Dumbbell February: Lunge Twists

Want to work your thighs and your core at the same time? Try lunge twists with a dumbbell. 

• Simply start in a standing position holding out a dumbbell in front of you. 
• Step one foot forward. 
• Bend both knees to about a 90 degree angle with your front knee not going beyond your front toes. 
• Then twist your upper body from your waist to face the side of the front knee. You should really feel it in your obliques. 
• Step back and repeat on the other side.

Do the whole rep 10 times on each side, and repeat it for 3 sets.

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Dumbbell February: Dumbbell Wall Sits

Want to work those quads? Try dumbbell wall sits! Get into the position by leaning your back on a wall and then lowering down. When you get to a point where your thighs are parallel to the floor, that's a good place to stop. Make sure your feet are about hip-width apart. Try to make the knees square so they don't go beyond your toes. Now, place the dumbbells on your groin area to add in even more resistance. Extend your arms in front of you, hold this position for about 30 seconds and repeat 3 times.

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Dumbbell February: Weighted Squats

Squats work your glutes and your thighs. Holding a dumbbell increases the tension in your thighs and makes your strength workout even better. I am holding a 15lb dumbbell in the picture above. The dumbbell will also help you keep your upper body straight as you lower down. Start in position 1, lower to position 2, and lift back up into 1. Repeat this for 3 sets of 15 reps. As always, your knees should not go beyond your toes, and you should sit back rather than squat forward.

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Coupling Up: Work out with your Partner

Do you work out with your partner? Or do you want to work out with your partner and are not sure how? The benefit of working out with another person is that you tend to push yourself harder than you usually would, and you can get your body in positions that you may not normally be able to because you have someone to hold or push you.

Or maybe you’ve been looking for a way to get that man or girl of yours to the gym. Well, Eights & Weights is here with some ideas for partner workouts that you could always suggest. Bat those eyelashes, say you need this and cannot possibly do them without him/her, and pat yourself on the back as you help them also melt some of their fat away. It’s pretty much genius, isn’t it? Well, unless he/she doesn’t step back in after the first workout. Then, I’m not sure I can help you…

Wall squat (For your butt, thighs, and core) 

Do a wall squat with the other person as the wall with your backs to each other. Hold for 1 minute. Make it more competitive by squatting lower and lower and seeing who can go the lowest with your knees still behind your toes and your backs still touching each other. Consolation prize for the loser? A butt to butt workout. Need I say more?

Partner push-up (For your chest, arms, and core)

Face each other in an upper push-up position with about an arm length of space between you. Both lower into a push-up, and then come up. When you come up, both use your right hands to give each other a fist bump, and then lower back down. Obviously, you have to both move at the same pace or someone would be left hanging with his/her fist bumps. And we wouldn’t want that.

Floor chest press (For your chest and arms)

You’ll need dumbbells for this one. Lie with your back on the mat and your feet facing your partner’s feet. Both lift your feet off the mat and bend your legs until your knees are at a 90 degree angle. Now, rest your feet on your partner’s feet like it is a wall, so you both form like a rectangular shape with the floor. Lift your 2 dumbbells (at least 5 pounds) straight up over the chest with one in each hand, palms facing out. Bend the elbows and lower the arms down all the way to the floor and then raise again. The image above does not exactly describe the move, but it is close enough.

Medicine ball sit-ups (For your core and arms)

You’ll need a medicine ball. You should both lie with your backs on the mat and your feet on the floor. Your toes should be touching your partner’s toes. Hold the ball to your chest with both hands and come up into a sit-up position. Your partner does not have a ball at this time, but he/she comes up into a sit-up as well. As you are both up, throw the ball to your partner. He/she catches does a full sit-up, and then throws the ball back to you. Do as many as you can, with at least 20 reps.

Moving lunges (For your core, thighs, and butt)

Stand facing your partner with about a leg-long space separating you. Both move into a lunge with opposite legs (if you do right, the other person does left). Step back and do it with the opposite leg. Then take one step left (your partner takes one step right), and repeat. Keep going until you’ve taken 10 steps in one direction, and then switch and take 10 steps in the other direction. Again, the image above does not exactly describe the move, but it is close enough.

