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Hi, I'm David Weck and I'm going to teach you a body weight exercise today called the "Wind and Whip." It looks like 'this.'
It's an upward downward movement with the hands, and I'm rotating and spiraling them with supination and pronation, and I will go extremely fast, and then I'll do opposite sides.
So, why this exercise is so effective is because it spirals and rotates the arms and the hands in perfect accord with how the musculature is arranged. So the origins and insertions have these spiraling patterns, and this supination up and pronation down helps wind the body up and contract all those muscles with that spiraling action, and then whip them down so that you can get that maximum possible speed with this fluid rotation. So the pecs, the lats, the biceps, the triceps, the deltoids, everything is getting this development that helps you integrate the action and movement of your arms with the core (the center of your body). So it helps you run faster, throw harder, punch harder, all those things because you're getting that fluid congruent rotation [Functional Strength Training].
Now, to do it, what I like to do is think of folding the fingers as opposed to grabbing the fingers. Now, I want to just fold the fingers and as I supinate, I just want to fold the fingers up softly and I bring both hands together to my center line. I'm not grabbing with the fingers, because that puts the tension that I don't want. I just gently fold them. So, I fold up, come to the center line, about at the level of my chin (I can come up higher or lower, whatever feels best), then I'm going to whip them down like I'm whipping water off. I'm letting them pronate and I'm spreading the fingers just gently. So, it's a whipping action. Supinate up, whip them down. And I find that wind up, you'll feel the lats wind up, you'll feel the pecs wind up, you'll feel the biceps wind up, you'll get get tension through the shoulders, and then whip it down. And that movement, you want to find the groove of it, and then you can go extremely fast coordinating that, and it's metabolic. You will feel the burn or the pump happen relatively fast and it will define the arms, help define the shoulders, and it's going to give you an aesthetic benefit in addition to a metabolic benefit, but a functional benefit underneath it all.
So, another variation on this is you go opposites. So a wind and whip in 'here,' but what I think about is the knuckle of the middle finger comes right up to the cleft of the chin. So I'm coming up to the center line, and I'm whipping this one down, equal and opposite, whip them up and down.
Now, many sprinters use this strategy when they're running. Carl Lewis used to do it, many of the world's best have done it, Tyson Gay. You'll see different sprinters exhibit different strategy with the hands, but this is something that many of them have done to run incredibly fast times. So, the idea behind this exercise is you get that congruent rotation, and then in application, even if you don't do it, your body now knows how to utilize those muscles and keep congruent rotation aspects, because there are no straight lines through the body.
So, here's how I recommend doing this exercise. Really pattern it slow and get that movement down so you've got the framework. Then, pick a 30 second time frame and use 10 second blocks to gradually pick up the speed. Feel the lats winding up and catching. So, you're moving super super fast. Keep your core nice and stable and 30 seconds, heart will be beating. You'll feel the pump because it's about speed. And speed is what kills. Speed is power. For that exercise, it's simple, simple, simple, but it's incredibly effective. It has an incredible foundation for upper body movement, better tie in from the core all the way to the extremities. It'll give you a wonderful foundation for other movements you can build on top of.
So, that's our "Wind and Whip."
