My Top Five....

....ways to save your shoulders in the gym:

1. Use a neutral (palms facing each other) position when pressing with dumbbells. This places the humerus in a position of external rotation thereby opening up the subacromial space a bit more and thereby reducing the chances of impingement. Plus most barbell pressing positions place you in a a position of internal rotation, so why do the same with dumbbells?
2. Learn to tuck the elbows when doing push ups. Think about rotating your fingers out as you descend during the push up. This will tuck your elbows to your side and engage your upper back and place less stress on your shoulders. The closer your elbows are to your side, the less stress on the shoulders.
3. Rotate your pressing exercises. Just because it's chest day or upper body day, doesn't mean you have to bench press. I know guys who have never missed a day of bench pressing when it comes to upper body work. I also know a lot of guys who are always complaining about their shoulders. Rotate your main pressing exercise every 3-4 weeks. Incline presses, floor presses and numerous variations of dumbbell presses are just some examples.
4. Switch to the front squat. Some people just do not have the thoracic mobility or shoulder flexibility to back squat without placing undo stress on the anterior aspect of the shoulder joint. In addition you'll build up some great scapular stability with the front squat.
5. More pulling than pressing. Include more reps per set or one more set of pulling exercises than pressing exercises. For example if you're doing three sets of 8 reps when bench pressing, perform either three sets of 8-10 reps or four sets of 8 reps when doing your rows.

RichRuff Training Exercise of the Week: Low Cable X-Raise

RichRuff Training Exercise of the Week: Half Kneeling Contralateral DB Press

A nice alternative to to any cable chopping or lifting pattern, especially if you do not have access to a cable apparatus, is the half kneeling contralateral dumbbell press. Just like the chopping and lifting patterns this exercise could be listed as a core stability exercise. Two things make this a core stability exercise. The first is the contralateral nature of the exercise, meaning the pressing arm is on the same side as the forward leg. The second reason this exercise requires core stability is the narrow base of support. The narrower the base, the greater the core stability demands. In the following video you'll see that I have the front foot, back knee and back foot all along the same line, making the base as narrow as it can get.

Bootcamp

I have another bootcamp starting up this Saturday. Details are:

• When: Saturdays @7:30am
• Where: Summit Health & Fitness in Bedford, MA
• Cost: $15 for non-members of Summit

Come wave some ropes, pull some sleds, throw some medicine balls and do every one's favorites...burpees!!

RichRuff Training Exercise of the Week: Kettlebell Squat Press Out

This is an exercise I first saw done by strength coach Mike Boyle a couple months back. Looking at it, you make this this would be considered an upper body exercise since that's where the movement is occurring. But actually this is an isometric anterior core exercise as you try to resist extension at the spine when pressing the weight out.


It's also a great exercise to work on your squat depth and get you used to what coaches refer to as "sitting in the hole".



The more you you can get out of any particular exercise,you should always consider that exercise to be part of your training arsenal.

RichRuff Training Exercise of the Week: Rope Battle Tabatas

Some of the hardest Tabatas I've done are made up of rope battles. In the following rope battle I alternate between in/out waves and alternating waves.

Breaking Down the Turkish Get Up, Part Two

A couple weeks ago I showed you the first half of the Turkish Get Up. Here's the final half.