Seven Summits Body – Fitness and Training

Tag: lower body

Glute and Hamstring Training – Warmup

Recently on my Facebook page I linked to an article about Posterior Chain training. That’s a fancy phrase that powerlifters use to describe the lower back, glutes, and hamstrings. These are basically the “pulling” muscles if you lay flat on the floor on your front and pull your knees off the ground and up behind you.

I mentioned that I normally trained these muscles hard, as they were majorly involved in mountaineering. Ryan of Climbingreport.com asked me for my opinions about why it was important, and while I gave a short answer on Facebook, I have a little more here.

Postholing requires strong balanced leg muscles. [Ryan from Climbingreport.com]

When walking uphill you normally place your foot out in front of you, then pull yourself over it. That’s the posterior chain working. When climbing vertical, either rock or ice, you place your foot higher, but generally under your body, then use mostly your quads to lift your body up over your foot. As your quads become more tired, you’ll have a tendency to stick your butt out some then pull it into the crag. That’s to roll off some of the work to your glutes and hamstrings. Of course that’s an over-simplification, but you get the drift. Another consideration is the agonist/antagonist balance. If your quads are too big for your hamstrings, you’ll be more likely to have injuries and pain, and they’ll most likely be manifest in your knees or hips – where the muscles from both groups attach. Most people like training their quads more than their hamstrings from my experience.

I made a couple videos of my Posterior Chain Warmups:

[youtube https://youtu.be/CKStaz7Jcpk&w=640&h=360&rel=0]

In this first video, I’m using a Back Hyper Extension bench. I keep my back fairly still, while hinging at the hips and as I hit the bottom and top, my hamstrings flex a bit. Since there isn’t much angle at the knees it’s an interesting difference, contracting a fully extended muscle. If you do this and don’t feel your hams and glutes firing at all, go slower and consciously squeeze your glutes at the top, and try to feel that squeeze all the way to your knees. If you look at the video as I come to the top, you’ll see my hamstrings flex some.

I usually do sets of 25 for this, since it’s really easy. YMMV.

[youtube https://youtu.be/57ZRVF1YyOE&w=640&h=360&rel=0]

In this second video, I’m doing one of those classic “not as intended” movements. The Glute Ham Raise bench is a powerlifting classic, and hard to find at most facilities except maybe some basement gyms. I can’t really see you getting away with taking ski poles into Gold’s or 24 hour, but this is just an idea. You can totally make do with the knee pads on a lat tower and a cardio step held out in front of you. Be creative. I am doing this move with the poles way out in front, similar to a core training move called a fallout (if done with straps) or rollout (if done with an ab wheel). I’m not putting a lot of weight on them, using them mostly for balance, and to give a little boost if I get tired so I don’t fall forward and snap my legs off at the knees.

I ride the poles out as far as I can go feeling sure I can get back up, then bring my butt back to over my heels, then do it again. The majority of the stress with this is at the fully extended position, and a little pause there is good. I normally do sets between 10 and 25 depending on what my training goals are for the day. If I’m doing 25 I don’t hang out to the front for as long a period, and use a little momentum to start my ride back. With sets of 10 I hang out there quite a while, and use a lot more hamstring to pull my butt back.

While I call these warmups, for some people just starting out who’ve never done serious hamstring or glute training, these might be a dang tough workout all on their own, so go slow, be careful, and be safe. Remember that anything you do is better than nothing you do.

August 1, 2012
One-Leg Partial Squat to Bench

I do like to work my legs. They’re one of my favorite bodyparts to train, respond well, and recover quickly. Perhaps that’s because I do a lot of “pre-hab” work. This is a variation of a one-leg squat that’s fairly simple for most people to do. I’m using an adjustable box squat bench, but just about anything you have, like a chair, box, bench, toybox, entertainment center or whatever, can be made to work.

