favorite core exercises???

maryjay52

planks and mountain climbers

toddis

Hanging Leg Raises

Planks (shirtless, for no other reason than motivation(look down))

xiofett

Many productive tasks also happen to be great core exercises. My favorite is splitting firewood. Great core workout, it's fun, good stress reliever, and it keeps you from freezing to death in the winter when the furnace is broken, but you can't afford to fix it because the refrigerator and stove also broke in the same week...

It's good cardio too, especially if you use a wedge and a sledge instead of an axe.

Amazingly good stress relief. I prefer a splitting maul and the wedge if needed. Old sycamore will give you one hell of a battle.

jaweiss1

I have found that the Swiss ball crunch is the most effective ab exercise for me. Easy on the back too. I now do them with a 10 lb weight, held in my hands behind my head.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVBddP5oW8Y

Do them slowly and try not to use your hip flexors.

Also, front and side planks with reduced support are a nice supplement

For the posterior chain - low back, butt and hamstrings - rack pulls, good mornings, GHD extensions and bam bams are great.

badzoe

I'm going to try some of these too.

JenNuma

Bump!

Loftearmen

Many productive tasks also happen to be great core exercises. My favorite is splitting firewood. Great core workout, it's fun, good stress reliever, and it keeps you from freezing to death in the winter when the furnace is broken, but you can't afford to fix it because the refrigerator and stove also broke in the same week...

It's good cardio too, especially if you use a wedge and a sledge instead of an axe.

So will hickory! I hate that siht!
Amazingly good stress relief. I prefer a splitting maul and the wedge if needed. Old sycamore will give you one hell of a battle.

Hbazzell

flutter kciks.

lay on your back. hands under your butt. and alternate your legs (bending them at the hips not knees). The faster you can kick them, the mroe tension you are doing.

anotehr similar one that is fun to try with a friend is lay on your back, they stand at your head and you hold their ankles. You will your legs up to them andthey throw them down you have to "catch" your own legs before hey hit the ground and bring them back up to the partner.

divemunkey

Kettlebells. All of the exercises work core intensely.

slowbubblecar

I generally use an incline bench for situps but sometimes use the ab crunch machine at the gym.

NVREST

Cable crunch

IzzyBooNZ1

leg raises!! I'm not sure if thats the exact name for it, but you lay on a flat surface, with both legs together straight. You have to raise both legs together while keeping your top-half flat and not move. Its hard!!! My lower abs killed me for like 3 days after.

CHeck out youtube or google it for proper form and technique!!

I've tried this but find it very hard to keep legs straight, any tips?

chadgard

So will hickory! I hate that siht!
Amazingly good stress relief. I prefer a splitting maul and the wedge if needed. Old sycamore will give you one hell of a battle.

Hickory actually splits fairly well (except for the knotty parts... ahem) when it's green and the temperature is below freezing, and you really drive the maul through it hard. But, then, the halves (without tire) fly about 30 yards many times! Nice, cured, ready to burn Hickory is impossible!

I find Hackberry quite rewarding. It's harder than all get out, so you really have to work, but it's also got a tight, straight grain so it splits where you want it to predictably. When you want to quadruple up on your time, getting a good cardio workout, great core workout, amazing stress relief, AND accomplish a needed productive task all at once, it's great to have a wood with those characteristics. It also helps that it burns really hot with little ash. Unfortunately, I don't have access to much.

I've been splitting a lot of cottonwood recently. Fairly soft, so it tends to burry the maul or wedges, which can be frustrating. This particular tree also happens to be more than 4' in diameter, but my chainsaw only has a 24" bar, so to buck the rounds I'm using an antique 2-person crosscut saw, by myself, to finish the cut. Then the rounds weight a lot. And sometimes you'll have what appears to be no knots, and in reality is a diagonal branch that broke off years ago going through 50% of the diameter, that's 8" in diameter itself. Splitting THAT will get your heart rate up!

As firewood, though, well... It burns hot, but very fast and rather ashy. Good for cooking over, but not so much for trying to get any sleep, when you have to re-load the stove every 90 minutes...


What other chore tasks to folks like to do that double-up as good cardio and/or core workouts?

evileen99

I think they're called Mountain Climbers, but anyway--

Get in the plank position. Alternate drawing your knees up to your chest. To work your obliques, draw knee up towards the opposite shoudler.

To really get to your lower abs in the plank, bend your knees a bit, tuck your butt under (you should feel your abs contract), then straighten your legs. Yow!

christinelyn

Planks and hovers!!!!! Hard to do but so worth it. I have lower back pain and these help so much.