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Workout Wednesday – HOME EXERCISE SUBSTITUTIONS

By May 23, 2012April 16th, 201458 Comments

Hey Curvalicious Females. I have gotten a few emails regarding 2 exercises in the home workouts; parallel triceps dips and pull ups. Here are a some substitutions if you do not have that equipment at home.

PARALLEL TRICPES DIP – USING A BENCH/TABLE/CHAIR 

exercises for women

triceps exercises for women

* TIP – Add in stability ball when ready for an extra challenge.

PULL UP/CHIN UP — SUBSTITUTE – OVERHEAD PULLOVER

back exercise for womenfitness tips for women
*TIP – Keep dumbbells together if you are having trouble with the weight. This exercise targets the lats so make sure you are activating from your lats. Of course, Chin ups are more effective so if you can put in a chin up bar at home, do so!
If you have any further questions, please let me know!

Join the discussion 58 Comments

  • Sheila says:

    Can I use our bowflex for the Curvalicious workouts?

    • Flavia says:

      Not too sure what bowflex has on it. IF it’s cables, there are some cable exercises that are in Curvalicious.

  • Anna G says:

    Thanks Flavia! I actually discovered my weight bench has a dip station attacked to it! (who knew!?) I just finished Day 3, I haven’t had that good of a workout in a while, btw I was able to do 2 dips! Thanks so much, LOVE the program! My abs are sore from yesterday (which I love) the 1st and 3rd exercise of the 1st circuit from day 2 are KILLER!

    • Flavia says:

      that’s great that you have a dip bar, great job on 2, you will get so much stronger the more you use it! Thanks Anna.

  • Mariel says:

    awesome thank you for these flavia!! also i was wondering how tall you are? 🙂

  • IVA says:

    Just what I needed!

    You’re awesome!

    Nice weekend
    Iva

  • Julie says:

    I have purchased the Curvalicous and Muscalicous programs and was wondering where I could get your Hormone Control e-book. Thanks!

  • Debbies21 says:

    What about reverse rows or using a band attached to a door ?

  • Genevieve says:

    The workouts look great! Looking forward to trying them out.
    For chin ups, is it better to get a chin up bar with all the different grip positions or is just a bar ok?
    Also, in the video you mention working on chin ups a couple of times a week, just add in chin ups every second day or so? Or just do them on the day 4 days?
    Thanks!

    • Flavia says:

      Hey Genevieve, different gribs is much better as you can change grips to add strength and target different muscles in the back. You can do them really whenever you can…I would give your body a break between them so every other day would work.

  • Amanda says:

    Thanks for the great tips. This is just the kind of program i was looking for! One exercise I am trying to figure out how to substitute at home is the frog box jumps.

    I am a traveling healthcare professional, so i don’t have space in my vehicle for exercise equipment that is bigger than a yoga mat, foam roller, Kettlebell , or the like…unless I get rid of my nice cookware or memory foam (but I don’t see that happening). I have a chair that is sturdy and high enough for step ups in my current place, but I don’t trust it to not to tip over if I were to jump up on it.

    I’m leaning towards just doing the jump down portion with the chair that I have, or using a 6 inch step to do the full exercise at a much lower height. Any recommendations or other ideas?

    Thanks!

    • Flavia says:

      Hey Amanda, do the jumps off the floor and for sure use the chair for the step ups. Just make sure it is sturdy enough! I use chairs when I am at home or in a hotel room! Jumps still work off the floor 100%

  • Jessica says:

    Hi Flavia, LOVE the workouts n fitness plan… My question is, in your diet plan you show 3 meals eaten before the daily workout. I, however, get up at 430-445 am to exercise as i have NO other time in my day to get it in with work and 4 kids and all their sports. All I usually have before i work out is my NOxplode with protein water and bcaa’s/glutamine/carnitine/msm. I read on another site to perhaps add in a protein shake mixed w berries/flaxmeal or something of the sort beforehand? What would you recommend? Thanks SO much for your inspiration and time!! Lucious legs today YES!

    • Flavia says:

      Hey Jessica,

      I updated the nutrition guide to show you what to do if you workout at different times. You can download the new one and have a peak. Try to eat protein (fast digesting) before your workout like a protein shake!

  • Kelly says:

    I am having backache/pain from my mid to lower back when I am doing the power jumps and frog jumps, I am sure my form is correct. Is there an alternative or a different way of doing these. I am not sure what the problem is. Thank you for another AWESOME workout program!!

    • Flavia says:

      You likely just have some tightened muscles putting pressure on nerves. I would recommend a massage or even better, ART (active release thereapy). Instead of the jumps, do some walking lunges 🙂

  • Celeste says:

    Hey Flavia,

    When doing the hops, (like the hope up on to the bench and over) we are suppose to use the ball of our foot correct?
    and when doing squats, lunges, or dead lifts we should put the weight in the heal of our foot?

    and that is to protect the knee from getting injured.

    so when we do the squat jumps we land first on the balls of our feet and then place the weight on our heals for the squat.

