Best Workouts: 20 Exercises to Choose from in 2013

By HealthMeUp

Health resolutions top the list of hopes and desires every single year and exercise is the best way to achieve most of these resolutions. To give you a fair starting point for a healthy 2013, we bring you a list of 20 best workouts or 20 best exercises to choose from for your exercising pleasure in the new year. Some of these best exercises may not be popular as yet, but come 2013 and they will create waves. We present 20 best exercises for 2013.

20 Best Exercises for 2013: Kickboxing

For years kickboxing was practiced as a combat sport, just like boxing, where young boys would compete to see who was the toughest. However, despite the risks involved, kickboxing has always been a great cardio workout that is much likelier to burn away the fat on your thighs and waist when compared to other forms of cardio like running.

Unlike sports kickboxing, fitness kickboxing does not contain any form of sparring where two practitioners face each other, or try to break each other’s noses. The participants simply practice the various kicks, punches, footwork drills, that are part of traditional kickboxing, sometimes on punching bags or in the air. Which would also mean that one should not equate such sessions with self defense practice.

20 Best Exercises for 2013: Cardio strength training

Traditionally we are told that certain exercises like jogging, walking, swimming, etc are forms of cardiovascular training, and exercises like push ups, squats, lunges, etc are strength training exercises. Cardiovascular strength training refers to doing your cardio workout by using strength training exercises instead of the traditional cardio exercises. For eg instead of doing a regular cardio workout like jogging for half an hour, you could do 10 minutes circuit training, where you use traditional strength training exercises. This type of training happens to be far more intense than regular cardio.

20 Best Exercises for 2013: Warrior Abs workout

The Warrior Abs workout is an intense and advanced ab routine that results in flat six-pack abs. The Warrior Abs workout aims at targeting your deepest ab fat and aids in burning fat, building full body endurance and core strength. This workout is meant for people who have a strong core and are very regular with their exercise routine. If done properly, by a person with a flexible back and good core engagement, it should be quite effective in strengthening the entire range of abdominal muscles.

20 Best Exercises for 2013: Rolled yoga mat

Do you know that a simple rolled yoga mat can be used as a form of resistance and a tool to define your body into the best shape ever? For years now, rolled yoga mats have been used to add variations in the workout. The rolled yoga mat engages the core muscles of the body and helps in adding various toning and cardio exercises to your routine workout.

How is it different from other workouts? The mat challenges the exerciser differently due to its structure, as no other equipment is designed this way. Since it’s made from a pliable material the chances of injury are few and most exercise will engage the core during execution of the workout.

20 Best Exercises for 2013: Flexi bar workout

Flexi Bar is a pole like equipment which when shaken, allegedly vibrates at the same frequency as your body. The resulting rise in amplitude creates a de-stabilization force, thus causing your core muscles and stabilizers to be activated to counter balance the force.

What makes the flexi bar workout different from others?

Flexi bar workouts are different from others, as they make use of vibration as a resistive force instead of load (weights) or/and gravity. It is apt for overweight people right at the beginning of their fitness plan as they have mobility problems. However, as their fitness level increase they must choose more difficult exercise and swinging ranges.

20 Best Exercises for 2013: Body pump workout

Body Pump workouts are essentially an original barbell class which helps in shaping, toning and strengthening the entire body. It is a well-liked workout, worldwide, and is a great routine to get in shape. The basic characteristic of body pump which makes it different from other routines is the rep effect that focuses on high repetition movements with low weight loads.

What is body pump workout? Bodypump seems to be the perfect barbell meets aerobic fat loss solution. According to its teachers it is the perfect fat loss solution since it uses weights which will improve your metabolism and burn more calories. They say that one session burns an average of 530 calories.

20 Best Exercises for 2013: Suspension training

Suspension training is fast gaining popularity as a new fitness trend. A good option for functional training, suspension training allows the body to train as a whole instead of focusing on individual body parts. Body Transformation Expert, Wanitha Ashok says, “The fundamental principle of suspension training is that one hangs from the straps that are well secured from one side to the ceiling and the workouts are executed either by holding the straps by the hand leaning into or away from it or by hanging the feet into the straps using the body weight to workout.”

20 Best Exercises for 2013: Crossfit

Crossfit is functional movement, constantly varied and executed at high intensity. Functional movements are what we do everyday like sitting down and getting back up; that is called a squat; or if you bend down and pick something up, that is called a dead lift. Life demands these movements; they are safe, natural and essential for living, but beyond that they produce a lot of power and we get really good results.

Previously written off as a fad or a cult, it is apparent that Crossfit is here to stay owing to its growing popularity. A Crossfit gym, will not have most of the fancy equipment like the hamstring curl machine and the hip or thigh extensor seen today at most modern gyms. Instead a Crossfit gym will have certain necessary equipment like pull up and dip bars, barbells, dumbbells and kettlebells, climbing ropes and rowing machines.

20 Best Exercises for 2013: Barefoot running

Based on human form and its intrinsic running stance, this school of thought suggests that barefoot running is a far natural and healthier workout.

What's the difference between running with shoes and barefoot running?

Sharath raju our experts say, the difference lies in how your foot strikes the ground. When you are running barefoot your foot strikes the ground in a way that the front of your foot impacts before the heel. On the contrary, when running with shoes, most people tend to let their heels fall. Another line of thought believes that when you run barefoot you are in a better position to sense terrain changes, and alter your foot falls accordingly.

20 Best Exercises for 2013: Yogalates

Firstly Rashmi Ramesh explains yoga and pilates as two different entities to give you an indepth perspective. She says, “Yoga is an ancient practice that works on the union of Body, Breath and Mind. Pilates is an exercise technique that works on core strengthening and toning.”

Which brings us to what is yogalates? “If you combine the two, you get YogaLates which is a great combination to give you a toned supple and healthy body and a stress free mind,” explains our yoga guru.

What are the health benefits of yogalates?

We know the benefits of yoga – physically and mentally and the benefits of pilates – strengthens your body, improves breathing, posture and burns calories. As for the health benefits of yogalates, Rashmi lists them out, “Yogalates is very effective for weight-loss, toning, back and spine related problems, osteoporosis, arthritis, diabetes and menstrual problems. It improves flexibility and strengthens the body.”

20 Best Exercises for 2013: Workout for kids

The sight of children indulging in fast food and sipping aerated sugary drinks is very common. You will also agree that kids these days are spending far more time with their gaming consoles and lesser time outdoors. When you combine these two factors you have an unhealthy kid with problems related to obesity and/or weakness.

Just like adults, kids need to be exposed to the correct forms of exercise. Today due to various reasons such as fast food, electronic gizmos and lack of activity, kids are not getting an opportunity to expend their energy.

Bootcamp for kids addresses all the 10 elements of fitness such as agility, flexibility, co-ordination, stamina, muscle strength, muscle endurance to name a few. For kids, Bootcamp is made fun, they do not even realise they are exercising. More so these workouts are implemented and monitored by trained staff.

20 Best Exercises for 2013: High Intensity Interval Training

HIIT or High Intensity Interval Training is a specific type of training where a number of intensive exercises are performed by giving short breaks in between. Best for bulky people who are trying to lose weight, HIIT is a specialized form which provides exercises challenging your heart rate. It can be physically as demanding or light, as the intensity you choose to perform it at. It guarantees you better results than an hour at the gym, but the results are directly related to how hard you push your body in order to really challenge the weight.

20 Best Exercises for 2013: Holistic Fitness

He has trained popular personalities, world models and lay people. Mickey Mehta is India’s leading Holistic Health guru who incorporates five mantras to healthy living - Physical Wellness, Physiological Wellness, Psychological Wellness, Emotional Wellness, and Spiritual Wellness.

20 Best Exercises for 2013: Body Combat

Body combat is an empowering cardio workout, which is fiercely energetic and is inspired by martial arts. It draws from a wide array of disciplines such as karate, boxing, taekwondo, tai chi and muay thai. Supported by music, you strike, punch, and kick your way through calories in an enjoyable cardio fitness workout.

Benefits of Body Combat

·         Improves heart and lung function and reduces the risk of heart disease

·         Tones and shapes key muscle groups

·         Burns calories for a leaner body

·         Improves co-ordination and agility

·         Improves bone density

·         Improves posture and core strength and stability

·         Builds self-confidence

20 Best Exercises for 2013: Spartacus workout

According to history he is one of the famous gladiators but today we focus on Spartacus workout – the workout that may have made the man.

‘For this workout you’re going to perform 10 exercises in a circuit fashion with periods of 40 seconds of work followed by 20 seconds of rest.  After you have finished all 10 exercises then take a 2 minute recovery period before starting it back up again.  Make sure you complete the circuit three times total,’ says trainer Josh.

This kind of metabolic resistance training workouts are by far the most effective method of burning fat while building lean muscle.

20 Best Exercises for 2013: Functional Movements

A functional movement allows you to perform a certain natural function. Have you bent down to pick up something lately? You have just performed a squat or a dead lift. Have you picked up a suitcase and shoved it in your overhead storage? Even if you're toned and aren't new to working out, lifting a 30-kilo suitcase and putting it into the trunk of your car, may be surprisingly hard. That’s because for a movement such as this, you need to use your whole body strength, which includes your core (back and abs), arms, hips, and your legs.  And your current workout routine may not include these functional strength building movements.

20 Best Exercises for 2013: Piloxing

Piloxing is a combination of pilates, core workout and boxing; it also involves interval training. Piloxing is great for burning calories, melting fat, and building muscles. It also gives you a chance to pretend that you are punching your attacker. It improves agility too.

20 Best Exercises for 2013: Sandbags

Yes, sandbags that we use to stall water during a flood, comes in handy for a workout. Sandbags are inexpensive to purchase, and they are great for upper body workout. Sandbags works as weights, hence you can perform any exercises that you would do with a barbell.

20 Best Exercises for 2013: Barre workouts

Barre workouts are inspired from ballerinas. Barre workouts can build muscles, improve balance and flexibility.

20 Best Exercises for 2013: Plyometric workout

We want to lose weight quickly, Plyometric workout helps you to do just that. Plyometric workout involves jumping movements that helps your burn calories. If you loved jumping on the bed as a kid you now continue it into your adulthood.

According to Wikipedia: Plyometrics encompasses “training designed to produce fast, powerful movements, and improve the functions of the nervous system, generally for the purposes of improving performance in a specific sport.” But today we're talking about exercises that help develop maximum muscular power,i.e., muscle ability to generate a large amount of force in a short amount of time. Plyometric training can actually make you jump higher, run faster, throw farther, or hit harder.

Article Source: Best Workouts: 20 Exercises to Choose from in 2013