As the Head Strength & Conditioning Coach at Bucknell University, I work with a number of athletes, and part of my job is to help them remain injury free. To accomplish this, we use a series of Functional Injury Prevention Exercises. These exercises are commonly referred to by my athletes as the F.I.P. (Functional Injury Prevention) and are performed directly after their warm-up and before the core of our weight-training program.

In this article, let’s focus on the shoulder complex, particularly the rotator cuff. The rotator cuff is made up of four muscles and tendons (supraspinatus, infraspinatus, subscapularis, and teres minor), which stabilize the shoulder joint. When strengthening these muscles, heavy weight and/or excessive resistance are not required. In fact, too much resistance calls in the bigger muscles that surround the shoulder joint and takes the focus off of these smaller rotator cuff muscles. Defeating the purpose. So I like training these muscles using tubing and/or light five to ten pound weights.

Some of the most common exercises are internal and external shoulder rotation. Internal rotation involves keeping the elbow close to your side, bent at 90 degrees and then rotating your arm toward your body. External rotation is just the opposite: you rotate your arm away from your body. See the photos below for examples of internal and external rotation exercises using tubing.

Internal Rotation

External Rotation

Internal and external rotation exercises are a good start for shoulder health for the common person, but athletes tend to require a more complex circuit in my opinion.

A friend of mine, Mike Winn (Physical Therapist from Evangelical Sports Medicine Center, Lewisburg, PA), developed a shoulder circuit I use with my athletes almost weekly. I believe this circuit has increased the integrity of our athletes’ shoulder strength and has helped decrease the amount of overuse injuries associated with many sports. This circuit is a series of five exercises using rubber elastic tubing.

The first exercise is “Thumbs Out.” This is done with one tube held at arms length with your palms up. To begin, start with your arms parallel to the floor and your thumbs pointing out. Then horizontally pull your arms out to your sides as you retract (pinch) your shoulder blades together and return back to the start position under control.

The second exercise is “Thumbs Up.” Grab a second tube and secure each tube under your feet, so you will be holding one in each hand. Bring your arms forward about 30 degrees. With your thumbs pointing up, raise your arms up until they are parallel with the floor.

The third exercise is “Thumbs Down.” It is the same movement as Thumbs Up but you will switch your grip with the bands, so your thumbs will be pointing down when the arms are parallel to the floor.

The fourth exercise is “High Rotation.” You will start in the same position as Thumbs Down. Then raise your elbows high like an upright row. When your upper arms are parallel to the floor, externally rotate from the shoulder until your forearms are perpendicular to the floor. Return to the starting position in reverse order under control.

The fifth and final exercise is “High Diagonals.” In the Thumbs Down starting position, keep the bands under your feet but switch the bands into your opposite hands. Then cross your arms so your thumbs are pointing into your hips. Extend your arms out away from your body and externally rotate the shoulder as you raise your arms across your body and out above your shoulders. Reverse the order in a controlled manner to restart for the desired number of reps.

I typically have my athletes perform this complex shoulder circuit once or twice a week as part of their Functional Injury Prevention series of exercises. They will perform one to two sets of 10 to 12 controlled reps. For these exercises to be helpful in preventing injuries, the techniques of each exercise must be mastered. I can’t stress this enough.

What you will find when you try this circuit is that each exercise has an elemant of external rotation in the shoulder.  Most of this circuit (as stated above) was developed by Mike Winn, a physical therapist and good friend of mine.  He and I both believe that most athletes need to focus more on the external rotators of the shoulder and spend less time training the internal rotators.  There are so many internal movements in sports that most athlete’s internal rotators are strong enough or in relationship to the external rotators, over developed.  Also, the external roators act as decelerating muscles to help protect the shoulder from throwing movements.

If you are not currently doing any type of rotator cuff training, I would strongly encourage you start.  They work, plain and simple!

Hope that helps.

To your health,

Jerry

First let’s go over each of the three movements in detail.

