Myth #1: No Pain, No Gain

Let the body building macho men shriek in agony and guzzle Ibuprofen while you stick to a sensible strength training routine. Occasional soreness is common, but too much pain means you’re either not using proper form, or you are overtraining, either one can cause injury and stall your fitness program for weeks if not months.

Myth #2: Only Unfit Women Sweat Profusely During Workouts

Women who sweat during workouts are quite likely to be fit and, according to many men, sexy.  Sweating is the body’s way of cooling itself during intense workouts: the more you workout, the more efficient your body becomes at releasing the heat generated during intense exercise sessions.

Myth #3: Personal Trainers Are A Waste Of Money

I’ve only had one trainer who was a waste of my money. Session after session, he put me on the same machines, at the same levels of resistance, to do the same number of reps. until I finally fired his muscle-bound behind.

Good trainers will work you through a variety of strength training sessions using Swiss balls, athletic balls, free weights, pull-up bars, and the like.  More importantly, they’ll teach you proper form so you can avoid injury. My current trainer, for example, has shown me how to push through my heels when doing squats so I don’t blow out my knees.

Trainers are your guides, teachers, and motivators so be sure the one you hire has a personality and outlook similar to your own.  Humor is important to me, and not a session goes by when one of us are not overcome with the giggles.

Myth #4: Women Should Use Machines and Avoid Free Weights

Machines are limiting; you move the weight along a preset pathway engaging only a few muscle groups. Free weights are more versatile. With a simple set of dumbbells, for example, you can perform reps with your palms facing forward, backward, and sideways, and work your muscles in three different ways.

Free weights will help you develop better balance, which is the key to strengthening your core muscles and avoiding injury. Machines require no balance at all – you sit down, strap yourself in, and push or pull.

Free-weight exercises closely match the movement patterns you’re likely to need for specific sports such as quads and hamstrings for mountain biking, or the stabilizing muscles needed to maintain balance when rock climbing.

Weight Training Myths For Women Include Myth #5 More Reps, Less Weight Burns More Body Fat

Weight Training Myths For Women Include Myth #5 More Reps, Less Weight Burns More Body Fat

Myth #5: More Reps, Less Weight Burns More Body Fat

Completing more repetitions with lighter weights does not burn more body fat than doing fewer reps with heavier weights!  (As a writer I hate using the exclamation point, but I’ll do so here because this myth is so pervasive and so wrong!)

Your body needs 20 to 30 minutes of continuous exercise to begin burning fat.  Ten extra reps in your strength training routines are not significant enough to burn extra fat, especially if the intensity or weight is too low to build your muscles – which leads to the next myth.

Myth #6 – Women Should Work on Toning Rather Than Building Muscles

Muscle can only do one of three things – grow, shrink, or maintain. To build muscles, you need to use progressively heavier weights during your workouts.  To keep muscles the same size, simply train with the same weights, and to make the muscles small, simply don’t workout at all.

“Toned” muscles are simply the result of increased muscle size and low body fat.  Therefore, the way to achieve muscle definition is to decrease the amount of body fat through cardio while building your muscles through weight training.

Myth #7: You Must Work Your Fat Into Muscle

Just as you can’t turn apples into oranges, you cannot turn fat into muscle or vise versa.  Muscle and fat are two entirely different compounds; fat is made up of triglycerides and muscle is made up of amino acids.

However, building muscle will in turn help you burn fat. The more muscles you develop, the more calories your body will burn even while at rest.  Muscles require a lot of energy – a pound of muscle burns 60 calories a day.

To gain five pounds of muscle, your body will need an extra 300 calories a day to maintain your new physique.  I can definitely live with that.

But beware, the mountain board is highly addictive: its users continually come back for more abuse even after experiencing physical pain from unavoidable falls. In other words, the mountain board craze is just a hell of a lot of fun. Though I’ve so far managed to avoid a calamitous fall, I’m nevertheless an addict.

Mountainboarding - Increase Muscle Tone, Improve Balance, Enhance Cardio, and Proliferate Bruising!

Mountainboarding - Increase Muscle Tone, Improve Balance, Enhance Cardio, and Proliferate Bruising!

