Have you ever heard of cherry-picking or even about the cherry-picker exercise? Well, we are all familiar with cherry-picking and practice it daily. Now you must be thinking, how am I so sure of us practising cherry-picking in our lives? To answer the previous question, let’s take an example. Suppose you have a group presentation in school. Now you would like to take a topic you know well and feel confident while explaining it instead of taking a topic you are utterly unfamiliar with and know that you will need help to do justice to it.
You see, that’s what cherry-picking is all about. Instead of trying something new, you stick with what you know you can do best. We all stick with our strengths and avoid working on our weaknesses, which might improve our lives. That was all about cherry-picking, but did you know there is also a cherry-picker exercise? Wow, you didn’t know that! Well, that’s not your fault, as only a few people are familiar with the cherry-picker exercise, but it has countless benefits and is also easy to do.
What is a cherry-picker exercise?
The hamstrings are generally an underdeveloped group of muscles and quite weak, especially in women. These hamstring muscles are present in the back of the legs and are responsible for bending the knee, correct posture and maintaining balance. Weak hamstrings can cause many physical problems like muscle tears, decreased sports performance, back injuries and ruined body posture.
Exercising and stretching the hamstrings must be practised every other day to prevent all the above-mentioned physical problems. Stretching promotes flexibility and a correct posture. For this purpose, we have the cherry-picker exercise. The cherry-picker allows you to stretch your hamstrings regularly to avoid the risk of painful injuries in the comfort of your home. You don’t even have to go to the gym or require any equipment for this exercise.
That’s amazing. All you need to do is to warm up your body for 5 to 10 minutes before doing the cherry-picker. Starting straight up without any warmup exercise can strain your muscle leading to a muscle injury. So it is always advised to jog, run or walk on a treadmill. You can also do 20-30 jumping jacks or jump rope to increase your body’s heat and blood flow. Now, you’re all ready to do the cherry-picker exercise.
How to perform the cherry-picker?
We are discussing two types of cherry-picker exercises which will improve your leg and core strength.
Cherry-picker leg exercise
- First of all, stand with your legs wider than your shoulders’ width apart.
- Next, bend your knees slightly and hinge at the hip.
- Now, reach out before you while aiming to touch the ground.
- Then, reach directly below you.
- Lastly, reach out behind your legs and then again stand back up.
- Continue doing the exercise in three sets of 15 reps or between intervals of other exercises.
There is one more way of doing the cherry-picker exercise, and that is the cherry-picker core exercise.
Cherry-picker core exercise
- To begin, you must sit on your bottom with your feet on the floor and your knees pointing upwards.
- Move your torso back so that your torso and knees are up to your hips, making an angle of 45 degrees.
- Next, lift your feet off the ground until parallel to your knees.
- Bring your arms to your right hip and then to your left hip doing it repeatedly.
- You can do the exercise for as many reps as you desire.
Even though a cherry-picker doesn’t require any equipment, you can add weights to make it more of an exercise than a stretch. You can hold dumbbells, a bar bell or even a medicine ball. The added weight causes your hamstrings to contract, stretching and straining them.
Benefits of the cherry-picker
As mentioned earlier, the cherry-picker exercise has numerous benefits, which include:
- Improved flexibility
- Good posture
- Increased sports performance
- Maintains balance
- Lowers the risk of back injury
Summary
The cherry-picker exercise is like stretching; in this exercise, your hamstrings contract, making your knees bend. There are two types of cherry-pickers: the cherry-picker leg exercise and the cherry-picker core exercise. Both of these exercises require no equipment or hitting the gym. But you can modify these exercises by adding weights, which causes your hamstrings to contract. The cherry-picker exercise has many benefits, including good posture, maintaining balance, improved flexibility and reduced risk of back injury.
Well-written blog,with remarkable choice of words