Best Exercises for specific body parts

Remember to keep your treat day too though, by having a treat day you all allow yourself a balanced approach, ensuring that you are not trying to cut out foods forever, because as you will know from experience, by trying to cut out a certain food , all you will want it whatever food you are trying to cut out, it is the dietary version of murphy’s law! To keep you working towards your goal and help get you exercising properly, this week I am going to give you the best exercise for each body part, the exercise that I use with my clients to get the best results possible. Remember, you can’t just spot reduce one area of your body, you must build a programme that works all the body parts evenly to get the best results, so that you get the body that you want. Just like last week, you must have a resistance and cardiovascular aspect to your training plan. This week I will give you the resistance exercise that will work the body best. In terms of your reps, you should ideally do 15-20 reps, building up to 3 sets. If you do too much too soon then you will be extremely sore, which is never good! Gradually building up your muscular fitness, your recovery and your strength takes a little time, but by taking your time with it you will be ensuring that you are avoiding injury as well. Aim to do the programme in this order: Legs: Legs are the bodypart that women love training and men hate training!Being such a big muscle group, it is essential to work the legs hard. For tone, shape and firmness, leg training is easy to achieve noticeable differences in a really short time frame. My favourite leg exercise? Its hard to choose as there are so many! but it has to be the old school squat, as you can make it harder by making small changes. For the basic squat, stand shoulder width apart, with your hands by your side.Bend the knees as if you are going to sit into a chair, raising your arms in front of your body as you go down. How far down should you go? As far as you feel comfortable is my recommendation.As you get fitter combine it with a half squat, where you go all the way down and only half the way up .Seriously hard and really effective. Calves: Men need plenty of calf work, while women only need to do some every few weeks. Often neglected, calves look amazing when shapely and toned, by doing a simple calf raise you will develop the shape that will make a huge difference. Stand with your feet on a step or a block, keeping the balls of your feet on the block, your heels over the edge. Lower your heels towards the floor and then raise up on the balls of your feet towards the ceiling. If its too easy then hold while your up on your toes. Chest: The simplest, best exercise for the chest in my opinion is dumbbell bench press. By using dumbbells, you allow each arm and pectoral muscle to work independently. Ensure to keep your legs up on the bench while you are doing it, this ensures that your back is safe.Lower your dumbbells down to shoulder level and then press them back up , meeting them in the middle, being conscious to let the chest do all the work. Shoulders: There are 3 parts to the shoulder muscle or deltoid. You want an exercise that will work all 3 parts. The simplest is called a side lateral raise. Start with your feet shoulder width apart, dumbbells by your side. Raise your dumbbells up to the side and return back down .The important thing is to ensure your shoulders are pulled back, not forward like so many versions. This engages the real deltoid and helps to improve your posture as well, avoiding the rounded shoulder look. Back: Men and women both hate the soft tissue on your back. Never good! My favourite back exercise is the reverse grip lat pulldown.This is a machine that most gyms will have, you sit into the machine, turn your hands facing you, your grip shoulder width apart. Simply lower the bar to your chest and return to a locked out arm position, to get a full extension. Biceps: No matter what shape your biceps are, they will tone up simply and effectively. Chin ups are a certainly one of my favourites but they can be scary for so many people, until you build up to them begin with bicep curls. You can do them standing or seated, the essential point is to keep your elbows by your side, this ensures that the biceps do all the work. Start with the hands fully extended, curl the dumbbells up and return them back down. Triceps: Dips, dips and more dips !Got to love these. Start by sitting on a bench or a chair. Place your hands by your side and simply bend the elbows, lower your body towards the floor and then extend the arms out. Stomach: Remember, if your food isn’t tight then you won’t make much of a difference to your stomach! Again there are hundreds of different exercises that you can do, many of which are ineffective, as most of us have 6 packs underneath the fat around the waist. My favourite stomach exercise? It’s hard to say, but I love the plank/bridge. By supporting the body with the elbows and feet, keeping the back flat , parallel to the floor, all the muscles of the stomach/core are worked ,just ensure that your back is flat all the time! Its essential in terms of preventing lower back pain . All of these exercises will help you get into shape, they will make a huge difference to your body, but as with any exercise plan, ensure that you are doing everything correctly and stop straight away if you don’t feel well. If you are in a gym then maybe ask the instructors to show you the technique properly , never be afraid to ask!!

surfers workout

After last weeks column, I hope that I opened your eyes to the incredible coastline of surfbreaks that are hitting Ireland’s west coast every weekend, how easy it can be to start surfing with just one lesson and just how easy it is to progress your surfing once you have managed the basics. Think six packs, think toned arms and firm legs, think healthy glowing skin, radiating health from all that fresh air . Surfing in many respects is one of the ultimate sports for health, ticking every box. But what if you want to take your surf to the next level, what are the best exercises? 

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how to build your own programme

Having spent the past few days on my holidays around Ireland, surfing on the wonderful Inch strand, mountain running around the mysterious caragh lake near Killorglin and mountain biking through the black valley into the gap of Dunloe, my girlfriend and I were blown away by the amount of people who are out exercising, its astonishing to see that people are beginning to realise just how much Ireland has to offer interms of sports, 

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Events.....

Mini Marathon, the great Ireland run, the adidas race series are just some of the hundreds of races that are now appearing around the country on a monthly basis. A quick look on www.runireland.com will show you just how many races are now on. We are rapidly becoming a nation of running and adrenaline junkies, with these low cost races adding fuel to the fire. As I sit in Galway, penning this article, eating another meal of carbohydrates , fueling up for the connemara Ultra Marathon tomorrow morning......

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