LOVE THIS STRETCH!

I really just wanted to share this bit of info with you guys because as it has helped me, I think it will benefit you as well. Aside from stealing hugs and kisses from my beautiful niece and hanging out with the fam, this has been one of my most exciting and most lucrative things to do lately.  My body has thanked me big time.

I have been getting in anywhere between two and four extra stretching/recovery/regeneration sessions in per week at home with a heavy band, a lacrosse ball, a pvc pipe and a sweet wooden floor that allows for above average gliding skills during the SMR (self-myofascial release).

I cannot believe how healthy my joints, muscles and body feels after the last 3 weeks of these extra rejuvenation session.

I am thinking of filming some of these home office/training lab feel good sessions so be on the look out for some training footage of some serious damage control and heavy duty foam rolling without the foam.

The fun part about these sessions at home lately is I have been able to spend some quality time without interruption on a specific muscles and get the lax ball in there and than follow that up with a static stretch for that particular muscle group.  Many times I get sidetracked at when doing certain exercises at the gym.  Usually when I am squatting, benching or deadlifting people tend to let me be however when I am lounging on a foam roller or lacrosse ball I can get sidetracked by messages, questions, etc. So doing this type of workout at home for me is ideal because it has allowed the peace and quiet I am looking for in this type of recovery workout.  Some may actually benefit by coming to the gym to do this type of workout because that will give them the most peace and quiet and if that’s so than get you butt in and STRETCH!

The other thing I think that has been really effective and helpful during these at home stretch sessions is the choice of music I have been listening to.  This is not to say that it has not been a mixture however I have been stretching and foam rolling to music that feels relaxing and soulful at the time I start my home workout.  Sometimes it’s heavy music, some days its reggae, but most always it is something in my collection of tunes that has given me some really good experiences over the years and I can feel in my soul on that day.  This type of music selection has helped tremendously in relaxing and healing some muscle issues that I have been having.  Music is key and I think if you try this home workout you will feel exactly like I do which is refreshed and this feeling is priceless for many of us with such busy, hectic lives.

Lastly I think by adding in these home recovery sessions I have been able to spend more quality time playing and rolling around with my baby boys Harley & Titan. It is pretty neat being able to roll around and stretch while the boys are licking my face, wrestling each other, bullying me around.  They have really enjoyed having me down on the floor where they are like one of them.

Here is just a quick of the top of my head list of the exercises I do during these at home recovery sessions:

• Lax Ball SMR on calves, glutes, ITBand, hip flexors, hamstrings at certain spots, bottom of feet and anywhere that hurts
• Leg Swings both forward/backward and side to side
• Green Band 2 Way Hamstring Stretch
• 90/90 Hip Stretch on Floor
• 3 position Hip Flexor Stretch with Quad Stretch
• Side Lying Rib Pulls
• REPEAT Lax Ball SMR on rhomboids, lower/upper traps, rotators, delts, triceps, anywhere that hurts
• Green Band Shoulder Dislocators
• Standing No Money w/ Band
• YTWL’s
• Green Band Traction Stretches on each chest, shoulder and lat.
  

  THIS REALLY HURTS!

I have also included the following exercises if I felt good and need a good sweat and workout:

• Band Pull Aparts
• Single Leg Bridges
• Passive & Active Leg Lowering
• Scapular Pushups
• Close grip Pushups
• TRX Y-Raises
• TRX Rows
• One Arm KB Row (with various elbow positions)
• KB Swings
• KB Windmills
• Turkish Get Ups
• 1/2 Turkish Get Ups
• All Types of Planks

So if you are feeling beat up and run down than back off some heavy sessions and add in some regeneration sessions and you will feel WAY BETTER!

If you are not sure what some or any of these exercises above are than just post a comment or shoot us an email letting us know and I will be sure to put some fresh educational videos up for you guys.

By increasing the challenge of your exercises and workouts you will keep your body guessing and make sure your body continues to adapt by getting stronger.

If you don’t continually increase the challenge, you can hit a plateau where your body will become used to your training and not progress any further.

That is why I encourage everyone to change their workout routine at least every 4-6 weeks to make sure you can keep improving your  performance and progress.

There are several variables you can alter in order to increase the challenge of an exercise. Some of these variables you probably manipulate already, while others you might want to start to do so in your workouts.

