Flip Exercises on Their Axis
Written by Hunter Britt
Have you ever put yourself in a position and wondered, ‘How can I get stronger in this specific position?’
For example, maybe you want to figure out a way to strengthen deep ring dips without just focusing on doing copious amounts of ring dips. There are plenty of ways to figure out how to improve strength in whatever position we are talking about and rotating an exercise is one example of how to do so.
Why flip exercises on their axis? Try for yourself and see what you discover. There are different reasons for different exercises; sometimes we perform exercises to figure out a way to increase strength in a certain position and sometimes it is to improve an athlete’s understanding and body awareness. A lot of times people will notice that have a better understanding of a movement when they are actually in a different plane to perform the exercise.
An example of this – and one that you might already be familiar with – is practicing the “kip” on the floor by getting familiar with the hollow body and arch body positions.
Why do we do this? It takes certain factors out of the equation and still allows us to focus on fundamentals without becoming overwhelmed. Take this idea and apply it to anything and everything that makes sense. You may be surprised at what you learn from just taking an exercise and rotating the plane on which it is performed.
Let’s look at a different example – the handstand push-up. Handstand work is neat in that you can work on this movement and completely change the understanding of it by either standing erect or lying down.
The first area that can be addressed is body awareness. At the very most basic level, you can learn the correct body position while you are on your feet, before even attempting to go upside down. After establishing awareness and a controlled body position, you are ready to start working on handstand push-ups.
If your strength is not where you need it to be to perform the handstand push-ups strict, another option is kipping handstand push-ups. The timing on a kip is tough, especially if it is the first time an athlete is trying to actually move their body while upside down. Lie down on your back and position yourself with your head against the wall. Learn to understand how to find the relationship of the legs to the arms and learn how to utilize inertia in this position. You will find that, for some of you, little experiments like this will make a huge difference in your understanding of the overall movement!
I hope this helps spark some new ideas for you on how you can work different movements by changing your perspective on it. Make sure to keep your eyes and minds open to the new ways that you can improve upon, view, and train movements. Even when you are in your gym, think outside of the box.