I had skateboarded my way through childhood and into adolescence. After a broken elbow and parental pressure to “grow up,” I gave it up. But several years ago, when I was still living in California, I spotted some mountain boards at a local shop. I had to try them, proving once and for all that I would never succumb to that terminal condition known as adulthood.

As I was lugging a mountain board up a small hill, San Francisco Bay Area expert Don Baker gave me a brief history of the sport. Baker’s craze started when he was in high school. Always into board sports, Baker decided to build the ultimate board − a large skateboard with big wheels and fat knobby tires designed to roll over sticks rocks and mud.

Baker wasn’t the only one to come up with the idea – snowboarders who were “dreading the off season” built them because “a few months without snow . . . and desperation overrides common sense.”

Many modifications have been made to the original designs, and companies like Ground Industries, Turfboard, and NoSno offer a variety of boards. Some have pneumatic tires, some have hard tires, and others have only two tires. The light, easy-to-maneuver boards are great for catching air, while the more rigid and heavier boards are great for rough terrain. Most boards have toe clips and a few have brake systems.

On my first try, I opted for the big, heavy and slow board. I started on the top of a grassy knoll with my feet firmly implanted in the toe clips. Baker gave me a gentle push and told me to bend my knees and keep low so if I fell, I wouldn’t have to fall far. I did as I was told, and before I knew it, I was on the bottom of the hill and the board had come to a stop. It wasn’t bad for a first try, but I yearned to do something harder maybe even catch some air.

With childlike enthusiasm, I asked Baker if I could try to go down a steep dirt hill behind the grassy knoll. He demurred and I was on my way. At that time, I could see why I had to wear a helmet and padding – the faster I went, the harder it was to maintain control. On my second try, I hit a speed wobble and suddenly, in quick succession, I saw sky . . . grass . . . more sky . . . and finally more grass. With a bruised ego, I hobbled up and watched Baker sail down the same hill with ease and grace of a consummate professional.

Baker with his partner, Kevin Delaney, started an organization called Dirtheads to promote the sport and offer the best all-terrain boarding services through lessons, demos and equipment sales. Dirtheads biggest obstacle now is finding places to ride. Dirt boarders often get kicked out of local parks and trails because rangers don’t know what to make of them and think that what their doing is too dangerous.

As for Baker, he’ll go wherever he can “catch some air” and turn on more people to the mountain board experience just like he has for the last eleven years. As for me, I’ll go wherever I can improve my fitness and get a needed adrenaline fix.

The assumption that holding a stretch for 30 seconds – known as a static stretch – readies your body for a productive, injury-free workout is flat out wrong.  A new study performed by researchers at University of Nevada at Las Vegas and published in the September 2008 issue of Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, examined whether typical leg stretches affected the strength and power in athletes.  They found that static stretches greatly reduced athletes muscle strength by as much as 30 percent.

“There is a neuromuscular inhibitory response to static stretching,” says Malachy McHugh, the director of research at the Nicholas Institute of Sports Medicine and Athletic Trauma at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

Apparently, stretches prepare the body for specific activities.  Static stretches improve static flexibility and dynamic stretches improve dynamic flexibility, which is why it doesn’t make sense to statically stretch before such dynamic activities as running, playing tennis, and cycling.

But, you may say, static stretches prevent injuries don’t they?  No, according to Rod Pope an army physiotherapist in Australia.  Pope conducted a large study to gauge the correlation between static stretching and injury prevention. As he monitored more than 1,600 recruits over the course of a year, he found no differences in the number of injuries between those who statically stretched and those who did not.

Effective Dynamic Stretches Include Walking Lunges

Effective Dynamic Stretches Include Walking Lunges

A productive warm-up should loosen muscles and tendons to increase their ranges of motion while raising the body’s temperature. The key is to make your muscles and tendons as accommodating and compliant as possible before beginning a strenuous workout. Only dynamic stretches can achieve this.

“You will need range-of-motion exercises that activate all of the joints and connective tissue that will be needed for the task ahead,” says Terrence Mahon, a coach with Team Running USA.  Such dynamic stretches include walking lunges, jump squats, and somewhat silly moves like kicking your buttocks with your heels.

Slow jogging or recumbent cycling are also good warm-ups.  My personal trainer puts me on a stationary bike for five minutes, increasing the resistance with each consecutive minute.  As I’ve told (whined to) her many times, this is not an easy warm-up, and there are days when I actually yearn for the static stretches of high school.  The only difference is that cycling prepares me for a great workout while the stretches prepared me for sitting on the sideline bench.  Go figure.

