One of the keys to my mental sanity is working out.  My husband knows. If I miss too many sweat sessions I suddenly find myself wearing my mean girl pants. And I’m a NY Italian. Enough said.

There are so many great things you can do to keep your body and heart in shape. With the expansive internet you can find a variety of workouts you can do at home or in a  gym. But how do you know if they are good, or safe for your body?

I see so many people in the physical therapy clinic with injuries from a one time incident at the gym or in a class. Or,  the injury occurs from the repetition of performing a workout that wasn’t so great for their body over and over again. It’s somewhat of a catch 22, you need ( yes need) to workout, but you don’t want to over do it, or perform exercises wrong.

I’m going to add another component of Body Tips, and have a workout review and add in a playlist.

Here are two Glute routines. One is for the gals by Women’s Health Magazine and one for the guys from Men’s Fitness.

Up first is the Women’s cause the model shows much better form, and actually I would recommend this one for both genders over the Men’s Fitness  but I’ll get to that.

It’s quick and dirty, targets the main muscle groups of the Lower Extremity in 20 minutes, or 7 exercises, plus you will definitely get your heart rate up on this one. Nice bang for your buck. This routine is for the advanced exerciser. This risk of performing some of these moves if you aren’t strong enough yet, there is potential injury to the knees or low back. So if you are a beginner stay tuned, I will review one soon.

If you are an intermediate, you can perform these exercises without the dumbbells. This routine also has a video for extra instruction. This lower extremity strengthener would be good to supplement a running program to prevent any knee injuries.

Ok, the Men’s. Exercise one of this routine has potential for back injury if you arch through the back to bridge up. I would substitute that one with exercise 7 from the gals, which will reduce your likelihood of injuring your back. Exercise 2 of the Men’s form could be improved, the knee is way over the foot. A good exercise though.  Keep the knee more perpendicular to the foot by taking a larger step back. You might need to use a lighter weight then you would think.  Exercise 3 from the men is ok, just make sure not to arch the back with this one.

Here is a 30 minute play list from Rockmyrun.com, The Sun Run. Great motivating mix that I actually do listen to on my morning runs. The length of this playlist should be perfect for the 20 minute glut routine.