• Exercise

    Bodyweight Exercise One Legged Band Sissy Squat

    I like to do some type of bodyweight exercise for warming up. It’s also great for working the smaller stabilizing muscles that I think shouldn’t be trained under heavy load. Unilateral bodyweight exercise is particularly good for the stabilizers and core. In this example, the one legged band sissy squat, it takes a lot of effort to stay level. It’s definitely not for beginners. You should get in a few hundred reps on the two leg version of this bodyweight exercise before trying the single leg version. Try it with your feet and knees together to work your way into it. This simulates the balance of doing it with one…

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  • Exercise

    One-Leg Partial Squat to Bench

    I do like to work my legs. They’re one of my favorite bodyparts to train, respond well, and recover quickly. Perhaps that’s because I do a lot of “pre-hab” work. This is a variation of a one-leg squat that’s fairly simple for most people to do. I’m using an adjustable box squat bench, but just about anything you have, like a chair, box, bench, toybox, entertainment center or whatever, can be made to work. Stand beside the box with your weighted food parallel to the side of the box or bench, lift your unweighted leg to bend the knee, and very slowly and carefully lower your knee to the bench,…

  • Exercise

    Band Sissy Squats

    In my previous Blast Strap Sissy Squat article I showed a variation of the Sissy Squat supported by straps hung from a power rack. Today I’ll show a variation using a large rubber band. You can get these online from a variety of places, my personal favorite being EliteFTS. In this variation you’re much less stable, and don’t break (fold) at the hips. This puts more of the force directly on the quads, but for some people the stress on the knee might not be acceptable, so be cautious – go slow till you know. I had previously experimented with a few sizes of bands, to roughly negate my weight…

  • Exercise

    Blast Strap Sissy Squats

    Looking for a reasonably safe bodyweight style exercise for your quads and legs? The Blast Strap Sissy Squat is a great option for you to explore. I have done Sissy Squats using a number of different hand-holds, from doorways to bars to railings, but none of them gave me the full range of motion and focused the movement on the quads like the Blast Straps have (and as of this writing they’re on an awesome sale). I hooked my straps to the top of my power rack, and there’s enough other weight on the rack that it doesn’t slide or tip when I use them. For those of you who…

  • Exercise

    Sissy Squat Mobility Rehab GPP Conditioning Exercise

    The Sissy Squat is one of my favorite warming up exercises for any other type of squat. It warms up the joints and muscles with very little risk under a very light load. It is excellent for rehab or mobility work, since you can work through a greater range of motion than when your back is experiencing compression loads (bar on your shoulders). It’s also excellent to include in General Physical Preparedness. GPP should be a large part of your early training efforts, and might be a good inclusion in a year-long training cycle just to make sure you’re not missing anything while you’re training for other more specific goals.…

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