Another good leg blaster!

Leg Extension 3x12 reps 45kg 30X Tempo
Rest 1 min between sets and then hit 1 long drop set. aim to keep the tempo and do as many reps as possible before dropping the weight. aim for 4 drops in weight. After that stay in the bottom position and hit 10-12 short 6inch pulses.

Rest 1min and then hit 1 set of walking lunges aiming for 2mins of walking with 9kg dumbells.

Rest 1min and then rep out with a 401 tempo on the leg press. aim for 130kg and at least 2minutes worth of reps. Don't bother to count, just keep going.

Try it!

Scottie

Shamelessly lifted from the Superb blog of Eric Cressey. Enjoy!

This past weekend, Mike Reinold and I presented our Functional Stability Training seminar to an audience of about 60 people at Cressey Performance. The entire seminar was videotaped and should be available sometime in early 2012. In the meantime, though, I wanted to touch on a topic we covered collaboratively: how to categorize various core stability exercises and incorporate them into your strength and conditioning programs.

Both Mike and I are in agreement that your four general categories are anterior core stability, posterior core stability, lateral core stability, and rotary core stability.

Anterior core stability exercises teach the body to resist excessive lumbar spine extension, and encompass a variety of drills, starting with dead bug, curl-up, and prone bridging activities. In prepared individuals, they progress all the way up through more advanced exercises like reverse crunches, stability ball rollouts, and TRX flutters and fallouts.

Posterior core stability exercises are designed to train the body to resist excessive lumbar spine flexion. Your drills may include everything from the birddog all the way up through more conventional strength training exercises like deadlift variations.

Lateral core stability exercises teach you how to resist lateral flexion; in other words, your goal is to avoid tipping over. These drills may start with basic side bridging drills and progress all the way up through more advanced TRX drills and 1-arm carrying variations.

Rotary core stability exercises educate folks on how to resist excessive rotation through the lumbar spine. Examples include drills like landmines, lifts, and chops.

To be candid, this classification of core stability exercises isn’t anything new to those of you who have been paying attention over the past few years. However, introducing these categories really wasn’t my intention in this blog; rather, I had three key points I wanted to highlight:

1. It’s not just what you do; it’s how you do it.

You may be able to hold a prone bridge for 25 minutes, but if you’re doing so in terrible positioning and just relying on your hip flexors and lumbar erectors to do the work, you’re doing more harm than good. You’d be amazed at how many high level athletes can’t do a simple prone or side bridge correctly.

2. A core stability exercise rarely fits into one category, especially when you add progressions to it beyond the initial stages.

Take a kettlebell crosswalk, for instance.

In this exercise, you have different loads in each hand, which makes it a lateral core stability exercise. With each step, the athlete goes into single-leg stance, which makes it a rotary core stability exercise. With the load in the bottom hand, there is a tendency to be pulled into flexion, so you have a posterior core stability exercise. Finally, with the arm overhead, one must prevent the rib cage from flying up and allowing the arm to fall backward, so you have an anterior core stability exercise as well. This example demonstrates the role of synergy among all the muscles (and fascia) around the core in achieving multidirectional core stability simultaneously.

Taking it a step further, how you control one plane of movement impacts the benefit you derive from a core stability exercise in the intended plane. In this half-kneeling cable lift, for instance, the primary goal is to work on rotary and lateral core stability, as the pull of the cable back toward the column is the primary destabilizing torque. You will, however, often see athletes perform the entire exercise in lumbar extension, as evidenced by a rib flair in the front, a backward lean, and loss of the packed neck. I execute the first two reps with the incorrect positioning, and the subsequent reps in neutral spine with adequate anterior core control.

3. When you consider the overlap among the various core stability exercise categories, it can be challenging to determine how to appropriately sequence them in a strength and conditioning program.

Great leg blast routine!

Try this for a guaranteed John Wayne walk the following day

Pre Exhaust-Leg Curl 3x8 @55kg 201 Tempo 30 seconds rest between sets
Follow immediately with 4 drop sets of as many reps as possible dropping the weight each time you reach concentric failure and then carrying on immediately

Rest 1 min and then Back Squat full range 80kg 30 times on a 201 tempo
Rest 1min drop the weight to 70kg and do it again
Rest 1 min and drop to 60 kg...do it again. Try not to lose tempo.

When you recover in a weeks time try it again.

Goes without saying that only people with healthy knees and good strength levels (Training age of 2yrs) should be doing this. Weights may need to be modified but the above are a good target.

Scott

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100m Row

16.2 seconds. Hard!

