It is great to give your heart and lungs a workout with a brisk walk to College,
a few laps of the pool or dance session on a night out, but one area of fitness
that is often overlooked is strength training.

To Increasing the strength of your muscles you can use ordinary hand weights or specialist training
equipment like kettle bells, the former can be bulky to store and the latter are generally only to be found
at sports centres and you’ll need a professional to show you the ropes to avoid injury. If you don’t fancy
adding a set of weights to the clutter of a cupboard or a bedroom that’s already bursting at the seams and
want to be able to work out regularly whenever and wherever you are then a Dyna-Band® is the ideal
alternative.

The Dyna-Band® resistance exercise band is the perfect solution to increasing the strength, muscle tone and condition of your body in the privacy of your own room. It comes in 4 different strengths making it suitable for beginners right through to the athletic sports enthusiasts and can be used individually or as part of a team training session.

Although a full workout is ideal, a great start is to incorporate a few basic exercises into your usual routine.
You will soon get good results and find that you are adding more and more exercise to your daily routine.

Each issue of the “The Student Hub” E-magazine will feature 3 basic exercises, targeting a different area of the body. These exercises are taken from the “Dyna-Band Total Body Work out DVD” which lasts 60 minutes and works out the whole body. The Programme is spilt into 5 X ten minute sections, making a session easy to squeeze into your busy lifestyle.

Exercise 1: Double Arm Bicep Curl

This works the front of the arms (the biceps).

Place the DYNA-BAND flat on the floor and kneel on it in the middle, hold the ends of the DYNA-BAND in each hand, pulling the band straight up the outside of your legs. With your tummy held in and shoulders relaxed take a deep breath in. As you breathe out bend your arms at your elbows bringing your hand forward and up to your shoulder. Keep your elbows tucked into your waist and your wrists straight.
Slowly lower to the starting position as you breathe in

(Build up to 2 sets of 10, but when you first start off just aim for one set. If you can’t manage 10 just do as many as you can – you’ll soon find the number you can do increasing!)

Exercise 2: Seated Row

This is a great exercise for the Trapezius muscles in your upper back
(helps prevent rounded shoulders, improves posture and tone that saggy
bit under the bra line)

Sit up straight and place the DYNA-BAND® around the bottom of your feet holding each end. Slowly straighten the legs, keeping the knees soft at all times. Hold in your tummy, and relax your shoulders
whilst still sitting up straight. (Try to imagine you are a puppet and are being pulled up by a string
attached to your head).

Take a deep breath in and as you breathe out, pull both arms back to shoulder height leading with your elbows. As you breathe in return your arms in a controlled manor to the starting position, remembering to keep your elbows soft. Aim to repeat this up to 12 times (You can perform another set of 12 if you can manage it)

Exercise 3: Tricep Press

The tricep muscles on the backs of our arms are often underused in day to day
life leading to the ‘bingo wings’ effect we all dread! This exercise compliments
the bicep curl by working the opposite muscle and helping create toned arms.

Stand with your feet slightly wider than shoulder width apart, tummy held in and shoulders relaxed.
Wrap the DYNA-BAND around your hands once or twice and hold one hand behind your back with your
other arm close to your head. With the elbow of your top arm resting against the side of your head take
a deep breath in. As you breathe out straighten your top arm from the elbow so that your hand reaches up towards the ceiling. Slowly return to the starting position as you breathe in. Repeat this exercise 12 times before switching to do the exercise on the other arm. (You can repeat set once you have done the exercise with each arm)

The Cool Down

Like the warm up, spending a few minutes at the end of a workout stretching is something not to be skipped.

It relaxes the muscles you have just been putting through their paces and helps keep you flexible and avoid stiffness later. Again do some relaxed toe touches with the knees slightly bent, some gentle side bends and loose shoulder circles- First taking your shoulders up to your ears then backwards round and down for 5 circles then repeat 5 times circling in the opposite direction.