Day 5: Front Bridge Up Downs

The final exercise in the progression brings all of the previous exercises togetther - unilateral extremity movement, full-body stability and vertical movement.

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The Front Bridge - Arm Raises adds upper extremity movement to the isometric full-body hold. 

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The Front Bridge Rocker is a great exercise for shoulder joint stability and mobility.  The key to the progression to the Front Bridge Rocker from the regular Front Bridge is the horizontal movement or rocking. Remember the movement is not an up/down movement. To ensure this, the midsection and muscles around the hip capsule are crucial for keeping your hips inline and not allowing the up/down movement.

 

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All athletes should have an understanding of what the Front Bridge is. The main difference in the way we prescribe this is that we you place your hands flat on the ground, with a straight line from middle finger to elbow and shoulder.

 

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The Front Bridge or Plank is a staple exercise in every athlete's programming. Some form of the Front Bridge should appear consistently throughout an athlete's seasonal/hyearly periodization. Developing athletes should emphasize smaller increments of time per set with the Front Bridge versus trying to see how long they can hold the exercise as their form deteriorates. Work on small increments of time per set focusing on perfect technique and gradually increase the time per set as you improve over time.

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Day 5: Depth Jump

Now that you've mastered jumping and the landing technique, we introduce a counter-movement component to the jump progression. The Depth Jump is a great exercise for maximizing the benefits of the stretch shortening cycle or plyometric reflex. Only include this exercise into your training regimen once you have developed sufficient muscoskeletal strength to handle this type of load and force production. 

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Tuck, Roll, Jump adds coordination and kinesthesia to the jump progression. Make sure to only perform this once you have mastered your landing technique.

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The Seated Box Jump is a great exercise to teach hip speed and coordination.  Like the regular Box Jump, try to use a soft box, such as a gymnastics box, instead of a metal box. Initially, set the box up at knee height. You will also need a box or bench to sit on. Make sure seat allows for a  hip-knee angle just above 90 degrees to start with. As you improve over time, you can lower the height of the box or bench. 

Exercise 3: Seated Box Jump

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Once the athlete has learnt the correct mechanics of the box jump and how to land on a soft, low box, we like to introduce Star Jumps. The Star Jump is a low-level plyometric that can be used by all levels of athletes. Athlete's must focus on full hip extension. Extension allows athletes get as high as possible in the air, which facilitates a soft, controlled landing. Unline the box jump, where athletes were focusing on single reps the start up forces athletes to progress to continuous repetitions. Instead, the Star Jump emphasises height per jump and power endurance as a result of the sets being continuous reps. 

Exercise 2: Star Jump

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