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Target your SERRATUS ANTERIOR (Stop Ignoring this Muscle!)

Target your SERRATUS ANTERIOR (Stop Ignoring this Muscle!)

by | Dec 5, 2021 | Blog, Exercises, Functional Fitness, Pain Relief, Stretches

All too often when we are focused on improving our shoulder health to prevent aches and pains, we focus on strengthening our rotator cuff.

We may also do some foam rolling or release for our pecs and lats as well knowing they can inhibit proper shoulder mobility.

But we can’t only focus directly on our shoulders if we have shoulder and even neck pain…

We have to realize that our shoulder health is dramatically impacted by both our spinal and scapular mobility and stability as well.

And one muscle in particular is often overlooked when we are suffering from neck and shoulder pain – a muscle that can impact our scapular stability and even be impacted by our thoracic mobility…

This muscle is the Serratus Anterior!

Before I share 3 key moves to include to help activate your Serratus Anterior, and a bonus move to improve your thoracic extension, it’s key we understand why and how our Serratus Anterior can impact our shoulder health, even contributing to scapular winging, shoulder impingement, bursitis, thoracic outlet syndrome, and even neck aches and pains!

What Does The Serratus Anterior Do?

You can find and feel your Serratus Anterior by putting your hand on your ribs just below your armpit.

This muscle protracts or pulls the shoulder blade forward around the rib cage and upwardly rotates and posteriorly tilts the shoulder blade which helps you press overhead safely without shoulder or neck issues, or overload to those smaller muscles like your rotator cuff.

The Serratus Anterior also holds the shoulder blade against the rib cage by posteriorly tipping and externally rotating the scapula. This is the opposite of the scapular winging issue we often seen.

Because of how the Serratus Anterior stablizes and moves the shoulder blade you can see how it would create scapular dysfunction such as scapular winging and poor scapular control leading to shoulder and neck issues.

That’s why it’s key we address weakness of this muscle, even potentially strengthening it on one side!

So what are 3 Key Moves To Activate The Serratus Anterior?

#1: Roller Serratus Anterior Activation

To keep our shoulders healthy, we want to strengthen all of the joint actions controlled by the Serratus Anterior, which means not only working on the protraction that so many Serratus Anterior moves address, but also that upward rotation and posterior tipping.

That’s why a move that works as you press overhead can be key.

Especially if you find you struggle with controlling the overhead press or shoulder and neck pain during that move, try including this move in your warm up activation series.

To do Roller Serratus Anterior Shoulder Extensions, place a small roller, or even sliders, against a wall pinned about at your wrist with your palms facing in toward each other.

The roller should be at about eye height to start. Your arms should be about shoulder-width or just slightly wider apart.

Walk your feet back so you just are angled into the wall and resting a bit of your weight against the roller. You don’t want to fall forward or be dependent on your arms because as you slide up you will lean more into the roller.

You can stagger your feet if that feels more comfortable. Brace your abs as you face the wall and then begin to roll your arms up, extending from your shoulder overhead.

Lean into the wall as you extend. Do not arch your lower back as you extended up. Think of pulling your shoulder blades “out and around” as you slide up.

Then slide back down. You may feel your upper traps slightly but do NOT allow them to compensate.

If you feel your lower back taking over, stagger your feet to help maintain a neutral spine. And if you want to progress this movement, walk further back from the wall to lean more into the roller.

#2: Serratus Anterior Press

The push up plus is a super common Serratus Anterior activation move, but also one that is far more challenging than we give it credit for.

And when we are trying to really isolate and activate a muscle, sometimes it is best to regress a movement so we can really focus on what we feel working.

That’s why I love Wall Protractions. They are a great way to really focus in on simply learning to control scapular protraction. You can even make them unilateral by doing one side at a time.

To do Wall Protractions, stand facing a wall with your hands made into fists. Place your knuckles against the wall with your palms facing in toward each other and your arms extended out at shoulder height. Stand tall and brace your abs.

Then without bending your arms or moving your feet or body, push the wall away with your knuckles.

Feel like you are trying to spread your shoulder blades as far apart as you can without just rounding your back or tucking your hips. It may be a very small movement, especially to start.

Pause then relax out before again pushing the wall away.

Do not arch your lower back to try to make the move bigger or tuck your chin.

If you feel in control of this movement and aren’t trying to make it seem bigger by bending your arms or rounding, you can then move to an incline or even a plank position off the ground.

