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.

I really like core training. I feel like I’m taller, and more pulled together when I spend focused time strengthening my abs, obliques, back, and hips. Core training has improved my running speed, and reduced a lot of the stress on my joints (literally, I can feel the difference with each pounding step.) Except I did get that stupid injury two weeks ago. Arghh. So like I said last week, I’m using the down time opportunity to test out some workout DVDs. On Sunday I did Burn (Power Core) – (YouTube video here) led by Todd Durkin, and burn, I did!

The workout fired up my entire core, and worked my legs and hips as well. I didn’t find the intervals as grueling as Mindy’s BURST (cardio) workout, but I didn’t expect a core workout to elicit a wickedly high heart rate either. I did find that my core is much stronger than I’ve given it credit for. :0) Still, the workout is not easy.

What to expect:

1. Three progressions are demonstrated, so each exercise is easily modified depending on your fitness level.

2. Moves that challenge your balance.

3. Moves that challenge your agility.

You will need two BOSU balance trainers for part of this workout. I had to modify that particular interval because I only have one, but two would have been ideal, and exercises would have been much harder with two BOSUs. A Ballast Ball (a weighted stability ball) was used as well, but a stability ball would work fine.

Next up, Keli Roberts’ FUSE segment, which focuses on “balanced endurance,” and knowing Keli, this is likely a nice way of saying, “an a#$ kicking workout with an innocent name.”  Look for this review later this week!

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.