[quote]jp_dubya wrote:
If you work in a gym, try this. You need a chest press machine that has you sitting upright. Press the weight without any part of your upper back touching the back support. No one that I have had do this comes away without believing in it.[/quote]
Wow.
Do this guys, it really is pretty awesome.
It’s everything I ever wanted from planks!
Ok I’ll explain the situation briefly I have a load of postural issues preventing me from doing exercises like squatting and deadlifting I simply don’t have the mobility to do them and I need to strengthen and stretch specific parts of my body in order to be able to squat and deadlift.
The abdominals are one of those areas I need to strengthen and which are preventing me from doing movements such as the squat and deadlift. Leg raises are not an option because I simply do not have access to a gym nor will I in the near future.
I have tried ab wheel rollouts but it seems like it is beyond my level, the force generated by the exercises seems ‘blunt’, what I mean by blunt is the exercise seems to generate a force which seems ineffective, It feels like what doing a crunch in anterior pelvic tilt would feel like.
Although maybe because I have anterior pelvic tilt I am doing ab wheel rollouts in an anterior pelvic tilt (inb4 obvious) without knowing because of the difficulty of the exercise.
If anyone wants to see what my posture is like take a look at this thread, it has pictures of my posture:
(Scroll down to about halfway on the first page)
If anyone has some other ab exercises they are willing to share, please do.
edit: by the way I have access to roughly 40kg of weight at home, a t bar row station, a ‘lop-sided’ barbell and two dumbells.
there ya go slugger
[quote]watermelon29 wrote:
I have tried ab wheel rollouts but it seems like it is beyond my level, the force generated by the exercises seems ‘blunt’, what I mean by blunt is the exercise seems to generate a force which seems ineffective, It feels like what doing a crunch in anterior pelvic tilt would feel like.
Ben Bruno mentioned the problem you describe above in this article Not Your Average BS Core Training: The Sequel , hence his recommendation for bodysaws. I have experienced difficulty maintaining a tight core and preventing my lower back from arching when performing rollouts from knees. Since switching to walkouts
Hand Walkouts - YouTube
form has been easily maintained. Quite quickly you can work your way to more demanding variations such as long lever plank shoulder taps Long Lever Plank Shoulder Taps - YouTube
I read the article and it was of no help to me, I just tried out those variations of the dead bug and they are all too easy and I quite regularly used to do lying leg raises until I stopped ‘feeling it’ so that is just too easy for me.
I gave bodysaws a try and they seem to be good and I will consider them.
What I find odd is that after one week of doing russian twists with my legs in the air and knees bent at roughly a 90 degree angle is that my pullup strength had increased dramatically, I reached 13 reps with regular pullups in my most recent pullup workout yesterday on thursday and the pullup workout before that which was on thursday, I was on 8 reps.
Over the weekend I obliterated my core with 8 sets on saturday and sunday but ever since then it seems that whatever core exercise I do seems ineffective, they seem ‘too easy’ and I’m not feeling a tight contraction and burn as I did before. Then again I have also been doing chain t bar rows which may have increased my pullup strength dramatically, I really don’t know.
As some of you may have seen from the thread which I linked which had pictures of my posture I have a forward neck posture and in order to fix that I was doing neck curls and this made my neck a lot stronger and got rid of the pains and tightness I was having in the back of my neck but roughly a week ago I quit training my neck because it didn’t seem necessary because it was already so strong at that point after training it every day for six weeks, one set everyday and my neck was getting wide at the front which really looked odd to me and I didn’t like it.
Some of you may be thinking how could I keep overloading my neck with resistance in order to keep strengthening it, after regular neck curls got too simple I started doing neck curls with my palms pushing against my forehead, the reason why I am saying this is because maybe somehow my forward neck posture is stopping me from recruiting my abdominals.
[quote]jp_dubya wrote:
If you work in a gym, try this. You need a chest press machine that has you sitting upright. Press the weight without any part of your upper back touching the back support. No one that I have had do this comes away without believing in it.[/quote]
Sounds like a good idea. Kinda like single arm DB bench press, but different! Best exercise for rotational static strength i’ve used.
Or you could just take the pacifier out of your mouth.
Needmoreideas/10
[quote]watermelon29 wrote:
@rds63799
I read the article and it was of no help to me, I just tried out those variations of the dead bug and they are all too easy and I quite regularly used to do lying leg raises until I stopped ‘feeling it’ so that is just too easy for me.
