There are many muscles located in the upper back region and I believe the Rhomboid muscles (major and minor) are the main culprits of much of this tightness.  In the picture (from Wikipedia) to the right, the rhomboid major muscle is highlighted in red.  The rhomboid minor lies just above it.  When these muscles get tight it is very difficult for many individuals to get a good stretch on those muscles.

Manual stretching in my opinion is by far the most effective method of stretching these muscles.  I want to point out here that you will be also stretching other muscles in the area as well, I just think the rhomboid muscles many times are the major problem.

There are various methods of positioning the body to perform this stretch.  Since I am usually in a weight room with the athletes, I am going to explain how to do it standing since I will not have a nice treatment table to have them lay down on and a weight room bench is not wide enough for the position they would need to be in (face down).

First, be very direct with your athlete and explain to them what the stretch is and how it will potentially help them.  If you already watched the video, you saw that this is very hands on and someone may not be comfortable with you pushing your fingers behind their scapula.  After the athlete verbally tells you they would like to have the stretch done, explain to the them that if the feel light-headed at any time to let you know.  An athlete might feel faint when you are doing the stretch and they are thinking about what you are actually doing.  In the 12+ years that I have been performing this stretch on athletes, this has happened only one time.

After you have completely explained how the stretch is done, tell the athlete to relax as he/she is standing there.  This is why a treatment table makes this stretch a little easier to perform because the athlete can lay down.  I will lightly tap the area where the rhomboid muscles are located.  This will help to relax the musculature in that area.

Locate the bottom point of the scapula.  You may have to poke around a little if you have a thicker athlete.  After you have located the bottom point, run your fingers up the backside of the bone until your pinky finger is just above the bottom point (refer back to the video for a visual explanation).  Keep your fingers straight and lay them flat against the back.  The back of your hand and wrist will be towards the spine.  Now take your other hand and place it on the front portion of the shoulder.  With this hand you will push the shoulder back and this will raise the scapula slightly allowing you to push your fingers under the scapula.  As your fingers start to go behind the scapula, continue to push on the front of the shoulder.  This will increase how deep you will be able to get your fingers allowing for a better stretch.  Hold it in that position for a few seconds.  Sometimes you will actually feel the muscles relax as you are holding the stretch.  The scapula is a “floating” bone and is attached and positioned by muscles so you do not have to worry about dislocating anything.

Keep in constant communication with your athlete as you take pressure off the front shoulder and remove your back fingers.  Slide your fingers further up the scapula towards the neck.  Tap the area again to help relax the muscles.  Perform the stretch again in this location.  You will find this to be a little more difficult and tighter.  If it is the first time the athlete is having the stretch done, it may be difficult for them to relax so you may have to make a few attempts.

After you have completed the stretch, perform it on the other side as well.  Then have the athlete move their arms around and ask them how they feel.  The expression typically on their face will be priceless as they can not believe how much better they feel.  I am warning you now that once you do this stretch on someone, they will become a pain in your butt!  The stretch is so effective that the athlete will continue to come back to you every couple of days and ask for it again and again.  In the video, I explain how this stretch can be done with a tennis or lacrosse ball.  I typically show an athlete at this point how to do it with a ball now that they understand and have felt the stretch.

This is a great stretch to increase range of motion and scapular mobility but do not abuse this stretch.  I typically will only stretch the area once in each position.  Mobility in the scapula is a good thing but hypermobility (rarely ever seen) is not and is usually found in athletes with muscle imbalances.  Understand what you are dealing with and then you can make a good and sound judgement on how to fix it.

Hope that helps!

To your health,

Jerry

I asked Jay if he would mind sitting down with me for a non-scripted chat/interview and we recorded it to share with you.  Below is Jay’s bio that I stole off his website www.CVASPS.com .  I would recommend checking it out, it is full of good training information from a variety of contributing strength coaches and weight training professionals.  I am also going to ask Jay for a guest post that I will share with you when he is able to get us one during his busy schedule.

