What it is:
This movement is designed to increase glute activation and develop posterior chain strength. Why, you ask is that important? Well, the prime movers in most sports that involve running around and explosive movement (LIKE TENNIS!) are the glutes and hamstrings. Look at an NFL running back – massive, thick legs and rear ends. It’s no accident that these guys have solid cabooses, either – they train the muscles that enable them to move fast as well as accelerate and decelerate properly. This is a great exercise for anyone who does not have good glute activation, is learning to deadlift properly, or is recovering from a low back injury and wants to train the posterior chain without any compressive or shear forces on the lumbar spine.
How to do it:
Set up on a cable station with a rope attachment, move the cable to the lowest setting near the floor. Face away from the stack with tension in the rope about 4-5 feet away from the stack. You want to ‘sit down’ into the movement while keeping tension on the hamstrings and maintaining a neutral spine. You will then extend the hips and stand back up by only contracting the glutes and hamstrings. There should be no pulling through the arms, and absolutely no lumbar spine extension.
Who I stole it from:
I first saw this over in Eric Cressey’s Maximum Strength program and loved the way it taught posterior chain extension, and here’s a video that the guys at Cressey Performance put together to show you how it works.
Why you should be doing it:
As tennis players, one of our main focuses is on speed and quickness of the first step, and that primarily comes from pushing off using the glutes and hamstrings. This movement teaches you how to fire these muscles correctly and efficiently, while safely strengthening them. Give it a shot and let me know what you think.
