Exercise | Life Health Fitness

How Does Exercise Order Impact the Results?

So many factors impact the gains you get from strength training. Muscles grow in response to progressive overload. To progressively overload of muscle, you must increase the stress you place on that muscle over time. You can do that by:

•Increasing the resistance
•Boosting the number of reps
•Increasing the total training volume
•Altering the tempo of the reps
•Increasing or decreasing the rest period between reps
•Changing the exercises
•Frequency of training

Another variable you can alter is the order in which you do the exercises. Exercise order is a variable that doesn’t get as much attention as factors like increasing the resistance or the volume of training. How does altering the order of the exercises you do impact gains in strength and muscle size?

Strength building exercises can be roughly divided into two classes. One class is called compound exercises. These are exercises that work for more than one muscle group at a time. They also entail movement around more than one joint simultaneously. In contrast, isolation exercises involve movement around a single joint. For example, squats are a compound exercise while leg extensions is an isolation movement.

Most fitness trainers will tell you to do compound exercises first. That’s because these exercises are the most demanding on the body but also offer the most potential benefits. Therefore, it’s best to do them while your muscle’s glycogen stores are high & you can give these movements your best effort and focus. Compound exercises, like deadlifts, squats, push-ups, bench press, and lunges should be the workhorse exercises of your training, so it makes sense to do these exercises first.

In support of this, studies show subjects complete fewer reps for exercises they do at the end of a workout as opposed to doing the same exercises at the beginning. That’s mostly due to the fatigue factor. Another study published in the Journal of Sports and Science in Medicine showed that exercises performed early in a workout, whether it’s a compound or isolation movement, are linked with greater muscle gains. So, you have to ask yourself which exercises are most important. For most people, compound exercises offer more return on training time than isolation movements. Therefore, it makes sense to begin a workout with squats, deadlifts, push-ups or bench press than to start a workout with biceps curls, triceps extensions, leg extensions or other exercises that work a single muscle group.

If you’re limited on time, your entire workout might consist of compound exercises. Even when you have more an abundance of time, fitness trainers often recommend devoting at least 75% of training minutes to compound exercises. These are the exercises that build strength and muscle size the fastest and burn the most calories and body fat.

Are There Exceptions to Doing Compound Exercises First?

One situation where you might start with an isolation exercise is if you have a lagging body part. For example, you have good development of your chest and shoulders, but your biceps or triceps could use more work. In that case, you might specifically target those lagging muscle groups by working them first before you become fatigued.

Conclusion:

Exercise order will likely have less impact on strength training than factors like total training volume and the resistance you use. But, in general, starting a workout with high-priority exercises is the best approach based on current research. In most cases, that will be compound exercises, but if you have a single muscle group that needs extra work, you might begin with an isolation exercise that specifically targets that muscle.

Also, if you’re trying to gain strength and muscle, do strength training before a cardio workout. A study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that strength training before cardio was associated with a significantly greater release of anabolic hormones, like testosterone, that boost muscle growth. Even better, do cardio and strength exercise on separate days or at least 8 or more hours apart. For example, you could strength train in the morning and do cardio in the evening. The more intensely you train, the greater benefit there is to doing strength and cardio on separate days.

Regardless of how you order the exercises, start with at least a 5-minute warm-up before getting into the meat or your workout. The warm-up will raise your core body temperature and make your muscles more pliable and ready-to-work. Don’t skip this step!

Now you have a better idea of how to order your exercises. It’s a small tweak you can make to your routine to get better results!

References:

J Sports Sci Med. 2010 Mar; 9(1): 1-7.

Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2012. 12. 3281-3288.

How Focusing on Abdominal Exercises Can Keep You from Getting a Six Pack Abs

Ask most people what to do to get six-pack abs and they’ll tell you to do more ab crunches. Are they giving you good advice? In many people’s minds, ab crunches are synonymous with six-pack abs. Unfortunately, that way of thinking gets in the way of carving out a set of strong, defined abs. It might sound counter-intuitive, but to get abs that pop, you should do fewer exercises that specifically target the abdominal muscles.

Of course, you shouldn’t completely banish crunches from your ab routine, because according to ACE they are still the best ab exercises that target the entire abdomen, but don’t count on them alone to give you six-pack abs. Crunches are an isolation exercise that only works the muscles in your abdominal region. You don’t burn a lot of calories when you crunch, and that’s one of the drawbacks to doing them.

The real reason most people don’t develop six-pack abs is that they have too much fat covering their ab muscles. All ab crunches do is strengthen and define the underlying muscle They aren’t effective at removing the layer of fat that covers them and that’s the limiting factor for most people! So what’s a girl to do?

Focus on Exercise that Burns More Body Fat

Since most guys and gals who yearn for a six-pack have too much ab fat, fat-burning exercise helps those abs come out of hiding. High-intensity interval training where you do short periods of intense exercise followed by recovery intervals is effective for burning ab fat, and studies suggest it may be more beneficial than moderate-intensity cardio exercise for burning fat.

Keep the active intervals short but intense, 20 to 30 seconds of an exercise that boosts your heart rate, followed by a recovery interval where you keep moving but at a lower intensity. By alternating periods of intense exercise with low-intensity recovery intervals, you create an after-burn that helps with fat loss. After-burn is where your body burns more calories after a workout is over. High-intensity intervals place more stress on the body, as it must work harder to recover. But that stress is what primes your body for burning tummy fat.

How about Strength Training?

Strength training is a must for developing strong, defined abs, but that doesn’t mean you should spend hours each week doing crunches. Instead, focus on strength training that works the most muscle groups, including the muscles in your abs and core. Believe it or not, squats, deadlifts, and push-ups will help you build abs. These exercises work multiple muscle groups, including your abs and core muscles, but they burn lots of calories and body fat. That’s because you’re working multiple muscle groups at the same time and you’re hitting the muscles in your lower body. The big muscles are the calorie burners! In contrast, your abs are small muscles and don’t burn many calories, no matter how many crunches you do. Lifting heavy weights also boosts fat burning more than going light. Choose a resistance that thoroughly fatigues your muscles after 6-10 reps.

