Exercise

Nick Tumminello asked:


After my article Stick Your Neck Out was published; I surprisingly caught some flack from the “hardcore” types just because I showed a stability ball being used in a few of the exercise applications.

Since I’m not emotionally attached to any one piece of equipment or style of training, I was not upset in the least about this. However, it did make me realize how misunderstood the Swiss ball is within the “hardcore strength” community.

So, in light of this realization, I’m stepping up to set the record straight once and for all about Swiss balls and how they should and shouldn’t be utilized in and effective strength program.

Don’t **** the Player, **** the Game

My friend and colleague Coach Rob Simonelli brought up an interesting point when he and I were discussing this article and why serious weight lifters dislike Swiss balls. Rob said “What serious lifters don’t understand is that it’s not so much that they dislike Swiss balls, it’s that they dislike what Swiss Balls represent”.

He was absolutely right. ******** weightlifters have made Swiss balls guilty by association just because there are a bunch of “functional trainers” out there doing some seriously ridiculous stuff on them.

This doesn’t mean that Swiss balls can’t be use for stuff that actually has value.

To all you Swiss ball haters out there, I want you to ask yourself one question; “Am I blaming the tool or the practitioner?”

I think you will realize that myself and Rob and are correct in saying that, the Swiss ball, like everything else in the gym is just a tool. One that can be used or abused depending on whose hands it’s in. Just because there are people out there abusing a certain tool doesn’t mean we should throw it out of the tool box all together. If that were the case, we wouldn’t use any equipment at all judging by what I’ve seen done with barbells and dumbbells these days.

Now let’s get one thing clear, the title of this article is not called “Swiss Ball Exercises that You Need to Do Everyday or Else Your Will Go to Pot”. The exercises shown in this article are in no way a necessity, they are just other options to challenge your body in a positive manner and compliment your “core” lifts.

In other words, they are just tools in the tool box.

You just have to know when to use the tools you’ve got.

When Instability and Strength is Actually Good

Recently, I got to attend one of my friend Eric Cressey’s classes on training the overhead athlete. During his workshop, Eric made a great point that I feel is relevant to this article. He said that although it has been found that unstable surface training for the lower body has been found to be ineffective and in some cases even counterproductive for healthy individuals, instability training for the upper body may actually be beneficial. Eric went on to explain that it all has to do with the fact that the lower body predominantly functions in a close chained (both feet in contact with the ground) manner that does not normally involve the ground moving underneath it. However, the upper body functions in more of an open chained (no ground or solid surface contact) manner with things more likely to move and change position.

This makes a lot of sense if you think of a football lineman blocking a pass rusher. The lineman’s feet are dealing with a flat and stable ground while his upper body is all over place dealing with another body moving in every which way trying to get around him.

Now that I have hopefully changed your mind about the Swiss ball, I’m going to provide you a list of exercises using the Swiss ball that we have found to be beneficial to our clients, athletes and physique competitors.

a href=”http://www.performanceu.net/article05.html”>Click here to view pictures and videos of all the exercises described below.

The Exercises

Y,T,W, L Shoulder Circuit w/Swiss Ball

The reason why we preffer to use the Swiss ball while performing our Y,T,W, L shoulder circuits has nothing to do with the shoulders themselves but has everything to do with the trunk. In that, when athletes perform the Y,T,W, Lcircuits on a flat surface like the floor or a bench, they usually start to extend from their lower back in a superman like position. This is normally due to the fact that they, like many athletes, lack ample shoulder flexion. Therfore, they attempt to kick in the lumbar extensors to help raise the arms.

If you reffer to my article How Not to Warm Up, you will see why this type of movement is undesirable. We all tend to slouch and sit too much, in doing so we create length and weakness in the thoracic area. So, the real goal here is to somehow create extension at the thoracic spine, not the lumbar spine. This can be successfully accomplished by performing the Y,T,W shoulder circuit on a Swiss ball.

