9 Comments »

1. Mark,
   We use versions of that with a dowel along the spine to ensure proper form.
   Bruce Kelly

   Comment by Bruce Kelly — September 23, 2010 @ 6:55 AM

2. Good call Bruce! I’ve used this in the past to reinforce movement at the hip when people have trouble with distinguishing this from lumbar flexion.

   Comment by markyoung — September 23, 2010 @ 7:51 AM

3. Mark,

   Frequent reader, first time commenter. Looking at this exercise, it seems almost identical to the warrior III yoga pose.

   Then I went off on a different train of thought regarding yoga and weight lifting.

   First, some background: I’ve had very good results (I’ve lost 70 lbs. so far) with an exercise routine consisting of heavy full-body lifts (deadlift, DB bench, DB Rows, etc.) M-W-F and an intermediate level ‘vinaya flow’ (sometimes called ‘power’ yoga) hatha yoga class T-TH.

   In general, yoga seems like a great way for people to get a lot of the flexibility exercises most (men in particular) tend to skip. In my case, yoga seems to work perfectly as part of an “active” recovery day. Plus, I also feel like I get a just-tough-enough workout with a lot of good body weight exercises.

   But, I seem to almost never see people recommend both yoga and weight lifting and I wonder why.

   Mike

   Comment by Mike — September 23, 2010 @ 2:00 PM

4. Hey Mike,

   Thanks for coming out of the woodwork! I really appreciate the comment. I think that there are a few reasons why very few strength coaches and trainers recommend yoga:

   1. They don’t know much about it. I have to admit that I’m fairly guilty of this myself.
   2. For those who are inclined to learn, the idea of going to a class full of people already versed in yoga is intimidating. We tend to stick in our comfort zone.
   3. Sometimes the spiritual elements of some yoga classes can get a little hokey. This affects our perception of yoga as a whole which isn’t really fair…but it happens.
   4. My biggest beef is that the stretching in yoga is indiscriminant whereas I would prefer that people stretch only what needs length. Being hypermobile is not much better than having limited motion.

   All that said, my good friend Jeff Cubos has went to great lengths to put together a really comprehensive article on yoga that is geared specifically for different issues that may play a role in strength training. There is an excellent chart with video links worth checking out here: http://www.jeffcubos.com/2010/08/15/fms-yoga-solutions/

   Thanks for again for the comment. I have a friend who is a yoga instructor and he’s always on me to give it a shot. Maybe I’ll have to get him to show me the ropes.

   Comment by markyoung — September 23, 2010 @ 5:48 PM

5. Mark,

   Just curious, why the single-leg good morning before the RDL? Is this because having the bar in the hands with the RDL (besides allowing for increased loading which may be less desirable early on) presents a greater risk of becoming “sloppy” with T-spine position if not vigilant / the Good Morning forces a more reflexive T-spine extension in order to not cave over (while also allowing for increased loading over the “Y” Hip Airplne with dumbells)? Or I am I way off the mark here (pun intended)?

   An with respect to the single-leg RDL off of a box, are you referring to lifting the bar or DB’s off of a box (a la “starting strength” lifts from pins), as opposed to standing on a box? If it is indeed the former, do you prefer this earlier on to reduce some of the balance component involved in performing a continuous set without the box? Sorry for all of the questions, I just like to see if I am in tune with an educated coach’s line of reasoning or if I am even more naive in these regards than I already had myself pegged as being

   And at the risk of irking you, I have one more question. Eric mentioned performing reps with the more proficient leg first, and this runs contrary to how I had typically been doing things (i.w. weaker leg first, then replicate rep number on stronger leg). In this instance, would it indeed be beneficial to start with the stronger leg, at least on the first set, and then after determining the reps on each leg during that first set, either flipping the order back to “weaker” leg first (and replicating the reps performed on that leg when subsequently working the stronger leg) or simply cutting the follow-up sets on the stronger leg at the number of reps performed on the weaker leg during the first set?

   Comment by Darren Turcotte — September 24, 2010 @ 3:11 AM

6. Hey Darren,

   - I do the good mornings first because it forces the reflexive t-spine extension.

   - Usually do the single leg RDLs by lifting the weights off of the box (as in this article I wrote: http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/glute_training_for_dudes). I took this idea a long time ago from Gray Cook. I find that it allows greater balance, the ability to reset the spine (to make sure it is in neutral), and greater weight. I feel that it also forces a person to displace the hips backwards more and puts more emphasis on the glutes. And, of course, you build starting strength from this position instead of the elastic recoil when there is no box.

   - To be honest, I don’t think it matters which leg you do first if you’re using the movement for a warmup, but I think this has more to do with opinion and preference than science. When training, I always have clients do the weak leg first.

   I hope that helped. It seems you already had most of that understanding anyway.

   Comment by markyoung — September 24, 2010 @ 6:29 AM

7. Fancy Looking gym their

   This is a great exercise even from a rehab perspective! Great Job and Post!!

   Comment by Adam Bogar — September 24, 2010 @ 7:50 AM

8. [...] 95. Airplanes with Mark Young [...]

   Pingback by Good Reads for the Week « Bret's Blog — September 24, 2010 @ 6:29 PM

9. “Stop focusing on the scale and buy a damn mirror”

   Brilliant

   Comment by Jeff Cubos — November 4, 2010 @ 9:26 PM

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