Axe Chops

Running is a primarily forward motion, but there is significant lateral motion generated as moving one leg after the other in the gait. Hence lateral stability and strength plays a very important role in controlling the body through the gait. At RunMechanics we observed that a lot of runners don’t have enough lateral stability which causes significant sideward motion during the gait, and more specifically trunk bend at mid-stance. We have also observed many runners' low on pelvic rotation and could not utilize it optimally for efficient stride.

Axe Chops is an excellent workout to strengthen the core required for lateral stability and also to improve pelvic rotation.

How to do it

As the name suggests, it is cutting the wood with an axe and the flow of the workout is in the similar manner. This workout requires dumbbells. Use a weight of 5-7.5 Kgs to start with.

• Stand with legs slightly wider than shoulder width apart while holding the dumbbell like how you would hold an axe. Same as with chopping the wood, raise the dumbbell overhead over one shoulder. While doing this movement engage your core and oblique muscles and rotate your torso towards the dumbbell as shown in the figure A.
• As you do this movement, you will have to relax the opposite leg and stand on the ball of the foot.
• Once the dumbbell is in the overhead position, twist the torso and simultaneously lower the dumbbell explosively to the other side and as if to chop the wood on the floor.
• When lowering the dumbbell down, control the movement by hinging at the hip, and planting the foot back on the floor as shown in figure B.
• Continue the movement and stop the dumbbell forcefully as it would have hit the wood. As you do this the foot on the other side will rotate and be on the ball of the foot as shown in figure C.
• Repeat the same on the other side.

When to do it

Include it as part of strength training, with 2-3 sets of 20, one can gradually increase the repetitions and also the weight of the dumbbell.