And if you do have an imbalance, try one side at a time off the wall.

#3: Wall Protractions:

If you do have an imbalance or issue on one side, you want to include unilateral activation, even only doing strength work on that one side.

That’s why the Serratus Anterior Press can be a great move to include. The unilateral focus will allow you to target each side independently.

To do the Serratus Anterior Press, start in a staggered stance with the opposite foot forward from the hand holding the band in at your chest. Move out from the band so there is tension even while your hand is up at your chest. You want to start light with this move as you want to really focus on feeling around your ribs working over your pec muscles working.

Standing tall, press the band out from your chest and slightly up at an incline. Feel yourself pulling your shoulder blade forward around your ribs as you reach out. You aren’t just doing a unilateral chest press.

You may press slightly across the midline of your body as you reach out to protract the shoulder blade, but you aren’t just twisting through your spine.

Then slowly bring your hand back in toward your chest. Do not rotate toward the anchor point.

You want to focus on the movement being felt around your ribs as you protract your shoulder blade or pull it away from your spine.

BONUS:

If you’re struggling to activate your Serratus Anterior and limited in your thoracic extension, using this foam rolling move prior to your activation work can be key – The Peanut Thoracic Extension.

This move can help you relax tight muscles and work on that thoracic extension.

To do this move, you can use a peanut, which can easily be made by taping two balls together or tying them in a sock. Lie on your back placing the peanut in your mid-back with a ball on either side of your spine.

Place your hands behind your head, pulling your elbows open as you relax over the peanut.

Breathe and hold for a second, then crunch up and relax back down. Do a few of the crunches, extending back over, before moving the peanut up your spine.

SUMMARY:

We have to remember that everything is connected. And if we lack mobility and stability in one area, it could lead to overload and injury in another. That is why addressing weakness of our Serratus Anterior can be so key if we’ve been struggling with scapular winging or shoulder and neck aches and pains.

And then remember, you can NEVER stop doing what makes you feel better. That prehab work is key!

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6 Low Impact Exercises | Exercises For Beginners

6 Low Impact Exercises | Exercises For Beginners

by | Nov 21, 2021 | Blog, Bodyweight, Exercises, Functional Fitness, Push Ups, Suspension Trainer

When you’re first starting out, or even first starting back to training, it can be so easy to jump in and end up doing moves we aren’t yet ready for.

Not only can this make us so sore we struggle to get consistent with our training, but it can also lead to injury while holding us back from achieving results.

As stinky as it is to have to sometimes go back to basics, we need to regress to progress and master those fundamental movement patterns first.

We need to make sure we’re doing everything we can to build our mind-body connection so we aren’t just going through the motions with moves but actually using the correct muscles to power the movements.

This will not only help us rebuild faster, but it can even help us build up stronger.

We have to remember that every movement is earned and built off of these basics.

That’s why I wanted to share 6 fundamental moves I not only return to myself and use as part of my workouts but use with any of my clients rebuilding after time off or just starting back.

These bodyweight moves can help you get in a full-body workout and retrain a variety of movement patterns from pressing to pulling to hip hinging and squatting!

 

6 Moves Beginners Should Master First:

#1: Bulldog Hold

This move looks so simple, but it is more challenging than we give it credit for. It’s a great way to vary our plank work and improve our shoulder, hip and knee stability.

Not only will this move work your arms, shoulders and abs, but you’ll also feel those quads burning.

It’s a great way to strengthen your quads if you can’t perform active knee flexion yet even.

And off of this move, you can build up to fun plank variations as well as crawling movements!

To do the Bulldog Hold, set up on your hands and knees with your hands under your shoulders and knees under your hips.

Think about engaging the side of your back as you extend your toes and lift up onto the balls of your feet and your hands.

You want your knees to be hovering just off the ground, no more than a few inches up. This makes your quads have to work harder.

Hold here, bracing your abs as if being punched in the gut.

As you fatigue, do not let your butt go up in the air.

From here you can start to add in even little movements, like foot lifts or shoulder taps before you start to fully crawl.

If you find this is too much on your shoulders, abs or quads, you can modify the movement, placing your hands up on a bench even to start!

#2: Glute Bridge

The glute bridge is honestly a key move to include no matter your fitness level.

While it may be a main exercise in your workouts starting out, and move to more of your activation series and warm up as you progress, it is a fundamental move we all need to be more intentional with.

