Benefits of landmine exercises
You can use landmine exercises as a regular part of your strength training. Landmine training allows you to add to the angles and range of motion by the way the barbell is anchored to the ground.
Landmine exercises have various benefits, including improved core strength, increased muscle activation, enhanced balance and stability, easy on your joints, covers all planes of movements and injury prevention.
In this post, we will explore these benefits and provide examples of landmine exercises to help you achieve them.
What are landmine exercises?
Landmine exercises are a type of strength training involving using a barbell anchored to the ground at one end, with the other end of a barbell in your hands.
The barbell can be loaded with weight plates or without, depending on your strength.
There are many different exercises that can be performed using the landmine apparatus. Some common examples of landmine exercises include landmine squats, landmine presses and landmine rows.
Landmine exercises offer a variety of benefits from improving your strength to your overall functional strength.
Core Strength
Landmine exercises are great for engaging your core muscles. When performing a landmine exercise, the barbell is anchored to the ground at one end and lifted with your hands at the other end.
This creates an unstable environment that requires you to use your core muscles to stabilize your body throughout the movement.
Benefits of having a strong core
A strong core can benefit you in many ways, including improved posture, reduced risk of injury and increased athletic performance. Strong core muscles can also make everyday movements easier, such as lifting heavy objects, bending down to pick something up, standing up from a chair and sitting down.
Examples of landmine exercises that target the core
There are many landmine exercises that target the core muscles, including landmine twists, landmine Russian twists, and half-kneeling landmine presses. These exercises are great for building strength and definition in the abs, obliques and lower back.
Increased Muscle Activation
Landmine exercises allow you to activate multiple muscle groups at once. The barbell is anchored to the ground at one end and held at the other end, the lifter must use upper body and lower body muscles to perform each movement.
Benefits of increased muscle activation
By engaging more muscle groups during exercise, you can achieve greater overall strength gains and improve your functional fitness. This can be particularly helpful for anyone who participates in sports that require explosive movements or quick changes in direction, such as football, basketball and soccer.
Additionally, by activating multiple muscle groups during exercise, you can burn more calories and potentially achieve greater fat loss.
The body also requires more energy to fuel the work of multiple muscle groups than it does for isolated movements that only target one or two muscles.
Examples of landmine exercises that activate multiple muscle groups
Landmine exercises that activate multiple muscle groups include landmine squats, landmine presses and landmine rows.
These exercises can be modified and are excellent in targeting multiple muscle groups. A landmine squat engages the quadriceps, glutes and core, while a landmine press targets the shoulders, triceps and chest.
Improve Balance and Stability
Landmine exercises can help improve balance and stability by engaging the core and other stabilizing muscles. The unstable nature of the barbell, which is anchored to the ground at one end and lifted with your hand at the other end, forces you to engage your core and other supporting muscles to maintain proper form in a controlled manner throughout the movement.
This can help to improve overall balance and stability, making everyday movements and activities easier and safer.
By adding landmine training, your body learns to adapt to new stimuli and improve its overall ability to balance and stabilize.
Benefits of improved balance and stability
By improving balance and stability through landmine exercises, you can reduce the risk of falls and other accidents, especially as you get older. Additionally, improving your balance and stability can help your overall athletic performance, allowing you to move more efficiently and with greater control.
Enhanced balance and stability can also help to reduce the risk of injury during other exercises or activities, as the body is better able to maintain proper form and control. This can lead to greater overall fitness gains and improved quality of life.
Examples of landmine exercises that improve balance and stability
Landmine exercises that improve balance and stability includes landmine single-leg deadlifts and single-arm presses. These unilateral exercises can be performed with light to moderate weight to help improve balance and stability before gradually increasing the weight to build strength and power.
Easy on your joints
Having one end of the barbell fixed to the floor provides more of an arching movement versus a linear movement that you find when using free weights.
Benefits of ease on the joints
Landmine exercises are joint-friendly. Depending on the exercise, they can provide less strain to your lower back, knees, and shoulders.
Examples of landmine exercises that help support joints
Using the landmine attachment when performing squats teaches you to stay tall, especially at the bottom of the movement, therefore, you are less likely to use your back when doing traditional squats. Another example, pressing overhead. The landline allows you to position the bar slightly in front of you, which reduces stress on your shoulder joints but still works the muscles.
Covers all planes of motion
The landmine can easily work all planes of motion – frontal, sagittal and transverse. The human body moves in three planes of motion: sagittal (forward and backward), frontal (side-to-side), and transverse (rotational).
Most traditional strength training exercises, such as squats and bicep curls, only work in the sagittal plane, leading to muscle imbalances and limited mobility.
Benefits in covering all planes of motion
Incorporating exercises that work in all three planes of motion can help to activate muscles that may not be targeted with traditional exercises, leading to more balanced strength development and improved functional strength. Additionally, training in all planes of motion can help improve coordination, balance and stability,
Examples of landmine exercises that cover different planes of motion
Once inserted into the landmine tube, you can move a barbell vertically, horizontally, or in a full arc; push, pull, rotate and hit every plane of motion. The landmine allows you to work your entire body and stimulate muscles that don’t get much activation when you stick to conventional lifts.
Landmine lateral raises (frontal plane), which target shoulders and landmine 360 abs target core muscles are a great alternative to the traditional exercises hitting shoulders and abs.
Program landmine exercises into workout routine
When programming landmine exercises into your workout routine, consider the following:
- Choose 1-3 landmine exercises per workout: Landmine exercises can be challenging, so starting with a manageable number of exercises is important. Choose 1-3 exercises that target different muscle groups and planes of motion.
- Warm-up properly: Before starting any landmine exercises, warm up properly to prevent injury.
- Use proper form: Proper form is essential when performing landmine exercises to prevent injury and maximize results. Make sure to use a weight that is appropriate for your fitness level and start with lighter weights until you feel comfortable with the movements.
- Incorporate into a full-body workout: Landmine exercises can be incorporated into a full-body workout or added to a specific muscle group workout.
- Progress gradually: As you become more comfortable with landmine exercises, you can gradually increase the weight and number of sets and reps.
Adding landmine exercises to your routine has many benefits, whether they serve as alternative or additional exercises. Start where you are comfortable and add on from there.