these are "soft" weighted fitness balls

Some recent research shows that crunches, the old standby for ab exercises, only targets 3 of the abdominal muscles. Yet there are muscles that surround the entire core, acting as a girdle to support your spine, increase power and speed, improve stability, and oh yes, give you that six-pack look.

Six-pack abs aside, you need a strong core…

A strong core is your center of power. Powerhouse. Like a rocket ready to take off on a moments notice. Okay, you get the idea. When your core is weak, or shall we say, not as strong as it could be, then your back is not supported as well. Think of all the daily activities you do that require reaching, bending, twisting, turning, and so on. Every time you do that ‘stuff’ you’re asking a lot of your back, and while it is designed to do all of those things, without a strong core acting as a girdle around it, one day that little twist to reach for something could send you right to the couch for two days. Or worse.

But wait, there is more. If you are an athlete or participate in regular physical activity, a strong core is your secret weapon. It helps propel you forward (really fast, if you want, and with POWER), can help you change directions on a dime (without losing your balance), and can take minutes off your personal best if you are a runner. Golfers…a strong core will improve your swing, and help reduce the risk of repetitive stress injuries. Sports requiring jumping, like basketball and volleyball, require explosive power. Yeah, the legs deliver a good bit, but the core – a strong one will make it SO much easier. Have I convinced of the merits of having a strong core? I could go on…but I won’t. I’ll save it for another post, but take away this much: include core work in your exercise routine a minimum of three times per week. And one exercise alone won’t do it – you need to work the front, back and sides, ideally from different planes, to get the best bang for your buck. More on this multi-directional stuff later. ;0)

Here are 2 moves to try, neither of which requires a single crunch!

1-LEGGED REVERSE CHOP

Ideally, use a medicine ball (4-6lbs should do) or a Duraball (a soft, smaller weighted ball). If you have neither, a dumbbell will do.

Begin by standing on one leg. Make sure hips are level. You can check this by raising and lowering the hip of the raised leg until both knees are level and hip points are facing forward.

Next, hold the weighted ball, or dumbbell, in both hands at about hip height. At a speed that is appropriate for your level of fitness and experience with this exercise, raise the ball diagonally from the hip, upward across the body, ending above the ear of the SAME side as the leg you are standing on.

The abdominals should be drawn in (this is what I call, “zipping it up,”) toward the spine, and pelvic floor contracted throughout the move.

Return to starting position without lowering the raised leg and repeat 10-12 times before switching sides, or direction of the ball.

For added challenge, you could take the ball in the opposite direction of the raised leg, increase the speed of the ball, add a bit of rotation, or stand on a BOSU or balance cushion. You can get creative as your balance and core strength improves.

To progress this exercise, you can use a heavier ball, add more repetitions, add an additional set or two, or again, begin using an unstable surface as I mentioned above.

MEDICINE BALL PLANK

This is a fun one too. I use the word “fun” when I really mean, “challenging.” ;0)

Using any hard medicine ball (weight of ball isn’t important for this exercise, and a softer med ball probably won’t large enough), place the ball near your feet.

Then, assume the standard elbow plank position: up on the toes, elbows stacked under shoulders, forearms on the floor, neck neutral (this is important!), and abdominals pulled in tight.

Next, hoist your toes up onto the medicine ball. The nature of the ball is, of course, to move, so it is your job to KEEP IT STILL. This is the “fun” part.

For starters, hold for 10-15 seconds, gradually building up to 30, 45, and 60 seconds. Eventually, you may be able to pass the ball back and forth between your feet, add Pilates push-ups, and more “fun” stuff.

Side, reverse, walking, curtsy, diagnal…there are almost as many lunges as there are days in the week, which is great if you like variety. The wonderful thing about any lunge is that you don’t need any equipment at all to load the muscles being worked – you just might have to do more repetitions to achieve fatigue. But when you do add load, wowhooza – what a workout! My new favorite “loaded” lunge is the front lunge. Note the picture demonstrates a body weight load, where the load is the upper body leaning over the quad, loading the hamstring and glute.

