Milo Bryant is a performance coach as well as an experienced journalist. He’s also in his 50s—and his book Unstoppable After 40 gives you the roadmap to do more than merely remain active as you “mature.” Milo trains hard and recovers even better so he can do what he wants, when he wants. Get ready to use his methods to become unstoppable. This isn’t your dad’s middle age.
Quick: name a sport that is done entirely with both feet remaining in contact with the ground? I’ll wait.
Folks, most of your athletic lives are spent on one leg.
One foot hits the ground on each stride when you sprint forward, when you backpedal, and when you shuffle from side-to-side. When you throw a ball, it only looks like two feet are on the ground. There is, however, a weight shift that occurs during the “load up phase” of the throw where all of the body’s weight is on the trail leg. There is another weight shift occurring when the body shifts the weight back to the front leg as the ball is delivered. The same thing happens when an athlete swings a golf club or a bat.
That is why it is important for you to add single-leg hops to your warmup routine. The single-leg hop is a low-grade plyometric exercise that prepares the body to perform more advanced athletic and sports movements.
There is a rhythm to this movement that might make it a challenge for some to do properly. Figuring out this rhythm, however, is how you’ll get the most out of the drill.
Oh, and to answer the aforementioned question about two-legged stationary movements: powerlifting, with the deadlift and the squat. Also, Olympic lifting, with the clean and jerk and the snatch. (Yes, I know that the feet technically leave the ground during the Olympic lifts, but that jump is simultaneous and is rarely done with dramatically more power on one side than the other). So what does that tell you? Unless you’re only focused on the big weightlifting sports (and even if you are), you should be doing some unilateral movements in your workout so that your training translates to your real-world endeavors.
How to Do the Single-Leg Hop
●Start in a standing position and shift your weight to your left foot. Bring your right knee up and bend your left arm behind you (as if in a running position).
Men’s Health
●Bend your left knee and hop forward. Land on the ball of your left foot. Quickly leap forward again with the same foot. That’s 1 rep. Do 10, then repeat on the other leg.
Best Coach Cues for Single-Leg Hopping
●Always land on the ball of the foot.
●Land with the ball of the foot directly underneath the body.
●Make sure the right hand swings with the left leg and the left hand swings with the right leg.
●Keep the torso tall and the core tight throughout the movement. There can be a slight forward tilt, but that angle might be a degree or two related to vertical.
Helpful Tip for Better Single-Leg Hopping
●When moving forward, you have to understand the action leg is going to do a single hop. It does not matter how far that hop is—two feet, a foot, 18 inches—it is only going from Point A to Point B. The rest of the extremities will go from Point A to Point B back to Point A in the same amount of time it takes the action leg to move its distance.
This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io
Comments are closed.