Fitness Talk: Legs workouts

Apologies for the hiatus! I will be back with more health and fitness tips this year! I have been getting a lot of enquiries about legs workout especially for the ladies, so before I add more workouts in, let me share with you some of the ones I had posted on Instagram, in detail.

P.S: Please pardon the quality of videos since they were taken using my phone and edited using a third-party video editor!

This, is a superset of Sumo Deadlifts aka DL (the first set) followed by Stiff-legged DL (the second set). The sumo DL works primarily on the inner thighs and upper butt (glutes) and it is almost like a squat and conventional DL.

Sumo DL:
Start with your legs spread out wide with toes pointing out. Slowly, push your butt back and bend your knees to a squat. Try to avoid letting your knees move inwards. If you find it a challenge to keep your knees pointing out, try pointing your toes out less and focus on pushing your butt back and knees out. At all times, make sure your back is upright and chest up. A lot of emphasis is placed on the hips and legs for this variation of DL.

Stiff-legged DL/Romanian DL:
Also another variation of the conventional DL, the romanian DL targets the hamstrings. Keeping your back straight and chest up, bend your upper body down slowly while pushing your butt back and knees locked as much as you can (you may bend very slightly to take stress off your tendons). Straighten up again and repeat.

Of course, you don't have to do these as a superset. You may also separate the workouts and do them individually.

Dumbbell Bulgarian split squats/Bulgarian Lunge:
Another of my favourite legs workout would be the Bulgarian Split squats. Well, I heard the name came from a Bulgarian weightlifter in the early 1900s so correct me if I'm wrong though. Start with a split squat/static lunges if you are not comfortable elevating your rear leg. Once you are comfortable, elevate your rear leg on a bench or a step and slowly lower your body down to a squat, focusing on your front leg and bending you rear leg too. Make sure your knees do not go too far out off your toes in an awkward position. Then straighten back up, keeping your back straight and upright, and chest up. Try with a pair of dumbbells of a barbell over your back.

I will be back with more workouts and other body parts too so stay tuned! Meanwhile, stay motivated and feel free to email me if you have any doubt. I'm also taking in more clients for personal training so feel free to enquire too!

xx

Inspiration & Motivation: Something GREAT is brewing..

Very recently, I met up with Jasmine (@jasminedanker if you are not following her on IG yet), it came across to me like a calling when I had to download kik messenger just for her to retrieve my contact details. In the very same week (last week), I met her for the first time. She shared her dreams and passion with me, she told me what she had been wanting to do and could not find the right person to do with, so she decided to contact me.

We met up as soon as we could last week and had a great workout together (though she's much stronger and fitter than I am), we share a lot of similarities. We have the exact same weight, height, BFP, played netball when we were younger, both Roman Catholics, both mixed blood. Well, the major difference is that she studied sports science and had been in the fitness industry for 5 years, coaching, studying and training (and besides the fact that I'm married she's not yet). We clicked right away and started planning our execution plan.

We have great plans and I believe God brought us together for a reason; a mission to help people who needs help, who needs an extra motivation to stay healthy and fit. Our ideas are all over the place now but we will be revealing very soon, once we get everything organized and ready to go public!

Here are some sneaks! Our logo: Why Hapa fitness (@Hapa_fitness)? Stay tuned! :)

Some of the happenings over last week, celebrated Nic's birthday in advance last Friday too! Great Karaoke with the gang, they sing so well! Been awhile since we had such epic sessions, oh yes and that cake at 11.30pm ZOMG.

Happy Birthday Nic!

Some of my meals.

Met Jasmine to gym on Saturday at Gymm Boxx, really helps when there is somebody to spot, correct my form and constantly goes "RELAX YOUR NECK LIMARAN!" (LOL, reason why I have stiff neck ALL the time). We wore pink to train that day, so we remembered to take photos and hashtag #operationpink to do our part for Singapore Breast Cancer Foundation!

Jasmine paid a boy for this photo HAHA

Cooked when we got home and spent a quiet Saturday with baby. Here's our very own chili beef with tortilla chips! YUMMMMSS!

I will be eating all I want (okay not exactly ALL I WANT BUT..) for 4 days (since yesterday) and starting a new diet (which I'll be sharing soon) on November 1st, together with Jasmine. BECAUSE I have completed 10 weeks (11 to be exact, not counting week 0) of Intermittent fasting! Halfway through the diet I thought this didn't suit me, but I wanted to hang in there and complete the 10 weeks so here is the final look (LOL pls don't judge me!).

I started with this OKAY?! HAHA.

Have a great week ahead everyone! Remember to catch us (Jasmine and I) live with regular updates on our IG (@limaranagustina and @jasminedanker) and our new IG account for Hapa Fitness @hapa_fitness! Till the next!

Health & Fitness: Legs workouts

Sorry for the hiatus everyone! I'm back with a quick introduction to some of my favorite legs workouts. I love legs day I can just do legs all day everyday (I kid, again)! But nevertheless, I like to work on my legs because I feel a lot more pump when I work them legs as compared to the other parts of my body, probably because I started working solely on my legs when I kickstarted my fitness journey. My goal then, was to down my usual bottom size of a small uk 10 to a regular or small uk 8. AND I did it, I can even fit into some uk 6 now (Okay for bottoms with bigger cutting). I did this within (if I'm not wrong, 4-6 months). I whacked my legs hard with my mediocre knowledge of weights training. I could go to the gym every just doing legs but I loved it, that's why I have weak and puny upper body.

Those who know me well enough, I dislike my heavy bottom and curves and really envy those who have a more masculine, mesomorph physique to start working out with. I tried very hard to try to straighten the curves that I have, and I'm still trying. So, how did I manage to downsize my huge bum and hips? I did a particular workout over and over again, everyday to downsize to a uk 8!

The winner is... LUNGES!!! When I had the chance to gym, I'd do lunges, over anything else and it worked! Lunges is a good training for your stabilising muscles too! Start doing lunges if you haven't!

The fundamentals of my legs training always starts with a strength-based back squats or front squats. The back squat targets your entire legs; quadriceps, hamstrings and glutes. 

Whereas the front squat targets your quadriceps and requires a lot more core control

Of course, when you are more advanced, adventurous and into cross fit, you can attempt the overhead squats. Overhead squat, similar to front squat, targets your quadriceps and core but with good stabilising muscles and strong triceps, shoulders and back. So basically, entire body. That's the reason why I'm only doing an empty bar. HURHUR.

Then, there is wide-stanced squats, which target your adductor muscles (inner thighs) and glutes. You want a tighter 'upper' butt, this is one good workout you can do to tighten the 'upper' butt. Always remember to keep your knees out though. Also beware, the after-feeling of doing wide-stances squats can be rather uncomfortable. HEH.

The calf raise, is very often neglected and forgotten but ladies especially, should do to strengthen the calf muscles so it prevents injuries wearing heels! 

Lastly, I usually do wallballs after I finish what I planned to do, and add wallballs into a circuit or met con. It requires deltoids (shoulders) and legs, simpler version of a thruster to me, what with the similar hip thrusts and straightening of arms for the deltoids. You can do this for fun and increase the weight of your medicine ball for more challenge.

So, I have shared my secrets with you guys! Now go ahead and make it work! You wanna get perky butt and toned legs, you have to work hard on them legs. Moreover, our legs are the biggest muscle group in our body so by training legs and back (another large muscle group), you are releasing growth hormones and testosterone more than the other body parts, thus burning more fats!

Have fun with your legs training and happy midweek everyone! (=