LOSE THOSE FLABBY ARMS!!! Part 1

They have many names, but they are best known as 'Christian mother' arms. Flabby triceps have been a bother to many women for centuries, irrespective of race. These arms have caused lots of embarrassment to individuals and with time, can affect a persons confidence.

 

Side plank reverse fly. This is a great exercise for building overall upper body strength. Although it doesn’t target the arms specifically, it will help build the necessary strength to do other arm-specific exercises. It is also fantastic for the oblique muscles along your side.

 

To perform the side plank reverse fly:

1. Lie down on your side on the floor and prop yourself up with either your hand or elbow. The elbow is an easier option for beginners.
2. Stack your feet one on top of the other and lift your hips off the floor so that your body form a diagonal line.
3. With your free hand, grab a dumbbell and extend your arm straight up, keeping it in line with your shoulder.
4. Slowly lower the dumbbell in front of you, until your arm is perpendicular to your body.
5. Slowly raise the dumbbell back up, forming a “T” shape with your arm and the dumbbell. You have now completed one repetition.

Variations: Instead of stopping when the dumbbell is perpendicular with your body, you can keep going, rotating your body and twisting the dumbbell underneath, before returning to the starting position.

 

Clean Push ups. The push up is a pretty basic exercise, and one that most people have attempted at some point in their lives. It’s an exercise that has stuck around for a reason – it works. Push ups target the tricep muscle in your arm, although they also strengthen your pectorals, abdominals, quads and lower back, making it a great overall exercise.

 

To perform a basic push up:

1. Lie face-down on the floor, keep your legs together and prop your feet up on your toes and the balls of your feet.
2. Place your hands palms-down on the floor, approximately a shoulder width apart.
3. Raise yourself up, using just the strength in your arms, until both arms are fully extended. Your body should be in a straight line from your head to your heels. This is the start and end position for the push up.
4. Slowly lower your body to the ground until your elbows form a 90-degree angle. Inhale as you lower down.
5. Slowly raise yourself back up into the extended arm position, exhaling as you do. You have now completed one repetition.

Variations: You can vary the basic push up exercise in a number of ways. If you’re just starting to build up strength in your arms, you can make the exercise slightly easier by keeping your knees on the ground throughout the exercise. You can also try a triangle push up, where your hands form a triangle with your forefingers and thumbs, directly below the breastbone.

 

 

SHOCK THERAPY 4: THE LUMBERJACK 20

The Lumberjack 20 named for the soldiers and civillians killed On November 5, 2009, by a terrorist named Major Nidal Hasan. Its purpose is to get you outside your comfort zone, forcing you to show courage and become as badass as you can be.

 

A CrossFit hero WOD is not meant to be an everyday training regimen, nor should it be. These workouts are nasty, and for good reason, they take you to a place that you may never have been before. A level of discomfort that is indescribable to most that have never been there, and when it is over, you should feel accomplished not because of the time on the clock, but the fact that you finished, the fact that you put it all out there to honor a fallen Hero.

 

Give this workout everything you have. It will be tough, but in the end, I promise you will be proud of what just went down.

 

Lumberjack 20

• Deadlifts 20 reps
• Run 400 meters
• Kettlebell Swings 20 reps
• Run 400 meters
• Overhead Squats 20 reps
• Run 400 meters
• Burpees 20 reps
• Run 400 meters
• Chest-to-Bar Pull-Ups 20 reps
• Run 400 meters
• Box Jumps 20 reps
• Run 400 meters
• Dumbbell Squat Cleans 20 reps
• Run 400 meters

CROSSFIT: MEET YOUR LIMITS

CrossFit began with Greg Glassman, a trainer and gymnast who started training clients in his garage in the 1970s. Over the past decade, CrossFit has swelled to a subculture of gyms with more than 1,500 locations worldwide. they usually contain some combination of bodyweight exercises, plyometrics, Olympic lifts, sprinting and use of implements like kettlebells. The training is intense and done for a time - workouts rarely last more than 20 to 30 minutes. Thus, while CrossFit followers typically join to improve performance, they inevitably build muscle and get leaner, too.

I scrounged around and dug up some CrossFit exercises which will spice up your workout repetoire and swiftly improve your strength and muscle definition. Perform the exercise as a circuit, completing one set of each without rest. Between circuits, rest as little as possible. Do seven reps of each move and repeat for seven total circuits. Time yourself; try to beat your time each session.

 

 Renegade Rows:

 

Hold a dumbbell or kettlebell and get into push-up position while balancing on the weights. Keeping your shoulders squared, press one dumbbell into the floor while rowing the other bell to your ribs. Lower the weight and repeat on the other side.  Aim for 100 reps on each side.

 

 

Burpee
 

Stand with feet at hip width and arms at your sides. Dip your hips and knees and swing your arms back to gather momentum. Jump as high as you can and then land with control. Immediately lower your body into a squat. Then touch the floor in front of you and shoot your legs back so you end up in push-up position. Perform a push-up. Then jump your legs back under your chest and stand up.

 

 

Overhead Medicine Ball Slam
 

Hold a medicine ball (use one that bounces) with both hands. Push your hips back and bend forward, lowering the ball almost to the floor between your legs with arms extended. Then explosively, swing the ball overhead, extending your legs and back so you come up onto the balls of your feet. Push your weight back into your hips and throw the ball down towards the floor as hard as you can and catch the ball as it bounces back up. This workout builds your rear delts, traps and shoulder muscles while increasing your heart rate.

 

Try out these few exercises and tell me how it feels in the morning.