Mellows Fitness

There’s a lot more to ‘hip hinging’ than simply picking a heavy plate loaded barbell off the floor. It’s also about freeing up the hips. It’s about improving one’s awareness when picking up something awkward or heavy off the floor on a normal day. All of this being so important for maintaining lower back health whilst reducing the risk of injury.

The band resistance really reinforces good hip hinge form & can be really effective if you’re new to strength training. There’s also an increase in glute engagement due to the fact they have to work harder to extend the hips as you fully stand (lock out) We can of course load up this exercise with dumbbells or kettlebells if/when necessary.

Ab Wheel 🛞 Rollouts are a popular anterior core focused exercise. Important however to ensure that you build yourself up to being able to fully extend your torso. it’s a more advanced (anti-extension) which strengthens your abs and improves your ability to resist force.

The ideal time just to increase that intensity in your training if you’re hoping to sustain your fitness levels over the holidays. Doesn’t have to be all out crazy intense, just adding some metabolic finishers to your workouts or getting a quick 30 mins sesh in the bag. My workout today consisted of a 5k run followed by 3/4 rounds of 30 seconds battle ropes paired with push ups. Rest & repeat. You could easily switch the ropes for Ski Erg, Rower, Treadmill sprints (timed) etc…. Or switch push ups for a lower body exercise like air squats or reverse lunges for example.

My client Gareth performing two exercises back to back to really fire up the shoulders.

The first exercise named Machine Shoulder Side Raises really emphasises the Medial Deltoid (Lateral portion of the Shoulder) & the second which is the classic Seated Machine Shoulder Press is a more Anterior Shoulder focused exercise. Performing these back to back is gem when it comes to training the shoulders whilst being easier on the joints. I rarely program barbell overhead presses anymore as actually there’s less mechanical tension on the target muscles. Whereas this type of training not only truly isolates the 🎯 muscles, it’s a lot less taxing. Enjoy 👍

Cable One-Arm Face Away Bicep Curl. An excellent curl setup that I learned whilst reading Nick Tumminello’s ‘Strength Zone Training.’ I’ve also found this to be an ideal biceps exercise for anyone who experiences elbow or forearm discomfort when performing dumbbell bicep exercises for example.

Simple football focused drill that works on agility, close ball control & speed. All you need is 6 cones & 2 ⚽️ ⚽️ This can be turned into a more stamina based drill by simply lengthening the distance between each cone. For a more speed based exercise, try performing this without a ball, time yourself & see if you can outscore your previous time. Let us know how you get on 😃

Upper Body Superset of Dumbbell Single Arm Rows & Dips. Note that for the rows I’m hitting the Lats a little more here by shifting the weight slightly away from me in the start position & pulling it towards my hip. Subtle tweak if you want to simply recruit your working side lat a little more. As for the dips, I’m just positioning my torso a little forwards as this will in turn increase the workload on the pecs. My clients appreciate these types of exercise pairings as they feel great & tick ✅ a lot of boxes. They’re super efficient in the time we work together. Enjoy 👊

Little video I did with The Muswell Hill Club 😃