Building Blocks: The Deadlift Progression
Welcome to Volume two of the Building Blocks Progression powered by BridgeAthletic. Over the next four weeks we will cover a few more of the most important exercise progressions and topics for athletic development. Join us this week as we delve into the importance of the Deadlift.
Exercise Introduction:
The Deadlift can regarded as one of the true tests of overall strength as it is a compound movement that works more muscle groups than any other exercise. Not only is it great for overall strength gains, but it is very useful in injury prevention and rehab/return to play protocols. Posture is a crucial emphasis for developing athletes in performing the Deadlift. With proper technique, the movement strengthens the core as well as the muscles that support the spine and hips. This progression will focus on hip stability, range of motion, posture and appropriate loading to track the athlete to optimal deadlift technique and weight.
Today we are introducing the Frog Squat! The Frog Squat focuses on lower-extremity flexibilty, hip stability and posture.
Exercise 1: Frog Squat
Tips:
To perform the Frog Squat, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, toes rotated out slightly. Keep your chest up and back flat throughout the movement. With arms straight, hands placed one on top of the other pointed toward the ground, squat slowly toward the ground. Keeping your chest up, try to touch the ground with your fingertips. If you cannot reach the ground, go as far as your range of motion allows while keeping good posture. Pause. Return slowly to the start position without locking your knees out. Pause. Repeated for prescribed reps.
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Be sure to check back tomorrow for more Building Blocks!
About BridgeAthletic
BridgeAthletic works with elite professional, collegiate, and club swimming programs to provide a turnkey solution for dryland training. Led by Nick Folker, the top swimming strength and conditioning coach in the world, our team builds stroke-specific, custom-optimized dryland programs for each of our clients. The individualized workouts are delivered directly to athletes via our state of the art technology platform and mobile applications. Check Nick and BridgeAthletic out as recently featured in SwimSwam.
About Nick Folker
Nick Folker is the Co-Founder and Director of Elite Performance at BridgeAthletic. Nick’s athletes have won 22 Olympic Medals, 7 team NCAA Championships and over 170 individual and relay NCAA championships. Megan Fischer-Colbrie works as the Sports Science Editor at BridgeAthletic. Megan was a four-year varsity swimmer at Stanford, where she recently graduated with a degree in Human Biology.
The Championship Series by BridgeAthletic is designed to empower athletes with tips from the pros that will help them reach peak performance come race day. We will be covering competition-focused topics such as nutrition, recovery, stretching, and mental preparation.
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Is that Dan Veatch in the video?