Ok I’d never heard this term before a Facebook Live “Ask Me Anything” when I got asked about the best moves for a “pancake butt.”
I found the expression incredibly amusing, but it also got me to thinking about the science behind developing shapely, strong glutes.
How could you best develop them and create the perky shape you wanted?
A. You would need to create a program implementing all 3 drivers of muscle growth.
B. You would need to combine movements in a variety of planes of motion to not only target all three glute muscles, but even different aspects of those muscles.
And C. You would need to focus on not only adding loads or weight but different types of resistances and a variety of reps and set schemes.
First let’s go over the different drivers of muscle growth and the different ways to target different aspects of the glutes.
Then I’ll share 5 Must-Do Moves To Avoid The Dreaded Pancake Butt!
The 3 Drivers Of Muscle Growth:
Too often we think the only way to “grow” a muscle or promote muscle hypertrophy is through using heavier loads and creating a ton of muscle tissue damage aka lifting heavy and making ourselves really sore with moves like the squat and deadlift.
BUT muscle tissue damage is only ONE driver of muscle growth.
And SORENESS? Well soreness isn’t an indicator of progress or results.
Soreness can simply even mean you did something new (or even that your hydration or sleep aka your recovery is off). So stop using soreness as your indicator that you worked hard enough!
And especially as you utilize metabolic stress, and potentially even more moves that create mechanical tension, to get results, you may even find there are workouts you feel a huge pump DURING the actual workout and NOTHING after. No soreness. NOTHING.
That’s not a bad thing!
We don’t always need to use heavy loads and compound moves with huge ranges of motion to get results. They are just one piece of the puzzle.
So what are the 3 drivers of muscle growth?
Muscle Tissue Damage
Mechanical Tension
Metabolic Stress
Let’s start by reviewing what moves create the most muscle tissue damage as these are the moves we tend to think are most important for results.
Muscle Tissue Damage:
If you’ve ever heard “Squat for a better butt,” you may have fallen victim to the belief that if you just squat, you’ll get rid of your pancake butt.
However, squats alone may NOT get you the results you were hoping for.
Neither may deadlifts or lunges even.
While these compound moves are ESSENTIAL to include in your routine, there is no “one best move” out there that alone will get you results.
And thinking there is, will only hold you back from using every tool in your toolbox to get the best results as fast as possible.
These compound moves, done with challenging loads, create more muscle tissue damage, which can drive muscle growth.
If you break down muscle tissue and recover proper, your muscles should grow stronger and bigger in response.
HOWEVER, the more muscle tissue damage you create, the longer you have to rest before working the muscle again so that it actually recovers and rebuilds.
If you don’t let the muscle rebuild and recover, you’re constantly just tearing it down which will fight against all of your hard work.
If you’re constantly only doing heavy lifts and the volume is adding up with those, you probably are only able to train that muscle effectively once a week. And this isn’t ideal.
Studies have shown that the optimal training frequency for muscle hypertrophy may actually be 2 to even 3 times a week. So if you want to shape up that pancake butt, adding in a second glute day each week may be the answer!
You can’t increase your training frequently though if you’re constantly creating extreme amounts of muscle damage.
While controlling overall volume can definitely help, so can using moves that drive growth in other ways.
But first, what moves create more muscle tissue damage?
Moves that will create more muscle tissue damage:
Have moderate glute activity
Big ranges of motion
Peak tension when the glutes are lengthened
Emphasize the eccentric
These are most often those big compound lifts like squats, deadlifts, and lunges that we tend to load down.
Many of these moves focus primarily on the glute max, working that lower glute max just slightly more.
These moves can be included in your workouts as some of your primary lifts, using moves that may create less damage and be done with lighter loads for slightly higher reps after.
Or you may even include them on your leg day with a separate “glute day” each week that focuses on those glutes with moves that create less muscle damage.
With these compound moves, you may work on maximal strength in the 1-5 rep range or even work in the more traditional hypertrophy range of about 6-12 reps.
You want to make sure to use a weight that challenges you though for whatever reps you select!
And you can even create more muscle damage by not only increasing the loads, but by changing the tempo of your reps.
Especially if you slow down the ECCENTRIC portion of the move, you can create more damage. (This would mean slowing down the lower down in the squat or the lunge for example.)
More time under tension, and especially more of a focus on the eccentric, means more work for those muscles.
This can be another great way to advance movements if you don’t necessarily have heavier loads or want to do more reps!
Mechanical Tension:
If you do a chest exercise and expect your glutes to grow, you’re going to be waiting a long time.
Why? Because you placed no tension on the muscle you wanted to work!
Seems sort of silly and obviously, right?
But that is what mechanical tension is…placing more tension on the muscle you want to work!
So if you want to work your glutes, the more tension you place on that muscle, the more you can drive growth.
Now all too often we simply try to “add weight” to create more tension.
But with our glutes, this can backfire.
Using our “mind-body connection” to better recruit the muscle, while using moves that place the most tension on the muscle when shortened, may actually allow us to create more tension with LIGHTER loads!
Now this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still CHALLENGE yourself.
But it does means that instead of depending on the LOAD to challenge the muscle, you need to focus on the muscle you FEEL working and try to activate it as much as possible with your MIND.
You want to THINK about it contracting hard.
The reason for this is that, with the glutes specifically, simply going heavier with some moves may actually lead to synergists doing more work to lift instead of the glutes coming under more tension.
So if you do that barbell hip thruster and start to feel your quads and hamstrings working more as you increase loads, you may actually be going “too heavy” to create the optimal amount of muscle tension in your glutes!
Basically, adding a heavier load only works to an extent and there is a point for each of us when going heavier fights against us optimally engaging and recruiting the muscle we want.
What glute moves create the most mechanical tension?
Moves that:
Have high glute activity
Moderate ranges of motion
Peak tension when the glutes are shortened
Can emphasize the eccentric
These moves can be more isolated or still compound lifts.
They are moves like the barbell hip thruster, the back extension, high step ups, ankle weight abductions and cable kickbacks.
The variety of moves that create mechanical tension allow you to work not only your entire glute max, but also really target your glute medius. And many of the abduction movements even allow you to hit that upper glute max a bit more, which can help get rid of that “pancakedness.”
These moves generally don’t take as long to recover from (usually about 2-3 days), which can make them great to include to really perkify that butt while increasing your training frequency.
Most often these moves will be done for about 5-15 reps. Some moves like the barbell hip thrusters may be done with heavier weights so you may work down in reps; however, just make sure this isn’t necessarily at the expense of FEELING the correct muscle driving the movement. (Make note of your personal set point where synergists may start to dominate.)
Because lighter loads may allow for you to focus more on your glutes working, you may find you often work between 10-15 reps with these moves.
NOTE: Range of motion is still important and so are even the TOOLS used with these moves. Start to shrink the range of motion on some of these moves and you get into creating more metabolic stress territory!
Metabolic Stress:
You know that feeling when you’ve done a band move and you stand up and grab your butt and think “Holy butt cheeks batman!?”
That feeling right there, that “burning sensation,” is called metabolic stress.
These moves make great activation exercises prior to your heavy lifts and runs to help you make sure your glutes are working.
Because you can do a few to create that “pump” and establish that mind-body connection, without wearing yourself out, they can help you make sure your recruitment patterns are correct when you go into more compound movements.
That makes many of these moves great rehab/prehab movements to avoid injury!
However, ONLY using these moves as activation exercises doesn’t allow you to take full advantage of their metabolic stress benefit!
Following a compound movement with a more isolated exercise to create a pump can help you further burnout a muscle.
They also make great burnouts to target those glutes even at the end of a leg day with compound moves!
You may even find that doing full circuits or workouts with these moves can allow you to dramatically increase your training frequency without the need for extended recovery.
Most of these moves you will feel a lot at the time yet the next day feel like you could train again. Their recovery cycle is much shorter, making them a key piece to include to maximize your results.
And they can be a great way to really utilize that mind-body connection to build and tone your glutes.
Especially for runners or cyclists who don’t want to risk the “soreness” or “fatigue” of heavy lifting affecting their training, these are a great way to build and strengthen their glutes!
Moves that will create metabolic stress:
Have LOW glute activity
Small ranges of motion
Peak tension when the glutes are shortened
Varied tension on the muscle
Wait…LOW glute activity?!
You may now be thinking, “Then why are they great as activation moves to establish that mind-body connection if they have LOW glute activity!? And why the heck do I feel them burn so much!?”