1. Load / Weight – This is one of the most common ways to increase the intensity of an exercise. Simply increase the load by adding more weight or resistance to the exercise.

For example when doing some strict military presses, simply throw a couple more plates on the bar whether they are chips, 5′s or 10′s.

2. Repetitions – Increasing the amount of reps in a set is the other most common way to increase the challenge.

For example when doing  squat, after I perform my heavy work sets of squats for the main lift, I take a few back-off sets of the barbell squat. What you can do is each week of the phase or wave increase the reps of those sets. Say on week 1 you do 225 for 4 sets of 10 after your main lift, the next week come back and do 225 for 4 sets of 12 instead of 10. The next week do 225 for 4 sets of 15 reps.  When the phase is over either change the secondary lift or add weight and start back at 10 reps for 4 sets.

3. Tempo / Speed – Changing the tempo or speed of an exercise can also increase the challenge. By slowing down an exercise you can increase your muscle’s “time under tension” which will make them work harder. Conversely, if you speed up an exercise into more of an explosive movement this can also increase the challenge by forcing your muscles to work harder by producing the same force but over a smaller time frame.

For example when doing a chin up, you could do a slow 5 second lowering on each set. Alternatively you could explode up as fast as you can increasing the power output. Both of these would increase the challenge of the the chin.  With this I tend to mix it up since I do chin ups with various grips pretty much with every workout.  One day I may do a normal speed on the way up and down, sometimes I will pause at the top and lower myself very slowly and on other days I will explode as fast as possible on the way up.  Doing this over the past year has increase the amount of reps I can do each workout, the amount of weight I can strap on and my back has gotten much stronger, thicker and bigger than before.

4. Density – You can alter the density of an exercise in a number of ways to increase the challenge. First you can do more sets of the exercise. Secondly you can decrease the rest period between sets. Altering both of these variable means you will be doing more work in a lesser time frame, therefore increasing the density and challenge of the exercise.

For example when performing prowler sprints you could add a set every week or change the rest between sets from 60 seconds back to 45 seconds.

5. Exercise Complexity – By increasing the complexity of the exercise you can also increase the intensity. You can increase the complexity of an exercise by adding in more complex movements or even combining different exercises into one. This can challenge the body from both a biomechanical and neurological standpoint.

For example with the front squat you could increase the complexity by adding a military press above your shoulders at the top of each squat repetition.

Conclusion

Hopefully you can see that there are lots of ways to increase the challenge of an exercise. Next time you do design your workout try changing these variables and see you it affects the intensity of the workout.

In addition, these two exercises will help you absorb your landings better by improving your landing mechanics and also help protect you from knee injuries.

They will also help improve your balance because you have to stabilize on each landing before starting the next repetition.

Note: These are more advanced exercises. Before you start trying these, make sure you are competent with more basic single leg exercises like rear foot elevated split squats and also 2 foot jumping exercises like squat jumps.

1. TRX Single Leg Jump

If you don’t have a suspension trainer, then you can also do this exercise by having your rear foot elevated on a bench.  If you would like to purchase a TRX Suspension Trainer than go HERE

2. Single Leg Barbell RDL

Make sure you keep your chest up, core braced and back straight (don’t hunch over). Move from the hip first and keep your weight on the heel.  When coming up drive that heel into the ground and squeeze the glute forward to finish the move.

Do 6-10 reps of either of the exercises.

If you are already in a good training routine, and have built up some single leg strength, then incorporating these exercises into your workouts will only advance you further.

If you are looking for a step-by-step functional training plan to learn how to design an effective and time efficient training program check out my coaching plans HERE

This exercise I am going to show you is a great one to train your scapula (shoulder blade) to retract and rotate downward, which can help with correcting or preventing rotator cuff issues or shoulder impingement.

Pull-aparts can easily be added into your warmup to activate your upper back or you can superset it with another exercise during your workout.

Watch the video below to see how to perform pull-aparts…

Technique Tip – Make sure you keep your shoulders pulled back and down during the exercise you keep your scapula stable.

You can do straight pull-aparts, overhead pull aparts or do them diagonally like in the video.

Hope this exercise series helps you build a strong stable upper back and shoulders!

If you haven’t checked out Joe DeFranco & James Smith’s DVD called AMPED yet I highly suggest you do.  This is among many of the great warm up and mobility drills that are shown in the dvd.