Stand beside the box with your weighted food parallel to the side of the box or bench, lift your unweighted leg to bend the knee, and very slowly and carefully lower your knee to the bench, and back to standing straight several times. I like to do sets of 25 for this, since it’s so light and has very little effect at this height – for me. You might just do a handful on each side the first time, like a set of 5 each, and see how it goes, then work your way up.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgeAHa9UuB4

Pre-Hab is a twist on “re-hab” – by doing simple little stabilizing motions as a warmup for other heavier training, you can make sure your muscles are fully warmed up, flexible, and prepared for the stress of heavier weights. Proper preparation can help prevent injuries that can lead to re-hab, so Pre-Hab = Prevent re-Hab.

Since this is primarily a quad exercise, you’ll want to do these before bigger squats, or even leg extensions, especially since leg extensions rarely require any type of stabilizing involvement, and can actually de-train (reduce the strength through lack of use) your stabilizing muscles.

Go slow, don’t bounce off the bench, don’t slam your knee down, and if you lose your balance, let go of your ankle and stand up quick. Enjoy!

June 27, 2012
Band Sissy Squats

In my previous Blast Strap Sissy Squat article I showed a variation of the Sissy Squat supported by straps hung from a power rack. Today I’ll show a variation using a large rubber band. You can get these online from a variety of places, my personal favorite being EliteFTS.

In this variation you’re much less stable, and don’t break (fold) at the hips. This puts more of the force directly on the quads, but for some people the stress on the knee might not be acceptable, so be cautious – go slow till you know. I had previously experimented with a few sizes of bands, to roughly negate my weight at full stretch about a foot off the floor. In my case that was the Jump Stretch Green, or Strong Band. YMMV. You can fine-tune the force of the band by choking up or down on it with your hands. Don’t use too light of a band and just drop – you’ll hit the floor hard. Trust me…

Hang on and use your quads to slowly descend and ascend, hinging at the knees. Use your core to hold your knees to shoulders in a straight line. Hold your arms and hands neutral – don’t yank on the band. Slow and stead is the proper method.

Remember too that this is an accessory, or extra motion if you’re already training hard. Something to flush blood and toxins, or warm up, or cool down, or get the quads pre-fatigued so that the effects of other leg training can be modified for your goals. It’s also great for rehab or working up to doing full squats.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZUVJGoCH-U

Pre-Fatigue: if you want to focus more on your posterior (hams/glutes) in a squat or deadlift, pre-fatigue, or train your quads to a good tired, worked state, so that they are relied upon less in your other lifts. Many bodybuilders use this concept in their quest to do full-body complete training for balance and symmetry. Others of us might not have to worry about it, but if you are really quad-dominant, you might experiment to see if that gives your hams an added boost. It might be worth the effort.

[relatedPosts]

June 19, 2012
Blast Strap Sissy Squats

Looking for a reasonably safe bodyweight style exercise for your quads and legs? The Blast Strap Sissy Squat is a great option for you to explore. I have done Sissy Squats using a number of different hand-holds, from doorways to bars to railings, but none of them gave me the full range of motion and focused the movement on the quads like the Blast Straps have (and as of this writing they’re on an awesome sale).

I hooked my straps to the top of my power rack, and there’s enough other weight on the rack that it doesn’t slide or tip when I use them.

For those of you who already have, or would rather have them, the TRX Pro Pack + Door Anchor would work just as well plugged high on a sturdy doorframe or other support.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahHWSXdITMw

The only tricky part is to line up your feet under your hands so that you have full range of motion up and down without sliding or tipping, or putting way too much weight on your arms. With the straps your hands go up and down quite a ways that they wouldn’t be able to on a static surface like a doorway.

Go slow, figure out your alignment, and remember that my full range of motion and yours might be quite a bit different. Another alignment issue is to point your toes so that they are lined up with your knees so as to avoid knee pain or stress that might lead to or irritate an injury. This may be straight or not, depending on your own joints and muscles and mobility.

In general bodyweight exercises are a good choice for warming up the joints and muscles for larger weights, or even as your main workout. If you can do 10 full range of motion controlled reps, you can either call that a warmup for something else, do 10 sets of 10, or work into sets of 25 and then up to 4 sets of 25. Research has shown that a good effect can be gotten from lighter weights at 4 sets of 25, and if that works for you then by all means, go for it.

Be careful, go slow, stay in control, and don’t get hurt.

