Nowadays you seemingly can’t walk more than 15 feet without crossing paths with a CrossFit gym. Along those same lines, you can’t go more than five clicks (it’s like the internet’s version of the Kevin Bacon game!) before you view some iteration of a “core training” article espousing anything from six-minute abs to improved posture to bringing sexy back.
And guess what? Today I’m sharing my own iteration of a core training article!!!
Except, you know, mine doesn’t suck.
Core training means different things to different people.
On one end of the spectrum you have those trainers and coaches who feel all you need is to deadlift and squat and you’ll cover all your core-training bases. I feel this is a bit of a mis-guided POV. Conversely, on the other end, you have those who will spend half a training session “activating” their TA .
The answer to the riddle, as always, usually lies somewhere in the middle of those two extremes.
I prefer to address core training in a multi-faceted manner where I take each and every individual who walks through our doors at the facility through a litany of assessment protocols to figure out what would be the best approach for him or her.
And it’s with this thought in my mind that I wanted to toss my name into the mix and finally write my treatise on the topic of core training.
It’s pretty good (I think). You should check it out.
After perusing a few videos from the likes of Dean Somerset, Max Shank, and Louie Guarino– and there are a litany of others – lately I’ve been toying around with more “flow” based warm-ups prior to my training sessions.
So, rather than performing the standard A (glute bridge) t0 B (ankle mobility drill) to C (T-spine mobiity) to D (forearm wall slide) to E (lunge pattern) to F (smashing my face into a cinder block from boredom) warm-up, I’ve been “flowing.”
Like This
And yes people, that is ERIC freakin CRESSEY (and Tank) doing what they do best…..videobombing me walking around in the background. Kudos to Eric for the commentary in the background too…..haha.
We like to keep things professional at the facility….;o)
This is a drill that really opens up the hips and is A LOT harder to do than it looks. Starting off, I’ll do 2-4 passes of rocking side to side working on hip internal-external rotation.
From there I’ll come up onto my knees working into terminal hip extension. I’ll also perform 2-4 passes on each side here as well.
Of Note: be careful not to hyperextend through the lower back here. Those with limited hip extension will tend to compensate with lumbar extension.
Then I’ll transition up onto my feet and work in a squat pattern, performing 2-4 passes on each side again.
I really like the seamless transition and positioning of the body and feel there’s a lot more carryover to everyday movement.
Don’t get me wrong: for most people performing a more traditional warm-up that targets problematic areas is ideal. But for those looking to step up their game, following more “flow” based warm-ups might be a nice change of pace.
Or, in other words: Learn how to groove the hip hinge and then be able to train like a boss.
Quick question/observation: Have you ever wondered why, among other things – like why women tend to make that funny face when applying make-up – when it comes to American cars, or “Western” cars, the driver’s side is on the left side of the car and not the right (as is the case in the rest of the world)?
It’s something I’ve pondered in the past and up until recently I just kinda shrugged it off as one of those things which had no legitimate rationale other than us Americans are a bunch of pompous a-holes that like to do everything differently than everyone else – analogous to us being the only country not to adopt the metric system of measurement.
As it turns out – there is a reason why the steering wheel is on the left hand side and not the right. And it’s something that makes complete sense.
In the book I’m currently reading, One Summer: America, 1927, author Bill Bryson spends a whole section going into detail about Henry Ford and the Model T car.
Up until the Model T came to fruition every car that was produced in America had the steering wheel on the right hand side so that the driver would have easy access to the side curb, side-walk, or grassy area to easily step out of the car.
Ford then decided that this was a convenience that should be afforded to the “lady of the house,” and thus the Model T was designed to have the steering wheel placed on the left hand side.
“Load is not weight. Load is how your body adapts to carrying the weight. So someone with good alignment can squat 100 lbs and experience an adaptation in their butt and legs, and another person can squat 100lbs and experience an adaptation in their hip flexors and low back muscles (very simplistic example). This is because of how we load our body! You want to load the muscles and joints properly to develop the qualities of strength, power, speed, mobility etc. A lot of pain and what “dysfunctional” movement can be a result of improper loading for your body and structure.”
This summary served as one of a few reasons why I wrote THIS article for T-Nation on why I feel learning to brace and not relying on over-arching or over-extending the lumbar spine (in other words: maintaining ALIGNMENT) is paramount with regards to lifting heavy things. Not only in the context of improved performance in the weight-room, but also as a way to play the house in your favor with relation to long-term health – especially spine health.
Taking this concept a step further, though, and since this is a fitness blog, lets roll with the talking point of alignment and loadand delve into something a bit more practical and relevant to just about everyone reading:
The Hip Hinge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Y73sPHKxw
For those unfamiliar and stealing some insight from renowned strength coach Dan John – who’s a mega fan of the hip hinge (and rightfully so), we can introduce the hip hinge as follows:
“It’s the hip snap, the hip slam and all of the various inappropriate terms coaches have used to teach young virgin ninth graders to tackle like NFL linebackers. Just learning the move right can open up hamstring flexibility. Doing it slowly with a massive load can impress your friends for generations. Learning to have symmetry in the movement can jumpstart you to an injury-free career.
And, to do it fast? It’s the one-stop shop to fat loss, power and improved athletic ability. Swings, the top of the food chain in hinge movements, are the most under-appreciated move in life, in sport and in the gym.”
In more rudimentary terms the hip hinge involves any flexion/extension originating at the hips that involves a posterior weight shift.
And if we wanted to be super-duper simplistic, and separate ourselves from the notion that a hip hinge is the same thing as a squat pattern – WHICH IT ISN’T! – we can break things down like this:
Hip Hinge = maximal hip bend, minimal knee bend.
Squat = maximal hip bend, maximal knee bend.
*Smoke bomb, smoke bomb, exit stage right*
Moreover, taking the swing out of the equation altogether, I’d argue that nothing has quite as a profound effect on one’s performance in the gym, overall movement quality, addressing pain (especially low back pain), as well as shortening one’s “learning curve” when introducing new exercises than the hip hinge.
