with Premier Personal Trainer Denise Boyle
1. Drop Lunge with Rotation
(A) Start with feet hip distance apart and engage your core. (B) Step back with your left foot into a partial lunge, reach overhead with your left arm, and rotate to the right until you feel the stretch. Try reaching for the left calf muscle with the right hand for a greater stretch but continue reaching with that left arm. Hold for 20 – 30 seconds, then repeat on the opposite side.
2. Russian Twist
Place your shoulder blades on a stability ball and assume a bridge position where your head, neck, and shoulders are supported. Engage your core. Hold either a medicine ball or a dumbbell with straight arms over your chest. (A) While maintaining a straight line from your head to your knees, begin your rotation to one side, rolling the ball along the shoulder blades while aiming for a 90-degree rotation. (B) Hold for 10 seconds, then return and repeat on the other side. This exercise strengthens your back, shoulders, glutes, and torso. Repeat for desired reps.
3. Cable RDL
(A) Grab the lower handles of the machine and stand tall with feet a little less than hip distance apart. Keep your shoulders down and retracted. (B) Engage your core as you hinge from the waist, maintaining a flat back and looking straight ahead. You should notice a stretch in your hamstrings. Squeeze your glutes as you quickly return to standing and repeat for desired reps.
4. V Sit Up With Rotation
(A) Sit on a mat or on the floor with legs together, knees bent, and heels grounded. With arms straight and out in front of you, hold either your golf club or a dowel. (B) In one motion, take the golf club in your right hand, slightly lean back, reach back with your right arm, and rotate your torso and head at the same time. Return to the starting position, then perform the motion on your left side. Perform desired number of reps or until you are not able to maintain a neutral spine.
5. Band Multiplanar Reach (3 Positions)
Place a mini medium tension band at your ankles. Engage your core. (A) Keeping your left foot planted, step forward with your right leg, (B) then step out to the side (lateral), (C) then step back. Keep the band tight throughout the exercise. Perform for desired number of reps, then repeat the other side.
6. Modified Side Plank With Rotation
(A) Lie on your left side. Place your left forearm on the floor, keeping your left elbow under your shoulder with hips and knees stacked.
Lift your hips off the ground and post up on
the knees. (B) Add a rotation by reaching your right arm up then under your body. Extend the arm back to starting and repeat for desired number of reps or hold static position for 30 seconds, then switch sides.
7. Alternating Dumbbell Fly
(A) Hinge at your waist and assume a bent-over position, engaging the core muscles and keeping your back flat (use a mirror to check your form). Reach for two dumbbell weights that you can easily lift out to the side. (B) While in the bent-over position, lift the right dumbbell out to the side while keeping the left dumbbell in the starting position. Alternate your flies while keeping good form; keep your neck in line with your spine by looking at the ground or a golf ball during the exercise.