    I hope that made sense for you to answer the question

    Thank you 🙂 you rock!!

    • Flavia says:

      Hey Celeste,

      Great questions, hops/jumps – yes toes to activate your calves and protect your knees Squats/lunges/DL – heels to activate your glutes more. Squat jumps you go off your toes as well to again protect the knees…always when you jump.

  • Grace says:

    Thanks so much for the substitutions. I used my kitchen countertop where the two counters meet at a corner to do dips. It worked pretty well cause I could even put my toes on the cabinet behind me for a little support when I started to fatigue 😉 Great workouts! I love to lift heavy but all of the core work is new to me and totally kicking my butt!

  • Rachel says:

    Hi, Just wondering do you recommend tofu as a good protein source for us vegetarians out there. By the way you list fish as a vegetarian protein which is certainly not vegetarian!!
    Great program by the way, kicks ass! 🙂

    • Flavia says:

      A lot of times tofu has soy so that would be a no no.

      • Rachel says:

        Hi, thanks for the reply. Why is soy a no no?

        • Flavia says:

          The problem with soy is that the unfermented processing causes increased carcinogens and makes protein impure. It also causes a decrease in testosterones and increase in estrogens which can cause danger to the reproductive system. There is also a negative effect on the thyriod, it decresases it causing low energy, depression, fatigue.

      • Karen says:

        why no soy? I don’t eat processed soy food but fermented soy is supposed to be healthy?

        • Flavia says:

          I know! The problem with soy is that the unfermented processing causes increased carcinogens and makes protein impure. It also causes a decrease in testosterones and increase in estrogens which can cause danger to the reproductive system. There is also a negative effect on the thyriod, it decresases it causing low energy, depression, fatigue.

  • Karen says:

    Your program says to substitute overhead dumbbell press for chin ups if we dont have a bar, but you also have this exercise in the same workout on day 4, do we do it twice?

    If I can find a suitable location would i be better off doing upright rows (pullups) from a banister with a resistance band?

    • Lori says:

      Karen,

      The substitute is an overhead pullover on ball as shown above in the picture.

      I actually did this today because I wasn’t at the gym, I liked the move and you also got a body stretch at the same time! 🙂

      Lori

      • Karen says:

        yes but this is the same exercise that is in the workout further on down the page, so do we do it twice?

        • Lori says:

          Karen,

          Look closely, one move you use two dumbells and start at your thighs and lift straight up over your head and bring back…the other move is using a single heavy dumbell and starting above your head and go back straight over your head. They are very similar but the first move hits more muscles…you’ll really feel the difference.

          Lori

          P.S. Nice to have an active rest day!

        • Flavia says:

          Have a peak through the blog for more 🙂

          • Karen says:

            I still have not found any other replacements for the chin -ups – need help please!!!!

    • Tammy A says:

      Karen – do a search for “6 Chin Up Alternatives” for some innovative ways to make a chin up bar. Hopefully one of those will work for you and you can just do the chin-ups rather than a substitute! There were some pretty clever ideas there

      • Karen says:

        The only thing I found of use is to do it in a park, which would mean doing all my exercises at hoe, then going to a park for chin up…maybe try that soon. if anyone has an idea for that and parallel dips at home, let me know

  • Julie says:

    Can you substitute a stability ball for the bosu ball used in Day 1 Luscious Legs warmup? If not what would you recommend? My gym does not have a bosu ball and they are pretty expensive to purchase.

    • Flavia says:

      Ya for sure you can. You can just ly on your back and roll a towel under your back to protect it.

  • Heidi says:

    Hello there,

    Enjoying getting my bum kicked into shape, and here was me thinking I was already fit! Discovering muscles I never even knew I had…however, I have a query. I’m struggling to get the correct form using my stability ball. I’m 5’6″ so as you suggested, bought a 65cm ball. However, I can see in your demonstrations, your ball is easily half the size of mine. Have I purchased too big a ball? Your movements look small and controlled, on my larger ball, movements are enormous! Any suggestions would be wonderful, many thanks!

  • Karen says:

    I am wondering what I could substitute for heavy shoulder presses or the combined lateral shoulder press. I was told that I shoudl not raise my shoudlers over my head due to rotator cuff tear and tendonitis.

    Thanks,

    • Flavia says:

      You can do a front raise with side raises only and instead of the shoulder press do upright rows.

