Exercises of the week:

[Mop]

This week- the lower back.

Well the lower back usually highly looked over but very important. It supports your entire body - but yet usually over looked - instead we do more crunches, we do more leg raises - we completely ignore the entire section.

Now a couple years back I watched my uncle go through a surgery that he was told he could have avoided had he taken care of his lower back. His spine basically had started to fuse together cutting off nerves and spinal cord connections through out his lower body.


Begginer: One arm One leg reach:
Preparation :

With one hand on hip, balance on opposite leg with knee flexed slightly and aligned over 2nd & 3rd toe.


Movement :

Maintaining a drawn in position, extend opposite leg into triple extension (hip, knee, ankle fully extended) and at the same time flex the shoulder of the free hand, straight out in front of the body.
Hold and then return both extremities to starting position, maintaining optimal posture.

[Mop]

Intermediate: Lunge with twist:

We normally view a lunge as leg movement, and though it is an excellent leg movement, twists pulls, different motions also make it one of the better core stability movements, strengthening the lower back a lot
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Preparation :

Stand in proper alignment with hands held in front of the body.


Movement :

Draw your belly button inward toward your spine.
While maintaining total body alignment, step forward descending slowly by bending at the hips, knees and ankles.
Slowly rotate at the spine either forward or away from the lead leg.
Use your hip and thigh muscles to push yourself back up to take the next step.
As you lift your body, rotate your spine back to the starting position.

[Mop]

Advanced / Expert : Push up with rotation. You can do this with or with out a dumbell. Again like the lunge this is a great strength movement for a seperate body part but the rotation and the pressure on the lower back is outstanding causing your lower back and spinal support muscle to work.
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Preparation :

Maintain good posture throughout the exercise, good stability through the abdominal complex, and neutral spine angles.
Maintain a firm drawing in manoeuvre with pelvic floor contraction to aid in spinal stability.

Movement :

Start with VERY light dumbbells and perfect the movement before adding more load.
Position the dumbbells under the shoulders, maintain a foot position that is WIDER than shoulder width, and perform a push up ... ensure proper alignment in the kinetic chain.
Fully extend the arms.
Stiffen the core and rotate a fully stretched arm up towards the ceiling until there is a comfortable stretch in the chest.
VERY SLOWLY return to the starting position.
TRAINERS: watch and correct - excessive lordosis (arching) in the low back, a forward head posture, lateral shift in the pelvis to assist in rotation, or a piked position in the hips.