“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” – John Wooden, Basketball Hall of Famer.
Great advice from a legendary coach for training when injured – “Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” – John Wooden, Basketball Hall of Famer.
I find too many people hurt their shoulder and shut down their entire routine when their legs are perfectly healthy. I coached someone today with a pretty ugly rotator tear, but while she arrived with her spirits down feeling like she can’t get a great workout in, we went ahead and hit the following:
squatting floor touches
kettlebell dead lifts with light to moderate weight
walking agility (heels, toes, side shuffle, grapevine, high knee march)
reverse lunges
single arm cable rows standing on 2 feet and on 1 foot with her unaffected arm
forward lunges
single arm lying dumbbell presses (research shows strength training the healthy arm can have strength improving benefits on the injured arm)
side lunges & 12″ box step cross over step backs
Needless to say, she was sweating, her entire body (and spirit) felt better and she felt her legs for 2 days after the workout.
Simplicity usually = awesome. Therefore, let’s just say planks = good. Abdominal crunches = bad. Your abdominal muscles, rather your core (think of your “core” as everything from your upper thighs and pelvis to your lower rib cage and waist) functions to BRACE your mid section.
When you squat down to pick something up for example, ideally, your “corset” of muscles (AKA your core) act as a web of muscle tissue running in every direction between your pelvis, your rib cage and spine. When they contract together, you will have a strong torso, protected back, and the ability to maintain strong, durable posture whether standing, bending over or squatting down.
“Chuck Norris doesn’t sleep … he merely planks for 8 hours a night.”
Needless to say, Chuck is awesome, but the point of this quote is to make the point that we live as we exercise. So while Chuck Norris can plank for 8 hours every night, doing just a few minutes (10 seconds at a time working up to 45-60 seconds max) will help you find, activate and strengthen your deep core muscles.
So again, we live as we train. If we do not exercise at all, your daily movement (walking to work, typing all day long, picking up your kids, walking the stairs) suffers. If you train with poor posture (and God knows we see it every day in the fitness center), you will stand around with bad posture telling your friends how much you “workout.” Don’t be that guy (or gal;)
So while your intention may be like totally fantabulous when it comes to strengthening you core and tightening your waist, using the cues in the first video below will make sure your planks (among other abdominal exercises) are doing what you want them to do, which includes:
integrate your entire chain of muscles together from hands to toes
train you to breathe (somewhat) regularly while holding your abdominal wall tight
train the important muscles just peripheral to your core, that is your rib cage and shoulder blades, spinal (think posture) muscles, and all the muscles that stabilize and mobilize your pelvis during movement
several other really cool benefits that allow you to walk, run and play more often.
Begin with either a elbows and knees or elbows and toes position for 10-60 seconds at a time. This first video is of me working with April on her Push Up Plank while discussing her shoulder and elbow position to maximize tension in her muscles and not her neck and joints. The following videos after that show a few variations …
Becky demonstrating a BOSU Plank – after you can hold this for 30 seconds, increase the intensity by lifting one foot at a time a few inches off of the floor for 5-10 seconds at a time
Unlike most joints in the body, our shoulder is where we (in the Sports Medicine world) say we: “sacrifice stability for mobility.” Mobility is almost always a good thing, especially in the shoulder joint allowing us to move our arm in pretty much every direction, including raising, lowering and rotating them, running like Phoebe in Central Park and throwing a… Read More »Strong, Tone AND Healthy Shoulders with These Two Moves and Cues (with short video)
So the push up is pretty darned awesome because when you can do a perfect push up with good (enough) form, you will: build arm (particularly the back of the arm) and upper back strength (think posture and postural muscle strength) develop functional core strength that “braces” your mid-section thereby tightening your waist and protecting your spine develop stronger, durable… Read More »Push Up Form and Elbow Position for Strong Arms and Core (with short video)