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Waist exercises are an excellent addition to any workout regimen for women seeking a slimmer and tighter waistline. These simple bodyweight exercises will strengthen and tone abdominal muscles and obliques, making your waistline tighter and smaller in no time!

Beginning in a high plank position with your hands directly under shoulders and knees bent stacked directly under hips, slowly bring one leg toward your chest before slowly returning it back to its initial starting position. Repeat these movements 3-5 times for best results.

Hip Thrust

The hip thrust is an active closed-chain movement designed to target gluteal (butt) muscles, hamstrings, adductor and quadriceps muscles of inner and outer thighs as well as stabilizing erector spinae muscles in order to build functional strength that improves running speed, jumping ability and quickness. Hip thrusts combined with exercises like squats and deadlifts help increase functional strength necessary for running faster, jumping higher and jumping quicker.

Hip thrusts can help shape and strengthen legs, but proper form is crucial to avoid injuring knees or lower backs. Proper warming-up before performing strength-training movements is also crucial; 5-10 minute moderate cardio warmup followed by dynamic stretching should do just fine. A common mistake when doing hip thrusts is coming up onto their balls of feet at the top of movement due to foot placement issues or quad dominance; keeping heel contact throughout will ensure glute activation is maximized.

Mountain Climbers

Mountain climbers are an effective way to boost your heart rate while working multiple muscles simultaneously, including those found in your core, shoulders, back and legs. Mountain climbers engage these four muscle groups simultaneously – improving balance, agility and coordination as well as increasing strength while decreasing fat accumulation.

Start in a high plank position with hands directly under your shoulders and your core braced. Quickly bring one knee into your chest before taking two steps backward. Repeat this action with both legs.

Fast knees up and down towards your chest is an effective way to activate ab muscles (rectus abdominis and obliques), which help stabilize the trunk, minimize spinal movement, support legs and prevent backache. In addition, this move also targets your triceps, shoulders and hip flexors – working all at the same time! To avoid injury, don’t rush through this movement by trying to beat the rep count; doing so could compromise form and lead to overtraining too quickly; instead use this rep count as a guide and follow it for maximum benefit!

Side Plank Hip Lifts

This movement is an effective waist exercise for women that targets obliques, improves posture and burns calories. To perform it effectively, lay on your side with feet stacked stacked and one hand directly under shoulder before pressing up into side plank with top hip in line with shoulder and body in an inelastic straight line from head to toe.

Raise one leg towards the ceiling and hold for several seconds before slowly lowering it back down until it touches the ground again. Repeat to complete reps.

As with other exercises on this list, make sure your core and glutes remain tight during this move. Allowing hips to drop or your torso sag puts at risk working the wrong muscles and risking injury. This move targets rectus abdominis (commonly referred to as “six-pack” muscles), external and internal obliques as well as quadratus lumborum for lateral trunk stability1, among others1. You can modify this move according to your fitness needs or fitness goals!

One-Legged Plank

Planking is one of the best-known exercises to strengthen core muscles, and offers a versatile workout. Different types of planks target different parts of the abdominal area; such as front- and side-plank variations which target frontal, middle, oblique abdominal, posterior abdominal muscles. Reverse planking provides additional challenges that strengthen hip inner-thigh muscles; finally there is the jack-n-plank which incorporates movement for added difficulty.

Straight-arm planks (sometimes referred to as full planks) resemble the top of a push up exercise; your shoulders should rest directly over your wrists and your feet shoulder width apart. The difficulty lies in maintaining a neutral neck position while strengthening both your arms and holding for prolonged periods.

The Eka Pada Vasisthasana side plank provides a dynamic way to strengthen both core muscles and shoulders simultaneously by combining hip twists with diagonal knee pulls for optimal results. This practice strengthens shoulders while simultaneously stabilizing your body when holding a plank pose.

Spending hours every day looking at your phone or computer can put strain on the neck muscles, leading to “tech neck”. Luckily, there are simple at-home exercises which may provide relief.

Start by taking breaks every hour while watching screen-based media to stretch out your neck, as well as positioning your device at eye level instead of down.

Stretching the levator scapula

The levator scapulae muscle lifts and rotates the upper part of your shoulder blade (scapula). Innervated by the dorsal scapular nerve, this muscle needs to be stretched regularly in order to prevent neck pain, stiffness, or tightness from tightening over time – especially useful if suffering from “tech neck”. Stretching may help alleviate symptoms caused by spending too much time staring down at a smartphone or tablet screen!

To stretch the levator scapula, tilt your head slightly right and use one hand to gently pull shoulder upward and downward until you feel movement in both neck and shoulder muscles. Repeat the exercise on the other side.

Regular levator scapula stretching can help improve posture, decrease neck and shoulder stiffness/tightness and tension headaches, as well as provide relief to many with “tech neck.” Many find solace from this simple stretching exercise on an ongoing basis.

