Get more from your plank-a-day; bridge for balance

July 9, 2012 by 22 Comments

I love all the plank-a-day Tweets filling up my Twitter stream.

plank a day on twitter

I’m amazed to see how long people are able to hold their planks and am excited to see their plans for progressively increasing those times.

plank a day on Twitter

Planks are a fabulous exercise for strengthening the muscles of the core, in particular the rectus abdominus (the ‘six pack’ muscles) and  transverse abdominus (the ‘lower abs’). In fact, many fitness professionals now prefer them over standard crunches or sit ups for increasing abdominal strength.

‘Spinal stabilization’ is the new sexy!

proper plank form

But bodies work best when opposing muscle groups are balanced in strength. Front body (anterior) muscles need to precisely balance back body (posterior) muscles for optimal function and long term lack of pain.

Show me a body builder with well-developed pecs and forward sloping shoulders and I’ll show you someone with an under-developed back! (Hint: you should be able to pull as much as you can push)

Want to get more from your plank-a-day? Add a bridge-a-day to your routine!

Bridges are essentially reverse planks.

Rather than contracting your anterior core muscles to hold your body in a straight line, bridging requires you to activate the deep muscles of your mid and lower back; your quadratus lumborum, multifidus and erector spinae. Bridging also requires the use of your glutes and hamstrings; both important muscle groups for stabilization of the lower back and pelvis.

To perform a bridge, begin by laying on your back with knees bent and feet flat on the floor, approximately hip distance apart.

Beginners will extend their arms out to their sides, in ‘T’ formation. Intermediate exercisers may lay arms alongside their torsos.

  1. Taking a deep breath in, pull your belly button towards your spine
  2. Squeeze glute cheeks together
  3. Push through the heels of your feet
  4. Exhale as you raise your hips off the ground until
  5. Your body forms a straight line from chest to knees
  6. Hold for up to 30 s (please continue to breathe!)
  7. Gently lower to starting position, rest and repeat

core strength training

Ideally, you should be able to hold your bridge (or reverse plank) as long as you can hold a regular plank!

plank-a-day + bridge-a-day = unsurpassed core strength and spinal stability

Need more challenge? Try one of the following;

  • Extend arms straight up over your chest (less contact with the floor)
  • Place feet on a stability ball (unstable surface)
  • Lift one foot off the floor, extending leg straight up (reduced base of support)
  • Place a weight plate or sand bell across your hips (increased resistance)
  • Perform a hamstring curl on the ball (dynamic instability)
core training exercises

 

I’d love to see you Tweet your #BridgeADay #PROOF as well! Let’s see if we can get the #BridgeADay hashtag trending!

Watch for mine tomorrow!

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New to weight training? Use your own body weight to get strong and lean

November 3, 2011 by Leave a Comment

For many reasons, people (women in particular) are intimidated by dumbbells (that aren’t pink…), barbells and squat racks. Rather than cross over to the free-weight section of their gym (where the ‘gym rats’ hang out), they head for the machines (hamstring curl, leg extensions, seated shoulder press, chest press and row, to name a few).

Source

While machines have their place in some people’s fitness programs (correcting muscular imbalances, rehabilitating injuries, improving range of motion and breaking through plateaus are how I typically use them with my clients, when I use them at all…), they’re not so great for metabolism raising, fat burning or improving day-to-day functional movements. The three primary reasons people choose to exercise.

Why? Because you sit at machines, rather than standing on your own two feet. Sitting does not require you to activate your glutes or engage your core to any great extent, both of which will dramatically improve your posture, fitness level and caloric burn.

For those of you who are still not convinced that you need to learn to love free weights (or get to the gym in the first place), I’ve put together a list of my favorite body weight exercises. Exercises that can be done at home with minimal equipment, or at the gym in the corner or in the ‘stretching’ section of the weight room.

These are all ‘bang for your buck’ exercises, in that they use multiple muscle groups and require you to stabilize your shoulder girdle and core throughout. When done correctly and at a good tempo, they’ll also elevate your heart rate, blurring the lines between ‘cardio’ and ‘strength training’.

A word of warning; some of these exercises are not for beginners. Just because you’re not lifting dumbbells or barbells doesn’t mean the exercise is easy; pushups and pull ups require you to push and pull 75-100% of your body weight (dumbbells are starting to sound like a good idea after all, aren’t they!).

Source

That being said, there are modifications that you can do as you progress towards full pushups and pull ups. I’ve written previously about learning to do chin ups; you can apply the same rules in your quest for the pull up, just widen and reverse your grip (palms face forward). Check back tomorrow for ways to progress your ‘knee’ pushups to full on ‘toe’ pushups. Click on the links below for exercise descriptions and images.

Fitknitchick’s best body weight exercises

  • Source

    Pushups

  • Pull ups or chin ups
  • Planks (of all type)
  • Squats (there are tons of great variations)
  • Lunges (again, variations aplenty)
  • Bird dog (looks easy, but isn’t and is extremely beneficial to all)
  • Back extensions (on the ball, floor or the back extension apparatus)
  • Burpees (half or full-on)
  • Skipping rope
Are you already doing some of these exercises in your daily workouts?

Anything I missed?

As always, I love to hear from you!

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Chair lifts and zip lines and high wires, oh my! The last play-out of the summer

September 4, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Summer holidays are essentially over. ’Boo!’ say the children. ‘Hooray!’ says the mom. (Picture that Staples commercial; you know the one. Dad and kids shopping for back to school supplies. Kids looking downcast. Dad looking gleeful. The song ‘The most wonderful time of the world’ playing in the background).

Egged on by the good weather, we decided to take one last spur-of-the-moment, end-of-summer-vacation vacation. We had already taken one very long road trip early in the summer, so it had to be someplace close by. Given that my children aren’t happy relaxing by the pool for more than an hour at a time, there needed to be lots of exciting activities within an easy walk or car ride from the hotel. The opportunity for exercise out of doors is a must. Family-friendly restaurants and ice cream shops are important. A great yarn shop would be wonderful too!

Everyone we asked for suggestions said the same thing; Whistler!

Given that Whistler is primarily a winter sports destination, there were lots of summer time hotel deals to be found on-line. We managed to find a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom condo with kitchen, hot tub and heated swimming pool right at the base of the mountain for next to nothing. It had a gym, but I didn’t set foot inside it; too many fun ways to exercise out of doors!

We were only a 5-minute walk (or scooter ride, if you prefer) from the Kid Zone, the upper village and the chair lift to the top.

We luged,

We gyroscoped,

We bungeed,

We dared to scooter at the skateboard park (the most awesome skate park I’ve ever seen!),

When we got tired of the Kid Zone, we visited Monkido, an outdoor, treetops adventure course with ropes, aerial swings and ziplines. Talk about a workout! Two and a half hours on the course made a Bosu class seem like a piece of cake.

Yep, that’s me coming down the final zipline…

Our last day was spent taking the chair lift to the top of Blackcomb Mountain, connecting to the Peak to Peak Gondola over to Whistler Mountain then up the last, open t-bar chair lift to the peak. Awesome rocks, great hike and amazing views!

Alas, no yarn shop to be found (I checked the Yellow pages under ‘yarn’, ‘wool’ and ‘craft supplies’ but got nothing), but I brought a relaxing, mindless knit to keep me busy on the drive and poolside.

I’m feeling refreshed and ready for the challenges September will bring. How about you?

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The knee bone’s connected to the…

April 19, 2011 by 4 Comments

Well, my knee is still a bit wonky. I taught Step classes Sunday and Monday morning. Both were pretty high energy but didn’t seem to bother it. I laid off the lunges and limited my range of motion during squats. So far so good.

Monday’s lunch time spin class, however was another story.

Low tension was fine. Sprinting was fine. Standing climbs were okay… until I hit about 75% of maximum tension. Ouch. Not a sharp, piercing ouch, just a dull, back off kind of ouch. So I did. More ice and ibuprofen last night helped.

This morning I was determined to get back to my training. Phase 2, Workout A of NROL for Abs. Lunges, 2-point bent over rows, dead lifts and chest presses. Lunges felt okay (although I admit to being extremely cautious with the positioning of my knee). Surprisingly, it was the bent over rows that got me!

No, not my knee, my lower back. Specifically, the same lower back pain that sidelined me about 20 months ago. Why the back now?

That’s how the human body works. It’s one long kinetic chain. Everything is connected. When something isn’t working, another body part will happily help out, sometimes to it’s detriment.

