sanguinity: woodcut by M.C. Escher, "Snakes" (Default)
sanguinity ([personal profile] sanguinity) wrote in [community profile] lifting_heavy_things 2010-07-22 03:21 pm (UTC)

Two bodyweight exercises from my martial arts days. Both require some linear floor space, the first more than the second.

Slug: Lie prone on your stomach, reach your arms forward past your head, palms down. Dig your elbows into the floor, and rotating your palms upward as you pull, pull your body up to your elbows. End the motion with your elbows tucked against your waist. Repeat. A very nice pull-up/lat substitute, but a lot more manageable for raw beginners than a pull-up is.

BTW, carpet is tougher than tile/hardwood/linoleum. While it's natural to repeat until you've completely crossed a room, you can also just do a couple strokes forward, back up, and do a few more strokes forward, etc, if you've got limited space.


Spiderman Crawl: Know that iconic wall-crawler pose of Spiderman's? Do that. Only things touching the floor are your hands and toes; suspend your body as low to the floor as you can manage it. (A hand's-thickness clearance is a good goal.) It takes a fair amount of strength just to hold yourself at that height; to actually move forward requires a lot more strength, plus lots of interesting coordination and stability and shifting from one set of muscles to another.

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