But if benching hurts your shoulders, you train at home without a trusty spotter, or you’ve found that barbell training just doesn’t give you a bigger chest, dumbbell work is the answer.

Strengthen Your Chest with Dumbbells

Dumbbell training may not be as sexy as loading up the bar till it bends, but for most people, it’s actually a better road to a bigger, stronger, set of pecs, and offers less risk of injury to boot.

We’re about to show you the best dumbbell exercises and workouts to develop your chest, top to bottom.

What Are The Benefits of Working Out My Chest With Dumbbells?

“The second you put two weights into your hands, it becomes doubly hard to stabilize them,” says Dr. John Rusin, a strength and conditioning coach and author of Functional Hypertrophy Training (available at drjohnrusin.com). That’s a good thing, he says: the smaller muscles in your shoulder joints learn to stabilize those joints, while the big muscles (the pecs, mainly) work harder to control the weights, preventing them from drifting in all directions. Dumbbell training offers the following benefits for chest gains.

#1. Dumbbells Allow a Greater Range of Motion

When you perform bench presses with a barbell, the bar hits your chest before your pectoral muscles achieve a full stretch. That’s not so bad if your goal is to press the biggest weight you can. But if you want to gain size and athletic performance, you may be better off with dumbbells, which allow you to lower the weights past chest level—maximally stretching the pecs and activating more muscle fibers. A study from the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research suggests that larger ranges of motion lead to more muscle growth.

#2. Dumbbells Build More Stability

Yes, they’re harder to control than a barbell or machine handle, but that’s kind of the point. Your arms may shake a bit when you’re doing a dumbbell bench press or flye for the first time, or the first time in a long time, but that’s because your muscle are learning to stabilize your shoulder joints while they’re producing force. This is helpful for making you functionally stronger in the long run, so your muscles can produce force under various conditions—not just when the object they’re pushing against is perfectly balanced or moving in a straight line.

#3. Dumbbells Place Less Stress on Your Joints.

Funny thing about the human body: it only looks symmetrical. In fact, your shoulders, hips, wrists and other joints are all slightly different from one side to the other. So, when you force the body to move with perfect symmetry—as when you lower an evenly-weighted bar directly to the middle of your chest—one side will always take on a little more of the stress than the other. Do this often enough, and the joints on that side will start to complain.

Dumbbells allow both sides of your body to find their optimal path when performing an exercise. Your wrists are free to rotate, and your elbows and shoulders can travel along the path that’s most comfortable for them, essentially customizing the exercise for your body. That places the stress of the exercise right where it belongs—in your muscles, and not your joints.

#4. Dumbbells Give you Balanced Development and Strength.

This builds on our last point. You may feel like your right and left arm push with equal force on the barbell bench press, but humans are very good at compensating—throwing a little more stress onto their stronger side while favoring their weaker one. That’s not possible with dumbbells: your right and left sides have to stabilize and push with equal force—and if one side lags behind, you feel it immediately. This ensures that you never push a set farther than your weaker side can handle. Eventually, the strength on your two sides should roughly even out. And if you need extra work to bring up the weaker side, dumbbells make doing a few more reps or sets with it simple to do.

#5. Dumbbells Work the Pecs Harder.

Bench-press a pair of dumbbells and you’ll feel that the chest muscles have to contract at the top of the movement to prevent the weights from drifting outward. That’s not something you need to worry about when your hands are connected by a steel bar. A 2017 study found that dumbbell bench presses activate the pectoralis major—the impressive slab that makes up most of the chest musculature—more effectively than both the barbell bench press and the Smith machine bench press.

#6. Dumbbells Are Safer

We all know somebody who’s gotten trapped under a barbell when he couldn’t press it back up (you probably see him in the mirror every day). When you train at home, alone, such accidents can be extremely dangerous, so dumbbells are the better equipment choice for solo chest training. If your muscles give out sooner than you expect, you can easily drop the weights to the floor and live to lift another day.

What Kind of Dumbbells Should I Buy?

If you’re tired of schlepping to the gym and are ready to build a weight room of your own at home, dumbbells should be one of your first buys. You basically have two choices in the dumbbell market:

1) Adjustable dumbbells. Plates can be added and held on with collars, or the turn of a dial or lever.

2) Fixed dumbbells. The weight is secured to the handle. This means you’ll need multiple pairs of dumbbells to cover an array of weight increments.

While fixed-weight dumbbells are inexpensive, indestructible, and have a nice old-school vibe to them (your grandfather probably had a pair), they’re not all that practical. If you work out at home, you’ll need at least three pairs (something that feels light, medium, and heavy) right off the bat, plus new ones whenever you get too strong for the old models. Over time, you’ll be tripping over dumbbells, and wondering why you didn’t shell out a little more for the adjustable type up front.

But, if you like the real-gym feel of one-piece dumbbells, and money and space are no object, it’s hard to beat CAP Barbell Rubber-Coated Hex Dumbbells, which feel great in your hands and won’t nick up your flooring if you drop them. You’ll pay about 25 bucks for a pair of 10-pounders, 60 bucks for two 25-pounders, and 110 for a pair of 45s.

With adjustable dumbbells, you’ll save money in the long run, and space right away. PowerBlocks ($160 per bell for the Elite model, adjustable from 5–50 pounds in 2.5 or 5-pound increments)—are industry standard, and easy to use after some practice shifting the weight around. Known as selectorized dumbbells, the handles sit in the center of square-shaped plates, and you can load and unload them quickly with the flip of a lever. Try a pair before you buy though, as some people find the handgrips a little awkward.

Another adjustable option is Bowflex Selectech Dumbbells, which range in weight from 5 to 52 pounds in 2.5 or 5–pound increments. They work similarly to the PowerBlocks and they’re about as pricy (you’ll pay around 300 dollars for a pair), but are a little easier to use and feel better in your hands.

If you’re after a classic strongman feel, and don’t feel like plopping down three bills for hand weights, you can’t beat a pair of York Fitness Cast Iron Dumbbells. You load and unload plates with these guys like they were mini-barbells, spinning the collars into place around the ends of the threaded bars. Not as convenient as the other adjustable options, but at about $120.00 for a 5 to 45-pound pair, they’re way less expensive.

One other thing about adjustable dumbbells vs. fixed: sometimes it pays to get both. Most selectorized sets only go up to around 50 pounds, and ones that do offer more weight tend to be long and bulky and cumbersome to use. To economize space as well as cash, it’s a good idea to get a selectorized set that goes up to 50 pounds, and then fixed-weight dumbbells for every increment you need beyond that.

What Chest Exercises Can I Do With Dumbbells?

Any chest move that you can do with a barbell can be replicated with dumbbells. Here are our favorites—many of them classic moves you’re probably already familiar with, but with a clever twist that elicits even greater gains—courtesy of Rusin. We categorized them by the area of the chest they emphasize most.

Upper Chest:

#1 Slight Incline Dumbbell Bench Press

(See the video above at 0:31)

Step 1: Elevate one end of a flat exercise bench on two or three heavy barbell plates, or a small box or step. The angle should ideally be 30 degrees or less.

Step 2: Lie back on the bench, your head at the elevated end, holding two dumbbells at arm’s length above your chest.

Step 3: Slowly bend your elbows and pull your shoulder blades together on the bench, lowering the dumbbells until they are close to the sides of your chest. In the down position, your elbows should be at a 45-degree angle to your torso—not straight out to the sides.

Step 4: Pause in the stretched position, and then press the dumbbells back up, flexing your chest as you push.

Standard incline bench presses put your hips in a flexed—or bent—position, says Rusin. This basically takes your entire lower body out of the exercise, which isn’t always what you want. By elevating the bench just a little bit, you can incorporate leg drive into the movement in the same way you do (or should) perform a flat barbell bench press. This effectively turns the move into a full-body exercise, which will allow you to handle more weight.

The incline also works the pec fibers that attach to the clavicle more strongly.

#2 Incline Fly-Press

(See the video at 1:20)

Step 1: Elevate one end of a flat exercise bench on two or three heavy barbell plates (the same as you did for incline press described above).

Step 2: Lie back on the bench with your head at the elevated end, holding two medium-heavy dumbbells at arm’s length above your chest, palms facing inward.

Step 3: Slowly lower the dumbbells directly out to the sides, simultaneously bending your elbows and squeezing your shoulder blades together until your chest is comfortably stretched and your elbows are at about a 90-degree angle. (If you experience shoulder pain in the fully stretched position, limit the range of motion).

Step 4: Reverse the movement, contracting your pecs as you straighten your arms fully, until you are back in the starting position.

Standard flyes are great for building muscle—but brutal on the shoulders. Bend the arms as you lower the weights, explains Rusin, and you maintain the stress on the pecs while taking it off the shoulder joints.

Middle and Inner-Chest:

#3 Crush Press (aka Squeeze Press)

(See the video at 1:55)

Step 1: Lie back on a flat exercise bench holding two heavy dumbbells on your chest, palms facing one another.

Step 2: Press the dumbbells together in the center of your chest (this is your starting position).

Step 3: Keeping the dumbbells pressed together, slowly push them to arm’s length over your chest. Pause for a moment, squeezing your chest muscles.

Step 4: Slowly reverse the movement, returning to the starting position.

Crush presses force the pecs to contract hard in a shortened position. This makes for a good contrast to flyes and dumbbell pressing movements—where the weights lower past your chest, emphasizing a stretch on the muscles. Squeeze hard at the top on crush presses and you’ll get a similar effect to cable crossovers, without needing two fancy cable stations to do it.

For an even better contraction, attach bands to the dumbbells so they’re pulling the weights away from each other when you do the exercise. You’ll have to work much harder to maintain the squeeze.

#4 Fly-Press

(See the video at 2:39)

Step 1: Lie back on an exercise bench holding two dumbbells at arm’s length above your chest, palms facing inward. This is your starting position.

Step 2: Slowly lower the dumbbells directly out to the sides, simultaneously bending your elbows and squeezing your shoulder blades together, until your chest is comfortably stretched and your elbows are at about a 90-degree angle. (If you experience shoulder pain in the fully stretched position, limit the range of motion).

Step 3: Reverse the movement, contracting your pecs as you straighten your arms fully, until you are back in the starting position.

Flyes take the triceps virtually out of the equation, largely isolating the pecs and working them hardest in the fully stretched position—where the maximum amount of muscle fibers can be recruited.

Lower Chest:

#5 45-Degree Dumbbell Floor Press

(See the video at 3:16)

Step 1: Lie on your back on the floor, holding two dumbbells at arm’s length over your chest. You can either lie back from a sitting position while holding the dumbbells, or have a partner hand them to you.

Step 2: Rotate your wrists so that the thumb sides of your hands are closer together than the pinky sides (as if holding a steering wheel at 10 and two o’clock). This is your starting position.

Step 3: Slowly lower the weights, keeping your elbows close to your sides, until your triceps lightly contact the floor.

Step 4: Press the weights back to the starting position.

The floor press works similarly to the crush press, working the pecs when they’re in a shortened position. Because the range of motion is abbreviated, resulting in little stretch on the shoulders, they’re a good option for people with shoulder pain.

#6 Feet-Up Slight Decline Dumbbell Bench Press

(See the video at 3:56)

Step 1: Elevate one end of a flat exercise bench on two or three heavy barbell plates.

Step 2: Lie back on the bench, your head at the lower end, holding two heavy dumbbells at arm’s length above your chest. Place your feet flat on the bench.

Step 3: Slowly bend your elbows and pull your shoulder blades together on the bench, lowering the dumbbells until they are close to the sides of your chest.

Step 4: Pause in the stretched position, and then press the dumbbells back to the starting position.

The slight decline works the pecs with the shoulders in a centrated—or neutral—position. This balanced position permits maximal drive from your muscles, while the decline angle recruits more of the muscle fibers that connect to the sternum (targeting the lower chest). Want to load up on a chest exercise? Choose this one. It’s safer than doing flat or incline presses with heavy weight.

How To Stretch Before A Dumbbell Chest Workout?

Warm up your chest, shoulders, and elbows before you train pecs with these moves from Onnit’s former Chief Fitness Officer, John Wolf.

What Is the Best Dumbbell Chest Workout?

If you’re ready to build some serious pressing strength and size in your chest, try one of the workouts below. Each is designed to suit a specific goal and experience level.

Dumbbell Chest Workout For Beginners

If you’re fairly new to the iron game and are looking to dumbbells to build your chest, start with this simple, two-move workout. You can do it as part of a full-body workout or upper-body day. On the pushup, perform each rep at a deliberate pace, stopping before you reach failure on your first set. On the final effort, get as many reps as you can. Then hit the second move, leaving a couple of reps in the tank on all your sets. Perform this workout up to three times a week on nonconsecutive days.

1. Pushup

Sets: 2 Reps: Stop two reps shy of failure on the first set; last set, as many reps as possible

Step 1: Place your hands on the floor, or on a stable elevated surface (a bench, box, or table work well—the higher the surface the easier the exercise). Set them slightly wider than shoulder width and do the same with your feet. Your arms should be locked out and your body straight from your heels to the top of your head. Tuck your tailbone under, brace your core, and squeeze your glutes, so your pelvis is perpendicular to the floor.

Step 2: Keeping your body straight and your head in a neutral position, simultaneously bend your arms and retract your shoulder blades until your chest is just above the floor—or as far as you can go without losing good form.

Step 3: Press back up, spreading your shoulder blades at the top of the movement. (Think of yourself as pushing through the floor.)

2. Incline Fly-Press

Sets: 2–3 Reps: 12–15

See the directions above.

Dumbbell Chest Workout For Intermediates

If you’ve been hitting the weights consistently for at least six months, this trifecta of pec punishers will nudge you up another level. Use it in place of the chest day you were doing, or add it to your program for extra work (spaced out a few days from any other chest work you do). Rest about 2 minutes between sets of the first move, 60 seconds between sets of the second, and 30–45 seconds between sets of the third. On each exercise, choose weights that allow you to complete the lowest number of reps listed. Over time, work up to completing the highest number of reps listed for every set before increasing the weight. Perform the workout twice a week on nonconsecutive days.

1. Slight-Incline Dumbbell Press

Sets: 4–5 Reps: 4–6

 See the directions above.

2 Press-Fly

Sets: 2–3 Reps: 8–12

 See the directions above.

3 45-Degree Dumbbell Floor Press

Sets: 1–2 Reps: 15–20

 See the directions above. 

Advanced Dumbbell Chest Workout

Ready to sear your chest? This workout will do it. Use it in place of your current chest day and limit any other chest training you do in the same week to ensure recovery. Load up on the decline presses—they’re a serious strength builder—and use progressively lighter weights as the workout goes on and fatigue sets in. Finish with two sets of old-fashioned pushups, which will feel shockingly difficult after the other moves.

1. Feet Up, Slight-Decline Dumbbell Bench Press

Sets: 4-5  Reps: 3–5

See the directions above.

2. Incline Fly-Press Hybrid

Sets: 3–4  Reps: 6–10

See the directions above.

3. Crush Press

Sets: 2–3  Reps: 12–15

See the directions above.

4. Pushup

Sets: 2  Reps: As many reps as possible

See the directions above. If you can do more than 20 reps, wrap an elastic exercise band around your back and grasp an end in each hand for extra resistance.

The post Strengthen Your Chest with Dumbbells appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Just completing the workouts would have been enough for most people, but Marcus managed to gain eight pounds over the course of six weeks, and won the whole contest. “Truthfully, [the training] was more therapeutic than it was challenging,” says the 33 year-old Denver man with a smile. “Exercise is the best medicine.”

You Never Think It Could Happen To You…

Marcus wasn’t the type to take life for granted. The CEO of his own startup media company, he was also a business coach, musician, yogi, outdoorsman, and, as his friends would tell you, the gracious host of many a pool party and backyard barbecue. “Until August 2019, I was in great shape,” he says. That’s when he was diagnosed with cancer.

It had started as stomach pain after dinner at a friend’s house, so, at first, Marcus suspected he had food poisoning. But the agony built throughout the night and into the next day until he was forced to go to the hospital. There, doctors examined him and discovered a growth in his chest. He was sent to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, for special treatment.

“It doesn’t serve me to think about why it happened,” says Marcus. “I ate my fruits and vegetables, and exercised regularly. Cancer just hit me out of nowhere. My mom was devastated. But she’s a doctor herself, and we knew that I had a good chance of beating it.”

While he hoped for the best, Marcus was enduring the worst. The cancer ulcerated his stomach, causing unbearable pain. With no appetite to eat, Marcus had to be force fed through a feeding tube, a procedure he says he “wouldn’t wish on anybody.” A little more than a month after being diagnosed, he had lost 30 pounds, his bodyweight dropping to a gaunt and ghostly 126.

“They don’t know why it became a digestive issue,” says Marcus, “but Hodgkin’s tends to be very inflammatory, and it shows itself in differing ways. They told me mine was one of the most unique cases the Mayo Clinic had ever seen.”

Nevertheless, the chemotherapy treatments were effective, and Marcus began to get better. By February 2020, the growth in his chest was no longer visible on a PET scan, and his condition stabilized. Able to eat on his own again, Marcus’ doctors encouraged him to take in as many calories as he could to help him put on weight, but he didn’t want to eat indiscriminately.

“I had been taking so many medications that I did not subscribe to ethically,” says Marcus. “It was hard to sit there and take chemo and listen to doctors say they just want to see me put weight back on and they don’t even care if it’s fat. As long as I got back up to 155 pounds, they didn’t care if I was drinking milkshakes all day. ‘Yeah,’ I thought, ‘If I do that, I might weigh 155 again, but I’d be in worse shape than I was when I was in the depths of the cancer.’ I didn’t want to trade cancer for being pre-diabetic! I thought, ‘I have to take this on myself.’”

Marcus was cleared to return to Denver that March, though he remained on a chemotherapy regimen. He hired a nutritionist, and researched diets that have shown promise with cancer patients, ultimately leaning toward a low-carb approach. “I started using lots of Onnit products to help with low-carb eating,” Marcus says. He found that MCT Oil added flavor to his coffee without adding sugar, and Krill Oil supplied healthy fats.

