24-Hour Fitness: Arvada

Plyometric Workouts for Volleyball

In the game of volleyball, power and strength are the differences between the other team scoring a point or being able to successfully block the ball. Exercises such as plyometrics not only keep you in shape, but also improve your vertical jumping power and agility, since they increase elasticity in your muscles. Generally, up to five sets of six to 10 jumps are adequate for each plyometric exercise you perform.

Lateral Leaping
Lateral plyometric jumping exercises work on both jumping power and agility by stretching out your muscles. To do a lateral barrier jump, place a plyometric box on the floor next to your feet. Without landing on the box, jump over it from side to side. This exercise helps increase your jumping speed and decrease your landing time. Box lateral jumps are similar, except you jump up on the box, then down on the floor on the opposite side of the box before reversing and going back to your starting point. Use your arms to help power yourself up on the box. When performing plyometric exercises, it is important to not stop after completing each repetition to fully benefit from the muscular and cardiovascular workout. Instead, only take a minute or two to rest before switching to the next exercise.

Upper Body Power
Working out your upper body is also important, especially since you need muscles to pull your body up to reach the ball during a game. Plyometric exercises like the one-arm medicine ball pushup mainly works the muscles of your arms, chest, abdomen and shoulders. Get into a pushup position and rest one hand on a small medicine ball. Bend your elbows and lower your body down. As you come up, raise up the hand that is not resting on the medicine ball while straightening out the arm that is resting on the ball. As you lower yourself down again, return your free hand to the ground to complete the pushup. Alternate hands after doing six to 10 repetitions.

Squat Stamina
Squats work out leg muscles such as the glutes, calves, hamstrings and quadriceps. Take squats to a new level by adding more explosive power through plyometrics. One plyometric squat exercise is jump squats. To perform jump squats, start off in a normal squat position with your feet shoulder-width apart and knees bent. Once your legs are parallel with the floor, push off of the floor and jump up as far as you can. Immediately power back up when your feet hit the floor. Leapfrog squats are another plyometric squat exercise. Place your body in a squat position, except turn your feet away from your body at a 45-degree angle. Lower your body down and jump twice forward, then twice backward without standing up.

Depth Jumps
There are several plyometric depth jumps to help stretch out your muscles and build power: vertical, platform and long depth jumps. Vertical depth jumps are performed by jumping down off of a box and, upon landing, immediately jumping up as high as you can, reaching one or both arms up. Perform a platform depth jump by jumping from one lower box to the floor, then immediately jumping up to a higher box. Long depth jumps are performed by jumping down from a box, landing, then immediately jumping and powering yourself forward as far as you can.

Leg Exercises to Increase Quickness

Unless you're a sprinter, most athletes require the ability to react in a blink, change direction on a dime, and accelerate and decelerate in a flash. The key components of quickness -- agility, speed and acceleration -- can be trained. You can also condition your lower body for rapid explosive movements. Perform a variety of drills to improve your reflex speed, first-step quickness and lower-body power as well as to become faster on your feet.

Learn, Imprint and Repeat
When you learn movement patterns, you use the motor-control, sensory and sensory-association regions of your brain to remember the pattern, according to "Training for Speed, Agility, and Quickness" by Lee Brown and Vance Ferrigno. This memory, known as a sensory engram, captures the various components of the pattern, such as your body position and angles, the position of your feet on the ground and the control of your center of mass. While you begin by slowly going through a movement pattern and allowing your brain to register sensory feedback, you can speed up your movements via repetition until the pattern becomes almost automatic for your body. To boost reactive demands, quickness drills can incorporate more complicated choices or introduce an unpredictable element, such as a visual or auditory cue.

Sprint, Skip and Change Direction
Locomotion drills in which you sprint or skip in different directions will improve your quickness and flexibility. For example, perform a drill in which you sprint backwards, maintaining your center of gravity over your lower body. Increase your stride length as you grow comfortable moving backwards. Boost the intensity of the exercise by placing cones in a zigzag pattern and sprinting backward to each cone. Another exercise is multidirectional skipping, in which you respond to a partner or coach's cues to change direction -- forward, backward, left or right. To progress the exercise, increase the height of your skips or add a sprint on each change of direction.