With the swiss ball and some correct positioning, the extension comes from the thoracic spine

We position our athletes so that the apex of their thoracic curve during flexion over the ball is over top the apex of the ball itself. We also have them flex at the hip joint which further decreases extension at the lumbar spine. This enables us to get more bang for our buck.

We build endurance in all the muscles invovled in extending the thoracic spine while simutaneously reaping the benefits of the Y,T,W, L shoulder circuit.

The Swiss Ball Dumbbell Chest Press

The swiss ball chest press allows us to build flexibilty in hip flexors, strength endurance in the anterior neck muscles and glutes while simultaneously building upper body pushing strength.

The swiss ball chest press is the only exercise that we use a swiss ball in combination with weights. However, because it involves an unstable surface, we only use it while performing repetitive effort lifts and never use it while performing dynamic or max effort lifts.

Many people will agrue about the instability of the ball interferring with strength output. When I meet coaches that are of that mindset, I tell them two things;

1. If the feet are positioned shoulder width or wider, the instability is pretty much canceled out.

2. We agree that instabilty interferes with max strength output. This is why we ONLY use this exercise with submaximal loads as in a hypertrophy phase or repetitive effort phase.

In my mind, if you want allot of bang for your buck the Swiss ball chest press is a great choice.

Swiss Ball Perturbations

This is one of the most popular exercises we use at Performance University amoung our high level athlets and recreational clients alike.. Swiss perturbations are a fun and very effective way to develop rock solid core stability. The goal of the person holding the ball is to maintain optimal alignment and own the position thay began in. With each diffrent strike of the ball, the torso as to make a slight adjustment to maintain control of its position. Thi is what Rehab spractioners call rythmic stabilization. We call it a damn good exercise.

The unpredicatable nature of this exercise makes it more functional than most other “core stabilization” exercises.

This exercise can be progressed by the partner striking the ball with slightly more force or the holder standing with the feet closer together or in a stagered stance.

Swiss Ball Roll Out

The swiss ball roll out is one of our favorite exerciss for training the anterior trunk muscles. We like it because it devloped torso strength and pelvic control without putting the spine in a flexed position as it would be in a crunch or sit up type exercise. Mike Boyle produced a great article called Anterior Core Training that thoroughly desribes the theory and methodolgy behind movements like the swiss ball roll out. In that same article, Boyle also diplayed many progressions to the swiss ball roll out involving tools like the ab dolley and arko wheels. However, if you don’t have all of those tools/toys available to you, here are some simple progression strategies you can use.

The beginers version of the Swiss ball roll out starts with the elbows bent and forearms resting on the ball.

This exercise can then be progressed by raising the torso and straightening the arms. This lengthens the lever arm and increases the demand on the anterior core. Shown below.

On both of these roll out variations be sure to extend both your arms and legs while maintaining a fairly neutral spine. Only go out as far as you can without losing optimal spinal alignment.

The Reverse Ball Roll Out

As of late we have been using another variation of the roll out which we call reverse roll outs. To perform the reverse roll out, hold on to a stable object such as a weight bench. While maintaining alignment, extend your lower body until reaching a superman type position. Return to the starting position and repeat.

The height of surface your holding onto should be approx. even to the height of the ball. In the picture above, Tim is holding on to a bar that is slightly higher than the ball underneath his legs. You can see how this is causing him to sag slightly at his low back. We were in the process of moving our gym during this photo shoot and we had to work with what we had left in the gym.

Swiss Ball Toe Plank

This is another great anterior core exercise. We usually perform holds for anywhere from 10-20 seconds. Proper form for this exercise is pretty much self explanatory.

Swiss Ball Knee Tucks

If you have fairly decent “core strength”, Swiss ball knee tucks aren’t really that difficult. This is why we don’t use this exercise with the intention of building strength. We use this exercise to build awareness of what the rehab world calls” hip/back disassociation”.

All this really means is, how well you can move at your hips without moving at your lumbar spine. There are a lot of ways to accomplish this which are beyond the scope of this article. However, in the context of the Swiss ball knee tuck exercise, we want our athletes to be able to flex at their hip without flexing at their low back. If they can accomplish this, it shows that they posses good hip/back disassociation.

