Fitness experts cut to the core to target the center of power

NEW YORK - Whether it is running, swimming, weight lifting or aerobics, fitness experts say the center of all exercise routines is the core—the abdominal, back and muscles around the pelvis—which is the seat of stability, strength and power.

Adding in exercise routines to strengthen the core can help the runner go faster, the basketball player jump higher and the everyday exerciser more easily do routine tasks from loading the car to cleaning the tub.

"The core is everything except for arms, legs and head," said Daniel Taylor, co-author with Greg Brittenham of the new book "Conditioning to the Core."

It is the mainstay of the body, according to Taylor, who is the head strength and conditioning coach at Siena College in upstate New York.

"People need to get away from saying 'I'm going to do abs today' and take a larger view," said Taylor, whose book contains more than 300 exercises, ranging from planks, squats and lunges to medicine ball and kettlebell throws presented in progressive routines.

"A lot of times people get stuck in one or two routines and get good at them," he said. "You've got to make things more challenging to keep progressing."

Taylor said everything is linked to the core.

"If you jump it's transferred to the core. If you want to be a better recreational running, strengthening the core will help because your anchor is better," he explained.

The body's girdle is how New York City-based personal trainer JR Allen describes the core.

Celebrity trainee Allen, whose clients include singer Mary J. Blige, said even the breath is involved in core work.

"It's not about sucking in the stomach but about tightening," said Allen, owner of 2 Day Be Fit. "If you watch a boxer before a punch, he'll make a whistling sound. That's to engage the transverse abdominals [the front and side muscles of the abdominal wall]."

Allen, a former body builder takes a personal approach to training.

"One of my favorite things to do is agility drills," he said. "Squat jumps, alternating lunges with jumps and power skips: those types of dynamic movements target your core."

Taylor said a mere 20-minute core workout, involving as few as four rotating exercises in a circuit, serves as a good warm up for most activities, from lifting weights to playing basketball.

"You don't have to destroy yourself. You don't have to do it for hours, you don't need to exercise for a thousand repetitions. But if you keep doing it you'll be stronger, better toned, with better posture," he said. "And maybe your running times have improved." — Reuters

Fitness experts differ on benefits of stretching

NEW YORK - Stretching relieves stiff muscles and can boost flexibility in the elderly and inactive but experts are divided on how vital it is for general fitness and preventing injury.

For older adults who lose flexibility through ageing, stretching can improve a range of motion and can make it easier to do everyday tasks such as reaching for items on high shelves.

Flexibility activities can also help reverse the chronically rounded shoulders and hands-on-keyboard posture of office workers tied to their desks.

But Dr. Mike Bracko, an exercise physiologist with the American College of Sports Medicine, said research indicates that static stretching, which involves holding a stretch for 30 to 60 seconds, does not reduce injury and actually makes the muscle weaker.

"I would say that flexibility in and of itself is not that important a component of general fitness," he said.

Bracko, a hockey skating coach based in Calgary, Alberta, notes that while activities such as gymnastics and rock climbing require flexibility, others, such as boot camp or cycling, do not.

"A lot of people just doing normal fitness activities don't need a lot of flexibility. It depends on the person," he said, adding that muscles tend to get injured within the normal range of motion.

"The classic example is how sprinters strain hamstrings: the leg reaches forward, at some point hamstrings have to contract fast. That's when the muscle fails," Bracko explained. "[Stretching] can't deal with that."

But he said some studies show that dynamic stretching, which unlike static stretching is not sustained and which mimics the activity to be performed, decreases the risk of injury by preparing the body for the movement to follow.

Stretch Zone Inc, which was founded in 2004 and has studios in New York, Florida and the Caribbean, specializes in practitioner-assisted stretches that are activity-specific and dynamic.

"Nothing is held for more than two seconds," said Miami-based founder Jorden Gold. "All the studies show little correlation between static, long-held stretches and sports performance."

