Tag Archives: abs

Train Like a World Cup Star at Home with This 5-Move Soccer Workout

Who isn’t amped from the excitement of watching our favorite teams compete in the World Cup? We can gain a lot from the drills and workouts of the athletes that compete in these invigorating games. From toning to cardiovascular improvement and weight loss, soccer players know how to gain the most out of a workout.

I’ve outlined five soccer workouts you can do at home with you and your children to get you to your own peak performance. Yes, even the busiest moms can train at home like a World Cup star!

Try these moves to get to the top of your game:

The Toe Tap

The point of this workout is to gain a cardio workout in a small amount of time. Just alternate placing your left toes on top of the ball, dropping your foot to the ground, then repeating with your right. 60 seconds of a soccer toe tap is enough to get your heart pumping. Try it out! (more…)

Posted on July 8, 2024 by GuestBlogger

Research Proves that the Crunch is the Most Effective Ab Exercise

Achieving 6-pack abs is pretty much the holy grail of physical fitness and strength, even though much of your abdominal appearance is decided by genetics, not effort. But whether you have 7% body fat or a layer of “insulation” over your abdominal muscles it’s extremely important to keep those muscles strong. Working the muscles that make up your core strong (the abdominals, obliques, and mid- to lower-back) will make your entire body feel stronger, give you better posture, and improve your balance. However, the question remains—what’s the best technique to building and managing core strength?

We’ve been presented with so many different options for strengthening the abdominal muscles that it’s hard to know what works best. Should we be lying on our backs, balancing on our hands and toes, standing up, squatting, or using a contraption like the ab flyer or ab rocket?

Luckily, a group of fitness experts commissioned by the American Council on Exercise recently conducted the research to answer that very question. ACE reached out to experts at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse to conduct research determining the effectiveness of the most popular equipment and exercises compared to the traditional crunch. The team incorporated several different varieties of popular equipment including the Ab Circle Pro, Ab Roller, and others, as well as exercises including yoga’s boat pose, the stability ball crunch, decline bench curl-ups, the captain’s chair crunch, the bicycle crunch, the side plank, and a standard plank. (more…)

Posted on May 30, 2024 by Lauren Martin

No More Back Pain! 3 Core Moves that Help End Aches

What is all the fuss about having a strong core? Yes, of course we all want a smokin’ hot six pack, but is there a real benefit to tightening your tummy beyond the aesthetic? Short answer: Yes. And a lot of it has to do with having a healthier, stronger center and a less achey lower back.

Strong core muscles make it so much easier to do many of our daily physical activities—such as running errands, doing household chores, and moving every which way. When you use your core to bend, lift, twist, and reach you safeguard your lower back, shifting weight off of your spine and onto your abs and the muscles of your back.

Core exercises strengthen your abdominals, back muscles, obliques (sides), and muscles around the pelvis. But this doesn’t mean do a million crunches! That can only promise a sore back. What should you do instead?

Here are three exercises to do daily as you work toward a stronger core and a happier lower back: (more…)

Posted on April 17, 2024 by Katie McGrath

5 Yoga Poses Sure to Flatten Your Tummy

Yes, yoga brings about amazing mental and emotional benefits, but if we’re being honest, we all just want long, lean muscles and a super flat midsection. Ditch the crunches and let your yoga poses help you get there! Inspired by the recent Shape magazine video, these five moves target all the muscles in your abdomen and include a bit of cardio to burn fat and showcase your hard-earned, rock-solid core.

1. The Plank Slide

We all know a plank is the ultimate total body toner that blasts every muscle in your core, but have you tried the plank slide? Hold your plank like normal, except your hands are on your sticky mat and your feet rest on a blanket (*note: this must be done on a hardwood or slippery floor!). Then, use your core to keep your legs straight while sliding them up toward your hands like a forward fold. Slide your legs back to your starting plank position. It’s like cleaning your floor while working your core!

Bonus super challenge: try the plank slide with one leg up in the air at a time! (more…)

Posted on March 27, 2024 by Katie McGrath

Finish Summer Strong with a Beach Ball Workout by Patricia Friberg

Award winning fitness guru Patricia Friberg has shared a hot new beach workout for the home stretch of summer. The Beach Ball Workout strengthens the glutes, abs, thighs and arms, and all you need is a beach ball—a beach doesn’t hurt either.

You’ve gotta mix up your fitness regimen if you want to avoid the workout doldrums. So seek out a sunny spot and try this great new workout from Patricia.

Beach Ball Lateral Squat

Benefits: Tones the bottom, inner thigh, legs and waistline. This is a one stop shop for exercises.

Set up: Wide stance with legs, holding the ball in the hands. Draw the abdominals inward and upward.

Step 1: Hinge at the right hip and bend your right knee. Take the ball down to the ground by your right foot. Firm the right glute and keep your abdominals drawing in.

Step 2: With the strength of your right leg, push into the ground to straighten the leg and lift the ball up and side bend to the left. 12 reps each leg. (more…)

Posted on August 1, 2024 by GuestBlogger

Try Daryl Conant’s Ab Inferno for a Scorching Summer Workout

Daryl Conant, exercise physiologist and author of Buff Daddy, has shared his Ab Inferno workout with DietsInReview, and this one makes you really feel the burn. Using only ab mallets and a lumbar pad, Daryl employs simple body contortions to strengthen all the muscles in your core.

