Photo 1: Start with hands are on top of a medicine ball, while body is in a “Push-Up” position. Photo 2: Quickly drop both hands out and away from the medicine ball, forcing your body to free fall toward the ground. Once your hands touch the ground your arms will slightly bend from the impact. Photo 3: As soon as the impact occurs, push up from the ground with an explosive force, so that your hands land back on top of the medicine ball, and your body is back in the “Push-Up” starting position. Photo 4: Start in a “Push-Up” position with both arms in full extension, and both hands placed on a Giant Exercise Ball. Photo 5: Quickly drop both hands out and away from the Exercise Ball, forcing your body to free fall toward the ball. Allow your chest and abdomen to bounce on top of the ball. away from the exercise ball, forcing your body to free-fall toward the ball. Allow your chest and abdomen to bounce on top of the ball. Once your body begins to bounce back up from the collision with the ball, bring both hands in to quickly stabilize the ball. Simultaneously, push up from the ball with an ex-plosive force so that your hands are on top of the ball, and you are back in the push-up starting position. Repeat eight to 10 reps. Rest for one minute. Repeat for three sets. Photo 6: Once your body begins to bounce back up from the collision with the ball, bring both hands in to quickly stabilize the ball. Simultaneously, push up from the ball with an explosive force so that you are back in the “Push-Up” starting position. shortest time frame, to create the high ve-locity needed in a chiropractic adjustment. It should also be mentioned that ex-ercise 2 is more advanced than exercise 1 – be sure that exercise 1 is mastered before moving on to exercise 2. By incorporating these exercises as part of your overall fitness regimen, you can develop a quick and explosive thrust to effectively adjust anyone. As usual, I have only scratched the sur-face regarding these plyometric activities. To learn more about these types of exercis-es and how to recruit more Type II muscle fibres, please go to www.bodybuilding. com. If you have any questions, please e-mail me at [email protected]. Until next time . . . Adjust with con-fidence! • • • • • • • a medicine ball (or wooden block). Quickly drop both hands out and away from the medicine ball, forcing your body to free-fall toward the ground. Once your hands touch the ground your arms will bend slightly from the impact. As soon as the impact occurs, push up from the ground with an explosive force, so that your hands land back on top of the medicine ball, and your body is back in the push-up starting position. Repeat eight to 10 reps. Rest for one minute. Repeat for three sets. • • • • • EXERCISE 2: Drop and Catch Push-Ups on an Exercise Ball (See photos 4-6) • Start in a push-up position with both arms in full extension, and both hands placed on a giant exercise ball. • Quickly drop both hands out and 16 • Canadian ChiropraCtor | JULY/aUGUSt 2011 Keep in mind, with each of these ex-ercises, that the idea is to create a short, explosive burst, not a deep contraction. These forms of activities send a clear mes-sage to the brain. That message is that the body must adapt to create force quickly, both neurologically and metabolically. 2 Re-member, we are trying to recruit as many Type II motor units as possible, in the REFERENCES 1. Woodrup, J. Fast twitch training. 2008. www.verticaljumping.com/fast_twitch.html 2. Baggett, K. Becoming a fast twitch machine. 2009. www.bodybuilding.com www.canadianchiropractor.ca
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