Exercising With A Friend - Partner Leg Press
Monday, February 12, 2007
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
The Partner Leg Press strengthens your legs, hips, and posture muscles, and practices balance and good body position. It can be safely done with children too.
- Partner 1 lies face up on the floor with both feet raised.
- Partner 2 positions themselves facing down, with Partner 1's feet on their chest or abdomen, and holding their body straight (photo 1).
- Partner 1, on the floor, bends knees to lower and pushes legs almost straight, in a leg-press action.
- Repeat the leg pressing many times, trying for at least 10 presses, then switch places.
- Be careful. This one is so much fun that Partner 2 may drool on, or fall on Partner 1 by accident (or purpose). Have fun on Valentine's Day.
- Then try the Partner Leg Press with Partner 2 face up (photo 2). Start by partially sitting with Partner 1's feet on your back, and "walk" your feet away for straight positioning. Do several presses, then switch places.
Free Exercise and Free Back and Knee Pain Prevention - Healthy Bending
and
How Good Would You Look From 400 Squats a Day - Just Stop Unhealthy Bending
As you do the fun Partner Leg Press, you adjust your balance and positioning for the other person. Working with a partner practices cooperation and empathy - important and often ignored aspects of health.
Why tell a loved one or child you can't spend time with them because you need to go exercise? Instead of making exercise isolating and separating, and something you have to stop your life and disrupt your family to do, make it unifying, friendly, and fun. That is health.
More partner exercise can be found in the book Healthy Martial Arts.
Thank you to Jolie's students for being in photos, (copyright).
Labels: balance, holiday, leg press, leg strength, partner exercise, strength
2 Comments:
At Friday, March 14, 2008 12:39:00 PM,
Nina said…
This could being done another way.
Sit on a bench or sumthing else back-to-back with your partner.
Interlock arms sitting straight with your backs pressed together.
Rise up and down, and feel the pressure on your leg muscles.
At Tuesday, March 18, 2008 11:58:00 AM,
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM said…
Nina, what you describe is a half-squat. Far better without the bench. No need for equipment. Both partners use their own muscles to hold their weight, rather than sitting or touching down between each raise.
The exercise in this post is a leg press. Standing on your feet changes it to a squat. The squat can be a good exercise, but has opposite joint and muscle dynamics to the leg press. In this leg press, your body is fixed, and the feet move away. In the squat, the feet are fixed and the body moves. The difference in which end is stationary creates different forces on the muscles and joints. The body needs to practice both to be good at both. I will make a post on this. My book Healthy Martial Arts describes the back-to-back squat with photos, and also the partner leg press.
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