How To Choose A Bike (courtesy of Howcast.com)

Taking the time to select the right bike ensures that your investment yields the rewards you desire! You will need:

A biking purpose

A landscape

Goals

A measuring tape

A retailer

Test rides

Optional: A tandem bike

Step 1 – Define whether your purpose in biking is for fitness, commuting or recreation.

Step 2 – Define where you want to ride. City streets, paved or gravel roads, trails, or a combination of services.

Step 3 – Match your goals to a bike type. Mountain bikes are for rough roads and trails, touring bikes for the open road, cruisers for city streets, and hybrids go anywhere! Check out a tandem bike – a bicycle built for 2 – to ride with a companion.

Step 4 – Using a measuring tape, measure your inseam to your shoe soles. Bike frames are sized to this measurement. Mountain bikes are sized in inches, and road bikes are sized in centimeters.

Step 5 – Ask your dealer to let you test drive the models you like. Make sure your selection is comfortable, and that you can operate it correctly.

Step 6 – Break in your bike by riding a few miles, to ensure that all the equipment is operating properly. Wheel your way to health, happiness and freedom!

Did you know? 2500 journalists, photographers, cameramen and consultants cover the Tour de France?

How To Tone Your Arms (courtesy of WorkoutsOnDemand.com)

Hi! I’m Andrea with Workouts On Demand. Thanks for joining me! Today, I’m going to lead you through an arm workout…biceps, triceps and shoulders. All you need is your weights, dumbbells, even soup cans, if you don’t have dumbbells at home. Anything that you can hang on to. Let’s get started!

Palms up, shoulders back, standing nice and tall, curl arms up, twist it, and shoulder press. Reverse it, and down. Here we go. Curl and press. Down.

Again. Curl, Bicep curl, shoulder press. Reverse, and bringing it down. Nice, loose grip on your dumbbells. Press it up. And down. Keep going. Bicep curl, shoulder press. And down.

Nice, strong posture – pull those abdominals in a little bit. Shoulder press, and come back down. Curl and press. Down. Curl it up. Flip it. Press and extend those arms all the way up, come back down. Curl bicep, shoulder press. And down. Two muscle groups – one exercise. Press and down. And curl. And press. And curl. Uncurl it one more. Curl and press. And down. Uncurl it.

Going on to triceps. Little stance – bent knees, lean over at your hips. You have a nice, flat back. You’ll pull those dumbbells up, shoulders back, elbows stay right at your thighs and keep that straight back. Here we go.

Straight back and in. Straight back. Looking down at the floor, keep that spine nice and long, elongated. Straight back. The only part of your arm that’s moving is your lower arm. Straight back. Triceps, c’mon, straighten it! Keep that grip loose on your dumbbells. Triceps back of your arms. Up, up, good! Hang on – keep that posture, bent over at your hips. Bend your knees. Kick back. Triceps, go go go! Kick back. Nice and controlled. Stop the motion coming down. Kick back. Kick back. Good! Starting to feel it a little bit, now? Kick back. We’ve got 3 more. Three, two and one. Coming up.

Going back to shoulders. You’re gonna do a V-press right here. When you come down, you’re in a W…making a W. Keep your dumbbells away from your shoulders. Press up at a V and bring those elbows back in. Here we go!

It’s press up and down. And press. This one is a little more challenging – you’ve got a wider stance of your dumbbells.

How To Tone Your Legs (courtesy of HealthLife.com)

Alright, this exercise is called squats, but this is with dumbbells. So, I want you to begin this exercise from a standing position, with your head up, your back straight, your chest out. Keep your feet flat on the ground, shoulder-width apart and, again, your toes should be pointing slightly out, just for balance. Now, hold the dumbbells in each hand, keeping your arms right at your sides, making sure that the dumbbells are obviously of equal weight in both hands.

Now, with your back straight and your head up, slowly lower yourself down, bending your knees only. Inhale as you squat down. Then, when you get the parallels, come back up and exhale. So, squat back down and inhale. When you get to parallels, slowly and gently exhale and come back up.

There’s a few Don’ts in this exercise. Do not allow your knees to go past your toes when you’re doing this. And, do NOT use weights that are too heavy for you! It’s really best to start low with your weights, and then slowly increase your weight as you go on. And, also make sure that your arms are hanging down by your sides throughout the entire squat. The only movement in this exercise at all should come from your legs!

Learn How To Get Six Pack Abs (courtesy of SixPackFactory.com)

Learn How To Avoid Gaining Weight Over The Holidays (courtesy of RawRadiantHealth.com)

How To Lose Belly Fat Through Yoga (courtesy of ModernMom.com)

How To Do The Splits (courtesy of FitForAFeast.com)

How To Do Russian Ab Exercise (courtesy of Diet.com/videos)

How To Do Yoga with Sciatica (courtesy of Yogatic.com)

How To Swim The Backstroke (courtesy of StTrainer.com)

I’m Steven Taylor, endurance coach and fitness trainer through my company, Sttrainer.com.

Today, I’m going to explain to you how to do the backstroke. For this drill, you will need:

A swimming pool
A swim suit
Goggles,
and a cap.

You first must get your body in the correct position. This means that your body is stretched long and your hips and legs are at the surface of the water. We want your whole body at the surface of the water, not trailing down, with your hips and legs sinking in the water.

In order to do this well, it’s important to push your shoulder blades and head back in the water, squeeze your stomach muscles and your booty muscles, which will push your hips and legs to the surface of the water.

Step two to learn backstroke is to know how to move your arm through the water. It’s not true that your arm goes through the water, directly behind the body. Rather, your elbow bends, and the arm is actually more out to the side of your body than below it.

The third and final step to correct backstroke swimming is to make sure your hips and shoulders (your whole body) rolls from side to side. This will make it much easier to have a correct arm stroke and also streamlines you through the water.

In conclusion, the correct steps for swimming the backstroke include:

Good Balance, with your hips and legs at the surface of the water,

the Correct Travel with your arm, which is arm out to the side, not under and behind you

and, finally, Body Rotation, with your hips and shoulders rolling from side to side.