WOD - 4/1

Posterior Chain

Today’s WOD is going to be a “Posterior Chain” exercise day. Most folks focus on the muscles on the front of their body because they’re the ones they use the most, and more importantly, they’re the ones they can SEE.

The “Posterior Chain” is comprised of all the muscles along the back of your body. Typically these muscles are associated with “pulling” motions.

If your shoulders are rounded forward, or you hunch over, or your lower back bugs you, you should probably be doing a posterior chain workout at least once a week, and prioritizing the posterior chain work in your other workouts.

Here we go!

Warmup - Back Bridge (30 seconds) + V-ups (30 reps) - 2-3x

Bodyweight Rows - 3-5 sets of 2 shy of your max reps

Chinups (palms facing you) - 3-5 sets of 2 shy of your max reps

1-leg Romanian Deadlift - 3 sets of 2 shy of your max reps

Pull throughs - here you take a band, or cable handle (if you have access to a gym), or even a towel or rope (for isometric pulls), set at floor-level. You have your feet set back a bit from where your upper body will be, and you pull the band through your legs. It’s a bit like a weighted hyperextension, which will suit as a replacement exercise as well. - 3 sets of 2 shy of your max reps. If you’re doing isometrics, hold for as long as you can sustain a full contraction

Band Expansion/Reverse Flye - you need a band for isotonic movement, or towel for isometrics… - hold the implement in front of you, arms straight, and open your arms out to the sides till it touches your chest. Same reps/sets as above.

External Rotations - this is a good rotator cuff exercise, and most people need to do it at least once a week, if not two or three times. You need a band/cable or dumbbells. Basically, you’re bending your arm 90 degrees at the elbow, and rotating the upper arm (humerus) externally (away from your body) against the resistance. If you have a band, it’s best, because you can do this exercise with your humerus perpendicular to the ground (your arm at your side), and then parallel to the ground (out from your side) rotating your radius/ulna up and back from parallel…here’s a good photo of the perpendicular one -

for parallel, just raise your arm out to the side.

3 sets of 12 will do. 2 sets of 12 each if you’re doing both movements.

Stretch your posterior chain!

That includes your rotator cuff! Here’s how to do that: http://www.defrancostraining.com/ask_joe/archives/ask_joe_08-12-05.htm

Have fun!

This entry was posted on December 9, 2007 at 1:03 pm and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.