About the only thing a properly patterned hip hinge doesn’t help fix is a bad hair day and Justin Bieber’s general level of douchebaggery.
1o points awarded to me for a Biebs burn!
So the question then becomes: How can we go about grooving a proper hip hinge?
More to the point – when working with athletes or clients who either A) have an extensive injury history, have engrained an aberrant motor pattern, and hence like to “squat” everything or B) are otherwise healthy and still like to “squat” everything……how can we groove the hip hinge pattern we’re looking for and start to teach people how to load their body properly?
Well, I’m glad you asked!
At the lowest level two of the easiest (and effective) ways to begin to pattern the hip hinge are:
1. The Wall Tap Hip Hinge
The objective here is pretty self-explanatory. Brace the abs, ensure spinal alignment (move through the hips and NOT the lumbar spine) and then focus on tapping your derriere to the wall.
One cue I like to use is to tell people to chop or “fold” their hips with their hands (you’ll see me do this on like the third or fourth rep).
I’ll start people as close to wall as I need to in order to ensure they’re doing it correctly, and as they become more proficient I’ll move them further and further away.
2. Dowel Rod Hip Hinge
This too is fairly self-explanatory, so I’ll try not to belabor anything. I love this variation because it gives the trainee some kinesthetic feedback on spinal positioning.
In short: there should be three points of contact with the dowel rod – the sacrum, in between the shoulder blades, as well as directly behind the head. If at any point the dowel rod loses contact with any of those points – whether because the chin isn’t staying tucked or they’re squatting with too much knee bend – that should be considered a fault and corrected immediately.
Upping the ante a bit, here are some more drills that I like to implement.
3. Rip Trainer Hip Hinge
Taking the dowel rod hip hinge to the next level is the TRX Rip Trainer Hip Hinge, which very much plays into a lot of Gray Cook’s work on loading the hip hinge.
It’s a subtle load – you don’t need to be too aggressive here – but it’s amazing how much technique cleans up when you cue someone to “pull” themselves into the hinge pattern (here the trainee literally has to pull into the hinge).
Much like with the wall tap drill, I’ll tell people to visualize “folding” their hips and to sit back.
4. Sternum Hip Hinge
Place a kettlebell (you could use a plate or DB here) flush against the sternum and try to visualize driving it through your chest.
I can’t really explain why it works so well – most likely because of the anterior load – but it just does, so just do it! GOSH!
5. Behind the Head Hip Hinge
Pigging back off the sternum hip hinge is the behind the head hip hinge, which places the load posteriorly behind the head. This offers a bit more of a unique challenge in that you have to make sure that you’re bracing your abs HARD so that you don’t compensate and hinge through the lumbar spine.
6. Band Resisted Hip Hinge
Lastly, the band resisted hip hinge drill is great because it teaches people “terminal hip extension,” to the point where they must finish the movement with their glutes in order to finish the drill. Moreover, because the band is pulling them back they really have to be more cognizant of bracing their abs, maintaining alignment, and controlling the movement.
What Now?
If or when those drills are mastered THEN it’s time to add appreciable load. One of my go to exercises is the pull-through. I find that this is a fantastic exercise to introduce people to loaded hip hinging because, well, I said so!
And because it hammers the posterior chain with minimal spinal loading.
Of course deadlifts and squats will come into the picture, but not until I feel confident that the person I’m working with (especially for those with a vast injury history) can hip hinge properly and disperse the load accordingly.
I can usually coach someone up and get them deadlifting and/or squatting with a good hip hinge pattern within a short amount of time – typically in one session – but not without utilizing some of the drills mentioned above.
Q: My fellow lifter in Germany has long maintained that the things that happen to me under the bar are just plain weird. As it happens, I’ve not yet seen anyone write on this (if you did and I missed it, just point me there!); I hope you’ll be able to help me figure out what on earth is going on.
I love deadlifts, but it seems they absolutely hate my right forearm. At all of 95lbs, double overhand, I start feeling a mildly painful strain at the elbow when I close my hand. As the weight goes up, the pain gets worse.
Last year, I ignored the pain thinking it was something that would get better with time. Instead, by the time I got to 190lbs, the pain was so hideous that I couldn’t even open the refrigerator door without wanting to cry. It took five months of strict rest for it to heal.
I definitely don’t want to go through that again! What annoys me even more is that 190 is well short of what I could break from the floor if whatever-this-is wasn’t doing what it’s doing (left arm has no issues at all). What on earth is going on here, and how do I make it stop???
A: Hi Jackie, thanks for writing and sorry to hear about your grip issues. I know how frustrating it can be to be hurt and unable to train like you’d like, so hopefully I can offer some insight.
But first, given you’re writing to me all the way over from Germany, can you answer me just one minor question?
What is up with the obsession German’s have with David Hasslehoff??????
I’m not going to sit here and pretend that I didn’t idolize the guy back in his Knight Rider days, and I certainly have to give my man kudos for rocking the 80’s mullet and chest hair like a boss…….
But German’s take things to a whole different level and go bat-shit crazy for the guy.
What gives?
Please, tell me, it’s killing me.
Okay – with that out of the way, lets state the obvious: while it’s pretty much impossible for me to make any definitive assertions over the internet without being able to observe you in person, I have a few comments/insights.
1. It sounds like you need to get some aggressive soft tissue work done. Honestly this is the best piece of advice I can give you and takes precedence over everything else.
The forearms and by extension – the elbow – is a very “claustrophobic ” area where a lot of “stuff” converges in a small area resulting in a lot of friction that takes place amongst muscle, ligaments, facia, and other soft tissue.
On the medial side you have all the muscles in the forearm that flex the wrist (I could list them all here, but it’s early and I don’t feel like it. But trust me: they’re there) which connect to the medial epicondyle via the common flexor tendon, with the pronator teres (which I suspect is going to be a HUGE player for you) attaching nearby.
The same can be said on the lateral side: you have all the muscles in the forearm that extend the wrist which connect to the lateral epicondyle via the common extensor tendon.
