Lifestyle and Women » workout

Ballet: a Series of Exercises

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 13:09:20 +0000

Ready to get your toes wet (or pointed)? You`ll start on the floor to help you feel your alignment, then progress to standing moves, all adapted from “the barre” – a series of exercises dancers do standing, holding onto a rail to refine technique. Here is some techniques to exercise ballet.

1. Side-lying passe.

lie on your right rise, legs together and extended. Put your left hand on th floor in front of your chest, elbow bent, for support. Extend your arm; rest your head on it. Keep abdominals contracted and pull your rib cage down toward hips. Keep room enough between your waist and the floor so you could slie your hand underneath).

Keeping your hips square, bend your left knee height (passe). Use your abs to stabilize this position, then rotate legs out as you contract your buttocks; the left knee will rotate toward the floor. Next, contract your inner thighs and rotate legs in toward each other so your top knee goes toward the floor and your bottom leg rolls up (don`t let your hips tip forward or back; keep them stacked). Straighten your left leg back to starting position and repeat. Do your reps and then switch sides to do the other leg.

Burn Mega Calories In One Night

Sat, 17 Jan 2009 08:18:45 +0000

How many calories can you burn throwing a party? We did the math so you don`t have to feel guilty skipping your daily workout to get things ready for your geusts:

Getting Ready

Activity: Cleaning the house, 2 hours.
Calories burned: 413
Activity: Rearranging the furniture, 30 minutes.
Calories burned: 177
Activity: Shopping for snacks, 45 minutes.
Calories burned: 155
Activity: Preparing food, 1 hours.
Calories burned: 148
Activity: Decorating, 1 hours.
Calories burned: 136
Activity: Calling your friends to invite them, 1 hours.
Calories burned: 106
Activity: Changing your clothes, 10 minutes.
Calories burned: 74

Being a Good Host

Activity: Dancing, 1 hours.
Calories burned: 325
Activity: Answering the door and ushering in guests, 1 hours.
Calories burned: 177
Activity: Replenishing food and drinks, 1 hours.
Calories burned: 148
Activity: standing around talking, 1 hours.
Calories burned: 106
Activity: Mopping up spills, 1/2 hour.
Calories burned: 74

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Fitness, Q and A

Question:
To get good-looking abs, is it better to do lots of crunches or sets of different of exercises?

Answer:
You don`t have to do thousands of repetitions to tone your abs, says Jaime Brenkus, the cleveland star video “8 minutes abs.” Basic crunches will get you started. “When you lie on your back and curl upward, your train the entire rectus abdominis,” says Brenkus.

However, as you progress, he recommends training your abs in regions for a few minutes four times a week. Do a sit-up with arms over your head, hands clasped, to hit the upper abs; a reserve crunch. Drawing your hips up toward your ribs, for the lower abs; and crunches with side rotations to work the obliques.

Workout Schedule

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 16:13:24 +0000

This 4-weeks program designed for both novices and veterants, targets all of your major muscle groups. Each week you`ll lift heavier weight and perform fewer repetitions; after 4 weeks, begin the cycle again. Througout the program, perform just 1 set of each exercise, and take about 90 seconds to rest and set up for next exercise. Do this program 2 or 3 times a week with a day of rest in between each training session. Complement your strenght program with at least two 30-45 minute aerobic workouts per week.

Warm up:
Begin each workout with 5-10 minutes of low-intensity aaerobic exercise, such as walking on a treadmill or stopping on a stair climber. Then lightly strech all your major muscles, including your buttocks, quadriceps, harmstrings, chest, back, shoulders, arms and abdominals. Hold each strech 10 seconds without bouncing.

Cool-down:
Complete your workouts with stretches for all major muscle groups. Hold each strech 20 seconds without bouncing.

Week 1:
Perform 1 set of 12 reps using as much weight as you can handle with good form. Choosing the proper weight may be hit-and-miss at first. Aim for a weight that makes the final repetitions feel quite challening, but not impossible. If the recommended weight are too heavy for you, use common sense and lighten your load.

Week 2:
Add more weight, and perform 10 reps for each move. Depending on the exercise, increase the weight in 2 1/2 – 10-pound increment.

Week 3:
Increase the weight, and perform 8 reps for each exercise.

Week 4:
Increase the weight again, dropping down to 6 repetitions for every move.