This is one of those exercises that looks far, far easier than it truly is. The device itself is simple a wheel of some sort on an axle strong enough to support your weight. They actually make them commercially, as can be seen in the photo. Since I believe in being somewhat utilitarian when it comes to equipment (also known as being cheap), I grabbed a solid iron rod and an old plastic barbell weight. It’s less stable than an actual wheel, given the curve of the rolling surface, and presents and even harder challenge to shoulder stability. The key to successfully doing this is managing the curve of your spine. Don’t stick your butt high into the air, but rather do the opposite. Try to fully contract your abdominals in both positions, you’ll notice there is a point in the latter pose which allows you to get much better engagement.

Start with the wheel between your feet, or just in front of them. I like to keep my shoulders in line with my hands, as moving the hands further back seems like wasted movement that doesn’t add much to the exercise. Really lock your core but allow yourself to breathe fully as you go through all of the motions.

Then slowly roll out, keeping your core engaged. Your whole body should be very stiff. Gripping the axle harder and “pressing” the floor with your feet helps keep it that way. This may be as far as you can go. No worries! It’s not common to go all the way to the floor if you haven’t done much exercise of this sort before. If it helps, roll the wheel into a stop such as a wall, or up an incline. If you’re really having trouble, start on your knees rather than your feet.

Roll out as far as you can manage, because once you reach that point you have to roll backwards into the starting position again! This is about as far as I can go on a normal day while still being able to roll back. The goal is to have the lowest part of your body as close to the floor as you can get it without touching. The weakness I can see from my photo is the position of my pelvis. Ideally it would be tilted back further, allowing me to potentially stretch out more.

Alternate exercises which can enhance the wheel once you’ve mastered it include using a weighted vest, rolling out with one arm, or with one wheel in each hand (you’d need a double wheeled version for that.) Experiment!

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The pelvic floor muscles, transversus abdominis, multifidus, internal and external obliques, rectus abdominis, erector spinae (sacrospinalis) especially the longissimus thoracis, and the diaphragm. Minor core muscles include the latissimus dorsi, gluteus maximus, and trapezius.

I’m going to begin writing a multi part article wherein each day I will describe a different set of core exercises ranging in difficulty from easy to advanced, using both bodyweight and weighted objects such as barbells. Today’s article describes a great set of two exercises which you can either use to begin strengthening your core, or if you do not find them challenging, for warming up. It is a combination of back extension & V-up favored by gymnasts and typically integrated into a greater strength routine. To perform this exercise, lay flat on your back, arms outstretched over your head. Raise your legs into the air and perform a crunch typed maneuver as if you were trying to touch your toes, making your body into a V shape:

Then, without touching your feet or arms to the floor, lower them and roll onto your stomach, performing a back extension (raise your arms and legs up into the air forming your back into a U shape):

Repeat this movement holding each exercise for 30 seconds as many times as you can without touching the floor, thus keeping your core tight the entire time. If you feel it necessary, break it up into a few sets of 10 reps. If this is too easy, try holding onto weights and/or wearing heavy boots.

Tomorrow I will show you how to do an Abdominal Roll-out, otherwise known as the ab wheel.

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There’s a reason many boxers have traditionally used it for conditioning. Jumping rope enhances your coordination, balance, agility, speed, endurance and on and on. Just a 10 minute session of basic skipping is equivalent to running a mile in under 7.5 minutes. Once you are familiar with it, it’s quite easy to ramp up the level of difficulty exponentially.

The only thing you need to start out is a jump rope, which costs around $4 or less! Some put emphasis on quality jogging shoes, but I say that if you have proper form, and aren’t pounding your heels but rather landing on the balls of your feet and settling down on your heels, then they aren’t necessary. I actually jump rope barefoot most of the year, as I found it developed my agility and grace with the rope much faster that way.

Although it is thought of as a child’s past-time, jumping rope must be eased into by beginners, especially those with little conditioning. The most common complaint when starting out is calf pain. This can be avoided by learning to RELAX. Just as in running, you must be relaxed. This means that your calves, once the foot is on the ground, should momentarily relax before pushing you off again. Another consideration is posture. Don’t stare at the ground, look in front of you; keep your core tight but allow a relaxed breathing pace preferably through the nose, and don’t shrug or otherwise overly tense up your shoulders. Did I mention the need for relaxation yet?

