There are many ways to look at these types of issues. From the body’s internal environment, i.e. the hormonal and anti-inflammatory environment of the body that could support healthy and robust connective tissues or a physical environment that would break and degrade said tissues.

The type of movement a person performs throughout their day-to-day activities. The level of coördination throughout the body and how they align biomechanically. How balanced is their physical activity? Does the resistance load impact their system in a balanced and gradual manner?

Pain, any pain, is an alarm activated by the body when trying to tell us that something is wrong. Healthy individuals should not experience pain other than the accidental injury here and there.

In this article, we will be looking more into the movement side of the equation through bodyweight training. Having pain-free joints is not just for the young. It is how we should exist on a day-to-day basis. Those of you who move correctly, which is a small majority, probably have a balanced practice put together with all the correct variables.

Add in a healthy eating regimen and you should not experience chronic joint pain. Our bodies have the ability to naturally heal any acute damage to the joint structure, as well as any other structure in our body.

And if you do experience constant pain, you need to start questioning your health. This is a pretty simple concept and is the one thing to look at when things stray from the natural way and into the zone of pain…specifically joint pain.

Manipulating Resistance Through Bodyweight Training

Manipulating weights isn’t less of a natural way of moving than bodyweight training. Both styles could cause joint pain when full consideration of variables isn’t taken into account. There is one significant difference between these two methods of training.

When bodyweight training, you are manipulating your body against other objects. As such, you can create various levels of resistance, and develop strength about your bodyweight. These alignments that will translate well to moving your body in space.

Both styles of training are looked at from the standpoint of joint preparation. If you are about to begin preparation towards the Iron-Cross exercise on the Suspension Trainer, you should train your shoulders and elbows for the specific load that will be placed on them, as well as the muscle mass to support that effort.

Failure to do so could lead to injuries in those joints. Of course, this type of approach will apply to martial arts, dance, and any other field of movement which requires specific demands on the body.

Similarly, if you are about to undertake exercising at the local gym, you should ask yourself if your joints are stable enough to take on a high load that you might be desiring.

Loading a lax joint heavily might compromise its integrity. A joint focused type of work should be incorporated into this specific training before and as you are increasing your loads.

Releasing Joint Pain With Resistance Training

When it comes to joint pain in training, it usually comes from people wanting to develop muscle and strength through the different methods without giving extra thought to the condition of their joints.

When loading a muscle, the load also falls on the tendon that connects the muscle to the bone and on the ligament that connects one bone to another. The problem is that those connective tissues respond differently to resistance than the muscle.

For a muscle to grow stronger, it takes a high level of resistance intensity and a relatively smaller number of repetitions. For a connective tissue to strengthen, it takes a smaller resistance (especially when the load is directed at the connective tissue and less on the muscle) and much more repetitions. More often than not, that difference in structure and response to resistance is where problems begin.

The reason being is that a muscle fiber has tissue with the ability to contract and expand against resistance and that is its ability to induce action while using nutrients and body materials as energy sources.

The connective tissue doesn’t have this type of active contracting ability. Instead, it is a tissue that has various percentages of collagen, which makes for a gradual elasticity versus solidity along the course of its tissue.

When it comes to joint pain in training, it usually comes from people wanting to develop muscle and strength through the different methods without giving extra thought to the condition of their joints.

At the higher levels of resistance sufficient joint strengthening is taking place, as you can’t build a strong muscle on a weak joint. This type of preparation is task specific, as strength is task specific as well, and is achieved in the direction of the strength that is being developed.

At the lower levels of functionality, incorporate a more general approach to challenging the ligaments of the body in multiple directions, challenging their strength, elasticity, and endurance, preparing for day-to-day chores.

Naturally, this type of approach could help prevent an occurrence of arthritis later in life and prevent the need for rehabilitation type of work for people with degraded joints.

This will thicken the connective tissue and make it better suited to deal with daily stresses. Some of the common practices about joint pain are ultrasound, various types of specific massage technics, as well as medications and heat pads.

While they could help with removing inflammation and reducing the pain, these are all passive approaches. They will not build a stronger and thicker connective tissue and will not fix the problem on a longer term basis.

Only correct resistance and active work can make the body adapt in the way of strengthening the joints and putting connective material where it’s needed for a better function. That is done coupled with a correct nutritional approach to minimize inflammatory processes and provide sufficient building blocks for the tissue.

This type of material and work can be found at the Fundamentals of the Movement system. Contact us as at FundamentalsOfMovement.com for information, online training programs, and one on one training and seminars.

The post How to Build Pain Free Joints with Resistance and Bodyweight Training appeared first on Onnit Academy.

They want a routine that offers functional results, trains their core, requires mainly their body weight to perform, or can be done anywhere.

We say why not find a workout that combines all four features at once? To do that, all you need is a suspension trainer.