The company includes stretches tailored to golfers, backpackers and officer workers, said Gold, whose clients range from the National Football League to musicians.

"With a sedentary lifestyle, the body picks up slack," he explained. "If, for example, I stretch hip flexors [which move muscles when running and walking], I'll feel lighter because the body is not fighting itself."

He said stretching can lengthen a muscle to 1.6 times its resting length.

But Jessica Matthews, a California-based exercise physiologist formerly with the American Council on Exercise, said the science on stretching is still evolving.

"We all agree on a dynamic warm-up," she said, "[but] research on stretching for injury prevention is still not conclusive enough to make that correlation. There isn't clear-cut evidence to support one thing or another."

The American College of Sports Medicine recommends adults engage in flexibility training a minimum of twice a week.

Matthews believes flexibility training is commonly the most neglected component of fitness.

"Flexibility will increase with flexibility training," she said. "How much is unknown." — Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com

Fitness experts extol machine-less workout

NEW YORK - Man versus machines? In the realm of fitness at least man seems to be winning.

Despite a gym floor bulging with weight-lifting equipment, fitness experts said the only thing people need to push, pull and lift is the weight of their own body.

"If more people knew you could get a good physique using your body as a bar bell, they could take matters into their own hands," said Bret Contreras, author of "Bodyweight Strength Training Anatomy," a guide to bodyweight-only workouts aimed at everyone from the exercise-challenged to the personal trainer.

Known as "the Glute Guy," Arizona-based Contreras has been resistance training for 21 years. But in high school, he couldn't do a push-up.

"At 15 I was so skinny people used to make jokes," the 37-year old said. "I just got so tired of being made fun of I decided to take charge."

Often thought of as a stepping stone to weight training, bodyweight training can be a complete, whole body workout in itself, Contreras said.

Once the person masters the simpler version of a push-up, squat, or chin-up, a more advanced version can be tackled, often with a little help from the living room furniture.

"Find things in the environment: a table to get underneath, hold on to the sides of and then pull the body upward; a rafter for a pull-up," he said. "To work your glutes (buttocks muscles), all you need is a couch."

Contreras recommends the beginner start with 15 minutes a day and increase over time.

"It doesn't have to be intimidating," he said. "You could do a 20-minute workout three times a week and have an incredible physique, so long as you push hard and keep challenging yourself."

Anytime, anywhere

Bodyweight exercises return people to the way they move naturally, according to Lisa Wheeler, national creative manager of group fitness at Equinox, the upscale chain of fitness centers.

"We squat, lunge, crawl, reach," she said, adding that a bodyweight class at Equinox is called "Animal Flow" because its crab crawls, lunges and swings were inspired by the primal movement patterns of man and beast.

"Bodyweight training is great for mobility, stability and creating movement patterns," she said. "You want to build a strong foundation, be stable around the shoulders, hips and spine."

Because the load doesn't change, progression is achieved by changing the center of gravity of the exerciser or the complexity of the movement.

Another challenge, she said, is getting enough pull to match the push of most bodyweight exercises.

"Bodyweight training can make everything else better," she said. "Dancers, moms, we all live push-pull now."

Jessica Matthews, an exercise physiologist with the American Council on Exercise, said bodyweight training blends with the trend toward functional training, or training that mimics the way we move in everyday life, as opposed to the older bodybuilder model of targeting one muscle group at a time.

"Our body is one kinetic chain, everything moves together, so most everyday exercises will move multiple muscle groups," she said.

Matthews said not only can bodyweight training be done anytime, anywhere, it also works easily into popular interval training, circuit and boot camp workouts.

"Using bodyweight exercises allow more of a cardiovascular component because you can move rapidly from one exercise to the next," Matthews said.

So are machines a thing of the past?

"I think there's a place for everything," she said, "For some people a fixed path might be the way to go. It boils down to having proper joint stability and quality range of movement, then adding load. Form is imperative." — Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com