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Post by justregularguy on Apr 14, 2019 10:38:28 GMT
Today I woke up, ate a banana, drunk a glass water and took a hot shower.
Afterwards I warmed up my shoulders, stretched my hamstrings, warmed my up hip flexors, did some knee raises to warm up my abs..
and did a 20 seconds L-sit hold with straight arms.
Yup, it's true I did it!! It was a maximum effort, I tried really hard to maintain good form and was able to hold it for 20 seconds. When I couldn't maintain proper form I just stopped.
The day off yesterday, the hamstring stretches and training my hip flexors made all the difference. The ab strength is there, it's the flexibility and hip flexor strength that was lacking. Pointing the toes forwards also made a huge difference, it's easier to keep the legs straight this way.
So I reckon this is Week #3? So much to the 10 week plan. Next stepping stone = 30 seconds L-sit hold. Then 45 and 60 seconds. Next major goal = V-sit. Also need a little bit more hamstring flexibility to make it easier. Hip flexors need more training too.
I need to find a harder exercise to train the obliques too. I'll try twisting to the left and right in the L-sit later and see if it works them. Give me some feedback maybe you know good exercises to work the obliques!
I also need to work my glutes and hamstrings more to keep everything balanced. Will keep doing the reverse planks but add reverse hyper extension to it. Write me a comment if you know good exercises to train the glutes and hamstrings
Edit: Just did a 30 second L-sit hold. Ended up doing a combined 95 seconds of L-sit holds today so far
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Dave Reslo
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Not quite severely obese
Posts: 1,465
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Post by Dave Reslo on Apr 14, 2019 15:08:58 GMT
With bodyweight on dip bars, something like L-sits with the feet off to one side slightly is probably about as good as it gets for obliques. They will get some work from any other one-sided training you do.
Another thing I used to like to do was a one-armed plank, either with weight on one forearm or on one hand with feet elevated slightly. Make sure either way you are keeping your body square and not leaning over to the side the arm is on. It's more difficult than it sounds, I would just alternate from side to side for a while. I suppose this mostly trains the internal obliques but I'm not that sure if internal vs external focus makes a difference.
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Post by justregularguy on Apr 14, 2019 17:17:43 GMT
With bodyweight on dip bars, something like L-sits with the feet off to one side slightly is probably about as good as it gets for obliques. They will get some work from any other one-sided training you do. Another thing I used to like to do was a one-armed plank, either with weight on one forearm or on one hand with feet elevated slightly. Make sure either way you are keeping your body square and not leaning over to the side the arm is on. It's more difficult than it sounds, I would just alternate from side to side for a while. I suppose this mostly trains the internal obliques but I'm not that sure if internal vs external focus makes a difference. Just tried it out. That's a HARD as exercise! Holding a plank with one arm being really square to the ground, very very hard for me. Working against that rotation really tires out the obliques, nice one! I just did a mechanical dropset starting with the one arm plank which I could barely hold for 5 seconds on one arm and switched sides in between, then continued with the easier one leg planks, then finished with mountain climbers. That was a good recommendation Dave! I'm not a big fan of running down the clock with regular planks, but one arm and one leg planks are completely different, much harder, better exercises. Will incorporate those into my core routine now. Thank god there's more ab exercises than crunches and sit-ups, I hate those. With the one arm/leg planks I really only need to maintain posture and tension. Gotta keep my body square and my feet at shoulder width, that's really all I need to watch out for. I don't like any ab exercises with the back to the ground, I think it's super easy and inviting to do them sloppy and cheat. With the one arm/leg planks and L-sit it's like I either can hold them or I don't, cannot cheat myself there. Very good exercises.
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Dave Reslo
Caneguru
Not quite severely obese
Posts: 1,465
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Post by Dave Reslo on Apr 14, 2019 20:59:42 GMT
I don't like any ab exercises with the back to the ground, I think it's super easy and inviting to do them sloppy and cheat. With the one arm/leg planks and L-sit it's like I either can hold them or I don't, cannot cheat myself there. Very good exercises. Yeah that's a good point.
