Balance is important for ballerinas and dancers, not to mention high-wire circus acts. As adults we take balance for granted, yet we start learning balance soon after birth. Gravity is a powerful teacher. And we soon recognize loss of balance through injury or illness. In later life, strength and balance is important for protecting seniors from falls and broken bones.
Athletes need exceptional balance to perform at their best. Muscular strength and advanced neuromuscular reaction are the cornerstones of balance. "Proprioception," another determinant of balance, is one's sense of the position and function of different external parts of the body in relation to each other. If you break an ankle (the fibula in my case along with a severe sprain), until you can regain proprioception in that part of the body, balance on that leg is problematic. It takes work to regain all the balance characteristics you took for granted.
The Bosu Ball is my favorite balance training equipment. You can do many balance exercises on the Bosu. Here are some of my favorites.
---> Balance Tricks for Strength and Agility
---> Improve Your Balance with Bosu Trainer Exercises
As weight training becomes more popular for mainstream physical activity, I thought I would revisit the benefits of weight training and physical activity in general.
This article provides a wide coverage: Health and Fitness Benefits of Weight Training.
And this new article targets mainstream lifestyle illnesses like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and weight loss.
There are many food myths, obviously a sustainable core of food facts, and some that lodge in between -- the bits of information that are often half-true or have been manipulated by various interests like diet book authors to suit their particular spin on healthy diets, weight loss, muscle building and other promises.
The following article explores a few popular ideas and the truth or hype behind them.
---> Facts and Fallacies of Food for Fat Loss
Okay, that headline was designed to cause disagreement . . . but that's fine. It's an interesting premise from which to start, I'm sure you will agree. A little like the best batter or pitcher, or guard, or quarterback -- or bowler or batsman if you play cricket. Locker room stuff for sure. And endlessly entertaining.
I won't keep you waiting: It's the "hang power clean press." Got that?
You start with barbell or dumbbells hanging at the thighs in front of you. That's called the "hang" position.
- For the power clean you bend your knees and go into a half to quarter squat.
- In the same movement, you bring the bar up to the chest/shoulders and then . . .
- Thrust it overhead in a military style "press" before returning the bar or (dumbbells) to the starting (hang) position.
Watch this video and see three different exercises demonstrated. In a power clean you don't go ass to ground (ATG), that is, the squat part of the movement is only around half way compared to a genuine "clean". In a full clean you go ATG or close enough. You will see some trainers confuse these two things: a "power clean" and a "clean" are not the same, from the hang or floor position. The third exercise in the video is the "push press," which elevates the bar above the head. This exercise requires a small dink in the knees to provide momentum for the overhead. You can do the push press by itself and it is a good way to develop overhead strength before getting serious about clean and presses of any kind.
My best exercise is the hang power clean press, which combines a hang power clean with an overhead press. The original question of the "best exercise" is of course confounded by what you want to achieve. This could be strength, muscle, anaerobic fitness, sports fitness, body shape, or a combo of all of these things. The hang power clean press is a great compound exercise, which means it works all main muscle groups -- legs, arms, back, chest, shoulders, core and butt -- to some extent. That's about as good as you can do in one exercise. For strength emphasis you might do heavy reps up to four. For muscle building, lighter weights up to 8 reps, and for anaerobic and metabolic training you might go lighter again and do 15 reps. Three sets of 15 of these will hammer you big time. Good luck.