[/quote]
dude I’m not trying to be a dick, but I have trouble believing that with all the mobility issues you’re complaining of, that you can actually do those exercises properly. I’m talking about double leg lowering and hanging leg raises, dead bugs are easy…
Don’t take this the wrong way, and if you say you can do them, then you can, but just remember that there’s a difference between just doing them and doing them properly.
can you really bang out sets of hanging leg raises, slow and controlled (can reverse the movement at any point), keeping a posterior tilt to your pelvis the entire time? It’s the posterior pelvic tilt that makes the difference. Most people do their hanging leg raises like a sort of crunch which is fine for ab development but won’t help with actually strengthening the core musculature to keep your spine healthy and your body mobile.
Side bridge w/ rotation
Gymnast pikes
Bodysaw planks
Reverse crunch w/ foam roller under knees
Stir the pot (swiss ball)
Garhammer raise on decline bench
[quote]rds63799 wrote:
[quote]watermelon29 wrote:
@rds63799
I read the article and it was of no help to me, I just tried out those variations of the dead bug and they are all too easy and I quite regularly used to do lying leg raises until I stopped ‘feeling it’ so that is just too easy for me.
[/quote]
dude I’m not trying to be a dick, but I have trouble believing that with all the mobility issues you’re complaining of, that you can actually do those exercises properly. I’m talking about double leg lowering and hanging leg raises, dead bugs are easy…
Don’t take this the wrong way, and if you say you can do them, then you can, but just remember that there’s a difference between just doing them and doing them properly.
can you really bang out sets of hanging leg raises, slow and controlled (can reverse the movement at any point), keeping a posterior tilt to your pelvis the entire time? It’s the posterior pelvic tilt that makes the difference. Most people do their hanging leg raises like a sort of crunch which is fine for ab development but won’t help with actually strengthening the core musculature to keep your spine healthy and your body mobile.[/quote]
Don’t worry about that I won’t take your comment to heart you’re only trying to help me. I know it is hard to believe but I really can do these exercises without a problem they are extremely easy, with the exception of leg raises and I remember that when I started core training I used to regularly do 3 sets of lying leg raises 3x a week and I would feel it very well in my abs when doing the movement but after a while the effectiveness of the exercise just seemed to stop at a point and I think it was because the exercise was too easy.
I have tried doing leg raises ‘properly’ can’t seem to get the feel for it, although there is the possibility that I am doing something wrong. Would you be able to explain the posterior pelvic tilt in more detail? specifically for lying leg raises? maybe I’m doing something wrong without realizing it.
Keep your low back flat to the ground throughout the movement. If you do this, your pelvis must be posteriorly tilted.
[quote]watermelon29 wrote:
I have tried doing leg raises ‘properly’ can’t seem to get the feel for it, although there is the possibility that I am doing something wrong. Would you be able to explain the posterior pelvic tilt in more detail? specifically for lying leg raises? maybe I’m doing something wrong without realizing it.[/quote]
smallmike hit it on the head with his description. When you lie flat on your back, curl your pelvis up with your abs so the small of your back is flat on the floor. That’s the position you need to keep for leg lowering and hanging leg raises.
It’s much easier to do for hanging leg raises if you have one of those hanging leg raise stations that have a back to them, instead of just hanging from a pull up bar.
thanks for the help rds and mike ill figure it out eventually
I’m back 
I have given the majority of the exercises suggested an attempt, recently I have been doing this exercise:
This exercise was within an article a poster had referenced me to in this thread, I have been doing this exercise in the last few days and it imposes some sort of a level of difficulty although somewhat diminutive. In the article the next step up is regular lying leg raises although I can’t seem to do them for some reason my body just moves out of place, I know that isn’t very descriptive but I can’t describe it in further detail, my torso in combination with my legs just seems to ‘rock’ like a baby in a cradle, if that makes sense.
If anyone has further suggestions please do not hesitate to post them, I would appreciate it, thanks : )
bump
bump you say…
Well try this one. Crunches
With a twist! (not a literal one). Squeeze the crap out of a foam roller with your thighs while doing crunches. It’s a ton harder AND it’ll traction your spine. Don’t be surprised if you feel and/or hear your back going clickity pop in a good way.