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Post by stormshadow on Apr 17, 2019 11:44:58 GMT
I do the Frog crunch too. And because of El Hefe I also like the Bullworker Ab exercises. And I do various twisting and rotational movements while standing using long lengths of tubing and bungee cord.
These are some other rotational exercises I do
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Post by justregularguy on Apr 26, 2019 20:05:03 GMT
Yup still progressing. Can easily do a 30 seconds L-sit hold with perfect form now.
I will now focus more on leg-raises and ab wheel rollouts to mix it up. The L-sit doesn't give me any more gains at this point. It will be lots of fun to play around with the ab wheel. Experts agree it's one of the very best ab exercises if done correctly... it's very very hard.
My routine right now: Leg raises Ab wheel rollouts Pallof press
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Post by justregularguy on Apr 27, 2019 12:37:03 GMT
Now that I found the best exercises for myself and am able to actually perform them properly because I build a foundation with the previous, easier exercises, I'll be able to progress much faster. This is nothing, my abs will be so much stronger by june
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Post by mr potatohead on Apr 27, 2019 17:55:47 GMT
........ If I remember right, he told me the problem was the hamstrings. Once I stretched my hamstrings for a while I was able to do it. ..... Thanks. Tight hamstrings may be the reason I can't seem to bring my legs past 90* to make them parallel with the floor when I hang. My dip bar is a walker so there is the construction of the walker that interferes with my legs from coming up on the dip, but I might not be able to get legs parallel even without that interference. When I do the frog crunch - knees bent - I have no problem bringing my knees up. I thought this was due to the weight of my extended legs and it may be, but I suspect the shortening of the hamstrings in the frog position has something to do with it too. I now realize, thanks to Michael, that tight hamstrings are preventing me from doing the L-sit while I hang. When I hang, I typically bring my legs up to the best approximation of an L-sit that I can do, but it's only about a 90* angle at the hips which isn't enough to make my legs parallel with the floor. If doing an authentic L-sit was important to me, I might work on this, but, so far, it isn't a priority with me. I do think Henry's suggestion of hot bath hamstring stretch sounds good and when I soak in a hot salt bath, I've begun doing some hamstring stretching. Can't hurt. For me, just making the effort to bring my legs up into the full L-sit is having a sufficient core strengthening effect, since it's not the only exercise I do that is tensioning my midsection.
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Post by mr potatohead on Apr 27, 2019 18:19:12 GMT
The graph, @ 4:10 of the "Full Ab Workout ..." video was quite informative. I found this one, which is a little different than the one in the vid, but the ab wheel is still #2, very close to #1: I like that he mentions the pause at maximum tension position. I turn that pause into a hold or with surges (not pulling the wheel back enough to release tension) when I really want to work it and save some time. I use the same idea with leg raises, etc.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 27, 2019 18:32:09 GMT
Now that I found the best exercises for myself and am able to actually perform them properly because I build a foundation with the previous, easier exercises, I'll be able to progress much faster. This is nothing, my abs will be so much stronger by june
Looking awesome kid. Keep at it, you'll get there.
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Michael
Caneguru
He cuts down trees. He wears high heels, suspendies, and a bra?!
Winner of Twatformetrics Spartan Challenge
Posts: 5,288
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Post by Michael on Apr 27, 2019 19:25:57 GMT
Some pretty interesting stuff on this thread. I always use to liked ab wheel rollouts. I have two ab wheels that are collecting dust. They seem to mess with my back now so I haven't done them in the longest time. Probably doing something wrong. Just like the palloff press. I remember Duece posted a video of it on another forum a couple of years ago. I tried it that day. The next morning I woke up and my back was jacked up. With both exercises You can get pretty sore in the abs. I must have been doing something wrong in my form or my back just isn't made for those exercises.