    • Cheryl says:

      I used to have problems with rotator cuff tears, and after awhile,
      going from 2 # weights to 10 # over 1.5 years of resistance with dumbbells, and resistance bands, I now can go over my head without a problem, because I’ve strengthened all the muscles surrounding the rotator cuff, including bicep, tricep, delts, pecs, lats., etc. You will get stronger just by starting out wi/lower weights, staying below your shoulders, and then wella, someday it will not hurt you to go above shoulder height, in due time. Hope it works for you, too.

      • Lori says:

        That’s true. Same with me. My right arm was so bad…now I have no or very little problems with it. I think yoga helped too!

        • Kylie McLaughlin says:

          Thanks Cheryl/Lori, I was just randomly going through some old posts and found your advice re rotator cuff tears. I have a partial tear and have had pain for the last four months 🙁 Are there any particular exercises that you did to strengthen your muscles and did you rest a lot or keep trying to strengthen. I don’t do any yoga Lori, can you advise in which way yoga helped. Thanks girls, always helpful and kind advice from Flavia and all her followers.

          • Lori/Souper17 says:

            Kylie, Sorry to hear that you are having issues with your rotator cuff. I’m no professional, but struggled with limited movement and pain when working out for quite some time before it actually got better. I do Bikram yoga(hot yoga)…it’s 105 degrees and it really stretches your body. The other thing I do is while I’m on the treadmill warming up before my workout, I do some exercises with 2lb weights…the typical rotator cuff moves. You can find some on you tube if you don’t have them already. I do 15 reps of 3 different moves it takes less than 5 minutes and I do them 5-6 days a week. What this did was strengthen the smaller muscles. Also, when I lifted on shoulder day, I wouldn’t lift more than 12 lbs until I knew I could do it without hurting myself. I’m now shoulder pressing 25 lbs. But all this took time and consistent work…but it can be done. A visit to the physical therapist probably would be a good start to get a list of the exercises if you haven’t done that already. I hope this helps! 🙂

  • Karen says:

    Is it ok to move days around? If so, is there any day combination that should not be changed?

  • Karen says:

    I do the tricep dips with the ball since I dont have parallel bars at home, how can I make it tougher, without hurting my shoulder, I am currently doing 15 reps.

    Thanks

    • Anna G says:

      Instead of having both feet resting on the ball you could try to raise one leg off the ball and do say 2 – 5 reps, and then swap legs.

    • Lori says:

      Karen,

      When at home, I bought “THE RACK” at Target for $100.00 and got a $20.00 giftcard. It was worth the investment ‘cuz I do the tricep dips on it and other moves that I can’t do with free weights, bench or ball. Otherwise, I like Anna’s suggestion of trying with balancing one foot on ball to do the dips. You’ll be surprised once you have the opportunity to do a dip of the bars you’ll be able to do it because you are still building strength, you’re just doing it in an alternative way. So, don’t think you’re still not getting the benefit.

      Lori

      • Karen says:

        Thanks for the suggestions, we dont have target here and I would not have room for it, I will try it one leg at a time on the ball.

        How are you guys doing with the crab kicks, I dont really know where we are supposed to be feeling them and am switching legs but not really kicking, any advice?

  • Vio says:

    Hello there,
    I was doing FBL during about 14 weeks, I would like to start with Curv but I think I will have problems for doing some exercises. I found the substitutions here but not for one exercise of Day 2, in the first circuit, arms behind head sit up-to-stand. I have a strong abs but I can’t do this one and it is very frustating for me. How I can substitute this exercise for at the end arrive to do it?
    Thanks for all the help
    Best regards from France

    • Anna G says:

      Hi Vio,
      I am on week 5 of Curvalicious now and for the first 3 weeks I wasn’t able to do the sit up to stand either but what I would do is TRY to get up every time and then before you know it you’ll be able to stand up! Exhale and really squeeze your abs when coming up and push off the side of the bent foot then the heel of the straight leg foot to get off the floor. Also, for me it helps if my feet arn’t super close to my body, they’re kinda both out in front of me, with my ankles crossed and one foot is a little bit closer to my butt than the other.

      Hope that helped!

      • Vio says:

        Hi Anna,

        Thanks for your help I hope I will be able to do it. I would loved to find some substitutions for this one…I will do like you, TRY but it is very frustating for me.

        Best regards

  • Fiona says:

    Hi,

    I have been doing Turbulence Training since November last year and thought that I was getting reasonably fit until I started Curvalicious this week (and I’ve only done two days so far) – and I am feeling it now – just wondering if it matters if I have a rest day on the 3rd day since my muscles are feeling sore – or should I just reduce the number of sets that I do tomorrow?

    Thanks

    Fiona

    • Flavia says:

      Hey Fiona, great to have you! No it doesn’t matter and I am glad you are listening to your body. FOr sure change the rest days accordingly! If you are still sore when you get back, then you can reduce the number of sets! All the best with the program and let me know if you need anything further.

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