Landmine Exercises: Training in Small Gyms on a Budget

As a strength and conditioning coach, it is our responsibility to best equip our facilities for our student athletes to use them and gain the most from them.

Know what you want to accomplish with your programming and space, and equip it from there. Hearing this from many strength coaches with a wealth of knowledge stuck with me as I equipped The Paideia School weight room this year, after creating the first program there this year.

When it comes to programming, two people whose ideas I follow closest are Joe Kenn and Eric Cressey. As a tier system proponent, I implement lifts that are for the whole body every workout. With maybe 1,400 square feet to work with, there is not a safe way to put more than two racks in our facility (and we only have one right now). Finding an ideal small space workout solution for the daily major movement became crucial to having a well-run program in our limited space.

After reconfiguring the layout, landmine exercises became the best solution for using heavy weight in a safe manner for the space. The specific program day determines the exact exercise used for the landmine. The exercises mainly being used for it include squat variations, deadlift variations, and upper body press and pull variations. Some specifically used include a Landmine Goblet Squat, Landmine Deadlift, Landmine Single Arm Single Leg RDL, Landmine Half Kneeling Shoulder Press, and Landmine Single Arm Bent Over Row. 

Since implementing the landmine workouts, there has been a noticeably heavy weight increase in usage throughout the athletes. This ability to use heavier weights more frequently alone has helped improve program efficacy. Furthermore, for those who have back issues, the ability to deadlift or squat pain free with the landmine setup has caused a huge improvement in both their strength and health.

While a landmine may not be the perfect fit for your program based on the weight room layout, the landmine is a great tool to have at your disposal. Between the variety of movements it can provide, heavy weight that can be used, and injury prevention it provides, the landmine workout is very functional for a high performance weight room.