Month: March 2010

How to do Close Hand Push Ups

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEVDmjU-65c[/youtube]

Instructions

Preparation

  1. Start off by lying face down on the floor, palms flat on the ground on each side of your chest, feet straight out, toes touching the ground.
  2. Push against the floor with your palms until you’re in a push-up position.
  3. Move palms closer to each other so that your index fingers and thumbs form a triangle on the floor.

Execution

Slowly drop to the floor by bending at the elbows, keeping your palms flat on ground, and your back and legs as straight as possible.

Return

Push against the floor with both palms until you’re back to the push-up position.

Repeat

 
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How to do Burpee

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdswYJkNvpA[/youtube]

If you are looking for one of the most intense workouts for your quads, doing the burpee would be hands down. The burpee is often seen in military or football trainings because aside from developing your quadriceps, they can also serve as a total body workout, combining strength training and aerobics.

If you have done burpee in the past, you may have felt your legs sore but without you probably knowing it, you have just received a complete body package training—starting with your upper body from your forearms, shoulders, chest, abs, middle back and triceps all the way down your lower body comprising your lower back, glutes, hip flexors, calves and hamstrings. It will not even take a professional to realize how burpee can contribute to your fat burning goals with such a wide range of motion and powerful intensity required.

With this maximum workout for your entire body, you would think that burpee requires additional equipment or needs to be performed in particular venues. Well, fortunately for everyone who want to gain benefits from this exercise, this is never going to be a problem as with burpee, all you need is yourself and loads of endurance to keep up. The more you can do in quick successions, the better.

So, are you up to the challenge?

Instructions

Preparation

  1. Start off by lying face down on the floor, palms flat on the ground on each side of your chest, feet straight out, toes touching the ground.
  2. Push against the floor with your palms until you’re in a push-up position.

Execution

  1. Without taking your hands off the floor, jump inward so that your knees are bent and your feet are right below your torso, as if in squatting position.
  2. Leap upward as high as you can go, straightening out your limbs, so that both your arms are raised above your head and your feet are off the ground.

Return

  1. Drop your arms and land on the balls of your feet.
  2. Go back to the squatting position while planting your palms firmly on the ground.
  3. Kick your feet back until you’re in a push-up position again.

Repeat

 
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How to do Body Weight Squat Holds

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkyAd9AYFDo[/youtube]

You often engage your back when picking up things or lifting objects in your daily activities. The problem is, most often, this is done incorrectly; rather than bending your legs and keeping your back straight while picking or lifting, there is the natural tendency to use the lower back and bend it. This leads to unnecessary back aches and could potentially injure it in the long run.

The squat is one of the most effective leg exercises that aims for you to make it a habit to lift or carry the proper way. And the body weight squat holds is one of the basic squats where you can start.

The body weight squat holds seems like the old way of punishing students in school. However, when done correctly, this serves as an effective exercise for your glutes as well as training for your leg muscles like quadriceps, calves and hamstring. Holding your position during a body weight squat holds may seem hard at first but this is actually one way of strengthening your lower body.

As soon as you have mastered body weight squat holds, you can begin to challenge yourself further by adding weights to have more resistance in the process.

Instructions

Preparation

Start off by standing upright, arms straight on each side, feet shoulder width part, and toes pointing outward.

Execution

  1. Press your hips down into a squat as if you’re about to sit on a chair while simultaneously raising your arms in front of you. Keep your back straight at all times. Stop as soon as your thighs are parallel to the ground.
  2. Keep arms straight out and parallel to the floor. Push your hips back so your knees don’t go over the line of your toes.
  3. Hold it for as long as you can.

Return

Slowly go back up to your original position.

Repeat

 
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How to do Barbell Push Crunch

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHaz3eRgb5c[/youtube]

Instructions

Preparation

  1. Place your barbell next to your exercise bench.
  2. Lie flat on the inclined exercise bench and hook both your feet underneath the foot pad.
  3. Reach out for the barbell and hold it up directly above you with both arms, shoulder width apart. Use overhand grips and keep your arms straight at all times.

Execution

  1. Raise your upper body until you’ve reached a 45 degree angle with the bench, push the barbell toward the ceiling while keeping all the weight above your shoulders, and hold that position for a couple of seconds.
  2. Keep lower back, hips, and thighs in contact with the bench at all times.

Return

Slowly go back down to your original position.

Repeat

 
Have you tried this exercise before? Share your experience by sending your comments below.

How to do Barbell Deadlifts

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJoQUIEbutc[/youtube]

If you feel that your muscle groups have reached a plateau from doing body weight squat holds, it is time to up the challenge by adding the appropriate weights and doing barbell deadlifts. This is one powerful exercise that turbo charges your body’s strength and endurance.

However, if you do this exercise wrong, barbell deadlifts can go the other way and turn into barbell deadly. For instance, if you forget to keep your back flat and tight during the entire execution, this can seriously damage your back instead of strengthening it, which barbell deadlifts are actually designed to do, specifically targeting your lower back. In effect, you will be unable to gain the real benefits of this exercise when done in poor form.

The additional weight of the barbell from barbell deadlifts also increases resistance among your quadriceps, glutes, hamstring and calves from the time you push to the ground and go all the way up then back again.

Because of the various muscle groups barbell deadlifts can strengthen in just one repetition, it is often called as the king of all exercises. And truly it deserves this title, especially when you talk about intense training for your lower body.

Instructions

Preparation

  1. Place your barbell on the floor.
  2. Squatbehind the barbell with your legs shoulder width apart and knees bent all the way so they touch your chest, but make sure they don’t go beyond your toes.
  3. Hold on to the bar securely with both hands, keeping your arms straight at all times.

Execution

  1. Carefully lift the barbell off the floor as you stand upright.
  2. Keep your feet flat, arms close to your body, and upper body straight.

Return

Slowly go back down to your original position.

Repeat
 
Have other tips to doing this in mind? Feel free to share them by adding your comments below.