Ben's Top 5 Exercises That WORK (With Physiclo Resistance Tights)

By Ben S. Fogel, owner of Epic Fitness Utah

Ben is a fitness trainer & owner of Epic Fitness Utah (located in Salt Lake City). A former World Cup and World Championship athlete, Ben has been coaching for nearly a decade, working with people of all types and backgrounds. 

 

When you start to take on harder exercises at the gym, you can do one of two things – add external load or add repetitions to the exercise. 

Physiclo has designed a unique athletic tight that allows you to add load via resistance bands built into your tights without adding load (via weights or a weight vest). This can be very advantageous to allow for greater freedom of movement without a vest or a dumbbell getting in your way.  
 
I have really enjoyed the tights and found 5 great exercises that the tights can be used for. Not to say that the tights can’t be used for every exercise in your workouts, I have just found five that work very well with the tights and force your lower body musculature into working harder. This in turn equals a greater metabolic demand which equals more calories burned in your workout!  

All five exercises included have a full range of motion and multiple joints articulating and have you moving in multiple planes of motion. This is where the “secret sauce” of the tights come in – they allow you to move freely without worrying about picking up a dumbbell or kettlebell (unless you really need the extra load).

 

Try these five exercises, in this order, for up to 3 sets of each for a great workout:

 

1. Valslide Reverse Lunge

12 reps per leg, working a very slow and controlled tempo

Valslide Reverse Lunges are a great way to add resistance to a lunge pattern without adding load. The other great benefit is that, with your Physiclo tights, it will force your muscles to work even harder since your hips are going through a very full range of motion. Since your moving leg is always in contact with the ground via the valslide, the movement also generates more friction into the turf or carpet and forces your body to work even harder!

 

2. Mountain Climbers (using valslides)

24 reps total (12 each leg)

Mountain Climbers are a great full body workout that also helps improve one's lower body speed and stamina. Wearing Physiclo while performing this routine will generate added resistance on each mountain climber rep, to help you get stronger through your hips and core even faster.

For a more challenging variation that also builds upper body strength, add a pushup between each mountain climber rep (pushup, right leg, left leg... pushup, right leg, left leg... and repeat) for a total of 12 pushups + 24 mountain climbers.

 

3. Lateral Lunge + Ultimate Sandbag Clean

6 reps per side, 12 total – fast and explosive tempo

Lateral Lunge + Ultimate Sandbag Clean is a great frontal plane movement that will force your body to move in a different direction than we are used to – usually just through that sagittal plane – or forward and backwards.  The Ultimate Sandbag Clean will teach you very quickly how to move explosively and to coordinate the upper and lower body together in an explosive movement pattern.  This movement will help increase athleticism in any sports that force you to move in all different directions like soccer, lacrosse, basketball or football.  Wearing Physiclo while doing this frontal plane exercise will make this exercise more beneficial by creating more tension in the inner thighs and hamstrings when performing the Lateral Lunge.    

 

4. Goblet Squat

12 reps with a very slow and controlled tempo

The Goblet Squat is a great tool to re-teach the squatting pattern in a very simple and effective way.  By holding the load in front of the body, this forces a counter balance and provides for extra core strengthening as well.  When wearing Physiclo this will add close to 10 pounds of load on your hips and thighs when you come out of the bottom of the squat to standing.  The great thing is that the load is spread throughout the tights and you don’t need to add the load to the kettlebell or dumbbell.  

 

5. Kettlebell Swing

12 reps – fast and explosive

The Kettlebell Swing is a great dynamic exercise for any athletic or fat loss endeavor.  Before attempting a Kettlebell Swing, make sure you are comfortable performing a Deadlift pattern without any lower back motion (flexing).  Since the movement is fast and explosive, like a broad jump, wearing Physiclo makes the exercise more difficult by placing extra demands in your hips and legs at the end range of motion, or when you are maximally bending the hips.  This forces your muscles of your glutes and hamstrings to be under load for a little longer that will help increase performance and metabolic demand which will in-turn help you burn more calories!

 

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Special thanks to Ben for putting this post together!

For more fitness tips, reviews, and articles from Ben, check out the Epic Fitness Utah website. You can also follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at @epicfitnessutah!