Abdominal muscle exercises, lower back pain exercises and injury prevention
Whether you aim to run a marathon, perform step aerobics, scrummage for Harlequins, or cycle the London to Brighton, you shouldn't neglect a proper conditioning routine as part of your training if you want to achieve muscular balance and avoid injury.
The best prepared sportsmen and women tend to have a comprehensive routine, often involving muscles that are not directly connected with their particular activity.
One of the most common sites of injury, regardless of the sport, is the lower back region. There is a whole host of causes for lower back pain; for example, in runners weak or inflexible hamstrings can often be the culprit. Poor posture is another common cause, so conditioning of the muscles that help to maintain solid posture should form part of the schedule of anyone who exercises regularly, whatever their discipline or sporting standard.A variety of muscle groups contribute to good posture and all require attention. Naturally the lower back muscles can do with strengthening. Work on the abdominal muscles is also important because it will complement work you do on the back region; it is dangerous to develop muscular imbalances by working on just one side of the body. The contribution of the gluteal and hamstring muscles should not be overlooked when considering sound posture and preventing injury to the back region.It makes sense, therefore, to develop a session that will work on all these areas and give the right level of conditioning for injury prevention. As a number of different exercises are used in the following training session, it is possible to construct a mini-circuit. But don't get the idea that I'm talking about normal 'circuit training', with athletes working eyeballs-out in a gym, trying to pump out as many reps of each exercise in as short a time as possible. Far from it - if you adopt that attitude to this particular session, you'll be risking injury rather than helping to prevent it. Your emphasis here should be on completing the exercises in a controlled manner so that there is no loss of form and no unnecessary tension throughout the body. For this reason I often call the session the 'No-rush Circuit'. There is no stopwatch involved and no target heart rate; the intention is to gently condition the muscles rather than to boost cardiorespiratory fitness. Six exercises are involved and you simply move from one to the next to complete one circuit. If you incorporate such a session, once or twice a week, into your exercise schedule, it will prove valuable, whatever your sport or activity.
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This dynamic, total-body move works the legs as well as the shoulders with a focus on endurance. You're limited by how much weight your shoulders can handle, which is typically less than what your legs can handle. For that reason, you may want to do more reps of this move or do it for a certain length of time (30-60 seconds) to build more endurance. You'll also find that this move can raise your heart rate as well, making it a great overall exercise.
have to admit, I've been glued to the TV every night watching the Olympics and remembering when I was a young swimmer. I dreamed of being an Olympic athlete myself. Two-hour training sessions every day for two years cured that right up for me but, even now, I find myself inspired by these athletes in my own workouts. Sure, I'm only running a few miles at a dead-snail pace rather than the 5-minute-miles of the marathon runners, but thinking of those athletes makes me itch to see how fast I can really go.
I'm sure thousands of boys and girls will be begging for gymnastics or swimming lessons after watching the Olympics, but I think adults are inspired too. Maybe we go for a faster run than normal or maybe we hop in the pool to see if we remember how to do the butterfly. What about you? Do the Olympics light a fire in you or do they make you tired just watching them? Vote in this week's poll and then leave a comment to tell us what you think about the Olympics.
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