Using a powerball and lifting weights

[Gregorius]

Forgive me if there is already a topic about this, I looked but didn't find anything.

I have had a powerball for some years now and it's quite addictive :p but I haven't used it lately cus my sis kinda wrecked it T_T but I got it repaired now, meanwhile I have been lifting weights at home.

I train my bicep with 10kg weights, 3 sets of 10s
Tricep (I'm not sure I do this one right though :s) 7kg
Shoulder 5kg
and then some pushups, stomach and back.
Then I have one day of pause so my muscles can "rebuild"

Now what I was wondering is how to best use my powerball. Should I use it to train the different muscles I do with weights too? Or should I wait a day and do the different exercises with a powerball? (If this is the one, how long should I do them etc).

And a last question, I saw someone saying something about powerball first day, weights second day and then stretching third day. If you wait 24 hours with the stretch doesn't that ruin it? I thought you were supposed to stretch when you are done with your workout to make sure your muscles stay the same lenght and not cramp together.
Answers are appreciated :D

[Realnils]

Hi Gregorius...

Your workoutplan looks ok, only thing I think your forgetting is your legs, do some squats too, it's enough using your body weight, try three sets with 8 to ten reps, that should do it. And here's a little guide to the triceps if you where wondering. http://www.mothernature.com/Library/Bookshelf/Books/43/14.cfm

There you go... Sorry if it seems like I'm correcting you, but it's scary getting hurt while exercising, just because your technique isn't proper...

I do workout myself a bit, 3 times a week, and from what i know I think you only should work out one day, then rest, just like you were doing. The weigths will give your arms a good workout themselves, but to tire as many muslefibers as you can, I suggest you take the powerball for a little spin afterwards. What you should think about next is in what way you want to get strong...
Do you want explosive force, or endurance...

If you just spin the powerball until you get tired, you will build endurance (aerobic strength), if you do short bursts of max speed you will build explosive strength (anaerobic strength)....

If you want to bulid aerobic strength, i would suggest doing some 90s runs, lats say three times per arm, or just spin until you can't do it anymore a couple of times.

If you want anaerobic power, I think you should do about five bursts on each arm, on three sets, I believe that should do the trick.. Dont forget to warm up!

And that powerball first day weigths second tip you read somewhere, doesn't make much sense to me anyways, yes and your rigth streching like that will ruin it a bit.. But if you do stretch directly after a workout, it is said that you will get 20% more benefit from the workout, and you wont have to walk like you have pillows under your arms...

Remi.

[Gregorius]

Thank you for your answer, it cleared up a lot of things, and don't worry. I don't mind being corrected, as I said I wasn't sure I was doing them right ;)

And I know I left the legs out hehe, I'm just lazy, I suppose I should get started on those too :D

Again thank you for your answer, and just one last question. What is a good way to warm up? Not only for powerballing but for weights too

[Realnils]

Always a pleasure being able to help, hehe. ;)

Something should be mentioned here...
The powerball is through my experience the best tool to pump up the forearms. And if your forearms are weak, it will be hard keeping your wrists straigth while pumping iron. Got a video of how to do it, it's on a norwegian site though so if you want to veiw it again you should click on "underarmer", The other excersises are good, but i would recommend using weights for those, much more effective!

http://www.powerball-norge.com/oefeningen.php?land=de&actie=zet&waarbenje=oefeningen&pbeurope=2acbccd58106bbee498b4216f993127f

"What is a good way to warm up? Not only for powerballing but for weights too"

For powerballing I would just simply spin it until i feel that my arm gets warm. You want to bulid up a light sweat in your palm, I think that's a good sign too look for when it comes to warming up..

When it comes too weigths, you should do five reps of 60 - 70 % of the weigth you are supposed to work with.. That means, if you are gonna do lets say some biceps curls, and you're going to lift 10kg, you should warm up with five reps of 6 or 7 kg...

There you go.. Hope it helps you out. :cool:

Remi.

[Gregorius]

Thanks, it did :D

I'm danish so norwegian is easy to understand ^^ good for me hehe. And that site you linked to yesterday is awesome! Thanks

Edit: Btw when I do that squat does that cover all of the leg muscles or should I do some other exercises too? And how should I stretch them afterwards?

I am having trouble with the powerballing though... Should I take 30seconds break after each speed run? And should I change position so I speed run with different muscles etc?

I ask lots of questions, I know :D

[Realnils]

Well hello fellow scandinavian! A little ironic writing in english though. :p

I think squats and standing heel raises are all you really need in your everyday life, sure you can train as many muscles as you want to in your legs, but the truth is you wont get too use them so often.. You can always change the standing heel raises with seated toe raises if you're struggling with balance, but that's really all there is to it.

Streching after squats is easy, lemme give you a link again:

http://www.mothernature.com/Library/Bookshelf/Books/43/11.cfm

About half way down the page is a stretching exersise i think we all know.
Look for "Thighs".... and directly beneath there is how to stretch your calves..

When i speed burst with the powerball, I just take a few seconds getting to my top speed, and when i reach the top i relax in my arm, but my hand is still gripping the ball very hard so it doesn't go off axis and starts clunking, when it has calmed somewhat down, lets say to about 6000rpm, i go for a new burst, even if i can't macth my last burst i try to get as high as i can. Try that.... I really don't think there is any use taking a break between bursts, I mean you wouldnt do one bicepscurl and then go take a 30 second break now would you?