Challenge Your Core Too

The muscles that make up your abs are only a small part of a bigger muscle group called the core. The core includes all the muscles in the middle of your body, the muscles in your back, abs, spine, and the floor of your pelvis. In total, you have more than 20 core muscles. If you only focus on your ab muscles in the front, you’re not training your core in a balanced manner.

Strong abs must be balanced by strong back muscles to avoid muscle imbalances. Muscle imbalances in the core can alter your posture in a way that makes your mid-section look less lean and defined. Not to mention, core exercises strengthen a deep abdominal muscle called the transverse abdominis that helps hold in your abs like a girdle. Most abdominal exercises neglect this muscle.

What exercises are best? Substitute plank exercises for a portion of the ab crunches you’re currently doing. Once you can hold a basic plank for 30 seconds, add more advanced plank variations. There are close to 50 different variations on a plank. Some, like the side plank, works your oblique muscles and also add a balance challenge. Others, like plank jacks, burn calories while you target your core. Explore the many plank variations and start challenging your abs and core in a new way!

Don’t Neglect Your Diet

The trite phrase about abs being made in the kitchen is true, and the 80/20 rule holds as well. Getting six-pack is 80% kitchen work, meaning good nutrition, and 20% exercise. And when they say exercise, they aren’t referring exclusively to crunches. Cut back on ultra-processed food, junk food, and sugar-sweetened stuff, even fruit juice. Add more fiber and high-quality protein to your diet. You can do the right exercises for six-pack abs and still blow it in the kitchen.

The Bottom Line

Look beyond ab crunches if you want to carve a six-pack. Do some ab crunches, but make sure they’re part of a balanced workout and sound nutrition.

References:

Men’s Health. “Six-Pack Science”

Exercise Physiology. Theory and Application to Fitness and Performance. Howley and Powers. 2009.

5 Best Bodyweight Exercises for Strength & Functional Fitness

Body weight exercises are movements you can do almost anywhere. They’re especially convenient if you work out at home and when you’re staying in a hotel that doesn’t have a gym. Wherever you might be, you can still get an effective workout using only your body weight. Here are five of the best exercises to include in your home or away-from-home workout.

Push-Up

Leave push-ups off the list? No way! Even the military uses push-ups to measure a recruit’s fitness prowess and you can do them almost anywhere. Push-ups work multiple muscle groups. Plus, you can shift the muscles you emphasize by changing the position of your hands. Move your hands closer than shoulder-width and you’ll work your triceps harder. Further apart and you’ll blast your shoulders.

Regardless of where you place your hands, push-ups work multiple muscle groups, including the muscles in your shoulders, chest, upper back, biceps, triceps, and even your core. Once you’ve mastered a standard push-up, explore the many push-up variations. For an inclined variation, place your feet on a bench so your feet are higher than your hands. This creates an added strength and endurance challenge. Add an explosive power component by doing a clap push-up. The goal is to push your upper body off the floor enough to do a clap between each push-up. It’s a challenging move and one you may need to work up to. There are dozens of push-up variations that will help you shift the emphasis of the exercise or make it harder. Push-ups are a multifaceted exercise with lots of benefits!

Triceps Dips

Too often, people focus too much energy on their biceps and too little on the triceps. It’s important to work both to avoid muscle imbalances. With triceps dips, you don’t need weights to get a challenging workout. If you have a sturdy chair, you can easily do triceps dips at home. Here’s how to do them:

• Stand in front of a sturdy chair with your back to it.

• Reach back and place your hands about shoulder-width apart on the seat of the chair. Your palms should be facing behind you and your knees bent to 90 degrees.

• Slowly bend your elbows as you lower your body toward the floor.

• When you’re just above the floor, straighten your elbows as you lift your body back up to the starting position.

• The goal is to use your triceps to do most of the work as opposed to pushing yourself back up with your feet.

Once you’ve mastered triceps dips with your knees bent, do the same movement with your legs extended straight out in front of you. This variation is a bit harder. After you can complete at least 10 reps in this position, elevate your feet by placing them on another sturdy chair or bench. Be careful what surfaces you choose! The chair should be sturdy enough not to shift.

Burpees

To be physically fit, you also need exercises that blast your heart rate up and keep it elevated long enough to get cardiovascular benefits. Why not do a set of 10 burpees between each bodyweight exercise? Burpees are the “crème de la crème” of cardiovascular, bodyweight exercises. That’s because they elevate the heart rate, build explosive power, and improve muscular endurance, all in a single move.

How to Do a Burpee:

• Stand up straight with your feet about shoulder-width apart & hands resting comfortably at your sides.

• Lower your body as if descending into a squat.

• Put your hands on the floor in front of you and shift your weight toward them.

• Quickly jump your feet back behind you. Keep your body as straight as possible as if you’re in a plank position.

• Jump your feet forward back to the starting position.

• (Optional) Jump explosively into the air once you reach the starting position.

• Repeat.

You can also do a push-up when you’re in the plank position to work your upper body. To make the exercise harder, increase the tempo, so you’re belting out burpees as fast as possible.

Deep Squats

You don’t necessarily need a barbell or dumbbells to do an effective set of squats. When you deepen your squat and descend below parallel, you fire up the muscles in your lower body even without added weight. With a standard squat, you only lower your body until your knees are at a 90-degree angle. When you deepen the squat, you descend until your thighs rest against the muscles in your calves. So, deep squats can be challenging even without a barbell.

If you need more challenge, later on, you can always hold a pair of dumbbells to make the exercise even harder. But deep squats are an excellent functional move that fires up all the muscles in your lower body. Standard squats are primarily a quad-focused exercise, but when you go deep, you target your posterior chain more, and that builds greater glute and hamstring strength.

