My 90 year-old mother’s motto is “You’re never too old to learn something new!” She plays piano, bridge and card games. She takes water aerobics and rides a recumbent bike. She’s on her computer every day and even has a Facebook page. Open to new experiences, she never gets stale or stuck in her ways. I think she tricks her body into thinking it’s starting over and that’s how she stays young. It’s like that with your workout. If you keep doing the same routine over and over, things stay the same. With that in mind, I decided I needed some new tricks up my sleeve and signed up for a training seminar.
Talk about doing something different! The first instructor had us out in the parking lot carrying sandbags, pulling sleds and yes, pushing cars; his rationale being that intervals of work can beat out rhythmic cardio for fat burning. While I agreed with him in theory, I don’t think you’ll see me doing the Plane Pull, Fridge Carry, or the Anvil Carry and Drag in ESPN’s World’s Strongest Man Competition. However, the other workshops introduced me to some new equipment and a better way to use some others.
I learned about a new variation of the stability ball called the Bosu Ballast Ball. Now if you’ve been in a gym in the last ten years, you’ve definitely seen a stability ball, but the BOSU Ballast Ball is the first new innovation to the original I’ve seen that makes sense. The Ballast Ball has about 3-5 pounds of a grainy sand-like material inside which really challenges the core. The ballast also acts as a stabilizer when the ball is on the ground, so you have more options for the exercises you can do on it. Also, the ballast (sand) is loose and shifts around inside, giving you both visual and audible cues for how to do different exercises You can do all the familiar exercises while sitting, lying and leaning on the balls, but the more you use it, the more the advantages of the sand ballast become apparent. The added weight also allows the Ballast Ball to act somewhat like a medicine ball when you perform swinging and rotational movements. The sand makes it really challenging to try and stabilize your body and forces you to tighten your abdominal and core muscles, and the filling can increase the intensity of an exercise when you shift it around in a circular or wave-like motion. You can actually jerk the ball to make the filling fly to one side, then the other, which forces you to really engage your core muscles (or get thrown off-balance).
I bought one of the balls and have been experimenting with it ever since. Because the ball is stable, you can squat and sit on it without it rolling away. The ball stays in place, adding more variety and stability to my workouts. You can also combine exercises for some great functional training. One move we learned in the workshop (also shown in the video that comes with the ball) involves squatting to the ball, hinging back for a crunch, and standing back up to work the core and lower back. The move really hits deeper core muscles from the crunch to the stand. Unfortunately, I have yet to see one of the Ballast Balls in a gym, but it is available to order (with a training DVD) at either:
http://www.bosu.com/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BOSU/itemdetl.html?item=BOSU_Ballast_Pro
or
http://www.power-systems.com/p-3789-bosu-ballast-ball.aspx
In the next workshop, the focus was on something called kettlebells. Kettlebells require you to focus on whole-body conditioning because lifting and controlling a kettlebell forces the entire body, and specifically the core, to contract as a group, building both strength and stability at the same time.
Traditional weights work in just one plane of motion and rely on leverage and static fixed positions, but in daily life our bodies move in three planes of motion. The moment you pick up a kettlebell it triggers instability, which engages all 38-core muscles. When used correctly, kettlebells also engage all four major body systems - Nervous, Cardiovascular, Muscular and Skeletal.
Originally used in Russia, the kettlebell became a tool for strongmen performing feats, The kettelbell's center of gravity is 6-8 inches below the center of your hand. This increases the difficulty and benefit of many of the exercise you do. Kettlebells also offer users a wider range of motion than dumbbells that just sit in the palm of the hand, and they also better simulate the way we carry things in our daily lives. I for one was worn out after the instructor had us doing “pick ups”, “swings”, “push-presses”, and “Turkish get-ups”, along with traditional squats, lunges, and deadlifts (made even more difficult with the bells).
Most gyms have some form of kettlebells available, but you would be wise to spend a session working with a trainer who can teach you how to safely work with kettlebells and show you the various grips and movements. You can also order a set with a training DVD or book at http://www.power-systems.com/s-3-kettlebells.aspx
In the lululemon (I really don't work for them; I just love their philosophy and clothes!) manifesto, they say to “Do One Thing A Day That Scares You”. I guess my mom has taught me the same credo, so I was glad I tried something new. It WAS difficult, and to tell you the truth, the guy making me pull sleds and push cars did kind of scare me. But I ended up really learning and enjoying something different. So, don’t let your fear of the unknown keep you from trying something new in your workout. Who knows, you might actually like it!
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