TOTAL BODY TONER

This exercise is is truly a total body toner. It’s a mean calorie burner, recruiting many muscle groups including core, shoulders, quads, hams and glutes. It’s also a great balance challenge. Throw these Stationary Lunges with Oblique Medicine Ball “Drops” into your program and boost your fitness to the next level. Here’s how…

• Pick your poison: choose a medicine ball. I recommend at least 6lbs.
• Kneel on the ground so that both of your legs are bent at 90 degrees and your body is completely centered between your legs. Start with your right leg forward. Stand up, keeping your body centered between your legs.
• Hold medicine ball in both hands and extend your arms in front of your body at shoulder height. This is your starting and ending position.
• Draw your abs in, keep your upper body upright and kneel down until your back knee is almost touching the ground while simultaneously “dropping” the ball to your right side keeping your arms straight. At the “bottom” of the lunge, the ball should be lower than your right knee and you should feel a “crunch” in your obliques.
• Return to starting position with arms fully extended in front of your body at shoulder height while simultaneously squeezing your quads and glutes.
• Six Training Tips: 1. Remember to draw your abs in and hold them tight. Imagine pulling your belly button towards your spine. 2. Throughout the entire exercise, keep your upper body upright. Imagine an elevator going up and down and resist the urge to lean forward. 3. Inhale on the way down, exhale on the way up. 4. Keep your mind on your muscles and mindfully contract them. 5. Push up through your front heel and back toe with equal force. 6. Don’t go too fast, count to three on the way down. Pause. Count to three on the way up. Make those muscles do the work. It should burn.

This entry was posted on January 8, 2007 at 2:03 pm and is filed under Fitness Tips, Exercise. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.