What is this exercise, and what does it do?

mrthingyx

mrthingyx

mrthingyx

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I keep seeing people do this in my work gym... it involves:

  1. Person standing straight with a dumbell in each hand: normally around 2kgs;
  2. Person then leans from side to side like a weeble.

I'm struggling to find an example on the internet, because it doesn't come under obliques, back (upper, middle or lower) from my quick searching.

Anybody have any ideas? :confused:

And before anybody asks, no, I have no interest in swapping my barbell workouts for this... 'exercise'.
 
i dont know what it is but my mother does something similar when she goes shopping with a pair of bags that weigh 5kg's and she's 73 now, so god only knows what they are trying to do in the gym.
 
Sounds like side bends to me but 2kg seems too low. I do around 20kg for side bends.
Unless it's women you see doing them?
 
It's almost always the ladies... as a result, I'm not sure whether the exercise has been made popular by an exercise video, or popularised by some fad routine that doesn't actually help anything.

I'm with icecold on this, anyway...
 
makes me laugh when you see people do it with the same weight in each side...
set of scales comes to mind !

one counteracts the other do it with a weight on one side lower it slowly as far as pos keeping your body in the same plane as in not leaning forward or backward and without bending at the knee

then using your obliques / abs etc pull yourself up straight repeat.

no point what so ever holding weights in both hands they counter balance each other.

if done under tension as in partial contraction of core you dont need high weight either

especiially if the exercise is for teaching core stability more about using the controol of the correct muscle groups
 
^ Sounds about right, surely it'll look after itself if you're doing a good variety of compounds in the first place.
 
More or less, but a lot of people are more deficient than they think. This is where direct work is required, but not like this.

This isn't just a strength/functional thing btw, it applies to aesthetic abs too.
 
lol you cant say your not supposed to do it at all. if someone needs to work that area they do simple. some people have inherent weaknesses in some muscle groups its a perfectly acceptable exercise if done correctly
 
craarc said:
lol you cant say your not supposed to do it at all. if someone needs to work that area they do simple. some people have inherent weaknesses in some muscle groups its a perfectly acceptable exercise if done correctly
Click to expand...
Sigh...

Did I say not to work that area? At what point have I implied that it's ok ignore weaknesses?
 
so why r you not meant to do that exercise at all explain ? regardless of weather u can work them by doing other things what is the reason for sayin not meant to do it at all ?

is the exercise contraindicated for any reason generally ?

it may not be the only exercise for that area or muscle groups .. but "not at all" why ?
 
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Human body is not meant to move (i.e. be loaded) that way.

I certainly wouldn't do the equivalent forwards and backwards, considering how much effort I put into stabilising my core in the first place...?

Side planks are much better as they exercise a lot more muscles.and stabilise across a number of joints (i.e. are a comound exercise).

For instance, I could get bigger guns by doing bicep curls, but don't bother as - in isolation - big biceps aren't much point without a strong grip, good shoulders, back and legs to stabilise... so I do chinups/pull-upps, deadlifts and rows instead.
 
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