***Scheduling Note – There will be no CrossFit Kids sessions tonight or Saturday morning. Sessions will resume on Tuesday, January 26.***

Workout of the Day:
Three sets of:
Box Step-Ups x 6 reps each leg
(Carry barbell in front rack position. Place foot on the box and drive heel down to stand fully on top. Do not push off the ground with the trailing foot.)
Rest 60 seconds
Knees to Elbows x as many reps as possible
(perform these strict – no kipping or swinging)
Rest 2-3 minutes;
and then,
Five rounds for time of:
3 Pistols (each leg)
6 Burpees
9 Pull-Ups

Wake Your Butt Up – Part Two
Written by Mark Riebel

Last time we talked about the importance of proper glute max function, and went over some simple exercise to get those muscles firing correctly when you need them to.  If you’ve performed those movements regularly for a few weeks, you should really start to feel a difference in your lifts.  Of course, you should see an uptick in performance, but what I noticed more of was actually feeling my glutes contract when it used to just be my spinal erectors that tired out on a deadlift or my legs on squats.  Now that you’re comfortable with the movements and are getting some proper patterning, let’s go over a few more difficult variations to also work on strength in those areas.

Advanced Hip Bridges

Changing up this movement is as simple as adding a bench and/or a box.  Use the same set up as your regular hip bridges, but put your upper back on a bench to perform the movement as described in part one of this post.  Still need some more?  Put your feet on another bench so that both feet and shoulders are elevated.  Again, squeeze the glutes together to bridge up into the air.  Elevating your body will increase the range of motion to give you a bit more stimulus.  Shoot for three sets of ten to twenty reps here.

Adding a barbell across your hips is always a good weighting option, but I prefer using a single leg variation before you make the step up to resistance.  You want to develop the proper muscle function first before you jump straight to the weights, and training unilaterally identifies and addresses weaknesses much better than training with both legs at once.  To perform a single leg version of this, take your same setup, elevated or not, and extend one leg, keeping it in line with your body.  (See photo above.)  Squeeze the glute of the leg that is bent to bridge your body up just as in the two-legged version.

If you’re feeling the strain more in the hamstring and low back, rather than extending one leg hug it instead up to your chest and perform the movement as before.  This will decrease your range quite a bit, but will isolate the stress to your glute.  If you’re having difficulty with one side over the other, perform a few extra sets on the weaker side for the next week or two, and the imbalance should start to right itself.

Another great exercise

Single-leg deadlifts are also a great way to hammer your glutes (which most Invictus members are familiar with).  If you’re not, take a standard DL setup, beginning with just an empty bar in your hands.  A dumbbell or kettlebell is acceptable if you’d like to go lighter, but hold it in the hand opposite to the leg you are currently working on.  Starting from the top of the movement, arch your back and perform a deadlift, but as you bring the bar down to your shins, keep one leg off the ground, lifting it straight behind you for balance.  Keeping the leg on the ground as straight as possible emphasizes hip extension and really improves balance.  With a strength-building emphasis, go for three sets of five with each leg and add weight upon completion.

If you’d really like to delve into the realm of glute training, check out the work of T-Nation contributor Bret Contreras.  He wrote a 675 page manual on the topic, so as you can see, we’re barely scratching the surface here.  Whether you decide to go very in depth with a book on the topic or just mix in a few of the movements discussed here, you’ll greatly improve your glute function which will in turn lead to some seriously improved performance.

Tags: Coaching Cues, Prehab

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 at 10:34 pm and is filed under Workout Of The Day. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.