It’s been a hectic couple of weeks in the gym, between training about 50 hours a week, writing a few articles for some different publications, organizing distance coaching clients, and even hitting up a wedding in Las Vegas, I haven’t had the time to devote to pumping out the quality content for this here blog.

My bad.

As a way to try to make it up to you in some way, I wanted to showcase a couple of really cool things. First, one of my superstar clients saw a Facebook post I put up a few weeks ago where I commented on a gym member wreaking fashion havoc by rocking out with a burgundy beret on the treadmill during his cardio.

That’s right. A beret to do cardio.

My distance coaching client took it on himself to find a snazzy beret and then put together a little montage of him laying down some rolling thunder stupendousness that just made me smile all day long.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbDDRenXmVM&feature=youtu.be

Yeah, that’s a thing that just happened. Deal with it as you will. It just goes to show that fitness should be fun once in a while.

Speaking of fun, who out there likes having their shoulders feel like a flaming ball of fail all the time? Hands?? Hands up??? No one? Okay, good. We’re all on the same page then. You can stay.

Today’s exercise that is the best in ever is a complex of a couple different movements. These are a simple series of movements I’ve been using to replace the old versions of the ITYW movement that involve moving the arm across the body or through oblique lines of action, and instead focuses on getting an increase in thoracic extension, packed neck position, and lower trap stabilization through a reduced range of motion.

Check it out.

As mentioned earlier, a big benefit of this kind of movement with a very reduced range of motion is a focus on more stabilization and positioning than simply moving from A to B. The funny thing is that when you look at the function of the rotator cuff, you see all the time that it acts as a dynamic ligament, stabilizes the glenohumeral joint, and helps provide compressive forces pulling the humerus into the glenoid fossa.

Then you see everyone and their dog trying to work the rotator cuff with hours of elastic rotations in every which way.

This is stupid. It doesn’t look at what we know about the actual function of the cuff, but only applies basic “contract/stretch” kinesiology to training a muscle. Why not just do 50,000 crunches from all angles for our core training?

Training the rotator cuff with a reduced motion in a position that involves as much from the thoracic spine and scapular positioning will help train the rotator cuff more effectively, which is why I’ve always been in favour of using things like loaded carries, dynamic rhythmic stabilization through rotation and axial loading, and other stuff that makes me sound really smert but is pretty simple once you look at it and what it’s supposed to do.

This is another one of those exercises that is really basic but really effective for a lot of people who have shoulder issues. If you can’t go overhead without pain while standing, you can usually do it while in a different position and where gravity is working through a different plane of action like this one. If you can’t get your arms up into the Y or W, you can still do the I and T until you’re blue in the face. Plus, it’s easy to explain to the client, because you just say that you look like the letter you’re spelling out when you look from the top down. With the arms by your side, you look like an “I.” With your arms overhead, you look like a “Y.” Simple.

Some big coaching points: Try to pull your chest off the floor a few inches, and keep your chin pulled back instead of trying to look forward. This reduces the chances of you getting your upper traps doing all the work and you losing your ability to have a distinguishable neck between your shoulders and ears. Last I checked the Spring and Summer runways weren’t chock-full of models accentuating the gap between their thighs and rocking the no-neck look. You probably won’t look like a hot mess if you’re shoulders are jacked into your ears either, so keep those puppies down.

Lastly, focus on trying to get the lower traps doing the majority of the work and keep the arms tight to your body. Ladies, you’ll know if you’re using your lower traps because they’re typically found right below the bra strap and if you get them going it will feel like you’re trying to undue the clasp with your shoulder blades.

Guys, if you wear bras on the weekend, I won’t judge.

Let me know what you think of this exercise by dropping a comment below. Enjoy!!