So Since we have not done a top 5 list in awhile lets go with the "Top 5 best lower back exercises of all time".

My list as usual needs no equipment and baring some serious back ailments can be done by anyone, anytime, anywhere. I love these exercises and to be honest my top 5 as a stand alone routine I think will feel quite relaxing on the lower back.

Here you go in no particular order:
#1 Lower Spinal Floor Twist - This classic brings a collective breath of excitement anytime I use it in a group class of any kind. Everyone I have ever trained looks forward to this stretch.

#2 Pelvic Tilts – Easy to do and can help work out some tightness that can occur during long periods of sitting and or standing. Simply arch the lower back, then press it into the floor back and forth.

#3 Prone Hand Leg Opposites - I wanted a strength move to be included and I have always liked this one not only for the strength but the combination with the twisting. Make sure you do a move like Pelvic Tilts or Cats and Dogs to help realign the spine after the twisting.

#4 Salutation to the sun - Yoga taught me this great move and I have loved it ever since the first yoga class I took. For some it can be a bit too much arch so try the move from your elbows if you feel excessive pressure in your lower back.

#5 Crunches - Not directly a lower back move but you have to take into account the amount of impact having strong abs can help with lower back pain.

Honorable mention – Hip Crossover, Child's Pose, Cats and Dogs, Supermans
So what are your top 5?

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As usual these will not be in a specific order, just 5 of what I feel are the best for you. 

1. Cats and Dogs – This one has to be on the list in my opinion. It has so many benefits it is hard to name them all in this post but since we are talking about stretching I am putting it here for the ability to enhance the flexion and extension of the spine. The ability to maintain this for your life would make for a much higher quality of life as you age.

2. Lower Spinal Floor Twist – just as important as flexion and extension of the spine is the ability to maintain rotation throughout the back and spine. Lower spinal is a passive way to allow the body to maintain or create new motion in the back. 

3. Extended Lateral - this one made the list for me since it encompasses so many great stretching components. First is the ability to again get some rotation in the back . Also with this move is the hip flexor, hamstring, and adductor lengthening that happens with the back leg. Finally the ability to stretch out the sides of the back has many benefits as well.

4. Kneeling Hip Flexor Stretch – The name gives it away but keeping your hip flexors lengthened is vital to maintaining a neutral pelvis. This will help out tremendously with lower back health. Flexible hip flexors also are an important part of knee health. With the amount of sitting we do the hip flexors get tight, combating this is a vital component to maintaining your muscular efficiency.

5. Downward Facing Dog – a classic in the yoga world. Hamstring just like the hip flexors suffer from the amount of sitting we do as a society. Exercises like this one are a great way to combat the tightness that we develop in our hamstrings, glutes, calves, and lower back. I also like the ability to load vertically into your shoulders, I feel this is an important component to maintaining proper shoulder alignment.

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Many of these products work initially but do not last. They work simply because they do represent a new stimulus to your muscular system that will cause some form of change. Luckily for these gadgets and gizmos we are a living adaptive organism that constantly responds to the stimulus we give it. This also means once we have used the machine for awhile our bodies adapt to it and it simply does not impact us like it did right out of the box.

Here is a picture of a gadget from acquiremad.com

If you built a piece of exercise equipment that was unlike any other you could temporarily give tremendous results. Lets say a machine that allows you to do weighted arm circles. Place your arms in the machine and then you can make large circles forward and backwards, adjust the resistance to make it easier or harder.If you told everyone your product was guaranteed to give them more strength in their shoulders and increase their ability to swing their arms, you would be telling them the truth.

You could then sell it to every gym in the world since no gym wants to loose out on the newest trend and loose members. I think we might have just given someone the million dollar idea of next year. Get great muscle definition in your shoulders with only minutes a day! All I ask for is 5% of your total profit. Perhaps a machine like this already exists. If so check for a patent first.

Going back through the world of fitness, what are 5 things you can think of that were not a fad but something that has truly changed the fitness industry (for the better). Keep in mind that the list from us will of course revolve around things that enabled us to improve our overall muscular efficiency, or at least make the best out of a bad situation. Here is our list in no particular order;

1. Treadmill – this invention enabled people to be able to run anytime, anywhere. I live in the Pacific Northwest state where the weather can be extremely problematic when trying to workout. The treadmill solved this problem for millions. 

