Exercises

Being strong undoubtedly helps one in carrying out day to day activities by building up ones endurance and aid in the aerobic training.

There are number of good reasons why women should take up body building. In this section WF has covered body building exercises for women, keeping in mind the muscle group involved.

 

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Exercise - Article of the Week

Post- Workout Summer Refreshment Ideas

24 May 2013

Hydration is an important aspects of training, regardless of what season of the year it is. Hydration becomes all the more important when training in a warm weather. More>

 

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  • The Scientific 7-Minute Workout: Maximum Results With Minimal Investment

    Traditionally, resistance training often is performed separately from aerobic training — typically on two or three nonconsecutive days each week. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends 8 to 12 repetitions of a resistance training exercise for each major muscle group at an intensity of 40% to 80% of a one-repetition max (RM) depending on the training level of the participant.

  • Plyometrics: exercises to increase power

    Plyometric training is specific work to enhance explosive power. In other words, it involves a lot of jumping. Plyometric training is used for sports that require short bursts of power such as tennis, basketball, or skiing, but it's also a good exercise for anyone who wants to increase her power.

  • Top 10 to shapely arms and chest

    Having a shapely upper body is just as important as having shapely legs, especially in summers. Overweight, sagging arms or chest are unattractive and a sign of premature ageing. Strong arms look sexy and are a great asset in carrying all the load ! Proper attention should be given to the pectoral muscles for a firmer bust line.

  • Pilates for Amazing Sex
    One of the fundamental principles of Pilates involves learning how to engage and control the muscles of the pelvic floor and internal abdominals (think vagina!!!). Pilates, especially on the Reformer, is an amazing way to get in shape and get a rocking hard body. Celebrities such as Madonna, Charlize Theron, and Jamie Leigh Curtis swear by it.
  • Training with Strength band

    As a complete workout on their own or a supplement to free weights and machines, strength bands are the ultimate tool for customizing workouts and isolating muscles. And the portable bands and tubing make the perfect travel workout.

  • Shedding body fat with minimum muscle loss: a better goal

    Losing weight can actually be a bad thing, especially if you are doing it at the expense of lean tissue like muscle. If all you are using to gauge your fitness progress is scale weight alone, you are only getting half-the-picture.

  • A workout to build your midsection

    The midsection sits on the front and sides of the lower half of the torso, originating along the rib cage and attaching along the pelvis. It is composed of several muscles.

  • The Fitness Ball: a challenge for your abs

    The fitness ball — basically a big, somewhat bouncy ball — was supposedly developed by a physical therapist to rehabilitate back, knee, and hip injuries, but they can do a whole lot more.

  • Top 10 WF favorite Lower-Back stretches

    Lower-back pain is practically an epidemic all over the world, affecting 80 percent of the population at some point, and accounting for 25 percent of all workers' compensation complaints. A combination of sitting for long periods of time, poor lifting techniques, and bad postural habits all contribute to this.

  • Plyometric: to enhance upper body strength

    You have a substantial number of options when it comes to getting and staying in shape. The days of combining a boring resistance training session with a cardiovascular workout are gone. With plyometrics circuit training, you can spice up your workout and add flare to your exercise regimen.

  • Top 10 Chest (Pectoral)-Developing Exercises
    The chest is made up of the pectoral muscles - major and minor. The pectoralis major is the bigger of the two covering most of the clavier and sternum and attach to the upper arm. Following is a list of 10 most effective chest (Pectoral)-developing exercises.  .

  • Top 10 Thigh Trimmers

    Let's face it-nobody wants to be pear-shaped, that bulge over the hips and the "Jodhpur thighs" are not exactly appealing. Unfortunately for women this is exactly where fat is most likely to accumulate, often with the "Orange-Peel" effect of cellulite.

  • Post Pregnancy Core building Exercises

    It can take 6-12 weeks to return to a pre-pregnancy state - sometimes longer - so don't give up! With proper training, and beginning as early as 24-48 hours after birth, you can avoid many problems and work toward rebuilding and toning your body the right way.

  • Top 10 Standing Shoulder Exercises

    The shoulder is the most flexible joint in the human body. The anatomical structure of this joint enables it to have an incredible amount of freedom or range of motion. The ability to move the shoulder joint in a wide variety of directions is vital for complete functionality in sporting activities.

  • Escalating Density Training: for enhanced muscle performance

    Escalating Density Training is not like your traditional weight training. While traditional weight training focuses on muscle fatigue, EDT focuses on muscle performance. In this system, you move increasingly heavy weights in short periods of time in an effort to boost your overall power output.

  • Training the Hips

    The hip is one of the largest weight-bearing joints in the body. When it's working properly, it lets you walk, sit, bend, and turn without pain. To keep it moving smoothly, a complex network of bones, cartilage, muscles, ligaments, and tendons must all work in harmony.

  • Sculpting the Calve Muscles

    There are two primary muscle groups on the back of the lower legs - the gastrocnemius and the soleus muscles. The soleus is a wide, flat muscle that lies beneath the heart shaped gastrocnemius. Both muscles contract to extend the feet and toes, but the soleus can only fully contract when your leg is bent to at least a 30-degree angle.

  • Make Your Workouts More Functional

    Functional strength training simply means training our bodies to better perform the types of movements we use for everyday life. When you isolate body parts, as you sometimes do with traditional strength training, you end up training your muscles but not your movements.

  • Time to get your abs ready for Summer

    Abs are your body's center of power and provide core strength. Strong abs aid balance, help prevent lower back injuries and promote good posture. Consistent abdominal workouts (10-15 min, 4-5x per week) performed correctly are not just for physical well being, but for aesthetics too.

  • Strengthening the Pelvic Floor

    The pelvic floor is a large hammock of muscles stretching from side to side across the floor of the pelvis. It is attached to your pubic bone in front, and to the the tail end of your spine behind. The openings from your bladder, your bowels and your womb all pass through your pelvic floor. Your muscles near your pelvis are very important to stretch.

  • Kettlebell Exercises for Toned Abs

    The kettlebell figure 8 is a great exercise for working the core, particularly the obliques, along with balance and coordination. The idea is to move the weight in a figure 8 motion around both legs, exchanging the weight from hand to hand.

  • Jazzercise: Dance Yourself into Shape

    Energetic dances and dance-based exercise programs are fast-moving and fun. Dance in all its forms is a great way to get and stay in shape and to loosen up joints and muscles. Besides, dancing is fun.

  • Targeting for a Shapelier Back

    Strong, supple and well-toned: If this doesn't sound like your back, it could be time to think about the way you move - and change the habits of a lifetime. Little things such as the way we sit at work, or the way we carry our handbag, can have profound effects on our bodies, leading to backache - or worse.

  • Top 10 to Well-Defined Triceps

    This week we discuss about the much ignored muscles of the arm- The Triceps. The triceps are the muscles that run on the backside of upper arm from your shoulder to your elbow. They constitute two-thirds of your upper arm. Their primary function is to extend the elbow and facilitates the backward motion of the arm in the shoulder joint.

  • Body Sculpting During Pregnancy  
    Remaining active during pregnancy offers several benefits to the mother and baby. The key to reaping such benefits is to adjust your exercise program in order to make it safe for you and your baby during this period. Keep in mind that the goal of exercising during pregnancy is to maintain your present level of fitness, not to improve it.

  • Training for Building The Perfect Physique  
    To get the kind of look a bodybuilder has or even better think of you self as a body sculptor. Trust me you don’t have to workout day and night for achieving a perfect physique. Just keep in mind the following tips in your mind and see the difference in your body yourself.

  • Training with Strength band  
    As a complete workout on their own or a supplement to free weights and machines, strength bands are the ultimate tool for customizing workouts and isolating muscles. And the portable bands and tubing make the perfect travel workout. They're easier on the joints. In fact, they're so effective and safe that physical therapists often use them with their patients.

  • Resistance Stretching: for enhanced strength

    Resistance stretching, is a form of conditioning, that contracts a muscle and elongates it -- the opposite of an exercise such as a bicep curl, which causes muscles to shorten.

  • Sarcopenia and the Importance of Resistance Training

    Sarcopenia (pronounced sarko-peen-ya) is the "age-related" loss of muscle. The word comes from the Greek, for "flesh reduction." Just like osteoporosis and arthritis, "sarcopenia is a serious degenerative condition that increases ones risks for falls and makes one more vulnerable to injury."

  • Understanding Role of Stabilizer Muscle  

    Your body has two types of muscle (really more than this, but the others are in your internal organs), movers and stabilizers. Movers are big muscles that move your body parts, hence the name. Stabilizers are muscles that hold your parts in place and prevent you from being damaged while the movers are moving you.

  • Blassting Through training Plateaus
    If your workout has hit a snag, don't despair. By implementing the following strategies, you can blast through a plateau and take your physique to new heights. 

