FitFarms Flow Exercise

So here at FitFarms fitness and weight loss retreat we like to try new things and this week we have been playing around with some exercise flows so below is a warm up routine that we used during our recent week at our Derbyshire site, in the beautiful surroundings of Matlock.

A flow, in terms of an exercise routine is a combination of different movements put together to make one big complex movement or flow. Below is a short flow routine for a warm up or mobility exercise and a dumbbell full body flow as the main exercise.. in this routine both exercises are supposed completed slowly and continuously for the sets and reps suggested. Increasing the time under tension (tut) makes the exercise more challenging and controlled as well as making it a fuller workout for each muscle and muscle chain involved so we have also added a tempo suggestion for the exercises...

Mobiliser

Start standing upright pelvic floor engaged.. core muscles braced and glutes taught balanced through the heels without locking the knees

Firstly, roll up onto the balls of the feet in a heel raise movement and hold for 2-3 secs whilst lifting the arms up above the head in a straight arm extension hold in this full stretch for a further 2-3 seconds, from there roll back onto the heels with the knees in a soft position hinging at the hips lean forward keeping the back straight and the arms extended over head this is sometimes referred to as a good morning (be sure to roll back onto the heels and push the hips back over the heels as you hinge to support the back) once you have leant as far forward as possible keeping your back straight and your arms extended over head pause here for 2-3 seconds embracing the stretch through the muscles at the back of your legs (hamstrings) allow your arms to fall down in front of you.

Wrap them around the back of your lower leg (this also supports movement through this position and takes the strain off your back) then round your back off and pull your head in towards your knees pause in this position for 2-3 seconds and then reach your hands to the floor (adjust your leg position to accommodate if necessary but you must be able to touch the floor) from there walk forward until in a full press up position from there lift your hips high into the downward dog position (or an extremely bad press up position) pause here for 2-3 seconds.

From there project your hips down and lift one knee up and out to the side of your body position so that you are resting with one leg extended out on the full press up position and resting on the inside thigh of the other leg at a bent 90 degree position pushing your hip down into the ground and backwards slightly to increase stretch through hip joint whilst extending the back and looking up towards the ceiling pause here for 2-3 seconds then take the arm opposite the bent leg over the top and off to a slightly forward angle ( for example if your right leg was bent forward then your left arm would come up over your head towards the right side of your body whilst coming slightly forward at a 2 0 clock angle) pause here for 2-3 seconds then slowly return through each piece of the movement slowly back to the start and repeat again using the opposite sides the above counts as one repetition repeat for 5 repetitions each time trying to push the stretch in each pause position.

For the main exercise we are going to use 2 dumbbells in a swing and static routine to combine momentum and control it is a full body complex..

Complete 1 rep of each exercise to make a full complex at normal pace if the movement has swing written in brackets it requires momentum so must be done at a usual pace however if not the slower the tempo the harder the movement.

• Stiff leg deadlift
• Dumbbells raise over head (swing)
• Overhead squat/lunge (if you struggle with mobility of the over head squat replace it with the lunge)
• Hammer press
• Over head extension
• Dumbbells lower to hip level (swing)
• Into prone (bent over position) triceps kickbacks
• Straight arm kickbacks
• Bent over row
• Upright row
• Front raise

If your not sure about any of the exercises above check out our YouTube video on mobility and exercise flows and complex