Transformation: what’s stopping your body from becoming beautiful?

Such are the stereotypes that most guys in brutal “gyms” think that aerobics and stretching exercises are not for them. The female half prefers not to do strength sports, wishing to remain flexible and graceful.

Why? The standard of a man implies a pumped up and strong guy who can pull a few tens of kilograms without any effort, so, it would seem, why does a jock-appolon need flexibility?

In turn, some girls are afraid to pull “iron” and engage in strength training, because they are afraid to build up a pile of muscles and visually expand the shoulders. Suddenly and the figure will become like a man’s?

But all this is nothing more than stereotypes and ignorance in matters related to fitness and sports.

We have collected several effective exercises for men and women, which will help your body to develop harmoniously and diversely.

Flexibility vs muscles

Many representatives of the strong half of humanity wonder why they need stretching, flexibility and mobility exercises. The answer is simple: in order to maximize the effect of training, it is necessary to alternate strength training with stretching. First of all, flexibility directly affects endurance (thanks to which muscles recover much faster after exercise) and joints. Also, such exercises are used after injuries for rehabilitation purposes. All of them are static and very simple to perform.

1. Stretching the back of the thigh

All flexibility exercises are based on the principle of lengthening the muscles. Often men don’t consider stretching before or after a workout, and for nothing. It reduces ligament tension, which helps the body relax. Stretching exercises also help with coordination, increase range of motion, and speed up the recovery process of injured muscles.

Check out the full video on the official Make Yourself YouTube channel.

2. Exercises with TRX loops

The advantage of these exercises is the overall and deep stretching of the body. Exercises with loops develop mobility and prepare muscles for heavier loads. Performing the complex warms up the body, relaxes the muscles and reduces the likelihood of injury.

3. “Lock.”

This exercise will help you correct your posture and stretch the muscles of the neck and back. How to perform this exercise? Remember the school lessons of physical education: the back is straight, join hands in a lock behind the back. Chin up, breathing arbitrary. The more you straighten, the easier it will be to join hands.

If you slightly complicate the exercise and add crossing in the legs, you will get an asana from yoga. Benefits of Gomukhasana:

– relieves back pain, sciatica, rheumatism, and eliminates shoulder and neck stiffness;

– opens the chest, improves posture;

– eliminates muscle spasms in the legs, making leg muscles more elastic.

Watch the full video on the official YogaClub YouTube channel.

4. Stretching the muscles of the chest and the front of the shoulder girdle

When performing these exercises, you need to pull in your abdomen and tense the muscles of your lower back to avoid lower back flexion.

Watch the full video on Vasily Ulyanov’s official YouTube channel.

Strong women

Many girls believe that, after starting to engage in strength exercises, they will immediately build muscle mass, and the figure will acquire masculine outlines. This is not so. Female physiology will not allow the body to rapidly build muscle mass because of the higher fat content in the body. Therefore, the notion that a woman will turn into a bodybuilder after a series of strength training sessions is nothing more than another sports stereotype.

Exercises that just need to be added to every girl’s workout routine.

1. Dumbbell swings

In addition to biceps and triceps, this exercise involves the abs and lower back muscles.

Watch the full video on Evgeny Esipovich’s official YouTube channel.

2. special walking on all fours

Special walking trains shoulders, triceps, abs, glutes and leg muscles. Rest your hands on the floor, straighten your legs and lift your buttocks up. In this way you should get a “slide”. Several variants of the exercise in the video.

See the full video on the official YouTube channel of the Hockey Skills Center.

3. push-ups with weights

During this exercise you work your shoulders, triceps, chest muscles, back, oblique abdominal muscles and abs. Put your knees on the floor (a lighter version of classic push-ups), put your hands under your shoulders, keep your body straight. Start push-ups by bending your elbows. Then straighten up and turn the body to the left, performing a side plank on the right leg and arm.

4. “Rope”.

This exercise gives a load on the abs and thighs. Lie on the floor, bend your knees, put your hands behind your head. Then raise them in front of you, as if reaching for the rope hanging overhead and begin to rise to it. Slowly lift your head, neck, shoulders and back off the floor. Hold in the upper position and slowly return to the starting position.