HOW: Keeping your hands on the wall for balance, hop on both legs. Don’t allow your knee to collapse in, most of the motion should be coming from your ankles. Think of yourself as a rubber band or a spring loaded coil. Be bouncy!

 

FEEL: You will feel the calf muscles working with this exercise.

 

COMPENSATION: Do not let your ankle “roll out”. You should feel even pressure between the inside and outside of the balls of your foot. Don’t fully lock out your knees, have a slight bend as you hop up and down.

HOW: Get set up in a standing position balancing on one leg. Begin the exercise by bouncing up and down on one foot on the balls of your foot and repeating as if you were single leg jump roping/hopping in place.

 

FEEL: You should focus on maintaining a rigid/stiff foot/ankle as well as your leg, think of this exercise like you’re bouncing on a pogo stick. You want to keep your leg and ankle stiff so that you ‘bounce’ like you’re bouncing on a stiff spring.

 

COMPENSATION: Do not let your knee excessively bend or your heel touch the ground, stay stiff and bounce on the balls of your feet.

HOW: In a standing position, shift your weight to one leg. From here push off in a forward direction landing with the opposite foot and bend the knee to help absorb the landing.  Immediately push off with the foot that lands back into the starting position. 

 

FEEL: You should feel your lower body muscles working. 

 

COMPENSATION: Bend your knee slightly as you land to help you push back. Don’t land with a straight leg.

HOW: Begin by placing a BOSU ball on the ground with the ball side down. Center one foot in the middle of the BOSU. Slightly bend your knee and hinge forward at the hips finding your balance. From here, straighten the other leg out and reach forward with it tapping the floor in front and then tapping  the floor behind you all while maintaining this single leg squat position. 

 

FEEL: You should feel the muscles in your glutes, thigh, and lower leg working. 

 

COMPENSATION: Don’t arch your back, keep it flat. Keep your knee bent in a squat position.

HOW: Place a barbell in a landmine and stand at the end of the barbell. Shift your weight to the outside leg, slightly bend the knee, hinge at the hips and reach down and grab the barbell end with the arm that the landmine is on. Pull the bar up returning to the starting position and repeat.

 

FEEL: You should feel your hamstring muscles working while balancing. You should also feel your glutes and low back working. 

 

COMPENSATION: Keep your back flat and just a slight bend in your knee at all times.

HOW: Grab the barbell with both hands at chest level. First descend into a reverse lunge. The goal of this exercise is to explosively come back to the starting position while pressing the barbell as fast as you can above you. Using primarily your front leg, drive into the ground as hard and fast as you can. When you are almost near the top, begin the push the barbell overhead with your shoulders.

 

FEEL: This is meant to be a very taxing and challenging exercise to develop power. You will feel tired!

 

COMPENSATION: Keep your core engaged the entire time. You control the barbell, the barbell does not control you!

HOW: Shift your weight to one leg with your knee slightly bent and the other leg off of the ground. Slightly bend down and push into the ground, jump up onto the box landing on the same leg. 

 

FEEL: You will feel all the muscles in your legs working.

 

COMPENSATION: Landing Position. Make sure your knees are aligned over your toes. They should not dive inwards on the landing. Your goal is to absorb as much of the landing forces as you can and land softly. That means that you want your hips and knees to bend as much as they need to, to absorb the force. If you do not let them bend much, you will land “stiff” and hard. Let your hips go back and while keeping your chest up to help absorb the forces. Your toes should touch the ground first when you land and quickly your heels will follow. You should land in a “ready position” like you would if you were playing sports, with your weight ever so slightly forward on the balls of your feet. You should not fall forward or backwards after landing. 

 

For a detailed video on landing mechanics on one leg, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RCOGM5tZRM

HOW: Get set-up in a tall kneeling position with something under your knees for comfort and with a partner or weight holding your ankles down. While keeping your core tight and trunk straight, perform the exercise by leaning forward as far as you can that you can control, then quickly lower yourself down, catch yourself with your hands, and push yourself away from the ground to return to starting position.

 

FEEL: You will feel your hamstring muscles working very hard with this exercise. You will also feel your core muscles working to keep your trunk in a good position.

 

COMPENSATION: Do not round or bend your back. You should be able to draw a straight line from your knees to your forehead.

HOW:  Get set-up in a high split squat position with one foot back and up/supported on a bench or elevated surface. Perform a split squat by letting your hip and knee bend to lower yourself down. Then perform a jump, while in the air drive the knee up as high as you can that you pushed off with, land softly, and repeat. Try to maintain at least 80-90% of your body weight on the front leg.

 

FEEL:  You will feel the leg that is in front doing most of the work, with your thigh and butt muscles working.

 

COMPENSATION:  Try to land softly and not with a stiff leg. Try to transition right into the next split squat. Do not lean side-to-side or lean back, keep your weight mostly on your front foot. Perform the split squat with good form by not letting your knee collapse in or bow out, do not let your pelvis drop.

HOW: Begin in a split stance position with the leg towards the anchor in front. Grab onto the bar which should be anchored from above. While holding onto the bar with both hands perform a chop motion diagonally downwards away from the anchor moving your arms and torso. Slowly return to starting position and repeat.

 

FEEL: You should feel the muscles on the outside of your shoulders and shoulder blades working. You should also feel your core muscles work to rotate your body away from the anchor.

 

COMPENSATION: Control the resistance on the way down, don’t let it snap back down. Make sure to perform this in a downward diagonal motion.