Hip Thrusts

Hip thrusts target the all-important glute muscles. In fact, your gluteus maximus is the largest muscle in your body and the main hip extensor. Strong glutes help you generate power for sprinting and jumping. Plus, strong glutes help maintain proper body alignment. When your glutes are weak, it places added pressure on your knees and lower back. Hip thrusts are one of the best exercises for activating the glutes. According to EMG studies, hip thrusts outperform squats and deadlifts in terms of glute activation.

How do you do a hip thrust at home? Lie on a mat and place your feet on a couch or large chair for support. Your legs should be bent. While planting your feet on the floor, thrust your hips up and down. The higher the couch, the harder the exercise will be. Once you can easily do 10 hip thrusts in this manner, make the exercise harder by holding a dumbbell across your lower abdomen when you thrust. Your glutes should feel the burn after a set or two!

References:

BretContreras.com. “Hip Thrust & Glute Science”

How to Build Muscles At Home With Drop Sets

If your hypertrophy training has reached a plateau and your muscles aren’t growing as much as they were, it’s time to train them in a different way. You can change training variables by adding more sets, more reps, by changing the tempo, by increasing the resistance, changing the order of the exercises, but, sometimes, you need a more advanced training technique to wake up your muscles and encourage them to grow. Muscles adapt to the stress you place on them. If you keep training them the same way each time, they’ll stop growing.

Is there another option? One type of advanced training technique, backed by science, that can jump-start muscle growth is drop sets. It’s a way to wake up your muscles and jolt them out of complacency. Serious bodybuilders use this technique all the time.

What is a Drop Set?

A drop set is where you do a strength exercise using a certain weight, usually between 60 percent to 80 percent of one-rep max, until the muscle fails. Failure is defined as the point where the muscle is unable to generate enough force to move a given load.

For example, if you’re doing biceps curls, you do as many reps as you can holding a 30-pound dumbbell in each hand. At some point, you’ll be unable to do another rep. That’s the point that failure steps in. You typically want to choose a resistance that allows you to do 8 to 10 reps before muscle failure.

With a drop set, you complete the set to failure, but rather than stopping, grab a resistance that’s around 20 percent lighter. For the biceps curls above, you’d place a 24-pound dumbbell in each hand and complete another set. Again, you do as many repetitions as you can until you can’t do any more reps.

But, wait, there’s a third set! After failing on the second set, again, grab a resistance that’s 20 percent lighter. In this case, 20 pounds in each hand. Now, do another set to failure. Whew! That’s fatiguing to your muscles! In fact, your muscles should be exhausted. That’s why drop sets are so effective, they thoroughly exhaust the muscles.

Other Training Variables

When doing drop sets, keep your rest periods as short as possible. If you can’t complete a full 3-set drop set (3 drops in weight), start with two and work up to three. Don’t do drop sets every time you train and don’t attempt them when you’re just starting out. Do standard sets for six months or so and build up a baseline level of strength. Then, when your muscles have adapted to straight sets, add an extra challenge by introducing drop sets. You can do drop sets with single-joint exercises, like biceps curls, or multi-joint moves, like squats, but start with single joint movements, like curls, in the beginning.

How Drop Sets Can Help You Make Greater Strength and Hypertrophy Gains

Drop sets work because they force our muscles to work to failure and challenge them to work to failure again and a third time. This increases the stimulus you place on the muscles. Some research suggests that hitting the muscles hard in this way boosts the release of key muscle-building hormones, including growth hormone and testosterone.

Drop sets are an advanced training technique with science behind them. In fact, a 2018 study found that one set of drop sets was comparable in muscle gains to doing three conventional sets. So, drop sets aren’t “bro science.” They’re a proven technique for boosting muscle gains. Using drop sets is particularly beneficial for busting through hypertrophy plateaus where your muscles either stop growing or the gains start to dwindle.

To Sum It Up

Drop sets are an advanced training method to keep in your back pocket when you need to shake up your training. It’s a technique that takes a set to failure more than one time and it’s a powerful formula for boosting your gains. That’s because some studies show training to failure can boost muscle hypertrophy more than not taking sets to failure. Take advantage of this high-powered training technique.

References:

J Sports Med Phys Fitness 43: 243-249, 2003.

J Strength Cond Res. 30: 1425-1432, 2016.

J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 2018 May;58(5):597-605.

Static Stretching Before a Workout: Is It a Good Idea?

How many times have you heard you need to stretch before a workout? Probably more times than you can remember! At one time, fitness trainers routinely recommended static stretching before starting a workout, but times have changed. Now, they’re more likely to advocate static stretching after the workout is over. Why the shift in thinking, and when should you do static stretching?

What Static Stretching Is and Isn’t

Static stretching is where you stretch a muscle while it’s in a static position. You then hold the stretch for 10 to 30 seconds. An example of a static stretch would be descending into a lunge position and holding that position for up to 30 seconds. Static stretching differs from dynamic stretching. With dynamic stretching, you lengthen the muscle throughout its full range-of-motion rather than holding it at a fixed static length. Keeping with the lunge theme, walking lunges are a dynamic stretching exercise.

Both types of stretches have benefits. Dynamic stretching boosts blood flow to the muscles you’ll be working. It also gets the muscles firing for your upcoming workout. Never work a muscle when it’s cold. Like a rubber band, a cold muscle or tendon is more likely to “snap” and lead to an injury. However, studies looking at whether stretching reduces the risk of injury are inconsistent. Some research shows modest benefit while others do not. The evidence is particularly weak for static stretching. A review of more than 100 studies on static stretching before a workout found static stretches don’t lower the risk of injury.

