The 4 Horsemen will usher in a new age of fitness. The traditional versions of Conquest, War, Famine and Death are represented in our focus on Goals, Competition, Nutrition and Metabolic-conditioning. We firmly believe that strength, power and fitness are best achieved by utilizing CrossFit methods and the 4 Horsemen of Lifts: Squats, Presses, Deadlifts and O-lifts.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Stabilizing the Mid-line

J-rock holding a sick Flag off the life guard tower at Port Stanley

A strong core means having the ability to stabilize the mid-line (see pic above). You need to be able to recruit muscles in the front (eg. abs, + many others), back (eg. erectors + many others) and even side (eg. obliques + many others) of your body to keep you rigid and solid under load (or tension). Having a strong core is less about how many crunches you can do and more about how much weight you can lift. If you work on all the core muscle groups, and not just the abs, you will see that you can front squat, OHS, deadlift, and press more and you will be able to do more pushups and pullups. This is all because power is generate from the core to the extremities and the stronger the core the more efficient the power transfer. Additionally, the stronger your core is the farther the (center of mass of the) load can be from your mid-line which means you have a greater margin of error to work with when lifting. So the next time you have some free time, bust out an elbow lever or a flag; they are fun to try and a great core exercise.

5 comments:

Sean B-H said...

crazy awesome J! who else has a flag pole?

How long did it take you to get one of those?

Sean B-H said...

Thanks Murph, I tend to drop my chest like that and do a couple other shitty things on my jerk. I will be working the PVC a lot to try and correct my faults so that I can put up a respectable weight next time.

How did you do in your competition?

Monika said...

Jerry that flag pole looks nice!

Ben Wheeler said...

Thats a nice pole Jerry.

Sean,

It took Jerry one try! He is that much of a monster!

Pat M said...

Mike and other horsemen!

First, that is a solid flag. Very cool.

I like the VFF and am a big fan of being bare foot. I usually train barefeet, so when I am not at home, I do wear them to train. I am working on POSE and they really help me stay on my the balls of my feet and keep my feet under my COM. But, they are pricey, $85 US, and if you have footwear you like, then I do not think they are needed.

Did you guys ever get a good Olifting bar? Which one? Pendlay NexGen bearing bar is on my wish list. Cheers,

Pat