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Home >> Diet Forums >> Core muscle exercises. OUCH!

Core muscle exercises. OUCH!

featherish said: "Sounds pretty tough!"

Heather said: "These are the exercises that we love to hate. Lately, we have been doing them in my martial arts class. Some are exercises used to train firefighters, and do they BURN! Bear Crawls. We do these as another student holds on to our belt, and we drag them between our legs for about 30 feet. The heaviest person I have "dragged" to date was 160 pounds. (About 20 pounds more than what I weigh) You can feel these in your buttocks and thighs. Wheel barrel Races. Remember doing these when you were young? We wheel barrel race going both frontwards and backwards. This targets your shoulders and upper arms. Push Ups. About 100 of them each session. Shoulders and arms again. Balance exercises. The plank has a million different variations and works to tighten up your abdominal muscles for better balance and control. Any of these are very helpful, and can be done for pain and suffering! LOL."

Heather said: "Thanks Unique :) I was sort of shocked I had this in me. I think the last time I did bear crawls or wheel barrels was in 8th grade for a fitness test, and that was a LONG time ago. As for the weight, I finally had an epiphany. I just don't care what the scale says anymore. I'm pretty sure that my body composition is changing dramatically despite the number set my scale says every day. I have decided the body type that I want is what I would describe as a "warrior". That means I'm going to have a lot of muscle mass and less fat mass. Unfortunately I haven't used a measuring tape to keep track of inches lost, but I was able to wear a pair of jeans that I haven't fit into in over a year. That says a lot more than what a scale would say! I read that you are getting back into some old closet classics as well..doesn't it feel great?"

Heather said: "The stronger your stomach is, the better your ab muscles look.. I vow to one day look good in a bikini!"

Heather said: "They do! They also make you sore the next day :) Our teacher recently added the "Bridge" as a new way to do pushups. I think we did about 10 of them last night. That move used to be easy for me when I was younger, but I got through it.."

Heather said: "*Dumb Question* How do you do a no hands bridge?"

Heather said: "The way we have been doing it, you lay flat on your back. Bend your knees and put your hands behind your head. Push up so you look like a an upside down U. Belly facing up. Drop down gently, and push up again! It hurts :eek:"

Heather said: "Making headway on the core strength! I replaced my desk chair with a stability ball on August 27th. I haven't went back to a regular chair yet. (My chair was solid wood and hurt my bottom, anyhow) I think this along with the hard training at the dojo is making my abs start to take on a bit of shape. I still have a hard time doing the plank though. For some reason it hurts my lower back."

Darren said: "Functional strength is great to build. It's one thing to have "beach muscles" and another thing entirely to be strong. Good for you on the workouts."

UniqueMystique said: "Yeoooooouwch!!!!!!! I'm impressed! Can't understand why you aren't dropping that last little bit.....I think I'd be curled up in the corner somewhere....hehehehe!"

spectrachic311 said: "Holy cripes, guys...those all sound killer! Having a strong core is extremely important for your back. You really need that muscle strength to protect you. One of my favorite core strengtheners is a resistance band crunch. Wrap a resistance band around the base of something really sturdy, like a heavy table or the leg of one of the gym machines. Lie on a mat so that each hand is grabbing one end of the resistance band. Wrap the ends of the band around your hands until you have the desired resistance and then do a crunch while pulling down on the bands with your arms. Do 2-3 sets of about 12 reps each and the next day muscles will hurt that you didn't even know you had :)"

spectrachic311 said: "Haha...yeah...sorry I didn't specify how your hands are supposed to go. You hold them above your head and near the floor, keeping your biceps tight so that when you crunch up, your arms come forward and your abs have to "pull" the band. Hope that clarifies things :)"

Holly said: "So Qian, do you have all your weight on you feet and head? It sounds hard! :eek:"

Holly said: "That sounds difficult....to say the least :eek: . Probably becasue I have more a farmer's build than a dancer's build. :)"

Holly said: "Are your hands resting on the ground (with the bands wrapped around your wrists) or do you put them behind your head?"

lotusleaf said: "ive been using the ball to do my core muscles as it is less impact on my back, but i agree, theres no point just having muscles to look good if your core strength lets you down :)"

lotusleaf said: "im going to try some of those ones as some i will def be able to do, and hate doing ab work as it hurts! But will give thise a go in a kind of circuit training :)"

Qian said: "I've been supplementing excercises like that with my weight traing lately. It's alot of fun, a good break to the norm. An interesting note on bear crawls, push ups, and balancing. Have you ever watched a baby when they are first starting to crawl and walk? They are always doing work like bear crawls and push ups. It's how their muscles develop, they definitely help in building muscle and making them stronger."

Qian said: "I love bridging. It stretches everything out. I've been working on a no hands bridge. That really strengthens my neck and abs. I like front bridges too."