In my case, being protective of a sore knee resulted in me lifting with my back rather than with my legs. Bending over to pick up 30 pound dumbbells incorrectly led directly to strain on my lower back.

I’m thinking that the remainder of this week will be about rest and recovery, which means, of course, that my nutrition must be bang on; and with Easter just around the corner.

A tough week to have to hold back on training. I’m down 3 pounds in a week due to dialing in my nutrition and meeting my exercise goals and I don’t want to lose steam.

How’s your week shaping up?

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How do you deal with setbacks?

April 15, 2011 by 1 Comment

Two great days of spot-on nutrition and great workouts! Feeling like I can soooo do this! Then, whammo, the unexpected; injury.

I was working through my third set of dumbbell step ups (25 lbs per hand), concentrating really hard on not cheating, feeling that lovely, near exhaustion burn in my left quad when, boing, my knee turned ever so slightly in. You just tweaked it, I told myself. Try one more. Ouch!

Okay, more than a tweak. Probably a twist or a mild sprain. I attempted to work through the rest of my push presses, but even that little half squat was causing pain. I finished early, iced and ibuprofened and hoped it would feel better in the morning.

It’s morning now, and although it does feel less swollen, I’m walking down stairs gingerly and thinking that it’s a good thing I don’t have to spin this morning!

Today was to have been another NROL day, and since I’m out with girlfriends tonight and planning on cashing in a splurge or two :) , I really need to get some sort of a workout in today.

My plan? Combine the upper body portions of yesterday’s and today’s workouts (minus the squat on the push press) and add in some no-impact cardio on the Arc trainer. Then, rest, ice and ibuprofen again so I can teach step on Sunday morning.

Have you had a minor set back in your training? How did you deal with it?

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The Last 10 Pounds

April 13, 2011 by 11 Comments

So, I have a confession to make. I’ve been cheating. I have strayed from my nutrition plan and have payed the price.

Hanging my head in shame.

Over the last 8 months, I’ve gained about 10 pounds on the scale. At first, I didn’t pay much attention to it. I was lifting fairly heavy weights 3 or 4 times a week. I was teaching my usual 3-4 cardio classes as well. My clothes still fit. Nobody was telling me I looked fat (not that my husband would ever dream of making a comment like that; although my 8-year old daughter would, she still has the brutal honesty of the young…).

I had almost convinced myself that I was putting on muscle (but really, 10 pounds of muscle on my frame, come on), when I decided to do a little reality check. I got out the tape measure and camera. Gulp.

Weight; 147 lbs
Height; 5’7″
Chest; 36″
High waist; 28.5″
Abdomen; 30″
Hips/butt; 39″

Using my standard method of estimating per cent body fat (not BMI; BMI only considers height and weight, not body composition or the relative proportion of your total body weight that is fat), I was carrying around 31.3 pounds of fat (21.3% body fat)! That’s a lot for me, personally. I feel best at 18-19% body fat, which corresponds to approximately 136-138 lbs (of course that depends on how much muscle mass I’m carrying).

When I put on my favorite bathing suit and took some quick pics in the mirror (pardon the splatter marks that I forgot to clean off first!), it became immediately obvious to me just where that extra 10 pounds had accumulated. A little bit too much junk hanging out of the bottom of the bathing suit. A small spare tire around the middle. (Note that these photos are not meant to be gratuitous bikini shots, but rather, a tool to motivate myself to do better. Skip them if you’d prefer not to look!).

By my calculation, I’ve got about 10 weeks until summer holidays start. I want to look and feel great at the beach. Taking little bits and pieces from all my favorite fit females (Rachel Cosgrove, Tosca Reno, Jillian Michaels and MizFit, to name a few), I’ve put together a plan. I’m going to share it with you as a means to stay accountable and perhaps, to help any of you who are also on a mission to shed those last 10 pounds. Note that this plan is based on my goals, my body, my schedule and most importantly, my ability to stay focused and on course. If you join me, your results may differ from mine.

My three-pronged approach:

1. Exercise; I’ve been following the NROL for Abs and have been pleased with the results I’m getting. My core strength has improved immensely. I’m lifting heavier and doing more of the metabolic intervals each week. I’m currently half-way through Phase 2 and plan to continue with this program as it’s written. In addition to 3 days of weight training, I also do cardio intervals on the spin bike two times a week.

