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.
(more…)
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!
(more…)
by Cori Lefkowith | Jul 1, 2014 | Blog, Bodyweight, Exercises
When we think of pushing exercises we often turn to the push up or the bench press. But dips and even overhead presses are also great PUSH exercises.
However, unlike the bench press or push up, which are HORIZONTAL push exercises, they are VERTICAL PUSH EXERCISES.
When you want to work your chest, triceps and shoulders from a different angle and strength your push up, add in dips to your workout routine!
(more…)
by Cori Lefkowith | Jun 18, 2014 | Blog, Exercises
Crawling – Once we learned how to walk, we thought we would never go back.
We’d found a much easier more efficient way to get around and we could run, which got us places faster.
So why on earth would we go back to crawling?!?
Because it is a great full body cardio exercise! And it’s a really hard one at that! (Plus you can do it anywhere even if you don’t have a ton of space!)
It’s so hard that many of us can’t really remember how to get our bodies to do the movement. We lack the coordination we once had.
Once we learn how to crawl again, not only can we improve our coordination, but we can also strengthen our core and improve our cardiovascular conditioning.
Here’s how to do a basic crawl and some regressions and fun variations to get you started!
(more…)
by Cori Lefkowith | Jun 12, 2014 | Blog, Exercises
You don’t have to buy a ton of fancy exercise equipment to get in a great workout at home.
Actually you can use a ton of things you already have around the house and even make a few simple, cheap pieces of equipment and have everything you need to get in a great home workout.
For instance, towels make great sliders for a full body workout. And a larger bath towel or moving blanket can help you get in a great cardio workout without having much room. Just check out the Towel Taz.
And if you want to make a great functional weight to use to load down your exercises, you can easily make a slosh pipe.
Slosh Pipes are an awkward and functional weight that cost about $10 to make.
They are easy to make and are a great uneven weight to challenge your core and work on your stabilization and strength.
The traditional slosh pipe is about 6-8 feet long and filled about 1/2 to 2/3 full with water or sand to really challenge your core.
However, if you want to use the slosh pipe in your house, you may find this length doesn’t really work. That is why I started using a 2 ft slosh pipe.
With the shorter slosh pipe there are exercises you can do that you can’t do with the longer pipe; however, the longer pipe can be a great option to really work your core if you have the space.
Below is a guide to help you make your own slosh pipe (I’ll show you how to make the shorter one, but the same directions can also be applied to make a longer one). Also, below are some great exercises to do with your 2ft Slosh Pipe!
(more…)
