The medicine ball bridge is the 5th exercise in the Bridge Progression Series. Once you move to an unstable surface the core and the glutes really kick in. It is important to not allow your back to arch through this movement.
Now that your feet are off the ground your hamstrings will have to work harder, but you still do not want them to cramp. If you are having touble moving with this exercise you can bridge up and hold instead.
Give it a try, if you find this exercise too hard back yourself back down to the 4th exercise and continue there. Try to work your way up to 1 or 2 sets of about a minute each.
Stay Motivated,
Karen
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The Single Leg Bridge is the 4th exercise in the Bridge Progression Series. This exercise helps you isolate the glute on one side, this is good because it helps develop single leg hip stability. In doing this often times you will find a relief from low back pain.
When beginning start slow go through small movements until you have full range of motion. Do not arch the back and do not let the hip fall on the side with the leg up. I try to keep my thighs as close to parallel as possible.
Single Leg Bridge
Try to do 1 or 2 sets of about 10 reps on both sides. As you progress you can add in the 3rd set or you can do them for time. Try to do about a minute on each side. Good Luck!
Stay Motivated,
Karen
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If you know me at all you know I like to laugh and anytime I come across something that I think is funny I always like to pass it on. The two links I am giving you today are strictly about having fun they come from the same website Elite Feet. Tomorrow I will get back to work and give you something useful.
10 Signs You May Not Finish the Marathon
Try Running 26.2 Miles in This
Enjoy the posts I know I did.
Stay Motivated,
Karen
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I know for a fact that having a group of people waiting for me up at the canal every Saturday morning made my long runs bearable when I was training for my marathon 3 years ago. Generally I ran by myself, as I had to take a lot of walking breaks. (The residual effects from the chemotherapy slows me down). But just knowing that they were there made it so much easier to get up at 6:00 am every Saturday morning.
I was a part of the Team in Training program so being a part of that group was easy, we were all up there training for our particular events.
So, what does the average person, who doesn't want to train for a specific event, do to find a training partner or group? The New York Times published a great article listing a number of resources you can use to find that local running partner you are looking for. If you find yourself having trouble staying committed check out that website and see if you can't a partner to team up with.
Stay Motivated,
Karen
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This is one of my all time favorite workouts. It uses very little equipment and the exercises you do not have the equipment for are easy to change up. Generally I have a specific routine I am following and my training plan is laid out for me. However there are days when I don't feel like doing it for some reason. (Yes, it happens to the best of us.)
On those days I simply fall back on one of my favorite workouts (I have a bunch) and do one of those.
Here it is:
I do 3 sets of 12 reps for this workout. I try to make the weight heavy enough that I fail around rep 12. If you do not have dumbbells you can use bands or cables. If you do not have a super band for the hip pops just do body weight squats or dumbbell squats. If you do not have a bar to do the inverted rows on you could do bent over dumbbell rows.
- Inverted row
- Hip pops using a super band (front squat band around waist)
- Incline chest fly - this is a superset try to use the same weight for both the fly and the press
- Incline DB chest press
- DB alternating lunge – this is a superset try to use the same weight for both the lunge and he squat
- Bodybuilders
Give my workout a try and let me know how you liked it.
Stay Motivated,
Karen
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