Crunches, Planks and Push Ups

[JohnM]

So I've still got another eight weeks before I head home from travelling. Been doing what exercise I can to get toned and maybe a little muscle growth without equipment. So I've been doing push ups previously to last week. About 65 in five sets with 2 mins break. Finding progress slow. Adding maybe five every week.

 

Anyhow, i want to mix it up and tone my mid section for my return. Did some crunches which I hold for maybe 10 seconds at top of raise, quite awkward. Started planks the other day, can do about 1 min hold four times.

 

So on questions. My body, mainly core shakes quite a lot during crunches and Planks, is this due to my weakness, I presume my core is indeed weak. ALso find it hard to know if I'm keeping straight during planks.

 

ALso, I have been taking protein shakes. is it still worth this when doing core exercises? do I still need protein intake if Its mainly toning as I have no weights?

[tman666]

From an "economics" standpoint, you don't need to supplement protein at all, even when you are doing weights. Generally, it's better to get your protein intake from whole food sources. Protein supplementation helps when people are looking to add protein to their diets without a lot of excess calories (even though in this regard, you have to be careful which products you use: read labels).

 

Since you're only doing minimal bodyweight exercises, you would probably do just fine to ditch protein supplementation and replace that protein gap with 'real' food. However, it's not likely that the shakes are hurting your progress in any way unless you're over consuming calories in a general sense.

[JohnM]

I would prefer natural intake, but whilst away I am moving from town to town working on farmstays. As a result I have no input in the meals I eat. A lot of the time its veg heavy and most meals have no protein or meat.

[PelicanPete]

Planks are probably the best basic core exercise you can do. You'll really see an improvement in your core strength if you do 3 sets of holding a plank for 30sec-1 minute everyday.

 

Calisthenics exercises can become very advanced and require little to no equipment. Doing pullups, pushups, dips, planks, and other body weight exercises can really improve your practical strength, and are the building blocks towards working towards harder exercises like planches, dragon flags, muscle ups, and handstand exercises. The key is consistency!

 

As long as you eat healthy and natural foods, you'll see improvements.

[JohnM]

I do like the feeling of endurance with planks. Try to mix my three planks up with some crunches. Had to rest from push ups for a few days as I think I pulled my shoulder doing some heavy lifting the last place I was and have a hot pain when I use it in any way.

[zerovandez]

P90X or Insanity, or even both. They do work if you actually do the excerises. Results are amazing.