First and Fast Step
You can perform exercises to improve your first-step quickness and the ability to accelerate and decelerate. For example, place two cones at a distance of 20 yards apart, and have a coach or partner give a go signal. Start jogging between the cones, which is your first-gear speed. When your partner calls out second gear, immediately speed up to three-quarters of your maximum speed and continue to race back and forth from cone to cone. Upon the command of third gear, run at full speed. Your partner should call out the gears in a random order to keep you on your toes and listening to auditory cues. Continue the drill for 25 to 30 seconds.

Empower Your Lower Body
When you quickly change direction, you leverage the power from your ankles, knees and hips -- the triple extension -- to push off the ground. By doing certain weight-lifting exercises, such as hang cleans or rack cleans, you can build the explosive power of your triple extension, according to "The Path to Athletic Power: The Model Conditioning Program for Championship Performance" by Boyd Epley. In addition, various plyometric jumps -- squat jumps, tuck jumps, depth jumps, one-legged hops and box jumps -- use the stretch-shortening property of your muscle fibers and build the explosive power of your lower body. For example, begin a tuck jump by standing with your feet shoulder-width apart and knees bent. Explode up and draw your knees to your chest. Quickly grasp your hands around your knees before you descend. Land gently on the balls of your feet with your knees bent, and then immediately spring back up to the next jump. Perform five reps for three sets.

What Hamstring Muscles Are Used to Swim?

Swimming is a total body exercise that uses the muscles of the upper and lower body. When kicking, most of the muscles of your thighs activate -- including those at the back, known as the hamstrings. All three of the hamstring muscles, the biceps femoris, semitendinosus and semimembranosus, work during the front crawl, breaststroke, butterfly and backstroke.

Anatomy of the Crawl Kick
When swimming the crawl, or freestyle, your kick has two phases -- propulsive and recovery. The kick begins when you activate the hip flexor and quadriceps at the front of the thigh for the propulsive phase. During the recovery phase, when the leg rises up toward the surface of the water, the gluteal muscles contract. All three hamstring muscles also contract shortly afterwards to assist the glutes. The hamstrings and glutes facilitate hip extension, which allows you to push forward through the water.

Other Strokes
During the butterfly, the hamstrings activate in the exact same way as they do during the crawl. The only difference is that both legs work at the same time, rather than independently. In the breaststroke, all three hamstrings are active, but the quadriceps and adductors of the inner thigh work harder because of the pulling together and extending action of the kick. The backstroke kick is similar to the crawl kick, just flipped upside down. When you raise your leg during the kick, all three hamstring muscles assist the glutes.

What About Rehab?
If you're swimming to rest an injured hamstring, pay close attention to how you feel during the kick. Although swimming is a non-impact activity, your hamstrings are still activated. If you have a hamstring injury, but feel no pain during swimming -- it may be an okay exercise as long as your doctor clears you. If you do feel pain, use a pull buoy between your legs to rest your legs and hamstrings, focusing on working only your upper body and torso.

Out of the Water
Performing dry land strength and flexibility exercises are essential to keeping your hamstrings healthy and strong, and a critical part of your overall workout regimen. Strong muscles don't fatigue as quickly while you swim and stretched muscles minimizes the potential for injury. Hip extensions off a cable machine build the hamstring action needed to support the kicking movement in swimming. Forward bends from either a seated or standing position stretch the hamstring muscles, getting you ready for your next swim.

Does Stretching Burn Calories?

When you stretch you get your blood flowing, and you may even feel a little burn as you extend your muscles to encourage flexibility and movement. Sometimes stretching can feel like a workout in itself, and there are workouts that center on stretching. When calorie burning is the motivation behind your fitness program, you'll be glad to know that stretching does burn calories, but a complete calorie-burning regimen should also include aerobic exercise and resistance training.

Yes It Does
It may not seem like it, but you're burning calories all the time, even when you're resting. Every function your body performs -- from your cells repairing and regenerating to your lungs breathing and heart beating -- requires energy. Whenever you start moving, whether it's to lift your arm, walk across the room or fold the laundry, your body burns more calories than at rest. Stretching requires movement, therefore stretching does burn calories. It's difficult to pinpoint how many calories stretching can burn. Factors such as your age, weight and the pace and intensity of your movements all affect the number of calories you can burn.

Get Dynamic
By increasing the speed and energy you put into stretching, you'll burn more calories than if you perform static or passive stretches. Dynamic stretching involves lengthening your muscles while performing movements to enhance flexibility and facilitate movement for a workout or for sports, such as running. Examples of dynamic stretches include forward and backward lunges, high-knee marching in place, leg lifts, butt kicks and pike stretches.

