CategoriesAssessment personal training Program Design

The Dubious D Word of the Fitness Industry

Here’s a hint:

It’s not dorsiflexion, diastasis, disc herniation, or density set.

And it’s also not deload, DOMS, or dorsal talonavicular ligament. <– say that three times fast.

Nope, the most dubious “D” word I’m referring to and the word I wish more fitness professionals would use LESS is…

dysfunction.

Copyright: melnyk58 / 123RF Stock Photo

Stop It. Stop It Right Now

It’s a common tactic for fitness professionals, especially during an initial session or assessment, to go out of their way to demonstrate just how dysfunctional someone is.

“Okay, so, after everything we’ve gone through and discussed it seems you have an internally rotated right shoulder, a bit of anterior pelvic tilt, upper back kyphosis, you lack thoracic rotation on your left side, you need to clip your toenails, and one eye is lower than the other.

We’ve got some work to do to fix everything.”

Now, I’m not going to sit here and say I’ve been perfect my entire career and that I never did the same thing.

I did.

And while hindsight is 20/20…I can’t even begin to imagine how much business I lost because I felt it a good idea to showcase to potential clients how much of a walking ball of fail they were on Day #1.

To that end, I do believe there’s a natural growth or maturation (that only comes with experience) of any fitness professional where you begin to understand and appreciate this train of thought.

Of course it’s our job to “audit” movement and to ascertain, to the best of our ability, what will set people up for the most success possible given their goals, injury history, and ability level(s).

But I adamantly feel that one of the worst things you can do as a fitness professional is to highlight dysfunction and to make people feel broken out of the gate.

Take scapular winging for example, where the shoulder blade lacks congruency with the ribcage (I.e., it peels off the rib cage).

Is it actually a dysfunctional thing?

Now, admittedly, the picture above is a little a lot fucked up.

This is TRUE scapular winging, an actual medical diagnosis where the long thoracic nerve is not doing its job innervating the Serratus Anterior.

No amount of Prone Trap Raises or Forearm Wall Slides is going to fix that dumpster fire. It’s going to entail meticulous manual therapy and someone with a keener sense of neurological wizardry to fix it.

However, many people walk around thinking they have “scapular winging” (HINT: pretty much everyone has it to some degree) and that they’re doomed to a laundry list of corrective exercise purgatory.

I have news for you.

Most people’s long thoracic nerve works just fine and most people are NOT in a state of dysfunction.

In fact you can fix scapular winging pretty quickly by adding LOAD and by getting people to TRAIN.

Load helps nudge people into better positioning and training just helps people not want to jump in front of a bus (trust me: corrective exercise purgatory is no fun for anyone).

There are a litany of ways to accomplish this.

In this short video, I outline some of my thoughts and manage to not swear the entire time.

 

This is a short clip from mine and Dean Somerset’s new series Even More Complete Shoulder & Hip Blueprint, a brand new product with entirely new content from the version 1 workshop, which is on sale until Sunday for $70 off the regular price, and digs into individualization concepts like this, plus so much more to help you get the best possible plan of action for your clients in order to get them results in the fastest, easiest and safest manner possible.

 

 

CategoriesCorrective Exercise Program Design

Reaching: The Underrated Key to Shoulder Health

I’m heading out to Kansas City today for The Fitness Summit.

My boy, Shane McLean, was kind enough to send along this stellar article extolling the merits of “reaching” and how it can help make your shoulders not hate you.

Enjoy!

Copyright: remains / 123RF Stock Photo

Reaching: The Underrated Key to Key to Shoulder Health

When you’ve lifted weights for any length of time (I’m assuming you do because you read this site) you’ve probably had some type of shoulder injury. They suck as hard as a mother in law getting all up into your business.

And as a result, your gains and patience grind to a halt.

The shoulder is a shallow ball and socket joint that has the incredible ability to move in multiple directions. This allows you to lift humongous weights, throw baseballs and footballs really fast or to do the wave when you’re bored out of your mind at a baseball game.

