Quick Tip: Place your feet, don't land on your feet

Quick tip when jumping:

Don't just land on the floor, or the box you're jumping onto. Instead, think of placing your feet down on the box. Reach down with your feet as you hit the apex of your jump and step down to the box or floor.

What this will do is allow you to land softly, like a cat, instead of heavily, like a ton of bricks. This will improve your jumping, cushion your ankles and knees against a hard landing, and allow you to land more securely on even an unstable surface.

For more advice on landing, don't forget about Jason Nunn's excellent article on the subject. Trying to "reach" with your feet won't cure all of your landing problems, but it will help stop heavy-footed landings. Give it a try!

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Jump!

A new article just got posted on 8 Weeks Out about jumping. It includes an (old) article by Dr. Yuri Verkhoshansky at the bottom. If you train jumping don't miss this.

The Power of Jumping - A Case Study

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Quick Conditioning Finishers

I've been using a few quick-and-easy conditioning "finishers" with my clients. We do them right at the end of a workout, to get in a good hard finish, burn some energy, and hopefully improve their recovery times for next time.

All of these are done either for a given time (usually 60 seconds, with 60 seconds rest) or for timed reps (say, 10-15 reps, aiming to complete the reps in as short a time as possible).

Goblet Squat/Reverse Lunge/Reverse Lunge. Keep the dumbbell in the goblet position for all three. How many triplets can you do in 60 seconds, or how fast can you do 15/15/15? Once that gets easy, up the weight of the dumbbell.

Get-Ups. These can be Turkish Get-Ups, with weight, or just getting down on the floor, touching both shoulders to the mat, and standing back up without any regard for "technique." People already know how to get off the floor, so just let them do that. Do it fast 50 times, alternating sides, and then do it again for another 1-2 more rounds. If 50 is too much, go for time.

Running in Place/Burpees. For half the round, run in place as fast as you can. Then do burpees for the rest of the round (not the pushup kind). If you're into MMA, just sprawl and get back up instead of true burpees.

Mountain Climbers/Tuck Jumps. Same as before, but half/half of mountain climbers and jumps.

That's just a few simple conditioning "finishers" you can do. I'm sure you can come up with more. I just like to keep it simple, so the challenge is finishing hard, not using proper technique while tired.

Article Review: Teach Them to Land First

Jason Nunn, CSCS just had an article published over on EliteFTS, called Teach Them to Land First.

It concerns plyometrics - specifically, explosive jumping and landing drills meant to improve your ability to generate power. These don't come up often in basic gym workout templates, but athletes use them frequently to improve their performance on the field. Jumping is a very simple way to incorporate speed and power into your workouts. The article addresses a less-frequently examined part of plyometrics: how to land!

The article covers aspects of poor landings, and what to do to address the weaknesses in an athlete that cause bad landings. Little will chew up your body more than plyometrics coupled with bad landings - the repetitive stress of coming down hard on weak or tight muscles can add up to injury quickly.

It's well worth the read.

The article covers a few subjects dear to this blog:

Plank Variations - the article refers to these as bridges*. There is variation that's new to me, the Side Bridge With Glute Activation. They feel quite different from the basic side bridge. They certainly force you to activate your glutes to drive the knee into the ground.

Proper Warmups - how to use foam rolling, band drills, and activation drills (also called dynamic warmups) to address tight muscles and weak muscles alike.

Simple explanatins - This is "Strength Basics" after all. The article draws on some very technical sources but keeps it simple. You don't need to be an expert to draw valuable lessons here about how to fix a bad landing.

If you're doing, coaching, or even considering any kind of jumping, read this article first.





* there is another "bridge" exercise out there, familiar to wrestlers, known as the wrestler's bridge or back bridge. I use "plank" for the non-neck exercise, but it's common to see the terms used interchangeably.

Jump!

One simple, and often overlooked bodyweight exercise is the standing long jump.

All you really need is a place to land and a way to measure the results.

Jumping: Bring both your arms over your head. Then while bringing them down fast, come down into a quarter-squat, with your hips back and your knees bent. Your arms will come down to your sides and then behind you. This arm-and-squat action will trigger your stretch reflex. Then, jump forward, bringing your arms up and pulling your knees to your chest.

Landing: Try to avoid jumping onto a surface that is hard, slippery, too springy (like a trampoline), or unsecure (like a loose rug). You want something soft enough to help absorb the impact. Wrestling mats, sand pits at your local track (designed for this use!), and You don't want to land awkwardly, which could result in injury to your knees, ankles, or hands (when you fall!)

Simple jump, and count the maximum distance from the edge of the starting line to the heel of the rearmost foot. Don't count jumps where you fall. You can compare your distances here.

You can program these any way you like. I've done 8 sets of 3, 5 sets of 5, and 10 sets of 1, with a minute in between. Place these first in your workout - do your power exercises before strength or endurance. Doing explosive exercises when you are tired is generally counter-productive. You won't be able to jump as far or as hard, and you won't get as much benefit out of it.