Today we’re going to look at what we call compass pressing, part three.
In our blogs in the last couple of weeks we’ve been working on this idea of compass presses. Standing in the middle of a compass, a band attached, and just working our way through the footwork. So eight different positions minimum, and pressing, just to get an idea of different force vectors. We’ve done that single arm, and with two arms, and then the previous week we then added some spinal motions to it.
So we’ve really been trying to explore basic strength training ideas like a press, but utilizing different body positions, different spinal positions, in order to improve our overall mapping, and our ability to produce force under conditions that are different than what we would typically find in a lot of our traditional exercises.
Now for compass presses part three, what we want to look at now, is less about what we’re doing, and more about band placement.
So what you see on this side, is I can now add a huge amount of variety, or variability to my compass presses, simply by changing the anchor point.
In the previous iterations, I was using an anchor point for the band that was actually almost like doing a bench press. It was very … it was level basically with my arm or my shoulder.
Now in this particular set, I now have one anchored above my shoulder height, and one anchored close to the floor.
So at this point what I would start to do is the same exact same drill, again stepping in and pressing. Stepping in and pressing. Working through my lunge pattern, but now because of the different anchor point, I’m going to create a different motor activity, or motor control process.
I’m also probably going to be challenging muscles in a different way. Stepping back into my posterior 45, and my cross body press, etc.
Then, I can either use my second band or take this one off and put it below, and I repeat now pressing in an upward plane.
So, the cool part about bands and this particular set of exercises, like I said, compass presses. You can change and modify for a very long time before you start to run out of options, and you can make it quite specific, dependent upon what you want to do.
Obviously right now we’re doing pressing. I could do a wide variety of other exercises. I could turn and face this, the bands or the rack, and now I could be doing a compass pull. So basically rather than pressing, the band would be in front and now I’m stepping and pulling. I’m adding in my different spinal positions.
So what we’re trying to show you in this group of three different drills, or three different blogs really, is how to bring a little creativity into your training by using a pattern.
You have compass lunges, you have multiple attachment points for your bands, you can push, you can pull, you can rotate.
As you start to explore this, it gives you almost an unlimited number of different exercises that you can explore, which we believe is very valuable for brain health.
One of the things that we’re learning more and more is that beyond the basics of aerobic exercise and strength training, we know that novelty wakes the brain up, makes you pay attention, and seems to be a driver for plastic change.
So play with these different drills, give it a shot.
Like I said, just play with different anchor points going forward.
In other blogs we’ll show you a wide variety of other exercises, but these three, if you haven’t watched the previous two go back and check them out, this should give you a nice firm foundation on how to use the compass work to improve your workouts.
Enjoy.