The versatility of suspension trainer exercises extends far beyond what you’ve seen gymnasts do with a pair of rings, or in exercise videos on Youtube.

There’s almost no other single piece of exercise equipment that can accommodate so many goals and levels of training experience.

Whether you’re thinking of investing in one for your home gym, or you want to know how to get the most out of a suspension device to take your workouts to another level, consider the following guide your starting point.

The Anatomy of a Suspension Trainer

Trainer models vary, but all offer straps with handles and an end that can be wrapped around a sturdy overhead object. This forms an anchor point that allows the straps to support your body weight.

Suspension trainers can attach to virtually anything from a pull-up bar to a tree limb, and, with one additional (included) anchoring device, can fasten to a door frame too.

The length of the straps from the anchor point is adjustable with the use of clips, buckles, or carabiners. Some suspension devices offer one strap that runs through a loop. Handles are on each end of the strap while the loop connects it to the anchor point.

In other words, when you grasp the suspension trainer, you can move each handle independently, but they both connect to a single anchor point. This is called a single-mount system.

Other products offer two separate straps that anchor independently, so you can vary the width the handles are set apart from each other. This is a dual-mount system. See “How To Choose A Suspension Trainer” below for more information.

Straps are usually made of nylon webbing, while handles can be hard plastic (sometimes sheathed with a layer of foam for comfort), metal, or wood—as in the case of gymnastics rings.

“The difference between a true suspension system and a ring system,” says John Wolf, Chief Fitness Officer for Onnit, “is foot cradles,” which come as either nylon loops or plastic semi-circles that are fastened to the handles and support your feet for lower-body and core exercises.

How To Use Suspension Trainers

Suspension exercises are usually done with the trainer anchored seven to nine feet above the floor. From there, you can adjust the length of the straps or your body position for a near infinite number of exercises. Generally, the closer your center of gravity is to the floor—or the more directly under the anchor point you are—the harder the exercise will be.

Imagine doing rows while hanging from the handles. If you shorten the straps so that, when you hang, your body is angled about 60 degrees to the floor (nearly vertical), much of your weight will still be supported by your feet. Your back and core muscles won’t have to engage as hard as they would if you set the handles low to the floor so your body was almost parallel to it.

Now think of doing pushups with your feet elevated in the foot cradles. If you raise the straps up, your body will become more vertical, but in this case it makes the exercise harder. The closer you get to a handstand, the less your weight is supported by the straps and the more it shifts to your hands, making the challenge greater.

Being able to modify intensity quickly and easily is one of the hallmarks of suspension exercise. You can progress and regress any movement, often in the midst of it. “Any exercise can increase or decrease in angle or height,” says Shane Heins, Onnit Academy’s Director of Education. “So you can scale anything to be harder or easier.”

For example, if you’re midway through a set of rows and suddenly feel that you can’t finish your reps with the angle you started at, simply walk your feet back a bit so that your body becomes more vertical.

You’ve instantly reduced the challenge just enough to allow you to finish the set. Compare that to performing rows with dumbbells and having to drop the weights, walk to the rack, and grab another pair in order to finish. You can see how convenient and user-friendly suspension workouts are.

The Benefits of Suspension Exercise

Easy Portability

Suspension trainers are light-weight and easy to pack. Whether you’re staying in a tiny hotel room or walking through a park, you can always find something you can attach one to.

If you’re the type who looks for excuses to miss workouts—such as, “I was out of town,” or, “I don’t have any equipment”—a suspension device will politely remove them for you forever.

High Versatility

There’s no muscle or skill you can’t work on with a suspension trainer. You can blast your chest with the hardest pushup variations known to man one minute, and do single-leg burpees for lower-body power or conditioning the next.

And there’s no end to the ways you can challenge yourself. “We’re starting to see people throw mace, club, and sandbag exercises in while using the suspension trainer,” says Heins.

High Scalability

Suspension trainers adjust so easily that even two people with completely different fitness levels can train together, simultaneously, without missing a beat.

Say you’re squatting. “A beginner can use the suspension system to work toward a more vertical squat by simply holding the handles and using the trainer as an assist,” says Heins, “rather than having to squat all of their body weight.”

In other words, the straps can help to unload some of the person’s own weight so he/she can groove the squat pattern optimally, building up to a full squat with less and eventually no assistance over time.

A more advanced trainee can perform single-leg squats on the same unit—even at the same time if he/she uses only one handle for support—for a greater challenge. No one is too weak or too strong for suspension exercise.

Greater Muscle Activation

Whether you grasp the handles or use the foot cradles for an exercise, because they’re not rooted to the ground or any other fixed object, those limbs are unstable.

Anything you do will require your body to keep them from shaking and taking you out of the position you need to perform proper reps. “Being in a highly dynamic environment,” says Wolf, “you’re never stable.”

