Dax Moys

3D Dumbell
Matrix Program
Another Total-Body Training System From
Dax Moy Personal Training Studios, London.

www.daxmoy.co.uk

The 3-D Matrix

The 3D Dumbell Matrix

I first came across the 3-D Matrix when I was researching new methods to incorporate
functional training patterns into my rehab clients programs.
I was looking for something that would add an element of reality into the programs
that I was using and that would allow me to do with the body what it wanted to do in
real life rather than the somewhat sterile approaches that most rehabilitation took.
In my research I came across a fellow named Gary Gray, a Physical Therapist based in
the U.S and noticed that he was using many of the same approaches that I had
haphazardly strung together but that hed been able to systematise and study each of
them to assess their results in numerous settings.
One of them, his Dumbell Matrix caught my attention most.
This system allowed for the same ideas I had been using (600 rule, multi-directional etc)
but was configured in such a way that the program could be performed quickly, using
little equipment and yet still able to produce outstanding results.
Now, I had originally sought this program out as a rehabilitation tool, but as I tested the
program and started to use it with my clients I noticed that it was more than just a
rehab tool. It seemed to burn fat faster than almost any program I had ever used!
The combination of controlled, quick, resistance movements, little or no rest and the
shifting focus from upper body to lower body to core and back again created not only a
great immediate calorie burn but more importantly, a much elevated post exercise
calorie consumption too. A double whammy if you like.
Since I first came across the program Ive consistently used the Dumbell Matrix with my
own clients to great effect and with just a little tweaking here and there Ive been able
to take an already excellent program and make it even more effective at helping the
body to shift fat quickly.
You can expect to see appreciable loss of bodyfat along with a noticeable increase in
both muscle tone and strength within a very short time of starting your 3D Matrix
program. Add to that the POWER circuits and IMT that youre already doing and you
have what is probably the most powerful trio of exercise systems youll ever come
across.

The Reverse Press

Stand with feet shoulder width apart, both knees slightly bent
and holding a pair of dumbbells at shoulder height with
palms facing you.
In this position your forearms will be pretty much vertical as
shown.

Keeping your palms facing back toward our body, drive your
left arm up to arms length without disturbing the position of
your spine, pelvis or legs. This will create a greater degree of
core involvement.

Using a see-saw type of action, begin to press the right

dumbbell upward as the left is coming down, again ensuring
that your body alignment remains neutral

The Y Press
Stand with feet shoulder width apart as depicted.
Hold a pair of dumbbells at shoulder height with palms facing
forward.

Squeeze your bottom and tighten your abdominals before

pressing your dumbbell both upward and outward at the
same to form half of the letter Y.
Note that there should be no motion around the spine or
pelvis and that you should be in full postural control.

Using a see-saw action, press the other arm of the Y into

place whilst at the same time lowering the first dumbbell.
Continue this pattern until all reps are complete.

The Punch & Rotate

Stand with feet shoulder width apart and holding a pair of
dumbbells in a neutral grip with palms facing each other as
shown.

Pivoting on your right foot and maintaining a tall upright

posture, rotate 90 degrees to your left and punch the
dumbbell up at an angle.
Note that at no time do you lean back. Youre simply pivoting
around a point.

Using a see-saw action, pivot 180 degrees to the other side

and press your left up arm.
Continue for desired reps.

The High Curl

Stand with feet shoulder width apart and holding a pair of
dumbbells in a palms-up grip by your thighs.

Bend at the elbow as if to perform a traditional biceps curl

but once the dumbbell reaches the shoulder continue to raise
the elbow until no further movement is possible.

Using a see-saw motion raise the opposite arm to the top

position whilst the other arm lowers both to the bottom
position and then back behind the line of the body as
depicted.
Continue until desired reps are complete.

The High Row

Stand tall with good posture, feet shoulder width apart and
knees slightly bent as depicted.
Hold a pair of dumbbells in a reverse grip with your palms
facing your thighs.

