This week's Move of the Week is the Bosu Paddle Board Row, and it is going to provide us with a fun opportunity to focus on the fundamentals of core stability and balance. Balance moves can be one of the most frustrating things to practice. It is one of those exercises were we have a hard time controlling our body making us uncomfortable. Balance takes slow, patient progress, allowing us to make those connections so that we can get better over time. I think it is also something people assume they have and are then confused by not being able to accomplish the exercise in front of them. These are all reasonable frustrations when it comes to balance but also why it is SO IMPORTANT to continue to practice our balance and get better at it. Just like any skill, muscle, or even our brain we need to use it in order to keep it strong and healthy. This week will be all about balance and different ways we can incorporate balance into even simple moves to make them more challenging. When we focus on balancing we want to stay slow, controlled, and really focus on bracing. Bracing starts through the floor and making that connection with our feet. Working our way up posture will help us engage our core and remain strong. Slow movements will help us to not over correct and knock us over. Lastly, having patience with yourself will be key and understanding that our balance may not be great to start but it will get better! Working our way up to standing on the black side of the bosu with a squat paddle will be our challenge for this week. This movement is so great because it applies to so many of our summer activities that we enjoy so much like paddle boarding, kayaking and canoeing. Even if you haven't tried out any of those activities, we use this move in many functional ways that require our stability as we twist and move through life. This prevents us from throwing out our back, keeping up with our mobility, and maintaining strength through or core. All important things that help us live our best lives the way we please. Our stability on the bosu will start with bracing through our feet and feeling like we are driving our legs apart to create strong engagement through the lower body, so we feel stable and braced. Maintaining our best posture will create stability through our core and help keep us centered. As we squat we will pull the rip trainer into a paddling motion which will create engagement through our obliques and lats and then returning to our standing position. Moving up and down in our squat will create the most imbalance as we change levels from high to low and back again. This is where our legs staying engaged and feet connected to the bosu will help with our stability the most to not feel shaky. Having confidence in yourself and in your trainers will also help maintain your balance as it can be a bit of a mind game when we are unsure of our abilities. If you believe you can do it your body will be much more prepared and willing to try than if you are questioning your abilities and thus setting yourself up for failure before you even begin. There are many benefits to getting a little outside of our comfort zone, and this exercise will provide a safe and controlled opportunity to push ourselves a little past our comfort zone. As you go through this week be prepared to mess up, be less than perfect, make mistakes, and continue to TRY. It will get better, we promise! Every correction and every success is our body learning and making new connections. Keys to success: 1. Make connection to the floor 2. Small controlled movements 3. Trust yourself and your coach 4. Have fun and laugh a little!
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This week's Move of the Week is a Lateral Shuffle Rotational Wall Slam and is a fun way to practice our power and using our whole body to connect to a movement. There is something to say for a slam you feel strong and powerful in and being able to move your body in the way you want it to. I know for a lot of us slams are a great way to get some of our everyday stress released in a healthy way, making us feel so good and relieved when the session is over! To start us off we want to be in our best athletic stance. Soft bend to the knees making that solid connection to the floor. Elevating and connecting to your core creating stability and lastly using the ball in our hands to push our hands together and create tension through our lats. Pushing us off with a quick lateral shuffle to work on our agility and being light on our toes. The timing will be important to not take too few or too many steps with the shuffle. As we get to the wall we will pivot/rotate pushing through our back foot to drive us into our full body rotation and release the ball into our slam. Our power will come from the rotation using our obliques and lats into the follow through. We want to feel like we are throwing the ball through the wall! It is important to not throw with our arms and leave the rest of our body behind. This will create fatigue in our arms and reduce our power quickly when the