Stretching the sternocleidomastoids

This neck stretch helps stretch the sternocleidomastoid (SCM) muscles that wrap around your collarbone and ear. Sit upright and tilt your head right until your chin is above your shoulder and parallel to the floor – adding this exercise into your daily routine may prevent strain and pain in the long term.

Tech neck is most often caused by improper posture while looking at screens, with forward head and rounded shoulders posture placing extra strain on the neck and weakening muscles between shoulder blades resulting in pain.

To avoid tech neck, it’s essential to maintain correct posture while working and take regular breaks. Stretching and rolling back shoulders throughout the day may also help maintain supple neck muscles. If your symptoms persist, visit a spine specialist as soon as possible; they may provide stretching exercises or physical therapy solutions.

Stretching the rhomboids

If you have been experiencing neck pain when looking down at your phone or tablet, now may be the time to stretch. These simple exercises can be done both at home and at work in order to alleviate tech neck pain as well as prevent more serious health concerns.

Your head usually weighs 10-12 pounds when in its natural upright posture, but tilting your head downward can put more strain and injury onto the neck muscles resulting in strain and injury. Strengthening and stretching these neck muscles may help alleviate tech neck symptoms as well as enhance posture.

To stretch the rhomboids, stand tall with your head held straight. Place one hand behind your head and gently pull down on it toward your right armpit – repeat this exercise for 10 seconds on both sides – this will stretch the levator scapula muscle while loosening any tightness caused by poor posture.

Stretching the rotator cuff

This stretch is an effective way to strengthen and stretch the muscles that support your shoulder, as well as strengthening neck and upper back muscles. To do this exercise, start by standing with feet hip distance apart and knees slightly bent; or sit down while placing hands on either side of your head to pull downward towards armpit (as though sniffing).

Be mindful not to overstretch when performing any of these stretches and work closely with your physical therapist to ensure you’re getting maximum benefit out of every exercise.

Most cases of tech neck can be managed through changing your work habits and including ergonomic adjustments and stretching exercises into daily life. If symptoms don’t respond to treatment plans, however, medical help should be sought immediately. To learn more about treating and preventing tech neck, speak to a physical therapist in your local clinic.

Exercise improves muscle strength and bone density, decreasing risk of osteoporosis. Yet a full-body workout that exhausts multiple muscle groups at once may also trigger release of human growth hormone.

To conduct a metabolic conditioning exercise, stand facing a plyometric box and transition a standard low-impact step-up into a bilateral powerful jump. Make sure your core is tight by first placing right foot then left foot onto box before jumping up with both feet simultaneously.

Cardio or Endurance-Based Exercises

Cardio exercises raise your heart rate and burn calories, aiding weight loss. They also strengthen bones and joints, decreasing osteoporosis risks (provided a diet is nutritionally adequate). Women who regularly engage in cardiovascular exercise report improved moods as well as lower risks for erectile dysfunction.

One can build their cardiovascular endurance through walking, jogging, cycling, swimming, hiking or dancing. Plyometric exercises such as jumping jacks may also increase cardiorespiratory endurance.

Cycling is an effective way to build cardiovascular endurance without straining knees or backs, so people can cycle either outdoors or use an indoor stationary bicycle. They can also do trunk rotation, an abdominal muscle work-out that also challenges their cardiovascular system; and try the inchworm: this exercise involves standing with feet together or no more than three inches apart while bending knees to raise one leg 3-6 inches off the floor and lifting it with each bend of their knee.

Strength-Based Exercises

Women over 50 should incorporate strength-based exercises into their workouts to increase mobility and reduce injury risk, and strengthen muscles at rest which burn more calories, speeding up metabolism.

Strength-training exercises do not require expensive equipment to provide effective results; simply start out using bodyweight exercises that use your own resistance before adding weights as you grow stronger. Or combine several strength-training exercises into one circuit workout for added time savings!

Perform a lateral lunge and biceps curl together for maximum benefits; this exercise works the legs in both sagittal and frontal planes while strengthening your core. Try doing side planks while performing this move or start with the lunge first before holding onto a dumbbell with one hand to perform the biceps curl later on.

Select a weight that allows for 12 repetitions of each exercise before your muscles start tiring out – this is ideal for building muscle efficiently.

Metabolic Training

Circuit training, interval training, AMRAP, Tabata and metabolic conditioning are all terms used to refer to this workout style that consists of high-intensity and moderate-intensity exercises with the goal of burning energy more effectively. Compound movements like full push-ups, bodyweight squats and vertical jumps which work multiple muscle groups simultaneously are often included as examples of exercises in circuit training sessions.

However, metabolic workouts are both physically and mentally demanding but time efficient compared to traditional weight-training. Instead of spending an hour weight training, metabolic circuit training could take just half an hour! Plus EPOC (exercise post exercise oxygen consumption) kicks in after every workout, helping your metabolism remain elevated even while resting, leading to faster fat-burning than with traditional strength and cardio days alone; additionally their high intensity nature means you get more out of each metabolic workout session than long cardio sessions!