Marcus didn’t want to gain weight by food alone. He wanted to regain the muscle he’d had before he got sick, and that would require some form of strength training. The Covid-19 pandemic swept the country that month, closing gyms in its wake, but Marcus still had his backyard. “My roommate, Adam, who had been a huge support for me throughout my illness, found out about the Onnit 6 Challenge,” says Marcus. “He said, ‘Why don’t we do it together? It will make for a great story when we’re done.’”

Building Disciplines

The Onnit 6 (O6) Challenge is a six-week fitness transformation contest where the goal isn’t just a better body but a fuller life. Participants choose an Onnit 6 workout program—streamable video workouts led by Onnit trainers that can be done from home—and aim to establish healthy habits they can sustain long-term. Winners are the individuals (one male and one female) who demonstrate the greatest improvements physically, mentally, and spiritually. Grand prizes include free Onnit products, access to all O6 programs for life, and $6,000 in cash. The contests are held several times annually.

Marcus and his roommate signed up for the spring kettlebell Challenge, beginning in April 2020. Though he was still undergoing nauseating treatments, Marcus was determined to build himself back up, and he established a schedule that kept him focused. “Starting is always the hardest thing in any commitment,” he says, “so I built my own disciplines to stay on track with my recovery.”

Marcus got up every day at 7:30 a.m. to meditate. At 8, he and his roommate did their Onnit 6 training. Then he’d have coffee with MCT Oil, or eat a bone broth soup, and try to get some work done. Lunch was often a Cobb salad with eggs and avocado for extra fats, and dinner would be salmon with asparagus or grass-fed steak and broccoli. Along the way, Marcus kept a journal.

“You need healthy tools that let you express yourself and release the pressure valve, emotionally,” says Marcus. “We tend to relive negative emotions and events in our life, and we don’t pay attention to how that directly affects our current state. If you’re sitting there dwelling on bad news, you still have those negative chemicals running through your body. But writing in a journal really helps get them out. Seeing words form on the page helps you move forward. So, if I felt myself relapsing to a dark place and feeling negative, I could go back and read how I was the day I last felt that way and it would make me feel like that’s an emotion of the past now. Thinking about it that way, I don’t have to choose to stay in that negative moment. I can choose to be positive again.”

Gaining Muscle… On Chemo?!

Marcus downplays the rigors of performing his kettlebell workouts on chemo. Yes, he was often in pain, but he had his roommate to hold him accountable and encourage him, as well as the Onnit Tribe—the Facebook group that Onnit 6 Challengers join to lend support during the contest. In spite of the intensity of the training, his O6 sessions were often the highlight of his day.

“It always sucks to work out in the morning, because you’re tired and you don’t want to,” says Marcus. “But once the endorphins start flowing—and especially once you’re finished—you feel empowered and great for the rest of the day… I’m a big believer in just showing up,” says Marcus with a laugh.

O6 workouts offer three levels of difficulty. Since he was still on the mend, Marcus mainly chose exercises from the most basic tier, Level 1, sometimes pushing to Level 2 when he was up to it. He never needed to regress to easier moves than what the program offered, and he was able to hang in there for all its challenging training protocols, including EMOMS, circuits, and Tabatas.

Marcus’ strength came back quickly. He started with a 25-pound kettlebell and was swinging the 35-pounder by the end of six weeks (none of the O6 kettlebell workouts require heavier weight than that). When the program began, he weighed 145 pounds. By the end, he was 153—nearly the size he had been before he’d gotten sick. “Onnit 6 brought back the definition I had in my shoulders and my abs,” says Marcus.

While his physical comeback was inspiring, Marcus impressed the O6 Challenge judges even more with his humble (and relentlessly positive) attitude. He never asked for special treatment or sympathy, and even seemed somewhat unable to recognize just how far he’d come.

“When I got home from the Clinic,” says Marcus, “I asked people how they were doing, and they’d say things like, ‘Oh, things aren’t great with the wife,’ or, ‘Business isn’t going well, but it’s nothing compared to what you’ve been through.’ I found that they would belittle their own emotions. But I’ve learned that everybody has problems, and the more we can be transparent and support each other, the more we’ll remember that everybody’s fighting battles that we know nothing about. My battle was very public and obvious and intense, but I hope I can inspire people to be more open about their own weaknesses and struggles. At the end of the day, hard is hard. It’s not meant to be compared.”

Marcus won the spring kettlebell Challenge, and finished his chemo treatments in July 2020. He has been healthy ever since, and continues to train according to the Onnit 6 template. He says he’s almost back to the shape he was in before the illness.

“I didn’t have any idea I’d win the Challenge,” says Marcus. “I didn’t even think about winning it… I was just happy to have it.”

All images and video courtesy of Seth Marcus.

Learn more about the Onnit 6 Challenge HERE.

The post Training With Cancer: How Seth Marcus Came Back From The Brink appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Experts tell us that to see results long-term, we need to change things just a little at a time. Eat a little less dough and a few more carrot sticks each day until you’ve weaned yourself off junk food and onto salads… Start by taking walks around your neighborhood and knocking out a few pushups before you start renovating your house for a home gym. Small, gradual, maintainable changes work best.

That is, unless you’re Shawn Paul Jennings, who harnessed his bipolar personality to change his mindset and his life practically overnight—and without looking back. Jennings dropped his body fat by eight percent in six weeks en route to an Onnit 6 Challenge victory, and he’s only just beginning to build steam.

Death and Rebirth

Jennings, of Snohomish, Washington, worked in digital marketing, and was an avid surfer, artist, and musician. He struggled with anxiety and depression, but enjoyed an active and relatively balanced life. Then, in February 2019, he lost his father to pancreatic cancer. “We thought he had a little bit longer than he did,” says Jennings, “so it kind of snuck up on us.”

The shock sent Jennings into a spiral, in which he gave up all physical activity for rich food and booze. A typical day would begin with sleeping late—because he couldn’t get to sleep the night before—and then migrating to his beanbag chair where he’d vegetate until dinnertime. “I developed a lot of bad habits,” says Jennings, “and became an expert at them,” he jokes.

While his body swelled some 15 pounds over the course of that year, Jennings felt his mind was atrophying, describing his creative drive at level zero. His breaking point came when he turned 40 in January 2020. Attempting to celebrate his birthday by going surfing, his favorite activity, Jennings found he was so out of shape that he couldn’t even paddle out to the big waves.

Then Jennings discovered Own The Day, Own Your Life, the best-selling lifestyle book by Onnit founder Aubrey Marcus. “It really struck a chord with me,” he says, as he felt it provided the roadmap that would lead him out of his funk. “I listened to the audio version of it twice.” Jennings began following Marcus on social media, and that led to his discovery of the Onnit 6 Challenge, Onnit’s fitness transformation contest.

The Onnit 6 (O6) Challenge is a six-week course focused around one of the Onnit 6 workout programs—plans that use just one piece of workout equipment (or bodyweight alone) to build stability and strength in the body while training the mind to adopt healthy habits for life. All workouts feature video instruction, and are streamed online, allowing you to train at home. In the O6 Challenge, participants work together (albeit remotely) to stay motivated and achieve the best results—so it’s not so much a competition as a shared mission. To win the challenge, you need to demonstrate that training with Onnit helped you not only change your body but also improve your life. Grand-prize winners are awarded free Onnit products, access to all Onnit 6 programs, and $6,000 in cash.

Jennings signed up for the Kettlebell O6 Challenge, even though he’d never touched the cannonball-shaped implement before in his life, and the contest began, coincidentally, one year to the day after the passing of his dad.

“I had just turned 40 and wanted to make a change,” says Jennings. “The Challenge seemed like a good opportunity to do that, so I jumped in with both feet.” He bought three kettlebells—none heavier than 35 pounds—and, to help keep himself accountable, created a YouTube channel on which he’d maintain a video log of the experience. Christening the channel Kook & Rally, as in, “here’s a kook who’s going to rally and get his life together,” Jennings announced in his first video that “Grief left me a depressed, angry, lethargic fat slob. That all changes today.”

And just like that, it did.

Going forward, Jennings vowed to stop grieving over his father and instead celebrate his life by doing the things his dad would have wanted him to: taking care of his physical and mental health, expressing himself as an artist, and reclaiming his identity as a surfer. “I thought I could use the Challenge to get back into the things that used to make me happy,” says Jennings, “and to put me in a position where I felt I had the power to perform well at them again.”

A Tale of Two Shawns

Of course, it wasn’t quite as easy as just drawing a line in the sand and stepping over it. Jennings has always had trouble finding the middle ground. If he drinks alcohol, he’s apt to get loaded, and if he’s following a workout plan, he’s going to train like he’s heading to the Olympics. To make it even trickier, the switch can flip from on to off with the least provocation.

In the past, Jennings would make a run at working out, but if he missed a day, he’d give up the pursuit entirely. The difference with O6 was that he now had a support group to cheerlead him through the obstacles and keep him on track.

The Onnit Tribe is a Facebook group created for Onnit 6 Challenge contestants to communicate. They exchange ideas about workouts and nutrition, but the real magic lies in how they motivate each other through difficult times.

“People in there post a lot of before and after photos, which is inspiring to see,” says Jennings, but the people who inspired me the most were the ones who seemed to be struggling the hardest. They’d post things like, ‘I missed my kettlebell workout today and I just feel like crap about it,’ and other members would jump on and say, ‘Hey, don’t beat yourself up. You’ll get it tomorrow. It’s OK.’ People even talked about things outside of the Challenge that they were struggling with. The tribe became a support system, not just for the contest, but for our lives in general. And as the pandemic began, that really meant a lot.”

There were days when Jennings missed workouts, but fueled by the love of the Tribe, he’d make sure to make it up the next day and, given his tendency to go to extremes, he sometimes did double sessions for good measure. “Another thing that helped me stay consistent was knowing that each week of the program built on the last one,” says Jennings. “I knew I had to get the exercises we did this week down before I could advance them the next week.”

Though he was a newbie to kettlebell training, Jennings took to it right away. Every Onnit 6 program provides exercises in a three-tier format: new users should start with moves that are at a Level 1 difficulty, and can progress as they see fit to Levels 2 and 3. For example, a trainee working lower body in an O6 session might start out with a basic lunge movement for his/her first few workouts and then graduate to a warrior lunge (a lunge followed by an external rotation of the rear leg) a few weeks later. Jennings was able to customize his workouts to his strength level, as well as his readiness to train that day according to how he was feeling.

Since all the workouts are streamed online, Jennings trained from his home office and garage, and sometimes even outdoors when the weather was nice.

As he built momentum on the program and settled into the habit of moving his body on a daily basis, Jennings found he craved even more activity. “I added things on, like going for a long walk or raking the leaves, instead of hanging out and watching TV.” Jennings made changes to his diet as well, incorporating more fruits and vegetables, a habit made easier by the delicious recipes and food prep ideas shared amongst the Tribe. Jennings didn’t count calories or carbs, but he was meticulous about weighing himself on a smart scale so that he could track his progress, and he took pictures of himself daily.

Still, one of his favorite features of the Challenge was that it wasn’t based entirely on aesthetic results. “Unlike so many other fitness contests,” he says, “there was no weigh in, and no pressure to look a certain way at the end. I thought that was very cool.”

Life Begins (Again) At 40

By the end of Week 6, Jennings had taken eight percent off his body fat while gaining significant muscle mass. He also found himself feeling more enthusiastic about his work. “I felt like an artist again,” he says. “I have a list of things I want to do and make now.” He returned to surfing with a vengeance, as well as his music. “I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished,” he says, “and I know my dad would be proud of it too.”

He not only righted his ship after the death of his father and turning 40, Jennings proved that he had the dedication to weather storms and maintain his lifestyle change indefinitely. For these reasons, Onnit named him the O6 Kettlebell winner in April 2020.

“The $6,000 in prize money was great, and it helped me out a lot,” says Jennings, “but that was the least of what I got out of the Challenge. The overall physical and mental health change was the real prize, and I made quite a few friends that I’m still in touch with who keep me on track. In fact, I’m connecting with people now better than I have in years.”

In September 2020, Jennings was finally diagnosed as bipolar, which explains his tendency toward erratic behavior, and why previous treatments never worked for him. While Jennings acknowledges that he still has days when he misses workouts and makes less than optimal decisions, he knows he’ll never let his demons overtake him again. “I have my peaks and valleys,” he says, “but I find some way to be active every day. As someone who struggles with moderation, if I miss one day, I feel like I might as well miss two weeks. That’s a difficult thing for me to work on. But when I pick myself up and do the work the next day, I feel one-thousand times better, and I’m pretty stoked by how I look and feel right now. When I get down, it’s easier to pick myself up than it used to be. Onnit 6 was not a fad workout for me. It’s become a lifestyle.”

All photos and video courtesy of Shawn Jennings. Follow him on YouTube and Instagram.

Learn more about the Onnit 6 Challenge HERE.

The post How Shawn Paul Jennings Changed Everything and Made It Stick appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Peterson, now age 52, hadn’t done a hurtman rescue in nearly 10 years.

He took a deep breath, slapped on his hard hat, pulled on his gloves, and listened for the “go” command…

Joining The Tribe

Back in his 20s and 30s, Peterson, from Modesto, California, had his dream job as a high-voltage lineman for the local irrigation district. He had been a competitive mountain biker and road cyclist as well, until a bad knee injury made him give up cycling. From there, Peterson gradually settled into a sedentary lifestyle, and self-medicated with alcohol.

His weight ballooned to more than 300 pounds, making his work as a lineman that much more perilous. Facing alcoholism and burnout, Peterson quit his job in 2012, walking away from both his passion and a six-figure salary. He was 44.

After a few years running a restaurant, Peterson and his wife moved to Hillsboro, Oregon, in 2016, where he began work in a motorcycle dealership. Since his days on the line, he had quit drinking, and the process of drying out, as well as disciplining himself not to eat late at night, helped Peterson lose more than 100 pounds. But he eventually reached a plateau. “I was still too fat to go to a gym,” he says. “It was too intimidating.”

When the Covid-19 lockdowns hit in March 2020, Peterson was laid off by the bike shop. “I whined and cried for a minute,” he says, “and then I came up with a game plan.”

A longtime fan of Onnit since he had first heard founder Aubrey Marcus on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Peterson was browsing the company’s website when he saw that digital products were on sale at 50% off. Though he was collecting unemployment benefits and had to be frugal, Peterson made the investment in an Onnit 6 (O6) program to help him lose weight and stay active during his downtime.

Onnit 6 workout plans are six-week long courses that focus on helping users adopt a fit lifestyle. There’s one based around each of Onnit’s core pieces of workout equipment, from the kettlebell to the steel club, and they also come with nutrition advice and yoga routines for recovery. Workouts are streamed online—featuring video instruction from Onnit’s Chief Fitness Officer, John Wolf—so you can follow along with them in the comfort of your own living room.

Several times per year, Onnit offers an Onnit 6 Challenge transformation contest as a companion to the O6 workout plans. Participants choose an O6 they want to commit to for six weeks, and work (remotely) alongside other users to change their bodies and their lives. One of the key features of the O6 Challenge is access to the Onnit Tribe, a Facebook group that Challengers use to motivate and support each other. To win the Challenge, you need to demonstrate that training with Onnit helped make a positive difference in your life, and that you’ve developed the habits, mindset, and community one needs to be successful long-term. Grand-prize winners (one male, one female) are rewarded with free Onnit products, access to all Onnit 6 programs, and $6000 in cash.

Armed with Onnit 6 Bodyweight, Peterson signed up for the O6 Challenge in July.

“Team Fat Ass”

The O6 Bodyweight program requires no equipment, but Peterson soon discovered that lifting your own mass is often harder than hoisting any external load. “I was incredibly sore after the first workout,” he says. “But I was also hooked. It’s the hardest training I’ve ever done. And I never would have found these exercises without this program.”

The exercises in question included rotary lunges—step back and drop into a lunge position, and then rotate your rear knee outward 90 degrees while staying low. The move challenges your hip mobility while it builds leg strength and conditioning. Peterson also performed planks with one leg lifted, a brutal core exercise. O6 workouts are always tiered, so users can customize them to their level. Beginners can focus on Level 1 exercises to help build a base, and more advanced trainees can choose Level 2 or 3 moves for a greater challenge. Therefore, two people of very different experience levels can train together in the same session without missing a beat.

“So many programs just give you exercises and let you go,” says Peterson. “But I liked the three different levels that Onnit 6 lets you choose from. You can do half the exercises at Level 1 and half at Level 2 if you want to. You always have some way to progress or tailor the workouts to your own body.”

Another outstanding feature of the O6 workouts is their user-friendliness. Most trainees find the workouts don’t aggravate any pre-existing injuries they have, and they sometimes even help to alleviate them. “I had a meniscus surgery where they took a silver-dollar sized piece out of my right knee,” says Peterson. “When a storm comes in, I’ll feel it there first. But the O6 exercises were all doable. There were plenty of moves that scared me,” Peterson says with a laugh, “but nothing hurt me. And some of the stretches we did in the yoga workouts were phenomenal for me.”

Peterson coupled his grueling workouts with a return to sensible eating. He employed intermittent fasting by skipping breakfast, thereby reducing the amount of time during the day he could allow himself to eat. He also watched his sugar intake. “I go on sugar benders very easily,” he says, “so I found that if I cut out sugar with my morning Starbucks, that helped me avoid it the rest of the day.” But Peterson stresses that he’s not a diet zealot, and never will be. He loves food too much, and says it’s OK if you do too.

“If I want to go have a cheeseburger now and then, I will,” says Peterson. “I’m not some crazy nutrition naysayer when it comes to food. I just tried to watch what I was eating, when I was eating, and how much I was eating. I ate mainly protein and green vegetables, but there were times when I felt tired. I asked Coach Wolf about it and he said I should eat some more carbs to bring my energy levels up. I had some rice, and sure enough, I felt better.”

The best part of the entire O6 experience, says Peterson, was drinking in the love of the Onnit Tribe. Members share workout and nutrition advice, and encourage each other to stick to the program, but the relationships that develop aren’t constrained to matters of fitness alone. Unlike with most physique transformation challenges, the competitors really aren’t competing against each other. They’re encouraged to form friendships that last beyond the six weeks of the program, and many participants find that they grow very close to each other and become like family.

