Several years ago, X Games BMX Park pro underwent bilateral knee surgery. During recovery, he followed a strength and conditioning program based around compound movements to build strength and prevent injuries. This is Darden's program.
"This is my man cave! I turned my one car garage into a gym cause my wife and I were expecting our daughter and I had bilateral knee surgery scheduled for the future," says Darden. "I follow a simple strength and conditioning program 4 days a week that is based around 4 compound movements: squats, dead lifts, shoulder press and bench press."
"In strength training, the squat is considered the king of exercises. Squats are a compound, full body movement. It builds muscle in your entire body. It maintains mobility and balance and is a functional exercise that makes everyday life easier. It will boost your sports performance and prevent injuries."
"Dead lifts are another compound movement that works your entire body from head to toe. It creates real functional strength that we use everyday, which is picking things up. Plus nothing makes you feel more badass then ripping hundreds of pounds off the ground."
"Everyone has done push-ups at some point in their life. Adding rings to the mix is a great way to add more muscles used because of the stabilization effect."
"Rowing is a non-impact exercise that works all major muscle groups. You can get on this bad boy and cruise it or absolutely destroy yourself in just a few minutes. I use the rower for intervals and circuit training."
"The log clean and press is something I recently added to my program to switch things up from the conventional barbell clean and press. This movement is to be done explosively and is really a full body exercise that emphasizes the shoulders."
"Pull-ups are by far the best upper body exercise. If I had to pick one upper body movement for the rest of my life, pull-ups would be the one. You can progress at pull-ups by adding more reps or weight."
"Not only will kettlebell swings give you an incredible cardio workout – you will also build strength throughout your entire body. You use nearly every muscle in your body while doing kettlebell swings. This will boost you functional and overall strength."
"Mobility is a must for everyone and the foam roller is a poor man's massage therapist. They are cheap and do the trick for breaking up tight muscles. You will improve flexibility, function, performance and reduce injuries. A lot of people have lower back problems and it is due to tights muscles in their hamstrings and glutes, foam rolling could be the solution."
Every person riding BMX should probably be foam rolling out their IT band. You might not realize it, but it's more than likely tight and sore.
"This is not a bodybuilding routine or sports specific workout routine for BMX. It's just a simple program that will build functional strength that we use in everyday life and help prevent injuries," says Darden. And this is but one of the results.
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Several years ago, X Games BMX Park pro underwent bilateral knee surgery. During recovery, he followed a strength and conditioning program based around compound movements to build strength and prevent injuries. This is Darden's program.
"This is my man cave! I turned my one car garage into a gym cause my wife and I were expecting our daughter and I had bilateral knee surgery scheduled for the future," says Darden. "I follow a simple strength and conditioning program 4 days a week that is based around 4 compound movements: squats, dead lifts, shoulder press and bench press."
"In strength training, the squat is considered the king of exercises. Squats are a compound, full body movement. It builds muscle in your entire body. It maintains mobility and balance and is a functional exercise that makes everyday life easier. It will boost your sports performance and prevent injuries."
"Dead lifts are another compound movement that works your entire body from head to toe. It creates real functional strength that we use everyday, which is picking things up. Plus nothing makes you feel more badass then ripping hundreds of pounds off the ground."
"Everyone has done push-ups at some point in their life. Adding rings to the mix is a great way to add more muscles used because of the stabilization effect."
"Rowing is a non-impact exercise that works all major muscle groups. You can get on this bad boy and cruise it or absolutely destroy yourself in just a few minutes. I use the rower for intervals and circuit training."
"The log clean and press is something I recently added to my program to switch things up from the conventional barbell clean and press. This movement is to be done explosively and is really a full body exercise that emphasizes the shoulders."
"Pull-ups are by far the best upper body exercise. If I had to pick one upper body movement for the rest of my life, pull-ups would be the one. You can progress at pull-ups by adding more reps or weight."
"Not only will kettlebell swings give you an incredible cardio workout – you will also build strength throughout your entire body. You use nearly every muscle in your body while doing kettlebell swings. This will boost you functional and overall strength."
"Mobility is a must for everyone and the foam roller is a poor man's massage therapist. They are cheap and do the trick for breaking up tight muscles. You will improve flexibility, function, performance and reduce injuries. A lot of people have lower back problems and it is due to tights muscles in their hamstrings and glutes, foam rolling could be the solution."
Every person riding BMX should probably be foam rolling out their IT band. You might not realize it, but it's more than likely tight and sore.
"This is not a bodybuilding routine or sports specific workout routine for BMX. It's just a simple program that will build functional strength that we use in everyday life and help prevent injuries," says Darden. And this is but one of the results.