Athletes with poor hip back disassociation will always compensate for a lack of hip mobility by increasing mobility at the lumbar spine. Which according to the latest research is designed for stability, not mobility? My article How NOT to Warm Up covers that science in great detail.

The science aside, just keep this little saying in mind, “what your hips lack can hurt your back”.

So, yeah…do your knee tucks.

1 Leg Swiss Ball Knee Tuck

This version of the knee tuck is much more difficult than the previous because there is an added rotary component. Although there is no visual rotation, the athlete has to work to prevent gravity form pulling them into rotation on the side of the lifted leg. This is what my good friend JC Santana calls “training the invisible. This is an important point to keep in mind anytime you go from a bi-lateral position to a unilateral position.

1 Arm Holds

This is another one that’s pretty self explanatory. Simply maintain optimal spinal alignment while keeping your arm locked out. We use holds ranging from 5-15sec.

This one is just plain tough!

Swiss ball Straight Leg Bridge

We always make sure to encourage our athletes to create the lift using from their hamstrings and glutes, not from their low back. Athletes with an increased lordosis (low back curve) will find this more difficult and therefore tend to need more coaching on movements like this.

Yes, I know you can also do this on a bench but our athletes seem to like it better with the ball. So, as they say, “the customer is always right”.

Plus, you can’t do some of the progressions I’m about to show you on a bench.

Straight Leg Bridges (w/Long Lever)

We learned this progression from Coach JC Santana. It’s a great way to integrate in the calf’s and increase the overall difficulty on your posterior muscles.

Be sure to keep the heels off the ball.

1 Leg Hip Bridges (w/straight leg)

These are not only a great progression to the 2 leg bridges but they serve as a nice compliment to the 1 leg knee tucks.

These work on improving hip/back disassociation in extension. We want to see the extension coming from the hips and glutes and not from the low back. We encourage our athletes to keep the lifted knee stable during this exercise. If the knee moves, it means that the pelvis is moving and therefore stability is lost.

Swiss Ball Bent Leg Bridges

The bent leg bridges are more glute dominant bridge than the straight leg version. That said, your hamstring have to work isometrically to hold the ball in place while the hips rise and fall.

We normally just alternate straight and bent leg bridges each workout.

Swiss Ball Bent Leg Bridge (1 Leg)

The rules on the one leg version are the same as above. Just be sure to prevent any sort of pelvic rotation due to the reduced base of support.

Swiss Ball Leg Curls

Once you can successfully perform both the straight and bent leg exercises. We simply combine the two moves to make the leg curl. This you really can’t do with a bench. You can do this with a slide board if you have access to one.

Once your hips lift up, they don’t come down until the set is complete. Be sure to lift your hips higher up as the legs curl in. This will create a straight line between the knee, hip, and torso.

Aside from glute ham raises is the only exercise that allows us to train hip extension and knee flexion simultaneously. Those two motions are always coupled together during any locomotive type action.

Running involves the combined action hip extension and knee flexion of the rear leg as it prepares to pull through

1 Leg Ball Curl

This progression from the two leg curl, when done correctly, will challenge even the most advanced athlete.

Swiss Ball Complex

Once each one these exercises are mastered separately, we like to combine them into a Swiss ball complex. We use this complex as part of an active dynamic warm up, as a warm down or as active rest on recovery days.

We start with roll outs for 10-20 reps

Then to push ups for 10-20 for reps

Followed up with the Y,T,W,L shoulder circuit for 10-15reps each letter

Then move to knee tucks for 10-20 reps

We finish with a toes on ball plank hold for 10-30 seconds

This entire complex is normally performed for 1-3 sets and 0-60 seconds rest between sets. Three rounds of this at 20 reps each exercise with no break is just plain tough.

This complex is very popular with our clients and athletes because it has a smooth flow from between exercises, it’s easy to remember and it gets a lot of quality work done in little time. Aside from that, it’s kind of fun.

a href=”http://www.performanceu.net/article05.html”>Click here to view pictures and videos of all the exercises described above.