The reason these moves are AMAZING activation exercises all comes down to the fact that they DO create that PUMP and that BURN.
Even think about it in terms of your biceps after curls. When you feel that muscle with a PUMP, your brain is much more aware of that muscle with every other move, right!?
By using these moves to create that pump and burn, you help your brain to really FEEL the muscle, which is what establishes that mind-body connection.
And while it may seem strange they have lower glute activity, the pump you feel isn’t so much due to the activation of the muscle, but the fact that you restrict blood flow out of the muscle.
By keeping the glutes under constant tension with quick back to back reps you prevent blood from leaving the muscle aka your cells swell, you get pumped and create metabolic stress.
And that “burn?” Well that is due to the build up of certain metabolites that happens due to the constant tension for that higher volume!
So what moves create metabolic stress?
Think about all of those amazing band moves!
Band monster walks, band side shuffles, band glute bridges, frog bridges, clams, fire hydrants…all are great moves to create that pump!
With most of these moves, you will want to focus less on increasing the resistance and more on the VOLUME. Reps for these will usually be in that 15-30 rep range.
Yup…30 reps even.
Beginners may find it even takes more reps at first to establish that mind-body connection while more advanced exercisers can engage from that first rep and really build up that burn!
These moves are also a great way to target your glute medius especially while working your entire glute max. And by using some of the abduction moves, you can even target that upper glute max more if needed.
And if you want to focus a bit more on that lower glute max?
Why not try creating metabolic stress with some of those moves that usually create more muscle tissue damage….
Wait…How can you do that?!
Change The Resistance, Change The ROM, Change The Driver?!
If we want results, we need to progress our workouts. We need to progress our movements.
To do this, we usually add more weight or do more reps.
But sometimes using slightly different VARIATIONS of movements is actually the key to progressing our workouts so that we can keep moving forward.
By using the “same but different,” or variations of moves we usually love even with “LESS” weight, we can also change how they drive muscle growth.
For instance, a barbell hip thruster will create more mechanical tension.
But what if you used a band instead of a bar AND added a mini band or booty band around your legs?
If you changed the equipment in this way, you could take a move that usually would create more muscle tension and use it to create more metabolic stress!
It’s the same move, but by changing the resistance, you change how the move drives growth.
By replacing the barbell with bands, you place less of a focus on the eccentric portion as the band reduces tension as you come back toward the anchor point.
And by using the mini band, you put the glute medius under constant tension, which then helps build more of a pump!
But it’s not just a change in tools that can take a move from creating a ton of muscle tissue damage to more metabolic stress.
You can also change the range of motion!
Take that basic squat.
You can load it down and create a ton of muscle damage.
OR you can place a band around your legs and shrink the range of motion, pulsing only at the bottom or even coming just short of lockout.
By changing the squat so the range of motion is smaller and you’re CONSTANTLY under tension, you will create that pump instead!
Using different variations of the squat may not be a clear “progression” but this same but different movement may just be what you need to keep progressing and challenging your body!
Sometimes it can even simply be a slightly different body position during the movement that will keep you moving forward.
Take for instance the mini band seated abduction. You can do these seated on the ground or off a bench. While seated on the bench, you can lean forward or backward or sit up nice and tall.
All of these involve slightly different angles of hip flexion which can affect not only where you feel it but how much you target the anterior or posterior fibers of your glute medius!
This seemingly slight difference can be a way to progress movements so you are really working those glutes from every angle for the best results possible!
5 Must-Do Moves To Avoid The Dreaded Pancake Butt:
Now the fun stuff hehe
These 5 moves cover all 3 drivers of muscle growth and work your glutes from every angle.
They will target not only your entire glute max, but also your glute medius.
And if you need to focus more on your upper glute max or lower glute max to build that round, perky butt, these will also help you out!
Band Squat Pulses:
If you want to use metabolic stress to build those glutes, this is a great version of the squat to include. You will want to use it for between 15-30 reps aka a higher rep range without focusing on upping the resistance.
The Band Squat Pulse will target your glute medius as well as your entire glute max.
To do Band Squat Pulses, place the booty band or mini band around your legs above your knees (or if using a mini band, below your knees even) and stand with your feet about hip-width apart.
Sit back and down, pressing your knees out against the band so your ankles, knees and hips stay in line. You do not want your knees to cave in.
Sink to about parallel to the ground and then pulse a few inches up and down from here. You do not want to start below parallel and you don’t want to stand fully up as you pulse. You want the range of motion to be about 6 inches around that parallel position.
Once all pulses are complete, stand up.
Make sure your knees don’t cave in as you pulse and that your heels stay down and feet are flat on the ground. Do not round over. Make sure to keep your back flat and chest up.
Beginners may pulse over a bench or even hold on to help them balance. You can also stay up higher in the pulse squat instead of sinking as low.
You can also even vary this movement by performing a GOBLET band pulse squat, holding a dumbbell or kettlebell up at your chest. Or by changing the exact range of motion performed!
Barbell Hip Thrusters:
This move will create muscle tension to work those glutes and target the entire glute max.
As you progress, you will want to add loads, just be careful that you don’t start allowing your hamstrings and quads to take over just so you can go heavier.
Advanced exercisers able to go heavier may work down toward 5 reps while beginners or anyone really wanting to focus on that mind-body connection may find they need to stay in that 10-15 or even 20 rep range!
To do the Barbell Hip Thruster, set up a bench and make sure it won’t move as you bridge up with your back on it. Take a barbell and put some padding around it so that it won’t dig into your hips as you perform the move.
Place your upper back against the bench and sit with your butt on the ground and your legs out straight. Roll the barbell up over your hips and then bend your knees and plant your feet firmly on the ground and close to your butt. Your mobility may dictate the exact placement of your feet.
Holding the bar firmly, drive up through your heels and your upper back on the bench, to lift your butt up off the ground and drive your hips, and the barbell, up toward the ceiling.
Squeeze your glutes and press your hips up as high as possible, driving the barbell up and off the ground. Hold a second or two at the top and then lower back down and repeat.
Do not hyperextend your back at the top. Really squeeze your glutes at the top and even posteriorly tilt your pelvis. Make sure you are driving straight up through your heels. Do not push yourself backward over the bench.
You may find that as you bridge up you want to “push” the barbell down toward your thighs to help you drive up and squeeze your glutes.
You can also slightly keep your chin tucked so you’re looking up but out past your legs instead of relaxing your head back to look straight up at the ceiling. This little flexion of your neck can help with your glute engagement.
Lower your butt back down toward the ground and repeat.
You do not fully need to touch the weight down, but you do want to complete a full range of motion. Make sure to sit back forward as you lower down instead of trying to keep your upper back up on the bench so that you don’t hyperextend your back by simply lowering your butt.
Then repeat, driving your hips back up.
Do not rush the movement. While you can add weight to make the movement harder, you may also want to adjust the tempo!
Slowing down the lower down can create more tension on that muscle too! It’s not always about adding loads!
Band Lying Lateral Raises:
This is a great move to create metabolic stress, strengthen your glute medius and even target your upper glute max more!
Especially if you’re a runner, this is a must-do move for hip stability and a great way to “perkify” your butt while not creating fatigue for your running!
To do Band Lying Lateral Raise, place the band around your legs. The placement depends on the band and how well you can engage your glutes. Put it above your knees if you’re using a booty band or heavier mini band or below your knees to progress the movement using a mini band. You can even move the band down around your ankles if you don’t feel other muscles compensating.
Then lie on your side on the ground. You can support your head in your hand while lying on your side or relax fully onto your side. Place your top hand on the ground in front of you to help you stabilize.
Stack your feet on top of each other and then lift your top leg up so there is just a very little bit of tension on the band. If you have a booty band, you may not really have to lift it, but just make sure there is tension and you keep this tension throughout!
Then lift your leg straight up toward the ceiling as high as you can without rotating your toe up. Do not rock or swing to lift up higher. If you can only lift a few inches up higher that is fine. It’s better to do the range of motion you can control.
If you struggle to feel your glutes and instead feel your hips, kick slightly back as you lift up or turn your toe down toward the ground to internally rotate your hip.
Quickly perform reps, keeping tension in the band the entire time.
Deficit Reverse Lunge:
One way to progress a movement is by adding load. Another is by changing up the tempo.
A third is to INCREASE the range of motion.
Not only will this help you create more muscle tissue damage but it will also help you strengthen through a bigger range of motion to improve your mobility.
However, this only works if you ACTUALLY work through the increased range of motion. If you can’t lunge all the way to the ground with a standard reverse lunge, you aren’t ready for the deficit version.