The Tribe culture is positive and fun. There’s at least as much discussion on the message threads about light-hearted topics such as music and jokes as there is about calories, sets, and reps. “At first I thought the Onnit Tribe was going to be a bunch of in-shape muscleheads that wouldn’t want to hear from some old fat guy,” says Peterson, who, in keeping with his self-deprecating sense of humor, referred to himself as “Team Fat Ass” in his posts. “But I was completely wrong. The very first video I saw on there was of another big guy working his ass off. The Tribe is real-world people who have real-world issues like everybody else. They come from many different walks of life.”

No one has embraced the Tribe’s happy-go-lucky vibe, or contributed more to it, than Peterson. A regular poster who hasn’t been afraid to share his struggles with the group, many members cite Peterson as a constant source of inspiration… and entertainment.

“I posted a video of me dancing to the Moulin Rouge song, looking ridiculous” he says, “and challenged a bunch of the other members to do the same.” Before long, nearly everyone in the Challenge group had contributed a video of their own dancing in what became an exercise in silliness, but also fearlessness—dropping the ego and letting senses of humor shine.

The Lineman… Is Still On The Line

When the Challenge concluded at the end of August, Peterson had lost 30 pounds. He had also trained through a freak injury to his hand, sustained while installing a new refrigerator in his house, without missing a step. “There was a chiropractor in the Tribe who gave me some tips on taping up my hand,” says Peterson. And it was back to business as usual.

In light of his results and determination, Peterson was declared the O6 Bodyweight male grand-prize winner. At 52, he has the great distinction of being the oldest O6 winner to date.

Of course, the benefits Peterson reaped weren’t just aesthetic. The strength and conditioning he gained from the training allowed him to get more out of his outdoors active lifestyle. Peterson and his wife enjoy hiking. “We go to this area where there’s a really steep climb,” he says. “I used to have to take a little break halfway through, but since Onnit 6, I can go all the way without stopping.”

Even before his experience with O6, Peterson had been craving a return to line work. With the downtime his pandemic layoff provided, he looked for a new job in electric utilities. To get it, he had to become re-certified in hurtman rescue: the skill of saving an injured fellow lineman from the top of a high-voltage telephone pole. Peterson, nearly 10 years older than the last time he’d shimmied up a pole, but also more than 100 pounds lighter and in the shape of his life, accepted the challenge.

“I remember climbing it and thinking, ‘I feel pretty good compared to how I thought I was going to feel,’” says Peterson. He completed the simulated rescue in time, passed the test, and got hired as a lineman at a Portland utility company in October 2020. “Line work is a young man’s game,” says Peterson, “but I’m not going to get outworked. I like to out-hustle folks that are younger, and Onnit 6 helped me be more confident that I could do the things I used to do.”

Barry Peterson’s Tips For A Fitter 2021

We asked Peterson what advice he would give to someone trying to turn over a new health and fitness leaf in 2021.

“Find something that works for you,” he says. “People love to give advice, but it’s usually based on what worked for them, and they have no idea what struggles other people go through. So try different stuff and see what fits. I tried lots of other stuff over the years—DDP Yoga® and silly stuff like Tae Bo®—and gave up on it, because it wasn’t as user-friendly as Onnit 6, and it didn’t have the community involvement that Onnit has.

“Onnit gives you six workout programs to choose from, so there’s probably something there for you. If nothing else, repeat the Bodyweight one until you can do Level 2 or 3 for every exercise. You’ll be amazed by the shape you can get in.”

All photos courtesy of Barry Peterson.

Learn more about the Onnit 6 Challenge HERE.

The post The Oldest Onnit 6 Challenge Winner Can Still Kick Your Butt appeared first on Onnit Academy.

“One of the older members of the gym, a woman who was in my class every week, caught me outside smoking a cigarette,” says Spain, of Preston, Maryland. “She said, ‘What the …?’ Smoking was my dirty little secret.

“When you do something long enough, it becomes a part of your life. You smoke that cigarette after you eat, when you’re driving… you tell yourself it’s become a part of who you are. Then it becomes really hard to change that, because it feels like you have to change every aspect of your life. You think, ‘I’ll never be able to do this.’

“But you can. You can!”

Enter The Onnit 6 Challenge

Spain, age 47, who is also a licensed massage therapist, had the same daily routine for years: go to work, and go to the gym. But when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, she suddenly couldn’t go anywhere. In late April 2020, she was on Facebook and saw a meme poking fun at the idea of a “quarantine 15”—the amount of weight you’re (supposedly) apt to gain during a lockdown. Curious to see where she stood, Spain got on the scale, and was mortified to find she had gained seven pounds since the closures began in mid March.

Spain’s husband uses Onnit’s MCT Oil, so the two of them were already on the company’s email list. Spain was checking her messages and saw one with a subject line that read, “Last chance to sign up for the Onnit 6 Challenge.”

Spain: “So I said, ‘Thank you, Universe,’ you heard my call!”

The Onnit 6 (O6) Challenge is a fitness contest where participants adopt an Onnit 6 workout program for six weeks. Users can choose from routines for bodyweight, kettlebells, the barbell, steel club, steel mace, and Durability (a mobility/prehab course). All workouts feature video instruction, and are streamed online, allowing you to train at home. To win the challenge, you need to demonstrate that training with Onnit helped you not only change your body but also improve your life, and that you’ve adopted healthy habits that you can maintain going forward. Grand prize winners are rewarded with free Onnit products, access to all Onnit 6 programs, and $6000 in cash.

Spain didn’t have any exercise equipment at home, so she took on the Bodyweight O6 Challenge. She fell in love with the training right away, but even more so with the entire Onnit community.

A major feature of the O6 Challenge is the Onnit Tribe—the Facebook group that challengers join to motivate and support one another. “It’s the best thing on Facebook, as far as I’m concerned,” says Spain. “Everybody goes on every day and posts about their workouts, but also personal stuff. We all try to better ourselves so we can be better for ourselves and our families. There’s zero talk of politics and religion or anything controversial.”

Spain lost a few pounds and was so active in the Tribe that she was ultimately selected as a semi-finalist. At that point, another Onnit 6 Challenge was about to begin, this time focused on the steel mace. Spain signed right up. “I’m going to win this one,” she told her husband, and O6 Steel Mace began July 21.

How Michelle Spain Quit Smoking For Good

Spain had been a self-professed yogi and cardio girl. She knew she needed to do some form of resistance training to round out her fitness, but lifting weights bored her. The steel mace, however, was intriguing. She ordered a seven-pound mace from Onnit to use for the Steel Mace Challenge.

“It feels awkward at first, but it doesn’t even matter,” says Spain. “I feel like a medieval warrior princess wielding a weapon [whenever I pick it up]. I feel bad ass.”

The Steel Mace Challenge workouts included a Tabata, HIIT routine, and EMOM, all designed to burn calories and train conditioning while strengthening muscles and improving stability—the ability to control your body position during movement. As stability and movement skills improve, users find that they can perform better in virtually any athletic pursuit. “I’ve got a lot of wear and tear,” says Spain. “Two bad shoulders; I had surgery on one of them. But training with the mace strengthened both of them. I’m doing things in my yoga practice now that I had not been able to do in years. [Now that I have the Onnit 6 workouts,] I’ll probably never go back to another gym, regardless of what happens with Covid.”

As great as the workouts were, the support Spain got from the Onnit Tribe was the most impactful. “People opening up and sharing parts of themselves that were really difficult to share, that was super inspiring to me,” says Spain. The Tribe, as well as the guidance of Coach John Wolf, Onnit’s Chief Fitness Officer and the creator of the Onnit 6 programs, proved to be the catalyst Spain needed to quit cigarettes for good.

“I did not start smoking until I was almost 26,” says Spain. The habit began as a reaction to an unhealthy relationship she had been in years before. “It was a ridiculous need to take some sense of control back. For whatever ungodly reason, smoking was how I decided to do that. It was like, “I know, instead of leaving the relationship, I’ll start smoking cigarettes.’

“I was thinking, ‘Here I’m doing [this challenge for a second time], I’m feeling really good, but I’m still doing this gross thing.’ I felt this terrible imposter syndrome, and I told Coach Wolf. But he said, ‘No, you’re not an imposter. Your goals just aren’t aligning with what you’re actually doing in your life.’ That was much more eloquent than how I put it, but that was how I felt. I felt like I was lying to the Tribe, lying to my yoga and cardio students, and myself.”

Toward the end of the Steel Mace Challenge, a somber date arrived: the three-year anniversary of the death of Spain’s best friend. “It just all came together at the same time,” says Spain. “Onnit 6, the Tribe, the anniversary, and my want and need to stop lying to myself.” She decided she would mark the occasion by quitting smoking for good.

Her husband built a bonfire in the family’s yard (they live in a rural area), and Spain took one cigarette out of the pack. She lit it, and told him it would be the last one she ever smoked.

“I didn’t even finish the cigarette. I threw it and the whole pack into the fire and watched it burn. I have not touched a cigarette since that day.” That day, to be precise, was August 21, exactly one month into the Steel Mace program.

Of course, Onnit can’t (and won’t) take all the credit for breaking Spain’s addiction. A Tribe member recommended she download an app called quitSTART. “It helped me keep track of my wins,” says Spain. “How many days it had been since I quit smoking, how much money I’d saved. Little motivational things like that. The app asks you if you’ve had any slipups, and I didn’t want to press ‘Yes’. I couldn’t face that. I also didn’t want to face my husband, who had already quit smoking, or my 12 year-old son, who had asked me to quit.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Spain was named the female Onnit 6 Challenge Steel Mace Grand Prize winner when the contest ended last September. She still can’t get enough Onnit training, and just finished her fourth O6 Challenge.

New Year’s Resolution Advice from an Onnit 6 Challenge Winner

While being able to quit smoking was a pleasant surprise during her Onnit 6 Challenge training, it was something of a side effect. Spain had gone into it hoping O6 would help her learn to eat better so that she could lose weight. The recipes and nutrition tips provided by the Tribe—in addition to gorgeous photos of delicious, healthy meals that some of her fellow contestants prepared—did the trick. Another trick she used was to set short-term goals. If you’re resolving to eat better in 2021, you might do the same.

“I’ll say to myself, ‘I’m not going to eat fast food for the next three days,’” says Spain. “And then, when I get through those three days, I say I’m not going to do it for another three days. That’s not as daunting as saying, ‘I’m never eating fast food again,’ and it works. Now fast food kind of grosses me out.”

But overall, Spain recommends not making resolutions, per se. “Make a lifestyle change,” she says. “You need to make a decision to be a better version of yourself. You can get all the inspiration and the love and encouragement you need to stick to it from [a community of like-minded people, such as the Onnit tribe].”

Incidentally, if you’re wondering if Spain ever reconnected with the student who caught her smoking outside the gym, both of them got their closure.

“I spoke to that lady over the phone,” says Spain. “I told her I won the Onnit program and quit smoking. She legit cried. She was so happy for me.”

Learn more about the Onnit 6 Challenge HERE.

The post “I Quit Smoking Cigarettes”: How the Onnit 6 Challenge Changed Michelle Spain appeared first on Onnit Academy.

A couple of exercise bands, light dumbbells, and your own bodyweight are all that’s needed to keep your guns loaded when more sophisticated training seems out of reach.

Benefits of Stronger Arms

Some trainers think of big arms as being merely ornamental. They look good, but don’t offer any functional benefit that helps one be more athletic or strong. However, John Rusin, PT, DPT, CSCS, a strength coach and creator of the Pain-Free Performance Specialist Certification (DrJohnRusin.com), says that outlook couldn’t be more wrong. “Straight up, whoever says arm training isn’t functional can’t be trusted,” says Rusin. “Since the arms indeed have muscles, and act as an integral connection point between the hands and shoulders, they should be trained in order to gain, maintain, and maximize force and muscle recruitment in all types of activities.”

It should be obvious that bigger, stronger arms can help you push and pull harder. Any strong bench presser can tell you that the triceps contribute greatly to the lift. In fact, you couldn’t lock out a heavy weight without them. Throwing, punching, and even dribbling a basketball all require triceps strength and coordination. Biceps strength, meanwhile, goes in tandem with grip strength, so any athlete who relies on holding on to something or someone (rock climbers, grapplers, American Ninja Warriors) can benefit from doing a few curls. Of course, big arms are also impressive to behold, and can give an athlete a mental edge when he/she shows up to competition. Even if it’s just a friendly game of pick-up basketball or flag football, whom would you be more nervous to guard—the guy with guns like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, or the one with arms like drink stirrers? Which one looks tougher and harder?

How Can I Build Arm Muscles Without Weights?

Effective arm training can be done with your bodyweight alone. Chinups and pushups may be known primarily as back and chest exercises, but they also work the biceps and triceps, respectively. However, if you really want to expand your arm-training options at home, without investing in an elaborate gym setup, get yourself a few types of exercise bands. Bands will allow you to better isolate your arms for traditional curl and pushdown/extension movements that provide more overload directly to the biceps and triceps.

The best exercise bands are circular (loop) bands—not the paper-thin elastic ones your physical therapist gave you to rehab your shoulder, or the purple ones that come with handles you see in drug stores. The bands on elitefts.com are much more durable and versatile than what you’ll find in your local sporting goods store, so we recommend you shop there. Pairs of micro, mini, and light bands should have you covered.

Bands like this can provide as much resistance as free weights, and can be adjusted to suit a variety of exercises. Anchor them to a pipe, desk, or the floor under your feet, and hold a loop in each hand (or one), or grasp anywhere else on the band to add or reduce resistance. Bands make exercises harder at the point in the range of motion where you’re strongest, and ease up where you’re weak. This makes for joint-friendly training that’s less likely to aggravate any injuries you have.

Think about doing a pushup with a band around your back and your hands securing the loop ends to the floor. As you press yourself up, you put more stretch on the band, which adds resistance to your chest, shoulders, and triceps. Just when the exercise would normally be getting easier (as you lock out your elbows), the band makes it more challenging. So, if you have shoulder problems, the pushup will feel harder once the bulk of the stress is off your shoulders.

How To Stretch Your Arms Before Exercising

Use the following mobility drills to warm up and mobilize your shoulders and elbows before any arm routine. Perform 2–3 sets of 5–10 reps for each move.

Arm screw

Raffiki elbow circles

Inverted pushup rotation

Arm Workouts You Can Do At Home With and Without Weights

There are four workouts that follow, courtesy of Rusin. Two are focused on the biceps, and two on the triceps. They require at least two different types of bands and some light dumbbells, and maybe a broomstick or other bar-like apparatus you should be able to rig up without much trouble. We’ll attack each muscle group with two different styles of training—metabolic stress, which is a fancy science term for getting a pump, and mechanical tension, which means forcing the muscles to overcome greater amounts of resistance and activate the greatest number of muscle fibers.

The pump workouts fill the muscles with blood, which drives nutrients into them and, scientists think, may send the body the message that the muscle cells need to expand (grow) to avoid injury. The mechanical tension-focused sessions emphasize strength. Some exercises in both types of workouts will challenge other muscles while hitting the arms, giving you even greater results for your efforts. These include the bent-over banded row with underhand grip, which doubles as a back move, and the bridge-hold banded underhand curl, a glute exercise.

Other lifts will hit your arms in ways you never thought possible, and are ideal for people who have only light dumbbells at home, or exercise bands. The thumbs-up Y raise may look like a delt exercise, but it will hit the long head of your biceps—the one responsible for the biceps “peak” when you flex your arm. Though it looks like a trap move, the bent-arm shrug forces you to contract your biceps isometrically throughout the set. It will burn like fire after a few reps.

“These workouts are quick hitters that target all aspects of the biceps and triceps from both an aesthetic and functional standpoint,” says Rusin. “Get ready for one hell of a pump. One that will get you bigger, stronger, and downright more functional in the process.”

Arm Workout #1 – Pump Emphasis Biceps w/ Bands, Dumbbells, and Bodyweight

Perform the paired exercises (marked A and B) as supersets. So you’ll do one set of A, then immediately do one set of B, rest as prescribed, and repeat until sets are completed for the pair. Exercises that are not marked with a letter are done alone—complete all sets for the move before going on to the next exercise.

For the banded exercises, be sure to choose a band that allows you the number of reps that are prescribed. If your band is too light, choke up on it to provide more tension. If it feels too heavy, try to reduce the tension by sitting or kneeling. The banded exercises may also be performed with dumbbells as a replacement.

1A Banded Rotating Biceps Curl

Sets: 5  Reps: 20  Rest: 0 sec.

Step 1. Pick up a circle band and grasp an end in each hand. Stand on the center of the band so it’s secured to the floor. Stand tall with your abs braced and pelvis level with the floor. Your palms should face in to your sides.

Step 2. Curl the band, rotating your palms outward as you come up, so that you lift against the resistance of the band.

1B Alternating Thumbs-Up Y Raise

Sets: 5  Reps: 20 (each side)  Rest: 30 sec.

Step 1. Hold a light dumbbell in each hand and stand tall. Keeping your shoulders drawn back and down (think “proud chest”), raise one weight up to eye level with your palm facing in (thumb pointing up).

Step 2. Lower your arm and repeat on the opposite side. If you don’t have any dumbbells, this exercise can be performed with two bands in the same fashion. Stand on one loop, and grip the opposite one.

2 Bent-Over Banded Row w/ Underhand Grip

Sets: 4  Reps: As many as possible  Rest: 45 sec.

Step 1. Grasp an end of the band in each hand with your palms facing up and stand on the center of it to secure it to the floor. Draw your shoulders back and down and bend your hips back until your torso is close to parallel to the floor. Your head, spine, and pelvis should be in a straight line.

Step 2. Row the band to your belly.

3A Bridge-Hold Banded Underhand Biceps Curl

Sets: 3  Reps: 10  Rest: 0 sec.

Step 1. Sit on the floor and loop one end of a band under one foot. Run the band over your waist and secure the other loop under the other foot. Position your feet close to your butt and turn them out about 20 degrees. Tuck your pelvis so that it’s perpendicular to the floor, and brace your core. Grasp the band with both hands, palms facing up.