All that mobility is great, but the shoulder needs stability too. The four muscles of the rotator cuff work hard to keep this ball and socket joint in a vertical position no matter you do to your shoulder.

However, the rest of the stability equation is up to you by getting the muscles around the shoulder girdle strong. This is (usually) achieved by doing variations of pushes, pulls, shoulder raises and planks.

Push-Up Palooza

 

Pull-Up Palooza

 

Meathead Palooza

 

Even when you minimize the risk of injury by doing the right things, the occasional shoulder injury can happen while lifting because sometimes we (yes me too) can get a little over ambitious.

However, there’s one little movement that most lifters neglect to do that can help prevent niggly shoulder injuries from occurring at all.

Do you what it is?

Reach, baby, reach.

What were you, thinking? More bicep curls?

 

Reaching is a movement that you perform every day. You reach for

  • the food in the fridge
  • the food in the pantry
  • the door
  • the dumbbells to do more curls

Adding a reach while performing pushes and pulls is important for your shoulder health because this allows the shoulder blades to move across your ribcage as intended.

The muscle that allows this magic to happen is the often neglected and unloved Serratus Anterior. This a broad muscle that wraps around the ribcage and acts to stabilize the scapula by holding it against the back of the thoracic wall.

In other words, it’s kind of a big deal.

When you’re lifting in the horizontal plane with exercises such as one arm cable chest presses/ rows or pushups, the Serratus Anterior main job is to protract/abduct the shoulder blades.

Now if the Serratus didn’t do its job correctly, then the scapula doesn’t move around the ribcage like it should (scapular winging) and muscular imbalances and mobility limitations may result.

And nobody has time for that.

However, just by adding a simple reach to a horizontal push or pull will help strengthen the Serratus and take your shoulders through a fuller range of motion which makes for happier shoulders and maybe a happier mother in law.

You can only hope.

Reaching vs. Rounding

Reach and Row

 

The simple act of adding a reach has huge implications for your shoulder health and strength and it’s an easy movement to add to your lifting repertoire.

The Serratus also plays a vital role in scapulohumeral rhythm as an outward rotator of the scapula that allows your arms to get into an overhead position. This is vital for lifting weights overhead and for reaching for anything above your shoulders.

If the Serratus is inhibited in any way, the body will find a way to perform the movement regardless and that faulty pattern over a period of time may lead to pain and dysfunction. This usually occurs in the upper traps, neck and lower back.

Stop for a moment and see if you can raise your arms above your head, getting your biceps by or behind your ears without your ribcage coming forward or your lower back over arching.

This test is best performed in front of a mirror without a shirt on. I thought you’d like that.

Now, if you can that’s great but if you can’t, try foam rolling the lats and performing some Serratus wall sides and then re testing your shoulder mobility for any improvement.

Serratus Wall Slide Variations

 

However, even if you don’t have any problems in that department, performing the Serratus wall slide is still a fantastic warm up and mobility exercise for your shoulders.

Wrapping Up

Taking care of the shoulders is imperative when you’re crushing the weights because you probably don’t think about the health of your shoulders until it’s way too late.

However, by showing a little love and affection to the Serratus Anterior, you can keep lifting pain-free and stay off the Physical Therapists table to boot.

Therapy, who has time for that?

About the Author

Shane “The Balance Guy” McLean, is an A.C.E Certified Personal Trainer working deep in the heart of Texas. Shane believes in balancing exercise with life while putting the fun back into both.

CategoriesCorrective Exercise Program Design

2 Drills For Easy Access to Shoulder Health

Anyone who’s spent any significant time in the weight room knows how vulnerable the shoulders are to injury.

This isn’t to downplay other areas of the body prone to nefariousness like the lower back or knees. Let’s be clear: those deserve some shade thrown their way too.

Rather, it’s just to point out that, for lack of a better term, trying to train around or even fix a pissed off shoulder sucks donkey balls.