It’s also often a move we do incorrectly, allowing our lower backs and hamstrings to compensate and work for our glutes.

But if you want to get the full benefit of this move, you need to make sure your glutes are driving the hip extension and you’re only bridging up as high as you can truly control while using your glutes.

To do the glute bridge, set up on your back with your feet flat on the ground just beyond your finger tips when your hands are down by your sides. You can play around with this positioning based on your mobility, putting them slightly further out.

Then bend your elbows to drive your upper arms down into the ground.

Tilt your pelvis up toward your ribs to perform a posterior pelvic tilt and engage your abs and glute maximus before you even lift up off the ground.

Then engage your glutes to lift up. Think about driving your knees toward your toes as you drive through your upper arms and back.

Do not lose that posterior pelvic tilt and begin to arch as you lift.

Make sure to keep your feet flat on the ground and do not let your heels come up.

Pause and squeeze your glutes as hard as you can, then lower down.

You want to make sure you aren’t arching to get up higher or driving yourself backward.

Feel those glutes and do not let your hamstrings take over.

Lower back down and repeat the move. Focus more on engaging those glutes over lifting higher.

To progress the move you can move to a unilateral bridge when ready or even increase the range of motion by placing your feet up on something.

If you struggle to engage your glutes with this bodyweight variation, you can try a frog bridge. The external rotation of your hips can help you better engage your glutes!

#3: Inverted Row

Learning to properly engage your back as you’re getting back into working out is key.

Too often, we let our biceps do the work, pulling with our arms, or end up with neck or shoulder pain because we don’t have proper scapular control.

The Inverted Row is an amazing bodyweight move to learn how to really engage your back to power the pull while having an amazing core strengthening bonus.

Just make sure as you do this row, and any other rowing movements, that you are focused not only on pulling the weight or handles toward you, but also on moving those shoulder blades toward your spine so your back is truly working!

To do the Inverted Row, you can do this move off a bar or suspension trainer. I love the suspension trainer especially when first starting out because you can use a variety of grips.

Using the suspension trainer, hold a handle in each hand with a neutral grip to start, or your palms facing in.

Walk your feet forward as you lean back. The closer to parallel to the ground you get, the harder the move will be.

Flex your feet, pulling your toes up toward your shins as you squeeze your glutes and brace your abs. You want to think about this as a plank and create tension from your feet up.

With your arms straight, make sure to unshrug your shoulders.

Draw your shoulder blades toward your spine as you pull your chest up toward the handles.

You want that initial movement to come from beginning to move your shoulder blades.

Row your chest up toward the handles but don’t try and pull so far you start to round forward just to increase the range of motion.

Stop when you’ve pulled your shoulder blades as close to your spine as you can.

Pause to feel your back then control the lower back down and full arm extension.

Based on your scapular control you can round out a bit at the bottom and protract those shoulder blades, but if you’re just starting out, you may not want to fully disengage your back.

Make sure not to shrug as you pull!

#4: Split Squat

The squat is a fundamental, knee dominant movement pattern. But is also one we often struggle to control and perform correctly through a full range of motion.

That is why, when first starting back, the split squat is a great unilateral option that will not only strengthen your legs but also help you improve your hip mobility and stability.

It’s a great way to also make sure you’re addressing any imbalances and not letting your stronger side take over and perpetuate any issues or pain.

Based on your mobility, you may choose to do this move from the ground or starting with your knee on a block.

Setting up at the bottom of this move is a great way to use this to stretch your hips while truly learning how to control the movement.

Set up kneeling on the block or ground with your front ankle under your front knee and your back knee about under your hip with toes extended so you’re on the ball of your foot.

Really press the ball of your back foot down into the ground as you squeeze that back glute to extend your hip.

Push through the ball of that back foot and your entire front foot to drive up to standing.

Once standing, slowly lower back down to come to rest on the ground.

Then repeat driving back up.

Focus on your feet and their connection to the ground.

And make sure to engage that back glute.

Working through this full range of motion will help you maintain your mobility while improving your stability!

#5: Push Up

The push ups is basically a moving plank so not only a fabulous core move but also a great exercise to work your chest, shoulders and triceps.

However, the full push up from your toes can easily turn into the worm if we don’t yet have the strength to perform it correctly which can lead to wrist, elbow and shoulder aches and pains.

