NY Giants linebacker Kayvon Thibodeaux takes us through the workout he swears by to keep him in top shape and performing at the highest level, on and off the field.
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00:00 [upbeat music]
00:02 What's up y'all, I'm K-Von Thibodeau
00:16 and we're here at Athletic Games
00:18 in Santa Monica, California.
00:19 And we're gonna be getting into a little bit
00:20 of a lower body workout.
00:22 Training is a big part of what I do.
00:27 Playing in the NFL is a very strenuous sport.
00:29 You gotta be in top shape
00:30 and you're going against other guys.
00:31 So it's extremely competitive
00:33 and you gotta be in the best shape possible
00:35 to perform at the highest level.
00:37 - Thibodeau got there, got the ball out,
00:40 scooped it and scored, touchdown.
00:42 - A few goals for today's workout,
00:44 we'll be working on the lower body explosiveness,
00:46 your core, engaging it,
00:48 making sure you're getting all the way down
00:49 and making sure you really hit
00:51 every range of motion possible.
00:53 My main mindset with going into this workout
00:55 is not only to have a stronger lower body,
00:57 but to also transition between workouts
00:59 and through movements as fluid and as smooth as possible.
01:02 Playing football, there's a lot of weight
01:03 and you have to be able to transition that
01:05 from side to side, up and down and forward and back.
01:08 All right, that's enough talking, let's do it.
01:11 So to start, we're gonna warm up with some band work.
01:13 We're gonna start off with 10 squats
01:15 where we're getting our hips activated
01:16 and getting our lower body activated.
01:18 Next, we're working on stability in the knees and the ankles
01:24 and flexibility within those same areas.
01:27 And we're gonna go each leg,
01:28 we're gonna move it out about 10 times
01:30 and then we're gonna do both.
01:31 We're gonna open up our hips and continue to warm up.
01:35 Feel the burn, you feel burn in your glutes,
01:37 in your hips, in your quads.
01:39 Next, we're gonna go into a little bit
01:44 of a deeper hip activation.
01:46 We're gonna have our legs straight.
01:47 This is also working on balance
01:48 and it's working on your core stability,
01:50 making sure that you tighten it up
01:51 and you have balance between your body.
01:53 So we're gonna go 10.
01:55 (upbeat music)
01:57 And now this is definitely work on,
02:00 this is kind of a runner's pose, we call this.
02:03 It's like a high knees.
02:04 You're bringing it up, you're keeping your core stable,
02:06 you're keeping your hips stable,
02:07 you're activating your glutes.
02:09 You're gonna come up and you wanna make sure
02:10 that you're creating that form within your arms.
02:12 You wanna make sure you're in a runner's stance
02:14 so it's always opposite arm, opposite leg
02:15 when you're going up, practicing football movements,
02:18 but while you're still just warming up.
02:20 That's a great warmup.
02:22 Now we can start the workout.
02:24 It's super set.
02:26 So you don't just do one workout,
02:27 you do multiple workouts in conjunction.
02:29 Kettlebell swings.
02:31 This workout is a little bit upper body,
02:33 but it should be mostly lower body.
02:34 So when you go down,
02:36 you wanna make sure you put your hips back, right?
02:38 So it's kind of like RDL motion.
02:40 And then when you come up,
02:41 you wanna pop your hips forward and swing it up.
02:42 You don't wanna bring it higher than your head
02:44 'cause you don't wanna activate your shoulders.
02:46 You wanna activate your core
02:47 and you wanna activate your glutes,
02:48 making sure you're bringing it through.
02:49 We're gonna do eight of these.
02:51 The motion that is getting those hips involved,
02:53 getting that back involved,
02:54 and getting that core involved.
02:55 If you're using a lot of shoulders, you're doing it wrong.
02:57 We're gonna do a sideways lunge.
03:00 We're gonna have one kettlebell.
