In the list of Charlies recommended weight training is the “Reverse Leg Press”.
I am trying to find a device that would both effectively and inexpensively do this exercise.
I have seen 2 videos:
This one would be very easily employed, as I have a Parabody power rack with lat pulley system:
Are these proper motions to get the work out that Charlie was wanting?
I like the first example best but ideally I would like to see you more parallel to the ground. We used to go to some effort to make sure the angle was such that the press was in fact coming from the hamstring. You can see in the second link you provided that he is not supported by anything and their is some give. That might be ok when the weight is not too heavy but at a certain point you need to have your shoulder properly supported and your body lined up. Experiment a little bit and I think you will feel where your leverage is best. Maybe someone has something to add.
To summarize the first link is a pretty good example but trial with a few machines might help. We used crappy universal machines that were intended for sitting leg press and used a towel or matt propped up against the bar and flipped around to adapt this piece of equipment. I may have a diagram I just ran across. I will try and locate it.
The first video is actually of me haha
I employed this exercise during my preparation for college football last year and I use it now because of the reduced load it places on my spine.
Anecdotally, I can say I’ve noticed great improvements in my first acceleration steps in that I achieve better extension.
Also something to note about the apparatus I use, the foot pedal allows you to use a placement to achieve a a small amount of ankle extension and in an quasi-isometric regime.
Unfortunately that machine is far to often misused and not excecuted on the manner it should be which in my mind is a highly valuable exercise.
Thank you for the great information Angela.
qb0708 thanks for the video, glad it works for you and I am hoping to find something here I can adapt.
I also ran across this article that included Charlies training concepts:
A quote from the above article:
"Charlie Francis talked about how there were only a few athletes in the world who could maintain “sprint form” in the 100-meter sprint and how sprinters knew they had a bad day if they felt their sprints in their quads.
Over twenty years ago, he was prescribing reverse leg presses as his main glute and hamstring exercise in order to prepare his athletes for the big race. The reverse leg press was like a donkey kick performed while standing backwards facing away from a leg press on a Universal gym. Talk about being years ahead of your time! The reverse leg press is a great exercise, but the hip thrust and pendulum quadruped hip extension are even better."
What are your thoughts about the last sentence, " the hip thrust and pendulum quadruped hip extension are even better"?
I was about to suggest the weighted hip thrust, actually. I’ve been doing those lately and I have been getting great results. it’s basically a reverse leg press from a lying down position. your legs usually stay bent, although you can do them with straight legs, I believe…
Can we discuss how this movement is different that a (1-leg) squat?
Because if it is “close enough” so to speak, should it be removed from the program in favor of 2 leg squats?
We used to do one similar to the second one when the equipment was available. The angle seems similar to me and we could definitely feel it in the hamstrings. For stability, we would hold on to the machine and try to keep the core tight. We were able to use almost the whole rack for sets of 5-10.
Well i think it’s good and you felt improvement and that’s great…
Have you done many explosive med ball drills? Shown in GPP or some of the other dvd’s? IF you think this exercise improves acceleration try some some single hop, double and triple hop med ball throws. They are seriously intense and you need to be fresh and keep the numbers down and quality high but OMG.
I don’t love the ankle extention so much for myself as I feel it detracts for the work in the area you are most interested.
I was watching you again and wondered if you could try and roll a towel around the bar and actually rest your shoulder below the provided support so the angle is more as i spoke about? IM just curious. Use the corner of a matt as a towel likely wont cut it.Just a thought.
The article had nothing to do with Charlie’s training concepts. Just so we are clear.
This article has good video of lots of interesting glute stuff. Typical to see poor extension from people who don’t run or jump and don’t have great range of motion.
I think the exercises the article mentions are different , not better.
Be thoughtful and plan when organizing these exercises into your routine for sprinting. If you want to just look good than fine. Stronger ? Not necessarily. Faster? Likely not. Most will over do it. " Just because you can does not mean you should"
I poorly worded my post, as I meant “mentioned”…
And about the videos, I didn’t even really look, I just caught the quoted exercises and thought I would ask here about them.
I’ve used the MB throws in my training and the throws into the pit are the base of our programming for the football team.
For me, personally, I don’t need a lot of development in my glutes or hamstrings so the overall strengthening is very economical.
Below is a recent video of my 3-point start, in years past, I was not able to achieve full extension of the knee.
http://ubersense.com/video/view/EgYKLKMO/ryan-williams-hill-3-point-start
Edit: I tried to embed but the link would not work.
rich121 - The guy who wrote that article is a complete moron and knows nothing about sprinting. His line about Usain Bolt running even faster by doing hip thrusts is completely moronic and ill-informed. As Charlie would say, “Bolt has the best hip extension of anyone in the world, he’s the world record holder in the 100m. By virtue of the fact he is the world record holder, has the best hips. What would you know about Bolts’ training. You’ve never met him or seen him train!”
That is the problem with the internet. Anyone can start a blog and call themselves the “Glute Guy” and write drivel about horseshit, drop names, misquote people and take things out of context. Makes me want to vomit in my mouth.
Hip thrust similar to the rev leg press???
How about this (other than it does not look like it would take much abuse)? Does this appear to be adjustable enough to get the correct angles?
I don’t like it simply because the running motion has different angles.
Any recommended stand alone leg press, or other device, that would do this exercise correctly and would be affordable (a couple hundred) used?
This seems even more un-natural than the first video I posted?
Un-natural how so?