We’re usually so busy working on hitting a new PR on a jerk or press that we tend to forget about the little guys — the tinier shoulder muscles that might not take up much space but still have a big job to do.
It might not feel as sexy as a 100kg split jerk, but the accessory work that targets those smaller muscles is vital to your strength and overall shoulder health. If you want to be lifting for a long time — while avoiding injury — you can’t neglect this part of your training.
No stranger to shoulder problems, Brooke Ence has some solid advice: the YTW complex.
Squats have endless variations, making the compound exercise one of the best things that you can do in the gym. Brooke Ence is sharing another way to spice them up a bit, plus the benefits that they offer. Give it a shot!
https://www.instagram.com/p/B71XYCqJy90/
As always, be sure to prioritize form over moving massive weights, and when it doubt, have a spotter nearby.
Brooke Ence is known for a lot of things, one of which is her undeniably shredded physique. There’s no doubt the athlete pays careful attention to her nutrition and training, but what exactly is she doing in the gym to stay so lean and strong?
Ence shared her secret weapon on YouTube: interval weight training (IWT). Check it out below.
Kettlebell swings are excellent for not only building strength but also improving your explosiveness. KB swings truly are a full-body workout, whether you go all the way overhead or do them Russian style.
Brooke Ence has one suggestion for amping them up even more: Do them banded.
Our fitness journey doesn’t always look the way we think it will. Plateaus, injuries, and other obstacles get in our way and maybe slow us down. PRs don’t come for months or even years at a time. What felt light a month ago feels like a ton of bricks today.
Such is the life of an athlete — even a pro. And like everybody else, pros get frustrated too. One day, Brooke Ence ran into some trouble while maxing out her snatch. While anger initially started to take over, she took a step back and found perspective once again. In a rather moving Instagram post, she shared her thoughts on “failing” — and it’s an important reminder we all need to hear.
You probably know that time under tension is what ultimately makes us stronger. Brooke Ence is taking it one step further and slowing everything down. More time under tension? More muscle growth.
Injuries can be devastating, but if these athletes show us anything, it’s that injuries don’t have the last say on athletic pursuits. Prompt treatment, appropriate rest, and a determination to recover are all key to bouncing back. Here are eight athletes who pushed through and ended up even stronger than before.
Late 2016, Brooke Ence woke up unable to move her neck. The Games athlete — who took 14th place at the 2015 Games and was training in the hopes of making it to the 2017 Games — found herself scaling workouts and visiting a chiropractor three times a week.
She finally had an MRI just as the 2017 Open started. The results: her C6 and C7 discs in her neck were herniated, and the doctor said there was no telling if and when they would move further and sever her spinal cord.
Ence dropped out of the Open and scheduled spinal surgery. Six months later, she did her first handstand push-ups since February of that year. Now, Ence is back in the game and doing better than ever. Nothing is going to stop this gal.
2. Mat Fraser
Before he ever set foot in a box, Mat Fraser was training to compete with the U.S. Olympic lifting team. But in 2009, at 19 years old, Fraser broke his back — two clear breaks in his L5 vertebrae — during a heavy lift. He spent four months in a back brace only to learn that his spine hadn’t healed. The doctor recommended spinal fusion. Fraser took a different route, undergoing an experimental treatment that had a 50/50 chance of recovery. A year later, the athlete, who was told he’d probably never lift again, was back in the weight room.
Soon after his recovery, he wandered into a box to see if he could use their weights. A few weeks into lifting at the box, he finally tried a WOD, which set him on the path to competition and his first-place finish in the 2016 Games.
Since then, it’s safe to say that Fraser has secured his title as one of the fittest men in the world.
Sometimes, muscling through pain isn’t an option. This was the case for Camille Leblanc-Bazinet at the 2017 Games. She had been battling an injury in her left shoulder prior to the Games, and during the Cyclocross bike race, she fell and dislocated that same shoulder, tearing her labrum in the process.
After learning that muscle-ups were in the third event, she dropped out of the Games — but she stuck around to watch. In August, she had surgery to repair her labrum. Just five months after her injury, she achieved her first strict ring muscle-up.
These days, LB has hung up her competing shoes and is busy sharing her knowledge with others and coaching people toward reaching their goals.
In 2015, Lauren Fisher severely sprained her ankle on the descent of a rope climb when her foot landed awkwardly on the excess rope. She got it checked out and walked with crutches but didn’t wait long before getting back into training.
She pushed through lingering pain in her ankle until 2016. Fisher had it checked out again and found out she had a large tear in her tendons, a bone divot, and loose bone fragments floating around.
She had surgery in August 2016 and has since returned to the competition floor. In 2017, she took first place in the California Regional.
When it comes to reaching great heights, Fisher knows what she’s doing. The competitor, coach, and business owner never stops climbing the ladder of success.