Posteriorly you have all three heads of the trciep attaching to the olecranon via another common tendon.
And lastly, anteriorly, you have the attachment points of the bicep brachii, brachioradialis, and brachialis on the elbow.
See what I mean? There’s a lot going down in one teeny tiny area.
We call it a Zone of Convergence, and it stands to reason that if your forearm is that painful whenever you grab a pencil, let a lone a barbell, you have poor tissue quality in that area.
Just resting – while it may alleviate the symptoms temporarily – won’t get at the root of the problem. To that end, I can’t stress enough how crucial it will be to seek out a reputable manual therapist – someone who can perform Graston or Active Release Therapy – to treat that area.
As I noted above I have my suspicions that the pronator teres (which, as the name suggests, pronates the forearm) is on fire and that you need to take a bit of a grenade approach in terms of addressing the entire spectrum.
While manual therapy takes priority, you can take the self myofascial release route and use something like The Stick on the forearms, biceps, and triceps.
2. Another less obvious – albeit equally as important – thing to consider is something that many people overlook. While soft tissue restrictions in the forearm and elbow area make a lot of sense and is a great place to start, it’s not uncommon for everything to manifest itself higher up the kinetic chain into the brachial plexus area – upper traps, neck, etc.
The brachial plexus is basically an area where a network of nerves start at the spine, run through the neck, and all the way down to the elbows, forearms, and to each finger
If you’re someone who spends a fair amount of time in an office staring at your computer, that area is notorious for getting gunked up (<— how’s that for a technical term?) and it may bode in your favor to have a manual therapist perform some work there as well.
Moreover, this is also an opportune time to run an audit on your breathing patterns. If you’re someone who’s a “chest breather,” meaning whenever you take a breath you tend to rely on your accessory breathing muscles like the upper traps, levator, scalenes, etc, it’s no wonder you’re jacked up!
Think about it: you take upwards of 20,000 breaths everyday. Not that every breath is going to be “optimal,” but it stands to reason that if you’re a dysfunctional breather bad things may happen.
Taking the time to address something as simple as how you breath, becoming more of a “belly breather,” and learning to use your diaphragm more efficiently, can go a long ways. More than you think.
Check out THIS post I wrote last year on the topic.
3. As a corollary to the above, it’s also important to run a check on your technique on stuff like push-ups, rows, and chin-ups. If you’re someone who has a tendency of shrugging everything – and relying too heavily on the upper traps to do everything – that’s just going to feed into the issue(s) at hand.
While addressing soft tissue quality and breathing patterns are high on the “to do” list, it’s going to be a waste of time if all you’re doing is heading back to the gym and shrugging everything.
So, you might as well give yourself an audit on those things too. Just something to consider. I know everyone thinks their technique is spot on, but I can assure you that everyoneneeds a little tweaking.
I realize it wan’t the sexiest answer in the world, but hopefully it helps a few people out there.
Q: I’ve frequently read that unstable surface training in a non rehabilitate setting isn’t of that much use, particularly due to the fact that the increased muscle recruitment doesn’t necessarily become functional in other athletic activities.
I certainly get great anterior core recruitment but am curious if this will carry over to athletics and other lifts?
What makes the stability ball usage in stir the pot different from that of doing 100 squats on a bosu ball?
A: That’s actually a really great question, but something I feel doesn’t require a whole lot of explanation. For starters, for those not in the know, generally speaking, when most people hear the word “unstable surface training” many will quickly defer to your garden variety items such as stability balls, BOSU balls, wobble boards, and other (borderline) nefarious gadgets that are (often, not always) marketed as the panacea of everything awesome.
If you believe the hype, unstable surface training will do everything from helping to improve your balance to increased muscle activation (particularly in your core) to shaving off a few dress sizes to improving whateverthef***.
Just what she needs: more knee valgus! (<— note heavy sarcasm)
About the only thing unstable surface training can’t do is wash the dishes and solve our national debt.
If I had to describe my general thoughts pertaining to unstable surface training I’d more than likely do it in an interpretive fashion like this:
Which isn’t to say that I’ll dismiss it altogether. There is some efficacy towards its use – and as you noted it’s namely in the rehabilitative setting when we’re working with athletes or clients coming off an injury and we’re trying to reestablish proper motor patterns, work on muscle activation, or otherwise reintroduce (and progress) them to external loading.
Unfortunately, at some point within the last decade (give or take), a bunch of personal trainers and coaches decided it would be a good idea to take data extrapolated from the physical therapy realm – and in particular data used with INJURED patients – and apply it with their healthy clients. You know, to be functional and stuff.
The end result was (and has been) anything but ho-hum. Instead of people actually doing something of relevance – like actually being able to do a push-up correctly, or being able to perform a hip hinge or lunge pattern without making my eyes bleed – we have a bunch of people doing things like 1-legged curls on BOSU balls, and trainers – in an effort to look unique and different – wasting people’s time (not to mention money) by doing shit like this:
I’ll concede that it looks impressive, and I’d if I were going to speak candidly I’d probably have a better shot of tossing a touchdown pass to He-Man in the next Super Bowl than being able to do it myself.
But that’s beside the point. For healthy individuals who are looking to get bigger, faster, stronger, leaner, prevent injuries, increase power, move better, wrestle a grizzly, be able to say the alphabet backwards, or be able to wear white past Labor Day, unstable surface training is not the answer.
My business partner, Eric Cressey, actually wrote an entire book on the topic titled The Truth About Unstable Surface Training, whichdelves into how its use, application, and efficacy has been overtly saturating the fitness world for the wrong reasons.
The fact of the matter is, the floor works just fine….and unstable surface training probably does more for DECREASING athleticism, strength, balance and movement quality than it helps.
Stealing a section from Keifer’s article:
Think about when you step onto an icy or oily surface. You instantly tense up, you almost literally can’t perform certain movements because the nervous system senses the instability of the environment and fires in resistant ways to keep you balanced. In this process, it also shuts down the ability to produce maximum force (your strength, power, hypertrophy and speed all go down the shitter. Think about it, if you start to slip in one direction and your reflexes caused your muscles to fire with maximum force against that motion—a motion that may be inevitable at that point, like falling—then you risk tearing muscle or connective tissue. The body is trying to protect you by making you weaker.
