How to Work Out Without Ever Standing Up

Cardio: Cardio without standing isn’t easy. Start in a push-up position, lift one leg and bring your knee to your chest. Snap your leg back into place while bending the opposite knee to your chest. Continue is this sort of horizontal-running action for one minute. Then, flip over onto your back. Bend your knees and raise your feet in the air. Contract your abdominal muscles, raise your head off the floor, and make cycling motion with your legs. Air-cycle for one minute, before switching back to that horizontal-running-pushup-position. Perform the running/cycle combo three times.

Core Strengthener: This segment of the workout is all about planks. Hold a front plank (face down, rest on your elbows and flexed toes, creating a straight line from your head to your feet) for 60 seconds. Then, a side plank (same deal, but on your side and propped up on one elbow) for 60 seconds, followed by a one-minute back plank (on your back, with your hips raised).

Legs And Glutes: Start with 10, 20-minute reps of bridges, which involve lying on your back, bending your knees, and keeping your feet flat on the floor before lifting your hips off the floor. Then, move on to hinges—start from a kneeling position, back straight, and then slowly lean back until you can barely return yourself to an upright position. Repeat that 20 times.

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Exercise tips, here’s why breath is the most important thing during workout

Breath is an important aspect of workout as it supports all the other functions. Here are some tips to get your breathing right based on the kind of exercise you are attempting.

For cardio: 

When you’re doing a cardio activity, you must opt for long breaths. Avoid shallow, short breaths as that indicates that you are working too hard. It also means that you have not set a good breathing schedule during the workout. Go for stronger and deeper breaths and find your rhythm as you go along. For instance, if you’re running, then match your breath to your steps and create your own pattern. Similarly, whether you’re on the stepper, a stationary bike or an elliptical trainer, you can find a rhythm to match your actions.

For strength training:

Breath is important, especially when you’re attempting heavy lifts. When you’re doing strength training, breathe out during the difficult part of the lift. This will help you be more steady. For instance, you exhale when you are lifting a dumbbell to your shoulder during a bicep curl or a push up. You inhale when you bend your elbows to lower your body towards the floor. Exhaling at the right time will help you engage your core better and give you an effective workout.

For stretching:

This is the time when you want to help your body relax. So, opt for slow and steady breathing. Try to focus on your breathing from the diaphragm, this will make your stomach move in and out. Slow steady breathing is preferable when stretching and will help you relax.

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The Ultimate Full-Body Kettlebell Workout

Kettlebell Goblet Squats

Regardless of whether or not you want to do a kettlebell workout or just have leg day, kettlebell goblet squats are a great alternative to a front squat while being slightly easier on the forearms and wrists.

Like any squat, make sure you keep a strong core, a proud chest, and your arms tucked in for maximum stability.

Muscles worked: Legs, biceps, lower back.

Halos

One of the few workouts here that can only really be exclusively done with a kettlebell, halos are a great way of building shoulder, core and upper back stability when done with a moderate weight.

The key is to focus on smooth rotation around the head, and you can turn up the intensity by alternating directions with every rep.

Muscles worked: shoulders, traps, core.

Kettlebell Pushups

We don’t need to tell you how to do a pushup, but the added elevation provided by a ketlebell is a great way to add in a chest component to your workout without putting too much strain on your already stressed shoulders and arms.

You can also alternate sets with close-grip pushups to get a better tricep workout or switch from one raised arm to another for plyo pushups.

Muscles worked: Chest, tris, shoulders.

Squat-to-Press

The key to both a good squat and a good shoulder press is posture – preventing your back from collapsing in on itself under the weight of the press and keeping a straight, strong back on the descent into a squat.

Muscles worked: Quads, glutes, hammies, shoulders

Kettlebell Swings

The archetypal kettlebell exercise, the humble kettlebell swing uses just about every muscle group in your body.

A few sets of these will set you up well for just about any workout, and when combined with a little additional cardio, make for a serious way to burn some calories.

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http://magentamagazine.co.za/health_beauty/the-ultimate-full-body-kettlebell-workout/

How Cardio Exercise Can Help You Lose Weight

How Cardio Helps You Lose Weight

It's common knowledge that weight loss happens when you create a calorie deficit, burning more calories than you eat. While some people prefer to cut calories through their diets, it helps to have a combination of things— cardio, strength training, and a healthy low-calorie diet.

All of those are important, but cardio is a key component because:

• You burn more calories at one time - Getting your heart rate into your target heart rate zone means your blood is pumping, you're breathing hard and you're sweating. As soon as you get into that efficient calorie-burning zone, your body burns calories. The harder and longer you work, the more calories you burn. For example, a 150-lb person can burn up to or more than 200 calories during a brisk 30-minute walk.
• You can easily add intensity to increase your calorie burn - With cardio exercise it's easy to increase your calorie burn with small changes in intensity: Going faster, jumping higher, climbing hills or trying new activities that your body isn't used to.
• It adds to your overall calorie deficit - Burning calories with exercise means you don't have to cut as many calories from your diet. That is as long as you don't compensate for the workouts by eating more later in the day, which can happen to some people.
• You can do cardio most days of the week -When you lift weights, your muscles require rest to recover and grow stronger. Cardio can be done most days of the week without worrying about injury or overtraining, depending on how you set up your program

With that said, some Cardio exercises offer more intensity than others.

• Impact activities: Exercises that involve some impact, like walking, will usually boost your heart rate faster than no-impact activities like swimming or cycling.
• High impact activities: High impact, or exercises that involve running or jumping, will often burn more calories than lower impact things like walking. You don't even have to do an entire workout with high impact moves. You can simply choose a few and add them to your current workout and you'll burn more calories.
• Whole body activities: When you involve both the upper and lower body, as in cross-country skiing, it's often easier to get the heart rate up and burn more calories. You can also do this by doing compound strength exercises. When done right, you get a great cardio benefit even as you build strength and endurance.