Rotation/Anti-Rotation
Key Takeaway
First responders and tactical populations should include some form of rotational and anti-rotational work into their strength and conditioning. These can be loaded with different intensities/implements depending on the training phase and/or experience level of the Hero. These movements can be conducted with lighter resistance within a warm up, done with heavier load in assistance blocks, or even some variations can be incorporated into conditioning sessions once the technique is mastered.
First responders and tactical populations should include some form of rotational and anti-rotational work into their strength and conditioning.
These can be conducted with lighter resistance in a warm up, heavier loads in assistance blocks, or even conditioning sessions once technique is mastered. This also includes rotational throws.
Why?
These movements can help fill strength gaps we didn’t know we had, and teach us how to tense our midsection while also using our hip musculature/glutes. These movements often work our entire body from our feet to our head.
The Job
First Responders and tactical populations often need to move under load for long time periods and in odd ways. This can be observed in tactical populations who has already conducted several movements nonstop through the night now has to sling their 80-100lb ruck sack onto their back to continue mission- often while under almost no sleep.
For our patrol officers, who at times will go from a seated position in their patrol car and then will at a moments notice need to move full speed to burglary in progress, foot pursuit, fight someone into custody, etc. All of this will be under load with odd movements/angles where our lower back, hips, and abdominal muscles do a substantial amount of work to hopefully keep us stable and healthy. One way to address this (outside of proper training and technique) is rotational movement.
How
The videos below shows various rotational movements that can be incorporated into your training with minimal equipment. For those that have trouble finding a good cable machine or location to work the push/pull movements you can also break these up into a single arm row or press. You won’t get the exact same feeling as the weight or tension trying to “unwind” you, but it is still a great movement.
There are many ways to do this push/pull movement, but regardless I want you to think about trying your best rotate on an axis as if your spine and head is fixed on a pole. As you rotate, push and pull at the same time, and take a moment to flex the rear legs glute, your abs, really everything, as you finish the movement. These can be done with some speed like I do in the video, but also done slowly to really create a ton of tension throughout the body. You’ll feel these in your abs, your hips, and even the upper body.
This is another variation with just a row. In this one we rotate away from the rack or cable stack. If you load these up and pause for a moment as you finish the row, you’ll feel everything from your feet to your head trying to hold you in place from being pulled over.
With this one we combine a few movements by doing a low row with both hands, and then rotating a away into a two handed press- ideally in one smooth motion. Again, these can be done with speed, or slowly like I am doing in the video.
This is a compilation ever several movements we’ve used or will use in our Human Performance Program. Even with limited equipment you can work in variations of these exercises in some capacity in your programming. I would just recommend you start with a moderate tempo or speed, weight/resistance, and volume. Any questions please reach out.
