Today is my favorite day of all the benchmark challenges.
Why? Because we get to be a mummy (no toilet paper required). And then we get to be Iron Man.
Yup, it doesn’t get better than that!
Benchmark #5: Trunk Rotation
- Start by standing with your back facing a wall, about a foot away from it. (Hint: you should be parallel to the wall)
- Looking straight in front of you, stick both arms out, parallel with the floor, exactly like a Zombie or Mummy. You are going to keep your arms in this position throughout the entire test.
- Keeping your feet firmly on the ground and keeping your arms out in front of you, slowly turn your body to one side.
- As you turn, your whole body is able to turn, with the exception of your feet. Your feet need to stay pointing naturally forward and firmly planted on the ground. Do not let your weight shift off the center of your feet and onto the side of your feet.
- As you turn to the side, your lead arm will want to keep moving out (and no longer be straight from your shoulder). Don’t let it! Keep your arms straight out in front of you and rotate the core of your body instead.
- The fingertips of your lead arm should eventually touch the wall behind you. If they don’t, go back to your starting position, step closer to the wall, and start again. If you end up right up next to the wall, that’s okay! If you hit the wall with your fingers before you have rotated as far as you can, go back to your starting position, step away from the wall, and try again.
- Eventually your fingertips will gently touch the wall right at your max rotation.
Once you’ve achieved this, have a friend measure the distance from your heels to the wall. If you’re on your own, use a piece of tape and stick it to the wall and then measure after you’ve stepped away.
Repeat this measurement with the exact steps to your other side.
Benchmark #6: Trunk Extension
- Start by laying down with your stomach flat against the floor.
- Bring your hands to the side of your head, with your fingers touching the back of head on each side. Your arms will form a triangle on each side of your head.
- Slowly raise your head and upper torso off the ground, coming up as far as you can safely. Your head should stay neutral the entire time – that is, don’t look up or look down as you come up. Keep your body tight and lift everything together off the floor.
- As a part of this, it’s essential to keep your legs on the ground. As you raise your torso, they will want to come up – it would be helpful to have a friend hold them down as you do the test. If you don’t have someone with you to hold your legs down, you can put some weight on them, such as a bag of kitty litter or a backpack. If you don’t have anything, just try as hard as you can to keep your legs on the ground.
- Slowly lower yourself back down to the ground. Do this 2-3 times to get used to the movement.
Have a friend measure the distance between the tip of your nose and the ground as you hold a full extension for a few seconds. Don’t look up to try to get a better measurement!
If you can’t hold the extension for several seconds with shaking or collapsing, that means you’re trying to extend to far. Measure from where you can hold for a few seconds firmly. Again, if your legs come up, you will get an inconsistent measurements!
Want to improve today’s benchmarks? Here’s how…
Here’s a couple poses from Nerd Fitness Yoga we recommend to get you started!
Supine Twist (30 seconds each side)
Supine Twist is one of our common poses that we use towards the end of several sessions to help reset and strengthen our spine and torso.
- Laying flat on your back, start by bringing one knee slowly up towards your chest. Reach up with your opposite arm and hug the knee into your chest.
- Stretch your other arm (the one on the same side of your body as the knee that you’re hugging) out straight to the side. Keep your shoulder flat against the ground. Look away from your knee towards the extended hand.
- Slowly rotate the knee you are hugging down, across your body, to the opposite side (see photo above). Use your hand gently to help pull your knee into place. If your shoulder starts to come up off the floor, you’ve gone too far.
- Hold for several seconds, before rotating your knee back up to center and then switch sides. Bring your other knee up, gently hug it with your opposite hand, and rotate it down to the other side.
To scale down, you can place a block or pillow to your side and rest your knee on top (instead of on the ground) as you twist over. This will allow you to keep your shoulder flat and rooted to the ground.
Cobra (20 seconds each side)
Cobra is a popular pose that can follow Plank as a transitional sequence in many Yoga sessions. It’s also a foundation to the more advanced Upward Dog. This pose primarily stretches the shoulders, chest, spine, and stomach.
- Start by laying flat on the ground on your belly, with the tops of your feet on the floor. Your hands should be positioned under your shoulders (much like you would imagine starting a pushup).
- Slowly push down through your hands and begin to straighten your arms to lift your chest up off the floor, but unlike a push-up keep your hips, thighs, and tops of feet rooted and pushing down towards the ground.
- Move your shoulder blades back, lift your chest, and look forward and slightly up. Hold for several seconds and then slowly release down.
To scale this pose down, only raise your chest and head to where you are comfortable. Be sure to keep your hips and thighs pushing down to the floor, even if that means you can only raise your chest a little.
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Signing off for today! More than halfway there!
-Steve and Team NF