Step 2. Drive your heels into the floor to bridge your hips up into the air. Be careful not to hyperextend your lower back (keep your core tight).

Step 3. Curl the band while keeping your arms against the floor. Hold the bridge position until you’ve completed all your reps.

3B Wide-Grip, Halfway-Down Pushup Hold

Sets: 3  Reps: Hold 30 sec.  Rest: 60 sec.

Step 1. Get into pushup position with hands outside shoulder width. Your body should form a straight line from your head to your feet, and your pelvis should be perpendicular to the floor, core braced.

Step 2. Lower your body until your chest is halfway to the floor and hold the position.

4 Single-Arm Biceps Stretch

Sets: 1  Reps: Hold 45 sec. (each arm)

Step 1. Grasp a doorframe or other sturdy object with your hand at shoulder level. Step away from the anchor point, turning your body and straightening your arm so that you feel a stretch in your biceps. Hold for 45 seconds, and then switch arms and repeat.

Workout #2 – Pump Emphasis Triceps w/ Bands and Bodyweight

Perform the paired exercises (marked A and B) as supersets. So you’ll do one set of A, then immediately do one set of B, rest as prescribed, and repeat until sets are completed for the pair. Exercises that are not marked with a letter are done alone—complete all sets for the move before going on to the next exercise.

For the banded exercises, be sure to choose a band that allows you the number of reps that are prescribed. If your band is too light, choke up on it to provide more tension. If it feels too heavy, try to reduce the tension by sitting or kneeling.

1A Split-Stance Overhead Banded Triceps Extension

Sets: 5  Reps: 20  Rest: 0 sec.

Step 1. Attach a circle band to a sturdy object overhead and grasp an end in each hand. Step away from the anchor point and raise your arms overhead. Your legs should be staggered. Bend your hips back to put tension on the band.

Step 2. Extend your elbows without moving your upper arms or torso. Switch the front leg on each set.

1B Bent-Over Bodyweight Rear-Delt Raise

Sets: 5  Reps: 20  Rest: 30 sec.

Step 1. Stand with feet shoulder-width apart and bend your hips back until your torso is about 45 degrees to the floor. Your head, spine, and pelvis should all form a straight line. Extend your arms toward the floor.

Step 2. Raise your arms out 90 degrees until they’re parallel to the floor.

2 Feet-Elevated Close-Grip Negative Pushup

Sets: 4  Reps: As many as possible  Rest: 45 sec.

Step 1. Rest your feet on a bench, box, or other elevated surface. Get into pushup position with your hands inside shoulder width, and tuck your pelvis so that it’s perpendicular to your spine.

Step 2. Take three seconds to lower your body until your chest is just above the floor. Push yourself back up, and begin the next rep.

3A 1.5 Rep Between-Bench Bodyweight Dip

Sets: 3  Reps: 10  Rest: 0 sec.

Step 1. Place two benches or chairs parallel to each other and stand in between them. Place a hand on each bench and bend your hips and knees so that you’re suspended by the benches.

Step 2. Lower your body until your upper arms are parallel to the floor, and then press yourself halfway back up. Lower your body again, and then press all the way up. That’s one rep.

3B Pushup Hold

Sets: 3  Reps: Hold 30 sec.  Rest: 60 sec.

Step 1. Get into pushup position with hands shoulder-width apart. Hold the position with your body braced for 30 seconds.

4 Single-Arm Triceps Overhead Stretch

Sets: 1  Reps: Hold 45 sec. (each arm)

Step 1. Reach your arm overhead and bend the elbow. With your free hand, gently pull on the elbow until you feel a stretch in your triceps. Repeat on the opposite side.

Workout #3 – Strength Emphasis Biceps w/ Bands and Bodyweight

Perform the paired exercises (marked A and B) in alternating fashion. So you’ll do one set of A, rest as prescribed, then one set of B, rest, and repeat until sets are completed for the pair. Exercises that are not marked with a letter are done alone—complete all sets for the move before going on to the next exercise.

For the banded exercises, be sure to choose a band that allows you the number of reps that are prescribed. If your band is too light, choke up on it to provide more tension. If it feels too heavy, try to reduce the tension by sitting or kneeling.

1A Banded Inverted Row w/ Underhand Grip

Sets: 5  Reps: 12  Rest: 15 sec.

Step 1. Set a barbell, broomstick, or other sturdy bar at about waist height. Wrap a band around your hips and secure each end with a heavy object. Grasp the bar with hands shoulder-width apart and palms facing up. Bend your knees 90 degrees and plant your feet on the floor. Hang from the bar with your body in a straight line, core braced, and shoulders drawn down and back.

Step 2. Pull your body up to the bar so that your back is fully contracted.

1B Single-Arm Banded Reverse Curl

Sets: 5  Reps: 20 (each side)  Rest: 45 sec.

Step 1. Loop a band over your left foot and stand on it with your right foot. Grasp the free end in your right hand, palm facing down, and stand tall.

Step 2. Curl the band, keeping your wrist straight and in line with your arm. Complete your reps, and then repeat on the opposite side.

2 Hollow-Body Bodyweight Chinup

Sets: 4  Reps: AMRAP  Rest: 60 sec.

Step 1. Hang from a chinup bar with hands shoulder-width apart and palms facing you. Draw your ribs down and tuck your pelvis. Brace your core. Your legs should raise slightly in front of you and your abdomen should look somewhat hollowed out.

Step 2. Keeping the hollow-body position, pull your body up until your chin is over the bar.

3A Banded Bent-Arm Shrug

Sets: 3  Reps: As many as possible  Rest: 0 sec.

Step 1. Stand on the center of a band and hold an end in each hand. Bend your hips back slightly and allow the band to pull your arms downward.

Step 2. Keeping a small bend in your elbows, shrug your shoulders as high as you can.

3B Kneeling Banded Biceps Curl w/ 5-Second Iso Hold

Sets: 3  Reps: As many as possible  Rest: 60 sec.

Step 1. Stand or kneel on the center of a band and grasp an end in each hand.

Step 2. Curl the band and hold the top position for 5 seconds. That’s one rep.

4 Single-Arm Biceps Stretch

Sets: 1  Reps: Hold 45 sec. (each side)

Step 1. Grasp a doorframe or other sturdy object with your hand at shoulder level. Step away from the anchor point, turning your body and straightening your arm so that you feel a stretch in your biceps. Hold for 45 seconds, and then switch arms and repeat.

Workout #4 –Strength Emphasis Triceps w/ Bands and Bodyweight

Perform the paired exercises (marked A and B) in alternating fashion. So you’ll do one set of A, rest as prescribed, then one set of B, rest, and repeat until sets are completed for the pair. Exercises that are not marked with a letter are done alone—complete all sets for the move before going on to the next exercise.

For the banded exercises, be sure to choose a band that allows you the number of reps that are prescribed. If your band is too light, choke up on it to provide more tension. If it feels too heavy, try to reduce the tension by sitting or kneeling.

1A Banded Pushup

Sets: 5  Reps: 12  Rest: 15 sec.

Step 1. Wrap a band around your upper back and grasp an end in each hand. Get into pushup position with hands at shoulder width.

Step 2. Perform a pushup, lowering your chest to an inch above the floor.

1B Banded Triceps Pushdown

Sets: 5  Reps: 20  Rest: 45 sec.

Step 1. Attach a band to a sturdy overhead object and grasp the free end in both hands. Angle your body slightly to put tension on your triceps.

Step 2. Keeping your elbows at your sides, extend your elbows to lockout.

2 Constant-Tension Triceps Pushup

Sets: 4  Reps: As many as possible  Rest: 60 sec.

Step 1. Get into pushup position with your hands inside shoulder width.

Step 2. Perform pushups without locking out your elbows. Stop just short of lockout to keep tension on your triceps.

3A Alternating Shoulder Taps

Sets: 3  Reps: As many as possible  Rest: 0 sec.

Step 1. Get into pushup position and alternately raise one arm off the floor to tap the opposite shoulder. When supporting your body on one hand, brace your core and avoid any twisting or bending.

3B Banded Triceps Kickback w/ 5 Second Iso-Hold

Sets: 3  Reps: As many as possible (each arm)  Rest: 60 sec.

Step 1. Anchor the band to the floor with your feet and and grasp the open loop with one hand. Bend your hips back so that your body is nearly parallel to the floor. You should feel a stretch on your triceps when your elbow is bent.

Step 2. Keeping your arm at your side, extend your elbow and squeeze your triceps. Complete your reps, and then repeat on the opposite side.

4 Single-Arm Triceps Overhead Stretch

Sets: 1  Reps: Hold 45 sec. (each arm)

Step 1. Reach your arm overhead and bend the elbow. With your free hand, gently pull on the elbow until you feel a stretch in your triceps. Repeat on the opposite side.

The post 4 Killer Arm Workouts You Can Do At Home appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Our number-one suggestion for anyone training at home: do full-body workouts. First, read up on the advantages of full-body training below, and then see four of our favorite routines for getting in shape, whether you have minimal equipment (such as a single light dumbbell or kettlebell, or a suspension trainer), or your bodyweight only.

Why Should You Work Out Your Whole Body?

Working the whole body in one session offers three big advantages over body-part workouts. For one thing, it ensures that you train the entire body evenly. You can’t neglect any one muscle group, or simply forget to do it for a week (ahem, like leg day). For another, working all your muscles together ramps up the calorie-burning effect, and trains your heart, so that you can maximize fat loss in your workouts and get aerobic benefits as well. A study in BioMed Research International found that subjects who performed just three 30-minute, full-body circuit-training sessions per week lost fat and improved their resting heart rates and blood pressure.

Lastly, hitting every muscle in one workout can lead to faster muscle gains for each body part. One reason why is that the volume you do per muscle group must be kept low. Think about it: if you do five or more sets of squats, how could you also fit in rows, presses, curls, pushdowns, hip bridges, etc., within a reasonable period of time? To avoid a marathon workout session, you simply have to cut back your volume. At first, reducing the workload for a muscle may sound like a liability, but it’s actually an advantage. Because you can’t do a lot of volume for one muscle in a single session, you can be sure it will recover again quickly. That means you can train it again sooner. For example, if you do three sets of squats on Monday, you could do two sets of lunges on Wednesday, and then maybe four sets of stepups on Friday. It may not seem like a lot of leg work in each training session, but that’s nine total sets for the quads alone inside of one week. Provided you can recover from your workouts, the more frequently you train, the faster you can build muscle. A study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that subjects who trained the whole body three days per week gained more arm muscle than another group that trained each muscle group just once (a standard body-part split).

“Full-body training is the most efficient way to stimulate and develop your major muscle groups,” says Chad Waterbury, PT, DPT, an LA-based physical therapist and trainer to celebrities and pro athletes (@drchadwaterbury on Instagram). “Due to the greater metabolic demand, it’s terrific for improving body composition.” To show you how to set up your own total-body training days, Waterbury wrote the four workouts that appear below.

How Often Can You Do A Full-Body Workout?

Full-body workouts can and should be done frequently to take advantage of the fast recovery. Just how frequently you train depends on how hard you want to go and how much work you want to do. If you’re limited to using your body weight alone, you could conceivably train six or even seven days a week, doing one or two all-out sets of basic bodyweight exercises. Pushups, split squats, and chinups aren’t very hard to recover from, so, generally speaking, you can do them often. However, if you have weights, particularly heavy weights, you may need more recovery time before working one or more body parts again.

In general, three to four workouts per week on non-consecutive days is a good schedule. For example, you could perform all four of the workouts shown here in one week if you liked (Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday), or, you can repeat one that suits you best for three to four sessions a week. If you can improve your performance by some measure each time you repeat a workout (such as by adding reps, adding weight, or reducing the rest periods), you can be sure you’re recovering well enough to make progress. If you can’t, you should ramp up your recovery efforts (sleep, nutrition, etc.), or consider training less frequently.

How To Work Out At Home Without Weights

If you don’t have access to weights at home, you’ll have to make the most of your bodyweight, and a suspension trainer makes that easy to do. It allows you to position your body at certain angles so that your arms or legs can take on more or less of your weight, as much as is appropriate, to make the exercises you’re doing effective. For most suspension exercises, the more directly you position yourself under the trainer’s anchor point, the more challenging the exercise will be. On an inverted row, for instance, you can make the movement harder by walking your feet forward so that your body is more parallel to the floor under the anchor point. To make it easier, walk your feet back further so that you’re rowing from a steeper angle.

Look for a trainer that has foot cradles in addition to handles, so that it can support your feet for a variety of leg exercises and pushup movements. The TRX and Jungle Gym XT are both good options. If you can’t get a hold of a suspension trainer, however, hope is not lost. We’ll introduce you to an exercise in the bodyweight workout below that requires absolutely nothing but a floor to work your back muscles hard.

How To Stretch and Warm Up Before A Full-Body Workout

Use the following mobility drills to warm up and mobilize before any full-body routine. They focus on commonly tight and injury-prone areas, such as the thoracic spine, hips, and shoulders. Perform 2–3 sets of 5–10 reps for each move.

Egyptian

Kneeling Arm Thread

Kneeling King Dancer

Shinbox Switch

The Best Full-Body Workouts At Home

Full-Body Workout #1 – Suspension Trainer and Bodyweight

Perform the exercises in circuit fashion, completing one set of each move in order. Do as many reps as possible for each lift. Rest 45 seconds between exercises, and then repeat the circuit for 4–5 total rounds.

For exercises 1A, 1B, and 1C, you’ll use a suspension trainer (Onnit Suspension Rings, a TRX, or any other model are all OK, as long as the trainer has foot cradles). Find an angle that you’re sure will allow you to perform 8­–15 reps, and use it consistently over the next few weeks so that you can gauge your progress. If you can perform more reps at the same angle, you know you’ve gotten stronger.

You may be able to use the same handle height for each exercise, if you set the handles at about knee level.

1A Inverted Row on Suspension Trainer

Step 1. Grasp the handles with your palms facing down, and hang from the suspension trainer at whatever angle is appropriate for you (just make sure there’s tension on the straps). Brace your abs and draw your shoulders back and down—think “proud chest.” Retract your neck, as if making a double chin, so your body forms a straight line from your head to your feet.

Step 2. Row your body up to the handles, tucking your elbows close to your sides, and rotating the handles so that your palms face each other.

1B Pushup To Pike on Suspension Trainer

Step 1. Sit on the floor and place one foot at a time in the foot cradles of the suspension trainer. Get into a pushup position, and tuck your pelvis so that it’s perpendicular to the floor. Your hands should be directly under your shoulders, and your body should form a straight line from your head to your (suspended) feet.

Step 2. Lower your body until you feel a stretch in your chest, tucking your elbows near your sides. From there, press your body back up.

Step 3. Continue pushing your hands into the floor as you bend your hips and drive your butt toward the ceiling, piking your body up as high as you can and squeezing your abs. That’s one rep.

1C Single-Leg Hip Bridge on Suspension Trainer

Step 1. Set one handle of the trainer to about knee height and lie on your back on the floor. Place the foot of your weaker leg in the foot cradle of the trainer, and bend the hip and knee of the other leg 90 degrees. Tuck your pelvis slightly so that it’s perpendicular to the floor, and brace your core.

Step 2. Drive through your heel to raise your hips off the floor. Keep your core tight so that you don’t hyperextend your lower back. Complete your reps, and then repeat on the opposite leg.

1D Skater Squat

Step 1. Set a towel, or stack mats, on the floor behind you, and stand on the foot of your weaker leg. Reach your arms out in front of you to help you balance.

Step 2. Begin bending your hips and the knee of the support leg while reaching back with your free leg. Continue squatting down until your rear knee touches the mats, but don’t rest on it. (Do not let your toes touch down.) Drive up through the middle of your foot and return to standing. Complete your reps, and then repeat on the opposite leg.

If you’re new to skater squats, or don’t have much experience with single-leg training, elevate the towel or pad as needed so that you shorten the range of motion. You can gradually progress to touching the floor with your knee.

Full-Body Workout #2 – 1 Dumbbell or Kettlebell

This workout is ideal if you’re stuck somewhere that offers only one modestly-weighted dumbbell or kettlebell—such as the rusty 20-pounder Uncle Elmer has been using as a doorstop for as long as you can remember. The weight (or lack thereof) doesn’t matter much if you keep the pace brisk and add some instability to the exercise, by working one side at a time and fighting for balance.

Perform the exercises in circuit fashion, completing one set of each move in order. Do as many reps as you can for each exercise. Rest 45 seconds between exercises, and then repeat the circuit for 4–5 total rounds.

1A Single-Leg Bent-Over DB/KB Row

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell or kettlebell in your weaker hand and rest your other hand on a table, chair, or other sturdy surface. Stand on the leg that’s the same side as the one that’s touching the table, and bend your knee slightly. Bend your hips back until your torso is roughly parallel to the floor and extend your free leg behind you. Your head, spine, and pelvis should form a straight line, and your core must be braced.

Step 2. Row the weight to your side, avoiding twisting your body in any direction. Complete your reps, and then repeat on the opposite side.

1B Split-Stance One-Arm Push Press

Step 1. Stand with your legs staggered, and hold the weight in your weaker hand at shoulder level. Tuck your pelvis slightly so that it’s parallel to the floor, and brace your core.

Step 2. Dip both knees quickly and use the rebound effect to help you press the weight overhead with momentum. Avoid bending or twisting in any direction. Complete your reps, and then repeat on the opposite side, switching your legs as well.

1C Offset Reverse Lunge

Step 1. Hold the weight in your weaker hand at shoulder level. Brace your core.

Step 2. Step back with the leg that’s on the same side as the weight, and lower your body until your rear knee nearly touches the floor and your front thigh is parallel to the floor. Avoid bending or twisting. Complete your reps, and then repeat on the opposite side.

1D Single-Leg RDL

Step 1. Stand on your weaker leg and hold the weight at arm’s length on the opposite side. Take a deep breath into your belly, and brace your core.

Step 2. Bend your hips back, allowing your support leg to bend as needed, while keeping your head, spine, and pelvis in a straight line. Continue until you feel a stretch in your hamstring. Avoid bending or twisting. Complete your reps, and then repeat on the opposite side.

1E One-Arm Floor Press

Step 1. Lie on your back on the floor, holding the weight in your weaker hand over your chest. Spread your feet wider than your shoulders and dig them into the floor. Tuck your pelvis slightly so that it’s perpendicular to the floor. Take a deep breath into you belly, and brace your core.

Step 2. Lower the weight until your triceps touch the floor and pause for a moment. Press back up. Complete your reps, and then repeat on the opposite side.

Full-Body Workout #3 – Resistance Bands and Bodyweight

The workout requires the use of two bands—one long, and one short (a mini band, if possible). Bands are easy to acquire, safe to use, and can provide variable amounts of resistance. Need them to feel heavier? Choke up on the band. Lighter? give it more slack. Bands are also great for giving you feedback. On exercises such as the fire hydrant and frog pump, the tension of the band will remind you to keep your glutes engaged constantly. This not only compensates for your not being able to use heavy weight, it will teach you to mentally connect with muscles you’ve neglected. Becoming more aware of a muscle and how it works will help you fire it even harder for better results.

The exercises are grouped into two circuits. Perform the exercises in the first circuit (1A–1D), completing one set of each move in order. Rest 30 seconds between exercises, and then repeat the circuit for 4–5 total rounds. Go on to exercises 2A–2C, and perform them in the same fashion.

1A Banded Face Pull

Reps: 18–20

Step 1. Attach the long band to a sturdy object at about face height. Loop the ends of the band around your wrists, and extend your arms in front of you. Stand back to put tension on the band.

Step 2. Keeping your ribs drawn down and core tight, pull the band toward your face, stopping when your upper back is fully contracted. Do not extend your lower back to help pull the band.

1B Clap Pushup

Reps: As many as possible

Step 1. Get into pushup position and tuck your pelvis so that it’s perpendicular to the floor. Your hands should be directly under your shoulders, and your body should form a straight line from your head to your feet.

Step 2. Quickly lower your body until your chest is about an inch above the floor, tucking your elbows close to your sides as you descend. Use the rebound effect from the fast descent to come back up as explosively as you can. Come up so fast and high that your hands leave the floor and you can clap your hands in mid air.

1C One-Arm Band Curl

Reps: As many as possible

Step 1. Loop the long band over your left foot and run it under your right foot. Now grasp the free end in your right hand and stand tall. (Note that if your left arm is weaker, reverse the setup.)

Step 2. Curl the band up without letting your elbow drift forward. Complete your reps, and then repeat on the opposite side.

1D One-Arm Banded Triceps Pushdown

Reps: As many as possible

Step 1. Attach the long band to a sturdy object that’s overhead and grasp the free end in your weaker hand. Bend your hips back slightly.

Step 2. Keeping your elbow close to your side, extend your arm and flex your triceps. Complete your reps, and then repeat on the opposite side.

2A Standing Fire Hydrant Hold w/ Band

Reps: Hold 30 seconds (each side)

Step 1. Wrap the short band around your legs, just above the knees, and face a wall, standing a foot and a half back. Touch the wall for support.

Step 2. Draw your ribs down and brace your core. Bend the knee on your weaker leg, and bend your hips back until your torso is about 60 degrees. Raise your free leg out to the side, drive your heel backward to extend your hip fully, and rotate your knee outward. Avoid any rotation at the pelvis, and let the movement come purely from your hip. Hold the position 30 seconds, and then repeat on the opposite side.

2B Frog Pump w/ Band

Reps: As many as possible

Step 1. Lie on your back on the floor and wrap a band around your legs, just above the knees. Bend your knees 90 degrees and bring the soles of your feet together. Drive the backs of your arms into the floor at about 45 degrees to your torso. Tuck your pelvis slightly so that it’s perpendicular to the floor, and brace your core.

Step 2. Drive your knees outward as you push through the outer edges of your feet to raise your hips off the floor. Rise until your glutes are fully contracted.

2C Jump Squat w/ Band

Reps: 10

Step 1. Wrap a band around your legs just above the knees. Stand with feet slightly wider than shoulder width.

Step 2. Quickly bend your hips and knees, throwing your arms back behind you, and descend to about half your normal squat depth. Drive your knees outward against the band the whole time—your knees must be in line with your big toes. Use the rebound effect to jump upward with momentum. Jump as high as you can, and land softly. Begin the next jump immediately.

Full-Body Workout #4 – Bodyweight Only

Isometric holds mean holding the hardest position in an exercise’s range of motion. When you do this, you put the muscle under the greatest amount of tension possible, and that translates to growth. When you follow that with full-range reps, you’ll be amazed at how quickly you can exhaust your muscles with so little exercise volume—and no external load!

Perform the exercises in circuit fashion, completing one set of each move in order. Rest 45 seconds between exercises, and then repeat the circuit for 4–5 total rounds.

1A Pushup w/ Isometric Hold

Step 1. Get into pushup position and tuck your pelvis so that it’s perpendicular to the floor. Your hands should be directly under your shoulders, and your body should form a straight line from your head to your feet.

Step 2. Lower your body until your chest is about an inch above the floor, tucking your elbows close to your sides as you descend.

Step 3. Squeeze your pecs while actively pulling your arms toward each other—but do not move them. Simply tense your pecs and hold the contraction isometrically for as long as possible.

Step 4. When you can’t hold the position any longer, rest 15 seconds, and then perform as many full-range pushup reps as possible.

1B Three-Position Isometric Row

Step 1. Lie on your back on the floor with knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Extend your arms out 90 degrees to your sides, and then bend your elbows 90 degrees.

Step 2. Drive your elbows into the floor as hard as possible for 10 seconds, as if rowing your bodyweight. Rest 5 seconds, and move your arms toward your body to 45 degrees. Drive your elbows down again for 10 seconds, rest 5, and reposition your arms once more next to your sides. Drive down for 10 seconds, and rest.

1C Isometric Hip Bridge/Leg Curl

Step 1. Lie on your back on the floor with your knees bent 90 degrees and feet on the floor, but allow only your heels to touch down. Tuck your pelvis under slightly, and brace your core.

Step 2. Drive through your heels to raise your hips off the floor, and then dig your heels into the floor as if trying to perform a leg curl. Perform the isometric for 10 seconds.

1D Split Squat w/ Isometric Hold

Step 1. Stand with feet staggered and your weaker leg in front.

Step 2. Lower your body until your front thigh is parallel to the floor and your rear knee is just above the floor. Hold the position while tensing your front leg hard as long as you can. Rest 15 seconds.

Step 3. Now perform normal split squat reps—standing up tall and lowering into the lunge position. Do as many reps as possible.

Step 4. Rest 30 seconds, and then switch sides and repeat the isometric hold, followed by the reps.

The post 4 Full-Body At-Home Workouts for Getting & Staying Fit appeared first on Onnit Academy.

But how can you, a mere mortal (but still a boss b*tch) do the same? The answer is full-body workouts.

More likely than not, switching to a full-body routine will build more muscle, burn more fat, and get you out of the gym faster than the one you’ve been doing. So you’ll have plenty of time to record your album, start a fashion line, and star in a blockbuster movie.

We talked to wife, mom, and Onnit Coach Nikita Fear (also an Equinox Tier X Coach/EFTI Master Instructor) about how to get the best results from the least amount of time spent in the gym.

Full-Body Workout Benefits for Women

When most people start working out, they train one or two body parts at a time, or focus only on the ones they most want to enhance. Body-part training splits have their place, but if you want to get in and out of the gym fast—and have fewer overall workouts per week—you should get in the habit of training the whole body each session.

“One of the benefits of full-body programming is that you are being as efficient as possible with the time allotted,” says Fear. Training the whole body ensures that you don’t overlook or neglect any area, and it burns loads more calories than focusing on only one or two muscle groups. That means you’ll burn more fat in each session. “Blood has to pump all over your body to fuel every muscle you train,” says Fear, “so full-body workouts get your heart rate up more, and they’ll improve your cardiovascular fitness.”

Full-body workouts are also great for longevity. “They allow you to get more connected to your body,” says Fear. “In life, we don’t move in parts, but as a whole. So when we train to move that same way in a workout, it helps us move more fluidly in life.” To that end, the workouts that Fear designed below feature several combination lifts, such as Romanian deadlifts that finish with a row, split squats that end with a biceps curl, and rows from a plank position, so you mimic more movements you’ll do in real life. They also have you doing your exercises in circuit fashion, meaning that you’ll go from one exercise to the next with little rest in between. Within one round of any circuit, you’ll have trained nearly every muscle in your body.

How Often Should I Do a Full-Body Workout?

Fear says three workouts per week is enough when you’re training the whole body each time. Depending on the exercises you choose, and how you organize the workouts, you could train more frequently if you like, doing as many as five sessions per week. But if you’re a beginner exerciser, or new to full-body training, start with three non-consecutive training days (such as Monday, Wednesday, and Friday).

Remember that muscles recover and grow when they’re resting between workouts. So if you train every muscle group on Monday, there’s no need to do it all again on Tuesday. One of the great benefits of full-body training is that, if you miss a workout, you won’t fall behind. Let’s say you train the whole body on Monday. If you have to miss Wednesday’s workout, but you plan to train again on Friday, you’ll only have gone three days without training. You won’t lose any progress in that short time. In comparison, imagine doing a body-part split where you usually train legs on Wednesday. If you miss that workout, a whole week may go by before you can train legs again, or you’ll have to re-shuffle your training schedule to fit in the leg day, and some other body part will suffer.

Yet another bonus of full-body workouts is the rapid strength you can gain from them. In a full-body program, you typically only do one or two exercises for a particular muscle group in a single session (doing any more won’t leave time to hit the other areas of your body). So, every time you train shoulders, for instance, you’ll be able to work them with the heaviest possible weights and the greatest focus. With body-part splits, in which you might do five different shoulder exercises on “shoulder day,” what typically happens is that you’ll hit the first exercise or two hard, and then be too fatigued to push yourself on the remaining lifts. When you train full-body, each muscle group is fresh when you go to train it, and you can work it with the greatest intensity.

If you think working a body part with only an exercise or two in a session isn’t enough to make it respond, consider the big picture. If you do three sets for your shoulders on Monday, two more sets Wednesday, and five sets on Friday (just for example), that’s 10 sets overall for the week. Not only is that plenty of training volume for one week, each set will be done with your best effort, and that leads to the best results.

Training with such frequency, however, does require that you prioritize recovery. In addition to resting a day between sessions, choose exercises that vary in intensity, so you’ll minimize the risk of muscle strains and joint stress. Staying with the shoulder example, you could do a heavy, compound movement like dumbbell presses on Monday, relatively easy lateral raises on Wednesday, and bodyweight pushups from a downward-dog position on Friday.

In short, the more often you can train a muscle—and still let it recover—the faster you can see results. A 2015 study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that subjects who trained the whole body three days per week gained more arm muscle than another group who trained each muscle group just once per week.

Beginner Full-Body Workout for Women

If you’re new to strength training, start here. This routine, designed by Fear, uses basic but challenging exercises, so don’t worry if you can’t do a full pushup yet or are unable to lift your bodyweight on a chinup. We’ve modified some of the classic beginner exercises so that you can train as hard as possible at your own level.

How To Stretch Before A Beginner Full-Body Workout

Perform the following exercises as a warmup. They increase mobility in the joints that are typically the most restricted, help to raise your body temperature, and will prepare your nervous system for the work ahead.

Gecko

Reps: 5–8 (each side)

Step 1. Get on all fours with your hands under your shoulders and knees beneath your hips. Draw your shoulders back and downward (think “proud chest”), and tuck your tailbone slightly so that your pelvis is perpendicular to the floor. Brace your core.

Step 2. Raise your left leg 90 degrees out to the left side while simultaneously raising your right arm out to your side with elbow bent 90 degrees.

Step 3. Lower, and repeat for reps. Then repeat on the opposite side.

Squat to Stand

Reps: 5–8

Step 1. Stand with feet about hip-width apart. Drive your hips back and down, sending your butt into a deep, low squat just inches from the ground. As you drive your hips back, shoot your arms straight out in front of your body to around shoulder height.

Step 2. From this position, reach your arms down and grasp your toes. Hold on to your toes as you straighten out your knees as much as you can, sending your hips up to the ceiling. Finish with your body bent at the hips and your legs almost straight with a soft bend at the knees.

Step 3. Return to the low squat position, and then squeeze your glutes to stand up tall again.

Chaturanga Flow

Reps: Perform the exercise for 30 seconds

Step 1. Get into a downward dog pose with your toes pressing firmly into the floor, and your hands pressing your butt up and back toward the ceiling.

Step 2. Bring your hips forward into a plank position (body in a straight line), and, keeping your arms tight to the body, lower your chest to the floor as in a pushup.

Step 3. From this position, extend your arms while arching your back and dropping your hips to the floor (upward dog).

Step 4. Lift the hips up and back to starting, downward-dog position.

Mobile Table

Reps: Perform the exercise for 30 seconds

Step 1. Sit on the floor with your feet in front of you and knees bent 90 degrees. Place your hands on the floor behind you with your fingers pointing forward.

Step 2. Push through your heels to extend your hips to lockout, so you end up in a tabletop position.

Step 3. Lower your hips back down and behind you. The motion should look like you’re swinging your hips back. Use momentum to begin the next rep.

Alternating Shin Box

Reps: Perform the exercise for 30 seconds

Step 1. Sit on the floor and with your left leg in front and your right behind you, knees bent, so that your left foot is directly in front of the right knee.

Step 2. Twist your torso to the right, raising your right knee up 90 degrees. Continue turning to the opposite side so that your right foot ends up in front of your left knee on the floor. If you need to, use your arms on the floor behind your body to help you shift from one side to the other.

Workout Directions

The workout is made up of two circuits. To perform a circuit, do one set of each movement in order, resting as little as possible between exercises. When you come to the end of the circuit, rest as needed, and then repeat the circuit for 2 to 3 total rounds. Complete all sets for the first circuit before you go on to the second one.

Circuit #1

1. Romanian Deadlift to Row

Reps: 10–12

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell in each hand and stand with feet hip-width apart. Draw your shoulders back and downward (think “proud chest”), and tuck your tailbone slightly so that your pelvis is parallel to the floor. Brace your core.

Step 2. Bend your hips back while keeping a long spine from your head to your pelvis. Allow your knees to bend as needed, and stop when you feel a stretch in your hamstrings.

Step 3. From there, row the weights to your sides. Lower them back down, and then extend your hips to stand up tall again.

2. Goblet Squat

Reps: 10–12

Step 1. Stand with feet hip-width apart. Hold a single dumbbell at your chest with both hands, just underneath your chin. Your shoulders should be back and down—proud-chest position.

Step 2. Brace your core. Keeping a long spine from your head to your pelvis, sit back and spread your knees apart to squat down as deeply as you can without losing alignment.

Step 3. Squeeze your glutes as you come back up to standing.

3. Inverted Row

Reps: 10–12

Step 1. Set a bar in a rack at about hip level. Grasp the bar with hands shoulder-width apart, and hang from it with your legs extended in front of you. (To make it less challenging, bend your knees 90 degrees and plant your feet on the floor.) Draw your shoulders down and back, and brace your core so that your body forms a straight line from your head to your feet.

Step 2. Pull your body up to the bar, squeezing the shoulder blades together, until your chest touches it. Lower back down to the starting position.

Circuit #2

1. Split Squat with Bicep Curl

Reps: 10–12 (each side)

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell in each hand and stagger your stance so that your left leg is forward and your right is behind you.

Step 2. Lower your body into a lunge, until each knee is bent 90 degrees. As you go down, simultaneously curl the dumbbells with a neutral grip (both palms face in). Allow your arms to come forward a bit as you curl so that the weights stop at the front of your shoulders. Complete your reps, and then switch sides and repeat.

2. Kneeling or Full Push Up

Reps: 10–12

Step 1. Get into a pushup position on the floor with hands under your shoulders and legs extended behind you. (If regular pushups are too hard, rest your knees on the floor as shown above. Either way, make sure your body forms a straight line.) Shoulders are pulled back and down, and tailbone slightly tucked so that your pelvis is perpendicular to your spine.

Step 2. Lower your body until your chest is just above the floor. Tuck your elbows close to your sides as you descend, and then push yourself back up.

3. Kneeling or Full-Length Side Plank

Reps: Hold for 20–60 seconds (each side)

Step 1. Lie on the floor on your right side and rest your forearm on the floor. Extend your legs, aligning your body from head to feet.

Step 2. Bridge your hips up, so that you balance on your forearm and the edge of your right foot. Your legs should be stacked directly on top of each other. If that’s too easy, extend your left arm toward the ceiling to challenge your balance more, as shown above. If the plank is too hard to hold with legs straight, you can bend your knees 90 degrees. Hold for 20–60 seconds, and then switch sides and repeat.

Decompression/Cool Down

Finish your workout with the scorpion, designed to open up the hips and T-spine.

Alternating Floor Scorpion

Reps: 5 (each side)

Step 1. Lie on your stomach on the floor with your arms outstretched.

Step 2. Lift your left leg up and twist it over to the right side of your body, turning your hips to put your foot on the floor. Push your knee out as much as you can, ideally so that it points straight up to the ceiling. Your left shoulder will come off the floor as you twist, but try to keep the left arm reaching out so that it doesn’t come up more than it has to. Create as good a stretch as possible.

Step 3. Reverse the movement and repeat on the opposite side.

Bodyweight Full-Body Workout for Women

If the only gym you have access to is your living room, you can still get stronger and more defined—and we don’t mean by doing more reps with your couch cushions. This routine from Fear requires only your bodyweight.

How To Stretch Before A Bodyweight Full-Body Workout

Perform the following exercises as a warmup. They increase mobility in the joints that are typically the most restricted, help to raise your body temperature, and will prepare your nervous system for the work ahead.

Mountain Climber with Sky Reach

Reps: 10 (each side)

Step 1. Get on all fours with your hands under your shoulders and knees beneath your hips. Draw your shoulders back and downward (think “proud chest”), and tuck your tailbone slightly so that your pelvis is perpendicular to the floor. Brace your core.

Step 2. Bring your left foot up to the outside of your left hand. Maintian your long spine and shoulder and pelvis position.

Step 3. From there, twist your torso to the left, stretching the left arm toward the ceiling. Hold for a moment, and then return your hand to the floor. Return your left knee to the floor. Repeat on the opposite side.

Alternating Sit-Through

Reps: 10 (each side)

Step 1. From the all-fours (table top) position, push your hands into the floor and raise your knees off the floor so that they hover. Brace your core.

Step 2. Twist your body to the right, raising your right hand off the floor and kicking your left leg straight out to the right side. You should be holding your body weight off the floor using your left hand and right foot.

Step 3. Return to starting position, and repeat on the opposite side.

Standing Side Bend and Arm Reach

Reps: 10 (each side)

Step 1. Stand with your arms out to your sides and elbows bent 90 degrees—your left arm pointing up and the right pointing down.

Step 2. Bend your hips to the left side as you stretch your left arm over your head to the opposite side of your body. At the same time, reach your right arm down and across your body.

Step 3. Reverse the motion and repeat on the opposite side.

Beast to Alternating Knee Tap

Reps: 10 (each side)

Step 1. Get into a child’s pose—knees on the floor, arms stretched in front of you, and your weight back on your heels.

Step 2. Push yourself up into a pushup position as you bring your left knee forward to touch your left elbow.

Step 3. Return to the child’s pose, and then repeat on the opposite side.

Workout Directions

The workout is made up of two circuits. To perform a circuit, do one set of each movement in order, resting as little as possible between exercises. When you come to the end of the circuit, rest as needed, and then repeat the circuit for 2 to 3 total rounds. Complete all sets for the first circuit before you go on to the second one.

Circuit #1

1. Drop Lunge to Lateral Lunge

Reps: 12 (each leg)

Step 1. Begin standing with your feet about hip-width apart.

Step 2. Lunge out to the right side and bend your hips back, lowering your body until your right leg is bent about 45 degrees. Keep your left leg straight as you drop into the lunge. Your shoulders should be pulled back and down (think “proud chest”) as you lower.

Step 3. Push off your right foot to come back up, but instead of returning to the standing position, cross your right foot behind your left leg and plant it outside your left foot.

Step 4. Bend both knees to lower into a lunge, stopping when your rear knee is just above the floor. That’s one rep. Complete your reps on that side, and then switch sides.

2. Pushup to Bent-Knee Downward Dog

Reps: 12

Step 1. Begin in a downward dog position: balancing on the balls of your feet with your arms pressing into the floor and hips pushed back so they point to the ceiling. You must keep your head, spine and pelvis aligned, so if you feel a big stretch in your hamstrings that makes you want to tuck your tailbone under, bend your knees a bit so that you can tilt your butt up higher.

Step 2. Bring your hips down into a pushup position, so your body forms a straight line that’s level with the floor. If you need to, rest your knees on the floor as shown above. If you can do a pushup with legs straight, lower your body to the floor, tucking your elbows to the sides of your body. Stop when your chest is just above the floor.

Step 3. Press yourself back up, using the momentum to help send your weight backward and return to the downward dog position. That’s one rep.

If you’re doing the regular pushup, and you find yourself tiring out before you’ve completed all your reps, you can switch to the knees-down pushup to complete the set.

3. Kneeling or Full-Length Side Plank

Reps: Hold for 20–30 sec. (each side)

Step 1. Lie on the floor on your right side and rest your forearm on the floor. Extend your legs, aligning your body from head to feet.

Step 2. Bridge your hips up, so that you balance on your forearm and the edge of your right foot. Your legs should be stacked directly on top of each other. If that’s too easy, extend your left arm toward the ceiling to challenge your balance. If the plank is too hard to hold with legs straight, you can bend your knees 90 degrees. Hold for 20–30 seconds, and then switch sides and repeat.

Circuit #2

1. Sit-Through to Bridge

Reps: 6 (each side)

Step 1. Start on all fours with your hands beneath your shoulders and your knees under your hips. Your back should be flat.

Step 2. Brace your core and push your hands into the floor, raising your knees a few inches off the floor so they hover.

Step 3. Twist your body to the left, raising your left hand off the floor to allow your hips to turn. As you twist, extend your right leg straight out the the left side. You should be holding your body off the floor using your right hand and left foot so that your butt doesn’t touch the floor.

Step 4. Drive your hips up to full extension, squeezing your glutes at the top. Return to the starting position, and repeat on the opposite side.

2. Mobile Table

Reps: 15–20

Step 1. Sit on the floor with your feet in front of you and knees bent 90 degrees. Place your hands on the floor behind you with your fingers pointing forward.

Step 2. Push through your heels to extend your hips to lockout, so you end up in a tabletop position.

Step 3. Lower your hips back down and behind you. The motion should look like you’re swinging your hips back. Use momentum to begin the next rep.

3. Alternating Single-Leg Extension

Reps: 15–20 (each leg)

Step 1. Lie on your back on the floor. Anchor your body by holding on to something sturdy, such as a bench, couch, or ottoman behind you.

Step 2. Bring your knees to your chest and brace your core.

Step 3. Extend one leg while keeping the other bent. Return your leg to the starting position, and repeat with the other leg.

Decompression/Cool Down

Finish your workout with the angled child’s pose, designed to open up your back and hips.

Angled Child’s Pose

Reps: 5 (each side)

Step 1. Get on all fours and reach your right arm forward and across your body, placing the edge of your hand on the floor in front of your left hand.

Step 2. Drive your hips back and to the right side so that you feel a stretch in the right side of your back.

Step 3. Come forward again and repeat for reps. Then repeat on the opposite side.

Alternating Floor Scorpion

Reps: 5 (each side)

Step 1. Lie on your stomach on the floor with your arms outstretched.

Step 2. Lift your left leg up and twist it over to the right side of your body, turning your hips to put your foot on the floor. Push your knee out as much as you can, ideally so that it points straight up to the ceiling. Your left shoulder will come off the floor as you twist, but try to keep the left arm reaching out so that it doesn’t come up more than it has to. Create as good a stretch as possible.

Step 3. Reverse the movement and repeat on the opposite side.

Advanced Full Body Workout for Women

If you’ve been training for six months or more, Fear says this workout will push you to the next level. The exercises are more complex and will allow you to lift heavier—while challenging your balance and flexibility—for greater gains.

How To Stretch Before An Advanced Full-Body Workout

Perform the following exercises as a warmup. They increase mobility in the joints that are typically the most restricted, help to raise your body temperature, and will prepare your nervous system for the work ahead.

Gecko

Reps: 5–8 (each side)

Step 1. Get on all fours with your hands under your shoulders and knees beneath your hips. Draw your shoulders back and downward (think “proud chest”), and tuck your tailbone slightly so that your pelvis is perpendicular to the floor. Brace your core.

Step 2. Raise your left leg 90 degrees out to the left side while simultaneously raising your right arm out to your side with elbow bent 90 degrees.

Step 3. Lower, and repeat for reps. Then repeat on the opposite side.

Chaturanga Flow

Reps: Perform the exercise for 30 seconds

Step 1. Get into a downward dog pose with your toes pressing firmly into the floor, and your hands pressing your butt up and back toward the ceiling.

Step 2. Bring your hips forward into a plank position (body in a straight line), and, keeping your arms tight to the body, lower your chest to the floor as in a pushup.

Step 3. From this position, extend your arms while arching your back and dropping your hips to the floor (upward dog).

Step 4. Lift the hips up and back to the starting, downward-dog position.

Mobile Table

Reps: Perform the exercise for 30 seconds

Step 1. Sit on the floor with your feet in front of you and knees bent 90 degrees. Place your hands on the floor behind you with your fingers pointing forward. 

Step 2. Push through your heels to extend your hips to lockout, so you end up in a tabletop position.

Step 3. Lower your hips back down and behind you. The motion should look like you’re swinging your hips back. Use momentum to begin the next rep.

Alternating Shin Box

Reps: Perform the exercise for 30 seconds

Step 1. Sit on the floor and with your left leg in front and your right behind you, knees bent, so that your left foot is directly in front of the right knee.

Step 2. Twist your torso to the right, raising your right knee up 90 degrees. Continue turning to the opposite side so that your right foot ends up in front of your left knee on the floor. If you need to, use your arms on the floor behind your body to help you shift from one side to the other.

Workout Directions

The workout is made up of two circuits. To perform a circuit, do one set of each movement in order, resting as little as possible between exercises. When you come to the end of the circuit, rest as needed, and then repeat the circuit for 2 to 3 total rounds. Complete all sets for the first circuit before you go on to the second one.

Circuit #1

1. Single-Leg Romanian Deadlift

Reps: 12–15 (each leg)

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell in each hand and stand on your right foot. Draw your shoulder blades down and together (think “proud chest”), and tuck your tailbone under slightly so that your pelvis is parallel to the floor.

Step 2. Begin bending your hips backward so that your torso moves toward the floor. Keep your head, spine, and pelvis aligned as you move, and allow your right knee to bend as needed. Your left leg will naturally extend behind you—squeeze the glutes on that side as it does.

Step 4. Try to keep your hips level with the floor, but it’s OK if your left toes rotate outward a little. Maintain your proud chest position—the weight will try to pull your shoulders forward, so fight to keep them locked back and down. Bend as far as you can without losing your alignment.

Step 5. Squeeze your glutes as you come back up, extending your hips to lockout. You can touch your left foot down for a moment if you need to regain your balance, and then begin the next rep.

2. Deficit Reverse Lunge

Reps: 12–15 (each leg)

Step 1. Stand on a box or step that raises you a few inches off the floor.

Step 2. Reach your right leg behind you and plant it on the floor. Reach both arms in front of you to help you balance, and lower your body with control until your rear knee nearly touches the floor.

Step 3. Drive through the left foot to stand up and bring the right foot back to the box. Complete your reps, and then switch legs and repeat.

3. Underhand-Grip Pulldown

Reps: 8–10

Step 1. Sit at a lat-pulldown station and grip the bar with palms facing you, hands shoulder-width apart. Secure your knees under the pad.

Step 2. Pull the handle to your collarbone, driving your elbows down and back and squeezing your lats. Control the weight on the way back up, and let it stretch your back at the top.

Circuit #2

1. Elevated Single-Leg Hip Thrust

Reps: 10–12 (each leg)

Step 1. Place a bench, box, or step that will elevate your foot a few inches above the floor; set another one behind it that’s even taller. Rest your upper back on the taller bench and place your left foot on the smaller one. Your hips and knees should be bent 90 degrees.

Step 2. Brace your core and drive through your left heel to extend your hips to lockout. Keep your right knee pulled to your chest as you rise. Control the descent back to the starting position. Do not let your butt rest on the floor between reps. Complete your reps, and then switch sides and repeat.

2. Single-Arm Row from Plank

Reps: 8–10 (each side)

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell in your left hand and place your right forearm on a bench, box, or step that elevates a surface a foot or so above the floor. Extend your legs behind you as in a pushup position and tuck your tailbone slightly so that your pelvis is perpendicular to your spine. Use as wide a stance as you need to maintain balance (the narrower you go, the more challenging it will feel).

Step 2. Brace your core. Keeping your body in a straight line from your head to your heels, row the left-hand dumbbell to your side. Avoid twisting your body—keep your shoulders square to the floor.

3. Narrow-Grip Pushup

Reps: 10–12

Step 1. Get into a pushup position on the floor, legs extended behind you. Move your hand placement in slightly so your hands line up with your chest (rather than your shoulders). Make sure your body forms a straight line. Shoulders pulled back and down, and tailbone slightly tucked so that your pelvis is perpendicular to your spine.

Step 2. Lower your body until your chest is just above the floor. Tuck your elbows close to your sides as you descend, and then push yourself back up.

Decompression

Finish your workout with the scorpion, designed to open up the hips and T-spine.

Alternating Floor Scorpion

Reps: 5 (each side)

Step 1. Lie on your stomach on the floor with your arms outstretched.

Step 2. Lift your left leg up and twist it over to the right side of your body, turning your hips to put your foot on the floor. Push your knee out as much as you can, ideally so that it points straight up to the ceiling. Your left shoulder will come off the floor as you twist, but try to keep the left arm reaching out so that it doesn’t come up more than it has to. Create as good a stretch as possible.

Step 3. Reverse the movement and repeat on the opposite side.

For another full-body workout that uses kettlebells, click HERE.

The post Get Toned with The Best Full-Body Workouts for Women at the Gym or at Home appeared first on Onnit Academy.

What Muscles Am I Working?

The shoulder muscles are called the deltoids (or delts, for short). They’re triangle-shaped and originate at the collarbones, acromion joints, spine, and shoulder blades, and insert onto the humerus bones. Each deltoid muscle has three heads—that is, portions of the muscle that have separate sets of muscle fibers and perform a separate, distinct function.

Front deltoid. This portion of the muscle lies on the front of the shoulder, above the pectorals. It flexes the shoulder, raising the arm in front of the body and assists the pecs (chest) and lats (back) in rotating it internally. All pressing exercises, as well as front raise movements, will emphasize the front delts.

Lateral deltoid. The middle-head of the deltoid appears on the outermost side of the shoulder, between the front and rear delts. (Interestingly, while gym rats often refer to it as the “medial delt,” this term is technically inaccurate, as it’s actually the portion of the muscle that is furthest from the midline of the body.) The lateral deltoid raises the arm out to the side when the shoulder is internally rotated. It also does this when the shoulder is externally rotated (such as when your elbows are bent 90 degrees and you move your arms apart—imagine a “stick up” position, and you’re the one getting robbed!). Lateral raises are the primary exercise for hitting the middle (“side”) delts.

Posterior deltoid. The rear delt sits on the back side of the shoulder. It helps the lats extend the shoulder, moving your arm behind you, as in a rowing motion.

Benefits Of Working Out Your Shoulders

Should you require them to, strong shoulders will do more than make you look athletic in sleeveless shirts and tops. They help you carry all kinds of heavy things (groceries, luggage, your toddler), as well as reach, throw, punch, and press things. Best of all, they can help to prevent injury in any sports you play, even if they’re just weekend warrior activities like golf or softball. The shoulder joints are highly mobile, but as a consequence, are some of the most unstable joints in the body. Strong detloids help to hold them in position, and allow the the shoulders to absorb force more safely.

According to a 2013 study, since the year 2000, serious shoulder injuries have increased by five times among youth baseball and softball players. Strength training the shoulders is one of the best preventive measures to reduce injury risk.

The Best Shoulder-Strengthening Exercises

The following are my picks for the best shoulder moves for women.

#1 Lateral Raise

You know these already. There may be no better exercise for hitting the lateral head of the deltoid—the middle part that really gives your shoulders some width when looking at them from the front. If you feel a little pinch in your shoulders doing these, try bending your hips a bit so your torso leans forward. This should alleviate some pressure on the joints. Another tip: don’t squeeze the dumbbell handles too hard. Think of your hands as merely hooks to hold the weight. That way, your deltoids will take on more of the load (it won’t be dispersed to your hands and forearms).

Dumbbell lateral raises are tried and true, but you can also perform the lateral raise motion one arm at a time using a barbell in a landmine unit. In this instance, you lift the bar as if it were a long lever, which offers a number of benefits. For one thing, the movement becomes more strict—you can’t really get sloppy and swing the weight up like you might have a tendency to do with dumbbells. For another, you get to work the deltoids in three planes of motion in the same exercise. Most shoulder moves have you lifting weights either out to the sides or overhead, but a landmine lateral raise has a bar path that goes forward and rotates to the side—so it works all the deltoid musculature while still isolating the stress of the exercise to the shoulder. For more on this movement, see The Best Full-Gym Shoulder Workout For Women below.

#2 Landmine Press

There’s nothing wrong with pressing a barbell overhead, but some people find that it can irritate their shoulders, wrists, and elbows. Performing the same motion with a barbell in a landmine allows you to use a neutral grip, which lets your humerus bone glide through your shoulder joints more smoothly (there’s less risk of impingement). The press is also done on an arc, a more natural movement that strengthens the deltoids with less stress on the joints, and, in some cases, may even give you greater range of motion.

Landmine presses are great for getting your shoulder blades to move when you press, which doesn’t happen when you press off a bench or with some machines. Shoulder blade movement is important for any athletic activity you do (throwing, punching, etc.) You can do landmine presses with both arms, one arm at a time, standing up, or, as we show above and in the Full-Gym Shoulder Workout, in a half-kneeling position, which is good for learning the exercise, training your core, and stretching out your hip flexors to boot.

#3 Band Pull-Apart

You’ve heard the expression that too much of anything is not good for you, and that certainly applies to most exercises—but it isn’t so with the band pull-apart. It works the rear delts as well as the upper back, and since these areas are a weak point in virtually everyone, and pull-aparts aren’t stressful to any joints, you can pretty much do them as much as you want. The more total reps you do, the better your posture will become, and the more you’ll fill out the back of your shoulders (which probably look somewhat lopsided, as most of us inadvertently do much more work for the front delts than we do for the rear).

Pull-aparts are also easy to progress and regress. Choke up on the band more to increase the difficulty, and widen your grip to make it easier. You can even do both in the same set, starting with a lot of band tension and then reducing it as you fatigue to keep pumping out reps. As you only need a band to perform them, the pull-apart is easily done at home, so it appears in our At-Home Workout below.

#4 Rear-Delt Fly

These work similarly to the pull-apart, but can be done with dumbbells, cables, or even gymnastics rings. To really emphasize the rear delts, do them with your upper back rounded and your chest supported on a bench—don’t let your shoulder blades pinch together as you raise the weights; just lift with the shoulders and stop short of 90 degrees. To hit the rear delts and upper back together, lift all the way to 90 degrees and squeeze your back at the top (as shown above). Variations of the rear-delt fly appear in every workout to ensure balanced shoulder development.

How to Stretch Out Before Training Your Shoulders

Onnit Durability Coach Natalie Higby (@nat.trill.fit on Instagram) offers these two mobility drills to increase range of motion and stability in your shoulders and upper back.

The Best Bodyweight Shoulder Workout For Women

Pressing exercises are most people’s main go-to for shoulder training, but pushup variations work the deltoids hard as well. Change the angles you push at, and you can hit every corner of the delts. Another benefit of pushups is that they’re a closed-chain exercise. Because your hands are fixed to the ground when you do pushup exercises, you get greater overall muscle activation. Every rep not only works the shoulders, but your core as well, since it must fire to stabilize your bodyweight during the movement. The following routine requires only a floor and a wall to complete.

Directions
The workout is made up of 2 circuits. To perform a circuit, do one set for each exercise in the group, resting briefly between each, and then rest a minute (or more if needed) after you’ve completed the last exercise in the group. Repeat for the prescribed number of sets, and then go on to the next circuit.

After you’ve done both circuits, do the wall walkup as the last exercise.

Circuit #1

1. Plank Shoulder Tap

Sets: 3  Reps: 16–20

Step 1. Get into pushup position—hands under your shoulders and legs extended behind you. Tuck your pelvis slightly so that it’s perpendicular to the floor and brace your abs.

Step 2. Holding the position, alternate reaching one hand up to tap the opposite shoulder. Each tap is one rep.

2. Pike Pushup

Sets: 3  Reps: 10

Step 1. Get into pushup position and bend your hips, sending your butt up in the air as high as possible. Spread your fingers wide and push into the floor to activate your shoulders.

Step 2. Lower your head toward the floor until the top of it touches down gently. Tuck your elbows toward your sides as you lower. Press your body back up.

3. Superman Y-Raise

Sets: 3  Reps: 12

Step 1. Lie facedown on the floor and extend your arms in front of you to form a Y shape with thumbs pointing up.

Step 2. Raise your chest and legs off the floor, contracting your lower back and driving your shoulder blades down and together as you lift your arms up. Hold for a moment, and then return to the floor.

Circuit #2

1. Bear Pushup

Sets: 4  Reps: 8–10

Step 1. Get into pushup position, and then bend your knees and push your hips back so that your butt is close to your heels (you’ll look like a bear stretching its back).

Step 2. Push yourself forward again and lower into the bottom position of a pushup.

Step 3. Push yourself back up and into the bear position again.

2. Superman T-Raise

Sets: 4  Reps: 12

Step 1. Lie on the floor face down and extend your arms out 90 degrees to your sides.

Step 2. Raise your torso off the floor while simultaneously lifting your legs. Hold for a moment, and then return to the floor.

Finisher

Wall Walkup

Sets: 4  Reps: 10

Step 1. Get into pushup position with your feet touching a wall behind you. Tuck your tailbone slightly so that your pelvis is perpendicular to the floor and brace your abs.

Step 2. Begin walking your feet up the wall behind you as you push your body backward. Go as far up the wall as you can while keeping your core tight—don’t let your lower back overextend. Walk your hands forward again to return your body to the floor. Go slowly and control the movement. Each trip up the wall and back is one rep.

If this feels too easy, add a handstand pushup at the top position, when your torso is nearly vertical against the wall.

The Best At-Home Shoulder Workout For Women

This routine works whether you have a well-equipped home gym or are visiting your geat Aunt Tilly and only have access to two rusty, pink dumbbells she’s been using as a doorstop in the guest room. You’ll need to get some elastic exercise bands (if you don’t travel with them already, start!), but the weighted exercises don’t need much load to be effective. If you’re stuck with really light weights, just perform your reps more slowly, and really focus on making your form perfect. You can also shorten your rest periods between exercises and circuits to increase the intensity.

Directions

The workout is made up of 3 circuits. To perform a circuit, do one set for each exercise in the group, resting briefly between each, and then rest a minute (or more if needed) after you’ve completed the last exercise in the group. Repeat for the prescribed number of sets, and then go on to the next circuit.

Circuit #1

1. Banded Face Pull

Sets: 3  Reps: 10

Step 1. Attach an elastic exercise band to a sturdy object at about face level. Grasp the loop end with both hands and step back to put tension on the band. Bend your knees slightly to help you keep balance, and maintain an upright torso.

Step 2. Pull the band toward you until your upper back is fully contracted, and then control its return as you extend your arms.

2. Band Pull-Apart

Sets: 3  Reps: 10

Step 1. Hold a band with hands shoulder-width apart. Extend your arms in front of you. Draw your shoulder blades together and downward (think: “proud chest”).

Step 2. Extend your arms out to your sides, pulling the band apart.

Circuit #2

1. Overhead Press

Sets: 4  Reps: 10

Step 1. Hold a barbell with hands shoulder-width apart. You can take the bar off a rack, or, if you don’t have one, simply pick the bar up off the floor and clean it to shoulder level. Stand with feet shoulder-width apart and tuck your tailbone slightly so that your pelvis is parallel to the floor. Draw your ribs down and brace your core.

Step 2. Press the bar overhead, pushing your head forward as the bar clears it so that the bar ends up just behind your head in the lockout position.

Note: am empty barbell may be enough load for you, especially if it’s an Olympic bar (45 pounds), but any type of barbell is OK. If you don’t have a barbell at home, perform the same movement with two dumbbells.

2. Bottoms-Up Press

Sets: 4  Reps: 10

Step 1. Hold a light kettlebell in each hand by its handle and clean them up to shoulder level so they’re balancing upside down. (You’ll have to squeeze the handles hard to keep them balanced.) Stand with feet shoulder-width apart and tuck your tailbone slightly so that your pelvis is parallel to the floor. Draw your ribs down and brace your core.

Step 2. Press the weights overhead to lockout, and then lower them with control back to your shoulders.

3. YTL

Sets: 4  Reps: 10 (each letter)

Step 1. Hold small weight plates or very light dumbbells (3 pounds is good) and lie chest-down on a bench. Extend your arms toward the floor.

Step 2. Draw your shoulder blades down and together as you raise your arms up to form a Y shape, level with the floor. Repeat for reps.

Step 3. Raise your arms out 90 degrees to form a T shape. Repeat for reps.

Step 4. Bend your elbows 90 degrees and draw your shoulders down and back, rowing the weights to your sides. Rotate your forearms to face forward (your arms will form an L shape). Repeat for reps.

Circuit #3

1. Lateral Raise

Sets: 3  Reps: 10–12

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell in each hand and stand with feet shoulder-width apart. Bend your hips back slightly while keeping a long spine from your head to your hips.

Step 2. Keeping a slight bend in your elbows, raise your arms out 90 degrees to your sides.

2. 3-Way Shoulder Raise

Sets: 3  Reps: 8–10

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell in each hand and stand with feet shoulder-width apart. Raise the weights out 90 degrees to your sides (a normal lateral raise).

Step 2. From the top of the lateral raise, rotate your arms to face forward (as in a front raise).

Step 3. Raise your arms straight overhead (as in the top of an overhead press).

Step 4. Reverse the entire movement, lowering your arms back in front of you, then reaching out to your sides, and then lowering them to your sides. That’s one rep.

3. Dumbbell Rear-Delt Fly

Sets: 3  Reps: 10

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell in each hand and stand with feet shoulder-width apart. Bend your hips back—while keeping a long spine from your head to your pelvis—until your torso is about parallel to the floor.

Step 2. Draw your shoulder blades back together and downward as you raise the dumbbells out 90 degrees.

The Best Full-Gym Shoulder Workout For Women

If you have access to a fully-stocked gym, you have the greatest number of options at your disposal for the best possible workout. This includes a landmine unit, which will allow you to turn the good, old-fashioned barbell into a more sophisticated piece of exercise equipment with a variety of great uses. (If your gym doesn’t have a landmine, fear not—a corner in the room will work too).

Using the barbell with a landmine will make the lateral raise—a classic dumbbell move—into a three-dimensional exercise that will hit your deltoids in a brand new way, while reducing strain on the shoulder joints. The landmine also makes for more joint-friendly pressing. To that end, I’ll also have you using a power rack—another piece of equipment you’ll likely only be able to access in a gym. Doing barbell overhead presses against the support beams of the rack mimics a Smith machine press, but you still have to control the bar path. This gives you the best of both worlds: the stable, isolated shoulder hit you’d get from machine training, plus the muscle activation and strength component of free weights.

Directions
The workout is made up of 3 circuits. To perform a circuit, do one set for each exercise in the group, resting briefly between each, and then rest a minute (or more if needed) after you’ve completed the last exercise in the group. Repeat for the prescribed number of sets, and then go on to the next circuit.

Circuit #1

1. Landmine Raise

Sets: 3  Reps: 8–10 (each side)

Step 1. Set up a barbell in a landmine unit, or wedge one end into the corner of a wall. Grasp the very end of the sleeve (where you load the weight plates) and stand with feet shoulder-width apart with the end of the bar in front of your hips.

Step 2. Raise your arm up 90 degrees as you would in a normal lateral raise. Note that you’ll probably only be able to use the empty bar or very light weight. Don’t try to go heavy.

2. Half-Kneeling One-Arm Landmine Press

Sets: 3  Reps: 10 (each side)

Step 1. Stand in front of the barbell in a landmine unit, and get into a lunge position with your right leg in front. Lower your body so you rest on one knee in front of the bar, and pick it up to shoulder level with your left hand. Tuck your tailbone slightly so that your pelvis is parallel to the floor and brace your abs. Draw your shoulder blades back together and downward (think: “proud chest”).

Step 2. Press the bar overhead in a semi-circular motion. Think “around the world.” Maintain a tight core and your upright body position and keep your balance.

Circuit #2

1. Scrape-The-Rack Press

Sets: 3  Reps: 10

Step 1. Set a barbell up in a power rack at about face level. Stand with legs staggered and feet shoulder-width apart. Grasp the bar with hands shoulder-width, wrists straight, and elbows pointing down. Draw your shoulder blades down and together and tuck your tailbone slightly so that your pelvis is parallel to the floor. Brace your abs.

Step 2. Press the bar out of the rack and overhead while scraping it against the support beams. You want there to be friction, so push the bar forward as well as overhead. Lower it down the same way.

2. 3-Way Shoulder Raise

Sets: 3  Reps: 10

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell in each hand and stand with feet shoulder-width apart. Raise the weights out 90 degrees to your sides (a normal lateral raise).

Step 2. From the top of the lateral raise, rotate your arms to face forward (as in a front raise).

Step 3. Raise your arms straight overhead (as in the top of an overhead press).

Step 4. Reverse the entire movement, lowering your arms back in front of you, then reaching out to your sides, and then lowering them to your sides. That’s one rep.

3. YTL

Sets: 3  Reps: 8 (each letter)

Step 1. Hold small weight plates or very light dumbbells (3 pounds is good) and lie chest-down on a bench. Extend your arms toward the floor.

Step 2. Draw your shoulder blades down and together as you raise your arms up to form a Y shape, level with the floor. Repeat for reps.

Step 3. Raise your arms out 90 degrees to form a T shape. Repeat for reps.

Step 4. Bend your elbows 90 degrees and draw your shoulders down and back, rowing the weights to your sides. Rotate your forearms to face forward (your arms will form an L shape). Repeat for reps.

Circuit #3

1. Dual-Cable Rear Delt Fly

Sets: 4  Reps: 12

Step 1. Cross your arms in front of you and grasp the ends of the cables on two facing cable stations. Step away from the machines to put tension on the cables.

Step 2. Draw your arms out 90 degrees to your sides, squeezing your shoulder blades together at the end of the range of motion.

2. Cable Rope Front Shoulder Raise

Sets: 4  Reps: 10–12

Step 1. Attach a rope handle to the low pulley of a cable station and straddle it with feet shoulder-width apart. Grasp an end of the rope in each hand.

Step 2. Raise the handle in front of you with arms extended. Go up to shoulder level, and then lower back under control.

The post The Best Shoulder Exercises and Workouts For Women appeared first on Onnit Academy.

So goes the second verse in Bruce Springsteen’s “The Promised Land,” and doesn’t it sound familiar? You work hard, pay your dues, and live up to your responsibilities, but every once in a while, you just want to explode. Break out of your town, hit the road, and have the kind of adventure they write epic rock songs about.

Summertime is THE time to do it. So if you don’t have plans to road trip somewhere amazing… make some. Now. This guide was designed to help you. To inform you about a place (or places) in America you can go, to see and do things you’ve never done before.

There’s only one problem, and we’ve already got the answer. If you’re like us, you love to explore new cities, but you don’t like being away from your gym and the food options that fit your diet. Vacations are about breaking the monotony of our normal schedules, but nobody wants to come home fatter, weaker, and feeling like crap—or have a peanut allergy flare-up when you’re a thousand miles from your doctor.

That’s why, in addition to suggesting great vacation spots, we’re giving you options on nearby gyms to train at, and healthy restaurants to get your meals. Places that can accommodate YOUR workout and nutrition preferences, so you don’t have to sacrifice your fitness while you’re having the time of your life.

Now get out there. Take this moment (and this article) into your hands… And believe in the promised land.

DESTINATION: SEATTLE, WA

Why you should go: Tech money hasn’t ruined the Pacific Northwest yet. Lurking among all the Beemers and Teslas you’ll still find a progressive, bohemian, creative culture up on Washington’s coast, and it offers plenty of options for the fitness-minded visitor.

You won’t get better, healthier fish anywhere in the world than at Pike Place Market: have some packed in ice and sent to some pals back home, and they’ll be friends for life. At the nearby Seattle Center, you can ride up the Space Needle, stroll through the Chahuly Museum (which exhibits amazing glass sculptures), and take in the Museum of Pop Culture—a bizarro stroll through some of the weirder artifacts from the last 100 years of film, TV, and video games. For some outdoor fun, take advantage of a rare rain-free afternoon by walking or jogging through Kerry Park, which overlooks downtown.

Where to train: FUELHouse, in the young, eclectic neighborhood of Wallingford, is, in the words of founder Molly Kieland, “a widely supportive, inclusive community that gives two shits about helping you unleash your superpowers.” Kettlebells and barbells are their bread and butter, but members can also avail themselves of boxing and yoga classes. Swing by their Fuelstrong classes (M/W/F, $28 per visit), or, if you’re an experienced kettlebeller, a Fuelstrong Kettlebell class (T/Th). Notify them at least one day before coming by emailing info@fuelhousegym.com.

Vigor Ground, in nearby Renton, is a performance-focused gym that features strongman training, turf, kettlebells, bands, and other fun and functional gear. It’s a can’t-miss spot if you’re a serious athlete, or are determined to train like one. Saturday mornings at 9 a.m., they do a “charity” workout class, and instructor/owner Luka Hocevar donates the proceeds to a worthy cause. Call ahead and mention that you read this article, and Hocevar will let you join for $20 (donated to charity).

Where to eat: Next to the Pike Place Market, you can line up for counter service at Sushi Kashiba (or make reservations for the dining room). Chef Kashiba has been at it for five decades, earning him the moniker of “sushi sensei” of Seattle. In Ballard—a short drive or bus ride from downtown—Porkchop & Co. offers terrific farm-to-table fare for lunch and brunch.

Tip: Bruce Lee and his son Brandon are buried at the lovely Lake View Cemetery near Capitol Hill. Pay your respects, and contemplate The Dragon’s contribution to martial arts and fitness.

DESTINATION: PORTLAND, OR

Why you should go: Thanks to Portlandia, the IFC sitcom, this city’s quirky, artsy, ultra-left vibe is now the stuff of legend. But that doesn’t mean it won’t live up to your expectations. Portland is home to some of the best parks, hiking spots, bike paths, and gardens in the US. Forest Park alone—a popular spot for equestrians, cyclists, runners, and hikers alike—boasts more than 70 miles of trails, all within city limits. After a day in the wild, kick back at one of the city’s 58 microbreweries.

Where to train: Point Gym & Kitchen. More of a playground than a gym, PG&K has an un-intimidating atmosphere, and lets members lift rocks, balance on planks of wood, toss medicine balls, jump, crawl, and row to stay fit. If you’re interested, you can also catch a healthy meal on site, and get some nutrition coaching on the side. Weeklong passes are free!

If you want something a little more aggressive, Firebrand Sports offers HIIT classes that will maintain (or improve) your fitness level while you’re away from home. $15 gets you your first class; $69 buys you two weeks of unlimited use.

Where to eat: Andina is consistently ranked as one of Portland’s best restaurants. The food is listed as Latin/Peruvian, but the main event is the many selections of unbeatable Northwest seafood—mussels, octopus, scallops, shrimp, etc. On a budget? Go for the tapas menu, lunch, or happy hour.

Tip: If you’re ditching your diet on vacation, head over to Ruby Jewel for a homemade ice cream sandwich (including unusual flavors such as lemon and honey lavender). #NoRegrets. There are five different locations around the city.

DESTINATION: MONTEREY, CA

Why you should go: Along the legendary Pacific Coast Highway—a must-do drive when you’re visiting the West Coast—lies a handful of sleepy but unbelievably gorgeous towns, and Monterey is the most accessible and charming of them all. Check out the impressive Monterey Bay Aquarium, take a hike in the Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, and poke around the Fisherman’s Wharf for some great eats and fun shopping.

Where to train: Centrally-located Prime Monterey, owned and operated by the Amazonian Jolie Kobrinsky, is a one-stop shop to get the road kinks out. It offers weights (including unconventional tools such as kettlebells), bootcamp classes, boxing, and jiu-jitsu—and a view of the ocean out their windows. Forget your sneakers? No problem. You can train barefoot. And if your neck is tight from the drive, on-site physical therapist Dr. Nathan Kadlecek has you covered—no referral required. $25 for drop-in visitors.

Where to eat: Stop at Lilify, a local artisan store, for shopping and a pre-workout caffeine fix from Bright Coffee, located inside; it’s just up the street from Prime. For great sushi, you’ll want Crystal Fish. But if you’re feeling like some greasier fare, Pig Wizard has awesome house-made sausage and beer. The pigs are pasture-raised and organic-fed, and the owners swear you’ll taste the difference.

Tip: If you hit the links, you have to get in a round at nearby Pebble Beach golf course (site of this year’s U.S. Open). You can get there by taking the renowned 17-mile drive, a scenic route along the Monterey Peninsula, where you can spot everything from the Lone Cypress (a world-famous tree standing on a granite hillside) to bathing sea lions.

