Well, I feel like an idiot! Just found out that, all this time, I've been doing some of the exercises wrong. Rowing never made sense to me - I just couldn't really feel it in my back. So I finally asked Patrick about it, and yup, I've been anchoring the band a bit too high. High enough that I was pulling down and back, instead of back and up. So tonight I set the band lower and pulled back and up - what a difference!! Also, the lawnmower - I think my form has been off and I've been pulling back too much with my core, not isolating in the shoulderblade area. Hmphh! No wonder my back is less developed than the rest of me.
Speaking of details, I learned something cool about planks the other day. Decided to venture over to the power yoga studio and check out the scene. I went with a friend and took a class with a wonderful teacher named Freddie who had a ton of great alignment details to share. It was actually more like a strengthening workout than a traditional yoga class - something that would have bothered me months ago, but as a PCP'er, it was cool to see how strong I've become...and to learn some new tricks. So let's see if I can describe this accurately.
Come into plank on your forearms. First of all, make sure that your butt is in line with the rest of your body. If you find that you're holding your butt too high, lower it, making one long line from your heels to the crown of your head. Next, press strongly into your elbows as you spread the shoulderblades away from one another, rounding slightly in your upper back. Feel how this causes the obliques to engage. Now, pull the abdominals in strongly as you round the lower back as much as you can without losing the long line of your body. Last, begin to pull your elbows and your toes toward one another. Notice how you feel!
This experience was noticeably different for me than what I had been doing up until then, which was kinda "hanging out" in plank. I put my body in the form of the pose and used my breath to focus and sustain me until the allotted time was up. But THIS plank, where I was purposefully engaging every muscle in my body - WOWSA! It was much more challenging, for sure, but it also gave me the feeling of being made of steel - totally solid, hard as a rock. Also, vibrating with energy! Even in the yoga class, we held this for a nice long time. Probably not 90 seconds or anything, but even so - I was like, holy cow, Freddie - have you studied with Patrick??
The next day, we had 5x90 second planks on our list, so I did this hard-body plank. And failed out on the last two!! Success! I mean, failure! COOL.
uhoh. great blog. but now i am going to have to print this out and lay it in front me of me when i next do planks so that i dont forget anything!
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