Final Comments

Well, there you have it, the definitive list of Swiss ball exercises that don’t ****.

If it’s not on this list and it involves a Swiss ball then…well, you get the point.

The exercises on this list have been a part of our performance and physique programs for many years. They have been used at some point by just about everyone who has walked through our doors.

I can’t honestly tell you that these Swiss ball are solely responsible for our clients and athletes consistently getting bigger stronger and faster.

But I can tell you that they sure as hell haven’t hurt.



CHONG

Eddie Lomax asked:


It is estimated that 80% of home exercise equipment is not used after the first year.

So, you’re planning to buy a piece of home exercise equipment… and you have promised yourself that this time you are really going to use it!

Maybe you already have a collection of different exercise devices… but you are convinced that with this new contraption you will definitely reach your fitness goals.

Or you keep saying to yourself… “If I only had that fitness machine I would be motivated to work out”.

Around 80% of home exercise equipment buyers said the same thing… and the equipment they bought is gathering dust in the corner somewhere along with their dreams of muscle tone, more energy, weight control and feeling great.

Don’t part with your hard earned money before you make sure you will be one of the 20% that buys home exercise equipment and actually uses it, because as we all know… you are only going to get the physical benefits from the home exercise equipment you buy if you actually do the exercise.

Who Buys Home Exercise Equipment And Then Doesn’t Use It?

According to Consumer’s Union, it is the beginner, or inexperienced, exercisers that are most likely to purchase home exercise equipment and then not use it.

As a matter of fact… beginner exercisers don’t use 2/3 of the home exercise equipment they buy.

Although buying home exercise equipment seems like the logical first step to improved fitness… it is the beginners that give up using the equipment more than people who already enjoy an active lifestyle.

Let’s see why this happens…

Using Home Exercise Equipment Is An Exercise In Self Control

Most people over estimate their self control.

Even though they exhibit determination and enthusiasm when researching the home exercise equipment to buy, seeking out the best price, purchasing and installing the equipment in their home… most people just don’t have enough self control to use the equipment in the necessary manner to reap the rewards.

Thinking about exercise, talking about exercise, researching exercise and purchasing home exercise equipment is not exercise.

There is no home exercise equipment that will completely transform you and help you reach all your fitness goals without an investment of time and energy.

As a matter of fact… the costs of seeking fitness are immediate, while the benefits are delayed.

Most beginners get frustrated putting in the time and energy necessary to reap the long term physical rewards using the home exercise equipment .

As a result, 2/3 of the home exercise equipment finds its way into garages, closets and basements with the closing comments… “That thing didn’t work.”

Prove Yourself Worthy Before Buying Home Exercise Equipment

Most beginners buy home exercise equipment because they took a good hard look in the mirror and didn’t like what they saw… or they assessed their physical abilities and found them lacking.

Next step… buy a piece of home exercise equipment!

Well, hold on there… not so fast.

As I’m fond of saying… Fitness is a journey, not a destination.

The bodily changes and improvement of physical abilities you seek can only be obtained for the long term by incorporating consistent physical activity into your lifestyle.

Prove yourself worthy of the purchase of home exercise equipment by first adding physical activity to your lifestyle by using the effective, versatile and efficient piece of home exercise equipment that you already have… your own body!

If you are really serious about improving muscle tone and energy levels while controlling weight and feeling great… start by performing a workout program of bodyweight calisthenics exercises.

Bodyweight calisthenics exercise is the perfect method to use for the beginner, as well as experienced, fitness enthusiast when starting a physical fitness training program… and should remain part of a well balanced fitness training regime.

As a matter of fact… you should not start using home exercise equipment of any kind until you first have developed the ability to control the movement of your own body.

Once you have effectively added physical activity into your lifestyle… you can buy that piece of home exercise equipment to augment, vary and diversify your physical training with the confidence that you will actually use it.

In conclusion…

Bodyweight calisthenics exercise is the perfect place to start your physical fitness training program.

