It made me think of a comment that someone made on a recent post:
I recently got a daily e-mail from John Wood, of bodyweightbasics.com. It is usually a little sales pitch for an old time strongman book or some cool equipment, but sometimes it's training tips, routines,etc. This days was about the get-up. Not the Turkish get up, just the get up. Lay on the floor, front or back, and stand up. Do this 50 times. Try to make each one a little different. Alternate laying on your back and front. He uses it as a finisher on his workouts. I am terribly out of shape, and I tried it. It did give me a workout. Given what you have noted the importance of being able simply rise from the floor can mean, especially in old age, I am not sure I can think of a more simple, basic and safe exercise that may provide more benefit. Just thought I might share, and who knows, if you revise Hillfitt again, maybe add it to your list of exercises.
There is something to this, the idea of floor living that I've mentioned before. You don't need to be doing 50 reps of this, just being capable of getting up from the floor.
In terms of functional training, this is what counts. I am all for basic, accessible, simple and safe strength training to build muscle and strength. You need to use that strength though in basic real life moves. As you get older what will be important is not only the strength to be independent, but the preservation of the skills of independence: sitting, standing, walking, getting up and lying down.
5 comments:
This is in the same vein of what Erwan at MovNat promotes - although more hard core - it is remarkable how hard these simple movements can get!
You have another winner here, Chris! I just did this, 25 front, 25 back, sometimes with no hand assist, sometimes push up down/up, and as expected, a good, solid, functional workout! I didn't time it at all but rather worked on mixing it up and ensuring that I was fully flat and motionless before beginning each repetition. This will be added to my routine for sure.
I wonder how a cross section of fit, non-elderly would fare with these movements? I remember how hard I found similar movements when I attended a MoveNat workshop that Clifton Harski ran back in 2011 at AHS, and I was and am reasonably fit. I worked these movements into my routine for a time but have not for a while. No more. They are going back into the rotation!
I go to a martial arts class twice a week--one of the jujitsu variants (not MMA).
This gives me lots of experience getting up off the floor from different positions.
If you are a fan of American football, and past certain age, you may recalled that one of Vince Lombardi's (Green Bay Packers coach in the 1960's) favorite training camp activities was the dreaded "grass drill". The players would throw themselves prone, face in the grass, and then get up as qucikly as possible, again and again and again. Most were not very fond of the drill because it was so physically taxing.
We get pretty hung up on our gym work, weights, running and such but as we get older, the basic things are what matter the most.
As an ambulance paramedic, i have lost count of the number of times i have been called to "get someone off the floor"
I've just done a session of this and I've stretched stuff that hasn't really been stretched properly for ages.
Time to put some of the basic functional stuff back into my workouts eh!!
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