Take your push-ups to the next level and add an awesome abdominal workout to them as well. Fitz and her handsome crew demonstrate a few cool moves to take your training up a notch.

To view more fun videos, recipes and other quick tips from degree experts on health and fitness ...

See more training videos at SportsHealthExercise.org on the Active Health Network!

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The Active Health Network has just launched and you can find it at SportsHealthExercise.Org. I'm very excited to announce this to you, because I'm one of the several health and fitness experts contributing to the site. Unlike other health and fitness sites, SHE is owned by a fitness expert, Master of Exercise Physiology, Tracy Benham. She has also surrounded herself by other experts (like me) in unique genres of health.

SHE sports a bunch of great text info, and it's full of FITNESS TELEVISION! You don't have to settle for words, when you can see and hear the various experts blabbing about and showing you personally what they want you to know about becoming a better you. General fitness training, yoga, healthy cooking, etc...

So ... I'm stoked! We've done tons of work leading up to this point, and now I can't wait to see how all of that effort pays off for you. So ... what are you waiting for? Stop reading what I say and go listen and see instead.

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If you're not doing squats during your workout, start today. Hell, start now. Stand up from your computer, lock your hands behind your head, and bang out a set of squats. Finished? Good. Now ask yourself, Do I perform this superb muscle-building and calorie-burning exercise properly?

A proper squat -- whether performed with a barbell bent from a Herculean load of 45 pound plates planted across your back, or with nothing more than your own body weight -- requires keeping your head up and a natural arch to your back. It also means lowering yourself to the correct position at the bottom of the movement. Thighs parallel to the floor is the way it's commonly described, but this isn't exactly clear enough.

Squat down right now. Look at your thighs. Are they parallel to the floor? If so, which part is -- the bottom or the top of your thighs? Ahh ... therein may very well lie the problem. Most times, people go by the position of the bottom of their thighs (nearest the knee) when determining that their legs are parallel to the floor. However, in this position you'll notice that the tops of your thighs are still somewhat angled and therefore not parallel with the floor.

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Do you get so mad sometimes that you feel like slamming something? If so, try working that Hulk-like rage out of your system by doing just that. Best of all, you'll get a great core workout in the process.

Medicine ball slams are a great functional exercise that requires only one piece of fitness equipment to perform. No surprise here, that one piece of a equipment is a medicine ball. The one caveat is that you want to make sure that you use a leather-bound medicine ball and not the type that are like weighted, rubber basketballs.

To perform the exercise, start by holding the medicine ball with both hands over your head. Keep your feet just about shoulder-width apart, with your knees slightly bent and toes facing forward. Then, in one explosive movement, while keeping your hands outstretched, bend at the waist and slam the ball against the ground. Make sure that you slam the ball a far enough in front of your feet so that the ball doesn't rebound and hit you in the face (which is the reason why you definitely don't want to use a rubber coated medicine ball for this exercise). Then, pick up the ball right away and stand back up, ready to perform your next rep.

Here goes: "You cannot spot reduce." In other words, try as you might to lose fat in a particular area of your body (abs, legs, arms, whatever), your body sort of doesn't work that way. Instead, it sheds fat layers from your entire body, which, in turn, will also eventually lead to the results your looking for in your target area.

That all being said ...

There are still many ways to tone specific areas of your body. Now, it's important that you observe the distinction between what I'm saying now and what I said before. Previously I stated that you can't "spot reduce" fat. However, you most certainly can tone muscle in a specific area with targeted resistance training -- your abdominals not withstanding. Being that you are now aware of the difference, let's finally get down and dirty: It's time to exercise.

A great exercise for your obliques (the long muscles that run along the sides of your abdominals) is the Russian Twist. To peform this exercise, sit up tall on the edge of a sturdy chair or, if you are able, on the floor. Raise both feet off the floor a few inches. Bend your elbows and place your hands either behind your head without lacing your fingers together, or in front of you with or without a medicine ball or dumbell (depending on your fitness level). Pulling your abs inward, lean back a few inches from the hips. Maintaining a strong core and a slight backward lean, twist left and right from the waist until you've completed all reps.

Words can only say so much, so to get a better understanding of how to properly perform the Russian Twist, click HERE. Start off by doing one long set of this exercise, until you have progressed to the point where you can do at least two or three sets.

I've been meaning to get a medicine ball for awhile now, but somehow hadn't gotten around to it. I admit I haven't looked into how to use one specifically yet, but I read something today that surprised me: a medicine ball can be more effective for sculpting than dumbbells or weight machines. Because of their round shape, standard exercises become more challenging for your muscles, and they can be used in so many more ways than other equipment.

Medicine balls are available in a range of colors and sizes, usually ranging from 2 to 25 pounds. And once you've got yours, or if you're thinking about it, read for 4 easy moves you can do at home to get sculpted in no time. I'm going shopping asap for mine.

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