While this move will work your entire glute maximus, it will hit that lower glute max harder!
To do Deficit Reverse Lunges, set a small box or stack of stable plate weights on the ground. Even just starting with a single 45lbs bumper plate is enough to make a difference.
If you’re ready, add weights but start with making sure you can complete the full range of motion.
Stand tall and then step back off the box or weight, bending your front knee to about 90 degrees as you drop your back knee down to lightly touch the ground or hover right over it.
Really sit back in that front heel as you sink down.
Keep your chest up and do not hunch or round over. While you may hinge slightly at your hips to sit back and load the glute, you should maintain a nice neutral spine.
Then drive back up to standing on the box by pushing through that front heel.
Don’t lean or rock forward but think about driving straight up to standing. Then lunge back again.
If you can’t get your knee down past the platform and close to the ground, you aren’t yet ready for the increased range of motion.
Band Seated Abductions:
This is a great move to work your glute max and medius with a slight bit more “love” for that upper glute max.
This move is a great way to create that glute pump.
And there are so many little tweaks you can make to this move to implement that “same but different” rule to help you progress!
You can change your body positioning from standing to seated. You can even change how much you lean backward or forward while seated to work those glutes in different ways!
To do the standard Band Seated Abductions off a bench, place the mini band right below (more advanced) or right above (a bit easier) your knees. If you’re using a booty band, place it above your knees. Whichever place you choose or whatever weight mini band you use, just make sure you feel your glutes and outside your hips actually working.
Sit up nice and tall with your hands on the edge of the bench and your feet about hip-width apart. Then press your knees open against the band as you sit up tall. Really use your glutes to press the band open.
Do not slouch or rock back. Press your hips forward as you press your knees open. You may rock open on your feet, but don’t simply rock and bend your ankles. Really press the band open with your knees.
You MAY lean back or forward just make sure this is a CONSCIOUS change in placement instead of swinging as you do the move!
Using these tips and 5 moves, you can build a round, perky booty and reverse that pancake butt!
If you want even more booty building workouts that will also help you improve your running and lifting while avoiding injury, join my Glute Camp!
If you don’t have access to a ton of space or equipment, but you want to add some variety and a little extra challenge to your bodyweight workouts, a pair of sliders is a great tool to have on hand!
They are easy to use at home and take with you when you travel so that you can advance basic bodyweight moves. (And if you have hardwood floors, towels can even work instead!)
They can also reduce impact on moves like burpees while still giving you a killer cardio workout!
Want a core-intensive but low impact burpee variation to use in your cardio workouts?
Then the Slider Mountain Climber Burpee is a great variation to include!
To do the Slider Mountain Climber Burpee, start standing tall with a slider under each foot. Make sure the ball of your foot is about in the middle of the slider for the most control.
Then bend your knees to sink down and place your hands on the ground as you slide your legs back into that high plank position.
With your legs out straight behind you and your hands about outside your chest, perform a push up, dropping your chest to the ground. Do not let your elbows flare way up. Create an arrow shape with your body.
Press back up and then at the top of the push up, tuck one knee in toward your chest. Do not let your hips sag or butt go up in the air. Also, make sure your hands stay outside your chest or below your shoulders.
Straighten your leg back out and perform another push up and then another knee tuck on the other side.
Perform one final push up then slide both feet back in and stand up. Raise your arms up overhead then bend back over and place your hands on the ground to slide your feet back into the high plank position.
To modify this move, you can remove the push ups completely or even eliminate just one or two. You can also go down to your knees for the push ups and come back up to your feet for the mountain climber knee tucks.
Adjust as you need so you can maintain good form and move quickly to get your blood pumping!
Skater Lunges:
Want to work your legs, especially your glutes and inner thighs, with a low impact movement?
Then try these Skater Lunges!
They are a great cardio lunge variation that is a low impact option instead of doing skater hops. Plus they work your inner thighs more!
To do Skater Lunges, stand tall with your feet together and a slider under each foot. Make sure your foot is centered on the slider, with the ball of your foot firmly on the slider for control.
Slide one foot out to the side with that leg staying straight as you hinge to sit your butt back and bend that standing knee to sink into a side lunge.
You can reach the opposite hand down toward the heel of your standing leg (the leg you bend to sink into the lunge). Make sure your weight is more centered on this leg so you don’t end up sliding out into the splits.
Then use your inner thigh to help pull the slider back in and drive back up to standing using the glute of the standing leg.
Move quickly to pop up and then slide out and sink into a lunge on the other side. Again reach the other hand down and back toward your heel to help you hinge properly and really sit back.
You don’t need to reach down and back but it can help if you struggle to hinge correctly and load your glutes.
Move quickly popping back up before sliding into a lunge on that starting side.
Move as quickly as you can while staying in control!
With Low Reverse Lunge Slides, you’ll keep your legs under constant tension so you’ll feel those quads and glutes burn!
To do Low Reverse Lunge Slides, you can place a slider under each foot or simply under the moving leg as you will complete all reps on one side before switching.
Stand tall with your feet together then sink into a little squat and slide your foot back a few inches so you are in a staggered stance holding just above parallel in that squat.
The more mobile you are, the closer to parallel you will sink.
Keeping the foot in front, which would be the foot on the ground if you’re using one slider, firmly planted, slide your other leg back. Do not stand up out of the squat as you slide back.
Simply extend that leg back into a nice reverse lunge position, keeping your front leg bent.
Then slide that leg back forward into the staggered squat stance without standing up.
Move at a controlled pace and slowly extend the leg back out before sliding back in.
Do not stand up until all reps are complete. Beginners may not sink as low or slide back as far in the lunge.
Slider Side to Curtsy Lunge:
This hybrid lunge exercise is a great way to work your entire leg and even improve your hip mobility and stability. You will really target your glutes and your inner thighs too with this Side to Curtsy Lunge variation!
This lunge combo is a great way to challenge your legs without adding weights!
To do the Slider Side to Curtsy Lunge, start standing tall with a slider under each foot. You can also use just one slider under one foot if you plan to complete all reps on one side and want a more stable base.
Then slide one foot out with a straight leg as you bend that other leg to sink down into a side lunge. Hinge at your hips and sit your butt back but do not round your chest toward the ground.
Make sure to sit back in that standing heel. Then drive back up to standing, pulling the slider back in using your inner thigh.
As you stand up, slide that foot back in and quickly move it back behind you to sink into a curtsy lunge.
Slide the same foot that went out into the side lunge back and across behind your standing leg as you bend that front knee to about 90 degrees.
Sink into a lunge, loading that front glute. Do not rotate open but keep your chest square forward.
Drive through your standing leg and pull the slider back up to stand up tall before repeating the side lunge.
Push Up Wiper:
This killer upper body and core move will target your chest, shoulders, triceps and obliques.
It is a super challenging movement, especially if you perform the wiper at the bottom of the push up. To modify, you can do the push up from your knees then perform the wiper at the top of the push up.
To do the Push Up Wiper, place a foot on each slider so the ball of your foot is about in the middle of the slider for the best control. Set up in the high plank position with your hands outside your chest.
Your body should be in a nice straight line down to your feet with your feet close together.
Perform a push up, dropping your chest to a few inches off the ground. Make sure your body moves as one unit as you lower. Do not let your hips sag or butt go up in the air.
Your upper arms should create an arrow shape with your body. They shouldn’t flare way out and up by your shoulders nor do they have to be against your body unless you want to make the push up harder and more tricep intensive.
As you lower you will slide one leg up and out to the side. You can also wait until at the bottom of the push up to perform the wiper, sweeping one leg out to the side and up toward your shoulder.
Slide it out as far as your mobility and control allow. You can rotate your hips slightly as you slide the leg up.
Sweep the leg back down and press back up. To make it slightly easier, slide the leg back before you press back up. To make it slightly harder and a bit more of a coordination challenge, sweep the leg back as you press up.
After coming back to the high plank position, do another push up and perform a wiper with the other leg.
To make the move a bit easier, do the wiper at the top of the push up and even perform the push up from your knees. You can also remove a push up and do a wiper to each side between push ups.
Slider Plank Circles:
This is a great move to improve your anti-rotational core strength and shoulder stability.
It is one of my favorite moves to include if people want to work on improving their push ups while preventing shoulder, neck and lower back aches and pains.
To do Slider Plank Circles, place a slider under each and with your hands under your chest and below your shoulders. You can place them slightly closer together so that you’ll create more of a tripod position with your feet to help you fight rotation.