Which brings us to Stir-the-Pot.
This exercise in of itself constitutes as “unstable surface training,” and like I said above….I don’t dismiss it altogether. We actually do employ a decent amount of this type of training into our programs at Cressey Performance – albeit not in the context that will make you want to punch a hole in the wall.
Since we work with a crap-load of baseball players, one drill we like to use to help increase rotator cuff activation is a bottoms-up 1-arm kettlebell carry:
Since we’re currently on that side of the fence, we incorporate bottoms-up variations with things like DB presses, 1-arm bulgarian split squats, and Turkish get-ups.
Something to consider, however, is this is in conjunction with movements like squats, deadlifts, rows, chin-ups, hip thrusts, and the like which are done on STABLE surfaces and which help to get people strong.
With regards to the stir-the-pot, I simply see this as:
1. A great way to train the anterior core.
2. A great way to “progress” the plank. I find it comical that people brag about how long they can hold a plank for – the longest I’ve heard is 17 minutes – when I KNOW that all they’re doing is hanging on their lower back and hip flexors in order to get the job done, which isn’t doing them any favors.
I find a lot of validity with planks and their numerous variations – especially when working with someone with chronic low back issues (as the name of the game is spinal stability/endurance, and teaching neutral spine) – but there comes a point where there’s a rate of diminishing returns, especially when people make them into a dick measuring contest.
I don’t know what the female equivalent would be here: high-heel measuring contest?????
Either way I’d much rather make planks more challenging than longer, for the sake of making them longer. Can you think of anything more boring? I mean, outside of NASCAR is there anything?
And besides, this isn’t the type of exercise that opens itself to “repetition” anyways. The objective isn’t to do them for “100 reps” as compared to the “100 squats on a BOSU ball” comment from the original question. Instead, the objective is to learn to recruit and engage the anterior core and RESIST extension. This is all about QUALITY of movement – and not compensating – than it is about QUANTITY.
To that end, I do feel this is an exercise that will help to improve performance – albeit not under the guise that I feel it’s because you’ve somehow improved your balance or recruitment of anything.
Wrapping Up
Again, this isn’t to insinuate that unstable surface training should be avoided at all costs – there’s ABSOLUTELY a time and place for it’s inclusion in a program. However, I do feel that it’s WOEFULLY overrated, overused, and quite frankly a waste of time for most healthy individuals who walk into a weight room to get better.
Despite the cheekiness nature of the title, you can relax: I’m not suggesting that your shoulders are “depressed” in the literal sense of the word.
I mean, it’s not as if they just got word they contracted ebola or that their heart just got ripped out by some uppity bitch who left them for some toolbag named Cliff who goes to Harvard and rows Crew. Or worse, they’re a Celtics fan (<—- they’re really bad this year).
Nope, we can hold off on the Zoloft, Haagen Dazs and Bridget Jone’s Diary marathon for now. That’s NOT the depression I’m referring to.
When it comes to shoulders and the numerous dysfunctions and pathologies that can manifest in that region, generally speaking we tend to give much more credence to anterior/posterior imbalances like a gummed up pec (major or minor) or weak scapular retractors.
Rarely, if ever, do we point the spotlight on superior/inferior imbalances.
Translated into English, yes the rotator cuff is important, but we also have to be cognizant of the interplay between upward and downward rotation. More and more (especially with our baseball guys, but even in the general population as well) we’re seeing guys walk in with overly depressed shoulders.
For the more visual learners in the crowd here’s a picture that will help:
It should be readily apparent that 1) that’s a sick t-shirt and 2) there’s a downward slope of the shoulders, yes?
Hint: yes.
This can spell trouble for those whose livelihood revolve around the ability to get their arms over their head (baseball players) as the downward rotators of the scapulae (levator, rhomboids, and especially the lats) are kicking into overdrive and really messing with the congruency and synergy between the scapulae, humeral head, glenoid fossa, and acromion process.
And this doesn’t just pertain to overhead athletes either.
We’re seeing this quite a bit in the general population as well, particularly with meatheads (those who like to lift heavy stuff), as we’ve (i.e: fitness professionals) done a great job of shoving down people’s throats ”shoulder blades down and together” for years now, emphasizing what I like to call reverse posturing.
Likewise, much of what many meatheads do (deadlifts, shrugs, farmer carries, pull-ups, rows, fist pumps, etc) promote more of what renowned physical therapist, Shirley Sahrmann, has deemed downward rotation syndrome.
Putting our geek hats on for a brief minute, statically, it’s easy to spot this with someone’s posture. For starters, you’ll see more of a downward slope of the shoulder girdle (see pic above). Additionally, you can look at the medial (and inferior) border of the scapulae and observe its relationship with the spine and ascertain whether someone is more adducted (retracted) or abducted (protracted).
Many trainees, unless engaged in regular exercise or sporting activity, have a slightly protracted scapulae (kyphotic posture) due to the unfortunate nature of modern society where many are forced to stare at a computer screen for hours on end.
If someone’s rhomboids and lats are overactive, however – which is fairly common with meatheads – they’re going to superimpose a stronger retraction and downward pull of the shoulder blade, which in turn will result in a more adducted position. In short: the shoulder blade(s) will “crowd” the spine.
All of this to say: things are effed up, and are going to wreck havoc on shoulder kinematics and affect one’s ability to upwardly rotate the scapulae.
So, hopefully you can see how this would be problematic for those who A) need to throw a baseball for a living or B) would like to do anything with their arms above their head.
With special attention to the latter, if someone is aggressively downwardly rotated, the congruency of the joint is such that the humeral head is going to superiorly migrate, which will then compromise the subacromial space (making it even narrower) leading to any number of shoulder ouchies.