Now if you don’t know this yet you are about to know that achieving that ripped midsection has more to do with what you stuff in your mouth than what exercises you select.  Getting lean enough to see your abs is nutrition based and you simply cannot out exercised poor eating.  Performing core work everyday for hours on end will not give you the abs your looking for if your stuffing calzones down your throat.

With that being said, today’s blog will be about choosing the best exercises for your core so that when you do shed those layers of body-fat your abs will look even that much better.  It is also about keeping your body healthy and a good core training routine should teach you how to use your abdominal while performing other tasks.

When we look at core stability and core training we want to categorize our core work into 2 categories:

1. Basic Static Stability
2. Dynamic Integrated Stabilization

Basic Static Stability

This type of  exercise is the simplest form of core training one can do.  What we mean by static stability is being able to perform an exercise while bracing your core without movement for a required amount of time or reps.  In this type of exercises you are trying to teach the body the proper way to brace the core muscles and hold them tight.

Dynamic Integrated Stabilization

This type of core training involves the static stability of the example above with additional aspects integrated into the exercise.  What we are learning to do with dynamic integrated stabilization training is keep the core braced while another area of our body is moving.  This produces a much greater demand on the core and therefore will produce a much stronger torso.

This type of exercise can be broken up into 2 sections.

1. Static Hips/Dynamic Shoulders:  this is when the core is braced and we move from the shoulder joint to produce a greater stress on the core musculature.  This can involve equipment such as the TRX suspension trainer, Val-Slides, Stability Ball, Ab wheel, etc  While our shoulders create a movement the rest of our body remains static and braced.
2. Static Shoulders/Dynamic Hips: this is when the core is braced and we move from the hip joint to produce a great load on the core musculature. This also involves such equipment as the ones mentioned above.  While our hips create movement our core and shoulder joint stabilize the rest of the body.

You want rock hard abs and a super strong core?

Forget doing hundreds of situps… Try these core exercises. We like to perform core work at the beginning of your workout right after our dynamic warm ups and activation exercises

These core exercises will help develop functional core stability and strength so you will have a powerful torso for dominating and if your eating right you can rip that shirt off and show off what you got!

Would You Show Her Your Abs?

Do Your Workouts Include These 5 Components?

To make sure you are covering all your bases with your training, you need to be including all 5 of the following components into your workout. If you include all of these you are going to enhance your  performance the right way…

1. Foam Rolling

I recommend everyone start their workout with a few minutes of Self Myofascial Release (SMR) otherwise known as foam rolling. In my facility even if you are late for a workout this is never skipped.  I would rather someone skip a set or two at the end of their workout than skip the foam rolling portion of their workout.

This is a great way to massage your muscles and improve the tissue quality so that your muscles will move more efficiently during the workout. It can also help promote mobility and flexibility in your muscles.  I suggest performing 5-10 rolls per muscle.

2. Dynamic Warmup

The second and perhaps most important part of your workout is the Dynamic Warmup as it will help prepare your body for the strength training  that follows.  There are also some added benefits such as improving mobility and ironing out any muscle or postural imbalances.

Your dynamic warmup should include the following which we like to call R.A.M.P:

Range of Motion – These will help improve common muscle and postural imbalances. For example exercises to improve the movement at your thoracic spine, which is a common problem as most people will tend to move more from their lumbar spine increasing the risk of back injury.

Activation Exercises – These will help turn on any dormant muscles so that when you are performing the strength exercises your muscles are more likely to fire in the correct sequence.   For example many people have under active glutes so that when they perform squat and lunge movements they become quad dominant. By performing glute activation exercises like the supine hip bridge you can fire up the muscles so they will switch on and be used correctly when needed.

Movement Prep– These exercises will help prepare your body for the workout ahead and enhance your ability to actively move through a full range of motion which will directly improve your movement patterns in your chosen sport helping you to be more efficient, expend less energy and reduce your injury risk.

3. Functional Strength

The main part of your workout is the functional strength component and should include the following…

Core Stability and Rotational Core Exercises - Stability is extremely important for any athlete and therefore needs to be adequately trained. Exercises should be included that challenge your balance and core stability. In addition, as sports require lots of rotational movements, you need to train both rotational stability and rotational power.

