Free Articles about Unique Exercises

Secret Training Tip #146 - "Small Ball" Crunches - An Amazing Abdominal Exercise For Everyone From Beginner To Advanced!

By Nick Nilsson

Why and how it will fire up your abs more far more

effectively than regular Swiss Ball crunches ever could.

When you think of doing crunches on the ball, you most likely get a vision of a large, brightly-colored, rubber inflatable ball.

But did you know there is a far more effective alternative?

Regular large ball crunches are an excellent exercise but you can dramatically increase their effectiveness by performing them on a much smaller ball.

How small of a ball do you use?

The ball I use for the exercise is somewhat larger than a basketball (you can actually use a basketball for this if you like though I prefer the softer ball). It is soft rubber and I got it at Target for two bucks. You can find balls like these at most department or toy stores. Note: if you get a toy ball, be sure it is fairly thick rubber. You don't want it to burst. Test it out at the store before you buy it.

Set the ball on the floor and sit in front of it with your back up against it. Your knees will be bent and your feet flat on the floor.

Roll yourself back over the ball, wrapping your back around the ball as you lay back. Note how the smaller ball not only increases the stretch on the abs but doesn't support your body as much as the larger ball. This vastly increases the demands placed on the abs during the movement.

Not only must your abs execute the crunch movement, they must also balance your torso to a far greater degree than with the larger ball.

Don't be surprised if you find your abs quivering as you do this, even if you are an advanced trainer. I have been doing this one for years and I still get the quivers if I haven't done it in awhile.

Get a full stretch back, rounding your back completely over the ball so your head is almost touching the ground. Crunch up slowly and squeeze your abs hard at the top.

For pictures on how to execute this exercise, go to:

On this page you will also find several tips on how to adjust your body position on the ball to make this exercise harder or easier, depending on your training level!

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Nick Nilsson is Vice-President of the online personal training company BetterU, Inc. He has a degree in Physical Education and Psychology and has been inventing new training techniques for more than 16 years. Nick is the author of a number of bodybuilding eBooks including "Metabolic Surge - Rapid Fat Loss," "The Best Exercises You've Never Heard Of," "Gluteus to the Maximus - Build a Bigger Butt NOW!" and "The Best Abdominal Exercises You've Never Heard Of" all available at (http://hop.clickbank.net/?mfactor/betteru). He can be contacted at betteru@fitstep.com.

Secret Training Tip #788 - Unstable And Proud Of It! Learn How To Turn The Ordinary Push-Up Into An Exercise "In Stability"

By Nick Nilsson

Push-ups are an excellent bodyweight exercise for your

chest but this version will hit muscle fibers there

that you didn't even know you had!

When I get finished teaching you this never-before-seen version of the push-up, you're going to think that either I'm crazy or a genius or both! Of course, the results you'll get from it will speak for themselves.

First, we need to set the stage for this version of the push-up.

To begin with, exercises that move your body rather than the weight (such as the push-up) have been shown to fire more muscle fibers than exercises that move the weight rather than your body (such as the bench press). This means that the push-up has the potential to activate a lot of muscle fibers.

Next, we know that exercising in an unstable environment also increases muscle fiber activation. This is because your body compensates for the instability by firing more muscle fibers in order to stabilize the resistance. Anyone who's run barefoot on sand knows the tremendous work your calves get from it. The same concept is put to work in this exercise.

* NOTE: Effective exercise requires progression, and that is essential for learning to perform this exercise safely. Because you will end up doing it in a very unstable environment, you need to start slowly and work your way into it. Naturally, if you're an advanced trainer or are used to working in an unstable environment you may progress more quickly.

Only go as far as you're comfortable with these exercise stages. Each stage holds great benefits but you should always err on the side of caution.

Read through these exercise stages one at a time, then, at the end of the article, you'll find a link where you can view pictures of each stage.

Stage 1 - Dumbell Push-Ups

Set two dumbells on the floor in the approximate hand position and spacing you would use for a push-up. You will essentially be using the dumbells as push-up handles.

The plates on the dumbell should be round (meaning that they'll roll) for maximum instability. Use fairly lightweight dumbells, e.g. 15 to 20 pounds each, so they'll move around more.

