Weightloss and Wellness

Tag: glutes

Lower Body Exercises for Beginners
Lower Body Exercises for Beginners

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If you are just beginning to exercise, you’ll want upper and lower body exercises for beginners. Starting off slow can help you progress and will help you stay on track with your goals as they won’t seem so difficult to reach!

Advice For Lower Body Exercises
- Exercises for the lower body will help you with your thighs, glutes, hips, and with your calves. Lower body exercises can help you burn fat all over, really. Some exercises are more effective than others but together with a sensible eating plan, you could get great results for your lower body. Make sure that you integrate healthy eating with an exercise plan for the best results possible.
- Always stretch before your workout. Think of your pre-workout stretch as warming up your muscles to make them work better. This will also give you more longevity and faster recovery time after your workout.
- Whichever lower body exercises you do, make sure that you start off with a low number of reps and take 1-2 minute rests between sets. This is especially important when you are a beginner. If you’re doing a circuit in the gym, gym workouts often start with just 5 reps for each exercise and then a rest. The next set might have 8-12 reps but start off slowly. You should also rest between days of strength training. Cardio can generally be done daily but strength training requires rest days for your muscles.
There are a few pieces of low-cost equipment you might want to invest in, including: a kettlebell, a stability ball, jump rope, and some resistance bands. If you can invest in a treadmill, stair climber, elliptical, or another piece of cardio equipment, great, but if not, don’t worry. You can do plenty of beginner lower body exercises and cardio without a lot of expensive equipment.

Here are some good beginner lower body exercises you might want to start doing in order to tone up your lower body.

Cardio

All cardio exercises can equate to working out your upper and lower body. Starting off with walking is good. You could work up to running over time, if wanted, but if you’re sedentary now you’ll want to work up to running gradually.

Inner Thigh Ball Squeeze

Using a stability ball or even a smaller beach ball, hold the ball between your thighs and squeeze repeatedly. This can help really tone your lower body. Exercises like this can be done sitting, standing, or lying down.

Standing Leg Lifts

Standing with resistance bands around your ankles, put your hand on your hips and lift one leg out as if your legs are scissors. The resistance will help build muscle tone from the hip straight down.

Hip Lifts

Use a stability ball and lay on the floor. Dig your heels into the top of the ball while raising your bottom and using your arms for support on the floor or exercise mat. Digging your feet in from a bending position, push out until they’re straight. Then dig and pull them back in. You’ll be rolling the ball along the floor and working out several muscle groups.

If you’re concerned about new and beginner lower body exercises, consider watching some online videos and talking to a trainer.
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March 15, 2012
Exercise Ball Workouts to Try for Toning

Exercise Ball Workouts will improve your physical condition.

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An exercise ball is a versatile and inexpensive piece of workout equipment. It’s great for toning and sculpting your body and there are a variety of exercise ball workouts to try.

Here are some that will be very beneficial for you..

Use it as a Chair

Sitting on your exercise ball, at your desk, will help you continually balance and this will strengthen your core muscles. After a while you won’t be concentrating on your effort but you’ll still be engaging muscles as you go about your day. Using an exercise ball as a chair for a few hours a day is a great idea.

Glutes Workout

Put the exercise ball against the small of your back and let it rest against a wall. Do slow squats, being careful to keep the ball firmly at your lower back. After several reps, try doing this with one foot off the ground and alternate.

Crunches

Exercise ball workouts offer great ways to do crunches. If you lay your back on the ball, using a wall to put your feet and knees (if needed for stability) against and then lean back and do crunches, you’ll feel the effects.

Great Leg Workouts

Lie on the floor and try a variety of leg workouts. You can dig your heels into the top of the ball and do back arches or bridges. You can also put the ball between your ankles, put your feet up in the air, and squeeze the ball tight.

Push Ups

Lying with your stomach on the exercise ball and with your palms on the floor is a great way to do push-ups. The closer to your feet the ball its, the more intense the workout, making this a great progressive exercise. Ball workouts can start with the ball at your stomach and your feet dangling in the air and progress to where you dig your toes into the ball and the rest of you is suspended forward.

Limb Extensions

Extending limbs on an alternating basis while balancing your belly on the ball can be great for hamstrings, your lower back, and your glutes.

Workouts While You Sit on the Ball

Sit on the ball and do circular hip movements for mid-section toning. Sit on the ball and lift hand weights while stabilizing your core.

You’ll find a wide variety of exercise ball workouts online in list format as well as in videos. You can have several sizes for varying degrees of intensity. It can take a bit of practice to get some of these and some more advanced exercises down pat but as you continue to train you’ll start to feel a big difference in your core strength.

In conclusion, these Exercise Ball Workouts will tone and improve health.

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October 11, 2011