Friction is a term that’s typically reserved for discussions involving corduroy pants and belt sander user manuals. However, friction affects every workout you perform, even if in a relatively innocuous way. This week, I’ll discuss the role friction plays in exercise physiology and will present an exercise designed to maximize its impact.
If you’ve ever tried to jog on the beach, you know that terrain can have a dramatic effect in the difficulty of a given activity. The reason for this variation is that beach sand provides much greater friction than, say, blacktop would. As a result, your body is forced to work harder to perform the same activity at the same speed. In a nutshell, this is how friction affects exercise science.
Anytime friction is increased, a given physical activity will become more difficult.Whether we’re talking about running, biking or swimming, all types of friction slow down your body and require the muscles to work harder. If you’ve ever watched the Summer Olympics, you’ve seen those crazy full-body swimsuits our athletes wear to reduce friction. They do this because friction makes them slower and requires more physical work to maintain pace.
There are many positive benefits to increasing friction purposefully within your fitness program. Try riding your mountain bike on grass or dirt instead of the street. Pull your daughter’s wagon across the park instead of around it. You’ll likely encounter a rougher, more coarse terrain that will increase friction and thus, increase workload. Caloric expenditure will also increase and you’ll enjoy a better workout.
Strength training can also be affected by friction. This week’s exercise is a fun way to use friction to train the adductor muscle group along the inner thigh. Best of all, the Towel Adduction movement requires only two towels and a slick surface to perform correctly.
Select 2 small towels and find a slick surface such as hardwood.
Get into a pushup position and place one towel beneath each foot against the floor.
Extend your arms so you are in the “up” phase of a pushup.
Now, simply hold your upper body in place as you slide your feet toward each other.
Once they touch, slide them away from each other as far as you can.
Continue sliding your feet toward and away from each other until you’ve completed 12 repetitions.
Perform 2 sets of 12.
I think you’ll appreciate the simplicity and the effectiveness of the movement. If you want to test my friction theory on this one, simply move the towels to a carpeted surface instead of hard wood. Whoa! You’ll notice a dramatic difference in difficulty. Enjoy!
Matt Parrott has a doctorate in education (sport studies) and a master’s in kinesiology and is certified by the American College of Sports Medicine.
ActiveStyle, Pages 28 on 03/24/2014