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.
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.
For every movement your body makes, a combination of muscle contractions occur. For each of these contractions there is a relaxation in the opposite muscle. Welcome to the world of muscle pairs.
Virtually all muscles have an opposite. When a muscle is contracting it is known as the agonist. When it contracts, it causes its opposite muscle, the antagonist, to relax. For example if you flex your biceps, its opposite the triceps relaxes. If you flex your triceps the biceps relaxes. This is something called reciprocal inhibition
So why should you care about this? Read on...
Knowing your prime antagonist helps in the creation of effective supersetting or alt-setting if you goals are not hypertrophy or endurance. Supersetting is were you perform two exercises back to back. If you are seeking hypertrophy or looking to exhaust a particular muscle, then agonist supersets such as bench press followed by chest flyes, is the way to go. Alt-setting is where you are doing two exercises alternatingly, not necessarly as a supeset, but as a way to save time.
If you are not going for bodybuilding or the like, then agonist-antagonist supersetting or alt-setting provides the benefit of the second exercise (focusing on the antagonist muscle to the first exercise) causing reciprocal inhibition, meaning your prime agonist muscle from the first exercise relaxes and stretches, helping improve its recovery between sets.
Antagonist-stretching is an effective form of muscle stretching whether it is done actively or passively.
An example of actively stretching your hamstrings is by raising your knee up and extending your leg at the knee. This contracts your quadriceps causing your hamstrings to relax and stretch. This kind of active movement is believed to be better for increasing range of motion and flexibility in the stretched muscle.
You could also do this passively, by flexing the antagonist muscle if possible whilst stretching.
Interestingly you can mix it up with a form of strectching that seems contrary to the point of reciprocal inhibition. It is antagonist static stretching. An example is if you are doing biceps curls, then you would stretch your triceps between sets. Research shows that this form of stretch can cause an increase of repetitions and agonist activiation during the exercise.
Knowing your muscle pairs helps in the devising of more effective split routines. If you train chest and triceps primarily on what you might call a "push" day, then the next session you train upper back and biceps on a "pull" day. This allows you to avoid overloading the previously worked out muscles whilst given them a stretch through reciprocal inhibition.
It can be quite confusing matching up each specific muscle to its opposite especially when certain actions call different muscles or parts of a muscle into action or relaxation. Thus I'll try to keep this as simple as possible by basing it on the primary motions, common exercises for those motions and the primary muscles. Keeping it simple also helps for devising agonist-antagonist muscle pairings for supersets or split sessions amongst other things.
Action
Exercises
Agonist
Antagonist
Spinal flexion
Sit-ups, hollow holds
Rectus abdominus
Erector spinae
Spinal extension
Back extensions, good mornings
Erector spinae
Rectus abdominus
Horizontal flexion
Press-ups, bench-press
Pectoralis major
Rhomboids, trapezius (mid)
Horizontal extension
Cable rows, seated rows
Rhomboids, trapezius (mid)
Pectoralis major
Elbow flexion
Bicep curls, chin-ups
Biceps
Triceps
Elbow extension
Dips, triceps extensions
Triceps
Biceps
Shoulder flexion
Pull-ups, pull-downs
Latissimus dorsi
Deltoids
Shoulder extension
Shoulder press
Deltoids
Latissimus dorsi
Knee flexion
Hamstring curls
Hamstrings
Quadriceps
Knee extension
Leg extensions
Quadriceps
Hamstrings
Hip flexion
Bent-knee leg raise, hanging-knee raise
Iliopsoas
Gluteus maximus
Hip extension
Hip thrusters
Gluteus maximus
Iliopsoas
Ankle flexion
(Dorsiflexion)
Banded foot pulls
Tibialis-anterior
Gastrocnemius, soleus
Ankle extension
(Plantar flexion)
Calf-raises
Gastrocnemius, soleus
Tibialis-anterior
Now whilst we know how muscles are meant to work and the effect they have on their opposite muscle, there is a interesting circumstance known as Lombard's paradox where this goes out the window. Lombard's paradox is where both the agonist and antagonist activate at the same time, this is commonly seen when standing up from a seated or squatting position.
Knowing the antagonist muscle to that which you are working out allows you to fine tune your training in various ways. Whether it be more effective alternating sets, stretches, or split routines. Whilst the musculoskeletal system is highly complex and there are a multitude of different muscles and muscle heads activating in any given movement, each with their own antagonist, exercises can be broken down into their prime agonist and the primary antagonist.
If you have any questions then feel free to ask away in the comments or send me some feedback!
A staple of injury healing, the RICE methodology has been around since Sportsmedicine Book was released in 1978. It is an acronym for Rest Ice Compress and Elevate and is the go to response when someone suffers an injury.
We've all either used it ourselves or been told by a doctor or physio to. Yet over the years it has come under ever more scrutiny with even the doctor who first came up with the RICE method, Dr. Gabe Mirkin, decades later changing his view on the Rest and Ice parts of it as they can actually delay your recovery.
Resting your injury makes a lot of sense. With more rest then it will heal better, right? Well, depending on the type of injury and your stage of recovery no it turns out.
If the injury is not a fracture, spinal or a catastrophic injury, then movement is necessary in the recovery process. In fact too much rest can be detrimental.
In 1996, doctors Jim and Phil Wharton released The Wharton's Stretch Book, which argued that movement rather than rest should be performed on an injury. The key reasons being that:
On the reverse side however too much movement, such as continuing on as normal or trying too much too soon, can exacerbate the injury and increase inflammation. This itself can lead to the injury being stuck in a chronic inflammation phase preventing recovery resulting in tissue atrophy etc. If it hurts or feels strenuous then you're doing too much too soon.
