[Dolly]

I searched but couldn't find anything for this (on the forum I mean)
I know I can search online but I'd prefer to know of some exercises that anyone here can recommend from personal experience please ?
Obviously not climbing ATM and as a consequence of starting running again ( I think) my back is hurting again.
I know from physio and Zaff that one of the best ways to counteract this is with some core exercises.
I've got a physio ball which I've started using again and I do the sort of pelvic thrusting thing but would like to know of any others that you use or work for you...ta

[SA Chris]

try balancing on your buttocks. with legs and torso at approx 45 to ground. Once you are Ok with this put your arms up parallel to your legs. Repeat until you shake like a shitting dog.

[Tim Broughtonshaw]

try balancing on your buttocks. with legs and torso at approx 45 to ground. Once you are Ok with this put your arms up parallel to your legs. Repeat until you shake like a shitting dog.

having difficulty visualising this 

Is this with the whole body straight like a plank? and then your arms parallel to legs..  ?  Think i need more coffee no matter how i visualise this cannot work it out. Think the shitting dog reference isnt helping


Cheers
Tim

[chris_j_s]

As I see it you're approximately trying to make a V shape with your body, your butt being the bottom of the V.

For the second part of the exercise do the same but point your arms up in the air parallel to your legs.

[SA Chris]

He gets it.

[slackline]

Something like this  perhaps

[SA Chris]

he doesn't get it.

[slackline]

Is this the extension part 

Then there's the Irish variation

More seriously its this shape but the otherway up so your arse is on the ground and your arms and feet are in the air (couldn't find a proper picture in the first five or six pages of results for yoga on Flickr)

[Fultonius]

I do the sort of pelvic thrusting thing

I usually find a woman is better than a physio ball for these types of things. 

[Johnny Brown]

Full Boat Pose
Paripurna Navasana


(par-ee-POOR-nah nah-VAHS-anna)
paripurna = full, entire, complete
nava = boat

Step by Step

Sit on the floor with your legs straight in front of you. Press your hands on the floor a little behind your hips, fingers pointing toward the feet, and strengthen the arms. Lift through the top of the sternum and lean back slightly. As you do this make sure your back doesn't round; continue to lengthen the front of your torso between the pubis and top sternum. Sit on the "tripod" of your two sitting bones and tailbone.

Exhale and bend your knees, then lift your feet off the floor, so that the thighs are angled about 45-50 degrees relative to the floor. Lengthen your tailbone into the floor and lift your pubis toward your navel. If possible, slowly straighten your knees, raising the tips of your toes slightly above the level of your eyes. If this isn't possible remain with your knees bent, perhaps lifting the shins parallel to the floor.

Stretch your arms alongside the legs, parallel to each other and the floor. Spread the shoulder blades across your back and reach strongly out through the fingers. If this isn't possible, keep the hands on the floor beside your hips or hold on to the backs of your thighs.

While the lower belly should be firm, it shouldn't get hard and thick. Try to keep the lower belly relatively flat. Press the heads of the thigh bones toward the floor to help anchor the pose and lift the top sternum. Breathe easily. Tip the chin slightly toward the sternum so the base of the skull lifts lightly away from the back of the neck.

At first stay in the pose for 10-20 seconds. Gradually increase the time of your stay to 1 minute. Release the legs with an exhalation and sit upright on an inhalation.

I just 'wasted' ten minutes trying to find a video of Shilpa Shetty demonstrating. 

[SA Chris]

What he said, but with out the fit bird.

Try not to round out back though, or it can harm exactly what you are tying to fix. Contentrate more on form than duration 10 secs in a good pose is better than 30 in a bad one.

The yoga journal that JB has linked to has loads of good info, just take it easy as you can do more harm than good if you don't ease into it, and your form isn't correct.

[Dolly]

OK cheers for that
Been trying this at work just now for a bit and it definitely "pulls" in the right places and makes my back feel better/stretched
As you say have to be careful to keep your back straight as that seems to make it easier.

I have been "shaking like a shitting dog" as well 

[JamesD]

Unstable swiss ball plank:



However I recommend (for starting out) to leave out the medicine ball underneath your hands, and to rest your insteps on the ball instead of standing on your toes like this guy.
Hold until the shaking comes, then pull your knees into your chest with your feet still on the ball, hold until shaky, then go back to first step (repeat until knackered), I normally prefer to do this as a finishing exercise at the end of a core/ab workout, to push the muscles to failure/further exhaustion.
If you want to push it further, take one leg off, leave it up in the air, and pull the ball in on one leg, repeat for both legs, that ones a killer.

Next I would highly recommend the glute bridge, which is pretty much exactly the same thing, except you are now facing the ceiling instead of the floor with your heels instead of your insteps resting on the swiss ball, again...if you want to up the difficulty try taking a leg off and pulling it into you, then holding it out there.

