If you’re looking for a quick, personal-trainer-approved way to burn out your shoulders, back, chest, and arms, an upper-body circuit workout can be a fantastic choice for your next routine.
Circuit training—where you go through a bunch of exercises without resting between them—is one of the most efficient ways to work all the upper-body muscle groups you’re targeting. Plus, when you don’t take any rest, you get a cardio boost along with the strength-building benefits of weight training, like getting stronger, maintaining bone density, and offsetting an age-related decline in muscle mass.
This workout, created by NASM-certified personal trainer Alicia Jamison, a trainer at Bodyspace Fitness in New York City, predominantly uses pulling and pushing exercises to fire up your entire upper body. “By hitting all of those muscle groups, you’re avoiding muscle imbalances, which can lead to injury,” Jamison tells SELF.
Pulling exercises get your muscles to contract as you pull your arms toward your body—whether you’re using a weight or not. For this workout, Jamison chose the bodyweight pulldown and single-arm row to light up the muscles in the back of your body, like your rhomboids (the upper-back muscles that help you retract your shoulder blades) and your latissimus dorsi (the wide muscles that stretch from your armpit to your spine). Strengthening those back muscles helps with posture, especially if you spend most of the day sitting down, she explains.
Our homes are our sanctuaries—a fact that became clear to a lot of people this past year when they suddenly had to spend all their time there. But your indoor air might be dirtier than you think, and that could be making it uncomfortable at home, and potentially even make you sick.
There are a few things you can do to help and devices you can buy, like an air purifier, a dehumidifier, and a humidifier. But they aren’t cheap, so you don’t need to spend the money on anything if you aren’t already struggling with your indoor air quality. These are potential tools, not necessities. While their names are self-explanatory, it’s not as easy to figure out when each one is actually needed in your home. We talked to experts, read research reports, and tested some products. Below is what we found, and what we advise.
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You’ll be seeing more air purifiers in schools and offices as the world deals with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Read on to see which devices make sense for your home. Photograph: Getty Images
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
James' World 2 