YORK COUNTY, Pa. — In this week's FOX43 FitMinute, York JCC trainer, and Fitness Center and personal training manager, Danny Amon, teaches us what he calls the "gold standard" of mobility moves, one that should be implemented daily if possible!
"Typically we will start it with something that is not weighted so, we are looking at a PVC pipe today, you can use anything that is long enough to take the grip," explained Amon.
The move is called the overhead squat for mobility.
To begin lock the PVC pipe or bar over your head, then squat to a full range of motion. Feel free to use the incline blocks or incline sneakers to achieve the proper depth.
"That is getting down as low as you can go. We normally try to get you to where your hamstrings are touching the back of your calves that is a good kind of rule to think about when you do this, and you'll see as we do it, that the bar kind of goes behind and over the back as you go down because you have to counterweight it a little bit," said Amon.
Now when we are utilizing this as a stretch, try doing 10 reps ahead of or after your workout, with added pauses at the bottom of the squat.
If you are thinking of adding weight, don't just jump into something that's going to be too heavy.
"If you want to add weight to this movement over time which our Olympic weight lifters do and some athletes will do this, you need to start at a load that's low enough and add to it over time to keep that position," said Amon.
When doing the move with weight stick to the 3 to 5 rep range, or consult a trainer before attempting.
Amon says as long as participants can do this movement, doing it with a full range of motion, you've got most of your bases covered in terms of the range of motion and mobility!
You just got better!