FullBody Archives

How to Start the Full-Body Workout, Per Experts

July 26, 2023 Bella

Nordic walking takes a non-traditional approach to getting your steps in. The trendy exercise offers a full-body workout outside, making it a great way to get your heart rate up while enjoying nature.

But Nordic walking offers a range of benefits that go beyond your typical stroll in the park. Similar to walking with hiking sticks, this exercise involves specialized poles. Martica Heaner Ph.D, certified Nordic walking instructor and author of Cross-Training for Dummies (Wiley) says the “poles can help push your body forward and carry yourself through space in a way that you can’t do with walking.” Compared to activities like jogging or running, Nordic walking is more on the relaxed side—but it still packs a punch.

Ahead, find out what Nordic walking is, the benefits of the exercise, learn about Nordic walking poles, and everything else you’ll need for the full-body workout.

What is Nordic walking?

“Nordic walking is a type of physical activity where you walk using special poles or sticks,” says Eva Peña, ISSA-CPT, founder & director of Wellness+ Studio. This full-body workout is suitable for people of all ages and fitness levels.

Although activities like skiing or hiking utilize poles, Nordic walking differs in that you can Nordic walk anywhere, and wear traditional walking shoes. “The poles help propel your body forward so, during the cardio exercise, you get an upper body workout along with the expected lower body benefits of walking,” Heaner says. This makes for an engaging workout.

What are the benefits of Nordic walking?

Nordic Walking offers a range of health benefits, including:

Upper body workout

Peña says the use of poles in Nordic walking creates a pushing and pulling motion, making your triceps, lats, and core work. A study of older adults found that engaging in Nordic walking improved

Concept2 SkiErg review: Compact full-body workout machine

April 24, 2022 Bella

Concept2 SkiErg review TL; DR: a quality piece of space-saving kit that provides a low-impact, full-body workout at a reasonable price.

If you’re thinking about investing in an exercise machine to help you burn fat and shape up for good, you would do very well to consider the Concept2 SkiErg. It might not be a bike, or a treadmill, or a rower – and you might think it looks unlike any other kind of cardio machine you’ve ever seen before – but this training tool appears in our round-up of the best exercise machines to lose weight for a number of extremely good reasons.

Launched in 2009 by Concept2 – world-renowned makers of the RowErg machine – the SkiErg was originally designed for cross country skiers to help them replicate the action of ploughing through snow without having to set foot outside. However, given the SkiErg’s supreme ease of use and huge accessibility, alongside its capacity to offer a full-body workout with barely any impact, the machine quickly became popular with exercisers outside of the winter sports community.

Indeed, the SkiErg has been a prominent feature on the CrossFit scene for years and regularly makes appearances in WODs and in competitions, no doubt thanks to its reputation for being so damn tough (there’s a reason why Nordic Skiing became an Olympic event in 1924).

Aside from an update in 2014 to improve the monitor

New Year’s 2022 Rotational Dumbbell Full-Body Shred Workout

January 4, 2022 Bella

Start 2022 by reminding your body that it’s built to twist and turn.

This underrated skill utilizes muscles you know well (abs, obliques, lats, and glutes, among others), but it’s often forgotten in training plans. That leaves you vulnerable to injury when you shovel snow or pick up your toddler. Fix that by doing this workout four times a week. All other days, go for a 20-minute run.

WHO CAME UP WITH THIS ROUTINE? The mind behind your first workout of 2022 is Rui Qiang Liu, C.S.C.S., a San Francisco–based trainer who was part of the second flight of the Strength in Diversity Initiative, a Men’s Health program that works to build diversity, equity, and inclusion in the fitness industry. Systemic issues have long prevented trainers from marginalized communities from forging successful careers. Strength in Diversity offers those trainers a jump start. Liu, 36, is the head strength and conditioning coach at Albany High School, and he’s working on a personal-training program, Lightning Dragon Athletics.

Directions: Do this workout as a 4-round circuit. Do each move for 30 seconds, then rest for 30 seconds.

Warmup

Bear Crawl to Reach Jump

Kathryn Wirsing

Start in bear-plank position, back flat, hands directly below your shoulders, knees below your hips, shins off the floor. Keeping your back flat and abs tight, walk forward 2 steps. Aim to move your right arm and left leg at the same time (and vice versa). Walk back 2 steps, then stand up.Jump and reach for the ceiling. That’s 1 rep. Do reps for 30 seconds, then rest 30seconds. Do 3 sets.

Workout

Lateral Lunge to Overhead Press

Kathryn Wirsing

Start standing, holding dumbbells at your thighs, shoulder blades squeezed, abs tight. Step to the left with your left foot. Keeping your right leg straight, and

This Full-Body Strength Workout Will Hit Every Muscle in Your Body With Just 4 Basic Moves

November 6, 2021 Bella

Fact: A full-body strength workout doesn’t need to be overly long or filled with complicated exercises in order to be effective. This four-move, total-body routine proves you can hit every major muscle group without spending hours in the gym doing a million different exercises.

“I’m a huge believer in the minimum effective dose,” ACE-certified personal trainer Sivan Fagan, C.P.T., owner of Strong With Sivan, tells SELF. That means focusing on the quality of a workout rather than the quantity as a way to get the most bang-for-your-exercise-buck and progress towards your goals.

Focusing on quality is really about having good form and giving your best effort, no matter how long your workout is. With this approach, you can get super solid results while saving yourself time and energy and reducing your risk of injury, says Fagan.

One easy way to get a quick-yet-effective total-body workout? Incorporate compound movements, which are exercises that involve multiple joints and stimulate large muscle groups. Compared to isolation movements, which target just one muscle, compound movements are a great choice for getting a lot done in a short period of time. And if you pick compound exercises that follow the four major movement patterns—hinging, squatting, pressing, and pulling—your workout becomes that much more efficient and functional.

Including unilateral exercises is another solid way to get the most from a workout when you want to keep it simple. Unilateral exercises require you to rely on the strength of just one limb to perform a movement, which means they often feel more intense than bilateral moves (moves done with two limbs). And because unilateral work demands balance, your core has to fire more too, in order to keep you stable and resist bending or rotating, as SELF previously reported.

The following four-move dumbbell workout, which Fagan