When building back with the push up, an incline variation works well as even the knee push up can be more advanced than we often give it credit for!

To do the push up off an incline, you can start off a wall and slowly lower the incline you use as you progress.

With your arms out in front of you, place your hands on the wall so your hands are just outside your chest. Walk your feet a couple of feet back from the wall so you’re leaning into your hands on the wall.

Spread your fingers to create tension into your hands and drive your heels toward the ground flexing your quads.

Lower your chest toward the wall, making sure not to shrug. You want your body moving as one unit.

Make sure your elbows don’t flare up by your shoulders and create a T shape with your body. You want your upper arms and body to create an arrow shape.

Once you lower your chest toward the wall, press the wall away to fully extend your arms back out.

As you lower the incline, do not do so if you can’t still perform a full range of motion.

#6: Wall Hinge

The final amazing bodyweight basic I think you need to include as you rebuild is the Wall Hinge.

Too often when we do hip hinging movements like the deadlift, we let our lower backs take over and do all of the work instead of engaging our glutes like we should.

When we’re first rebuilding it’s key we learn to control that proper hip hinge to load our glutes and hamstrings so our lower back doesn’t end up overloaded and injured.

While you may find you quickly progress past this movement and either add loads to the hip hinge or move on to unilateral variations like the single leg deadlift, this is a great place to start to make sure you aren’t simply leaning or rounding over.

To do the Wall Hip Hinge, stand about 6 inches to a foot from the wall with your back to the wall and your feet about hip width apart.

You can cross your hands over your chest as you stand tall.

Focus on your entire foot pushing into the ground as you push your butt back toward the wall behind you.

Do not start this move by bending your knees to squat down. You are moving at the hips and then softening your knees in response to reach back.

Touch your butt to the wall and make sure to keep your back flat. Do not round toward the ground.

Then push the ground away with your feet to drive back up to standing.

Your torso will lean forward to keep you balanced as you sit back. Do not let your weight shift forward!

SUMMARY:

As you rebuild, always continue to assess how you feel with moves. Remember progress is never linear so at points you do want to step back.

We are NEVER above the basics and there is always more we can do to improve even these fundamental moves.

Slow and steady use these moves in your training to regress to progress and earn those harder variations and heavier loads!

Looking for help while rebuilding?

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The Best Core Exercise You Aren’t Doing

The Best Core Exercise You Aren’t Doing

by | Nov 15, 2021 | Blog, Core, Exercises

Your core is everything from your shoulders to your knees down your frontside and your backside.

And when you train your core you want to work in every plane of motion, including both anti-rotational and rotational core work.

You want to consider not only how to create a stronger core, but also a better mind-body connection to stabilize and support your shoulders, spine, pelvis, hips and knees.

And that is why I love this amazing core move the SIT THRU!

Now this move looks slightly odd and can feel awkward and complicated to start, it also requires more stability and mobility than we realize.

But it is an amazing move to work on your rotational core strength, targeting your abs and obliques while also improving your hip and shoulder mobility and stability. You’ll feel this move working the muscles around your ribs, your shoulders and arms as well as your quads.

It requires no equipment to do as well and can even be a great way to get your blood pumping, making it a fun move to even use as additional core work in an interval cardio workout.

Plus the basic Sit Thru can so easily be combined with other moves to match your needs and goals, whether it’s performing it as a Burpee Sit Thru, Crawl with Sit Thru or even Sit Thru to Thoracic Bridge!

So how do you do this amazing basic Sit Thru move and what if you aren’t yet ready for the full variation?

How To Do The Sit Thru:

To do the Sit Thru, start on your hands and knees with your hands under your shoulders and your knees under your hips. Tuck your toes under and press up onto your hands and toes or balls of your feet.

This is a bulldog position and your knees should be hovering a few inches off the ground.

Lift one foot to kick under your body as you rotate to face that way. As you bring your leg forward and through, extending it out, lift your hand on the side you’re kicking toward so you can rotate your chest open.

You will be supporting yourself with your other hand and foot. Make sure to keep that arm straight and do not shrug the shoulder.

You want to rotate all the way through with your leg out straight so that you are almost sitting, and even could touch your butt to the ground if you needed to pause and re-balance. This is the sit thru.

Then rotate back close, placing your hand back down as you bend your knee to move back into that bulldog position.

You want to avoid your legs straightening out more into the plank as you perform this move. That tight position is what not only works your quads but helps improve your mobility.

