Conditioning

9 Tough Floor Exercises for Better Core Strength

Floor exercises are a great way to challenge the core, shoulders, and hips. They can also be a great way to build tolerance for loading the wrists. This makes floor exercises a great option for a wide range of goals; whether you’re training to get up off the floor after a fall, get better at yoga, or try your hand at gymnastics. These exercises also featured heavily in my guide to surviving the zombie apocalypse!

Picture of me with hands on the floor in a pressup position. I am pulling one knee up to my stomach.
Woman with her hands on a mat and her toes on the floor. She is pushing her hips up to the ceiling in the "downward dog" yoga pose.
By Logan Weaver on Unsplash

Some of these exercises, such as pushups and deadbugs, have been covered in great depth already. This post is aimed at building up the variety of exercises at your disposal. If you find a particular exercise here quite challenging, you can perform it on it’s own with a focus on truly mastering the technique. Alternatively, you can use these exercises in supersets and circuits as they tend to raise the heart rate.

They also force you to use the hips, trunk, and shoulders in tandem to maintain your position. Because you’re not laying on your back, these exercises also allow the shoulder blades to move freely. For these reasons, many strength coaches use them in blocks of general preparation work with their athletes.

If you want to skip the detail and just get an overview of the exercises, you can head over to this video.

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3 More Fantastic Fitness Finishers to Cap Off Your Workout

Here are three more fitness finishers you can try for your workouts. As before, I’ve explained what elements are important in each workout so you can customise them to your needs and gym layouts.

If you missed the last post, I discussed my definitions for fitness and conditioning there. I also provided three other example workouts, so if you’re looking for more fitness inspiration you should check it out.

By Becca Matimba on Unsplash
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3 Great Conditioning Finishers to Improve Your Workouts

Anyone who has read the title of this blog will know that I tend to focus on strength training. I’ve spoken previously about how this training can be hugely beneficial for a number of reasons that extend beyond the desire to make your body look different. That being said, there is another aspect of training that can play a huge role in how we move, perform and feel: conditioning.

What is Conditioning?

Conditioning is training that prepares you to perform under a specific set of circumstances. Because these circumstances can vary from person to person, the definition of conditioning will vary from person to person. For example, the conditioning that a 100m sprinter needs is different from that of a footballer.

By Logan Weaver on Unsplash

In many circles, the term has become synonymous with “fitness,” but fitness is another one of those terms that has a pretty broad definition. To understand if you are fit or not, you need to ask yourself: “fit for what?”

However, it is possible to take a very broad approach to conditioning and fitness. I’m going to avoid delving into energy systems and sports specificity in this blog. Instead, the conditioning examples I provide will be geared towards general preparedness for everyday life.

All of the finishers you see here will work on one or more of these principles:

  • Tolerating the discomfort of being tired/sore;
  • Not wanting to die as soon as you get out of breath (we’ve all been there);
  • Building up muscular fatigue;
  • Completing whole-body tasks such as pushing, pulling, carrying, etc.;
  • Improving your ability to do repeated bouts of work with reduced recovery;
  • Avoiding overly sadistic and risky forms of conditioning.

The most important part of conditioning is that you do not need to wreck yourself by the end of the workout. Training should be about making you better, not just making you tired. I’ve previously referred to this desire to beat yourself up in the gym as “The Rocky Mentality.”

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