BS Wellbeing

10/07/2022

Do you struggle to get to depth when squatting?

It's been mentioned a number of times by me in the past but this video shows the impact of ankle mobility on deep squatting nicely...

Your ability to push your knees over your toes (5" + is ideal) is one of the main reasons you will struggle or succeed to reach depth.

Yes hip mobility is important
Yes joint length and leverages will also impact squat depth

BUT ankle tightness is often responsible for pain and restrictions in the knee, even the hip

AND having mobile ankles will help prevent calf tightness when walking or running

In addition, it's pretty simple to correct. Here, Meesh is demonstrating a drill with a kettlebell. Very simple - use the extra weight to encourage your knee forwards and heel into the floor. Do several 10 to 20s holds per side and see what a difference it makes! Make sure your heel stays down throughout 💪

06/07/2022

Shoulder stability training for overhead squats

Do you find a barbell fails to remain level when performing snatches or overhead squats? You might want to try this!

J has been working with me for a while on 'bottoms up' exercises with a kettlebell. These are brilliant for creating stability as they challenge grip strength and balance as you move.

After a fair bit of practice centred around bottoms up pressing, and some bottoms up windmills I wanted to see how he'd do with a bottoms up overhead squat...essentially shoulder stability whilst the whole body is moving. How to do it:

○ Clean the kettlebell into rack position, bottoms up, take time to get comfortable with elbow directly below wrist and kettlebell still
○ Press the bell until your bicep is up to your ear or very close
○ Squat down slowly and allow your shoulder to rotate back as you transition, your arm remaining straight and constantly pushing against the weight.

This is a great way to assess imbalances between left and right, to see why a barbell might not remain level when overhead squatting. Like J, you may require work on lat mobility and stretching of chest and triceps to balance the two sides.

04/07/2022

Partner Workout

One of you will set the pace with the following:

○ 500m Row
○ 20 Step Ups per leg

The other will race to complete the following in order to maximise rest time:

○ 8 Atlas Stones to shoulder
○ 40 Rope Slams

Once the rower/step ups combo is complete it's time to swap over. If you've paced things right the person on stone and ropes should have well over a minute's rest, potentially 2 minutes.

Give this one a go for 6 rounds

22/06/2022

A bit more info about our upcoming workshop

If you love my insightful voice overs give it a watch!

PRIDE IN STRENGTH

Learn how to use atlas stones, press logs, circus dumbbells and flip tyres 😊💣

Train at the awesome when the gym is closed to the public

Help raise funds for

Tickets via eventbrite

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/354603567817

03/06/2022

Really excited about this!

21st August

Anyone can join us! The session happens when the gym is closed, providing a safe, supportive environment for anybody to learn different strongman/woman/person events. Be yourself, be proud and have loads of fun with us!

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/354603567817

All profits go to the LGBT FOUNDATION

***Please share!***

This is a workshop for the LGBTQ+ community and allys to practice Strongman/woman/person events - stones, tyres, circus dumbbell and log

30/05/2022

Core for Flore

Give these a go if you fancy something a bit different from standard crunches. They both require more stability and the introduction of a band makes these especially delicious.

For both variations keep your head off the ground, but not by crooking your neck. Just lift your upper body by tensing your abs, keep your chin tucked. Arms should be as locked out as possible.

29/05/2022

Ankle mobility and knee warm up!

MODIFIED LEG PRESS into DEEP SPLIT LEG SQUATS

Cranky knees are often linked to tight ankles. I injured my knee last year so I always try to fit in some good work around this area, and there's many exercises that get your knees into a good flex position as well as developing ankle mobility!

I had a bit of fun in the week getting some ankle mobility training in by using a leg press machine with a modification.

🦵Set your leg press machine up for someone who is 4ft9in 🤣
🦵Have just half your foot on the plate, basically creating a very deep squat position (as deep as you can get)
🦵Push the reps with your heel as much as possible

I personally found this approach created a wonderful quad pump and really warmed my knees and ankles up for some knees over toes split squats....they felt better than ever!