  • Exercise: another excellent way to combat anxiety
    Anxiety is an emotion everyone has experienced. It is a distressing feeling of apprehension and uneasiness. Being anxious causes changes in your thinking (fear, worry), bodily functions (rapid heart beat, sweating), and behavior (pacing, tapping the table), all of which only reinforce your feelings of distress.

  • Top 10 anywhere leg exercises
    For a great leg workout, you need to warm up with some light cardio first. Walk, Run, or ride a bike for about 10 minutes to get the blood pumping and to loosen up. Stretch your legs out and get ready for the hard work to come.

  • Working the Hamstring
    The hamstrings are a muscle group located on the back of the upper leg and thigh. The semimembranosus and semitendinosus are two hamstring muscles located on the inside of the upper leg. The bicep femoris is a hamstring muscle located on the outer back side of the upper back leg. Collectively, these three muscles make up the hamstring muscles.

  • Top 10 to build a strong core
    Core strength and stability is increasingly recognized as a vital part of fitness. The muscles of the 'core' are primarily those of the trunk and pelvis. The core muscles stabilize the spine and effectively move the body with varying loads.

  • Sculpting Long, lean and lovely Shoulders
    Toned shoulders and sculpted arms make dressing an absolute pleasure, and they also make your upper body leaner and stronger. They take time to achieve, but rest assured it can be done – here's how.

  • At-home Gravity Workout: to build muscle & balance

    Cold weather might make you feel like hibernating, but you don't have to give up your exercise and fitness goals. You can exercise indoors. Focus on how you'll benefit if you keep up your exercise routine throughout the cold-weather season. Exercise can help you shake those winter blues.

  • The Secret To Well Toned Abdominals Muscles

    Abs are your body's center of power and provide core strength. Strong abs aid balance, help prevent lower back injuries and promote good posture. Consistent abdominal workouts (10-15 min, 4-5x per week) performed correctly are not just for physical well being, but for aesthetics too. The secret to developing great abs lies in treating your body as a complete unit.

  • Top 10 to building a strong lower back

    There are two common sources of a weak lower back. The first is frequent and prolonged sitting. Spending too much time sitting tends to weaken the muscles of the lower back and bend the spine out of its natural alignment. It also tends to weaken the lower abdominals, which are vital spinal stabilizers.

  • Elliptical trainer: for a impact free workout

    Elliptical trainers are exercise equipment that combine the movements of the stair climber, treadmill, and the exercise bike into one. The basic features of elliptical machines include the drive system, the resistance system and the stride length.

  • Updated Physical Activity Guidelines Released

    American College of Sports Medicine and American Heart Association have provided physical activity recommendations for adults and older adults

  • Interval Training : A good way to cross train

    Interval training is simply alternating bursts of intense activity with intervals of lighter activity. Interval training works both the aerobic and the anaerobic system. During the high intensity effort the anaerobic system uses the energy stored in the muscles (glycogen) for short bursts of activity.

  • Lunges: "The Queen of Exercises" for women

    Lunges are a great strength builder for everyone from the beginning runner, to the 5K racer, to a seasoned marathoner, to the biathlete, to the serious bike racer. They are one of the most important exercises for the thigh and buttocks.

  • Exercise Motivation

    Consistent and productive exercise is nothing less than - hard work. It’s all about commitment, adhering to a schedule, planning daily exercises and diets, executing all of it and finally coming to grips with the fact that changes to your body are normally slow and subtle.

  • Top 10 Activities for Home Workout

    Getting in shape seems to be more of a challenge these days than ever. With busy schedules plus the expense of a gym membership, it’s no wonder so many people never make it. This workout can be done in 10 minutes. For a great 20-minute workout, run through it twice. Or, you can do it once in the morning and once before dinner. Exercise is cumulative, so every little bit add up.

  • Getting the best from strength training

    Strength training can involve using weights or your own body weight to challenge and build muscle. Get ready to tighten up all the leftover flab, if you want to look good in your bathing suit this summer.

  • Building Core Strength & Stability

    "Stability" refers to the capacity of the body to maintain and/or return to a state of equilibrium. Core stability training is a concrete way to improve balance, athletic performance, and potentially prevent a variety of injuries in people of all ages and fitness levels.

  • Hamstring Exercises for Lower back pain

    Since your pelvis is the foundation of your lower back and spine, having tight hamstrings contributes to an unstable lower back and a greater chance of intermittent sprains and strains.

  • How To Cope When You Have Low Back Pain

    Due to excess weight or improper daily practices or incorrect exercises or various other causes are there which can cause lower back pain. With a little change in our practices we can avoid them and can benefit ourselves.

