train Muscle With Free Weights

Machines have their uses, but for a start, concentrate on free weights. That means working almost exclusively with barbells and dumb bells. Free weights force your body to use many stabilizing muscles for balance and coordination. That means you will work a larger overall area than the "big" muscle groups. This is essential to giving you a balanced, symettrical, sexy look. In other words, it will give rise to little bumps, striations and definitions all over your body instead of one big lump of muscle on your intended muscle. Because of the extra nutrients created, your muscles will grow faster too. (Why else do you think all professional body builders almost exclusively use free weights?)

Train With Compound Exercises

Incorporate as many compound exercises as possible to your exercise schedule. Compound exercises are exercises that involve 2 or more joint movements. They utilize more joints, which means greater muscle mass is involved. Using more muscles means you can lift heavier weights. This in turn encourages greater muscle growth - enhancing your muscle tone even further.

Some excellent compound exercises are Squats, Lunges, Deadlifts, Dips, Pull ups, Bench press, Barbell Press, Bent-Over Barbell Row. I'm thinking of writing about each one of these exercises in future posts - let me know if that's what you'd like to see.

High Intensity Training

Intense, hard training is key to muscle growth. Try to do more reps than your previous session, or lift more weight.

Every time you train hard, you give your body time to recover and rebuild itself bigger and stronger. Your muscles grow when you rest, particularly during sleep (not in the gym). So get enough sleep. Do not train every day or work the same muscle group more than once or twice a week. For vigorous, intense exercise, do no more than one hour per session.

Try not to do cardio work on the same day as your weight lifting work, as aerobic exercises are not conducive to muscle growth. You can increase your cardio work at the fat-burning phase, cutting this fat is key to getting the sexy, toned look.

Technique And Form

Poor technique not only compromises your muscle growth; it will also make you prone to injury.

This usually happens when people try to lift weights that are too heavy, whether out of vanity or ignorance. As a guide, always lift with strict focus on the muscle you intend to work on for that exercise. Feel it contract and relax. Lift the weights smoothly and slowly without jerking. Never swing your weights up especially when doing bicep curls or the military press.

To Build Muscles Fast You Must Perform Lower Body Exercises

Your lower body makes up 60% of your muscle mass. Most people do not train their legs because squats, dead lifts and lunges can be very grueling exercises. But this will make your body look more balanced and therefore more attractive.

Hopefully, in no time you will be a proud owner of a well tone attractive muscular body.

Labels: fitness, toning

There is a lot of coverage in fitness magazines today about working out with an exercise ball (a.k.a. "Swiss Ball", "Gym Ball"). Given this, you may have wondered what all the fuss is about and what benefits you can experience by incorporating a swiss ball into your exercise routine. In this article, I'll aim to explain the swiss ball, along with some exercises you can use it for.

The Swiss Ball was invented for use in physiotherapy and sports medicine; particularly during the rehabilitation of patients with lower back pain and abdominal muscle injuries. You can't miss it - it's a large, inflated, rubber ball around 25-35 inches across.

Today, personal trainers and fitness enthusiants have realised the fitness benefits of an exercise ball, causing it to become a common part of many physical fitness programs.

Why has it become so popular?

In the main, this is because the exercise ball helps to strengthen the trunk muscles in the core of the body. Training the core muscles adds strength to the limbs and trunk, which helps balance, posture and endurance. It also keeps the body flexible, and provides support for the spine and lower back, helping to alleviate presure in this area - an area prone to injury.

"Why a ball?" you may ask. Well, the overall effectiveness of using a swiss ball for strengthening and conditioning your core lies in it's round shape. This shape creates instability during your workout, which your body (mainly your core muscles) must work hard to compensate for. In other words, your body's core muscles react to the instability caused by the ball to keep you balanced. Over time, your body will improve the strength of your trunk muscles as it learns to rely on your them for balance and flexibility.

Using a ball as part of your fitness routine can include a wide range of difficulty levels from easy to moderate to difficult - each level requiries progressively more support from the core muscles.

If you'd like to give the exercise ball a try, here are a few tried-and-tested techniques to get you started:

1) Squat and Lift

Begin this exercise standing with good posture, with your feet shoulder-width apart. Hold the exercise ball in both hands, with a hand on either side of the ball.

With your weight on the balls (front) of your feet, bend both knees (as if you are going to sit) so that you are squatting slightly. Stick your bottom out slightly as you do this, to maintain your balance as you slowly lower the ball in front of you. Your back should be relatively straight throughout this.

Slowly straighten your legs to a standing position as you lift the ball up to shoulder height again.

Once you have straightened up completely, slowly raise the ball above your head and then slowly lower it to shoulder height again.

Repeat the exercise 10 to 15 times. Do three sets with 1 minute of rest in between

2) Hip Extension

Lie on your back on the floor with your feet on the exercise ball.

Slowly lift your hips up off the floor as you squeeze your butt and tighten your abdominal muscles.

Continue to lift your body off the floor until your body is in a straight line.

Hold this position for a few seconds and lower your hips smoothly.

Repeat the exercise 10 to 15 times. Do three or four sets, with a minute of rest in between.

3) Lunges

Place the exercise ball on the floor and stand with your back towards it, with your feet together and your hand on your hips.

Place one foot on the ball behind you.

Slowly bend your standing knee, ensuring that your knee doesn't go forward past your toes.

Try to maintain normal posture - don't lean forward as you bend your knee.

Repeat this exercise 10 to 15 times, for four sets, alternating your feet each set.


These exercises are just a taster of what you can do with the swiss ball. There are so many exercises you can do on the exercise ball that you'll never be bored. You can also develop your own routines if you find this helpful. Be sure to warm up for 5-10 minutes before getting started - this should include stretching your legs (hamstrings, quadriceps, calves).

Used properly, the exercise ball will increase your overall strength, fitness and flexibility if you make it a regular part of your exercise routine. You can even use it at home. No matter what your fitness level is, give the fitness ball a try. You'll be surprised to see how rewarding it can be.

Labels: Exercise, exercise ball, fitness, muscle ache, muscle pain, toning