Stretching as a Workout
Yoga is a stretching-based workout, one that can burn between 240 and 350 calories in an hour depending on your body weight and the effort you put into your movements and holding poses. In her 2012 book "40 Days to Enlightened Eating," Elise Cantrell points out that it's more than just the movement that makes yoga a calorie burner. Not only are many of the poses challenging enough to increase your heart rate, but yoga poses also build stronger muscles that burn more calories.

Stretching is Only Part
If your fitness goals include calorie burning, especially for weight loss, don't be tempted to limit your workouts to a round of dynamic stretching or an hour or so of yoga. Those activities will benefit you, but they are only part of a complete fitness regimen. Stretching with either activity does burn calories, as well as improve muscle strength and flexibility, but they don't sufficiently condition your cardiovascular system and will only build a limited amount of muscle mass. In addition to a stretching routine, include aerobic activity such as biking, rowing, stair climbing or training on an elliptical along with resistance training to optimize your body's calorie-burning potential.

The Heart Rate Zone in Aerobic Base Building

When you build a house, a strong base gives you a strong foundation upon which to make your other improvements. When you build your body, a strong aerobic base is the first step to making progress in your fitness levels. It gives you the support to advance your exercise intensity. Your aerobic base workout uses fat for fuel and keeps you within a moderate heart rate zone for successful training.

The Magic Number
The heart rate zone for your aerobic base training is between 60 and 75 percent of your maximum heart rate. Determine your MHR by subtracting your age from 220. Multiply the result by 60 and 75 percent, which gives your heart rate zone. Wear a heart rate monitor for an easy way to track if you are exercising within your aerobic base. Another way to tell if you are within your target heart rate range is to maintain a conversation. If your respiration is too heavy and you cannot breathe, you are above your aerobic base. Otherwise, locate your pulse on the underside of your wrist, or on the side of your neck and count the beats you feel within 10 seconds. Multiply the result by six to see if you are exercising at the correct intensity.

A Matter of the Heart
Your heart responds to aerobic activity with an increase in pulse. As you perform full-body, rhythmic movements, your heart works harder to circulate oxygen-rich blood to the working muscles. Select an aerobic exercise such as cycling, walking, swimming, rowing, stair climbing, dancing or using an elliptical trainer to build your aerobic base. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends doing aerobic exercise for at least 30 minutes a day, so choose an activity you enjoy.

Burn, Baby, Burn
The heart rate for the aerobic base puts you at an intensity level that uses mostly fat as your fuel source. Fat is an endurance energy, which sustains your workout session and is converted when adequate oxygen is available. Your body prefers to use the aerobic pathways and convert fat to fuel. The presence of oxygen makes this conversion easy and since fat is usually available, your aerobic base building workout continues consistently for at least 30 minutes.

Base Jump
As your cardiovascular system and endurance improve, you are able to exercise at higher intensity levels. Plan to build your aerobic base for six to 12 weeks if you are new to exercise or are returning after an illness or injury. Exercise for 30 minutes a day and then gradually increase your duration as the weeks continue. Slowly increase the intensity level by elevating the speed and resistance of your exercise. For example, add an incline to the treadmill to push your heart rate higher.

How to Correct Sprinting Form

A high-intensity activity, sprinting involves running as fast as you are able for a short distance, such as 100 meters. Benefits of sprinting include improving overall conditioning while also building significant lean muscle mass on the legs, glutes and core. A great deal of power and force is required to be an effective sprinter; when executed incorrectly, muscle imbalances and injuries can ensue. Take time to objectively analyze how your body moves while you are running in order to improve your form.

Step 1
Focus on your technique and form. Elongate your spine, slightly lift your chest and push the shoulder blades down and away from your ears. Lean your torso slightly forward while maintaining a straight back. Engage your abdominal muscles and glutes to stay light on your feet, which can help you to avoid any unnecessary strain to your joints.

Step 2
Land on the ball of your foot. Place it directly under your center of gravity. Sprinting flat footed, which is when the heels touch the ground first, can greatly slow your movements while also dramatically increasing the risk of injury.

Step 3
Perform stride lengths that feel comfortable, being sure not to overextend the step or cut the stride too short. Shoot the striding leg up and forward with considerable force; the greater the force the faster the sprint. Perform a circular motion toward your buttocks with your heel as the foot comes off the ground, then continue the motion back toward the ground.