Set up at the top of a push up, or in the high plank position, with your feet about shoulder-width apart.
Then slide one hand out in front of you, up and out to the side and then down and back around under your chest. You want to draw a circle up, around, down and back under.
Do not let your hips rotate as you circle. Squeeze your butt, flex your quads and drive back through your heels to help create tension through your entire body.
Keep your shoulders down and back so you aren’t shrugging. Then circle your other hand up around down and back under.
Alternate slow circles as you maintain that nice plank. Make sure to feel around your rib cage working as you pull the slider down, around and back under.
Do not let your shoulders shrug and feel your back engage to support your shoulders as you hold.
To modify, you can do this from your knees or even do taps instead of using the sliders. You can also stay on one side with the slider only under your moving hand. By not alternating it can be easier to fight your body’s desire to rotate.
Slider Sit Thru:
This move is a great way to improve your shoulder stability while also really challenging it so be careful if you’re returning from shoulder injury.
It is also a great move to work your entire core, especially your obliques.
To do the Slider Sit Thru, place a slider under one foot with the ball of your foot in the middle of the slider. Because your foot will rotate onto the side, you may want to put your foot slightly toward the side of the slider you’ll be sliding toward.
Set up in the high plank position with your hands about under your shoulders and your legs out straight behind you about hip-width to shoulder-width apart.
Then slightly tuck the foot on the slider forward as you kick it under and across your body. As you rotate, lift the hand on the side you are kicking toward to open your body up toward the ceiling.
Extend the leg all the way across and through as you rotate open, reaching your hand up. Make sure your hand on the ground is positioned under your shoulder.
The leg of the foot on the ground may bend slightly as you rotate and pivot slightly onto the inside of your foot.
Slide the leg through then pull it back to the starting position as you rotate your body back to face the ground and put your hand back down.
Then repeat, kicking that same leg back across as you rotate open. Move quickly to get your blood pumping, but no so quickly you aren’t fully in control. Just don’t really pause in that plank position more than to fully return to it.
To modify this move, you may take out the slider or even keep both hands down the entire time, performing a smaller reach across with the foot on the slider.
Alternating Slider Tabletop Curls:
If you sit all day hunched over a computer, this is a must-do move.
It will open up your chest and hips while activating your entire backside. It will work your hamstrings, glutes, back and arms as well as your abs even!
To do Alternating Slider Tabletop Curls, place a slider under each foot and sit on the ground with your heels on the sliders and hands behind you on the ground. Turn your hands out or back as you place your hands on the ground behind your butt.
Bend your knees and bring your heels back close to you so you can bridge up into a tabletop bridge. Squeeze your glutes as you lift your butt up and press your chest out.
You can perform a posterior pelvic tilt to help engage your abs as you hold this tabletop position and even slightly tuck your chin to look out beyond your knees.
The slowly extend one leg out before using your hamstring to pull your heel on the slider back in. Then extend the other leg out, pulling the heel back in again with your hamstring.
As you pull the slider back in, really even think about driving the slider down into the ground to help work your hamstring more.
Do not let your hips drop toward the ground as you extend. You want to keep your abs and butt engaged the entire time as you slowly alternate sides.
Slider Prone Snow Angels:
Because we spend so much time hunched over, it is key we include moves to work our back and even improve our scapular mobility and spinal extension.
One great move to include as activation to help you do just that is the Slider Prone Snow Angels. It is one of my favorite moves to include during warm up or even as “active rest” during a core or upper body series!
To do Slider Prone Snow Angels, place a hand on each slider and lie face down on the ground with your body in a nice straight line and your hands reaching overhead on the ground.
Keeping your arms straight, sweep your arms out and down toward your sides, lifting your chest up off the ground as you sweep you arms all the way down and back toward your hips.
Squeeze your butt and lift your chest up as much as possible, lifting it higher as your arms sweep all the way down.
Then lower back down as you sweep your arms back overhead.
Lift and lower as you slide your arms down and out to the sides and back overhead.
Move slowly and even pause for a second at the top to hold and feel your entire upper back and even the backs of your shoulders working.
Make sure you don’t just feel your lower back arching or your neck straining.
Slider Body Saw:
This is a VERY challenging core move that will work your triceps, lats, pec minor, abs and quads. You will feel your entire core shaking and working to protect your lower back.
Because of the extended plank position, your abs have to work hard to protect your lower back. If you aren’t yet ready for this move, you will feel your lower back taking over and working, which means you need to regress.
If this is the case, walk back instead of sliding back or limit range of motion to start. You don’t want your lower back compensating or you won’t get the full benefit!
To do the Slider Body Saw, set up in a plank position on your forearms with your feet on the sliders. Elbows should be under your shoulders and your feet should be together or no wider than hip-width apart.
With your body in a nice straight line from your head to your heels, slide your feet back and lengthen through your arms. As you slide back you should extend your body down to your elbows, shifting your shoulders back behind your elbows. Do not let your hips sag as you slide back. You are extending your triceps as you slide back.
Then, using your lats and core, pull your feet back in to the plank position. When you come back into the plank position, do not let your butt go up in the air. Make sure your hips don’t sag either.
Then slide back out, lengthening your body out as much as you can. Again do not let your low back take over. Make sure that you also aren’t simply sliding forward and then back to the start but are actually sliding back and lengthening through your arms.
Ab Extension:
Work your lats, abs and even your glutes with this great move! You’ll feel all around your rib cage working and even your arms too!
Like the body saw though, be careful that your lower back doesn’t take over. And if you have shoulder issues, watch how far you extend out to start!
To do Slider Ab Extensions, place a slider under each hand and set up as if you’re doing a push up from your knees.
You want to have your hands under your shoulders and your body in a nice straight line from your head to your knees. Brace your abs and squeeze your glutes.
Slide both hands out as far as you can, lowering your body toward the ground. Extend out, if you can, until you’re hovering just above the ground.
Then pull the sliders back under your shoulders without bending your arms as your body moves back into the plank position. By sliding your hands back under, pulling with your back to bring your hands back in, your body will move back into the plank position.
Do not sit your butt back or let your lower back engage as you extend out or pull your hands back in. You want to brace your abs and keep your body in a nice straight line the entire time.
Once back in that knee plank position, repeat the slide back out. Do not let your hips sag, lower back arch or butt go up in the air. Also, make sure you don’t sit your butt back to help pull your arms back in. You only “rise up” because your hands come back under your shoulders.
Beginners may not slide out as far or they may extend one hand, then the other, then pull one in at a time.
T Sit Up:
Work your abs, hips, arms and upper back with this sit up variation that will also work to improve your posture!
It’s a great way to advance the basic sit up and target different areas than you may normally work!
To do the T Sit Up, place a slider under each hand and lie on your back with your arms out straight from your body at about shoulder height. Your legs should be out straight in front of you although you can slightly bend your knees if it helps you to drive your heels into the ground and keep your legs from lifting up as you sit up.
Then sit up, pressing your lower back into the ground as your round up. By slightly rounding your spine as you sit up, you can better use your abs over just depending on your hip flexors.
As you sit up, pull the sliders in toward your butt, keeping your arms straight.
Sit up tall at the top, making sure your shoulders aren’t shrugged. You want to have pulled your hands in toward your butt and have pinched your shoulder blades together to help bring your hands in.
Then slowly round your back to lower yourself back down. You can even think about lowering one vertebrae at a time if that helps to start.
As you lower down, extend your arms back out straight at shoulder height. Do not bend your arms as you sit up or lower down.
Repeat, sitting back up.
Creating A Workout:
To create a workout using these moves, you can choose to use all 12 or even just select 4-6 for a great circuit workout. Intervals are a great option with these moves although they can also be done for reps based on your goals.
For a great interval workout design using these, select 4-6 moves based on what you want to work that day and set a timer for 30 seconds on, 15 seconds off. Move from one exercise to the next, resting only the 15 seconds between moves. Complete 4-6 rounds through the circuit of moves. Beginners may rest an extra 30 seconds between rounds if needed.
Need a great travel workout kit so you can get in a challenging workout wherever you go? Check out my TriSlides and Booty Band Bundle!
And all too often the point of pain is NOT where the problem is.
That is why, when you have aches and pains, especially nagging ones that you can’t seem to get rid of, you need to start searching further away from the point of pain.
Often the first “rehab” exercises we start to include focus on shoulder mobility and strengthening of those muscles around the joint.
And this is a great place to start!
But what if, despite you doing all of the proper rehab work, things just aren’t fully getting better?
