Maintaining a Stack in All the Ranges 

The goal of this workout is to focus on maintaining good position of the pelvis over the ribcage. If there is one thing I know that improves range of motion at every joint in the body it is the ability to stack a thorax over a pelvis and allowing the diaphragm to work as a primary muscle of respiration vs. a postural muscle. This workout has lots of posterior, lateral, and upper chest expansion of the thorax.  We will be using positions that facilitate hamstrings and abs to keep keep us more "neutral" when we lift. 

We start the workout with a self myo-fascial technique to decrease tension in the lateral rib cage allowing for easier management of intra-abdominal pressure and better respiration in various ranges. This is gentler workout that will give you a basis for some of the other movements in other classes.

Optimizing Orientation in Strength Exercises 

This workout is more advanced than the first workout but also emphasizes the stacked position. We start with some breathing drills and exercises to open up space in the thorax and pelvis and improve range of motion and mobility of the shoulders and hips.

We jump into some extensive plyometrics to get the heart rate and nervous system ready to go and follow that up with 2 strength circuits that incorporates more frontal plane plyometrics within the circuit as well as a squat, row, hinge, and push. We finish the workout with one of my favorite drills to reset the pelvis back to the left, which is something most people need. You can do this drill on both sides but may spend more time on the left.

Roll and Glide: Hip and Shoulder Love 

This workout emphasizes the roll and glide of the shoulder joint and the hip joint. Both of these joints are synovial joints which I like to think of as fluid loving joints! The better the fluids move around in the socket / capsule the better the head of the humerus and femur can roll around and this makes for better communication between the brain and body as mechanoreceptors are stimulated. 

When there is better communications within these joints then I believe 2 important things can happen:

1. We can tap into greater (and safer) ranges of motion.

2. We can better stimulate the muscles and connective tissue so we can produce more strength and power.

This workout uses two primary circuits, one upper and one lower that do the following:

1. Use a closed chain position combined with aD and aBduction and Internal and External rotation to produce a posterior, anterior, inferior, and superior glide of the head of the femur and humerus.

2. Follow that up with a slow eccentric that goes into deeper ranges to generate tension.

3. Finish with a dynamic power activity that creates max stimulation of both the muscular and connective tissue.

Bilateral Rib Flare and Core 

This workout is designed to help reduce lower front rib flare. We focus on creating posterior and lateral expansion of the rib cage using a ball or towel to block the lower ribs and follow that with a wall roll down exercise to emphasize spinal flexion and deep core contraction.

We use a lot of unilateral and cross connect strength variations that emphasize the transverse plane. You can expect a lot of connection to the deep abdominals and obliques! We follow that up with some dynamic exercises that also emphasize single leg and transverse plane mechanics. These are a ton of fun and will leave you feeling athletic and excited to move dynamically.

Frontal Plane Glutes: Pushing Forward and to the Other Side 

If you have been told you are quad dominant or you wish your glutes could do a bit more work, then you are going to love this workout. Often times our right glute struggles to push us to the left due to our inherent asymmetry but this can be a problem on both sides. You will hear me discuss these differences side to side and give you options throughout.

We start with a TFL stretch to reduce some tension in the hip flexors and quads. We follow that up with a side plank exercise that is one of my favorite exercises to teach this push off. I also emphasize the serrates which is the upper body version of the glutes that helps push our thorax side to side. Expect a serious “functional” glute burn that gives the body just what it needs.

Overcoming vs. Yielding Strategies for Connective Tissue 

In this workout we are going to explore the world of connective tissue health. In my Empowered Performance Course we discuss range of motion limitation, asymmetries and al things regarding posture and position but we also discuss all the ways we can impact our connective tissue so we can build healthy dynamic bodies.

From a positional sense, being able to have more movement options at our joints can limit compensations AND having more resilient tissues, regardless of position, can limit compensations. And the very cool part is that we can even combine these concepts together!

For this workout we start with Isometrics that work on position and I will give the option of more overcoming or stiffening or more yielding or compliance in terms of the connective tissues. We focus on overall orientation (think rib cage over pelvis) and options for managing asymmetries.

After isometrics we go into a combination of strength and dynamic exercises (think more fast and ballistic) that accentuate more overcoming and yielding and then finally we will finish up with some plyometrics that also hit both sides of the coin in terms of tissue health. This is a more advanced workout in terms of exercises and concepts and I hope it will give you a sneak peak into all the possibilities that are available to add to your movement lens.

Structuring a Workout through the Empowered Performance Lens: Optimizing Flow 

This workout is all about FLOW! One of my favorite things about the programming that is included in my Empowered Performance course is not necessarily the exact exercises but the flow of the workouts, especially on the main strength days. Having a good flow in a workout allows us to prep the body and maintain enough strength and energy to optimize our movement throughout the entire session.

The warm up starts with a little lower intensity and ramps up slowly. It connects all the major dots; hamstrings, abs, rotation, connective tissue health. We then jump into higher intensity, usually plyos and dynamic variations that allow the body to feel really ready to go into the main lifts. The accessory work supports the main lifts and slowly brings things down in intensity by focusing on position so we are starting the reset before the actual cool down. If you are a trainer or anyone interested in understanding more about how to structure your workouts so that they make sense, this is a great class!