VIDEO
Glute Bridge, Single Leg Glute Bridge, Donkey Kicks Variation
- Core
- Back
- Legs
- Abs
Level:Intermediate
Trainer:Cara Richardson
Equipment:Fitness Mat
Glute Bridge, Single Leg Glute Bridge, Donkey Kicks Variation
- Core
- Back
- Legs
- Abs
Level:Intermediate
Trainer:Cara Richardson
Equipment:Fitness Mat
1.Lay back on a mat with your knees bent and your palms on the ground. Start moving your gluteus up and down in a smooth and slow tempo. 2. Lay back on the mat with feet flat on the ground and knees bent. Extend one leg and swinging it from side to side, start lifting your hips off the ground until your knees, hips, and shoulders form a straight line. Try to squeeze your gluteus hard, keeping your abs drawn in order to not overextend your back during the exercise. 3. Stand with your knees and hands on the ground (or you may use a step or a bench). Keeping your arms straight, lift your right leg up, then put it down and repeat with the left leg.
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Blog
In the initial stages of training, while people focus on working the chest, arms, and back, the calf muscles are often neglected. As a result, exercises to strengthen the calves are delayed or rarely performed, resulting in a lack of progress. The calf muscles, like the deeper muscles of the back, get little rest during the day because they must support the weight of the body, help maintain balance, and stabilize the joints when walking. This means it is at a lower level of development and the approach to working with it should be different.
Thus, we decided to share some exercises for strengthening your calves. Let’s check them out.
Calf 45
Of all the exercises intended to develop the calf muscles, this exercise is one of the most challenging. It involves changing the angle of the legs, which involves not only the calves but also the soleus muscles. To perform this exercise, you will need the Gackenschmidt's Machine. Depending on the design, you will stand in front of it or not. Set an appropriate working weight. This is calculated as the arithmetic mean of the working weights from the previous two exercises. Then adjust the weights according to the load. Then lower the heel and stretch the calf as much as possible. Lift with the toes. Hold under extreme tension for 1-2 seconds.
Dumbbell Calf Raises
This exercise is designed for all levels of athletes and is considered a basic exercise to build calf muscles. Start with standing on a wooden block. You can do this in Smith by placing a step platform under your feet and placing a barbell on your shoulders. Hold your body in a straight position. If you need extra weight, you should take dumbbells or kettlebells. Next, lower your heels under the bar and stretch your ankles as much as possible. Stand up on your toes in a powerful impulsive movement. Hold this position for 1-2 seconds and pull your calves up. Slowly lower yourself back to the starting position.
Squat Calf Raises
This exercise is great for lazy workouts and will be a great option for beginners. Sit on the seat of the training machine. Place your toes on the support step. Bringing your heels down to the floor as far as possible, lower the lever with the soft stop to your knee and lock it.
Leg Press
Lie down on a leg press machine. Find a platform where your legs are straight. Fix the speed. You only need to do two movements. Removing the platform from your foot, squeeze it with your toes. Return your toes to their original position.
It is important to know that posture has a much greater impact on the development of the shin and calf muscles than movement. Flat feet, if not taken into account and compensated for, can also prevent the shaping of the calves. To improve the calves without exercising, the selection of the proper footwear and a corrected gait is necessary.
Well-trained calves will help you perform certain exercises better as well as make your legs look great. So take another look at these exercises and be sure to try them next time.
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Gorgeous abs are perhaps the biggest dream of all fitness enthusiasts as well as professionals. However, not many people know how to get abs and pretty often make a lot of mistakes while trying to work on their abs. Therefore, in this article, we will talk about abs and how to get them quickly and stress-free
Your Abs Are What You Eat
Not many people know it, but your diet is extremely important for achieving relief abs. Of course, it doesn’t mean that you have to starve yourself or follow weird diets, but working out is definitely not enough to achieve such a goal. The thing is to build muscles you need protein, which means that you have to include more protein into your diet. At the same time, high qualities of sugar and Natrium (salt) provoke swelling that sort of hides the relief of the muscles even if you don’t have much belly fat. Thus, to get the six-pack, you have to make your diet healthier as well as drink enough water, and together with exercising, it will help you get the body of your dreams.
Don’t Overestimate Your Abilities
Many people think that the more they exercise and the less they eat - the better. Obviously, it’s not true. You have to adequately evaluate your abilities and consider those while working out and dieting. Trust us, starving yourself and exercising for 3 hours every day won’t bring better results. It will only damage your health, both physical and mental. So don’t worry if you cannot see the results after a few weeks of training and healthy dieting, just keep going and you’ll surely reach your goal.
