Improved Performance Is Only 2 Minutes Away - Part 6: The Third Drill

FRIDAY, AUGUST 20TH, 2010
6pm

NOTE: There will be no class next Friday (August 27th)

I promise I’m almost done with this shoulder series. Hopefully you’re taking something away from all of this.

Part 1: Developing a Model of Organization
Part 2: The Steps
Part 3: The First Drill
Part 4: The First Drill's Results
Part 5: The Second Drill

Today I will present you with the third drill. This is going to be what I consider a “global stretch”. It’s not going to just focus on one rib, or one knot at a time. The goal of this drill is to catch anything that’s tight.

First, get your weapons ready. You don’t need much and can make it really cheap. Get a foam roller (less than $5 online) and something heavier than say…15 or 20 pounds. In the pictures below we used a 26 pound kettlebell but grab anything that you can use that you already have lying around the house.

Lie on the foam roller and give yourself a big bear hug. Roll up and down the roller from the base of your neck to the top of your pelvis. Do this a few times to begin mobilizing your back and prepping it for what you’re about to ask it to do.
After you’ve rolled up and down a couple of times then extend your hands over your head just like you did in The First Drill. Only this time keep them fixed overhead and continue to roll up and down the foam roller from base of neck to top of pelvis.
Once you’ve rolled up and down at a moderate pace a few more times with your arms extended overhead, then I want you to bridge your body in order to bias you into an unloaded shoulder position and stretch your body on a fixed arm that’s in a perfect position. While leaving your arms fully extended overhead and with your feet flat on the ground forcing a 90 degree angle of your knees (more or less) I want you to grab the weight that you have chosen in your hands. The weight should anchor your hands at the ground leaving you slightly arched backward over the foam roller with it in the tops of the shoulder blades.
Next, you’re going to lower your butt, pulling your rib cage down with it, as the tensioner. Good. Now hang out there for 2 minutes. Again, if you have a buddy handy ask them to help you push your rib cage down just below your chest, just like in the previous drills.
Maybe you only spend a minute with the foam roller in the top of the shoulder blades then roll a couple inches up so that the roller is now in the lower part of your shoulder blades for the remaining minute. That’s cool. Go for it. But make sure that you’re in this perfect shoulder position by bridging your butt back up and making sure your arms are fully extended and locked out overhead before pulling your butt back down to the ground along with your rib cage. Oh yeah! That’s the good stuff.

Again, we’re trying to mobilize a position of restriction – a position that is important to what we do not only in the gym but also in sports as well as throughout our day.

If you’re already too flexible for the height of the foam roller we can always move you to the Glute-Ham Developer (GHD) or even a bench.
Now, once again, GO FORTH AND MOBILIZE!

Coach-Take-A-Paincation-Justin
PerformanceQuestFitness@gmail.com