The Propeller Exercise From Dopamineo

 Always finding ways to train so I can get the most benefit out of a workout. Off and on with the Dopamineo Band, doing circuits and HIIT Workouts hits the spot in many ways to tackle my cardio, coordination, agility and explosiveness. One exercise in particular I held off on doing until recently was the Propeller exercise. I've seen several videos of people who own Dopamineo and other athletes do this exercise at various speeds and style and I figured it was time for me to learn it. 

The reason why I held off on it for a long time was because for one, it's a complex movement that hits muscles where I was having my sciatica and was afraid of getting hurt again because of the way the band moves and the way you have to move with it. The second reason was because I wanted to get good at some of the other exercises that were complex as well but not as difficult coordination wise. Once I felt I was good enough to where it felt automatic, I started putting effort into this crazy looking exercise.

The Propeller Exercise in itself is a workout just to not only get the movement right but it also hits many muscles and there's a reason many wrestlers use it to condition their bodies. It does like a Duck Under like move where you shift the body and can duck under an opponent for a takedown and/or utilize the Fireman Carry Technique. Take it slow to get an idea on how you unify the band and your body together to work in sync. Start speeding up little by little as you get better and before you know it, it makes you look like you're spinning. At a certain clip, it becomes quite the conditioning exercise and will get you breathing hard. 

Before I did a workout with it, I tested the waters and did what I could with it. It can be a bit of a brain teaser because there's many things coming into play with the arms, the shoulders, the slight squatting, the turning of the torso, working with the band instead of against it. Once I got going, it tested my breathing because of the intensity. You don't stretch the band to the point where you can barely move, you get it just long enough to where it creates resistance but also is in a "relaxed" type state yet not "loose". In the workout, I did a circuit of exercises of my usual 10 reps of 5 exercises and did this last. Did a total of 100 reps with the Propeller and out of all the exercises I did in that workout, that was the hardest one and the one that tested me the most. It is a fun exercise once you get the idea of the mechanics of it. It's not easy and I still need practice on it but it is getting better. 

In the video below, I took the band out on a windy day at a park behind a church down the block from the house. It took a few takes, not because of the wind or anything, I had a good set up with my phone and able to keep it steady with one of my bags, it was the movement itself along with angles, speed, not messing up smacking myself and doing reps to get the amount of time to show it for more than a few seconds, I really wanted to show the progress without making a blooper out of it. I hate messing up. After several takes and several minutes of doing the exercise, it turned into a mini workout cause it wore my ass out. This was the end result and like I said, it still needs work but in time, it's going to be a hell of an exercise to work with.

Some people do this movement with a twisting motion of the torso, some just twist the arms, I'm still figuring out which way to go on the up position at the end. It's all about experimenting and having fun. Don't forget to grab one yourself or for your athletes if you work with wrestlers, MMA Fighters, BJJ, Judo or other combat sports. These are also great for training and playing with Kids. There are bands for little ones as young as 4 years old. Great piece of equipment to get kids moving and playing. Play along with them to create bonding experiences. Get a cool discount when you punch in POWERANDMIGHT at checkout. 

Why Do Only 10 Rounds And 500 Reps???

 The majority of the time I do my Dopamineo Circuit Training, I do my best to complete 10 rounds of that circuit in the shortest time I can. With little to no rest other than marking off a set, I would cruise through it and focus mainly on technique and breathing. Rarely would ever go past 10 rounds like 12-15 just to add some zest or to test my conditioning. Why do I pick only ten rounds, why not go for 20 or 15 a lot of the time for that matter? When I used to do circuit work with bodyweight training, I worked into the system of Darebee's protocol to test myself. The idea is to reach 7 rounds and your rest between sets was 30 seconds to 2 minutes. Because some of those workouts were fairly easy to get through with little rest like under 30 seconds, I wanted to push myself a little further and do an extra 3 rounds to feel satisfied. It became my thing.

The total reps of my Dopa Workouts or Circuits comes out to 500 Reps these days. Why did I choose 500 specifically? It mainly has to do with the rep standard from doing Squats and Step Ups (which in most cases with the Step Ups). I figured, why do 500 of one exercise when you can add variety to multiple exercises and total it up? I'll still do 500 Step Ups within 20-25 minutes when I'm in the mood for it and ever since I healed up, I've done it a few times in succession. On a few occasions with the Dopa Band, I've gone up to 1000 total reps doing 5 Exercises for 20 reps each and do the 10 rounds that way. Those times are when I'm really ambitious and want to crank up my cardio. 

I enjoy these types of workouts because they don't take very long, they're effective in getting in solid conditioning and when you use the same equipment as some of the best wrestlers in the world from MMA to the Olympics, it gives you goosebumps. They're fun, you get to be creative and do the same drills or at least in a modified way that world class athletes do is feeling like you're a part of something and enjoying benefits that are pretty damn incredible. I know I can't do the same exact same style of training that these men and women do and it's not something I wish to pursue but it's inspiring and learning some of the exercises done in Freestyle & Greco-Roman along with amplifying your fitness to a level where you get to do other great things in life. 

