Exercise Substitutions

I’m starting Alwyn Cosgrove’s Fat Loss 2 from “The New Rules Of Lifting” next week. There are some swiss ball exercises in there. I don’t have one at my gym, so I’m looking for suggestions for substitution exercises:

  1. supine hip extensions with leg curl
    (basically laying on your back with the feet up on the ball; first raising the butt till the body is in a straight line, then flexing the knees until they are at a 90 degree angle similar to a leg curl)
    I was thinking of just doing supine hip extensions with a bench (without the leg curl), while keeping a bend in the knees around 30 degrees. Instead of a concentric leg curl I’d have an isometric hold (please correct me if the terminology is wrong, I’m no expert).

  2. Upper body russian twists
    (laying on the back on a swiss ball with the body in a straight line from chest to knees, arms together and straight up from the chest; rolling on the shoulder as far as possible to the right, then to the left)
    Will these work the same if I do them on the ground or on a bench? Otherwise I would use lumberjacks with the cable at shoulder level.

Any other suggestions?

[quote]CBassBeer wrote:

  1. supine hip extensions with leg curl
    (basically laying on your back with the feet up on the ball; first raising the butt till the body is in a straight line, then flexing the knees until they are at a 90 degree angle similar to a leg curl)
    I was thinking of just doing supine hip extensions with a bench (without the leg curl), while keeping a bend in the knees around 30 degrees. Instead of a concentric leg curl I’d have an isometric hold (please correct me if the terminology is wrong, I’m no expert).

  2. Upper body russian twists
    (laying on the back on a swiss ball with the body in a straight line from chest to knees, arms together and straight up from the chest; rolling on the shoulder as far as possible to the right, then to the left)
    Will these work the same if I do them on the ground or on a bench? Otherwise I would use lumberjacks with the cable at shoulder level.

Any other suggestions?[/quote]

Instead of the Hamstring curls, just do deadlifts, 1 leg deadlifts, Instead of Russian twists, do woodchops, reverse woodchops, lateral woodchops, woodchop and lift. Any of that stuff will do it.

I’m really a fan of the leg curl on the ball. See if you can try them somewhere and if you have the room spend $25 on a ball you can use at home.

[quote]CBassBeer wrote:

  1. supine hip extensions with leg curl
    (basically laying on your back with the feet up on the ball; first raising the butt till the body is in a straight line, then flexing the knees until they are at a 90 degree angle similar to a leg curl)[/quote]

You could do leg curls on a machine, stiff-legged deadlifts, glute-ham raises, or just buy a Swiss ball.

[quote]2. Upper body russian twists
(laying on the back on a swiss ball with the body in a straight line from chest to knees, arms together and straight up from the chest; rolling on the shoulder as far as possible to the right, then to the left)
Will these work the same if I do them on the ground or on a bench? Otherwise I would use lumberjacks with the cable at shoulder level.[/quote]

You can do Russian twists while seated on the floor and holding a medicine ball or weight plate straight out in front of you. Keep your knees slightly bent and twist to each side with your arms out straight holding the weight.

If you want to make the swiss ball hammy curls harder, get a weight belt and hook it to an adjustable cable pulley.

Hook your feet through and now curl with added resistance.