03:01 I'm using the 45,
03:01 use whichever one you wanna use
03:03 or whatever one you feel comfortable.
03:04 But the point of the workout
03:06 is to not only get as low as possible in the squat,
03:09 but then use power and stability
03:11 to bring yourself back up
03:12 and come to a high runner stance.
03:14 Keeping that core engaged, keeping that hip engaged.
03:16 We're gonna do five of these.
03:18 You should feel it in your hands,
03:19 you should feel grip, but you don't wanna lift it.
03:21 You wanna keep it there and making sure
03:23 that all of the power is coming from your lower body.
03:26 And you wanna make sure that you're transferring weight.
03:28 It's all about being fluid.
03:29 So although the kettlebell's on our right side,
03:31 when we go down to a squat,
03:32 you wanna transfer to your left when you go down
03:35 and then come back up.
03:36 When you're going against bigger guys like myself,
03:38 or you're going against somebody like O'Leiman,
03:40 you gotta understand that your body has to be able
03:42 to control these weights on the way down
03:45 and transfer power on the way up.
03:47 So now we're going into a little bit
03:49 of a full body workout.
03:50 This is gonna be a lunge with a rotation, right?
03:53 So we wanna be able to activate the core
03:55 while still holding the lunge position.
03:58 So you're still doing a lower body workout,
03:59 but you're bringing in that abs,
04:00 you're bringing in the core,
04:02 and you're making sure that you stay stable
04:04 when transferring that power within your upper body.
04:06 And the key is to breathe.
04:07 A lot of people don't understand,
04:08 everybody tries to power through it
04:10 and try to hold your breath.
04:11 That's something that we all do.
04:12 But the more you start to learn to breathe,
04:14 the easier these workouts will become.
04:16 So next, we're moving on to the power play.
04:18 We're still focusing on lower body,
04:20 but this is gonna vibrate while I do some RDLs.
04:22 And while I do these,
04:23 I'm lengthening my lower body, my hamstrings,
04:26 and I'm also creating stability
04:28 within my knees and my ankles.
04:30 I'm creating length between the back of my body
04:32 'cause what people don't understand is
04:33 just as much as you want the front of your body strong,
04:36 you can't miss out on the backside.
04:38 So making sure your glutes,
04:39 making sure your hamstrings,
04:40 make sure your calves,
04:42 and making sure your back
04:42 is all just as strong as your front.
04:44 So next, we're gonna do a little bit more
04:47 of a power workout.
04:48 It's gonna be full body.
04:49 We're gonna do a kettlebell front squat
04:51 where we hold the weight up and we do squats.
04:53 We wanna focus on our depth in our squat
04:56 and we wanna focus on the power coming up
04:58 and our hips coming through,
04:59 making sure we keep our core tight and our butt forward.
05:02 And sometimes I like to even do it like this
05:05 if you're really feeling strong.
05:07 I love to end with a stretch, right?
05:18 We just worked out a lot of the lower body.
05:19 So now we're gonna do a sumo squat
05:22 and we're gonna come up
05:22 and we're gonna make sure we do some good mornings
05:24 like it's yoga.
05:25 So you wanna start with a wide base.
05:29 You wanna go down,
05:30 grab your toes,
05:32 squat,
05:33 bring your arms up, stand.
05:35 We'll do five of these.
05:39 Squat, look up,
05:40 bring your arms up, stand.
05:42 (upbeat music)
05:44 Every time I finish a workout,
05:49 I always like to think on what did I get better at today?
05:52 Right?
05:53 So today we focused on a lot of explosion,
05:54 a lot of lower body and a lot of stability,
05:57 making sure that we kept the strength.
05:58 Although it may have seemed hard,
06:00 make sure you continue, continue to work at it
06:03 as each day it'll get easier.
06:04 But once it gets too easy,
06:06 make sure you keep striving for more greatness.
06:08 (upbeat music)
06:11 [BLANK_AUDIO]