| Article written on May 26th, 2015 at 12:00pm | Follow Garrett on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram |
The landmine is an awesome piece of exercise equipment that many people have never used or even heard about. It is essentially a barbell with one end secured into a multidirectional, hinged sleeve. By holding one end in the sleeve, it allows freedom of movement with stability in a single direction. It is often beneficial to use the landmine as a progression from barbell lifting to dumbbells. The small amount of stability allows a seamless transition towards exercises that require complete control from the glenohumeral joint, scapular stabilizers, and core.
Usually, I like introducing half and tall kneeling overhead variations with the landmine because we can ensure a stable body position while adding an external resistance that is somewhat supported. Below you will find videos of the tall and half kneeling overhead press. These exercises are extremely common in the majority of exercise programs, but now with a small twist that can help maximize effectiveness and allow you to experiment with different body positions. Remember, not every exercise needs to be done sitting or standing, as tall and half kneeling develop a great amount of lower body and core stability (**Read my article: Alternate Positions to Improve Core Stability with Upper Body Lifiting).
I hope you enjoyed this post. The landmine has become a valuable tool for many of my clients to take the next step in their resistance training programs. If you don’t have an actual landmine where you can stabilize the barbell, try placing the end of the barbell into a corner. This can be just as effective, as long as you make sure it is fixed against the corner and doesn’t damage the walls… Please leave your comments below or on Facebook.
By: Garrett McLaughlin, MS, ATC, CSCS, ART
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Tagged: barbell, core stability, garrett mclaughlin, half kneeling, landmine, tall kneeling, upper body
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