Tag: Dumbbells

Exercises for Women Using Hand Weights | Hand Weights For Women

Post author By admin
Post date September 8, 2011
1 Comment on Exercises for Women Using Hand Weights | Hand Weights For Women

Hand weights for women are a great way to get a good weight workout. Women can develop osteoporosis or bone loss as they age. Fortunately, resistance training or strength training can help prevent osteoporosis. It is not necessary to lift heavy weights to keep the bones and joints strong. Exercises with hand weights for women will result in stronger bones and muscles.

Hand Weights For Women

Hand Weights For Women

Women who are just starting their strength training program can exercise with light hand weights or dumbbells weighing between 2 to 5 pounds. As your strength develops, you can gradually increase the weight to between 5 and 20 pounds. When working with lighter hand weights, women can do 10 to 15 repetitions. As you increase the poundage, you can do 8 to 12 reps. This will help prevent injury while you build your muscles and bones.

Proper Form

Women who are exercising with hand weights should always maintain proper form and technique. This is true regardless of the poundage. Your back should be straight and the stomach should be pulled in. When standing, remember not to lock your knees. Work with hand weights that are appropriate for you. If you have to swing your body for momentum when lifting the weight, it means your weights are too heavy.

Exercises with Hand Weights for Women

Women can do exercises with small hand weights to improve muscle tone and built stronger bones and joints. Here are some workout routines using small hand weights for women.

Walking Lunge

Women can do the walking lunge to tone and develop the hamstrings, quads and glutes. This exercise also tones the inner thighs and legs.

Stand with your feet hip-width apart and arms straight down holding the weights. Step your right foot forward and bend both knees. Keep your upper body straight and point your left knee down. Keep your arms and weights at your sides. Straighten your legs and return to the starting position. Repeat the exercise with the other leg.

Overhead Tricep Extension

This exercise is done while holding a dumbbell between both hands. The exercise may be done while standing or sitting down. With elbows bent, hold a dumbbell vertically behind your head. Keep your elbows squeezed toward your head. Slowly lift the dumbbell over your head without moving your elbows forward. Lower the dumbbell to the starting position. Repeat.

Biceps Curl

The biceps curl requires hand weights and allows women to exercise the upper arms or biceps. The exercise can be done while standing or sitting. Hold a hand weight or dumbbell in each hand and let your arms hang straight down at your sides. While keeping your elbows close to your side, lift the dumbbell up to your shoulder. Slowly lower the hand weight back to the starting position. Repeat.

There are many other exercises with hand weights for women, such as fly, hammer curl, shoulder lift, preacher curl, and many more. Don’t forget to do some stretching before and after strength training exercises using your hand weights for women to reduce the risk of injury.

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Weight Loss Exercise

A Body Building Routine That Works

Post author By admin
Post date May 20, 2011
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Finding a body building routine that works is not as easy as many beginner bodybuilders think. First, there is such a huge number of possible routines. This is not surprising when you consider how many muscle groups there are to work and how many possible exercises there are for each one. When you think about all the combinations you could make, you can see that the number of possible workout routines for body building is almost infinite.

Copying somebody else’s routine is not usually the best way to go. You are not going to develop the same body as the current Mr. Universe by reading up on his routine and doing the same thing yourself. It is very unlikely that your body is ready for exactly the same workout that he does right now.

A Starting Body Building Routine

Starting Body Building Routine

So what do you do? If you are just starting out, then probably any standard beginner body building routine will do fine. It is true that what works for one person will not necessarily work for anybody else but in the beginning it is okay to figure out your best plan by trial and error.

However, you do need to be sure that your workout routine covers all of the bases. Check it out against the following scheme. And if you want to plan your own body building routine, this is a good way to go.

First, note down all the muscle groups that you need to work. That is pretty much all the muscles in the body. Do not forget the core and especially the muscles of the back. It is dangerous to overdevelop the chest, shoulders and abs while neglecting the back because you can so easily cause an injury there.

Then choose an exercise that works each group. This could involve dumbbells, a barbell, or gym machines such as the bench press. Some exercises will work out more than one muscle group.

Now you are ready to plan your body building routine so that each muscle group is worked around twice a week with at least one full day of rest between. It is good to give yourself a couple of days of complete rest from working out, too.

Watch Your Results – Is your Body Building Routine Working?

What if nothing seems to be working? First, consider whether you are giving your muscles enough rest. Bodybuilders who do not get the results they expect are often guilty of overtraining. Remember that the muscles are broken down during your workout. The time that they build mass is during the recovery time. So do not be tempted to overtrain.

Second, look at other factors such as your diet. Are you getting the right amount of protein and carbs at the right times? Have you looked into possible supplements that you might take?

Lastly, keep in mind that it is good practice to change your routine around from time to time. This counters boredom and more importantly, works the muscles a little differently than what they may be used to. You will often find that changing out one ab exercise for another or using a different press at the gym will be the catalyst that you need to start gaining muscle mass again. All of these tips will help you figure out a body building routine that works.

Weight Loss Exercise

Jack Lalanne Dead at 96

Jack Lalanne

Jack Lalanne, one of the originators of the fitness movement has died but left a fantastic legacy to help people to look after their health and concentrate on their fitness as one of the cornerstones of a great life.

Here is a great article from the Globe and mail today talking about Jack Lalanne and what he taught and meant to those in the fitness community.

Jack LaLanne, who died on Sunday at age 96, was regarded as the father of the modern fitness movement. Dressed in snug jumpsuits, the television fixture preached a balance of exercise and healthy diet and inspired millions. The Post spoke to fitness gurus about the top lessons learned from LaLanne’s legacy.

What was the Jack Lalanne Legacy?

1. There is no excuse for not exercising. Long before Nike told everyone to “just do it,” LaLanne was relentless in his pitches, using a drill sergeant’s bark and cadence. “Jack inspired the world with his no-nonsense approach to exercise,” says Maureen Hagan, fitness instructor and VP of operations at GoodLife Fitness Canada. “Many of us will recall Jack showing his TV viewers how to exercise in the kitchen, using a chair and lifting soup cans as dumbbells. His ‘no excuse, just do it’ attitude inspired the world to at least try exercise.”

2. Weight training is a key component of a fitness regimen. “He popularized the whole notion of fitness before we recognized it as a crisis situation,” says Christa Costas-Bradstreet, physical activity specialist at ParticipAction, the national not-for-profit organization dedicated to supporting active living. When LaLanne first began recommending weights in the 1930s, he said that physicians opposed his advice, warning it would cause heart attacks and lower sex drives. “People thought I was a charlatan and a nut,” LaLanne said in a posting on his website. “Time has proven that what I was doing was scientifically correct — starting with a healthy diet followed by systematic exercise, and today everyone knows it.”

3. Fitness is for everyone. “He taught that physical activity was something for all ages, irrespective of socio-economic status and ability,” Costas-Bradstreet says. LaLanne invited women into his health clubs, and also encouraged the elderly and the disabled to exercise. “I share the great passion for bringing women into the gym environment that Jack LaLanne pioneered,” says Craig Ramsay, author of Anatomy of Exercise and trainer on Bravo’s Thintervention.

4. Practise what you preach. When LaLanne was 42, he did a record 1,033 push-ups in 23 minutes. When he was 60, he swam from Alcatraz to Fisherman’s Wharf — while handcuffed, shackled and towing a boat. Late in life, he continued to rise at 4 or 5 a.m. for two-hour workouts. “He himself was a role model,” Costas-Bradstreet says. “Only 7% of Canadian children and youth are meeting Canada’s physical activity guidelines and 15% of adults. We absolutely need role models, particularly for kids.”