Exercise of the Week: Up & Overs

In the previous post, we referenced an Up & Over as part of a simple conditioning circuit. We received a number of emails asking what an Up & Over is. You may know it by a different name (or not at all) but below is a breakdown of the movement.

We’ve made it an Exercise of the Week because it’s a great exercise to incorporate into your routine for a number of reasons. It builds strength and endurance in the legs, it challenges the cardiovascular system, it can be easily incorporated into a weight-based interval program and it’s very easy to increase intensity. That’s done by speeding up the movement, increasing the height of the bench, increasing the external weight you use, or any / all of the above.

Here’s what it looks like:

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Start by placing one foot on the ground and one foot on a stable, elevated surface. Both legs should be bent when starting out. Extend the elevated leg, bringing the body off the ground. Dynamically switch feet on top of the bench, as if you were hopping from one foot to the other. Lower your body down to a starting position on the opposite side.

The “ground” leg should be bent, as if you were doing an uneven squat. At no point should both feet be on top of the bench at the same time. This is a speed drill designed to promote strength, endurance and conditioning so the idea is to keep a fast but controlled pace.

As I mentioned in the second paragraph, you can easily increase the difficulty by:

1.) Increasing the speed of the movement
2.) Increasing the height of the bench
3.) Increasing the weight you use
4.) Any combination of 1 – 3

The external weight in the example above is a kettlebell. You can also use a weighted vest, dumbbells, sandbags, medicine balls or virtually any weighted implement to get the same effect.

So give the Up & Over a run-through and see what happens. You can try for a set number of repetitions or go for time intervals, such as 60 seconds. Small increases in weight, height and speed make big differences.

Challenge yourself, but don’t overdo it.

Keep training hard!
Jason Klofstad
www.hybridfitness.tv