“The exception to this are any exercises that cause you pain or you have been advised to avoid due to injury etc. “As a general rule, there are no exercises to be totally avoided as long as you are doing the exercises correctly”, Zocchi says when we ask him which ab exercises you shouldn’t be doing. John Cihomsky is the vice president of public relations and communications for Sharp HealthCare.To find out more, we sat down to chat with Luke Zocchi, Head Trainer at Centr (opens in new tab)(read our Centr app review here), and Chris Hemsworth’s personal trainer. While I won’t give up my day job for the lumberjack life, it’s good to know that my frugality is good for both my core and my bank account. It’s also important to wear proper shoes, such as heavy boots, for a firm stance and added protection for your feet, and gloves are important to prevent blisters and help keep a firm grip on the ax handle. Experts recommend wearing goggles to guard your eyes against flying wood chips. Safety tips When chopping wood, it’s important to take precautions. “Just like real wood chopping, this exercise works your back, shoulders, butt, abs and chest all at the same time.” “Woodchoppers are a great way to give your entire core a workout, especially when you're short on time,” says Hays. An exercise called woodchoppers (what else?) mimics the rotational swing of chopping wood using weighted resistance in the form of a medicine ball, a dumbbell or a cable machine. Consistent swinging, bringing the weight (the ax) up and down, with good form, will raise your heart rate and result in decent calorie burn.Īnother great benefit is that an average person can expect to burn between 350 and 500 calories when chopping wood for an hour, according to Hays.ĭon’t have a tree that needs chopping? Hays recommends hitting the gym as an alternative to swinging the ax. In addition to giving you some serious muscle burn, when you chop wood steadily for long stretches at a time, you are also performing a cardio exercise. “When you swing an ax,” says Hays, “you use all of your abdominal muscles by extending down at an angle from the ribs to the hip bone, using your stomach muscles all the way.” Hays continues that wood chopping, when performed regularly, can help improve hip and shoulder stability and strength, and can give you washboard abs. “Chopping wood engages virtually the entire core, including lower and upper back, shoulders, arms, abs, chest, legs and butt (glutes).” The mechanics “When you split wood, your body uses multiple muscles to perform the swing as well as stabilize your position,” says Hays. Intrigued, I asked Olga Hays, an American Council on Exercise-certified trainer with Sharp Best Health, just what was going on. In addition to all the sweating, I noticed I had dropped a few pounds and toned up my core in only three weeks and an estimated 16 hours of work. And yes, it could have been removed mechanically in a few hours instead of the few weeks it took me, stealing an hour here and there during the week and even more on weekends.Īside from the joy I felt when I was finally able to pry the wooden monolith from the ground after getting to every last root of the problem, I was pleased to discover what a great exercise in exercise my endeavor had been. Yes, it was hard work that caused me to break out in a sweat just five minutes into each chopping session. Rather than pay more than I wanted to have the stump pulverized by a professional, I thought I’d try my hand at swinging an ax and doing the job myself. ![]() ![]() ![]() I didn’t even know I had one until I received an estimate to remove a large tree stump from my backyard. I recently had the opportunity to get in touch with my inner lumberjack.
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