2. Water; While I’m usually fairly well hydrated, increasing water consumption will help elevate my metabolism and burn more fat. It will also make me feel fuller between meals. I’m aiming for 75-80 ounces a day (1/2 ounce per pound of body weight). I always drink an 8 ounce glass immediately after my morning coffee to help counter-act the diuretic effects of the caffeine and to get my insides moving!

3. Nutrition; This is where I really need to re-tool. I’ve been having way too many splurges (cookies, wine, chips, cake) to look and feel my best. My first week’s goal is to eliminate these from my diet, along with all pre-packaged, processed foods (including bread, pasta and cereals other than oats and low-fat granola). The fewer ingredients on the package, the better. Getting rid of processed foods will also help eliminate sugar.

I’ll be eating 3-4 ounces of lean protein at each meal (5 small meals per day), along with a fruit (no more than 3 per day) or vegetable (as many as I want) and a healthy fat (olive oil, coconut oil, flax or chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, almonds, cashews). In addition to choosing the right fats, the key to losing fat while eating fat is to limit serving size (1 tablespoon of oil or seeds, 1/4 cup of nuts).

I’ll be timing my starchy carbohydrates; one serving at breakfast (oats, clean cereal, quinoa, ezekial bread) and one at my post-workout meal (sweet potato, brown rice, barley, quinoa, whole grain couscous). Again, I’ll be watching serving sizes here, even clean carbs have calories that add up quickly.

Limiting my splurges to 3-4 per week. A glass of wine is a splurge. A cookie for dessert is a splurge. A half of a bagel or a muffin is a splurge. I will be planning these so they are not wasted on things that are not an absolute party in my mouth.

So, are you in?

Love to hear how it’s going; comments below, please!

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Wordless Wednesday (or ‘Today, at a glance’)

April 6, 2011 by 1 Comment

Inspiration for this morning’s Bootcamp class…

Play room needs a touch-up

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Keep your chin up!

March 31, 2011 by Leave a Comment

No, this isn't me; I slurped it from the Web.

Chin ups and pull ups; thought by many to be the holy grail of fitness. Lifting your own body weight, against gravity, using only your back and biceps. Excellent for building strength and burning fat, in particular, that difficult-to-budge fat around your middle.

This week, I started Phase 2 of The New Rules of Lifting for Abs. Workout B includes mixed-grip chin ups. (Instead of gripping the bar with both palms facing in, one palm faces out, thereby forcing the core to work harder to keep the body facing forward). Three to four sets of 8 mixed-grip chin ups, to be exact.

How did I fare? 3, 1 and 5 assisted (I couldn’t face not being able to do a single rep in my final set so I placed my foot, very lightly against the wall and gave myself a little help; this is widely accepted way to improve your chin up, or pull up, strength). Not great, but on the upside, lots of room for improvement!

Chin ups are not a beginner’s exercise. A moderate level of strength and experience with weight training is required. Men can typically begin adding chin ups to their training program sooner than women (can’t get around biology). Want to learn to do chin ups and impress your friends?

Rather than starting out at the chin up bar, we’ll begin at the Smith or assisted squat rack. Place the bar at approximately the level of your hip. Lie down under the bar and reach up to grab it, palms facing in (towards your face). Your arms should be in a straight line, with shoulders directly under elbows and wrists. Extend your legs (if this is too hard, your can begin by bending your knees and placing your feet flat on the floor). Engage your abdominals and pull your torso (shoulders to knees) off the floor, so you’re hanging from the bar.

Take a deep breath in, retract your shoulder blades and using your back and biceps, pull your chest towards the bar. Exhale as you pull up. Slowly lower yourself back to the starting position. That’s 1 rep.

In the beginning, aim for 2 sets of 3-5 reps, resting for 60 s between sets. Once you’re able to do 2 sets of 8-10 reps you’re ready to move on (if you started with legs bent, progress to the straight leg version described above).

Come on over to the chin up bar! Place a bench or step below it. The bench should be high enough that you can reach the bar. Standing on the bench, reach up to the bar, palms facing in and attempt to pull yourself up. Use your legs as little as possible to assist. Again, aim for 2 sets of 3-5 reps with 60 s rest between sets. Get yourself up to 2 sets of 8-10 before you move on.

