I Am Enthusiastic AB Movement
Lying on your back with knees bent, feet on the floor about hip width apart, place your hands behind your head where your head meets your neck. Lift your head, neck and shoulders off the floor feeling your abdomen muscles contracting. Keep your eyes focused upward. When you are at your highest point, say “I”. Return your upper body back to the floor. Lift your upper body off the floor again and say “am.” Return your upper body back down to the floor. Lift your upper body off the floor again and say “enthusiastic.” Repeat as needed.
Ellie Peterson, Inspirer, Power of Positive Workouts
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Swimsuit Ready Challenge
This exercise is part of our Swimsuit Ready Challenge (April 2-30, 2012). Do this exercise and comment below “I did this!” to be entered to win our $100 and $50 giveaways. You may enter up to one time per day through April 30th.
Also – be sure to share this on Facebook, Pinterest and other sites to let your friends cheer you on or – better yet – join in on the challenge so they can hang out on the beach with you this summer! read more →
Lift It!
Put your head and shoulders on a bosu or if you don’t have a bosu you could elevate your head and shoulders on some sturdy pillows. Have a heavy hand weight next to you for use in this exercise. Elevate your butt and hips similiar to a bridge position in yoga. Place the hand weight on your abs – you might have to lightly hold it so it will not roll off . Keep your weight in the heels of your feet and raise your butt – with the weight on your abs – up and down. Do at least three sets of 8.
Mary Ellen Ciganovich, Educator, REAL HEALTH LLC.
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Swimsuit Ready Challenge
This exercise is part of our Swimsuit Ready Challenge (April 2-30, 2012). Do this exercise and comment below “I did this!” to be entered to win our $100 and $50 giveaways. You may enter up to one time per day through April 30th.
Also – be sure to share this on Facebook, Pinterest and other sites to let your friends cheer you on or – better yet – join in on the challenge so they can hang out on the beach with you this summer! read more →
Practice the Pallof Press for a Tight Tummy!
Training the Abdominal area or “The Core” is unfortunately, one of the most misunderstood muscle groups to train. Everyone wants to train the core with crunches, twists, bends, and other movements, when in fact, the core is actually designed to resist movement! That’s right… your core was designed to resist flexion and extension, resist rotation, and resist lateral flexion.
That being said, here is one of my favorite exercises to really work the core the way it was supposed to be worked! It’s called the Pallof Press and it’s a fantastic anti-rotation exercise.
- Stand with your feet about 6 inches apart with a cable machine about 1-2 feet away to your right.
- Grab a handle that’s around waist height and extend your arms out from your body. The weight will be pulling you to the right but you must resist. Keep your abs tight, your shoulders back and down, your chest out, and your glutes tight.
- Hold it for 3 seconds and repeat 8-10 times.
Here is a great video of the Pallof Press, although I personally prefer a narrower stance than what is shown, as a more narrow base of support forces you to engage your abdominals more.
Molly Galbraith, Owner, J&M Strength and Conditioning
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Swimsuit Ready Challenge
This exercise is part of our Swimsuit Ready Challenge (April 2-30, 2012). Do this exercise and comment below “I did this!” to be entered to win our $100 and $50 giveaways. You may enter up to one time per day through April 30th.
Also – be sure to share this on Facebook, Pinterest and other sites to let your friends cheer you on or – better yet – join in on the challenge so they can hang out on the beach with you this summer! read more →
Back Arch for the Perfect Booty Arch
Here is my tip to get your bottom looking right and your back legs tight.
STEPS: What you will need: 1 chair, a mat.
Lay flat on your mat, bend and raise your legs at 90 degree angle, and place the middle of your calves on the edge of the seat for comfortable alignment between the chair and distance to your butt.
Now, place you feet on the edge of the chair and slowly raise your torso using your leg strength by arching your back. Slowly raise your buttocks up and down for a count of ten and repeat. You will feel the burn in your hamstrings and buttocks.
Anastasiya Kuzmina, Owner, AIM Public Relations
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Swimsuit Ready Challenge
This exercise is part of our Swimsuit Ready Challenge (April 2-30, 2012). Do this exercise and comment below “I did this!” to be entered to win our $100 and $50 giveaways. You may enter up to one time per day through April 30th.