It can be tricky and there are a lot of factors to consider: Exercise selection, exercise technique, posture, access to appropriate scapular motion (upward vs. downward rotation), soft tissue considerations, and breathing patterns to name a few.

Copyright: staras / 123RF Stock Photo

Taking all of the above into consideration is a good thing, and I applaud those coaches and trainers who go out of their way to peel back the onion as much as their expertise and experience allows in order to get at the crux of the issue.

I do find, though, that sometimes, not always, we get a little too cute or rabbitholey with our approach to shoulder health.

  • Coach A will tell one individual that their shoulder hurts because their left big toe lacks dorsiflexion.
  • Coach B tells them it’s because their Posterior Mediastinum is shutting off their diaphragm.
  • Coach C says “nope, your shoulder hurts because you’re not back squatting enough.”
  • And Coach D, well, he’ll say something really asinine like, “I think it’s because you’re wearing purple. This makes your shoulder sad.”

And yes, while I am being a tad facetious here, I don’t feel I’m coming entirely out of left field. I’ve heard some doozies from past and current clients about what they were told was the impetus behind their shoulder woes.

Moreover, as a result, many clients and trainers alike tend to fall under the same trap….

….OverCorrectiveExerciseitis

This falls under two camps:

Camp 1: Trainer gives or person is handed a laundry list of “corrective exercises” that take 327 days to complete.

Camp 2: Trainer prescribes or person is told to perform redundant, borderline stupid exercises.

Stop OverCorrectiveExerciseitis

All of this isn’t to say I’m anti “corrective exercise” or that it should be avoided altogether. There’s a time and place for just about everything[footnote]Except maybe for kipping pull-ups and poodles.[/footnote], and sometimes people do need a little bit more TLC to improve motor control, activation, and/or positioning.

PSA: Doing stuff correctly can be corrective. Avoiding excessive anterior humeral glide during push-ups or rows can be a game changer for shoulder health.

However, Dr. Quinn Henoch brought up a valid point when I listened to him speak a few months ago with respects to corrective exercise.

Maybe the real fix for most trainees is something as simple as adjusting their training volume.

Maybe they’re doing too much of one thing or too little of another?

via GIPHY

Which brings me back to shoulder ouchies.

Generally speaking, when someone’s shoulder hurts I find most need less bench pressing and more posterior cuff and upper back strength in addition to a healthy dose of scapular stability.

Instead of boring them to tears with warm-up drills they’re likely not going to do on their own anyways, I prefer to include the bulk of the “correctivy” stuff IN THEIR ACTUAL PROGRAM.

That way they just think it’s business as usual and I come across as a straight up boss for helping them cure their shoulder woes.

On Bench Pressing:

There’s lots more to say here, and this will likely make for a good blog post in the future,  but in the interim the Tweet below sums things up succinctly:

On “Correctivey” Stuff

Below are two drills I like to use as fillers that can be performed after sets of squats, deadlifts, and even bench presses. It’s a foolproof way to add more volume to something they’re probably not doing enough of anyways.

It’ll look something like this:

A1. Deadlift/Squat/Bench Pressing/Not Kipping Pull-Ups
A2. Filler (<— correctivy stuff that people just think is part of their program so they actually do it. Hahahahahahahaha. Jokes on them).

1. Band Reverse Flye Walkout

 

This is a drill I picked up from Jim “Smitty” Smith of Diesel Strength & Conditioning.

As you walk back you need to resist the pull of the band, which torches the rhomboids, muscles of posterior cuff, and scap stabilizers. Be careful you don’t “shrug” throughout, you want to keep shoulder blades depressed and together.

NOTE: 118% more effective if you yell “this….is….Sparta” as you perform your set.

I like to have my clients perform anywhere from 5-10 reps per set.

2. Racked ISO Shoulder Holds

This is another drill I stole from someone smarter than myself, this time a Doctor: Dr. Ryan DeBell of The Movement Fix.

 

I’ll usually start with 10 second holds at each position per set and ramp up to 20-30s holds per set for my clients (depending on how sadistic I feel).

