Hello hello again. Thank you for the patience as I do not follow the calendar for this workout program. :) Several people kept telling me - ‘wait until you do all the push-ups in Dynamic Strength’. Well, here it is. The time has come.
Here is my review of Dynamic Strength! Whoa Nelly! Jericho’s hair is super high on her head and Joel’s shirt says ‘check this’. I will Joel. I will.
This is 2 minutes of getting the heart rate up by bouncing side to side with chest openers, shoulder rolls with the arms, jumping jacks (whaaaaaat – this is new), wide feet windmills (so is this), hip rolls, and torso rotations.
You have 12 three minute rounds with three moves in each round. There is a 30 second break between rounds but these are really just used for position changing.
I am a big fan of having my clients do these – so bravo to this move! Reach your hands to the ground and keep your legs straight (slight bend in the knee), walk your hands forward, do a push-up, walk your hands back to your toes and stand up. Try doing inchworms for 30 minutes. That would be a great workout.
Lay on your back, knees bent, reach up and over diagonally. Alternate sides, push up through your feet and squeeze your glutes. ‘It’s as if you have a heavy opponent on top of you and you are trying to throw them off of you’.
To be honest with you - I am not a fan of this move because of the twerk it puts on the spine. Therefore, I modified and did a glute bridge the entire time. I felt it in my glutes so I recommend you do this instead.
R Single Leg Balance W/ Kick
This is great for the hammies if you do it correctly. Stand on your right leg, extend right arm for balance, reach your left arm to the ground, left leg goes backwards, come back up and kick your leg forward. You basically become a teeter-totter on one leg. My recommendation – keep a slight bend in the knee of the leg on the ground and use your hamstrings and glutes.
30 second break – you do not need it. Walk around aimlessly.
Start in a high plank, bring one foot under the other, hips turn, do a push-up. Alternate sides. Keep your back flat and core tight.
Wide leg squat, lift the knee up to the elbow and crunch your obliques. Alternate sides. To get the most out of it - do a good squat, squeeze your glutes as you stand, and crunch that oblique as you raise you knee.
L Single Leg Balance W/ Kick
This is the same as the last single leg balance, but the other leg is floating. Use those hamstrings.
You get a 30 second break - as usual - take a breath and reset for the next move.
One hand is under the shoulder and the other is just outside the shoulder. Do a push-up, switch the hand placement, do a push-up. Keep your elbows pointing towards the back of the room. Cuss a little, it helps. Stay off your knees - you can do this.
This is Joel’s favorite – so it must be great, right? Get your guard up (hands by the face), crunch and throw uppercut to the outside of the knee. Alternate arms every time you sit up. Sound effects may help you.
Balance Repeating Side Kick, Tap Down
This is a balance on one leg and a side kick with the other. You can aim low if you want, just do not fall over. Lots of balance work in this one – that’s great. Build some hamstring and core strength. Breathe. Or die.
Push-Up To Knee Hip Escape
Well this is quite a name. You do a push-up, bring the alternating knee to the hand and tap. Alternate sides with every push-up. OH THERE IS STREET FIGHTER SOPHIE. Watch her do the rotating in her pink sports bra.
On your stomach, spread your arms and legs, bring them all up off the ground, alternate opposite arm and leg off the ground. This is much like a superman. Squeeze your glutes to get your legs higher.
To be honest again - I do not like this move because the spine should not be moved like this. I modified it to a hands to toes swimming superman (legs and arms move out and back in and maintain the same lateral space).
If you wanted to see what not to do:
Balance Repeating Side Kick, Tap Down
This is the same as last time, but using the other leg. Find your control in the core and your breath.
I giggled a little bit during the demonstration. Of course you want to kill me with these. Stack wrists underneath shoulders, do a push-up, open the hands wider, do another push-up, open hands wider and do another push-up. Rinse, repeat – bringing arms back in.
My elbows are not back like they should be. Do what I say, not what this shows:
Hands gently behind the ears (do not put pressure on your neck silly), lunge, bring the back knee up to the alternate elbow. Keep your elbows back, chest lifted, and twist.
