Weekend Challenge: Seated Femur, Core, Shoulder, And Arms Builder

Seated exercises are preferred by some Savers for all kinds of reasons. For one thing, they are convenient; you can do them in your office or at your desk during the day, helping to offset the negative effects of prolonged sitting.

For others, physical challenges prevent getting up and down from the floor or doing stand-up moves, so seated exercises solve the dilemma of needing regular exercise, but being unable to perform traditional moves.

Regardless of your fitness level or physical abilities, this weekend’s exercise is a balanced combination of convenience, challenge, and effectiveness. So grab a chair – or stay right where you are – and let’s begin!

Why:

One of the key muscle groups worked by this exercise are the hip flexors. These deep muscles are relatively easy to ignore; they do much of their work “behind the scenes.” Although you use them frequently, you don’t typically “feel” them unless you perform an exercise like this one. Then you’ll know if you have been ignoring them!

The hip flexors basically raise your leg. For instance, each time you bring your knee up toward your torso, such as lifting your leg to step up a flight of stairs, you’re using your hip flexors. When you work these muscles, it stimulates bone growth in your pelvis and thigh bones (femora).

These flexors include a range of muscles, such as the iliopsoas (connects the pelvis to the lumbar vertebrae), rectus femoris (at the front of the thigh), and sartorius (runs between the top front of the pelvis and the shins). All of these muscles (and many more) need to be supple and strong to avoid the problems associated with weak flexors, such as:

• Hip joints “locking”
• Lower back pain
• Anterior pelvic tilt (swayback or lordosis)
• Knee joint pain

With prolonged sitting so prevalent in today’s society, keeping the hip flexors engaged, stretched, and worked is more important than ever. One way to visualize how sitting harms the hip flexors is to imagine a broken arm in a cast, elbow bent. Over a period of weeks, the muscles in the arm shorten and atrophy, and after the bone heals, it takes another period of weeks to slowly stretch and use the muscles in the arm so it can be straightened again.

A similar phenomenon happens with your hip flexors in the sitting position. But exercises like this one allow you to use your seated position to your advantage.

That’s not all – as the name indicates, the Seated Femur, Core, Shoulder, And Arms Builder engages the core muscles and works the arms and shoulders. To make this move more challenging, feel free to hold weights while you do this exercise.

How:

1. Sit on the edge of a chair, bench, stool, etc. Just make sure the height of the object you’re sitting on allows your feet to rest flat on the ground.
2. Slowly lift one knee as high as you can, keeping your knee bent at an approximate 90-degree angle. The other foot should remain flat on the floor.
3. As you bring your knee up, raise your arms out to your sides, stopping at shoulder height.
4. Bring your arms back down to your sides as you lower your knee back to the starting position.
5. Switch sides and lift the other knee as high as you can, bringing your arms up at the same time once again.
6. Repeat for one minute, or as long as you can comfortably continue.

Tips:

• Keep your back straight throughout the exercise. Try not to lean forward.
• Move slowly and deliberately; don’t “yank” your legs up.

Keep Working Those Hip Flexors!

Did you find yourself really “feeling” this exercise in the top of your thighs, right where your hips join your legs? That means you’re targeting areas that need attention. Try following up this weekend’s challenge with these other seated exercises:

Weekend Challenges And Densercise™ : A Perfect Combination

The Densercise™ Epidensity Training System is specifically designed to build bone density in areas that matter the most in the fight against osteoporosis and the prevention of fractures, such as the hips, wrists, ankles, and thighs. Because the Weekend Challenges also hone in on specific areas of the skeleton, it’s easy to incorporate them with your regular “Densercises.”

For instance, since Densercise™ is set up to be practiced three times a week for 15 minutes each time, you can perform the Weekend Challenges on the days you’re not Densercising. Or, you could simply include a challenge or two to your Densercise™ routine, adding variety and increasing the difficulty level.

Have you come up with an innovative exercise plan? We’d love to hear more about it! Please share your thoughts and experiences about today’s topic in the comment section below.

Have a great weekend!