I’ve seen some very big individuals succumb to this drill. It’s very humbling.

That’s It

Pepper these two drills into your workouts or that of your clients/athletes more sporadically. I’m certain everyone’s shoulders will start feeling better.

Do it.

DO IT.

CategoriesExercises You Should Be Doing

Exercises You Should Be Doing: Band Horizontal Abduction with Press

What’s up everyone!?  I enjoyed a nice, relaxing, extended Labor Day weekend, hence the reason why I didn’t post anything yesterday.

Did you miss me?  I didn’t think so….;o)

But in case you’re wondering, I was able to catch up on some reading over the past few days and in addition, did what every other guy who’s in a relationship was inevitably dragged into doing yesterday………

……following his girlfriend around as she attacked every Labor Day sale within a ten mile radius.

The Container Store, Macy’s, Limited, Sephora, and I don’t remember  what else. I blacked out after a point.

As you can see Lisa was in seventh heaven.

I, on the other hand, was a beacon of palpable enthusiasm.

Enthusiasm to want to throw an ax into my face.

Looking at the picture now, and noticing the gentleman to my right, I can’t help but think of that bench as a some sort of shopping island purgatory for boyfriends/spouses. Hahahaha.

It wasn’t all that bad, though.  I planned a head and brought some reading material to help keep me occupied – the Kama Sutra Starting Strength 3rd Edition.

I’ve read the previous two editions of the book and have to say that this third edition is the bomb diggidy and blows the other two out of the water.

The original(s) were already towards the top of my list of books I routinely recommend to fitness professionals, but this third edition is absurdly good and has now taken the #1 spot.

In any case, shopping nightmares and book recommendations aside I wanted to share a quick video with all of you on one of my new favorite exercises.

Band Horizontal Abduction with Press

Who Did I Steal It From: I first read about (and saw) this exercise over on Mike Reinold’s site when former Cressey Sports Performance intern and now Sayco Performance owner and renowned swimming strength coach, Tad Sayce, wrote about it.

When I first saw it all I could think to myself was 1) this is brilliant and 2) why the hell didn’t I think of that!?!?!

What Does it Do: First and foremost it should be noted that it’s important to get comfortable with and master each component alone before combining the two.

With the obvious out of the way, what I like about this exercise is that it helps reinforce many of the things we try to ingrain with our overhead athletes – as well as those with chronic shoulder issues – which is, proper scapular movement, scapular stability (in both retraction and posterior tilt), and as Tad notes, “the ability to maintain position in the presence of increasing tension.”

And it’s with that last point why I feel this is such a rad exercise. The “press” component adds an anti-rotation component that’s unique to any other exercise of its kind.

Key Coaching Cues: It (should) go without saying, but I have to say it nonetheless.  This IS NOT a max effort exercise you big meathead!  So lets save the super bands for things that actually warrant their use.

I’m more concerned with the QUALITY of this movement, and it’s important to keep this as the running theme while performing it.

Brace the abs and be sure you’re not cranking through your lower back as you perform the abduction component. If you do, the resistance of the band is too much.  The movement should be initiated by retracting the shoulder blade and then abducting the arm until it’s in the “T” position. Another thing to note is to make sure you don’t go too far to the point where the humeral head translates anteriorly.

Once the arm is in the “T” position, gently press with the opposite arm until it’s fully extended out in front of the body.  Pause for a 3-5s count and repeat.

I like to use sets of 5 here.  5 reps of 3-5s holds.

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

CategoriesUncategorized

Exercises You Should Be Doing: Split Stance Low Cable Row

If you ask me there are only a handful of things in this world that people seemingly can’t get enough of:

1.  Cowbell

2.  Twilight (I’m still trying to figure this one out).

3. And in the strength and conditioning realm:  horizontal rowing.

The first two are obviously pop culture references (if you haven’t watched it already, I HIGHLY suggest you click on the cowbell link I provided) that I threw in there just because I can. And because I absolutely despise Twilight.