Jay DeMayo has been the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for Men’s and Women’s Basketball at the University of Richmond since October 2005.  Jay is a graduate of the State University of New York College at Cortland where he was a two year starter on the Men’s Soccer team.  Prior to taking over the responsibilities of Men’s and Women’s Basketball at UR Jay worked with every team on campus as the Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach working.  During his tenure at Richmond, Coach DeMayo has worked with five All-Americans, and 10 Atlantic 10 championship teams.  Presently Jay is also responsible for the dry land training for NOVA Aquatics LLC, one of the top youth swim clubs on the eastern seaboard where he has coached over twenty athlete’s whom have qualified for Olympic Trials.

Coach DeMayo’s constant effort to better himself as a coach has brought him numerous certifications.  Coach DeMayo has his Level I coaching certification from USA Track and Field, is certified as an American Kettlebell Club Coach, United States Weightlifting Sport Performance Coach and a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist by the National Strength and Conditioning Association.

Coach DeMayo has also been a presenter for four consecutive years at the Pennsylvania State Clinic at Juniata College.  At the PA State Clinic Coach DeMayo has spoken on “Training Soccer Players, Developing a 3 Day Strength Training Program,”  “Max Effort Training for Sports,” and “Lift Preparation, The Next Evolution of the Warm Up,” “Developing a Progression for Auxiliary Lifts” and “Teaching the Squat and Deadlift.”  Coach DeMayo has also presented at the University of Richmond Sports Performance Clinic and with the Cal Ripken Jr. Baseball Academy.  Coach DeMayo has also been involved in developing the Basketball Strength Symposium in Raleigh, NC, and the Central VA Sports Performance Seminar.

I would personally like to thank Coach DeMayo for taking the time to sit down to have this discussion.

Hope this helps!

To your health,

Jerry

There have been some times that I have been particularly proud of my wife Trina.  The first, is when I dropped a knee on Sea Gull Beach and she said yes.  The second is when she showed up on our wedding day and said, “I do”.  The third, is when she gave birth to our daughter Aleyda.  Recently, for her to get out of her comfort zone and get on stage to compete in a figure competition.  By the way, there are many moments that I am proud of my wife-just in case you are wondering.  These are just some big ones!

Trina has made comments over the years about her interest in maybe trying to do a figure or bodybuilding competition, just for the inner challenge to see if she could do it.  Well a year ago she went with me to a competition to see a friend of ours, Dustin Rose, who I helped provide his weight training programs for his first bodybuilding show, and that got her desire going.  You can see Dustins pics and video here=> http://www.varietytrainer.com/dustins-journey-completed/  She kept talking about it and finally committed to a competition-the Mt. Rogers 36th Annual Drug Free Bikini, Figure, and Bodybuilding Championships to be held at Woodbridge, VA the weekend before Thanksgiving.    She had 11 months to prepare and train.

To make this successful for Trina, she had to be more dedicated and focused then she has ever been with any workout she has ever done before and be surrounded with support staff that knew what they were doing.  Of course, I got the job of training her with the weights and cardio training.  Tanya Williams, certified nutritionist, worked with her weekly prescribing  a well balanced nutrition program-not a typical unhealthy bodybuilding diet.  Finally, friend and past competitor Venessa Smoley, met with her every Sunday to work on poses and provided her with all the positive feedback any one person would EVER need.

In the end, Trina was the one who made it the most successful.  She stayed dedicated and made sacrifices that most people would never have the discipline to do.  She followed directions (for 11 months) and did what her support staff told her to do, which ultimately earned her a second place finish as a first time competitor!!

Results do not come easy, but I am convinced anyone can get what they want if they are willing enough work for it!  I really admire Drug Free figure and bodybuilding competitors.  Just like sport athletes, they must stay focused and dedicated.  Hopefully, you can see a little clearer why I am so proud of my wife for her accomplishments.

To your health,

Jerry

Yes this is a clip of Bob Wiley, played by Bill Murray, from the movie “What About Bob,” where he lists the many problems he is having, both physically and mentally.

At first thought, you might not be able to see a connection between this movie clip and Gripper Training. Actually Grippers are probably responsible for creating more Grip Training Maniacs than any other form of Grip Training.

Just as marijuana can be considered a gateway drug, Grippers can be the catalyst for many other things down the road.

And who can blame people for enjoying Grippers so much? Grippers are awesome, after all. They go into your gym bag without taking up too much room. They can fit in your glove compartment or sit on your dashboard or front seat, and you can even fit most of them right into your back pocket.

Don’t try to take them through airport security though – LONG STORY.

