[youtube]http://youtu.be/BexqmLEMeRw[/youtube]
John walks Luke through what the Power Athlete team expects out of their athletes when they perform Weighted Barbell Step Ups with their training system.
The objective is to reinforce posture and position that is favorable to sprinting.
This movement is programmed in today’s CrossFit Football’s Collegiate and Professional Strength WOD:
Collegiate
Weighted Step Ups 8, 8, 8, 8 (8 RT/ 8 LT)
Close Grip Bench 3 RM , 1 x max reps @ 80% of 3 RMProfessional
Weighted Step Ups 8, 8, 8, 8 (8 RT/ 8 LT)
Close Grip Bench 3 RM , 1 x max reps @ 80% of 3 RM
Tagged: Barbell Step up / CrossFit Football / John Welbourn / Movement Demo
AUTHOR
John
John Welbourn is CEO of Power Athlete and host of Power Athlete Radio. He is a 9 year starter and veteran of the NFL. John was drafted with the 97th pick in 1999 NFL Draft and went on to be a starter for the Philadelphia Eagles from 1999-2003, appearing in 3 NFC Championship games, and for starter for the Kansas City Chiefs from 2004-2007. In 2008, he played with the New England Patriots until an injury ended his season early with him retiring in 2009. Over the course of his career, John has started over 100 games and has 10 play-off appearances. He was a four year lettermen while playing football at the University of California at Berkeley. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in Rhetoric in 1998. John has worked with the MLB, NFL, NHL, Olympic athletes and Military. He travels the world lecturing on performance and nutrition and records his podcast, Power Athlete Radio, every week with over 800 episodes spanning 13 years. You can catch up with John as his personal blog, Talk To Me Johnnie, on social media @johnwelbourn or at Power Athlete Radio.
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A couple things to note that you may not see from the video:
– Feet about shoulder width apart, maybe a little narrower for balance
– Feet forward on step up, and “landing”
– Traveling foot should remain dorsiflexed from the point it leaves the ground, to the top of the high knee, and back down to the ground. Don’t give up on dorsiflexion and “reach” the foot to the ground.
– On the eccentric / lowering portion of the lift, the objective is to lower as slow and as controlled as possible.
Good luck!!
Luke, you have a brother named Chael Sonnen?
Game changer. These were way harder today than the 7RM shitty ones I did last week.
Just for my own understanding (and since I’ll probably have to explain it to some curious person) what’s the purpose of bringing the non-weighted leg to parallel at the top of the box. I know the goal is to benefit sprinting but just don’t understand the movement enough to see where that plays in.
Dred,
If you tilt your head so it looks like i’m leaning forward (or if there’s technology to take the picture and tilt it) that’s the posture we should have as we accelerate. See drawing found on google images below:
@Ingo mentioned it on the CFFB Comments, but to take it a bit further people have a bad habit of over extending when they sprint, or do anything. I couldn’t find a pic of that happening with sprinting within 5 searches, so i quit. What did find is this babe. Imagine that this babe is running and compare the pelvic tilt. Left = hot but bad… Right = still hot but good.
There’s all sorts of ways to develop the ability to mobilize the hip in a neutral position (pillars, GHD hip extension, etc) but what’s interesting is that there are A LOT of athletes that can mobilize in a vacuum, but have a hard time coordinating combos:
HIP MOBILIZATION + SQUAT
or
HIP MOBILIZATION + LUNGE
or
HIP MOBILIZATION + STEP
If you load the spine at the CT Junction aka base of the traps with a barbell, and can train the coordination of mobilizing the hip with these primal movements then you will develop the skill to do so while “moving” and will be more powerful in your sprint and jump because we will have better transference of power with a rigid single joint from the hip up.
@ Luke: got it, makes total sense. Thanks for the response. Turned the picture below and, funny enough, #6 looks like the step up…
Just had an epiphany reading your response to Ingo about my sprinting, lunging, lifting, etc. and back issues. Just when I think I understand things my mind gets blow. Love this stuff.
I always cue the athlete to keep a near vertical shin when pushing up and lowering, forcing excellent posterior chain firing, decreasing the load on the ACL and patellar tendon and posibility of valgus movents.
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