This variation by itself is an excellent exercise for beginner to intermediate trainers. You may do this variation with your knees on the floor if you've not yet developed the strength for regular, full push-ups.

Stage 2 - Swiss Ball Push-Ups

Set a large Swiss Ball (the inflatable exercise ball) on the floor where you've got some space.

Place your hands on the floor in your regular push-up position then set your legs on top of the Swiss Ball. Your shins should be on the top of the ball, placed slightly to the sides so you can use them to maintain your balance.

Do push-ups in this position. You will find that the ball will shift around as you are doing the exercise and you'll be forced to move your body around to keep your legs on top of it. The ball will roll slightly forward with you as you drop down to the bottom of the push-up position and roll slightly back as you push yourself up.

Stage 3 - Swiss Ball/Dumbell Push-Ups

Now that you've experienced instability at both ends of the push-up, it's time to put them both together and feel the burn!

Be sure you are comfortable with other two progressions before attempting this one and be sure you are not too close to anything should you lose your balance and roll off.

Set the dumbells up as you did in Stage 1 and set the ball up as you did in Stage 2. Place your hands on the dumbells first then set your legs on the ball.

Now do push-ups on three rolling, unstable surfaces!

Make sure you drop down and get a full range of motion (the dumbell handles will allow you to go further down than if you were doing them on the floor).

The first few reps may feel easy but as you continue, you will notice a burning sensation in the deep muscle fibers of your chest. Keep going! This is where it gets good. You are now hitting muscle fibers that have most likely never been effectively worked by standard chest exercises!

And if you think you're getting a burn on the first set, just wait till you do a few more sets. You'll feel it across your abs and sides too!

The reason this exercise is so effective is simple: complete instability.

Since the vast majority of chest exercises are performed in a reasonably stable position, there are some muscle fibers that never get fully worked. They aren't required to work because you're stabilized.

By placing your legs and both hands on independently moving objects, you demand massive amounts of stabilizing work on the part of your pecs. Your pecs never normally get this work with most chest exercises. Now they're stabilizing your entire body and your limbs while you're moving yourself up and down!

All this intense stabilizing work fires many more muscle fibers than are normally required for a push-up, resulting in a tremendously effective exercise for the chest.

To view the exercise progressions explained above, go to:

http://hop.clickbank.net/?mfactor/betteru&l=1090

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Secret Training Tip #463 - The Most Amazing (and Effective) Trick For Stiff-Legged Deadlifts

By Nick Nilsson

Do you have a hard time feeling your hamstrings working when

you do stiff-legged deadlifts? You will never EVER have that

problem again after you read this tip.

The stiff-legged deadlift is one of the best exercises you can do for your hamstrings. The only problem is, it can also be one the hardest exercises to perform properly.

For years, I tried to feel my hamstrings working when I did the stiff-legged deadlift. I knew it was the best exercise to work the hip extension function of the hamstrings but I never succeeded in feeling my hams work until I came up with this simple technique.

Let me tell you, the very rep of the very first set I used this technique on, I could feel my hamstrings like never before! It was like a revelation. It was also extraordinarily simple. I guarantee if you've never had success with stiff-legged deadlifts, you will definitely have it after applying this technique.

The trick? Elevate your toes on weight plates while you do the exercise. That's it! It's very simple but very elegant in the way it addresses the kinesiology and anatomy of the hamstrings. I will explain exactly how to set it up and the mechanisms of why it works so incredibly well.

How To Do It:

Set two 25-pound weight plates on the ground butted up against each other (one for each foot). They should be right beneath the barbell you will be using for the exercise and placed side-by-side so you can set your feet on both of them.

Stand in front of the barbell with your feet half on the plates and half off. The front parts of your feet will be on the plates and your heels will be on the ground. Use the weight plates to brace your feet up so that your toes are up in the air and your feet are flexed up (known as dorsiflexion). At the end of this article you will find a link to a picture of how to set up this exercise.

Bend over and grasp the bar at about shoulder width with an overhand grip. Keep your knees locked but slightly bent while doing this exercise and keep a tight arch in your lower back.

Look directly forward while you are coming up and going back down. This will help you to keep an arch in your lower back.

Squeeze the bar off the ground slowly and deliberately, coming up only until your upper body is slightly above parallel. Any higher and you'll start to lose tension in the hamstrings and throw it on your lower back. The real value of this exercise lies in the stretch at the bottom anyways.