Anterior Shoulder Raise:

• Grab two dumbbells of appropriate weight
• Stand in an athletic position (knees and hips slightly bent with the shoulder blades slightly pulled back and the torso drawn in tight)
• Hold the dumbbells with your arms straight and your palms facing back
• Slowly raise the dumbbells forward keeping your arms straight until parallel to the floor
• All the focus should be on the front portion of the shoulder (deltoid) while maintaining strict form with the rest of the body
• There should be no momentum or swing with the raise
• Lower back down under control
• Repeat for desired reps or until fatigue greatly compromises form

Lateral Shoulder Raise:

• Grab two dumbbells of appropriate weight
• Stand in an athletic position
• Hold the dumbbells with your arms straight and your palms facing each other or in towards your body
• Slowly raise the dumbbells out to the side (away from your body) keeping your arms straight or slightly bent at the elbows until parallel to the floor
• All the focus should be on the lateral portion of the shoulder (deltoid) while maintaining strict form with the rest of the body
• If you have had an impingement problem or this does not feel comfortable bring the arms slightly forward during the raise
• There should be no momentum or swing with the raise
• Lower back down under control
• Repeat for desired reps or until fatigue greatly compromises form

Posterior Shoulder Raise:

• Grab two dumbbells of appropriate weight
• Stand in an athletic position and then bend forward at the hips (not the waist) keeping the core tight; there will be no rounding in the back
• Hold the dumbbells with your arms straight or slightly bent with your palms facing each other
• Slowly raise the dumbbells out to the side (away from your body) keeping your arms straight or slightly bent at the elbows until parallel to the floor
• All the focus should be on the back portion of the shoulder (deltoid) while maintaining strict form with the rest of the body
• There should be no momentum or swing with the raise
• Lower back down under control
• Repeat for desired reps or until fatigue greatly compromises form

As I said in the beginning of this post; each of these exercises can be done as stand alone lifts.  You also can get more focused and only do one arm at a time.  Usual rep range would be around 8-12 repetitions for 2-4 sets.

When doing the 3-Way Shoulder Complex use slightly lighter dumbbells. They would be done consecutively with little to no rest between exercises.  Typically, I would have the rep range between 7-10 reps for 2-3 sets.

Listen to your shoulders!  Depending on your training program the shoulders can get over trained very easily.  Make sure you are paying close attention to the volume of work you are doing each week.  Also, keep in mind that every time you do an upper body pressing or pulling movement your are using the shoulders.  Many people forget this as they do not see it as direct shoulder emphasis training.

Hope that helps!

To your health,

Jerry

The steering wheel will stimulate primarily the anterior and lateral portions of the deltoid muscle of the shoulder.  Along with that there are a lot of secondary muscles being stimulated such as the forearms, biceps, triceps, posterior deltoid, upper chest, upper and lower back, and a major core activation.  You will also find a slight amount of internal and external rotation in the shoulder which is desirable for rotator cuff health because this is in a controlled weighted movement.

First, grab a plate which you are physically capable of holding out in front of you.  Remember, I just stated that this is a “controlled” movement.  Next, raise the plate so the plate is out in front of your chest and face.  Your hands will be positioned at 3 and 9 o’clock on the plate.  Make sure your knees and hips are slightly bent with your mid-section firmly braced.  From here, just turn the plate back and forth as if you were steering a car.  No quick or jerky movements and you do not have to go to any extreme turns as there are no tight corners on this road.

You will feel a burning sensation in the shoulders, low back, and abdominal area; as the muscles will be worked hard to stabilize the weight.  There is no set number of reps or time.  I always just tell my athletes to listen to their bodies and “feel” when it is time to lower the weight or when form is about to break down.  After you set the weight down you will really know what you have worked as your muscles will be screaming at you.

Always try to add a little variety into your training from time to time so the body can get stimulated differently.  This has been proven many times to show better results faster than always sticking to the same exercises.  Give this one a try and challenge yourself.

To your health,

Jerry

For the hip injury prevention exercises, you want to tie about a nine inch loop which you would put around you ankles or just above your knees.  In the past I bought these 9″ x 2″ theraband like loops that you can buy for $1.50-$3.50 a loop.  The only problem I had with them is they would always break after a few dozen uses.  When you tie the tubing it lasts a few hundred uses.  Hey it’s rubber and it will eventually wear out or break, but using the tubing is much less expensive.  It is not as comfortable as the bigger loops you can buy but works just as well if not better.

You can read my complete article on training the small intrinsic muscles of the hip and how to use the loops by clicking here => Injury Prevention – Hip

For doing internal and external movements for the rotator cuff muscles of the shoulders and how to use the tubing click here => Injury Prevention – Shoulder

Hope that helps!