While dynamic stretching is an ideal workout opener, static stretching is a good workout finisher. That’s because static stretching lengthens the muscle and reduces muscle tension and tightness after a training session. Static stretching may, if you’re consistent about it, improve the muscle’s flexibility. But the reason stretching makes a muscle more flexible is different than what people believe. Stretching doesn’t permanently lengthen a muscle. The muscle draws back to its prior length rather quickly after you stop stretching. However, repeated static stretching, over time, makes your nervous system a bit more “permissive.” The nervous system allows the muscle to lengthen further without sounding the alarm that you’re overstretching it. So, flexibility improves.

Why Static Stretching is Best after a Workout

Lengthening a muscle temporarily might sound like a good thing. However, a study published in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research showed that doing so can reduce exercise performance, depending upon the type of exercise you’re doing. For example, a study found that static stretching before a workout or sports competition reduced power capabilities. In other words, the muscle you stretched may not be able to generate as much explosive force or power after statically lengthening it. Other research shows static stretching may reduce other capabilities, including muscle endurance, force production by the muscle, reaction time, and running speed. On the other hand, dynamic stretching works because it warms up the muscles you’ll be working without reducing their ability to generate power.

Even worse than static stretching before a workout is an old school way of stretching called ballistic stretching. With ballistic stretching, you get into a position where the muscle is stretched and bounce in and out of the stretch. For a lunge-style stretch, a ballistic stretch would be bouncing up and down in a lunge position. This type of stretch has fallen out of favor.

How to Structure Your Stretches

Don’t give up static stretching. Just shift static muscle lengthening to the end of your workout or do a separate static stretching session when you aren’t doing another workout. Before routine training sessions, warm up with dynamic stretches that get the blood flowing to the muscles you’ll be working. You can also do dynamic movements that mimic those you’ll do in your workout. Arm swings, butt kicks, high knees, leg swings are all good movements for warming up your muscles and getting them ready to work.

As far as ballistic stretches, there’s not really a place for them, since aggressive bouncing, especially when a muscle is cold, can lead to a strain or injury. If you insist on doing ballistic stretches, do them at the end of your workout when your muscles are warm.

The Bottom Line

Do dynamic stretches before your workout and static stretches afterward. This stretching sequence will give you benefits without detracting from your workout performance. Whatever you do, don’t grab a pair or weights or break into a sprint without warming your muscles up first. Dynamic stretching will help you get those muscles ready to work in the safest, most efficient manner.

References:

Fitness Prescription. April 2007. page 18.

National Strength and Conditioning Association. “Static Stretching and Performance”

Runner’s World website. “Does Stretching Prevent Injuries?”

Upgrade Your Fitness in Less Time with High-Intensity Interval Training

Who wants to or have time to devote hours each week working? At one time, the trend was to do a monotonous exercise like jogging or cycling for an hour or more at a time. Or take some aerobics class that you have a hard keeping up with the routine causing you to abandon it out of frustration. The thought was that moderate-intensity exercise, which you maintain for at least 30 minutes at comfortable pace, was the best calorie burner and offered the most fat-loss benefits. This is still true . But more recent research shows that you can optimize your fat loss with shorter, more intense workouts that you don’t get from a long, less intense workout.

In other words, the concept of the fat-burning zone has been supplanted by the after-burn. This is the idea, backed by science, that intense workouts push your body harder and force it to expend more calories to recover. Whereas you stop burning calories once you stop jogging or doing some other moderate-intensity workout, you continue to burn additional calories after your workout is over when you ramp up the intensity.

It’s not easy to sustain intense exercise for long periods of time. As you ramp up the intensity, lactic acid builds up in the muscles and enters the bloodstream very quickly and the pH of the blood drops. This leads to fatigue and burning muscles that force a person to stop exercising. High-intensity exercise isn’t sustainable for long periods of time and that makes it not practical for the average person. That’s why high-intensity interval training is so popular.

Through interval training, you can ramp up the intensity of your workout for a pre-determined time interval and then recover for a time before repeating it. Using this method, you can sustain intense exercise for longer periods of time as your muscles get a short rest period to partially recover between the intense intervals.

Of course, you won’t get the leisure of sitting on an exercise bike at a gym or an elliptical machine and leisurely moving your feet while you read a book or watch television. High-intensity workouts are, by definition, intense. But, despite their intensity, they offer similar or superior benefits to moderate-intensity workouts that are twice as long in duration. So, you trade time for intensity. Research shows you can get an effective workout with high-intensity interval training in as little as 10 minutes. That makes the “I don’t have time” excuse obsolete.

Greater Health Benefits?

If you exercise to improve the health of your heart, high-intensity interval training has you covered. Recent studies suggest that vigorous exercise may be more beneficial for heart health than going on a long, slow jog or doing some other form of moderate-intensity exercise. Cardiologists often recommend some form of modified high-intensity interval training for people after a heart attack. Of course, people with heart disease should be supervised when they work out at such a high intensity.

Monitoring Workout Intensity

The most accurate way to measure how intensely you’re exercising during high-intensity interval training is to wear a heart rate monitor. If you’re exercising at a vigorous pace, you should be exercising at an intensity of between 85 and 95% of your maximum heart rate. You can get a rough idea of your maximum heart rate by subtracting your age from 220. For example, if you’re 40 years old, your maximum heart rate would be 180 beats-per-minute. You want to achieve 80 to 90% of that rate during the intense intervals. Therefore you should perform the activity until you HR reach a goal between 144 -162 beats per minute and maintain it at at level of intensity for a minimum of 20 – 60 seconds. Your recovery or rest interval heart should be be between 40 to 50% of your maximum this would be an heart rate between 72 – 90. Maintain your resting heart for 10 seconds to 2 minutes. How long you rest will be determined by the length of your intensity. This cyle can be repeat mulitiple time but should not last no more that 20 mins. This is a rough guideline for how intense you need to exercise to enter the high-intensity zone as there are several options that include that includes lengthening or shortening the duration of both high intensity period and rest period.

