Results Conditioning » medicine ball

Results workout #22: Medicine ball circuit

richb — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 20:09:30 +0000

This workout uses just a single medicine ball so is ideal for those training at home but is just as suited to the gym. The workout is great for overall conditioning, muscle tone and aerobic fitness. Perform the below exercises in a circuit spending 30-40 seconds on each one, at the end of the circuit rest for 1-2 minutes and then repeat. Aim to complete 3 circuits, once you find the workout is getting comfortable then look at increasing the weight of the ball. As always make sure you spend 5-10 minutes warming up with some light cardio before starting this workout.

Medicine ball circuit:

Swings

Squat to press

Lunge to 45 degree press

Side lunge with chest press

Walk over’s

Close hand press up

Tricep extension

Standing rotations

V-ups

Bicycle twists

Russian twists

Alternating squat thrusts narrow

Alternating squat thrusts wide

Burpee to overhead press

Exercise clinic #5: Press-up “Members video”.

richb — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 17:14:46 +0000

The press-up is a fantastic body weight exercise that works the muscles of the chest (pectorals), shoulders (deltoids) and back of the arms (triceps) as well as requiring the core the work to help maintain optimum posture. There are many different versions of the basic press-up that you can use to make the exercise either easier or harder as well as hitting different muscle groups and having different training effects (such as the plyometric press-up to help improve explosive strength and power).

Basic press-up:

The most common version of the press up involves placing your hands slightly wider than your shoulders and whilst on your toes in a prone position lower your body towards the floor by bending the elbows. If you find this difficult to do to begin with, then start of with a kneeling press-up where you do the same thing but with your knees resting on the floor. The closer your knees are to your hands the easier the exercise becomes. Another easier variation involves placing your hands on a wall and pushing yourself away. The further the feet are from the wall the harder it becomes.

Below I have listed some variations of the basic press-up that will work you in different ways and have also included a video showing them all in action.

Staggered: By placing one hand slightly further forward than the other this will result in more work placed on your core as well as placing slightly more load onto one arm.

Spiderman: As you perform a press-up bring one knee up towards your elbow. Again this will help to place more emphasise onto your core.

Close hand: By placing your hands shoulder width or closer this will place more emphasise onto your triceps.

Walk over: Start with both hands on the step and then take one off and onto the floor and perform a press-up before returning to the other side and repeating. This exercise can be performed explosively as well which can help in improving your body’s explosive strength and power as well as having some aerobic benefits. This exercise can also be done with a medicine ball for a harder variation which will place more emphasise onto your core and stabilising muscles around the shoulders.

Drop press up: Starting with each hand on a low step placed slightly wider than shoulder width. Drop your hands off and onto the floor before rebounding back up and onto the step. Again this is an explosive exercise that can have great benefits in improving power.

Explosive: As the name suggests this is another plyometric exercise to help with explosive strength and power. Start with your hands either side of a low step and lower your chest down towards it. From here explode back up jumping your hands off the floor and landing onto the step.

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Exercise clinic #4: 1 arm dumbbell snatch

richb — Tue, 25 May 2010 11:15:23 +0000

The dumbbell snatch is a version of the Olympic lift, the snatch, performed with a dumbbell in one hand. You move the dumbbell from the floor to above your head in one explosive movement.

The dumbbell snatch is a full body movement and most of the major muscle groups come into play, particularly legs, shoulders and core. It requires a mixture of strength, agility, power, speed, balance and co-ordination to perform which is what makes it such an effective exercise.

As well as being a great exercise to improve power I also use it with clients who want to improve their muscular tone using lighter weights and higher reps.

Results workout #20: 5×5 circuit

richb — Tue, 04 May 2010 20:11:22 +0000

This workout consists of 5 rounds of 5 lung busting exercises to give you a tough cardio workout that will help improve your aerobic fitness, burn calories and work the muscles of your legs, back and shoulders. The 5 rounds will take you around 15-20 minutes to complete which means you should be done in as little as half an hour including warm up and cool down. This makes it a great workout if you are short of time or something you can do at the end of a resistance training session.

As always spend 5-10 minutes warming up before the workout and 5 minutes cooling down and stretching at the end of the session.

Overhead medicine ball slams: Hold a ball at arm’s length above your head. From here drive the ball as hard as you can into the floor. Catch it on the rebound or squat down to pick it up if you are using a ball that does not bounce. 20 reps.

TRX Jump squats: Hold a TRX suspension trainer with both hands and perform a basic squat. As you stand up explode into the air. As you land, bend your knees and immediately drop into your next squat and repeat. 20 reps

Lateral jumps: Place 2 objects on the floor such as powerbags, low step boxes, low hurdles etc. Make sure there is space between them for you to jump into. Start on one side and perform a 2 footed side jump over the first object. Land soft and then immediately jump over the 2^nd object. Return to the start position by jumping back over the objects. 10 reps

Split jumps: Stand with your feet around hip width apart and place 2 low steps either side of you (make sure they are both the same size). Jump up and out so you land softly on the steps. Jump back off and repeat. 20 reps

Dumbbell burpees with shoulder press: Hold a pair of dumbbells and squat down and place them onto the floor. Keep your hands on the handles and jump your legs back. Bring your legs back in and stand back up, as you do lift the weights to your shoulders and then press them above your head. 10 reps

Medicine ball madness: “Members video”

richb — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 20:18:39 +0000

In this post we look at 6 dynamic exercises that use a medicine ball and a low step. The medicine ball is a very versatile piece of kit that can be found in most gyms and is also an ideal home training aid since they are cheap and do not take up much room. Many people will only use medicine balls as a way to add resistance to an abdominal exercise but they are fantastic for using in power-based programmes using plyometric exercises. The 6 exercises shown in the video can help give you the following benefits.

