The Skinny
The world never seems to be short on new exercise programs designed to lose weight, build muscle and enhance a person’s overall fitness. A lot of these options deliver on their promises, some don’t and probably can’t. Sometimes they may be effective for one person and not another for all sorts of reasons. Ultimately, everyone has to pick the right workout for themselves. Exploring, however, can be fun. WellWell wants to give you a leg up on your search by pointing out some of the latest contenders. Take a look and see if any seem worth it.
The Slate
This unique, if somewhat controversial, workout promises flat abs and lost pounds thanks to a simple five-minute workout. It goes like this. Lie on the floor and place a rolled-up towel underneath your lower back (right behind your navel), With this in place, extend your arms and legs away from your body. Point your toes inward until they touch and then touch your pinky fingers together so that your palms face the floor. Just lay there and hold this posture for five minutes, once a day over 10 days and you’re done. Check out this video to learn more.
High Tech workouts recently have found their way from the gyms and into homes. There are lots of options and they usually aren’t cheap. But they can be effective and engaging. A couple of the hottest tech products include the Mirror and Tonal. Mirror is designed to turn virtually any free space in your home into a fitness center by hanging this video mirror-like product on a wall. It then provides a virtual personal trainer—and lots of boutique fitness classes—right in your own space. Tonal is another all-in-one fitness system that attaches to almost any wall. It supports 200 pounds of resistance and hundreds of different exercises, offering up a full-body strength-training workouts.
High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is on fire thanks to its promise to burn lots of calories, boost metabolism and improve heart health through short bursts of activity. There are any number of exercises and workout programs that qualify as HIIT. Men’s Journal, in fact, just identified 10 exercises that aim to deliver quick results. Keep in mind that while HIIT workouts may deliver the goods, they can be pretty strenuous. But they are also reputedly easy on joints.
Want a combination of cardio and weight training exercises? Pound may be the ticket. By using rhythmic techniques seen in Pilates, Pound promised a full-body workout in about 45 minutes. The program includes alternate squatting and standing to strengthen the inner and outer thighs, buttocks, core muscles, and back muscles. The program is also designed to maintain and improve balance. Pound workouts are highlighted by the use of colorful, light weight (1/4-lb) drumsticks called ripstix that help exercisers count out the length of time they hold certain positions. These lightweight ripstix also help tone forearms, upper arms, chest, and shoulders.
Simply put, emerging fitness workout Animal Flow aims to tap into your primal instincts through ground-based movement designed to improve strength power, flexibility, mobility and coordination for anyone no matter their fitness level. The program relies on functional bodyweight movements that fuse gymnastics, acrobatics, Parkour, capoeira, and breakdancing while participants stay low to the ground and simultaneous engage various muscles. The animal reference? Oh yeah. Animal Flow aims to get your body moving like a lion stalking its prey.
Hate workouts but love to dance? The Grove program created by Misty Tripoli may be for you. It combines powerful music and simple moves, where students are encouraged to move freely to whatever floats their boat rather than prescribed dance moves. It definitely isn’t a one-size-fits-all fitness program.
The Bodybade workout kind of shakes you into shape. It focuses on vibration training that targets specific muscle groups by applying a flexing blade. This blade rapidly changes directions at a rhythm of 4.5 cycles per second. Your body, in turn, moves 270 times per minute to resist the forces of it moving back and forth. What do you get for all this shaking? Bodyblade claims it will improve coordination, flexibility, posture, efficiency of muscle function and muscle definition.
Eyes Up
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