Week 2 of 8 (5-Day Full Body Workouts)

Ready for next week’s workouts? Good! I love this week’s workout. There are a few things to note:

#1 — There are 5 workout days this week instead of 4. The extra day is SHOULDERS ONLY and that’s because I need to bring up my delts. My delts are my “lagging” body part currently so I have one day dedicated to them.

#2 — There is a HIIT session at the end of day 2. If you fancy, simply change it to one of your off days. It’s totally up to you.

Here you go. Check out the tips and techniques below and visit last week’s blog for more: 4-Day Body Transformation Workouts

Hip Dominant Squat — We are looking for a wide stance. Take notice of tempo here REALLY important. Slow and controlled all the way down, pause for 2 seconds at the bottom. When coming back up push through your foot, like you are pushing the ground away from you and pushing your thighs out to the wall.

Leg Curl — We want to isolate the hamstring as much as possible here. To do so we want to keep our hips on the pad, abs braced, and don’t think about brining your heel or roll pad to your butt, rather think about bringing your calf to your butt. Imagine your hamstring bringing the pad up instead of swinging it up. HOLD FOR 2 SECONDS at the top – this is where the magic happens.

45* Hip Extension — Using the 45* back extension machine, start with your body all the way bent over. Pinch your glutes towards each other then drive the top of your glutes towards your ankles to bring you up. Then squeeze the butt as hard as you can at the top of the movement. Keep your core tight and chin tucked.

Bridges — Here want to keep our shoulders on the bench or apparatus if you have it available, feet wide and hips up. When you get to the top of the bridge, think about squeezing the glutes to bring hips higher. This will cause a pelvic tilt as you pinch the glutes in and squeeze them together. You should not be using your hips. *If you feel it in the back, think GLUTES — PINCH — SQUEEZE

Walking Lunge — We want to use our glutes by stomping the foot as we being our lunge. Leaning into the lunge by bringing your torso forward. Use your glute from the leading leg to push you back up and squeeze the butt cheek.

All Back Exercises (Rows & Pulldowns) — The trick to getting the back muscles to really work hard (especially our lats ladies) is to retract our scapula at the beginning of the movement. Right now from where you are sitting, reach your arms in the air. Now retract your scapula by squeezing the shoulder blades together. This is what you start every back exercises with; squeezing the shoulder blades together.

Rear Delts — Keep shoulders protracted (forward) and initiate the movement with the rear delts, not wrists or arms. Think about reaching for opposite walls. To keep emphasis on rear delts you only need to move the weight about 12 inches. Keep your scapula flat to avoid back involvement

Lateral Raise — See new video below.

Leg Press (Quad Dominant) — Place feet low and narrow (shoulder-width apart). Place the intent on quads by thinking of sliding feet up during the concentric phase. Think about doing a leg extension. This will FEEL amazing as you engage your quads rather than your hamstrings and glutes.

Leg Extension — LOVE THIS! We want to get our legs as straight as possible at the top of the movement. Think about brining your ankle higher than your knee. As we bring our lower leg to lock out our knee, think about using your quads ONLY to bring your ankle higher than the knee. Feel every part of your quads work to bring that pad up. When you get to the top, hold for 2 seconds before lowering. Keep the intent on the way down also. AND please stay down – core tight and butt on the seat.

These workouts are curtesy of my trainer, Meghan at MI40 Gym in Tampa – Go ahead and follow her on: Instagram:
@mi40gym_tampa
@megfitforlife

Facebook: www.facebook.com/Megfitpro

3 Steps to EASY Lateral Raises: