But I Thought the Top was the Best Part of the Muffin…

Recently, a co-worker who is interested in trying dragon boat paddling asked me about exercises he can insert into his workout routine that would work the muscle groups needed for dragon boating.  Of course, I immediately thought of the obliques and lats.  If you belong to a gym, or have equipment at home available to you, it’s not so hard to work out those muscle groups.  Without equipment, you can still do a lot with your obliques, but the lats are tougher to work sufficiently to prepare for paddling.

My new favorite oblique exercise is the side crunch on a fit ball.  I would show you photos of me doing this exercise, but I don’t look anywhere near as pretty as this guy…

Of course, you need one of those big fitness balls in order to do this exercise.  Fortunately, there are a bazillion exercises you can do to work out your obliques without any equipment at all:  side plank, oblique crunches, lying jackknifes, oblique v-ups… the list goes on and on.

Lats, on the other hand, are a different story.   It is awfully hard to work the lat muscles without any equipment.  Some of the most effective low back exercises I’ve found are back extensions, quadruped extensions and full swan with rotation.

There are many things I love about dragon boat paddling.  One of them is the great reduction in muffin top that I experienced after I first started paddling.  I can still pinch an inch (and probably always will) but paddling, and exercises like these when I’m not paddling so much, keeps it under control.