This is a very basic and effective stretch for the Latissumis Dorsi muscles or.. commonly shortened to Lats. Not much to say other than it’s awesome and you can vary up your grip by holding the post/frame/structure with either pinky finger on top!
A Glute/Piriformis release can often relieve sciatic nerve pain and it helps loosen up the hip. This is a great release exercise to help with hip flexibility and it can also contribute to a reduction in lower back pain! Can’t say no to that!
A body weight row often gets overlooked by many as it doesn’t look as cool or as challenging as other weighted rows. Dismissing this move is a big mistake. You can vary up the angle in which you row and make it very challenging indeed!
This exercise can be done from a standing up point right down to you being parallel to the floor!
The plank is the exercise we all love to hate. But the longer we can hold, the stronger our abs, back and shoulders will get!
Ahh TRX pistol squats… so much hate for an exercise so so good. Well hate is a strong word but not many of my clients get excited when I advise it’s next on the program but they definitely don’t deny that they do the trick for glute and hamstrings!
Tips for this exercise are pretty simple.
1. Try and make it so that your weight is not simply being lowered to the ground, direct your weight on a diagonal behind you and down. This will put emphasis on your hamstring and glutes
2. Don’t forget to tuck your hips and squeeze your glutes.
3. Don’t use your arms. You hands are like hooks and arms are like ropes. They are simply allowing you to lean back for the movement.
A staple movement of the gym when it comes to abs! This one is pretty straight forward but still effective in getting those abs working.
Just make sure you aren’t pulling your head forward as you crunch up!
A cool little variation to your standard plank, the side plank targets those obliques!
If this one annoys your shoulder, you can alter it so that you are on your hand as opposed to your elbow and forearm.
This ab exercise looks daunting at first but once you get into it – it’s not that hard actually.
At least that’s what I tell people in order to convince them to get themselves all stirrupped up. A ruse? Maybe! Either way this exercise is great for the abs!
To make this one more challenging and more about your obliques, when you tuck your knees up, have one knee in between your elbows and the other one on the other side of the elbow. As you extend out and then tuck back again, alternate with the knee position.
Dying Cockroaches.. Drunk Irishmen.. this exercise has had many a name.. but the purpose and benefits!
A charming name.. though if you do them right… no skull crushage is required!
Yeah.. about the name of this exercise. It’s pretty straight forward. You are trying to reach your fingertips around the outer side of your opposing knee! I don’t know what you’re thinking?
Woodchops are a great exercise to get your core engaged – in particular the obliques!
This variation on your typical Tricep Push has a slight rope twist out to get the outer aspects of your triceps firing! Make sure you push all the way down to the bottom and that your arms straighten out at the bottom!
A simple stretch that can help release those tight muscles of the inner thighs.
Quite often when we have issues with lower back and knees, tight adductor muscles can be a contributing factor to this as they pull the knee inwards and thus compromsing the correct biomechanics of the knee and hip. This is bad. We don’t want that. So this stretch is a good starting point to sorting it out!
The Leg Press has often had a bad reputation in the gym. Elitists mocking it because EVERYONE SHOULD SQUAT. Yeah, whatever ya big meat heads.
The Leg press has a multitude of uses that make it a fantastic piece of equipment. You can go much heavier than with squats, you can use it for rehabilitation.. the list can go on.
Ensuring that your back isn’t copping the load is important and remember – it shouldn’t matter how heavy you lift.. we want a weight that does the job. You’d be surprised as to how many people lift too heavy and don’t get the full benefits of the Leg Press!
Believe it or not – most people simply don’t know how to do a plank properly.
Nope! No idea!
Then when they learn, they realise how challenging it can be. This is where the modified plank comes in. Allowing you to understand the biomechanics of the exercise and making it easier to focus on technique.
If you are in your 30’s and above.. you might remember a TV commercial for product called the Stable Table? The tray that had a pillow underneath so that you could balance things better on the tray? It was AWESOME. But anyway.
This exercise is named after that universe altering product as when you sit down into what is basically a one legged squat, your lap should be level enough so that you could rest your stable table on it!
Some tips on this one!
Make sure your knee does not collapse in and does not track forward.
