App Thursday: Daily Ab Workout

Sup­ple­ment boot camp with ab work!

Daily Ab Work­out is a great 5 to 10 minute daily ab rou­tine for men and women that steps you through ten of the best ab-sculpting exer­cises. These proven exer­cises, demon­strated by a cer­ti­fied per­sonal trainer, tar­get all major abdom­i­nal mus­cles. Spend­ing just min­utes a day can strengthen your core and tone your abs.

The routine’s sim­ple inter­face, com­plete with video and timer, allows you to eas­ily fol­low along and under­stand each exercise.

Com­pat­i­bil­ity
iPhone
iPod touch
iPad

Cost
FREE

Learn more →

Master the Plank

From Active​.com

There is no exer­cise that works your abs more effec­tively and effi­ciently than the plank. All of your abdom­i­nal mus­cles (trans­verse, obliques and upper) have to work together to sta­bi­lize and sup­port your entire body weight.

It also engages your glutes, shoul­ders, lats, arms and legs. Almost every mus­cle in your body is being toned and tight­ened when you per­form this power move.

Get ready to flat­ten and tone your mid­sec­tion in as lit­tle as 60 sec­onds with all the vari­a­tions of this super pose.

Mas­ter the Plank

Before you try some of the more cre­ative poses it’s essen­tial the you mas­ter the basic pose.

Remem­ber:

1. Draw your navel towards your spine. Think about really pulling your belly up, no sagging!
2. Don’t over­arch your back. You want your whole body from the top of your head to your ankles to be in a straight line.
3. Engage your glutes. This will help you keep that straight line.
4. Keep those angles at a 90 degree angle. This helps your entire body stack correctly.
5. Don’t col­lapse into your shoul­ders or let them rise towards your ears. Pulling your abs tighter will help you direct the hold to your core instead of your neck and upper shoulders.
6. Keep your gaze about 6 inches in front of your face. This will keep your neck from straining.
7. Work up to a 60 sec­ond hold, focus on per­fect form. If you need to rest dur­ing your plank drop your knees down to the ground and then rise back up again into the pose.

Plank Vari­a­tions

Once you’ve mas­tered the basic plank, check out these fun and chal­leng­ing takes on the basic movement:

Oblique Plank: Mov­ing your legs while hold­ing the plank increases the work your lower abs and obliques have to do, plus it gets your heart rate up burn­ing a ton of calories.

Side Plank: Shift­ing the plank from one arm to two forces your obliques and lats to engage– say good­bye to love handles.

Moun­tain Climbers: Want to tone and tighten your abs while ramp­ing up your heart rate? Try this fast paced ab move as a car­dio inter­val between strength moves.

Exer­cise Ball Planks: Doing this bal­anc­ing exer­cise on an unsta­ble sur­face dra­mat­i­cally increases the chal­lenge to your core by forc­ing it to tighten and lift to sta­bi­lize your body.

How to Run Downhill

From Active​.com

Run­ning uphill is a chal­leng­ing car­dio work­out, but run­ning down­hill requires great tech­nique and strong form. The fol­low­ing tips can help you run down­hill by con­serv­ing your energy, reduc­ing your chance of injury, and improv­ing your speed.

 
1. Build up slowly to steeper hills.
Prac­tice hill tech­nique on small hills first because the steeper the hill, the harder it is to stay in con­trol on the decent. Small hills help build your con­fi­dence and per­fect your form.

2. Con­trol your pos­ture and keep your strides short and fast.
Short, fast strides allow you to adapt quickly to chang­ing ter­rain and keep you in con­trol of your speed so you don’t end up doing som­er­saults down the hill. Work with grav­ity. Instead of try­ing to pull back, focus on keep­ing your pos­ture straight and your legs mov­ing constantly.

3. Con­trol from your core and relax your legs.
The far­ther the mus­cles are from your core, the more relaxed they should be. So keep your core tight, but your lower leg and foot mus­cles as relaxed as pos­si­ble. This helps you adapt to ground changes quickly.

