Grip Gone Wild

Loss of muscle mass and strength with age is related to many factors including the overall physiological changes with aging, reduced activity levels, changing nutrition - among other factors. Excessive loss of muscle mass (sarcopenia) and strength (dynapenia) are major causes of mortality and loss of independence and quality of life in the aging population.

Hand grip strength (HGS) is an accepted measure that reflects overall muscle strength and is widely used as a central marker for the onset of sarcopenia. Poor grip strength has been shown to correlate with low bone mineral density (BMD), depression, anxiety, sleep quality, fractures, diabetes, falls, and malnutrition. Greater attention is being paid to HGS as a predictor of decline in the female menopausal population with the goal of identifying risk factors early and potentially intervening to mitigate the risk.

Today’s workout challenges your grip to help build greater grip strength while improving upper and lower body strength, cardiovascular stamina and building powerful hip extension.

Warm Up

AMRAP 7 (As many rounds as possible in 7 minutes)

• 7 up-downs
• 7 air squats
• 7 easy push-ups option

After the 7 minutes, perform 10 weighted good mornings. You can either use a barbell/PVC pipe or hold a light dumbbell or plate to your chest.

Movement Practice

Take 5-10 minutes to practice the movements and select your weight for the workout. Your kettlebell should allow you to do 10 sumo deadlift high pulls (SDLHP) unbroken, confidently. This is a longer workout, so you will likely need to break up the sets of 10 into 2-3 quick sets in the later rounds. Use this same kettlebell for the kettlebell swings and the goblet squats. 

If you are performing the SDLHP for the first time, it is highly recommended to perform the mechanics of this movement with a very light kettlebell. When you feel confident in the movement, try a heavier kettlebell. As you continue feeling proficient, slowly increase the load.

Review the video links that follow before trying the SDLHP:

• The first part of this movement is a kettlebell deadlift. It is very important to get this part of the movement right to keep your lower back protected. Be sure to keep your back straight- your legs, glutes, and hamstrings are doing the lifting, NOT the muscles of the lower back.
• Next, using a light kettlebell, review the sumo deadlift high pull progression video paying close attention to the mechanics tips in the text.
• Practice! At first, you may want to do a deadlift, pause, then the high pull. This is ok! As you practice and become more familiar with the movement, the two parts of the lift will flow together. Don’t pull too soon! Be sure you are fully extended at the hips (standing up straight) before pulling the bar up.
• The “shrug” then the “pull” happens the second the hips fully extend. When the hips are extended with some speed or “pop” this begins to move the bar upward which signals the start of the pull. The upper extremties simply guide the bar upward.

TIP! When setting up for the SDLHP, set your eye gaze to a point on the ground 10 ft in front of you. You do not want to be looking straight ahead as this will hyper-extend the neck. Keep the neck neutral by setting your gaze as above.

Workout

8 rounds for time

• 10 SDLHP – single kettlebell
• 10 Kettlebell swings
• 10 Kettlebell goblet squats

Cool-Down

Let’s show our back, hips and hamstrings some love with this 7-minute follow-along stretch segment from Train FTW.

For your yoga fix, try this 15-minute yoga flow class from Five Parks Yoga