BodyTweaking.com » Strength

Stretching videos

Sparky — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 10:10:11 +0000

A poor person like me can’t afford a gym membership. Nor can I afford a trainer, who is normally provided with a gym mebership. And without a trainer there is no one around to help me with the new exercise routines and to show how it’s done, right? Actually, wrong. Internet is a great gadget. If I have a question about anything I go to my MSN list and talk to my friends about any doubts and problems I may have. Or I lookup information on other blogs, google or forums.

But what about routines that are not easily explained in words, like stretching? A big advantage of a trainer is that he can actually SHOW you how to do something. An article can only show a few pictures that are often very confusing and depressing…

But keep your head up, o bodytweaker! The great information age has arrived! Now you don’t even have to have a trainer to see how something is done right. Just look it up in video directories! God bless internet!

Jokes beside, here is a list of great video sources and some samples where you can get cool new workout ideas from:

Google Videos – a great source of videos. Doesn’t have a lot, but quite enough.

Golf stretching video 1 and video 2
A woman stretching in sitting yoga position
Another woman performing leg stretching on a railing
Lower body stretch
3 women performing stretching on the beach. Hot!
30 min. Video of a marathon preparation class: stretching.
A 4 min stretching video with expalnations. 5 star!
A woman performing deadsplit
Cycling stretching exercisses. Very useful!
5 stretches routine. Rather exotic (tai-chi like) stretches. Cool!
Abdominal stretching to tighten up stomach

ExpertVillage.com – this is a huge resource of how-to videos. not only stretching, but strength training, aerobics, etc! Just visit and look for yourself! Few samples:

Beginner gymnastics stretching.
Angela Joyce performing back stretching. Check out her other 15+ stretching videos on the same site. On your place, I would bookmark that page. Very useful!
…Heck, here is a whole list of hundreds more videos: http://www.expertvillage.com/category/health-fitness.htm

YouTube – the good ol’ youtube has also some stuff to offer.

Stretching video 1.
Stick stretching.
…wow! this flexibility inspires a lot! also check out her other videos like this one of the splits.
Towel stretching, a good idea.
…etc.

There are a lot of more videos, but I think these few are a good start and give a good idea of how a stretching routine should look like.

There are also ton of material about yoga, strength training, endurance training, etc. Just look at those websites and use their search functionalities.

Strength Training – Save Your Bones

Wit — Sun, 14 May 2006 18:58:15 +0000

According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, 28 million US citizens suffer from this desease. 80% of them are women. This has been recently linked to the fact that women are physically less active especially when it comes to strength training.
Osteoporosis is a desease of bones in which the bone density is reduced and therefore the bone becomes less stable and breaks with minimal “effort”. The most affected bones are the vertebral column, hip and wrists. Severe pains as well as bent stature are the results of osteoporosis of the vertebral column.

Osteoporosis isn’t something old people get either. More and more people show tendency to develop osteoporosis in their 40’s and even 30’s.

So how can you reduce the risk to suffer from this desease? Strength training. When you work out with weights your bones naturally become stronger.

The problem is that women try to avoid dumbbells, because they don’t want to build muscle mass and to look like men. What women don’t realize is that they have 10 to 30 times less hormones needed to build muscle than men. This means that if you did work out with the same weights a man does, and eat as much as a man does, you’d still develop 10 to 30 times less muscle mass.

You don’t have to lift the same weights nor eat as much proteins though. This means that the muscular mass you could develop is close to zero. Women can’t get huge muscles “by accident”. It requires very big weights, enormous dedication, scientifically designed diet, huge ammounts of protein and sometimes even chemical hormones to get any closer to a muscular body.

On the other hand strength training can give you a toned body, help you burn fat and make your bones stronger. Keep pumping!

Triceps Workout

Wit — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 17:53:45 +0000

The triceps. Triceps take normally 2/3 of your upper arm’s muscular mass. For some reasons though, many people pay more attention to biceps when it comes to judging someone’s physique. If you do want huge upper arms though, hit your triceps twice as hard as your biceps

You’ll need:

A bench-like structure. I use a plastic box for that.
Two adjustable dumbbells. For triceps beginners you�ll need at least 39 lbs (approx. 17 kg) per dumbbell.
Maybe a pair of old gloves.
A bodytweaker�s let�s-suffer mindset.
At least 30 minutes of your time.

Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extensions

This exercise isolates triceps completely if you’re doing it right. No other muscle shall be working. You start with your arms in vertical position, then you slowly bend your arms at your elbows. You keep your upper arms vertical and bend your elbows until your forearms are horizontally positioned. Keep in mind that you don’t move your upper arms at all. You may want to take less weight, but do this one correctly.

3-4 sets of 15 reps each shall be enough

Overhead Dumbbell Triceps Extension

As in the other exercise your triceps shall stay completely isolated when doing this exercise correctly. You do one arm at a time. You use your arm, that’s not working, as a support for your working arm. Holding your working arm just below the elbow ensures that its upper arm stays firm and you use your triceps only.

3-4 sets of 15 reps each

Standing Bent-Over Dumbbell Triceps Extension

No other muscle group is as easy to isolate with dumbbells as your triceps. In this exercise, if done correctly, you also work only on your triceps. It’s pretty easy to start moving the weight with your shoulders/back, so it’s a nice idea to take less weight, but do this exercise “by the book”. Usually I take the same weights as in other triceps exercises above.(I used less weight on these photos because it’s a pain to hold a 40 lbs dumbbell horizontally waiting for the camera to take a shot )

You shall keep your upper arms and your back in a fixed horizontal position. Concentrate on doing this exercise with your triceps only.