But of course, not all exercises are confined to one achievement. As you develop your flexibility, you’ll also increase your tone. For that reason, I’ve broken the best leg exercises into three categories: flexibility, tone, and strength.

The first sets of routines are to enhance flexibility in the thighs, knees, and calves. You can do them as a warm-up for strength exercises or simply done on their own. They are:

Quad Stretch

Quad Stretch

Quad Stretch

While standing, simply grab hold of a bench or sturdy chair with one hand and use the other hand to grab your leg around the ankle. Keeping your back straight, lift your leg toward your buttocks and hold for ten seconds.

Hamstring Stretch

Lying on your back, grab the back of your thigh with both hands and pull your thigh up so it’s perpendicular to the floor. Then slowly straighten your knee. If this is too easy, then you can pull your thigh close to your chest.

Piriformis Stretch

The piriformis, the muscle in the glute and thigh region, is important for intense aerobic exercises like trail running and mountain biking. Lying on your back with your legs crossed, grab the back of your leg and pull the knee as close to your chest as possible. Feel the stretch in your hips and buttocks.

Many fitness experts use the terms “toning” and “strength training” interchangeably. For this article, we’re going to say that muscle toning workouts help develop some of the smaller muscles that support the larger muscle groups; this will give you more muscle endurance which is helpful if you’re a long distance runner or bicycler. Some of the best leg exercises for toning are done with an athletic ball. They are as follows.

Leg Hinges

Lying on your back put the ball between your feet and your feet straight up toward the ceiling. Put your hands anywhere except on your legs. Keeping thighs vertical, bend only your knees, moving only the lower legs. Repeat for 30 – 50 times.

Inner Thigh Tightener

Place the ball between your middle back and the wall keeping your feet more than hip width apart. Lower your legs into a squat until your thighs are parallel with floor. Hold then return to starting position. Repeat 20 times.

Quad Strengthener

With your feet together, lift one knee as high as you can, keeping thigh close to chest. In this position, slowly extend lower leg forward until it’s parallel to the floor. Hold for five seconds, and then lower. Repeat ten times with each leg.

Unsteady Squats

With feet shoulder-width apart, stand atop a BOSU ball, wobbly board or other unstable surface. Keeping the back vertical, squat down until your thighs are perpendicular to the floor. Do 20 reps.

Last but not least, leg exercises for strength training. Whether you’re a body builder, competitive runner, mountain biker, or if you just desire powerful legs, these exercises are key to your success

Lunges with Dumbells

Stand with your feet hip-width apart, holding a 5- or 8-pound dumbbell in each hand. Lunge forward with your left leg, and then straighten your leg. When you lunge, your right knee should come to about an inch above the ground without touching it. Slowly return to starting position.

Plyometric Squats

Standing with your feet shoulder-width apart, squat down bending your knees so they’re parallel to the floor. Be sure your knees remain behind your toes. Now jump up and land softly again in the squat position. Use the strength in your legs and buttocks to jump. Land as softly as you can with your knees bent; keep your weight back, over your heels.

Back Squats

Before you bend your knees, you must rotate your hips forward so that your butt moves slightly backwards. Lower or squat down as if you are sitting on an imaginary chair. After you reach bottom, lead upwards with your chest and do not let your shoulders lean forward.

Whether you’re a runner, yoga practitioner, these are the best leg exercises you can perform to guarantee you success.

Many of us don’t like to stand up straight because it feels painful and uncomfortable – this is because we don’t know the meaning of correct posture. Unless you’re in the Army, correct posture does not mean stiffening your spine, thrusting your chest up and out, and retracting your head back to your chest. Our spines have a natural ‘S’ shape that runs from the nape of the neck down to the gluteus maximus.

If you stand in front of a mirror, you’ll notice this shape. You’ll also be able to examine your own posture. Using a full-length mirror, try to align your ears, shoulders, and hips. Your ears should be above your shoulders and your shoulders should be above your hips. Notice how this makes a straight line, but the spine still keeps is natural ‘S’ curve. Proper posture should produce little if any pain.

