favorite core exercises???

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  • NVREST
    NVREST Posts: 94
    Cable crunch
  • IzzyBooNZ1
    IzzyBooNZ1 Posts: 1,289 Member
    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
    chadgard Posts: 102 Member

    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
    evileen99 Posts: 1,564 Member
    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
    christinelyn Posts: 85 Member
    Planks and hovers!!!!! Hard to do but so worth it. I have lower back pain and these help so much.

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