Exercises You Should Be Doing: Elbow Touches and Some Other Exercise That Has a Long Name That I Don’t Want To Include Here Because Then It Will Make the Title of This Blog Post Too Long
I have like 30 minutes to pack all my food for the day, brush my teeth, get dressed, and catch up on a few e-mails before I head to work. So here’s a quick post containing not one, but two exercises you should be doing. Enjoy…….
What Is It: My arms look jacked Elbow Touches
Who Did I Steal It From: I’m pretty sure I thought of this bad boy all by myself.
What Does It Do: This is another great exercise that helps to “engage” the core musculature, as well as help promote proper lumbo-pelvic stability. As well, indirectly, you’re also going to get a lot of serratus anterior activation on the supporting side of each repetition.
Key Coaching Cues:
1. The wider the base of support, the easier the exercise is.
2. Think: tight abs, tight glutes.
3. While there will be some slight movement alternating side to side, the trainee should be cognizant of staying as stable as possible throughout the duration of the set. I.e. the lumbar spine and hips should barely move
4. Make sure your chin is tucked and that you maintain the natural curve of your spine (stay “neutral”).
5. Simple alternate hand to hand, touching the opposite elbow as you go. I like to go for a set time with this exercise- typically 2-3 sets of 20-30 seconds.
What Is It: Walking Spiderman w/Reach +Hip Lift
Who Did I Steal It From: Eric Cressey mentioned the walking spiderman w/reach in a recent blog post, but I went a head and made it even sexier by adding in the in-step (which I stole from Mark Verstegen).
What Does It Do: As Eric noted, you’ll get thoracic spine extension and rotation from the reach, and hip flexor and adductor length in the lower body from the lunge angle. Additionally with the in-step, you’ll get a bit of a hammie stretch as well. And just to cover my bases, I realize that by adding the in-step, there’s some slight flexion involved- albeit un-loaded flexion. For those trainees with lumbar spine issues, I’d probably nix the in-step; however for everyone else, it’s a great added benefit.
Key Coaching Cues: Goddamit, I just burnt my eggs. I’m so late……. where are my pants?