Core and Back Muscles Are Essential
Probably 90% of people who would like to get abs usually forget about the core muscles and work only on their abs. This is a huge mistake. As a matter of fact, to have relief abs, you have to work on your core muscles simply because these muscles are close to each other, moreover, abs are a part of the core, so it’s impossible to get relief abs without working on the core. Therefore, working on your core will significantly boost the entire process. In addition to that, you shouldn’t forget about the back muscles. You see, our posture heavily influences the way our belly looks. You have probably already seen skinny people with weird and unproportioned bellies. Well, that happens because they have weak back muscles and their spine is curved in the way that makes their bellies sort of come forward. So in order to avoid that, make sure to strengthen your back muscles too.
Best Workouts for Abs
To wrap up, we would like to list some of the best workouts for abs, core, and back. So here they come:
Plank
Diagonal twists
Deadlift
Pushups
Bent-over row
Plank push-ups
Pull-up
Crunches
TRX suspension row
Leg lifts from lying position
Lat pulldown
Final Thoughts
A stunning six-pack is the biggest dream of many fitness enthusiasts and, luckily, it’s totally possible to make it come true. So consider the things we talked about in this article and start moving toward your goal now.
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Sooner or later, every athlete gets injured, especially runners, and most injuries occur in the ankle joint, the medial and lateral parts of the foot. What are the possible causes? Too much training, weight, and the distance you are running. It may be too hard on your feet because we have been walking in shoes all our lives and most of us lead a 'lazy life' and that's why your ankles and feet don't develop properly. So if one day you just start running a lot of miles, your foot muscles will be overloaded leading to all kinds of injuries and inflammation.
Obviously, you need to train your feet in order to be able to do any exercise safely and without any impact on your health. So, let's take a quick look at some exercises for your feet muscles.
Warm-up exercises
Sit down and focus on your toes. Lift your big toe up. At the same time, press the remaining 4 toes toward the ground. Hold this position for 5 seconds. Now hold your thumb and lift the other 4 toes. Hold for 5 seconds. Repeat 10 times for each foot.
Knot
Take a medium-thick rope, about one meter long. Put the rope on the floor and sit on a chair in front of it. Use your toes to clasp the ends of the rope. Try to tie a knot. Do the exercise for 5 minutes. Note: This is a difficult exercise.
Knee Writing
Place a piece of paper on the floor. Sit in a chair and put one foot on the paper. Hold the pen with your thumb and index finger. Try to write any word, such as 'mom'. Do this exercise for at least 3-5 minutes.
Note: This exercise is very difficult. Do the exercise for 3-4 minutes.
Rolling Style
Sit in a chair keeping your back straight. Place a tennis ball under your feet. Roll the ball back and forth. Don't forget to keep your back straight. Do this exercise for 2-3 minutes. Repeat with the other leg.
Towel
Sit on a chair and place a towel under your feet. Grasp the towel with your toes. Your heels should be flat on the floor. Bend and unclench your toes and slowly pull the towel toward you. Switch feet and repeat the exercise. Perform 2 sets of 10 repetitions. You can perform more if you want.
Toe Lift
This exercise can be performed anywhere, even in the office when you are working at your desk. Sit with your feet flat on the floor. Raise your toes so that the arch of your foot is curved. Slowly lower your toes, keeping the arch of your foot so that you feel the tension in the arch of your foot. Hold this position for 5 seconds, then relax your foot. Repeat for each foot 5 times.
Having strong legs will allow you to perform many exercises safely, so don't underestimate leg training and do it at least a few times a week.
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СWorking on the core muscles is not only essential for good looks, but also for your health. In this article, we will talk about core muscles and how to develop them. So without any further ado, let us begin.
Core Muscles: What Do They Consist of?
To put it simply, core muscles consist of two main groups, which are central and peripheral. The central muscles resemble a sac that protects internal organs by covering the abdominal cavity. In other words, we need these muscles to keep the vital organs safe. In fact, if we didn’t have these muscles, a slight kick in the abdominal area would cause significant damage to vital organs. Central muscles can be divided into several parts, which are:
Front - abs
Lateral parts - oblique muscles and the surrounding muscles
Back - the muscles that support the spine
Upper wall - diaphragm
Lower wall - pelvic floor muscles
The second group of core muscles, the peripheral muscle group, consists of the trapezius, the latissimus dorsi muscle, the pectoralis muscle, the buttocks, and the muscles of the shoulder girdle. These muscles are essential for our posture and back health, which means that developing those is rather important for everyone who wants to be healthy and look beautiful.
