WOW: Week of Workouts 4/3/18

WOW: Victory Lap (aka Whatever Doesn't Kill You...)

In complete contrast to last week's WOW that was focused on injury prevention, we present three workouts designed to push your limits.

As you go through these three workouts, you'll either feel like you are celebrating a well deserved victory lap from the hard work you've put in over the last 8-weeks OR the whole experience may feel like a punch in the face as you careen from one exercise to the next.

Victory Lap

Let's start off the week with a nice, even, full body burn.

Here is week 8 of the 8-week conditioning program. If you haven't started but want to give it a go, please head on back to Week 1 to get going!

Thank you to our intern Ashley for her hard work on putting together these great workouts over the past 8-weeks. 

WOW: Week of Workouts 3/27/18

WOW: Prehab and Injury Prevention

As an athlete, injuries are the ultimate enemy.  Staying healthy is what allows us to play our sport and being strong is what helps us thrive. In this week of workouts, we focus on injury prevention for three of the most prevalent and devastating injuries to all sports:  knee, shoulder, and low back. 

These workouts are great to be added into your current programs since they are just a little extra focus on the muscle groups directly affecting these main injury points. Also, for those who are more likely to hurt those areas due to injury history or sport, adding this prehab in once or twice a week can give you an edge.

Below we have divided the week up into 3 days: knee, shoulder, and low back. 

Let's start off the week with a nice, even, full body burn.

Here is week 7 of the 8-week conditioning program. If you haven't started but want to give it a go, please head on back to Week 1 to get going!

As always, please reach out if you need a form check.

WOW: Week of Workouts 3/20/18

WOW: Suspension Strap Training

Suspension straps (aka TRX - the brand) are a great way to squeeze in an excellent workout virtually anywhere. Suspension straps are great for travel or if you have a limited amount of floor space.

Below we have divided the week up into 3 days: lower body, upper body, and core. Dare I say that the core workout will be one of the hardest things you've ever done.

The videos are worth watching as we've dug up some variations for this post that we'd never seen or tried before this (the front squat is pretty awesome and great for those with lower body restrictions but who have good core strength).

Say, you'd like to do this workout but aren't ready to pay for the real deal? Then try making your own suspension trainers. Former coach Steve Reed famously made the first YouTube video that showed how to do just that. Check out this oldie but goodie of a video:

Let's start off the week with a nice, even, full body burn.

Here is week 6 of the 8-week conditioning program. If you haven't started but want to give it a go, please head on back to Week 1 to get going!

Enjoy the week and this first beautiful day of spring. If you consider an impending snow storm a good way to start spring.

How to Make Your Own Suspension Trainer

(Note: Updates to the construction process can be found on the second half of this post.) Suspension trainers are a fantastic tool to add to your quiver of training options, especially during travel. They'll never replace the barbell for quality strength training, but they can certainly supplement your routine quite well by providing a myriad options for assistance work.

I've mentioned before how I love to pack a set in my bag, be it for travel or for outdoor workouts, as they take up roughly the same amount of luggage space as a pair of socks, and open up a number of exercise possibilities. However, the primary issue that most people have with them is they cost an outrageous amount of money to purchase from the commercial suppliers.

An easy option here is to simply make your own for a fraction of the cost and have it be just as effective. You can see my homemade model below:

Back in 2009, I filmed a quick video on how to make a great suspension trainer in a matter of minutes, and it didn't take long for it to become extremely popular.

It's actually kind of funny, as I had my sister film the video in my parents' backyard during Thanksgiving. My at-the-time girlfriend (now wife), Kelsey, was GA for a weight training course out in California; she was enrolled in a post-graduate Kinesiology program at the time, and a few of the kids in her weight lifting class wanted to know how I made my own set of suspension straps, as I had got together with a couple friends earlier that Fall to figure out how to build our own. So, I haphazardly threw together a video tutorial on how to make one for her students to watch.

With large thanks to Ross Enamait (of RossTraining.com), the video quickly went viral as he found my video and posted it on his website. You can see his post HERE, where he discusses his experience using my video to make his own, and some of the tweaks he has personally made to make it even more excellent.

If I knew how often it would be looked at (currently it has over 247,000 views), I probably would have spiced up the video a bit, maybe by wearing a Speedo or something. Who knows. Either way, I'm really glad so many people have been aided by it.

Anyway, I realized I've never shared it here on SAPTstrength, so I thought it may be handy for some of you reading that want one in your equipment stash but don't want to spend the money buying it from a commercial supplier.

Here it is, in all of it's low-quality and wildlife-sounds-in-the-background glory:

A Few (Updated) Notes on Equipment and the Construction Process:

1) I now use straps with metal buckles, as they provide a much greater break strength. I personally purchased mine at REI, but Ross gave the great option of purchasing them over at Strapworks.com as they deliver them to many parts of the world and you can easily adjust the length of the strap you want to purchase.

2) I no longer use ropes for the footstraps, but I use part of the actual utility strap to make the footloops; Ross had detailed this idea here. These are much more comfortable than rope for the feet, and also don't untie nearly as easily.

3) The video for how to tie the bowline knot can be found here: How to tie a Bowline Knot

4) Currently, my video has 792 "Likes" versus 11 "Dislikes." Evidently, eleven people in the world are incompetent when it comes to tying knots.

5) Be sure you sand down the edges of the PVC pipe, and/or place duct tape (or some sort of protective coating) over the edges as they (the PVC piping) will wear down the utility straps over time. You can kind of see how I did this in the picture below:

6) Ross has since added a few updates and suggestions on his website, which I think are brilliant and extremely helpful, HERE. He provides some other options for easy-to-make handles, on top of showing the difference between a single vs. double attachment model.

7) In case you don't know who Ross is, shame on you. Here's a fairly recent training compilation of his:

Hope the above tutorial was helpful!