To attain better posture during the day, you may also want to incorporate the following exercises into your workout. Lunges are excellent exercises for your posture. Performing these increases muscle tone in your gluteus, quadriceps, and hip flexor muscles, which are vital for excellent posture.

Dumbell Lunges Are Excellent For Your Posture

Dumbell Lunges Are Excellent For Your Posture

Basic Lunge with Weights

Holding five to ten pound dumbells on each side, step forward with one leg and place it on the ground will keeping your back foot still. Lower your middle by bending your knees, and keep your weight primarily on the heel of your front foot. Then step back into the starting position and repeat 10-20 times.

Curl

As you lunge, bend your arm at the elbows and raise your weights to chest height. Step back to the starting position and repeat 10-20 times.

Lunge and Rotate

Hold the weights in front of you at waist height keeping your elbows flexed and to your side. Rotate your trunk sideways as you lunge flexing your elbows ninety degrees, keeping the weights close to your abdomen. Repeat 10-20 times with each leg.

Here are two more exercises that are crucial for good posture. They are:

Trunk Curls

Lie down with your back on the floor, knees bent, and hands behind your head. Using your abdominal muscles, lift your pelvis off the floor and hold the stance for five seconds. Try not to strain your neck or lead with your head. Imagine touching the ceiling with your chest. Repeat five times.

Arm Raises / Leg Raises

Lie face-down on the floor, keeping your neck straight, legs extended, and arms straight overhead. Slowly raise your left arm and right leg about six inches off the ground. Hold for five seconds and lower. Repeat with the right arm and left leg.

Remember, poor posture can cause a host of problems. Aesthetically, poor posture makes you look shorter, older and plumper. Physically, it can wreak havoc – slouching makes your lungs work harder, compromising your respiratory function. Moreover, poor posture puts extra strain on the neck and spine, causing pain and discomfort. You’re never too old to listen to your mother.

I live in Portland, OR where we’ve been hit with an unprecedented snowstorm – the biggest one in forty years, according to the local weathermen. Rather than remain inside fretting over closed roads and unbought Christmas presents, I tried something radical. I undusted my skis from the back of the garage, and went on a cross-country skiing tour throughout our neighborhood. It was a blast and an hour later, I skied home with the invigorated feeling of having completed an awesome full-body workout.

Cross-Country Skiing Uses Every Major Muscle Group For One Of The Best Aerobic Workouts You Can Get

Cross-Country Skiing Uses Every Major Muscle Group For One Of The Best Aerobic Workouts You Can Get

Like swimming and rowing, cross-country skiing uses every major muscle group. It mimics those motions of a NordicTrack with the added bonuses of uphill workouts, down hill fun, and fresh (albeit cold) fresh air. Outdoor cross-country skiing is by far the world’s greatest aerobic workout. Cross-country skiing burns lost of calories. According to Self.com’s calorie calculator, a woman weighing 130-pounds will burn almost 500 calories after skiing for just an hour at a reasonable pace.

If you’re now shaking your head and muttering how you’ve never cross-country skied before in your life – never fear. You can go to simply go to the nearest outfit that offers skiing lessons. You’ll be able to rent decent equipment, learn from a professional, and ski on groomed trails for reasonable prices.

Even if you just plan to ski off-track, lessons are nevertheless a great investment. With packed and groomed trails, you’ll learn or relearn the basic moves in a snap. You’ll also learn how to stop – a lesson I unfortunately forgot during my fun-filled skiing trek. You’ll be able to get a well-priced package of lessons, trail pass, and rentals for far less than the price of a lift ticket at a typical downhill skiing resort.

Because cross-country has a quick learning curve, low injury rate, and natural motions, it is an awesome activity for people of all fitness levels. Because you can ski almost anywhere it snows, you can match the terrain to match your level of expertise. Do not allow medical conditions or other intimidation factors to keep you from trying this activity.

You may have some difficulty in coordinating the walking-gliding motions. Plowing through snowdrifts and trudging up hills can be difficult, but makes for a fantastic workout. Once you get the hang of it, its one of the best aerobic activities for your body replacing high-impact, jarring actions with smooth, natural movements.

Last but not least, DO NOT QUIT like I almost did. My first time out was a miserable mess . . . my second time was a bit better . . . and my third time was am absolute blast. Give it at least five tries before you throw in the balaclava.

