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= Weight lifted x Reps lifted x Sets
So if you’re doing 10 total sets of benching at 10 reps @ 200lbs a piece (20,000lbs of volume).
Doing 5 sets of dumbbell rows for 10 reps at 50lbs a rep isn’t going to cut it. (2,500lbs of volume).
One side of the joint is literally being overpowered by the other.
The Definition of Imbalance
That might be an issue.
What About the Rest of Your Posterior Chain?
Remember, you can never have enough,
“Upperback, Abs and Ass”
Almost all of us live in a flexion dominant world.
Flexed forward, driving, sitting at work, eating, in front of the computer, head flexed forward, hung down on the phone.
We do a lot of (flexing) using the muscles on the front side of the body that you’d see in the mirror and moving from the lumbar spine.
The Pecs, Upper Traps, Quads.
But rarely hip hinging (hamstrings and glutes), horizontal pulling (lats, rhombids, lower traps) and bracing/ stopping motion through the core.
Kettlebell Batwing Gorilla Rows:
Checklist:
- Take a shoulder to slightly wider than shoulder stance.
- HINGE into the hips
- Maintain a small low back arch and get the chest up
- Shoulders DOWN, into the back pockets
- Chin/ head in neutral
- Row BOTH kettlebells into the hips and HOLD them at the ribcage for maximum scapular packing.
- Row ONE bell at a time, keeping the other shoulder PACKED (lat tight) the whole time.
- No rotation through the shoulders or torso, stay flat.
Bro Tips:
- The more parallel you are to the floor, the better. But DO NOT sacrifice torso angle for more depth.
- NEVER allow the rowing arm/ shoulder to “bottom out”, maintain tension on the lats and rhomboids (midback) the whole time.
- Press the BIG toe down the whole time
- Make sure your hips (taint) are open and knees are in line with the middle to outside of the foot.
Why Kettlebells?
IMO, they tend to make for a nicer/ smoother row.
That said, you can TOTALLY use dumbbells, they’re just a bit awkward sometimes.
You’ll have to adjust the bell placement forward more on the torso to accommodate for the bell heads usually.
Your range of motion isn’t quite as good as with the kettlebells.
Kettlebells can be expensive, but Rep Kettlebells on Amazon and Fringe Sport KB’s are a pretty good price and handle pretty well too.
About Roy:
