Towel Can Help Build Your Body

If you want to work your muscles without lifting weights, the authors of a new book say you don't need a stretchy resistance band -- you can just grab a towel.

"It provides a tool to supplement a normal workout, and it's a big advantage for those who travel a lot or people who are on vacation," says Dr. Stephen Alway, who wrote the Towel Workout.

The towel provides resistance to strengthen and tone muscles and increase body mass.

The workout, which Alway created with Greg Finn, can be integrated as part of any other training routine to enhance strength, flexibility and endurance, they say. It makes for deeper "cuts" in muscles of the abdomen, chest, back shoulders, arms and legs.

The creators present 20 different workout routines in their book. There are more than 65 exercises and stretches.

While there is a specially designed dual-purpose gym towel that can be used for the workout, any towel can be used.

Always is also a former Canadian bodybuilding champion and the department chair and director of Laboratory Of Muscle Biology at West Virginia University.

He says that the towel workout is perfect to increase upper body strength without a cardiovascular workout.

"It is a rather intense workout in a short amount of time," he says.

Alway said the towel workout is also great for people who are at-risk of anabolisms and blood clots while traveling.

Sample Exercises

The exercises are simple. In the isometric shoulder lateral raise, you work the middle and front of the shoulders, as well as the quadriceps on the front of the thigh.

Sit on a chair and place one foot on the end of the towel. The free end of the towel should be out away from your body.

If the towel is under the right foot, pick up the free end up with the right hand with the palm facing the floor. Straighten your elbow so it is just short of fully straight.

Your back should be perpendicular to the floor and your knees bent at ninety degrees.

The one-arm curl helps with biceps and forearm muscles. You sit on a chair and, again, place one foot on the end of the towel.

Grab the ball at the other end of the towel with one hand. The hand should be facing the ceiling.

Lean back in the chair so that the elbow is almost straight. Now pull with the biceps so that the elbow bends and moves your upper body moves closer to your foot. You should feel a strong contraction in the biceps muscle on the front of your upper arm.

Straighten your upper body out by leaning back in the chair, all the while resisting with your arm. This will work the muscle in both the shortening and lengthening parts of the contraction. Do each phase slowly, taking 3 to 4 seconds for each direction.

Switch to the other arm after 10 to 12 repetitions.

Resistance Training Crucial

Ryan Schrink of Schrink Personal Training Services says weight and resistance training are important to weight loss.

He believes that using a towel is similar to using a band. The same types of exercises can be performed to build strength and create definition. This includes shoulder raises, chest flies, squats and lunges.

And it does more than build muscles.

"You have to challenge the mind and body with your workout," Schrink says.

Schrink who has a graduate degree in exercise physiology, said that resistance and strength training requires assistance from the "mind muscle."

Using machines does not require as much use of the mind muscle.

"It is not as challenging because the machine is doing it for you," he says. "Stairmasters, treadmills and other machines are not as challenging."

Schrink says it is important to do various exercises when attempting to build muscle or lose weight.

He suggests at least three days of weights and resistance training each week, with cardiovascular training every day, with three of those days being more intense.

"You should try to do something for at least 20 minutes that will get your heart rate up," he says. It can include exercises such as jumping jacks and other athletic moves where the body is being used as a weight.

Schrink adds that the suggested workout is in general. He stresses that exercise routines, if possible, be individualized for the greatest success because of specific concerns as well as age and health issues.

"Muscles have a memory to do those things," Schrink says. "Muscles get more efficient as well as heart and lungs to be able to do exercises faster and longer."