Brave New Exercise

July 22, 2006 5:32 PM

Today at the gym I saw a couple guys (football players, as it happens) doing an exercise I hadn't seen before. They started with a 50lb dumbbell in one hand, bent over towards that side (that quad ~ 45 degree angle to the floor), the dumbbell fairly close to the floor. They then pushed off with that quad, jumped/transferred weight to their other foot so their body was completely under their arm, & did a military-press-like motion with the weight. They did 3 sets of 10 with each arm. What is this exercise called? Also, what is that general style of exercise called (more active/full body than simply isolating a particular group), & what are some other examples of this style?
posted by devilsbrigade to health & fitness (8 comments total)

Forgot to add - I looked through exrx, & didn't see anything similar, although power training seemed the closest. Hoping there's something more specific.
posted by devilsbrigade at 5:40 PM on July 22, 2006

It sounds like you are describing a Push Jerk.



This would be olympic style weightlifting.
posted by Emor at 5:53 PM on July 22, 2006 [1 favorite]

Here's a link to the lift with a barbell instead of a dumbbell.

http://www.slidetour.com/sample1/display/push_jerk/push_jerk.html
posted by Emor at 5:55 PM on July 22, 2006

i've seen a lot of college athletes doing similar kinds of training. i don't know if it has a name, but it's some kind of combination of explosive weight training and plyometrics.
posted by sergeant sandwich at 6:05 PM on July 22, 2006

Not sure about the specific exercise, but the term you're looking for is "compound exercise." The most popular compound exercises are the olympic-type lifts (various cleans and overhead presses) and the powerlifting lifts (the squat, the bench press, and the deadlift).

Exrx is a great site for info about how particular exercises are done and what their benefits are.
posted by rxrfrx at 9:23 PM on July 22, 2006

I've got to just point out that there's a pretty high injury risk with these types of (plyometric and explosive) exercises and they're best learned and practiced with people who know what they're doing.
posted by OmieWise at 8:23 AM on July 23, 2006

I'm taking a plyos class fall quarter, hopefully. I don't generally think of plyos as having weight, but I guess it is a combination.
posted by devilsbrigade at 3:04 PM on July 23, 2006

Did it look anything like this one-armed dumbbell snatch? (link to .wmv video)
posted by chudder at 8:17 PM on January 26, 2007