Tag Archives: Workout

Fitness Accessories to Complement Your Daily Activities

Every day if we notice our daily activities, some of us may barely going for workout sessions to keep ourselves healthy. We can do the exercises every week, but there is some solution for those who think that is not enough.

Daily activity can be different for anyone, even at lockdown terms. We could choose to go out for some fresh air or stay at home, but for those who are often going to the gym for exercise, this can be a problem.

On the weekend, we have more leisure than on weekdays. The picture below gives us a sample of how a lot of people are conducting exercises on Car Free Day during the weekend.

Workout on Weekend
People exercises at Car Free Day

To keep ourselves healthy, we do not need to go on fitness every day, but we can wear some accessories to keep ourselves trained at all times. Though it may look weird at the office, at least it can compensate for our daily training.

Some accessories are designed to complement our training, but only a few accessories are suitable for daily life. To break it down, two accessories are best to fit in your daily life.

Ankle Weights

Ankle Weights

Ankle Weights is a fitness accessory that allows us to build up some muscles on our legs. When we try it for the first time, we will feel like the walk we normally used to handle at a normal pace becomes heavier than before.

You can pair it with Arm / Wrist Weights, practically if you want to train multiple sections of muscles at once (From Legs to Arms). But we have to take note that the challenges will be doubled when doing it.

A good reference is from Hajime No Ippo, where Sendo trains his legs gradually by adding weight as soon as he gets used to the Ankle Weights training. At first, he got tired by just walking around, but he gradually increases the weight on the ankle weights once he gets used to it.

Sendo advises for Ankle Weights – Hajime No Ippo Chapter 246

As Sendo’s statement, it is better to do this exercise regularly and gradually increase the weight. We may not see the result of the training until we can feel the difference between equipping ankle weights initially and once we add more weights.

Recommendations

Ankle Weights is best used to do daily activities since it was others may not notice it when you wear it, and the length of your pants, such as jeans, was enough to cover it.

Nordic Lifting publishes the recommendations about using Ankle Weights, but the writer wants to expand it further, so we can wear it once we understand how it works.

Anyone can wear it during their daily activities, regardless of where we are. The writer’s advice is to maintain safety when using it, especially if you are doing some important things such as driving. If the legs become too tired to handle, you need some rest and took off the weight to ease it down.

Arm / Wrist Weights

Arm / Wrist Weight
Arm / Wrist Weight

Arm Weights is a fitness accessory suited for any user that wants to train their arm strength, such as biceps and triceps. Unlike the Ankle Weights, the Arm / Wrist Weights are exposed, practically if we did not wear the long sleeve suit.

We can wear it anywhere they like, and Arm / Wrist Weights can be paired with Ankle Weights. However, we must be careful since there are many Arm and Wrist Weights types, and each of them has a different weight distribution. Arm Weights can cover your hand to the wrist, while Wrist Weights focuses on your wrist.

Recommendations

Arm / Wrist Weights are best used if you want to train when doing some job that makes them unable to do an exercise that can train your muscles. Since leg muscles are easier to train than arm muscles, it is best to gradually train your arm.

To make sure you can pick any brand that can suit your taste, it is best to wear arm weights that weigh up to 2 lb or 1kg instead of above it. That’s because our arm is more vulnerable to tiredness than the legs, practically due to gravity as a prime example. While we can take a rest or sit down, use this chance to take off the Arm / Wrist Weight to loosen up some muscles and relax.

Recommended Brand

Some of the products, such as Exercise Fitness, provides an accessory that can help you to train their arms and legs. You can find the exercise Fitness website here:
https://www.exercise.co.uk/fitness-accessories

While some opt to pick a fixed weight, the writer recommends a weight that can increase or decrease according to user needs. Sendo from Hajime No Ippo already gives an example about adding weight gradually, as it will give us the difference between wearing the ankle weights and not wearing them in the long-term.

Getting flexible Arm / Wrist Weights and Ankle Weights can be beneficial in the long-term training instead of the fixed weight. We may also ask the store whether they sell the equipment to adjust the weight they feel fit when they want to. Another thing to notice is the price itself, which can be more worth than what we can expect.

Another is to get an accessory that can fit both the Wrist and Ankle, although it will be difficult to acquire due to equipment complexity. The size of your wrist and ankle could be different.

Why the writer pick these two accessories? That’s because these two are the best accessories suited for our daily life. The benefit is we can go mobile with these weights equipped as we can just travel with these accessories equipped. The con side is if we took it off somewhere, we may realize that we lost something when we get back home.

Furthermore, if you don’t like going to the gym, these two fitness accessories can help compensate for your training.

How to do the splits: A beginners guide

I am sure we can all say we have tried to do the splits before, right? It looks pretty easy, when a 15-year-old professional gymnast takes to the stage and suddenly flies into the air and drops into a perfect split position. However, for most of us it is just not that easy. Even getting that stretch after a workout can make me feel like my legs are being torn apart.

After a long few months in lockdown, which were mostly spent watching TV, studying at my desk and sleeping, my legs were well and truly un-stretchable… I mean I hadn’t done a good workout in almost 4 months! So, I decided I would finally do some exercise, but I wanted to learn something new and do something that would actually keep me interested rather than getting bored after the first try.

Accurate representation of me at the start of lockdown 😊

After some searching I came across an article informing me of the many benefits that being able to do the splits has on your joints and even on your age… yep that’s right, apparently doing the splits can keep you young.  I want to share my tips of learning how to do the splits and hopefully it will help you too!

So, the first point to note, is that there are two types of splits. The front split and the side split. Before starting any workout we recommend doing a fun warm up. We also recommend using a good yoga mat to ensure you do not slip and injure yourself while practising.

