Welcome to day 2 of the Building Blocks progression powered by BridgeAthletic.
Today we will be introducing Monster Walks-Level 1.
Now that you have worked on your flexibility and posture with the Frog Squat, we add external resistane with an ankle band or resistance band. There are a few different placements of the band, but we are going to use the ankle placement for this progression.
Exercise 2: Monster Walks
Tips:
Straight Line-
Place the band around your ankles. Start with feet shoulder-width apart. Squat down slightly. Work on keeping your hip height level throughout the walks. That is, not rocking up and down with each step.
Walk forward slowly for the prescribed reps on each leg, maintaing the original squat height throughout. Avoid ‘standing up’ as you get tired walking. Pause.
Keeping the starting hip height, walk back slowly for the prescribed reps on each leg. Pause.
Lateral-
Now, walk laterally keeping the squat height the same as when you started. If moving right, lead with your right leg, then left leg and pause. Repeat this sequence for the prescribed number of reps per leg, emphasizing the pause.
Walk slowly in the opposite direction to the start position.
As with the forward/reverse walks, as you walk laterally, avoid a see-saw movement from the hips with each step. Keep your hip-height the same throughout the lateral walk.
NOTE! If you are doing this correctly, taking your time, staying low and keeping your hips level in all 4 directions, you should feel a good muscle ‘burn’ in your glutes and quads.
More Building Blocks:
Miss any of the progression or want to review? Check out the other building blocks below.
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We’re here to help. We highly encourage you and your athletes to share videos and pictures performing the exercises. Use #BuildBetterAtheltes in order to receive feedback and guidance from one of our elite coaches on the BridgeAthletic Performance Team.
About BridgeAthletic
BridgeAthletic works with elite professional, collegiate, and club swimming programs to provide a turnkey solution for dryland training. Led by Nick Folker, the top swimming strength and conditioning coach in the world, our team builds stroke-specific, custom-optimized dryland programs for each of our clients. The individualized workouts are delivered directly to athletes via our state of the art technology platform and mobile applications. Check Nick and BridgeAthletic out as recently featured in SwimSwam.
About Nick Folker
Nick Folker is the Co-Founder and Director of Elite Performance at BridgeAthletic. Nick’s athletes have won 22 Olympic Medals, 7 team NCAA Championships and over 170 individual and relay NCAA championships. Megan Fischer-Colbrie works as the Sports Science Editor at BridgeAthletic. Megan was a four-year varsity swimmer at Stanford, where she recently graduated with a degree in Human Biology.
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As a USA Swim Coach for the past 35 years, I could definitely use some more tips in the area of strength and dryland training for the senior and national swimmers I coach.
Hope you can help
Thank you
Debbie Potts
Head Coach Mission San Jose Aquatics
510-657-6752
Cell; 510-703-2986
[email protected]