posted on March 16, 2023
Hiya, my mobile muscle members,
As most of you already know and some will come to find out, I like to have fun with exercise, as a wise coach said, explore the corners. With this being said, I certainly have my own lingo, style and reasons for keeping exercise fresh and fun. Today I give to you my Funky 6 (pick-up sticks) most recent exercises that I have been exploring. These exercises give the user a huge bang for their buck. I say this because these exercises combine mobility, stability, coordination, balance, strength, endurance, brace, proprioception and more into an exercise.
Squat to Stretch with T-Spine Rotation Holding Light Band
How to: This classic with a twist will have you feeling good from your head to your toes. Heating up your calves, hamstrings, glutes, low back, t-spine, midsection and rear delts. You don’t need a micro-mini band but this addition will help strengthen your rear delts. Start in a standing position with your feet hip width apart. With a slight bend in the knee, reach down to your feet (with the band in your hands) from there pull your butt down, pick your chest up and position your elbows inside your knees with your feel flat to the ground (deep squat). Keep one hand down while the other rotates to the sky, switch then drop your head and raise your butt to the sky. You’ll feel a stretch from your calves to your back.
Loop Band March with Single Arm Overhead KB Hold
How to: You’ll need a small hip circle or loop band for your feet to do the marches, along with a kettlebell or weight to hold overhead in a shoulder press position. This exercise will get you sturdy from the floor and up to the sky. With the loop band on the arch of your shoe and around your shoe laces, press the kettlebell over your head and stabilize. Pressing the weight overhead will raise your center of gravity and for you to engage your midsection brace more. While you are marching you are strengthening and stabilizing at the ankles, knees, hips, midsection and shoulders. Talk about a hole in one.
Mini Band Hourglass Walks
How to: We work front & back all the time, let’s give side to side movement some love with this exercise. By working laterally we will be challenging our coordination, proprioception and working lesser used movement patterns. Take a mini band and step your feet shoulder width apart on the bottom of the band. With your hands make the band cross into an X and press overhead. You are working overhead stability, single leg strength and improving commonly weak muscles, those glutes. This one may look easy but it is a doozy.
Glider Knee Over Toe Split Squat with T-Spine Open the Book
How to: You’ll step yourself into a balanced split squat position. You can decide to elevate your front foot with a rubber mat or flat weight plate or keep both feet level on the ground. From here start to glide your knee forward, pushing your knee over your toes while keeping that front heel stapled to the ground. When you reach this position take the same arm of the knee that is forward, reach and hold that foot while the opposite arm (away from the knee) rotates and reaches open to the sky. Bring the top hand back down and now glide back into your starting split squat position. This exercise is great for ankle, knee & hip mobility and stability, while strengthening those areas. The t-spine rotation is an added perk to challenge different ranges of motions that will be beneficial to your daily activities.
Banded Isometric Spanish Squat
How to: Grab a hefty band and anchor it around a rack at knee height. Step both legs inside the band, placing the band behind your knees. Take a few steps back to build tension. From there sink into a half or quarter squat, while you externally rotate against the band. This will light your quads, glutes and abs while preparing you for any lower body activity. These puppies help build happy and healthy joints, muscles and ligaments.
1/2 Kneeling T-Spine Wall Rotation to Dip
How to: Find a flat wall and drop into a 1/2 kneeling position (inside knee up with hip to the wall, while your outside knee is down). Use your hands to earmuff your head and press your inside arm against the wall. The inside arm will drive half a circle up and over on the wall then dip down to the glute. Bring the inside arm back up and over then dip down to the up knee. This is a great movment to wake up that T-spine and prep your spine/back for various positions and ranges of motion. This is most certainly a spicy meatball.
These are my funky 6 exercises that I have been adding into my training and using with some of my athletes. If you see me in the gym and want to see any of these exercises demoed, please come up and let’s get going. Give the funky 6 a try and let me know what you think and how they feel. Get creative and go have some fun.
Cheers my mobile muscle members,
-CeJ
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