2. Dumbbells – I am sure our ancestors think its funny we need fancy handled pieces of metal to lift in an air conditioned facility when they through rocks and bail of hay all day long. They can laugh all they want, ill take my air conditioning and indoor plumbing thank you very much.

3. Public workout Facilities – For all their flaws your local gym is the backbone of fitness for thousands in your community. It provides a gathering place for those that do better in social venues. Trainers and millions of dollars in equipment give poeple motivation they need to make their bodies move. 

4. Apparel – thank you Nike and Adidas for all the work you have put into making my shoes into little mini trampolines and shirts that pull my gallons of sweat off my body to keep me cooler. I do miss the leg warmers of the 70's and 80's but the apparel today can actually impact your workout for the better and still be fashionable. 

5. Playgrounds – still the best workouts we ever did. The playground provides the best stimulus our muscular systems have ever had, well in my opinion. 

So what are your thoughts on what helped change the fitness industry?

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Keep in mind this is not where you have traveled but you had to have actually done a workout while you were there. To be specific, lets say the workout had to consist of at least ten minutes and more than one exercise and I am going to eliminate walking as an option. So here goes 5 of my most interesting spots I have ever done a workout. I hope yours are more interesting than mine. Oh and just one more side note, I really do want to do a handstand on the moon. 

As I usually say at this point in the top 5 lists, these are not in a specific order. 

1. For the First one I am going to say is somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico. It was on a Cruise ship. My wife went to get a massage and so I decided to go get huge in their sorry excuse for a weight room. This was unique for 2 reasons, one it was my first workout out of the U.S. and it was my first time seeing someone running on a treadmill in a thong. Awesome and disgusting all at the same time.

2. This one may surprise you but I am going to put workouts at ADAPT training. This is still the best workout facility I have ever seen. I have seen hundreds of typical gyms and some of them are loaded with millions in equipment and pools and courts but none of them offer what ADAPT does. An environment that allows the opportunity to truly maximize your muscular efficiency. 

3. Disneyland. I chaperoned a group of kids for a senior trip to the greatest place on earth. While there we went for a run one morning and did some handstands at the entrance to the park. We got kicked out pretty quick because some of the boys had their shirts off but it was still fun to workout there.

4. Cape Kuwanda on the Oregon Coast has a huge sand dune on it. This is one of those things that is very deceiving since when you look at it you believe you can make it to the top without any problems. However actually climbing it is another story. It is so hard on your legs and lungs it makes you want to cry. I have run up this thing several times with various teams that I have coached. The veiw at the top is amazing as you can look out over miles of beach along the Oregon Coast.

5. Dodger Stadium. I had the chance to work with a guy named Matt James. We traveled for Nike and had the chance to go to some cool places and talk at symposiums. One spot we had a chance to visit was Dodger Stadium. It was amazing! I am stretching the rules a bit to say that I "worked out" there but there was some running and a few other components of a workout so I am going to count it. I could not believe how amazing the grass and dirt and everything looked perfect.

Like I said I hope yours is a little more exciting than mine but I will have the last laugh from the moon!

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I am going to do 2 posts on this. the first is going to be how I view it now. Then I will do another post on what used to drive me crazy when I was still working in the gym community.

Top 5 current list:

1. People who do not warm-up. I have posted on this several times and the reasons are always the same. Our lack of muscular efficiency makes it so much harder for our bodies to do what they are designed to when we ask it to exercise. This really limits are ability to get the true benefit from many of the exercises we do. Also it just creates greater amounts of imbalance in our bodies. Please Warm-up before any workout!!!

2. People who do not cool-down. Ok this is more or less the same as above but I have just as much of a problem with this one. When you exercise you create various imbalances in your muscular system due to fatigue and tightness. A cool-down is how you can address these issues and cut them off before they are able to become a problem. Please do a cool-down after your workout!

3. Your "Free" personal training session you get when you sign up. When I worked in the gym world this was each trainers chance to try and sell a training package to the client. They would schedule these sessions for trainers and their job was to show them a few pieces of machinery and then start pushing sales on them. Do yourself a favor and find a friend that has been working out in the facility for a long time. Have them show you around and explain how to use the equipment. THen once you are comfortable with it, ask a trainer to check your form real quick and make sure the settings are correct. They are much less likely to offer you some elaborate training package at that point. 