“Your core, shoulders, hips… every joint that’s loaded in whatever position you find yourself has to constantly oscillate through the firing pattern to hold position.” Translation: your body is working for stability at all times during suspension exercise.

That means you’ll develop better control over your body through all sorts of ranges of motion, and activate more muscle overall. It also means that your core—which is most responsible for helping your body maintain its position during exercise—must work overtime.

Virtually every suspension trainer move can be considered an “ab move,” so don’t be surprised if you see a six-pack develop after a few weeks of suspension work.

The Science of Suspension Exercises

A 2014 study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research compared the effects when subjects performed stable pushing exercises (such as the pushup) and their unstable counterparts (pushups done on a suspension trainer).

Researchers found that muscle activation throughout the torso was greater during the suspension movements.

Another study from that year looked at circuit training performed with either stable exercises or movements done on a Bosu ball (half a stability ball, with the other half flat surface) and a suspension trainer.

Although all the subjects had no previous training experience, those who used the unstable exercises saw virtually the same improvements as the stable group in squat jump height, one-rep max back squat and bench press, and measures of power after seven weeks—indicating that unstable training can be equally as effective as conventional workouts for training multiple qualities.

How To Choose A Suspension Trainer

We strongly recommend a dual-mount system over a single anchor point. Being able to adjust the width of the handles apart from each other makes for much more natural movements. “Systems that give you a single anchor with a split handle never let you emulate sound mechanics for pressing motions,” says Wolf. When you do pushups, for instance, “you’re always pressing over your shoulders instead of straight down because the straps wrap around your body. You’re strongest when you press toward your nipple line, or sternum,” so you get better results using a system that’s more similar to gymnastics rings, where you can keep the direction of force perfectly vertical.

Overall durability is another major factor to consider. Trainers that use teeth or springs to secure the straps will wear out in time. “People end up tying a knot in them to keep them from slipping,” says Heins, which ruins the ease of adjustment.

Foam handles will deform and wear off, and plastic ones get slick when you sweat, affecting your grip. Wooden rings, the same type that gymnasts use, are the ideal.

Not only are they incredibly sturdy and long-lasting, Wolf says that rings are the only tool that will allow you to progress to the kind of complex gymnastics training that builds outstanding upper-body strength (iron crosses, skin the cats, etc.), if you’re interested in taking your training there. “You wouldn’t be able to do that with rubber handles.”

Furthermore, the diameter of a ring is much larger than a typical suspension trainer handle, which allows you to fit both hands on it at once and use just one strap.

The only downside to an old-school set of rings, of course, is that they lack foot cradles, limiting you to upper-body training only. That’s why Wolf designed Onnit’s new suspension system, which features rings with foot cradles attached to offer a full spectrum of suspension exercises.

Lastly, to maximize ease of use, look for a trainer that has numbered anchoring points on the strap. One knock on some of the leading suspension trainer brands is that, because you have to adjust the strap length individually, it’s difficult to align the handles evenly.

You can waste precious seconds of workout time measuring the distance to get it right. “If you’re a trainer trying to set up a bunch of rings for a class,” says Heins, “it’s very difficult and inefficient to accommodate people of different heights. It’s much easier if you have consistent, evenly-spaced and numbered link-in points along the length of the trainer. That way, people can come in and say, ‘I remember I was at level 13 last time.’ Or the coach calls out a new number for the next exercise. Clip, clip, and they’re done.”

The 3 Suspension Exercises You Have To Try

1. Knee Tuck (Core)

Extend the suspension trainer’s handles until they’re level with your calves. Place your feet in the foot cradles and get into a pushup position. Draw your knees to your chest while keeping your head, spine, and hips in neutral alignment.

The knee tuck may look like a reverse crunch done in mid air, but it works the deep core muscles in addition to the rectus abdominis (the six-pack muscle) for a complete core hit.

2. High Scap Iso Hold Suspension Trainer Exercise (Back and Core)

Set the trainer’s straps so they’re level with your calves and grasp them with both hands. Walk your body back until there’s tension on the straps and your body is angled 45 degrees. Brace your abs and draw your shoulders back and down thinking “proud chest.” Keeping your body in a straight line, row yourself up until your back is fully contracted and hold for time.

Holding the top of the row trains you to keep your shoulder blades together, which helps restore good posture and form a foundation for strong pressing exercises.

3. Hamstring Curl to Glute Bridge (Glutes, Hamstrings, Core)

Adjust the straps so that the foot cradles are at about the level of your calves. Lie on your back on the floor and place your feet in the cradles so they’re suspended in air.

Brace your abs and draw your knees up past your hips. Now drive through your heels to lift your hips off the floor (be careful not to hyperextend your lower back, which would mean your abs aren’t tight enough). Lower your butt back down and then extend your knees again.

This exercise trains the hamstrings’ two functions simultaneously—hip extension and knee flexion—like few other exercises can.

