My progression has me starting to do the “advanced tuck planche” for about 15 seconds, while I can do a more basic ball planche for 60 seconds. I *do* work the planche pushups with my feet on the floor, but it is dramatically harder to lift your feet off the floor because in order to get that leverage your hands really have to be down at or below your hips. That makes the strength involved by your anterior (front) deltoid, and pectoral muscles, as well as some triceps strength to be on the extreme end.
Here’s a great YouTube video of a guy doing a few planche pushups properly.
If anyone has access to resources explaining how to calculate the strength of gymnastics and other bodyweight conditioning exercises, when changing the angle or leverage, I would be very interested in this. Please contact me!
New York’s most expensive gym is apparently Equinox VIP Sports Club. I’ve spent some time on one and two week intros at Equinox, and never got a real friendly vibe. But that’s just me. Chances are good you’re joining this club for one part fitness, one part club, and one part pampering.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve always found that a good workout is never about pampering, but about working hard for a more fit body, sweating, and putting your nose to the grind. But hey, if it makes you feel better, cough up the $2 grand per month. Don’t forget the $5k initiation!!
Apple and Nike have joined forces to bring sports + fitness fanatics a new way to train. A wireless piece plugs into your ipod, and a wireless sensor for your shoe. Everytime you step, it transmits that information to the ipod. It will also use that information to adjust your music accordingly, to get you to workout harder and so on. It’s quite a cool concept.
The new device, available at the apple store, and partnered with Nike, is basically a very hip and cool pedometer. There are many available, take a look over at Amazon. How a pedometer works is it clicks and increments a counter everytime you take a step. What good is that you ask? Well you input the LENGTH of your stride after various estimations. The problem is that your stride varies dramatically depending on how hard you’re working out, if you’re going up or downhill, if you’re tired, at the end of your workout, and so on and so forth.
Normally you measure your stride by say running 1/10 of a mile, and counting the number of strides in your head, and then dividing. Really this is just an estimate, and an average of that moment of time. Suppose it’s off by only one inch (2.5 cm). A stridge might be 1 meter (3 feet). Now if you run, and the device calculates you ran 5000 strides, that is 5km (3.1 miles). But it is then off by +/- 12500 cm (5000 inches) which is 125 meters (417 feet). If you just train casually you might not care, but if you’re training hard, and really pushing your times, it is difficult to get really accurate numbers with a pedometer.
But if your aim is to make workouts more fun, and to have a useful tool to help you, this is a great one. If you’re looking for a more all-purpose training partner, I would highly recommend the Garmin Forerunner 305.
We have all encountered a few times where we are traveling, and somehow we get out of the habit and routine of our workout. It’s not so much that a little break couldn’t hurt, and who wants to workout on a business trip, but sometimes we don’t get back to our rhythm when we return.
Also doing a small 20-30 minute routine helps give us the energy we need everyday when we’re off to conferences, and on our feet all day. So what to do? Well if you’re in a hotel with a gym, head to the gym. That’ll give you the space and motivation to keep to your usual workout. But what about if your hotel doesn’t have a gym, and maybe it’s too cold outside to go for a job?
I recommend doing exercises which require very little movement. That way you can do them in small and confined spaces. Basic yoga stretching would be ideal. Here’s the opportunity to really put your heart into those stretches you’ve been meaning to improve. Do some hamstring stretches, shoulder stretches with a towel, or clasped hands, do foot-to knee stretch which is great for the hips, and some spinal twists.
As far as muscle training goes, you can certainly do pushups and situps if you desire. One exercise which I think is really ideal for small cramped locations is the elbow stand. You don’t move at all. Just hold the position. Think it looks easy? Try 30 second hold for starters. If that is too easy, move on to 60 seconds.
Posture is really crucial with this exercise. Don’t arch your back which is very very common and typical. Why? This takes the abdominals out of the exercise, and puts pressure on your lower back instead. We want to avoid that.
Another common mistake is to keep the hipstoo low. As you get tired, this is the usual progression. So try to start out by doing only 15 seconds, but do it perfect!!