Or what if you continue to suffer from flare ups that don’t seem to be triggered by any specific upper body exercises that you can identify?
What if the actual culprit of your shoulder pain is an issue at your lumbo-pelvic-hip complex?
That’s right…what if that lower back pain or anterior pelvic tilt or SI joint issue you’ve been having is CONNECTED to your shoulder pain?!
What if your lower back, hips and shoulders have a shared “enemy”?
And what if that shared “enemy” is your LATS or the Latissimus Dorsi!
Because BOTH of these areas are affected by that one muscle.
YUP!
While we often just think of our lats as a big back muscle, playing a role in our upper body functioning, they can also affect our SI joint via their attachment to the thoracolumbar fascia and even affect the alignment of our pelvis!
So while it may seem crazy, working to correct imbalances at your hip complex could help relax tight and overactive lats and help you alleviate your shoulder aches and pains!
(BONUS…lat tightness and overactivity may be perpetuating your hip, lower back and SI joint pain so relaxing and stretching that muscle will only help!)
So how exactly are the lats a common enemy of both your hip complex AND your shoulders and what can you do to start correcting the problem?
The Lat Connection:
Ok…your lats aren’t really your enemy…
It’s almost the case of you “blame the messenger”…or the messenger becoming more involved than they should be!
Because our lats are really a bridge between our upper and lower body.
They play a role in stabilizing our shoulders, scapulae (shoulder blades), lumbar spine, sacroiliac joint (SI joint through the thoracolumbar fascia) as well as our pelvis.
The lats have a far reaching impact and affect a TON of structures and movements!
They are a bridge that can perpetuate distortions and compensations from one hemisphere to the other.
They can become tight and overactive due to other muscular imbalances and weaknesses and then lead to aches and pains in the other region.
And for this reason they can be a common “enemy” of both our upper body and lumbo-pelvic-hip complex and SI joint.
Of course the real “enemy” is our rounded-shoulder, flexed posture created by sitting hunched over our technology for 9 hours a day.
A posture that leads to muscles, like the lats becoming tight and overactive, and muscles, like our glutes, becoming underactive.
Underactive glutes can lead to anterior pelvic tilt, hip hikes (if one side is underactive especially) and tight, overactive lats that perpetuate the pain and create upper body dysfunction as well.
Lat tightness can itself create a hip hike on the same side as the tight lat and anterior pelvic tilt and SI joint issues as well.
Both the glute and lat need to work together to protect us and make sure we have the proper mobility and stability.
If these muscles aren’t working well together, this distortion can show up as upper body, specifically even, shoulder aches and pains.
And the lats also can have a DIRECT impact on our shoulder health.
Tight lats can contribute to internally rotated shoulders, or that rounded shoulder posture, as well as restricted shoulder flexion aka your ability to reach overhead.
Ever wonder why you struggle to get your arms overhead to press and end up arching your lower back to compensate?
Tight lats may be part of the problem.
Tight, overactive lats can restrict proper shoulder mobility, negatively impact your shoulder stability, and even impact your scapular mobility as well (and this may be holding you back too from achieving that first full pull up not to mention a culprit of shoulder, upper back and even neck pain!)
Basically, you need to address lat tightness, both tightness of both lats and even an imbalance between the two, and then further investigate if there are distortions at your hip complex or SI joint or actually in your upper body, that may be perpetuating the tightness!
Below are three moves to help you get started making sure this “bridge” is functioning well!
3 Moves To Try Today To Improve Your Shoulder Health:
These 3 moves will start addressing lat tightness and overactivity while also working to engage them in a productive way to help alleviate and prevent shoulder aches and pains.
These are perfect moves to include as a restorative session after a long day at work or as part of your warm up for you upper body, or potentially even LOWER BODY, lifting session.
Lat Foam Rolling:
This is a great move to start relaxing tight lats, and even its partner in crime the teres major (which assists the lat with shoulder internal rotation, adduction and extension).
To roll out your lats a roller is best although you can use a foam ball or even a tennis ball.
Start by lying on your side with a roller under one armpit. Extend the arm on the side with the roller up above the roller. Then rock forward and backward on the roller, rotating your chest toward the ground and then up toward the ceiling as you roll on the roller so it hits toward your ribs and then toward your back.
Hold on any tight spots you find then move it lower down the side of your back. Hold on any tight spots as you go and make sure to rock forward and backward as you make your way down your side.
As you work down your side, you will want to rotate slightly more toward your back, even bringing the roller to hit under your shoulder blade.
Work all the way from your armpit to about the end of your rib cage.
Be careful when rolling lower down your back into your low back. You do not want to arch over the roller and hyperextend your low back.
Kneeling Thoracic Extension And Lat Stretch:
This is a must-do stretch if you want to stretch your lats across the expanse of the muscle while also stretching your triceps and working on your shoulder flexion and thoracic extension.
Basically, it’s a multipurpose stretch we HAVE to include if we have a desk job!
To do the Kneeling Thoracic Extension and Lat Stretch, place your elbows up on a bench about shoulder-width apart and kneel on the ground in front of the bench. Make sure you are back far enough that you have room to lean forward and over and drop your head between your elbows.
Then with your elbows on the bench, relax your chest and head over, sitting your butt back just slightly. Press your chest toward the ground and feel a nice stretch down your triceps and lats as well as through your thoracic spine. Try to extend your back as much as possible as you press your chest toward the ground.
You can either hold here and breathe to stretch deeper or you can come out of the stretch and then relax back into it and try to get further with each rep. If you’re using this as part of your warm up, perform reps instead of holding.
Just make sure you don’t simply ARCH your lower back to compensate which won’t help you stretch those lats!
Holding a dowel or towel between your hands to pull out on and to hold with your palms facing you (to put your shoulders into external rotation) can also be an added bonus to stretch everything out and improve your posture!
Straight Arm Shoulder Extensions:
This move will strengthen your lats as you work to improve your posture and your scapular mobility.
It’s also a great move to strengthen your posterior deltoid or the back of your shoulder.
If you sit all day, this is a great move to get your back working while working on a nice tall posture and wide shoulders…the opposite basically of how we sit all day!
To do the Straight-Arm Shoulder Extension, anchor a resistance band below chest height and hold one end in each hand. You can grab with a neutral grip or even palms facing up to put your shoulder into external rotation.
Set up facing the anchor point but far enough away that there is tension in the band when your arms are down straight and your hands are in front of you. Stand up nice and tall with your feet about hip-width apart. Make sure you aren’t shrugging your shoulders and that your chest is pressed out. Think wide shoulders. Even feel the muscles between your shoulder blades already starting to engage before you even extend your arms back.
Keeping your arms straight and chest pressed out, pull back on the band, extending your shoulders as you pull your hands back toward your hips.
Feel your back and the backs of your shoulders extending your shoulder to pull the band back. You may even feel the back of your arm a little, but you shouldn’t feel your neck or upper traps at all.
Do not shrug as you pull back or jerk the band back and lean forward in an attempt to perform a bigger range of motion. Make sure your shoulders don’t just tilt forward to pull the band back further.
This won’t be a huge movement. Just focus on your back pulling the band back as your arms stay straight. Pinch your shoulder blades together as you pull back.
Hold for a second or two then relax your arms back forward and repeat.
Make sure you maintain a nice tall posture as you pull the band back. You must focus and think about your back working as you do the movement. Do not just go through the motions!
BONUS:
So a BONUS! move seemed appropriate since a potential culprit perpetuating lat tightness is weak glutes!
And because often ONE SIDE can become tight, it is key we have a unilateral glute activation move to address that!
The 80/20 Glute Bridge:
This move is a great way to isolate each side even if you’re not yet ready for the full single leg glute bridge, which is a very advanced bridge variation!
Plus, because of the band, this bridge will get your glute medius engaged and firing, which, in turn, will help your glute maximus fire better. WIN WIN!
To do the 80/20 Glute Bridge, place a mini band right below your knees and lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the ground. Then slide one leg out and away a bit from your butt and lift your toes. This foot should be about at the instep to toe of your other foot. Bend your elbows to 90 degrees and drive your upper arms into the ground. Posteriorly tilt your pelvis if needed then bridge up.
When you bridge up, you will be driving primarily off the foot flat on the ground, using the other foot for assistance so you can make sure to feel your glutes driving the move. Make sure your hips, knees and ankles all stay in line as you bridge up and lower down. Do not let your knees cave in with the band. Press out against the band the entire time.
