It’s been a while since I did one of these posts, and this one is a doozy.

But before we get into that, I just wanted to mention a couple of other small things.

First, Examine.com has their Stack guide series in launch mode for only a couple of hours left. These stack guides give you the listing of supplements and combinations that can help you lose weight, gain muscle, or even sleep better and have more quality sex. Their team is comprised of some of the most educated and research-oriented people in the world, and everything they put out is research-based and practically applicable. Get your copies now while you can save a few bucks.

 

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Second, Tony Gentilcore and I will be hosting a life-changing (probably for some one) workshop series, first in London, UK on September 13-14, Washington, DC on October 18-19, and potentially Los Angeles in November (details still being finalized), and we’d really like to see you there. It’s two days of every trick we know with respect to training, getting people strong, fixing injuries, and crushing protein shakes like no ones business.

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Space is filling up quickly for the London workshop, and there’s still lots of room available in the Washington workshop, plus if you live in North America you don’t have to pay a VAT tax.

===> Click HERE for more info on Tony and I getting our teach on <=== 

 

 

Now on to the exercise.

This is one I’ve been playing around with for a little while, and it’s gone through a couple of evolutions. I started with shoulder rotations using a stick while standing, but found some people couldn’t get the range of motion when the stick was too short, and either wound up really grinding through their shoulders or hinging through their thoracolumbar junction hard into extension to help create some movement. This produced two less than desirable end results.

First, hating your shoulders is never a good idea. Second, if the individual doesn’t have the thoracic spine mobility to bring the arms overhead and back, they will hinge through the T-L junction to make it happen, or shrug their shoulders and create all sorts of less than desirable compensation patterns.

From there I started getting clients to use an elastic band, which had some give to it so that the individual could open their arms wider and help to get through the movement without as much restriction. The downside is that they would still run the risk of keeping the thoracic spine flexed, maybe throw in a chin tuck and forward head posture, and wind up flaring the ribs to still make it happen. No bueno, as they say in France.

As a result, I decided to take the elastic, and have the individual lay on the ground on their stomach. They would have to get thoracic extension and head retraction, but their ribs couldn’t flar since they were laying right on top of them. Using the elastic helped complete the range of motion, and also had enough leeway to be adaptable for anyone regardless of shoulder mobility.

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Obviously, those with severe shoulder injuries wouldn’t benefit from these, but for the average person who just has stiffness and needs to get in a good warm up, it’s effective.

The good thing about this movement is it helps to satisfy a couple of main criteria I was looking for when getting shoulder mobility:

• it encourages thoracic extension, as a flexed T-spine would push your face into the floor
• It prevents rib flare and false T-spine extnesion from the T-L junction.
• it produces a range of motion that is anatomically safe but not typically done.
• There’s a strong focus on scapular retraction and depression versus protraction  and elevation, perfect for the cubicle jockeys of the world.

This is the kind of movement that works perfectly as a warm up exercise before upper body work, and also as a filler exercise between sets of upper body work. I tend to use it personally as a warm up for a few sets before any bench pressing, and have used it successfully with some of my clients as part of a general warm up. For those trainers who work with groups, the movement is fairly idiot proof, which means you can give it to someone, walk away and know there’s no real way they could screw it up, as long as they keep their elbows straight.

Try it out and let me know what you think.