DKXtremeFitness: Tuesday Workout - 03 - 13 - 2012

I was present during this workout and was able to guide Dan through some of the exercises so that he could perform them correctly, in order for him to obtain the best results and truly focus on the right muscles. Per the usual case, Dan's consistent ability to quickly adapt to the correct form on exercises is very refreshing and eliminates a lot of time wasted on just learning how to perform a certain movement. His motor skills are very advanced, he has very decent balance and coordination for a guy of his stature (6'6").

Here are a few tips I shared with Dan during this workout with regard to its two major exercises, the Leg Press and Hack Squats, respectively.

Leg Presses - This was the first major movement Dan performed in this workout. At first glance, he seemed to be doing this exercise correctly until I focused on the minor errors in order to resolve them. First, his stance on the platform was too high. His heels were the only portion of his feet on the platform, while the rest of his feet were above it. I immediately told him that this type of stance will specifically target the hamstring more so than either the entire upper leg or the quadriceps itself.

Once made aware of his foot placement, I had him lower his stance to about the middle of the platform with his entire foot on the rubber padding. Second, his stance was too wide with knees flaring outwards. This may put some undue stress on his joints as the motion is being performed. Therefore, I had him get into the equivalent of a shoulder width stance with his feet. I told him that a wider stance would focus on the vastus medialis and a closer stance would focus on the vastus lateralis. Ergo, a happy medium for both smaller muscles of the quadriceps would be a shoulder width placement of the feet on the platform. Lastly, I noticed he was lifting his butt off the seat and slightly curving his lower back as he came down with the platform. This creates a lot of undue pressure in the lumbar region as the entire area curves in a weird angle in order to push the weight up.

In order to avoid this pressure, I simply had him lower the platform to the point of where his upper legs were one or two inches past being perpendicular to the floor. Finally, after these adjustments, he performed the exercise correctly.

Hack Squats - The errors committed here were quite similar to the aforementioned ones for the Leg Press with regard to Dan's stance on the platform. The only major difference here was how low he should go (No Ludacris pun intended). When performing a hack squat Dan should go as far down as possible to simulate an ATG (ass-to-grass) motion that is done on barbell squats. When breaking the parallel threshhold, the body ignites the hamstrings plus the gluteus into action by supporting the extension and contraction of the lower portion of the movement; positively and negatively. Therefore, when doing a full range of motion the benefits are sundry as opposed to a parallel squat that mainly targets the quadriceps and partially targets the hamstrings and gluteus. Once realizing this, Dan was able to correctly perform the movement (see the video below for further proof).