Get into a low plank on your elbows, twist and reach your hand to the sky, come back to plank, and reach towards the sky with the other arm.
This is great - this gave it plenty of time for the sweat to slide from my scalp into my eyeballs.
Stay on the ground! Knees on the ground, hands under your shoulders, do a tricep push-up (arms into rib cage), drop your elbows down (body goes back), bring them back up, press up. This basically looks like you are a cat sniffing the ground.
This is the same as the last lunge but on the other side. Do these slowly and with control. Engage the core and keep your chest up.
Oh good - turn yourself into a pretzel. On your back, one leg bent, do a sit up, move your hands to the outside of the straight leg, switch your feet. You stay low, it sounds like a puzzle until you do it.
Things start progressing…
Inchworm Push-Up W/ Alternate Leg Lift
This is the inchworm we did before, but you lift the leg at the bottom of the push-up. Alternate legs each time. Make weird grunting sounds at the floor - I think it may help. If you cannot raise your leg - get over it - and leave it down. It still is a great move.
Bridge Reachover W/ Heel Lift
This is the reach but you lift the heels with the hips. This gets a little calf action in the glute work! If you want to be safe (like me), forget the reach over.
R Single Leg Balance W/ Kick
We have been here before. Do it again like a pro.
Scissor Push-Up W/ Floating Leg
We did the scissor push-ups before, now keep the leg off the ground as it crosses underneath the other leg. Obviously, if you cannot do this, put your leg down. It’ll go there automatically.
Mine hit the ground rather quickly into this round. :)
‘If you want a better legs and booty – this is how it’s going to happen’. Wide leg squat with the leg lift – we have done this before.
L Single Leg Balance W/ Kick
Switch the leg from last time, do the dang thing.
Walking Split Push-Up W/ Leg Lift
Staggered hands – one in tricep push-up stance and one wide. Keep the leg of the close arm floating while you do the push-up, alternate.
Circular Sit Uppercut, Hook
These are your sit-ups with uppercuts but now you add a hook. ‘Aim for the chin, aim for the cheek’. Both punches happen on one side before you go back for another sit-up.
Balanced Repeating Side Kick
You get no TAP this time! Do your balance act with a kick but do not tap the ground – figure out your balance. Pretend you are an ice skater. Do what you have to do.
Push-Up To Hip Escape, Toe Tap
This is progressed slightly – tap the toe, not the knee. No big deal.
This time, lift all four arms and legs at the same time. ‘You’re welcome’, says Joel.
Balance Repeating Side Kick
Do this on the non-dominant stance. Do not tap your leg down between kicks. Fall over and you spend more effort getting up - so do not make that mistake. Take my word for it.
Oh joy, these are great. Get off your knees and do these push-ups.
We have done these – do them well.
Alternating Side Plank W/ Leg Lift
This time, you add an extension with the leg. Oh – how wonderful. Do the low plank on your elbows, twist, arm to the ceiling and raise the leg.
I will be honest - I did not do many of these. I tried. I ended up taking out the leg raise otherwise I would have compensated with other muscles.
Get off your knees and do the crazy push-ups. Your triceps will burn and you will officially look like a cat sniffing the ground.
We have done there. Put some effort into them. You will look cool - like you forgot how to sit down and abruptly decided to change your mind and take a nap/
This is 2 minutes and 45 seconds of stretching your lower back, hamstrings, shoulders, triceps, chest and pep talking. Do not forget – the high fives.
According to my watch, I burned around 300 calories. My heart rate did not get high because most of this workout was spent on the ground doing push-ups. This works as a chest workout. I took a picture during this workout for you:
I had my mother take the photos for this post - thanks Mom!
There are a few things in this workout that I would not recommend doing (such as the Starfish and the Bridge Reachover) because it goes against my functional training (not surprised). A piece of advice for any move - if it feels wrong do not do it. Modify in a smarter way.
I may visit this workout again if I feel like doing obnoxious push-ups for some reason in the future.
Happy chest workout to you! See you in the next post!