4-3 of 15 each

Triceps are the extensor muscles of your upper arm. It sounds important and believe me it is, strong triceps can come in handy in many situations. Besides ripped triceps just look awesome when wearing a shirt without sleeves

There are many other triceps exercises you can do at home. I’ll post some of them at a later date. Enjoy!

Note: A real bodytweaker takes less weight, but does the exercise correctly
Cost: 0$ for looking good in a sleeveless shirt

Back Workout

Wit — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 17:16:08 +0000

If there is a difficult muscle group for home workouts, then it’d probably be the back. You’ve got relatively few exercises you can do to target your back muscles. Some of the exercises are the same as in other muscle groups (e.g. deadlifts in legs workouts), so you usually don’t do them twice in a week.

Usually I do 2 exercises for the back: one for the lats and one for the middle back. The lower back gets its training on the leg workout days (deadlifts).

Pullups

This exercise trains your lats. Usually to do this exercise at home you need an adjustable pullup-bar. I’ve got an old one I bought years ago:

However, you’ll also need a space where to put this bar. After a few thousands of pullups a part of my wall literally came off.

So, since it seems that the walls in my apartment are too weak for the spirit of a bodytweaker, I had to look for alternatives. And I fianlly found one: Now I’m using the closet above my bedroom door to do the pullups. It’s a little bit tricky and hurts your fingers a lot the first few times, as you can’t really grab the edge. After some time it gets easier though. Look at the bright side of it! You also train your hands and fingers (see this article, too)!

Usually I do 4 sets of 20, 15, 10 and 10 repetitions. For starters 5+ sets of 4-5 reps may be a good idea.

Dumbbell Rows

This exercise is for your middle back. 50-70+ lbs is my standard weight here. Usually you do 3-4 sets of 20-25 repetitions each for each side. Be aware that you also hit biceps and lats here. One word of advice (although it doesn’t look like it on the photos due to my complete lack of photography skills ), it’s important to keep your left arm and your back locked, fixed in the same position. Concentrate on doing this correctly moving your right arm only. Focus on your middle-back muscles.

There are a few other exercises with dumbbells you can use to train your back. I’ll post them at a later date. Notice that this workout is relatively short. It shouldn’t take you more than 20-30 minutes. Bon chance!

Notice: A real bodytweaker always finds a way
Cost: 0$ per pullup

A Firm Handshake – The Strongest Argument

Wit — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 13:24:15 +0000

95% of human communication is non-verbal. The first time you meet somebody, it is your handshake, among other things, that reveals so many details about you. Originally handshaking is a Yemeni pre-islamic tradition used to show good will by offering a hand “without a weapon”.

Today we use a handshake as a standard form of greeting. A firm handshake is a universal sign of a strong character, fortitude, determination, courage and mutual respect. Since all those things are coherent with the values of BodyTweaking.Com, it is our duty to give this topic a special attention.

Although you’re not always aware of it, your weak handshake gives another person an impression of instability, insecurity and weakness of character. As a result that person will subconsciously develop a distrust towards your person.

On the other hand, a firm powerful handshake shows your inner strength and integrity. A person knows instantly that he/she can rely on you. A mutual trust and respect is developed right from the first moment. That’s the power of a handshake.

And it’s not a male-only thing either. A woman’s handshake doesn’t have to be “crushing”, but it has to be firm. As you think about it, “firm” is the keyword. A handshake is not about who can hurt more another person. A crushing handshake shows that you don’t care for anybody else, that you are a person without principles. The right handshake supports and affirms a person and provides an image of justice, respect and value.

Although it is not requiered, good hand strength may help you a lot to master the art of handshaking. Developed hand muscles increase the area of your hand and make it more firm. Apart from that, strong hands can always come in “handy” in other situations:

Open a tough can for your girlfriend
End a conflict in a bar without violence by crushing to pieces a glass of whiskey you’re holding (nobody’s going to mess with that). It’s a clear demonstration of power without the need of hurting anyone.
Climbing
Sex

Strong hands depend on the muscles in your hands and your forearms. You can train those muscles with the following exercises:

Dumbbell Wrist Curls (Palms Up)

Ehhhmmm… Ok, and now without the dumbbells, so you can see the actual movement:

Dumbbell Wrist Curls (Palms Down)

And that’s how it looks like (sorry you can’t see anything with those dumbbells):

Those are the basic two, now, for the handshake there’s another hand muscle you have to target separately: interossesus dorsalis. If you wonder what it is, here’s an image:

That’s where most of the physical power of a handshake comes from. There are special “gadgets” out there you can use to target that muscle. I prefer a dumbbell method I call the Thumb Curl.

What you do is: place one dumbbell on your thumbs, make sure it is stable and without moving your arms or hands do the up and down movement with your thumbs. You are moving the dumbbell with your thumbs only, up and down, just one inch. It’s a little bit tricky at first, since it’s difficult to hold that dumbbell with your thumbs. I think I’ll have to make a video of this one, the photo doesn’t reveal much of the actual movement.

Keep it strong, but controled, guys. The true strength comes from your inner self, not your muscle.

Other Resources: Functional Hand and Grip Strength Articles
Note: A real bodytweaker convinces an opponent with a single handshake
Cost: 0$ for a firm handshake?