Need a Burst of Energy? Try Tuck Jumps!

Tuck jumps are tough because they involve a strong burst of cardio. If you love plyometric exercises, you'd love these. Just make sure you land softly, bend your knees when you land to reduce pressure, and tuck your knees when you jump to work your abs. You'll be breathing heavily and torching calories in no time!

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Engaging your Muscles in the Squat

Squatting is probably one of the best bum exercises out there. But a lot of folks do it wrong. And this puts pressure on your knees rather than your glutes. Want a great bum and thighs? Want to incorporate the squat in your routine but think you may be doing it wrong? Here is a simple tip to help engage your bum muscles.

Abductor and Adductor Exercises

Sometimes you learn things the hard way. But we don’t want you to! So this is why I thought it was really important to get you prepared to protect your body against injury as you work out. Lately, we have been talking about a lot of power and plyometric exercises, running, Insanity, that sort of thing. And I had said how some of these types of exercises can be hard on your joints, especially your knees and ankles.

We put a lot of pressure on our joints as we exercise. And ironically, our joints have no muscles of their own. Thus, in order to protect them, we have to work on strengthening the muscles around the joint so that the impact of our exercises would be captured by those muscles rather than the joints.

A classic example is our knees. The knee seems to be one of the most bruised and battered joints in the body. When we jump around, they feel the pressure. When we do squats and the kind, they feel the pressure. When we run, they feel the pressure. And yet, the knees are very sensitive. So what can you do to protect them? Work one of the largest muscle groups that help support the knees – the abductors and adductors.

Abductors
The abductor muscles in your legs are the upper thigh muscles used to pull the legs away from the midline of the body and away from one another. So remember those machines at the gym where you sit and open your knees with weights? That’s what they are meant to work on. If you don’t have strong abductors, you transfer the pressure to your knees and ankles when you perform exercises that require you open and close your knees. One great example of an exercise that may require opening your knees? The jumping jack.

If you do the jumping jack and find yourself twisting your knees inward rather than outward, and if you are not landing softly on your knees (slightly bending when you land), you may need to work harder to strengthen your abductors.

How do you do that? Besides the machines, here are a couple of exercises to help:

Bridge: Lie flat on your back with your feet on the floor and your knees bent and open slightly. Keep your arms straight beside you with your palms down. Slowly lift your butt off the floor using your outer thigh strength. Be careful that your knees do not start to open up or fall slowly to the side. Stay up for about 3 seconds and lower down. That is one rep. Repeat as many times as you can.

Hip abduction: Stand tall with your palms on your waist. Transfer your weight to your left leg, bend the left knee slightly, and raise your right foot off the floor. Slowly, extend your right leg to the right side of your body using your outer hip. It is not as easy as it seems. Keep your weight in your left thigh, while keeping your left knee loose and keeping your right leg lifted. Bring your right knee back toward the left without having it touch the floor. That is 1 rep. Repeat as many times as you can, and then switch sides.

Alternatively, you could do this exercise lying on one side propped up on your elbow, or standing and holding a chair.

 

Adductors
If the abductor muscles are used to pull the legs away from the midline of the body and apart, then who can guess what the adductors do? They are used to pull the legs towards the midline of the body. So remember the inner thigh machines you see? These are the muscles that are being worked on. Runners are usually very affected when they have poor adductors because the knees are beginning to poke to the sides when they run. This can cause major damage.

If you find yourself struggling to keep your knees together in certain poses, meaning they kind of slump if you’re not actively managing the pose, then you may need to work on your adductors.

Here are a couple of exercises you can try:

Squat: You all know how to do a perfect squat by now, right? Stand with legs shoulder-width or wider apart. Lower your butt into a squatting position while keeping your upper body upright. Your but should be as low as possible, while you still try to keep your knees behind your ankles. Pushing your knees in front of your ankles might help you get lower, but it might also hurt your knees. As you go low, tighten your butt and try to imagine your hips squeezing tight towards each other. Stand and repeat.

To work these muscles better, try single-leg squats or wall sits. This works the adductors harder because it adds the balance factor.

Deadlift: Stand with feet slightly apart. Lower your upper body slowly down as if you’re reaching for your toes. Keep the knees slightly bent (just slightly). As you get closer to your toes, you’d notice you start feeling it in your lower back. Slowly come back up and repeat. Try to also squeeze the thigh muscles as you lower down and come up.  You can do this exercise with or without weights, but weights definitely work the adductor muscles much harder.
 