3 Ways To Use Suspension Trainers

1. Supplement Your Weight Training

We’re not telling you to melt down your free weights and embrace the suspension trainer exclusively. Suspension exercises can serve as a great adjunct to the workouts you’re already doing.

“Building neural efficiency will carry over to increased strength potential when you’re exposed to external load,” says Wolf. “The suspension trainer won’t necessarily build muscle in the way that weights do, but it will build stability that translates to muscle and strength gains. Try doing pushups on it for a while and you’ll see that your bench press will go up.”

Suspension work also lends itself well to static contractions—simply holding yourself in a position of tension—which is an often overlooked but valuable method for those seeking muscle size gains. “Holding for long periods of time builds muscle,” says Heins. “So do eccentrics—lowering your body slowly.”

Picture doing a single-leg squat with a five-second negative, using the suspension straps to keep you upright. Do you think that would blow your legs up?

2. Set Up A Fat-Loss Circuit

The suspension trainer can work every part of the body as well as let you train strength, power, and even conditioning. And because it adjusts so quickly and easily, it lends itself perfectly to any number of creative exercise circuits you want to try.

In fact, you could do a series of inverted rows to rollouts to plank holds without even having to adjust the straps. “A lot of metabolic demand comes from neurology,” says Wolf. “The high neural efficiency required to stabilize you, especially if you do high-rep sets geared to fat loss, takes a lot of nervous system energy and so the metabolic requirement is greater. You’ll burn more calories.”

3. Get Warmed Up

Sometimes you don’t have to “train” with a suspension trainer at all to get a benefit. Use it during your warmups to activate the core and other muscles you need to train efficiently and safely.

“You can do I’s, T’s, and Y’s [hold the handles and make those shapes with your arms while suspended] to fire up the scaps and posterior chain,” says Wolf.

This would be particularly helpful before any overhead or chest pressing work you do, as it will help increase your stability. “You could do planks on the trainer for core activation, or glute bridges to fire up the glutes,” both of which would prepare you for squatting and deadlifting movements.

CLICK HERE for the best suspension trainer workout for beginners.

Introducing Onnit’s New Suspension Rings

The post The Beginner’s Guide To Suspension Trainers appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Your core never gets a break, as it must work to keep your spine and hips aligned throughout every movement. Of course, that means stronger abs and maybe even a sharper six-pack (assuming you’re not drinking too many six packs).

The following routine will give you a rudimentary understanding of how to use the suspension trainer to work every part of the body to train stability and strength, while challenging your conditioning with fast-paced circuits.

Perform it up to four times a week on non-consecutive days. Note that you’ll need a trainer that offers food cradles, as gymnastics rings alone won’t allow you to train the lower body. The new Onnit suspension rings—shown below—would be ideal (we’re just sayin’).

Try it for four weeks, and lifting weights just might seem easy by comparison.

Beginner Suspension Trainer Workout Directions

The workout has three groups of exercises marked “A,” “B,” and “C.” Perform the grouped exercises in sequence, spending 60 seconds on each exercise and taking 15 seconds to transition between moves.

Afterward, rest 90 seconds, and repeat the group for three total rounds. Then move on to the next group and complete it in the same fashion.

1A. Hip Extension Suspension Trainer Exercise

Adjust the straps so that the foot cradles are at about the level of your calves. Lie on your back on the floor and place your feet in the cradles so they’re suspended in air.

Brace your abs and drive through your heels to lift your hips off the floor (be careful not to hyperextend your lower back, which would mean your abs aren’t tight enough).

1B. Plank Suspension Exercise

Place your feet in the foot cradles and get into a pushup position. Lower your body to the bottom of a pushup—where your chest is about an inch above the floor.

Hold the position with your body completely straight and your ribs drawn down with abs braced.

1C. Warrior 2 (Right Leg then Left Leg 60 sec each) Suspension Exercise

Adjust one strap to knee height and place the top of one foot in the foot cradle. Draw your shoulder blades back and down, thinking “proud chest.” Now bend your hips back to lower your torso toward the floor, allowing your support leg to bend as needed.

When you’ve gone as low as you can without losing the neutral alignment of your head, spine, and hips, reach your arms straight overhead. Retract your arms and squeeze your glutes to return to the starting position.

2A. Hamstring Curl to Hip Bridge Suspension Exercise

Set up as you did for the hip extension exercise. Now bring your knees close to your hips, bending 90 degrees. From there, drive through your heels to raise your hips to full extension, but avoid hyperextension.

2B. Knee Tuck Suspension Exercise

Get into pushup position with your feet in the straps. Keeping your head, spine, and hips aligned, draw your knees to your chest.

2C. Warrior 2 (Right Leg then Left Leg 60 sec each)  Suspension Exercise

Repeat as described above.

3A. Hamstring Curl to Hip Bridge Hold Suspension Exercise

Repeat as described above.