rest of our body should really be doing the work. This move should be fun! Being able to move a little faster and work the whole body at once. Once you discover how strong your body can be once you connect to all those muscles is an awesome feeling! Keys to success: 1. Connect to your lats before shuffling (connect through posture) 2. Timing in your shuffle steps 3. Strong connection to the floor through your rotation 4. Use the power of your body to slam not just your arms 5. Have fun!! We will continue to work on our hinge swing this upcoming week in a Kettle Bell Swing to Lunge. Hinges may be one of the most difficult movements we do in the gym. They require our full attention to doing them right as this is a common way we lift in everyday life. When we hinge properly we protect our back and are capable of moving without pain and fear. Adding a swing further intensifies the need to doing these movements properly, helping us build glute and core strength that we use every moment of the day even when just sitting in a chair. This movement is a new twist on a normal kettlebell swing which will hopefully help you continue to connect to your glutes, create power through your legs, and reduce tension through the lower back and shoulders. The grip on this swing will also be different than a normal kettlebell swing as we will hold the kettlebell by the side handles. This will help reduce the range of motion in your swing and allow you to have a little more control in the momentum coming up and down through the movement. The most important goal of the hinge is maintain excellent posture so our core stays stable protecting our low back, while connecting to our glutes to power us through the swing. As we come up out of our swing we will step forward into a lunge and catch the kettlebell in a row on the same side of our front leg. This will create great thoracic rotation connecting to our obliques and pulling through our lats to hold the kettlebell to reduce tension off the shoulders. When landing in our forward lunge we want to drive our front heal into the ground making connection with our quad and glutes. This is crucial to keeping our knees safe by not pushing through our toes. This will also allow us the power to push back up to our standing position and ready to swing back down into our hinge. As we complete each swing we will alternate lunges creating a dynamic full body movement. This exercise will work your coordination in trusting your feet as you step through the movement. Along with coordination you're creating power through the back of the body in the hamstrings and glutes as well as the front of the body by pushing through the quads in our lunge. Lastly we will continue working on connecting to our lats and obliques so we can create less tension through our shoulders helping us maintain proper posture and elevation. Keys to Success: 1. Maintain your best posture 2. Power will come from your lower body 3. Listen to your body and coaches on what you should be feeling 4. Start SLOW and think about the sequence of moves 5. Have fun! We are going to have a lot of fun with this movement! The Dumbbell Pendulum Hop & Row is a deceivingly cardiovascular movement. It will get your heart pumping AND give you an incredible sense of accomplishment once you get the timing. The timing is critical to nailing this movement, as is the case with many of the movements that we've been practicing lately. In this movement when you get the timing right the push and pull of your arms will help you lift your body up onto the box, and hop gently off of the box. Your arms will work like pendulums, so keeping your arms straight is key to creating the momentum that will help you flow on and off of the box. As soon as you bend your elbows you no longer have a full pendulum. When we get this this technique right it takes all of the work out of the arms, shoulder & neck and puts it into the core. This is a push / pull movement, and it's through this push and pull that your entire body will move. As you swing your arms up give them time to get to shoulder height and then pull into the row. This pull will simultaneously help you pop up onto the box. Conversely, when you punch your arms out in front of your chest your body will push off of the box. Allow gravity to flow with you, letting the dumbbells pendulum back to your sides, pulling you back into your hinge, and setting you up for the next repetition. The last piece to be thinking about as you work on perfecting this movement is how far your elbows come back in the row. You don't want to have your elbows coming back behind your shoulder joint. Try to keep your elbows in line with your shoulders or even in front of your shoulders when the row stops. This will prevent you from over rowing and losing that connection with your lats. Be patient with yourself at the beginning of the week & you will nail the timing of this movement. Once you've nailed the timing, you will actually feel your body "floating" up and down off the step. The pendulum will help you achieve this! ENJOY!
