Very simple and very effective – works your entire core, including your abs and obliques and the QL. I like to use something to take the stress off my wrists when I do planks. In the video below I’m using the Perfect Pushup handles to allow my wrists to stay in a neutral position and rotate a bit. I type and mouse for a living so that’s really important to me.
Just get down into a plank position with your feet wide and hands close, then put a hand up in the air above you, rotating into place off the balls of your feet, using your hips and shoulders to drive the motion. Gently return to the plank, switch hands and repeat on the other side.
For an ab exercise like this I recommend you do 10 on each side to begin and work your way up to 25 on each side. If that gets too easy you can elevate your feet, or suspend them in straps or bands to make it more difficult. Go slow, be careful, and protect your back and joints.
First up in this week of core movements is the Roman Chair Crunch. I have a Back Hyperextension/Roman Chair combination bench.
Roman Chair – FrontRoman Chair – Side
Hop up to sit on the large front pads with the large fleshy part of your hamstrings, and hook your ankles under the round foot pads.
Place your feet under the pad – Roman Chair
Lean back carefully. If you’ve never done this before, or your abs are particularly weak, you should be very careful. You don’t need to go all the way back or down, just to level or parallel to the floor is fine. From there do a crunching motion. Bring your chest up toward your knees and lower back. With a good range of motion this would be like curling your spine into a c-shape and then flat again. In this little video clip I go a little below parallel, but not too much. Your own levels might be different from mine, either less or more as the case may be.
[youtube https://youtu.be/OtzmaaxUXeg&w=640&h=360&rel=0]
If you’re doing good at this, you might do sets of 15-25. If that doesn’t give you a burn in the abs, I wouldn’t recommend that you add weight, since your spine is hanging out there. Maybe a 10 pound plate held outward in your hands would be okay. Just be careful. Otherwise, slow down, concentrate on your core, find the burn there by contracting and pausing at the top and bottom.
Do be careful not to hang onto your neck and crank on it. Notice that my “cue” is my hands out in front of and barely touching my face. If your back or knees hurt or are noisy at all, this might not be a good option for you.
This is what 80 calories of frozen mixed veggies looks like. Add in 8 oz. of chicken breast for a 300 calorie meal that’s pretty good and good for you. I like Fajita Seasoning on it in the steamer.
Recently on my Facebook page I linked to an article about Posterior Chain training. That’s a fancy phrase that powerlifters use to describe the lower back, glutes, and hamstrings. These are basically the “pulling” muscles if you lay flat on the floor on your front and pull your knees off the ground and up behind you.
I mentioned that I normally trained these muscles hard, as they were majorly involved in mountaineering. Ryan of Climbingreport.com asked me for my opinions about why it was important, and while I gave a short answer on Facebook, I have a little more here.
Postholing requires strong balanced leg muscles. [Ryan from Climbingreport.com]
When walking uphill you normally place your foot out in front of you, then pull yourself over it. That’s the posterior chain working. When climbing vertical, either rock or ice, you place your foot higher, but generally under your body, then use mostly your quads to lift your body up over your foot. As your quads become more tired, you’ll have a tendency to stick your butt out some then pull it into the crag. That’s to roll off some of the work to your glutes and hamstrings. Of course that’s an over-simplification, but you get the drift. Another consideration is the agonist/antagonist balance. If your quads are too big for your hamstrings, you’ll be more likely to have injuries and pain, and they’ll most likely be manifest in your knees or hips – where the muscles from both groups attach. Most people like training their quads more than their hamstrings from my experience.
I made a couple videos of my Posterior Chain Warmups:
In this first video, I’m using a Back Hyper Extension bench. I keep my back fairly still, while hinging at the hips and as I hit the bottom and top, my hamstrings flex a bit. Since there isn’t much angle at the knees it’s an interesting difference, contracting a fully extended muscle. If you do this and don’t feel your hams and glutes firing at all, go slower and consciously squeeze your glutes at the top, and try to feel that squeeze all the way to your knees. If you look at the video as I come to the top, you’ll see my hamstrings flex some.
I usually do sets of 25 for this, since it’s really easy. YMMV.
In this second video, I’m doing one of those classic “not as intended” movements. The Glute Ham Raise bench is a powerlifting classic, and hard to find at most facilities except maybe some basement gyms. I can’t really see you getting away with taking ski poles into Gold’s or 24 hour, but this is just an idea. You can totally make do with the knee pads on a lat tower and a cardio step held out in front of you. Be creative. I am doing this move with the poles way out in front, similar to a core training move called a fallout (if done with straps) or rollout (if done with an ab wheel). I’m not putting a lot of weight on them, using them mostly for balance, and to give a little boost if I get tired so I don’t fall forward and snap my legs off at the knees.
I ride the poles out as far as I can go feeling sure I can get back up, then bring my butt back to over my heels, then do it again. The majority of the stress with this is at the fully extended position, and a little pause there is good. I normally do sets between 10 and 25 depending on what my training goals are for the day. If I’m doing 25 I don’t hang out to the front for as long a period, and use a little momentum to start my ride back. With sets of 10 I hang out there quite a while, and use a lot more hamstring to pull my butt back.
While I call these warmups, for some people just starting out who’ve never done serious hamstring or glute training, these might be a dang tough workout all on their own, so go slow, be careful, and be safe. Remember that anything you do is better than nothing you do.