Grippers are probably the most famous and alluring type of Grip Training tools on the market. In fact, once someone is bitten by the Gripper Bug, it is not uncommon for them to just go crazy buying Grippers.

For instance, check out some of the ways Grippers are used by some of the most extreme Gripper enthusiasts…

Warm-up Grippers: These grippers are on the lighter side and are used sparingly, just for guys to get the blood flowing and their hands ready to do damage later on in the workout.

Pet Grippers: Most guys have one or two grippers that they always squeeze, just about every workout. They may not admit to it, but they do. It might be a gripper that has a story behind it or maybe it took a while for the trainee to master, but they hit it every workout for that boost of confidence and that harkening of nostalgia.

Trophy Grippers: Grippers are sometimes given away at contests or may have been designed as gifts with cool images like skulls on the handles or personalizations like their names or initials stamped into them.

Guaranteed Closes: These Grippers are on the lighter end of the scale for the trainee. They are shoe-ins for a close. BAM – Easy Money.

Work Set Grippers: These grippers are in the middle of the pack in the gripper collection. The trainee may be able to close them occasionally, but perhaps not every workout, depending on the circumstances. Either way, these grippers take a long time to become guaranteed closes.

Goal Grippers: These are the grippers that are currently in the sites of the gripper training enthusiast. He has his cross-hairs focused intently on these grippers and most likely thinks about them when he wakes up in the morning, and may indeed sleep with them under his pillow, developing that deeper connection.

This kind of behavior is very common among the most serious of gripper training maniacs. It’s not uncommon for them to buy complete sets of grippers every time a new line of them comes out. They have the words “hand gripper” locked into their computer clipboard so that they can go to on-line auctions and web browsers and search with speed and precision in order to buy Grippers on the cheap when another gripster gives up on the Gripper Dream.

Unfortunately, along with the infatuation of collecting endless grippers in order to fill in the most miniscule gaps of gripper difficulty, there is also an obsession with squeezing them.

Some literally do stick them in their back pocket and squeeze them all day long when they first get them, especially when they are finally able close the Trainer or #1, and they are the only ones in the office who can do it!

In fact, there is a lot of misinformation out there that causes people to think that constantly squeezing grippers every single day is the only way to progress with Grippers.

Before you know it, guys who have never trained for grip strength before are blasting out 100 reps per day and they end up sounding like Bob Wiley in the movie clip above, reporting issues such as: tired hand muscles, raw hand skin, sore knuckles, fingernail sensitivity, confusion, and frustration.

This kind of thing doesn’t have to go on anymore. It’s OK to obsess about finally closing that Goal Gripper. It’s cool to obsess about them and lurk on forums and Craigslist looking for entire lots of grippers to buy in order to bolster your collection, but Gripper training itself should be fun, not some mysterious journey into the unknown labyrinth, not knowing whether the next turn you take or the next workout you do will get you closer or further from your goals.

There are now nearly double digit companies out there who produce hand grippers and the number of sites and other businesses that market grippers is unknown. More and more pop up every day in order to capitalize on the Gripper Training Craze, just like with kettlebells in the early 2000’s.

But not a single gripper is sold today that comes with instructions on what the best way is to train on them. No operator’s manual. No guidelines.

That’s where I come in.

I have designed CRUSH: Total Gripper Domination to help everyone from the leisure interest gripper trainee to the hardcore gripper-holic to show them how to go about gripper training the right way in order to accomplish their specific goals.

CRUSH just became available this week. If you want to make gains in your Gripper Training, this is something you’ve got to get your hands on.  Check it out here=> http://tinyurl.com/GripperDVD

All the best in your Gripper Training.

Jedd Johnson
Grip-aholic

Guys if you have any interest in grip training or you might be considering looking into getting this DVD, you will not be disappointed-Get it!  It is amazing how much information Jedd provided.  It is well worth the small investment.

http://tinyurl.com/GripperDVD

Hope this helps.

To your health,

Jerry

Block weight training has been around for years and you can buy grip training devices or get really creative by simply picking items up and holding them.  Competition grip events are gaining in popularity and the importance of training grip for sports has become more of a priority than ever before.

