The Step-In Lunge & Row

What a blog title that is, right?

Last week, out of the blue, a trainer from Canada, Olivier Poirier-Leroy, contacted me after seeing the STEPS Fitness website and asked if I would put together a small essay on one of my favorite exercises. Having already video’d my daughter for a different purpose, I quickly composed a short description of the exercise and why I think it’s so valuable.

So today Olivier posted it on his site here.

Today, too, I met with a very fit, early middle age woman dealing with eating disorders. I have been working with her team of therapists and dietitians to help her get her life back together by providing healthy and reasonable workouts that fit the therapeutic bill.

We have only met 3 times, including today, over the past several months. Using a short, but high intensity tubing routine I use with many clients, I have progressed her from static rows, curls, chest presses, triceps presses, and torso rotations in lunge stance to the same moves with an up-down lunge motion.
Today we started the same drills with one arm and stepping in then pulling back for the rows and curls and torso rotations. The tube pulls her forward and she has to catch herself from falling using the lower body and core to maintain control.

I refer to these types of drills as ‘plyometrics’ because you still have to exert yourself vigorously back to start position after an eccentric force pulled you downward. Watch the video. You can see for yourself that, with a heavier resistance, a more forceful action would be required to accomplish the task.

I have more of these to come:)