Archive for May, 2008
Wii Fit, the Nintendo Wii Exercise Game Review
If you own a Nintendo Wii, you can workout at home with ease playing the new exercise game Wii Fit.
Fitness for Every Body: O.K., Avatar, Work With Me
Can Wii Fit, born of a best-selling gaming console, revolutionize exercise? Five testers weigh in.
Why Use a Medicine Ball?…Not Just For Boxers
Many people have seen Rocky Balboa train with a medicine ball and mistakenly think they are a training tool for boxers. While boxers benefit from their use, medicine balls are not sport specific. Medicine balls should be used by anyone looking to excel in sports, lose weight, or for general fitness.
A medicine ball is a weighted leather or rubber ball, between 1 to 25 pounds, that you throw and perform various full body exercises. The ball requires coordination, strength, and stamina to keep it under control during exercise. Some balls are as heavy as 200 pounds although it is rare to need one over 25 pounds. Using too heavy a ball will slow down your workouts and you will lose its cardiovascular effectiveness.
MEDICINE BALL BENEFITS
1. Functional Strength – It is one of the most effective tools to train all of the muscle groups in your body, especially your stabilizer muscles to work together for functional strength. This is an athletic advantage that isolation lifting does not provide. Over time, your body will learn to become more efficient with full body exercises.
2. Combined Cardivascular and Strength Training – I like using efficient gym equipment that allows me to shorten my workouts. Who has hours and hours to workout? Medicine ball workouts done properly will have your heart pounding out of your chest and highly fatigued muscles. You will increase your cardiovascular capacity, build strength, and improve muscle stamina all at once.
3. Versatility – They key to a good workout is variety. There are 100s of medicine ball exercises to explore. Because the balls are portable you can workout at home, beach, outdoors, or on the road. Exercises can be tailored for specific sports or to target specific muscle groups.
4. Cheap – You do not need to purchase expensive or complicated equipment for a great workout. Medicine balls are available for under 50 dollars. You cannot find many other pieces of gym equipment cheaper that will provide as much versatility. Many websites have tutorials on making homemade medicine balls from old basketballs and other cheap materials like sand for practically nothing. Homemade medicine ball video, the second video in that article, for instructions.
5. Provides Unique Loads on Your Muscles and Increases Hand Eye Coordination – When a medicine ball is thrown to you or by you, the path it travels is never exactly the same. Therefore, you catch it at a different place every time. You use different muscle groups to balance your body and control the ball for each catch. This trains your body to react faster to catch and control the load.
Medicine Ball History
Believe it or not the medicine ball is most likely the oldest piece of fitness equipment still in use today. Medicine balls have been a standard in exercise equipment for athletes and warriors for over 3000 years. Ancient Egyptians, Roman gladiators, and even Spartans trained with medicine balls. In recent history, Jack Johnson (the first black heavyweight boxing champ), strongmen, today’s professional athletes including Michael Jordan, US presidents, and Olympic athletes trained and continue to train with medicine balls.
Solo Workout Tip
If you want to practice certain throwing and catching exercises but you do not have a partner, buy a cheap or used personal fitness trampoline from Craigslist, ebay, or locally. Set it up solidly on an angle so it can return the ball to you at the height desired.
*Cannot find a cheap trampoline? Try using a solid brick or concrete wall and use a medicine ball designed to bounce.
Workout For Free – Stair Climbing and Benefits
Stairs are great for exercising, cardio, and weight loss. Stair climbing is an excellent way to increase your heart rate and burn plenty of calories in order to lose weight. Stairs can be found everywhere, including your home, apartment, local stadiums/bleachers, local parks, hotels, and other buildings. Step workouts are great because stairs are everywhere and you do not need any equipment to exercise on them.
This article details the benefit of step workouts. It also offers ideas such as climbing stairs with a medicine ball to increase difficulty and workout your upper body for a full body routine.
Step Up Your Workout
The 100 Dollar Home Gym
The below link is a great article about all the tools you need to create a home gym for $100. This is enough equipment to provide a great full body workout. I would personally trade in the dumbbell for a kettlebell but this is great advice for those wanting to workout at home.
Pumped, not penniless
How to get the basic exercise equipment you need for about $100
That excuse about not being able to afford to get fit? Doesn’t carry as much weight as you might think.
Fitness experts say that staying, or getting, in shape doesn’t have to put undue pressure on already-fragile finances — especially now that the weather’s warm. For around $100, the fitness-inclined can outfit a low-profile home exercise studio with all the equipment needed for a well-rounded workout, said Mary Anne Fantauzzi, a personal trainer and co-owner of Total Body Trifecta fitness studio in Saratoga Springs…