Goatbag

One of my new favorites, this is the perfect exercise for grooving on the movement I like to call "hinging." Push your butt back and keep pushing back until your knees have to bend so you can push your butt back even more. Keep a flat back and only let your face come down because you have to keep pushing your butt back. Those things on the back of your legs are called "hamstrings." Use a stick at first (pictured) so you can see that your back is flat. And do it in front of a wall so you can keep touching the wall with your butt, stepping forward a little, then repeating. The goal is to keep touching the wall, not to get low. "Hinging" is a back-and-forth motion, not an up-and-down motion. Once you're comfortable, hold a weight on your chest, squeeze your shoulder blades together and prepare to walk funny tomorrow.

Coach Stevo's Top Tips

• Keep repeating, "Butt back," over and over.
• Squeeze your shoulder blades together the entire time.
• Don't be afraid to put your torso between your legs if your butt can go back that far.

Burpee

The Burpee is a simple gasser. It's an explosive, full body, bodyweight exercise that will tax your anaerobic cardio fuel system like few other movements. Traditionally used as punishment (like when I was a Marine Corps Officer Candidate), you will find these sparingly in Coach Stevo's metabolic circuit workouts. But that's no excuse not to learn them. Basic rule of thumb, if you can do it with a push up, do it. If you can't do a bodyweight push up, skip it.

Coach Stevo's Top Tip

• It's about speed. How fast can you sprawl, push, and pop?

Bodyrock Example (you're welcome)

Gulbis Glute Twists

This is a weird exercise, but I don't know any others that light up my glutes like "the Gulbis." If you do not have properly firing glutes, you might not feel these at all and insist that I am crazy. Bret Contreras (inventor, but bad at naming stuff) is particularly verbose in his explanation, but if I had to summarize in a single queue, it would be, "squeeze the cheek closest to the band and bring your hips around fast and hard like a golf swing."

Coach Stevo's Top Tips

• Leg closest to the band is further back.
• Pivot at the hips. This is not an oblique exercise.
• Squeeze the glute and hold for a few seconds.
• Drive the hip around and down. Like a golf swing.

Bret Contreras Demonstrates

Palloff Press

Another misunderstood movement, the Palloff Press is a killer for your rotational core. I suggest starting on your knees or in a half-kneeling position for the first few weeks. You can use a cable stack, an elastic band, or a TRX. The key thing to get over is that the weight doesn't move. You are resisting the weight's pull on your core. **NERD ALERT** pressing out changes the radial distance of the torque beam (your arms) which increases the angular momentum on your torso, thereby making it harder to maintain your polar moment of inertia.

Coach Stevo's Top Tips

• Engage your glutes.
• Shoulders back.
• Resist the Twist.

Half-Kneeling

Standing

TRX

Step Up

An introduction into unsupported, single-leg work, the step up is also a life-long skill you want to be able to do well when your 90. Focus just as hard on the lowering as the raising and make sure you bring your hips all the way through at the top. Keep the angle of your torso identical to the angle of your shin. And if this is too easy, work on making the step higher (increasing the range-of-motion) before you work on adding weight.

Coach Stevo's Top Tips

• Engage your core.
• Squeeze your butt and hip flexor at the same time to brace the pelvis.
• Don't drop; pull yourself down.