Step 4
Relax your arms throughout the entire duration of the sprint; any excess tension in the body can interfere with your speed. Bend your arms to a 90-degree angle and keep them in close to your sides. Pump the arms up and down in a hammer-like motion to the rhythm that coordinates with the strides. Avoid swinging the arms in front of your body while running.

Step 5
Align your neck with your spine by keeping your head neutral and relaxed; look straight ahead and avoid tilting your chin up or down during the sprint. Relax your jaw, a common place to hold tension. The tension from the jaw can travel to your neck and down your spine, interfering with the productive movements of your body.

Does Riding a Bike Help You Lose Weight in Your Outer Thigh Area?

Riding a bike is an effective way to improve cardiovascular health and lose weight. As you lose weight all over from bike riding, you'll also lose weight on your outer thighs, but it's not possible to target this area exclusively. Spot-reducing is ineffective, but as you drop the pounds with biking, you can tone the outer thigh area with strength-training moves for a slender, sculpted look.

Ride the Pounds Off
Extra pounds that have settled on your outer thigh area can leave you feeling self-conscious about your appearance. Riding a bike is an effective way to lose excess weight, including those saddlebags. Since you must burn 3,500 calories to lose 1 pound, you should plan on riding your bike for about 60 to 75 minutes daily. A person who weighs about 155 pounds will burn an average of 422 to 563 calories per hour cycling at a rate of 10 to 14 mph. As your weight decreases, you'll see a reduction in your outer thigh area, as well.

Boost Weight Loss with Interval Training
Interval training is an excellent way to boost your calorie burn for quicker fat loss all over, as well as on your outer thighs. To add interval training to your workouts you need to alternate between a few minutes of regular-paced activity, followed by a short amount of fast-paced aerobic activity. For instance, bike for three or four minutes at your normal pace. Then, for one full minute, pedal hard and fast to really get your heart pumping. Continue alternating between the two for the duration of your workout. Another way to incorporate intervals into your bike ride is to add a few inclines into your workout.

Outer-Thigh Toning Exercises
Although you can't target your weight loss specifically on your outer thighs, you can do thigh-toning exercises in conjunction with your bike riding for smooth, sculpted thighs. Plan to do your strength-training exercises two to three times weekly, for about 15 to 20 minutes each session. Build muscle in your thighs and get a trimmer look by doing glute activation lunges, squats, lateral shuffles and alternate leg push-offs. Use your body weight or dumbbells while performing these exercises.

Other Considerations
It's possible to lose weight all over and on your outer thighs with bike riding alone, but you'll lose it faster by adding a calorie-reduced diet to your plan. Keep your energy up for bike riding by consuming lean proteins, whole grains, fresh produce and low-fat dairy. Drink a lot of water, at least eight glasses per day, to avoid dehydration and keep your stomach feeling full. Consume at least 1,400 calories per day if you're a man and at least 1,200 if you're a woman.

Bikram Yoga Poses: The Half Tortoise Pose

Half Tortoise pose -- Ardha Kurmasana -- is one of 26 postures practiced in Bikram yoga. It’s relaxing, yet energizing, and can be integrated into any yoga style or practice. Half Tortoise pose is similar to Child's pose, which is taught in two different ways. One way is exactly the same as Half Tortoise pose, while in the variation, you place your arms alongside your torso with palms up instead of reaching your arms forward.

How to Perform the Pose
To perform Half Tortoise pose, raise your arms above your head with your biceps near your ears and your palms facing inward and touching. Inhale deeply. On your exhale, activate your core muscles and slowly lower your torso to the floor while bending at the waist. Keep your spine straight and stretch your arms as far forward as possible. Rest your buttocks on your heels while your forehead and pinkie fingers rest on the floor. Keep your neck relaxed. Expand your rib cage with every breath to control deep, slow and even breathing. Stay in the pose for 20 seconds. Come out of the pose by using your core muscles to lift your torso away from the floor while keeping your spine straight. Lower your arms.

Fitness Benefits
The Half Tortoise pose relieves tense necks and shoulders while stretching the back, shoulders and rib cage. The abdominal area is massaged and the core muscles are activated while coming in and out of this asana. The spine is lengthened and hips open and stretch during this pose. Elongating your spine and stretching your arms forward produces space in your rib cage to allow for full expansion of the lungs. This improve breathing and opens up the respiratory system.