Image credit: p medved

If you’re in search of effective back stretching exercises, look no further than the ancient practice of yoga. Many yoga stretches gently strengthen the back muscles, giving you a healthy spine and an overall peaceful attitude.

Yoga incorporates relaxed, controlled breathing with slow and deliberate stretches; there is no better way to loosen tight muscles and ease persistent back pain. Yet as with any other activity, you’ll need to pay attention to your body to know which moves are helpful and which are hurtful.

Here are some yoga stretches you can use to maintain a healthy spine.

The Yoga Seated Back Twist or Spinal Twist is a Great Back Stretch

The Yoga Seated Back Twist or Spinal Twist is a Great Back Stretch

The Seated Back Twist/Spinal Twist

Begin seated on the floor with your legs straight in front of you. Then bend your left knee and put your left foot on the floor to the outside of your right leg. Use your right arm to pull your left knee to your chest. Place your left arm behind you with your palm facing the floor. Inhale keeping your back straight, then on the exhale twist from your waist and look over left shoulder. Hold for five to ten deep breaths. Repeat other side.

The Lower Back Stretch

Lying down with your back on the floor, knees bent, and feet flat on the floor, put your left ankle on your right knee. If you need more stretch, gently push on your left knee. For an even deeper stretch, raise your right foot from the floor. Hold for five to 10 deep breaths, and then repeat on other side.

The Supine Spinal Twist

Lying on your back with straight legs, put your left foot to the top of your right knee. Keep your arms stretched out to your sides perpendicular to your legs with your palms up. Slowly lower your lower your left knee to the right. Hold for five to ten deep breaths and then repeat on other side.

The Triangle Stretch

Begin standing in a lunge position with your feet about four feet apart, right leg in front. Straighten your left leg turning the knee and toes out a bit. If you’re able, bend your right knee until your leg and thigh are at a ninety-degree angle. Inhale, move your hands to the back of your hips. Straighten your arms and reach to the back your back leg. On an exhale, bend forward at your hips and bring the right side of your chest near your inner right thigh. Then carefully raise your hands. Hold this pose while you take three to four full breaths. Then switch legs and repeat.

Seated Back Stretch

Seated, straighten your back and keep your feet flat on the ground. As you begin to lengthen your spine, lower your arms to your thighs. Bring your chest to your thighs, and then gently lower your hands to the floor and walk your hands away from your toes. Return to starting position one vertebra at a time until you’re in starting position.

Lets face it; a strong, nimble back is a key component to a healthy body. Including these stretches into your daily workout routines could help you run, hike, and cycle throughout your eighties and beyond.

To rid yourself of these embarrassing jiggles, you need to eat right, perform regular cardiovascular exercises, and incorporate a series of arm toning exercises into your fitness plan and daily routine.

Contrary to popular belief, resistance training will not give you bulky arms; rather these exercises will give you sleek sexy curves and shapely arms. As matter of fact, the more muscle you have in the arms, the leaner they appear as muscle takes up less room than fat.

Here are some excellent routines for shaping and toning your upper arms. The good news is that these exercises can easily be performed in a home gym so there really is no excuse for flabby arms!

Bar Bell Bicep Curls

This is a key bicep exercise is one of the easiest to do technique-wise. As you stand with feet shoulder width apart, lift a barbell. Keeping your back straight, and shoulders are lower than your chest, bend the bar bell up to pectorals, then and slowly lower it to starting position. Your elbows must not move during this exercise; instead they must remain next to your sides.

Skull Crushers

Proper technique is critical with this exercise to make sure you take your time and think about your body position at all times. If done correctly, this move will give you awesome looking triceps. On a flat bench, lie on your back and hold a barbell in front of you. Keeping your elbows close to your head, lower the weight in a slow, deliberate manner, past your forehead. Lift the weight back up to starting position, and repeat.

Overhead Extensions

In a standing or sitting position, hold a barbell or dumbbell above your head. Keeping your elbows close to your head, use a slow and controlled manner to lower the weight behind your head. Once you have lowered the weight as far as you can, bring it back to the starting position, contracting the triceps at the top of the exercise, and then repeat the movement.

