The importance of floorwork

K

Kristine36

Cathlete
[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Sep-16-02 AT 02:19AM (Est)[/font][p]I was curious as to how many of us do floorwork on a weekly basis. I know that the Firm has quite a bit of floorwork in their vids, and have a couple of tapes dedicated to floorwork only.

I've found that doing floorwork 2-3x weekly allows me to work my leg muscles differently, without knee strain (I don't have problem knees yet). I'm wondering how necessary a component this is to working out? I will usually work my lower body (standing) 2 or 3x a week, and then tack on a 20 minute or so floorwork segment after cardio a couple of times a week.

Would be interested to hear your opinions on this.
 
Hi Kristine
My hips started getting wider once I stopped floorwork and started doing only standing legwork. The only floorwork I know is from Joyce Vedral's Bathing Suit Workout book and after 2 yrs I'm getting very bored with it. What videos do you use?
Thanks, Lauren
 
I wasted a lot of money on floor work tapes when I tried Lower Body Solution. The only floor work worth anything is Cathe's floorwork from PS Legs, IMO, the Firm tapes are too long and not nearly as effective.

My favorite way to do "floor work," which amounts to inner and outer thigh work, is to get a stability balll and use it like an adductor machine. You can do this any time of the day, like when you're watching TV (multi-tasking). Just put it between your legs when you're sitting in a chair and squeeze.

Also, you can use dyna bands and do outer thigh work while watching TV. Some how it doesn't feel like you're working out when you do it upstairs in front of the TV.
 
I find Firm floorwork to be very effective for the glutes and hamstrings. One of their new videos is a floorwork video. Aside from the Firm and Cathe, the only other floor work I can recall is from stability ball videos.
 
Margaret richard has good floorwork. I recently got her video Getting Better in a trade and I'm enjoying it(there's a greater variety of moves than you find in PS legs) Her website is bodyelectrictv.com. Karen Voight's Great Weighted Workout has a tough floor work section also.

HTH,
Rockette
 
Margaret Richards has very good floor work tapes. Her Non-Impact Fitness Formula & Margaret Richard The Body Electric Workout are excellent. I broke my foot in June & was unable to do anything but floor work. I went through all my old tapes & found these 2 to be very tough. I also liked Kathy Smnith Great Buns & Thigh Step Workout & Bunes of Steel #4 with Tamilee Webb. Both of these tapes use standing & floor work. Karen
 
[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Sep-16-02 AT 06:06PM (Est)[/font][p][font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Sep-16-02 AT 06:04 PM (Est)[/font]

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Sep-16-02 AT 06:03 PM (Est)[/font]

Margaret Richards has very good floor work tapes. Her Non-Impact Fitness Formula & Margaret Richard The Body Electric Workout are excellent. I broke my foot in June & was unable to do anything but floor work. I went through all my old tapes & found these 2 to be very tough. I also liked Kathy Smith Great Buns & Thigh Step Workout & Buns of Steel #4 with Tamilee Webb. Both of these tapes use standing & floor work. Also, last but not least, Cathe has an old floor work tape & upper body tape called Fit & Firm, you might be able to buy it used Karen
 
Hi, Lauren. The tapes I use that have floorwork (all Firm's) are Lower Body Sculpting, Sculpted Buns, Hips & Thighs, the floorwork from Volume 1 & 2, Firm Cardio, Firm Strength, Total Body Shaping Mix (compilation of other Firm's) and a couple of others. Many of the Firm tapes have floorwork in them, but these tend to be a little more intense, IMHO.
 
[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Sep-16-02 AT 11:41PM (Est)[/font][p]Thanks so much everyone for the suggestions! I wasn't even aware of most of these tapes and didn't even think of using a stability ball, which is now going on my list of 'exercise equip. to get' (of course, I was getting a stability ball anyway because of the new Cathe tapes that utilize it!).

I'm also going to check out Margaret Richards vids and maybe even trade a couple of my videos that I don't use for one. Also, I love the Dynaband suggestion. I never even thought of these, but see them in the Collage catelogue all of the time - I can imagine the resistance with one of those really does provide some good toning benefits. I've heard so many things about Karen Voight's GWW floor section, the only reason I've never bought this tape before was because of the length (83 minutes), but since the floorwork has gotten such rave reviews, I'm going to try and pick this one up too sometime soon. Thanks again, all. :)
 
[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Sep-17-02 AT 03:06PM (Est)[/font][p]Good floorwork is a lot more than just adductor work! Relative isolation exercises that are very common to floor work are the missing component to many of the strength training videos out there today.