Here’s the right way. Notice my back is very flat. That means my abdominals are doing *ALL* the work. That’s what you want.
Again I like this exercise because it’s easy for almost everyone to do, is fairly injury free because there isn’t any movement, works your shoulders, deltoids, triceps, hipflexors, and gluts. It has a lot of the same benefits of pushups.
If you’re interested in buying any of the items I talk about in this piece, head over to my list at thisnext.com: Eight Training Essentials.
Ab Wheel
This is a simple, no nonsense piece of training equipment that everyone can afford, and find space for. What’s more with regular use, it *will* give you the abs of steel you’re looking for. I also find it a safe, and injury free way to work the abs.
Camelbak
Camelbak is a recent addition to my training regimen. Why do I like it? For one it keeps you hydrated, and that keeps your energy level up. For two you can load it with small weights to give you a makeshift weight vest. Three you can carry stuff like a jumprope, or whatever else you might want to train with. And four, it makes all the bodyweight exercises I do that much more challenging. 10x 5sets of pullups? Add 10 pounds and you’ll see the difference. Clapping, fingertip, and one-arm pushups with a 10lb pack are very challenging.
Jump Rope
Weighted jump ropes are a great full body workout. Work the ankles and legs without a lot of pounding on the heels, get a sprint workout without needing much space. Jump roping can be worked forward or backward, for 30 seconds, or 5 minutes. Throw in crossed arms, or swing the rope around twice in one jump for extra challenge.
I like to train with used climbing rope. Most climbing gyms rotate their ropes every 3-6 months. The old rope is no longer good for climbing, but it makes excellent weighted jump rope. Not heavy enough you say? Soak your rope in water, and you’ll feel the burn!Door Gym
Want to integrate pullups into your everyday routine. Here’s an easy way to do it. You’re not always at the gym, or the park where you can do pullups, and this doorgym can install in most any doorway. You can also use it for pushups, and as makeshift parallettes if you don’t have those.
Doorgym
Want to integrate pullups into your everyday routine. Here’s an easy way to do it. You’re not always at the gym, or the park where you can do pullups, and this doorgym can install in most any doorway. You can also use it for pushups, and as makeshift parallettes if you don’t have those.
Parallettes
Parallettes are a portable, practical way to do gymnastics type training in your home or apartment. You can do pushups, v-sit, l-sit, planche work, handstands, and all sorts of other core strength training using parallettes.
Yoga Blocks
Yoga blocks are not just for Yoga fiends anymore. These are indispensible training tools. Extend deeper into a pushup, work a v-sit or planche with a less stable base, or do your daily stretching, yoga blocks can help with all of these.
Forerunner 305
It’s the best runners watch I’ve found yet. Tracks your distance precisely with GPS, and also knows your speed constantly during your run. The heart monitor is better than most because it has a small watch battery as power source. Less interference with other radio devices etc. If all that isn’t enough, the watch plugs into your computer via USB, to sync a ton of data about each workout. Looking at all of this later reveals a lot, and the Garmin Training Center software is very good.
Fitness Ball
Nevermind the cheesy shows using the fitness ball on FitTV. This is serious exercise equipment. Ever try to do pushups with your legs elevated, and your hands on the ball and you’ll see what I mean. Or work the gymnastics planche with the ball providing minimal support. There are lots of very challenging exercises you can do with these.
As a personal trainer, I find people at parties asking for advice from time to time. What gyms are good, how to I improve at this or that, how do I lose the tummy?! That’s the classic question. I do find a lot of people get to a certain point and reduce things to “I don’t have the time”, or “I’m too stressed to find more time in my day” or some such. It’s almost a litany, and living in Manhattan, it’s very understandable.
Many people find themselves still at work when it’s 7pm or 8pm at night.
That’s why this article Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time really struck a chord. It’s by Steve Wanner a partner at Ernst & Young. With four kids and a wife at home, he found himself working long hours, not having enough time for family, feeling guilty and generally unsatisfied. It’s a familiar feeling to many of us. But he managed to turn it around by changing his routine, cutting out the drinking, waking up and exercising, and taking ample breaks during the day.
He turned things around quite dramatically, a very interesting read.
