This is a guest post from Jerry Shreck of VarietyTrainer.com. Jerry used the exact protocol described below to recover some much needed shoulder mobility, helping him get back to his regular training numbers in the gym.

The WARM-UP.

You know how important it is, but many times it will get cut short because of not having a lot of time to squeeze your workout in during an already hectic daily schedule. For years my warm-ups have been sub par or just plan terrible. Well, I got away with it many times when I was younger but as I am “slowly” getting older, I have realized more now just how important it is.

A proper warm-up is not only good for preventing injuries but it will actually enhance your abilities to lift heavier weights with great technique. Now, when I say “proper warm-up”, I do not mean just breaking a sweat. That is a good start, but it should also include increased range of motion through mobilization techniques, unrestricted fascia tissue, synovial joint lubrication, neuromuscular excitation, and increased kinesthetic awareness.

OK, now in English – we need to be completely ready to go when we attack the training session. Getting a sweat going isn’t enough.

I have had on and off shoulder issues for years and I know for a fact that most of it stems just purely from not warming up properly and rushing into big weights before my body was ready to lift them. As a busy strength coach, many times I do not follow the disciplines that I preach to my athletes. Now, I make it a point to follow a more defined warm-up routine that I have developed for myself and I would like to share that with you today. By the way, my shoulders have never felt so good and my goals I set to attain on the bench press and overhead press are starting to look like future realities.

For the sake of this article not turning into a book, I am going to just post my warm-up exercises (with brief descriptions) in the order that I do them. I would recommend watching the video again for better descriptive views of each exercise.

1. Body Warm-up: Break a sweat on cardio equipment, jump rope, dynamic lower body routine, or jog to light run.

2. Shoulder Circuit with a theraband tubing, 5 exercises:

• Thumbs out, palms up, pull apart and pinch shoulder blades
• Stand on tubing, thumbs up, arms 30 degrees forward, raise arms until parallel to ground
• Stand on bands, thumbs down, arms 30 degrees forward, raise until parallel to ground
• Stand on bands, high pull position with arms, elbows at 90 degrees, externally rotate at shoulders
• Stand on bands, switch bands in hands and cross the arms, thumbs pointing in towards hips, pull arms up and start externally rotating in the shoulders as you bring the arms up and across the body diagonally until you make a 135 degree angle in your arm-pits with the thumbs pointing back, return back to the beginning by internally rotating the shoulders
• Each exercise is done for 10 reps

3. Indian Clubs: No set number of reps. “Listen” to your body. Some movements might last a few minutes.

• Cross Body Swings with back tap
• External Big Arm Circle Swings
• Internal Big Arm Circle Swings
• Wrist Circles both directions
• Alternating 1-Arm Mace Swings (shoulder mobilization)
• Full Arm Swing with back tap. Progress swing into RDL or Good Morning range of motion.
• Double Cross Body Chops with back tap. Decelerate and accelerate
  through core and shoulders girdles.
• Alternating 1-Arm Mace Swings

4. Foam Roller: (Facial Release) No set number of reps or time.

• Mid/Upper Back
• Lats
• Neck Roll
• Low back over roll with scapular retraction, butt stays in contact with the
  floor

5. On All 4’s (hands & knees): No set number of reps or time.

• Scapular Retraction/Protraction (scapular mobilization)
• Drop shoulder towards floor. Anterior shoulder stretch (thoracic
  mobility)
• Drop Shoulder Floor Slide. Posterior shoulder stretch (thoracic mobility)
• Cat & Camel (high back arch/pelvis drop)

6. Lacrosse Ball Rollout: No set number of reps or time.

• Rollout pec and anterior shoulder
• Change arm positions and angles
• Find hot spots and pressure them (get fascia tissues unrestricted)

Shoulder Warm-up Routine for Stronger, Healthier Shoulders

I will modify this from time to time, but this mainly is the prehab warm-up that I have come up with through my trials and errors until I found what felt right for me. You may have to experiment with some of these and/or the order of the exercises to see what is right for you.

If I am doing a total body training session that day, I would have modified it to include a total body dynamic warm-up first. I would also include a hip band circuit, like I did for the shoulder, and I would have used the foam roller to rollout the legs. Sometimes I will also roll out the arches in my feet with a lacrosse ball. And you can keep adding more and more but I think you get the point.

Obviously, this may take a little time but it is time well spent. In the past, I would have sacrificed parts of a warm-up. Now I would rather sacrifice an additional set or two of a workout, if I have to, to make sure I am properly warmed up.

I hope that helps!

To Your Health,

Jerry Shreck
www.varietytrainer.com

Random Ramblings from Jedd

Please read this post and put in your thoughts / comments in the comment box below…

Hello Diesels.

As I have posted before, I am a huge baseball (and especially New York Yankees) fan. I watch them every chance I get. I stay up to date on the Yankees’ rumor mill, trades, signings…all of it in-season and out.

However, putting all that drama aside, I also like to study what they do for strength and conditioning, and what other industry leaders are saying about strength and conditioning for baseball. I have a handful of baseball players that come to train every so often, and I like applying the stuff I learn to the training I do with them, plus I try to apply it to my own training. Although I will probably never play baseball again, I do indeed suit up for Slow Pitch softball during the summer and enjoy playing to the best of my ability because it is fun as hell and it is a good break from the “hardcore” training I am normally doing in the gym.
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Athletic Movement Skills

Balance Your Strength Training

This video shows Martin Rooney discussing the need for athletic movements in your program.  It is not enough to just perform strength training movements.  You have to be able to express strength, power, agility, balance, coordination and optimal movement as well.