If you don’t mind being less precise, you can monitor exercise intensity by how easy it is to talk while you’re exercising. If you’re working out at a vigorous intensity, you should be breathing hard enough that it’s difficult to complete a sentence. You should only be able to get out a word or two at a time. To get benefits out of a 10-minute, high-intensity workout, you should be working at this level. Many people make the mistake of exercising at a moderate intensity during the active intervals and calling it high intensity. No one said HIIT training is easy! But, with challenge comes change. Remember, you’re trading time for intensity. You can’t do a short, easy workout and expect to maximize the fitness benefits you get.

What Exercises Should You Do?

The beauty of high-intensity exercise is you aren’t locked into a single type of exercise. As long as you select exercises that work the large muscle groups in the lower body and do it with intensity, it qualifies. During the active intervals, you can jump rope rapidly, cycle at a blistering pace, do plyometric exercises, sprint, or do high-speed jumping jacks. The choice is yours. Choose the exercises based on your goals. Would you like to be a better sprinter or would you like to jump higher? If the former is your goal, sprint during the active intervals. If it’s the latter, do plyometric exercises, like squat jumps.

Before You Get Started

Make sure you’ve built up a baseline level of fitness before jumping into HIIT workouts. Consider doing moderate-intensity exercise for a few weeks to improve your aerobic fitness. Then, begin doing short, high-intensity interval workouts. As you become fitter, extend the length of your workouts. If you’re doing them with intensity, you shouldn’t need to do more than 20 minutes to get the full benefits. Due to their intensity, don’t do them too often. Twice a week should give you full benefits. Compare to other workout, HIIT workouts comes with an increse risk of injury therefore be careful when selecting your acitivity.

References:

The University of Mexico. “Vigorous Exercise versus Moderate-Intensity Exercise”

Journal of the American Heart Association. November 6, 2018. Vol 7, Issue 21.

University of Maryland website. “Moderate-Intensity Exercise

5 Best Cardio Workout at Home

Cardiovascular exercise burns calories and conditions your heart. We all need that! But you don’t need to go to a gym to get a cardio workout that’s as good for your waistline as it is for your ticker. For a heart-pounding workout, you don’t need to belong to a gym, buy expensive equipment, or even step outside your home. Yes, running and cycling are good for cardiovascular fitness, but you need a bike to cycle and, unless you run outdoors, a treadmill. Running outdoors isn’t always practical when the temperatures are below freezing. You also might not like breathing in car exhaust as you burn calories. Here are simple ways to do cardio at home.

Circuit Training

Circuit training is where you move from exercise to exercise quickly without resting between exercises. This type of training improves overall fitness and elevates your heart rate enough to get cardiovascular benefits. You can enhance the cardiovascular benefits even more by including cardio exercises in your routine. To do a heart-thumping circuit workout at home with no equipment, choose a few bodyweight exercises, like push-ups, planks, pull-ups, deep squats, and lunges. Then, choose four or five exercises that boost your heart rate, such as burpees, squat jumps, jumping jacks, kickboxing moves, and mountain climbers. Do a bodyweight exercise for 30 seconds followed by 30 seconds of a cardio exercise.

Keep alternating back and forth between a bodyweight move and a cardio movement until 20 minutes have elapsed. If it’s too challenging, take a 1-minute rest at the 10-minute mark. The beauty of circuit training is you can work every muscle in your body and keep your heart rate up with minimal space to exercise. Plus, circuit training offers infinite variety as you can change the exercises each time you work out.

Jump Your Way to a Healthier Heart

Yes, a jump rope workout does require a jump rope, but they’re inexpensive and easy to find. If you don’t have a jump rope, you can even “shadow” jump rope where you go through the motions without the rope. Jumping rope not only elevates your heart rate quickly, but it’s also a calorie scorcher. If you do it with intensity, 30 minutes of jumping rope can burn 400 calories. Since it’s hard to do 30 minutes of non-stop jumping, try interval jump rope instead. Jump rope quickly for 20 to 30 seconds and recover for an equal period of time. Alternate back and forth until 30 minutes have elapsed. Crank up some tunes to make this intense workout go by faster!

Climbing up and down the stairs is harder than walking on flat ground and it activates the glutes, the muscles that shape your backside more. Climbing stairs also target the hamstring muscles, the muscles in the back of your thighs. To add an extra challenge, strap on an inexpensive weight vest or place a backpack on your back when you climb up and down. Stair climbing is also a handy workout when you’re on vacation. Be sure to choose a hotel that has lots of stairs!

Take Advantage of Video and Live Streaming Workouts

The advantage of the internet is a workout is as close as your computer. Check out some of the sites that offer free workout videos or live streaming workouts. Choose videos designed to get your heart pumping. If kickboxing is your thing, do a search for kickboxing workouts. Kickboxing gets your heart rate up and works every muscle in your body. If you get bored, vary your workouts regularly.

Plyometrics

Plyometrics are moves where you shorten a muscle and then lengthen it in an explosive manner. Think of a basketball player jumping into the air to shoot the ball into the hoop. Most plyometric exercises involve jumping. The classic examples are squat jumps, lateral jumps, split lunges, and box jumps. Put these exercises to work for you by alternating between plyometric exercises. For example, do 20 seconds of squat jumps. Rest for 20 seconds and keep repeating. Don’t try box jumps if you’re a beginner. Build up a baseline level of stamina and agility before attempting this more advanced exercise and choose a low box initially. The first objective is to avoid injury. Doing plyometric workouts will get you into better cardiovascular shape but also build explosive power!

Head for the Stairs

Do you have a flight of stairs in your house or apartment building? Stair climbing is an excellent way to cop a cardiovascular workout. You control the speed! When you first start out, walk up and down the stairs, but as you build up cardiovascular fitness, pick up the speed until you’re running up and down the stairs. Be careful not to fall! You’ll burn over 500 calories per hour depending upon your weight when you walk the stairs, but you can double the calorie burn by running up and down the steps.

