by Cori Lefkowith | Jul 17, 2014 | Blog, Core, Exercises
All too often our posterior chain is neglected in our workouts – especially our core workouts.
We tend to focus on the abs and do a whole bunch of crunches.
But if we want to strengthen our core, we have to work more than our abs. We have to work everything from our shoulders to our knees on both our front and backside.
And one great exercise to strengthen the backside of your core is the Superman Exercise.
The Superman Exercise is a great bodyweight core move that works the stabilizing muscles of your back as well as your glutes, hamstrings and shoulders.
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by Cori Lefkowith | Jul 14, 2014 | Blog, Workouts
When training for a race, you have to log the miles.
However, if there are days when you can’t get outside to do your runs or rides, you can still train and improve your endurance inside the gym
And that doesn’t mean you have to spend 30 minutes to an hour doing steady-state cardio on some boring piece of cardio equipment.
Below is one of the endurance workouts we love to do. It is a challenging workout that will improve your endurance while changing up the exercise you do every minute.
If you aren’t training for a race or endurance sport, it is still a great way to build up up your endurance.
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by Cori Lefkowith | Jul 12, 2014 | Blog, Bodyweight, Exercises
Workouts should challenge you but they should also make you smile.
Having fun with your workouts doesn’t mean you aren’t working hard enough. You can get great results while having fun!
Below are three partner exercises that are sure to make you smile, but will also challenge your entire body.
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by Cori Lefkowith | Jul 9, 2014 | Blog, Foam Rolling, Pain Relief
If you suffer from back, hip or SI joint pain (aka if you sit at a desk all day!), then you need to make yourself a peanut.
The peanut is a simple, CHEAP homemade tool you can make in like five minutes and it will alleviate a ton of your desk job aches and pains.
Below are instructions to help you make a peanut and then use it all along your back!
How to make a Peanut:
“Ingredients:”
Athletic Tape
2 Tennis Balls
Scissors
Place the two tennis balls together. Wrap them together with athletic tape. Make sure the balls are tightly together as you wrap. Keep wrapping them together until the balls are completely covered.
I like to cover them with two layers of tape.
Make sure all tape edges are covered or firmly pressed down so nothing can catch or come up.
Then cut the tape and press the end down firmly on the side so it won’t come up. Then wrap a piece around the center of the two balls.
Make sure as you wrap you wrap tightly so the balls can’t move around a ton!
Then use your new peanut to roll out!
How to roll out using your new Peanut:
There are a number of different muscles along your spine that can lead to back pain and reinforce tight hips. Therefore you want to not only focus on the area right around your hip, but also along your spine to alleviate pain.
And if you have neck, shoulder or upper back pain, you may find rolling out your thoracic spine with a peanut helps!
To roll out your entire back using a peanut, place the peanut on the ground and lay over it so that a ball will be on each side of your spine. You do not want the ball to hit your spine. You want a ball to dig into the muscles on either side of your spine. (The picture below shows good starting placement for the ball if you were to be lying on it on the ground.)
Lay on the ground with the peanut starting above your glutes. Tuck your knees into your chest and then relax your feet back down to the ground.
Touch your feet back down and crunch your lower body again, bringing your knees into your chest. Hold for a second and release.
Repeat that lower body knee tuck a few times then move the balls up higher, making your way all the way up your back along your spine.
Move the balls only a little bit up your spine each time. Spend longer on any tender spots. You can even just relax over the balls and breathe.
Tuck your knees while you work up your low back.
As you reach your mid to upper back, start performing a crunch with your upper body instead of tucking your knees to your chest.
Remember to relax over the peanut longer on any super tight spots.
For video instruction on how to use the Peanut (and other trigger point moves to alleviate common aches and pains), check out my RStoration Program!
by Cori Lefkowith | Jul 7, 2014 | Blog, Exercises
In every day life, we move forward and backward. We move side to side. We move up and down. We rotate.
We move in EVERY DIRECTION.
Yet all too often our workouts don’t force us to move in all the different planes of motion.
And how functional is it really to train only one plane of motion?
NOT FUNCTIONAL AT ALL!
Our workouts should make us feel and move better, which means we need to move in every plane of motion like we do in every day life.
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by Cori Lefkowith | Jul 3, 2014 | Blog, Bodyweight, Core, Exercises
Crunches, planks and sit ups are usually our go to core exercises.
And all of them are core moves done on the ground.
BUT some of the best core moves can actually be done hanging from a pull up bar.
Want to blast those lower abs and work your back and lower body at the same time?
Then you need to try these 10 Hanging Core Exercises!
Most of these moves are more advanced and will require you to engage your lats (which is great if you are working on pull ups!) Beginners will want to start with moves one, two or even six before mixing it up!
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