Let’s face it, grip strength can make or break you.  Even female soccer players should be training grip.  Their limiting factor for training with weight is usually not leg strength.  It is usually how much weight they are able to hold in their hands for exercises like the dead lift, RDL, Lunges, Step-ups, etc..

I really like putting posts like these together to help athletes, coaches, and anyone else looking to improve and that is why I want to share with you how to build a simple block weight for great hand strength.

First, find a few scrap blocks of wood.  These can be of different lengths and thicknesses.  Look for new house construction sites.  They always are throwing away the ends of boards.  Just make sure you ask first so you don’t get in trouble for stealing.  Trust me they usually will not care about giving you what you are looking for-it is less for them to throw out.

Next, you will need a sturdy wood threaded eye bolt, spring clip, and a small length of chain that you can pick up at any hardware store for a few bucks.  Drill into the wood a little bit with a drill bit that has a smaller diameter than the threaded part of the eye bolt.  Place the eye bolt into the hole and start it with your hands until it bites into the wood.  Then take a screw driver into the eye of the bolt to use as leverage to twist it into the wood.  Make sure it is anchored into the wood very well.  Take your clip and attach it to the eye bolt, loop the chain onto the clip and place the other end of the chain through the hole of a weight plate and attach to the spring clip and you are ready to start pinch training.  If your wood has any splintered or sharp edges; sand it down a little bit with some sand paper.  There you go, it doesn’t get any easier than that!

Try holding the weight plate off the floor with your arms extended for time.  You should shoot for 30 seconds and you can progress from there.  You can also go heavier and dead lift the weight up and down for reps.  Typically, I will try to aim for 6-10 reps.  Another method to try is to  set weight for yourself and just hold it for time until failure and keep track of your time and watch how your it will improve as your endurance increases.

If you are a coach, try to make it competitive between athletes.  Have them face off for timed holds for bragging rights!  This will get heated and the athletes love the competitive spirit.

Remember, you can make single or double hand blocks and blocks of different thicknesses for progressive training cycles.

If you are serious about taking your grip strength and game to the next level then you NEED to checkout this information that Jedd Johnson has about training with grippers.  The information is top notch!  You can check that out here=> http://tinyurl.com/GripperDVD

Hope that helps!

To your health,

Jerry

When an athlete performs a regular step-up, there will be many muscles of the lower legs that will be stimulated.  When you watch the video of my women’s basketball players doing a power step-up, you will see a jump stretch band attached around their waist.  This will have two main functions.  The first will be forcing them to stimulate the torso musculature.  This is desirable as we will want as many muscle fibers stimulated as possible and any additional core activation is always a good thing.  In the second function, the band is holding the athlete back and the athlete is forced to drive the hip forward and move the leg into a more aggressive triple extension firing pattern.  This triple extension will occur in the hip, knee, and ankle.  It is this powerful motion that accelerates an athlete forward explosively.

When performing a power step-up you will need a light or medium jump stretch band and something sturdy to step-up onto at a height of approximately 18-24″.  Loop the jump stretch band around an immoveable object at waist height.  I use my cable machines because there is no sharp edges to cut into the band.  Position a step-up platform about 2 feet from the end of the band.  In the video, the ladies are stepping onto a Legend foam plyo box.  This will give this exercise an added bonus because the athletes will have to stabilize their ankles and maintain balance.  The athlete will then step into the loop of the band and place the loop around their waist.  Place one foot onto the box so that the entire foot is on the box.  In a running motion, drive the heel of the foot that is on the box down hard into the box and drive the body forward.  Again emphasize a running motion with good arm swing and knee drive.  Keep the foot on the box and step back down with the other foot to the floor.  Repeat this motion for the desired number of reps or time of the exercise.

Typically I will have athletes perform 4 sets of 6-10 reps per leg.  An alternative would be to have the athlete step both feet down back to the floor and alternate the step-ups.  In this fashion, I would normally go for a timed session of 30-60 seconds.

If first step acceleration is something you need to improve on then you will want to give this one a try.  As a strength coach, I always believe this is an area that can be improved on.

Hope this helps.

To your health,

Jerry

How to execute a dead lift power shrug is as easy as combining a dead lift and a power shrug together.  OK right now you might be thinking..”really!”   But seriously, someone who is reading this right now might not know exactly how to dead lift or has done shrugs but is not familiar with the term “power shrug”.  So I think it would be good to give a quick review of each exercise and then talk about how and why we would combine the two.

