Read More at Well+Good [[{“value”:” When you hit the gym with the goal of getting sculpted legs or toned abs, you may not typically consider your grip strength. This often forgotten area is actually a key area of focus for those who study longevity: Having good grip strength has been found to be an indicator of healthy lifespan. Plus, in a more direct way, it can make your day-to-day life easier. “If you think about all the things that your hands do in a day, it’s easy to see how a strong grip is beneficial,” says Tami Smith, CPT, certified personal trainer and owner of Fit Healthy Macros. Here are the benefits associated with a strong grip—plus, a quick forearm workout you can do anywhere, any time. The benefits of good grip strength Grip strength is handy for opening things…
Low Impact Strength Workout
Read More at The Betty Rocker [[{“value”:” Today I have a fun strength building workout with Coach Neesha from Team Betty Rocker, that targets your entire body with focused, low-impact (and highly effective) moves! Coach Neesha is a NASM Certified Personal Trainer and a Team Betty Rocker Coach. Wondering if you can still get a good workout that gets your heart rate up without fast-paced cardio moves and jumping? The answer is YES! This type of workout is excellent for dialing in your form, as the slower pace gives you time to pay more attention to each movement and how your body responds so you can ramp up the intensity at your own pace. If this type of training is what you’re looking for, I have a progressive low-impact challenge series available in Rock Your Life, my online home workout…
4 Surprising Benefits of Planks That Have Nothing To Do With Core Strength
Read More at Well+Good [[{“value”:” If you thought your days of planking were over when you graduated from high school gym class, you may want to reconsider. This classic move provides several benefits that can keep you healthy today and throughout the years ahead. “Planks are an incredible core exercise,” says Stan Kravchenko, NASM-CPT, a personal trainer and founder of OneFit.com. “Although the physical benefits you may see of tightening your midsection are all the hype, don’t sleep on the real benefits of a solid and strong core. It is so important for many of your daily activities, such as stability and balance—and it is also the basis for many powerful athletic movements.” We’ll dive deeper into the benefits of planks (including those that go beyond stronger abs), along with how to do the move and tips for getting it…
Dance Has Improved My Strength and Stamina—Here Are 4 More Benefits That’ll Convince You To Bust a Move
Read More at Well+Good [[{“value”:” If you know me, you will know three things: I’m overly ambitious, I’m incredibly stubborn, and the combination of the first two gets me in trouble more than I care to admit. So when I got the chance to run the 2023 Boston Marathon with only 10 weeks to train, I jumped at it—despite the fact that I’d only been clocking 10- to 15-mile weeks for about the last two years. Marathon day came, and I managed to finish despite the nagging pain of a returning knee injury from high school—just as stubborn as I—that popped up right after the halfway mark. At the time, I didn’t think much of it. But after a couple months went by and I still wasn’t able to run consistently, I began considering other means of exercising. Another fact…
6 Slam Ball Exercises to Do for Explosive Power, Full-Body Strength, and Serious Stress Relief
Read More at Well+Good [[{“value”:” With foam rollers, sliders, resistance bands, suspension trainers, and wearable weights (just to name a few), these days it seems like there’s an infinite number of workout tools to choose from. Nut none are arguably as versatile—and badass—as the slam ball. If you’ve seen these unassuming rubber balls at the gym, you might be thinking, what’s so special about them? It turns out: a lot. Slam balls are unique thanks to their ability to endure a ton of force. You can literally slam or throw them—against the floor or any other hard surface—with all your might, to your heart’s content, without breaking them. That means you can use them in a lot of cool ways in your fitness routine. “Slam balls are a highly effective, full-body workout that improves strength, power, speed, coordination, and cardiovascular…
Goblet Squats Should Be a Staple Move in Your Strength Sessions. Here’s Which Muscles They Work
Read More at Well+Good [[{“value”:” The goblet squat doesn’t just have a cool name, it is also one of the most effective ways to strengthen your legs, lift your butt, and even increase lower-body flexibility. Named because you squat while holding a kettlebell or dumbbell in front of you like a goblet, this move truly benefits everyone. In addition to the lower-body strengthening benefits of squats, this exercise has additional perks. “The front-racked nature of the goblet squat challenges the core to engage, providing stability and support for the spine,” says Kendall Wood, CPT, certified personal trainer and Tonal coach. “The upper back is also called in to join the party, with slight retraction at the shoulder blades improving posture and providing support for the external load.” Before you grab a weight and start squatting, there are a few important things…
Grip Strength Remains a Decent Biomarker of Aging
Read More at Fight Aging! Of the various simple measures that correlate with mortality and risk of age-related disease, grip strength remains a relatively good option, even in this modern era of epigenetic clocks. Illustrative of this point, researchers here show a correlation between grip strength and epigenetic age data in a sizable study population. The degree to which an individual suffers from the chronic inflammation of aging may be an important determinant of this relationship. Inflammation disrupts tissue function throughout the body, and maintenance of muscle mass and strength is one of the aspects of health negatively affected by unresolved inflammatory signaling. Researchers modeled the relationship between biological age and grip strength of 1,274 middle aged and older adults using three “age acceleration clocks” based on DNA methylation, a process that provides a molecular biomarker and estimator of the…
Tack This 10-Minute Bodyweight Strength Training Workout Onto Any Exercise Routine To Look After the Longevity of Your Bones and Muscles
Read More at Well+Good There are mountains of research showing the benefits of strength training, like improving muscle mass, preventing bone loss, and boosting self-confidence. But if your love lies with another sport and you don’t have that much time for reps each week, a short, bodyweight strength training workout may be just the thing you need for a more well-rounded exercise routine. On this week’s episode of Good Moves, Kat Atienza, co-owner of Sessions, leads you through a lightning-fast strength training class you can tack onto a run, bike ride, yoga flow, or climbing session to reap those aforementioned benefits. (It’s also great if your schedule is jam-packed and you just want a little workout snack.) After a short and sweet warm-up, you’ll get right into a few rounds of muscle-strengthening movements. “We have two sets of work with three exercises in…
How To Get Started With Hybrid Training—If You Want To Build Strength and Endurance
Read More at Well+Good An age-old question in the fitness world is whether you should split up running and strength training or do them together. Running advocates say that strength training adds extra muscle mass that impedes your running, while those for strength training argue that endurance cardio kills your gains in the gym. Though strength training and high-intensity cardio (like running, HIIT, and plyometrics) are indeed different types of exercise, the truth is that combining them to create a hybrid training program is a potent recipe for success in achieving your health and fitness goals. A 2019 study published in the peer-reviewed PLOS One found that a combination of aerobic exercise and resistance training resulted in lower blood pressure, increased lean muscle mass, and enhanced strength and cardiorespiratory fitness. Moreover, these findings suggest that combining running with strength-building activities is…
Leg Strength Is Linked to Longevity—Here Are 7 Workouts That’ll Help Your Gams Get Stronger
Read More at Well+Good Leg day is one of the most dreaded phrases in fitness. Maybe because nothing makes you feel the burn quite like Bulgarian split squats or jump lunges. Or maybe because the oh-so-slightly important act of walking can become impossible afterwards. But personally, I never feel more powerful than during a lower-body workout, and especially when I’m squatting heavy. My legs are powerful, hear them roar! Leg strength is an indicator of longevity; it’s also important to counter our often sedentary lifestyles, since being inactive causes muscles to weaken and become inflamed. So doing leg workouts regularly can help keep you healthy now and in the future. A good leg workout doesn’t have to mean loading up on a ton of weight, nor does it require misery in the moment or after the fact. If you struggle with leg day, you…