When an athlete performs a regular step-up, there will be many muscles of the lower legs that will be stimulated.  When you watch the video of my women’s basketball players doing a power step-up, you will see a jump stretch band attached around their waist.  This will have two main functions.  The first will be forcing them to stimulate the torso musculature.  This is desirable as we will want as many muscle fibers stimulated as possible and any additional core activation is always a good thing.  In the second function, the band is holding the athlete back and the athlete is forced to drive the hip forward and move the leg into a more aggressive triple extension firing pattern.  This triple extension will occur in the hip, knee, and ankle.  It is this powerful motion that accelerates an athlete forward explosively.

When performing a power step-up you will need a light or medium jump stretch band and something sturdy to step-up onto at a height of approximately 18-24″.  Loop the jump stretch band around an immoveable object at waist height.  I use my cable machines because there is no sharp edges to cut into the band.  Position a step-up platform about 2 feet from the end of the band.  In the video, the ladies are stepping onto a Legend foam plyo box.  This will give this exercise an added bonus because the athletes will have to stabilize their ankles and maintain balance.  The athlete will then step into the loop of the band and place the loop around their waist.  Place one foot onto the box so that the entire foot is on the box.  In a running motion, drive the heel of the foot that is on the box down hard into the box and drive the body forward.  Again emphasize a running motion with good arm swing and knee drive.  Keep the foot on the box and step back down with the other foot to the floor.  Repeat this motion for the desired number of reps or time of the exercise.

Typically I will have athletes perform 4 sets of 6-10 reps per leg.  An alternative would be to have the athlete step both feet down back to the floor and alternate the step-ups.  In this fashion, I would normally go for a timed session of 30-60 seconds.

If first step acceleration is something you need to improve on then you will want to give this one a try.  As a strength coach, I always believe this is an area that can be improved on.

Hope this helps.

To your health,

Jerry

If you look at the picture of a bicep curl.  Image “A” would be a concentric contraction (muscle shortening) as you bring the dumbbell up and a eccentric contraction (muscle lengthening) as you bring the dumbbell back down.  Image “B” shows an example of a isometric contraction.  The hand is anchored and as you would attempt to squeeze and perform the curl, the arm will not move and as a result much tension will develop in the bicep muscles.

A muscle can generate greater tension with a maximum isometric contraction than with a maximum concentric contraction, but not as much as with a maximum eccentric contraction.  This may seem confusing to a person who just goes through the motions in a weight room.  Now the gym rat, will understand these principles because he/she will put these practices into work and experience the outcomes of their efforts.

What I find great about isometrics is that it can be done in different ranges of motion and with just about any strength exercise.  Let’s go back to the bicep curl.  If we are looking at your elbow and we have the elbow fully extended, the joint angle would be at 180 degrees.  As we start our bicep curl the angle in the elbow will decrease.  You could stop at any angle and perform an isometric contraction.  Most trainers will either do isometric contractions at the mid point, which would be 90 degrees for this example; or at full contraction with the curl all the way up and tight.  I will point out, that if you are using a free weight you should take in consideration for positioning with gravity.

To gain strength from isometric training, the athlete must use an exercise load (resistance) of 60-80% of their muscle’s force-developing capacity and it must be sustained against that resistance for at least 6 seconds to allow time for peak tension to develop and the metabolic changes to begin to occur in the muscle.  Strength will develop at the position or angle degree in which the exercise is performed.  You can see how this could be beneficial if you find a “sticking point” in an exercise.

In the video, you see my wife Trina keeping an isometric contraction in a seated row position with the elbows pulled back and the scapula in a retracted position.  She was told to hold until failure.  I did this at the end of her back training session as a finisher and this was her second set.  She is training for a figure competition and I wanted to get her upper back muscles to recruit as many muscle fibers as possible so when she does her back pose her muscles will “pop” on stage.

If you have never used or tried isometric training, I would encourage you to start experimenting with it.  I covered a few benefits of it but mentioned nothing in regards to the injury prevention and rehabilitation capabilities which I am sure you now can see those possibilities.  If you have any questions or suggestions to share with everyone; please post them in the comments section below.

Hope this helps!

To your health,

Jerry

They majority of free weight lower or total body movements will have some activation of the glute muslces.   They are working while doing squats, lunges, dead lifts, and step-ups just to name a few.  Many times a good balanced training program will be adequate enough not to have to target or try and isolate and athlete’s glutes.  But there are times when individuals have a hard time getting the proper activation of these muscles which can be a limiting factor in their progression or a higher risk of lower limb injury.

The following exercise that I am about to explain will provide good activation of the glute muscles.  I honestly do not have a name for this exercise but will prescribe it to athletes from time to time.  It basically is like a modified reverse hyper.  Louie Simmons from West Side Barbell came up with the original Reverse Hyper machine, and it really does a good job.  But not everyone will access to this piece of equipment.  Basically it is like a table top that you lay your upper body and mid-torso across with your legs off the table.  Your feet are strapped to a hanging weight almost like a pendulum and you move this weight back by contracting your posterior muscles which has a big emphasis in the glutes.  It will almost look like you are swinging the weight back and forth.  OK, I know that if you are familiar with the reverse hyper machine then you know what I am talking about and trying to explain.  If you are not familiar with it then that description probably has you all screwed up.  That’s OK if you are; you can look up a video of it later if you wish and it will make more sense.

