The most important muscle in your body?If you had to pick the most important muscle in your body to keep strong, what do you think it would be? Here is my pick. It is the support center for your entire body. If it is not strong you may feel it in your back, your legs and even in your feet. Your Abdomen! Having a strong abdomen is important for more reasons than just visually looking good. Your abdomen is holding your internal organs in place. A strong abdomen will give you better posture and can help you to keep from suffering the effects of aging. Back aches can diminish and your entire body can feel stronger and more powerful when your abdomen is strong enough to support the rest of your body. Think of your abdomen as the most important area to strengthen and you will find that it will be easier to work your way outward to your buttocks, legs and arms. Having a totally balanced body will not only make you look better, it will make you feel more in control. Begin in the center of your body with your all important abdomen muscles. By doing your Life Lift breaths daily you are beginning the most important body work possible. If done correctly Life Lift can give you the foundation for a firm, toned abdomen. Remember that any time you flex or stretch a muscle and do a Life Lift breath you are directing the oxygen from that breath to the flexed or stretched muscle. When you get into the final step of Life Lift, the actual "lift" you are flexing your entire abdomen area. I will give you several positions below to practice along with your Life Lift breaths to give you the ultimate abdomen workout. Many of us have a challenge with excess fat over our abdomen. Having a stronger abdomen can make your tummy appear flatter and since the more lean muscle you have the better your metabolism functions, you can also burn off that fat layer easier. You can begin by building a strong foundation. Your overall shape will dramatically improve as you work these muscles. You will feel stronger and look better.Over time, we can reduce the fat layer by creating a program that includes a total-body exercise program with Life Lift and includes healthy eating habits. Don't forget how important drinking water is to this process. We need to keep your body flushing toxins too! Getting the abs in shape can be frustrating. I receive messages constantly from people who have been working their abdomen for years with traditional exercise alone and still haven't gotten the results they wanted. When it comes to doing abdomen exercises, it is more important how you do them rather than how many you do. Doing hundreds of sit ups or abdominal curls a day will definitely fatigue you, but not necessarily the muscles you are trying to target. I will give you some of the old exercises from the video with new variations as well as some entirely new ones here. I've included a mix with some simple positions along with a few more difficult ones for those of you who have been exercising for a while. Just do what is comfortable for you. There are three ways to do these:
Do the entire Life Lift breath and then the position, alternating the Life Lift breath and the position. Pelvic Tilt: This exercise is always a great one to start with. You may do this lying on your back on the floor with your knees bent or the new version, standing up against a wall (some people don't like to get down on the floor, and the wall version of this exercise is excellent.) Take your hand and feel the natural curve between your lower back and the floor/wall. Concentrate on tightening your abs and using them to slowly flatten out that curve. As you tighten the abdomen muscles, slightly push your pelvic muscle forward into a tilted position. Remember to begin with your Life Lift breaths and as you get into the Lifting you can pull up your tilt slowly. Repeat the motion 10 to 15 times, keeping tension in the abdomen muscle. Another way to improve this is to get into the pelvic tilt right away, do a complete breath and as you are in the Lift position, do little pulsing motions, squeezing the muscles in your rear end several times, over and over. I like doing this even when I am sitting at the computer. I often listen to energetic Latin music when I am typing away and I find that doing the little pulsing motions to the beat of the music while I do my breaths is a great way to keep my rear end from getting tired when I have to sit for long periods of time. It also helps to fight off gravity. This next one works both your abdomen and your triceps, (the under side of your arm): Abdomen Curls on Towel: You might find this technique to be helpful in reducing stress to your neck while doing abdomen curls. Lie on your back with your knees bent, with a towel under you. The top part of the towel should be just level with the top of your head. Grab hold of both sides of the top of the towel and rest the weight of your head and neck into the towel. Keep your focus on tightening your abdomen and pushing your ribcage downward toward your hips. Once you reach the top part of the motion, hold for 1 to 2 seconds, really feeling your abdomen getting as tight as possible.. Try to maintain some of the tightness in the abdomen as you lower yourself back down to the starting position. Doing the abdomen curls this way allows your whole spine, including your neck, to curl as a unit. Repeat 10 to 15 times. This works your abdomen and your arms: Abdomen Lift: This position is often used in yoga. This is a great movement for strengthening your abdomen. Lie on your stomach and raise yourself up onto your forearms and toes. Keep your back and neck flat and level with the ground. Hold for 5 to 10 seconds. Now insert your complete Life Lift breath. Try to increase your holding time to 15 to 30 seconds. This works your abdomen and arms: Abdomen curl combined with weights: Hold your weights, ( Ideally a 5 lb. dumbbell or a bottle full of water, or any heavy object) directly above your chest. Keep your arms extended above you. Stretch your arms as far as possible. Begin a slow, precise movement forward with your arms extended holding the weight. While performing your abdomen curls, think about using your abdomen to press that weight straight up toward the ceiling. Hold for 1 to 2 seconds at the top, then resist during the downward motion. Start with 10 to 15 repetitions. You can gradually add more weight to make it more effective. To really make these workouts challenging, alternate all of these positions. Keep a good variety in your workout. Keep surprising those muscles and they will surprise you with something you will really love, strong, powerful abdomen muscles.