A good way for anyone to start out is in short bursts of a minute, with a rest period in between. Work up to 3 to 5 minutes for each round, and once your conditioning really hits it’s peak begin incorporating a bodyweight exercise like push-ups, chins or dips to replace your rest period all together. Here’s an example routine to follow once your body has adapted to the challenges of rope jumping:

- 3 minutes of jump rope
- 1 minute of push ups
-3 minutes of jump rope
- 1 minute of hanging knee raises or crunches
-3 minutes of jump rope
- 1 minute of push ups

- Repeat to until you’ve quite exhausted yourself, or simply stop when you feel fully charged and ready to go onto your “main exercise” such as weight lifting.

Once you’ve excelled at the basics, you can start incorporating all the neat tricks you always see on TV such as alternating legs, backwards jumping, criss crossing the rope, etc. I think the greatest thing about rope skipping is that you can take this little tool anywhere you please, but more importantly you don’t have to leave your own yard.

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The one method of ‘alternate sleep’ that did seem promising was biphasic sleep. Although my experiences weren’t lengthy enough to form a solid conclusion (in that there wasn’t time enough to analyze strength gains and recovery speed), I felt very at ease with this system. The pattern that seemed to work well for me was the one of our recent ancestors, wherein I would go to sleep shortly after the sun went down, naturally wake up sometime in the middle of the night to work on various mental endeavors such as my websites, and then get tired again an hour or two later, and go to sleep. This cycle ended typically with my body waking me up shortly after sunrise.

This of course could also be altered for a mid day nap, with 6 hrs total of nightly sleep or whatever intuitively feels healthy. I may try it again, who knows?

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Historically I am a very poor sleeper. While I almost invariably sleep through the night, I always woke up tired and or just slept right through the clock. The reason for this was poor sleep habits, and once corrected my sleep improved ten fold. So below are the various ways I improved my sleep after copious reading, trial and error. Don’t expect to implement everything, just stick to the fundamentals and watch how different your mornings are. I’ll start with the basics that everyone should incorporate, and then go onto specifics in the second half.

Keeping a Decent Schedule

Every evening after work you do your thing and after a while you get tired. Sometimes you go to bed, sometimes you stay up later anyhow to get things done, but your bed time isn’t static. You go to sleep when you’re tired. One the weekends you maximize your free time by staying up late, maybe going out at night, and sleeping in. Does this sound familiar? It’s a fairly common scene across the globe. The most important thing for consistently great sleep is a decent schedule. You should go to bed around the same time every night, including the weekends. Get up at the same time every day irregardless and try to get at least 8 hours in between falling asleep and waking. If you insist on staying up on your days off, you should only stay up an extra hour, not four. On days where you insist you cannot go to bed early, like Friday night out with the friends, make yourself get up within an hour of your normal waking time and go to bed early the next night. The morning isn’t so horrible if you’ve slept well the night before, and getting up on a Saturday at the same time you rise on a work day isn’t blasphemy when you realize that you aren’t losing any free time at all.

No Stimulants Past Lunch

Many people are great consumers of coffee, tea, chocolate, supplements and other stimulatory products. We use them to wake up, stay alert throughout the day, and even to stay up later. This throws your body completely off and is very, very unhealthy especially in regards to sleep. It becomes a vicious cycle of poor rest and thus poor activity. If you can, quit caffeinated beverages altogether. After a few weeks you’ll be amazed at how much more awake you feel without them. If you’re like me and still enjoy a morning cup, try to keep it decaf. Whatever you do, do not consume these beverages after lunch. Even if, like me, you can go to sleep after a double espresso you are still cheating yourself of a good night’s sleep. You may not feel it, but copious studies show that it causes difficulty falling sleep, restlessness, increased body movements, increased likelihood of being wakened by external stimuli, etc. Heavy users may not perceive these effects, as they have a high tolerance and are used to the interrupted sleep patterns.

Exercise

We’ve all experienced the joy of a good night’s sleep after a very hard day in the gym or out in the yard. Keeping active is a great way to expend excess energy and thus sleep well. Overly sedentary people suffer from sleep difficulties more often than not, and something as simple as an evening walk would solve so many problems. You don’t have to work yourself into exhaustion, simply stay active on a daily basis! Most of you are fitness enthusiasts and so this may seem obvious, but it’s usually the obvious we overlook isn’t it?

Now we’ll go onto the meat of the article: Optimizing your environment for sleep.