The latter, however, is something that’s a bit more pertinent to today’s discussion and something that – contrary to above – I feel many, many, MANY trainees go out of their way to avoid – which is a shame.

If you look at the overwhelming majority of programs that people follow, it’s hard not to notice that they’re very anterior dominate.  Meaning, they place a premium on the parts of the body that we can see (pecs, abs, biceps) and generally disregard the muscles that actually play a role in performance and optimal posture (glutes, hamstrings, and rest of the backside).  It’s BRO-gramming in its purest form.

Taking it a step further, even if someone is making a concerted effort to be a good little lifter and including more horizontal rowing into their training repertoire, sadly, most absolutely butcher technique and end up causing more harm than good.

Giving a few examples, here’s some old videos of EC when he was like 15 demonstrating the three biggest culprits:

Chin protrusion, forward head posture:

Hip and lumbar extension:

Humeral Extension with Shrug:

I each case I think we can all agree that neither of the above pass the “shit test.”  Put simply: if it looks like shit, it’s probably shit.

Moreover, none are actually working the muscles that the exercise is intended to target, and there’s a bevy of compensation patterns that come to the forefront.

In any case I bet these look vaguely familiar, right?

If you walk into any commercial gym, anywhere, at any time…. and someone is performing a seated row, that’s what you’ll inevitably see.

That notwithstanding, I do love me some rows.  I think they’re invaluable movement for building an impressive physique, and even more importantly, for addressing many of the postural issues that plague our society.

Nothing represents this phenomenon so succinctly more so than Janda’s brilliant Upper Cross Syndrome.

In dissecting the diagram to the right, we can easily see how our daily lives spending copious amounts of hours in front of a computer, as well as our programming mishaps can play into dysfunction.

The pecs, upper traps, and levator (tonus muscles) tend to be overactive and short/stiff; while on the other side of the fence the neck flexors, rhomboids, and serratus anterior (phasic muscles) tend to be weak and inhibited.

While it can be a bit more complicated, the easy solution would be to stop benching three times per week for…..the…..love……of…….god stretch what’s stiff/short and strengthen what’s weak/inhibited.

While I’m not going to go out of my way to address the former, the best course of action would be to perform some dedicated soft tissue work on the pecs, lengthen the tissue, and then “cement” that new length with some non-eye gouging exercise selection.

With respects to exercise selection, today I want to share yet another rowing variation that we utilize quite a bit at Cressey Performance:

Split Stance Low Cable Row

What Does It Do:  What doesn’t it do?  Obviously we’re going to strengthen the upper back (specifically the scapular retractors), which is never a bad thing.  Secondly, would be the anti-flexion component.  By bending over at a 45-degree angle – which you don’t do during a regular standing cable row – the spinal erectors get quite a bit work trying to prevent shear loading.

Third, one gets a fair amount of glute activation in the trailing leg.

Last, and maybe less obvious to some, would be the multi–planar stability in the front (plant) leg, as the hip musculature (glute max, glute med, deep hip rotators) has to resist the torsional forces placed upon the body.

In short, there’s a lot of “stuff” going on during this exercise, which makes it a winner in my book.

Key Coaching Cues:  While I’m all about progressive overload, I’m not overly concerned about being aggressive with this exercise.  I’d rather one not try to be a hero and do this exercise correctly than use too much weight and look like they’re having an epileptic seizure.

To that end:

1.  Tuck the chin and try your best to prevent any forward head posture.

2.  Squeeze the glute of the rear leg.  Like hard. So hard that you tear your shorts.

3. Make sure to keep the shoulder blade depressed (and adducted)….and don’t shrug the weight.

4.  Pull the elbow towards the hip and squeeze for a 1-2 second count with each repetition.

5.  Give somebody a hug.

Try it out today, and let me know what you think!