Throwing more fuel into the fire, because the lats are stiff/short, shoulder flexion is going to be limited and compensation patterns will then manifest itself in other areas as well – particularly forward head posture and lumbar hyperextension.
Which, of course, makes doing the Dougie a little tricker.
Okay, with all of that out of the way what can be done to help alleviate the situation. Luckily the answer isn’t as complicated as it may seem, and I don’t need to resort to bells, whistles, and smoke machines or take a page out of Professor Dumbledore’s Magic Book of Bedazzling Hexes and Awesome Shoulder Remedies (on sale now through Amazon!) to point you in the right direction.
But make no mistake about it: you WILL have to pay some attention to detail.
Lets get the contraindicated stuff out of the way first.
Basically it would bode in your favor to OMIT anything which is going to promote MORE scapular depression – at least for the time being (not forever).
Things To Avoid
To that end, things to avoid would be the following:
– Deadlifts
– Pull-Up/Chin-Up Variations (even those these may “feel” good, they’re just going to result in feeding into the dysfunction)
– Suitcase Farmer Carries (again, these are just going to pull you down more).
– Anything where you’re holding DBs to your side (think: walking lunges, reverse lunges, etc).
– And we may even need to toss in aggressive horizontal row variations if someone presents with an overtly adducted posture.
– Overhead pressing. Listen, if you can’t get your arms above your head without compensating, you have no business doing push presses, or snatches, or whatever it is you’re thinking about doing. Stop being stupid.
– Sticking your finger in an electrical socket. That’s just common sense.
Things To Do Instead
– In lieu of the deadlifts, if you have access to them, utilizing speciality bars like a GCB bar or Safety Squat bar would be awesome. Learn to make lemonade out of lemons: why not emphasize your squat for the time being?
And because I know I just ruined someone’s world out there by telling them not to deadlift, because you’re going to deadlift anyways, at the very least, limit yourself to ONE day per week.
– You can still hit up a lot of carry variations, just not the suitcase variety. At Cressey Performance we HAMMER a lot of bottoms-up kettlebell carries because they offer a lot of benefits – especially for those in downward rotation.
Moreover, we can also toss in some GOBLET carries like so:
http:////www.youtube.com/v/90mxsAsOKwQ
– You can still implement a wide variety of single leg work using DBs, but I’d defer again to utilizing GOBLET variations only.
In this way you’re not feeding into the dysfunction by holding the DBs to your side (and pulling you into downward rotation.
With regards to overhead pressing, I’m not a fan for most people. I’ve said it before, and it bears repeating here: you need to earn the right to overhead press.
That said I do love LANDMINE presses which tend to offer a more “user friendly” way of “introducing” overhead pressing into the mix. Check my THISarticle on T-Nation I wrote a few months ago, which offers more of a rationale as well as landmine variations to implement.
And the Boring Stuff (<— The Stuff You’re Going to Skip, But I’ll Talk About Anyways)
From a corrective exercise standpoint it’s important that we stress the upper traps to help nudge or encourage us into more upward rotation.
And by “upper traps,” I AM NOT referring to the most meatheaded of meathead exercises – the barbell shrug.
These wouldn’t be useful because there’s no “real” scapular upward rotation involved, and you’re doing nothing but encouraging more depression anyways.
Instead incorporating activation drills like forearm wall slides and back to wall shoulder flexion – both of which encourage upper trap activation, WITH upward rotation – would be ideal:
Forearm Wall Slides w/ OH Shrug
Back to Wall Shoulder Flexion w/ OH Shrug
NOTE: something to consider would be how you actually go about cuing the shrug portion. We like to tell people to begin the shrug pattern once your elbows reach shoulder height. Meaning, it’s not as if you’re going elevate your arms up and THEN shrug. Rather you want to combine the two.
Another important corrective modality to consider would be something to address the lats. In this regard my go to exercise would be the bench t-spine mobilization
Bench T-Spine Mobilization
And while I could sit here and pepper you with a deluge of other “correctives,” I think by now you get the point and those three should be more than enough to get the ball rolling in the right direction.
Those combined with the programming modifications suggested above should definitely help to that shoulder frown upside down. <— HA – see what I just did there?
Lets be clear from the start: there’s really no such thing as a “perfect” assessment. I’ve seen coaches and trainers spend as little as ten minutes assessing their clients, as well as those who take roughly the same time it would take to read the Harry Potter series, and both have been equally as successful with getting results.
Although, in the case of the latter, I’d argue that some fitness professionals spend an inordinate amount of time assessing things that don’t really matter and/or are outside their scope of practice in the first place. Big toe dorsiflexion? Really?
The person standing in front of you is 25 lbs overweight and moves about as well as a one-legged pirate. It’s not rocket science. Get them moving. End of story.
Nevertheless when it comes to assessment I’ve always lived by the mantra of “different strokes for different folks.” As an example, at Cressey Performance, we work with a metric boat load of baseball players which is a unique population with regards to the demands placed on their body. Much of what we look at with them – comparing total glenohumeral ROM between dominant and non-dominant sides, for instance – may not be relevant to someone that walks into the facility who’s just looking to get a little stronger, fix their nagging lower back pain, or not be embarrassed to take their clothes off with the lights on.
That said, how we go about assessing our athletes and clients at Cressey Performance suits ourneeds, ourfacility layout, and our business model.
Put another way: how we go about doing things isn’t to say that we’re right and everyone else is wrong; nor is it to imply that our way is the end-all-be-all of assessment; nor is it suggest that everyone should kneel before us General Zod style:
It all mounts down to what we’ve found works for us. It’s as simple as that.
However, I will say that I do (and always will) feel the push-up is an unsurpassed assessment tool that should be a staple in most assessment protocols.
Not many “tools” can give as much information and feedback to the fitness practitioner than the push-up, and it behooves anyone to dismiss it.
Did you hear me? I said it behooves you! I’m bringing back old-English people, so you know I mean business. You’re just lucky I didn’t grab a white glove, slap you across the face, and challenge you to an old-fashioned bare knuckled boxing match.
