(upbeat music)
- Hey, Men's Health.
My name is Manny Jacinto.
I am here with Karl Flores, my trainer.
And we are gonna go through our workout today.
I think the reason why I started working out
was when I was younger, it was 'cause of girls, I think.
(Karl laughing) And then as you get older,
it doesn't last because there's gotta be something more
that motivates you to get you into the gym.
For me, that's been just needing to feel comfortable
and strong in my body when I do day-to-day things
like lifting things at home or just playing sports.
I feel like it's super important to just maintain
that higher level of activity as you get older
because we can get really complacent with our bodies.
Exercise can become a secondary
or something that's not as important as we get older.
So, yeah.
I try and work out at least four or five days a week.
Get in some good rest times,
whether it be in the sauna or in a cold plunge.
But working with Karl,
I've really learned to put my body
in different, weird positions so that yeah,
when I'm reaching for something in the top drawer,
I don't get a cramp, which is weird to say, but it happens.
I basically exercise to be able to reach the top drawer.
That's basically the reason why
I'm doing all this painful activities.
(upbeat music)
- So this particular exercise
is actually called the world's greatest stretch.
Rightfully so because it stretches pretty much everything,
from the inside of your thighs.
You get thoracic spine rotation
and a little bit of hip flexor activation
through his left side.
And it's nice because once you're in that seated position,
you're just opening up your hips.
And we're gonna do a lot of hip movement today,
so it's really prepping the body
and activating the right muscle groups
to make sure that he's ready to go.
- Karl and I actually come from a dance background.
And the reason why I started working with Karl
is because he understands and has a base and a foundation
in dance so that we can
still incorporate strength training exercises,
but still have the mobility and flexibility
for other roles or other characters that we take on.
- So up next, what I'm gonna have Manny do
is a side-to-side medicine ball skater.
And pretty much what he's gonna do,
is he's gonna jump side-to-side, loading one leg at a time.
And as you can see, the ball is loading on the outside,
so when he jumps, that ball comes with him,
and it forces him to feel and distribute that weight evenly,
so he knows how to accept the load on the knee that is bent.
It's good for preparation for dance,
also strengthening and creating stability in the knee.
So what we're having Manny do right now,
is called a lateral beast crawl with a band.
When you resist movement,
when someone's traveling in this plane, the lateral plane,
you're getting them used to the ground.
You're getting a lot of sensory feedback
through the hands and the toes.
Which comes in handy when you do things like break dance
and contemporary floor work.
A lot of those things translate
into the athletic performance abilities
and it can help them become better at the craft.
This exercise right here is called
a kettlebell snatch to a windmill.
One of the reasons I like this exercise in particular
because it is an expression of power.
Right into a challenge for the shoulder to create stability
through this motion right here.
And a good stretch for your hips, hamstrings,
and glute activation.
So there's a lot of stuff going on.
And one of the reasons I like it so much,
is because it's one of the few exercises
that challenges all of those things at once.
Just like dance,
there are a lot of complex demands of the sport
and so we have to find exercises
that do a good job of challenging all of those attributes
in one movement.
So, this exercise is a half-kneeling, lateral toss.
One of the reasons I like this so much,
is because it challenges the front foot.
As you can see,
there's a lot of stability that is required
in addition to tossing.
And there's an expression of power on top of that.
So, when you think of dance and quick movements,
you have to do things that challenge that
to better prepare you for the sports.
Like this.
One more.
Awesome.
So the next exercise that we're gonna have Manny do
is called a bridge hold chest press.
One of the reasons I like this
a lot better than your average bench dumbbell press,
is because your body acts as the bench.
It strengthens a lot of muscles
on the back side of your body, like your glutes,
your hamstrings, the back of your shoulders and upper back,
as you're holding your body
to perform that chest press upon.
So it's other layers of the puzzle
that are a little more difficult to complete.
As we wrap up the workout,
we're gonna finish off with some core work
and then conditioning in that order.
What Manny's got going on right now,
he's holding a side plank, but we're adding a twist to it.
Literally, he's having his right arm twist underneath
to get a little bit of thoracic spine rotation.
In addition, we're having his obliques go to work.
His hip flexors are having to hold him up
and he's having to provide a lot of stability
through that shoulder.
So if you zoom up close,
you can really see his shoulders shaking a little bit,
fighting for that stability,
but that's exactly what we want.
What we usually do to finish off Manny's workouts,
is finish off with some form of conditioning
after the core work.
He's gonna be on this bike for a total of six minutes.
30 seconds at a quick pace and 30 seconds at a slow pace.
We got some Kleenex here
because we gotta release those demons before
and during and after maybe.
So we always keep a Kleenex box close by just in case.
- Don't want them. - Don't want the demons.
We don't want the demons.
All right, Manny.
So I got you on my clock here.
Nasal breathing starts now.
And here we go.
Let's start with a quick pace.
Quick pace, quick pace.
Good. Here we go. Here we go.
We're up nice and tall.
Up nice and tall. There you go.
Good, good, good, good, good.
Perfect.
Good
On my watch, final 10 seconds.
Going quick, quick, quick.
Calming down in three, two, and one.
Let's calm it down.
Still going though.
Still going, slow pace.
Still through the nose.
- All right.
Thanks, Men's Health for tuning in.
Please catch "I Want You Back" on Amazon Prime.
Please stay strong, stay healthy,
and hopefully see you guys soon.
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