You also want to make sure your hands stay under your shoulders to help keep your shoulders stable while improving your shoulder mobility. Do not shrug as you do this move.

Then kick through to the other side.

The faster you move, the more challenging, and even cardio, the move will be!

But what if you don’t have the mobility or shoulder stability yet to do this move?

How To Modify The Sit Thru:

One of my favorite ways to modify the Sit Thru is off a bench or incline. By placing your hands up on a bench, you provide more space to perform the sit thru and you reduce the strain and load on your arms and shoulders, abs and quads.

It can allow you to still work on that same position and rotational move while improving your shoulder stability without the strain.

As you feel more comfortable and improve your mobility, you can lower the incline over time.

If you do not have an incline, you can also modify this move by kicking your leg under in that bulldog position without raising your hand. This can be great if you don’t yet have the shoulder stability too, however it does take out some of the benefits.

SUMMARY:

Just remember a move is only as good as our implementation. We need to regress to progress and make sure we are not just replicating a movement pattern but also feeling the correct muscles working.

Have some fun including the sit thru in your routine and feel that core working!

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The Most Overrated Glute Exercise

The Most Overrated Glute Exercise

by | Nov 7, 2021 | Blog, Bodyweight, Butt, Core, Exercises, Pain Relief

The clamshell exercise is a staple of any rehab program that calls for glute activation moves.

But honestly, it’s slightly overrated.

And so often done INCORRECTLY.

We end up rotating to get a bigger range of motion. We engage other muscles to try and rush to progress the move and add a band.

We aren’t intentional with the move while focusing on what we feel working.

But part of that is actually because it is so easy to cheat.

For such a seemingly simple move, it is so easy for us to cheat and compensate and ultimately perpetuate the existing issues by overusing the same muscles we are trying to avoid overusing.

All too often this basic move perpetuates the problem instead of activating the muscles we want it to.

We end up engaging our TFL or overworking our piriformis over actually getting our glute medius to pull it’s weight.

That’s why I wanted to share with you one of my favorite Glute Medius Activation Moves to do instead – The Wall Side Lying Lateral Raise.

But before I go into the glute medius move I prefer to use, I did just want to touch on 3 key cues if you decide to use that oh so basic clam exercise.

#1: Turn your top toe down toward the ground.

This cue can actually be useful in many glute medius moves to help inhibit the TFL if it tends to take over.

The internal tibial rotation, or rotation of your lower leg down toward the ground, can help you prevent the TFL from compensating for your glute medius.

When doing the clam, just turn that top foot toward the ground in front of your bottom foot instead of keeping your feet stacked or letting that top foot open up as you raise your top leg.

#2: Don’t focus on a bigger range of motion.

Yes we always want to strengthen through a full range of motion, but we want to make sure it is actually a range of motion we can control with the muscles we want to target.

Too often we end up rotating our entire body or start to overuse muscles like our piriformis to perform a bigger range of motion.

Instead of focusing on making the move bigger, focus on stopping the movement with the glute medius, really feeling it on the side of your butt.

It can even be helpful to put a wall or pole behind you and think about squeezing your butt slightly forward even as you open.

#3: Change your degree of hip flexion.

Struggling to establish that mind-body connection?

Try changing how much you flex or extend your hips.

While this can not only help us target the anterior or posterior fibers of the glute medius more, and make sure we are able to engage the muscle through a variety of postures, it can also help us find a position where we can most easily establish that mind-body connection, especially if we are struggling.

Once you are able to really feel the muscle working, you can even move to a more or less hip flexed position to use that engagement to help you create the mind-body connection while in a position you may not have felt it before!

But because each of us does have a different build and mind-body connection, whether even due to previous injuries, it can be useful to feel free to adjust our exact degree of hip flexion as we learn to master the move and use the correct muscles.

Now let’s talk about how to do the Wall Side Lying Lateral Raise and why I prefer this move over the basic clam.

The Wall Side Lying Lateral Raise:

If you’re struggle to engage your glute medius, it can be helpful to make sure you’re engaging your glute max as well. That’s why this move with the slight kick back can really help.

And because your TFL is a hip flexor and your piriformis assists with horizontal abduction when your hip is flexed to 90 degrees, it can be key to work on activating your glute medius while your hip is extended.

If you think about the clam, you aren’t kicking back and as easily able to use the glute max to help prevent your TFL from compensating.

