Healthy Twists

Hello Healthy Twists fans!! My name is Susan, and I come from a blogland called The Great Balancing Act. There, I blog all about balancing out a healthy lifestyle while trying to lead some semblance of a normal life. “Normal” of course, is a word of many definitions

Hallie is actually one of my first bloggie friends. She and I started blogging around the same time way back at the start of 2009. She’s also the person who taught me how to roast vegetables!! (did you know that Hallie??)

Anyways, we all know Hallie is a running superstar now, training for her first half-marathon. She’s got a good base knowledge of weightlifting, but I’m here to help her and her readers out in the pumping iron department

I’m a recently certified personal trainer, and one thing I’m quickly realizing is that people feel really overwhelmed when it comes to designing their own workout plans. This need not be the case my friends! Designing a comprehensive full-body workout for yourself is incredibly simple.

There are 7 muscle groups you want to hit when designing a full-body workout, all of which require the same exact moves to work. I’m going to start with the three large muscle groups.

Thighs and Glutes

These muscles have the most number of exercises, all of which are equally torturous.

The Squat – Works mostly your quads and  glutes. There are a number of variations, you can stand with your legs wide or narrow, do them on one leg, with your heels raised. You can bring your knees to a 90 degree angle, or take your butt right to the floor. Put a barbell on your back, dumbbells at your side, medicine ball at your chest, or jump in between each rep. If you really have a death wish, you can flip over a bosu ball and try not to fall on your face mid-squat.

The Lunge – Another one that works mostly your quads and glutes. Again, the variations are almost endless. You can step out, step back, step sideways, walk, step diagonal into a curtsy. Hold a barbell on your back, dumbbells at your side. Lunge off a step, or step on to a bench for a “step-up.”

The Deadlift – These are amazing, but also dangerous if you don’t practice correct form. It works your lower back, quads, glutes, and hamstrings depending on the variation. Holding a barbell or dumbbells in front of you, squat your butt down, then push it back up. You can do overhand, underhand, mixed, wide or narrow grip. A wide or narrow stance, and off a step or box. To zap the hamstrings, keep you legs straight and hinge forward at the hip, lowering the weights toward the floor.

Arnold should know better than to go barefoot in the weight room… tsk tsk…

Chest

Sorry for the PG-13 picture But women need to work their pecs too! It’s too big of a muscle to ignore and will cause an imbalance in your body if your back is stronger. Plus, it’s never too early to think about when gravity will kick in…

In weightlifting, many moves are either a “push” or “pull” motion. Chest exercises are almost exclusively a push motion.

The Push Up – We all know this one. Make sure your back isn’t arched and butt isn’t sticking in the air. Our bodies naturally do this to take some of the weight off our chest. Also, make sure your hands are wide enough, when they’re too close you hit your triceps instead.

The Bench Press – Lay on a bench and push a barbell or dumbells up. Do this on an incline to hit your anterior deltoids (front of shoulders) too.

The Dumbbell Fly – Lay on a bench with a dumbbell in each hand, palms facing one another. With a slight bend in your elbow, bring them out to your side, then push them together again.

Back

Sit at a desk all day? Work your back!!! Don’t get me started on the posture rant…

Remember how our chest moves were all push motions? Well our back, being the opposing area, is all pull motions.

The Pull-Up/Pull-down – These mainly work your lats. The pull-up is one of the hardest things to accomplish in weight lifting, you can use the assist machines at the gym to help you along. Or, just stick your toe on a chair or bench to take some of the weight off. The pull-down is the same motion, except the weight is coming from above on a cable machine. You can also do an underhand grip for these (aka the chin up). Targets a few different smaller muscles, but your lats are still the big movers.

The Row – There are several different ways to do this. You can use a cable rowing machine, where you bring the weight toward your core in a seated or standing position. You can also hinge forward at the hip, and bring dumbbells or a barbell toward your center. Stick one knee on a bench and bring the dumbbells up one at a time.

Now onto our four smaller muscles!

Shoulders

The best thing a woman can do for her silhouette is work her shoulders. You won’t look bulky, it will offset your hips and you’ll look great in a tank-top!

The Overhead Press – If you only have time to do one shoulder exercise, do this one. It hits all your deltoid muscles. You can do it with dumbbells, a barbell or tubing. Sit or stand. Just remember to keep your shoulders down and don’t push your neck forward when you start to struggle with the movement.

The Shoulder Raise – This will work different areas of your deltoids depending on which movement you choose. You can bring the weight out to your sides or out in front of you. Just remember to vary which direction you bring the weight with each workout, so you’re hitting different muscles each time.

Triceps & Biceps

I put these two together because again, they are two opposing muscles with two opposing movements. To work your biceps, all you have to do is start with a straight arm and flex your arm up. Your elbow should be the only joint that moves. Your triceps are just the opposite. Start with a bent elbow, and extend your arm at the elbow until your arm is straight. Easy peasy!

The Bicep Curl – I wish I could give you a bunch of new moves to work your biceps, but this classic move will do it best. Use dumbbells, a barbell or a cable. Do it off a preacher machine, an incline bench, turn your wrists to hit different areas of your biceps.

The Tricep Extension – This is one of many, there are also kickbacks, a cable pushown, extension using cable or tubing, and my favourite, the skull crusher. Just remember they all have the same movement, and only your elbow should be moving!

Don’t think isolating these two muscles will make you look like a she-hulk. If anything, it will give you that extra little bit of sculpted definition in your arms.

Abs

Oh, abs. What a silly muscle group you are. Listen, I’m not going to sit here and list all the million kinds of crunches you should be doing to get a six pack. Cut abs are mostly made by a good diet, which is a whole other post in itself. However, it is very important to have a strong and stable core in order to perform well in all your activities.

Your abs will actually be working in all the moves I listed above. To make sure they’re fully engaged, when lifting, brace your core like you’re about to be punched in the gut. Not only will it give you more stability and power in your movements, but it will strengthen those silly ab muscles as well.

The Plank – If you absolutely must add an ab move to your workout, do this one. It will strengthen your core while not adding bulk to it. You can do it on your elbows, or with straight arms. On your side, with one leg off the ground, with a weight on your back. Much like the push-ups, ensure your butt isn’t up in the air, and push your weight back into your toes. You should not feel this solely in your back.

And that’s it!! Thank you for indulging me in this epic post, and I hope it helps you when coming up with your own full-body workouts! Don’t be scared to try new things. Scribble down some notes and bring it to the gym with you, ask people for help (I swear the meatheads are nice – they love it when you rub their ego!). Read magazines, Google new moves, watch other people in the gym, find inspiration wherever you can get it!

If you have any questions, shoot me an e-mail at thegreatbalancingact @ gmail.com, or come visit me over on The Great Balancing Act for some weight-spiration (har har).

Question of the Day: What’s your favourite weight lifting move?

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