Here's your checklist:
This week's Move of the Week is the Dumbbell Swing to Step Row to Step Press. This movement is A LOT like last week's movement in that it includes a hinge, to a step row and a press. The difference is that this movement requires us to step forward instead of backwards, it includes TWO steps and the hinge is a swing movement. This movement will give you the opportunity to build upon the skills that you developed in last week's movement while continuing to master the timing of each step and the corresponding swing, row and press. When done correctly this movement really flows and is a lot of fun to do. The areas that we'll be focusing on this week include a nice flat back in the hinge swing and not swinging too far between the legs causing us to lose our back posture. We'll also be working on the timing of the step and row, and really connecting to that lat. Next, we want to work on pressing through the lat, taking pressure off of the shoulder, as well as the timing with the step and the press, using the power of the glute in the step. As always, we'll be breaking down this movement over the course of the week so that you can ease into each of the components of the move. You're also welcome to work on a version that we practiced earlier in the week instead of progressing to each new piece of the movement. Taking time to feel really comfortable with each step (literally) will give you the confidence to put all of the pieces together in time. Once we build up to this movement over the course of the week we'll be able to bring this movement into our training sessions in the weeks to come so that you can keep practicing it, so let us know what you think about this movement. I think you're going to LOVE IT! Some keys to success are: 1) Set up your split Stance with great posture. 2) Create a strong base with your feet and let your hips guide your swing. 3) Listen to your coaches as they guide you through the timing of the movement. 4) Be mindful of your foot position as you make each step. 5) Have fun!
This week's Move of the Week is The Pitchfork. This is a super fun movement that incorporates a lot of muscle groups and movements that we practice routinely in the gym. Performing compound movements brings a lot of value in a training session - not only are they more fun and provide a full body workout, but they also require us to work in a sequence of movements that help us make brain body connections. Even though we may not realize it, when we move in sequence in our daily life, and moving in sequence in the gym helps us create connections that allow us to move better in daily life.
In the Pitchfork we will work on our split stance, connecting a hinge, a step row, and a press all together. When setting up our split stance we want to be sure that our feet are in proper length and width position. Remember, everything starts at the feet and it is through our feet that we create stability. In the hinge we will continue to focus on a flat back, which protects the lumbar spine from injury. In the step row we will continue to focus on maintaining stability through the feet and connecting to the lat. The press in this movement is over the shoulder with a slight rotation. The press originates from the lat rather than the shoulder, and requires a strong connection to the core and excellent posture. This movement will provide you with a lot of opportunity to put together all of these elements that you have been practicing over many weeks or months. It's a really fun movement, and provides an amazing sense of accomplishment when done well. Here's your checklist: 1) Stand in a split stance hand opposite your front foot forward. 2) Hinge forward with a flat back, bringing the bungee end of the bar to your front knee with a slight rotation. 3) Step back into your split stance row, connecting to your lat, and rotating slightly over your front foot. 4) Press through your lat over your shoulder. 5) Have fun!
This week's Move of the Week is The Squat Rotational Press. This movement builds off the foundational movement of the squat, and adds a rotational element that demands focus on three key areas:
1) Full rotation through the back foot and hips with strong engagement of the feet with the floor. 2) Tall posture with the press going straight up, bicep to ear. 3) Creating power through the glutes & lats. This movement can be broken down into three smaller components - the squat, the rotation, and the press, or combined into a smooth and fluid movement with a great focus on creating power through the glutes and lats as you press up out of the squat and into the final standing posture with the press. It's easy to rush through this movement, which leads to several common compensations: *Not rotating fully through the back foot and hips, which leads to instability and tension on the joints. *Rotating too early, and while still in the squat, which leads to a loss of posture and control of the movement. * Not pressing straight up, resulting in weight load being held on the shoulder in a way that causes discomfort and possible injury. Focus on this movement will provide practice with using our feet to create stability, connecting to our glutes and lats to create a powerful movement, and building awareness around posture and where our body is in space.
Here's your checklist:
1) Holding dumbbells at the shoulders, start with a squat. 2) Once at the top of the squat, rotate fully through the back foot and hips. 3) Press the dumbbell on the same side as the back leg straight up, with the bicep ending next to the ear. 4) Work on connecting these three steps together into one fluid, powerful movement. 5) Have fun!
This week we are going to be working on The Ball Slam as our Move of the Week. The ball slam is a super fun movement that challenges great posture, cardiovascular endurance, and helps to develop the ability to create a power through movement.