Lower down and repeat the bridge on that side until all reps are complete. Then switch and move the other foot out, driving only through the heel so you can focus on bridging with your other side. This variation can help you make sure you can properly perform a more unilateral bridge!
Now…Are you ready to build a bulletproof body?
Get A Full-Body Program To Address All Your Mobility And Strength Needs:
Hybrid exercises are a great way to target those “trouble zones” while working more muscles in less time so you can be efficient with your workouts and not have to spend hours in the gym.
These hybrid exercises will help you work your arms, shoulders, chest and back while also improving your core strength and stability.
If you’re looking for a great way to work your entire upper body and core in under 30 minutes, heck even in under 20, try including some of these hybrid moves!
12 Hybrid Upper Body Moves To Build Lean Strong Arms And Killer Core Strength
Inchworm Push Ups:
The Inchworm Push Up is a great move to improve your mobility while targeting your core, shoulders, triceps and chest. It will also get your blood pumping, which is an added bonus if you want to blast some fat!
To do Inchworm Push Ups, start standing tall. Then place your hands down on the ground, keeping your legs as straight as possible. Then walk your hands out to move into a plank position.
When you reach the high plank position, you will perform a push up. Keep your core engaged and make sure your body moves in one straight line. Do not sag your hips. Beginners can drop to their knees for the push up.
Press back up to the top of the push up and then, from the plank position, walk back in. Keep your legs as straight as possible as you walk in and out.
Fly Leg Lowers:
If you want to work your chest as well as your abs, you’ll want to include Fly Leg Lowers.
To do the Flys with Leg Lowers, hold a dumbbell in each hand and lie on your back on the ground. Press the dumbbells up toward the ceiling and hold them parallel at your chest height with your legs straight up toward the ceiling.
Then fly your arms open toward the ground with the backs of your hands facing the ground as you lower your legs as close to the ground as possible. Do not let your lower back take over.
Lower down only as far as your abs can handle or even do single leg lowers or even bent knee foot taps. Then fly your arms back together as you lift your legs back up toward the ceiling.
Each time open your arms up as wide as possible. Keep your elbows soft but don’t think about bending or extending at your elbows.
Every time you fly your arms open, you will lower your legs. As you fly your arms back together, you will lift your legs back up.
Mountain Climber Row Push Ups:
This push up works not only your chest, shoulders and triceps, but also your back and your abs. Talk about a full upper body workout all in one move! (Plus the mountain climber is a great way to get in a ton of extra ab work!)
To do the Mountain Climber Row Push Up, set up in a high plank position with a dumbbell in each hand. Your feet will be wider apart to help stabilize and your hands should be under your shoulders. Then from this high plank position, draw one knee in and across toward your opposite shoulder.
Perform a cross body mountain climber, moving slowly. Straighten the leg back out and then row the weight in the hand on the same side as the leg you tucked in up to your side. Perform the row without rotating or letting your butt go up in the air.
After rowing the weight up to your side, feeling your back work to row it up, lower it back down so you’re back in the high plank. Then perform a push-up (you can do this from your knees too). Come back to a plank then perform a mountain climber cross body on the other side and a row before another push up. Keep alternating sides.
Superman Wave:
Improve your shoulder stability, scapular mobility and upper back strength with the Superman Wave. We always want to include some posterior chain work with all of the sitting, especially hunched over, that we do!
To do Superman Waves, lie face down on the ground with you arms reaching overhead and your legs out straight behind you.
Then lift your arms and legs off the ground, engaging your glutes and back to lift. Try to lift your chest up as high as you can and get your quads off the ground as much as possible.
Holding here, sweep one arm out and down toward your side, keeping your arms straight. Keep the other arm reaching straight out overhead as you wave the other arm down.
As you lower one arm down by your side, keep it as high off the ground as possible to work the back of your shoulder.
Wave the arm back overhead then sweep the other arm out and down to your side. Keep alternating sides as you engage your back and butt to stay up in the superman position. Move at a controlled pace.
Sit Thru Bridge and Press:
This move looks more intimidating than it actually is although it will challenge your coordination. The Sit Thru Bridge and Press is a great full core exercise.
It will work on your shoulder stability, ab strength and even glute activation.
It is a mobility AND stability exercise!
To do the Sit Thru Bridge and Press, start on your hands and knees with a dumbbell under each hand. Then flex your feet and lift up onto your hands and feet with your knees under your hips and your hands under your shoulders. From this position, step your right foot under your body as you raise your right hand and dumbbell up toward the ceiling.
As you step through and put your foot flat on the ground, rotate your hips open to the ceiling as you press the weight up overhead. Really squeeze your glutes as you bridge up and press. Then rotate your right leg back under your body as you bring the weight back down to the ground. Come back into that bulldog front position then step your left leg under to lift your right hand up and press the weight overhead as you bridge up.
Really bridge up and squeeze your glutes at the top. Keep your abs engaged and do not hyperextend your low back. Keep alternating sides.
Single Arm Plank Rotation with Knee:
The Single arm Plank Rotation with Knee is an advanced move that will work your entire core, including your adductors. It is the perfect way to improve your shoulder stability while also working your abs and obliques.
You’ll even feel this move all around your rib cage and in your upper back.
To do the Single Arm Plank Rotation With Knee, set up in a side plank position from your hand with your bottom leg in back of your top leg.
Then lift that back leg as if kicking it back and up toward the ceiling slightly. Reach your top hand out in front of you and overhead. Your chest will rotate toward the ground as you lift up into this side plank position with your opposite arm and leg raised.
Rotate your chest back open as you tuck your raised leg under and forward, driving your knee forward as you tuck your raised arm down to meet it. Try to touch your knee to your elbow as you rotate your chest back open and away from the ground.
After slowly tucking the knee to the elbow and feeling yourself pivot around that shoulder. The muscles around your rib cage should really be working. Then kick the leg back out and reach back out and overhead with your hand.
Move slowly to stay balanced and try to keep your hand on the ground under your shoulder.
Beginners can tap the toe down behind them or even just do the knee tuck without the kick out.
Side Plank Row:
While heavy rowing exercises are great to build back strength, we want to include rows that make us work in other planes of motion.
This Side Plank Row adds in some rotation to the pulling movement and forces us to work on our shoulder stability as well as our oblique and even glute medius strength.
To do the Side Plank Row, set up in a high side plank from your hand with your feet staggered (your top foot will be in front). You will hold a dumbbell just off the ground down in front of you with your top hand.
Keeping that nice side plank position, row that weight up and across your body, driving your elbow back toward the wall behind you. You will slightly rotate open as you row. Feel your back pulling the weight up and across as your bottom side works to keep your bottom hip up for that nice plank position.
Lower the weight back down and across toward the ground and repeat the row.
Bird Dog Push Ups:
This Bird Dog Push Up is a more challenging push up variation that works not only your chest, shoulders and triceps, but also your core as it requires a great deal of stability to prevent rotation when you come up into the bird dog at the top!
To do the Bird Dog Push Up, set up in the high plank position from your hands and toes with your hands under your shoulders and your feet about hip-width apart. If you bring your feet closer together, it will make the move more challenging. Make sure your core is braced and your body is in a nice straight line from your head to your heels.
Then, with your body moving as one unit, perform a push up, dropping your chest to the ground. Do not let your elbows flare way up by your shoulders. You do not want your arms and body to create a “T” shape. Press back up to the high plank position. Make sure to keep your core engaged and drive back through your heels so your body stays in a nice straight line. Do not let your hips sag or your butt go up in the air.
At the top of the push up, lift your opposite leg and arm up, reaching your arm out straight toward the wall in front of you as you lift your foot back toward the wall behind you. Keep your core engaged and squeeze your glutes as you lift the leg and arm. Do not let your body rotate open or your hips sag toward the ground. Do not let your butt go up toward the ceiling as you lift and pause to hold.
You do not need to lift super high. It is more about lifting toward opposite walls and engaging your core and glutes to stay balanced. Hold for a second or two at the top and then lower back down and repeat the push up. Make sure your body moves as one unit. Do not tuck your chin or let your hips sag.
Then perform a Bird Dog on the other side, lifting the opposite arm and leg up. Keep performing a push up then a Bird Dog, alternating sides.
Beginners can do the move from their knees or even simply lift either their leg or their arm instead of lifting both. It is better to regress and perform the movement properly than to do the full Bird Dog Push Up with your butt up in the air.
Plank with Two-Way Raise:
The Plank with Two-Way Raise is a great way to work your arms and shoulders while also improving your anti-rotational core strength.
