Read About Exercise

The single leg Romanian deadlift swap is an incredible drill for improving mobility and stability of the hip hinge position. Simply perform a single leg RDL and perform swaps while holding the eccentric isometric position. Just be prepared to deal with a serious burn in the glutes and hamstrings as well as the feet and ankles.

Read About Exercise

The barbell ab rollout variation is another great ab rollout movement that crushers the entire core as well as the lats, triceps, chest, and shoulder stabilizers. Try using an eccentric isometric and holding the stretched position for greater improvements in strength, hypertrophy, and muscle function. The ab rollout is also a very similar movement pattern to the pullover exercise as it involves nearly the same musculature and very similar activation patterns and mechanics.

Read About Exercise

The bodyweight jump squat is a great power movement that can be performed anywhere. Squat down slowly, pause, and explode upwards while keeping perfect body alignment. In reality you are performing both an eccentric isometric (pause at the bottom of a squat) followed by an explosive jump.

Read About Exercise

Here’s one of my NFL athletes Brandon Chubb demonstrating a very difficult narrow base bird dog quadruped row with a 75 lb dumbbell. Notice how he’s also using the rotational dumbbell version which requires incredible core strength as well as back and lat activation. With that said there are 5 key benefits to this.

1. The narrow base (widthwise on the bench rather than lengthwise) is significantly more challenging as it requires even greater body control & stricter mechanics to remain stable.

2. One of the beneficial features about the narrow base bird dog rotational row is that it allows for heavy loads to be used without hitting the bench. In contrast during the standard quadruped bird dog row (kneeling lengthwise on a bench) the bench gets in the way especially when rowing a thicker/heavier dumbbell or kettlebell. These remedy this common issue.

3. The rotational row is very conducive for reinforcing natural scapulohumeral rhythm and centrated glenohumeral joint mechanics (locked in shoulder joint).

4. The rotational movement is also very effective for stimulating significant lat activation & growth. That’s because the overhand/pronated position allows a greater lat stretch during the eccentric phase, while the underhand or supinated position produces a more forceful contraction in the lats at the end of the concentric rowing phase. This produces mechanical tension, muscle damage (to a moderate degree), metabolic stress, & local occlusion. As a result the stimulation to the lats & upper back is enormous

5. The rotational method combined with the unstable bird dog position absolutely blasts the core & abs as it increases rotational forces acting on the spine that the lifter must resist. See my top 12 favorite bird dog rows at https://www.advancedhumanperformance.com/quadruped-bird-dog-row-benefits-and-variations

Read About Exercise

The hollow body chest press is something I’ve been incorporating with my clients for quite a few years as it’s incredibly effective not only for crushing the core but also for targeting the various muscles of the upper body. The single arm variation takes this several notches further as the degree of anti-rotation, anti-lateral flexion, & overall core stabilization goes through the roof. Here are two of my awesome clients Cali and Cami Shadburn showing how it’s done using the reverse bottoms up kettlebell technique. There are several components I want to point out here as I often see many athletes, coaches, and trainers performing this incorrectly.

1. The head should be kept in neutral against the floor/bench rather than tilted up and flexed. That’s because had position has a direct impact on shoulder mechanics ultimately impacting upper body recruitment. Maintaining cervical flexion during most upper body movements especially presses results in poor t-spine positioning and compromised shoulder mechanics as it’s very difficult to properly pack and centrate the glenohumeral joint when the head is kept in a forward head tilt.

2. Rather than quickly blasting out rep after rep where the movement tends to get sloppy and spastic, the lifter will benefit greatly from pausing briefly in both the top & bottom as well as controlling the eccentric. This is particularly true of the single arm hollow body chest press as increased momentum tends to pull the spine, hips, and shoulders out of alignment whereas a more controlled rep cadenced ensures more precise execution.

3. The single arm hollow body chest press is often limited by your bodyweight as it can be quite difficult to use more than ¼ of your total weight without the load pulling you out of position. Again this is more of a bodyweight/load ratio than a strength issue. Unfortunately this ends up taxing the core quite extensively however this limited loading capability makes it difficult to fully tax the upper body especially when using a standard dumbbell setup. With that said I frequently like to incorporate more difficult and unstable loading techniques such as bottoms up or reverse bottoms up presses as the lifter inevitably handles lighter loads on these anyway. As a result the entire body including the chest, shoulders, triceps, grip, and core get equally crushed. Read more about the hollow body leg raise protocol in my full length article at https://www.advancedhumanperformance.com/blog/raise-your-legs-to-increase-your-bench-press

Read About Exercise

The kneeling lat pulldown with eccentric isometrics is a great way to clean up your technique not only for lat pulldowns but also for pullups as the kneeling position helps ensure a more dialed in core. Focus on using the slow and controlled eccentric isometric protocol to fine-tune your technique and find that optimal 90 degree position which will be somewhere around mid face height

Read About Exercise

This is a very tricky overhead press variation requiring incredible core activation and stabilization throughout the body

Read About Exercise

This is a great lunge variation for targeting the stabilizers around the hips and core. It can be performed contralateral (opposite arm and opposite leg loaded) as shown in the video or ipsilateral (same arm same leg loaded).