Testimonials of the month, something to inspire you.You know, I had to chuckle to myself when you said, "it's good to get back in shape". My year long hiatus was spent doing MANY forms of traditional exercises (weights, stepping, adv. aerobics, etc.) while giving up LL totally. Ironically, a year ago when I quit breathing, I thought in a year of doing all the traditional stuff I would look and feel better than ever.On the contrary!!! My joints were pounded, my muscles were always sore and I felt so lethargic. I didn't sleep well, my skin was breaking out after years of being so clear. To top it all of, I no longer could wear 6's and 8's (lower body) and grew to tight 10's or 12's. My pear shape got very exaggerated and muscular and the cellulite returned on my thighs!!! :-( All this and I was working out 5-6 days a week for at least an hour!!!!
Well, within the last 10 days of LL'ing, everything has turned around. I sleep like a baby, my muscles are leaning out and debulking and I'm feeling smaller. My legs are almost cellulite free. God bless Rashelle and LifeLift! Elizabeth Have a great night! Wanda I have a 7 year old and she told me a few weeks ago that I was doing Life Lift wrong! From the mouths of babes, huh? I am also a former BF user and you are definitely going to recognize the difference between the two. You remember how you feel really tired and drained after doing BF? You get results but you feel like you're going to die trying. One breath can make you feel exhausted.
With LL I have found that the breaths are MUCH more relaxed. When I began doing LL I guess I still had some BF training left over because that's the way I was attempting to do LL. It took my 7 year old to point out to me that the Pah sound wasn't supposed to be so harsh that you feel like your throat is going to pop out of your mouth, but instead it's more like a whisper. That made a BIG difference for me. I started paying closer to the instructional video and realized that I had been doing LL wrong. I have definitely noticed a difference and improvement since I started doing LL correctly and I have wanted to do it more often. LL is relaxing enough that you can easily get your workout anywhere, even while driving. Try doing BF while driving and you might commit vehicular homicide! (Okay Rashelle, that's my commercial for you! ;)
NEW Affirmation Titles: There are Two New Additions to the list of affirmation tapes. I was requested to make some special tapes with Positive Affirmations to help release fear and heal naturally for the relief efforts in our Country. Positive Affirmations to Create Peace in My World Sample of Affirmations:
I feed my mind positive messages
Sample Affirmations:
I can sleep when I want to
Affirmations for a Healthy Body
This is what they are saying about the new audio tapesDear RashelleI just wanted to thank you for all the wonderful changes that are happening for me since I started using all of your positive affirmation tapes. They are so soothing, easy to listen to and most of all, they really are working for me. I have all of your tapes and I want more!!! Thank you so much for taking the time to make these wonderful tapes, Sharon Kay "The workout I had with the new commuter audio tape is the most amazing workout I have ever had. It was all I could do to keep up. I felt exhilarated when I was finished. I love the fact that I can do a few with you or the whole 20 minutes. I feel like you are right there with me. The enthusiasm in your voice got me up and going right away. The affirmation tapes are almost hypnotic. I fell asleep listening to one of them and could not believe how great I felt when I woke up this morning. I felt like I could do anything!" "I have the first four affirmation tapes and am anxiously awaiting the new ones. I also have the Victory Theory Tapes, I love them. I can promise that I will be ordering any new products you offer. I have been thrilled with everything I have ordered from you." Linda A. from California
"The breathing tape is just what I wanted. Now that I have been faithfully doing the breathing for over a year, I tend to get distracted sometimes.
I'll do 10, then run and put in some laundry, etc. That's fine if they are extras or if you are just trying to maintain, but I really think you need to do 40 together when you are still in the losing phase. This keeps me right on track and before I know it my 40 together are done for the day. This tape was perfect timing for me."
And the affirmation tape is BEAUTIFUL! You have the perfect (beautiful) voice for it." There are some really wonderful testimonials HERE. You may want to check them out... Let the success of others inspire you to believe in yourself and your own possibilities You can order any of these specials by direct e-mail to me at rashelle@lifelift.com or you can call toll free to my voicemail at 1-888-45-ANGEL (26435) it is a secure voicemail as well as the e-mail address. You can feel safe to leave your name, address, phone, e-mail and Visa or MasterCard number along with your order. Please take good care of yourself, and have a wonderful, love filled life. Love yourself first, so that you can then truly love those around you.
Love, Rashelle
LifeLift
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