Posts Tagged ‘glutes’

How to do Box Jumps

Wednesday, April 27th, 2011
Woman Box Jumps

How to do Box Jumps

Box jumps are a great exercise for your legs, and can be performed on just about any variable flat surface. They hit your posterior chain – calves, quads, glutes, and hamstrings – pretty hard.

Box jumps can be used for cardio workouts, neural activation training (NAT), high intensity resistance training (HIRT), and high intensity interval training (HIIT) circuits. They are often used in CrossFit WODs (Workout of the Day), and are a staple exercise in plyometric training. Plyometrics have a wide range of athletic and real sporting applications; they are used, for example, to increase jumping ability, leg strength, hip drive, and explosiveness.

Box jumps are a simple movement. They require you only to jump from one flat surface up onto another flat surface, then either step or jump back down, depending on the purpose of the exercise.

What if You Can’t Perform Box Jumps?

To excel at box jumps, you have to develop strength, flexibility, speed, power, coordination and balance. Without a basic foundation in these core exercise stills, you should not attempt a box jump, and whatever you do, don’t follow the box jump tips at eHow unless you never want to know how to do proper box jumps.

Be sure you are comfortable with bodyweight squats. If you can’t do bodyweight squats then you’ve got a real problem and should not be attempting box jumps.
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How to Perform Reverse Hypers or Reverse Hyperextensions

Tuesday, April 19th, 2011

In weight lifting, the lower back does not always receive much attention, unless it is injured. Experienced athletes know enough to include deadlifts, stiff legs, good mornings, glute-hamstring raises, and pull throughs into their routine, but maybe that’s not always enough.

The posterior chain is used in many pulling and lifting movements, so making it a priority to strengthen the lower back will help to prevent serious injuries in future. Aside from those listed above, one exercise that can help strengthen, rehab, and prehab the lower back, is the reverse hyper. Additionally, the reverse hyper strengthens the entire posterior chain including the hips, spinal erectors, glutes, and hamstrings.
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The Top 5 Best Glute Exercises

Thursday, February 17th, 2011
Amazing Glutes
Amazing Glutes

Whether you are a guy or a girl, it is always an asset to have some nice glutes. The main exercise that will help you develop your glutes the most is obviously the squat. Look at those who have the highest squat numbers. ‘Nuff said.

There are some other exercises that will help a good bit, but the squat will always be the king glute exercise. Before going on to mention the top exercises, we will inform you on some information about the glutes.

How to Get Big Glutes

Like mentioned above, squats are the king of glute exercises. They are without a doubt the single best exercise you can use to develop your glutes. I would even go as far as saying that you would not even need to do another single exercise for them; squats are really that good! However, there are always some other exercises that would be good to experiment with.

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How to Increase Your Vertical Jump

Friday, March 12th, 2010

Increasing Your Vertical Jumping Ability

A single vertical jump for maximum height is one of the most intense exercises you can do.

Why? Because it requires you to utilize your entire lower body chain in a maximal effort contraction, to produce a maximal amount of force in a split second.

The important aspects of training to work on, to increase your vertical leap include:

Vertical Jump
Vertical Jump
  • Squatting strength – Maximal leg strength transfers directly to a vertical jump. A strong 1 rep max = a big jump.
  • Squatting speed – The faster you can squat, the more power you can generate, the higher you can jump.
  • Squatting power – Tied in directly with speed and strength, squat heavier and squat faster and you will jump higher.
  • Acceleration - You want to continue accelerating out of the hole all the way through the top of your jump.
  • Single leg strength – To eliminate strength imbalances and to improve neuromuscular coordination, train your legs individually.
  • Calf strength – Your calves are used at the end of the jump, so max calf strength can mean an extra inch on your vert.
  • Sprint speedSprinting trains the Type-II Fast Twitch muscle fibers, which are what you need to attain your highest jump. Acceleration applies here as well.
  • Hip drive – Your hips are responsible for a significant portion of jumping power from a parallel squat position to standing.
  • Glute activation – Your glutes are responsible for driving you out of the hole at the bottom of a squat or jump.

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