Fitness Equipment

In the fast paced world that we live today, many find it difficult to shell out an hour for their own bodies. Of course they realize the importance of fitness but by the time, it’s too late to mend. Even half an hour of a brisk walk per day is enough for the body to stay fit. But can we do it? That’s the real question. On the other hand if you are young and looking to tone your body, then you need to concentrate on the whole body. There are a series of exercises which can be classified into two main types, those for the upper body and ones for the lower body.

Upper Body Exercises: The upper body comprises of many compound muscles like the chest, the shoulders, the core muscles and the arms. Each of these muscle groups has many sub-muscle parts like the front and rear deltoid for the shoulders, the biceps and the triceps for the arms, the upper abs and the lower abs for the core muscles etc. When you look to workout the upper body, you need to assign exercises for each of these muscle groups. The best thing to do would be to assign a day to each muscle group. For example you can work out the chest on Mondays and the shoulders on Wednesdays. Friday can be assigned to the arms and the core muscles can easily be accommodated on the alternate days between the main workout routine. This way, you are allotting a 48 hour rest period for each muscle to recuperate. Rather than opting for specialized machine exercises, you should look to perform exercises involving free weights. Some of the free weight exercises are as follows:

• Chest Exercises – Dumbbell fly, Barbell bench press (Flat, Incline and Decline), Pullover etc.
• Arms Exercises – Dumbbell curls, Barbell curls, Hammer curls, Preacher Curls, Arm extensions etc.
• Shoulder Exercises – Overhead dumbbell press, lateral raise, front raise, dumbbell shrugs etc
• Core Exercises – Hanging leg raises, abs crunches, crossover crunches etc.

Lower Body Exercises: There are many people who only workout the upper body and ignore the lower body completely. However, this is one of the biggest mistakes that one can ever do. The lower body is equally important as stimulating these muscles releases the hormone testosterone which is extremely crucial for building muscles. Once again you need to concentrate on free weight exercises working out the thighs and the calves.

• Thighs Exercises: Barbell Squats, Split Squats, Hack Squats etc.
• Calf Exercises: Donkey calf raise

As and when you progress you need to bring necessary changes to the workout routine as the body adapts very easily to a particular routine. So exercise regularly, stay healthy and wise.