Athlete In The City

The “hollow body hold” is a really easy exercise for anyone to do. Easy as in simplicity, but it will work your abs like crazy. I would start with 30 second sets.  Please beware to *NOT* arch your back, keep it flat against the floor at all times.

What also makes this a great exercise is it doesn’t take up much space, you can do it while watching tv, in a hotel room, or pretty much anywhere…

I know how everybody likes to avoid, or just slack on their stretching.  I do it too.  But you know, stretching is important!  Flexibility promotes circulation, and nutrients at the joint, and discourages injury.  My personal feeling is it helps muscle to recover and grow quicker too, though I’m not sure if this is scientifically proven.  Anyway, on to the good stuff.

First stretch is to work each shoulder in opposite directions.  This picture is the basic version.  Even you big guys out there who lift a lot (or should I say especially you guys) should be doing this.

Once you work your fingers together doing this, you’ll eventually be able to touch your fingers together like this:

An advanced version takes it further, so you grab the whole hand as far as possible:

I’ve seen it done where people actually can grab the opposite wrist.  I’m not there yet, but hey, it’s worth trying!

Next is your basic backbend.  When you do this push the weight up into the shoulders as much as possible to reduce strain on the lower back:

We’re not done yet.  There are still two more ways that I know of to stretch the shoulders.  This next one is a great opposing stretch if you work the pecks a lot.  This really stretches straight across the front of your chest.  It also stretches the elbow joint.  I should know the name.  It will feel like the hamstring of your arm if you will, which really doesn’t get stretched very often:

Obviously you can use as long a piece of rope as you need to.  I’ve seen younger people touch the hands together.  So there is really no limit to how flexible you *COULD* be here.

Last but not least, let’s work the shoulders for the illusive manna move.  This stretch will feel uncomfortable at first, because you may have never stretched your shoulders this way before.

And that’s it.  Over and out, and Happy New Year.  Good luck with all your training in 2008!

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.

You’re not alone if your yoga instructor or lifting trainer are constantly reminding you to breathe. It happens to me all the time.

Before you can practice your training with good breathing technique you’ll need to understand the what and why. When you exert yourself to lift a weight, or lift your body, you raise your blood pressure. If you hold your breath, you raise your blood pressure even higher. Not only is it an additional strain on your body, but it makes you weaker.

At the most basic level you should simply remind your self to breathe at all. Some breathing is better than holding your breath. But for optimal training you’ll want to breath *OUT* while doing the hardest part, the “positive” portion of the exercise. For a pullup this is going up, for a pushup, it is when you lift your body off the ground. For a bench press it is as you lift the weight away from your body. Conversely, you’ll want to breath *IN* while you’re doing the release part, letting yourself down from the pullup bar, allowing the barbell to come down, or easing your body towards the floor - the down phase - of a pushup.

If you’re doing yoga it may be less obvious when to breathe in and when to breathe out. Luckily most yoga classes provide the constant advice and direction that will keep you on the path to optimal breathing technique.

It is also worth mentioning that proper breathing is important to stretching and running as well. But I’ll leave those discussions to future postings.