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Glide Your Way To A Strong Core
By Christina | August 8, 2009
Gliders are one of my favorite exercise toys that are affordable, portable, and challenge the entire body. If you are not familiar with them, they look like frisbees that you place under your feet or under your hands and glide in a multitude of exercises. Many personal trainers and group exercise instructors over the years have used paper plates or towels to perform these exercises, but these fabric covered discs are much more durable and effective.
Here are three of my favorite glider exercises. These exercises engage the core, elevate your heart rate, and set your quads on fire. To get started, get into a plank position. A plank position is the position you would be in if you were doing a push-up. Make sure your butt is in line with your spine and your hands are shoulder length apart. Place both of your feet on one glider in this plank position. This exercise is a killer and has three stages.
Stage one is a knee tuck. While staying tight in plank position, bring your legs into your chest. This is a knee tuck and is difficult to do with both feet on the glider. Do 8-10 knee tucks for stage 1. Stage 2 begins right where stage 1 left off. Still in plank position, do a set of 8-10 knee tucks again, but this time have only one foot on the glider and the other foot elevated knee height next to the leg that has the foot on the glider. Do knee tucks in this position. It is significantly harder than just the plain knee tucks, but not as hard as the final stage.
You should be on fire after stage 1 and 2. Rest out of plank position for 15 seconds. Get back in plank position and have only one foot on the glider again with the other leg elevated out to the side of the glider. This time do 8 knee tucks with the leg that is not on the glider extended straight the whole time while the rest of the body comes in for knee tucks. These are beyond difficult to do. Aim for 8 of them, but if you have to do less, less is better than none and you will condition your body to be able to do this final stage.
After the end of all three glider exercises, your core should be barking and your legs screaming. This trio of exercises alone is worth the cost of purchasing gliders. Go buy some today at Fitness Future.
Topics: Boot Camp, Exercise, Fitness Fads |
