EFFECTIVE HOME EXERCISES FOR BUILDING POWERFUL LEGS

Hello Fitnation, It’s the last day in June and I thought I should quickly drop this post before the month ends. In this post I’m going to be sharing 4 simple exercises you can do at home to build the leg muscles and give you stamina. I posted homemade workout videos for the under listed exercises, so you can learn to do them yourself.

No 1 Exercise: Squat

The First exercise that comes to everybody’s mind when you talk leg programs is squat, you know why? Because it is the king of all leg exercises. Good enough the squat exercise works on all parts of the body; it strengthens the leg muscles and is equally an effective exercise for weight loss and endurance. Watch the video below to see how to do the body squat exercise (without resistance).

                                                    

No 2 Exercise: Lunges

The lunge program is another effective program that works on the leg and lower part of the body. Common Variations of the lunge program includes:

*Front Lunge

*Back/Reverse Lunge

*Side Lunge

Watch Video below to learn how to do the 3 variations of the lunge program listed above.

                         
                                              

No 3 Exercise: Wall Sits

The wall sits builds strength and endurance in glutes, calves, and quadriceps. It works on the abs and lower part of the body and is a good exercise for gaining stamina, balance and concentration power.To do the Wall sit exercise, place your back against a wall and then go down as if doing a squat, verify your legs are at a right angle with the floor, allow your back to stick to the wall and stay in that position for how much ever long you can. Watch Video below to see me do the wall sit exercise.     

                                                 

                                                   

No 4 Exercise: Climbing a Chair (Step UP)
This is a good cardio program and it is equally effective for building good legs and butt for ladies. Try this out; make sure you use a stool that is stable and not slippery. Watch video.

                          

        The best thing about these exercises is that they can be done at home without equipment but the result are still tremendous. Try them and let me know what you think.

Cheers to the fit life.   


                             

STAYING FIT; 6 WAYS TO KEEP YOUR FITNESS MOTIVATION BURNING

Hey Fit nation, I hope everyone is having a great week and staying fit? In this post we will be discussing how to keep our fitness motivation.
As a fitness trainer, I get to meet  a lot of people who are out of shape and when I try to encourage them to start off on the fit path, many of them respond: ‘I used to keep fit, but I lost my motivation’; and to such people I usually respond ‘find your motivation and keep it safe.’
                                                                             
Motivation is as important in fitness as it is in every other facet of life, once you lose your motivation, it is almost impossible to continue on the fit path.  Therefore, it is important that you renew your motivation regularly to keep it from burning out. 
Presented below are six ways to renew and keep your motivation for fitness;

     1.Create/Revisit your Motive:  Motive is the reason why we do the things we do, every action we take is backed by a motive.  If you are new to the fit life, a simple way to know your motive is by answering these questions: Why am I staying fit? What do I intend to achieve by doing this? Why do I have a Gym membership?  The stronger your motive, the greater motivation you will get from it.

      2.Take it one step at a time:  The reason a lot of people give up on their fitness journey is because they rush into it. They want to fall into shape immediately, possess the perfect body over night or start lifting heavy on their first day in the gym and if they do not see these results as soon as they expect, their motivation drains. It doesn’t work that way, a better approach is to take it one step at a time; set an easy goal, follow through and squash it, then  set another goal and repeat, as you continue in this manner, your motivation will grow and so will your endurance and strength.  Also be easy on yourself- there will be days that you just can’t get yourself to workout try as you may, on such days don’t beat yourself up, accept this as human nature, promise yourself to make it up with extra work next time and then make sure to follow up on your promise. Remember fitness is a life long journey and your goal should be to set a pace that you can keep up with.
                                       

      3.Join a workout group: A workout group is a great way to stay motivated because it encourages accountability and teamwork. It’s also fun and exciting to workout in groups.  Be sure to join a group that has members with the same set of fitness goals as you do. 

      4.Use music to motivate yourself: Whether you are going for a run, lifting weights or doing cardio, music is a great way to add excitement to your workout. It gives rhythm to your exercises and takes your mind away from the hard work you are doing, the trick is to listen to your preferred genre of music- songs that inspire and motivate you and you can listen to over and over again, create a playlist exclusively for work out and always go to the gym with your earphone and music device. Don’t forget to update your playlist or create new ones regularly.

      5.Reward yourself regularly: It is important that you create a reward system for yourself, every time you reach a fitness goal, reward yourself. Your reward doesn’t have to be expensive or demanding, it should only be something you appreciate. Every time you reward yourself it means you appreciate your efforts and that goes a long way in keeping you motivated.

      6.Encourage someone to start keeping fit: This is another great way to stay motivated and accountable, because to preach fitness, you must practice fitness. As you encourage people to start up on the fit life you become motivated to stay the course.

Even if you are new to the fit life or you lost your motivation along the way, the six formulas outlined above will help you regain your fitness motivation and keep it burning.

                                             

The more you feed your motivation by applying any or all of the steps outlined in this post, the stronger your motivation will be. I encourage you to continue staying fit-whatever the cost. Remember that health is wealth.

Cheers to the fit life.

VARIATIONS OF THE PLANK EXERCISE

Hello Fitnation; happy new month to y’all; It’s suddenly the sixth month of the year and a good time to carry out a reality check on your goals and resolutions for the year. If you find yourself lagging behind, don’t be dismayed as you have six months more to straighten things out.

One of my fitness goals for the year was to build visible abdominal muscles and as the months roll by I’m getting closer. It took lots of experiment with workout routines and nutritional plans to get to where I am today. 

Interestingly,the plank exercise is one of the many tummy exercises that built my abs muscles effectively and over the months this has come to be my favourite tummy workout.

                                  

Let me tip you on the benefits of the plank exercise.

· -It is a remedy for back pain, because it strengthens the back muscles

· -Plank exercises work directly on the inner core muscle group, which is the basic foundation for a solid six pack.

· -It makes you more flexible

· -Gives you a good posture

Even with it's immense benefits,the basic plank program can be very boring because you have to suspend yourself and stay at a particular position for a long time- the longer, the more effective. However there are many variations to the plank program that adds life to this seemly boring routine and I am going to illustrate 5 different variations.  

1. Basic Plank

How to do:  Start in a prone position(face down); then rise and suspend your body; only your elbow and toes should be on the floor, keep your butt down and head in a neutral or looking slightly forward position. Don’t drop the head to look down at your toes.

Keep the shoulders directly over the elbows or a little bit forward. Squeeze the butt and thighs together to engage the muscles.

Hold it for as long as possible!

                                  

2. Plank Jacks

How to do:

Start in the Basic plank position.

Put your feet together, then jump and spread your legs a little wider than shoulder width apart and jump back to start.

                                         

   
  3.Spider Man

How to do:

Start at the top of push-up position.

Raise the right knee towards the right elbow.

Your Leg is bent to 90-degrees with the hip rotating the foot away from your body.

While moving your leg up, look back and squeeze your core muscles.

Repeat with the left side.

                                                                                                                                                                                          

                                      

                                  

                                  

   4.Hell Raiser(Plank Up and Downs)

How to do:

Start in the basic plank position and lift your arms one at a time, each time replace your elbow with your hands and go up as if doing a push up.

Lower back down, one elbow at a time.

                                         

    5.Side Plank

How to do:

Lie on one side, then raise and suspend yourself on your elbow and your feet, make sure your body is in a straight position, squeeze your stomach muscles and hold that position as much as possible, repeat for the other side.

                                   

                                     

Try these variations out and tell me what you think. I’m expecting to read from you.

Cheers to the fit life.