Bench Dips - One Exercise to Tone, Trim & Tighten Flabby Arms

Bench Dips - One Exercise to Tone, Trim & Tighten Flabby Arms

Bench Dips

Put the palms of your hands on a bench directly behind you. Place your feet in front of you with your toes and knees bent. With your elbows still and close to your sides, slowly lower you body as far as possible. Then push your arms up to starting position, and repeat.

Alternate Dumb Bell Curl

With a dumbbell in each hand stand upright with your back straight. Bend one dumb bell to your shoulder. As you lower the weight, lift up the dumbbell in the opposite arm, and repeat. This exercise must be done slowly and deliberately.

Lateral Raises

Begin with a dumbbell in each hand and arms at your sides.  With a slow, controlled motion, lift your arms to opposite sides, hold for three seconds, and then lower weights to starting position.

Triceps Kickbacks

With a dumbbell in each hand, bend forward over so that your back is parallel to the floor. Straighten your arms, hold for three seconds, and then lower the weights to starting position.

Adding these arm toning exercises to your fitness routine will erase any embarrassment you may have felt when wearing a tank top. No more batwings for you!

Ironically, many people who are new to fitness and exercise are often the ones who experience body burnout. They get a little too eager and far too impatient; striving to lose all their excess weight in one week so they can run a marathon the following week.

This is understandable considering the fast-paced, results-driven society we live in. “Newbies” must realize that a marathon runner didn’t sprint 26 miles his first time on the track – he may have only been able to walk briskly for one mile. You should only gradually reach your fitness goals; otherwise your body will rebel and you’ll get hurt.

Even experienced fitness enthusiasts make another mistake that can lead to body burnout: they fill every one of their workouts with intense, hard and demanding exercises. Even the best triathletes don’t run 10 miles, cycle 100 miles and swim 1,000 meters in every time they workout; their bodies cannot sustain it and neither can yours.

Overtraining - Even The Best Triathletes Don’t Run 10 Miles, Cycle 100 Miles And Swim 1,000 Meters Every Time They Workout

Overtraining - Even The Best Triathletes Don’t Run 10 Miles, Cycle 100 Miles And Swim 1,000 Meters Every Time They Workout

How do you know if you’re working out too hard? The American Council on Exercise has listed the following symptoms of overtraining:

* Decreased ability to perform your workouts
* Loss of balance while exercising
* Prolonged recovery periods from your workouts
* Elevated heart rate in the morning
* Decrease in appetite
* Acute muscle soreness
* Gastrointestinal discomforts
* Increased incidents of colds, flu, and other illnesses
* Increase incidence of sports and exercise-related injuries
* Inability to get a full night’s rest

Yet not all of the signs of body burnout are physical. Moderate amounts of exercise will improve your mood and reduce stress; however, too much exercise can leave you depressed and short-tempered. Psychological and emotional signs of overtraining include depression, fatigue, mental fogginess, irritability, and reduced self-esteem.

In addition, over-exercising can have some negative effects on your longevity. A famous study of 17,000 Harvard alumni showed that those who exercised in excess had a slight increase in death rate as compared to the control group. Researchers believe that over-exercising can increase cellular oxidation: this in turn leads to increased free radical formation, some of which can lead to cellular mutation and cancer.

So, once you recognize the symptoms of overtraining, it’s important to honestly face the cause. You may be overtraining in order to get ready for an upcoming sports competition or even a class reunion. It’s understandable to want to increase the amount and intensity of your workouts before an event, but nothing is worth compromising your health and well-being.

Overtraining may have more to do with emotional or psychological reasons than physical ones. Compulsive exercise or exercise addiction is now seen as a psychological problem, similar to anorexia and body dimorphic disorder. If you’re working out beyond the point of exhaustion, exercising while you’re injured, or if the time spend working out causes you to ignore other parts of your life, you may have an exercise addiction.

For some, the solution is as easy as taking more days off and reducing the intensity of your workouts.

Others might want to take the following additional steps to ease or prevent over training:

* If depression is an underlying reason why you may over train, then you should get evaluated and treated. Depression is one of the biggest psychological problems among over trained athletes and fitness buffs. Training history, discussions with your trainer and a family history can help you determine if you’re suffering from depression.

* Getting good nutrition is essential in recovering from body burnout. Make sure you eat a balanced diet, and give consideration to any extra vitamins and supplements you might need to speed your recovery. The most common deficiency, especially in women, is iron, zinc, and magnesium. Calcium deficiencies are also common if you are performing intense workouts while severely restricting your caloric intake.

* Getting an adequate amount of sleep is vital as is easing other stressors in your life. Now is the time to pamper yourself; buy a new outfit, find a new hobby or spend time with friends, anything that makes you feel better. Of course sexual activity is always helpful as it relaxes and modulates your neurotransmitters beneficently.

* Gentle massage and thermotherapy (including sauna bathing) are can be wonderful ways to speed your recovery. A word of caution: powerful massage is also a type of muscle exertion so it may slow down the recovery process. But pedicures, manicures and facials are definitely okay.

The key, it seems, to staying healthy is to do everything in moderation. Just because your friend exercises all day (or claims to) doesn’t mean you must do the same. You know the old adage: two wrongs don’t make a right . . . Your body needs time to adjust, adapt and, yes, even recuperate. Over exercising will get you as close to your fitness goals as not exercising at all; remember – moderation can be a good thing!

Perhaps because I’m a girl, I can only find fitness information geared to girls with little focus on men. For example, if you’re a guy looking for effective body sculpting exercises, chances are all the information you see is for women. Unless you want to develop firm breasts, thin thighs, and curvaceous hips, you may have to dig to find workouts suitable for you.

For that reason, I talked to several personal trainers and read what information I could find to come up with the following body sculpting exercises geared mainly for men.

So, if you’re looking to sculpt one area of your body, here are some of the best moves for each body area:

Check Out The Body Sculpting Bible for Men

Check Out The Body Sculpting Bible for Men

Shoulders

Shoulder Press

Probably the best body sculpting exercise for the shoulders. Rest a barbell on a shoulder press rack behind your neck. Press your back firmly against the padding for support, and then grab it with your hands spaced a little more than shoulder width apart. With your feet firmly planted on the floor, lift weight off the rack then press the bar directly over your head. Then lower the bar slowly behind your head to just below the ears. Repeat.

Many people have difficulty with this exercise due to shoulder restrictions. If that’s the case for you, simply switch to using dumbbells.

Chest

Pullover

Lying with your back on the bench, hold a dumbbell in your hands and slowly lower the weight behind your head in a semicircular motion, descending as low as you can without pain. Squeeze your back & chest to pull the weight back up to starting position. Remember to keep your elbows in when performing such dumbbell chest exercise.

And be careful! This exercise is often known as a skull-crusher for obvious reasons!

Chest Press

One of the all time greats. If using a barbell, lie on a weights bench and lift the weights off their rack. Start off with a lighter weight than you think you can lift to get used to the movement. Slowly lower the weights to your chest & then raise with an explosive push. Remember to breath correctly. If you’re going with heavier weights, get someone to ’spot’ you.

You can do a chest press with dumbells also. You may have to use lighter weights as you’ll be engaging more stabilizing muscles when doing the chest press this way.

Back

Bent Over Row

This move improves definition and strength of the entire back area. Bend knees a bit then, with a straight back, bend over the bar. Grab the bar with your hands more than shoulder length apart. Pull the bar to the top of your waist. When arms are extended and shoulders are stretched forward, you may return. Keep your torso horizontal for stricter execution.

Pull-up

Using an overhand grip, grab the pull-up bar keeping your hands shoulder-width apart. Pull your body up toward the bar. When your chin is above the bar, lower and repeat.

Back Extension

At a back-extension apparatus, anchor your feet and lie facedown. Hold a pair of dumbbells, keep your abs tight, and raise your torso until your body is in a straight line. Hold for a few seconds then lower to starting position. As with a;ll back exercises, take care to use good form and start with no weights until your back is strong enough.

Arms

Concentration Curls

This is one of the best exercises to tone arms and peaking the muscle. From a seating position, place your feet shoulder width apart. Bend over and grab the dumbbell weight in your right hand between your legs. Place your right elbow on the inside of your right knee. Using your knee as a pivot point, curl the weight to your left shoulder/pec, lower, and then repeat. Switch sides & repeat.

With body sculpting exercises, you can enjoy all of the benefits of a traditional weight-training routine including strength, power, and increased muscle mass. And you won’t have to obsess over cellulite and sports bras!