Taking actual technique out of the equation (it amazes me how many guys come in to see us with cranky shoulders, only to have some of the worst push-up technique this side of Charlize Theron in the movie Prometheus), the push-up assessment parlays very well to a variety of populations.
With our baseball guys – and even our general population clientele – it gives a good scope to see how well their scapular stabilizers (particularly the lower traps and serratus anterior) are working – if one or both are weak, the scapulae will be more anteriorly tilted and abducted (not “hugged” against the rib cage) which can result in compromised stability.
Too, and an often overlooked component, is anterior humeral glide. You can see this in someone’s standing posture very easily, but it also becomes very pronounced when you watch someone perform push-ups, or just hold the push-up position isometrically.
This can be detrimental in that if it’s not corrected or just left to it’s own vices can lead to increased anterior instability of the shoulder, which as we all know, not only kills baby seals, but also makes your shoulder hate you.
Using a more glaring and obvious anecdote, push-ups are also a fantastic assessment tool because they make it abundantly clear where someone’s weak points are. And almost always, many are going have weak lumbo-pelvic-hip control – to the point where they’ll be hanging on their lumbar spine as well as rocking a nasty forward head posture.
On the flip-side many may also demonstrate a dominant rectus abdominus pattern, which typically means their external obliques are non-existent and they probably spend way too much time in front of a computer stalking people on Facebook.
Again, in both scenarios it’s just valuable feedback for you which will dictate that person’s programming moving forward.
Another dimension of the push-up assessment that I never really thought of before – and something I stole from Mike Robertson – is the concept of ‘core delay.’
In short, instead of starting someone in the standard push-up position – away from the floor with arms fully extended – you start from the floor.
In this way you can see whether or not someone has adequate stability or if there’s a delay in firing, and the hips come up first.
The key is to make sure that whoever it is you’re testing is completely relaxed on the floor, and then you just observe and make a judgement call from there.
The first rep would be considered a “passable” rep and shows that the person (me) has good core stability. They (me) were able to keep the spine in a “neutral” position and everything seemed to fire simultaneously.
And, not to mention their (um, me) triceps were gunny as shit……;o)
With the second rep, though, there was a little wackiness, and you’ll notice how my hips shoot up first and my lumbar spine goes into immediate hyperextension. This shows a ‘core delay,’ which is just a fancy way of saying “dude needs to work on getting his glutes to fire to posteriorily tilt the pelvis more, along with the external/internal obliques and RA.”
In the end I just feel utilizing the bottoms-up push-up is another great way to evaluate clients and to better ascertain where their weaknesses lie and how their programming may manifest moving forward.
Now that I’ve had a good 24-36 hours to decompress my brain, I wanted to take a few moments and share some of the shenanigans that went down last weekend at Cressey Performance.
As many of you know, my good friend and brotha from another motha, Dean Somerset, came to town for a few days along with roughly 20-25 personal trainers, strength coaches, chiropractors, and general fitness enthusiasts for our Boston Workshop that he and I hosted at Cressey Performance.
Stealing a line from Dean’s synopsis of the weekend over on his own blog, “it was without a doubt one of the best, most switched on groups I’ve ever had the chance to speak in front of, and everyone was really engaged, quick to volunteer, laugh, get their hands dirty, and make it a great experience for everyone.”
On Friday for all the attendees who came in a day early and had nothing better to do than sit at their hotel room watching re-runs of Games of Thrones on HBO we had the one and only Eric Cressey (THE Cressey behind Cressey Performance) come in and speak to the group on “Elbow Shizzle.” His title not mine.
One of the main take home points was that when it comes to the elbow, especially with regards to the UCL, you have to take into consideration what’s going on up the kinetic chain – specifically the brachial plexus – in order to make any drastic progress with regards to tissue quality and eliminating pain. The ulnar nerve starts up near C5-T1 and is often impinged in that area.
In many ways, an “elbow snafu” might not have anything to do with the elbow in the first place! It’s imperative to look up (and down) the kinetic chain to rule other possibilities out.
Too, it’s important to take into consideration congenital laxity – especially in the baseball population – to dictate treatment and how one’s strength and conditioning program will flow. The LAST thing you want to do is to excessively stretch someone who scores high on the Beighton Laxity score.
Afterwards, for those who wanted to stay, move around a bit, and play with all the toys in the facility, we had “open gym” where people could get a workout in and break a sweat. I may or may not have played Tiesto.
I played Tiesto.
Because I was at the facility playing host Lisa, my girlfriend, was kind enough to pick Dean up at the airport along with Guillermo who flew in all the way from Mexico to attend the event. No sooner than everyone walked through the door and dropped their bags did we hightail out of there to walk down to my neighborhood bar and grill to get our grub on.
The best part of the night was that after the fact, when we left the restaurant, walked outside, and waited to cross the street, some dude drove by with all his windows rolled down BLARING the theme music from Star Wars. It was pretty much the most baller thing I’ve ever witnessed, and I couldn’t help but think to myself, “that dude’s got his shit together.”
Dean and I were up early Saturday morning and I want to say that he pwned roughly 600 mg of caffeine before we even got to the facility. A tip of the hat to you kind sir!
After a few house warming words and greetings, Dean started things off with discussing the big rocks of assessment. What an assessment actually means, what to look for, and what kind of assessment should be done.
Do we just stand there creepily like a Mr. Smithers and stare? Is there any place for a movement based assessment? Are all assessment created equal?
At the end of the day, it’s about gathering as much information as you can to better ascertain what YOU as the fitness professional will do to get your client the most efficient (and safest) results possible.
I followed suit by breaking down the CP assessment. I was adamant that what we do at CP isn’t necessarily what I feel everyone should be doing, but that they kind of should (hint, hint).
I divided the assessment process into three parts: static (posture, single vs, bilateral stance), isolative (hip ROM, shoulder ROM, Thomas Test, adductor length, 1,2,3,4 I challenge you to a thumb war, stuff like that), and integrated (movement based: squat pattern, lunge pattern, push-up pattern, etc).
