200 situps

[ailbhe]

Rob and I both did the two hundred situps initial test today. They use "crunches" as their basic situp, and the initial test is to do as many as one comfortably can. Rob and I both fudged the test a bit; I did my situps while looking at and talking to Astrid, in her bouncy chair, instead of while looking at the ceiling and exhaling in a controlled way. Rob did his situps without getting his shoulder-blades off the floor, because he couldn't work out how to get his abdominal muscles involved at all; he's used to using his shoulders and legs instead. It looked painful.

Anyway, those caveats taken into account, I managed 17 and he managed maybe 7.

We're both disappointed with our results - and pretty surprised by his - and planning to have a go at the program. But I'm not going to do it if it hurts my hips; I want more core strength to make things like carrying the baby in a sling easier, give me more oomph when my hips are up to cycling again, etc, and that would all backfire totally if I damaged my joints.

Anyway, by this logic, we should be doing Week One Day One on Friday evening, probably while the children are at Girls' Brigade.

(Also, I have a cunning plan: I told the children that if they were in their pyjamas when Rob got home I'd ask him to set up the Wii for them).

Comments

[the-changeling.livejournal.com]

I can recommend hooly hoops, either Wii or real.

Does amazingly well to realign the hips. :-)

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Yow! My Pilates teacher describes using your abdominal muscles as like imagining a string around your waist and pulling your belly in away from it. Situps are quite a hard place to start if your abdominal muscles start off very weak or not reliable; it might be easier to begin (especially for Rob) by lifting your legs from horizontal to vertical while keeping the lower back on the floor. (Like this: http://www.5min.com/Video/Pilates-Leg-lifts-1494 a bit repetitive and with free advert of bear playing around on ice, sorry)

I cannot and have never been able to do situps; I start from a huge hyperlordosis and take all my strength to get about 30 degrees the other side of straight, at which point I give up and cry while a room of sixty year olds do ten in a row around me. But different exercises like leg lifts have got to the point where I don't actually waddle when I walk anymore, and my sacroiliac joint actually moves, which is good enough for now. What else did I find was good? *thinks* Holding a weight in front of my chest and extending it out to arms-straight position and back seems to really help too - the core engages itself when you get to arms straight.

[ailbhe]

The ones in this program are explicitly no more than 35 degrees, which they say are often called crunches.

I engage my abs a lot, pretty much as your teacher said, because otherwise standing, walking and carrying are much harder.

I looked up hyperlordosis; to my untrained eye, Rob's lower back curve looks like it might qualify, which explains a lot. I'll mention leg lifts to him.

[the0lady.livejournal.com]

Eeeeeeeeeeverytihng she sais. Also, Rob sounds a bit like me in that he over-engages his shoulders normally instead of the core, and that means that sit ups / crusnches come with a risk of neck strain.

I also did Pilates for a many years, and can recommend it. Various leg lifting exercises are good, as well as reverse sit ups - you start in a sitting position with your feet on the ground in front of you, knees bent, back straight. Then you gradually roll onto your sit bone and start lowering your back onto the floor, pausing and rolling back up form where you're comfortable. In time you will be able to go lower and lower, and eventually do it with your legs extended at 45 degrees in front of you (starting from a V, basically). To begin with, and if the core is that weak, it might be an idea to have one of those elastic bands (I can lend you one) rapped around your feet to give you a bit of a boost on the way up.

[ailbhe]

I think you're both right and Rob shouldn't do situps of any kind as things stand. I think I'm ok - nothing I did hurt at all, I'm just aware that later something might, IYSWIM. I engage my core every time I stand up, it's just not as strong as I want it to be.

My hip joints won't let me do leg lifts for a few months yet, but I'll see if Rob can. It's amazing how much less fit he is with walking rather than cycling to work.

[the0lady.livejournal.com]

Yeah sorry, I kept saying "you" when I meant "Rob"... You as in actual you should stay away from leg lifts for now. When your core is stronger you will be able to do exercises to build up your hip flexers and support the joints.

[barakta]

I also have an anterior lourdosis of the spine which my physios initially worried about because they thought it might be "part of my condition" but decided it was just "within norms" especially as my mum is exactly the same. I didn't know one was supposed to be able to flatten your back, shoulderblades and hips all against a wall ;/

I also ised to over stretch the muscles at the front of my shoulders (brastrap ones) and had physio to work on using infra spinatus muscles at the back to do more of their proper job. I should go back to doing more physio but I'm a lazy git.

Despite not doing as much physio as I should have - the physios I saw several years ago said my posture was still better after the initial regime and my shoulders are indeed much better.

[clarahippy.livejournal.com]

What is this program? Sounds intriguing. I utterly failed to attend my postnatal exercise today due to grumping by both me and baby and massive amounts of housework.

[ailbhe]

It looks gentle and gradual and easy, and it's explained at http://www.twohundredsitups.com/

If I manage it, I might try Couch to 5k in the spring, when Astrid is older and my hips are in better shape.

[cabbagemedley.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I might have a do at this.

[tassie-gal.livejournal.com]

Pilates for both of you. Especially Rob by sounds of things!

[ai731.livejournal.com]

I worked on the 100 push-ups (press-ups) program for a while this summer, while I was still able to jog and when I was seriously trying to get fitter and loose a little bit of weight. I got about half-way though the program before Life & Stuff(tm) intervened. Thanks to the Karate classes that I've done on-and-off for years, I can do large numbers of crunches relatively easily. I did a modified version of couch-to-5K this summer, and before I hurt my left hip I was able to jog 8km a day!

[juliet]

If you're after core strength, I should still have the booklet of exercises that I got from the physio at my Core Strength class in the summer. (Prescribed because of hip issues, which it did pretty much resolve.) If looking at those would be helpful for you, I'd be happy to scan & email. It's all designed to be stuff that can be done at home.