by Cori Lefkowith | Jul 30, 2015 | Blog, Exercises
The Med Ball is a great piece of equipment that you can use to work on your power as well as your aerobic endurance. It is also a great way to get in a full-body, core-intensive workout.
However, unlike when you lift and you constantly want to be challenging yourself with weight, when you do Med Ball Exercises, more weight isn’t always better.
With Med Ball Drills, you want to use only as heavy a ball as you can while still being explosive and moving quickly. Explosiveness and power are more important than going heavy.
Even when you work on endurance, you don’t necessarily want to go super heavy. You want to use a heavy enough ball that you are challenged during the time you work, but also a light enough ball that you can keep moving at a consistent pace.
While lifting more weight to challenge your body is important, adding weight isn’t necessarily always the answer, especially with certain drills. The Med Ball is a great chance to work on your speed and explosiveness and even your reaction time. And going heavy and moving slowly because you are using too heavy a ball isn’t going to accomplish that.
When doing these 18 Med Ball Drills think explosive, quick and powerful and then think about adding more weight only if you can stay as explosive and power.
Or if you use some of these drills to build your aerobic base during your active recovery workouts, go light and think consistent movement. Only add weight if you can continue to work in that 65-85% of your max effort range. You aren’t trying to redline or burn yourself out during the endurance work!
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by Cori Lefkowith | Jul 22, 2015 | Blog, Bodyweight, Exercises
Working out can definitely be more fun with a friend. It can also hold you accountable and make you push harder.
Plus, a friend can be all the equipment you need to get in a great full-body workout.
With these 20 Partner Exercises, you can build strength, get in a great cardio workout and even improve your coordination.
And if you are looking for a great Partner Workout, check out the ones at the bottom!
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by Cori Lefkowith | Jul 15, 2015 | Blog, Bodyweight, Exercises, Pain Relief
Isometric Exercises are a great way to build mobility, stability and strength in your lower body.
While most people include dynamic and static stretches in their workout routine, they often forget about the importance of Isometric Moves to developing mobility and even flexibility.
And Isometric Exercises are key.
Dynamic and static stretches do improve your flexibility and mobility; however, they don’t at the same time strengthen and build stability through that new range of motion.
Then when we go lift, even after doing the stretching, we often don’t work through the increased range of motion, which simply means we tighten everything back up only to have to stretch out and loosen up again.
By including Isometrics, you not only improve your flexibility and mobility, but you also work and strengthen through the new range of motion to help you keep the increased range of motion.
And, by doing Isometrics, you can learn to activate and feel the correct muscles working during the movements so that, when you go to lift weights, the correct muscles are being recruited through a full range of motion!
Below are 15 Leg Isometric Exercises you should include in your workout routine to not only improve your hip mobility and the flexibility of your legs, but also strengthen and build stability.
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by Cori Lefkowith | Jul 2, 2015 | Blog, Bodyweight, Exercises, Pull Ups, Vs.
To work your back, you need to include Pulling Exercises in your workout routine.
However, not all Pulling Exercises are exactly the same because there are a lot of different muscles that make up your back that are worked to different degrees by different movements.
The two most basic types of Pulling Exercises you need to include in your workout routine though are the Vertical Pull and the Horizontal Pull.
Both work the muscles of your back differently and activate and target different muscles.
The most common bodyweight Vertical Pull is the Pull Up/Chin Up while the most common bodyweight Horizontal Pull is the Inverted Row.
Both moves need to be included in your workout routine and activate different muscles of your back to different degrees.
And while the Inverted Row is often used to help beginners work up to the Pull Up, you need to be aware that these two moves are very different and that the Inverted Row is still a very important movement for even the advanced lifter to include. (The Inverted Row alone also won’t get you to that first full Pull Up because it is a different movement.)
Below we will discuss the differences between the Pull Up and the Inverted Row and even some fun variations of each move you should be including in your workout routine.
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