Comfort

Here’s another seemingly obvious tip - comfort. In order to sleep well you have to be comfortable. Most of us already have the beds which we like, and unless your bed is a piece of lumpy garbage it is likely that you have adapted to sleeping on it and that it will do just fine. Firmness, softness, depth - it really doesn’t matter so long as you like it. More important than what you’re sleeping on though, is what you’re sleeping in.

Always sleep in loose clothing that doesn’t bind or cause you to be constantly adjusting them as you fall asleep. It’s preferable to use less clothing and more blankets, or better yet less of everything and more climate control. People sleep more soundly when they are cool, so read on.

Temperature

As I said above, our bodies fall into a deeper, more uninterrupted sleep when they are cool. I don’t mean cold though. Too cool and you’ll have difficulty falling asleep. I prefer to sleep with very light, summer-like clothing and take advantage of layering via blankets to regulate my body temperate. Sure, excess warmth is comfy but it’s not conducive to our goals. If you can set the thermostat at a cool temperature year round and sleep with minimal covering then that’s great. If not, then read on as here is what I do in my drafty, 300-year-old New England house. During the winter I simply add 2 or 3 lighter blankets which can be added to or subtracted from depending on the temperature. The summer is where things get difficult. If you, like myself, do not have air conditioning try sleeping with the window open using no covering at all. I have difficulty sleeping this way, and so use a very thin sheet. Staying barefoot will really help, and using a fan has multiple benefits aside from the breeze which I will touch on below. Try not to have the fan aimed directly at your body, but to keep the room well circulated and cool. The key with temperature is consistency.

Noise control

Noises that interrupt sleep for most are not the common ones you are used to, but rather the intrusive ones which happen with no regularity such as a car door slamming. Ambient noise such as a fan or sound machine will help drown out the intrusive noises.

Light

Ideally you want to have the room as dark as you can get it. Methods for obtaining darkness include thick curtains and removing or covering light sources such as the alarm clock or door jambs. As much as we want darkness though, having light when you awake is also very important. Our bodies are naturally designed to sleep when darkness arrives, and wake with the light. In the evening, as you are getting ready for bed, try to keep the lights down low to help ease your body into sleepiness. Avoid bright sources of light the hour before you go to bed, such as the television or computer. Do something else, such as reading or simply lounging about with your thoughts which will make you quite tired rapidly if for no other reason than perceived boredom. I am fortunate to live in a wooded area which is incredibly dark at night, and so I can sleep with the curtains open and unless there is a full moon still achieve near total darkness. That way, when the sun comes up in the morning a few hours before my alarm, my body has already begun it’s natural waking cycle. This helps to combat that morning grogginess substantially. For those of you who live in more urban environments, or who have to sleep during daylight hours, using a light on a timer works quite well. They even sell alarm clocks which will slowly turn on a bright light, simulating the rising sun. These are a great investment and actually work not only for sleep, but for combating depression. For the more obsessed, I remember reading about one fellow who installed lighting over each window which repliced a bright sunny day even though he had to wake up at 3 AM.

Bad Habits

It is important when you go to sleep that you are relaxed and at ease. If you are having trouble setting a bed time or falling asleep, temporary use of sleep supplements such as melatonin or l-tryptophan may help but are not to be relied upon. Do not think about what needs to get done tomorrow as you’re lying in bed, and try to accomplish your daily tasks well before bed time so as to have the later evening free for relaxing. Use your bed for sleep and nothing more. Do not watch television, do paperwork, eat, etc in bed. This helps by psychologically reinforcing the bed as a sleep space. If the bed is only for sleep, you will be less likely to be restless or mentally overactive while lying there. Finally, look into various relaxation techniques you can perform as you are falling asleep. I like muscle relaxation, where you tense up and then relax each muscle in your body in a certain sequence. Some others may enjoy meditation, or breathing techniques.

Conclusion

Sleeping well not only ensures proper recovery and thus improved performance, but will also help regulate your mood and energy levels throughout the day. I think so many are irritable or simply depressed and don’t realize the role that getting enough sleep actually plays. Most of the folks I know run on around 6 hours of sleep because of work and other obligations. While this may or not be a societal flaw, we can always work on treating the symptoms. Once you realize how important making time for yourself is, you might just be inspired to treat the problem.