To be honest i have stopped using this technique, because i didn't really get that much out of it..
And from what i know, training theory tells me that "you will only get strong in the field of motion you exersise in", Ergo, when powerballing you will get stronger in twisting and jerking your arm, but you wont neccesarily manage to lift more weigth than before. I think this is something most powerballers don't know.. Hope i wont get banned for saying that. :confused: However i do believe that using a powerball will get you somewhat stronger, but not near as much as you would with weigths.

The only thing i use my powerball to do now is build my forearm/wrist strength, this is where i think the powerball is many times better than weigths. And it is still great in protecting your arm joints. But try and see if it helps you more than it helped me..

Just ask away! Im ready! hehe...:D

Remi.

By the way, you can always try to speed burst with the forearm exersise i shoved you.. Burns like hell though, i think you will like that...

[Gregorius]

Okay, but how to do heel raises? You haven't mentioned them before :p

Also the way they are holding their arm to do the forearm, when I hold it like that I feel it in my bicep :s

[Realnils]

http://www.mothernature.com/Library/Bookshelf/Books/43/22.cfm

There you go.
You should find it somwhere on that page..

Remi.

[Gregorius]

Thanks yet again ^^

Now a question of my abs (I'm never letting you go :p)...
When I do situps it is extremely hard for me to get up, actually impossible unless I push off from the ground with my back. Now that doesn't seem quite right, because I do have some abs and a 6-pack showing if I flex.
But if I have my toes under something (say, my closet) I can do lots more of situps before I get tired because I have something to make sure my feet doesn't leave the ground.
My question is this, if I am doing it with my toes under something for resistance, does it ruin the abs training by using the legs too?

[Installed]

Interesting reading there Realnils. So you are saying that its best to powerball as hard as you can AFTER weights? I've heard that you should do it before.

I'm kind of a noob at working out too, and I have the same problem as Gregorius with sit-ups...

[Realnils]

First of all dump the sit-ups, do crunches instead, they are much more effective.

A regular sit up is when you almost keep your torso straigth through the whole motion, lifting you body up until you're up with your knees.. this should be possible without hjaving to have your feet under a closet, but it's definately harder then the crunches, and it still isn't as effective as the crunches, that's why i prefer them.

Crunches is when you lay flat on the floor (I recommend using a towel under your back to get your stomach through a bigger motion) and you start rolling your torso forward instead of keeping it straigth, which is much more efficient. stop when you feel your lower back leaving the floor, then it's time to go back down..

Here is a picture of how to do it with the towel..

http://www.tn.no/guide.aspx?id=77

With that said, sit-ups and crunches are hard exersises when it comes to executing them, they require full attention through the full motion in order to feel the burn in your stomach, it's not egnough to just lay down and start crunching, if you are aware through the exersise, and try to feel the burn and how you get it to burn, you're going to get much better results over time, and rock hard abs will be yours.

having your feet under a closet will take the load of your abs, and pushing off with your back to is not very effective. But if you follow my advice you should be able to do it better i believe..

What you do before the other when it comes to weigth and powerball workout, is only what your priority is.. if you powerball before weigth training and tire yourself out on that, the weigth training will definately suffer. But if you think that weigth traning is generally more effective then working out with a powerball, you will of course do the weigth part first. that's what i have experienced.. Doing powerball before weigth training doens't sound very good if you ask me...

Remi.

[Installed]

Thanks for the great response. I actually have been doing more crunches lately instead of sit-ups since I found they worked better and all. I'll definitely take your advice though.

[Gregorius]

Yeah, thanks for the reply. What you linked to is almost what I'm already doing, but that tip about putting a towel under your back, damn it improved things, now I can go up without pushing off from the floor

[Adrena1in]

Best Crunch exerciser I ever had was one of those wheel things, with handles. You sort of get on all fours, holding onto the handles, then keeping your upper body parallel to the floor you allow the wheels to roll forwards. You don't have to go right down until your body's touching the floor. Then you pull yourself back up into the all-fours position.

I made an exerciser like this once, out of a bit of broomstick and two little wheels. Cost less than £1. First time I used it I only did about 10 reps, but for days afterwards my stomach muscles were really achy. :o

I've heard the ultimate is to have two boards on wheels. You stand on one board and have your hands on the other, making a sort of upside-down 'V' shape with your body. Getting your whole body parallel to the floor and back to the upside-down 'V' takes abs of surgical steel apparently!!


By the way, I'm not recommending this technique...I'm just saying. I've heard it can be bad for your back if you don't do it properly.

[Installed]

Whoa that sounds hardcore... :eek: I'll stick with crunches for the moment. :)

[Gregorius]

If that sounds hardcore then take a look at this ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6L6PUVUMg8

[Adrena1in]

Wow, that looks tough. I don't have anything I could use to support me really, but I doubt I could even get my body one inch off the floor?

This guy also does the Dragon Flag, and shows the device I was talking about too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-6T-K5esjY

[Autolupus]

I agree with Adrena1in, the ab wheel is a very good way to fry your abs...but you really need to build up some good core stability first.
You can use progressions like using a sloped board off your knees first, then try off the knees without the board, then off the toes with the board, then off the toes!;)
There's a big jump from knees to toes.
My best before my shoulder op was 6 reps off toes on a level.:cool:
It'll take me a while to get back there but I will...and beyond!
Maybe not to infinity though!:p :D :D

[Autolupus]

Here's a link to a slightly inverted ab-wheel roll-out vid (http://www.kbnj.com/Inverted_Wheel.rm)...even if he does loop it!
http://www.bodyweighttraining.org (http://www.bodyweighttraining.org/forum/) has some good core strength info.:)