Dear Strength Coach/Personal Trainer,

Here are 6 simple, yet challenging exercises, all initiated with the athlete or client lying on his/her back:

1. Hamstrings – Press your heels into the floor, so that the pelvis is unloaded or lifted off the floor. (Unloaded = if there was a scale under the pelvis, the pelvis would touch the scale, but the scale would show 0)
2. Glutes and lower abdominals – squeeze the glutes as hard as possible. Then while maintaining maximal glute contraction (think bowling balls!) lift your heels 1-inch off the floor
3. Neck and back – Supported by a towel, press the back of the head into the floor so the ribcage is lifted off the floor. The stronger athlete or client will press the back of the head so hard into the floor that BOTH the ribcage AND the pelvis is lifted off the ground.
4. Posterior deltoids – With the upper arms placed in 90 degree shoulder abduction press the back of the upper arms into the ground
5. Lower Trapezius – with the arms in full shoulder flexion, create a fist and press the side of the thumbs hard into the ground to unload the ribcage.
6. Lats, rhomboids and posterior delts – with the arms in anatomical neutral (palms up) press the back of the arms into the ground to unload or lift the ribcage off the ground.

Countless are the exercises whereby the athlete or client is in a prone position. Here is one favourite of mine that will challenge most athletes or clients.

I have named this exercise the Wide Horse Stance because I discovered it by doing a regular Horse Stance and experimenting with the distance between my two arms and two legs. (The Horse Stance is also known under the name The Bird Dog.)

Start position: Place your hands and knees on the floor, with your knees as far apart as possible. Your spine should have its natural curves (= the neutral spine position). Grab the floor with your fingers and “screw your hands into the floor”. Make sure that you don’t “sag”, instead push your shoulders away from your ears.

Action: To train the muscles of the anterior oblique system^(1,2) running from the right shoulder to the left hip, you must lift your LEFT hand and RIGHT knee ONE INCH off the floor. Just by lifting your left hand and right knee off the floor you will feel a significant contraction of your oblique abdominal muscles.

Hold for 10 seconds each side, alternating sides with no rest for 4-8 minutes.

The Wide Horse Stance is a part of my newly released Ground Based Abs Program – the HARDEST, SIMPLEST, “on- the- floor-no equipment”- program you will find in today’s marketplace.

With a simple yet powerful technique, the secret ingredient in the Ground Based Abs Program, the intensity of the contraction that you just experienced in the Wide Horse Stance is MULTIPLIED.

Click here of you train clients or athletes who want strong, ripped abs this summer.

Without systematic application of progressive overload, all your athlete’s or client’s efforts are in vain.

Next week’s blog – Part 3 in this series – examines how to apply progressive overload, to the above exercises. Specifically, I will show you a number of different variations of the hamstring above.

How many variations of the hamstring exercises above, do you think there are?

Leave a comment below.

Dedicated To Our Success,
Karsten,
MSc, Strength Coach, CPTN-CPT.M
Author, Lecture, Founder of Yes To Strength

References

1. Chek P. The Outer Unit. http://www.coachr.org/outer.htm
2. Garcia-Vaguero MP, Moreside JM, Brontons-Gil E, Peco-Gonzales N, Vera-Garcia FJ. Trunk muscle activation during stabilisation exercises with single and double leg support. J Electromyogr Kinesiol.  Mar 19. 2012. Epub Ahead of Print

In the pursuit of world class strength, power, speed or endurance we can afford to leave no potentially beneficially training method on the table.

The best strength coaches and personal trainers embrace the whole spectrum of training methods from extremely simple, no equipment methods, like bodyweight exercises on the floor, to high tech measurement tools like myotest (www.myotest.com).

This blog is about one of the simplest, yet most effective training methods there is, (new) bodyweight exercises on the floor.

When I teach potential personal trainers, I always say that regardless of their background (for some students personal training is their second career) and their personality, there is at least some part of the personal training process where their strength’s come in to play.

The structured, linear thinking, right brain, accountant type will love the planning process, scheduling out percentages and logging progress. The more left brain, artist type will love the process of creating NEW exercises, as the need comes up. (And of course, to reach your full potential, you must be able to swiftly and easily shift between using either the left or the right brain).

As is the case with kids, sometimes the best thing that can happen to our creativity is to have little or no equipment available. You know the saying that “If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” The creative person does not think like that. The creative person thinks: “If all I have is a hammer, I will find new and not-thought-of-before ways to use this hammer!”

Since the start of my career in 1993 I have worked with athletes from 20 different sports ranging from figure skating, triathlon to wrestling; serious amateur to world class and Olympic  level; and 14 to 55 years of age. I have always experimented intensely with new exercises, often in the gym, but lately also on our living room floor during breaks, when I work from my home office.

Regarding body weight exercises on the floor, some of the key parameters to experiment with include:

• Which body parts touch the floor?
• How many body parts touch the floor? (2, 3 or 4)
• What is the distance between the body parts that touch the floor?

The way to be creative with body weight exercises is to pick one exercise and perform a variation that you already know ( this is when the fun begins)

• Within the framework of the original exercise, try and support yourself on different body parts.
• Within the framework of the original exercise, change the number of body parts that touch the floor.
• Within the framework of the original exercise, change the distance between the body parts that touch the floor.

I would love to hear your results or questions of your experimentation!

Next week, you can read Part 2 of our exploration of 7 SPECIFIC, SIMPLE, HARD EXERCISES on the floor. All these exercise have essentially emerged through experimentation with the three parameters above.

Leave a comment.

Dedicated To Our Success,

Karsten
MSc., Strength Coach, CPTN-CPTN.M,
Author, Lecturer, Founder of Yes To Strength

Today, I would like to share three, in my experience, HIGHLY effective and FUN, ways to increase muscle activation during suspension type exercises.

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The video is an introduction to a series of 14 NEWLY created combination exercises to build strength, size or endurance in the upper back, chest or arms.

Right now – ending Friday May 4th -  we offer these 14 videos as a BONUS with an investment in our long awaited released Ground Based Abs Program.

This bonus offer expires on Friday May 4th.
Click on this link to learn what the Ground Based Abs Program can do for you and your athletes or clients.

Dedicated To Your Success,
Karsten, MSc., Strength Coach.

PS: Click on this link to learn what the Ground Based Abs Program can do for you and your athletes or clients.