The Wharton's despite their recommendation to substitute movement for rest, still agreed with icing the injured area. Other's however have come out against this part of the RICE protocol including its inventor.
On Dr. Mirkin's website is his article Why Ice Delays Recovery, first published in 2015. A highlight of the key points include:
According to Muscle Injuries: Biology and Treatment, published in American Journal of Sports Medicine (vol. 33, no. 5, pp. 745-764, 2005), no randomised clinical trials have proven the effectiveness of icing an injury to aid recovery. This was backed up by a meta-analysis in the British Journal of Sports Medicine of 22 separate studies on the effects of ice on acute muscle strains.
There is one alternative to RICE that seems to be gaining traction - MEAT. This acronym stands for:
Of course this applies to non-acute injuries. The RICE protocol still has merit when it comes to helping reduce swelling and pain in serious injuries such as fractures, torn ligaments etc. though once the injury has settled MEAT comes into play.
If the injury is not a serious one then resting it can be detrimental to the injured area and prolong your recovery. It can lead to atrophy of the affected area and a loss of strength as well as imbalances.
In regards to icing, it is good for pain relief and reducing inflammation, especially in the immediate aftermath of an injury, however it also delays the recovery process and can actually cause tissue death and nerve damage.
MEAT on the other hand helps encourage the healing process whilst maintaining tissue health, yet RICE does have its place for helping with acute injuries. Thus after four decades RICE would seem to have had its day in certain aspects with MEAT appearing to be the way to go... unless of course you're a vegetarian or vegan.
The main news headline everywhere across the world is about the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infection COVID-19. Many might not realise it but the way you exercise can affect your susceptibility of getting infections and dealing with them.
Before and after pictures, a staple of the fitness industry. Everyone has seen at least half a dozen this past week alone no doubt whether on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter etc. Some of these transformations are quite stark and look really impressive really making a personal trainer look great. Whilst in many cases the clients have made good or even great progress, the pictures are not always what they seem.
The following is my personal experience in how to adapt to a difficult injury to recover from, that of the long head of the biceps.
When most people start off with resistance exercise, the first thing they are usually shown is a resistance machine. Indeed they form the basis of most people's workouts in places that have them such as leisure centers etc. After a while that person will learn that free-weights are actually better for you than machine based.
Following on from my post Ratcheting up the intensity - metabolic conditioning, here is the update on the effects of my metabolic conditioning routine now that it has ended.
One thing we are all told to do is eat our recommended portions of fruit and vegetables every day. In the UK, this is at least 5 portions. It seems like a small number however for many people it is not easy to achieve. I know, I was one of them.
Indeed, for about 20 years of my life, from roughly the age of 5 to 25, I never ate any fruit or vegetables. Nowadays I meet or surpass the recommended number of portions and find it quite easy as well.
With the conclusion of my recent strength-endurance phase a fortnight ago I decided to embark on a phase of metcon (metabolic conditioning) to improve my cardio-respiratory system and ramp up my metabolism into a calorie burning furnace. Two weeks of such a routine has now passed and I thought I'd share some thoughts:on it so far.
An important but often awkward or difficult concept of exercise to get your head around are the planes of motion and associated axes. These refer to the different dimensions and axes that body motions occur in.
Working out in all three planes of motion helps improve your neuromuscular efficiency, meaning greater cohesion and co-ordination between your muscles and central nervous system.
An aspect of exercise that can have a significant impact is what you wear whilst performing a work out. Most people are happy enough to simply buy and wear gym gear that appeals to them and there is nothing wrong in that, it helps display your persona and character. Yet sometimes it is worthwhile to judge whether it is what’s best suited for what you are doing.
Below I will share some personal experiences I've had over the years.
During any phase of training one of the most important acute variables which is often overlooked is keeping track of your time under tension. For most average gym goers the tempo of each specific part of a repetition is an after thought if even a thought. Some might willingly focus on faster tempo's for speed and power, whilst others focus on slower to work the muscle more.
Well a week has passed since New Year's arrived and how many of you made a resolution or two? And how many of you are still biding by them?
I myself have made a few, most of which I know I can do as I have done them before but I have gone with a couple of new ones for the challenge. I'll elaborate on them a bit more later on in this post. First of all however I would like to address the problem of the New Year's resolution.
Kipping handstand push-ups (HSPUs) are something I have seen more and more of over the past few months in my part of world. Sadly this is another exercise that gained popularity thanks to CrossFit.
Why sadly? Kipping HSPUs are supposedly for building hip and shoulder power, however for most people it is simply a cheat way to perform handstand push-ups. What is so wrong with this? From most clips of people performing kipping HSPUs I have seen from my locality and on YouTube, there is an incredible lack of proper instruction by trainers on form and the prerequisites needed to even contemplate performing such a high-risk exercise.
Last night I came across a DVD I had purchased back in 2005, David Carradine's "An Introduction For Beginners To Kung Fu & Tai Chi". The star of the television series "Kung Fu", the late David Carradine is more famous in recent times for his role as Bill in the Kill Bill movies.
The inspiration for this post came from a discussion I had yesterday with an acquaintance about the gym. Basically it shows how important it is to know what exactly you are doing in the gym rather than just doing a specific routine as that is what you have seen others do or think that is what you need to do.
