Weekend Schedule
Friday – 6 am only (New You @ 7 am)
Saturday – 10 am at Larry Bell Park (New You @ 8 am)
Sunday – Closed
Bowling Night – If you are planning to join us on Saturday, we need to know today. Sign up at the front desk.
Over animal movements as the warm up? Why? Because you’re not very good at them? They’re hard? They highlight mobility and flexibility weaknesses? You don’t like being upside down?
Better learn to love and accept them as a weakness you need to address. If the strongest, fittest, healthiest people in the world use them to increase shoulder strength, activate muscle, force better positioning, increase range of motion, etc. you can believe they are here to stay. Any opportunity we have to make you better, we are going to take…even if it’s not your favorite thing in the world. We’ll call it character building.
How Locomotion Exercises Work to Make You Stronger and More Agile by Gold Medal Bodies
Animal movements are more than just a warm-up. Performed properly and in a variety of ways, it is a full body exercise that stimulates and builds high levels of strength, flexibility, and body control.
For years, various “animal” movements and locomotive patterns have been used in calisthenics, gymnastics, martial arts, and playground games, and their positive effects reach beyond just being fun exercises.
It’s useful because these types of movement provide different stimuli to the body.
But one general – and incredibly important – distinction in locomotion work is that the spine and trunk both have to be more involved in creating and handling dynamic forces. Placing the hands on the ground obliges your upper back to work and stabilize to maintain correct positioning.
This is a stimulus we don’t always get in regular activity, and it improves your upper spine’s ability to be a supportive platform for so many activities.
An additional benefit to locomotion is the how the movements change your normal orientation in space.
Most of our days are spent upright with the head level and on “top” of the body. In the Bear [Downdog], you are inverted (upside down) and this simple change of position has a host of distinctive upshots:
- One benefit is the traction of the spine in this position. This is not a heavy force, like you’d experience if someone were to pull on your head, but rather, the position puts your spine into light traction, enough to decompress your neck and upper spine a bit. This along with the active motion can be a very good relief of tension.
- Another benefit is the shift in body position, which changes circulatory and respiratory responses. This counteracts a lot of the sitting many of us are forced to do in our daily lives. Continue reading…
Warmup
Jump Rope 3 Minutes
10 Minutes – Animal Locomotion
10 yd Downdog Walk
10 yd Lateral Ape Walk
10 yd Backwards Downdog Walk
10 yd Lateral Monkey Walk
Lift
Levels 3/4
Take 15 Minutes to work up to a heavy single Squat Clean.
Then 6 Minutes E2MOM
3 Squat Cleans at 80-85% of today’s heavy single
Level 2
5x
3 Power Cleans at 75% (calculate from most recent 1RM)
Rest 30 seconds
30 second Hanging L
Levels 0/1
5x
5 Kettlebell Clean + Squat (Double KB)
Rest 30 seconds
30 second Hanging Knee Tuck
Rest 60 seconds
Conditioning
“The Fateful Step”
4 Rounds AFAP (12 minute limit)
8 Front Squats
16 Push-ups
48 Double Unders
L4 – 155/115
L3 – 135/95, 24 DUs
L2 – 115/75 (OR 2KBs 2×20/14), 16 mixed DUs (OR 120 Singles)
L0/1 – Goblet Squats, box push-ups, 100 Singles