Making the Cut (40 page)

Hanging Abs

Muscles Targeted:
lower abs, transverse abs, hip flexors

Starting Position:
Slide your arms into two padded loops suspended from a bar or frame. Keep your feet together, and let your legs hang down slightly in front of your body.

Performance Description:
Keeping your feet together, exhale while slowly raising your knees upward toward the ceiling. If you can, try continuing this motion and rolling your pelvis upward toward the ceiling, so that your knees touch your elbows.

Tips:
Keep your head up and eyes forward. Don’t swing your legs to gain momentum. Be slow, focused, and controlled.

[variations]

Hanging Abs with a Twist

Get into the Hanging Abs starting position. Keeping your feet together, exhale while slowly raising both knees and twisting so that your left knee reaches over to the right. Slowly lower your legs back to starting position and repeat on the opposite side. Modifying the move in this way not only works the lower and transverse abs but also targets the internal obliques.

Knee Tuck Jump

Muscles Targeted:
glutes, abs, quads

Starting Position:
Stand with your feet a hip-width apart with your knees slightly bent or “soft,” and your arms hanging straight at your sides.

Performance Description:
Using your lower abs and the power in your glutes and quads, jump off both feet and bring your knees up in front of your chest so you can grab them, as though you were doing a cannonball dive in midair. While in midair, release your knees and land, on soft knees, back in starting position. Repeat.

Tips:
Keep your eyes focused forward in order to keep your back in the appropriate position. Keep your knees slightly bent when landing.

[variations]

Rock Star Jumps

Stand with your feet a hip-width apart with your knees slightly bent or “soft,” and your arms hanging straight at your sides. Using your glutes, hamstrings, and calves, jump off both legs and curl both heels up to kick yourself in the glutes. Land on a soft knee back in starting position. Repeat.

Lateral Shoulder Raise

Muscles Targeted:
lateral head of the shoulder

Starting Position:
Stand with your feet a shoulder-width apart, arms at your sides. Hold a dumbbell in each hand, your palms facing inward.

Performance Description:
Keeping your arms straight, exhale and lift the weights out to the side until they are parallel to the ground. Hold for a beat. Inhaling, slowly lower your arms back to the starting position.

Tips:
Throughout the course of the exercise, keep your palms facing inward toward your body or turned down toward the floor, so you isolate the shoulders and do not engage the biceps. Do not swing the weights, lean forward, or arch your back.

Leg Extension

Muscles Targeted:
quads

Starting Position:
Set the leg extension station so that your back is pressed firmly against the backrest. (The shin pad and backrest should be adjustable.) The seat pad of the machine should be about an inch from the back of your knees, and the shin pad should be positioned just above your ankles. Sit down, bend your knees, and slide your legs under the shin pad. Hold on to the handles attached to the seat pad, sit up tall, and draw your belly button inward toward your spine.

Performance Description:
Exhale, and straighten your legs to lift the ankle bar until your legs are straight. Hold this position for a beat in order to get a full contraction in the quad muscles. Slowly lower the weight 90 percent of the way back down. Repeat.

Tips:
Make sure you take the time to adjust the machine to fit your body. Don’t arch your back to help you lift the weight. Don’t let the ankle pad go all the way down to starting position in between reps—this motion puts too much stress on the knees.

[variation]

Cable Leg Extension

Stand about a foot in front of a cable station. Attach the ankle attachment to the cable, and set it at its lowest position on the rail. Wrap the ankle attachment around your right leg. Stabilize yourself with your left leg, and raise your right leg up at a 90-degree angle so that your thigh is parallel to the ground and your shin is perpendicular. Exhale, and extend your shin until your entire right leg is straight and parallel to the ground. Inhale, and slowly retract your leg to the starting position. Perform an entire set, and then repeat on the opposite leg.

Leg Press

Muscles Targeted:
quads, glutes

Starting Position:
Sit down in the leg press, and place your feet on the platform about a shoulder-width apart, toes pointed slightly out.

Performance Description:
Slowly lower the weight to a point where your legs are at about a 90-degree angle and your quads are just barely touching your stomach. Exhale, and with your quads bring the weight back up to the starting position and repeat.

Tips:
Always push the weight through your heels and not your toes. Never lock out your knees as you raise the weight; always keep them “soft” or slightly bent.

[variations]

Jumping Leg Press

This is a very simple modification. Perform a Leg Press, but as you are pressing your body back up to starting position, use enough force to launch your body upward, lifting your feet off the platform. Be sure to land your feet back on the platform in the same position you started on a slightly bent knee. This movement should be fluid, with no stops and starts.

Lunge (Basic)

Muscles Targeted:
glutes, quads, hamstrings, calves

Starting Position:
Stand with your feet a hip-width apart, your weight on your heels. Pull your abdominals in, and stand with your shoulders squarely over your hips.