Read Video Text Below:
Hi, David Weck here. Today, I'm going to teach you an exercise with the BOSU Elite that we call the Money Maker [with the RMT Clubs]. It's like an ultimate primer for better squatting. We're going to also use the RMT Clubs and we're going to be using those as counterweight. I'll show you what the movement is and we'll break it down so you can do it.
Counter weighting with the clubs, I'm going to choke up just about three inches on the handle. My toes are behind what we call the Power Line (we'll give you details about that in a minute). Here's what the move looks like:
I squat down with the counter weight of the RMT Clubs, then I bring one club over, touch the back of my shoulder, bring it down. Then I bring the other club over, touch my shoulder, and bring it back out. Now, both clubs over at the same time, all the way back, back out and then come up.
The result from doing that exercise is instantly better ground-based squats. It's profound; three to five repetitions will do it every time. Let's break this down now.
My toes are behind what we call the Power Line. That Power Line is going to position my foot in this unique dynamic dorsiflexion. Dorsiflex means the heel is lower than the ball of the foot. But, because of the dome shape, the ball of the foot, the medial ball, and the big toe become the highest support. That's where I have to maintain my balance, otherwise I'd have to step off. So this is my athletic sweet spot, ball of the foot and big toe is the athletic sweet spot, I always have to be able to balance through that if I want to have my athletic advantage. The instant I'm out of here, I'm no longer as athletic. I still need to capture the full power of the posterior and the full power of the heel, and that's what the unique form of resistance, created from the shape and firmness of the BOSU Elite, that's what it does. So that's my setup for the feet.
I'm counter weighting with the clubs to help me pull myself down. When you see my lower back, see how it's perfect in this position. The difference between being on the BOSU Elite and being on the ground is that on the ground, eventually at some depth, most people are going to wink that butt, back will round, pelvis will tilt, and that's going to happen at some depth for most people. On the BOSU Elite, we flip it around: we keep the center perfect throughout and start working on the base to teach the base to serve the perfect center as opposed to going out of a perfect center to serve the base like what we do when we're on the ground where we don't have any give to the ground. Up here, it's going to create this neural coordination to maintain perfection and start gaining the range of motion, strength, flexibility and coordination through the base.
So now when I pull it into the depth of this squat, my heels will rise up a little bit. If you're more flexible, the heels will stay lower. If you're less flexible, the heels will be higher. First thing we do is, nice and easy, bring the counter weight back and over the shoulder. As I bring it here, I'm increasing the demands on the hip flexors, which have to pull me down and hold me into position, and the back extensors. So that combination of the hip flexors and the back extensors get really worked when I'm in this position with the counterweights. The RMT Clubs, because of it's leverage, makes it the ideal training vehicle for getting this the best. You can do it with dumbbells, medicine balls or whatever, but it just won't work quite as well.
So with the double club
over, it's super hard and I'm really balancing
my squat. Here, my upper back, my thoracic back, has to work super hard and
I reflexively came out of that because the counter weight was so great.
Again, we always come off of that Money Maker exercise and go right to a ground based test to see: "Did it make the ground based squat more dialed in?". The answer has to be yes, otherwise, we've done something wrong. We want do that, repeat that over and over until that neural coordination results into structural adaptation. You just have organized the body to function better at a fundamental level. The Money Maker squat with the BOSU Elite is one of the best exercises that you could do to improve the quality of your squats and your movement.
