No, that's absolutely fine. There's no reason you should join a gym if you prefer to work uot at home and have the equipment to do so.
Just to warn you, this is going to be a long one, so bear with me.
Right firstly then, you're going to have a problem doing standard Woodchoppers as the movement is top to bottom, so with a dumbbell, you're moving in the same line as gravity, i.e. there's no resistance on the way down!
What you can do is what we call Haybailers, which is like a reverse Woodchopper. Before we go into that, let me just give you some info on the muscles being worked.
Woodchoppers, with the twisting, are designed to work your oblique muscles which run down the side of your lower torso. There's two types of obliques though, the Internal and External, which are directly on top of each other, but run in opposite directions.
In a nutshell, Woodchoppers work one set, and Haybailers work the other.
Now, what we can do to try to overcome this is to slow down the speed from top to bottom, so we'll be working the muscles targeted by Woodchoppers negatively.
So firstly, try starting at the bottom, then twisting up to the top position in a standard 3-5 seconds, then when you go from top to bottom, do it slowly taking about 10 seconds concentrating on, not moving the dumbbell downwards, but contracting your obliques to resist the dumbbells downward movement.
Does that make sense?
A few technique points to help you out.
Firstly, start by holding a light dumbbell with both hands, and just let your arms drop down in front of you naturally. You can actually do this now if you like with no dumbbell, but clasping your hands together as though you have one.
Now crunch to your right side until your obliques are completely contracted. Don't lean over at the waist, your hips should stay square, just crunch to the side as far as you can.
Now twist to the same side until your left wrist is resting on your right thigh. You should feel a strong contraction down the right side of your torso. Now, when you're here, you wont actually be bending at the waist, you'll still be upright, but you'll be leaning over forwards because you've scrunched up your obliques.
Now what you're going to do is lift your arms, not over head, but to shoulder height. While you do it, concentrate on un-scrunching your right side, and when your arms are at shoulder height, right side will be completely stretched. Pay careful attention to not leaning backward in the top position. Again your shoulders will be twisted, but your body will still be perfectly upright.
Now this is the bit that will need practice, because the movement is a twisting and unravelling at the waist, not swinging your arms in front of your body. This is actually why I didn't post a video, opting to take the time to explain it step by step, because to look at someone doing it, it just looks like you're lifting your arms up and down diagonally, which in fact will just work your shoulders.
Then at the top, slowly in 10 seconds, crunch your right side again, concentrating no resisting the dumbbells descent.
That's one rep.
Try it now with no dumbbell and see how it feels.
To do Woodchoppers (or Haybailers) properly is a tricky movement, so you can also replace it with a twisting ab crunch which will work the same muscles.
If you want more details on how to perform that properly too, then let me know.
Anything in there you don't understand, quote that section and ask, and I'll do my best to describe it for you.
goddamn i hate weekends.
mon-fri am super strict and then it gets to friday and my willpower flies outta the window!
was bad on friday and ended up in the pub - did stick to voddie n skinny coke like but the tabs i smoked were bad too seeing as im a "non-smoker"
however did haul my ill self out of bed on the sat morn and done one of my hardest workouts ever - dunno if it was the hangover or the exertion but i felt so sick.
managed to stick on track with my workout today to - so apart from the let down at the weekend am feeling good.
ps does anyone know where/if you can get wholewheat tortilla wraps?
done my back workout today - added 2.2kgs onto my pullovers and single arm rows. added 4.6 kgs onto my upright rows felt like i had really worked the muscles - was buzzing afterwards!
goddamn i hate weekends.
mon-fri am super strict and then it gets to friday and my willpower flies outta the window!
was bad on friday and ended up in the pub - did stick to voddie n skinny coke like but the tabs i smoked were bad too seeing as im a "non-smoker"
I know what you feel like mate - I struggle with the same thing! I don't think that having a couple is too bad, but obviously if you go out and get leathered it isn't great as alcohol gets converted to acetate, which heavily reduces your fat burn (by about 75%). This is because the acetate replaces fat as a body fuel. This obviously can massively reduce the amount of fat that you burn, and then if you head out for chips or a kebab it is even worse... and your head hurts in the morning.
I wouldn't beat yourself up about it too much though. A couple of tips that I have been using to reduce my alcohol intake...
- going out a little bit later if I am going straight from work
- alternating a pint of water (which is really good for me) with a alcoholic drink
- If we are drinking beer, drinking a bottled beer instead, as there is less drink in it
- drinking lower alcohol drinks, as this makes a difference in the acetate in my system (Stella is a definite no!)