Qian said: "Start off just like you said and when you are up to your head relax and fold your hands across your chest. It sounds like it is very stressful, but its not and it really is relaxing. I'm trying to work up to 1 min, i'm at about 40 secs now."

Sassysurfnic said: "I did a no-hands bridge in dance only thing was the right leg was straigtened a bit and the foot was arched and pushed out and toe pointed(always pointed toes :) ) and we attempeted it as a normal bridge(hands going back over your head to catch yourself when you touch the ground) but when we just about got there, we just let our fingers bearly touch the ground or so. It looked very graceful AND we had to hold it. This was the opening of one of our dances so we had to hold it for about 2 counts of 8. It took a while to get used to it but let me tell you a couple of these and you had abs of steel! I can still do them but I can't hold it as long as I used to and then come back up all slow like and graceful. Anywho, they work wonders for your abs."

Ms.Brender said: "I have an even dumber question! What is a bridge? :o"

Ms.Brender said: "Thanks Billabong for all the suggestions! I can remember the swimming one from jr. high. OUCH! Still gives me nightmares. :eek: Seriously, I might give it a try!"

Billabong7329 said: "Sorry don't mean to get off topic with the bridges thing, i just wanted to maybe suggest some more core work outs. I use to do these when i was in football. We had to do a combination of different sit ups/core excercises that equaled up to 1000 reps. It seems like crazy at first, but if you start out at 100 one week, then add 100 every week it will be cake after a few weeks. 30 seconds=50 reps Note: I dont remember everything we did, so just do a combination of w/e you can do to equal your necessary reps for w/e week you might be on. [B]Regular Sit up(25 reps):[/B] Well, just do a regular sit up. Put your hands across your chest, and do a full sit up [B]Crunches (50 reps):[/B]Harder version of sit up. Put your hands behind your head, and have your legs in sit up position, now cross your legs and lift them off the ground. The only thing that should be on the ground is your butt and back. Now try to touch your elbows to your knees, or as close as you can get( i could never get that far haha) [B]One legged sit up?(25 reps)[/B] Get in a regular sit up position. Now put one of your legs over your other leg, like when girls wear dresses, how they cross their legs.( sorry best way to explain lol.) Put your hands behind your head. If you cross your right leg over your left, then your goal is to touch your left elbow to your right knee. Do the same for the other side. [B]Swimming(30 seconds)[/B]lay down completley flat with your arms at your side. Don't sit on your hands unless you absolutely need to ( this makes it easier) Now raise your feet about 6 inches from the ground. Now do a swimming motion with your feet. [B]Scissors(30 seconds)[/B] Same thing as swimming, except instead of moving your feet up and down, move them like scissors. Move them out, then back in. [B]Superman(30 seconds)[/B] lay on your chest with your arms out in front of you and feet straight behind you, like your superman flying through the air. Now raise your arms chest and legs off the ground, all that should be touching is your stomach. I found this to be the second hardest excercise we did. [B]The Tuffy(20 reps)[/B]forgot the name to this one sorry lol. The positioning is the same as superman, except on your back. So lay on your back and have your hands straight out behind your head like your reaching for something, and your legs flat on the ground. Now raise your hands and legs up in the air, like your making a U with your body. Try and touch your toes with your hands. VERY HARD at least for me lol [B]Feet kicks?(10 reps each way)[/B] This one requires a partner. lay on your back with your hands at your sides. now have your partner stand a little bit further then the edge of your feet and have them hold their hands up to about their waist. Now the person whose laying down kicks their legs up and hits the person's hands. The partner then throws your legs down to the ground ( not too hard, this is just for some resistance.) DONT LET YOUR FEET HIT THE GROUND. thats the whole point to this excercise. then kick your feet up again to the left this time, then to the right, then back to the middle. do 10 reps in each direction. Ok thats all i can remember right now. This stuff really is crazy tough. I can remember the first day doing this, The second i got home and layed down, i couldnt even get back up out of bed, my stomach was so sore. But after 5 days, take a two day rest, then continue the work out, and you should be fine. Remember this was a work out for a football player. So don't go overkill or anything. These are just some suggestions for a variety of different core work outs! Good luck everyone"

Billabong7329 said: "no problem, just thought it would add some variety to some of your workouts. Remember to not be frustrated if some of them seem hard at first, do what you can do and just work at getting better, even the most athletic people in football had trouble doing these things at first, but it comes to you after awhile!"

Billabong7329 said: "good luck! Maybe you could post some feed back after so we can see how it worked out for you! You're also right about some of them, they are relatively easy ( especially the ones where you cross your legs, i found that to be the easiest. ) Once you get the easy ones down you can work your way up ! Again, good luck!"