To your health,

Jerry

I was impressed by the increased range of motion and how well my shoulders felt after I went through the stretches. I remember thinking that these positions are the exact positions an Athletic Trainer or Physical Therapist would place the shoulder in when doing manual stretching. Wow, here is a simple tool that you can use and not have to see someone for increasing range of motion. This can be very valuable to an athlete, especially if he or she was traveling to a sporting event and the trainer was not with them. Or for a trainer or therapist to free up time doing other things while their patient did their own manual stretching.

The Rotater also comes with a theratubing handle for easy attachments to perform strengthening exercises for the internal and external rotators of the shoulders. Although it works well and you can vary the degrees of tension; I would not base my decision to purchase this based on this component alone. I would however include the strengthening tubing as a good addition. For an athlete this attachment could easily serve as a positive tool to warm-up the shoulder and prehab it to keep it healthy.

To conclude, I can see how the Rotater could be a very useful tool for athletic teams or certain individual athletes. You can find out more information about this training tool at www.therotater.com .

To your health,
Jerry

PS-I would like to thank Chris Melton for the opportunity to learn more about the Rotater to enable me to provide you with this product review.

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Hey everyone, you heard about it and it is finally here and completed-Jedd Johnson’s Ultimate Forearm Training for Baseball guide.   I am aware that some of you may not be familiar with who Mr. Johnson is so I caught up with him and did a little interview.  I think it is important to have some information about a coach who shares his or her most vital training information to help athletes and coaches get all they can out of their training to reach their goals.  Enjoy reading the brief interview and then I will share with you some bonuses that I put together for you.

Jedd, Can you give my readers some quick back ground information about yourself leading up to why you created the Ultimate Forearm Training for Baseball program?

Sure thing Jerry – anything for you buddy.  By the way guys, Jerry is a great coach and very innovative thinker.  He has shown me a lot of impressive things over the years.

Here’s a little bit about me.  The first part of my life, I loved playing baseball.  It was pretty much all I really cared about spending my time doing all the way to college.  I ended up playing two years at Division II Mansfield University of PA.  Unfortunately, a couple of injuries left my arm in some pretty bad shape, so I decided I would no longer play.

By leaving baseball, this led me to the second love of my life, strength training.  I started serious work with weights in 1999 and have never stopped.  Unfortunately, after a few years away from baseball, my competitive fire started burning again and I looked for something to compete in.  I found Strongman and Grip Strength competitions.

I did my first Grip comp in 2003 and loved it right away.  I began traveling all over the nation to compete and along the way I won the US National Championship in 2005 and set a World Record in one of the main lifts in 2009.

However, after all these years I have always loved baseball.  Each year I attend pro games, high school games, Little League games.  I work with some baseball youngsters on strength training – I just love being around the game and I always wanted to put together something for baseball.  Finally in early 2010, I decided I was going to put something together that combined the two sports I have been the most successful in over the years – baseball and grip strength, and just recently finished Ultimate Forearm Training for Baseball, an ebook on training for forearm and grip strength, endurance, and safety.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE PROGRAM

How can the program elevate a proven baseball players game or skills?

Baseball players have known for years that leg strength, core strength, arm and shoulder strength and hand strength are important for high performance and longevity in the game.  If any of those elements are weak, your performance will go down.  If an injury takes place in any of those parts of the body, your performance will go down.  So, it is important to make these parts of the body as strong, flexible and healthy as possible for top performance.

Over the years, there has been a tremendous amount of information developed around building strength in the legs, core, and arm for baseball.  Players understand they have to do work on the legs and run to stay fast and in shape.  They know they have to do ab work and rotational activities in order to be able to throw and hit the ball hard, and they know they have to keep their rotator cuff and the rest of the shoulder strong and healthy in order to have optimal arm speed, strength, and velocity.

Unfortunately, there is very little information out there about how to train the hands and forearms the right way to perform at a high level in baseball.  Most of the information that players get is hand-me-down information with very little carryover to baseball performance.