To increase the degree of difficulty, hold a dumbbell at chest level, then take a step forward, as shown, then slowly hinge forward at the waist and place the dumbbell (or weighted ball) in front of your front foot – preferably touching the floor. Pause, then return to the starting position by first bringing the weight back up to the chest, pushing off the front heel, and engaging the gluteal muscles of the trailing leg until your feet are positioned side-by-side again. Repeat 8-10 times on the same leg, then switch legs.

(photos from AceFitness.org

Experiment with an 8-10 lb range to see how it feels – you can always add more or less weight if you need t0.

Muscles worked: Primarily, the gluteas maximus, medius, and minimus, quadriceps, and hamstrings. You also use the transverse abdominus and obliques to help stabilize the core. Notice that if your core isn’t engaged, or is weak, you may experience a balance challenge as you lunge forward.

Few exercises target multiple muscle groups at once. Push-ups are one (and I’ll save that for another post). Lunges are another.

The standard, forward lunge engages the glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps, abdominals, and to a smaller degree, the calf muscles. This alone is exciting. Not riot-causing exciting, but for fitness peeps, it might entice a, “Wow! I didn’t know that exercise gave me so much bang for the buck!”

But, it gets even better – lunges can be modified a number of ways in order to target specific muscles in the legs and hip, to challenge balance, strengthen the core, and in some cases (i.e, when we add a weighted ball, for example), the upper body. Can you beat that with a stick? You’d be hard-pressed to try.

Let’s revisit the “standard lunge.” This is the lunge we all remember learning from early fitness videos like Jane Fonda and The Firm. By itself, it is a super good exercise for the quadriceps, glutes, and hamstrings. The fun escalates from there as you change directions, or as I like to say in training terms, “working the hip in all planes of motion.” By varying the direction you lunge in, how deeply you lunge, the amount of resistance you add via dumbbells, a weighted ball, bar, or band, you engage other muscles (inner thighs, calves, hip abductors/adductors, the core, and upper body).

Let’s break this down. First, a quick review of how to do the forward lunge correctly:

Description: Use bodyweight, or dumbbells, a body bar or weighted medicine ball if you want added challenge. Start with feet shoulder-width apart. Keep your chest up and abdomen pulled in — take a long step forward. The heel of your trailing leg will come off the floor as you settle into your lunge. The thigh of your lead leg should be parallel to the floor, your shin perpendicular to the floor (assuring that the knee is aligned over the front heel rather than forward over the toes).

Tips: Try to keep your chest high and eyes forward to prevent tipping forward. As you return to the starting position, keep your core tight (this will help with alignment on the return movement and assist with balance). Push through the front heel (you’ll feel your glutes engage here) and return to the starting position. Notice also how the glute of the trailing leg has to “pull” you back (you’ll feel this in the hamstring and glute of the trailing leg). Repeat with opposite leg.

Side Lunge: Though this move may leave you a bit ouchier the following day, it is extremely effective for strengthening the glutes and inner thighs. You don’t need any equipment for this exercise, but you certainly could use a weighted ball…more on that in a minute. First, the how to…

Description: Begin with feet facing forward, hips squared to the wall or mirror in front of you, and abdominals engaged (i.e, “zipped up.”)  Beginning with the weaker (or less dominant) leg, take a large step to the side and gently lower the hip so that your quadricep on the leg you are leading with is parallel, or nearly parallel, to the floor. This is called “loading” the glute, and when you do it, you’ll feel it. Keep your body weight distributed over the lowered hip for a count of 3, making sure to keep your knee above foot (not over the toes.)

Keep the non-leading leg straight or slightly bent, foot remains facing forward. To return to the starting position, engage the abdominals and push off of the lead foot, using the opposite hip and abductors to do as much of the work pulling you back to the starting position as possible.

Progression: I like to use weighted balls for this particular lunge. I simply hold and 8 or 10lb medicine ball with both hands, and as I lunge to the side and load the glute, I lower the ball slowly to the toe of that same foot, as if placing it on the ground.

I saved the best for last…the Curtsy Lunge!