Over the course of this week we will explore a variety of ball slam variations. In every variation we will work on maintaining a stable connection with the floor through our feet, creating length through our spine, using our abdominal muscles to help us control the slam in the movement, and using our breath to support a powerful movement. People love the ball slam. It's a lot of fun, a great way to burn off some steam, and a very effective exercise. I look forward to exploring variations of the ball slam with you over the next week and helping to create power through your movement.
Here's your checklist:
1. Start with tall posture, and the ball over head. 2. Exhale as you hinge through the hips to slam the ball to the ground. 3. Follow through on the movement, driving the arms past the hips. 4. Catch the ball and repeat with tall posture. 5. Have fun!
This week we are going to continue our focus on some foundational movements. We will be working on The Row this week with a few important areas of attention.
The row is an exercise that targets the lat muscle. The lat is a large flat muscle that stretches to your sides on the back and behind the arm. It's an important muscle for movement of the shoulder and also involved in respiration. When doing a row we want to make sure that we're actually exercising the lats. Our focus as of late is to avoid squeezing the shoulder blades together. This creates unnecessary tension in the middle back and can lead to discomfort, and ultimately doesn't engage the lat muscle in an effective way. We have also been focusing on not over rowing / driving the elbow too far past the torso, because when we do this we lose the connection to the lat and lose the benefits associated with the exercise. When doing an excellent row our shoulder blades should remain flat. They should not be "chicken winging", which happens when we over row or squeeze our shoulder blades together. Success in a row is all in the set up. During this week we are going to focus on protracting our shoulder blades, a fancy way of saying that we are going to start of intentionally rounding our shoulders, and then pushing our chest forward to lengthen through the spine into great posture. From there we will focus on keeping the chest and ribs elevated and the spine long while rowing to the point where our elbows come into line with our shoulders. We will also work on feeling the connection to our lats so that we can elevate the types of movements that we use for rowing with success by creating strong brain body connections.
Here's your checklist:
1) With arms straight, protract the shoulder blades 2) Bring the chest forward to create length through the spine and flatten the back. 3) Elevate the ribs off of the hips and make sure shoulders are down and away from the ears. 4) Bend through the elbows, pulling into the row until your elbow is in line with your shoulders, being careful to not over row. 5) Listen to your body and try to feel the sensation of your lats contracting. 6) Straighten the arms to release the row and reset as needed. 7) Have fun!
This week we are going to continue our focus on the fundamentals of movement and work on our plank, progressing to a push up over the course of the week.
A great pushup always starts with a perfect plank. If we aren't effectively braced through our whole body we will put all of the pressure on our neck and shoulders, which causes lots of problems over time, not only in one's inability to perform a great pushup, but also in terms of injury and discomfort. The primary muscle used in a pushup is the pecs or chest muscles, but our lats are also an important muscle that will help to stabilize us as we lower down into the push up. We are also utilizing our core muscles to stabilize our torso and protect the low back, and our legs and glutes to create tension through the whole body and prevent all of our weight being concentrated to our neck and shoulders. When setting up a plank we want to make sure that our hands are under our chest and shoulders, our hips are slightly elevated with a tailbone tuck, and our toes / balls of our feet are making strong contact with the floor. By pushing through our feet we will be engaging our quads and glutes and feeling tension through the whole body. We also want to focus on our breath in both planks and pushups. In a plank we want to maintain steady breath. In a pushup, we inhale as we lower down, and then exhale as we press away from the floor. Think about using your breath to blow yourself up off the floor. When practicing a great push up remember that how low you go to the floor isn't as important as maintaining (and practicing) proper form. As you practice using your whole body to support a great push up you'll build confidence in getting lower into the movement over time.
Here's your checklist:
1) Hands under shoulders and chest 2) Slight elevation of hips and tailbone tuck 3) Elevate through ribs and engage through the abdominals 4) Feet have strong connection to the floor 5) Use your breath - inhale down / exhale up 6) Have fun! |
AuthorHi! My name is Allison Hopkins and I am the owner of Wilcox Wellness & Fitness in Brunswick, ME. I am excited to bring WILCOX to Brunswick and share in my passion for living a great life through health and fitness. Archives
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