Well, if I wasn't aware of my triceps or shoulders before, I certainly am now! I recently purchased some resistance toning bands from the sparkpeople.com store, one in light and one medium band. Let me tell you: those bands are incredibly deceptive and pack a lot of punch in a small, transportable package.

I did my first upper body workout using the bands as well as dumb bells and a balance ball and my triceps and shoulders are signing a tune as I write this blog post. The front raise, side raise and tricep kickbacks using the bands will make your sweat and tighten those hard to reach areas on women's bodies. Dumbbell reverse flys, chest flys tricep extensions, chest press and shoulder press are made doubly more difficult when trying to perform the movements while balancing on a ball. I could really feel my abs engaging as well as my quads and my hamstrings straining to keep me flat and still on the ball. I find the exercise demos on the sparkpeople fitness page to be extremely helpful as well. I print those little suckers out and keep them right next to me so I can read over them during exercise and make sure I have sound movement and technique.

Tomorrow, the guys I play volleyball will ask the questions they always seem to ask after I've been resistance training: "Have you been lifting weights? Your hits are amazing today!" I can't wait. Little do they now that I'm not doing any machine circuit training just yet. A balance ball and some resistance bands are my secret weapon for more power in my spikes!