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Post by justregularguy on Apr 28, 2019 14:31:33 GMT
Thanks. Tight hamstrings may be the reason I can't seem to bring my legs past 90* to make them parallel with the floor when I hang. My dip bar is a walker so there is the construction of the walker that interferes with my legs from coming up on the dip, but I might not be able to get legs parallel even without that interference. When I do the frog crunch - knees bent - I have no problem bringing my knees up. I thought this was due to the weight of my extended legs and it may be, but I suspect the shortening of the hamstrings in the frog position has something to do with it too. I now realize, thanks to Michael, that tight hamstrings are preventing me from doing the L-sit while I hang. When I hang, I typically bring my legs up to the best approximation of an L-sit that I can do, but it's only about a 90* angle at the hips which isn't enough to make my legs parallel with the floor. If doing an authentic L-sit was important to me, I might work on this, but, so far, it isn't a priority with me. I do think Henry's suggestion of hot bath hamstring stretch sounds good and when I soak in a hot salt bath, I've begun doing some hamstring stretching. Can't hurt. For me, just making the effort to bring my legs up into the full L-sit is having a sufficient core strengthening effect, since it's not the only exercise I do that is tensioning my midsection. I can recommend supersetting your hamstring stretches with your L-sit (attempts) or leg raises
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Post by justregularguy on Apr 28, 2019 14:39:00 GMT
Now that I found the best exercises for myself and am able to actually perform them properly because I build a foundation with the previous, easier exercises, I'll be able to progress much faster. This is nothing, my abs will be so much stronger by june
Looking awesome kid. Keep at it, you'll get there. Thanks! That's what I like about this forum everyone wants to support each other and I think they wanna see you do well too, Ben. At this point I think it might be just some type of banter Mr. Average and co. do with you. At the end of the day I don't think they hold a grudge against you, they just like to “trigger“ a reaction, but I don't believe there is real malice towards you. Anyways keep it up!
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Post by justregularguy on Apr 28, 2019 14:53:37 GMT
Some pretty interesting stuff on this thread. I always use to liked ab wheel rollouts. I have two ab wheels that are collecting dust. They seem to mess with my back now so I haven't done them in the longest time. Probably doing something wrong. Just like the palloff press. I remember Duece posted a video of it on another forum a couple of years ago. I tried it that day. The next morning I woke up and my back was jacked up. With both exercises You can get pretty sore in the abs. I must have been doing something wrong in my form or my back just isn't made for those exercises. You prolly know all these things already but I had those issues too and what fixed it were the following things: Doing the pallof press completely upright at least for me doesn't feel good in the spine. I slightly bent my knees, I slightly lean foward due to bending my knees, my stand is a little bit wider than shoulder width and but my back is somewhere between straight or neutral position, no arching. I feel much stronger and tighter this way opposed to being 100% upright. It feels more natural to my body. Regarding the ab wheel rollouts or any exercise for the straight abs.. do you know the cat-cow yoga thing? Cat is arching your back, cow is rounding your upper and lower back, bringing your lumbar spine in a neutral position. Activate your glutes, just squeeze them and automatically the position of your hips changes and you bring your spine in a neutral position. This position you wanna 100% maintain all the time during your ab exercises. Focus on solely that and you will really feel it in the abs. I think many people don't have the ab strength to maintain this position and they arch their lower back which turns this more into a hip flexor exercise and makes it a lot easier. You can do much more reps this way but you don't get proper results because you shift the enphasis away from your abs to other muscle groups.
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Michael
Caneguru
He cuts down trees. He wears high heels, suspendies, and a bra?!
Winner of Twatformetrics Spartan Challenge
Posts: 5,288
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Post by Michael on Apr 28, 2019 15:16:41 GMT
Much appreciated insightsJRG. I think most of it has to do with my back history. But because of You, I may give this stuff another go. I looked into the form extensively for wheel rollouts with guys like Pavel and others.
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