Landmine, the only tool you'll ever need.... pt2
/If you’re one of our handful of dedicated fans, you know how much I love using the “landmine” (LM) as a training tool. If it were up to me, it would be a mandatory training tool in all gyms. It’s versatility remains unmatched, the adaptations experienced with landmine training are second to none, and you look cool using it!
I start my persuasive piece of landmine training by saying that everything mentioned above is a little dramatic. Of course there are other tools out there that do things the landmine could never do. Like, you can’t tow a landmine, you can’t use it as timing device, etc. But, in regards to free-weight training modalities, it is by far my favorite tool.
The Physics
In school, you learn that there are 3 classes of mechanical levers named pretty appropriately I’d say: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd class levers. What defines the class of the lever is the placement of 3 key components, and that is the locations of the fulcrum (joint/ pivot point), resistance (load), and effort.
I’ll save the physics lesson for another day, and I’ll give you the answer to which class lever the landmine is… most of the time, and that is a 2nd class lever. A 2nd class lever system places the load in-between the effort and fulcrum. Think of a wheelbarrow, your load is what’s in the wheelbarrow, you provide the effort lifting the load with the attached handles, and the wheel is the joint/ pivot point.
Why is this important? Well, lever systems provide us with either more or less mechanical advantage. The 2nd class lever is the most efficient lever of the three when it comes to lifting loads. This means that you can lift the most weight, with the least amount of effort compared to the other lever types.
Try lifting 200lb bag of dirt in your hands, compared to placing the dirt in a wheelbarrow, tell me if you feel a difference! But enough with this physics stuff, how do we apply in the weight room? Why not just lift dumbbells, and barbells like everyone else?
The Movements
Here are some movement examples :) If you would like some ideas on how to apply landmine movements to your training routine.
The Feels
Dumbbells and barbells are great, but they don’t provide all of the necessary “feel” to a movement that sometimes athletes need. They also may begin to muscle through a movement, which is not what we want when your goal is athletic performance.
The ever ambiguous term of “feel” is used as feedback mechanism. The landmine is free to pivot in any and all planes, but it’s also on a track. Athletes are free to perform pretty much any movement you can think of, but when completed “incorrectly” they often times lose control of the LM or they run into the LM! One of the benefits of free-weight training is the fact that you are required to control loads in space without the assistance of machines. However, many novice athletes have trouble doing just that; experienced athletes learning new movements will need guidance when learning new movements as well.
So, to avoid sticking athletes on a machine to train a muscles, or just throwing them a dumbbell and saying figure it out, the LM provides a safe middle ground that gives the athlete an opportunity to train the movement, while being guided on a track.
That mechanical advantage can play a huge role in providing the athlete with a stimulus that is more conducive to human movement. Hardly ever do we want athletes to muscle through a movement. We want athletes to move cleanly in and out of positions. The LM gives us the opportunity to put on a little more weight, on a freely-moving track, so athletes can complete the movement with little to no errors.
There will be a part 3 because as they say, the sequel is never as good as the original, but the trilogy makes the series.
If you made it this far, you might as well check out our instagram page (we post this stuff all the time)
If you’re still here you must really be bored, but to claim your reward, contact coach Nate at nate@tpstrength.com.