 

CategoriesUncategorized

Exercises You Should Be Doing: Half Kneeling Band Overhead Shrug

Sometimes as coaches and trainers we need to take a step back and really think about why we do things. Why do we prescribe “x” exercise? What purpose does it serve?  How will it help any given client become bigger, faster, stronger, or more sexifed?  Not only that, why for “x” number of sets and reps?  Why does it matter if it’s done as the first movement of the day rather than the third?  Is there a specific tempo involved?  What type of rest periods are we talking about? Are there any other intricate things to consider like foot stance, hand placement or grip variation?

I mean, these are all important questions, and the list could easily go on and on.

Shirt optional, right?

More to the point, as a coach or trainer, you should be able to explain, definitively, the rationale as to why you programmed what you programmed. What purpose does it serve?

In a like manner, you should also be objective about your programming and not be afraid to admit when you’re wrong or that you possibly overlooked something.

Unfortunately, we all like to think we’re perfect and infallible, but we’re not.  We all like to think we’re open minded and adaptable, but really, many of us our set in our ways.

ESPECIALLY, as coaches.

Take for example today’s exercise you should be doing.  If you happened to have a few ounces of plutonium on hand (and a Flux Capacitor), and decided for shits and giggles to go back in time two years to ask me whether or not I’d include any direct upper trap work into my programs, you’d more than likely find me laughing in your face.

Given most people are walking around with FUBAR’d shoulders as it is, and that recent research has shown that upper trapezius dominance plays a significant role in subacromial impingement, it makes sense.  It’s dumb.

The last thing you want to do with a muscle that’s already jacked up or overactive is to target it even more. This is almost always the case when you’re dealing with someone who spends the majority of their time sitting in front of a computer all day and then heads to the gym, grabs a barbell, and shrugs their face off.

In this instance, they’ll undoubtedly play into the dysfunction (upper cross syndrome, among others), and probably have a pissed off shoulder to boot.

Buuuuuuuut…………..

There are cases where some direct upper trap work is warranted.

See what I just did there?  I blew your mind.

With regards to shoulder function we all know that of “stuff” goes down in that area.

The shoulder complex can partake in:  flexion/extension, internal/external rotation, abduction/adduction, horizontal abduction/adduction, elevation/depression, and of course, (scapular) upward/downward rotation.

The latter (upward/downward rotation) is what will be highlighted here.

Sadly, due to any number of factors – namely, the ungodly number of hours people spend sitting playing Angry Birds, poor programming choices, flawed technique, etc – we don’t move very well as a society. Further still, we just get in our own way and end up hurting ourselves.

Using an easy example:  I remember watching Eric assess an older client once who came to the facility with a litany of shoulder issue.  To put it bluntly, the guy couldn’t even extend his arms straight over his head.  Yet, the very first question right out of the gate was, “so, when do you think I’ll be able to add snatches and shrugs into my program?”

See what I mean?  We get in our own way.

However, given we train a fair share of baseball players at Cressey Performance, and it’s kind of a big deal that they have the ability to throw a baseball (which entails going over the head) without compromising the shoulder, doing some upper trap work may indeed be a crucial component to overall shoulder performance and health.

Up until recently, we’ve done little (if any) upper trap work.  Again, as noted above, it’s readily apparent that the upper traps are overly dominant in most individuals (compared to the lower traps and serratus anterior), and haphazardly throwing in exercises like shrugs may only make the issue worse.

That said, we can’t neglect the fact that the upper traps DO play a role in scapular upward rotation, and that optimizing their function is worth some of our time.

Here’s what we noticed, which has been a paradigm shift for us – especially as it relates to our baseball guys (and even some of our general population clients):  we are constantly (like, all the time) telling athletes and clients to retract and depress their scapulae.  Normally this isn’t a bad thing, as it targets the lower traps more and will help offset upper trap dominance.  But sometimes, it can be to the detriment of the shoulder.

Take the following exercises and how we typically like to cue them:

Seated rows:  pull the shoulder blades together and down.

Chin-Ups:  keep the shoulder blades in your back pocket (depressed).

Deadlifts:  shoulder blades “locked” and set (and subsequently the upper traps are on stretch)

Farmer Carries:  don’t shrug, set the shoulders (again, upper traps are on stretch).