Ready for the next progression? Get rid of the bench. Jump up, grab the bar using a palms-in grip and place one foot against the wall at about waist height. Bend your knee, so that you’re still hanging directly under the bar. Using your leg as little as possible (but you will use it by pushing slightly into the wall with your food), attempt to pull yourself up. (Alternately, if you have a training partner, you can simply bend both knees and have them hold your ankles while you pull up, see photo to the left). Once again, you’re aiming for 2 sets of 3-5 reps with appropriate rest between.

Now you’re ready to go it alone (for 1 rep, anyways!). Jump up, grab the bar, starting from the bottom of the range of motion (arms fully extended), cross your ankles and up you go. You’ll likely only be able to do 1 completely unassisted chin up the first time. That’s fine. Place your foot against the wall and continue your set. Your goal here is to eventually be able to do both sets (as many as you can) completely unassisted.

In order to help develop the muscles you need to perform unassisted chin ups (and pull ups), you should make sure you’re including bicep curls and bent over rows in your workouts. Use dumbbells, barbells, cable and pulley machines, whatever you have available.

Putting it all together? Start your workout with chin ups. Give your back and biceps a break by working another muscle group for a bit (legs, core, chest; you choose), then finish with isolation exercises for back and biceps (rows, curls, lat pullovers and pull downs). Take a day off between strength workouts; your chin ups won’t get better if you attempt them daily.

My goal? To be able to do 3 sets of 5-6 unassisted chins by June 15th (my estimated date of completion of this phase of the program).

Let me know how you’re doing, and of course, keep your chin up!

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The New Rules of Lifting for Abs… a book review

January 11, 2011 by 2 Comments

Yesterday, in the mail, I received my copy of a brand new strength training book; The New Rules of Lifting for Abs, co-written by Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove (husband of Rachel, see Fitness links to the right). This book is the third in a series (The New Rules of Lifting, The New Rules of Lifting for Women: Train Like a Man, Look Like a Goddess; don’t you love that title?!), and like the two previous, focuses on whole body strength training and the nutrition required to fuel their physique-transforming programs. What’s different and new, is the focus on core strength.

Core conditioning, in and of itself, is not new. Most, if not all, strength and conditioning coaches, personal trainers and group fitness instructors know how vitally important a strong core is. Not only will building a strong core reduce your risk of lower back injury, it will also allow you to lift heavier, train longer, jump higher, throw harder, skate faster and improve your performance in sport and everyday life. Wow! Sounds like something we should all be doing, doesn’t it?

What’s new about Schuler and Cosgrove’s approach to core conditioning is the style of exercises they promote and their placement (and thus, importance) in your overall exercise program. Rather than pounding out some crunches at the end of your workout, the authors advocate doing your core work before your strength training work, that is, while you still have lots of energy to do their more difficult exercises properly and effectively. And don’t kid yourself, the core exercises they describe are much more taxing than a traditional sit up or crunch.

In this book you will find a progressive resistance program that can be followed by the independent exerciser for several months. There are three phases to the program. Each phase consists of two alternating workouts, each of which includes a dynamic warmup, a core component, a strength component and in the second and third phases, a metabolic or cardio component.

All of the described exercises are illustrated, with extensive progressions to keep you challenged. The strength exercises will be familiar to most gym-goers, with the emphasis on compound, multi-joint exercises (e.g., squats, dead lifts, pushups) rather than simple bicep curls or tricep extensions. While the workouts look short, when done properly (i.e., with enough weight to fatigue the muscles by the end of the set) they are incredibly challenging. Pay special attention to the prescribed rest periods between exercises and sets!

The only downside to the workouts is the amount of equipment required. Most home gym exercisers won’t have access to a TRX or a pull up bar and although Schuler and Cosgrove give alternate exercises, let’s face it, a pull up is a lot more demanding (and effective!) than a lat pulldown.

The book is hardbound, while I would prefer a softcover with spiral binding; much easier to use at the gym if the cover can be folded back or at least laid open and flat on the floor while you learn the exercises (for example, the Turkish get up; I saw somebody doing this one last week at the gym and couldn’t stop watching him for fear that he would drop the weight on his head! Google it. You’ll see what I mean).

All in all, a great resource I will use for myself and with my clients. $22 at Amazon.

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