Beyond The Gym

So this is the "dynamic warmup" I would do after all of the foam rolling, stretching and targeted activation work from my previous posts. I did them circuit style to save time and to keep my heart rate/core temp elevated. The first exercise is box jumps. But I did them with a true vertical jump. This means I tried to not have to bend my knees and hips to land on the box. I did this for two reasons: 1. I wanted to save my knees a bit by not landing in a squat each time.... 2. This variation requires more power output and less mobility at the hips to get up on the box. Since the point of the box jump is to fire up the central nervous system (more motor unit recruitment by moving explosively) I felt like this variation of the box jump fit perfectly. The second exercise is a banded good morning. I freaking love these for waking up my posterior chain and hammering that true hip hinge movement pattern. The last exercise is a lateral lunge variation that I stole from @vernongriffith4 . They are freaking amazing and my hips always feel better and more prepared to do work once I've completed a couple sets. Not saying you HAVE to do it EXACTLY like this. Just providing a little insight as to why I was doing it and how it's helped me battle some aches and pains as well as improve my performance. #liftresponsibly #goBEYOND #WWT

Last time I talked about drills that helped me improve my hip mobility to reduce some nagging knee issues. This time I'm going to talk about some hip and knee stability exercises that strengthen the muscles around the hip and knee joint that have helped me improve the overall function off my knees to relieve pain. In the first part of the video you see me performing TKEs (Terminal Knee Extensions). This is a great exercise for strengthening the quad without placing any mobili...ty demands on the hip or ankle and with out putting stress through the knee joint (like a leg extension machine). Being able to reach full extension at the knee joint is super important not only for performance but overall health in the joint. Next you see me doing hip hikers against a stability wall. I stole this one from @athleanx . This is a fantastic exercise for strengthening the glute medius. It's great because it's a closed chain exercise which requires this muscle to work to stabilize the hip/pelvis with your body providing a lot of the resistance (the Stability ball provides some as well). Weak hips = achy knees so if you've got some trouble in that area I'd start strength those glutes ASAP. The last exercise is called a Copenhagen plank. I've talked about these before. They're a great exercise for directly targeting the hip adductors (inner thigh) to stabilize the hip. I want to qualify this and my previous post by saying that these are exercises that have helped ME. I'm not trying to diagnose anybody's knee pain or anything like that. But I wanted to offer a good place to start. When in doubt, seek the help of a physical therapist if pain persists or ever worsens. The team at @gobeyond.pt is FANTASTIC. #liftresponsibly #goBEYOND #WWT

Heads up, another ab rollout post coming right at ya! Yesterday I introduced Corbin to some 1.5 rep ab rollouts. I threw in the adductor squeeze for grins haha. I've spoken about 1.5 rep training and its benefits in previous posts. These ab rollouts hit a little differenly though. You spend more time in the end range of the movement which is where the lever arm is longest on your abs and low back. This makes it MUCH harder to fight the urge to hyperextend at the low-back (w...hich is the whole point of ab rollouts, anti extension...not just making your stomach area sore). A few sets of 5 reps like this then superset them with some reverse lunges with heavy dumbbells makes for a nice "core" and leg portion to your training session. #liftresponsibly #goBEYOND #WWT #ILoveAbRollouts

The first part of the video shows a banded hip flexor stretch. The band is pulling the femur anteriorly to aid in improving hip extension. That's important because a lack of hip extension can cause a whole host of issue but most common issue is back pain. This mob is great because you get to stretch the hip flexor AND mobilize the hip joint. The second part of the video shows a banded Spiderman lunge with internal and external rotation. Having the band pulling laterally on th...e femur really helps open up space inside of the joint capsule of the hip. Pushing the hip manually in internal and external rotation against/with the resistance of the band helps further aid in creating more space inside of the capsule for those specific joint actions. These have been big time for me in managing/minimizing pain so that I can train hard without adding on to my current issues. #liftresponsibly #goBEYOND #WWT