3B. Mountain Climber  Suspension Exercise

Get into pushup position with your feet in the foot cradles. Keeping neutral alignment, alternate driving each knee to your chest. Avoid twisting or bouncing.

3C. Warrior 2 (Right Leg then Left Leg 60 sec each) Suspension Exercise

Repeat as described above.

Introducing Onnit’s New Suspension Rings

The post Beginner Suspension Trainer Workout appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Functional training is all the rage at the moment and battle ropes, along with kettlebells, are leading the unconventional training movement in gyms across the country.

Using battle ropes improves strength and endurance by engaging the muscles of the entire body including the hands, forearms, shoulders, back, legs, abs, and core.

Once only thought of as a conditioning tool for elite athletes in high-performance centers, they’re now appearing in gyms across the country.

Although battle ropes offer a broad range of physical benefits, trainees face a lack of guidance on how to correctly program battle ropes workouts.

The following tips on setting up your battle ropes will provide you with a complete training regimen that goes beyond conditioning and gives you enough variations to keep your workouts fresh.

#1. Setting Up Your Battle Rope Anchor for Testing

Battle ropes are most commonly implemented for conditioning purposes.  Many trainees simply wrap them around a pole or tree and begin wave exercises.

When programming your workouts, it’s always a wise choice to include some measure or “test” to gauge your progress. This may be accomplished by simply counting the number of waves done within a given time frame, but this seems incredibly tedious and is very unrealistic.

A great battle ropes conditioning test involves wrapping the ropes around the squat rack and using the safety bar as a measuring point.

Count the number of times the ropes hit the safety bar or “rings the bell.” This conditioning test is an adequate benchmark in tracking your progress.

#2. Setting Up Your Battle Rope Anchor for Climbing

Athletes looking to increase upper body endurance can utilize battle ropes as a climbing tool. When attempting to use a climbing rope, you were limited to gyms with high ceilings.

Using battle ropes, all you need is a squat rack or a sturdy tree branch to integrate several pull-up and climbing techniques. Refer to the video at the beginning of the article to create a double loop climbing system to perform single rope climbs, L-sits or countless other pull up variations.

#3. Setting Up Your Battle Rope Anchor for Grip Strength

Few trainers realize the potential of battle ropes for grip and strength work.  Grab a heavy kettlebell and thread either end of the rope through the handle. Using the rope as a handle, as opposed to the kettlebell, further, develops functional grip strength.

This modification can be used for heavy rows, curls, or triceps extensions; allowing you to add or reduce the weight to your comfort level. This technique develops max effort strength and explosive power employing unconventional methods.

With a little imagination, the strength training programming possibilities are limitless!

#4. Setting Up Your Battle Rope Anchor for Dragging & Pulling Exercises

Dragging and pulling exercises are extremely useful for improving conditioning, developing strength and building explosive power. Typically associated with sled work, dragging and pulling implements can be applied using battle ropes and a few kettlebells.

To forge your “sled,”  place one end of the rope through the handles of the kettlebells leaving enough slack to create a knot. Using this simple knot you’ve effectively created a powerful dragging and pulling instrument.

#5. Setting Up Your Battle Rope Anchor on the Go

One of the many benefits of incorporating battle ropes into your training is versatility. Let’s say you lack a post or tree to bind your ropes around. If you have a kettlebell and multiple sandbags you can produce a battle ropes station on the fly!

Place one end of the line through the kettlebell’s handle, much like you would around a squat rack, lay the kettlebell down, place some sandbags or steelbells on top as a weight and you’re ready to go!

The post Beyond Conditioning: 5 Ways to Set Up Your Battle Rope Anchor appeared first on Onnit Academy.

These four core exercises target all the major muscles spanning between your hips and your shoulders, all while offering an extra burst of cardio to torch a few extra calories. Perform each exercise for 30 seconds, and cycle through the series two times.

You’ll be done in just five minutes, or if you’re feeling motivated, you can cycle through the routine four times for a 10-minute core workout that’s guaranteed to be effective.

Equipment Needed:

● Steel Bell
● Suspension Trainer

Top 4 Core Exercises

1. Twisting Mountain Climbers

Start in a high plank position, palms under shoulders, legs fully extended. Keeping your core engaged and upper body steady, draw one knee up and across your torso, reaching it toward your opposite elbow as you twist your hips the same direction, engaging your obliques.

Reverse the movement to return your foot to the starting position, but as you do so, hop your opposite foot into the air, drawing it up and across your torso toward your opposite elbow as your first foot returns to the ground.

Continue this movement as fast as you can while maintaining good form, keeping your core engaged, preventing your low back from sagging.

2. SteelBell Slams

Stand with a SteelBell between your legs, feet shoulder-distance apart, knees slightly bent. Engage your core and squat down, pressing your hips back and keeping your chest lifted as you pick up the SteelBell.

