Whether the goal is a bigger chest or tighter abs, your workout needs to yield great results fast. Use this plan to maximize your time--and your muscle. The biggest difference between this workout program and the one you're doing now is balance. Not stand-on-one-leg-and-curl balance, but the well- rounded-approach-to-training kind of balance.
Don't worry: This plan is easy to use, and we've carefully organized your gym time minute by minute, so you won't train longer than you do now. You'll just train more effectively and appropriately for your goal: a bigger, stronger, leaner body that works as great as it looks.
Move # 1: Warrior Lunge
Stand with your feet together, then move your left foot forward about 12 inches and your right foot back about the same distance. Raise your arms straight overhead.
Move # 1: Warrior Lunge
Finish: Keeping your head and chest up, bend both knees to lower your body. Shift your weight forward until the front of your right thigh feels stretched and your right knee is an inch or two off the floor. Hold for 3 to 5 seconds, then return to the starting position. Do three to five repetitions on each side.
Move # 2: Sumo Squat To Stand
Stand with your feet spread wide and angled out. With your knees flexed, bend at the waist and wrap your fingers under your big toes.
Move # 2: Sumo Squat To Stand
Finish: Holding your toes, straighten your legs as much as you can without losing the natural arch in your spine. (In other words, if your back rounds, you've gone too far.) Move at a slow pace. Do one or two sets of 12 to 15 reps.
Move # 3: Kneeling Hip-Flexor Stretch
Place one foot on a bench behind you and your other foot flat on the floor. Lower yourself until your back knee touches the floor. Hold for 30 seconds and repeat on the other side.
Move # 4: Lying Chest Stretch
Lie faceup on a foam roll with your head supported, your arms bent 90 degrees, and your upper arms parallel to the floor. Your palms should face the ceiling. Hold for 30 seconds.
Injury-Proof Your Body
Perform one or two sets of eight to 10 repetitions of the following exercises.
Move # 5: Glute Bridge
Lie with your knees bent, with a rolled towel between them. Pull your toes toward your shins. Squeeze your glutes and raise your body.
Move # 5: Glute Bridge
Finish: Lower your hips to the floor, but don't touch it.
Move # 6: Lateral Tube Walk
Slip exercise tubing around your ankles and move it above your knees. Stand with your knees slightly bent and place your hands on your hips. Sidestep to your right, then to your left.
Move # 6: Lateral Tube Walk
Finish: Sidestep to your right, then to your left.
Move # 7: Swiss-Ball L
Lie on a Swiss ball as shown, with your chest off the ball.
Move # 7: Swiss-Ball L
Next: Bend your elbows 90 degrees as you raise them to the level of your shoulders, so that your arms create a pair of L's.
Move # 7: Swiss-Ball L
Finish: Rotate your forearms upward 90 degrees. Retrace the pattern to the start.
Move # 8: Swiss Ball Y
Assume the same starting position as for the Swiss-ball L.
Move # 8: Swiss Ball Y
Finish: Glide your shoulder blades back and down, and lift your arms up and to the sides at 45-degree angles till you form a Y. Return to the starting position.
Move #9: Swiss-Ball T
Use the same starting position as for the Y. Pull your shoulder blades in toward your spine and extend your arms straight to the sides to create a T with your torso. Then reverse the move back to the starting position.
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