4. Dependency on machines. Gyms are like the Matrix that way, totally depending on machines to give people a good workout. Many classes do a good job of teaching you to use your own body weight but the gym is set up to get you to use their millions of dollars of equipment. I wanted to use the word worthless there but thats not fair, some of it is good.

5. Public Hot Tubs. I am sorry but this is just repulsive to me for some reason. There is a good chance that this might end up on my other top 5 as well. Just one giant pool of germs and grossness in my opinion. Do yourself a huge favor and do not go in to these. 

So I am very curious to see what you come up with for your Top 5 things that drive you crazy about he gym world.

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So what we are looking for here is athletes that could do it all. I have become much more of a fan of athletes than specific teams. When I was growing up in Denver I was, like every other boy in the city, enamored with with Broncos. I did not even care about other teams or their players. If you were not a Bronco I did not care about you. When I moved to Oregon all we had was the Blazers. They were great but I learned to have to appreciate other football players. This was before the days of the NFL Network and the internet so I was at the Mercy of watching whatever the local television wanted me to see that week. 

This coupled with my career choice has made it enjoyable to watch athletes for their abilities as opposed to just following a team only. 

So here are 5 athletes that I watched during my life to this point. This is going to be hard but I think I can get a top 5. As always these will not be any a specific order, its hard enough just getting it narrowed to 5.

These photos are Courtesy of Google Images.

1. Bo Jackson – If you are too young to have watched this guy play, you missed out. He was quite possibly the best running back of all time. He just also happened to be an All-Star caliber Major League Baseball Player. I am not a huge stat nerd but I do know that he would show up for football with the Raiders when baseball ended meaning he only go to play in 8 games or so each year and he would still rush for over a thousand yards. His combination of speed and power is unlike any one I have seen before or since. Of the current generation, maybe Adrian Peterson, maybe. His injury that prevented him from playing football again was a tragedy. He was absolutely amazing. 

2. Carl Lewis – My favorite track athlete of all time. As a Head track coach I talk to my kids about this guy all the time. He was so dominant for so many years in both the sprints and the Long Jump. He to this day has one of the best strides ever. he made sprinting look effortless. Todays sprinters are just not the same. They train for more power which in turn ruins their stride (in my opinion). Lewis was a smooth as you could be while still running 100 meters in under 10 seconds. I also loved the fact that he did it all without cheating. When he lost to Ben Johnson in the Olympic Finals I was shocked. Then when the news came out that Johnson had cheated and used steroids it just made Lewis seem that much greater. You know your good when others are cheating to try to catch you.

3. Lebron James – I know he is young but seriously this guy is a freak. He is 6'9" and weighs close to 280 pounds. Then when you watch him move he looks like a guy who is 5 inches shorter and 50 pounds lighter. Next time you turn on a game and see the Cleveland Cavaliers, spend a few minutes and watch this guy move. He is capable of doing things that nobody else that size is capable of. I am trying to think what this guy would be capable of doing on a football field. It would be scary to see him in pads. 

4. Jackie Joyner Kersee - I just do not think there has ever been a more complete athlete than JJ. She was the total package and still holds the record in the Heptathlon (I think). She was such an amazing combination of speed, power, grace and fluidity. I loved watching her compete growing up. Like Carl Lewis she made competing at an incredibly high level easy. Her stride looked so effortless and then watching her jump was jaw dropping. Go you tube some footage of her, trust me you will be impressed. I was, everytime I watched her. She was capable of things that most men will never even come close to. 

5. Michael Phelps – Ok I know this is a bit contradictory to what I said above about the complete athlete but feel free to argue against what was the single most impressive display in any sport ever. If you somehow managed to not witness what this guy accomplished at the olympics last summer time to get out of your cave. His performance in winning 8 golds while breaking a world record in most of them is just crazy. To me this would be like a Quarterback setting every single passing record all in the same season. Or maybe a basketball player leading the league in almost every statistical category. He may not be the total athlete  few of the others I have on my list are but still try to argue his dominance.

Ok Lets here your top 5. And yes I know I am going to take heat for putting Lebron James on here and not Michael Jordan.

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The instructor was a former soviet national champion so I was determined I would not only play but defeat her. I worked hard in the class and won the tournament with ease (again I was the only person who even cared). So thebig moment came and the epic battle was to rage on. I actually help my own for most for the game but did end up losing a hard fought battle 21-13.