Press through your heels to return to standing, and as you do so, lift the SteelBell up over your head in a fluid movement, rising up onto the balls of your feet.

When the SteelBell is lifted over your head, forcefully slam it back to the ground between your feet, tightening your hips, abs and low back as you swing your arms forward and press your hips back to throw the SteelBell to the floor. Immediately squat back down to start another repetition.

3. Suspension Pikes

Set up a suspension trainer so the straps hang about 12 to 18-inches off the floor. Place your feet into the straps so they’re looped around your arch near your ankle and start in a high plank position with your core tight, palms under shoulders. Engage your core to keep your body steady, making sure your low back and hips don’t sag.

From this position, press through your palms and your feet as you lift your hips to the ceiling, drawing the straps closer to your body as you enter a pike position, your body forming an inverted “V,” your arms and legs straight. Carefully reverse the movement and return to the high plank position before continuing.

4. Plank Jacks

Start in a low plank position supported on your forearms and the balls of your feet, your hips aligned between your knees and shoulders. With your core braced to support the effort, forcefully press through the balls of your feet and hop your legs into the air, spreading your legs so your feet land farther apart.

Allow your knees to bend slightly as your feet land to help absorb the impact. Immediately hop your feet back into the air, bringing your legs together. Continue this in-and-out hopping motion, just as if you were performing jumping jacks, for the duration of the exercise.

The post 4 High Intensity Core Exercises to Finish Off Any Workout appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Strength Exercise #1: Barbell Clean & Press

The first is the barbell hang clean and push press. Perform this exercise by bending over with a barbell in your hands and a shoulder width grip. Start with the barbell just above your knees and be sure to maintain perfect posture with your head in line with your spine, chest up and back arched.

Initiate this barbell exercise by driving your hips forward and shrugging your shoulders. Pull the barbell to your upper chest and catch it there by dipping at the knees slightly.

Stand up all the way by powerfully exploding up out of the slight squat position that you caught the barbell in and simultaneously press the barbell straight up overhead to lockout using the momentum generated by your legs.

This barbell exercise can be done with an Olympic bar (make sure you have a good one or your elbows will be screaming), angled or neutral grip bar, or a strongman log (my personal favorite).

Another variation of this exercise can be done with dumbbells. This allows for a more natural motion since your arms aren’t locked into a fixed range with the barbell. You can do these with two dumbbells at once or do them one arm at a time.

This barbell exercise will not only build big delts, but also pack size on the traps and upper back while simultaneously developing explosive power.

Strength Exercise #2: Incline Bench Press

My personal preference and a much better option for building the chest is the low incline bench press with the bench set at no higher than 30 degrees. This reduces the injury risk and hits the pecs far more effectively; especially the upper pecs, which most people are lacking. I would recommend using a 15-30 degree angle over flat bench presses in most cases. Former six time Mr. Olympia, Dorian Yates used this as his staple chest building exercise and it would be hard to argue with his results.

Again, use a somewhat narrower grip (around shoulder width or a hair wider). If you have access to a neutral grip or angled grip bar I’d recommend using it as that can make the exercise even less stressful on the shoulders.

To keep the tension on the pecs and off of the joints and connective tissue you can stop the bar 2-3 inches off your chest.

Obviously this advice wouldn’t apply to someone who was looking to measure their strength in some sort of contest. Full range only in that case.

Any type of barbell pressing should be done for 5-8 reps when the main goal is to build muscle.

Strength Exercise #3: Barbell Back Squat

If you want to build lower body strength, you have to squat. For the first few years of your training you should squat, squat, and squat some more. A good goal is to squat double bodyweight. I’m talking about real, full squats, at least to parallel.

The back squat is a great exercise, yet a lot of people can’t perform it correctly. Even if the athlete in question has a perfect back squat a smarter choice for some would be a safety bar squat or a front squat with a harness

I do have to tell that the one thing I recommend to 99% of people out there is a good pair of high quality squat shoes. These will make a TREMENDOUS difference in your form and keep you safer. Guys usually benefit more from these than females do but anyone with a minor tuck can usually eliminate it instantly with a pair of these.

Strength Exercise #4: Neutral Grip Chin Up

The straight bar chin up with your palms facing your body places too much stress on the wrists, elbows, and shoulders and should be eliminated from your program. Even if you haven’t experienced it yet, chances are good that a steady diet of supinated (palms facing you) straight bar chin ups may come back to bite you in the ass… or elbow, eventually.

Pull ups (palms facing away from you) on a straight bar are a bit safer, but could also be eliminated if you want to be ultra conservative or you have any shoulder problems. The simple solution is to stick with neutral grip chin/pull ups with your palms facing each other. You can mix up the grip width and have numerous options to play with.

Strength Exercise #5: Deadlift

If you’re new to deadlifts or have questionable form, I’d start with high handle trap bar deads. Stick with these for at least six months and never go above five reps.