Description: You can perform this exercise without any additional resistance, or add dumbbells, a weighted bar, or a medicine ball to increase the load on the hip joint. Stand with feet about hip-width apart, then take a sizable step back behind the other leg in a crossing motion (just like a curtsy). As you cross behind, bend your knees and lower your body over the targeted hip until your quadricep is almost parallel to the floor. Be sure to keep your abdominals engaged throughout the exercise. Hips should stay squared. Return to the starting position by pushing off the back foot and also fully extending the targeted hip before bringing the back foot to the starting position.

Recent email question: “What are you talking about when you say, ‘zip it up’?” – Brenda

Let me preface this by saying, I have no idea who Brenda is or where she has heard me say, “zip it up.” I tell clients to “zip it up,” all the time…perhaps word is getting around. I dunno, but to answer Brenda’s question, “Zip it up” means to draw in the lower abdominal muscles, as if you are zipping up a pair of pants. Try it.See what I mean?

Now, knowing this little trick, whenever you are standing, driving a car, cooking dinner, or, gee, I don’t know, working out, simply “zip it up.” Keeping the abdominal muscles engaged throughout the day serves several purposes:

1) It brings awareness to your body’s energy center, or your Chi. Sadly, it took me awhile to realize this is what Chi Running means. Quick to learn most things, but obviously not Chi. When the body is in a proper state of balance, Chi apparently flows.

2) Engaging the lower abdominal muscles also gives added power to, well, just about anything you do. Are you a sprinter? Chances are, you draw much of your force from your core. When you brace yourself to catch a running toddler…same thing -  you engage the abdominals to stabilize the spine, brace the skeleton for the impact and distribute the force, then keep them engaged as you pick the toddler up (or, at least, you should.) Power lifters, cyclists, rock climbers, NFL football players, yada yada…they all use their core. Alas, they are “zipping it up.”

Give it a try tomorrow and let me know what you think!

(This post is a few months old, but as I try to play “catch up” from a short vacation, I thought I’d cheat and pull it out of the archives. Enjoy!)

I’m a sucker for a challenge. Can’t say no, not even when I’m certain I’ll fail. I figure, better to have tried and missed the mark than to not try at all. I guess the very real possibility of bodily injury would stop me, but I’ll save that for another post. Let’s just say, the Crane Pose won (this time).

photo by Martin Sconduto

Said Loretta, “just lift your toes off the block, if you can, use your core, and place your shins on the back of your arms.” I had to try it. Strong core? No problem. Balance? Got it. Let’s just say, I’m glad I was in the back of the room. The Crane is one of those poses that looks amazing when done right…such as when someone other than me does it. “Graceful” I was not, and my core felt every bit of that pose, as did the top of my head (and that wasn’t supposed to be part of the deal.) To Loretta’s credit – her cues were much better than I just summarized. The problem here was the student (not listening very well, I might add), not the teacher.

The picture above is NOT how I looked. Rather, I was a#$ over tea kettle, but my my point (finally) is this: If you MUST try something just to see if you can, make sure you’re out of eye shot from the instructor (who won’t be able to fight the urge to tweak your form, if said form looks more like Dolphin than Crane), and far enough away from classmates so that if you fall out of the pose, you don’t take anyone else down with you (which didn’t happen to me this time, but it very well could have.)

Crane pose tips:

1. Keep your knees wider than your hips when you lean your body forward onto your arms. This widens your base of support and helps engage the core. In fact, it forces you to engage your core.

2. Use a block if you have access to one. It is better to feel the pose first with feet in contact with the block. Then, when (and if) you are ready, lift the feet up.

3. If you can, get your inner thighs as close to your upper body (torso) as possible. If you can get your knees behind your armpits, you’re good to go.

4. Lean forward while balancing your shins on your upper arms, but keep your head up (see photo above). I made the mistake of lowering my head, throwing the whole pose off balance and down I went. Good times.

5. As you balance in this pose, focus on drawing your abdominal muscles toward your spine, but also point your tailbone toward your toes. There will be a slight upward curve in your back, and this is good.

Note: this pose does put a lot of strain on the wrists, so be sure to release the tension in these joints after the pose.

Check out Yoga Journal for more “challenging” poses.