Recent Training Videos and Bonus Articles

I hope that everyone had a magical, spooky Halloween on Monday, and that those of you who trick-or-treated made out well with loads of chocolate.  Those of you who didn’t trick-or-treat are off the hook from the sugar binge that tends to follow the holiday, but you’ll still be interested in some of the videos and links you’ll see below.  I’ve been collecting some training videos recently, and I wanted to share them with you so you can see some of the things I’ve been up to.  If you’re interested, you can check out my YouTube account HERE.

I had quite the busy weekend, which included some awesome workouts.  I’m video-less for my lowerbody day on Saturday, but I’m glad to have pulled 7 singles at or above 96% of my sumo 1rm, which is a measly 365lbs.  (For real; that’s weak.)  The videos that you’ll find below are from my Sunday evening workout with my neighbor and classmate, Steve.  If you’re wondering why I look like an idiot, it’s because we were planning on having a Halloween inspired Super Hero themed workout.  The rest of our group bailed out, but we got after it on our own.  Here are some videos of exercises we used in our finisher, which followed these exercise pairings:

1. Chin-Ups, 5×3
2. Push-Press, 5×3

1. Dumbbell Bench Press, 4×8
2. Dumbbell Bent Over Row, 4×10

After the strength training was out of the way, we broke out some towels, the TRX, and battling ropes for a good finisher.  Let’s start with the longest video, of Steve trying to slam the ropes for a full minute.  He’s a swimmer, and thought that he’d be able to fight the burn and get through a minute. I warned him twice about how slow a minute of rope slams would be, but he didn’t heed my warning.  It’s great, because he really got after it; great work Steve!  (If you’re keeping track of the time, he still owes me 4 seconds…)

In the next two videos, you’ll see two of the push-up variations that we used in different rounds of the finisher.  We used the Superman Push-Ups earlier on, and then switched to the Spiderman Push-Up in later rounds.  Both variations include an anti-rotation component to them, and create an offset load, causing weight to be distributed towards one shoulder.  In both cases, the arm opposite the moving side has to work harder to control the movement of your body.  Check out the two videos below, try each variation, and let me know what you think.

The first video I showed you was of Steve battling the ropes, so it’s only fair for me to show you one of myself.  I saw a great video from Coach Kevin Carr just under a year ago, but never got a chance to try out this exercise until this past weekend.  The Stir-The-Pot is a great exercise no matter how you do it, but it’s especially hard with the ropes.  Watch the video below, and make sure you check out Kevin’s website.

The following two videos are both anti-extension exercises using the TRX.  The first one, the Fall Out, is a dynamic plank variation, and a progression on the kneeling fall out that I posted a few weeks ago.  The second video is a two-handed Miyagi, which adds in a more difficult shoulder stability component, and taxes the chest a little bit more.  Both exercises are great, and you can try both with towels on the floor if you don’t have a TRX.  Here they are:

If you weren’t aware, I’m a huge fan of deadlifts.  Any variation you’ve got, I’ll try it out; it’s truly a great exercise across the board.  The deadlift variation that you’ll see below is a Reeves deadlift using a 5′ barbell instead of the traditional 7′ barbell.  The exercise feels like more of a combination of a trap bar deadlift or a  snatch grip rack pull, but I like it better than both.  With the trap bar deadlift, you’re able to slide your knees forward and use more quad to help get the bar off the floor.  Using the barbell blocks your shins for drifting forward however, so you have to sit back and use the entire posterior chain to complete the lift.  If you have access to a 5′ barbell I’d definitely recommend trying this out, and a traditional EZ curl bar should work just as well.  After you load the first set of 45’s on the bar, throw on a pair of 10’s next, which will help create a gap between plates so you can grab the bar.  From there, you’ll just load the bar the way you normally do.  In the video below, I’m only using 275lbs, but it feels a lot heavier than you’d expect.

The last video I’ll leave you with is me playing around with the ropes, which Steve and I strung up between two racks to try to do rope pull-ups.  (Between the thickness of the rope and the fact that it was wobbly, those were hard in their own right.)  As for the exercise below, I’m not quite sure what to call it, as the last time I did any gymnastics was in about the 4th grade.  If you know what it’s called, please let me know; until then, I’ll affectionately call it ‘Wolverine Abs’, because that’s who I was dressed as and that’s where I felt it.  Simple enough, right?

 

Let’s get on to some articles, shall we?  This first one was sent to me by a friend last night to notify me about the awesome Sue Falsone becoming the first female head athletic trainer in any of the big four professional sports.  I’ve seen Sue present twice, and I’ve read as much of her stuff as I can get my hands on.  It’s not at all a surprise that she got the position.  She’s really talented, and I recommend that you click HERE and watch the video on the MLB website.

The second link which includes a great video which you should must watch is from the New York Times, and is some recent content from Born to Run author Christopher McDougall.  Chris goes over some running technique drills for barefoot running, which will help you pavement pounders refine what you’re doing and hopefully reduce your risk of injury.  Hopefully if you learn a little something from Chris, you’ll be less likley to see have to consult someone like Sue to fix the problems you cause yourself.  Check out Chris’ article and video HERE.

The Atlantic recently published an article explaining antioxidants, which explains the importance of these super-compounds.  If you’re curious as to what antioxidants are, or you’d like to clarify your knowledge, you can find that article HERE.

I make it obvious that I’m a huge proponent of picking up heavy things for physical health, but there are plenty of important things that don’t involve 3RM’s and sprinting.  Meditation is one of them.  While you’re busy looking at push-up and deadlift variations, you should also be thinking about how improving your mental/emotional health can contribute to your overall physical health.  Your curious minds will enjoy THIS ARTICLE from the Huffington Post which explains Why Mindfullness Meditation Makes Us Healthier.

In the past few weeks I’ve been seriously slacking on my sleeping, which is a worse thing than most people think.  Since I’m going straight to bed once this is published, I think it’s appropriate to leave you with an article called 5 Everyday Things Keeping You From Good Sleep.  If you’re up late reading this, you’ll find some nice tips to help you prime your body for sleep.  I’m ready for my REM, so I hope everyone enjoys the videos and articles!