Being the competitor I was I took the class again the next semester, this time determined to defeat my new found rival. It was cool because in the second semester she taught me a lot of pretty cool tricks like how to curve the shuttlecock drop shots and a few other things that made it impossible for any of these poor suckers in the class to even score a point on me. I thought I was the best thing to happen to Badminton, well, ever.

So round 2 of our rivalry came, it was like Rocky vs Apollo Creed. So we start the match off and she is holding the racket in the wrong hand. I explain that i have gotten pretty good and that I do not want her to take it easy on me. She proceeds to inform me that the last time we played she used her off hand. What goes through a 19 year old guys head at that point was not the most courageous thoughts. I was so freaked out it was awful. Of course my classmates who thought I was a complete idiot for taking the class so seriously in the first place were laughing their heads off at me. 

So we play the game and the result is one of the most devastating loses in my life, she beats me 21-3. She could hit the thing so hard I could not even see it. By the end of the match I was so tired I felt like I had just finished a marathon. It was a great lesson to an arrogant, overly competitive young man and I am very grateful for it. I now look on the bright side and ever since taking that class I can dominate any backyard barbeque. 

Here then are my Top 5 P.E. classes of all time;

1. Badminton – after boring you with that story how could it not be? I loved this class!

2. Dodgeball – nothing brings out the beast in people like dodgeball. 

3. Kickball – My second year of teaching we played this nearly every day for a semester and never got bored of it. Lots of trash talking and arguing make it fun. The key i make the rules a little vague so there can be lots of debate over them as the action occurs!

4. Capture the Flag – I had a teacher who had tons of ways to play this game and we loved every one of them. Great game indoor or out. 

5. Ultimate Frisbee – What would college be without this game? One of my favorites from my High School P.E. Classes.

Let me know what your favorites were. This was one of the easier Top 5 lists for me although there were a few others that could have made the list for sure. Games like volleyball, tag, soccer, speedball, were also some great ones.

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Here are the Top 5 from train2move (in no particular order). Lets see what you come up with!

1. Standing Lunges - Hard to beat this classic move. I like the many athletic factors it incorporates. The balance component is great for training stabilization in our knees and ankles. The flexion of one side of the pelvis with extension of the other make it a great move for anyone that is a runner. This can increase the length and power of your stride. It does a good job of providing equal stimulus to all the major movers of the lower body like your quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes. Overall this move has a significant amount of positives and should be a regular on most warm-ups and workouts you do.

2. Deep Squats - This was an easy choice for the benefits to both the lower body and the back. Sadly we are starting to lose our natural ability to accept weight into our hips due to the large amount of sitting we choose to do as a part of our lifestyle. The more we sit the weaker our hips become and the more dependent we become on other areas of our body to support us. This move helps to restore our ability to load into the hips which has many benefits including posture and balance. I also like what These Squats can do to keep your back healthy. There is a good amount of flexion and extension that goes into the back during the move which helps to support proper alignemnt and movement of the spine.

3. Lateral Lunges – I know you guys might give me grief over this one since I used a lunge earlier but to me it was a great addition to my top 5. Lateral stability in the hips has become a lost art. So much of our training focuses on linear movement as we get older. All the cardio machines we use, the going out for walks and runs, even bike riding. If you are not playing a sport when do you do loaded lateral movement? This move enables you to continue to apply the necessary stimulus to your lower body that enables it to be able to move laterally efficiently. Losing this ability makes you very vulnerable to injury and can wreak havoc on your balance as you get older. For all these reasons, it made my Top 5.

4. Rotational Fire Hydrants – I thought hard about whether or not to put his one in. I wanted there to be a rotational move in my Top 5. I decided on the Fire Hydrant since it provides a more supported position than a standing version of this move. In the all 4's position you are able to focus on the maximum range of motion without the distraction of balance or stability issues. If you are unfamiliar with this move, from all 4's you extend one leg behind you and then rotate the leg out to the side, then in front like you would be going over a hurdle. There are a lot of options for this style of move but I like the way this move is able to isolate the rotation of each hip independently. 

5. Wall Sit – The least favorite of so many people. Why? Well because it works, really well as a matter of fact. Like the Deep squats this moves is excellent at teaching your body to load into your hips. So that makes it a great posture move. I also like how it enables better tracking of the bones in the lower body. The Wall Sit help to provide stimulus to muscles in the lower body that are responsible for proper alignment of the femur as it comes out of the pelvis. 