Chad Waterbury 30 Rep method.

30 Rep Method – this is a more effective twist on the 10 sets of 3 reps method that I've been advocating for a decade. Instead of doing 10 sets of 3 reps, you'll start with a load you can lift no more than six times for the first set.

Next you'll perform a second set of as many reps as possible (usually it'll be less than six reps). Then you'll perform a third set of as many reps as possible.

You'll continue performing as many sets as it takes until you reach 30 total reps.

You'll use the same load for all sets and the reps will decrease with the sets. This is an ideal way to train since you'll never miss a rep, and it's the way I approach muscle building in my book, Huge in a Hurry.

Here's a sample exercise pairing for the upper arms:

	Exercise	Weight	Sets	Reps	Rest
1A	Hammer curl	*	**	***	30 sec.
1B	Lying dumbbell triceps extension	*	**	***	30 sec.

* a weight you can lift no more than 6 times for the first set
** until you reach 30 total reps
*** as many reps as possible

This is an example for one workout. You'll use only one exercise per muscle group and you'll put all your energy into that lift until you reach 30 total reps. Perform the 30-Rep Method three times per week with a different exercise in each workout throughout the week. You can use those same three exercise pairings for all four weeks.

I've tried it already, it's very effective for strength development.

Scott

100m

Scott Storey 16.8 seconds
Sue (Pinky) Quinlan 19.3 seconds

10 min body blast

Try this for size.

50pullups
50 dips
75 pressups
100body weight squats
50 lunges per leg

Non stop, as many reps per set as possible, 10minutes. It's tough on your conditioning

100m Row

Jeremy O'Donovan 16.8 seconds
M Holland 17 seconds

100m

Quinlan! Aka Pinky! 100m in 18.8 seconds.....Legend!

100m Score.

Stephen Coffey 20.7
Aoife (Drainage) Hurley 20.5

100m Row

First scores in. Damper 8

Regina Mcfadden 21.5 seconds
Scott Storey 17 seconds

More on the VMO

The VMO
The VMO is short for vastus medialis oblique. It is the tear drop muscle on the inside portion of your leg. It has major implications in knee health. It is one of those muscles that seem to get amnesia whenever there is trauma around the joint. So if you have ever had a knee injury, chances are it's not as strong as you need it now to be. It has direct involvement in patellar femoral pain.
Research is finding new things about this interesting muscle. Recently they have discovered that the VMO has actually three motor innervation's while the other quadricep muscles, vastus intermedius, lateralis and rectus femoris only have one. There is good reason to believe that there is fascial connections to the actual patellar tendon an also into the adductor magnus. So you can see this muscle has influence in a lot of places!
So how to train it? I think the best way to train such an intricate muscle is to be varied. The VMO has been show to be around 52% type 1 muscle fibers. So it must also be trained for endurance, not just pure strength. For this I like a time under tension approach. One of my favorites is to pull a sled backwards in a low crouch position. Try pulling a heavy sled backwards for 60 seconds. You will feel your VMO's if you have never felt them before!
Terminal Knee Extensions or TKE's as they are known in the rehab world is another simple exercise. It involves something as simply as placing a theraband around something secure and then around your knee. Face in the direction of where the band is secured to. Bend the knee slightly under tension and contract your quad so that your leg straightens. I like this more for activation the strengthening. So if you have just had knee trauma this is one of the better ones to start with.
Step ups on a slight decline is another great exercise. On a medium to low box ( 8 to 12 inches) that is slightly declined. Place your foot facing going down the step. With an erect posture dip and straighten the leg.
Single leg activities that require balance checks such as a single leg dumbell deadlift will challenge the proprioception and stability of the VMO.

VMO

The VMO is located on the medial portion of the Leg above the knee. See picture left. This is the muscle that was mentioned in the earlier post as being the weakest in the lower body and the one that needs training. Full Squats (Hamstring to Calf muscle) work well.

The Weakest Muscle..

In the lower body is the VMO. VMO is activated fully in the first 15 and last 15 degrees of knee flexion, hence the reason you should squat fully without bouncing in the bottom position.

Drop your weights and squat deeper and your knees will thank you for it in the long run.

Try this, Actons crew.

100m on the rower at damper level 8. Females try to get sub 20 seconds. Males try to get 18 or less. Feel free to post your results.

Good luck

The Best!

Sue Quinlan (aka Pinky to her friends) Is the finest therapist i've ever come across. For Quality deep tissue work and ART of the highest order I recommend you become a client of hers. Susan can be found at Actons Health and Fitness club in Kinsale.

Scott