The entire afternoon was then spent going back and forth with the attendees demonstrating the different assessment that Dean and I utilize and then allowing them to practice on one another to get a better feel for everything.
And, I managed to do all of this without taking my shirt off, which is saying something.
Saturday night a bunch of us met up for an all-you-can-eat meat fest at Fire and Ice in downtown Boston. Ben Bruno even made a cameo appearance!
Here’s a pic that I Tweeted as a frame of reference of how glorious this place is:
Sunday was lined up in much the same way at Saturday was. Things kicked off relatively early – 9 AM – with me discussing “corrective exercise,” and what the even means.
I broke down the Law of Repetitive Motion and spoke to how that equation helps set the stage for how we can go about addressing any imbalances, weaknesses, and even pain.
The main point I hit home, however, and something I feel serves as the “umbrella” for ALL corrective exercise was this:
Correct movement is corrective!
Sure we can do the song and dance where we wrap eight different bands around someone, have them stand on a BOSU ball, and juggle a bunch of oranges………but what are we really accomplishing here?
And this isn’t to downplay things like spending time coaching people on how to engage their core or working on glute medius activation. That stuff certainly needs to be addressed sometimes.
But while I’m admittedly biased – I am a strength coach – I think there’s a lot to be said about grooving more efficient patterns (squat, hip hinge, lunge, push-up) and getting people strong(er).
Getting people stronger can be corrective.
After a quick lunch break Dean took over with some brand spankin new material and covered a topic he titled VooDoo: Hacking Anatomy for Immediate Results.
Again, stealing for Dean’s own review of the weekend: “My talk came up at the end, all about how reactive core training can improve flexibility without taking joints through a range of motion (aptly titled “Voodoo”). We discussed the importance of breathing for upper body and lower body limitations, and went through how to get reactive stabilization from breathing drills and specific core training directives to help improve specific limitations.”
To cap things off we had an expert panel Q and A which, along with Dean and I, also included Ben Bruno, Jim “Smitty” Smith (of Diesel Strength), and Mark Fisher (of unicorns, ninjas, and Mark Fisher Fitness).
On Monday Dean and I took a few attendees through a small group training session that started with a “flow” warm-up, and then we proceeded to deadlift their faces with a bunch of angry my-mother-never-loved-me-and-I-punch-kittens-in-the-face-for fun music blaring in the background.
Three guys broke PRs HERE, HERE, and HERE(this one includes one of the best celebratory fist pumps ever).
Afterwards Dean hung out at CP to observe the madness and wore what’s arguably the most epic t-shirt ever made.
For those having a hard time seeing the fine print, here’s a screen shot:
And since that’s pretty much the most absurd and funniest note to end on, I’ll stop there.
It was an amazing weekend, filled with amazing people. And I’m truly honored that so many people took time out of their busy schedules to come hang out and (hopefully) get better.
Dean and I will most likely be doing this shindig again. Maybe we should do a worldwide tour!
I’d say that at least once a week I open up my email and start reading something that sounds like this, “Hi Tony, this is (enter name of Victoria Secret model here). I was checking out your website and……..”
Just kidding – that’ll never happen. But fingers crossed that it does someday.
Back in reality what typically happens is a receive an email that starts, “Hey man, so, uh, I have this shoulder thingie going on…………………”
And almost immediately the Darth Vader theme music starts echoing in my head.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m always honored when someone goes out of their way to reach out to me and ask for advice. And, I’m always more than happy to respond. It’s just sometimes I feel like I’m a broken record repeating myself over and over and over again.
Now shoulder injuries can be tricky, as no two shoulders are the same. There’s a lot of “stuff” happening, which shouldn’t come as surprise given the shoulder actually consists of four joints (glenohumeral, scapulothoracic, acromioclavicular, sternoclavicular), as well as consists of 17 muscular attachments alone. This piece slides into that piece. This part rotates. BAM – it’s like it’s own little Transformer!
On top of all that, because the shoulder is such an intricate joint it lends itself open to injury fairly easily. We have AC joint separations, labrum tears, SLAP tears, external (primary and secondary) and internal impingement, and a whole host of other words that end in ‘itis or “WTF my shoulder hurts!”
All that said, however, I’d say that 90% of the time when someone reaches out to me (or Eric for that matter) asking why their shoulder is flipping them the bird, it usually comes down to a handful of common denominators. While the following shouldn’t be taken as the end all-be all list, I feel it does cover most people’s bases.
Lets get to it!
1. Programming Balance?
There’s a popular theme that a lot of coaches and trainers like to live and die by called programming balance. Meaning, any well structured program should have a balanced approached between movement patterns. Specific to the conversation at hand, with regards to upper body training, it’s often recognized that for every pushing exercise one performs (bench press), he or she should also perform one pulling exercise (seated row, etc).
This actually isn’t a bad advice. The thing is: We all know that Mondays are reserved for bench pressing. So are Wednesdays, Fridays, and every other day that’s a prime number.
Basically, guys like to bench press.
As a result many develop muscular imbalances – short/stiff pecs, weak/inhibited upper back – which leads to protracted and internally rotated shoulders.
If we’re lucky, we may see a set or two of rows in there for good measure, but it’s safe to assume that for many, their pressing to pulling ration is skewed.
Program balance isn’t going to work for these people. Using a 1:1 ratio ain’t gonna cut it. In this sense we need to use an UNBALANCED APPROACH.
Which is why I’m not adverse to recommending that most people revert to a 2:1 or even 3:1 (pull:push) ratio to help offset their gross muscular imbalance and help their shoulder feel better.
To that end I typically let these guys know that their world won’t end if they don’t bench press for a few weeks, and that it would be in their best interests to implement more horizontal rowing into the mix.
2. And Don’t Forget Push-Ups!
I’d say that 95% of the time any shoulder issue comes dow to it being a scapular issue. One of the main reasons why I’d prefer guys nix the bench pressing for the time being is because it’s an open chained movement.
