We often hear about the core. The first thing that most people think of when it comes to the core are six-packs or abdominal exercises. For others they are often told to "brace" their core during exercises such as the squat or deadlift. Little do most people including the majority of PT's know that
All external physical actions that we as humans, or indeed any animal, make revolves around movement. Movement is a kinetic chain that is made up of three core components: the nervous system, muscular system and skeletal system.
Yep, it's been a while since there has been an update, just over a year. The reasons are various, from COVID-19, to fractured ribs, to work, moving house and pretty much life in general amongst other stuff. Now things have calmed down a bit (and only a bit) I can return to concentrate on expanding and improving this site and the premise of Gym Pal itself.
It has always been my intention to produce and upload my own videos, however I lacked the place to do them and the local leisure centres frowned upon video recording. In the past few months however I have been able to convert the garage of my new house into a personal gym, and once finished I can begin. I also have other plans for the near future.
On top of that I've been on the lookout for a new logo for my brand, and whilst I still love the grittier "Capture It" font, I took my hand at creating a new logo that uses the more contemporary "Impact" font. All good logos also need something else other than words so I created a physique silhouette with minor cut-outs. I think it looks pretty good, and well, impactful!
One of the most common core exercises you see people doing, most often encouraged by PT's, is the plank, also commonly called the bridge. It is a challenging isometric exercise and a true battle of will and determination as you fight the burn and try to hold it for as long as possible. Yet, do you really need to be doing this exercise? Is it really that effective? Honestly? Once you can easily hit the 60 second mark, it isn't. Now don't get me wrong, your bog standard plank has a place but only for beginners. Why you may ask? Well let's see...
The only real measuring stick of a plank is how long you can hold it for. Whether it's 60 seconds or 5 minutes, what exactly are you training? Endurance more than anything else. The longer you hold it may add up to impressive numbers and a sense of achievement however holding planks for a long time is more of a waste of time than anything else. The reason why is because there are far more efficient and effective ismometric core exercises that take only a fraction of time to do but provide many more benefits.
Sure you could have someone add a weight plate on to your back to add more resistance to elicit more strength, however it quickly becomes an endurance exercise again and you can only add so much before it becomes unsafe to do so. Indeed, if you suffer lower back issues then adding weight can exacerbate them. Others may focus on moving an object from one side to the other in front of them creating a small degree of instability, however again it quickly becomes endurance.
At the end of the day whilst the plank is challenging for most at the start, once you can do multiple sets of 60 seconds no sweat then it is no longer challenging. Rather you should move onto something more productive.
The plank when done correctly strenghtens your inner core muscles, allowing you to create a stiff, rigid spinal position. There is no doubt about that. The problem is that this is only in one static position with only gravity working against you. This is a position that we as dynamically moving creatures rarely do or find ourselves in, unless of course you are doing planks. We move in various planes of motion and axis and face resistance from different directions, thus the standard plank offers little carry-over.
The plank is often cited as effective and easy to do, suitable for all kinds of people. In reality it is not,
One common issue with planks especially when done with poor form is lower back pain. Holding planks for extensive periods of time eventually ends in form degradation, which can contribute again to lower back pain. The plank also works the muscles at the front of your body whether it is the shoulders, chest, abs or quads. Over time this, with the propensity for people to work out their "mirror muscles" more than their posterior chain coupled with our typical long sitting habits only reinforce poor posture and lower back pain. If you're looking to help your posture through planks then back bridges/reverse planks are what you should be doing.
Another issue is that the plank is as already mentioned an isometric exercise. Isometric exercises are proven to increase blood pressure. If you suffer from hypertension or pre-hypertension then you should avoid them, or at the very least hold them for less than 60 seconds.
There are a whole load of alternatives to the standard plank that make it more challenging, providing a more effective and efficient workout. Firstly, below is a list of some of the other forms of the plank that can be done. You will notice that each involves a greater degree of instability than the standard plank. This means your core has to work harder to maintain your position.
The first three can also be done like the fourth one once you build up the balance and core stability for it. If you performed these exercises with the same degree of instability then you'd eventually end up with the same issues as the standard plank. The beauty is however that you can easily adjust the instability of them to continue progressing them.
Other isometric exercises that can be done instead for greater effect:
These three exercises all suffer the same problem as the standard plank in that after a while they become less challenging and more endurance focused as you get better at them. Though you'll definitely be feeling and seeing the difference compared to standard planks if you are doing multiple sets of 60 seconds of these ones.
So far all the exercises we have looked at involve gravity as the resistance. We can however add a whole new dimension to core isometric exercises by adding additional frontal and transverse plane dynamics for greater development:
Hopefully the above has given you some fresh insight and ideas on how to move on from bog standard planks to better and more effective exercises that are also more challenging. Your lumber and thoracic spine will also be happier for not having to go through tediously long holds in which form inevitably degrades. The above alternatives are only the tip of the iceberg and there are many other exercises that can work your core isometrically in a way that provides real world benefit. If you have any questions then feel free to ask away in the comments or send me some feedback!
Something I always wanted to do was make my own set of cannonball grips to take my pull up and grip training to the next level. One of my local leisure centres had a gym rig that had molded on cannonball grips but obviously these aren't portable.
Looking online for some pre-made cannonball grips and well they aren't cheap especially for something so simple. So eventually I decided to dive in and make my own. This post will share with you how I went about doing it, the costs, and some of the setbacks and remedies I came across.
Several years ago I saw a video on how to make cannonball grips however I can't remember where at. Luckily the basics of it remained lodged in my memory so I knew what I needed to go for. The equipment needed is incredibly simple and easily attainable:
Along with this you only need a few basic items to assemble the grips:
Firstly I went onto Amazon and purchased two Wilson baseballs at £4.49 each. I would strongly recommend not buying these ones. Again see Problems encountered for why.
I also bought a two pack of 6cm diameter Efco wooden balls for £2.70. I bought these so I could try different sized grips to vary my exercises.
Next I ordered a set of Joyhoop Hammock Straps, which came with carabiners for £11.98 (at the time). There are other straps available and for cheaper however I liked the look of these ones and they were also shorter meaning the grips wouldn't end up hanging too low. After receiving them I can currently testify that they are indeed a good job able to support my 79kg body, and the carabiners are good and thick.
I went to the nearest hardware store to look for the eyebolts, however the smallest length they had was 6 inch, which I felt was too long. After driving around a few places I decided to return and just buy them. They cost 90p each slightly more than other places but unlike other places each bolt came with two nuts and two washers attached rather than one. This meant less hassle to find the right sized nut and washer.
I bought five eyebolts, one of which was to be a spare. I intended to glue the balls and nuts into place so needed one eyebolt for each grip. You could if you want use just two eyebolts and swap the grips for a different size for variation however for the cost of the eyebolts why waste the time it'd involve?
As a bit of a DIY enthusiast I already had the equipment needed to assemble the grips so I didn't need to deal with that stuff. So in total (excluding the Efco wooden balls as they are an extra) this cost £22.76. Not too bad, though turns out I could have done it for £19.76. Indeed even less with a cheaper set of straps.
When it came to making the grips, the process was easier and quicker than sourcing the parts.
Firstly place the ball into a vice clamp. The one I used had a moveable neck allowing me to have it positioned so that I could drill straight down without hitting anything.
The next bit is the hardest bit: trying to drill through the ball so that it goes straight through the north and south poles of the ball. Unless you are using a drill press, which takes the problem away, you will have to depend on human judgement and you will not get it perfect, but you should be able to get it close enough. The drill bit should go through easy enough though there will be some cork dust ejected so do it outdoors or somewhere easy to hoover it up.
Once the hole has been drilled through get an eye-bolt (with a nut and washer already on it) and start to screw it through the ball, or vis versa. I found screwing the ball the easiest way of doing it. Keep screwing until you have enough of the bolt protruded through the other side of the ball so that you can place on the other washer and nut. I found the hole a good width and snug fit for the bolt allowing for a tight fit.
After this tighten both nuts with the wrench. For added stiffness to prevent the nuts from possibly unscrewing over time you can apply glue to the bolt at either end of the ball and screw the nuts tight on top of it and then letting it cure.
The final thing to do was to simply attach the eye part of the eye-bolt to the carabiner, which itself was attached to the eyes of the strap, and voila! A cannonball grip.
Everything seemed to go great. I had done the baseball grips first and thought they looked great. I had orignally screwed the balls to the top of the eyebolts and intended to get the bottom of the bolt grinded off. However after hanging them there was no need for them to be screwed so high considering the height of my pull up bar. A bigger problem with them however was that they felt like if I hung my entire bodyweight off them then the baseballs would tear through the nuts at the bottom.
Checking online it turns out proper baseballs are made out of a combination of cork, rubber and wound string inside a leather skin. Some are simply pure cork. The ones I had purchased whilst feeling quite firm on the outside consisted of nothing but sponge. They bounced well but that was it. At least I can fun with my daughter throwing them about.
Looking around online for a pair of proper baseballs I couldn't find a good cheap ball or trust they had a good amount of cork in them. You could get full cork bodied ones yet I found them hard to find. I also wouldn't be able to tell if they were truly solid until delievered. They all seemed to be over £6-7 each. For something that goes for a couple of bucks in the states, it appears not for the UK. Had I not already wasted £10 on those soft baseballs I may have went for two of these other ones.
A day later I had to go Sports Direct to get my daughter a new pair of trainers and thought I'd chance my arm in seeing if they had any baseballs. I didn't hold much hope but lo and behold they did, and thankfully these Slazenger ones had a solid cork core and for only £2.99 each discounted from £5.99! I would caution that they do also sell a soft ball version, which should be avoided.
Arriving back home I went straight away to drill holes in the two balls and found it a better process than for the sponge core ones. When it came to putting the eyebolts through them it took a good steady screwing action to do so and it was a nice tight fit. After tightening the nuts I gave them a test and bingo they fitted the bill perfectly.
Another issue I had was with the Efco wooden balls. It turns out it was next to impossible to screw the 9mm eyebolt through 8mm holes. I tried to find a 9mm flat-wood/spade wood drill bit (external link) of any kind in my local hardware shops however couldn't find anything but even numbered sizes over 12mm. So I had to use my 10mm Spur Point wood drill bit (external link) instead. It didn't matter in the end as tightening the bolts enough ensured the ball didn't twirl around.
Unfortunately the 10mm Spur Point drill bit wouldn't drill through the "pilot" 8mm hole without getting stuck so I decided to drill a new hole through it (intersecting the original hole track). Maybe a Spade wood drill bit wouldn't have had this sticking problem?
The gaps and damage to the ball from the original hole I filled in with wood filler. Unfortunately it was white coloured whereas the balls are a natural wooden colour, however I may end up painting the balls anyways. They are untreated wood so would benefit from a coat of something if I use them in poor weather.
Thankfully the second ball hadn't been drilled through yet so I didn't have the same problems.