Considering Daryl’s impressive resume, this workout is one you should adopt immediately. A former U.S. Olympic Committee strength coach, Daryl is a bodybuilder with two bachelor’s degrees and a master’s in education with an emphasis on exercise science. (more…)

Posted on July 25, 2024 by GuestBlogger

Saturday Morning Drill: Power-Packed Yoga Poses for a Summer-Ready Body

Blooming flowers, singing birds, and warmer days are welcome reminders that summer is right around the corner. But, if you have yet to shed your winter wardrobe for fear of exposing your non summer-ready body, thoughts of tank tops and bikini bottoms might have you wishing it were still November.

The following yoga poses will help tone your arms, core, hips and thighs so you can sport a fit summertime physique.

Plank Pose

Better than doing a bench press, practicing plank pose tops the list as one of the best yoga poses to do for overall strength and tone. Practice at least one set of plank every day, and work up to holding your plank for up to one full minute. If you need to modify, practice plank pose on your knees until you can work up to practicing it on your toes. (more…)

Posted on May 11, 2024 by Jill

Bachelor Sean Lowe’s Abs Recipe: HIIT Training and Small Meals

Whether you’re female, male, a fan, or not a fan of the Bachelor’s Sean Lowe, it may have crossed your mind a time or two how this hottie got that amazing body of his. From what we’ve dug up, it looks like he’s putting in a lot of effort in the gym and the kitchen.

Sean has been working with his personal trainer, Sagi Kalev, since before he was cast on The Bachelorette for Emily Maynard’s season. Kalev put Lowe on his three-part body beast regimen that consists of high intensity interval training, fast and heavy weight lifting, and some serious focus on proper nutrition.

When Sean’s not spending all of his time filming on the show, he’s putting a lot of focus into eating a year-round healthy diet. His nutrition is based on eating 5-6 portioned meals a day with lean proteins, low glycemic carbohydrates, and essential fats (with some pizza and whoopie pies thrown in every once in awhile). (more…)

Posted on March 15, 2024 by Danielle

Saturday Morning Drills: 7 Moves to Amazing Abs

Let’s be honest: Everyone wants flat, sexy abs, but it’s easier said than done, right? While roughly 90 percent of sculpting flat abs has to do with your diet – eating the proper foods to slim your middle – the other 10 percent has to do with fitness. So once you have your diet on track you can shift you focus to manipulating your abs with exercise, which is way more fun in our opinion.

In this week’s Saturday Morning Drill we’re focusing on just that: Amazing abs. The workout is comprised of seven simple moves that will not only get your heart rate up but sculpt every ab muscle you have (even the ones you didn’t realize you had). All you need is a yoga mat or a soft floor surface – you don’t even need shoes or equipment! Going through the workout once will serve you well, but try completing it several times for even more of a challenge.

Also Read:

15 Reps in 15 Minutes: Full Body Workout

Fit in Five: Off the Ground Core Exercises

Jersey Shore’s JWOWW Shares Her Bikini Body Workout Secrets

Posted on January 12, 2024 by Dana

Ab Circle Pro is a Fraud and Must Pay up to $25 Million in Refunds

Depending on the number of unsatisfied Ab Circle Pro customers who come forward, the fitness gimmick brand stands to pay out $15 million to $25 million in refunds, per a settlement between the brand and the FTC. The government agency has cracked down on over-hyped health claims in recent years to protect citizens from idiotic, empty promises like the Ab Circle Pro delivers.

Honestly? Three minutes a day of mild exercise to lose 10 pounds in two weeks should be filed under “too good to be true,” and it is. The FTC isn’t having any of that noise.

According to the announcement on the FTC.gov site, “the defendants promised that a three-minute workout on the Ab Circle Pro – a fiberglass disk with stationary handlebars and two knee rests that roll on the edge of the disk, allowing consumers to kneel and rotate side-to-side – was equivalent to doing 100 sit ups. In the infomercial, pitchwoman Jennifer Nicole Lee compared the Ab Circle Pro to a gym workout, saying, “You can either do 30 minutes of abs and cardio or just three minutes a day. The choice is yours.”

Nothing is ever a substitute for hard work, not even a nearly non-existent workout. With a calorie-reduced diet and exercising at least 30 minutes moderate to high intensity workouts most days of the week, a healthy rate of weight loss is one to two pounds each week. A claim of 10 pounds in 2 weeks is not only not realistic but it isn’t healthy either. As far as toning your abs goes, well, that takes a lot more commitment to overall lifestyle than three minutes a day. If your entire workout regimen can happen in less time than a TV commercial break – you’re doing it wrong.

“Three minutes time is less than a warm up. Your muscles don’t even get loose in 3 minutes time – it takes about 5 to 10 minutes,” commented fitness expert Kelly Turner. “But let’s assume you did 5-10 minutes of light exercise before you hopped on. I can do 71 crunches in a minutes. Three sets of 71 crunches isn’t even an entire ab workout. No exercise, no matter what you are doing, is intense enough to create massive changes within your body in three minutes- even if done every single day.” (more…)

Posted on November 19, 2024 by Natalie K

Saturday Morning Drill: 15 Reps in 15 Minutes Total Body Workout

If you’ve got 15 minutes, you’ve got time to do this quick-yet-intense full body workout. The easiest part about it besides it requiring no equipment is that each exercise is completed a total of 15 times. This means that once you learn the moves, you can get straight to it, counting 15 reps all the way.

We integrate simple moves like high knees and jumping jacks with more challenging exercises like split squat jumps and push ups with a leg raise to get your heart rate pumping and add some serious tone to your figure. Get through the exercises as many time as you can in 15 minutes. Let’s get started!

Posted on October 6, 2024 by Dana

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