Look at the picture to the right of Franco Columbu performing a conventional dead lift.  Mr. Columbu was known for bodybuilding but he also did some power lifting on the side.  Did I mention that he is one of my favorite strength athletes of all time!  Well if you didn’t know-you do now.

Here are some of my coaching ques I tell my athletes when they dead lift a bar bell:

• Start with your feet shoulder width apart with your toes forward or slightly turned out
• The bar should be right up close to the shins
• Squat down and position the arms just outside of your knees and grab the bar bell.  You can use a double over hand grip or  have one hand as an overhand grip and the other as an underhand grip.  In the picture Franco’s left hand is in the over hand grip position and his right is in the under grip positions.  This type of grip is usually used when maxing out or just learning how to dead lift as it is easier to keep the bar closer to your legs.  I will talk more about the double over hand grip later
• Grasp the bar tightly and position your back in a neutral position with your head up and shoulders directly over the bar.  You want to try to not round your back at all during the lift
• Keep your weight positioned in your heels of your feet as you start to stand up, take a breath and feel the weight in your hands before you stand up
• Tighten up your entire mid-section and begin extending your legs maintaining form throughout the motion as you stand up
• Do not hyper extend your back to try to lock it out at the top.  This can be very risky to your low back if you are not an experienced power lifter
• Return the weight back to the floor by squatting the weight down in reverse order
• Remember to always keep the weight close to your legs at all times during the dead lift

If you look at the picture of a bicep curl.  Image “A” would be a concentric contraction (muscle shortening) as you bring the dumbbell up and a eccentric contraction (muscle lengthening) as you bring the dumbbell back down.  Image “B” shows an example of a isometric contraction.  The hand is anchored and as you would attempt to squeeze and perform the curl, the arm will not move and as a result much tension will develop in the bicep muscles.

A muscle can generate greater tension with a maximum isometric contraction than with a maximum concentric contraction, but not as much as with a maximum eccentric contraction.  This may seem confusing to a person who just goes through the motions in a weight room.  Now the gym rat, will understand these principles because he/she will put these practices into work and experience the outcomes of their efforts.

What I find great about isometrics is that it can be done in different ranges of motion and with just about any strength exercise.  Let’s go back to the bicep curl.  If we are looking at your elbow and we have the elbow fully extended, the joint angle would be at 180 degrees.  As we start our bicep curl the angle in the elbow will decrease.  You could stop at any angle and perform an isometric contraction.  Most trainers will either do isometric contractions at the mid point, which would be 90 degrees for this example; or at full contraction with the curl all the way up and tight.  I will point out, that if you are using a free weight you should take in consideration for positioning with gravity.

To gain strength from isometric training, the athlete must use an exercise load (resistance) of 60-80% of their muscle’s force-developing capacity and it must be sustained against that resistance for at least 6 seconds to allow time for peak tension to develop and the metabolic changes to begin to occur in the muscle.  Strength will develop at the position or angle degree in which the exercise is performed.  You can see how this could be beneficial if you find a “sticking point” in an exercise.

In the video, you see my wife Trina keeping an isometric contraction in a seated row position with the elbows pulled back and the scapula in a retracted position.  She was told to hold until failure.  I did this at the end of her back training session as a finisher and this was her second set.  She is training for a figure competition and I wanted to get her upper back muscles to recruit as many muscle fibers as possible so when she does her back pose her muscles will “pop” on stage.

If you have never used or tried isometric training, I would encourage you to start experimenting with it.  I covered a few benefits of it but mentioned nothing in regards to the injury prevention and rehabilitation capabilities which I am sure you now can see those possibilities.  If you have any questions or suggestions to share with everyone; please post them in the comments section below.

Hope this helps!

To your health,

Jerry

Then I did it; I asked so what all do you do with this thing and then he was like a little kid left in a toy store over night.  You could see his passion and how he really believed in everything he was showing me.  Now you all know how I love to add variety into training but I don’t get to overly crazy with today’s “functional” frenzy, but as I watched Chris and he was explaining things to me as he saw it; I started to think there might more to this than I gave credit for.  I was really impressed at all the different ways he was showing me how to set up the stretch bands with this piece of equipment.   Unlimited possibilities!  Then it happened, Chris asked me if I wanted to keep it for a month or two to play with it and find out for myself.  I am not one to pass up an opportunity and said yes.  I am glad I did because I have been seeing some benefits from incorporating some of his craziness into my workouts.  I guess the moral of this story is not to be afraid of trying new things out on yourself.