I don't go as fast as I did before, this time around with the Band, I focus a lot more on technique and my breathing that I didn't do before because it was one of the factors of me getting hurt and not paying attention. It happens and it's my own damn fault. I was good and can really go but my awareness wasn't where it should've been and I focused too much on the timing and didn't pay attention to my body the way I needed to. It was a tough lesson and I paid a hefty price for it. My speed is still there but I stopped forcing it and although my cardio was good before, I find it's way better now because I pay attention to my breathing and relax more into the movements themselves. The more I let myself relax, the better it got and my movements are far more efficient then in previous workouts. The speed comes naturally and my technique is far better especially in certain exercises where you work with the hips and working movements that flow with you. 

I love doing my 10 Round & 500 Rep protocol type workouts, they work for me and I keep the exercises to a more basic level and work with variations that have me flowing throughout. The time I go through circuits is never the same and I don't worry about how fast I'm going anymore. The length of a workout ranges from 10-20 min in most cases, if I want to do more rounds on a certain day, it might go up to 25-30 minutes but I'm happy regardless. The goal is to consistently get 10 Rounds and 500 Reps total. 5 Exercises, 10 reps each and work with it. If I want to double the reps and go for 1000 total that day, cool but it's not a priority. The idea is to move with efficiency and working with technique, your coordination and what can be done with intensity in a good amount of time. 

Get yourself some bands and get a discount on top of your order on the house. Enter the code POWERANDMIGHT and get 10% OFF. Be amazingly awesome and have fun with these. Get the kids one so you all can train together.    

Workout System With Dopa Band That Promotes Heavy Conditioning

I do my best to keep my workouts to a minimum for maximum results that I can produce. Never waste time doing things just for saying you did something. I want to accomplish the best workout I can to get in better shape little by little each time. When your life can be a whirlwind at times and the people in your life depend on you, it's important to take the time to make an effort on your training so you can be strong and fit for those that need you. 

Experimenting with the Dopa Band has been wonders and testing out workouts has been awesome. One of the things I've come up with to get the most out of my workouts lately with the Band is to do interval training by going for a good period of time while resting only half the amount. This has led to doing a 30/15 For 4 Protocol that I enjoy doing because I can go hard, rest half the time and get in a few rounds per exercise to get whatever I need done. The idea is to work an exercise for 30 seconds, rest for 15 and repeat for a total of 4 rounds. Pick up to maybe no more than 6 exercises (you can do more if you want but the point is to be efficient and getting a workout in within 20 minutes or less) and do what you can with them. 

The most common exercises I would do are rows, chest presses (sometimes adding a squat to make it a combo), waves, sprints and lunges but also at times I'll throw in Bear Crawls, Duck Walks and shooting drills like in wrestling to really tackle the lungs. I'll even throw in the Sandbell doing a Clean & Press or a Slam by combining either a sprint or Bear Crawl to it. Doing this type of training a couple times a week will be more than enough, hell you're working more than resting and testing the limits of your body's abilities. Be sure to recover well between workouts and maintain a good level of mobility and flexibility training. This can feel like hell and it's very intense. 

I've done a few workouts with this protocol, even doing one after "warming up" with a Deck Of Cards Animal Workout that takes me roughly 16 min to complete. Do the deck, take a few breaths and went into the Dopa Workout with a vengeance. Went hard but not to push to the limit of a possible injury, you're not trying to break records here. I've only done that the one time and I wanted to sleep it off afterwards, the endorphin high was crazy. I rested as little as possible between exercises of the Dopa Workout only to mark off a set or putting tying the band around my waist. The most rest I would take is around a minute or so. 

I'm no wrestler or even a world-class athlete but I do admire the training these guys go through and want to test myself to see what I can do. I never thought I'd be doing this type of training in my late 30's going into my 40's, if I was able to do these back in high school or in my 20's, who knows what kind of shape I'd be in but certain things have led you on a path to this point and I'm able to train at a level most people in my age group think is fucking nuts. It's heart breaking seeing people my age or younger dying because of the dumb shit they put themselves through or what they put in their bodies to create this illusion of health at a rate that's scary to think about. All I care about is doing the best I can while lessening the amount of injuries. We can't 100% avoid an injury but we can reduce the chances by doing things in a smart way while challenging ourselves. The band has done wonders for me and I love what it can do to make workouts more interesting and taking less time to train for maximum results. 

Get one yourself or a bundle deal for friends, family, group classes, youth groups, wrestling/MMA school or whatever and take in the benefits of being able to train with top quality equipment that you can carry in a bag. Use my discount code POWERANDMIGHT to get 10% OFF your order. Train hard, train with intent and kick ass in whatever sport or fitness endeavor you're in. We all deserve to be in great shape. Be amazingly awesome. 