Properly done… bodyweight calisthenics exercise will develop a strong, lean and athletic body that actually performs as good as it looks.

Once physical training has become a habit… buy home exercise equipment to improve your already effective training.

The body and physical abilities you seek are not determined by the equipment you have at your disposal… but rather by your desire to improve and incorporate physical activity into your lifestyle!

Save yourself a lot of time and money by proving to yourself that you are not overestimating your self control… because if you fail to successfully add bodyweight calisthenics exercise into your lifestyle, you will most likely fail to use the home exercise equipment you buy.

So what are you waiting for?

Use your own body as your gym… and get started on your own personal fitness journey today!



GEOFFREY

expertvillage asked:

Learn essential weight lifting exercise workouts such as the dumbbell biceps curl and what muscles it works in this free exercise video on weight lifting for beginners.

CLINTON

pokerface , asked:


What exercise will help me loose weight there, how many sets should I do, and how many times a week/day?

ANDREW

Kent Makro asked:


Exercise is defined as the performance of some activities that develops or maintains the physical fitness and health in general. Regular and keenly done exercise is very important component that can prevent some of the diseases.

Latest researches say that exercises have great positive impact on almost all the diseases. Whether it is done as Yoga or as physiotherapy, exercises makes a human healthy and free from diseases.

Types of Exercise

There are various types of exercise but broadly it can be classified in three main categories. These include flexibility exercise, aerobic exercise and anaerobic exercises.

Flexible exercise includes the activity such as stretching. It improves the range of motion of muscles and joints. Aerobic is something like cycling, running, walking etc. Aerobic exercises concentrate on increasing the cardiovascular endurance. Anaerobic exercises are exercises those increase the short-term muscles strength. This includes weight training, sprinting and functional training.

Benefits of Exercise

There are lot many benefits of doing regular exercises in a proper manner. Exercise keeps the body in shape and hence, maintains the physical fitness. It can contribute to maintain perfect weight, healthy bone density, joint mobility, muscle strength and reduces the surgical risks.

There are so many researches proving the role of exercises as effective treatment in some chronic major diseases like hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, insomnia, depression and obesity etc. Exercises improve the overall blood circulation in the body which is very much required for proper nourishment of each and every cell and tissue of the body. Exercise is also said to be neuro-protective in many neuromuscular and neurodegenerative disorders.

Hazards of Exercise

On the other hand, exercise if done wrongly or improperly, it can bring worse effects on the body. There are some diseases in which, some of the exercises are contraindicated. For instance, a heart patient should not do any heavy exercises like weight lifting and running fast. During exercises, the muscles consume more energy, fats and carbohydrates and hence, they are to be fed well. If the nutrition or food intake is not proportionate to the exercise, it can weaken the body.

Too much exercise can be also harmful. The body part that does the exercise needs rest in between the exercises. This is the reason why some of the health experts advise to do exercise every alternate day or thrice a week. Without proper rest, there will be chance of stroke in the brain or in the heart. It can also affect the blood circulation that may end up in alteration of blood pressure.

One should not increase the exercise suddenly; it takes time for body to get accustomed. Start with light exercise and then over the times, keep on increasing the quality and quantity of exercises.

With proper diet and regimen, if exercises are done in safer mode, it can build the physique with better immunity. Regularity in exercise is equally important part to gain maximum benefits and simultaneously regular gaping is also required to avoid the hassles created by over-exercising



DARRICK

BJ Gaddour asked:


As the head personal trainer for the best boot camp in Milwaukee who has helped hundreds of people lose thousands of pounds of fat, I know a thing or two about exercise selection and I am going to share some great exercises that you can incorporate into your workouts today to breakthrough any training plateau. They are the exact exercises that I have used to help my hundreds of people lose thousands of pounds of fat.

I’ll keep this as basic as possible for you. The best exercise for muscle gain are also the best exercises for fat loss. These exercises all have one thing in common: they involve as many muscles in your body as possible and they provide a UNIQUE challenge to your body.