DESTINATION: YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, CA

Why you should go: It’s humbling. Between having some of the tallest waterfalls in the world, and its giant sequoia trees, Yosemite will make you feel small—no matter how jacked you are—and wonder at the glory that is nature. Hiking trails and picnic areas abound, and if you’re into rock climbing, the 3,000-foot El Capitan has to be on your bucket list.

Where to train: The hikes may be workout enough for you, but if you want to strain against some heavy iron, hit Mammoth Strength Gym, 45 minutes south of the park in Mammoth Lakes. The closest non-Globo facility to Yosemite, MSG doesn’t even employ a staff. Drop in and train on your own any day from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. and indulge in their med balls, kettlebells, squat racks, bumper plates, rowers, and assault bikes. $12 is the day rate. Call or text 760–914–3993 for an access code.

Where to eat: Sweetwater Grocery and Deli in Mariposa is small, locally-owned, and the perfect place to stock up on trail food before you take in Half Dome, Glacier Point, and the other wonders of Yosemite. Build your own sandwiches at the deli counter—they don’t skimp on meat—and swing back again post-hiking for happy hour on the porch: 3–5 p.m. daily.

Tip: Single people take note: Bridalveil waterfall in the park is so named because the Ahwahneechee Native Americans believed that inhaling the mist would help you land a spouse.

DESTINATION: LOS ANGELES, CA

Why you should go: All fitness aficionados worth their Himalayan salt know that SoCal—and the Santa Monica/Venice Beach area in particular—is ground zero for the fitness craze in this country, and especially bodybuilding/physique training. Further inland, you’ll find every iconic Hollywood locale in the book, from the Walk of Fame to the Hollywood sign to Mann’s Chinese Theater, and all are well worth a gawk. For shopping, swing by Rodeo Drive in Hollywood and take in how much some people are willing to pay for a T-shirt; then head over to Melrose Avenue and pick up something genuinely cool—and more reasonably priced.  

Where to train: Of course there’s Gold’s (see our guide to Route 66 below), but the outdoor Muscle Beach weight pit in Venice will give you a better idea of what it was like training with Arnold and Franco back in the day. Day passes are $10. You can also hit the free swings, rings, and ropes at 1700–1746 Ocean Front Walk, just south of the Pier in Santa Monica. Jump straight into the ocean to cool off afterward.

Where to eat: Adana Restaurant in Glendale (part of the storied San Fernando Valley) is modest-looking inside and out, but that’s all understated framework for the astonishing protein-rich delights that await you once you sit down. Order anything on a kebob. Leave with your mind blown.

Food trucks are bordering on cliché in LA these days, but the Pico House truck is worth tracking down. Bowls of their house blend of grains, complemented by fresh and delicious veggies and meats, make it a standout.

Tip: Skipped leg day again? Climbing the vertiginous Santa Monica Stairs (at 4^th and Adelaide Drive) will help make it up. For a less crowded but equally challenging option, try the La Mesa steps, accessible through a small entryway between 404 and 410 Adelaide.

DESTINATION: DENVER, CO

Why you should go: Mountains. Clean air. Nature. Bike trails. Climbing. Healthy food. People who won’t judge you for your fitness fanaticism. And, of course, legal weed…

If you’ve always wondered what it would have been like to make it as an athlete, the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs (two hours south of Denver) offers guided tours that can give you a taste.

Where to train: If you want to get as hard as the Rocky Mountains, visit Iron Warrior Gym, a no-nonsense barbell club in Englewood (near the University of Denver) that you can access for $15 a day.

Trainrogue.com, in the northwest section, is a performance-based gym specializing in adventure racers and other outdoor athletes, and it’s run by a cadre of ex-Special Forces personnel.

Where to eat: At Just Be Kitchen (northwest side of town, by the South Platte River), everything is gluten- and grain-free. The meats are 100% grass-fed, and so is the Bulletproof-style coffee. The only oils they cook with are coconut and olive.

Tip: Boulder is only an hour north, and it’s worth a visit for the hiking alone. Settler’s Park Trail, five minutes on foot from downtown Boulder, provides a short hike up to a dramatic rock formation that looks like an all-natural Stonehenge.

DESTINATION: JACKSON HOLE, WY

Why you should go: It’s one of the last bastions of cowboy culture, so if you’re a city slicker who’s always wanted to ride a horse or a stagecoach, see a rodeo, and drink in an authentic saloon, get your tenderfoot, tinhorn ass over there. For pure nature lovers, there are also mountains (the Tetons) to climb and bike, streams to fly fish, and whitewater rivers to raft.

Jackson Hole is the perfect basecamp if your main goal is to explore Yellowstone National Park, where you’ll find much more than Yogi and Boo-boo (but you will likely see some real bears). Take in the wildlife, geysers (including Old Faithful), and views so incredible you have to see them for yourself to truly believe. And that isn’t hyperbole. When Yellowstone’s earliest visitors tried to report what they saw to newspapers, the editors responded, “Thank you, but we do not print fiction.”

Where to train: Gym-22 is, in the words of owner and head instructor Brooks Woodfin, a “High-altitude, high-intensity” facility, informed by the ruggedness of its natural setting. In Woodfin’s Hybrid Strength and Conditioning class, you’ll lift sangbags, logs, and water-filled implements—the better to prep you for carrying your eight-point buck, or hobbled mountain bike, out of the woods before sundown. $20 drop-in fee for the day.

Where to eat: Grab a bison burger at Liberty Burger, a local chain dedicated to serving incredible produce and unusual proteins—the patties are as thick as your thumb. While the food is great, Liberty Burgers’ mission is greater: they recycle everything, and even the napkins are tree-free and compostable.

Tip: If you’ve ever wondered what an Old West gunfight really looked like, see the Jackson Hole Shoot-out. The streets are cleared at 6 p.m. (except Sundays) so a local re-enactment group can blow each other away. It’s the longest-running show of its kind in the country.

DESTINATION: NEW YORK, NY

Why you should go: The Big Apple’s reputation precedes it, but on the off-chance you don’t know about the Empire State Building, Museum of Natural History, Broadway, and Central Park—to quote one of its favorite street poets—“now you know” (R.I.P. Biggie). Beyond the big attractions, New York has ambassadors of every culture from every corner of the globe elbowing past one another on the subway, slapping each other on the back, cursing, arguing, hailing cabs, and fuggetaboutit-ing in every language known to man. There’s no place like it on earth.

Where to train: Solace, in the Murray Hill neighborhood, offers something for everyone in your car. A wide variety of classes include sessions focused on CrossFit WODs, bodybuilding, barbell training, gymnastics, and recovery. $40 for drop-ins.

If you want to lift Atlas stones, drag chains, and press logs, head down to Brooklyn for Global Strongman Gym—a 3,000 square-foot facility dedicated to turning normal humans into behemoths. They have five deadlift platforms, and tractor tires so massive and worn they look like they came off the Trojan Horse. $20 gets you in for the day.

Where to eat: Look up any type of food you like and there’s probably a great spot in spitting distance. But when you’re in one of the most diverse cities in the world, you should take advantage of the ethnic food. Hanoi House in the East Village has great (and healthy) Vietnamese.

Of course, you have to try the pizza (or, as they call it, “pie”). While eateries are constantly vying for the title of best pizza in the city, locals (and a big celebrity clientele) know that Lucali in Brooklyn is king. These guys are so good that they’re only open for dinner, and there’s always a line. Do as their website instructs: show up before 5, put your name on the list, go have a drink, and they’ll call you when your table is ready.

On the lighter side, the misleadingly-titled Butcher’s Daughter in the West Village, Nolita, or Williamsburg has vegetarian fare and fresh juices. Candle 79, on the west and east sides, is known for its locally-sourced, plant-based menu (including some incredible desserts).

And if you want a great burger, made from any number of lean, pasture-raised animals, Bareburger has locations all over the city.

Tip: Get in on the weekly 5K that commences at Brooklyn Bridge Park every Tuesday night. It’s free!

DESTINATION: CAPE COD, MA

Why you should go: If you can get past the accents (“Pahk the cah in Hahvahd Yahd”), the eastern tip of Massachusetts (two hours southeast of Boston) offers all kinds of diversions. First, there are the three W’s: whale watching, windmills, and white sand beaches. And for the scholar in the family, CC has some of the richest history of anywhere in the country. The town of Nantucket was founded in 1659, and was the center of the world’s whaling industry. Provincetown, at the very end of Cape Cod, is where the Pilgrims landed the Mayflower in 1620.

Where to train: Nearby Hyannis and Martha’s Vineyard may be hoity-toity, but that doesn’t mean “Massholes” don’t know how to get after it in the gym. Upper Cape CrossFit has the whiteboard and metcons you’d expect, but also a well-credentialed group of coaches, and they’re prepared for out-of-towners. Upper Cape also has open gym hours (check the schedule), so if you’re not up for a WOD on your vacation, you can still stop by and do your own thing. Before dropping in ($20 per visit), fill out this form.

For a more uniquely Cape-Cod experience, check out HeartCore Studio, where you can choose from a variety of strength-and-cardio-building classes: fast and furious HIIT Body Combat Boot Camp, the lifting-based Gimme Strength, and the water-based SUP Fit, in which classes are taught—yes—on stand-up paddleboards. A single class is 25 bucks, or get three for $69.

Where to eat: For a terrific, healthy, breakfast or lunch, check out the nicely-priced Sunbird, a farm-to-table spot—recently updated from food-truck status—with plenty of Paleo-friendly options. The grass-fed burger and the quinoa porridge are local favorites.

Tip: When you’re in New England, you have to try the seafood, particularly lobster. The bisque at the Brewster Fish House is second to none, but plan to get there early; they don’t take reservations.

DESTINATION: HILTON HEAD, SC

Why you should go: Hilton Head could be described as the Cape Cod of the South. Coligny beach is one of the main attractions, but you’ll have more privacy on Burkes Beach or Islanders Beach Park, without sacrificing any of the beauty. Only 12×5 miles, Hilton Head is easily walkable, although most like to travel it by bike; you don’t need your car. In the heart of the island is the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina, which produces top-rated comedies, dramas, and musicals, and often features world-famous performers.

Where to train: XP Fitness has sleds, ropes, kettlebells, a lifting platform, and boxing equipment… Did you even leave home? One visit to their dedicated powerlifting room—with ample platforms, racks, and curtains over the mirrors so you can practice your lifts competition-style, and you may never be able to train in a Planet Fitness again (as if you ever could). Walk-ins are welcome: $15 for the day; $40 for the week.

There’s also Conviction Training, home to CrossFit Hilton Head. Classes start at 5:30 a.m. and run till 7:30 p.m., with open gym hours in the late morning and early afternoon. Lifting stones, hurdles, Prowlers, kegs, and railroad ties round out the usual collection of medicine balls, dumbbells, kettlebells, rowers, chinning bars, and barbells. Traveling with young kids? CT has you covered: there’s a dedicated playroom—or the little ones can watch you working out from the carpeted area to the side of the weight room. Bonus: there’s a semi-wooded area out back to practice tire-flipping, farmers walks, and other strongman moves. $20 to drop in; $50 for the week.

Where to eat: Chow Daddy’s Kitchen and Bar is local, organic, and Southern-style. If you’re going to go for the fried chicken on your trip, this is where to do it. Their beef is ground on site daily. But if you want to stay on-plan with your diet, go for a Hot Bowl with grilled salmon or chicken, available with basmati rice and mixed greens.

Tip: Hilton Head’s top outdoor adventure company is Live Oac. Take a tour on their Odyssey boat, which has a noise suppressor on its motor, so as not to disturb the wildlife you sail by. As a result, you’re liable to see dolphins, sharks, and sea turtles.

DESTINATION: MIAMI, FL

Why you should go: True, Florida gets hot in the summertime, but its beaches are cool any time of year. The trendy set will want to hit South Beach, however, if you want to feel like you have your own private island, go further south to Crandon Park or Bill Baggs State Park on Key Biscayne.

The pastel-colored, art deco hotels and restaurants featured in many movies make Ocean Drive worth a lap, but some of the best times can be had outside the city. A little west on US-41, you can cross into the Everglades to take airboat rides and see alligator wrestling.

Where to train: If boxing is even a small part of your regimen, you have to visit 5^th Street Gym in South Beach, where The Greatest (Ali) used to train, and so do celebrities (like, uh, Mickey Rourke). If you want to take a boxing-plus-weights class, the first one is free.

Where to eat: The Cuban food in Magic City is a must, but if you want something that isn’t deep-fried or covered in melted cheese, Planta South Beach is very vegan-friendly. It’s known for its gluten-free Thai noodle salad, and the Planta burger, made with a mushroom and lentil patty, has earned raves even from carnivores.

A little north, in Fort Lauderdale, you’ll find Fresh First. It’s free of gluten, peanuts, and GMOs, and the nutrition facts of each meal are fully disclosed.

Tip: If you’re a fan of Hollywood memorabilia, classic cars, or both, check out the Dezer collection in North Miami. The Batmobile, Delorean, General Lee, and several James Bond rides you’ll know at a glance are housed there, along with vintage Italian and American models. If browsing them gets you amped up, there’s an American Ninja Warrior training course next door.

BONUS: Route 66

Someone once said of travel destinations that “getting there is half the fun.” (It may have been Clark W. Griswold). While that could be an idiom used mostly by idiots who won’t pay for airline tickets, it’s very appropriate if your vacation plans take you from the Midwest to the Southwest (or vice versa) along or near old U.S. Route 66. Although technically decommissioned, much of the “Main Street of America”—one of the country’s first highways and a cultural icon—remains, having been folded into the Interstate Highway System, and it can give you a tour of American history, from the classic to the kitschy. (Several major highways run parallel to or intersect with the original 66, including US 41, US 69, I-15, I-40, I-44, and I-55, so you can follow roughly the same path and see the same attractions with minimal detours.)

Route 66 runs from Chicago to the Pacific ocean (Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles), passing through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.

Here’s a breakdown of what you can see and stop at, state by state…

Illinois – Chicago

Chi-Town is the home of deep-dish pizza, the Sears Tower, and the Art Institute, but it’s also a great destination for outdoor activities in the summer. If you want to swim in Lake Michigan, hit up the less-crowded Ohio Street Beach, which will also give you a view of downtown. If you want to tour the whole city without burning up gas, hike the 606 urban trail, a 2.7-mile elevated path that passes through the Bucktown, Logan Square, and Humboldt Park neighborhoods (with lots of bars and restaurants along the way).

If you’re serious about strength, you have to hit Quads Gym (on North Broadway, a little east of Wrigley Field; $11 for a day pass). It’s been home to hardcore lifters for more than 30 years—including Ed Coan, the man widely regarded as the greatest powerlifter of all time.

In a city known for big portions and pizza, you might think eating to stay lean would be a challenge. Enter Protein Bar & Kitchen, whose motto is “fast fuel.” With locations all over the east side, every entrée has at least 15 grams of protein, and the menu abounds with delicious salad options, quinoa bowls, smoothies, and organic fare.

Missouri

I-44 will take you through St. Louis, where you can see the Gateway Arch. Three hours later, less than 10 minutes southeast of Stanton, you’ll find Meramec Caverns—a limestone cave with spectacular mineral formations. It also once served as a hideout for Jesse James (the Old West outlaw, not the motorcycle mechanic from TV).

Kansas

Just before the Oklahoma state line, you’ll hit the town of Baxter Springs. Home to Fort Blair, it was the site of the Baxter Springs Massacre, where the infamous Confederate raider Quantrill led the slaughter of more than 100 Union Army soldiers. On the lighter side, Baxter Springs features a defunct but quaint service station held over from the 1940s, which explains why the town (in part) inspired the fictional Radiator Springs in the 2006 Pixar movie Cars.

Oklahoma

If you’re a baseball fan, stop in Commerce to see Mickey Mantle’s boyhood home (off Route 69, slightly northwest of I-44). Its outside walls served as a backstop for his after-school hitting practices, and still bear the dents of errant balls.

Texas

If you’re into vintage cars, or just plain weird stuff, pack your Pa and pack your Aunt and take em down to the Cadillac Ranch as you pass through Amarillo on the south side of I-40. A modern-art project created in 1974, it’s 10 Cadillacs (models range from 1949 to 1963) buried halfway into the ground, head first, in the middle of a cow pasture. Why? Who knows. But it inspired a Bruce Springsteen song of the same name, and visitors are permitted to spray paint lyrics, or other messages of their own, on the cars.

New Mexico

For decades, Route 66 was the only major artery by which to access the American west, and you know you’re not in Kansas anymore (or wherever you’re from) when you see Sky City. Founded in 1150 by Native Americans, the city (aka Acoma Pueblo) is the oldest continuously inhabited community in America. Though they’re only a bit west of Albuquerque on I-40, the people there still live much as they did centuries ago, without electricity or running water, and they carry on tribal traditions, such as making incomparable pottery. Perched atop a mesa, Sky City’s views of the surrounding desert more than deserve to be a selfie backdrop.

Arizona

There’s no shortage of incredible sight-seeing in Arizona, and Route 66 will get you pretty close to damn near all of it. I-40 will take you by Petrified Forest National Park, a 109,000-acre spread of multi-colored rock formations and Native American sites.

Twenty-five minutes south of I-40, you can see the original London Bridge in Lake Havasu City (yes, they moved it), and while the Grand Canyon is a little further off the interstate in Williams (about an hour north), you’d be a fool to get so close and not look at it.

California – Los Angeles

You’re surely already aware of what California has to offer (if not, read the above), but if you follow Route 66 to its very end, you’ll end up in Los Angeles, teetering on the edge of the Santa Monica Pier. Gold’s Gym’s flagship location ($40 for a day pass) is slightly south in neighboring Venice (but walk down Pacific Avenue if you want to see the original gym, which still bears the signage but is now a private home). So is the Firehouse—a fitness-focused eatery with a section of its menu devoted solely to bodybuilders.

If you want to work out some of the road rage you built up in the car, head to Box n Burn on Lincoln Blvd in Santa Monica, a boxing-for-fitness gym headed by former Olympian Tony Jeffries. Day passes are $15. But there’s no shame in not finding time to work out in Santa Monica. With the beach, a nearby aquarium, and shopping opportunities on the Third Street Promenade, you may get distracted.

*Additional writing and reporting done by Andrew Heffernan.

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