Both central and peripheral core muscle groups are extremely significant for our health, posture, as well as the way we look. Therefore, in the next paragraph, we are going to talk about the best exercises for strengthening these muscles.
Best Workouts for Strengthening Core Muscles
So we made it pretty clear that developing core muscles is important for pretty much everyone. So what exercises can you do to strengthen these muscles? Well, here they come:
High plank
Supine toe tap
Hollowman
Bird Dog
Crunches
Bicycle crunch
Superman
Warrior crunch
Supine leg lifts
Elbow to knee
Bridge
Mountain climber
V-sit
V-ups
Side plank
Plank shoulder taps
Turkish get-up
Elbow plank twists
As you can see, there are many workouts that will no doubt help you develop core muscles and eventually become healthy and fit. So why don’t you grab your fitness mat and try at least some of these useful exercises to see their effectiveness yourself?
Wrapping Up
Not only are core muscles essential for beautiful abs, but also rather important for your back health and posture. Furthermore, these muscles protect your internal organs, which is a pretty important feature. Therefore, if you regularly train but you always avoid core exercises thinking they are not as important as the workouts for your legs or arms, you better stop doing that because core muscles are perhaps the most important muscle group in your body.
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The pectoralis major muscle is one of the most difficult muscles to train, but it can be trained. In this article, we will look at the pectoralis major muscle and how to train it.
The development of the chest muscle is an indicator of how hard you are working on your body. This muscle group is one of the largest and most complex muscles in the human body. A good workout requires a combination of basic and isolation exercises. This is the only way to make your muscles perfect.
Exercises with barbells are good for building muscle mass, while exercises with dumbbells and equipment are good for improving form and detail. It is not advisable to use very heavyweights in the beginning. It is much better to get a feel for the muscles needed when working the chest, arms, and shoulders. For example, classic push-ups from the floor will help you feel the pectoral muscles and understand how they work. For proper training, you should use different chest dumbbell exercises to work the muscles from different angles.
Dumbbell Bench Press
Place dumbbells next to your arms. Start by getting into the correct posture. Press the back of your neck, back, and pelvis against the bench. Press your heels to the floor and open your legs 60 degrees. Once you have learned this posture, sit down and take a dumbbell and place it on your lap. Lie down and pull the dumbbells up to your chest. Keep the dumbbells parallel, extending the arms at a slight angle to your elbows. Lower the weights gently and begin the chest exercise by moving your elbows up and down. When you feel your pectoral muscles stretch, return your arms to the position you started from.
Hammer
Start in the correct posture. Sit on the edge of the bench and place the dumbbells on knees. Lie down so that the back of your head, back, and buttocks are pressed firmly against the bench. At the same time, shift weight from your hips to your chest. Lift arms in front of you, maintaining a 90-degree angle. Place your palms so they face each other and bend your elbows slightly. Inhale when bending your arms and pulling the dumbbells toward your chest. As you exhale, relax the hips and focus on tensing your pectoral muscles. Repeat. It is important to concentrate on your pectoral muscles because the 'hammer' puts extra tension on your triceps. This exercise is performed slowly and requires a lot of concentration. This exercise is ideal for beginners or players recovering from chest, shoulder, or elbow injuries.
Dumbbell Press
Lie on a bench so that your neck, shoulders, and hips are in close contact with the surface of the chair. Make the feet close to the floor, holding a dumbbell in each hand at chest level, one hand on the other. Secure the dumbbells behind your head, concentrating on stretching your pectoral muscles. This only works the shoulders. Apply maximum tension on the lower amplitude and return the arms in the same trajectory. Since this dumbbell chest exercise is a supplemental exercise, it makes sense to mix it up with the basic exercises. It also stretches the pectoral muscles and helps to shape the chest. Make sure your head is supported in this position.If not, you may injure your neck muscles or cause nerve compression. Work with dumbbells smoothly and avoid sudden jerks or extreme weights.
Also, remember that while warming up before a workout can help build endurance and recovery, it should not be relied upon exclusively. Proper sleep and nutrition are the most important factors in achieving gym results.
Chest exercises can help improve your sense of security and overall health, so be sure to at least train these muscles.
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