 

To make this work harder for you, lift one leg backwards as you go down.

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Photo credit: Sportsmedicine.about.com, Womenshealthmag.com, Fitbie.msn.com, healthyliving.azcentral.com

Exercise and the Importance of Proper Form

Sometimes, it seems like fitness professionals are always yelling about keeping your core tight, your shoulders down, and your knees behind your toes when you do exercises. It's not just because we like yelling (I know you thoroughly doubt this statement but just go with it), but because your posture is very very very important to your exercise routine.

Why? Because posture could be the difference between hurting yourself or not getting the most out of your exercise, and staying fit. What are the most common form flaws?

Shoulders up: When we run, do yoga, or do other exercises that require an upright position, many people tend to spend their energy unconsciously lifting their shoulder to their ears. If could be because most of us are now used to slouching over computers or because we feel it reduces pressure on other muscles, but it really makes us use less of our energy in the right place because we are busy using it in the wrong place. Think about it. The next time you exercise, just roll your shoulders back and out and your chest out, and feel the difference. We don't even realize we are doing it.

Core tight: To keep your body upright, you need great core muscles. A lot of men do exercises with a slouch, and a lot of women do exercises with our butts out, both putting pressure on the lower back. To maximize your output, always keep your core tight. It helps build those great abs too!

Knees in front of toes: Now, it is important to be really really careful about this one.A lot of folks bounce up and down in their squat without paying attention to where their knees are. If your knees go beyond your toes, you are putting a lot of pressure on those knees, and not working your bum enough. And that's supposed to be the point, right?

Landing hard on the heels: When you run or do plyomteric exercises that require a lot of jumping, it is easy to just let your feet fall on the ground with each step. But it is important to make sure you land on the balls of your feet, and not on the heels or the sides. Landing badly can hurt your ankles in the long run. In the short term, it reduces the impact to the right places (like your legs), and puts all the impact on the places you don't really want to be working hard (like your ankles and knees). Additionally, about a third of runners get hurt at least once in their lives, so it is important to be careful so you don't become one of that third.

Overstretching the knee: Have you heard your yoga instructor say "Don't lock in your knees"? What they mean is that you should always keep an internal softness around your joints. Don't jerk into positions because rather than give your muscles a workout, you are giving your joints a workout. Muscles need that contraction and relaxation motion to get the maximum effect, but it you are over-jerking, you are not allowing them get that motion, and you could potentially hurt your joints.

There are many other form mistakes people make, but these are the biggest ones I've seen. Stay safe folks! If you aren't doing it right, you're probably not getting the most out of it.

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Photo credit: Ratemyarms.com

Have You Done Your Squats Lately?

Yes, it's me again with my squats. If you are a new reader, you may not yet know that I love the squat. It really is a great exercise for the buns and thighs. Well, if it's done right. So this is just a reminder to get those squats in as the summer approaches! We do all want to see you in those shorts... ahem.

Remember 4 big things while you get your squats in:

• As you go lower, squat with your butt, not your chest. So try to keep your chest up and your upper body upright as much as possible.
• You are exercising your legs, not your knees. So try to make sure your knees are not moving in front of your toes as you go down. Keep them behind your toes.
• Keep your feet at least hip width apart. It definitely could be as wide as you want depending on the type of squat you choose to do.
• Go as low as you can, but never sacrifice your posture for the depth of your squat. It is more important to get it right than to look like you are flexible.

Here is a photo showing how to do a perfect squat:

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Photo credit: WomensHealthMag.com

Plank Obliques

As summer draws near, we start talking more and more about exercises for your abs. The plank oblique is a great way to work your core strength, and get that muscle tone at the sides of your waistline.

• You start on your elbows like you would do a regular elbow plank. You can also do this on your palms like the model in the picture above.
• Next, pull your left knee towards your left shoulder like you do with mountain climbers. However, remember to stay on your elbows and not lift your butt above a straight line. 
• Take your left knee back to its starting position, and repeat the movement with your right knee. 
• To make it more difficult and work your core more, take your alternating knee towards the opposite shoulder. That is, right knee towards left shoulder, and left knee towards right shoulder.

Easy peasy! Well, not so much. You should definitely be feeling this in your waist region. Here is a video I found on Exercise.com that shows the plank oblique movement perfectly. Try it at home today as you watch your prime-time TV shows.

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Photo credit: LucilleRoberts.com