Multi-joint Exercises – The focus of your strength training should be on multi-joint exercises that use multi-planar movements (the 3 planes of movement). Gone are the days of doing isolated body building exercises. Instead you need to be doing compound movements which we like to break up into 5 categories of movemnets.  These categories are:

1. Squatting (Quad Dominant)
2. Lunging
3. Bending (Hip Dominant)
4. Pushing (horizontal and vertical)
5. Pulling (horizontal and vertical)

Your weekly plan should a few exercises from each of these categories to ensure balance in your training program

Power Exercises – You will also benefit from including some power exercises which are basically strength exercises performed explosively (eg squat jumps, kettlebell swings). These should be done in the beginning of your strength training portion of the workout while your muscles are fresh and can exert the greatest amount of force

4. Energy System Training (EST)

Energy System Training refers to the cardiovascular component of the workout. Energy Systems Training should be performed after strength training or on opposing days of strength training. I suggest that you do not perform your energy systems training before a strength training workout as this will fatigue the muscles in which you will not get the most from your strength training and it puts you a greater risk for injury if you lift weights in a fatigued state.

The most effective way to train your energy systems is with High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) as it has been scientifically proven to significantly improve both your Aerobic (with oxygen – for more sustained efforts) and Anaerobic (without oxygen – more short burst energy) energy systems simultaneously.

Using High Intensity Interval Training also allows you to do a shorter workout and produce better results when compared to traditional cardio training. However sometimes you may still want to perform other more traditional forms of cardio for variety because High Intensity Interval Training is just plain hard work and you may not want to do it all the time.

5. Static Stretching

Old school static stretching has it’s place at the very end of your workout. Stretching will help your muscles recover and promote increases in flexibility. Static stretching can also be done everyday and anytime of the day (not just with exercise). In fact to make good gains in flexibility it is better to stretch frequently so your muscles will stay lengthened and not revert back to being short and tight.

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So there you have it, my checklist for the perfect workout. How do your workouts compare?.

The Rack Pull if done from higher pins allows you to generate more power and force from your lats, traps, and erectors.  The rack pull also  allows you to generate force from the ground up through your legs (especially your posterior chain), core and out through your arms into your grip. This is important for training because it teaches your body to allow force to transfer efficiently through your body without losing energy.

For example if you don’t keep a strong, braced core and keep your back locked into a safe position,  you will lose some of the energy transfer and won’t be able to lift the weight without rounding your back.

The T-Bar Row will hit most of the same muscles in your back and legs as the rack pull however it focuses more on a rowing movement instead of a pulling movement.  The T-Bar is a great exercise to thicken and widen the muscles in your back especially the traps, rhomboids, and lats.  You must have a proper arch in your back and a strong brace in your core to keep this exercise safe therefore it will strengthen the core at the same time.

At no point should you ever have a rounded lumbar spine position when doing either one of these exercises.  The upper back can round a bit to either get a good stretch in the muscles before pulling but try and keep the lumbar spine in a neutral and safe spine position with these two exercises.

Have a go at adding either of the following exercises into your workout to develop a powerful back…

The workout below is something I have been doing 2-3 times per week and it takes all of 10 minutes to do. It will improve your hip drive and protect your back all at the same time with very little time invested in it.

Men should use a 24kg or 32kg bell for both exercises and woman should use a 20kg or 24kg bell.

The two exercises are the kettlebell swing and the single arm farmers walk. It is a great coupling of exercises. What you want to do is pick a number of swings to complete whether that is 50 or 150 and do them in the least amount of sets possible until you can do all reps consecutively. So beginners pick 50 reps and perform as many reps as you can resting when needed until you reach 50 reps. If you can reach 50 reps no problem than go to 75 reps. Once you can get 75 reps in a row than go to 100 reps and so on and so forth. Make sure each kettlebell swing is clean, sharp and your hips snap making it an explosive hip thrust. Many people I see doing swings are using too much arm, too much back and not snapping their hips to perform the movement.

Once you have done all reps to complete the swings pick up your bell used in the swing and perform a farmers walk which is basically a walk holding the kettlebell at your side. Normal farmers walks are done with a weight in each hand. To unevenly load the core we are going to hold only one kettlebell and walk. Walk 25-50 yards and switch hands and repeat 2-4 times.

