Exercise of the Week: Trap Bar Deadlift

One piece of equipment that was a must have for me when opening Accelerated Fitness was a trap bar. If you've been reading some of my stuff, you'll know I'm a big fan deadlifting. When people talk about functional exercise, there may be no more functional exercise than the deadlift. The weight is held in your hands. Your lower body is working. Your upper body is working. Your core is working. Just an overall great exercise.

The problem I have with traditional deadlifting for some people is that they lack the hip mobility and core stability to do the lift properly. A deadlift gone wrong is not a pretty thing. Doesnt't look good. Doesn't feel good.

This is where the trap bar comes in handy. Some will call it a half squat/half deadlift. Fine. The exercise still rocks. With the traditional deadlift the problem is the ability to maintain that neutral spine throughout the exercise because of where the weight is placed, out in front of your shins. By placing the weight to the side of the body by way of the trap bar it is much easier to maintain that neutral spine.

The other thing I like about the trap bar is the two sets of handles that allow you to pull from a lower or higher starting point. This gives you some variations without changing the lift entirely.

Exercise of the Week: Single Leg Speed Skater Squat

The Single Leg Speed Squat is basically a Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat with a change in the range of motion pattern. Basically, perform one full range of motion rep followed by a half range of motion rep. That's one total rep.

This single leg exercise will really blast the quadriceps, particularly the VMO. Or it's another way to increase the intensity of the basic Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat without adding any load.

Metabolic Circuit Conditioning Class, June 19

Had our first Metabolic Circuit Conditioning class at Accelerated Fitness today and wanted to give you an idea of what the class consisted of.

First we took it outside for some dynamic flexibility work:
Knee Hug, 1x8
Heel Pull Backs, 1x8
Overhead Walking Lunge, 1x8
Side lunge, 1x8 each way

Then we brought it inside for some hip and core stability work:
Split Squat, 30 seconds each leg
Supine Hip Extension, 30 seconds
Plank, 30 seconds

Then it was time to get the real work in, the circuits. Ten stations were set up:
1)X Band Walk
2)Band Press
3)Jumping Jacks
4)Band Row
5)Schwinn AirDyne
6)Push Ups
7)Squats
8)Plank Rotations
9)Slalom Hops
10)Reverse Lunge

30 seconds of work at each station followed by 30 seconds of rest. After each person had completed each station, a two minute rest was taken and then right back to the starting line. Three times through.

Sound like something you may want to try? Give me a call at 781-538-664 or send an email to rich@richruffing.com to find out when the next class will be.

Exercise of the Week: Extended Ab Wheel Rollout

Here's an advanced version of your traditional ab wheel roll out. By moving from a knees on the floor position to a knees off the floor position the core stability demands increase and the exercise becomes harder.

"Free"" Metabolic Circuit Class!!

To all those interested, I'll be hosting what hopes to be the first of many Metabolic Circuit Conditioning Class at my new training facility, Accelerated Fitness. The best part about this week's class, it's Free!! It will also give you an idea of what the class may be like going forward. You'll be doing lunge variations, plank variations, squat variations, waving some ropes, throwing some medicine balls, lifting some weights. A little bit of everything. All designed to get that metabolism going during class, after class and still a few hours after that.

• When: Saturday, June 19 @8:30-9:15am
• Where: Accelerated Fitness, 153 North Street, Lexington, MA 02420

If you interested, please call (781)538-6664 or send an email to rich@richruffing.com. Any one is welcome, but class size will be limited to 8-10 people.

Accelerated Fitness - Unoffically Open!!

Some of you may know. Others may not. Over the last 6-8 weeks I've been working on opening my first training facility. Well, things are finally starting to come together. I have a name, Accelerated Fitness. I have a space for Accelerated Fitness, 153 North Street in Lexington, MA. I have about 75% of the equipment in. Still waiting on a couple Schwinn Airdyne bikes, a Cybex Arc Trainer and a Free Motion Dual Stack Cable Cross. I have a new website, acceleratedfts.com, which is under construction right now and should be up and running in mid July. And I have print materials and signage that is going to spread the word being worked on right now.

In the meantime, check out some pics of the early stages:

Interested in a new training experience? Well, Accelerated fitness is unofficially open , so schedule a free trial session by calling (781)538-6664 or send an email to rich@richruffing.com. And be on the look out for more updates.

RichRuff Training Exercise of the Week: Alternating Off Set Med. Ball Push Up

I know it's been awhile between blog posts and videos. A couple playoff runs by the Bruins and Celtics put a squeeze on my productivity and sleep. A bachelor party in Vegas set me back a week or two mentally. And with a chaotic work schedule, I just didn't find the time to work on my blog. But that's going to change...I hope. Time to get back on track.

This week's video is an exercise I took from Joe Defranco's Built Like a Badass program, which I currently started up again. I'm not a badass and definitely not built like one. But I like the variety of exercises and the set/rep schemes that Defranco uses throughout the program. It keeps things fresh and has you looking forward to each successive workout. Here's an exercise taken from a max effort upper body day.