The squat is one of the best exercises with which to strengthen and exercise the most muscles. It can be used to develop excellent leg, glute and core strength, and requires upper body stabilization in order to prevent the barbell from sliding around. However, despite the fact that you are simply squatting down and then standing up, it can be quite a complex exercise.
I have to admit that I was a strange blend of nervousness and confidence going into the Fit Test. I'd been anticipating starting Shaun T's INSANITY for over a week, and finally the day was here. I'd heard so much about the workout that I was intimidated-would I be able to keep up? On the other hand, this was just the Fit Test, a mere thirty minutes that would probably involve warm up and cool down. How hard could it be? I'd just go as hard as I could, do my best, and cruise on through to the other side.
Or so I thought.
You've been working out for months and years, your friends know of you as being the guy who never misses a workout, and you're pretty certain that you're in the top one percentile when it comes to being in peak physical condition. But are you really in peak condition? If you can do these 5 exercises, chances are you are.
I've recently begun to practice Vinyasa Flow yoga, going a couple of times during the week for hour and a half classes and awakening my body to its old flexibility and strength. Given how great I've been feeling every time I leave class, I've been wondering of late what the actual health benefits are. Some quick research has revealed a host of them, and as you may have guessed, I'm going to share them here. Perhaps this post will alert those who have not taken a yoga class as to unexpected benefits, or simply confirm that what current practitioners already know, but either way, I hope you find it as fascinating an array as I do!
There are certain standard exercises that are classics. The push-up, the crunch, the chin-up. Each one has been performed and perfected for years, and is abandoned for the latest fad and then returned to when wisdom prevails. Each requires no piece of fancy equipment, and relies instead on gravity and your body weight. Today let’s take a closer look at the chin-up, and ask a few basic questions. Why do them? What are the benefits? What do you do if you can’t even do one? Is there a way to perfect your form, and what common mistakes should you be looking out for?
Maybe you're a fire jumper, riding helicopters into the heart of blazing infernos, where you run around putting your life on the line to put the blaze out. Or a professional marathon runner, exercising day in and day out, racking up the miles and the awards. Or a cop, working your beat, or a nurse, on your feet through the graveyard shift. But, most likely, you're not. You're an office worker, reading this on your office computer, in your chair where you spend eight hours a day. No judgment! I too work in an office all day long. However, you and I should look out-recent studies show that spending your day seated has a high correlation with a radically increased chance of heart disease. So, unless you actually are a fire jumper, read on and learn what you can do about it!
Are there natural means to breaking through plateaus and realizing your full potential? For now, hold off on the horse steroids, and read on. Maybe the next few words on the often overlooked athletic benefits to supplementing your diet with Vitamin D and latte's could change your life.
So how to tell if your trainer is actually qualified to train you? The first and simplest step is to ask for their qualifications. Confused by the seemingly endless acronyms that they then give you? Here's a breakdown of what it all means.
Tony Horton's P90X Extreme In-Home Workout seems at once easy to adopt and incredibly hard to do so at the same time. Why? Because the allure of the 90 day program is such that anybody should feel capable of committing to it. Three months or a full body transformation seems like a tiny amount of time to invest for such dramatic results. But then people actually sit back and look at their day to day schedules, and wonder: how am I ever going to squeeze an extra hour out of my already busy life? Where am I going to find the time?
There are certain standard exercises that are classics. The push-up, the crunch, the chin-up. Each one has been performed and perfected for years, and is [...]