{"id":29440,"date":"2016-10-21T16:48:48","date_gmt":"2016-10-21T20:48:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=29440"},"modified":"2016-10-21T16:48:48","modified_gmt":"2016-10-21T20:48:48","slug":"take-an-active-break-a-small-gym-exercise-routine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2016\/10\/21\/take-an-active-break-a-small-gym-exercise-routine\/","title":{"rendered":"Take an active break! : A small gym exercise routine"},"content":{"rendered":"October is a terrifying time of year \u2013 and that has nothing to do with Halloween. I have never before been so overwhelmed with things that need doing\/studying\/writing. But we\u2019ll get through this\u2026 right?\r\n\r\nI\u2019m kidding of course, we always do and we will again \u2013 that thought has always been helpful to me when I\u2019m swamped and feeling hopeless.\r\n\r\nWhen there\u2019s so much to be done, it can be hard to squeeze in some physical activity. As many of us live in residences and apartment buildings with small exercise rooms, I thought I\u2019d put together a simple small gym study break as a perfect addition to my self-care routine!\r\n\r\nTry 1-3 sets of 10 repetitions of each of the following exercises for a fast, full body workout between textbooks!\r\n\r\n\"Annette<\/a>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nPushups: Make sure your back is flat \u2013 your body should form a straight line from your head to your toes. Position your hands under your shoulders and disengage your elbows keeping them by your sides as you lower yourself to the floor. Now push back up! Don\u2019t hesitate to modify this exercise while you\u2019re building your strength by doing them from your knees. Rome wasn\u2019t built in a day!\r\n\r\n\"Annette<\/a>\r\n\r\nBicep Curls: Hold a dumbbell as shown with your arm extended. Now, keeping your elbow where it is, lift the dumbbell, bringing it up toward your shoulder. Lower down and repeat. Do this on each side!\r\n\r\n\"Annette<\/a>\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nTricep Kickbacks: I used a bench but you can lean over just about anything for this exercise. Just make sure you\u2019re keeping your back straight! Hold the dumbbell as shown and while keeping your elbow where it is, extend the dumbbell behind you as you straighten your arm. In a controlled fashion, disengage your elbow and return the weight to the starting position. Do this on both sides!\r\n\r\n\"Annette<\/a>\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nTricep dips: Hold yourself up as shown with elbows locked. Slowly disengage your elbows and lower yourself down until your elbows are at about 90 degrees. Now push back up! If you don\u2019t have one of these structures to use, you can elevate your hands on a chair and put your feet out on the floor in front of you \u2013 works just as well!\r\n\r\n\"Annette<\/a>\r\n\r\nSide lateral raises: Hold the dumbbell as shown. Now lift your arm out to the side (it doesn\u2019t have to be perfectly straight) until your wrist is at about shoulder level. Now lower down. Do this on both sides!\r\n\r\n\"Annette<\/a>\r\n\r\nFront lateral raises: Similar to above, this time raise your arm in front of you! Do this on both sides!\r\n\r\n\"Annette<\/a>\r\n\r\nShoulder shrugs: It\u2019s truly as easy as it looks! Hold a dumbbell in each hand and shrug your shoulders up (squeezing your shoulders blades together) and down. Don\u2019t rush! Each complete shrug should take about one second (one Mississippi!).\r\n\r\n\"Annette<\/a>\r\n\r\nRows: Lean over a bench or other surface as shown. Start with your arm extended and a dumbbell in hand. Bend your elbow and lift the weight straight up so that your elbow stays close to your body and ends behind your shoulders. Now lower the weight to the starting position. Do this on both sides!\r\n\r\n\"Annette<\/a>\r\n\r\nRomanian deadlifts: This is my favourite leg exercise at the moment. Start standing upright with a dumbbell in each hand. Bend at the hips lowering the weights in a straight line to just below your knees (make sure your hips move back rather than having your knees ahead of your ankles). Now return to standing.\r\n\r\n\"Annette<\/a>\r\n\r\nDumbbell step ups: With a dumbbell in each hand, step up onto an elevated surface (keep your back upright) with one foot. As you push through your foot, bring the other leg up and squeeze your glutes. Step down, and now step up with the other foot.\r\n\r\n\"Annette<\/a>\r\n\r\n\"I-don't-know-what-to-call-this\": Use your abdominal muscles to hold a hollow position on a mat. Your core should be engaged, this shouldn't feel easy. Your legs and shoulder should be off the floor. Lift your legs higher, forming a \"V\" with your body then lower down to your starting position before bringing them in towards your chest similar to your position in a sit up. Now extend back out, lift, repeat.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"October is a terrifying time of year \u2013 and that has nothing to do with Halloween. I have never before been so overwhelmed with things that need doing\/studying\/writing. But we\u2019ll get through this\u2026 right?\r\n\r\nI\u2019m kidding of course, we always do and we will again \u2013 that thought has always been helpful to me when I\u2019m swamped and feeling hopeless.\r\n\r\nWhen there\u2019s so much to be done, it can be hard to squeeze in some physical activity. As many of us live in residences and apartment buildings with small exercise rooms, I thought I\u2019d put together a simple small gym study break as a perfect addition to my self-care routine!\r\n\r\nTry 1-3 sets of 10 repetitions of each of the following exercises for a fast, full body workout between textbooks!\r\n\r\n\"Annette<\/a>\r\n\r\n
Continue reading “Take an active break! : A small gym exercise routine”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":274,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1758,7204,62,58,67],"tags":[23636,23637,25512,23629,23639,16177,1385,23640,1927,23628,23641,23635,259,1733,928,25498,23634,718,23632,23642,23630,2318,23638,23631,490,9547,15627,23633,1021],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29440"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/274"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29440"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29454,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29440\/revisions\/29454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}