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Truth about plank exercise ?


Deins Drengers
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No doubt there's a lot of truth in that. There are outstanding teacher's in every field.

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Aaro Helander

I just attended a personal trainer qualification course by DS Trademark in January. It was two weeks intensive course, and I already knew that the content would be horrible. It was even more horrible than I could have imagined, but I was there just for the license anyways!

 

The instructor told us to do arch holds without activating our glutes  :lol: He said that if your glutes are not totally relaxed, you're doing it wrong.  :facepalm:  :facepalm:  The same guy also pulled a 44lbs plate off a bar while a student was squatting..... :facepalm:  :facepalm:  :facepalm:  :facepalm: I almost cried out of facepalming!

 

Now I'm just trying to forget all the dark and horrible stuff I saw there and enjoy my PT license.

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Keilani Gutierrez

The same guy also pulled a 44lbs plate off a bar while a student was squatting..... :facepalm: :facepalm: :facepalm: :facepalm: I almost cried out of facepalming!

.

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Connor Davies

Some things I feel need to be cleared up in this thread:

Joseph Pilates was a cigar smoking boxer who invented a system of physical therapy designed for people who had just been shot. There was a war at the time, you see....

It is LITERALLY meant for people who were too sick or injured to get out of bed. However, it draws heavily on his gymnastics background, and in the right hands is a fantastic method of physical training.

I say in the right hands, because a judge in America ruled that the name Pilates can be applied to ANYTHING with no legal reprisal at all. This mean you can call what we do here Pilates. You can have a hot dog eating contest and call it Pilates. Most Pilates instructors out Ther have absolutely nothing to do with the original Pilates training method or function.

Speaking of things removed from their original purpose, yoga. Yoga is indeed an ancient tradition of meditation, but it involves exactly EIGHT seated poses. That's it. That's all of yoga.

The name yoga was rather aggressively rebranded sometime around the end of the 1800's. The new yoga was a bastardised form of Swedish gymnastics, under the guise of an ancient Indian tradition, in order to give the young Indian men something to instil national pride. And make no mistake, it was considered a method of strength training.

So what do these two things have as a common root? Gymnastics. Gymnastics is not only the progenitor of both of these physical training movements (which have far eclipsed it in America) it is STILL superior.

It remains a better method of developing stength than both other disciplines. It may not have quite so much of a focus on stretching as yoga does, but in all honesty that much flexibility is rarely good for a person. It DOES have a good focus on balancing strength and flexibility, so as to minimise the risk of injury. As far as I know no-one has given that same thought to yoga, making it one of the most dangerous sports in all of America. (Yes, yoga is a sport. Yes, it's injury rate is really that high).

And all of this is not to mention the balance, co-ordination and so on that gymnastics has. There are no backflips in Pilates. I checked.

I have my own problems with gymnastics. I don't like that they have two almost completely separate sports for the men and the women. I don't like the lack of condition knowledge that most gymnastics coaches seem to have. I don't like the lack of available training for adults, but it is there if you know where to look.

Just wanted to set some things straight here. Some of you seemed confused.

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Perhaps little over stated/simplified, but from my research and experience with yoga, that is fairly accurate. I fully agree that gymnastics can have the most balanced approach, and that's why I decided to 'retire' from yoga and move to GST. There are many who will fight tooth and nail about the ancientness of yoga, but as a physical practice now done in the west, there is little to indicate its being much over 100 years old. Though borrowing on older bits and bobs.

 

It's interesting to note that Krishnamacharya, arguably the most influential guru in popularising yoga asana, taught in what was essentially a gymnastics gym after being made 'State Yoga Teacher' in Mysore. His neighbour was one of India's leading Physical Culturists.

 

Of course none of this invalidates yoga, Pilates etc but I think it's good to understand each systems role in the overall spectrum of health and fitness.

 

Yoga, pilates and to some extent dance (and I guess Helander's PT instructor now too) all freely borrow concepts from each other, so the 'myths' brought up here including not using your glutes seem to be moving from one to another. I was taught the no glutes rule long, long ago, and prior to that was taught the use your glutes rule, it just goes in cycles I guess. 

 

Perhaps the most lamentable aspect of this, is that gymnastics at some point distanced itself from the general public (other than children), to the point were the average person no longer thinks that they can participate at any level. I think in part the popularity of yoga and Pilates is due to the gapping hole left by that distancing.

 

Of course the gap has also been taken up by the huge growth in 'extreme' sports, but in the end that may also be what helps bring this full circle.

 

In any case, I certainly feel I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Christopher Sommer for bringing gymnastics back to the people. 

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