Those are just a few examples, but hopefully you get the idea. And just so we’re clear:  I am in no way saying that these are bad cues to use.  Just that, sometimes, we need to be objective.   Anyhoo……..

Soon you may notice a downwardly rotated scapula due to a lengthened upper trapezius.  In this scenario, the excessive length makes the upper trap weak and a less than effective upward rotator of the scapula.  And, I don’t think I need to reiterate that less than optimal upward rotation is a going to be a massive monkey wrench when it comes to shoulder health and performance.

Take me for example.  Other than that being the coolest t-shirt ever, what else do you notice about the picture to the right?

See those sloped shoulders? Definitely not ideal, and sets the shoulder girdle a little too low for optimal function.  Now, thankfully, my baseball career is long over, and I don’t suffer from any long-term shoulder issues.  But needless to say, some dedicated upper trap work would be in high order for someone like me.

Likewise, this is exactly the type of shoulder symmetry (or, more appropriately, asymmetry) we’re more cognizant of at the facility when dealing with overhead athletes.

The key, though, is to step away from the stupid and not hightail it for the barbell shrugs.  As both Mike Robertson and Bill Hartman have noted on numerous occasions:

A shrug with the arms at the sides will certainly activate the upper trapezius, however it also strongly recruits the levator scapulae and the rhomboids, the downward scapular rotators. This feeds the imbalance causing the downward scapular rotation dominance.

The key, then, is to perform a movement where the scapulae is already in an upwardly rotated position which places a larger activation of the upper traps, which in turn will help offset the pull of the downward rotators (rhomboids and levator).

Half Kneeling Band Overhead Shrugs

This was a video I took while I was down in Florida last week at the commercial gym I was training at (so you may see some exercises you SHOULDN’T be doing in the background).  In it, you’ll see how I use a regular ol’ exercise band and place it underneath my knee.

From there, with my arm fully extended, I shrug and hold for a 1-2 second count.  I reset my scapulae and repeat for the desired number of repetitions.  Ideally, I’d shoot for anywhere from 8-12 reps per side.

Key Coaching Cues: Squeeze the glute of the kneeling leg to gain more of an active stretch in the hip flexors.  Wrist should be neutral.  And, you may need to play around with the band tension.  I was pretty limited with what I had available at the time, but suffice it to say, you may need to finagle a bit with how much of the band you place underneath your knee.

Additionally, this isn’t the type of exercise where I’m looking to overload the traps, so don’t be too concerned with using a monster band or anything like that.  Rather, it’s more of an activation and it’s imperative that you focus on the QUALITY of reps (feeling the actual muscle do its job).

Try it out today, and let me know what you think!

 

CategoriesUncategorized

A Closer Look At…….Shoulder Pain

Note from TG: the post below will take you to my latest article over at LiveStrong.com.

It’s Monday, otherwise known as National Bench Press Day.

Like so many others in the same weekly routine, you dutifully head to the gym after work, get to the locker room and toss your gym bag into a locker, give your training partner a fist pump and head out to the gym floor to get your bench on.

Set one, and you feel like a rock star. You turn up your iPod a little louder and add some more weight.

Set two, and you notice something weird. The shoulder that’s been a little “tweaky” for the past few weeks is starting to act up again. You’ve been ignoring it, taking the attitude that it’s just something that comes with the territory when lifting. You shrug it off, add a little more weight and think to yourself, “Once I’m warmed-up, it’ll be fine.”

Set three, and the pain is still there. But you’d sooner jump into a live volcano than skip bench day. There’s no chance you’re bowing out. So you add more weight.

Set four, and “Houston, we have a problem!”

Continue reading —>

UPDATE: For those interested (which I’m assuming is like, two people) I caught the mouse!!!! We used an electrical mouse trap. Basically, you place the food inside, turn it on, the mouse enters, and its zapped into oblivion.

Tony Gentilcore: 1

Mouse: 0

I win!!!!!