So it’s been a bit since I’ve posted up a fresh Thursday Throwdown as I’ve been crazy busy traveling around, training athletes, attending SECRET meetings talking about how to change the world, and without a useable video camera…
No EXCUSES though…
I’m back and I’m jacked up to get you this new post as I hope you’re ready to hit it up as well.
For this week’s Throwdown, I took one of the metabolic finishers from my newest program, The 28 Day Athletic Muscle Formula.
This is NOT an easy finisher as you’ll be gasping for air and testing your mental toughness for sure, but then again, do you ever want to have an “easy” metabolic finisher???
There’s a few ways you can approach this finisher…
A) You hit the 3 movement circuit hard then rest between rounds.
or…
B) You hit the 3 movement circuit hard for 4 rounds and go for time.
I say you go for option B which is what I did (or at least attempted to do…)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRGkpsBhds8[/youtube]
This is how it’s going down:
3 Movements and 4 Rounds of:
1A) Barbell Sumo Deadlift High Pulls x 12
1B) Burpee x 10
1C) Plank Holds x 60 secs (Use advanced plank holds with your feet elevated on a box or with a Jungle Gym XT if you got one)
Go through this circuit 4 times as fast as you can. You’ll have a 4 min handicap due to the plank holds, but if you must go down during the min holds, you will ADD 10 secs to your time for every time you come down. I went down 4 times…
I went ahead and used 135 lbs for the Sumo Dead Lift High Pulls and a Jungle Gym XT for the plank hold and ended up with a final time of 10:30 but had to add on another 1:00 due to going down.
Damn! Those planks are TOUGH when your breathing heavy…
Anyways, speaking of SDLHP’s… This needs to be addressed…
There’s been a countless amount of coaches that say this movement is the worst movement for you and that they would NEVER allow one of their athletes and clients to do it because it’s unsafe, yadda yadda, yadda…
That’s understandable and for good reason… There’s been athletes that have been injured using SDLHP’s, but there’s also been athletes injured doing just about any movement out there before…
The truth is, people can get injured doing any type of movement wrong…
Now, before I go deeper into injuries and what not, I need to go over some coaching points to focus in on when doing SDLHP’s…
Key Tips For the SDLHP:
- First and foremost, this movement is a power based movement that starts with the hips first, NOT the arms.
- Keep your chest UP and OUT with a flat back.
- As you come up, drive through your heels and EXPLOSIVELY extend through with your hips to drive the bar up towards your chin
- Pull with your arms while driving your elbow up and BACK, not just up while you continue to extend with your hips.
- DO NOT over extend with you hips, you should be standing straight up and down at the end, NOT leaning back
- Make sure to RETRACT (squeeze) your shoulder blades together at the top of the movement to ensure shoulder integrity
- DO NOT allow your shoulders to roll forward at the top of the lift, this is what will injury your shoulders…
You can’t see it from the front too well, but my shoulder blades are retracted and elbows are up and back.- Keep the bar CLOSE to your body and try to make sure the bar is traveling in a straight, linear path from the ground to the end point.
I haven’t had ONE single client or athlete get hurt using this movement (tap… tap) because just like with any movement, if you do it CORRECT, you’ll be fine.
Speaking on this in terms of specificity… I would suggest that if your an overhead throwing athlete like a pitcher or baseball player, SDLHP’s probably wouldn’t be the best thing for you….
You always want to be doing movements that are relative to your overall goal while always thinking about the overall RISK vs REWARD that’s involved…
Another key point to think about is if you’re not in good enough shape to do higher rep, power-based circuits and movements like the SDLHP is usually used for, you’ll want to regress yourself down a bit and work on technique and general conditioning first.
If you’re more of a beginner, this type of metabolic conditioning circuit would best be done using lighter weights and with more rest between rounds instead of going straight through from time.
I’ve always been about training INSANE, but at the same time, you’ve got to train SMART.
And by SMART I mean: using good, solid technique and form all the time. If you have terrible form and poor technique, stick to the basics and build yourself up overtime. Don’t be an idiot and try to push your limits to early. You’ve got to have a bit of patience if you want to have amazing gains overtime.
Ok, so I’m done being up on my soap box speaking about injuries… Back to training relentlessly without remorse!
Be sure to post up your RESULTS in the comments or on my Facebook Fan Page!
Live Aggressive and Get Strong!
For all you crazies out there that haven’t yet grabbed my newest and most kick ass training system yet, The 28 Day Athletic Muscle Formula, you have until TONIGHT midnight CST to get it for $30 OFF and with the extra added bonus, The 28 Min Challenge for FREE!
CLICK HERE to get the goods before time runs out and you’re S.O.L.