Home Workouts Rock

When you’re short on time or hate the idea of going to a gym, try these home cardio workouts. They’ll boost your heart rate in short order and give you the benefits of a gym workout without the monthly membership fee

Kettlebell Swings Instructions That is Easy to Follow

Power Up Your Workout with Kettlebell Swings

Workouts should not be repetitive or monotonous. With so many ways to build strength and boost your cardiovascular health, boredom should never be an issue. Working with weights builds strength but adding kettlebells to your workout builds power capabilities as well. So, get ready to power up your workouts and get into the swing of things with kettlebells.

What is a kettlebell?

It’s a ball, usually made of metal, that has a handle on the top. It was the Russians who first introduced kettlebells in the late 1800s. How do you use them? You grip the handle of the kettlebell and use it to do an array of exercises, including kettlebell swings. Kettlebells come in weights that range from 2 pounds to almost 200 pounds. It’s best, to begin with, a light kettlebell and master kettlebell form before moving up to a heavier weight. Many kettlebell movements are dynamic and require careful attention to form to avoid injury.

How to Do a Kettlebell Swing

The classic kettlebell exercise is the kettlebell swing. The exercise is basic enough, but it takes practice to do it correctly. Here’s how to do one:

• Stand with your feet hip-width apart. The kettlebell should be on the floor midway between your two feet.

• Squat down as if descending into a squat and grab the kettlebell handle with both hands. Your palms should point toward you when you grip the handle.

• Stand up straight as you hold the kettlebell with two hands.

• Shift your weight on to your heels and lower your buttocks back behind you while holding the kettlebell.

• Hinge your hips forward as you swing the kettlebell into the air with straight arms. The kettlebell should reach about chest height.

• Let the weight fall back down through your legs as you shift your body weight back toward your heels.

• Repeat.

What about form?

Some people have a problem with the hip hinge portion of a kettlebell swing. With a proper hip hinge, you move your buttocks back while keeping your knees in place. A common mistake is to bend the knees too much and turn a hip hinge into a squat. Your hips should power the movement. One benefit of kettlebell swings is it helps you master the hip hinge movement. That’s important if you play sports and if you do other weight training exercises, such as squats and deadlifts.

Other Benefits of Swinging a Kettlebell

Working with weights builds strength, but unless you lift the weight at a fast tempo, you won’t boost your body’s ability to generate power. Unlike strength training where you produce force at a slow, controlled rate, power is generating force quickly, and you need the ability to do that. Power is what makes it possible to jump up out of a chair. Frail, elderly people become wheelchair-bound not just because they lack strength, but they can’t unleash enough power to push themselves out of a chair. Kettlebells, because they’re a dynamic exercise that uses resistance and helps you become more powerful. A study published in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that 56 weeks of twice-weekly kettlebell training build explosive strength and power and determined it’s a highly effective form of training for athletes.

Kettlebell swings get your heart rate up too. Unlike moderate-intensity, steady-state exercise, like running or jogging, kettlebell swings tap into anaerobic energy pathways. This exercise gives you greater ability to sustain short, intense bursts of exercise. In fact, a University of Wisconsin at La Crosse study showed kettlebell training rivals the intensity of running a six-minute mile. Because you partially use anaerobic pathways when you swing a kettlebell, you get more of an after-burn than steady-state exercise provides. So, you burn more calories after a kettlebell session is over.

In addition, kettlebell swings work multiple muscle groups, including the muscles in your lower body, upper body, and core. Few exercises work so many muscle groups, with the exception of a deadlift, and kettlebell swings are more dynamic than deadlifts. Doing kettlebell swings works the stabilizing muscles in your core and can help prevent lower back pain and improve posture.

The Bottom Line

Kettlebell swings is an exercise you need in your workout, especially if your workout could use more variety and you want to improve your performance in sports that require power. Swings are only one exercise you can do with kettlebells. So, investing in a few pairs is worth it when you consider how versatile these balls of metal are.

References:

ACE Fitness. “Kettlebells: Twice the Results in Half the Time?”

Stack.com. “Master the Hip Hinge, Exercise’s Most Important Motion

The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. “Oxygen Cost of Kettlebell Swings”

Strength Cond Res. 2012 Aug;26(8):2228-33. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e31825c2c9b.

How to Do Cardio at Home without Equipment

While everyone knows the need and importance of proper and regular physical exercises, not everyone gets to do them. Or as frequent as is recommended. Beyond just plain disinterest and laziness, the two main obstacles to working out for most people are a lack of time and equipment.

Truth is, you can do cardio at home without equipment easily. All you need to do is to increase the vigor and intensity of some of your everyday activity.

Wondering how? The good news is that there are several exercises you can be done anywhere, anytime at your convenience.

By the way, the American Heart Association recommends the below and it can be broken up throughout the day. You don not have to do it all at once.

75 minutes of vigorous cardiovascular activity

150 minutes of moderate intensity cardiovascular activity

Benefits of cardio

1. The first obvious benefit is the effect on your heart. Cardio strengthens your heart making it pump easy to pump body throughout your body. It keeps the arteries clean allowing for more good cholesterol levels in your blood while lowering the levels of bad cholesterol.

2. Cardiovascular exercises enable you to manage the symptoms of high blood pressure. Being more active is one of the ways you can lower your blood pressure.

3. It uses carbohydrates for energy therefore prevent from becoming a Type II diabetic and to help control your blood sugar if you are diabetic.

4. Cardio helps your joint fluid and help you manage chronic pain. The muscle around your joints will be strong which allows to move easier.

5. Engaging in regular cardio exercise allows you to sleep better and also improves your wakefulness during the day. Your vitality and energy levels also improve, increasing your productivity.