Don't forget to use the opportunity to *ahem* do some "feel up on me" stretching :)

Of course, if all else fails, you could bring your boxing gloves home and make your partner hold the pad so you can punch away. Just say you need to get your aggression out one way or another.

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Photo credit: crossfitfw.com, sandiegokaiafit.com, sparkpeople.com, lvrj.com

Eights & Weights Video: Extended Donkey Kick

If you're on the east coast of the US, you've probably heard of the storm (Hurricane Sandy) that is heading our way. If you've been mandated to evacuate, please find a safe place to stay. If you're staying home, make sure you have food, water, and alternate lighting. Maybe you can also fill some of your time with some physical activity indoors? Here is one you can do :)

We talked about the Donkey Kick a while ago, but you can work even more muscles by extending your donkey kick. Naturally, this exercise works on the bum, the thighs, and legs, but you can use it to work your core, your arms, and your shoulders as well by starting in a downward-facing dog position, rather than remaining on your knees.

Instructions:

• Start in the downward-facing dog position
• Lift your right leg and extend as high as you can so there is a straight line from your right heel to your right fingers. 
• Lower the leg and then bend it and bring it towards your waist using your core to push your knee forward
• Straighten the leg and extend all the way back up
• Do as many as you can on one side and then repeat on the other side

You should feel this in your arms, your core, your legs, and especially your bum.

Here is a video I made to help you visualize:

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Photo credit: Mademan.com

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

Cycle Your Bum Away

Yesterday, my friends and I decided to cycle around lower Manhattan, across the Brooklyn Bridge, and around Prospect Park in Brooklyn. It was an awesome experience. The funniest part of the trip was right after our break. We stopped at a little Mexican spot close to the Brooklyn Bridge on our way back for some drinks and some dinner, and then got back on our bikes. None of us expected the burn our thighs were feeling after we had sat down for a bit. I mean, what did we expect after 3 hours of cycling?

Like running, or any other cardio exercise, you get a full body workout and burn tons of calories by pushing your body in a repetitive motion. Beyond burning calories though, cycling helps strengthen the muscles in your legs and butt because you're constantly pushing on the pedals to propel your bike forward, especially if your going uphill. 

Beyond just your bum, your legs and thighs also get a great workout. Your quads tone up from the forward leg motion, your hamstrings tone up from the backward leg motion, and your abs tone up from constantly keeping yourself upright on the bike. To get an even better workout, make sure your heels lower towards the ground on whatever foot is lower. That way, you work your calves as well.

Granted, cycling at a steady pace does not burn as many calories as running at a steady pace, which is why it is important to include hills in your route. The hills also help build muscle strength and stamina. And you need that stamina to push yourself as you climb up that hill.

If you're looking for a cardiovascular exercise, and running just isn't for you, look into cycling. The great thing about it is that you could buy a bike and cycle everywhere. If you live in a cosmopolitan city, chances are that your city has good bicycle routes and lanes to make it easier for cyclists. Take advantage and burn your way to your summer weight. I woke up today with post-workout burn in my thighs and butt, but it was totally worth it.

Cycle your cities and share photos with us.

Cheers Eights & Weights!

Proper Squat Form - Eights & Weights Video

I got a chance to make a video for my favorite exercise! Today, we're looking at the proper form for a squat. As you know, this exercise works out your bum, thighs, and even your core if done right. Here are a few points to note with the squat:

• Keep your knees behind your toes. If your knees are going beyond your toes, you're not working your bum as hard and you could hurt your joints.
• Keep your upper body as upright as possible with your shoulders down and core tight. You get a core workout if you do that as well.
• For balance, you can straighten your hands out as you lower in to the squat. Otherwise, keep your arms beside you.
• Squeeze your bum as you lower down and as you come up. You get an even better workout that way.

So I've told you how to do it, and now I'll show you how to do it. I put together the video below. Watch and enjoy.

Cheers Eights & Weights!

10 Minute Workout: Buns and Thighs

Interested in those short shorts or just want strong legs and a tush you could bounce a quarter off of? Well, you'll like today's workout. Continuing with our 10-minute series, this workout is quick and effective. Don't be fooled by the short period of time; you will feel your buns afterwards. 

Exercise TV does have videos available for free in some hotels as well, so if you are ever travelling and don't have a gym nearby, check your TV.

Cheers Eights & Weights!