Navy Fit Week 20

This week we are going to start working on our core strength. The sit-up portion of the fitness test is to see how your core is holding up. We are not going to build washboard abs. If you want washboard abs though, go for it. We use our core for almost every movement we do. This week we are adding two core exercises. One exercise that focuses on your abdominal muscles and one that focuses on your back.

Why the back? We are not tested on back strength. Many people focus on the vanity muscles. You know, the ones you show off at the beach. Our muscular system is designed to work in pairs. If you work only on the vanity muscles and not their counterpart, the system gets out of balance. This promotes injury. Remember my back injury from the last PRT?. I was doing to many abdominal exercises in the weeks leading up to the injury. When an unexpected situation I was in required back strength, I did not have it. If that does not convince you, it is your back muscles, not your abs, that hold your gut in naturally.

The first exercise is the flutter kick:
1) Lay flat on your back.
2) Place your hand on each side of your upper buttocks and your thumbs under your lower back. This creates support for the lower back.
3) Look at your feet and raise your upper torso and legs 1 to 2 inches off the ground.
a. Your knees will stay straight throughout this exercise.
b. Your toes will also stay pointed.
4) Alternate raising and lowering your ankles
5) This is a 4 count exercise. This means that each leg will be raised twice per repetition.
You will feel the tension in your mid to lower abdominals and possible your quadriceps.

The back exercise is call the “Superman”
1) Lay on your stomach with arms stretched forward and fingers straight.
2) Keep your head up.
3) Raise your right arm and left leg about 2 inches off the ground.
4) Count to 10 (No fast counting)
5) Lower your arm and leg while raising the others.
6) Count to 10.
7) This is one repetition.
You will feel this one on each side of your mid back area.

This week’s program
• Stretch
• 15 pushups for the guys and 9 for the ladies (5 second hold in the down position)
• Flutter kicks (5 reps for the guys and 3 reps for the ladies)
• 10 minute run.
• 5 minute walk.
This weeks workout is again shorter. Do it 3 times this week.