This simple workout is a quick and effective way to improve you hip drive which as mentioned earlier is a key component to every athlete as well as to a everday person looking to keep their hips healthy. It is also a great way to learn how to stabilize your core while moving.

Give this workout a try for a couple weeks and see how strong your back, core and hips feel!

There are two strength coaches out there that talk about something that is called irradiation or radiant tension. Pavel Tsatsouline has been talking about irradiation for many years and the boys from the Diesel Crew, Jedd and Smitty have been the leading authority on grip strength for years.  I remember years ago first discovering them and watching there garage videos thinking these guys were nuts but they were on to something that is invaluable to anyone looking to get in great shape.  Your grip strength is a extremely important component to a solid program.  Jedd talks about radiant tension which in simple terms means utilizing your grip strength and musculature to create tension throughout your arm and into your shoulder making the entire area a stronger unit working as one.  While you are sitting there reading this do me a favor and squeeze your fist as hard as you can for 30 seconds.  When you do this you will feel your entire arm up into your shoulder get tense.  This tension is what can save your shoulder.

Many times when performing exercises we think about specific muscles however we do not think about using them as one unit to create a stronger unit of muscles.  When doing a military press we think of pressing with our shoulders and triceps yet we forget that we are or at least should be grounding our heels to the floor, contracting our glutes and core and flexing our lats to stabilize the weight at our start and finish position.  We should be thinking of using the body together as a unit and allowing muscles to help each other in achieving the lift.

When we take about creating tension in our grip we are creating tension in our entire arm and shoulder which in turn enhances strength of the shoulder.  Now we should always strive to have mobility in the shoulder joint however when performing exercises such as a overhead press or anything that has to do with the shoulder joint we must learn how to create tension and stabilize it to keep it safe and out of harms way.  The bottoms up kettlebell exercises below will do just that.

Below you will find some really basic exercises that you can turn into some invaluable tools to increase your grip strength, shoulder strength along with the exercises working the heck out of your core and teaching you how to engage your lat muscles during a overhead press.  This last one is really something that many don’t realize but is a tremendous tool to increase your overhead pressing strength.  If you learn how to engage your lat to pull the weight down from overhead you will find your strength skyrocket.  It is basically all about creating that tension throughout your body and learning how to make your muscles work like a unit of one.

Check out the video below and leave me a comment letting me know what you think……..if you have any questions pertaining to the exercises let me know.

Tonight I put together a nice workout for one of our group classes that consisted of only 2 sized kettlebells and it was a great workout. What you want to do is pick two different size bells for this workout and keep them by your side. You want to also have a interval timer like the gymboss.

Here is how it went down tonight:

Warm ups
Foam Roll
Standing KB Halo’s
Standing KB Around the Body
KB Figure 8′s between legs
50 KB Swings – 2 hands, one hands and alternating were allowed

Core
1a. Beginner KB Windmill x10 each
1b. Single Arm Farmers Walks x 50 yds each side
2a. Intermmediate KB Windmill x 10ea
2b. Single Arm Rack Position Walks x 50 yds each side
3a. Intermmediate KB Windmill x 10ea
3b. Single Arm Waiters Walks x 50 yds each side

*If you are not sure what each type of windmill is than check out this video I did on the various windmill progressions

Strength
1a. Single Arm KB Clean R/L
1b. Single Arm KB Military Press R/L
* we did this for 2 rounds of 30 seconds of work with 15 seconds rest followed by 1 round of a combo clean and press for the same time interval

2a. Single Leg KB Romanian Deadlift R/L
2b. Single Arm KB Row R/L
* we did this for 2 rounds of 30 seconds of work with 15 seconds rest

Conditioning
KB Complex
1. Single Arm Swing 5R/5L
2. Single Arm Snatch 5R/5L
3. Single Arm Squat & Press 5R/5L
* we did 2 rounds with 45 seconds rest in between each complex

Heavy Swing Tabata
1. Two Handed Swings with a Heavy Bell
* we did this for the traditional tabata time of 20 seconds of work with 10 seconds of rest for 8 rounds

This workout took us about 45 minutes to complete and was kick ass. If you have a couple of kettlebells at home give it a shot and let me know what you think. O yeah if you are unaware of any of the exercises listed above just let me know and I will do a video for them with some teaching tools.

Enjoy and thanks for reading