Was doing these, sans chains, as part of rugby circuit at the weekend. Very very fun, but boy do I hurt now.

Benefits include:

* deeper squat
* better setup on deadlifts
* hip mobility
* knee stability
* hamstring / glute flexibility
* better, stronger kicks in combat athletics

They do look pretty good for hip mobility might start using these before legs.

Definitely give those a go. Cheers GB!

Been doing them for 6 weeks now. Very good indeed.

Decent info here: http://www.dieselcrew.com/build-muscle- ... -mobility/

and here: http://www.defrancostraining.com/ask-jo ... doing.html

health4ni wrote::lol:

Been doing them for 6 weeks now. Very good indeed.

Decent info here: http://www.dieselcrew.com/build-muscle- ... -mobility/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

and here: http://www.defrancostraining.com/ask-jo ... doing.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You've been doing em 6 weeks and didn't share? You bad man

I can trump six months ... by about 7 years

A friend of mine studied martial arts in South Korea and when he came back showed me a few plyometric type movements they do as part of conditionining circuits - these are one of the main ones for legs.

They work really well either as part of a plyo circuit or as part of a leg warm up.

Known about them since Jedd J. and Joe D. mentioned them and have been doing my own hybrid. The reason I say hybrid is because I can get nowhere near the depth they display...

I do a variation of this from time to time during conditioning workouts. I hold one dumbell and touch the floor with it on each rep. If the guy in the video was doing it my way he'd have a dumbell in his right hand.

what you reckon is better the 'sliding' technique or the way shown in that vid?

I'm going to try the sliding version, better for hip mobility apparently.

@Lys: it was in my journal

@Ash: as Karlos says. I do the "slide" version. It is harder but better. BUT if you have flexibility/mobility issues then start out easy with bodyweight on the standard technique.

I did 10 reps each leg with 9kg chains round my neck holding a 16kg kettlebell today. Next time the 20kg KB will be used. I love this exercise.

health4ni wrote:@Lys: it was in my journal

@Ash: as Karlos says. I do the "slide" version. It is harder but better. BUT if you have flexibility/mobility issues then start out easy with bodyweight on the standard technique.

I did 10 reps each leg with 9kg chains round my neck holding a 16kg kettlebell today. Next time the 20kg KB will be used. I love this exercise.

I STILL stand by what I say....cause I haven't been around the forums much in the last 3 months. You gotta consider the ditz of moi.

I did the sliding version today with just BW for the 1st time. I have mobilty issues and i managed them ok. Difficult and painful at first, but by the 3rd set i was doing them fine..still painful though.

As with any session a good warmup and mobility warmup is beneficial. Fire hydrants (plus circles), striders and split squats and lunges will open the hips up and massively improve the cossack squat form.

health4ni wrote:As with any session a good warmup and mobility warmup is beneficial. Fire hydrants (plus circles), striders and split squats and lunges will open the hips up and massively improve the cossack squat form.

Bearing in mind I've only had 3hours sleep in the last couple of days and you may alreadi have postted links....what in tarnation are fire hydranst? I've got images of firemen playing leapfrong in my head...which I'm sure can'tt be write?

Fire hydrants is exercise number two in this mobility sequence:

I keep meaning to do a warmup video and post on youtube & my blog. I will do it just need to get my arse in gear.

Defranco's agile 8 is a great start. I tend to do, and get my clients to do, standard fire hydrants (just lift to side) holding for 1-2 sec at top, then the circles. This is done after some jumping jacks, mountain climbers and other warmup stuff. Works well.

Get that on youtube you tube. Aren't cossack squats ideal as part of a mobility warmup then? I found they worked well today. i think.

^^ yeah, they can be done as part of warmup. But so are BW squats. Depends on your goals. I add weight for the cossacks and do them as an assistance leg exercise. I think they are such an extreme stretch for most people that you need to be very very warm (as in half way through a session) to do them to minimise injury. But then most people have terrible flexibility and can't do them properly anyway.