When you’re short on time, this allows you to get in some extra targeted shoulder work while also building ab strength!
To do the Plank with Two-Way Raise, place a dumbbell in each hand and set up in a high plank position with your feet about hip-width to shoulder-width apart. These should be light dumbbells as we are working small muscles.
Then, keeping your core stable, lift your arm straight out to the side, feeling the back of your shoulder and even in between your shoulder blades work. Bring it back down then lift it forward out in front. When you lift to the side, the back of your hand will be facing the ceiling. As you lift out in front, your thumb will be up.
Then repeat, lifting out to the side then down the raising to the front and down. Keep your core stable the entire time.
Lunge Curl Press:
When we’re short on time, the more muscles we can work at once, often the better – especially if fat loss is part of our goal!
This hybrid exercise will help you torch calories by using a lunge to work the big muscles of your legs and get your blood pumping as you target your biceps and shoulders with a curl and press!
To do the Lunge, Curl and Press, start standing tall with a dumbbell in each hand down by your side. You can choose to have your palms facing forward or even in toward each other to perform both the curl and the press. Lunge forward with your arms down by your sides. Holding the lunge, perform a bicep curl, curling the weights up to your shoulders. Keep your chest up as you curl to maintain good form.
Once you curl up to your shoulders, press the weights overhead, staying nice and low in the lunge with your abs engaged. Press all the way up, then bring them back down to your shoulders and reverse the curl. Once the weights are back by your sides, push back up to standing in one movement.
Beginners may not lunge out as far or as deep. They may also choose to lunge then perform the curl and press while standing. You can stay on the same side or perform lunges alternating sides.
Glute Bridge Skull Crushers:
When you want to use isolation exercises to target those trouble zones, you can help yourself get even more “bang for your buck” in less time by combining that isolation move with an exercise to work a different area.
That’s why the Glute Bridge Skull Crushers are a great hybrid move to include when you’re short on time! You’ll work your glutes and core as you target those triceps!
To do Glute Bridge Skull Crushers, hold either a kettlebell or weight(s) in your hands and lie on your back. Set up in the bridge position with your knees bent and feet flat on the ground. Press the weights or weight up at shoulder height toward the ceiling.
Then bridge up. Holding this bridged position, curl the weights back toward your forehead just bending at the elbows. Your palms should be facing in toward each other. Then extend your arms back out. Move at a controlled pace and stay up in the bridge the whole time.
When you lower the weights down toward your forehead, think about just bending at the elbows so your elbows stay right over your shoulders. And as you extended the straighten but still stay aligned.
Keep your abs braced in that bridge too and don’t hyperextend your lower back just to bridge up higher.
Bi’s And Tri’s Series:
When you’re short on time, it can be hard to use some of your workout time to target those specific areas you want to tone and strengthen with isolation moves because they don’t give you as much bang for your buck.
But if you really want to target those areas, you can get killer results by combining isolation moves into a hybrid series! This way you can pack more into less time!
To do Dumbbell Bi’s and Tri’s Series, hold a dumbbell in each hand with your arms down by your side. Have your palms facing in.
Then perform a bicep curl, curling the weights up to your chest. Do not swing, but fully curl them up.
From here, press them straight overhead, keeping your arms facing toward each other.
With your arms pressed straight up, drop the weights down and back toward your back. You want to think you are bending at the elbows to lower the weights back behind you.
Then, feel your triceps working to raise the weights back up overhead. Bring them back down to your chest and slowly lower them back down to your sides. Stay in control of the weights as you perform the entire move.
After lowering them back down, repeat the curl, press overhead and overhead tricep extension!
Love these moves? Want to build a killer strong and lean upper body?
If you’ve truly been doing all of the right things CONSISTENTLY for awhile, which really means more than 4 weeks at least, and results are just not adding up like they should be, you’re missing a weak link.
Very often our first focus is near the point of pain, which is a good place to start.
Because underactive glutes are an all too common culprit.
But what if you’re doing hip mobility work and glute activation, and even feeling the right muscles working, BUT things just don’t seem to be “sticking.”
What’s going on?
This is when you need to start looking at compensations and imbalances up and down your body that may be creating the perpetual overload.
It also means addressing any PREVIOUS INJURIES.
And one all too common injury people tend to forget about is the ANKLE SPRAIN.
If overload is being perpetuated, even while doing the right moves with the right recruitment patterns (assessing recruitment patterns should be one of the FIRST things you do when doing the “right moves”), you need to address previous injuries you may not have considered before…
Specifically ankle injuries when it has to do with hip, knee or lower back pain and the hip mobility and glute activation work isn’t sticking.
There is a very important ankle-butt connection we often don’t recognize (and yes…this is my very highly technical term for it hehe)
Ankle injuries are too often overlooked because…
Often we FORGET about ankle injuries because how could something years ago be affecting us now!?! (People won’t mention them to their physio or trainer).
AND…Often we don’t properly REHAB the ankle injury NOR do we continue doing PREHAB for it once it’s “better.”
We return to working out like nothing happened and often things seem absolutely fine.
But what we don’t realize is that injuries create disruptions in our mind-body connection AND that, all too often even very slight movement distortions, lead to overload and imbalances.
Sometimes when I bring up previous ankle injuries to clients, they’ll even say, “Yea but I had no issues after that…Just the knee pain or hip pain years later.”
(This is where I would make a face that combines both the eye roll emoji and that emoji with the line mouth and lines for eyes.)
Ok…IF YOU HAD A PREVIOUS INJURY YOU NEVER TOOK CARE OF AND NOW HAVE INJURIES ON THE SAME SIDE, THEY ARE PROBABLY CONNECTED.
Plain and simple.
And yes…they can finally rear their freaking ugly heads YEARS, legit YEARS, later.
So you can’t ignore that ankle injury you may have even had a decade ago.
If you never worked to restore proper mobility and strength, if you never re-establish that interrupted mind-body connection, well…it’s like leaving a crack in your foundation.
Things may not fall apart instantly, but if you don’t take care of that crack, other issues will spread throughout your structure slowly until it all collapses.
While your ankle may no longer be in pain, and it may “seem” like nothing is wrong there, a lack of pain isn’t a sign of optimal functioning.
BUT it is why, all too often, we ignore these other areas.
If you’ve been ignoring your foundation, start giving it some TLC with these 3 moves to get you started.
3 Moves To Take Care Of Your Feet And Ankles
These three moves will help you start to relax commonly overactive muscles and strengthen weaker muscles to improve your foundational stability.
Peroneal Foam Rolling:
Knee, ankle and foot pain (yes this muscle can lead to flat feet even!) can all be related to this muscle. Yet it is a muscle we often ignore because…well…it isn’t exactly where the pain is!
It is an important muscle to pay attention to because if just one side becomes short and overactive, which is foam rolling is so important for this muscle, it can lead to a functional leg length discrepancy (aka you may “think” one leg is shorter when it is actually muscle tightness causing the symptoms) and a weight shift during bilateral movements.
This can perpetuate compensations and overload, leading to injuries all the way up the other side even!
To roll out your Peroneal, a ball or small roller works best although you can use a larger foam roller.
Take a ball and place it on the ground with the side of your lower leg on top. Press down on your lower leg with your hand to apply more pressure so that the ball digs in.
Then move your leg so that you roll the ball down the length of the side of your lower leg.
Hold on any tight spots and even make small circles on the ball with your lower leg to dig into any tender areas. You can also circle the ankle while holding on any tight spots.
To hit slightly different angles along the side of your shins, rock forward a bit (toward your shin) or backward (toward you calf).
Work your way up to just below your knee and then down to a few inches above the anklebone.
Kneeling Foot Stretch To Bear Squat:
This stretch can help if you’ve ever had plantar fasciitis or limited ankle mobility and Achilles issues.
What we often don’t realize is that even our BIG TOE can get “locked up.”
This stretch will work to relax and lengthen the muscles under your feet as well as work to improve your calf flexibility and ankle mobility, improving specifically your dorsiflexion (your ability to bring your toes closer to your shin).
This stretch can even help you SQUAT deeper if you’ve felt like your range of motion when squatting is limited.
To do the Kneeling Foot Stretch to Bear Squat, start kneeling on the ground with your feet flexed. Sit back on your heels. Rock side to side to stretch your feet.
Then place your hands down on the ground and press your butt up into the air, driving your heels down to the ground. Relax your calves and try to get your heels down to the ground.