My manual is the definitive resource for building hand strength and forearm strength for baseball players.  The information inside will help batters, fielders, pitchers and catchers to be better players, while also keeping them healthy and in the game longer.  I include in it multiple ways to keep the lower arms healthy through stretching and other therapeutic means that most players, coaches, and trainers are not aware of.

Can your system be easily added into an athlete’s existing training program?

No doubt about it.  Including Grip training in the routine can be done several different ways and I go over this in the manual.  To make things easier, I include 20 full-scale Grip workouts that can be done either in their entirety or can be broken up into segments.  If time is limited, like I know it is for many teams, all the player or strength coach has to do is break my workout templates up into sections.  Each workout can be broken up into three separate smaller workouts.

Approximately how long will each workout take and how many days a week is recommended?

If doing a full-scale grip training workout, the workout can be done in 20 minutes, twice a week.  If broken up into segments, then the workouts can take as short as 5 minutes and can be done throughout the week.  This is all covered in the manual and you can pretty much sculpt the workouts however you would like to.  Plus, my exercise index in the manual includes over 200 movements, so if the template indicates a movement or lift for which you do not have the implement, you can go to that section of the manual and look for other similar movements that you can do that work the same movement patterns so you can get the most out of the time you put into your grip training.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE PROGRAM

What types of strength equipment or training tools will be needed to utilize the program?

I have covered an immense amount of equipment that can be used for training grip, but the great thing about it is about half of what I cover requires no special equipment.  You either already have it at your normal strength training facility, or it might be in your garage, or even your baseball equipment bag.  Specialized grip training equipment is available on the market and it is very good for developing hand and forearm strength, but with this manual I will show you ways how to build your own equipment or how to use hardware that is already at your home to build lower arm strength that will get you bigger numbers on the field.

I know this system was specifically created for baseball; but could other athletes and coaches use the training principles for their sports?

No question.  Hand strength is important for many sports, especially football, rugby, MMA, wrestling, and many others, and the movements in this manual can be used to assist those athletes as well.  The therapy section still applies to all those sports because injuries take place in them as well, and if you currently have a lower arm injury, I will show you in the manual some of the ways that I have overcome injuries in the past as well.

Jedd, I would like to thank you for your time and answering these questions.  Is there anything else you would like to add about the Ultimate Forearm Training for Baseball program?

Yes, Jerry … Thousands of athletes are going to be picking this up and the ones that get this and start implementing the program are going to have a decided advantage over other players who do not.  So, strike while the iron is hot and get Ultimate Forearm Training for Baseball now.

Awesome Jedd, I can’t wait to share this with my readers of variety trainer.  Thank you!

CLICK HERE TO GET THE PROGRAM

I really want everyone to know that Jedd is a first class coach and this 400+ page manual is NO JOKE.  Pure content and tons of extra bonuses.  Now let’s talk MORE bonuses!  When you get the manual here at VarietyTrainer.com, I’ll send you my Nutritional Guide For Serious Athletes.  This is full of valuable nutritional information that any serious athlete needs to understand how to maximize their training results.  THERE’S MORE: I am also giving away a 15 Week Baseball Strength Training Program to be used directly with Jedd’s Ultimate Forearm Training System.  I hope you truly take advantage of what is being offered to you.  To pick up these additional bonuses email me your receipt showing that you picked up the manual and I will forward you the link to the bonuses.  Click over now and you won’t believe what all is included!

To your health,

Jerry

DON’T WASTE ANYMORE TIME:  GET THE PROGRAM

In the picture directly below you will see how I am holding onto a rope in each hand.  The second picture will distinctly show how I am contracting all those upper back muscles which results in a tight scapular retracted position.

I explain in detail, in the video below, exactly how I use the rope and then demonstrate three of my top rope exercises for this movement.

I really can not stress enough how important this movement is.  It will not only serve as a great injury prevention exercise for strengthening the decelerating muscles for the shoulder (throwing movement) but also in general upper back development.  It is not really about how much resistance you use but more about how concentrated you can get your contraction.  These are also some great exercises that can be incorporated into a therapy program for anyone who has a winging of the scapula.  Visually, this will look like you have wings from your scapula protruding away from the body (medial border).  Alright, I do not want this post to head in a therapeutic direction so I will end it here.  If you have any questions or comments; please just ask and I will do my best to answer them for you.  Now get yourself a chunk of rope and give them a try!

To your health,

Jerry