This website’s love for Jack LaLanne is perhaps firmly established through our previous posts. Well with that in mind, today’s post discusses the LaLanne push up, a fingertip push up now synonymous with one of twentieth-century’s most vibrant fitness personalities. So in today’s short post we’re going to examine the exercise, its history, and most importantly, its application.
Whether you’ve attempted to train your ‘core’ or perform some simple rehab exercises, chances are you’ve used a Swiss Ball at some point in your training career.
So where did the Swiss Ball come from? What was it’s purpose and how did they become so popular?
Few bodybuilders are remembered solely for their individual body parts. The collective entity? Certainly. But the individual sections of the body? This is a far rarer phenomenon. While Dorian Yates may be remembered for his towering Lat spread and Tom Platz for his Quad sweep, Frank Zane holds the distinction of being remembered for his incredibly refined mid-section. Indeed, photographs of Zane hitting the stomach vacuum, shown below, have taken on something of a mythical status.
At a time when bodybuilders had not yet fallen victim to the desperately low body fats of modern times, Zane was known, envied and remarked upon for his vascularity and chiselled abdominals. How then, did the former Mr. Olympia train his abdominals and keep himself in such incredible shape? What tips has he given for us mere mortals?
One of the lesser known figures from the golden age of bodybuilding, Chuck Sipes was nevertheless one of the most influential men in the iron game during the 1960s and ’70s. Known for his chiseled physique and intense training methods, Chuck would regularly engage in seemingly tortuous activities in the pursuit of muscle. Thankfully for us however, his advice on abdominal training was relatively mild by his standards, though no less effective. Written circa 1968, the below ab routine will undoubtedly be of use to novice and veteran alike.
Whether you’ve attempted to train your ‘core’ or perform some simple rehab exercises, chances are you’ve used a Swiss Ball at some point in your training career.
So where did the Swiss Ball come from? What was it’s purpose and how did they become so popular?