5. Scott Panchik
When Scott Panchik’s dad introduced him to CrossFit in 2009, Panchik was recovering from reconstructive knee surgery. A running back for his college football team, Panchik started using training to rehab his knee. A couple years later, he signed up for the 2012 Open for the first time and took fourth place in the world.
This was not the end of his injuries: in 2014, he had surgery on his shoulder; in 2015, after rupturing his plantar fascia at the Games (and taking sixth place), he had surgery on his foot. But an injury in one part of his body doesn’t keep him from exercising the rest. After his foot surgery, he returned to the 2016 Games and took sixth place again.
Panchik’s perseverance is one of the reasons why he’s become a household name in the world of functional fitness.
In 2015 at the Central Regional, Julie Foucher ruptured her Achilles tendon in the middle of box jump-overs. She had already decided 2015 would be her last year competing, but the injury forced her to reframe her focus sooner.
Foucher finished the competition — her handstand walk with her foot in a boot is an iconic moment in the sport’s history — and she ultimately took eighth place. Though she has stepped away from competition to focus on her medical career, she still trains to keep herself in top shape and also serves as an expert leader in the industry.
Age is nothing but a number, and Maddy Myers is proof of that. At just 18 years old, Myers went to the 2015 Games. She withdrew after collapsing during the opener, Murph, and learning she was suffering from renal failure and rhabdomyolysis. In 2017, wrist surgery put her in recovery mode once again. She refuses to let anything stop her, though, and always reminds herself of the bigger picture.
It’s not just her athletic prowess that impresses, but her incredible attitude and mindset, too.
8. Jacob Heppner
Last year, before the Open, Jacob Heppner found himself unable to squat to parallel because of pain in his knee — the same knee he’d had ACL and meniscus surgery on in college.
A check-up with the doctor revealed bursitis or inflammation in the joint. His knee needed rest.
When the first Open workout was announced, he tried to do it but found the burpee box jump-overs excruciating. He had pushed through injuries before — in college, he finished a season of football with an injured ACL — but it hadn’t been worth it then, so this time, he decided to step back.
Heppner dropped out of the 2017 Open, rested his knee, and a few months later, completed all six Regionals workouts in one day of training. Needless to say, he came back stronger than ever.
Injury isn’t easy. In fact, in can be downright heartbreaking. But with a positive attitude, smart approach, and serious work ethic, you can overcome anything.
Brooke Ence has been on one heck of a fitness journey. From a modest start as “that girl in the CF demo videos” toappearances on the big screen, Ence has undoubtedly earned her spot as one of the top names in the sport. She wasn’t always a top functional fitness athlete, though. In fact, a lot of people were surprised to learn that Ence used to compete in something else entirely…
Ence is hardly recognizable with the ultra-blond hair and dramatic spray tan. That’s not the only transformation she’s gone through, either. Ence once shared another before-and-after photo showing her journey from fit to… even fitter.
While the weight on the scale hardly budged, there’s no doubt a huge difference between the two photos.
Brooke has always been a huge inspiration, no matter what she looked like; but these then-and-now photos certainly show the changes she’s made over the years. Our hats are off to you, Brooke!
Want to get your booty and quads in shape? Try these exercises from Brooke Ence: single leg hip extensions, glute-hamstring raises, tempo front squats, and barbell front rack step-ups. This is going to burn!
It’s no secret athlete Brooke Ence is major body goals. The lean, mean fitness machine puts in the hours at the gym, and we’re always wondering just how she gets so shredded. Well, we have a little more insight: Ence shared a booty building workout she does consisting of heavy good mornings, RDLs, and squats. If you decide to give it a try yourself, be warned: you might not be able to walk the next day.
If you want to get a full workout in without much equipment, grab a kettlebell. There is no end to what you can use it for, and it’ll get you in shape fast, from the top of your head down to your toes.
If you really want to blast your shoulders, core, and hammies, try these banded Russian kettlebell swings from Brooke Ence.
The band adds extra resistance, which means you need to fight the KB on the way up and on the way down. You have to engage your core more than ever and really use your shoulder strength so that you stay in control of the kettlebell and not the other way around.
While American kettlebell swings (where you go all the way overhead) are common in many boxes, stick with Russian and only go to eye level. This movement changes completely when you throw in the band.
Brooke Ence isn’t here for your criticism. After opening up to her Instagram followers with details of her beauty routine, she posted once again to push back against some hate she received as a result. Ence first shared that she’s been getting Botox injections for three years to help fight the signs of aging.
Apparently, that opened the floodgates. People felt the need to express all sorts of opinions, namely that Ence also had her cheeks done. Well, she’s got thoughts about that. In a follow-up post, she wrote:
This one is for everyone saying I had my cheeks done. Yeah, mom and dad really wanted them to “pop” so we went under the knife back at the age of 4. GTF out of here with those comments. You all sound like idiots.
I’m dying over the comments about my Botox routine.
Ence has always been straightforward with her fans and even shared other cosmetic surgery she received earlier this year. She’s always encouraged women to do what they want, find happiness, find health, and forget the haters.
