Proprietary Exercise Program

The Hystrength(sm) exercise program focuses on three forms of exercise:

• ✓ Stability training,
• ✓ Functional training, and
• ✓ Strength training. 

• Stability training is simply performing an exercise in an unstable environment. Doing so will make the smaller stabilizer muscles work harder, thus giving them the opportunity to increase their strength in relation to the larger muscles. For example, doing a dumbbell press lying on a ball instead of a bench makes the rotator cuff muscles (the 4 muscles that support the shoulder joint complex) work harder to keep the elbow in proper alignment. Thus, they will get stronger and more stable. Another good example is doing a single leg mini squat on a dyna disk. The muscles around the ankle have to work very hard for you to stay steady on the dyna disk. Making them work hard like that helps them get stronger…and more stable for other activities outside the gym such as for jogging or, say, playing a game of basketball.

 Functional training, by our definition, is doing a general, whole body movement done under load in a 3d environment to teach the body how to work as a unit. When we do a strength training program, we tend to isolate body parts to focus on making them stronger. For example, doing a dumbbell press will strengthen the chest muscles, chin ups will strengthen the upper back and so on, and it works very well. The problem is that we do not teach those muscles to work together in the real world. We don’t teach the legs to work in conjunction with the core and chest to, say, push a car out of a mud puddle.  Functional exercise does that. It improves coordination, proprioception (body awareness in space)…and it adds a lot of interesting variety to a complete exercise program.  

The final piece to the Hystrength(sm) exercise program is strength training. In our opinion, strength training is the most valuable form of exercise to maintain a highly functioning, youthful physique. Nothing else comes close. Why? quite simply, strength training combats the onset of sarcopenia. Sarcopenia is the loss of muscle mass and strength due to aging.  Loss of muscle mass and strength as we age have many negative issues: daily activities are harder, one is more prone to injury such as hip fractures, sprains, and strains, and loss of  independence are the first that come to mind. Even being active with activities such as hiking or biking does not prevent sarcopenia. You will still lose the valuable fast twitch fibers that produce a lot of force. The form of exercise that slows it down is intense strength training. That is why strength training is the cornerstone of the Hystrength(sm) exercise program. The good news is that you do not need to spend countless hours in the gym to get stronger. Done right, one set per body part can be just as effective as many sets per body part. Knowing this, the Hystrength(sm) workout is so result producing that only two workouts a week, spending 20 to 30 minutes per workout gets the job done.