Sometimes your strength programs works against this goal because a lifter doesn’t perform mobility movements, a good warm-up, static stretching and they lose the ability to move freely.

I can’t hold back any longer!  I am here to expose the Matrix.

Have you ever seen Keanu Reeves?  Yes, he rides a motorcycle.  Yes he has a band.  And yes, he has a very substantial beard.  I mean he could either be the 4th dude from ZZ Top, or rent the space in his beard for a butterfly or sparrow retreat.

This post is AWESOME! (more…)

A couple weekends ago, my boy Dan Cenidoza from BeMoreTraining.com put me through the Functional Movement Screen to assess my mobility, flexibility, movements patterns, etc, with Mike Rankin, Todd Hamer, and John Ferber looking on.

The Functional Movement Screen is a series of simple movements used to identify imbalances and other limitations that cause immobility and possibly can lead to injury due to inactivation of muscles and other problems.

Below is the video.

I figured for sure, my hamstrings would be one of my problems due to how their tightness. In fact, I have done a tremendous ammount of stretching the last year and a half to improve on that. It must have paid off because Dan was not nearly concerned about that as he was with my piriformis.

As you can see, my shoulders are pretty tight too…

As if this battery of tests wasn’t enough to cramp me up, they then put me through the ringer with stretches including bodyweight manipulations and PNF. Man, was I hurtin’.

Bastards!

Well, I got myself into this mess of tightness and immobility. Now it’s up to me to get myself out!

Stay tuned.

All the best in your training,

-Jedd-

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You’ve probably heard of using foam in the weightroom.  Previously, you might have only thought of using it for resting your knee on, while your stretching your hip flexors.

Well, a recent talk with Mike Hanley of HanleyStrength.com changed that.

He told me that he had his clients marching on thick foam to help with their knee and hip problems.  He said Louie Simmons had told him about it.   How he has been using it for activation and rehab purposes.

It is also well recognized in the powerlifting community that foam can also be used on the box squat, and we will talk about this too, later in this article.

Now, this of course got me thinking about other uses of foam.  I ordered a few blocks and started incorporating it into my program and the program of my clients.

Let’s look at a few different ways that you can incorporate foam into the weightroom.

_________________________________________________________

Quick Studies:

As you learned in the Chaos Manual:

Unstable foam surface = good rehab

Unstable foam surface = not good for power development

Studies from the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (CSEP) confirm my publication:

“Instability resistance exercises induce high muscle activation of postural limb and trunk muscles. The increased activation has been attributed to the increased stabilization functions.  Instability resistance training with its high muscle activation and lower external stress on joints could also be beneficial for general musculoskeletal health and certain types of rehabilitation.”

“Unstable conditions can lead to decreased force and power output, decreased range of motion and velocity. Furthermore ground based weight training exercises such as squats and dead lifts can provide equal or greater trunk activation than using instability devices. Another study has also reported that highly trained individuals do not experience greater trunk activation when performing exercises under light or moderately unstable conditions.”

“Since many of the benefits of instability devices can be achieved with high resistance involving ground based free weights, advanced resistance trained individuals may not need to emphasize this type of training in their strength and power training programs.”

“The benefits of instability resistance training may be more pronounced for those individuals pursuing primarily general health and rehabilitation benefits and not participating in training with free weights involving high loads.”

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Found this at Conditioning Research and again on STTB.com.  It is a shoulder mobility tip from Steve Cotter and it really works.   I’ve been doing it for the last couple days and it is really helping not only with my shoulders but also my elbows and wrists.  Check it out!

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Here is a video of some unique step-up squat variations.

VERSIONS
1. Standard – Straight down with back leg, focusing on driving through lead leg
2. Extended Back Leg – Creating more of a hip dominant movements, increasing hip strength mobility
3. Extended Back Leg onto FOAM – Creating more of a hip dominant movements, increasing hip strength mobility, forcing all the focus on the lead leg, negating driving off back foot

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Nick McKinless

Photo courtesy of beyondstrong.typepad.com

Tip #1 – Falling Forward in the Hole

– Keep elbows facing down

– Chest up, head up

– Keep weight on heels

– Force abdominals out, create intra-abdominal pressure with breathing

– Incorporate Anderson (bottoms-up) squats at various pin levels

– Incorporate RDL’s, back extensions, bent over rows, good mornings and pullthroughs

Tip #2 – Not Going Deep Enough

– Work on hip mobility

– Stretch and activate glutes / rectus femoris / psoas

– Work on ankle mobility

– Widen stance slightly, toes turned out, knees tracking over toes

– Incorporate more full range, single leg movements

– Just go lower!

Tip #3 – Upper Back Rounding / Shoulders & Elbows Hurting

– work on thoracic mobility

– develop upper back musculature

– technique, technique, technique

– improve scapular mobility and strength of serratus anterior

– utilize specialty barbells until improvement is seen from corrective exercises

– incorporate more rowing and external rotation movements

– check mobility of opposite hip and ankle

Smitty