                                           Front split

The front split is achieved through stretching muscles we use every day such as our hamstrings. For myself, and many others, this was harder to achieve than the side split.

                                            Side split

The side split is achieved through stretching muscles that you would not normally stretch such as the groin and inner thigh muscle.

The following stretches are key to helping your body stretch enough to enter a split pose. We recommend doing these stretches for at least 15-30 minutes per day, taking a rest day every 3-4 days. We have included tutorials for each stretch to help understand them better.

Sitting hamstring stretch: This is one of my favourite stretches, to begin this stretch you will need to be seated on your yoga mat with your legs crossed. You will need to extend one leg out so that it is completely straight, keep your other leg bent inwards pulling your feet in closer to the thigh of the extended leg. Slowly lean forward until you can hold your foot in your hands, you should feel this stretch in the back of your thigh. Hold this stretch for 50-60 seconds and then switch legs.

Supine hamstring stretch: To begin this stretch you need to lay down on your mat with both legs straight. You will need to lift one leg in the air, keeping the other leg on the floor completely straight. Try to straighten the extended leg as much as possible. Hold your thighs from the back, this will help keep your position. Don’t worry if this is difficult for you, it was for me the first time too. Keep this position for 60 seconds and switch legs.

Seated butterfly stretch: This stretch requires you to sit on your mat and push your feet together and your knees out to the side. You need to touch your toes and push your knees down as far as possible. I personally found that I felt this stretch the most! Keep this pose for 60 seconds.

Knee to chest stretch: To do this stretch you need to lay on your mat and bring one knee up and as close to your chest as possible. Keep your leg on the ground as straight as possible. Use your hands to keep your knee steady. Hold the stretch for 5-10 seconds and switch legs.

Kneeling lunge stretch: For this final stretch you should start in a push up position on your mat. You will need to pull one leg forward and bring your body to an upright position while dropping the knee of your other leg to the mat. Put your hands on your hips and push your hips forward, you should feel the stretch in your hamstrings and quadriceps. Keep this movement going for 40 seconds and then switch to the other leg.

After completing these stretches each day you will surely want to try and get into the splits position. For the front split you will need to stand upright and slowly slide downwards pushing your feet more and more to the side. For the side split you will need to kneel on the ground and extend one of your legs out in-front of you while keeping your back leg bent with your knee on the ground to support you.

Each time you complete these stretches you will be able to get lower and lower, until eventually you are in the splits position! It took me just over 40 days to reach that perfect side split and a little longer to achieve the front split! Don’t be hard on yourself if it takes longer. If doing the splits was easy then I probably wouldn’t be writing about it.

                      Achieving the split position really is an accomplishment

Other than hugely impressing yourself, friends and family, there are numerous benefits to being able to do the splits such as;

Having better balance

Your yoga game will be fire

Helps to develop your patience

If you feel that you would lack motivation by doing the splits alone, I recommend downloading the Splits Training App. It’s a free 30-day Splits Challenge which has step-by-step instructions on how to get that perfect split. You can also choose between different levels; Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced.

                                  30-day split challenge app

Please do comment below and let me know if you managed to get that perfect split pose using these steps, or if you have any further advice for those wanting to achieve it. Oh, and if you see me showing off my new split moves in the supermarket queue… come and join me 😊

 

TONING: “ARE YOU TONED ENOUGH?”

TONING: “ARE YOU TONED ENOUGH?”

Toning can be elucidated as an effective exercise regime in building the musculature of the body. Toning the body is implicated as enhancing “leanness” in the body along with having a defining shape to the body. There are various advantages of toning such as decreased incidence of diseases with enriched mental health. For getting a toned body exercise regime involving lunges, push-ups and squats is necessary. Along with this deltoid raise and sit-ups also aid in developing a toned body. If you want to get firm and toned body these exercises are something that you cannot do without. Come one let us give you a sneak-peak into the exercises that can give you a toned body with defined lines and shape that can make other go jealous

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Now let us come to the first and primary exercise in toning, which are squats. Squats cause workout of the lower position of the body and use every leg muscle in the process. This eliminates fat from the legs and calf muscles, hamstrings and quadriceps thus giving you toned legs.  For getting ideal toned legs 3-5 sets of squats is necessary each set having at least 8-12 reps. This regime needs to be followed for 2-3 times a week which will be enough to ensure that you get a strong, defined and toned legs. However on a personal opinion we would like to suggest that a fusion of squats with lunges is much more effective. For getting a toned body it is essential that the lower body muscles are properly worked. A regime of 10-12 lunges per leg thrice per week is recommended along with squats to get envious toned legs.

 

Now let us come to the upper body part. For getting a toned upper body push-ups is an essential exercise. Daily push-ups help in toning the arms and the abdomen region. It increases strength in the core of the body. For toned upper body 3 times 12 reps per day are needed. The stabilization of the core due to push-ups even makes you healthy internally which will be reflected throughout your body. Another most promising exercise that we can suggest you is deltoid raise. This exercise leads to working out of the shoulder and hand muscles which in turn renders you with beautifully toned shoulders that is worth showing off.

 

But you might be thinking that how will you do this? What will you wear? Will you do it right?. .No worries our expert guides are always available to help you in this regard. We at Exercise.co.uk are dedicated to provide you online as well as physical support to get perfectly toned body. So contact us online today. Our equipment and exercise gears are comfortable enough to let you exercise effectively. Our manuals and guides are effective in ensuring that you get proper information for carrying out your regime and get a toned body within a couple of weeks. Our contact information is available in our website  We assure you round the clock support not only through our products but also through our expert opinions, guidance and helpful exercise based information materials. We hope that this blog was helpful to you and best of luck for getting a toned body.