V Sit Abdominal Exercise

Strengthen your abs and core with this crunch-less ab exercise. Begin sitting on the floor, with both legs out straight in front of you. Bend both knees, lean back slightly and place both hands on the floor for support. Pull your belly button in and keep your torso in proper alignment. In one motion, lift both feet up off the floor. Hold for a count of 20 seconds, and then release. Begin with 5 reps.

*Consult your physician before performing exercise.

Crunch-less Abs

Squat and Reach Exercise

The squat is a functional exercise. A functional exercise means you perform the squat-motion many times throughout the day. This is the exact motion used to pick something up off the floor. Practice this motion with a Squat and Reach Exercise. Begin with your feet slightly wider than your hips. Bend your knees and hips, and sit back and down into a squat. Lower your body about six inches. Pause and reach your right hand forward and toward the floor, then return to standing to complete one rep. Repeat your squat and reach forward with your left hand, then return to standing. Do 10 reps total.

*Consult your physician before performing exercise.

Squat and Reach Exercise

Get Fit Quick Tip:

Reverse Plank for Core!

Begin seated on the floor. Place both hands flat on the ground just under your shoulders. Place both feet flat just forward of your knees. Lift up your hips. Hold for 10 seconds. Pull your shoulders down into your body, squeeze your glutes and pull your belly butting in toward your spine.

*Consult your physician before performing exercise.

Challenge Your Core

Toe touches!

Ready to challenge your abs? Do Toe Touches with your Crunches. Here’s how: Begin lying on your back on the floor. Raise both shoulders up off the floor. Lift your right leg up toward your chest and reach your left hand toward your right shin, then slowly release. Next lift your left leg up toward your chest, reach your right hand toward your left shin. Start with 10 reps.

*Consult your physician before performing exercise.

Ready to Challenge Your Abs?

Get Fit Quick Tip:

Wall Squat!

Wall Squats or Wall Sits make a great go-to lower body exercise to be completed when traveling, at the office or at home. Simply find a space along the wall or door frame. Lean your body against the wall. Place your feet about 18 inches away from the wall. Keeping your torso straight, slide your body down the wall about 12 inches. Line your knees up over your ankles. Hold for 10-30 seconds. Slide up the wall and return to your starting position.

*Always consult your physician before performing exercise.

Squats on the go!

Get Fit Quick Tip:

Get Functional with Squats!

If your fitness goal is to complete your activities of daily living with greater ease and less effort, consider adding functional exercises like Squats into your workout routine.

Squats: An effective exercise that strengthens the entire muscle chain of your body. Although you’ll feel the lower body working the most, your internal stabilizing muscles are also working to maintain proper form, posture and control.

Here’s how to get started:

Consult a Fit Pro to learn proper form based on your ability. Every body is different, and therefore approach to a specific exercise may slightly differ as well.

Maintaining posture is paramount. Maintaining proper alignment is a prerequisite to performing an effective squat.

Master form before adding the load of weights. Adding load without controlling the motion increases risk of injury. Technique matters!

Choose free-weights if appropriate. Free weights require stabilization, instead of relying on the tracking of machine.

Progressions are endless. Varying the mode of the load creates an increased challenge for intermediate and advanced exercisers. For example utilize an exercise band, hold one or two dumbbells, incorporate a stability ball, stand on a balance disk, add a simultaneous upper body exercise, vary pace or vary the range of motion.

*Consult your doctor before beginning exercise.

Get Functional with Your Fitness

1) Clock lunge pattern
Imagine a clock face and lunge one leg forward to each number. It doesn’t have to be in numerical order, clockwise or anticlockwise ‐ this will warm up the joints and muscles of your lower body in every direction.
Make it harder: turn it into a hop to each number!

2) 3D press ups
Stagger your hands one in front of the other, then swap them over. Change your hands to as wide as you can for a wide press up and then put them together in front of you for a narrow press up. This will tone your pectoral muscles hitting them in every direction.
Make it harder: clap in‐between each rep!

3) Curtsey jumps
Step one foot behind the other in a curtsey and then switch legs to turn it into a continuous hop. This strengthens the hip and glute muscles and provides a cardio workout if you go fast enough!
Make it harder: do a tuck jump between reps!

4) Narrow to wide squats
Starting with your feet together, perform a squat lowering your bottom so it is level with your knees. Return to the start position and step your left foot out to the side as wide as you can. Perform another squat in this position before stepping the left foot back to the start. Squat narrow again and repeat with the right foot.
This engages and tones all the muscles of the thighs and glutes.
Make it harder: jump the feet narrow and wide instead of stepping!

5) Prone knee to chest
Starting in a press up position, pull one knee at a time towards your opposite shoulder. Alternate these with pulling each knee in to the side of the body as far as you can.
Make it harder: do a burpee after pulling in each knee!

Watch a demonstration of each move on Gen’s YouTube Channel HERE!

Gen Levrant is an Advanced Personal Trainer and fat-loss specialist operating out of a private functional training studio in Southampton UK. For fitness tips, updates and further info: http://www.fasterpt.com/personal-trainer-southampton/or email Gen via gen@fasterpt.com. Follow her on Twitter @PTGen, and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/FasterPersonalTrainingSouthampton

Creative Exercising by Gen Levrant

What’s the solution?
Here are my five must-try exercises to try at your next visit to the gym. They require little or no equipment, recruit every major muscle group and will give you a short, sharp effective workout without having to wait for any machine! (As always, be sure to obtain clearance from your physician before beginning this or any exercise regime.)

1: Pivot Clock Lunge
Alternative to: regular cardio warm up
Good for: warming up entire body three-dimensionally
Keeping one foot static, pivot the other foot forwards and backwards into a lunge. Repeat in every direction (as if you were lunging to each opposite number on a clock face) before swapping feet.

2: 3D Press Ups
Alternative to: regular press ups/chest press machine
Good for: core, chest, arms
Perform a regular press up (either full or on knees) but keep changing your hand position on each rep: wide, narrow, one hand forward, one hand behind…

3: Wide to Narrow Squats (with/without dumbbells)
Alternative to: leg press, squat rack
Good for: lower body, core, cardio
Perform a regular squat and jump your feet together as you straighten up. Squat again before jumping your feet to wide again.

4: One-legged shoulder press (with/without dumbbells)
Alternative to: shoulder press machine, sit ups
Good for: shoulders, core, balance/proprioception
Set your core and balance on one foot. Reach one arm at a time up. To hit all muscles of your shoulder and challenge your core further, keep changing the direction in which you are reaching: out to the side, across the body…

5: Air Jack Burpees
Alternative to: a long time on any cardio machine!
Good for: fat-burning cardio
Perform a regular burpee but once your feet have jumped towards your chest, perform an air jack: a star jump but off the ground. If this is too intense, try a regular star jump!

You are now armed with a new gym plan that means: no waiting around for machines, every minute spent in the gym will be effective, a fat-burning workout that can be done in minute intervals or a circuit (try 3 rounds of 15 reps of exercises 2-4), and a happier and less frustrated you!

Gen Levrant is a Faster Health and Fitness certified Personal Trainer and Advanced Functional Training Specialist. She operates out of a private studio in Southampton, UK. For more info please visit http://www.fasterpt.com/personaltrainer/personal-training-south-west/faster-personal-training-southampton/southampton-gen-levrant/. You can reach Gen via email at Gen@fasterpt.com visit her Facebook page or follow her on Twitter @PTGen

5 Must-Try Exercises at the Gym by Gen Levrant