You also are in that hip flexed position which lends itself to both your Piriformis and TFL engaging, two muscles that often compensate for our glute medius leading to lower back, hip and even knee aches and pains.

And that’s why this Wall Side Lying Lateral Raise is a great go-to glute medius activation move!

This move works on hip extension to engage your glute max while also working to improve your hips stability and glute medius activation.

To do this move, you may start with bodyweight and progress to a mini band variation with the band around your legs just above your knees.

Set up by bending that bottom leg to help you stabilize and set up lying on your side with your back to the wall. You want to set up a few inches out from the wall so you can kick back slightly into the wall. You can fully lie on your side with your bottom arm straight out on the ground or you can prop yourself up to rest your head in your hand.

Then lift your top leg up a few inches off your bottom leg and make sure you do NOT rotate that toe open. You can even turn that top toe slightly down toward the ground.

After lifting up a few inches, drive your heel back into the wall behind you.

From this position, slide your heel up the wall lifting your leg.

Perform this lateral raise but do not rotate your hip open to raise up higher.

Lift up and then slowly slide the leg down. Do not lower completely down and relax out. If you’re using a band, you want to make sure the band doesn’t pull you back down and that you keep tension on it even at the bottom.

You want your glute working the entire time.

Focus on feeling your glute 90
lifting your leg up, and if you have a band pushing against the band, as you feel your glute max working to drive your heel back into the wall extending your hip.

SUMMARY:

We have to remember that no one move is right for everyone. And even knowing when we DON’T feel a move working the correct muscles can be key so that we can prevent ourselves from perpetuating the problem and even select a move that does better help us establish that mind-body connection.

Use these cues to help yourself make sure you’re adjusting moves to fit your needs and goals and if you’ve been struggling to use the clam, try this lateral raise variation instead!

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The Most Underrated Shoulder Press

The Most Underrated Shoulder Press

by | Nov 1, 2021 | Blog, Exercises, Functional Fitness, Pain Relief

The overhead press is a tough compound shoulder, tricep and chest exercise. It is also a great move to work your core, serratus anterior and even upper traps.

And while vertical pressing movements are key to include, they require more mobility and stability than we often realize.

They require not just shoulder mobility and stability, but also scapular and spinal mobility and stability as well.

The problem is, all too often our mobility and stability in these areas is lacking, and partly because of our common daily postures.

We spend far too much time hunched over our technology or commuting to and from work.

And this constant forward flexion, can lead to shoulder, scapular and thoracic mobility restrictions that may cause us to suffer from neck, shoulder and upper back aches and pains when we try to go heavy with overhead pressing.

These mobility restrictions can even be why your lower back is sore and achy after performing this upper body move!

So while it’s key we work to address these mobility and stability issues with our prehab work and including foam rolling, stretching and activation as part of our warm up, it may also mean that the basic overhead press is not the best option for us to start.

Because of these common mobility restrictions and the fact that so many of us compensate to try to replicate proper from, I actually love to sub in this often underrated overhead press variation, the landmine press.

It can help us get the full benefits of the overhead press with less strain on our rotator cuff as well as less risk of us arching and overloading our lower backs to compensate.

If you are currently working to improve your thoracic extension and shoulder mobility as well as your scapular control, you may find the Landmine Press allows you to include overhead pressing without feeling like you’re going to get injured.

Because of the slightly angled press, this move can more easily allow you to engage your back to support your shoulder and feel that scapular movement. It also requires less thoracic extension to perform correctly.

And my favorite variation of it, the single arm press, can even help you correct imbalances as you strengthen your shoulders, triceps and chest!

Before I dive into 3 tips to get the most out of this amazing move, I wanted to go over basic Single Arm Landmine Pressing Form.

How To Do The Single Arm Landmine Press:

To do the Single Arm Landmine Press, set a bar up in a landmine and grab the bar in one hand with a neutral grip, bringing the bar up to your shoulder. Stand with your feet about hip-width to shoulder-width apart and parallel. The bar should be just a few inches in front of your shoulder so you can hold it comfortably with your chest pressed out.

Think wide shoulders as you brace your abs as if about to be punched in the gut. Squeeze your glutes as well to help better engage your lats to support your shoulders.

Then press the bar out, extending your arm fully. Do not really lean into the press or round or reach out. Just press to fully extend your arm, then lower the bar back down to your shoulder.

