Strength training session with Dave Powner – 20th May 2020

Hi all,

Here is your strength session for this week! As many of us have been doing some online shopping for home exercise equipment, this session makes good use of two kinds of resistance bands – mini loop bands, and the larger pull-up bands. I’ll put some links in the comments to those which I use.

As always, don’t exercise if you are unwell, and if you are injured, be sure to avoid doing any exercises which may aggravate it. Warm-up before your session, and use all the muscles which you are going to be exercising, and move through the full range of motion.
If you’re brave enough to do this in a public space, be sure to adhere to all current social distancing guidelines!

Strength is all about performing movements well. So get yourself well practised with the movement patterns involved in your strength work, before you start doing harder versions. You can start with lighter resistance, or no resistance at all, and do larger numbers of reps. As you progress with good movement, you can look at using greater resistance for fewer reps.

As a guide, this session recommends doing 12 reps of each exercise (each side where applicable), and three sets of those, with 2 minutes break in between each set. If you get to the last couple of reps in your last set, and it’s just starting to get difficult to do any more, then that’s about right! The video demonstrates how to use the bands for each exercise. (Apologies that the size got cropped when I output it, so the top of my head and soles of my feet are missing sometimes!)

1. Crab walks – (band anywhere from above knees to ankles)
2. Squats – (band above knees)
3. Knee drive – (mini band or pull-up band variant)
4. Kick back – (optionally with raised standing leg)
5. Trunk Stability – (standing – optionally in lunge position)
6. Ankle eversion and inversion (seated – optionally laying down)

Let us know how you get on, and we are here to help you, so get in touch if you’d like any help adjusting these exercises to suit you!