Chape Fitness Logo
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest

Do It Better – Week 2 Day 1

Leave a Comment / Fitness / By

Have you noticed that you have been able to do more things in the past week? Get ready to crush week 2.

Let´s start with your core and glutes:

Side lying crunch

This exercise primarily targets the obliques, your abdominal muscles on the sides of your trunk. Strengthening these muscles helps improve your posture and protects your back!

  1. Starting position: Lie on the floor on your side, with one foot stacked on top of the other. For stability, place your bottom arm straight out to the side with your palm down. Put your top arm with your hand behind your head and elbow pointed straight up.
  2. Exhale and pull your knee until your thigh is perpendicular to the floor. At the same time crunch your body up and touch the elbow of your top arm to your top knee. Do not pull your head as you crunch your body to the side.
  3. Inhale as you return to the starting position.

Hip trust

The hip thrust targets the glutes. Doing your hip thrusts with a resistance band gives you some advantages overdoing them with your bodyweight only or adding free weights. The resistance of a band will always increase the more you stretch it and that’s also the natural strength curve of your muscle, having the most power in the full contraction. If you do this exercise at home, you normally don’t have a bar with enough weights available to overload the hip thrust properly – resistance bands are easy to add in and add more resistance to the exercise. As you start adding weight to the hip thrust to progress, you often need to focus more on balancing the weight in your hip than focus on proper form. Resistance bands are better because they are strapped around your hip and you don’t need to mind them falling off.

Secure the band to the base of a bench, sofa, bed…

  1. Starting position: Rest your shoulders and upper back on the bench, and plant your feet firmly on the floor. Lower your hips as near to the floor as you can and pass the resistance band over your hips. The band should be taut but not overly tense.
  2. Exhale and contracting your glutes, thrust your hips upwards as far as possible, stretching against the resistance band. Imagine you will squeeze a penny between your butt cheeks when you go to the hip extension. This will give you the full squeeze and full contraction for your glutes during the hip thrust.
  3. Inhale and return to the starting position.

Tips to get the most out of this workout

  1. Read the instructions on how to do the exercises. If you skipped it, scroll up. It´s important to keep the technique in mind to perform the exercises correctly.
  2. Watch the first two sets before you start and visualize yourself performing the exercises.
  3. Grab the equipment you need (mat, resistance bands), put them in position, and keep close your bottle of water.
  4. Mute your phone. Next 10 minutes you´ll be unavailable.
  5. We aim for a total of 10 sets (5 sets each exercise), with no rest in between. However, if you need to rest, press pause and take your time.
  6. Each set is 1 minute long. If it´s too much for you right now, do as many repetitions as possible.

Are you ready? Here we go!

Well done!! See you tomorrow.

Don´t miss a workout. Get them all right into your inbox:

.

Your turn. What do you think about this?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Lower Leg

The gastrocnemius and the soleus form what we know as calf. They are involved in activities such as walking, running, jumping… 

Know more

Hamstrings

A hamstring is any one of the three posterior thigh muscles in between the hip and the knee (from medial to lateral: semimembranosus, semitendinosus and biceps femoris). The hamstrings are quite susceptible to injury.

Know more

Quadriceps

The Quadriceps Femoris is the knee extensor muscle.  As a group, the quadriceps femoris is crucial in walking, running, jumping and squatting. It´s subdivided into four separate “heads”.

Know more

Glutes

The gluteal muscles are a group of three muscles which make up the buttocks: the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus. The three muscles originate from the ilium and sacrum and insert on the femur. The functions of the muscles include extension, abduction, external rotation, and internal rotation of the hip joint.

Know more

Lower Back

The Erector Spinae is not just one muscle, but a bundle of muscles and tendons. Paired, they run more or less vertically. It extends throughout the lumbar, thoracic and cervical regions, and lies in the groove to the side of the vertebral column.

Know more

Obliques

The External Oblique is situated on the lateral and anterior parts of the abdomen. It is broad, thin, and irregularly quadrilateral. It is the largest and the most superficial (outermost) of the three flat muscles of the lateral anterior abdomen. 

Know more

Abs

The Rectus Abdominis is the most superficial of the abdominal muscles. It is this muscle which forms the six-pack shape! It is a paired muscle running vertically on each side of the anterior wall of the abdomen. There are two parallel muscles, separated by a midline band of connective tissue called the linea alba.

Know more

Pecs

The pectoralis major makes up the bulk of the chest muscles in the male and lies under the breast in the female.

The pectoralis minor is a thin, triangular muscle, situated at the upper part of the chest, beneath the pectoralis major. 

Know more

Forearm
(Posterior muscles)

The Extensor Digitorum muscle helps in the movements of the wrists and the elbows. It extends the phalanges, then the wrist, and finally the elbow. It acts principally on the proximal phalanges. It tends to separate the fingers as it extends them.

Know more

Forearm
(Anterior muscles)

The Pronator teres pronates the forearm, turning the hand posteriorly. If the elbow is flexed to a right angle, then pronator teres will turn the hand so that the palm faces inferiorly. It is assisted in this action by pronator quadratus.

Know more

Triceps

The Triceps Brachii muscles  have three muscle heads: Lateral, Medial and Long head. Primarily responsible for the extension of the elbow joint. The lateral head is used for movements requiring occasional high-intensity force, while the medial fascicle enables more precise, low-force movements.

Know more

Biceps

The Biceps brachii is  actually two separate bundles of muscles (heads). The two heads of the Biceps vary in length and as a result, are called the Short and the Long Biceps heads.

Know more

Infraspinatus

The Infraspinatus muscle is one of the four rotator cuff muscles crossing the shoulder joint and is commonly injured. It is the main external rotator of the shoulder joint.

Know more

Deltoids

The Deltoid muscle is the muscle forming the rounded contour of the shoulder. It is divided into three portions, anterior, lateral and posterior, with the fibers having different roles due to their orientation.

Know more

Latissimus Dorsi

The latissimus dorsi is the larger, flat, dorsolateral muscle on the trunk, posterior to the arm, and partly covered by the trapezius on its median dorsal region.

Know more

Trapezius

The trapezius is a broad, flat and triangular muscle. The muscles on each side form a trapezoid shape. It is the most superficial of all the back muscles.

Know more
%d bloggers like this: