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Best Fitness Equipment
12 New Things to Do with Common Fitness Equipment
No need to splurge on pricey new training tools. Instead of upgrading your equipment, upgrade your workout with one of these surprising exercises
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Tone Up With the Classics
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1
DUMBBELL
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2
RESISTANCE BAND
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3
MEDICINE BALL
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4
BARBELL
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5
STABILITY BALL
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6
PULLUP BAR
MEDICINE BALL
Image: Mitch Mandel
Med Ball Shoveling
Sure, a ball slam is a great way to relieve stress, but it’s just one of hundreds of exercises you can perform with this dynamic training tool. Besides working your core, the shoveling move works your butt harder than almost any other exercise, says BJ Gaddour, CSCS, a fitness boot camp and metabolic training expert, and the CEO of StreamFIT.com. “Its rotational nature increases the demands on your hips to decelerate and stabilize.”
Do It: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart holding a medicine ball in both hands just outside your left knee. Pivot your feet and rotate your hips 180 degrees to the right, passing the ball to the outside of your right knee. Continue to quickly pass the ball from knee to knee.
Trainer Tip: Be sure to move only at the hips and avoid rotating your lumbar spine.
Make It Harder: Increase the weight of the medicine ball, increase the height of the ball during each pass, or increase the speed of the movement.
Med Ball Burpee
If you think this traditional football move is tough, you should try it with a medicine ball—it not only adds weight to your squat, but also introduces core-ripping instability to the plank.
Do It: Stand with your feet slightly more than shoulder-width apart holding a medicine ball with both hands. Bending at your hips and knees, squat and lower your body until you can place the medicine ball on the floor. Keeping the med ball in your hands, kick your legs back into plank position, and then quickly reverse the move, standing up from the squat.
Make It Harder: After you kick your legs back into plank position, perform a pushup with your hands still on the med ball. Make it even harder by adding a ball slam once you return to standing.
Tone up all over with this total-body medicine ball workout!
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