Stomach Crunches

1. Lay on your back with kness bent, feet on the floor and hands placed behind your head.
2. Exhale & lift shoulder off the ground. Keep your chin forward to avoid neck strain.
3. Slowly lift your back off the ground as far as you can, engaging your abdomen muscles at the top.
4. Inhale as you slowly lower your back to the ground. Repeat 20~30 times
Remember: Use your abdomen to control your movement as you raise & lower your back at all times for better results.

Seated Twist for back, stomach & waist

1. Seat upright on mat with legs in a V-position
2. For good posture, imagine your back is supported by a wall
3. Lift arms to your sides in line with shoulders
4. Exhale as you reach the left hand forward to your right foot
5. Aim to have your left pinky touch your right foot's small toe
6. Inhale & return to step 3 & repeat on left side.
7. Complete a total of 20 reps.

Push-Ups for chest and arms

1. To work your chest, position your hands wider than shoulder width. To work more your arms, position your hands directly under your shoulder creases.

Keep your feet together and get on your toes. Legs & back should be in a straight line by tightening your stomach muscles.

Inhale as you lower your chest to 1 inch from the ground. Exhale and return to orignal position.

Complete 20-25 reps.

Ladies: If you find your upper body is too weak to perform this routine, you can do half-pushups by keeping your knees on the ground at all times.

Front Lunge for thighs and buttocks

1. Stand upright with feet hip-width apart and hands on hips
2. Exhale as you lunge right leg forward making sure your right knee does not go beyond your right toes. Left knee should be 1 inch from the ground
3. Inhale as you push right leg into the ground and return to original standing position
4. Repeat with left leg. Complete a total of 20 reps

Remember: Keep good form by making sure your feet land straight in front on the same spot each time.

Bicep Curls

1. Stand upright & hold dumbells with palms facing front
2. Exhale as you slowly curl the dumbells upwards to shoulders
3. Inhale as you slowly return dumbells back to your sides
4. Repeat 10~15 repetitions per set.

To choose your ideal weight load for this exercise, you firstly choose a weight that you can only do a maximum of only 1 repetition. Then you select a weight which is 60% of that maximum weight. EG - If your maximum 1 rep weight for a bicep curl is 20kg, then your ideal weight load should be 12kg.

Remember if the heavy weight load is compromising your technique, then you should reduce the weight.

Tricep Dips

1. Sit on edge of bench & straighten both legs in front

2. Hold on the edge of the bench; palms facing backwards

3. Push your buttocks off the edge of bench using only arms as support.

4. Inhale & slowly lower yourself towards ground until your elbows are at right angles.

5. Exhale & slowly raise your body back to the original position (don't sit on the bench until you have completed a set of 10~20 repetitions).

Tricep Stretch

Reach your middle finger of your left hand as far down the middle of your back as you can.

Using your right hand, pull your left elbow back and feel the stretch at the back of your left arm.

Hold the stretch for 8~10 seconds and repeat for right triceps.

Neck to Side

> You can do this stretch while you are standing, sitting or kneeling but make sure your chest is facing front at all times

> Gently turn your neck to the left as far as you can go, looking behind your shoulders

> Hold this position for 3 breath cycles and repeat on the right side

Inner Thigh Stretch

- Sit on the floor with your heals facing each other, and elbows on the knees

- Push knees down to the floor with elbows as you slowly exhale

- Lean forward from the waist and increase the stretch of the inner thighs

- Hold the stretch for atleast 3 breath cycles. 1 breath cycle is equivalent to an exhale and inhale.

Side Neck Stretch

• Stand upright with feet hip-width apart with arms relaxed at the sides
• With the right hand, reach over your head and place it on your left ear
• Gently pull your neck towards your right shoulder as you exhale through your mouth
• Gently return your neck to the original position as you inhale through your nose. Repeat on left side.

TIP: The neck is fragile so make your movements slowly.

Always WARM-UP before exercising

Warming-up your muscles before a workout is key to achieving better results, and that goes for all kinds of sports training.

By doing so, you can avoid muscle cramps through better blood circulation & mentally, you are telling your body to get ready for exercise.

You can warm-up by lightly* doing one of the following task for a duration of 10% of your total workout time:- rowing*, jogging, brisk-walking, or cycling.

*Lightly means at a slow & steady pace, or more specifically,

your Traget Heart Rate should be at 60% of your Maximum Heart Rate (MHR) during exercise. To calculate MHR, for guys its 220-Age (yrs), and for women its 226-Age (yrs). In other words, a 40-yr-old man, should keep his HR at 108 beats per minute (bpm) during warm-up.

*Rowing makes for a great warm-up because not only will you warm-up your upper & lower body muscles, it also works & lubricates all your major joints such shoulder, elbow, hip & knee joints - marvelous!

Think Rubberband!

STRETCHING.......
Warning: Stretch only after you have warmed-up or risk pulling a muscle.

Stretching is an integral part of any exercise as it improves your muscle's range of movement. Even if you can't train everyday, daily stretching will pay great dividends in the long-run by keeping you flexible and mobile.
Inactiveness and old age will cause your muscle fibres and sinews to stiffen-up, and may even lead to complicated physical problems such as back ache & frozen shoulder. Don't fret because with regular stretching, you can keep your muscles supple even during your golden years.