Core Series -- Pillars & Physball Exercises

STOP DOING CRUNCHES, THEY ARE WORTHLESS AND WILL END UP HURTING YOU!

Front Pillar Hold -- x20-30sec
Front Pillar Arm March -- x8-10each
Front Pillar Leg March -- x8-10each
Side Pillar Hold -- x20-30sec
Side Pillar Leg Lift -- x8-10each
Glute Bridges -- x12
Glute Bridge W/ March -- x8-10each
Glute Bridge W/ Ab/Add -- x12
Physball Elbow Roll-Outs -- x8-10
Physball Elbow Circles -- x6-8each
Physball Body Saws -- x8-10
Physball Knee Tucks -- x10-12
Physball SL Knee Tucks -- x8each
Physball Straight Leg Glute Lifts -- x12
Physball Bent Leg Glute Lifts -- x12
Repeat 1-2x

Dynamic Warm-Up

Short post today.  Sample dynamic warm-up.  Start taking the time to prepare yourself properly for your exercise/activity of choice!

 

Knee Hug -2- Lunge x6ea
Inverted Hamstring x6ea
Quad Pull x6ea
Handwalks x5
Lunge -2- Instep x6ea
Ankle MOB x10ea
Wall Squats x8
90/90 Active Stretch x12ea
Hip Crossover x12
Cook Hip Lift x8ea

Repeat 1x Through

Ring Exercises, Variations, Progressions

I love the rings for variations on pretty much anything, they are a great tool for building upper body strength.  Male gymnasts possess an amazing amount of upper body strength and balance and the rings are predominantly an exercise of pure strength.  Recently, the use of rings and other suspension devices has come into vogue for the general population as well as athletes.  My driving force behind this post was the amount of horrible form and poor progressions being implemented in commercial gyms as well as my local climbing.  Shout out to Active Climbing!  Vids will be coming soon, but for now here are some stills and variation/progression ideas.

Ring Push-Ups

 

Adjust Difficulty by adjusting the height of the rings.  The higher the rings, the easier the push-up.  

3sets of 10-12reps

Ring Fall-Outs

 

Adjust Difficulty by adjusting the height of the rings.  The higher the rings, the easier the fall-out.  Keep Abs tight and do not let your low back sag towards the ground.  Cup your wrists to engage core and back musculature.

Can make harder by...

  Widening your hands as you fall out

  Falling out and making a wide heart shape with hands

  Extending one arm at a time

  Extending one arm and making a heart shape with the other

Depends on variation used, but 3 sets of 6-8 is usually good.

Inverted Rows

 

Start with perfectly straight body and row up to where your hands are even with your chest.

Can make harder by...

  Elevating feet on a box

  Holding the up position for time

3sets of 8-10reps 

Tucked Rows

 

Get into a tuck position, with back relatively parallel to the ground with arms straight and then maintaining the tuck position, row your body up.

3sets of 4-8reps depending on strength levels

Piked Rows

 

Get into a hanging piked position, with back relatively parallel to the ground with arms straight and then maintaining the piked position, row your body up.

3sets of 4-8reps depending on strength levels.

Horizontal Muscle Ups

Start with Rings at arms length while lying on the floor,  pull up and get one elbow over the ring and pause, then extend arm and muscle up.  Keep your body straight the whole time.

Can make harder by...

  Elevating feet on a chair/box.

3sets of 2-5 each side

Front Lever Progressions

The Front Lever

When I first started climbing I was instantly attracted to this exercise and after trying and failing many times, I made it a goal to be able to do this exercise.  Well after some research, hard work, and experimentation, I am now able to pull a pretty decent front lever.

I have worked with many different athletes thus far in my career and feel as though this movement can be trained and performed by a variety of athletes other than climbers and gymnasts, but it takes proper progressions to get to that point.  And yes, I know body proportions will make this movement much more difficult for some to complete, but the gentleman above (John Gill) was over 6'2 and was said to be able to hold a front lever for over 30s while holding a conversation.

Here are some progressions to experiment with, along with some suggested set and rep schemes for each exercise.  Still working out the kinks of this whole video making and posting so bear with me until I get it on lock down!  Part 2 will focus on other progression schemes as well as some advanced front lever variations.