Speaking english, what this means is that the hands are able to move freely, but the scapulae are pinned against a bench. Like, they can’t move. At all. They’re “glued” in place, which doesn’t bode well for shoulder health.
Moreover, holding a barbell locks us into a pronated grip which leads to more internal rotation of the humerus, which closes off the subacromial space
On an aside: using DBs with a neutral (palms face one another) grip would be a more shoulder friendly option, as we can encourage a bit more external rotation and open up the subacromial space a bit more.
Push-ups on the other hand are a CLOSED-CHAIN exercise, where the hands don’t move and the scapulae have a bit more breathing room. This is a HUGE advantage, and something I feel many trainees dismiss because they deem push-ups too wimpy.
Of course push-up technique is going to enter the conversation as a huge reason why a lot of people’s shoulders hurt is because they have no idea how to perform one correctly.
For a primer I’d encourage everyone to check out THIS post.
3. Scaps, Scaps, and more Scaps
As I noted above, much of the time when someone’s shoulder hurts it can pinpointed to the scapulae. The most cliched – albeit easiest – explanation to use here would be the shooting a cannon from a canoe analogy.
When everything is hunky-dory, the scapulae are hugged tight against our rib cage and our force couples are “balanced” and everything is in ideal alignment to allow things to run smoothly. In other words our downward rotators (levator, rhomboids, pecs, and lats) and upward rotators (upper and lower traps, serratus anterior) are doing their jobs and everyone is happy.
Unfortunately, due to societal demands, lack of physical activity, and global warming (we can blame everything on that, right), most tend to be woefully weak in their upward rotators (especially lower traps and SA) and dominant in their downward rotators – leaving the scapulae abducted and anteriorly tilted.
Or……UNSTABLE!
Placing a premium on drills that target the lower traps and serratus anterior while stretching or addressing tissue quality on the levator, pecs, and lats will go a long ways in helping the shoulder feel a ton better.
1-Arm Prone Trap Raise
Forearm Wall Slide w/ Lift Off
Shoulder W’s
Hand Switches w/ Push-Up
Actually Doing Your Rows Correctly
Pec Release w/ Ball
4. Learning to Breath Correctly
While I’ve always felt this was important, I generally steered clear of it because I felt there were more pressing (HA! Pun intended) issues that people should work on – technique, program modifications, soft tissue quality, etc.
But when we consider that everyone takes roughly 20,000 breaths per day, incorrectly, firing our accessory breathing muscles (upper traps, scalenes, levator) and completely neglecting the diaphragm – it’s no wonder we have an epidemic of pissed off shoulders!
I won’t go into too much detail here, other than to say to check out THIS post on breathing patterns I wrote last year as well as check out Mike Robertson’s much more detailed post HERE.
5. Watch Predator
This really has nothing to do with shoulders, but it’s a crime if you haven’t watched this movie. I’m pretty sure watching the Predator Handshake on repeat increases T-levels by 286% instantly. Subsequently your shoulder will feel better!
6. Hammer T-Spine Mobility
I don’t think I need to belabor this point. If you’re rocking a Neanderthal posture, chances are your shoulder hates you. This ties in hand-in-hand with the section on scapular stability above. When we’re stuck in a overly rounded/kyphotic posture, the scapulae are going to be abducted and anteriorly tilted. Tossing in some daily t-spine mobility drills will work wonders on how your shoulder feels.
Some of my favorites include:
Quadruped Extension-Rotation
Side Lying Windmill
Yoga Push-Up Complex
Also, because I’m sick of typing now, I’d HIGHLY encourage you to check our Dean Somerset’s 3-part series on All Things Thoracic Spine HERE.
Damn those Turks! It’s no secret that I have a love-hate (mostly hate) relationship with the Turkish get-up. I love them because there’s no doubting their validity in terms of providing a lot of bang-for-our-training buck. We’ve been utilizing them more and more at CP with our athletes and clients to address everything from scapular stability to t-spine mobility to hip mobility to glute activation to, well, lets just say there’s a lot of good stuff happening.
I hate them because, speaking from a personal perspective, TGUs do an excellent job at shining a bright, Bat Signal’esque spotlight on some glaring weaknesses and imbalances I have. And while I think I’m better than the average cat at performing them, I know deep down that I probably suck at them.
But it’s like I always say: you’re only as strong as your weakest link, and it’s generally those exercises you hate most that are most beneficial for you.
Don’t believe me – read THIS awesome post by Roman on why you should embrace the suck.
Anyhoo, back to Turkish get-ups.
At last count there are like 593 separate steps to perform a proper get-up. Funnily enough, it’s step numero uno that generally gets people the most flummoxed (<—- I love that words).
Many people have a hard time with the roll-to-elbow because they try to do it like an ab crunch. I know I’ve tried to use cues like “roll and punch the ceiling” which works for some people, but admittedly even this only works half of the time. If that.
One of my former distance coaching clients, Laura McNally, who also happens to be a Strong First (SFG) certified kettlebell instructor, recently invented an ingenious drill that really cleans up the roll-to-elbow conundrum.
Here’s Laura’s description:
This assisted drill helps teach the proper motor pattern, which is a roll with a pulling motion on the down arm. You’ll automatically feel what’s supposed to be happening, and people can move to unassisted after only a couple reps.
Lay a heavyish kettlebell on its side so that the student’s hand on the down arm is holding onto the handle of the bell. During the roll-to-elbow move, the student pulls against the handle, using the kettlebell as an anchor. (A variation is for the instructor to hold the student’s hand as the anchor, with the student pulling against the teacher’s hand.)
Bloop – the student pops right up.
NOTE: It’s important to highlight that you need drive the elbow into the floor when doing the roll, as opposed to just trying to drag the KB toward the torso without pushing the elbow down as a pivot point.
It’s definitely one of those drills that you have to try to understand why it works. The drill helps to teach lat engagement and elbow drive. After a few reps, once the motor pattern feels grooved, try unassisted.
Since I first posted this idea on Facebook, I’ve heard from a number of kettlebell instructors that this drill helped switch on the lightbulb for the start of the TGU.