6. Cardio also helps you to burn fat and loose weight

7. Since cardio makes you breathing harder it will condition your lungs to pick up oxygen and deliver it throughout the body.

To gain all the above benefits, you will need exercises you can do at home or at work with no equipment. The other added advantage is that you can easily do several sets within as little time as 20 minutes. As you improve on your physical condition, you can do variations or increase the number of repetitions and circuits to offer you new challenges. All you need is some little space a good pair of sneaker and your bodyweight.

Here are the best and effective no equipment cardio exercises for busy people like you. Don’t forget to add vigor and intensity to make them effective. Some of the move can also performed for strength training and to build muscles. However, unlike strength training you can repeat the exercise to the point of exhaustion, even if means you are doing it a 100 times. You can also pick 4 of the exercises and circuit train either by timing or repetition.

Forward Lunges

The forward lunge is known as the best stretch of all exercises thanks to its ability to stretch every body part. It is thus a good one to start your workout on. To do it in the best form, have your hands on the hip or behind your back. Then step forward in a big step and lower the back foot until the knee touches the ground. Hold the position for about two seconds and push your hips up to return to standing position. You can then repeat with the other foot. For starters, you can do ten reps of this workout.

Squat Jumps

Squat jumps are an explosive way to work out your glutes, increase your heart rate and also build your balance, especially your running form. They help work out the three crucial parts of your lower body muscles, the hips, knees, and ankles. The correct way is done by standing with your feet extending wide than your shoulder-length. Get into a squat position with knees behind your toes. Hold the position for a few seconds before jumping vertically as high as you can. Prepare for landing mid-air getting back to a squat position. You can also do ten repetitions.

Plyometric Push-Ups

Your usual push-ups are more than enough to get your chest burning, however, for more cardio workout and challenge to your core, the plyometric push ups are what you need. They are similar to your standard push ups except that when pushing up from the starting position you do not come up slowly and hold it at full arm stretch. Instead, you explode upwards to the point your body is suspended a few inches from the ground. Catch yourself as you land back and transition into a pushup starting position. For maximum impact, you should do your repetitions without pausing in a fluid motion.

Mountain Climbers

This is another exercise which strengthens your core while allowing you to build endurance in your upper body muscles. Doing it faster also helps you improve your heart beat. Get into a plank position ensuring your waist does not sag. Then push your knees interchangeably as far inside as you can then get them back in a running motion. You can increase the challenge by pushing the knee to the opposite elbows inwards instead of just straight to the elbows ahead of them. So the left knee touches the right elbow and vice-versa.

Stair Sprints

If you have stairs around, this is an intense exercise you can use as a core exercise or just warm up your body. Simply sprint up the stairs as fast as you can buy one stair at a time then come back down while walking to prevent tripping. Go back up again in a sprint for the duration of the allotted time or until you are worn out. The stairs offer a resistance almost similar to a treadmill and also allow you to burn fats in your whole body while improving your body balance.

Knee Hug

This is an exercise for your hamstrings, glutes, and hip flexor. Lift the right knee to the chest while grabbing below the knee. As you pull to the chest flex the glute of the left knee holding for two seconds before returning to the starting point and repeating with the left leg.

Burpee

Everyone who has been on a sports field knows about this killer whole body cardio exercise. The motion in the description makes it look like a simple exercise until you try it out. You start with squatting on the floor, throw your feet back to get into a plank position, jump back into a squat and then explode up into a standing position. To make it even more challenging, you can do a push up while in the plank position before standing or jumping up to a stand. The difficulty level and the number of muscles you are working out mean you will only need a few reps to complete your daily need for cardio exercises.

Bear Crawl /Inchworm This is a great exercise especially if you want to add some element of flexibility to your cardio. It works out both for your upper body and core and also helps you to build your body balance. Start at a standing position keeping your core tight and the knees at hips length. Then bend from the waist and let your hand touch the ground and proceed to walk forward using your hands maintaining a plank position. Once you get to the plank position, you quickly walk back to your feet and stand. You can always make the exercise more challenging by adding a push up at the end of the walk.

Plank Jacks

On their own, planks are great for developing your abs and strengthening the core. However, you can easily switch them up a little to add an element of cardio to it. This is achieved by the plank jacks which require you to jump with your feet apart then jump back with them together. The challenge is to keep your hips level and do the workouts with high intensity to create a train and build endurance as you burn calories.

Butt Kicks

These are a great variation to just running on the same spot. It gets your heart beat up but also works your mental focus to get the right form. You stand with legs apart at hips width with your arms on the hips or behind your hips then start jogging on the spot but this time raising and bending your legs back so that they seem to be kicking your butt. The emphasis of the movement should be placed on your hamstrings and not your feet. Start with the right foot and every time it hits your butts or palms if you place them behind, count it as a repetition. You can do up to fifty of these, and they are a great in between exercise or one to use as a warm-up.

Plank to Knee Tap

Here is another exercise which originates from the ever dependable and versatile blank. It works out the abs, glutes and the lower back as well as the calf muscles and arms. You start from a high plank position with your engaged and then swing back bending your hips upwards like a tent. As you do this, lift your right hand and tap on your left shin with your left hand left on the ground. Resume the starting position and swing again this time changing the arm that is lifted and the knee that is tapped. You have to do these motions without pausing while maintaining the right form. For a challenging variation you can always add a push in the mix or to increase your flexibility range have your hands tap on the ankles and not the shin.

Skaters

If you are looking to quickly get your heart beating faster and your body set for a round of cardio, skaters are a great way to get most of your muscles engaged without tiring any set of muscles. You start from a standing position with your legs stretched apart the length of the hips. You bend slightly at the knees to have you leaning a little forward. From this position jump to your right gently landing on the ball of the right foot while the left one swings behind the right one. As soon as you land and complete the sweeping motion of the foot behind, jump to the opposite side landing on the left leg and the right leg sweeps behind. Alternate the arms too in front of you in a running stance to help you maintain a steady balance.

