Brian Morgan Fitness/321 Stretch LLC

Isometric Holds for Upper Body Strength? I’ve been experimenting with this iso pushup hold with my feet elevated and it’s a killer - at least the way I’m doing it. Instead of just holding for time, I’m making it harder

I’m pushing as hard as I can with all my upper body. Like 80%. Or at least it feels like it. My pecs, biceps, triceps, shoulders, lats and my serratus muscles all are working really hard. And because I’m contracting my muscles as hard as I can they fatigue quicker

I’m starting with BFR to drive blood into the muscles and pre-fatigue them. Yesterday I did 2 sets of pec flyes, one set of shoulder presses and 2 sets of biceps curls to get a good pump. Took the bands off and waited about 4 minutes to do this pushup hold. Waited about four minutes more and did a second set of all-out and I was done

Did some upper body stretches to finish. I’ve also been playing around with bar hangs, where instead of just hanging (which is a good exercise), I’m consciously pulling hard with my lats and you fatigue quicker. I’m going for maximal muscle contraction - trying to recruit more muscle .

At my height with the size of my torso, these two exercises are pretty tough. If you’re smaller you might not feel it as much but this really gets me “cooked “. If your shoulders aren’t 100% you might want to avoid the elevated pushups but the pull-up should be fine unless you have restricted mobility in your shoulders

Viking Press With the Landmine Setup - always trying something new and finding different ways to stimulate the body. This is the Viking attachment handle with a landmine bar - meaning, you use one end of the barbell as leverage. You’ve probably seen the single handle I use for one arm presses or rotation.

This handle lets you press with both hands and use different hand positions to work different muscles. This is a thick grip attachment there is a skinny grip handle as well. This exercise makes the upper body, core and legs work together as a unit. You’re limited in how much you can press if your core and legs can provide stability

If you’re over 55 and have limited shoulder mobility this might be a good exercise. If your arms can’t go far enough overhead , you probably shouldn’t press weight straight overhead. You might cause damage or you might already have damage that limits your mobility. Anyway this and the single arm landmine press are a good option

I’ve got my Arena Cup 2000 shirt on. I did Assisted Stretching for 2 seasons with the QC Steamwheelers - an arena football team where I’m from. So yes, I’ve been doing stretching and mobility work for a long time. Before most stretching franchises were open, including working at studios in Boca Raton and Atlanta

I’ve got a lot of equipment now. I think it’s time to open up a studio and get busy helping people over 50 feel 10-15 years younger. And the Viking outfit is just to show I don’t take myself too seriously .

What Do Muscles Do? They create force and they absorb force - according to coach Cal Dietz the best athletes are able to quickly turn their muscles off, so they can contract again. Think of your muscles as springs. You want some strength, some stiffness in that spring (muscle) so it can produce force rapidly. You don’t want a slinky - remember that toy from the 70’s?!

If you want to be athletic you need to develop the ability to rapidly absorb force and then rapidly produce force. That’s what’s happening when the club is going side to side. I’m rapidly changing direction under control. When you lower the bar during a bench press or squat, you are absorbing force. When you do a barbell clean in CrossFit. When you catch the bar you are absorbing force.

When you see me using the flywheel devices I’m rapidly producing AND absorbing force. One of the coaches at a recent training conference doesn’t have his athletes doing any jump training. They work on the landing! To jump higher they work on landing in different positions as they step off boxes of different heights. This was coach Dan Fichter. They get good at absorbing force.

In one of the videos you see me doing a diagonal movement with the club - integrating the upper body with the core and hips/lower body If healthy, I believe doing fast movements like this is important to staying active and athletic past 50. Some of your training needs to involve speed, to maintain or develop power.

Strong Feet and Ankles for Athleticism - one of the presenters at the training conference this past weekend brought a Toe Pro and said that he has several in his facility for his athletes to use. Developed by Dr Tom Michaud for improving the strength of your toes

Other coaches there spoke about foot and ankle strength and some of the local coaches were doing running drills without shoes. Obviously, you would want to build a good foundation first. But your feet ARE your foundation - they send sensory input to your nervous system with each step. Your feet work with your glutes - a foot to hip connection, for increased efficiency of movement. One of the exercises I like to do is an isometric hold - pressing my feet into the ground with some force to help with your glutes contracting strongly

The Sand dune stepper is another great tool to work on foot and lower leg strength, balance and just making you more “springy “. Fascia researchers have talked about doing short, choppy movements to build your “springs”. Make you more elastic or build the strength of those springs in your connective tissues

If you want to be active and athletic in your 60’s, 70’s and beyond you need to train your lower body for strength AND elasticity. One of the things I like to do on the stepper is turn my head side to side to work on my vestibular system - my inner ear, which is important for balance. I have some issues with this. One of the coaches talked about eye movement and I need to do more work with that. Another coach talked about infinity walks this is something most of us over 50 could use to improve how well we move

I’m also going to try the SandDune Stepper with a vest from He created a unique weight vest that helps with being more springy and I saw a video of his 83 year old dad on the stepper with the vest. Never stop learning or trying to improve!

Isometrics and BFR For Tendon Strengthening? Here I’m doing an isometric biceps hold after some blood flow restriction with fairly light dumbbells. I did 2 sets of 15 reps with 8 pound dumbbells, left the BFR bands on for a couple minutes to keep the blood and metabolites in the muscles. Then two sets of 30 second holds to try and strengthen the biceps tendon and connective tissues, trying to prevent a biceps or shoulder issue

BFR training creates a state of hypoxia - low oxygen in the muscles which releases a lot of growth hormone and other anabolic chemicals which may promote growth or healing. In my case, trying to stay active as long as possible. One of the coaches at the conference this past weekend spoke of hypoxia training where he had some of his athletes do a lot of bench presses with light weight to create this low oxygen state before doing other exercises

Which I find interesting. So I didn’t just pull this out of thin air. Isometrics were spoken of quite a bit at the conference and these were coaches with a lot of experience. Personally I think the combination is awesome for those of us past 50 who want to stay active while reducing stress to our joints.

Mind = Blown! Day 1 .official Outzide the Box had some of the best coaches anywhere. And if that wasn’t enough - it was FREE! And I didn’t have to travel either.

Tony Holler is one of the best track coaches around. Cal Dietz was the strength coach for USA women’s hockey and author of Tri-phasic Training. David Weck is the inventor of the BOSU ball and other fitness/performance tools. I was curious to hear him speak. He’s a very unique individual and I’ve got to say, that was one of the most memorable presentations I’ve ever seen. I was impressed

He can come off as something of a mad genius and his way of thinking is definitely not mainstream. But wow, he sees things or experiments with things that few others do. And you’ve got to respect that. ALL the presenters are very experienced and passionate about their topic

Can’t wait for tomorrow.

Knee Health - have you tried doing backwards sled drags to strengthen the muscles around your knee, with minimal joint stress?! Pushing and pulling sleds have long been a favorite exercise of mine. In recent years, backwards sled walking has been promoted as a way to strengthen your knees without causing pain. So naturally I had to give it a try. 2 thumbs up and video in comments