New Movement Challenge: Hang Out for 7 Minutes

Swim Night! 730pm- Culver City Plunge

Thursday August 14, 2014

Prehab

GHD or Pike Situps
10 Wall Extensions
Fire Hydrants

Warm Up

Run 400m
10 Bulgarian Split Squats ea. leg
10 Scap pushups
10 Step Ups ea. leg
10 Inverted Scap Pushups
10 lunges ea. leg
10 push ups

Cool Down

Accumulate 2 minutes Hanging

Fitness

Strength

Four sets with 45 seconds rest between movements:

Strict Handstand Pushup Progression x 6-8 reps
Pistol Progression x 5-10 reps each leg
Single Arm DB/KB Row x 8-10 reps each arm

Notes:  If possible, use a spotter for help with your Handstand pushups and work a full range of motion.  For the pistol progression, try to find a variation that you can work on both balance and control through range of motion.

Conditioning

Three rounds for time of:

Manmakers x 5 reps
Bar facing Burpees x 10 reps
Deadlifts x 15 reps

Notes:  Experienced athletes should use 225/155 for the deadlift weight.

 

Advanced – Active Recovery Day!

Five sets of:

Swim 200 Meters

Rest 2 minutes

Notes: SMC Pool costs $3 for residents of Santa Monica and $7 for non-residents. You can buy a book of 20 passes that includes a parking pass for $110. Here is a link for more information. These swim workouts are an integral part of our training and should not be ignored!

Mobility and Maintenance:

Choose 1-2 Thoracic Mobility Drills and spend 5-10 minutes with them
Choose 2-3 Lower Body Mobility Drills and spend 10-12 minutes with them
Choose 1-2 Upper Extremity Mobility Drills and spend 5-10 minutes with them.

– AND/OR –

Body work from a licensed body worker (ART, Graston, acupuncture, etc…)

I have been seeing a Rolfer weekly and have seen measurable improvement in the mobility of my structure and quality of movements (like running, airdyne, walking). I highly recommend finding a body worker with knowledge of both myofascia and human movement.

Inflammation Maintenance:

This could be a lot of things, but think in terms of compression, contrast baths, salt baths, castor oil packs, etc….

Don’t forget the role diet plays in inflammation! Drink your fish oil and eat your veggies. I have also found EMS (electro muscular stimulation) to be quite effective as well.

Nutrition Preparation:

Ensure that you have quality foods prepared in the appropriate quantities to fuel your efforts for the remainder of the week.

A slow cooker is key to making sure you have plenty of good foods (especially meat) convenient with little effort. You can get 7 quart hamilton beach models on amazon for about $35. If you struggle with your nutrition or planning for the week, set up an appointment with me for help.

Mental Restoration:

Different for everyone – could be meditation or could be gathering with friends; the key is to engage in activities that make your life full and help you recharge your batteries.  

The Hanging Movement Challenge

I am always looking for a good movement challenge to commit to, and in my experience Ido Portal poses the best. We had a large crew of people at the gym who completed his last challenge to hold the bottom of a squat for 30 cumulative minutes per day for 30 days. I personally saw a huge improvement in my squat mobility, stability in the bottom positions of olympic lifts, and a functional improvement in my poor ankle mobility.

Ido’s new challenge is to accumulate 7 minutes per day hanging. This challenge serves multiple purposes from fixing weak overhead position to improved grip strength, and the idea that hanging is the prerequisite to pulling. If you want to do your first pull up, you had better have the grip strength to support yourself hanging from the bar! If you want to knock Frank off the leaderboard for max pull ups, you had better be able to hold onto the bar for 60 reps! What better way to take a step towards these goals than to practice the fundamental skill of hanging?

For this challenge you can hang passively, actively, or dynamically. See the below videos for a demonstration of each. Passive hanging is great for people like me with strong shoulders but poor shoulder mobility. Active hanging is great for those who have weak shoulders and good mobility. The active hanging will give you more strength in the shoulder blade stabilizers and put you on the path to a stronger pull up. Dynamic hanging is important for swinging, catching, releasing and other advanced movements that our primate friends seem to do so naturally.

There are a few unique circumstances in which this challenge should be avoided or scaled. For those with shoulder dislocations, he suggests avoiding hanging. For those with previous or partial dislocations he suggests partial weight passive hangs which can be completed by supporting the feet and only supporting full weight in the active hang. For those with shoulder pain, he also suggests beginning with partial weight passive hangs.

Check out Ido’s blog post on hanging for full details and join the movement culture facebook group for inspiration. Don’t forget to post videos or pictures of yourself hanging out in the gym members facebook group!

Passive Hanging

Active Hanging

Dynamic Hanging