Push Pull questions

[Shaz]

Hi, I did Push Pull today. This is the one I've been most looking forward to because I really like heavy full body weight workouts. I definitely wasn't disapointed - it's a great workout, really thorough, time efficient, and nice slow reps that you can go heavy with.

I just have questions about 2 of the exercises (this was my first experience with a stability ball).

Chest flys - are you supposed to rest your head back on the ball? I couldn't quite tell. I couldn't seem to get into a position where my head was comfortable, and my neck hurt more than my chest!

Outer thighs - I haven't really done much floor leg work as I tend to favour the standing work. Well, it showed because I could barely get each leg off the floor! I couldn't believe how high Cedie can lift each leg without losing alignment. My question - is the leg that is kneeling supposed to ache as much as the leg that you are trying to lift?

Thanks!
Sharon.

 

[LAEnggren]

Sharon
From my experience of floor work the leg you are kneeling on hurts to I believe because it is balancing an dsupporting your body I am not an expert but thatis what I think
I do not know about the stability ball I od not have one but if your neck hurts I would rest your head then you would feel it in the chest
Lisa

 

[TarHeelMom]

Hi Sharon!

I'm a Kathy, although not Cathe , so here's my two cents' worth for ya --

I think your concern on the chest flyes is quite appropriate -- you really don't want to strain your neck. On the chest flyes, if you'll look at Cathe and the other cast members on the video you'll see that everyone is in a slightly different place on the ball. Some have their heads on the ball, some don't. The message there is: find what's comfortable for you within the boundaries of good form. For myself, I prefer to scoot way out on the ball so that my neck is fully supported, my head's in alignment with my neck (not drooping backwards) and my shoulders and upper back are still on the ball. My lower back isn't on the ball much -- I'm 5'4" so most of me is hanging out there in mid-air in this position. Then I check my alignment in the mirror to make sure I'm in a nice plank position, not letting my spine and fanny droop. This requires you to really engage your core, glutes and hams to stabilize your whole lower body, keeping your navel pressed toward your lower back and that nice clean horizontal line -- but that's good stuff, right? Doing the flyes in this position works best for me because I feel stable, my upper body is supported and my neck and head are comfortable.

And on those floor leg lifts -- you bet that the supporting leg is going to have a real fire going! Leaning into the ball makes that supporting leg and hip work hard to stabilize your body, and thta supporting hip area can really cramp up and burn, especially if you're new to this kind of exercise. The leg that lifts really doesn't have to go even as high as Cedie's (she is super-human!) -- the most important thing to watch is the position of your knee and foot, and not to drop your foot all the way to the floor on the way down (oh, is that tempting!) Cathe gives great form pointers on this, just listen for them. You might also want to pause the video after one leg and give that support leg and hip a nice stretch before going to the other side. I find that I do this almost every time I do floor leg work (whether on the ball or not) -- it's a quick stretch (a break, not a vacation ;-)), but boy, does it help! Then I can crank out that second leg's work with much better form.

Hope this helped!


http://www.click-smilies.de/sammlung0903/sport/sport-smiley-003.gif Kathy S. http://www.click-smilies.de/sammlung0903/spezial/spudniks/spudniklifter.gif