Dede Lagree’s 5 Resistance Arm Band Moves

If you’re a resistance band rookie, you’re in luck. Trainer Dede Lagree (who helped Rihanna score her incredible body) is breaking down five arm moves you can easily incorporate into your routine. We get it, these oversize rubber bands don’t look like much. But they really can help you build some serious strength. Plus, they’re easy to store at home and can make for a killer living room workout. Here, five exercises to get you started.

Row with tricep kickback

Stand on top of the band with your feet shoulder-width apart. Pick up either end, bend your knees, and tilt your torso slightly forward. Start with your hands down at your sides, then lift them up under your armpits. From here, extend your arms out behind you, and repeat.

RELATED: 11 Best Exercises to Get Strong, Toned Arms

Standing ab rotation

Put one foot on top of the band, standing with your feet wide. Hold the ends of the band with both of your hands clasped together. Start by facing forward, and twist your torso to one side. As you twist, lift your hands out and up, stopping at shoulder height. Repeat, and try the other side.

Overhead tricep extension

With both feet on the band, stand with your legs shoulder width apart. Hold each end behind your head, and start with your elbows bent at a 90-degree angle. Extend your arms up, and bring them back down. Repeat.

RELATED: 10-Minute Workout for Defined Arms

Side lunge with side raise

Stand with one foot on top of the band, and hold either end with your arms hanging at your sides. Lower yourself down and extend one leg out to the side while also lifting your arms up and out. Repeat, and switch sides.

Standing chest press

With your feet shoulder-width apart, wrap the band around your back, and hold it out in front of you. Start with your elbows bent, then extend your arms straight out. Repeat.

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Air Pollution May Cancel Out the Health Benefits of Walking

This article originally appeared on Time.com.

Simple though it may be, walking is one of the best things you can do for your body. Research has shown that it can extend your life and improve your heart health, along with a host of other health metrics.

A new study published in the Lancet, however, suggests that where you walk matters. Strolling along heavily polluted streets, researchers found, may actually cancel out many of the benefits associated with walking.

A team of researchers recruited 119 people over age 60. Of these, 40 were healthy; 40 had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), an inflammatory lung disease; and 39 had ischemic heart disease, which is caused by a narrowing of the arteries.

Some of the people were instructed to walk for two hours per day along London’s Oxford Street, a downtown thoroughfare heavily trafficked by buses and cars, while the others spent the same amount of time walking through a quiet part of the city’s Hyde Park. Three to eight weeks later, the groups swapped routes. After each outing, researchers measured pollutant concentrations in each environment, along with a number of health markers in the participants, including lung capacity, breathlessness, wheezing, coughing and arterial stiffness, which is related to high blood pressure.

After walking through Hyde Park, the healthy people saw big improvements in their lung capacity and arterial stiffness. But after walking along Oxford Street—and breathing in a number of airborne pollutants—people saw only modest improvements in lung capacity and a worsening of arterial stiffness, suggesting that the air quality nullified many of walking’s health benefits, according to the paper.

MORE: Here’s How Many People Die from Pollution Around the World

People with COPD and those with heart disease both experienced negligible improvements in lung capacity after walking in either location. However, people with COPD showed more respiratory issues—including coughing, wheezing and shortness of breath—after walking along Oxford Street, as well more arterial stiffness. People with heart disease also saw more severe arterial stiffness after walking through the urban environment, unless they were taking cardiovascular drugs, which appear to offer some protective benefits.

“You should avoid polluted areas for doing any form of exercise, specifically walking,” explains lead researcher Kian Fan Chung, a professor of respiratory medicine at Imperial College London’s National Heart and Lung Institute. “In London, we have a lot of open spaces, green space, where the amount of pollution is going to be less than what it is outside the park. If that’s not available, people should probably exercise indoors.”

Without a sedentary control group, the researchers note, it’s not possible to say that walking was directly responsible for the physical changes observed in the study. But the results suggest that where you exercise matters, perhaps as much as the activity itself.

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