Leading with the elbow, raise your left hand to your upper
chest as shown.
Ensure that at all times your elbow is higher than your hand.

Using a see-saw action raise the right elbow upward as the

left is lowering, ensuring not to disturb postural alignment in
the process.

The Rotational Uppercut

Stand with feet shoulder width apart, knees soft and good
posture.
Hold a pair of dumbbells at shoulder height with a neutral
grip (palms facing each other)

Pivot on the left foot and turn 90 degrees to your right whilst
at the same time executing an uppercut punch ensuring that
your forearm is vertical and the upper arm is horizontal as
depicted..

Pause and then rotate 180 degrees to the left and repeat the
same uppercut pattern.
Continue this pattern for desired reps.

The Front Lunge

Stand tall with feet slightly wider than hip width apart, spine
tall and shoulders pulled back.

Take a long step to the front whilst ensuring that the feet
maintain their original width-distance apart rather than
moving directly in front of each other as is common.
The rear knee should be the primary focus of this stage of
the exercise and you should attempt to get it within around
an inch of the floor without losing spine alignment.

The same movement shown from a side view shows that the
spine is upright and that the knee of the rear leg is not in
contact with the floor.
From this position, drive off of the heel of the front leg (this
creates a better muscle action in the bottom) and return to
the full upright standing position, swap legs and repeat for
the other leg.

The Side Lunge

Stand upright with feet around 1 times shoulder width
apart and your left foot turned out by 90 degrees.

From this position move all move your weight into your left
leg and press your groin toward the floor as depicted.

Drive back up to the centre and then repeat to the right.

Continue this pattern moving both left and right until the
repetitions are complete.

The Rotational Lunge

Stand upright with feet around 1 times shoulder width
apart and toes pointed out to around 45 degrees as depicted.

Pivot off of the right foot and rotate your body to the left.
Bend the rear knee to approximately 1 off of the floor whilst
maintaining a tall spine as depicted.

Drive off of the heel of the front foot, rotate through 180
degrees and press the rear knee to 1 off of the floor.
Repeat this 180 degree lunging motion until the desired
number of reps are complete.

The Lying Russian Twist

Lie on your back with your arms at 90 degrees from your
body and legs raised as close to vertical as your own
flexibility allows.

Keeping your shoulders and arms pressed into the floor,

begin to lower your legs to the left

and continue the motion until your thighs hit the ground
OR your shoulders start to lift. Whichever comes first.
Pause at this position and then initiate a movement in the
opposite direction.
The same rules apply. Keep your arms fixed firmly to the
floor and keep your legs as straight as possible.

Repeat the motion for the desired reps and ensure that you
use the muscles of the waist (the obliques) to carry out the
movement.

The Legover
As mentioned elsewhere, there is really no such thing as a dangerous exercise, rather that many of
us are simply not qualified to perform some of them and this puts us at greater risk of injury.
This exercise has several such qualifications if youre to perform it safely.
First, ensure that you are free from spinal complications that may be aggravated by large range of
motion, particularly in the neck and low back.
Next, you must be able to perform the leg lowering phase of the movement without your low back
coming off of the floor. If this is not possible, only lower to the point where your low back starts to
move.

Lie flat on your back with arms at the sides of your

body and palms flat on the floor.

Press your low back hard into the floor and contract
your abdominals.
Using the strength of both your abdominals and hip
muscles, pull your legs up to just past vertical as shown.
Note: If your abdominal strength doesnt allow this
then do the same motion with your knees bent and
make the focus to pull them toward your chest.

If your abdominal strength and the flexibility in your

hamstrings allows, pull the feet overhead into the
yoga plough position as shown (if not, simply move
as far as is comfortable).
Pause at the top position and slowly, one vertebrae
at a time, lower toward the floor and extend back to
the start position.

Two-Phase Situp
Lie flat on your back with hands beside your temples
(NOT behind your head) and low back pushed into
floor.

