Merit Fit

I’ll take an extra serving of endorphins, please.

A big spin on the single leg deadlift. 1Hamstrings 2Glutes Okay, not a pure single leg deadlift because both feet are stable, but most SLDL you’ll do will have your unloaded leg behind you in some fashion. Try putting it in front of you. ..... By taking your opposite leg and putting it in front, your hips are going to be locked in place. This is because your hips are already close to being in full hip extension. You’ll get some movement but your hamstrings are already loaded (and you’ll get an insane stretch, at least for me as my posterior chain mobility is ). This is a great movement for hamstrings and glutes, but also hamstring mobility. : A slight bend in both knees is perfect. When lifting the kettlebell up and as hips shift forward into hip extension, squeeze and focus on glutes because your hamstrings will already be screaming at you. Also, your heels are important in this movement. The front heel should be pressed into the box as hard as possible and the back heel should be pressed down, and also image taking that heel and sliding it back. Last thing, thoracic extension is so important. You wouldn’t know by my form since hips are already in extension, the movement has to give somewhere, and that’s going to in the T spine, so keep your chest up and shoulders back, abs loaded.

Programming Tip: Making your push workouts stronger. These are two movements that I'll use for my online coaching clients that prep them for their push emphasis work outs. The goal of this super set is to 1 increase the potential of the nervous system and 2 activate the prime mover muscle. Goal 1: I use the incline plyo bench push ups to increase the potential of the nervous system. I start with a 4-6 second stretch in the deep push up position. This activates the str...etch reflex; by stretching the muscle you are essentially activating the nervous system. We are trying to crank the nervous system up on the first exercise so that we get more out of our sessions. Remember, your muscles are controlled by the nervous system. A strong nervous system response = power and strength. After the 4-6 seconds of the stretch reflex you'd go straigt to 6 explosive reps and then followed up by another 4-6 seconds of the stretch. Goal 2: Now we are ready to use that increase in nervous system to focus on muscle contraction in the prime mover muscle. In this case, the chest. I'll use the bent over fly because there's a great stretch and potential for a strong contraction at the end range of the movement.The key here is to get a decent stretch and then contract your chest as hard as possible when the hands meet. Sets of 12 reps are perfect. I see a continual ~10lb increase in client’s lifts after movements like these are performed. @citygymkc

If you saw my story on Instagram from a couple days ago, I was talking about how to use the rear foot elevated split squat as a quad dominate movement. The two exercises in this video bounces off that same idea; raising the heel off the ground a few inches and shifting your knees forward and dropping your hips straight down rather than knees over toes and hips back. Making this a quad dominant deadlift and squat. Even with super duper, extra stretchy ankle mobility, it’s bet...ter to elevate the heels for these if your goal is to shift knees forward to target the quads. It will also allow you to get lower in the deadlift/squat. And, no, Becky, these aren’t bad for your knees. This combo is absolutely brutal even with lighter weights. The goblet squat acts like a drop set to the trap bar deadlift. Give them a try next time you smash lower body!

Here are a couple of movements for the shoulders that you should try. You can use these movements as a warm up, active recovery, to improve posture or balance that upper body (I’m looking at you Bench Press Bro). I also write these into programs as a second superset movement. Example: A1. Standing overhead press A2. Band pull apart with shoulder flexion (first movement in video). These can also be paired with a mobility drill. Example: A1. Door jam pec minor mobs A2. Single ...arm band pull apart (second movement in video). Exercise cues: both movements require a triangle shape with the band. This gives you a couple different angles of resistance. The first movement you can see me pulling the band apart keeping the hands around shoulder height, then slight flexion of the shoulders by bringing your hands up and around the head. You don’t have to go all the way around the head with the hands, just up into the overhead squat position. The next movement is a regular band pull apart, but you’re only moving one hand at a time, as the other hand is still slightly loaded with isometric resistance. Brace your core as you’ll feel tension transfer, it is, after all, a unilateral movement (ya know, Bench Press Bro might have a hard time with these). Keep these slow and under control, equal tempo in both directions. Also, make sure you are actively moving the scapula and not just keeping them retracted. The scapula need to move, and these exercises will cause them to retract, protract AND have upward rotation. 12 reps per exercise for 1-3 sets will help your shoulders stay healthy and improve posture.