Also try different types of crunches leg raise exercises, standard crunches, twisting crunches, weighted crunches (you may need a situp bench for this). With leg raises: Try standard leg raises, scissor kick leg raises (alternating legs up/down), holding the legs out just above horizontal, leg raises with a partner throwing your legs back down, also throw in some hyperextensions to work your spinal erector muscles (you will need the special bench/platform to do this from), try these with weight if possible, but build up to it over time.
All these yoga positions are great, but they are no substitute for the above, and should be considered supplementary rather than your main form of core exercise.
Also deep squats on a wobble board are excellent for your core, and improve ankle strength/stability, which could save your ankle tendons in a nasty bouldering fall.

All the above will give you a good combination, and really work your core effectively  because you will be working the muscles through a good range of motion as well as performing static holds.
When you're feeling brave I also highly recommend weighted crunches, and decline weighted crunches, just make sure you have someone spotting you, chinning yourself with 2 20kg plates is not pleasant!

[SA Chris]

Interesting yoga you describe there James

[JamesD]

No yoga at all 

Don't get me wrong, I like yoga, I do it too sometimes, and I have done it regularly in the past, but if you want an effective "core" workout, and hardcore core strength, then you need to target the muscles in other ways, with heavier loads, and through different ranges of movement.

In my humble opinion 

[gianweb]

The ball is definetely the best solution, you need to know how to use it though!

[Lund]

There are lots of people at the wall who do yoga.  For 99.9% of them, this is true:

[SA Chris]

Pray do enlighten me.

[shark]

There are lots of people at the wall who do yoga.  For 99.9% of them, this is true:

  If you are doing yoga at the expense of climbing or training training then it might hinder your climbing performance but otherwise its a beneficial active rest option especially for those with cores of jelly, the chronically inflexible, the posturally contorted and the muscularly imbalanced - and most of us fall into at least one of those categories. Accepted there are alternatives to yoga to deal with those issues.
 

[Johnny Brown]

There are lots of people at the wall who do yoga.  For 99.9% of them, this is true:

You could say the same for climbing walls in my experience.

[a dense loner]

lund is quite perceptive here, the people that go to the wall and make it known to everybody that they do yoga by stretching out b4 n after in various poses etc are invariably shit at climbing. ok they may be shit at a wall n maybe go out and cruise E5's on grit but they are shit at a wall, this is also climbing.

[Johnny Brown]

Yeah, shit like Yuji. Crap indoors and out that guy. Not good all rounders like Dense.

[SA Chris]

So beacuse you have seen some people go to the wall and do a bit of yoga stretches and climb badly, therefore Yoga makes you climb like shit.

Great leap of logic sherlock.

[Lund]

  If you are doing yoga at the expense of climbing or training training then it might hinder your climbing performance but otherwise its a beneficial active rest option especially for those with cores of jelly, the chronically inflexible, the posturally contorted and the muscularly imbalanced - and most of us fall into at least one of those categories. Accepted there are alternatives to yoga to deal with those issues.

See, I don't agree.

I'm not sure I'd say that it's accepted everywhere, but I think opinion is now swinging against stretching, i.e. that in order to get your muscles and tendons warmed up and to a length where you won't get injured, it's better to do the actual exercise.  So easy climbing.  In terms of increased flexibility, yes it can help - but it's probably better to just stretch rather than fuck around keeping your anus soft.

Core strength: I'd say yoga was a pretty weak option for this.  There are only a few positions that are any good; why spend ages trying to put your knees by your ears when you should be experiencing abdominal pain?  Try this instead: http://www.dragondoor.com/articler/mode3/229/ for example.  If you really must give someone else money, go to a pilates class.  And for chrissakes, stop doing situps.

Muscle imbalances?  I can't see yoga helping for this either.  We spend forever using the back, core, forearms, biceps... so any muscle imbalances e.g. in the triceps - are going to need work at some point yes.  I can't see how yoga is going to compensate for that though; if there is a real imbalance that really needs sorting I probably need to do something a lot more muscle intense, like the weight room, or getting a theraband or something.

[Lund]

So beacuse you have seen some people go to the wall and do a bit of yoga stretches and climb badly, therefore Yoga makes you climb like shit.

Great leap of logic sherlock.

Jeez, get over yourself.  The climbing walls round here are full of punters trying to put their leg behind their ear.  Some of the chicks are really hot, and it's getting to the point where I can't climb sport without a bird at the base of the route standing on her head.  Fact is though, they DO climb like shit.  All of them.  I don't know a single decent climber who does yoga.

That doesn't mean there aren't any, but it strongly suggests that those that do probably aren't good because of the yoga.  So they'd be better off doing something else.  Unless it gives them zen powers or some shit which I guess you have to be a true yogi to get, right?

I guess you do yoga.  Why?  Why did you choose that?  Did you honestly honestly think about how it would help your climbing - or did you just drift into it because everyone said so?  Or is it nothing to do with your climbing, and you just do it because you like it?  That's cool, no problem with that.  What I've a problem with is that yoga is good cross training for climbing, because from what I can see, it isn't.