So there is my Top 5. See what you can come up with!

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There was actually more movies than I thought so you may have a way different 5 than I do but here are the ones I loved the most.

The rest may not be in any particular order but the number one of all time for me has to be Rocky 4. The back and forth between Rocky and Ivan Drago the Giant Russian are awesome. Drago is shown using all this fancy equipment and getting pumped full of steroids. Rocky is out in the middle of nowhere moving rocks and pulling sleds and other cool training stuff. You know the story goes as always, Rocky kicks his butt proving that we are meant to be living adaptive organisms that constantly change based on the stimulus of our environment. So Rocky giving the stimulus he did to his muscular system made him physically stronger than all the fancy machines and science the Russian used. Well at least thats what I took from the movie, but I am a huge training nerd. Check out this montage of training greatness!

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Ok so after that I would have to go with the following 4. These are in random order and I will not make you watch them all but check them out on youtube if you can.

2. Another Rocky, this time Rocky #2. The classic scene of all the kids following him while he hurdles the benches in the park. Squat hops with a log on his back, chasing a chicken, chopping wood, all classic Rocky training moves to say the least.

3. G.I. Jane. This had some great training sequences in it. The intensity of it is also cool. The barbwire obstacle course with gunfire all around you is motivation! Also the roller coasters in the water, great scene.

4. Batman Begins. What an awesome movie this was. Super Hero movies will forever be compared to this one in my mind. The brutal fighting and training that Bruce Wayne receives is intense. It is not just true training since so much of it is fighting but I still loved it.

5. The Karate Kid – seriously how can anyone argue, "wax on, wax off" and "paint the fence" and "sand the Deck". Miyagi was one bad little dude. Anyone who can make Daniel Larusso seem tough is an incredible trainer.

Honorable mentions courtesy of my wife (Dirty Dancing,
Step Up, Stomp the Yard, and Save the Last Dance) No training but she loves the cool dancing that I could not do with all the training in the world.

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Here is my Top 5 Best upper body exercises in no particular order.

1. Roller Coaster - Kneeling, Standing, Spread Foot, One leg. They are all great exercises. Some of you mentioned this one in your top 5 and I understand why. It is a great tool for building great strength and is a better version of the pushup when it comes to increasing overall efficiency in the body. The Navy Seals started to make this move famous. one of my favorite exercise scenes ever in a movie was in G.I. Jane. They are in Seal training doing roller coasters in the surf. I am a nerd.

2. Pull-up - I am going to lump this into the pull category, chin-ups, pull-ups, seal pull-ups. This one is still in my opinion the best move for strengthening the back. The first item to put into a gym is pull-up bars for this reason. It is so much easier to train the chest and shoulders with no equipment but the back can prove difficult. 

3. Full Sit-up - I am going with the upper body being from the waist up. Full Sit-ups got  real bad reputation for awhile. As we lost our muscular efficiency and our hips started to tighten up in the last few decades, it became incredibly hard to so this move without any pain in the lower back. The issue was the casting effect on our hips causing us to not be able to generate the necessary motion in the lumbar spine to do this move correctly. But if you want strong abs and core, I'll take the full sit-up over the basic crunch.

4. Handstand – Coach S will agree with this one. As will a large portion of guys in my weight training class. Being able to hold a legitimate handstand is one of the more enjoyable exercise feeling in my opinion. The power your body generates in this move is fantastic. It also build a great upper body, shoulders, and back especially. If yo can get to the point of doing handstand pushups, you have achieved some serious muscular strength and efficiency in your upper body. People tend to shy away from a move like this due its level of difficulty but I recommend everyone stick with it. 

5. Inchworm – I was really undecided on this one. I had several that I wanted to put into the top 5 but I am going to stick with Inchworms. They are a great integration move. Integration meaning that incorporates just about every muscle of the body to perform it correctly. For this reason it may not be specific to just the upper body but if you have ever done a set of 20, you understand why I like it. This is one of the best core moves I have done and I also like the range of motion component in various areas of the body that this move will impact.

So once again lets see what you come up with for your top 5. My honorable mentioned list included Kneeling Arnold Press, Pushups, Crunches, Dumbbells Flies, Rows

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