A lot of people will never have the mobility/flexibility to move any lower than this. If that’s you don’t worry about it. You’ll be fine and will still get the benefits of deadlifting, minus the risk. Eventually you can move to the low handle trap bar deads and then the straight bar if you so desire.

Athletes that want to deadlift should stick with high handle trap bar deads, keep their reps low and drop the bar rapidly.

Jason Ferruggia’s Top 5 Strength Exercises

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This is the Onnit Academy Workout of the Day for Tuesday, November 24, 2015. It is a battle ropes, suspension trainer and bodyweight workout consisting of 7 – 30 rounds of mixed implement training. This is #22 of a series of daily workouts, showing you exactly what we are doing at the Onnit Academy Gym in Austin, Texas.

Workout Instructions

Perform all exercises in group A with as little rest as possible. Rest and repeat for a total of 7 rounds. Record your total time in the comments section. The goal of this training session is General Physical Preparation and to increase your workout capacity.

A1. Suspension Trainer Bodyweight Row – 7 rounds x 30 sec.
A2. Battle Ropes Tsunami Exercise – 7 rounds x 30 sec.
A3. Bodyweight Box Jump Exercise – 7 rounds x 30 sec.
A4. Bodyweight Squat Exercise – 7 rounds x 30 sec.

The post Onnit Academy Workout of The Day #22 – Battle Ropes, Suspension Trainer & Bodyweight Workout appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Step 1: Prerequisites for the Dragon Flag

Pull Ups

The Dragon Flag is a core strength movement that requires a significant amount of pulling strength, so a minimum of at least 10 Strict Pull Ups is an essential base. See what a Strict Pull Up looks like at www.onnit.com/ academy/strict-pull-up-bodyweight- exercise/.

Ball-Ups

A second prerequisite is the ability to perform 8-10 smooth Ball-Ups. Since the Kettlebell Dragon Flag is technically a straight-arm movement, building the capacity to invert yourself with straight arms will help condition the muscle and connective tissue for the load of the Kettlebell Dragon Flag.

If Ball- Ups become easy, you can practice inverting yourself in an L-Sit position, extending your hips at the top. For extra credit, raise and lower with a slightly piked or completely straight body. If you can’t do a Ball-Up, spring from the ground using your legs into an inversion and work the negative down until you build the capacity to lift yourself up with control.

SAFETY NOTE: Always use a grip with the thumb around the bar opposite your fingers when hanging upside down. Never invert with your thumb on the same side of the bar as your fingers. Also, when practicing or performing any type of Dragon Flag, never push your head into the floor; keep a soft neck instead.

Step 2: Exercise Progressions for Dragon Flags

Hollow Body Extensions

The term “hollow body” refers to full body flexion, essentially turning your entire body from finger tip to toes into the shape of a banana. To perform Hollow Body Extensions, lay on your back and lift your hands and feet upwards towards each other with your lower back pressed strongly into the ground. Your knees and elbows should be locked.

Keeping the lower back pressed into the floor, slowly extend your arms and legs away from each other as far as you can go, again keeping your lower back pressed strongly into the ground. Then, slowly raise your arms and legs back up towards each other to finish the repetition. This should be done slowly with a 2-3 count down, pause at the bottom, 2-3 count up and a pause at the top.

The goal is 4 rounds of 10 reps. To test to see if you are keeping your lower back pressed into the ground, roll up a gym towel or shirt and place one end of it under your lower back. Have a training partner grab the other end of the towel and try relatively hard to pull the towel out from underneath you while you perform each rep.

Hollow Body Holds

A Hollow Body Hold is simply holding the bottom position of the Hollow Body Extension. Again, keep your lower back pressed strongly into the ground. Only go as low as you can while keeping a strong lumbar contact with the ground. The goal is 4 rounds of 60 seconds.

Kettlebell Floor Press Hold

Since the goal is to perform the Kettlebell Dragon Flag, you’ll need get accustomed to holding two kettlebells overhead. Floor press two kettlebells with a combined weight of about 3/4 of your bodyweight. Then, pressing the lower back strongly into the ground, lift and lower your legs as you did with the Hollow Body Extension and hold. The goal is 4 rounds of 60 seconds.

Step 3: Dragon Flag Progressions

Scaled Dragon Flag

When you have built the capacity to perform the previous tasks, you are ready to begin training the Dragon Flag. Lay on your back and grasp some kind of stable support with your arms above your head (bent arms are fine for this). Curl your hips and knees in, then raise your lower torso with bent legs above you.

Your upper back should be the only point of contact with the ground. Keeping your hips and knees bent, extend your spine to neutral and slowly lower down with control until your glutes touch the ground. At first you may need to focus on simply lowering then curling back up, but ultimately you will want to raise and lower for reps.

