Functional Hustle

𝙈𝘼𝙎𝙏𝙀𝙍𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝘿𝙀𝘼𝘿𝙇𝙄𝙁𝙏

The master of all movements, the Thanos of and a movement that triggers huge muscle and strength growth

𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝘿𝙀𝘼𝘿𝙇𝙄𝙁𝙏

Muscles used;
Hamstrings
Gluteus
Lower Back
Upper Thoracic
Core

But often this movement can cause discomfort so let’s see how we can fix that.

Let’s start from the bottom

1. 𝘽𝘼𝙍 𝙋𝙊𝙎𝙄𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉

The bar should be as close to the shins as possible without touching them, in fact I sometimes tell clients if your shins aren’t bleeding it’s not close enough. To far away and your fighting to keep compact

2. 𝙃𝙄𝙋 𝙋𝙊𝙎𝙄𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉

The picture on this post is the perfect hip position in my opinion. Not so low that it looks like a squat and is all in the quads, no too high that it’s all lower back and basically a drag from the floor. This takes time to get right so don’t rush it and always reset

3. 𝘾𝙃𝙀𝙎𝙏 𝙋𝙊𝙎𝙄𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉 & 𝙂𝘼𝙕𝙀

Your chest wants to be in line with the bar and your gaze neutral. What I mean here is don’t over extend your neck and look up, instead keep the chin down and gaze looking down/forward

4. 𝙏𝙄𝙂𝙃𝙏 𝙋𝙊𝙎𝙄𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉

You want to pull with your body as tight as possible. Take any slack out the bar, pull your shoulder back, wrap your biceps into each other and execute. If your body doesn’t feel@tight and solid, don’t execute

5. 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙀𝙓𝙀𝘾𝙐𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉

It’s here people often do it wrong. Your hips and the bar want to come up in synergy, not hips first then bar and not bar then hips. Everything should move at the same time

6. 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙏𝙊𝙋 𝙋𝙊𝙎𝙄𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉

Lock out at the top driving your hips forward and squeezing your gluteus, but don’t over extend through the lower back. You want to finish with the bar touching your hips with a strait up body

Now you know how to do it, go practice and build that key lift into your arsenal

Building strength is quite simple (but not easy)

Doing the basics works, big compound movements that follow

👊🏽𝙎𝙌𝙐𝘼𝙏
👊🏽𝙃𝙄𝙉𝙂𝙀
👊🏽𝙋𝙐𝙎𝙃
👊🏽𝙋𝙐𝙇𝙇
👊🏽𝘾𝘼𝙍𝙍𝙔

Are what’s needed. However a lot of us try to over complicate what we are doing which leads onto mistake number 1

𝙊𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙀𝙭𝙚𝙧𝙘𝙞𝙨𝙚𝙨

In order to build a functionally strong body it’s important your muscles work together to lift or resist an external load, do too many things and your body won’t be able to recruit the necessary motor neurons to get these muscle to fire properly.

Put down the split squat on a bosu ball holding a dumbbell over head whilst doing a lateral raise with the other arm

Hit the big lifts like squats, deadlifts, pull ups and presses hard

𝙈𝙊𝙍𝙀 𝙄𝙎𝙊𝙇𝘼𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉 𝙄𝙎 𝙉𝙊𝙏 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝘼𝙉𝙎𝙒𝙀𝙍

When we talk of isolation here I mean isolating body parts. So just chest on a Monday, back on Tuesday, shoulders Wednesday for example.

Instead multiple body parts per session with greater frequency will warrant bigger strength gains. If you hit just shoulders on Wednesday over 8 exercises and not again till the following Wednesday it’s just not enough frequency to build true strength

𝘼𝘿𝘿𝙉𝙂 𝙏𝙊𝙊 𝙈𝙐𝘾𝙃 𝙑𝙊𝙇𝙐𝙈𝙀

We know building strength requires BIG loads, so ultimately this means slightly lower rep ranges. If you are constantly hitting 12-15+ reps on everything you are never going to be able to push the weight you need to build maximal strength. Start to work a few lower reps at the beginning to get strong, then add more volume at the end