Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Friday Afternoon Workout: How Not to do Crunches!!

Friday Afternoon's workout was going well until I lost concentration and messed up my form on my abs. I didn't really hurt myself, but I felt enough discomfort that I chose to alter my workout, which was the smart thing to do. But, I should have been more careful in the first place. Like most people who workout, I focus on my abs (probably more than I should). America seems to have developed a fixation on abs. I am not sure when this developed, maybe it was John Smith's six pack abs that caused Pocahontas to fall in love with him and save his life or maybe Abraham Lincoln's lack of abdominal definition led South to think that the North wouldn't put up much of a fight, who knows? But, everyone seems to be fixated on flat abs, and crunches are an easy way to injure yourself if you're not careful. The biggest issue seems to be neck strain because people use or slip into an improper form and push their chins into there collar bone as they pull themselves up, which is exactly what I did while working out on last Friday. Luckily, realized what I was doing wrong and decided to alter my workout away from abs. Once I felt the pain in my neck and shoulders, I decided to do some thing else rather than attempting to correct my form. I figured at that point there was a pretty good chance that I would make the strain worse no matter how much my form improved.

 
The Workout:

 
Jump Rope 15 intervals of 90 seconds of work and 15 seconds rest

 
Intervals 90 seconds work 15 rest:

 
  1. Standard Crunches
  2. Crossover Crunch Left
  3. Crossover Crunch Right
  4. Bird Dogs
  5. Fire Hyrants
  6. Standard Crunches
  7. Crossover Crunch Left
  8. Crossover Crunch Right
  9. Bird Dogs
  10. Fire Hyrants

 Jump Rope 5 intervals of 90 seconds of work and 15 seconds rest
 

2 comments:

  1. I have a question for you, crunch-guru (and please don't laugh too much at me!)... BUT is that ab-circle thing a crock? I wondered if it actually would help since it changes the position entirely.

    Just curious. :)

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  2. I am skeptical of all home fitness equipment. Mainly because people buy them and then don't use them enough to justify the expense. Also, there is often a more effective way to work the same body parts without the aid of expensive equipment. If you are interested something like the ab circle, I would suggest the read about what muscele group it say that it is working then google search excercies for that area. I bet you will find exercices that work the same area in a similar fashion and just as well that you can do at home without buying eqipment.

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