Don’t press your head into the ground for any version of the Dragon Flag. You may need to work this scaled movement with your legs progressively further extended to build strength. The goal is 5 rounds of 5 reps.

Dragon Flag

Set yourself up as you did with the Scaled Dragon Flag, but this time, extend your hips and knees at the top and lower down with control. Also, like the scaled version, you may have to start with the lowering part alone. As you become stronger, progress to raising and lowering for reps. The goal 3 rounds of 5 reps.

Kettlebell Dragon Flag

When you are able to do the previous movements (set and rep goals) with control, you are ready to begin training the Kettlebell Dragon Flag. The stability and control demands for this are considerable, so don’t jump ahead.

Begin by Floor Pressing two kettlebells weighing more than half of your bodyweight. I typically use two kettlebells weighing 24kg-32kg at a bodyweight of 85kg. Heavier is easier, but don’t exceed your bodyweight with the kettlebells.

Once pressed, keep your arms locked and curl your body up, then extend your hips and knees. Similar to the Hollow Body Extension, you will lower your feet and hands, this time with kettlebells, away from each other.

Go slow! You will have to adjust the leverage to keep balance. Use a spotter for safety until you are comfortable with the movement. At this point you will lower and lift for a complete repetition versus just lowering. If you think you might lose control, you are not ready to attempt. If you do lose control of the kettlebells, have a safe plan of escape.

Some people will be able to see a movement and then do it with no problems. I would urge you to test the prerequisite movements and progressions before attempting the Kettlebell Dragon Flag so you don’t jump into the deep end before you’re ready.

Most people need a road to success, so follow these progressions. Build capacity with each progression steadily until you reach the goal sets and reps/times and you will succeed. You may also find your deadlift and squat getting stronger along the way.

Step 4: The Dragon Flag Program

This series of movements will build the Kettlebell Dragon Flag movement. Progressively increase volume from week to week adding the movements into your warm ups. Keep the Pull Ups and Ball-Ups in the rotation of movements and move on to the next progression once you reach each movement goal.

Sample Protocol

Monday, Wednesday, Friday

4 ROUNDS:

10 Pull Ups
10 Ball-Ups
10 Hollow Body Extensions

Next Progression (MWF)

4 ROUNDS:

10 Pull Ups
10 Ball Ups
60 second Hollow Body Hold

NOTE: You will have to build up to the goal for each movement and may need to start with something like 4 rounds of 5 Pull Ups, 5 Ball-Ups and 5 Hollow Body Extensions or possibly 4 rounds of 10 Pull Ups, 10 Ball-Ups, and 30 seconds of Hollow
Body Holds. Rest as needed between movements.

The post A Step By Step Guide to Mastering the Kettlebell Dragon Flag appeared first on Onnit Academy.

If you like the full body engagement of the standard Burpee, you’ll enjoy how this drill takes the concept to a much more intense and difficult level. With one foot in a Battle Ring, simply perform a Burpee while seeking to avoid hip or shoulder rotation with each rep.

This highly-integrated exercise combines a single leg jump, Skater Squat, 1-Leg Push Up, and 1-Leg Sprawl into a single, seamless movement. Each of these exercises are great on their own, but when combined they offer some very interesting benefits.

Hip mobility, single leg strength and power, core strength, and upper-body explosiveness are only a few of the elements that are at work. Additionally, there are a number of variations and additions to the exercise that will keep it challenging and interesting.

Every week at the Onnit Academy Gym we test one of the Rites of Passage. The Rites of Passage are created to eliminate any and all forms of “cheating” that are typically seen in fitness competition, boiling down people’s physical and mental abilities to see who is truly “fit” (as defined by the Onnit Academy).

Rules of the Rite

There are two classes: Amateur and Alpha. The 5-Minute Single Leg Burpee Test will challenge your conditioning like few other drills can. Having one leg elevated in the Battle Rings while the other is working places a high demand on rotational stability.

Perform as many repetitions as possible aiming to balance the work on each side in the 5-minute work set. The total number of counted repetitions will be your final score.

How to Perform the Single Leg Battle Ring Burpee

Step 1: Adjust your Battle Rings so that one end is about 3-6 inches off the ground. Sit on the ground and stick one foot through, then turn over and get into a Push Up position.

Step 2: While seeking to avoid rotating your hips by stabilizing your core, descend into a Skater Squat before your hands touch the ground.

Step 3: Perform a Push Up. As you push up from the bottom position, bring your knee to your chest to get your front foot flat and immediately jump up from the ground.

Step 4: Land softly on the ball of your foot and immediately Skater Squat back down and sprawl out into a Push Up position. Flow into each repetition.

Tips & Safety: Try to make the movement flow as smoothly as possible by working on stabilizing your body with each transition.

The post Rite of Passage of the Week: Single Leg Battle Ring Burpee appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Other Exercise Info

Tip Writer: Mark de Grasse
Demonstrator: Danielle Koelliker

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