Do not rotate or lean as you press. Keep your core engaged. Repeat all reps on one side before switching.

Now what are 3 tips to help you adjust this move to fit your needs and goals and get even more out of the basic variation?

#1: Vary Your Stance.

While this is an upper body move, how you stand to press can impact the additional benefits you get from the move.

In the basic form I mentioned, you will get a great anti-rotational core benefit. And the narrower your foot stance, the more you’ll have to fight your body’s desire to rotate.

You can also stagger your stance for a bit stronger base of support and to potentially even be able to focus on heavier loads.

But standing isn’t your only option for this move.

You can move to half kneeling, full kneeling or even seated!

While seated, you won’t be able to handle as heavy a load, it prevents you from compensating or seeking out mobility from other places. This move can be very core intensive and challenging.

Full kneeling will also be another challenging core option, requiring you to really fight the urge to rotate or lean. This variation can be great if you struggle with lower back pain during pressing and need to practice that ab and glute engagement.

Half kneeling is also a great way to really focus on ab and glute activation, but while being able to go slightly heavier than full kneeling. It is a great way to focus on using that glute activation on the knee that is down to better engage your lat on the pressing side to improve your shoulder stability and scapular control.

No one stance is better or worse. And you may find you even progress the move simply by adjusting the stance to adjust the different benefits you get from the move. We have to remember that the same, but different can be a form of progression as we use a move over different workout programming.

#2: Use Your BACK – Focus On Your Shoulder Blade Moving.

Often we ignore the importance of our back to improving our pushing movements. And not only the muscles of our back but the control of our shoulder blades in general.

When you set up to press and think about any of the cues from “press your chest out” to “wide shoulders” what you also want to be thinking about is engaging the sides of your back to support your shoulders and make sure you are unshrugged to start.

If you start the press with your shoulders shrugged and shoulder blades elevated, you are pressing from a weakened position – a position that is going to put more strain on those smaller muscles, like your rotator cuff.

By engaging the sides of your back to start with those shoulders down, you can press from a strong position.

And then don’t just think about pressing the weight out with your shoulder. Think about feeling that shoulder blade move. Your shoulder blade will upwardly rotate and posteriorly tilt as you press.

This movement is key to pressing safely.

So don’t just go through the motions of pressing the weight up.

Think about that back engagement as you set up to press from a point of strength and then focus on feeling your shoulder blade move as your back is involved in that shoulder flexion or press overhead!

#3: Don’t Ignore Your Core.

Whichever stance you use, your core will be engaged. Part of what causes lower back overload during overhead pressing is a lack of thoracic extension so we seek out mobility from our lumbar spine, but also a lack of proper core engagement to protect our lower back.

As you press, you do want to think about not only engaging your abs, but also your glutes. By engaging your glutes, you can actually help yourself better engage your lats to stabilize your shoulders.

And you’ll also help prevent yourself from being able to easily arch your lower back because you’re focused on squeezing your glutes to drive that hip extension.

Also by bracing your abs, think about engaging as if you’re about to be punched in the gut, you’ll further stabilize your spine.

Do not hold your breath though as you brace. You can think about exhaling on exertion even to better activate and engage things as you power that press.

You want to focus on everything involved as you press before you start to increase loads. This will ensure you utilize muscles efficiently and effectively, which can even help you lift heavier more quickly!

SUMMARY:

If you’re working to improve your shoulder, thoracic and scapular mobility and stability but want to include an overhead pressing exercise in your routine, consider using the single arm landmine press.

It’s a great way to get the benefits without the mobility and stability required of the full overhead press. And, because it is a unilateral move, it can even help you address imbalances between both sides.

If you find you don’t have a bar that is the appropriate weight, or even a corner to set up the bar in if you don’t have a landmine, one easy modification is a band incline press as well. The resistance band itself can even create a unique challenge of its own!

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The Side Plank – How To Do It The Right Way

The Side Plank – How To Do It The Right Way

by | Oct 24, 2021 | Blog, Core, Exercises, Pain Relief

Isometrics are key exercises to include in your routine to improve your stability and mind-body connection. They are a great way for you to target underactive muscles and really get them firing correctly.

They are a great way to make sure that you’re using muscles efficiently and effectively to work together to perform a movement.

Because we have to remember that part of getting stronger is learning how to quickly and efficiently recruit muscles to work together in the right order, each carrying the load they were meant to carry!

