Olympic Leg Day Workout #2

By Stephen Lambdin 

2016 US Olympic Team and current US National Team member in the sport of Taekwondo

Standing Hip CARs (Controlled Articular Rotations)

3 sets of 5, for each leg

These are my Achilles heel. You can’t get too good at these. We’ll break this one down into a few steps. 1) Starting feet together, bring your knee up in front of you. 2) Without dropping your knee, take your leg out to the side. 3) Rotate your shin to parallel with the ground. 4) Drive your heel around behind you. 5) Reverse the process to go back. Up and back is one set.

These are rough with Physiclo. Just to get to your regular range of motion with these is a fight. The pay off is huge. This drill is one of my favorites with Physiclo for developing single leg stability and control.

Quick Keys to Success

• Slow down! The slower you go, the harder Physiclo works you.
• Stay tall! If you can’t maintain form, don’t bring your leg up as high. Right and slow is better than fast and wrong.
• Strong core! No energy leaks. Fight your resistance tights all the way through!

Falling Starts

6 sets of 10 yards, building up

This one is great with Physiclo for priming us for explosive power work. The first round should be nice and light. The goal here is warm up. By the 6^th round you should be at 100%. Starting with feet together roll up onto your toes. In a controlled manner, fall forward, and at last time possible drive into a sprint.

I’ll be honest- your Physiclo pants are going to make this takeoff tough. Your range of motion will drop significantly, and be sure to build up to max effort on this one for safety.

Quick Keys to Success

• Drive! Maintain good sprinting form. That means we reach with our feet, and drive all the way through for great sprint form.
• Keep that core tight! If you can’t keep a tight core on the takeoff, don’t fall forward as much to begin. Remember stability=safety.
• All the way on your toes before you fall.

Lateral Walk

3 sets of 6 steps, in each direction

To start this exercise, drop into an athletic position with a slight bend at the hips and your knees. Starting at the hip, lift and step laterally by driving through the base leg. The goal here is to do as little extra movement as possible. If you’re doing it right you’ll feel it in your hip and quad on the leg that’s lifting, and the glute and hamstring on your base-leg.

Crushing that already? Turn it into a game. Try to mirror a partner, while maintaining form and explosive power.

The brilliant part of this drill with Physiclo is you don’t have to drag resistance bands with you everywhere. This drill combined with the resistance shorts is amazing for developing lateral power. I throw on my shorts and warm up with these before every match to make sure I can get out of the way of anything my opponent is throwing.

Quick Keys to success

• Stay tall! Don’t round your back, and keep that core tight.
• No leaning! The movement should start with your hip. If you can’t do it with good form, start slow.
• If you can’t maintain form, because of fatigue, the drill is done! No cheating.

Reverse Lunge with High Knee

3 sets of 8-10, for each leg

This one is a secret weapon for developing single stability. Starting with your feet about shoulder with apart, keeping your core tight, engage your glutes and step backward into a lunge. Focus on reaching backward with your foot as if to step over something behind you. Once at the bottom, fire that front leg glute and drive to stand. Finish at the top with a high knee.

Your Physiclo pants will make this exercise nasty! You’re going to feel all the little stabilizers in your hip and core, that normally get missed, the next morning. The slower you go, the more those pants are going to resist you.

Quick Keys to success

• Maintain good technique! Mentally think there is a hurdle behind you that you need to reach past. This will help you fight the extra resistance, and keep form.
• Stay tall! If you can’t do the drill without bending at the hips, take a shallower step back.
• Drive! When you stand, drive through your front leg. No lazy parts in this drill!

15 x EMOTM (Every minute on the minute)

10 Mountain Climbers

10 Linear Box Switches

10 Lateral Box Switches

I love this set up for a conditioning because it encourages maximum effort. The quicker you finish, the more break you have. The trick most people don’t realize is that the harder you go, the more time you need to recover. It can turn nasty quick.

On this conditioning, you’ll move to the next exercise at the start of every minute. In other words, you’ll hit each exercise 5 times in this routine. We are looking for roughly 20 seconds of work to 40 seconds of rest. If you’re just crushing this, increase the amount of reps on each exercise. All three of these drills can be done for maximum benefit with your Physiclo pants anywhere in the world, with no other equipment needed. Your legs will thank me later!

Quick Keys to Success:

• MAX EFFORT! Each round is a sprint. The goal is to go all in, and be able to recover in time for the next minute.
• Mountain climbers – Stay braced through your core. Think solid shoulders, and all the movement is through your hips and legs.
• Linear switches – Let your legs do the work. Upper body shouldn’t have tons of movement.
• Lateral switches – Keep your center of gravity over the middle.