Health
According to Bikram's Yoga College of India, the Half Tortoise pose provides a variety of health benefits, including helping you live longer. Perform the Half Tortoise pose to aid with indigestion, flatulence and constipation. The pose improves blood flow the brain, which boosts mental clarity and increases your memory. People suffering from asthma may also benefit from this posture as it stretches the lower part of the lungs to improve breathing, Bikram claims.

Tips and Warnings
The Half Tortoise pose can be practiced at any time. If practicing yoga at home, this is an effective pose to practice at the beginning and end of your yoga session. It is especially beneficial to perform this pose after a stressful day to help reduce your anxiety. If you are not able to touch your forehead to the ground at first, regular practice of this pose will increase your flexibility. Always talk to your doctor before beginning any new exercise program.

Dancer's Arm Workout

Dancers are recognized for their sleek, toned arms. Unlike weight lifting or body weight exercises, dance provides an indirect arm workout that tightens and tones arm muscles all at once. Luckily, you don't have to be a dancer to build stronger and more defined arm muscles.

Warm-Up
It is always necessary to warm up the muscles in the arms to prepare them for the exercises ahead and reduce the risk of injury (See Ref. 1). With your arms outstretched perpendicular to your body, make small circles with your arms; 15 clockwise, and 15 counter clockwise. You now have proper arm circulation to do the following dancer's arm workout.

Port de Bras
In ballet, the 'port de bras', or 'carriage of the arms', is an integral part of dance composition. For each position and exercise at the ballet barre, there is a corresponding port de bras. Each of these fluid arm movements provides resistance and stretch to the arms, and they can be done with or without a barre. Stand with the feet together and arms rounded in the front of the body with hands relaxed. Lift arms above the head slowly in a controlled motion and return to start position.

Plank
In addition to giving you incredible core strength, plank is a very common exercise used by dancers to provide increasing power and definition in the arm muscles. A plank is the act of holding the body in a push-up position for a sustained period of time. This not only encourages tightening the abdominal muscles, but also strengthening of the arms as full body weight is being supported by the arms. Hold each plank for 30 seconds, and rest 30 seconds in between.

Stretch
To prevent injury, it is important to stretch your muscles after you work them. Stretch the triceps by crossing one arm over to the opposite side of the body, reinforcing support at the elbow with the other arm. Alternate arms after 15 seconds.

Bikram Yoga Poses for Strength Building

Bikram yoga is practiced in a heated room where practitioners perform 26 poses. The series of poses was developed to work every muscle in the body, which makes this style of yoga an effective muscle-building activity. The heat helps you ease into the poses for rapid body toning. Like any exercise, Bikram yoga needs to be practiced regularly for you to see results. After receiving your doctor’s approval, practice Bikram yoga three or more times per week.

Legs and Gluteal Muscles
Various poses in Bikram yoga will tone your leg and gluteal muscles to strengthen the lower half of your body. The Tree pose strengthens your thighs and calves, while also increasing the flexibility of your ankles, knees and hips joints. Wind-Removing and Standing Bow poses tone the thigh muscles. Standing Head to Knee pose is an excellent strength-building exercise for hamstrings. To tone your gluteal muscles, practice the Standing Separate Leg Head to Knee and Half Moon poses.

Arms and Shoulder Muscles
Using your arms for balance and holding positions helps build strength in your upper arms, lower arms and shoulders. Standing Head to Knee pose, which is the fifth pose in the series, tones your biceps and triceps for firmer arms. Eagle, Bow and Awkward poses strengthen the upper arms. Improve your posture by stretching and strengthening your shoulder muscles with the Standing Stick and Awkward pose. Focusing your weight on your arms for balance in Locust pose is another effective way to build arm muscles.

Back Muscles
The series of poses in Bikram yoga stretches, strengthens and tones the back muscles. The Spine Twisting pose stretches your back muscles from top to bottom and also improves the health of your spine by promoting blood circulation. Locust pose strengthens your upper back, while Full Locust pose strengthens your middle back. Bow is another pose that builds muscles in the upper back, while it also helps straighten rounded spines.

Core Muscles
Muscles in your pelvis, lower back, hips and abdomen make up your core muscles. Keeping your core muscles strong improves your balance and posture. Balancing Stick and Toe Stand poses both activate all your core muscles. Wind-Removing pose improves hip flexibility and strengthens the abdominal muscles. To focus on your oblique muscles, perform the Tree pose, which also tones other core muscles. Standing Separate Leg Head to Knee pose and Standing Bow pose also strengthen abdominal muscles.