This workout I am sharing with you really does not have anything all that crazy incorporated into it but it will give you some inside looks at this new piece of training equipment that is about to hit the mainstream market.  I just happened to have my video camera there that day and had another request for me to film one of my personal workouts again.  I did not have a lot of time so I just through together a quick 6 exercise circuit and ran through it 5 times for a total of 5 sets per exercise at 10 reps each.

• Staggered Stance Chest Press
• Pull Back Into Isometric Hold With Scapular Retraction
• Forward Pull Good Morning
• Alternating Dumbbell Curl
• Cable/Rope Triceps Push Down
• Finger Tip Hang (Each Set Till Fatigued)

Nothing fancy but quick and effective when not having a lot of time.  If you have any training questions about the ARC or anything just let me know and I will do my best to get you an answer or my opinion.

I would like to thank Chris for trusting and allowing me to borrow the ARC for a few months until he makes a trip back down from Canada.  I will probably put up a few more exercises for everyone before he “tries” to take it back.  He has played and still does play Rugby so if I have to get into a scrum with him I might have my hands full!

To your health,

Jerry

They majority of free weight lower or total body movements will have some activation of the glute muslces.   They are working while doing squats, lunges, dead lifts, and step-ups just to name a few.  Many times a good balanced training program will be adequate enough not to have to target or try and isolate and athlete’s glutes.  But there are times when individuals have a hard time getting the proper activation of these muscles which can be a limiting factor in their progression or a higher risk of lower limb injury.

The following exercise that I am about to explain will provide good activation of the glute muscles.  I honestly do not have a name for this exercise but will prescribe it to athletes from time to time.  It basically is like a modified reverse hyper.  Louie Simmons from West Side Barbell came up with the original Reverse Hyper machine, and it really does a good job.  But not everyone will access to this piece of equipment.  Basically it is like a table top that you lay your upper body and mid-torso across with your legs off the table.  Your feet are strapped to a hanging weight almost like a pendulum and you move this weight back by contracting your posterior muscles which has a big emphasis in the glutes.  It will almost look like you are swinging the weight back and forth.  OK, I know that if you are familiar with the reverse hyper machine then you know what I am talking about and trying to explain.  If you are not familiar with it then that description probably has you all screwed up.  That’s OK if you are; you can look up a video of it later if you wish and it will make more sense.

So the exercise I am about to explain will work a lot of the posterior chain muscles but my main objective to to get good activation of the glutes.  You may have to get a little creative in setting this up and the easiest way to do this is by looping a jump stretch band around a power rack.  In the video, I start by using band chords which I attached to an ARC Trainer.  Now the Arc Trainer allows me to pretty much set up any configuration of band chords to do just about anything.  It is a very handy piece of equipment that you will learn more about in the future as it becomes popular.   For now, just use what ever you have available to you to use.  I am going to explain it using a jump stretch band.

Attach the band a few feet off the floor, around waist high.  Then lay down on your back and bring a foot up and loop the band securely around the foot.  Keep your back flat on the ground and then drive the leg down towards the floor (try to keep your leg somewhat straight).  Try to initiate the movement from your glute and when the leg gets to the floor squeeze those muscles tightly.  Return back up under control and repeat for reps or fatigue.

You will really feel this working.  Do not get carried away and do a ton of sets the first time you learn this exercise or you might have trouble sitting the next two days.  Usually 3-5 sets of 10-12 reps per leg is adequate.  You can also attach a second band and do both legs together or alternating movements like if you were walking.  I prefer single leg or alternating reps over doing both legs at the same time.  When doing both legs at the same time; I do not like the tilt of the pelvis and I feel there is some not needed stress placed in the low back area.  I never feel this stress of see the tilt when doing single leg or alternating.

If you feel you are not getting the activation of the glutes or it is your weak link in your kinetic chain, then give this a try.  Heck, just give it a try and you will know what I am talking about.

Hope that helps!

To your health,

Jerry