TO RECEIVE THE FULL WORKOUT COMPLETELY PLANNED OUT FOR YOU…FOR FREE!!!! EMAIL ME AT SUCCESSCOACH38@HOTMAIL.COM, OR CALL ME AT 626-722-8156
So the last few months as you know I’ve been rehabbing my neck injury. If you’ve been keeping up with my blog you know I didn’t spend any time in physical therapy doing external rotation for rotator cuff work, or light weight shrugs for blood flow to my traps, neck stretches, or even forearm flexion and extension for my dead arm- which today just bent pressed 32kg. In fact if you were following my rehab at all it went something like this, breathing drills, body weight exercise (i.e. pushups, back bridges, and downward dog) and the Turkish Get up, then once I could do those properly I added in jurks, swings, snatches, military presses, and squats. Now I’m starting to add in some heavy benching, and of course progressing the weight on everything else. In other words what I did when I reset wasn’t isolating muscle groups, but going back even further; I went back to just breathing and mobilizing my body from the ground up. Now my question to you is when was the last time you spent a month on your back perfecting your breathing, reaching and transitioning?
That’s right only on your back! You probably think there’s almost no work you can do laying on the ground, but there are tons. Just look at all your basic exercises leg raises, hamstring stretches, hip flexor stretches, neck rotations, neck flexions, bicycles, dead bugs, hip flexion, supine budda stretches, bridges, floor presses, one arm floor presses, pullovers, skull crushers, supine French press, and of course the list goes on because there are certainly more exercises, and even more combinations of all these exercises. In fact if you’re looking to take some stress off your neck, and to get back your ab tone it’s time for you to get off your feet, and to spend an hour or more of transitioning from one exercise to the next while on your back. Why does it do this??
Ok so let’s look at the way stabilizers really work. Your rotator cuff doesn’t really do external rotation, or internal rotation your lats and peck minor do. In essence the major movers move you, but your stabilizers like your rotator cuff stabilize you. Your abs are a stabilizer the majority of the time, thus getting on your back and working on bracing and breathing behind your brace is going to work your abs back into shape- NOT CRUNCHES!!!
After a month or so of just being on your back working on tight and smooth transitions and deep breathing begin pretzel like rolling to your sides- again focusing on tight and smooth transitions, and deep breathing. Grey Cook calls this roll a supine to prone lower quadrant roll if you want to look it up. However if you need an example of how to do it watch any 6 month old. That’s their main exercise diet- lying on their back moving their arms and legs, and then using their lower body to roll over all the while maintaining their breathing. They also sit up, but like I said before, “when was the last time you spent a month on the ground…” so don’t sit up yet! Take your time and notice how what a 6 month old does rather easily takes almost every ounce of your mental effort to control and perfect. Furthermore you’re going to want to roll all the way over to prone once you get to your side… I don’t recommend it. Stay with the program and work on stopping your momentum in every position from your back to your side; you’ll get to your stomach soon.
Now once again while on your sides there are tons of exercises you can do. Hip abductions, hip circles, claims, side raises, side planks, quad stretches, I.T. band stretches, rib cage rolling/prying, presses, and side push ups. This is not to mention all the neck movements you can do, or the combinations. All this rolling and side lying will once again remove all that unnecessary neck tension, and hip flexor tension you’ve developed from sitting, and standing. Furthermore you’ll begin to learn mobility and the transfer of energy through your core to your appendages like you’re suppose to.
Even better is that after 2 months on your back, and transitioning to your side through that lower quadrant roll you can start to do harder rolls. Just try this as a test before and after 2 months of the above mentioned work: lay on your back, lift your arms above your head and your legs straight out, then lift both your arms and legs off the floor, and proceed to roll in a controlled way from your back to your stomach, and back without momentum. Once if you’ve practiced your lower quadrant rolling as well as all the strengthening exercises mentioned above on your back and side, and if you’ve mastered your breath then this roll (at least to prone) should come easily, and you can finally start doing some ground work on your stomach.
TO RECEIVE THE FULL WORKOUT COMPLETELY PLANNED OUT FOR YOU…FOR FREE!!!! EMAIL ME AT SUCCESSCOACH38@HOTMAIL.COM, OR CALL ME AT 626-722-8156, LEAVE YOUR NAME, AND CONTACT INFORMATION, AND I’LL SEND IT TO YOU BY MAIL OR ATTACHED TO AN EMAIL.
GET YOUR MOBILITY BACK, AND ENHANCE YOUR FITNESS NOW!!
