You Should Do This: Kettlebell Batwing Gorilla Row

  Want Healthy Shoulders?  You need to pull more. A good rule of thumb is you should be pulling, or more specifically horizontal pulling, ie rowing vs pushing, ie benching in a volume of 2 or 3 to 1. That means 2 or 3 sets of pulling exercises to every pushing exercise. Keep in Mind: You need to PUSH the rowing weight harder than you probably are already. Too often people will institute this 2:1 rowing to pressing ratio, but the pressing is done with intention and effort and the pulling is done half heartedly with 50% weights. A Sometimes Foolproof Way to Ensure The @or 3:1 Ratio Happens Calculate your total volume. Volume, not sets. Volume= … [Read more...]

Doing it Better: Rows

Hard truth: We NEED, as in MUST HAVE to function, more rows in our workouts. Too much of these things: Pushing Sitting Desk Work Bad Posture Have left us with Desk Jockey Syndrome. One major component of which is a weak back, especially in the pulling muscles. Muscles like the Lats, Rhomboids, Posterior Delts, and Lower Traps that just are not doing what they are supposed to do, or at least not to the level they are supposed to do it. How do we start to fix this? SCAPULAR RETRACTION and SCAPULAR DEPRESSION.....ie. pulling the shoulder blades back and down.   http://youtu.be/BU3eHNtyNCc What exercises are great at … [Read more...]