Six Week Workout Program

What makes up my core?

IronWarriorTraining.com has asked me to be a consistent author for their site.  Here you can find my first article, “What is the ‘core’ and why is it so important?”.  In this article I talk about stabilizer and mover muscles. I relate it to activities such as soccer and baseball that you can relate to.  Training your core is not about just having a “sexy” six-pack.  Read the article to find out what it is all about!

What is the “core” and why is it so important?

Do you know someone that could use gym workout routines for women? Check out The 6 Week Workout Program!

Holiday Home Workout

Holiday Workouts For Wherever You Are

The holidays present a workout problem. You are either traveling or you may be at home and the gym is closed. Even if you don’t workout for the same duration as you normally do at times during the holidays you should try to make the time you do workout the most effective. These are four exercises you can do anywhere that will ensure you’re working all major muscles and won’t miss a beat when you get back to your regular routine.

1-leg stiff leg dead lift with row

Stand on your left leg with a dumbbell (use a milk jug or water bottle instead if needed) in your right hand. Bend over at the waist keeping a neutral spine (flat back with slight extension)! When you feel a stretch in your hamstring stop and perform a row- by flexing your bicep and your upper-back muscles you’ll pull the dumbbell to the front of your shoulder. Lower the dumbbell and come back to a standing position on your left leg. Switch sides after each set. Perform 2 or 3 sets on each side of 8 to 12 repetitions.

This is an excellent exercise because it works your posterior chain- muscles involved in pulling movements- so well! Stabilizer muscles, mover muscles, propioception- knowledge of where your body is in space- and balance are all worked exceptionally!

Stabilizer push-ups

Everyone does push-ups. During the holidays perform your push-ups with a 2-4-2 tempo. This means that you will take 2 seconds to lower yourself to two inches above the ground, hold yourself in the lowered position for 4 seconds, then take 2 seconds to raise yourself to a beginning position. Always ensure that you have a neutral spine when performing push-ups. The most common mistake is letting your back be in a position of extension- back dipped down. If you do err slightly err with your spine flexed- arching it with your butt in the air. Perform 2 to 4 sets of 6 to 15 repetitions.

1-leg squats

Stand on your left leg with your right leg flexed and have a big chest. Squat down till your left thigh is near parallel with the ground and then stand up. Perform 2 or 3 sets on each leg of 5 to 20 repetitions.

Jumping Jacks

Jumping jacks are so effective because your upper and lower body is being exercised and you can do them anywhere! I don’t need to tell you how to do jumping jacks because everyone did them in PE classes when they were younger. A tip to help you do more of them is do them for time, not for count. It’s much easier to keep pushing yourself when you plan on going for a few minutes than for a certain number.

Planks for a Stronger Core

Planks are awesome for your core!

What: The plank exercise is an isometric (aka static) exercise. This means no movement is done. You position yourself in a prone position (face down) on the ground with only your forearms and feet touching the ground. The forearms should be parallel with each other, about shoulder width apart, and your hands should be in the same plane as your ears. The most important position to be aware of, however, is your core. Your back should be in a neutral position. Do not allow your back to be hyper-extended (dip down toward the flow). Also do not allow it to be flexed (arched toward the sky). You should be as flat as possible from the back of your head to your feet. If you are unsure whether you are in neutral position or not err on arching towards the sky. If you perform the plank correctly it is difficult. If you can stay in that position for a minute you are doing very well.

Why: Planks are phenomenal for your core. Holding this strengthens stabilizer muscles throughout your body. Many muscles in your body have to isometrically contract to keep your body in that position. By keeping that position for so long you increase the endurance of the muscles that are important for keeping good posture (including coveted ab muscles), standing for a long time, carrying a backpack, and decrease pain from sitting for extended periods of time.

Variation: Don’t worry if these become too easy! By removing one foot and the opposite forearm from the ground you increase the difficulty dramatically. This increases the torque in the transverse plane (twisting of your torso) which benefits your obliques and the muscles that help you turn your torso and keep it from turning when yo don’t want it to. Ensure that you spend equal time with each set of foot and forearm off the ground.

You should incorporate planks into your workout program or daily routines  two to three times a week for optimal health.

One arm dumbbell bench and shoulder press

The one arm dumbbell bench press and the one arm dumbbell shoulder press are oft overlooked in our workout programs, but very important!

What they are:  You perform a DB shoulder press or DB bench press like normal, but only one hand holds a dumbbell.

Why: When only one of your hands holds a DB your core has to counteract the torque created by the weight in the other hand.  This is fantastic for stabilizer muscles in your core.  This will help you improve the amount of weight that you can do when using both hands for these exercises because your core allow you to push more weight.

When:  These exercises should not completely replace barbell bench presses or shoulder presses or two arm DB bench presses or shoulder presses, but complement.  If you bench heavy early in the week, then perform one arm dumbbell bench presses later in the week.  This allows you to not over train your pectoral muscles, but it does allow you to stimulate them again.  It also benefits other muscles: core stabilizer muscles, shoulder stabilizer muscles,  and triceps. These lifts will decrease risk for injury in daily activities, athletics, and weight lifting.

There is more to weight lifting than how much you can lift, how many calories you burn, and how much muscle you can obtain.  While these exercises help you do all of those things they also improve your safety by improving posture and stabilizer muscles.  Don’t forget to incorporate these into your workout programs this week!

Stabilizer Muscles Made Simple

The best workout programs work stabilizer and mover muscles. You might read about stabilizer muscles either on this Health and Fitness blog or elsewhere. After reading this article you will understand stabilizer muscles much better. Not all muscles are the same. In our bodies we have skeletal muscle, smooth muscle, and cardiac muscle. Skeletal muscles are not created the same. Some of our skeletal muscles are designed to move our bones. These are called mover muscles. (You might have heard the term prime mover. This is the muscle that primarily moves a certain joint, but in one exercise a muscle might be a prime mover and in the next just an agonist muscle.) Our bodies also have stabilizer muscles. These muscles keep our joints from shifting where they shouldn’t and prevent us from injury. Injury happens when our mover muscles produce power sufficient that our stabilizer muscles do not have ability to stabilize our joints and ligaments to prevent injury. Stabilizer muscles are found from our neck down. Common stabilizer muscles people are concerned with is in the shoulder and the core. Training stabilizer muscles are not as main stream because they do not produce as “sexy” of muscles as training our mover muscles. Mover muscles create nice curves and cuts in our body. Stabilizer muscles give us the ability to create more of those. They also give our sculpted bodies the ability to be healthy and not injured.

Abs That Burn: A More Effective Crunch

This crunch not only helps you on your way to a six pack, but improves posture and helps prevent injuries! Your core is made up of mover muscles and stabilizer muscles.  Mover muscles are muscles that rotate bones around their joints.  These are often your “sexy” muscles.  Stabilizer muscles keep your body safe by stabilizing your bones around your joints.  Mover muscles create the bulk of the power, but are not near as effective if your stabilizer muscles are not conditioned.  Stabilizer muscles in your core mostly consist of slow twitch muscle fibers.

The crunch that targets stabilizer and mover muscles:

The 4 steps:

1: Lie on your back in a normal crunch position.

2: Have someone put their hand under lumbar disks in your spine (the small of your back) and press your back on their hand.  They can now take their hand out.

3: Keep this same position (your core should already be slightly contracted) and crunch up to about 70 degrees off the ground.

4: Lower yourself back to the ground and repeat.  The core should be contracted throughout this whole all of your repetitions.

These are killer for your abs! After you perform these crunches please comment so others can hear your experiences!