Last Wednesday, I was invited by Golds Gym Philippines to experience training under RIP:60 Founder, Jeremy Strom. For those who don’t know, RIP:60 is a workout that makes use of their own technology, suspended straps that can rotate. Its proposition is that it can get you RIPPED in 60 days with exercises that last 60 seconds each. I already met Jeremy last year for their launch of the RIP:60 and literally died with his workout. I don’t think I was prepared for it mentally lol. So this time around, I made sure I came in prepared.

First thing that Jeremy asked me was about the condition of my body. I told him that I had a very recent shoulder tear and mild rotational scoliosis. The first thing he did with my workout was to activate my muscles in the lower part of my body — my hips, legs and feet.

He asked me to swing each leg from left to right and noticed the imbalance right away. My left leg was much tighter than the right one and my right leg is weaker than the left one. Apart from the fact that I use my left leg more often for running spikes in volleyball, he said another thing that causes this imbalance is my scoliosis. This is why I have to do exercises that would neutralize the movement of my legs to make me more stable when it comes to footwork, jumps and landings. After the warm-up exercise, he asked me to do some planks with one leg moving sideways then downwards, and then repeat with the other leg. He told me that this is good for my scoliosis too, to be able to align my body and train it to work both legs equally.

After the planks, he asked me to stand up from a sitting position while holding but without pulling his hands. This enables my body to get the force from my center, and not lean on one side for strength. Again, this is training for my body to move neutrally. He also noticed that my resting stance is usually leaning on one leg and he corrected this by telling me to be more conscious and always stand with balanced weight on both legs.

After the activation and core workout, we proceeded on to loading and control exercises. Jeremy called it “loading” but here in the Philippines, we call it “buwelo” lol. He explained to me that most of the time, we are concerned about developing our explosiveness and power that we sometimes forget that control and stability is as important, especially for people like me who have instability problems. He told me that I should correct these movements first before I proceed to developing my power so I could have the right foundation.

First thing we did were jumping and leg exercises. I stood on like this (picture above) then jumped to land on a lunging position. I went back up to a central stance and jumped again to a lunging position with the other leg. The most important thing about this exercise is the balanced landing. If I can land better after spikes, I can be faster with transition from blocking to spiking.

Then, we moved on to the arms and core. Jeremy asked me to pull the rope while moving side-to-side without letting my arms veer away from the center. This develops the strength of my core by applying resistance that I should control with my arms and my core.

After that we mimicked the spiking position, then Jeremy asked me to pull on a rubber band, “load” for my spike and come back with my arm slowly. He emphasized on “slowly” so I can work on my control. He said that “loading” is very important to give power to the spike. Actually, he was right with this one because our coaches have us do this all the time. This is good strengthening, especially for those with shoulder problems.

We ended our session with a bunch of recovery exercises with the Power Plate. The Power Plate sends vibrations throughout your body that can help with blood flow, if I’m not mistaken. He asked me to touch my toes and turned on the machine for 1 minute. After that he asked me to step down, and do the same position. I noticed that my reach improved. The Power Plate helps with flexibility.

After the reach exercise, he asked me to lie down and raise one leg up, then the other after a minute. This was another core exercise that sent vibrations to the back. It felt so good!

We ended recovery with this stretching exercise. This one helped me release the tightness in my legs and glutes. According to my research, the Power Plate enhances warm-up and cool-down exercises through vibration training. To better describe the effects of vibrations to the body, I found a chart that can explain it all.

“Effective acceleration training through whole body vibration offers a host of benefits ranging from immediate improvement in blood circulation, to a variety of other measurable outcomes such as: increased muscle strength and flexibility, improved range of motion, decreased cellulite, increased bone mineral density, reduced pain and soreness and faster recovery.”

Source: http://blog.fitnesstown.ca/good-vibrations-is-vibration-training-a-natural-way-to-train/

It was a quick yet very scientific training that I received from Jeremy Strom. What was good about it was that it was modified towards the needs of my body, which was mainly stability and mobility because of my mild rotational scoliosis. Stability, according to Jeremy is the ability to be stable with movements. Mobility, on the other hand, is how fast you can move from one stance to another. He told me not to forget to work on these two things because they are the foundations of power and explosiveness. Jeremy’s observations were actually very close to that of my previous trainers. They already noticed that I needed to work on my stability to lessen the steps I took right from landing to spiking. I just didn’t give much attention to it. Now I know the things that I should focus more on when it comes to my workouts.