Rhomboid Dumbbell Exercise on the Floor: Better Posture

Today I wanted to share with you one of my favorite exercises for developing the rhomboids and that’s the power raise done on the floor. Strengthening the rhomboids along with the Trap 3 and the external rotators of the humerus the rotator cuff muscles actually leads to better posture and will provide a better and more stable platform to both push and pull from

The center for this exercise is to lay on your side and you want to fold up your non- working arm and put it on your head so you can keep your head in a neutral position. Bend you knees at 90 degrees and shift them forward for a better base of support. From here drop your dumbbell and retract the scapula and raise your arm.

You want to keep the dumbbell in line with your face throughout the range of motion and if you also notice I’m not grounding the dumbbell but I’m stopping just short of the floor and then also stopping at the top when my arm is perpendicular to the floor. To add a degree of difficulty to these exercises you can add a pause at the bottom which increases the time under tension of the rhomboids which, would give him a chance to get stronger

With this exercise we also like to use thick handled dumbbells because of the radiation effect. The harder you’re gripping it, the further the muscles up the kinetic chain you’re going to fire and so it’s going to make everything stronger.

Also with this exercise because the load is at the very end of the lever arm we also like to use plate mates and so we can go up and smaller increments because going up and 5 pound increments in this exercise can be very difficult. We like to use this exercise early in someones structural balance phase to develop strength in the rhomboids which is going to give them a better more stable and stronger platform to do all the bench presses, incline presses, rows, chin ups and all of those exercises so thanks for watching stay strong.

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Strongman Training. Better than CrossFit ?

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Athletic Strength Institute Strongman Training utilizes strongman movements to develop the body’s different energy systems resulting in a stronger and leaner physique. The workouts are brutal, but the results are worth it.

Strongman training is about developing the body’s primary movement patterns and involves lifting, carrying, dragging, pushing, and pulling heavy objects – movements that occur on a daily basis. This type of training is great for those who want to improve performance or get lean for the summer.

Strongman training is ideal for those who want to:
Lose fat
Gain muscle
Increase strength
Improve endurance

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External Rotation with Arm Abducted

 

In this video we will be covering:External Rotation with Arm Abducted Rotator Cuff Stability and Rehabilitation Exercise
This is Chris Dellesaga with the Athletic Strength Institute in Lawrence, Kansas and today and wanted to share with you one of my favorite external rotation exercises and that’s the external rotation with your arm abducted in front. Most clients are going to present with the forward rolled shoulders or anteriorly rotated shoulders and so we like to use this exercise early in the structural balance phase to develop strength in the rotator cuff and to develop shoulder stability which is going to better prepare them for the following pressing and pulling exercises that are to follow so the set up for this exercise is to find something to support the other one and the general rule of thumb is if you want the elbow to be about 2 inches lower than the armpit. So you want the leg of the working on to go back and you want your elbow to be in line with or just outside of shoulder width you don’t want to let the elbow deviate inside shoulder width and from here you’ll internally rotate or the arm is just past parallel at the bottom position and externally rotate

If someone gets stronger with this exercise you can make it more challenging by changing the relationship of the torso to the arm by rotating out until the arm is completely abducted to the side. We also like to use thick handle dumbbells because there is research that suggests that there is a relationship between a weakness in the grip and a higher propensity for developing tears in the rotator cuff so the thick grip forces you to grip it tightly which actually creates a radiation effect which means that all of the muscles that are farther up the kinetic chain actually firing harder too and this is basically enabling you to recruit more motor units.

So because most people have never done specialized training for the rotator cuff we typically like to use a high rep count at the beginning about 15 to 20 because the weak or muscle is the more training volume it can handle so we like to use this exercise to develop strength of the rotator cuff which is going to promote shoulder stability and better prepare someone for the follow-on pressing and pulling variations thanks for watching and stay strong.

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