There are many reasons to exercise your core and abdominal muscles regularly. Not only will you become more toned and lose weight around your midsection, but you’ll begin to enjoy better health benefits as well. According to the Mayo Clinic,…
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Overview Excess body fat is unhealthy and can lead to heart disease, stroke, diabetes and more. Getting rid of fat deposits is an essential part of living a long, healthy life. Burning body fat starts with a healthful diet. Obesity…
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Children will enjoy the fun of adding a stability ball to their exercise time. Stability balls are large balls that are sometimes called exercise balls, therapy balls or Swiss balls. They come in a variety of sizes for children and…
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A defined abdomen exudes fitness and athleticism. Keeping the core strong also helps prevent back injury and pain. Much of your ability to function–from everyday activities such as lifting shopping bags to running a 5K–comes from the center of your…
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Findings made by Cardiff University researchers demonstrate that improved aerobic fitness can benefit all your body’s systems, including your cardiovascular, respiratory and muscular systems. Improved aerobic fitness also helps enhance your metabolic functions and reduces your likelihood of experiencing depression…
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Overview Working out on a regular basis improves health and fitness levels. When combined with dieting, benefits include decreased body weight and body fat. Dieting and losing weight lowers metabolism–the ability to burn calories. Exercising prevents metabolic decreases and helps…
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Yoga connects breath and movement to stretch the mind and body. Yoga exercises stretch and engage the muscles to align the body and ease the stress and strain our everyday lives put on the body. When tight, certain parts of…
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Just as it’s important to tone the rest of the body, facial yoga exercises can keep the face toned, too. The forehead, eyes, cheeks, nose, jaw and chin need attention to stay looking their best. Simple yoga postures focus on…
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The muscles of the lower body consist of your quadriceps at the front of your thigh, your hamstrings at the rear and your gluteus maximus (buttocks). In addition, your abductors and adductors make up your outer and inner thigh, respectively,…
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Overview An EZ barbell is the crooked barbell at your local gym. The angled, varied-width hand positions allow you to do barbell curls, presses, extensions and rows with less strain on your wrists than a straight barbell. EZ barbells come…
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If you have ever suffered from insomnia, you understand the frustration of lying awake hour after hour, watching the clock and knowing that your rest time is steadily decreasing and that you will have to get up and go to…
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Overview NordicTrack’s AbWorks is an exercise machine specifically designed to help strengthen and tone your upper, lower and oblique abdomen muscles. It provides more than 15 exercises and a wide range of bodily motions to enhance muscle flexibility. “This is…
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Overview The shoulders are comprised of two major muscles–the trapezius and the deltoids. The “delts” are the muscles found on the outside part of each shoulder, and the trapezius runs from the upper middle of the back to the top…
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Overview Upper body strength is important whether you are an athlete or not. Think about all the daily activities you perform that involve the strength of you upper body. Chopping wood, shoveling snow, pushing a lawnmower and picking up grocery…
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Overview The ab muscles consist of a long band of muscle, called the rectus abdominus, and two strips of muscle on the sides of the rib cage, called the obliques. When you want to build your ab muscles, you need…
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Having flabby upper arms can make one self-conscious when wearing sleeveless clothing, especially when your arm flab hangs down and jiggles as you wave or gesture. Tone your triceps and biceps muscles to reduce your upper arm flab and slim…
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Kegel exercises strengthen the pybococcygeal (PC) muscles that provide support for the genital organs and run from the pubic bone to the tail bone. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic say that strengthening these muscles can be beneficial for both men…
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According to the National Institute on Aging, older adults should exercise daily. This exercise can be in the form of cardiovascular exercise or strength training. Seniors have physical limitations because of a lifetime of wear and tear on the joints,…
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Good muscular endurance provides several benefits. Muscular endurance is the ability to use a muscle for a long time period against light resistance. You can build muscular endurance by weight training with a high number of repetitions and a light…
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Exercise balls have become the tool of choice for improving core strength and balance, increasing flexibility, and reducing injuries to the neck and spine. Exercise balls challenge you to work harder by placing your body in a continuous state of…
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The exercise or stability ball is a great tool for sculpting and toning your muscles. The ball offers beginning to advanced workout enthusiasts a wide variety of exercises which you can do in a small space at home. Exercises that…
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Overview Biking, whether recreationally or for the purpose of a workout, is a great way to get effective cardio exercise. It’s a flexible activity that can work for almost everyone with basic mobility, as the biker can control how fast…
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The arms consist of three major muscle groups: biceps, triceps and forearms. In order to build solid arms, you’ll need exercises that target all of these groups. Weight training is the most effective way to build muscle, and there are…
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It is funny to think that a common body language gesture meaning uncertainty could actually be an exercise. Shrugs, in fact, is the name given to a resistance-training exercise that targets the upper trapezius muscle, or traps, of your back….
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It is entirely possible to do ab exercises without isolating the abs. Many exercises like sit-ups involve the hip flexor muscles, which may reduce the effectiveness of the exercise for your abs. To solve this problem, do exercises that target…
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Kasina is the word used to describe using physical objects for meditation, normally colored discs. Kasina yoga exercises are used in the practice of jnana yoga, which is the pursuit toward deep meditative states of being that are said to…
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Overview Treadmills offer many advantages over normal running. The fact that they’re stationary makes it easy to fit in a quick run during a gym workout routine or to work out at home while keeping an eye on your kids….
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Overview Nice curves help accentuate the natural shape of the body. If you are looking to add some flow to your straight appearance, you can do so by zeroing in on the right spots. The chest, shoulders, hips, butt, thighs…
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Pilates, named after founder Joseph Pilates, is a complete physical conditioning program that works out your whole body from the inside out by focusing on the core muscles — those in your back and stomach. Like yoga, Pilates is a…
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Post-menopausal women have some unique challenges in staying fit and healthy. Because of hormonal changes that come with aging, post-menopausal women have a tendency to have an overall increase in body fat with a concentration of fat in the abdominal…
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