WOD
Bench Press:
7 Sets of 3 at 40% 1 Rep Max,
2 Sets Close Grip,
3 Sets Normal Grip,
2 Sets Wide Grip.
With plenty of bench accessory work!
Tuesday Night Musings – by Coach Preston.
What’s all the hype?
The Reverse Hyperextension (the “Reverse Hyper”) was created by the founder and owner of Westside Barbell, Louie Simmons. He came up with the idea in the 1970’s while trying to rehabilitate a serious back injury, and trying to avoid surgery. His injury was so substantial that he was unable to do anything in the gym. This is when he came up with the exercise and started to incorporate it routinely into his rehab. Now he incorporates it into Westside Barbell’s training on a regular basis to aid in not only rehab, but recovery and strength as well.
Rehabilitation:
The Reverse Hyper can be a great tool in back rehabilitation. It allows you to train and strengthen the lower back, hips, glutes, and hamstrings, without vertically loading the vertebra. This can be very beneficial if you have a back injury that won’t allow you to do most other strengthening exercises. The movement will aid in pumping blood, nutrients, and spinal fluid to the injured area to aid in recovery. The exercise also decompresses the spine through the eccentric phase of the movement, which can help with back pain and tightness.
Recovery:
As mentioned above, the movement helps to decompress the spine. The top lifters in the world will do the exercise frequently to decompress the spine after a heavy workout involving squats, deadlifts, and even bench press. When hitting light weight sets of the Reverse Hyper for high reps (15-30), you will get an unbelievable pump in your lower back and glutes which will also aid in recovery to those areas by flushing out lactic acid, in addition to bringing blood and nutrients to the area.
Strengthening:
The Reverse Hyper is also an incredible strengthening tool. It is a great accessory movement for the squat and deadlift as it allows you to use a lot of muscle without putting a ton of strain on your body. This means that you can do heavy Reverse Hypers and you will recover from them much faster than if you were to do a bunch of reps and sets of squats or deadlifts. Westside and other powerlifting gyms will often do heavy Reverse Hypers at 30-50% of their 1RM Squat and Deadlift.
As with any piece of equipment in the gym, there is a right and wrong way to use the Reverse Hyper. It is a good idea to start really light and get the technique down before moving on to heavier weights. Start by putting the pads or strap around one ankle. Then step up and lay your chest and abdomen on the pad while holding onto the handles (now you can put your other foot in the strap). Your hip crease should be lined up with the end of the pad so your legs are hanging at 90 degrees. From there you will want to start with a ¼ or ½ swing to build momentum, then you progress to bringing your legs to parallel (or slightly below). Never overextend and go past parallel, as this will put unnecessary pressure on your spine. Once to the top of the movement, you resist the weight while it pulls your legs back to 90 degrees. Once at 90 degrees, let off your resistance and let the weight pull your legs under. This is where the decompression and traction in the spine takes place. It is that easy!
I hope that everyone learned something about the Reverse Hyper from this post. We are lucky to be part of a CrossFit box that has one, as you will be highly unlikely to find one of these at a lot of other CrossFit boxes and certainly not at other conventional gyms. The Reverse Hyper is a great machine, but I think it can be a bit intimidating to those who are unfamiliar with it. There is no need to be intimidated, it is actually pretty simple to use. Though there are definitely some techniques you will want to follow. My advice to you is to get to know this exercise because it can offer so many benefits. Ask one of us coaches how to use it before or after class to make certain you are moving correctly. Then start to incorporate it into your box time 3-4 times per week.
Hype up and get swinging!
Attention: Everyone give a big Congrats to Coach Ben for passing his Level 2 Coaching Certificate Course! Fantastic job Ben! He is also coaching the Clean and Jerk at the 7:30 p.m. Olympic Lifting Class.
