It's functional Friday! And today we are covering scapular strength! This will be one of the key ingredients in building super-human upper body strength, fixing posture, and staying healthy, and it's often overlooked in training programs. So I'm going to detail a few exercises shown in my scapular strength video on Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkS9CpMlcig). First up: Y/L/T!
1. Y/L/T- This exercise is actually 3 in 1! As you can see in the video, the movements are lifting your arm behind you, lifting out to the side, and overhead. The exercise gets its name from the shape of your arm makes with your body. The most important part of this is to be sure that you're keeping muscular activation in the scapular muscles. Go for 3 sets of 20 on each, this will aid in the stability of the shoulders!
2. Scapular push-ups- These push-ups are done with straight arms, and a straight body. What you want to do in a scapular push-up is pull your shoulder blades (scapula) together until you can flex no more, then hold the contraction for 2 seconds, and go back to a normal push-up shape. These should go for 3 sets of 15-20, and this will be another great stability exercise.
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3. Horizontal pull-ups- Keeping a straight body, make sure that you're flexing your scapula together (sensing a common theme yet??). Keeping the perfect posture during these pull-ups makes it wonderful for not only strengthening your back, but also the scapular muscles. For people having trouble with these, walk your feet back a little bit and become more vertical. These can be good for either strength or endurance- depending on your level of strength!
4. Front hangs- This is one of the best exercises you can do to help get a pull-up or front lever (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lfujntfmcI&list=PLnQMjDhKymrS2rCOjDdgvvtL9F5SMIrfx). The important part of this exercise is to keep a strong flexion in the scapular muscles. Then just lean back, and let your feet hang! This helps strengthen the shoulder girdle and scapula (please make sure you're already strong enough to do at least 15 horizontal pull-ups almost parallel with the ground)!
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5. Pull-ups- If you notice in this video, my shoulders are in a straight line with the base of my neck, and not my ears. That's called having tight shoulders. Tight shoulders keep you from dislocating or damaging your shoulders while doing pull-ups. Very important to keep tight shoulders! Beyond that, keep some muscular activation in the scapula, and pull the bar down to your chest. Good for strength, hypertrophy (building muscle size), and endurance- depending on your strength level. Get a full range of motion, and you'll be well on your way to some above average strength!
6. Ice cream makers- Yes, the name is silly. But this exercise is no joke! You must be quite strong in order to do this move properly! It's like doing a pull-up into a front lever, back into a pull-up. If you can do several of these, hats off to you, because the amount of scapular, shoulder girdle, core, and back strength required is insane!
7. Dead lifts- I put this in here because scapular retraction is required to do a proper dead lift, and it's often the weak link in the dead lift chain (especially if you use wrist straps, which you really shouldn't...). The proper dead lift position is having a neutral head, straight spine, 90 degree bend in the knees, and the rest of the movement is a rotation at the hips. Dead lifts will strengthen everything in your posterior chain, including the spinal erectors, glutes, hamstrings, and yes, the scapula. Be careful with dead lifts, because bad form can lead to injuries. If you haven't mastered this movement pattern, have someone spot your form, it's worth it, I promise. Your spine will thank you!
That's all for this post, have fun, stay safe, and keep moving!
-Brandon
