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Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Another Piece of the Pie





Julieanna's Note:
This is a guest blog from Jon Ham from Fitness On The Run and SUP Trainer. Jon found out about me at a party while talking to one of our mutual neighbors who thought we might be a good fit to bounce health/fitness ideas off of since we both are trainers and Jon also has a strong nutrition background. You will see regular content from Jon and I in the future based around health, fitness, and lifestyle that is meant to help you along in your own personal journey.

By now you have made the decision to embrace a plant based nutritional lifestyle, but there are other important factors when looking at your fitness other than your eating habits. Historically in the “Fitness Industry” there are 3 components of fitness that should be the focus for training – Cardiovascular Training, Strength Training, and Nutrition, although I believe the pie is even LARGER than those three and should include 3 more components – Core Training, Balance Training, and Flexibility Training. Without a focus on all these essential components of training, you will not be at your optimum.

Today I am going to write solely on Core Training. The core consists of all the musculature surrounding the spine. If you cut your arms and legs off, only your core remains. Training your core is vital for your total body strength and injury prevention. Suppose you have a large tree with a small, weak trunk. When a powerful wind blows, it doesn’t matter how strong the branches are, that tree is coming down! The same principle applies to our body!

To effectively train your core, you must train your spine’s stability by making your spine hold your body weight. This forces your body to stabilize your spine, causing all the muscles around your spine to coordinate an effort to support it. Many of the exercises which are unstable and train the core can be done with your own body weight, holding it in a stable position. Others can be done using the stability ball, Indo Board, and TRX.

Here is a quick example of a core training routine which should be done every other day in addition to other exercises. These exercises don’t require ANY equipment, train your core, can be done anywhere, and will make you feel better if you do them 2-3 days per week. Do 2- 3 sets of each exercise and begin with holding each one 20 seconds, and build up to 1 minute.
Floor Plank, Floor Side Plank, Prone Cobra, 1 Leg Floor Bridge
Pictures demonstrating these exercises can be found at: http://bit.ly/54VeaW

For more information- visit Jon’s Website at http://www.fitnesstrainingbyjon.com/

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