Contract your abdominals HARD as you curl up into a

traditional crunch or curl position, ensuring that your
low back remains on the floor.
Pause at this position for 2 seconds and

Without boosting or using momentum, raise up into

a full situp position.
If this position is not possible for you, dont panic, it
WILL come, just work on the first movement for now.
Note: You will notice that in the picture I am very
rounded in my posture. This is deliberate. As you situp
you will also attempt to get into this position.

From the rounded position above, situp up into a fully

extended position as depicted. Pause and then
return to the start position by reversing all of the
previous steps until you are flat on your back again.

Before You Get Started

After reading about the 3D Matrix program you probably have a fair idea about
what it involves and what you need to do but, like most things, there are still a
few finer points of the program that may not be completely clear to you.
Well, Ive kinda thought of that already and have created a short video for you
to watch at www.daxmoy-pts.co.uk/90day/dbmatrixweb.wmv where you can go
and watch me taking one of my staff through his paces and see for yourself in
real terms what the program involves.
But
You may still have questions like:

What if I dont have dumbbells?

To be quite honest, dumbbells are the ideal here as they are small, comfortable
to hold and allow you to move in and out of positions without worrying about
dropping them.
However, if you dont have any and arent likely to get any in the immediate
future, you can use any other objects that provide you with enough resistance to
achieve overload (more on that in a moment) so baked bean cans, bottles of
water, saucepans (yes, Ive worked out with my fair share of cookware in my
time), rocks or, my favourite standby, a pair of small sandbags wrapped and
taped into small dumbbell-like bundles.
In short, you can use practically anything that creates enough resistance as long
as its safe and you wont risk injuring yourself by using it.

What weight should I use?

Obviously, trying to prescribe a specific weight to every person who reads this
book is both impossible and meaningless as Ill stand the chance of overprescribing for some people and making the program too difficult or underprescribing for others and failing to give them enough overload to create an
adaptation response in their muscles.
Obviously, neither option is that great.
The best way to ensure that the weight youre using is correct for you is to try it
and see for yourself. Yes, I know that sounds a bit vague but ultimately, thats
the truth of the matter.

That said, you can make your weight selection a little less haphazard and a little
more objective by following these recommendations:
1. Try a weight that you think you will be able to complete each part of the
Matrix series with. Ultimately, this is a best guess.
2. Perform the exercises EXACTLY as described (and demonstrated in the
video) at a pace of 2:1:2:1 (meaning that youll raise the weight over 2
seconds, pause 1 second at the top, lower the weight for 2 seconds and
pause for 1 second at the bottom. This will ensure that your muscles get a
full and proper workout as well as keeping your movements slow enough
to ensure proper technique.
[Note: These are pink elephant seconds (one pink elephant, two pink
elephant and not those 1-2 counts that take less than a second to say.
No cheating!]
3. If you cannot complete the matrix with the weight you selected and in the
manner described, simply reduce the weight.
4. If you did complete the matrix then ask yourself the following question:

On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the most difficult, how hard was it to
complete?
If 5 or less then increase the weight.
If 8 or more then reduce the weight.
Ideally, you should feel that youre working at around level 7 (or 70%) of
your best effort

How Long Will The Routine Take To Complete?

Thats an easy one!
We already know that each rep lasts for 6 seconds and, to begin with at least,
youre going to be performing 6 repetitions of each movement making for a total
of 72 total reps per matrix series.
That comes out at 432 seconds or 7.2 minutes in total.
Any faster than this and youre cheating (and reducing the results youll get) and
much more than this and youre probably taking rests within the matrix which
tells me that youre probably using too much weight and tiring yourself out.
So, with a little give and take (but not too much!) lets say that it takes
7 minutes to complete.
Not bad to have worked every muscle in your body in just 7 minutes is it?
And as you get stronger and fitter youll be able to breeze through 2-3 of these
in a row and thats when the results really kick in!
(But dont use that as a reason to overdo the 3D Matrix. Once through is more
than enough when youre starting out)