ESSENTIAL EXERCISES
Five foundational movements in the Dragon’s Back training plan
1. HAMSTRING WARM-UP ON THE GHD This exercise was to get the body ready and primed for lower-body sessions (max and dynamic). It hits the key running areas: spine, core, hips and hamstrings.
COACH SAYS “Do whatever tempo feels good,” Adam told me. “Go for 10-15 reps and 2-3 sets, but if you feel good after 1 set, that’ll do.”
2. BANDED BOX SQUAT (WIDE STANCE)
Our plan was to have a wide stance (like a sumo deadlift stance), and ensure my hips went backward first, as this would engage the glutes, hamstrings, abductors, adductors and all-supporting hip muscles. The bands were programmed for multiple reasons: to teach me to keep pushing through the exercise, to provide a different stimulus, and something called ‘overspeed eccentrics.’ The bands end up driving you down at a faster rate (hence the term overspeed eccentric), so it helps you drive up (the concentric phase) at a faster rate, increasing speed. This is a great way to train greater force production.