Around eight years ago, my friends got together for a slow-pitch softball game. Although I hadn’t swung a bat in years, I managed to crank out five out-of-the-park homeruns that day. One of them cleared the fence by at least a hundred feet. I was pretty surprised…as were my friends. My hitting power sky-rocketed from just getting stronger in the gym. I didn’t do any form of “sport-specific training,” I just got strong at exercises such as squats, deadlifts, walking lunges, back extensions, bench press, weighted dips, military press, chin ups, bent over rows, and one arm rows. Times like these made me realize the importance of strength as it pertains to unleashing your maximal power potential.
Since this time I’ve trained a whole-lotta people, I’ve read a whole-lotta books and articles, and I’ve continued to train hard myself. And I still believe that just getting stronger at basic, compound movements is critical for power. However, power is directional specific, and while strong muscles will get you pretty far, you can get a little bit further if you engage in some specific forms of strength training. I believe that in order to achieve optimal rotary power, one must get strong at big, compound lifts, while also performing rotary strength exercises, rotary power exercises, and practicing specific sports skills.
Below are five excellent rotary exercises that will help maximize your explosive rotational power.
1. The Explosive Rotational Landmine
This is quite different than the normal landmine. Notice the footwork. This allows you to move around the bar and reposition yourself so you can get maximum explosiveness on each rep. Make sure you put the women and children to bed before attempting this exercise – it’s no joke!
2. Overhead Lateral/Rotational Press
This is an amazing core exercise that works the core as a lateral flexor and a rotator.
3. Band Hip Rotations
I’ll keep ranting and raving about this exercise ’til I’m blue in the face. It’s a very difficult exercise to master. You have to set up with your body angled inward a bit toward the line of pull of the band. This way you keep constant tension on the hip rotators as you twist. To reiterate, you don’t line up facing the band, your back foot is further away from the band than the front foot. This exercise activates the glutes like crazy, trains the glutes in their hip external rotation function, and “bridges the gap” between the weightroom and the field. It works the hip internal rotators on the front leg, hip external rotators on the back leg, internal obliques on one side, and external obliques on the other side. It’s the best core exercise that you’re not doing at the moment! If you don’t feel this working the glutes big-time then you’re doing it wrong. Keep working it until you get it right. Monster-mini jump stretch bands work best for this exercise.
4. Low-High Rotary Pull
Here’s an excellent core exercise that works the lower body, core, and upper body pulling musculature in one movement.
5. Low-High Rotary Press
Here’s an excellent core exercise that works the lower body, core, and upper body pressing musculature in one movement.
Hopefully this post has given you some ideas as to how you can go about increasing your rotational power through specific rotary strength training. Spend some time on these and you’ll be belting home runs out of the park like McGwire in no time!
Great stuff as always. Gonna give that explosive landmine a shot today.
great post, I work with many swimmers and every freestyler and backstroke swimmer needs to emphasize rotatory movements. Unfortunately, they all come to me with years of horrible squat mechanics…keep it up Bret.
Hell yes! Rotating Landmines are the sh*t! Helps in MMA too… my hook punches dust out some serious damage. Is this the “official” name for them Bret? I never bothered to look that up. I used to just call em Barbell Rotations.
Yeah, they’re called landmines, but there are several ways to do them…the way Westside does them, the way Boyle does them, the way I showed, etc.
Very similar to the “Driving Buelers” featured in your previous post. Shortening the ROM and adding an explosive component.
Derrick – that’s what gave me the idea!
Bret man,I feel that you are so knowledgeable but damn it you are not getting enough light. I want to see more articles from you and your blog posts are not that frequent.Please fix that
Kidding man,I wish we could see some more quality articles out there and you are one of the guys we can count on!Keep it up 😀
Good stuff. I think you need some Public Enemy playing in the background, though. That increases the effectiveness of all exercises by 27.8% and the absorption of creatine and BCAA’s by 349.926%. Seriously.
I agree Jason! I definitely need to “step it up” on the music end!
Would be awesome if you could put together something for the ladies too.. In my case, bigger and rounder rather than smaller and tighter. U know what it is. 🙂 I will be patiently waiting. Thank you in advance.
Hey Bret,
These movements look like a great supplement to the basic compound exercises. One question: what kind of handle attachment are you using for the pulley cable? I could figure out how to approximate these with a do-it-yourself solution, but what is it that you’re using?
Thanks,
Jim
Jim, it’s a Cook bar. You can get it from Perform Better. Also check out Nick Tumminello’s Core bar. Might be even better. Some people just get a PVC pipe and put hooks on the end but I’m very happy I made the purchase…it won’t fall apart and it’s probably the best piece of equipment for rotary strength.
We do the low-high rotary pull up here in Boston all the time, it’s called shoveling snow.
Explosive landmine works well in conditioning circuits. Badass
Thank you so much for these moves Bret! I can’t wait to get in the gym and put them to use. BTW, I just want to say thank you for providing a site with real innovation and substance. It seems like every time someone posts a question to a trainer on any posterior chain muscle, you get that same old tired response: squat, deadlift, lunge, 3 sets, 8 reps, high protein etc. You know… the same stuff we all robotically say and do and have mediocre bodies, as we tell ourselves we don’t inject ‘roids, have flat butt genetics or are old, injured or work too much with the family.
Is it just me or has everyone else been doing those moves with heavy weight and proper form for years and still haven’t gotten what we want in the glute and ham department?
In the last six weeks however, I’ve added hip thrusts, hill sprints, box squats, jumps, in addition to my power moves and cardio, and for the first time, I feel myself resisting the glutes from contracting. When I’m at the grocery store my butt is ready to fire! Ha! I also that notice my recovery for my entire body is off the charts! I can hit the workouts hard daily without that crippling soreness or injury and it feels great! (Still no supplements; just food and sleep) Anyway, your blog has changed my training and overall feeling of power more than any other book, site or blog in years!
Thank you!
Michael, thanks for the kind words. If only I had a dollar for every time I received a comment or email like this. It’s great that these methods are taking off, and thanks to people like you who are willing to try them out, they’re getting more and more popular. Thanks again.
Hi Bret,
I was hoping Karli would be demonstrating the exercises.Keep up the awesome blog!
Haha! Fair enough. 🙂
Brett, on one of your videos concerning glute/ham exercises you mentioned up to 20 reps. If training for speed and strength, i.e. football (fullback/linebacker) what is the reppage you would recommend. Thanks, rw
I think that the 3-8 rep range would be best for athletes for the glute ham raise. Plenty of ways to make the exercise easier or more difficult to keep it in this range.
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