But so often these seemingly simple moves are taken for granted.

We simply try to get through the hold, or hold longer, instead of really focusing in on engaging muscles correctly as hard as possible.

That’s why I wanted to discuss one amazing core isometric, the Side Plank, and not only why this move is so key but also how we can get more out of it to not only strengthen our entire core but also avoid knee and shoulder aches and pains.

What The Side Plank Works:

The side plank is an amazing unilateral core move that can help you improve your shoulder, spinal, pelvis, hip, knee and even ankle stability when done correctly.

Because it’s a unilateral move and works each side independently, it an help you even correct imbalances. If you do have an imbalance, you may find you do an extra round or even only rounds of side planks on one side.

It is a great anti-lateral flexion, or anti-side bending, exercise to include to help you learn to brace to protect your spine.

While the primary focus of the side plank is to strengthen your obliques, it will also work your glute medius, glute max, lats, shoulders, and QL (quadratus lumborum) to name a few of muscles involved.

It really is a full core move and can help you build stability from your shoulders to your feet.

But to get all of these benefits, you need to focus on what you actually feel working as you perform the hold and, at times, even concentrate on engaging each of the muscles involved a bit harder.

3 Form Cues To Improve Your Side Planks:

That’s why I wanted to share these 3 Key Form Cues to help you really proper engage the correct muscles as you hold.

#1: Flex your foot to create tension through your lower leg.

If you want to get the full benefit of the side plank and even help protect your knees and ankles, you can’t ignore the importance of creating tension through your lower leg as you hold.

This will not only improve your efficiency with the movement, but it will help engage the muscles from your ankles to your hips, including your glutes.

To flex or dorsiflex your foot, pull your toe up toward your shin to engage your lower leg before you even lift up into the side plank. Then really focus on pushing the side of your foot down into the ground as you hold to keep that tension.

You don’t just want to lift. You want to create that tension.

You can then either stack, or stagger your feet. Neither is technically bad and both can have their benefits.

Some argue that stacked is harder as there is a smaller base of support while others will argue the staggered is better to create tension and be able to better transition from front to side plank variations.

The key is truly creating the tension through your lower leg to improve your knee and ankle stability and even better engage those glutes!

#2: Squeeze your glutes.

Often we get so focused on this move as an oblique exercise we only lift through our torso, letting our hips ultimately sag and we miss out on the amazing benefit the side plank can have for improving our hip stability!

As you lift up into that side plank, squeeze your glutes to extend your hips and lock yourself into that nice straight line. Think about almost slightly squeezing your butt to push your hips forward.

This will help you avoid rotating toward the ground and even overloading your TFL and QL which can perpetuate SI Joint, IT Band issues and even lower back, hip and knee pain.

We want muscles to learn to engage to support each other, which often means focusing on that engagement in muscles that tend to be underactive.

By also engaging your glutes, you avoid rotating toward the ground and overloading your shoulder as you hold. Activating our glutes can actually help better engage our lats.

And not only do you want to focus on that glute max engagement, but you also want to think about the side of your butt lifting your hip up to maintain that hold. Focusing on the glute medius working will help you really use this move to improve your hip stability!

#3: Engage the side of your back to support your shoulder.

If you’ve ever found that side planks irritate your shoulder, you need to make sure you aren’t just relying on those smaller muscles to hold. You want to also engage your back and lats to support your shoulder properly and help stabilize it.

As you set up for the side plank, make sure that your elbow is underneath your shoulder and that you aren’t shrugging.

Even think about slightly pulling your shoulders down as you set up to hold.

Then as you hold at the top, to keep your back engaged, think about pushing your elbow down into the ground as you pulling your elbow slightly toward your feet. Your elbow will not move, but this focus as if you would adduct the shoulder if you could, engages your lat to help prevent shoulder issues.

Learning this engagement can not only help us avoid neck and shoulder aches and pains but also improve our scapular and shoulder stability, which in turn can improve our other pressing exercises, like our bench or push ups!

SUMMARY:

Using these 3 cues you can help yourself properly engage all of the muscles involved in the side plank to get more out of this amazing move and really improve your mind-body connection.

Focus on holding harder and run through what you feel working as you hold over just trying to hold longer or “get through” the time.

Try adding in some side plank holds for even 20-30 seconds to your activation series before your workout to activate everything from your shoulders to your knees!