BASE - 2 Day Home Workout
Phase ONE - Day 1
Rest - minimal. This is a circuit so go from one exercise to another. Do each exercise twice - should take no more than 30 minutes.
Tempo - slow and in control.
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Focus on controlling the descent and ascent. As you go down, you should feel the glutes stretching out and slight lactic build up in your quads.
Don’t rest at the bottom as it will break the tension in your muscles. You want to maintain this tension throughout the rep.
Pressure should be spread evenly across the base of your feet so consider doing this barefoot.
I also find that squating with my arms in front of me and parallel to the floor helps maintain the correct posture.
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10 reps on each leg.
Place hands on hips and then think about dropping your hips onto the floor rather than driving your knee forward. I find this stretches the glutes more.
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If you can do 20 all in one go then do 25-30. The last few reps should be face grimace tough.
Make sure your hand placement isn’t too wide and you don’t just drop your chest to the floor like a lead weight. Control that descent - I find that I get more tension in the chest if I pretend I’m actually trying to push chest away from the floor as I go down. Weird but it works. You should be able to feel a nice stretch across the width of your chest which should be maintained once you reach the bottom of the movement. Use this tension and squeeze those chest muscle together in order to drive your torso back up into the starting position.
At the top try and really flex the chest - like you were trying to holding onto a pencil between each pec.
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If you can’t do 8-10 in a row do assisted chin-ups with the bands. Use of the thicker ones, loop it around the bar and then pull it through itself so it’s anchored. Rest your knees at the bottom for the assisted chin-up.
Remember to grip the bar tight as not only strengthens grip but helps reduce any strength leakage as you pull yourself up.
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Item description
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These were such a game changer for my posture and I’m grateful for having found this on the AthleanX YouTube channel during lockdown. It’s such a simple exercise with extraordinary benefits. Helps prevent rounding of the shoulders that is so prevalent among workers sitting and typing all day.
I like to hold the superman pose for a good 2 seconds before moving the arms behind.
Phase ONE - Day 2
No legs today. Why? Because its inclusion makes me want to skip the workout. So Day 2 is more palatable for that very reason.
Supersets today though so straight from one to the other. Catch your breath before moving onto the next circuit.
Repeat so that you’ve gone through the whole sequence twice.
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If you can do 20 all in one go then do 25-30. The last few reps should be face grimace tough.
Make sure your hand placement isn’t too wide and you don’t just drop your chest to the floor like a lead weight. Control that descent - I find that I get more tension in the chest if I pretend I’m actually trying to push chest away from the floor as I go down. Weird but it works. You should be able to feel a nice stretch across the width of your chest which should be maintained once you reach the bottom of the movement. Use this tension and squeeze those chest muscle together in order to drive your torso back up into the starting position.
At the top try and really flex the chest - like you were trying to holding onto a pencil between each pec.
-
If you can’t do 8-10 in a row do assisted chin-ups with the bands. Use of the thicker ones, loop it around the bar and then pull it through itself so it’s anchored. Rest your knees at the bottom for the assisted chin-up.
Remember to grip the bar tight as not only strengthens grip but helps reduce any strength leakage as you pull yourself up.
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Find a position when your can complete this with the full range of motion. The top of a staircase helps so your head can travel past your hands.
Alternatively, you can purchase paralettes quite cheaply online to help with this movement.
Use the lighter resistance bands for the lateral raises. Find the right resistance by standing at different lengths until you can feel a slight contraction when you engage the delts. -
Lay down on your back, keep your knees locked and use your core to lift your legs towards the ceiling. When the base of your feet are facing the ceiling imagine pushing through the roof to contract the upper part of your abdominals.
Phase TWO - Day 1
You’re only working out once a week so give this your all. It is meant to be uncomfortable so work through to toughen body and mind.
Don’t forget to squeeze in a cheeky AMRAP push up chin up, plank, or wall sit whenever you have some downtime or even on a webinar.
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These need to be weighted so grab a kettlebell, or fill a backpack with some heavy books. Improvise.
Each rep you will descend all the way down, squat half way up til your thighs are about parallel, pause, back down again and then all the way up. That’s one rep. Repeat for 8. This increases the time under tension and forces you to work hard.
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Search for Squat University’s tutorial on how to set up properly for this (and also follow his content as they educate common pain points for various exercises which are easy to digest).
8 reps for each leg. Hold a light weight (in the opposing hand to your leading foot) to make this more challenging.
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Wrap a resistance band (one of the lighter ones) in both hands and then stretch the band across your back to provide resistance as you complete your push up. Doing As Many Reps As Possible the remove the band. Complete another AMRAP set with just your bodyweight.
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Wear a backpack filled with an appropriate weight so you can barely complete 8 reps.
As you pull-up you should immediately feel the weighted resistance. Focus on your grip - like you were squeezing blood out of a stone.
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Find a position when your can complete this with the full range of motion. The top of a staircase helps so your head can travel past your hands. Alternatively, you can purchase paralettes quite cheaply online to help with this movement.
Similar to the 1.5 reps completed earlier, each complete rep consists of a full descent, a partial ascent back to the complete descent, and then all the way up.
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These were such a game changer for my posture and I’m grateful for having found this on the AthleanX YouTube channel during lockdown. It’s such a simple exercise with extraordinary benefits. Helps prevent rounding of the shoulders that is so prevalent among workers sitting and typing all day.
I like to hold the superman pose for a good 2 seconds before moving the arms behind.
Phase TWO - Day 2
Added accessory work to fill out the (mirror) muscles.
Do this twice and then you’re done.
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Weighted squats straight onto single leg hip thrust. 8 hip thrusts on each side to complete one set.
There are a number of variations of the single leg hip thrust - ones off the floor and another where the feet is elevated on a bench or sofa. I prefer the later as it engages the hip flexors more (for me). Experiment with what works for you. You are looking for engagement of the muscles around the groin.
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Adding the banded tricep kick-back builds on the foundation set in Phase One. Wrap a resistance band around an anchor point (I use the stair spindle) and then adjust the tension by walking backwards. You want to bend at your hips until torso is just above parallel before you start the movements. Hold the tension when your arm straightens for a second and then release.
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For the banded curls, anchor a resistance band at halfway point with the heels of your feet. Grab both ends respectively in your palms and curl the band up. Shorten (or lengthen) the band to find the appropriate resistance. Hold the flex at the top for a second before releasing.
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Choose the lightest resistance band and anchor with the heel of your feet (right foot when working the right delt and vice versa). Find the angle that works your delts the most (a 45 degree angle works best for me). Think about using your delts to move the band as opposed to your hands or arms - this cue assists with the mind muscle connection.
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These were such a game changer for my posture and I’m grateful for having found this on the AthleanX YouTube channel during lockdown. It’s such a simple exercise with extraordinary benefits. Helps prevent rounding of the shoulders that is so prevalent among workers sitting and typing all day.
I like to hold the superman pose for a good 2 seconds before moving the arms behind.