Feel a nice stretch down your calves and even up into your hamstrings. Hold for 1-2 seconds and then drop back down to your knees and sit back on your heels again to stretch your feet.
Make sure that as you drive your butt up, you are pressing yourself back so that your driving your heels down. Don’t simply pike up and lower back down. Actually drive back and feel the stretch down your calves.
You can walk your hands in just a little bit closer to your knees to help you feel the stretch a little bit more, but do not walk them in too close.
Calf Raise Circles:
Calf Raise Circles can strengthen your feet and help you improve your ankle stability. Often when we do basic calf raises, we aren’t conscious of compensations we even perpetuate with them.
But by doing the circles, you are focusing on moving across your foot to engage all the muscles correctly and not just perpetuate patterns of overuse.
To do Circle Calf Raises, start standing with your feet about hip-width apart. You can face a wall or table if you need a little help balancing so that you can really focus on circling.
Then start to circle by rocking to the outside of your feet. Slowly come forward toward your pinky toe. Then come up onto your toes slowly circling from your pinky toe toward your big toe. Come up as high onto your toes/balls of your feet as you can. Then reach your big toe and circle in toward the inside of your feet as you come down.
Then come back up, this time starting with the big toe and circling out toward your pinky toe before coming down on the outsides of your feet. Repeat circling back up and in. Really feel yourself getting as big a circle as you can while feeling your calves work to help you come up onto your toes. In order to really circle, you may need to lightly keep your hand on the wall.
If you’re ready to move and feel your best and learn the prehab, strength and cardio combination right for you and your needs and goals, apply to my 1:1 Coaching.
When you have access to limited space and equipment, sliders are a great way to make basic bodyweight moves even more fun and challenging while being easy to take with you anywhere!
So whether you need a quick go-to option at home or a workout when you’re short on time and traveling, try this Slider Upper Body And Core Burner that’s just about 10 minutes long!
Set a timer for 30 second intervals of work and move right from one exercise to the next. The final exercise in each circuit can also be modified to be a full rest interval if needed. Complete 2 rounds through each circuit, resting up to 1 minute between circuits.
To do Knee Tuck Push Ups, place your feet on sliders and set up in a plank position with your hands under your shoulders.
Then perform a push up, keeping your body in a nice straight line as you drop your chest to the ground. Press back up with your body moving as one unit. Your arms should made an arrow shape with your body. Do not shrug or let your arms form a T.
In the high plank position, tuck your knees in. Do not let your butt go way up in the air as you tuck or use the tuck as a chance to rest. Pull your knees in using your abs and then straighten your legs right back out and repeat the push up.
As you return to the plank position, do not sag your hips or let your butt go up in the air. Also, make sure your hands stay outside your chest and don’t creep forward past your shoulders.
Beginners can do this off an incline and do a single knee tuck at a time without the sliders or they can do a push up from their knees then move to the high plank position to perform the tuck.
Alternating Slider Tabletop Curls:
To do Alternating Slider Tabletop Curls, place a slider under each foot and sit on the ground with your heels on the sliders and hands behind you on the ground. Turn your hands out or back as you place your hands on the ground behind your butt.
Bend your knees and bring your heels back close to you so you can bridge up into a tabletop bridge. Squeeze your glutes as you lift your butt up and press your chest out.
You can perform a posterior pelvic tilt to help engage your abs as you hold this tabletop position and even slightly tuck your chin to look out beyond your knees.
The slowly extend one leg out before using your hamstring to pull your heel on the slider back in. Then extend the other leg out, pulling the heel back in again with your hamstring.
As you pull the slider back in, really even think about driving the slider down into the ground to help work your hamstring more.
Do not let your hips drop toward the ground as you extend. You want to keep your abs and butt engaged the entire time as you slowly alternate sides.
Slider Ab Extensions:
To do Slider Ab Extensions, place a slider under each hand and set up as if you’re doing a push up from your knees.
You want to have your hands under your shoulders and your body in a nice straight line from your head to your knees. Brace your abs and squeeze your glutes.
Slide both hands out as far as you can, lowering your body toward the ground. Extend out, if you can, until you’re hovering just above the ground.
Then pull the sliders back under your shoulders without bending your arms as your body moves back into the plank position. By sliding your hands back under, pulling with your back to bring your hands back in, your body will move back into the plank position.
Do not sit your butt back or let your lower back engage as you extend out or pull your hands back in. You want to brace your abs and keep your body in a nice straight line the entire time.
Once back in that knee plank position, repeat the slide back out. Do not let your hips sag, lower back arch or butt go up in the air. Also, make sure you don’t sit your butt back to help pull your arms back in. You only “rise up” because your hands come back under your shoulders.
Beginners may not slide out as far or they may extend one hand, then the other, then pull one in at a time.
Banana Hold:
To do the Banana hold, start by lying on your back with your legs out straight and your arms reaching overhead on the ground. Your legs should be together and your arms should be right by your head.
Press your low back into the ground and draw your belly button in toward your spine as you lift your legs and arms up off the ground. Your neck and head should be in a neutral position between your arms and your legs should be together and out straight a few inches off the ground.
Hold here, squeezing your legs together as you try to get your shoulder blades up off the ground while keeping your low back against the ground and abs engaged.
Beginners may find they need to lift their legs up higher toward the ceiling or bend their knees to keep their low back against the ground and their abs engaged. Beginners can also try an easier variation of the Pelvic Tilt if they feel their low back taking over.
Fly Push Ups:
To do the Fly to Push Up, set up in a push up position with a towel or slider under each hand. You can do the Fly to Push Up from your knees (beginner) or toes (advanced).
Beginners may also want to start with one hand on a slider and the other hand on the ground (black frame). They will then slide the hand on the slider out to the side and perform a push up. As they push up, they will slide the hand back in toward their hand on the ground. They will complete all reps on one side before switching.
If the single slider Fly to Push Up is too much, this move can be done by just stepping the hand out to the side on the ground or even on an incline. To advance the Fly to Push Up, you will use two sliders. Start at the top of a push up and then slide one hand out to the side and perform a push up. After the push up, slide the hand back into the starting position. Even though this is a wider push up, don’t let your elbows flare way out by your ears. Then slide the other hand out on the slider and perform a push up. Keep alternating sides until all reps are complete.
If you want to do the Full Fly to Push Up, you will have a slider on each hand. You will then slide both hands out to the side as you lower into the push up and then pull them back in as you come back up out of the push up. You will perform the fly as you perform the push up instead of sliding out, doing a push up and sliding back in.
Slider Plank to Bulldog:
To do the Slider Plank to Bulldog, place a slider under each foot and set up in a high plank position with your hands under your shoulders and your body in a nice straight line down to your feet. Your feet should be no wider than hip-width apart.
Holding this plank position, use your abs to tuck one knee in and then the other to come into a bulldog position.
Your knees should be about under your hips or in slightly closer in, but do not tuck them so far in you can sit back on your heels. Really focus on using your abs to slide them in, bracing your core to keep your body in a nice straight line the entire time.
Then extend your legs back out, one at a time. Make sure your butt stays down and you don’t slide back too far, but instead keep your hands under your shoulders. Then repeat, drawing one knee in then the other.
Body Saw:
To do the Body Saw, set up in a plank position on your forearms with your feet on the sliders. Elbows should be under your shoulders and your feet should be together or no wider than hip-width apart.
With your body in a nice straight line from your head to your heels, slide your feet back and lengthen through your arms. As you slide back you should extend your body down to your elbows, shifting your shoulders back behind your elbows. Do not let your hips sag as you slide back. You are extending your triceps as you slide back.
Then, using your lats and core, pull your feet back in to the plank position. When you come back into the plank position, do not let your butt go up in the air. Make sure your hips don’t sag either.
Then slide back out, lengthening your body out as much as you can. Again do not let your low back take over. Make sure that you also aren’t simply sliding forward and then back to the start but are actually sliding back and lengthening through your arms.
Superman Wave:
To do Superman Waves, lie face down on the ground with you arms reaching overhead and your legs out straight behind you.
Then lift your arms and legs off the ground, engaging your glutes and back to lift. Try to lift your chest up as high as you can and get your quads off the ground as much as possible.
Holding here, sweep one arm out and down toward your side, keeping your arms straight. Keep the other arm reaching straight out overhead as you wave the other arm down.
As you lower one arm down by your side, keep it as high off the ground as possible to work the back of your shoulder.
Wave the arm back overhead then sweep the other arm out and down to your side. Keep alternating sides as you engage your back and butt to stay up in the superman position. Move at a controlled pace.