Both the real world case studies and the scientific research and have demonstrated that total body workouts are superior for maximal fat loss and muscle gain. But let’s take this one step further…

Let’s dramatically accelerate results by preferentially selecting TOTAL BODY EXERCISES within each TOTAL BODY WORKOUT! For example, squats are well known for being one of the best muscle-builders with a serious a fat-shredding effect. However, the squat goes from great to UNSTOPPABLE for changing your body for the better when you make it a combination movement by adding a row or press to each squat rep. It’s obvious that you can reap more benefits this way since you have now involved your upper body into the king of lower body exercises.

It’s as simple as the Dream Body Equation below:

Performing Total Body Exercises Within Each Total Body Workout →

More Muscles Involved =

More Calories Burnt + Greater Muscle-Building Stimulus =

Greater Fat Lost + Greater Muscle Gain

I must be honest in that I have a true love-hate relationship with the following movements I am about to share with you. Love because of the unparalleled fat-melting, muscle-building results they provide to help maximize my ****. **** because they break me every single workout. In other words, these are not for the weak of mind, body, or soul!

Without further adieu, here is the official top 10 list of my favorite exercises in the world for fat loss and lean muscle gain:

Exercise#1- Power Clean + Squat to Overhead Press Combo

Exercise#1- Any Squatting Combination Exercise- Squat Thrust/Burpee Variations, Squat to Overhead Press, Squat to Row, Squat to Chest Press, Braced Core Squat, Single-Leg Squat plus Curl to Press, etc.

Exercise#2- The Swing- Dumbbells, Kettlebells, Med Balls, or Sandbags

Exercise#3- Any Lunge Combination Exercise- Alternating Lunge plus Curl to Press, Alternating Lunge plus Twist, Alternating Lunge plus Chest Press, Alternating Reverse Lunge plus Row, Split Jump plus Jerk, Split Jump plus Curl etc.

Exercise#4- Any Push-Up Combination Exercise- Push-ups plus Knee-Ins, Push-up Rows, T-Push-Ups, Spiderman Push-ups, Squat Thrust Push-Ups, Four-Way Push-up Crawl, etc.

Exercise#5- The Chop- Dumbbells, Kettlebells, Med Balls, Bands, or Sandbags

Exercise#6- Olympic Lifting Variations: Dumbbell or Kettlebell Cleans, Snatches, High Pulls

Exercise#7- Dynamic Back Pillar plus 1-Arm Dumbbell Chest Press

Exercise#8- Rear Foot Elevated Deadlift plus Curl to Press

Exercise#9- Med Ball Snatch-Slam Combo

Exercise#10- Dumbbell or Kettlebell Single-Leg RDL plus Row

Well I hope you take my expert advice and jack up your training with these 10 deadly total body combination exercises. If you employ these exercises into your workouts I guarantee you better results. Of course it’s now up to you to take your workouts, and your body, to the next level

Crank it!



ELBERT

kenny706 asked:

Really weird poodle exercise video for humans. This is a mesmerizing and frightening video. It’s a word-for-word parody of Susan Powter’s first workout video, featuring poodles and a crazy poodle-woman. Absolutely surreal. It was made by Nagi Noda for Panasonic. It was part of 10 films they made for the 2004 Athens Olympics.

DARELL

studentnumber36 asked:


Whats a good exercise to do to increase jump height and running speed?

GIOVANNI

Kyler J asked:


Ok, I’m a teen and I never get out alot. My parents won’t let me go running outside and they don’t have a membership to a gym or anything. I have started exercising in my room. By jumping around, and dancing like crazy. But they always complain about how I make too much noise and that the floors are thin. Then I tried running up and down the stairs but they complained about that too. So what exercise can I do without my parents complaining about noise?

BUSTER

weightlosslosers asked:

Myth busters Week! Exercise is no pain, no gain!!

Twitter me: www.twitter.com/blueeyedbetty

Please join our group!
http://www.youtube.com/group/weightlosslosers
Get involved. Get motivated. Get to GOAL!

CRUZ