Welcome to our weekend roundup, Three of the Best! Every Saturday, we’ll post up Breaking Muscle’s top three articles of the week. These pieces have caught your attention throughout the last seven days. So here they are in one place for you to consume, digest, and enjoy.
[Photo courtesy of Pixabay]
#1 – Courage Corner: Leaving the Gym for Better Training
About five years ago, I did something that I never thought I would do: I closed my training facility. After operating it for over a decade, teaching all over the world had made me so busy I couldn’t provide the proper attention to my clients. While I knew this was the right business decision, one of my greatest apprehensions was “where would I train?”
With growing commitments and less time to train, I realized that my gym would have to be at home. I worried it wouldn’t be possible to train effectively without a big facility.
#2 – The Cal Poly Armor Building Program
Root. Foundation. Base. These terms are interchangeable when talking about becoming a complete athlete. The most prolific athletes of our time have two intangible qualities that are the underpinning to their success: root and body awareness. Explosiveness, speed, agility, balance, strength, and power are a product of root and body awareness.
The Cal Poly Armor program came out of necessity. I was out with my football team teaching change of direction work and noticed a disconnect with their footing and turns. I spent weeks coaching specific things, saying the same cues a hundred different ways and couldn’t get them to display what I was asking. And then it dawned on me: we didn’t have a solid root. We had to go back to the most fundamental basics so all of the fancy stuff could flourish.
#3 – Turbo Charged Kettlebells: The Double Swing
The double kettlebell swing is the foundation of the entire Turbo Charged Kettlebells series. Once the foundations are in place, it’s time to generate new enthusiasm around your strength training by focusing on new skills for incredible progress.
Throughout this series, you will return to the double swing over and over again. Keep in mind that this exercise must always be respected, even if you have lighter kettlebells in hand. Stay focused on what you are doing at all times. If you let your mind wander while performing double swings, your technique will become sloppy. Injuries are more often a result of consistent neglect over time than of a few reps done poorly.
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