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Daily:

With exception to the obvious, such as proper sleep and nutrition, I will add that contrast showers and stretching should be used daily. Contrast baths are great and even if your workout was not particularly trying, they offer numerous health benefits in addition to aiding recovery.

High intensity workouts:

Workouts where you push yourself to the max (think above 80% of your capacity), or which require high endurance such as long cario sessions are the time to use contrast showers where warm is substituted for hot, and the cold is as cold as you can get it for as long as you can stand it. Just remember to keep the warm sessions longer than the cold.

Injuries:

If injured, or you simply have a specific overworked muscle or sore tendon, use cryotherapy (ice massage) on the area.

Once or Twice a Week:

Epsom salt baths a few times a week will keep you vigorous but also will prevent you from being too low on magnesium. They are a great restorative technique, which I find best suited for recovery days. Massage is also something you should strive to get in at least once a week, such as at the end.

So you see, there’s really nothing to keeping yourself at your peak performance. It’s easy to add to your workout routine, and just as rewarding if you keep with it. I hope these tips have helped to enrich the minds of some of you, and if you have any more please send them to me so that I may include them if they are truly relevant. I also am always open to readers who wish to have a specific topic written about, so speak up!

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Rest Intervals: One of the best ways to really jack up the intensity of your exercise is to decrease the time you rest between sets. Conversely, if you find yourself recovering poorly simply extend this time. Extending rest periods will reduce the amount of lactic acid build up in your muscles, and allows your body to catch up as it were.

Periodization and Time Off: While it may sound blasphemous to some, taking some time off from working out can really add a new dimension to your health and training. What I mean by time off is exactly how it sounds: do absolutely nothing for a few days (preferably a week). Think of it as studying; in order to achieve maximum benefit, your mind requires periodic breaks. Your body works in the same way. You will likely find that you come back to your lifts with far more intensity and strength!

Periodization is a form of changing things up to avoid hitting plateaus and increase recovery ability. You work both fast and slow twitch muscle fibers during this type of training, changing workouts every few weeks. Imagine you always lift heavy, using low reps. For a few weeks, try lifting lighter with high reps and possibly change up the actual lifts as well, hitting the same muscles differently. Bodybuilding.com has a great list of articles which go further in depth.

Sleep: I am going to write an article next week solely on sleep; however I feel it necessary to mention here in these recovery tips that getting a full night’s sleep is paramount. I would recommend 8 hours minimum, preferably 9, in a dark place where you will not be interrupted. Using an alarm clock is often necessary these days, but waking up naturally with the use of light is best for your body. You can buy “alarm clocks” which use light to wake you up, gradually getting brighter and simulating daylight. Avoid caffeinated beverages at least 5 or 6 hrs before your bedtime. For folks like myself who can go straight to bed on a full stomach of espresso, your body is not getting a deep enough sleep even though you don’t wake up during the night, so cut out the coffee and black teas.

While it is important that you break down muscles in order to grow, it is also important that you take the time to let them grow properly. If you ever feel you need a break, take one. This goes for your mind as well, nothing can kill a routine like a decline in morale.

Tomorrow I will go into when and why to use all of the techniques I have gone over this week, as well as some additional little blurbs on recovery. This will tie everything together, allowing you to take all of this information and construct a recovery program as rock solid as your exercise regime.

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Epsom salts are great for whole body immersion in warm or hot water, as well as for localized soaks of such body parts as the feet or hands, as it directly reduces inflammation via magnesium absorption and can also temporarily lower the amount of water one carries i.e. tightening your skin and making one look less bloated. Magnesium is a mineral which many people, especially athletic individuals, are deficient in and this is a great way to increase blood levels. Taking magnesium orally in the form of a supplement is the obvious choice of many, however in high amounts it can causes irregular bowel habits and diarrhea which is why epsom salts and other magnesium preparations have also historically been used as laxatives.

A common amount to use in a bath is 1 to 2 cups (four large handfulls), or 1/4 to 1/2 cup in a basin for localized soaking. For individual body parts where immersion in a basin is impractical, I like to soak a washcloth in the solution and then hold it on the sore muscle. Great for shoulder/neck soreness!! Add it to your bath and before you sit down, kind of use your feet or hands to fully dissolve it into the water. Once you are through, 10 to 20 minutes later, a shower can be had to rinse the salts from your body. This is a great, inexpensive way to improve your recovery, decrease stress, and improve performance.

Stay tuned this afternoon for another article!

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Cheers,
Eric

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