core stuff

[ilanarama]

I keep telling people I'm going to post my core routines, and then I end up typing and cutting and pasting elsewhere. Time to post things here for my own reference (as well as everyone else's).

I typically run daily in the mornings. Twice a week (which sucks; I should be doing this 4-5x/week, and I did manage 3x/week in the months going into CIM) I do an afternoon core/stretch workout. It takes me between 15 and 30 minutes depending on what I choose to do, which is often dictated by what I'm listening to. (Bits of the book I'm reading. Episodes of Welcome to Night Vale, Warhorses of Letters, or Cabin Pressure. You get the picture.)

Part 1: two sets of (more or less) Jason Fitzerald's Functional Core for Runners (scroll down to see the workouts). This takes about 15 minutes, and if I'm super-pressed for time this is all I do. Here is how I do it:

0. 15 push-ups, untimed. I used to do 10. I hope to do 20 eventually.

Then I do the following six exercises (he describes them on that page) for one minute each. The planks I hold for 1 minute; the others I hold one leg for 10 seconds, then swap to the other, so each exercise gets done 3 times on each side. I give myself 10 seconds between exercises, so if I start with the bicycle at 0:00 on my timer, the front plank starts at 1:10, the leg extension at 2:20 etc.

1. Modified bicycle, swapping sides every 10 seconds.
2. Front plank on elbows. I do 10 leg lifts with each leg from this position, then hold for the rest of the minute.
3. Leg extension, swapping sides every 10 seconds.
4. Side plank on left. I do 10 leg lifts and then hold for the rest of the minute.
5. Side plank on right. Ditto ditto.
6. Modified bird dog, swapping sides every 10 seconds.

Then I repeat from step 0 for a second set. For a while, once I was doing this regularly, I extended the planks to 1:20 each (adding another minute in total) and then to 1:30. But I have recently read an interesting article that suggests that holding planks is not as good as moving dynamically in the plank position and so I am thinking of trying to incorporate some of the exercises from that page.

Then I do another 15 push-ups, for a total of 45. Sometimes I do more in between other exercises. I think the most I've managed is 75.

Part 2: A set of Myrtl exercises from Coach Jay Johnson's "General Strength Exercises". I almost always do this as well, as it's easy and doesn't take long. Most of them are from his Myrtl video, which is the first video on that page (I do them out of order since I'm starting from hands and knees) but Scorpions and Iron Crosses are from the Cannonball routine (the third video on the page). This is untimed.

1. Donkey kicks, 10 with each leg.
2. Donkey whips, 10 with each leg.
3. Hydrants, 10 with each leg.
4. Leg circles, 10 in each direction with each leg.
5. Clamshells, 10 on each side followed by 15 leg lifts (foot pointed up 5, down 5, neutral 5)
6. Scorpions, 10 on each side, alternating (total 20)
7. Iron Crosses (upside-down Scorpions), 10 on each side, alternating (total 20)

I should probably incorporate more of these exercises, especially the standing ones which I don't do any of. But this is a start.

Part 3: I try to do at least one of the following things.

A: Foam roll my ITBs, my quads, my calves.
and/or
B: Balance exercises on the dyna-disk - standing on one foot and doing various poses. Also unweighted one-legged squats. This helps my peroneal tendinitis issues.
and/or
C: Weight work with my dumbbells: chest press, military press, lunges, squats, deadlifts. I just got some adjustable BowFlex dumbbells (they are really nifty!) so this is a new thing.
and/or
D: Calf raises on the stairs back up from the basement.

And there you have it. Still a work in progress, but I think it's helping me keep all my parts in working order.

Comments

[whatistigerbalm]

I am astonished at how many of these I can do; I guess doing some of these (in expanding but basic forms) for five months straight does yield results! I'll see later how I do with the ones that defeated me.

[ilanarama]

For me it wasn't so much not being able to do them as being super-shaky toward the end of the minute of plank (and I couldn't do the side planks with the leg lifts at first - and I think I could only hold them for ~45 sec) - but especially it was feeling sore the next day! Now I'm not sore the next day, so I should probably do them daily....

[blnchflr]

Gah :)

[ilanarama]

You should add these exercises to your to-do list!

[blnchflr]

You're Wonder Woman; the rest of us mortals… :)

[boutell.livejournal.com]

Wow. Recently I've gotten back to:

10 sun salutations
15 push-ups
A few seconds in crow pose
A two-mile run

And freakin' leavin' the house to go dancin' at least three nights a week.

But next to you, I remain the tiniest tree frog, as the lady said.

[ilanarama]

Dancin' ain't chopped liver!

And like I said, this routine is what I should be doing more often than I actually do.

[barkley.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I like this. I have been doing 1.0 and 1.2 (without the leg lifts) every morning on the theory that it's short enough that I can not skip it for fear of being late to work. But you have motivated me into adding some more numbers into this as most of these can be done anywhere without special equipment.

[ilanarama]

The leg lifts on the front plank actually make it easier, I think, unlike the leg lifts on the side plank which are harder. The bicycle hurt the most before getting used to it, ergo I think it's probably the best core exercise.

I am a big fan of things that can be done without special equipment since I don't like having to go somewhere or pay to exercise.