Shoulder and Core Development - Video!

You’ve all heard me complain about people moving their lumbar spine in on way shape or form - which makes me crazy, of course.  Well, we’ve come up with a way to help that problem while simultaneously developing arm and shoulder strength.  (I know how you love my ability to kill two birds with one stone…)

Typical exercisers have WAY too much movement in their mid section as they perform standard exercises such as curls, shoulder presses, etc – this is indicative of a weakness in the core somewhere.  However, if we take an old standard and tweak it by re-aligning our priorities, we have a kick ass core exercise as we do a basic shoulder press.

Procedures:

• Take a dumb bell slightly lighter than you would normally use for a shoulder press and position yourself in front of a mirror.
• Perform a one arm shoulder press and look at your opposite shoulder and hips in the mirror – make sure they don’t move (make sure they don’t even BUDGE!)  as your pressing arm raises.  This is far more difficult than it sounds.
• The first time your hips move laterally or your opposite shoulder moves – you are done.  This means your spine can no longer stabilize the weight and your shoulder and arm can no longer move the weight without assistance.  This is a recipe for injury and weakness.

Why is this so difficult?  Because your body’s ability to stabilize the spine is not very good, which is one of many reasons there are so many back injuries.  And typically, the exerciser is preoccupied with moving more weight and ends up flexing the spine laterally in an effort to move a heavier dumb bell.  This only creates movement from where it shouldn’t come and actually inhibits true strength, because the shoulder and arm are now moving less of the weight.

Make sure the spine stays still – you may have to use a lighter weight than usual, but your arm will look better and your back will feel better!

Check the Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuiQrzGhZo4 to see the proper execution.

*As usual, this article and associated video are for informational purposes only.  Reader assumes all risk of adopting information contained herein.

*Also as usual, the article and video are the property of The Training Rim, LLC.  Unauthorized reproduction and/or dissemination are illegal.