No pain in the neck

Add comment June 7th, 2008

Crunches may be the most popular core conditioning exercise going, but they’re also prone to the most common mistake made when beginners progress from folding their arms across their chest to putting their hands behind their head when working their abs — pulling the neck forward as they flex upward.

Naturally, the problem is that eventually their neck, and probably their shoulders, are going to ache from the strain of being pulled on every repetition.

 I’ve offered my clients tricks such as pushing the tip of their tongue against the roof of their mouth and squeezing a tennis ball with each hand to help them keep their neck in neutral position, but I found a really good one today while studying a Core Conditioning video by Glen Carrigan of Progressive Education in Hilton Head, S.C.

Carrigan suggests making a fist with one hand and placing it directly under and touching the chin, and holding the other hand, palm down, directly under the fisted hand as the exerciser flexes upward.

Suddenly, it becomes very hard to flex the neck forward at all and, if you’d still have the tendency to do so, you’ve got both hands under your chin to remind you not to do it.

Keeping the neck from pulling forward can lead to more repetitions more comfortably and, maybe, the abs you’re looking for.  

Oops, missed the gym

3 comments June 3rd, 2008

Missing your trip to the gym doesn’t have to mean missing your workout.

You might not get to socialize with your favorite partners, but don’t discount the value of body-weight exercises as a good way to effectively hit several major muscle groups without the need for a lot of equipment.

The tried and true pushup works the chest and upper back. Make sure, for the basic position, that your hands are positioned directly under your shoulders.

You can suspend yourself between two chairs with your hands on one chair and your feet on the other for dips that will work the triceps and, if you have a bar you can hang from, chinups are going to work your biceps as effectively as several sets of curls.

Squats and walking lunges will hit the quadriceps, hamstrings and glutes. If you have a volleyball or basketball, hold it in front of you as you perform the lunges and swing the ball out over the leg that steps forward to add some work for your obliques. For example, if you step forward with your right foot, you should try to swing the ball to your right until you are holding outside of your right quadriceps.

For abs, there are several versions of  crunches, but a good alternative is the plank or bridge in which you start in a position much like the middle position of a pushup. Your elbows are positioned directly below your shoulders and you hold your body in a straight line down to your toes. Try to work up to being able to hold the position without letting your bottom sag or rise too high for a minute.

And, of course, you only need your feet and a pair of shoes to head out the door for a walk or a run.

Good luck.

Think small, win big

5 comments June 2nd, 2008

A key to achieving a big goal, be it weight loss , training for an event or whatever, is setting and reaching several easily attainable goals.

Instead of telling yourself you want to lose 10 or 20 pounds or that you want to run a marathon, start with small increments — say losing two pounds or being able to run a five-kilometer race.

Once you reach that smaller goal, celebrate your success and then take the time to reassess your bigger goal. Is it worth it to you to set another goal en route to the bigger goal?

If so, go for it. When you reach that goal, celebrate again and reassess again.

If you stick with it — and being able to celebrate successes along the way can be a real motivating factor — you either will eventually reach the bigger goal or find that some point along the way was where you wanted to be all along.

In either case, you’ll be a success.