April Workouts: Light Up Your Movement & Performance

April Workouts: Light Up Your Movement & Performance
Presented by Spartan Training®
For the month of April, we have a gear list for you: strength bands, foam roller, slam ball, dead ball, kettle bell, battle rope and a Versa loop. You may have some or all of this at home, or in your gym. Anything you need, check out the Spartan store.

There is often a tendency in the gym to be sucked into prioritizing the chase for personal records (like a 400-pound deadlift or beating your Fran time) and allowing a focus on form to drift away. This can create a range of problems. First and foremost,  the risk of injury rockets upward when you let everything rip while trying to break a record. But when you lose your focus on movement quality (and strategically improving and balancing all of your motor patterns and ability to coordinate and fire muscles to your potential), you’re probably leaving a great deal of performance on the table. Ironically, the athlete too caught up in chasing personal records in the gym is more likely to achieve greater heights if movement quality is consistently the number one priority. It’s this line of thinking that underscores the Spartan workouts for this week: Under the guidance of Spartan SGX super coach, Yancy Culp, we’ll work on a wide-range of motor patterns using a basic set of strength and mobility tools. Perform the workouts diligently and with the determination to execute the movements with as much skill as you can muster, and the personal records—both in the gym and on the race course—will inevitably follow.

Week 1

Day 1: How to Squat with Strength Bands (and More)

Run 3 min

Bodyweight squat x 10

Strength Bands  squat x 10

Bodyweight step-ups x 10 (5 each side)

Sandbag step-up x 10 (5 each side)

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Run 3min

Side lunge x 10 (5 each side)

Side lunge w/ band resistance x 10 (5 each side)

Slam balls x10

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Run 3 min

Dead ball shoulder over x 6

Forward bear crawl x 5 meters to backward bear crawl x 5 meters – continue for a total of 30m

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Run 3 min

Day 2: Kettlebell Halos

Run 3 min

Battle Rope row x 10

Versa Loop push-up w/around the world touches x 5

Seated slam ball press x 10

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Run x 3min

KB halos x 10 (5 each direction)

Strength Bands lat pulldown  x 10 (5 each side)

Strength Bands seated row x 10 (5 each side)

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Run x 3min

Bent over row x 10

Burpee box jumps x 10

Strength bands assisted pull-up x 5 followed by hand position change

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Run x 3min

Day 3: Burpees +

Burpee x 10

Strength bands burpees x 9

Single leg burpee x 8 didn’t film

Burpee to slam x 7

Single leg burpee to slam x 6 didn’t film

Sandbag Burpee x 5

Repeat declining sets from 10 to 1

10 min

Day 4: Shakeout Run

Recovery Run

Talking points

Run x 20min

Total running = 20min

Day 5: Deadball Day

4 rounds:

Strength bands backward lunge x 20 (10 each leg)

Sandbag squat x 20

Lateral squat jump x 20 (10 each side)

15m Dead Ball carry (shoulder or front carry) followed by burpees x 5

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Dead Ball slam x 20 (didn’t film)

Sandbag walking lunges x 20 (10 each side)

Bodyweight step-ups x 20 (10 each side)

Forward bear crawl x 5 meters to backward bear crawl x 5 meters

Day 6: Blast Yourself Now/Kick Back Tomorrow

3 circuits, 2 rounds each

Cycle through all your exercises before beginning at the top again

Recovery day tomorrow, take advantage

Run x 4 min at comfortable aerobic effort

Banded Lat pull down x 10 (5 each side)

Banded Static Lunge Press x 10 (5 each side)

Scapular Rows x 10 (5 each side)

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Run x 4 min at comfortable aerobic effort

Strength band assisted pull-up x5

Dead Ball Pass Throughs

Eccentric Sit-Ups with Dead Ball x 10

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Run x 4min at comfortable aerobic effort

Wall/Med Ball sit-up throws x 10

Static hangs with hand position changes every x 15 sec

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Day 7:

Mobility