May 24, 2012
Seated Calf Raise Machine

This video shows me doing one of the most common calf training exercises, the seated calf raise. I normally do sets of 25 at 85 pounds on the arm. I’ve never checked the amount of leverage, but the weights are at the end of the arm, with your knees about the middle of the arm, so if you just do the math that way, it’s about a 5/8 mechanical disadvantage, but the weights swing about a pivot point that your butt sits around, so not sure if that helps or hurts? I’d have to use some type of scale to measure.

Ice Climbing takes strong flexible calf muscles

Anyway, physics aside, I like to push fast on the way up, and slow it on the way down. In the video you can see the muscles of my right calf, in spite of the Zensah Compression Leg Sleeves.

A good idea, especially for beginners, is to get some sensory feedback going by lightly tapping your calf muscles with a few fingertips to make sure they’re good and flexed. It’s best if you let your heels go as far down as possible to get a good stretch since your calf muscles are typically pretty tight – you generally use them all day every day just walking around.

httpv://youtu.be/66TD2reFhoI

You could also experiment with a few little pulses or bounces at the top and bottom, but please be gentle so you don’t tear anything. A Seated Calf Machine could be pretty expensive (I got mine on clearance as a floor model at a local fitness store) for a decent model, but if you belong to a club, most have some version of it that you could figure out in a heartbeat.

Strong calf muscles help with ice climbing, rock climbing, hiking, and general scrambling on rocks. If you’re going to run for training, your calf can help stabilize your ankles and prevent injury, especially shin splints.

May 2, 2012
Glute Kicks with Bands from Power Rack

Your Glutes are a big powerful muscle group, and are essential for a great many training movements, including squats and deadlifts. For mountaineering they come into play stepping up and hiking up. Kicking steps, pushing up in ice climbing or rock climbing, and even trail running all utilize the glutes. For other sports, like skating and gymnastics, the jumping and sprinting sports too, strong glutes are important.

Many who participate in these sports have obvious glute development. The Glute Kick is one way to work your glutes, but since your motion is so large, and the weight is being moved from your ankle, way out with very little leverage advantage, you’ll be using pretty light weights. In this case I’m using a pair of Harbinger Leather 3-Inch Double Ring Ankle Cuff Attachment with hardware-store quicklinks, and Champion Sports Stretch Resistance Band – Light* as the resistance.

Leather Velcro Double-D Ankle Cuffs w/quicklink

I clip the quicklink to the Double-D rings, then to the fitness band, which is looped around the lat tower on my power rack. You could use just about anything, and some fitness bands come with little straps you slam in a door.

Pull the velcro through the D-rings and fasten

I like this ankle cuff a lot because it’s pretty sturdy, and has sheepskin lining for padding, and helps it slide without leaving chafing or blistering.

Clip in the second D-ring and the stretch band

After fastening the velcro ankle band, clipping into the D-rings and the stretch band with the quicklinks, step back away from the support for your band (in this case the power rack lat tower) and stand steadily on the non-working foot. Trying to keep your legs kind of straight, and your back kind of straight as well, just kick back with as little rotation and as much height as your own mobility or flexibility will allow.

Band extended showing how the D-Rings and quicklink are connected

In the video I am braced against a bar set high in the rack, but you would get more core activation if you just stabilize on the standing foot. This is one of those exercises that I personally recommend as a warmup or finisher, either just before or just after Good Mornings, or some variation of Deadlift, Straight Leg Deadlifts being one of my favorites.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb6NPekbrpI

You could do anywhere from 10 to 25 reps with each leg if you’re doing a warmup, or if you’re doing it as a finisher, maybe 4 sets of 10 to 25 reps with each leg. As usual, don’t hurt yourself, do what feels right or natural, and beware of any feelings of pain or discomfort that might indicate a flexibility or mobility issue. YMMV of course…

Making it tougher: stand on your heel or toe, stand on a wobble disk or cushion, add a weighted ankle cuff, add bands, use the low pulley on a lat tower with weight, close your eyes.

* – I’m actually using a light-medium from another company in the video, but there’s no link to that I could handily display here.

April 21, 2012