Also – be sure to share this on Facebook, Pinterest and other sites to let your friends cheer you on or – better yet – join in on the challenge so they can hang out on the beach with you this summer! read more →
Running Backward?
One of the best exercises for toning your rear end is running backwards. You can’t do this on a treadmill or elliptical machine, you have to go outside to make this happen. The actual stepping backwards is what contracts your butt muscles. The faster you run backwards, the harder and stronger you contract those butt muscles. Simply walking backwards will help, but faster is better if you are looking to add shape to your rear-end.
The traditional butt toning exercise where you kneel on all 4′s and kick your leg back is over-rated. But when you start rapidly contracting those butt muscles by running faster and faster those gluteus maximus muscle will definitely feel it. Give it a try – you’ll be amazed how those first few workouts feel.
Dr. Len Lopez, Creator of the Work Horse Fitness Trainer, Work Horse Fitness
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Swimsuit Ready Challenge
This exercise is part of our Swimsuit Ready Challenge (April 2-30, 2012). Do this exercise and comment below “I did this!” to be entered to win our $100 and $50 giveaways. You may enter up to one time per day through April 30th.
Also – be sure to share this on Facebook, Pinterest and other sites to let your friends cheer you on or – better yet – join in on the challenge so they can hang out on the beach with you this summer!
Great Abs Without Doing Any Ab Exercise
Burpees, burpees, burpees! Burpees are one of the best all-body exercises that also work your abs without you even knowing it. Best of all, you can do them anywhere without any equipment. Start from standing. Squat down and then go to the ground and do a push up. After coming up from the push up, go back to squat position and jump up. That’s one rep.
Do 30 reps as fast as you can, or do as many as you can in 5 minutes. To add variety, after the push up, you can do knees to elbows, or fingers to toes. Instead of just jumping up, jump onto a step or a bench, or do a jumping jack, or even a pike jump or split jump. In our Victory Karate class, we add kicks onto a heavy bag after coming up out of the squat.
Erik Akutagawa, Head Instructor, Victory Karate
For further demonstration, check out this tutorial we found on Youtube.
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Swimsuit Ready Challenge
This exercise is part of our Swimsuit Ready Challenge (April 2-30, 2012). Do this exercise and comment below “I did this!” to be entered to win our $100 and $50 giveaways. You may enter up to one time per day through April 30th.
Also – be sure to share this on Facebook, Pinterest and other sites to let your friends cheer you on or – better yet – join in on the challenge so they can hang out on the beach with you this summer! read more →
Mountain Climbers for Stronger and Tighter Glutes
Incline Mountain Climbers – Using the incline of a bench, this exercise engages every muscle below your pelvis especially the glutes while building a stronger core in this plane of motion. By utilizing the incline bench, this exercise will incorporate more muscle fibers in your glutes, hamstrings, and calves then doing this exercise on a flat surface. Mountain Climbers are a movement that can be considered the equivalent to running horizontally.
To perform, start in a military push-up position and keep your elbows slightly bent holding on to an incline bench. Bend one knee and bring it up to your chest, as if trying to touch your shoulder. Then, draw the leg back and perform with the other leg. While alternating legs, maintain a consistent solid speed throughout.
Remember to keep a neutral spinal position and don’t drop your hips. Beginners should set a goal of three sets of 20 repetitions while resting 30 seconds in between sets. The more advanced individual should shoot for three sets of 50-80 repetitions.
Shaun Zetlin, Founder, Zetlin Fitness
For further demonstration, check out this video we found on Youtube:
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Swimsuit Ready Challenge
This exercise is part of our Swimsuit Ready Challenge (April 2-30, 2012). Do this exercise and comment below “I did this!” to be entered to win our $100 and $50 giveaways. You may enter up to one time per day through April 30th.
Also – be sure to share this on Facebook, Pinterest and other sites to let your friends cheer you on or – better yet – join in on the challenge so they can hang out on the beach with you this summer! read more →
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