They're fine if you want to make certain ab muscles stronger.
For most programmers, such as myself, one of the biggest body problems for programmers is tightness and shortness through the front, from the pelvis to the collarbone. Contractions in general contribute to that. You can balance it by doing a lot of stretching and a lot of back extensions, but most people don't because front contractions are so much easier than back contractions, and stretching takes a lot of time.
So if you just go do some ab crunches and then sit at a computer the rest of the time, you are tightening a rubber band on the front of your body which messes up the ribs, tilts the collarbone down, messes up the shoulders, etc.
I did weightlifting in Korea for a bit less than a year but took a long break of 1.5 years because of my travels. About ten days ago I got back into it while I'm waiting to fly to RAD on the 18th.
My gym isn't as bad as yours but it's still pretty damn bad. There's a power rack but it doesn't have safety pins, so I can't really do max-effort back squats and have to be a bit less aggressive with them than I'd like. I'm doing overhead squats but they don't have bumper plates and so I can't really dump the bar. The floor around the power rack is also uneven and wobbly as hell. So, everything kind of sucks, but it'll have to do for the next few weeks.
"Hoping to find a real barbell place over there... "
It's hard to find. There used to be an *awesome* one in Redmond 10 years ago, one of my favorite gyms ever. Chalk everywhere and huge guys doing 700 pounds and passing out.
Anyhoo, there is a crossfit place right near RAD, and if you can get past the kool-aid drinking and mild cult-ishness of it, they do have proper weights.
"03-19-11 - Fitness Links"
6 Comments -
Why are you avoiding contractions for abs? They're not a good exercise?
March 21, 2011 at 11:34 PM
They're fine if you want to make certain ab muscles stronger.
For most programmers, such as myself, one of the biggest body problems for programmers is tightness and shortness through the front, from the pelvis to the collarbone. Contractions in general contribute to that. You can balance it by doing a lot of stretching and a lot of back extensions, but most people don't because front contractions are so much easier than back contractions, and stretching takes a lot of time.
So if you just go do some ab crunches and then sit at a computer the rest of the time, you are tightening a rubber band on the front of your body which messes up the ribs, tilts the collarbone down, messes up the shoulders, etc.
March 21, 2011 at 11:47 PM
MobilityWod is pretty awesome. I also like its sister site: GymnasticsWod.
March 22, 2011 at 12:02 AM
It sounds like you want to learn to row.
March 23, 2011 at 10:35 PM
I did weightlifting in Korea for a bit less than a year but took a long break of 1.5 years because of my travels. About ten days ago I got back into it while I'm waiting to fly to RAD on the 18th.
My gym isn't as bad as yours but it's still pretty damn bad. There's a power rack but it doesn't have safety pins, so I can't really do max-effort back squats and have to be a bit less aggressive with them than I'd like. I'm doing overhead squats but they don't have bumper plates and so I can't really dump the bar. The floor around the power rack is also uneven and wobbly as hell. So, everything kind of sucks, but it'll have to do for the next few weeks.
Hoping to find a real barbell place over there...
April 2, 2011 at 1:41 PM
"Hoping to find a real barbell place over there... "
It's hard to find. There used to be an *awesome* one in Redmond 10 years ago, one of my favorite gyms ever. Chalk everywhere and huge guys doing 700 pounds and passing out.
Anyhoo, there is a crossfit place right near RAD, and if you can get past the kool-aid drinking and mild cult-ishness of it, they do have proper weights.
April 2, 2011 at 1:44 PM