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Twister

Description: A bobbing and weaving drill. Excellent for a warmup, especially for that early morning workout.

Motions trained: Everything...

Main muscles used: All of 'em.
   Other muscles:

How to do it: There are two versions of this. The inside twist and the outside twist. We'll describe each. Always think of keeping the palm upwards and imagine you are doing this with a full glass of water you don't want to spill. The trick here is to note that because of the number of joints in your shoulder and arm, you can rotate your arm through 720 degrees before you return to the original position. This lets you invade your own centerline twice in the course of each drill, forcing you to offline. Your hand gets unconditional right of way, your body must move.

Outside twister: Hold your hand out at face level, palm up and fingers pointing straight ahead. Start rotating the arm to the outside (hence the name of the drill). As it circles around, aim for your head and bob offline. Continue the motion and on the second turn, aim at your hips, which you must move out of the way. This gets you back to the starting position.

Inside twister: Start in the same position, but start moving your hand towards the inside, aiming at your hips. On the second turn aim for your head which will force you to lean backwards like a limbo dancer.

How to work up to it: You can warm up with some hip circles if you like, but this doesn't do anything a healthy person can't do first thing in the morning.

Ramping it up:Grab a light weight. Better yet, try it while walking the circle, but be prepared for weird stares. If that gets to you, you can always start clucking like a chicken and feign a psychotic episode to get a little peace and quiet...

Do's and don'ts: Do bring your hand squarely through your centerline. The goal of the drill is to give you a way to practice moving your body offline. More amplitude in the hips and head avoiding your hand is better.

Comments: A superb exercise. If you have had a stiff back, due to trouble or just because you've never had to move like this before (uh, that's the norm and few folks get this right the first time), this is an exercise for you!