A strong core is your best asset for con­quer­ing hills. You may also find that your legs move faster when they are relaxed, although you are exert­ing less energy.

4. The steeper the hill, the more fore­foot your land­ings should be.
Your feet are more adapt­able when you land on your fore­foot going down­hill. This helps pro­duce a bet­ter turnover rate and sup­ports a speed increase.

5. Reduce fric­tion with rapid, con­trolled strides.
As you run down­hill, grav­ity pulls you for­ward. To keep from falling on your face, you need to either slow your­self down using fric­tion, or speed up your foot land­ings. Opt for faster foot land­ings. This can help you run both faster and more safely.

6. Rest as grav­ity pushes you for­ward.
After a hill ascent, this can be a wel­come rest. Let grav­ity do most of the work here. Use your core mus­cles only to hold back enough to main­tain control.

The key to run­ning down­hill is to main­tain con­fi­dence, stay relaxed, and work with grav­ity. Don’t be afraid as you gain speed. Increas­ing your cadence can pre­vent you from falling. Remem­ber: short, fre­quent, and con­trolled steps are essen­tial for run­ning down­hill effi­ciently and safely.

Core Training > Ab Exercise

Please enjoy this re-posted arti­cle from last year. While the com­ments may be out­dated, the info in the arti­cle is timeless!

BY LAUREN

Think core train­ing involves just a bunch of sit-ups, crunches and bicy­cles? Actu­ally, true core train­ing requires much more than just abdom­i­nal con­di­tion­ing. The abdom­i­nal mus­cles play a very lim­ited and spe­cific role in your over­all core.

Your core actu­ally con­sists of many dif­fer­ent mus­cles that run the entire length of the torso. These mus­cles sta­bi­lize the spine from the pelvis to the neck and shoul­der, and pro­vide a solid foun­da­tion for pow­er­ful move­ments of the arms and legs.

Your strength orig­i­nates from the cen­ter of your body out — never from your limbs alone. The goal of core sta­bil­ity is to main­tain a solid foun­da­tion and trans­fer energy from the cen­ter of the body out to the limbs. The more sta­ble the core, the more pow­er­ful the extrem­i­ties can contract.

In addi­tion to improv­ing your over­all strength, core train­ing has some valu­able side ben­e­fits: First, core train­ing cor­rects pos­tural imbal­ances that can lead to injuries. And, core train­ing is inte­gral in devel­op­ing func­tional fit­ness — that is, fit­ness that is essen­tial to reg­u­lar, daily activities.

What are your favorite core exer­cises? Mine is squats. Share your thoughts by click­ing the “Com­ments” link above this post.

IMAGE CREDIT & ARTICLE ADAPTED FROM: About​.com: Sports Medicine

Drink Up!

BY KATHLEEN

Hydra­tion is cru­cial to your health, but in the sum­mer, it is cru­cial to the pre­ven­tion of heat ill­ness. If your activ­ity lasts an hour or less, water is the best source of hydra­tion. Longer activ­i­ties will impli­cate elec­trolytes, and then sports drinks is the bet­ter choice (alter­na­tively, water enhanced with ½ tsp of salt per 16 o.z.). Stay away from caf­feinated or car­bon­ated beverages.

Pre-hydration is as impor­tant as post-workout hydra­tion. Thirst is not a good indi­ca­tor. By the time you feel thirsty, you are dehy­drated. Dur­ing the work­out, you should be con­sum­ing 8 o.z. of water for every twenty min­utes of activ­ity. After your work­out, remem­ber to rehy­drate. If you are feel­ing dehy­drated, in addi­tion to flu­ids, try a banana, some pickle juice, or a lit­tle mustard.

Don’t waste your drink­ing water by pour­ing it on your head. Pour­ing water on the skin does lit­tle to decrease core body temperature.

Finally, one more rea­son to wear your sun block: Sun­burned skin is less effi­cient at sweating.