Wide mountain climbers

This is another variation of the mountain climbers and works well once you get used to the cardio and want to add more resistance, build endurance and increase your upper body strength. You take the high plank position and then bring up the right food outside of the right elbow creating a low lunge stance. In this posture jump with your hands still touching the ground and swap fir mid-air so that you land with the left food outside the left elbow and the right foot stretched at the back. Continue with the jumps to the reps set as quickly as possible.

3 hops to Push-Up

This is another challenging exercise for someone at the intermediate level. Stand on your right foot with the left foot elevated off the ground, perform three quick hops and then bend on the hips and walk on your hands to a plank position with the left leg still elevated. Perform three push-ups still on one leg and then walk back to the starting position. Perform a set number of reps on one leg say ten before switching to the other leg.

Runner’s Skip

If you want to work your legs to the maximum from the hips to the glutes, the ankles, and the calf while still getting your heart racing, this is an exercise to try out. You start from a low lunge position with the right foot forward, the left foot stretched backward and the fingertips of your left arm touching the ground for balance. In one single and fluid movement, bring the left foot forward proceeding to a standing position on the right knee while pushing the left foot further up towards your chest. Hop on the right foot landing back on it lightly and then swing back the left foot to the initial starting position. Repeat with one side for half the time or number of reps before switching sides.

Doing cardio work does not need to take up much of your time or require equipment. Using your bodyweight and 10-25 minutes of your day at home can still give you the same returns. You can customize the above exercises to a workout routine that suits your needs and schedule and slowly advance to challenging variations as you get fitter.

Ladies: Lift Heavy to Lose Weight and Look Great

We have all heard the old riddle, “Which weighs more, a pound of feathers or a pound of lead?” Of course, they both weigh the same. The difference between a pound of feathers and a pound of lead is how much space they take up. When dealing with issues of health and fitness, the same can be said for body fat and lean muscle. A pound of body fat weights the same as a pound of muscle, but the body fat will take up far more space than the lean muscle and consequently have a much more dramatic effect on your appearance. Lean muscle also affects your metabolism and the way your body stores and uses calories. If you want to lose weight and look great, then you need to build and maintain lean muscle mass. There is only one way to build muscle, lift heavy weights.

Strength training with heavy weights is beneficial in a number of ways. The training itself and the lean muscle that results help to boost metabolism. Muscle mass also helps to prevent injury. Strong muscles absorb forces that would otherwise be placed on bones and joints. If an injury does occur, strength training is often used to aid in recovery and rehabilitation. Strength training with heavy weights has been shown to increase bone density and can also help to reduce the risks of coronary artery disease.

Studies show that there are a multitude of health benefits that arise from lifting heavy weights. One of the most interesting, and often overlooked, is the role that strength training plays in fat reduction and weight loss. It is important to note that fat reduction should take precedence over weight loss. It is the elimination of fat stores from the body that will result in the greatest health and aesthetic gains. Excessive fat stores in the body have been linked to a myriad of health risks including coronary heart disease, hypertension, kidney disease, and diabetes. The aesthetic benefits of fat reduction speak for themselves. Focus on how you look and feel, do not focus on a number on a scale.

A common misconception about strength training is that if women lift heavy weights they will bulk up. Many women mistakenly believe that if they lift heavy weights they will build so much muscle mass that they will appear fat. This is simply not true. A woman’s physiology and body chemistry prevent her from building enough muscle mass to give the appearance of oversized hips or thighs. The fact is that a woman’s body does not produce the levels of testosterone, a key chemical component of muscle growth, necessary to develop muscles large enough to make her appear overweight.

Strength training is perhaps the most important component of fat reduction and long term weight loss next to nutrition. Lifting heavy weights is a tremendous boost to the metabolism. Studies have shown that weight training can cause a significant increase in metabolism for as long as thirty-eight hours after a workout. This means that the body is still burning more calories than it normally would be a full day after a workout with heavy weights. Lifting heavy weights causes small tears in the muscles. The body then expends energy to repair these tears long after the workout. In fact, the body even works to recover from a weight training session while the body is at rest. That’s right, lifting heavy weights allows the body to burn calories even while sleeping!

The lean muscle mass that strength training produces also plays a role in fat reduction and long term weight loss. Studies have shown that a pound of lean muscle mass at rest can burn anywhere from 10-50 calories per day. While the amount of calories a pound of lean muscle mass at rest can burn is a point of contention, there is consensus that lean muscle burns more calories than fat. Experts also agree that a person with a greater amount of lean muscle mass will burn more calories while participating in any activity, strenuous or leisurely, than a person with less lean muscle mass or more fat. Simply put, the more lean muscle mass you have, the more calories you will burn doing day to day activities.

While strength training with heavy weights is clearly an integral component to a healthy lifestyle, it is important to note that any strength training regimen should be embarked upon cautiously. Make sure that your body is healthy enough to withstand the rigors of a strength training program. Consult your doctor if you are not sure. Also, be certain to use proper technique while performing strength training exercises. Not only is proper technique critical to the effectiveness of the exercise, but lifting heavy weights with poor technique can lead to injury. If you are uncertain about how to perform an exercise, consult a personal trainer.

The benefits of lifting heavy weights for women are many. Strength training with heavy weights is proven to reduce a multitude of health risks, improve bone strength, and prevent injury. Strength training with heavy weights has been shown to increase metabolism and calorie burn. Lifting heavy weights has also been shown to be a key component to long term fat reduction and weight loss. Strength training also tightens and tones muscles for a healthier and more attractive appearance. However, due to a woman’s physiology and body chemistry, strength training will not cause a woman’s body to bulk up and appear overweight. Ladies, the choice is clear. If you want to improve health, reduce fat, lose weight, and look great, then you need to lift something heavy other than your handbag.