I use my Facebook Page to comment at Active.com on some of the really interesting articles there. Sometimes agree, sometimes disagree, sometimes pointing out a simple addition or omission – nothing really serious mind you. Mostly this puts the article on my Facebook Page, so those subscribing (by Liking) my page can view some info I feel might be relevant to their training or goals.
Ice Tool Chin-ups for Sports Specificity
Now and then, I get some replies, and sometimes it’s from the author thanking me for commenting, liking the article, or whatnot. Now and then it’s one of my Facebook family, showing support for “what I said”. And now and then, it’s some oddball hobbyist or troll spewing. One of my previous favorites was for a comment I made on a nutrition article authored by a registered dietician. I said something to the effect of “I agree that you need to properly hydrate while endurance training.”
Hobbyists
In reply to this comment someone said quite rudely, in Brit Slang style, that the author was ill educated and clueless. Since it’s a Facebook post I went and checked, and sure enough, they were a first semester student in a nutrition associate degree program. Confirmation bias – the unsupported belief that your chosen path is the correct one. Since they had just started their first semester I doubted they knew the topic as well as the author. As well, they were pretentious in their poor tv-inspired use of the Mother Tongue, since they were born and raised in like Kansas.
Recently I got it on another nutrition article, this one I think was on the addition of legumes to the diet as a protein, carb, and fiber source. I mentioned that I highly recommend the addition of canned black beans to anyone I consult. A Facebook user ranted that cans were evil and toxic and should never be used. I normally do not feed the troll on these, because it’s useless. Feeding the troll would be replying with anything, since there is already a quick and easy way to suck you into their vortex of nonsense.
Meal after the Qualifier for Elbrus Race 2010. Great combo there of Russian food.
“Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.” – Mark Twain
Let’s run through it quick:
1) cans have chemicals
a: alright then bags
2) bags have chemicals
a: alright then, canvas sacks
3) canvas sacks have chemicals
a: alright then, right from the hands of the farmer
4) the farmer’s hands are coated in 2,4-D/MCPP
ARGH!
So not much point in that progression, right? So this one person has a hobby of thinking the stuff they are learning in their associate degree program first three weeks supersedes the article information from the registered dietitian. Another hobby is related to chemicals in food. I’ve had people with other various hobbies post their trolls about meat, fish, veggies, grains, you name it. The funniest perhaps was a trainer with outstanding credentials getting down on my claim that a plane is a virtual construction of geometry and that it was physically impossible to exercise in a single plane of motion, even on a machine.
There is always more than one way to get your food in. Choose what works for you.
Trolls Vs. Goals
The sad thing is that while the hobbyists were feeding their egos, and trying to get me wrapped up in an argument I could not possibly win, there was actual true collateral damage. Yes. Innocent bystanders, people who are looking for the secret to fat loss, weight management, body composition improvement, how to just freaking do it. Falling by the wayside over some silly little inconsequential comment from a Facebook Troll.
In the case of the canned beans, you have someone who leads a relatively busy life, a normal life, and you say to them:
“Go to the store and get a dozen cans of black beans. Have half a can a day with your evening meal.”
FullStrength is an excellent meal replacement – great at the top of Half Dome in Yosemite
Simple, easy, empowering. But then if you toss in a can poison chemical hobby:
“So get some dry beans. Soak them for 12 hours, rinsing in clear cold water 4 times. Place them in a large pot on the stove and bring to a simmer over the course of the next hour. Lower the temperature until the water just barely swirls around the beans, and cook them like that for 6 hours, stirring every 15 minutes. Then remove from heat and pour cold water in until the water is cold. Let stand for 1 hour. Place on the stove and bring to a rolling boil for 1 hour stirring constantly. Now your beans are done. Eat and enjoy.”
Is it ever too young to start training seriously?
Anyone besides me have a life? I thought so. So while people are trying to roll forward toward making serious empowering changes in their lives, we have these Trolls tossing sticks in the wheels bringing them to a dead stop. I don’t think they consider this cruel side effect to stoking their egos. Maybe I’m naive though, and maybe these hobbyists really are the alleged obese blobs with their butts firmly welded to their chairs in their mom’s basement, as legend goes, and since they can’t get out and do it, they will fight tooth and nail with the only weapon available to them to prevent you from doing it too. I sure hope not. Wow. That’s really really sad.
So you, don’t do it either. Don’t post negative hobby-related stuff. If someone posts an article about grains being healthy, don’t go off on your gluten issues. Obviously anyone with gluten issues would know enough to take the article with a grain of salt. You probably don’t have to educate them. That’s just an example, but I think you get what I mean. I do understand that many of these what I refer to as “hobbies” are serious and real to you, and many have valid data to support them, but your mission could cause major damage and this is not the right time or place to spread the word.
Also, if you’re on the receiving end. Don’t quit your program because someone says cans or bags, or something will kill you. Be smart. Life is a compromise all around, and if a can of beans saves you two days in the kitchen while you should be out making money or playing with your kids, then by all means, get the freaking can and enjoy the denial the rest of the civilized world enjoys about can poisons.
Set your goals, make progress, everything in its own time. Baby steps. Hope that helps.
Wife Angie – really buff for a skater, due to a great diet and hard training
I used about 1/4 cup of salsa and it was pretty well absorbed by the salmon. I scrambled the eggs, then added the salmon and salsa to the pan and stirred it all up till heated through.