  • Exercises for a perfect Ab and bum

    If you want to reduce your tum, bum and legs, then you’re going to have to lose body fat. You can’t stay at an elevated body fat level and achieve smaller trouble-spot areas. It will never happen...never! Sixty to 90 minutes (ideally daily) of aerobic exercise is still the best way to reduce body fat.

  • Calve Muscle Workout  
    There are two primary muscle groups on the back of the lower legs - the gastrocnemius and the soleus muscles. The soleus is a wide, flat muscle that lies beneath the heart shaped gastrocnemius. Both muscles contract to extend the feet and toes, but the soleus can only fully contract when your leg is bent to at least a 30-degree angle.

  • Core Strengthening

    A strong core is more than "six-pack abs"; it is your body's power zone-the beginning of all movement. The body's core includes the muscles of the shoulders, the chest, the abdomen, the hips, the pelvis, and the upper to lower back muscles. A strong core helps your extremities do a better job while exercising, while playing sports, or while doing everyday household chores.

  • Training Principles: Getting off to a good start

    As you start on body building and begin to look over the first routine, keep the following principles in mind. Mastering the Technique: In the beginning, it is essential to master the proper technique for each exercise. This is the first step; everything else takes a backseat. Don’t worry about the recommended reps for each exercise; its secondary. It doesn’t matter how many reps you do if you’re doing them wrong. When learning a new exercise, do it when you’re fresh.

  • Health and Fitness Needs for Women at 40
    Favorable modification in the eating and exercise patterns of women aged 40 and over is likely to have a positive effect on their health. Experts recommend these tips for coping with the physical, nutritional, social, mental and emotional needs of women at 40. 

  • TOP 10 Chest (Pectoral)-Developing Exercises
    The chest is made up of the pectoral muscles - major and minor. The pectoralis major is the bigger of the two covering most of the clavier and sternum and attach to the upper arm. Following is a list of 10 most effective chest (Pectoral)-developing exercises.

  • Top 10 to Beautiful Bottoms
    Improving your posture will be a good start at walking those muscles up, while the following exercises will strength them, thus lifting and firming the buttocks.

  • Resistance Band Workout for Travelers
    Try to work up to 20 reps for each exercise while performing your resistance band workout. (If it's your first time, start with five or however many you can or have time to do). 

  • Exercise Essential to Prevent Hip Fracture

    Exercise is important for your health. Like muscles, your bones respond to exercise by becoming stronger. As people age, the outer "cortical" layer of bone in a particular region the hipbone or upper femur become thinner, making the hip more prone to fracture. After 60 years of age, bone thickness in this zone falls by 6.4 percent per decade.

  • Losing inches off your thighs

    Let's face it-nobody wants to be pear-shaped, that bulge over the hips and the "Jodhpur thighs" are not exactly appealing. Unfortunately for women this is exactly where fat is most likely to accumulate, often with the "Orange-Peel" effect of cellulite.

  • The One-Leg Squat : for improving leg strength

    If you had time for only one strengthening exercise in your training programme, it would have to be the one-leg squat. That's because the one-leg squat is the most useful, time-efficient, and versatile exercise for improving running-specific leg strength.

  • Top 10 Truth About Flat Abs
    Flat abs can seem like the Holy Grail of fitness-so desirable, so elusive. Crunches? You do them by the dozen. Eat healthy? Absolutely, but despite your efforts, your belly won't budge. Sound familiar? Don't give up so fast. Find out what could be standing between you and washboard abs.

  • EASY WAYS TO BOOST YOUR ACTIVITY LEVEL
    Here are some suggestions from WF team to get you started and help you boost your activity level. 

  • Cooling Down After A Workout
    Cool-down periods hold as great a significance as warm-ups, in fact both of them are an essential part of an exercise routine. Warming up aids the body in making a smooth transition from rest to activity,  where as during a cool-down, the body cools. 

  • Health And Fitness Needs Of Women at 50+
    Recent studies indicate that between the ages of 30 & 70 many of the symptoms & conditions that were traditionally associated with normal aging are in fact the result of sedentary lifestyles.

  • Three edged answer to Love handles
    Women tend to accumulate it in their hips, buttocks, and thighs, and men tend to accumulate it in their abdomen. The fat that accumulates on the hips, thighs, and buttocks, although perhaps not cosmetically appealing, is not dangerous for your health. 

  • Getting Tough With ab Muscles
    If your stomach muscles begin to bulge or quiver at any time during these exercises- just stop for you are doing something that is beyond them. 

     

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