Wake Up with Weights

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Wake your body during Week 2 with a morning strength-training routine that includes a meditation component. Brief sessions with 2- to 3-pound weights allow you to embrace resistance and stillness.

This strengthening and satisfying morning routine was designed by Mary Tedesco, owner of Body Fit Personal Training in Cross River, New York, and Tammy Wise, New York City-based creator of BodyLogos, a mind-body practice that combines strength training with meditation.

What You’ll Need:

Set of 2- or 3-pound hand weights
Yoga mat

Morning Balancer

What It Does:
Stretches and strengthens the spine and abdominal muscles; improves posture.

How to Do It: Start on your hands and knees, with your knees under your hips and wrists under your shoulders, with your fingers pointing forward. Keep your neck in line with your spine and contract your abdominal muscles to prevent your back from sagging. Holding a weight in your right hand, extend your right arm in front of your body, in line with your right shoulder, palm down. Lift your left leg off the floor to hip level.

Morning Balancer, Part 2

Inhale for 4 counts and bring your right elbow and left knee together until they touch. Exhale for 4 counts and return to an extended position so your right arm and left leg are stretched out again. Repeat 16 times. Then switch sides and repeat.

Active Meditation:
Your abdominals are your core—your essential, spiritual self. Maintain integrity in your abs by keeping them strong and aligned. Focus on staying connected to your core as you reach out into the world. It’s always a balancing act.

Confidence Lifter

What It Does:
Works the large muscles of the glutes and quads; tones the deltoids.

How to Do It:
Stand with feet hip-width apart. Pull your abdominal muscles inward; feel your tailbone drop down. Hold dumbbells in your hands with palms facing toward your sides. Slowly lower yourself into a squat as if you’re sitting on a chair, raising your arms out to shoulder height. Do three sets of 10 to 30 repetitions.

Active Meditation:
As the primary forward force of your body, the quadriceps move you to new destinations. As you squat, focus on where you’re going. “Why are you working so hard to get strong?” As you do each squat, feel yourself taking steps toward the future you wish for yourself.

Heart Opener

What It Does:
Stretches and engages the core muscles and chest.

How to Do It:
Lie on your back with your feet off the ground and your legs bent at a 90-degree angle (or rest your feet on a chair). Holding a weight in each hand, start in a closed position above your chest with knuckles touching and arms slightly curved. Open arms smoothly and slowly out to the sides and then close. Exhale as you open your arms; inhale as you close. Repeat the exercise 16 times.

Active Meditation:
Your chest muscles protect your heart, the seat of your emotions. As you work your chest in this exercise think about approaching the day with an open heart. Feel this intention expand into your life, letting your heart lead your actions.

Abundance Builder

What It Does:
Simultaneously engages major muscle groups in your upper and lower body; also increases your heart rate.

How to Do It:
Start in a lunge, your right foot 2 to 3 feet before your left. Holding a weight in each hand, tuck your elbows in by your sides with palms facing each other. Engage your core and exhale for 4 counts, and then exhale for 4 counts as you go deeper into the lunge, lowering your right thigh until it’s parallel to the ground (your left knee should almost touch the floor); lift weights toward your shoulders. Return to the starting position, inhaling as you come up, and repeat. Do 16 repetitions, and then switch sides.

Active Meditation:
The biceps allow your arms to pull “desirables” toward you. Take this opportunity to consider what you want. Imagine the dumbbells are what you long for most and focus on pulling them inward. Think of this exercise not just as sculpting your body but as helping to sculpt your life.