It’s Not on the Back of Your Neck…..

That’s Dave Draper squatting with Ahhhnold.

When you can squat like him, I will no longer question your use of a tampon when squatting. 

Where it will just screw up your squat….

But it can be useful if used in some “unconventional” ways.

Preventing burns during TRX pushups:

Make sure you have the TRX fully deployed, if not the bar pad will put pressure on the clip and it’ll deploy it’s self…..mid rep, and that’s not cool.

Controlling Humeral Position During Rows and Presses:

When you do a rowing or pressing exercise you should aim for a neutral Humerus position, limiting Humeral anterior glide, at the bottom.

That means don’t let the upper arm point forward at the end of a row or bottom of a press.

It should look like this:

The head of the Humerus is in line with the ear and elbow, not “tipping” forward in the joint.

From http://www.myomytv.com

Not this:

See how the top of the arm (head of the Humerus) doesn’t stay in a neutral (aligned with the ear and elbow) position but instead angles forward?

Photo From: http://www.topendsports.com

The tampon is a great tool for limiting the range of motion when rowing because it can help limit a Humerus forward position for people with extra long arms or those who have trouble getting enough scapular retraction to keep the Humerus in neutral at the fully retracted (bottom) position.

Barbell Row:

Inverted Row:

Bench Press:

It’s common for a sloppy “flat back” setup or extra long arms to result in the Humerus gliding forward at the bottom position.

First off you should fix your setup but if you’re still having trouble staying in neutral adding a Tampon will cut off an extra 1-2 inches of depth depending on the Tampon used and save you some shoulder stress.

Padding for Hip Thrusts:

No one wants broken hips, I’m guessing that to be a fact.

Hip Thrusts are an awesome hip extension exercise, for a loooooong time I didn’t use them, but have started programming them more and more lately and they really do work well for a teaching/ training hip extension and strengthening the glutes.

Thing is, that bar on your hips hurts like hell.

So you NEED some padding. <—–Airex pads work best

But a Hampton thick bar pad works too.

So don’t throw your Tampons away….just quit squatting with them.