23/05/2022

Bottoms Up Press

Excellent for shoulder stability, as well as testing out your balance and grip strength.

💁 Try these if you feel there's a big imbalance between your left and right when pressing - grinding reps out slowly like J here will test your stability through every tiny part of the movement. It might take a while to nail it but you'll gain massive feedback from your body and develop proprioception on both sides.

💁 Give these a go if you feel your wrists are weak. Even a light kettlebell will test you - top tip! Hold the handle end closest to you and don't let your arm move laterally during the press.

💁 Use as a warm up for overhead training. The focus required and firmness of grip really gets the shoulders, triceps and forearms prepped for more training.

30/04/2022

🍾🍾🍾LADIES WHO LIFT🍾🍾🍾

SUNDAY 12TH JUNE
COMMANDO TEMPLE GYM

💁‍♀️ LADIES ONLY WORKSHOP
🙅‍♀️ LEARN TO SQUAT, DEADLIFT, BENCH PRESS AND MORE
🙆‍♀️ NAIL TECHNIQUE AND BUILD CONFIDENCE
🏋‍♀️ SMASH IT IN YOUR OWN GYM AFTERWARDS WITH MY PROGRAMMING

www.bswellbeing.com/ladies-who-lift-signup

*ATTENDANCE DAY AT THE GYM IN DEPTFORD: YOU’LL LEARN THE 6 KEY LIFTS AND MOVEMENTS and HAVE AN AWESOME DAY TRAINING WITH OTHER WOMEN WHO ARE NEW TO FITNESS

09/04/2022

Have you slept funny and woken up with a stiff upper back and neck? Now if someone calls you from behind you're required to rotate your entire torso? 😂

Feeling tightness in your back from sitting at a desk? Or your job and/or leisure activities involve a lot of 'hunching' over?

If you have a stability ball, or alternatively a foam roller, at home then you might like to give some of these a go to get things moving and develop strength in these overused, weaker areas.

1. Thoracic roll outs - hands on the ball and roll away from you, pushing your armpits towards the floor each rep, take a couple of deep breaths and relax into this one.

2. Single arm rotations - keep one hand on the ball, armpits pushing towards the floor but twist your torso to get a greater mid-back stretch.

3. Prone Y raise - much harder than it looks! Aim to bring your arms as far back as you can by flexing between the shoulder blades. No weights required but you could use SMALL dumbbells.

4. Downward dog - a work in progress for me, this movement develops shoulder stability, hamstring and calf flexibility as well as thoracic mobility. Try and make a nice clean inverted V shape, the more you perform the previous 3 exercises, with a bit of hamstring stretching, the better these will look.

25/03/2022

https://youtu.be/QOAKG3sNalI

This is the first of my 'how to' videos from my YouTube channel. Starting off with the back squat. 🤩

- Learn how to test yourself for the common problem areas when attempting to squat effectively

- Find out simple techniques to develop your ankle and hip mobility in order to squat deeper

- Retest along the way and understand the important role of the thoracic spine during back squats

- Develop thoracic mobility and squat beautifully to the envy of everyone around you 😁🥳

HAVE A GO AND LET ME KNOW HOW YOU GET ON!

08/03/2022

For this week's gym f**kery we let the cards decide. We got a pack of cards and decided the following:

Diamonds represent Bench Press
Hearts represent Triceps Pushdowns
Clubs represent Cable Curls
Spades represent Lat Pull Downs

The cards were shuffled and we took it in turns to pick a card randomly. The suit of the cards dictated the exercise, the number on the cards dictated the reps. As a juicy twist we added a 0. Picture cards counted as 11 (or 110 reps), aces 1 (10 reps).

We were pretty good at picking picture cards and doing sets of 110 😆🤣

At the end you'll see the number of reps performed per exercise. Delicious