: Increased speed and power

: Increased muscular coordination so that the body works more efficiently

: Improved balance

: Improved agility

: Increased cardio fitness

: Can help with sports specific training

Exercise 1: Straddle jumps onto low step.

Start with feet either side of a low step and squat down so the ball rests on the step. Jump onto the step and reach up with the ball at the same time. Jump back off and bring the ball back down to touch the step.

Training for cage fight part 4: Video

richb — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 21:28:18 +0000

For tonight’s session we started to introduce more explosive type movements to help improve speed and power, alongside our strength exercises. The power movements were performed at maximum intensity for around 20-30 seconds while we completed 6-10 reps for each of the strength exercises.

Warm up: Tonight’s warm up involved body weight movements such as squats with rotation, lunges and side crawls as well as active stretches for the lower back and hip flexors.

Main workout:

For this workout we used supersets, performing one strength exercise followed immediately with one power movement. We had a short rest between sets and completed 3 supersets of each.

Hang cleans

Jump squat with press

TRX rows

Hammer strikes onto tyre

Incline bench press

Explosive press ups

Powerbag lunges

Jump lunge

Core superset:

This session we used a more sport specific exercise alongside an explosive one.

Guard get ups: This exercise helps to simulate being on the ground and having to scramble back up onto your feet. Lie on your back holding a medicine ball across your chest. Sit up and extend one leg out while pulling the other one into your body and then scramble up onto your feet without using your hands. Return to the floor and then repeat off the other leg.

Explosive sit up with medicine ball throw: For this exercise Marlon got into a basic sit up position holding a medicine ball above his head. As he sat up he threw the ball to me a couple of metres away. He stayed up until the ball was thrown back to him. When I threw the ball back it was slightly above his head meaning Marlon had to catch it before slowly lowering himself back down using his abdominals to resist.

Below is a short video showing the power movements.

Tour around the Results Studio: Video

richb — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 19:00:06 +0000

I thought I would post this video so people could see just what we have to offer at the Results Studio that is based in Darley Abbey Derby. I have listed below some of the equipment we have at the studio although we are continuously looking to add to this and keep up to date with the latest training methods.

Medicine balls: 1-7kg

TRX:

Kettlebells: 4-24kg

Powerbags: 7.5-25kg

Boxing equipment: Punch bags, focus pads, gloves, kick shield

Resistance bands:

Free weights: Large selection of dumbbells, barbells and weight plates

Cardio equipment: x-trainer, spin cycle, rower

Slosh pipe: Large pipe filled with water that’s great for core training

Sledgehammers and tyres:

Post-pregnancy workout legs and core

richb — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 18:39:56 +0000

Back in October I posted a video, which showed me taking my wife Laura through a circuit session while she was 6 months pregnant. (http://www.resultsconditioning.com/archives/495). Well now we have a beautiful baby daughter who is 9 weeks old and Laura is back into her training determined to get her pre-pregnancy shape back. She started after 6 weeks with some light cardio using x-trainers and cycles and is now already back down to her previous weight. Her goal now is to improve her muscle tone focusing on her lower body and mid-section. Laura’s abdominals are now fully healed so we can now start introducing more core focused workouts into her sessions such as the one shown below.

Warm up:

We began by warming up with a light medicine ball using exercises such as swings, rotations, squats and lunges.

Lower-body workout:

We performed a 3-exercise circuit that focused on movements that not only hit the legs but also heavily involved the core.

TRX single leg lunge

Reverse balance lunge

Side lunge

Core workout:

After the lower-body we moved onto the core doing a superset of 2 exercises.

Resistance band woodchops

Medicine ball crunch with alternating leg lifts

Once we had completed this we finished off the workout with 20 minutes of focus pad work to help burn plenty of calories. We performed 2-minute rounds with a minutes rest in between. Once this was done we cooled down and stretched.

Functional flexibility “Members”

richb — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:14:12 +0000

When it comes to warming up most people will spend a few minutes doing some type of cardio exercise followed by a few static stretches. This post will look at dynamic stretching often referred to as functional flexibility as a way of warming up the body before exercise.

Dynamic stretching uses the force production of a muscle and the body’s momentum to take a joint through its full range of motion for example leg swings and walking lunges. I use this type of flexibility work with many of may clients as a pre-activity warm up as not only do these type of exercises help to raise the heart rate it also prepares the muscles specifically for the type of movements I will have them doing during a session, such as squats, lunges, rotations and presses etc.

Below are 5 dynamic stretches that you could try as part of your warm up.

5 Of the best: “Members”

richb — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:24:39 +0000

In this post I will look at 5 very effective exercises that I use within my personal training sessions that work multiple muscle groups in one go. Using exercises that target a large number of muscle groups will cause your body to work harder compared to exercises that work muscles in isolation. These exercises will cause your heart rate to rise and for your body to expand more calories.