'Core Muscles' Abs / Back Strength & exercises
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As Bart said deadlifts are great. As ar squats. Any heavy lifting not only stresses you core but your entire body and gets all the muscles working together and at the ratios they were meant to. You can fuck around on a swiss ball and so as many crunches as you like but nothing will build your overall strength like these kind of movements. If you want nice abs (which is what many people make the mistake of thinking when they think 'core') then hit the treadmill.
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[quote name='BartMan']<br />
try shovelling metal for an hour and a half - that gets the intercoastal, back, abs, and hammys and shoulders and - the entire body!!<br />
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Spot on big lad.<br />
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Great upper body work out is also forking silage to cattle. <br />
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Shit - I am wasted on an office job... <img src='http://www.daimenhutchison.com/invision/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' /> -
[quote name='Irish Richard']<br />
Great upper body work out is also forking silage to cattle. <br />
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Shit - I am wasted on an office job... <img src='http://www.daimenhutchison.com/invision/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' /><br />
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Nah - it involves shovelling just about the same amount of shit <img src='http://www.daimenhutchison.com/invision/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' /><br />
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Compared to shearing and shed work, office job is fucking good. Pays a lot better too. -
As a fundraiser offer to spread metal/stones on people's driveways. All you need is a flatbed truck or ute with decent springs. A metre of small stone will cover a fair way and it is a damn good workout shovelling and spreading it.<br />
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Nick, don't give up the MTB for a road bike. You'll have to go twice as far for the same burn. It's amazing the resistance those fat tyres give.<br />
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I'm currently on a weight gain (need to put a few on in the right places for rugby) so am ineligible for the comp, but I actually find that an exercise regime helps me bulk up rather than slim down. Riding to and from work is good for the aerobic, especially if running late and having to hammer it.<br />
has anyone tried boxing? I have been doing it to harden the old body up for taking tackles and hitting the hard ground and find it is an awesome aerobic workout. Once you've practiced the old 1-2 a bit and worked out a rhythm find a favourite song with the right beat about 3-4 minutes long and try to go at that beat for the whole song. Guaranteed o be gasping after that. -
Using the 'cable cross' doing hammer throws (very similar to what Bones said) is absolutely killing me at the moment. Great for the whole stomach region + legs + arms etc<br />
Only just started doing these as part of a program last week but I can already feel the difference. <br />
The good thing with the cable cross is you can increase the weight if you need to make it harder. -
OK I have only just got back into all this but Toddy's bridge is a killer and really seems to work your core. It is easy to cheat by raising or dropping yr arse but if done properly it is a great workout exercise. Problem is that at 1st your diaghram wants to help out which means no matter how hard you suck it in, you get oxygen debt real fast.<br />
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Only done it twice - 5 reps of 30 secs and I can't hold the 5th. Trainer tells me he did fitness checks with Armed Offenders - one guy held the bridge for over an hr until they told him to give it a rest. <img src='http://www.daimenhutchison.com/invision/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' /> -
Bones et al swiss ball exercises I vouch for.<br />
But if you don't have elab equipment ie any, you can try this: lie on your back, raise your legs 5-20 deg until you find the angle most difficult to keep them up in the air and [i]then[/i] do the situps, you can also do incline ones if you want variety.<br />
Always found bent over rows really work the back and the backs of the arms. Put one knee on the bench, grab weight off floor in one hand, lift until biceps are parallel to your torso, repeat with other arm (changing knee of course). In my younger days I think I was getting up to 30-37.5 kgs, 4 sets of 10, would change sets and reps now that I know better <img src='http://www.daimenhutchison.com/invision/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' /> -
Funnily enough we're focusing on core strenght for preseason training more than running endless miles up and down the field. Here's what we did to kill ab's tonight (all three parts, upper, lower and obliques (the sides)).<br />
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First lower ab's. The good old leg raise, just lie on your back, raise your feet about 6 inches off the deck and hole them for 30 seconds, three sets will do.<br />
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Second exercise for the upper abs, called many things, but in the army we called them 'V Situps'. Point your toes at the sky at about a 60 degree angle from the ground, then try to touch your toes with your hands, just get a rhythm going, again 3 sets for 30 seconds each.<br />
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Third exercise for obliques, lying on your back, knees up, feet on the ground, simply touch your ankles with your hand, basically side to side, three sets for 30 seconds (trust me, after the first two this hurts).<br />
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To finish up we did 'bridging", which is basically holding the press-up position (but on your elbows) for about 20 to 30 seconds, the aim is to tense your trunk and keep your body rigid, a couple of sets will do that one.<br />
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The last exercise was bridging, but on your side, rest all you upper body on one elbow, feet on the ground and try and keep your trunk straight, two sets for 15 to twenty seconds each, on both sides.<br />
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It may be hard to visualise these but if you get the jist it's well worth giving it a go, I know I'm going to be bloody sore tomorrow, but the pain was made less be having a pretty hot chick (trainer) taking the guys through our fitness tonight!<br />
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[quote name='BartMan']<br />
and picked up a couple hundred bales of hay last night fund raising for rugby club - that's a pretty good upper body workout too!! Although with 4 of us, it was hard to raise a sweat!<br />
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That's good work. When I was in school I worked summers at a building supply yard. I spent a lot of my time loading and unloading pallets containing about 40 100 pound bags of cement mix. In the heat of summer. Then I used to have to deliver it to contractors, and unload by hand. Hard yakka I can tell you. I did this job for about a year. I was built like a brick shithouse in those days. I wouldn't want to do it again though. After having part of a disc surgically removed from my back last year thanks to heavy squatting, I think my heavy lifting days are over. -
deadlifts. Forgot how much they hurt the day after.<br />
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Did three sets, 10 reps, at 60kg - so not a great weight. but by christ my Hammies the next day thought I had just lifted a word record weight!!<br />
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But they are GREAT, I love them, MORE, MOREÂ
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There are no better exercises for overall power and total body training than deadlifts and squats. Actually, you can build plenty of muscle and overall size (if that's the sort of thing you are after) by focusing solely on three exercises and lifting heavy:<br />
<br />- Deadlifts<br />
- Squats<br />
- Bench press<br />
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That's it. Throw in some ab work and aerobic training, and you've got the best possible workout for building muscular strength. When I was younger, I went from training 6-7 days a week, sometimes twice per day, to training only 3 times a week and focusing only on power movements--the three above. If power is your objective, this is the way to train. But be prepared to buy new suits and trousers, because you will put on size at a rapid rate if you train properly.
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Yes, followed a programme for a while doing just that - three days a week, one each day you would cane one exercise heavy heavy and low low reps, other two exercise just heavy and mid low reps.<br />
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ALmost killed you, but was awesome, Imiss all that mad headed rugby training! Used to train with my prop, who was bigger and stronger than me - each time I would catch up in the weights department he'd pull ahead again. Everyhwere but deadlift - would beat him there, legs pretty equal, chest he was too much!!