A Dopamineo Band Analysis

 

With the recent articles on these bad ass bands, let's take a look as to why they're top quality and the differences between these and other resistance bands on the market with my own spin on things and the research through trial and error.....

Right now there's about 5 different types of Bands on the market at the moment and all have their unique qualities and styles that are useful. Because of the variety, the choice to pick one isn't always easy and it can be confusing as to what to choose from. Most of my career in fitness when it comes to bands has been from Lifeline and I will always cherish those especially with what they've done to keep me in shape in all these years. That doesn't mean I'm now exclusive to them. Because of the Dopa Band recently, it has given me a new perspective on resistance band training and the type of training that keeps me fresh and interested.

I want to give you a hand in how to find not only the type of band for you but to give you tips and compare notes to these bands and the others. Some bands are traditional tubing, loop and power type bands (such as the lifeline format, X3 and others). These mostly target the muscle groups with workouts normally associated with gym type training where you can mimic almost any exercise in the gym just about about anywhere you want. With that said, in comparison to Dopa Training, although different, there's some lack in versatility with other bands. This band targets everything and can create any workout you want without needing different bands to choose from. You can of course but variety is more packed into the Dopa Bands than other bands that I've even used.

The material in the Dopa Band is a bit different than other bands, these are laced with silicone and pack a wild punch with their durability and lasting effects as you train with them. I've had the lifeline bands snap on me a time or two and it doesn't feel good trust me unless you got some S&M thing going on. With the Dopa Band, you can stretch it pretty damn long and its flexibility and time tested strength is just unbelievable. There's a podcast on Dopamineo's Youtube channel where wrestlers and other athletes test guests on the Blue Short Band (which is mainly used for stretching purposes) to see if they can snap this freaking thing. These men and women are freakishly strong and as far as I know, no one has been able to snap the band. Even shorter ones that are more likely to snap are still almost impossible to break. That's how crazy strong these bands are. Hell, I've even tested this and I can't do it and I've done some nutty strength feats. 

Now when it comes to cost effectiveness, I've always looked to saving a buck or two which isn't a bad thing but when bands snap on you and you have to replace them after a while, it can get steep depending on the type of bands you get but with the Dopa Band, the chances of it snapping especially if you use certain things to keep it flexible and strong are so freakishly slim it's jaw dropping. Some of the best wrestlers in the world use these frequently in their training and do all sorts of exercises and hook ups that should make it snap within months if not weeks like with other bands yet they don't. It's just awesome how bad ass these bands can take a beating. In the long run, the Dopa Band is more cost effective than even the lifeline bands I use. I can relax a bit and not worry about this band breaking on me as opposed to being cautious about using something like the TNT Cables or the Chest Expander, they're great in and of themselves no question and have used them for years but I always had to be extra careful to stretch them to the limits that is only just enough otherwise, I get a stinger in the arm, chest or leg. 

When it comes to providing videos, you would have to find videos for specific bands which isn't all that hard to find or figure out or buy specific videos either digitally or on DVD for that particular band like say videos for the X3 or the Chest Expanders. With the Dopa Band, you're given just about 300 Workout Videos and Exercises that provide every muscle group imaginable with just the one band. In comparison even coming from me, there's no contest in that. You can find lower body, upper body, core, flexibility, strength, endurance, conditioning and sports specific training all in one shot with this band. I can do quite a bit with the TNT Cables and Chest Expander but you can't utilize wrestling drills, jumping jacks, sprints, crawling, sprawling, kick throughs, jumping exercises or battle rope type exercises with them. That's just the tip of the iceberg with the Dopa Band. With that in mind, the Dopa band is that versatile and can give you a complete workout just about anywhere, if you used additional bands like the ones I just mentioned, you've got an arsenal that can give you a crazy strong and powerful physique, the type of conditioning that makes others' jaws drop and have a wealth of knowledge of exercises very few can possess. 

If you go with cheaper bands, that's awesome but either by itself or as an addition, the Dopa Band will take you to places in your training you didn't think existed and put not only a new stamp on the realistic functional training but have the opportunity to train (even moderately) what some of the greatest athletes in the world use to keep themselves healthy, in peak condition and developing a physique that can just as go as it does look good. I still use my other bands which I love and adding the Dopa Band is the cherry on top of the most bad ass cake you can imagine. If you think that was enough, I've got a cool Discount for you when you make an order, get 10% OFF  when you punch in POWERANDMIGHT at the checkout (which can also deduct price with discount bundles as well). These are the highest quality I've ever come across and I don't regret one bit getting this, it has been a game changer and it has helped me get in better shape than in the last few months with the already good shape I'm in. 

Be amazingly awesome and train with the best guys. It doesn't disappoint.