Combining Exercises

MetCon (Metabolic Resistance Training) combines high-intensity strength exercises with short rest periods for maximum calorie burn during and post workout. Workouts focus on compound movements that target multiple muscle groups simultaneously such as squats and deadlifts to build lean muscles and increase metabolism.

These exercises aim to increase balance and stability while simultaneously improving energy levels and decreasing fatigue levels – they fall under this category if programs such as P90X or Crossfit come to mind.

One advantage of these workouts is their portability; you can squeeze them into even your busiest schedule without hassle.

Another perk of using combination exercises is saving time. For instance, you could do dumbbell curls and push-ups together as one set; or combine two exercises by cycling through them multiple times such as doing squats then bench presses back-and-forth several times in succession.

During the Korean War, select United States servicemen began training martial arts full time; this resulted in various schools being created such as Moo Duk Kwan where Grand Master Hwang Kee was its leader.

Grandmaster Hwang Kee gave Tang Soo Do its current form when he combined traditional Korean arts of Soo Bahk, Tae Kyun and Kwon Bop into one style of martial art known as Tang Soo Do. Additionally, he integrated Chinese fighting techniques learned during his stay in China into its martial art lexicon.

The Origins of Tang Soo Do

Tang Soo Do is a striking style of martial art with an emphasis on hand strikes and kicking techniques, drawing influence from Chinese martial arts as well.

During Japan’s occupation of Korea (1907 – 1945), Korean martial artists were forbidden to practice their own arts and many emigrated to China; Grand Master Hwang Kee was one such emigrant.

He spent time studying Chinese martial arts, and integrated some of its moves into his Tang Soo Do system. Today, most Moo Duk Kwan practitioners recognize these moves as part of Tang Soo Do. “Tang Soo Do” literally translates to “Way of the China Hand”; its broad spectrum of techniques originates from Tang Dynasty China but has strong influences from Okinawan and Japanese fighting styles.

Lee Won Kuk

Lee Won Kuk returned to Korea and established a karate school called Chung Do Kwan (Chinese:, Korean: or the Blue Wave School) after training with Chong Do. His training included basic techniques, forms (Korean hyung; Japanese Kata), sparring and makiwara sparring.

Funakoshi Gichin was his primary teacher of Shotokan Karate. While in Japan he experimented with other martial arts as well, though Shotokan Karate was his main focus.

He changed the name of his martial art from Tang Soo Do (meaning Chinese Hand Way) as this would better resonate with Koreans. Additionally, this name reflected how his technique combined elements from Shotokan, Okinawa-Japanese kata and Korean native fighting arts into one unique style. To promote his style he opened more schools that either ran under direct management of himself or were supported by technical assistance.

Hwang Kee

Hwang Kee was an exceptional practitioner of Tang Soo Do martial art. By the age of 22, he had reached mastery of this style.

Hwang Kee was one of many Koreans who fled Korea during Japanese rule and sought work and martial arts training in China; Hwang spent several years training and developing forms which would become Tang Soo Do today in Manchuria.

Hwang Kee took these new forms and methods back to South Korea for use with his students, rebranding his school Moo Duk Kwan; eventually opening schools throughout the United States run by U.S. servicemen who studied his martial arts full time.

Kang Uk Lee

As with many martial art histories, there are numerous tales regarding the origins of both weapon-using and unarmed self defense techniques. But it is generally agreed upon that Tang Soo Do (originally Soo Bahk Do) owes its roots to Grand Master Hwang Kee’s founding of Moo Duk Kwan and their Grandmaster Hwang Kee as its source.

Hwang Kee established his school during Japan’s occupation of Korea and named it Chung Do Kwan or Blue Wave School. Later he changed it to Moo Duk Kwan as part of an initiative to spread Tang Soo Do more widely and ensure its acceptance among society.

In the early 1970s, one of Grand Master Kang Uk Lee’s Malaysian students arrived to England to study Accountancy with his permission and established the first Tang Soo Do club here – setting off what would eventually become the United Kingdom Tang Soo Do Federation that Grand Master Kang Uk Lee now leads as its Chief Instructor.

SBN Greenwood

SBN Greenwood believes martial arts is much more than a physical activity; it teaches participants to respect themselves and others while teaching them that any obstacle can be overcome with hard work and persistence. Martial arts also helps build character and integrity so you become a more complete individual in all aspects of your life.

She has been training Tang Soo Do for over 30 years and credits its community atmosphere as the main factor behind her commitment. Her teachers serve as her family, providing support when needed.

Grandmaster Hwang Kee spent significant time in China during Korea’s occupation by Japan, when many traditional martial arts forms were prohibited from practice there. This experience can be found reflected in the teachings of his martial art system Moo Duk Kwan (Tang Soo Do), which integrates techniques from Tae Kyon, Okinawan and Chinese systems into one body of knowledge.