So the exercise I am about to explain will work a lot of the posterior chain muscles but my main objective to to get good activation of the glutes.  You may have to get a little creative in setting this up and the easiest way to do this is by looping a jump stretch band around a power rack.  In the video, I start by using band chords which I attached to an ARC Trainer.  Now the Arc Trainer allows me to pretty much set up any configuration of band chords to do just about anything.  It is a very handy piece of equipment that you will learn more about in the future as it becomes popular.   For now, just use what ever you have available to you to use.  I am going to explain it using a jump stretch band.

Attach the band a few feet off the floor, around waist high.  Then lay down on your back and bring a foot up and loop the band securely around the foot.  Keep your back flat on the ground and then drive the leg down towards the floor (try to keep your leg somewhat straight).  Try to initiate the movement from your glute and when the leg gets to the floor squeeze those muscles tightly.  Return back up under control and repeat for reps or fatigue.

You will really feel this working.  Do not get carried away and do a ton of sets the first time you learn this exercise or you might have trouble sitting the next two days.  Usually 3-5 sets of 10-12 reps per leg is adequate.  You can also attach a second band and do both legs together or alternating movements like if you were walking.  I prefer single leg or alternating reps over doing both legs at the same time.  When doing both legs at the same time; I do not like the tilt of the pelvis and I feel there is some not needed stress placed in the low back area.  I never feel this stress of see the tilt when doing single leg or alternating.

If you feel you are not getting the activation of the glutes or it is your weak link in your kinetic chain, then give this a try.  Heck, just give it a try and you will know what I am talking about.

Hope that helps!

To your health,

Jerry

The majority of strength coaches use bands in some form or another and for good reason.  One band alone can provide you with a vast variety of different exercises and applications for use.  In this video post, I demonstrate how to do seven different exercises for the upper back and core without really moving anywhere or changing any weights.  In reality, I probably could have stayed there and shown you about forty more exercise with just that one band set-up.

So as you can see, bands can be a very valuable and cost effective training tool to have and implement into any training program.  I have used bands for years and encourage individuals to learn how to work with them if you never have.  They are great to travel with and can be set up and used just about anywhere.  Just like any other training tool; you need to respect it and know your limits and the limits of the band to avoid injury.

If you have any questions or comments about band training; please just ask.  Also, be sure to check out the other band training videos that I have posted.

Keep adding Variety to those workouts!!

To your health,

Jerry

When I am coaching this exercise, I stress on concentrating on all the muscles in the body and “feeling” them contract throughout the movement.  Never stay fixed in one position.  Just let everything move naturally allowing your feet to pivot from side to side.

I recommend doing 2-4 sets of around 6-8 reps.  Take it slow and don’t force it.  If you do it right you won’t need more than 6-8 reps.

Stay Strong & Fit,

Jerry

In the body weight dip video, I go over the dip and the various body positions while doing the dip and I really speak in detail about how productive this exercise is in developing upper body mass and triceps muscularity.  But what if you can not perform a dip because you might weight a lot or you just do not have the upper body strength to perform this exercise?

This video was put together to show how to implement and use a band to assist you in doing dips.  See the hardest part of the dip is in the down position.  This is also when the band is stretched out the most so it will take the most amount of your body weight off.  When you come up through the range of motion; the band tension lessons and it gets harder to do but you are also in a stronger position when you get closer to lockout with the triceps.

So the band really becomes an essential part of this exercise as far as being able to execute the rep.  It will also help you get more reps, even if you are able to get one or two body weight reps and you want to get some higher volume to reach hypertrophy of the triceps.  The band will allow you to get this good burn in achieving a high volume set.

I hope you found this video to be helpful and useful.  Please feel free to ask any questions or leave comments below in the comments area.  If there is something you would like to see or learn; please feel free to contact me by email or over in the forum area and we will be sure to get all your questions and comments answered right here at Variety Trainer dot com.

Using a band to help you achieve a pull-up or just to increase the number of reps you are able to do is an excellent solution to a problem most people have.  When deciding to use a band to assist you; you will need to understand there are many thicknesses to bands and how the band will assist you.  When a person does a pull-up the hardest point of the pull-up for most is getting started from the hang position.  When you use a band; this will be the position when the band is stretched out the most and will give you the best assistance.  As you pull yourself up, the tension in the band lessons.  Most individuals are much stronger towards the up position of the pull-up.  Having the band lose tension during the upward phase is a perfect compliment to the pull-up.

Choose a band thickness that will assist you in achieving 5 reps.  Continue to train with that thickness of band until you are able to achieve over ten reps.  You will now be ready to go to the next lighter thickness band and continue training with that thickness until 10 reps are achieved.  Keep doing this until you are down to the lightest thickness and then you will be able to perform a full body weight pull-up with no band assistance.

It is so awesome to see someone who could not do a pull-up at all and see them progress through the bands.  When they achieve their first body weight pull-up with no assistance at all the excitement and sense of accomplish that individual shows is priceless!

If pull-ups are not your thing-make them your thing.  Start doing them and you will be surprised how fast you see your strength gains and fitness developments improve.  If you have any questions about the bands or pull-ups; please post them in the comments are of start a discussion in the forum.