Jen Sinkler, Experience Life senior editor, compiles a hodgepodge of fitness information for sporty types with a little help from her editorial assistant, Nik Illies.
Andrew Heffernan‘s article on how to properly train your core — without doing a buncha crunches — is the No. 1 most-read article on the Experience Life website right now.
Read “Core Essentials” to find out what core training is and isn’t, and to discover (or rediscover) five top core-strengthening exercises.
(Photo credit: Phils Room)
I’ve got a thing for butter beans, and it’s been ages since I’ve been able to find them in a grocery store (word has it they’re mainly a Southern thing). Some people say butter beans and lima beans are the same thing, but those people are crazy.
Butter beans are bigger, blonder and more tender — which is perhaps why they’ve inspired at least four different songs available on iTunes (compared to lima beans’ two), including one called “The Ballad of Butter Beans.” In other words, people really, really like ‘em.
So imagine my delight when I came across this sight the other day. I filled my cart with cans of this treasure (no I didn’t), to the point where little kids were pointing at the “bean lady” (no they weren’t). But I did make a tasty, simple butter bean salad today.
Butter Bean Salad
One can butter beans, drained
Olive oil
Splash of raw apple cider vinegar
Walnuts
Salt
Chili powder
You figure out how much of each to use — I’m no food chemist. Now someone get to writing a new song!
Find out how to grow your own butter beans here.
While researching hip stretches for an upcoming article in Experience Life, I came across a post from Dan Lorenz, MS, PT, ATC/L, CSCS, called “Low-Back Pain and Hip Motion Correlation.” Though it’s a pretty dense read — OK, it’s a really dense read, my eyes bled — the takeaway could
prevent a whooole lotta low-back pain.
Lorenz sorts through the mounting
evidence that pain in the low back and sacroiliac (SI) joint may be a result of hip
rotation deficits, and determines that many of us lack internal
rotation of the hips.
Here’s a good stretch to improve internal rotation:
BEYOND IMPROVING INTERNAL ROTATION, Lorenz emphasizes the role that the local lumbar stabilizers, such as the multifidus, play in low-back pain.
What in god’s name are local lumbar stabilizers, you may ask? They’re
the muscles primarily responsible for stabilizing the lower spine.
Important job … and unfortunately, too many of us suffer the consequences of
switched-off stabilizers.
How to — ahem — turn them on again? An apology, for starters, along with some good music, flattering lighting and isometric core exercises such as the plank. (Doesn’t it always come back to the plank?)
For more on the topic, read “In Search of Stability,” available in the March 2008 archives at experiencelifemag.com.
(Photo credit: cobblucas)
While I was back in Minnesota a couple weeks ago, I worked out at the Life Time Fitness in Highland Park. My friend and former Valkyries teammate Robyn Wells is a personal trainer there, and at my request, she put me through several fabulously grueling workouts that included lots of exercises I hadn’t done before.
In the first video below, Robyn introduces herself and just briefly describes the warm-up sequence she had me do. (No exercise demos in this one.) Oh, and she may seem sweet and innocent, but in reality, she is a ruthless taskmaster. In a good way.
Update: I’ve been asked a couple times how much I was lifting, just to provide a point of reference. (Though it should be noted emphatically that you should find a weight that you can manage safely, regardless of whether it’s more or less than anyone else’s.) I used 75 pounds, which should have felt light to me but didn’t all the way through because I’d been a slug in the weeks preceding this workout. As a result, the speed of my hang clean wasn’t up to par, and I should have placed more emphasis on that. So … oops.
In fact, if any fitness experts out there have additional form critiques, please, please put them out there to help anyone else about to wrestle The Bear.
Sooo … it’s been a while. So long, in fact, that I had trouble remembering my log-in information for Survival of the Fittest. (But that could also be the “notable” cognitive decline that sets in by age 27 — and I left that marker behind a while back.)
My apologies for the absence! Life has been a titch more hectic than usual, and I found myself needing to scale back in some areas to just keep my head above water. But, I’ve been stockpiling post ideas, and I’m ready and eager to emerge from hibernation. If you’re still there, I’d love to hear what you guys have been up to lately. (Comments! Comments! We love comments!)
Allow me to kick off my return by unabashedly ripping off some noteworthy linkyloos from other blogs:
“Inspiring Business With Sport“: Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi Worldwide (the Lovemarks company), offers four reasons sport is important to people.
He examines the idea from the angle of the fan, but I would posit the same values apply to athletes themselves. My favorite was No. 4: “Sport inspires radical optimism,” and offer “a story, a purpose to commit to and defend.” Love it.
Weighted Single-Leg Squats: A good video demo from Michael Boyle. Yes to single-leg exercises! Regardless of age.
Wait … why single-leg exercises instead of unstable-surface training? From Josh Hillis, RKC: “For all the people that are … addicted to BOSU
balls and stability balls: Doing single leg squats and deadlifts on
stable ground is usually a more sport-applicable way to build stability
than doing two-leg squats and deadlifts on an unstable surface. How
many sports and how often in real life are you really standing on an
unstable surface? Surfing, maybe? On the flipside, you have most of
your weight on one leg all the time.” (For more info on the topic of unstable-surface training, see my interview with Eric Cressey, MS, CSCS, author of Maximum Strength: Get Your Strongest Body in 16 Weeks with the Ultimate Weight-Training Program.)
“How to Fix Shin Splints“: Tony Gentilcore posted this long-and-worth-it video from DieselCrew.com on treating shin splints. The protocol involves stretching the calves, improving dorsiflexion, inversion, and eversion, and doing soft-tissue work and ice massage. It’s fantastico. (I’ve been taking an Italian language class — impressed?)
“Mr. T Takes Up Rugby“:
As part of a simultaneously disturbing and uninspired marketing campaign for Snickers called “Get Some Nuts,” Mr. T
attended a practice with the Saracens Rugby Club in England. He mostly
just stands around saying gruff, nonsensical things — and not a single pitiable fool tried to tackle him — but still. The video seemed like something I should share. (Note: You must be at least 12 to watch it. Unclear why.)
(photo credit: Mike Lietz)
©2011 LIFE TIME FITNESS, Inc. All rights reserved. Life Time Fitness Corporate Headquarters: 2902 Corporate Place, Chanhassen, MN 55317 | Ph:952-947-0000