Come down slowly, being absolutely sure to keep the arch in your lower back. As you near the bottom, stick your butt out and try to raise your toes as high up as possible. This dramatically intensifies the stretch you put on your hamstrings. Hold that stretch for a moment or two then reverse the direction without bouncing.

Repeat this for 5 to 7 reps. At the end of the set, place the barbell down gently then get ready to grab onto something for support. If you've done this technique correctly and intensely, your hamstrings will probably feel like jelly and you might find yourself prone to falling down suddenly (this is not a joke - I can't tell you how many things I've had grab onto to catch myself on after doing a hard set of these)!

Why Is This Technique So Effective?

The reason this toe-raising technique is so effective for the stiff-legged deadlift comes straight from biomechanics and anatomy.

The stiff-legged deadlift exercise places the most tension on the hamstrings at the bottom, stretched position. Therefore, in order to maximize tension on the hamstrings, we must maximize the stretch on the hamstrings at that point.

In the standard stiff-legged deadlift, this is normally accomplished by simply bending at the hips. But this is not the greatest anatomical stretch that can be put on the hamstring muscles.

As you may or may not know, the muscles of the calves are tied in with the hamstrings. Therefore, placing a stretch on the calves also places more stretch on the hamstrings. This is what the weight plates accomplish - they raise your toes, putting a stretch on the calves, which then puts a greater stretch on your hamstrings.

By stretching the hamstrings at both the hip joint and the knee joint (from stretching the calves), you literally force your hamstrings to activate strongly during the stiff-legged deadlift movement.

The difference is quite amazing! Try it for just one set and I promise you'll never go back to doing it the standard way ever again!

For a photograph of how to set this exercise up, visit:

http://hop.clickbank.net/?mfactor/betteru&l=1088

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Secret Training Tip #623 - Wave Goodbye to Flabby Arms - Bench Dips For The Triceps and How to Make Them Work Better For You

By Nick Nilsson

Want to know an exercise that requires no specialized

equipment yet tightens and builds your upper arms

effectively? Learn it here and learn how to do it better.

The Bench Dip is an excellent exercise for the tricep muscles, which are located on the back of the upper arms. It is very simple and can be done with a minimum of equipment.

You can use a bench (or even an ordinary chair) for this one. Start by sitting on the bench. Place your hands on the bench right beside your glutes with your fingers curled over the front edge. It will almost look as though you are sitting on your hands.

You will find pictures of how to do this exercise and the tricks described below at the URL listed at the end of this article.

If this is your first time doing this exercise, set your feet flat on the floor a foot or two away from the bench. Your knees will be bent.

Move your butt forward off the bench a few inches. Now dip your upper body down as though scraping your back along the front edge of the bench. Push yourself back up, squeezing the triceps hard.

This is the easiest position. As you get stronger at this exercise, you will find that this position is too easy. Now it's time to increase resistance.

Move your feet further away from the bench. This forces your triceps to take up more of your bodyweight. As you get even stronger, move your feet as far out as you can so your legs are straight. Your next position after that is with your feet up on a bench with your legs straight. You may even with to try it with your feet on a bench that is higher than the one you have your hands on.

If you get really strong and ambitious, you can even add extra resistance to your body. Have a partner stand behind you (on another bench, if necessary) and push down hard on your shoulders as you push yourself back up. Another option is to place weight plates on your lap or squeeze a dumbell between your thighs, but the partner-resistance is normally more effective.

For pictures on how to execute this exercise and the tricks for increasing the resistance, go to:

http://hop.clickbank.net/?mfactor/betteru&l=1084

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Secret Training Tip #427 - Chain & Plate Side Delt Laterals

By Nick Nilsson

Learn an incredible new side delt exercise that

will help you build a dramatic V-taper.

The lateral or side deltoids are what make your shoulders wider. You can’t change your bone structure therefore building these muscles is the only practical way to accomplish that increased width

I’ve come up with a variation of the side delt lateral raise that places not one but two distinct angles of tension on the delts at the same time. Normally, when you do dumbell laterals, you only get tension on the delts because gravity acts directly on the dumbells, pulling them straight down. This new exercise also adds tension on the delts laterally (directly out to the sides). Combined, these two angles of tension make for a far more effective movement for training the side delts. (There will be a link where you can see pictures of the set-up as well as how the exercise is performed at the end of the article.)

