Bench Crunches
For this exercise, sit perpendicularly on a bench so that your feet are hanging over one side and your upper body over the other. Hold a dumbbell between your feet, balance carefully, and bring your knees to your chest. Lower them slowly and perform 15-20 reps for threes set, you'll feel it. It is vital to dedicate at least 10 minutes to non-weighted ab exercises every time you're at the gym. You should be in constant movement, doing a cirduit of different exercises.
Spinning Leg Lifts
Lie on a bench, raise your legs and keep them straight. Place your handsunderneath your lower back, for support, and rotate your legs side-to-side in a corkscrew motion. This action works the oft-neglected obliques, and it should be performed continuously until you feel the burn. Taking yourself out of your comfort zone and varying your workout is what will help make you strong...this Spinning Leg Lifts exercise is a variation of what I do for standard leg lifts...this helps tighten those love handles.
Incline Bench Press
The incline bench isolates your upper pectorals. You're not parallel to the floor, so it's great for the upper chest. Lie on a bench and grab the bar or some dumbbells spacing your hands shoulder-width apart. Squeeze the bar and lower it down to your chest, just above your nips. Hold for one second and then press up, breathing out during the motion. And don't lock your elbows at the top; doing so can cause injury to your joints. Perform 8-12 reps for three sets. You'll get a better pump if you use moderate weights and do more reps-not less than eight. By the way, 'moderate' doesn't mean 'light'.
Push-Ups
You know the drill, when doing push-ups, lie face down on the ground, with your palms and toes touching the floor. Perform 10-20 push-ups with a wide grip, 10-20 with a regular grip, and 10-20 with a close grip. For your fouth and final set, return to the regular grip, except this time, hold for three seconds at the low position, and perform as many reps as you can until exhaustion. It is important that you don't just go through the motions because push-ups are basic. Remember though, a wider hand placement, for example, stresses the chest and shoulder muscles, a medium placement works the chest and triceps and a narrow hand placement works out the triceps.
Hammer Curls
To really build the biceps, you've got to get real intensity-to shock the muscle. Grab a pair of dumbbells and stand up straight, with your arms hanging loosely at your sides. Wrist should be turned so that one end of each dumbbell touches a thigh. Curl one dumbbell to the chest, keeping your elbow straight. Lower it back down and then surl the other. Perform 8-10 for three sets when doing the Hammer Curls.
Standing Dumbbell Curls
Grab a pair of dumbbells and hold them palms facing in. Hang your arms loosely at yoursides and alternate curling each dumbbell. Make sure you keep your back straight and still--people who sway are amateurs. The way the bicep looks is very important to some people, any one can do this to as well, remember you can still tear the muscles down using light weights. Perform 8-10 reps for three sets with this exercise.
