In this post I provided you with why I designed my current Upper body Pushing workout the way I did.
In today’s post, I’m providing with live video footage and the background info for my current Lower-body and Neck Strength Workout.
Before I show you the video, I’d like to thank everyone who read my The Single Best Ab Exercise You Can Do — And It’s Not A Crunch, which was published a few days ago on the front page of Yahoo.com.
My Best Abs Exercise article was immensely popular and this exercise instructional Youtube video, which I embed in the article got over 1 MILLION hits in less than 24hrs! It’s currently up over 1.5 million views and growing.
I’d like to send a BIG thanks to Nick Bromberg from “The Post Game” blog at Yahoo.com for helping publish this article and for giving me the opportunity to bring, real-world, non commercial, scientifically based training to a mainstream audience.
Here’s live video of my Lower-Body Strength & Conditioning Workout
Watch this video and see real training footage featuring the Lower-body workout I’m currently using on Tuesdays and Fridays.
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Why I do what I do?
1a. Trap Bar Deadlift
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1b. High Box Jump
– These are two of my favorite Lower-body exercises!
– I use this contrast superset to improve my overall lower-body strength, general leg/hip power and I find it helps both my vertical and long jump ability.
– This superset allows me to better transfer the strength gained from the Trap Bar deadlift into a high-intesity, low impact action like the box jump.
Active Recovery with – 3D Stability Ball Neck Circuit
– I use this to improve the functional ability and strength of my neck muscles to support and stabilize my head in all 3 planes of motion.
2a. DB Reverse Lunge w/ Resisted Knee Lift
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2b. Muay Thai Power Knee on Bag
– The single leg strength I build doing Reverse lunges not only helps me become more athletic. It also allows me to maintain a fair amount of left to right strength balance between each of my legs. This is very important to me because I avoided surgery on my right ACL for several years, which caused me to developed some left to right differences. Now, since having surgery a fews years back, I have a much more stable knee. But, I still need to focus a bit more on the strength of my right side.
– The Muay Thai Power Knee Strike allows me to take the strength built from the reverse lunge and transfer it into a functional, explosive, sports specific move requiring me to generate power from the ground up.
Active Recovery with Rooney Neck Extension & Stability Ball Pike + Roll Out
– I learned the Band Neck extension from my friend Martin Rooney who’s website Training for Warriors is a must see for all MMA enthusiasts and athletes. Go here to learn more about why I use this exercise and to discover more Performance U style neck strengthening exercises.
– Go here to learn all about why I use the Fitness Ball Abs Pike Roll Out
3a. Tire Drag
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3b. Shrugs
– If had to pick one lower-body strength + conditioning based exercise to do. I say Tire Drags are my go-to. Go here to discover everything you’d ever want to know about how to get a great Tire Workout Performance U style!
– I do shrugs because 1. it’s a great way to strengthen my neck and grip 2. I enjoy doing them and 3. I like the look of having decent sized traps!
4a. Leg Extensions
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4b. Stability Ball Hip Bridge + Hamstring Curl
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4c. Barbell Calf Raises
– The Leg extension exercise allows me to target my chronically weak quads, which I’ve found helps me perform in my bigger, integrated lifts. Like most folks into “functional training”, I avoid doing leg extensions for sometime. But, re-incorportaing them into my regular training has helped me tremendously. Plus, they’ve also helped my build some great looking quads 🙂 Go here to learn the TRUTH about leg extensions.
– The stability ball leg curl + hip bridge compliments the leg extensions by strengthening the opposing muscles of my posterior chain. Plus, this exercise hits my hips, hamstrings and calves in a manner in which other posterior chain movements do not. Many people who use stability ball curls often bash leg extensions. When in reality, both movements are fairly non-functional in nature. The one lesson I’ve learned through experience is “non-functional” does NOT mean “not valuable”.
– The Barbell standing calve raises are another fairly targeted exercise I use to build another chronically under developed area of my body. I’m a very glute dominant athlete who’s glutes seem to get bigger and stronger with ALL lower-body exercises. I’ve found doing calve raises not only help my performance. They also help me create more balanced, better looking legs. Who doesn’t like to look great? I know I sure do 🙂
Coming Soon!
In another post, soon to come, I’ll provide you with my lower body and upper-body warm up and cool down routines. Keep checking back for those posts!
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