For this exercise you will need the following equipment: two single cable handles, barbell weight plates, two clips, and a three-foot length of chain or cable (if you use a cable, you must have loops you can hook the handles onto at both ends. This is why I prefer the chain. You can get a three-foot length of chain for a few bucks at any hardware store - it’s worth it!). Be sure you get a fairly thick quality of chain that is rated to at least several hundred pounds or more.

Hook one handle onto one end of the chain. String the chain through the center hole of the weight plate. Clip the other handle on.

Grasp both handles and get into the regular lateral raise start position (knees slightly bent, hands held down just in front of you, slight arch in your lower back). Make sure the barbell plate is hanging in the center of the chain and that it’s not resting on the ground (you may need to shorten the chain if it is).

Raise the handles directly out to the sides and up, exactly as you would for a regular dumbell lateral raise. The barbell plate will come up and contact your upper abdomen.

Hold the contraction at the top for a moment then lower slowly and repeat. If you want to get an extra squeeze of tension, on the last rep of the set, hold the contraction at the top for as long as possible until you can’t hold it up any longer.

Even though the motion itself is exactly like the dumbell lateral, the application of tension is very different. You will get more tension for a longer period with this exercise, and it's all concentrated on the lateral delts.

For pictures on how to set up and perform this exercise, go to the following URL:

http://hop.clickbank.net/?mfactor/betteru&l=1077

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Secret Training Tip #793 - Seated Hanging Leg Raises - A New Approach To An Old Favorite

By Nick Nilsson

The hanging leg raise is an excellent abdominal exercise.

This variation is not only easier on your lower back but

helps to remove the hip flexors from the movement, all

the while increasing the contraction on the abs.

This exercise targets the abdominal muscles with an extremely intense contraction. The range of motion of the exercise is short but the tension on the abs is excellent.

For this exercise, you will need a bench or chair (a bench will work better) and a bar with adjustable height. This can be a regular Olympic bar on a power rack, a Smith Machine bar, or any other set-up you can think of.

Put a bench inside the rack. Set a bar on the racks at about forehead level when you're sitting on the bench. Sit on the bench and grasp it with an underhand grip. Your legs should be slightly bent with your butt and feet on the bench.

Pull your butt off the bench and raise your knees up into your chest. Hold your breath while doing this short movement to help stabilize the abs and improve the contraction.

The movement itself looks like the top bit of a hanging leg raise. Squeeze hard at the top then lower your legs and set yourself back down on the bench. Release all tension on the abs as you exhale then do another rep.

This exercise results in a very hard contraction in the abs for several reasons:

First, the position of the legs at the start of the rep is already near the maximum contracted position of the abs.

Second, your abs start the movement in a mechanical disadvantage because they are already shortened. This means they must work harder in order to achieve the contraction.

Third, releasing all the tension on the abs between reps means you dissipate all the elastic tension that the muscle normally builds up in a regular movement.

Put these three points together and you can see that the abs have to start from scratch at a mechanical disadvantage near their peak contracted position. The results: major burn!

Another advantage this exercise has over regular hanging leg raises is that it primarily targets the abs. Normally, when you do hanging leg raises, the first part of the movement involves a lot of hip flexor action. This variation starts the movement with the hip flexors already almost fully contracted. The tension in this position goes primarily to the abs.

Even better, this version greatly reduces stress on the lower back by eliminating the first part of the movement. Generally, pain in that area occurs due to the torque on the lower back as you raise your legs from hanging directly down to bringing them up about halfway. Skip that range of motion and you skip the pain.

If you are looking for an exercise to really bring out the washboard in your abs, give this one a try. I would recommend also doing a set or two of Small Ball Crunches (see below for link to instructions) to hit the stretched and middle ranges of motion of the abs. The Seated Hanging Leg Raise is perfect for finishing the abs off.

Go to the following URL for pictures demonstrating how to perform this exercise:

http://hop.clickbank.net/?mfactor/betteru&l=1075

For information on how to do Small Ball Crunches (as mentioned above) go to:

http://hop.clickbank.net/?mfactor/betteru&l=1076

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