Hey Ductile Warriors,
I hope your Labor Day weekend was excellent. The photo above is Adrian Bozman of SFCF/CFHQ “retesting” his squat. I just want to remind you that mobility (controlled positional potential) is power. And fun, especially if you have the circus monkey gene.
Today we have a special request from a super coach down south. Could we talk about some simple ways to help improve the shoulder position in the back squat “racked” position. If the goal of the “racked” bar position is to create a rock solid, stable platform to transmit load to the hips, then rounded shoulders or a broken kinetic chain at the wrist is going to make the whole shooting match harder. There are quite a few ways to improve this position, but we’ve only got 10 minutes. So let’s start with the items below.
Test: Wrist/Shoulder integration in the racked back squat bar (a broomstick will do)
Mob: Spend 3 min each arm messing with the two position in the video.
Re-test: Can you get tighter on the rack set up? Are your arms narrower? Are you doing less of the broken wrist limbo?
Did your overhead snatch position change? Was it easier to “show” your armpits forward in the active shoulder position?
Bonus: 2 x 1 min alternating end range Bulgarian? box lunges.
And do you recognize any performance obsessed coaches from this last weekend’s mobility seminar in Vegas?
Homework: Wiki Levator Scapula. How might neck position affect the levator’s ability to position the arm effectively?
K-Luke-Star
ps. The link between starwars awesomeness and Mobility has official been made. TM
21 Responses to “Episode 17: Shoulders and The Back Squat "Rack". And Darth”
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Never had a problem personally with this area. We'll see how the early morning crew does
I get a special request fulfilled AND "Star Wars" references in the same post? My birthday isn't for 3 more weeks Kelly!
Kelly i can't thank you enough for the great work you're putting into the blog. I've been dreaming of a mobility WOD since your santa cruz PNF video's first started coming out last summer in the CFJ.
I hope we can get to some cool stuff for wrist extendtion at some point.
Thanks Again.
-Aaron in Alaska
First of all thanks Kelly for this, I am finding it very helpful (tight hips&ankles especially!)
A little off-topic but I was wondering if anyone could provide any insight or advice:
My L knee "clicks" 2-3 times on the lateral side as I am near the end of extension, there is no pain but I can definitely feel and hear it each time. I have no injury history at all with this knee.
I was wondering if there is anything I can do stretching-wise to address this.
Thanks to anyone who is able to help!
JP
Hey Kelly,
This is such an awesome blog and will be so helpful for me. I want to pass the link on to my mom and have her start doing these but I had a question – she is so very very immobile right now. She's not even training at this point (we're working on that) but I think she would have trouble even getting into some of the positions like the psoas stretch from last week. Would you be able to offer some modified versions for people that have trouble even with basic mobility issues?
Hey Kelly,
I've been really diggin' your blog. I have been looking for that "next best thing" to improve my performance–and this is it! Please do not cringe when I say that I have mostly neglected to include any kind of serious mobility training throughout the years–however, that has all changed!
Thanks a bunch and keep up the great work!
@Meghan: Remember that these mobility drills are designed to clear away "whatever is blocking the movement". Initially, I was unable to target the tissues the "couch stretch" was designed for because something else was "blocking the movement". After a week or so of working that particular drill a few minutes a day (after the Mobility WOD), I am now finally hitting the position Kelly shows in the video, and hunting around for my "business".
Don't get hung up on what you're supposed to be stretching. Just keep it safe, and you'll eventually get there.
Levator scapulae originates at the transverse processes of C1-C4 and inserts at the superior medial border of the scapula. It's job is to elevate and medially rotate the scapula.
If the neck is in flexion, levator scapulae is locked long, and the scapula is held in elevation. This means that when levator scapulae's antagonist muscles want it to fire against them, it is already in it's end range and can't do it's job properly. To illustrate what this does, drop your chin to your chest and then try to attain optimal overhead position.
I'm probably missing something but that's what it seems like to me.
JP, no MD here, but have had the same pain-free laterial clicking as well on L knee. Granted I ruptured the L rectus femoris, but have no lack of ROM. The fix: rolling out the IT bands and manual massage to knee. My experiene has shown the IT was tight, rolled it out and clicking is gone.
You are one sick puppy k-star! Rack position mob went as plan and loosened everything up. Then came the bulgarian split stretch. Longest 60 sec. of my life! Although after seeing Jesus and then waking from my blackout I was super loose
Kelly: thanks for this awesome resource. I've been randomly doing some of the mobility exercises you demonstrated in various CFJ videos, but it looks like following this blog will be even better.
One question though: when should the mobility WoD be done? Before a workout? After? A few times through out the day? I remember reading that stretching before a workout could potentially reduce strength/power and even increase injury rates, but I'm not sure if that's a bunch of rubbish (or if poor mobility is a bigger danger anyway!).
MWOD was an awesome edition to the warm up for max reps presses today… Shoulder girdle was feelin' nice! It also warmed me up for the 2 tons of snatch grips deads of rolled matting I did for a sweet little cool down.
Whiskey sure can chew… *snap*! I heart Gunit / Bear.
The shoulder/chest stretch felt great. Was able to settle in and get some extra ROM out of it.
The Bulgarian box lunge was DIFFICULT!!! Could barely hold for 45 seconds with the left leg fwd, and 10-15 seconds with the right leg fwd. Brutal.
The first stretch was tricky as I do dislocate easily. Love this blog more each day!! Im beginning to realize doing 5 of these a week is a much more realistic goal
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