For example, a number of people will not be able to effectively overload the glutes with squats, lunges and leg presses due to the quads being a significantly weaker muscle--you can only overload the weakest link in a chain. Floorwork also provides a real break to those of us with a history of knee problems.

While there may be no substitute for compound exercises like the squat, lunge and leg press, there are much more effective ways of grouping exercises to ensure effective overload to ALL the involved muscle groups as well as to minimize the stress on involved joints.
Maribeth
 
[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Sep-17-02 AT 03:42PM (Est)[/font][p]Whoops, double post!
 
Maribeth -

You may want to re-read my post and note that it does not suggest only adductor work. :) I referenced Cathe's PS Legs tape as an excellent resource which includes adductor, abductor, hamstrings, and ab work.

In a pinch when time is an issue, there is no harm in skipping the tapes and doing some quick work while you're watching TV, such as the ball in the living room suggestion.


"Real World Workouts," ..hey, that would make a great tape.
 
Honeybunch,
Yes, you did mention other muscle groups. My point is that working the groups individually is very effective IF you concentrate--meaning no working mindlessly. And, the exercises that are referred to as being for the "outer thigh" actually aren't--there isn't a muscle group on the outside of the upper leg that performs the work in the exercises. It is the gluteus medius that is the primary abductor of the hip, which, btw, is only worked minimally with squats, lunges and leg presses.

I don't think floorwork/relative isolation work is just for time pinches--to the contrary, pre-exhaust work is actually a good technique to utilize most all the time. There are loads of people for whom a pre-exhaust program would yield much better results than compound exercises alone.

We use these techniques with athletes and rehab patients alike--they work quite well for all groups.
Maribeth
 
Just seconding the opinion on Karen Voight's GWW. Burny, killer floor work. So much so that I avoid using this tape:). You might be able to find it on ebay cheap?
Kathy
 
RE: old school

Hey Kristine- Just wanted to chime in and let you know that at 34, I can no longer all of a sudden do any weight training 'cuz I blew out my back. I pulled out my old Karen Voight GWW, and also dug in my brain-pan for the old favorite floor work stuff I did when I taught in the late 80's (a la Jazzercise). Gilad has some good stuff in his vids too- as does one of the Tae Bo ones.
Anywho- after about 6 weeks back from being on the bench for 3 months, I have found my results are just about the same as when I was doing all the weighted/standing/machine stuff. I have to do more reps, of course, but it's better than nothing! I plan on changing my routine every 6 weeks, we'll see. I also do yoga now, I think that helps alot too.
:)
 
To Maribeth re: The importance of floorwork

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Sep-17-02 AT 08:57PM (Est)[/font][p]Maribeth,

I understand what you're saying about the importance of pre-exhausting the glutes, hams and upper body work. Glutes are tough for me because my knees are just awful. I saw your description of pre-exhausts for the glutes, hams and pecs in another thread and will give those ideas a try.

My question is whether the same concept of pre-exhaustion could somehow be applied to cardio work for in-shape exercisers who have joint problems. Here's my dilemma -- and I know I can't be alone in having this problem. Getting enough effective cardio is very tough with crummy knees. But good quality cardio is very important to me for a couple of reasons -- one, I'm perimenopausal and am perpetually battling the 10 pounds that don't want to die; and two, much more importantly, there is LOTS of very scary heart disease in my family. I have long been aware of that in what I eat, and I treat cardio exercise like a prescription medication. I love the high intensity stuff that Cathe does, but I can't do it often enough to create or sustain the kind of cardiovascular conditioning that I want. When I use my treadmill or elliptical trainer for low-impact relief from step or hi/lo, I find consistently that if I don't set the resistance or the incline high enough to stress my knees a bit (I feel it the next day), I don't climb past about 125 in heart rate. Sometimes I don't climb past 120. For me that barely feels like I've exerted myself.

So -- is there some pre-exhaust principle that works for cardio -- something I could do, for example, that would allow me to achieve a little more strenuous heart rate with low impact cardio?

Thanks again, by the way, for your wonderful informative posts. It is so generous of you to take the time to share your obviously vast knowledge with us all.


http://www.clicksmilie.de/sammlung/sport/sport003.gif [FONT C OLOR=Blue]Kathy S.[/FONT]
 
RE: old school

This post reminds me of Suzanne Somers' thigh master. Remember when that was really big?? Well, seems it is making a comeback!!:)
 
RE: To Maribeth re: The importance of floorwork

Kathy,
Please drop me an e-mail and we can take a look at some options for you. There's ALWAYS a way!
Maribeth
 
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