jon-erik kawamoto personal trainer
Lately, I’ve been playing around with and incorporating a few different exercises into my workouts. I’m all about increasing the challenge and effectiveness of each exercise I do and here are 3 exercise variations I’ve been enjoying (getting killed by) lately. But please remember to not push yourself too hard, you don’t want to hurt yourself. If you do then you should consider physiotherpary for the pain, you can check out someone similar to Ealing physiotherapy that could help you if you do hurt yourself. But let’s hope that that isn’t the care. So moving on, here are three exercises that I think you should try:

Kneeling Banded Hip Thrust with Single Arm Kettlebell Press

 
The hip thrust is a great exercise to target your glutes. I was searching some fitness blogs last week and came across Mike Reinold’s double kneeling banded hip thrust video on Bret Contreras’s site. I gave it a try and really liked it. It targets the glutes like no other and serves as a great glute activation exercise.

I was doing some overhead pressing the other day and wanted to make the press more strict. When trainees fatigue, they tend to lean back excessively, dip and press with some leg drive and not activate their glutes.

So, I thought, why not combine these two exercises together. You get amazing glute activation and a challenge to the torso to remain erect while pressing a kettlebell overhead. Plus, you can’t cheat by driving with the legs.

Constant Tension Reverse Crunch

 
The reverse crunch is a great exercise to target the external obliques and “lower abs.” It’s quite difficult for most but the idea is to curl your body into a little ball while anchoring your hands on a moderately heavy dumbbell or kettlebell.

I wanted to make this exercise a little harder, so I started doing them off a slightly elevated surface. The constant tension and localized muscle fatigue was crazy. Keep the eccentric part (down phase) slow and get ready for the burn. Do not swing your legs or kick to perform the rep – use your abs!

Ultimate Sandbag Lateral Bag Drag

 
Almost two months ago I took the DVRT (Dynamic Variable Resistance Training) Level 1 and 2 certification course with Ultimate Sandbag creator, Josh Henkin. It was an awesome course and taught more than just how to lift a bag of sand. Check out my top 3 eye-openers from taking the course HERE.

Anyway, one exercise that stood out to me was the lateral bag drag. I saw this exercise before but never really tried it. To be honest, it looked too easy and didn’t give it the attention it deserved. Boy was I in for a surprise.

If done correctly, this exercise is one of the most challenging core exercises I’ve ever done…ever! The amount of scapular, core and hip stability required to do this exercise correctly is crazy. Ideally, you would slide the Ultimate Sandbag as slow as possible from one side of your body to the other. Obviously friction and the weight of the bag must be taken into account but the goal here is to minimize any body (trunk and hip) movement during the drag. Keep your elbow locked and scapulae protracted in the support arm to fully engage your scapular stabilizers.

Try this exercise for 30-45 second sets. You’ll be sweating bullets.

Well, that’s a wrap.

If you give these a go, let me know how it goes.

Also, new tri-blend American Apparel Dragon Tees (in black) are on order. To save your size, pre-order your tee on my Store Page.

Have a good weekend,

-JK

photo credit: ritavida via photopin cc

I am the oldest client at JKC at 79 years, soon to be 80. I started training at JKC July 2021. I started at JKC because two of my three sons Justin and Michael and their partners Andrea and Keir and one of my doctors recommended JKC. They all train at JKC Now my wife Linda trains at JKC too. My third son Jonathan lives in Kingston. There is a congenial community atmosphere at JKC. People are introduced to each other. There is effective personal training at JKC.

I had been struggling with work-life balance resulting in not exercising or playing hockey as much as I had been doing in the past. In addition to being out of shape, I was starting to experience some back/shoulder issues and realized I needed to make some changes. Around this time, a friend (who was also a client) recommended JKC and that’s when I started!

You really feel part of a community where everyone is welcoming and supportive. You get a program that is designed specifically to achieve your goals, with the ongoing coaching, progress tracking and support required to achieve them. The JKC team are very knowledgeable about fitness and conditioning, and very engaging with everyone to answer questions or discuss anything and everything training related. I also like the flexible scheduling and gym times that work for my schedule (I like early mornings and evenings).

JKC was recommended to me by my good friend Casidhe Dyke. Cas had been training with JKC for a while, and both he and his father had seen great results from the personal training that Jon and Thomas were giving them. I was and still am primarily a triathlete and I’ve always struggled with injuries. I was talking to Cas about incorporating more strength training in my program to try and prevent injuries going forward and Cas suggested that I give JKC a try. I reached out to Jon not long after, and the rest is history! After working with Jon and Thomas for a few months, I was getting stronger, faster, and most importantly, I was staying injury-free. I ended up being able to train the whole season without significant injury and posted a personal best at Ironman Copenhagen in 2018. A big part of that was due to the strength training and coaching I received at JKC.

I’m 29 and I just had my 3rd Liftiversary 🥳 at JKC. I chose to train here because of the great word on the street and the fact that at lululemon, we’re encouraged to support our local community. My day-to-day routine is very busy, and I love showing up and having to think very little about my workout. The vibes are always good, my music choice is usually accommodated, and the bys are incredibly supportive and compassionate, helping me reach my goals (even when I had a broken hand). I also get to be my weird self, and am embraced fully.

My original reason for joining JKC was to get some sage advice to help with my running. I had been looking for awhile, came across Jon, met for an assessment, and was quite happy with how that all went. Apart from the running specific strengthening and conditioning approaches, JKC is different from other gyms as I am a fan of the small group sessions where everyone has their own goals and individualized programs. As well, the run coaching is super. All the coaches go the extra mile to make sure you get the best out each training session. They are fantastic motivators! My favourite memory is deadlifting 330lbs. Making a lot of great friends and meeting some really cool people is pretty high up on that list, too.

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