HOW: This is a combination of six different exercises meant to serve as your ultimate bulletproof warm up before getting into your program today or any other upper body workouts. Follow the video to learn more about the 6 exercises: Standing A’s. Standing T’s. Standing Y’s. Shoulder neutral external rotation. Shoulder internal rotation at 90deg. Shoulder external rotation at 90deg. FEEL: You should feel all the muscles in your shoulder and upper back working! After finishing you should feel primed and ready to tackle your workout! COMPENSATION: Try not to let your upper traps take over the movement.

HOW: Starting in a standing position balanced on one leg, hop laterally towards the other leg, stick the landing and simultaneously perform a skater squat. Repeat in the other direction. FEEL: You should feel your glutes, especially on the outside of your hips working a lot with this exercise. You will also feel your quads and adductors working as well. COMPENSATION: Do not lose balance or give up form for distance. Find a distance that is appropriate for you to perform the exercise with optimal form.

Improve your Rotation!
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Here are 2 exercises to improve your Thoracic spine mobility, with some side benefit of improving Shoulder Mobility.

Exercise #1️⃣:
✅Start in a 1/2 kneeling position with a ball between your inner leg and the wall. This will ensure you DON’T cheat with any hip motion!
✅Try to rotate with your hand all the way around and back
-Progression: Keep your hand away from the wall the entire time
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Exercise #2️⃣
✅In half kneeling – Keep both hands behind your head
✅Thoracic spine around the world against wall
✅Rotate all the way around and come back, try to challenge yourself from keeping the elbow away from the wall.
❌AVOID side-bending the opposite direction, this is a compensation.
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What is the difference between this and the open book exercise? This requires more active range of motion!

Hip prep is a series of 6 exercises. I use it with my patients to prime the glutes and lower body in general before getting into more dynamic and plyometric activities. I will make the statement right now: if done RIGHT, it’s an absolute glute killer and I promise you that you will feel your glutes! I like these 6 exercises in particular for a variety of reasons. ✅They challenge the glutes in all 3 planes of motion. ✅They hit all types of muscle contractions:  isometric, concentric, and eccentric ✅They are performed upright in a functional position ✅There is a variety of double leg, single leg, and split stance variations ✅They train proper lower extremity alignment in a variety of hip and trunk flexed/neutral/extended positions
The 6 exercises are: 1️⃣3 way clams: 5 per leg per position 2️⃣Side steps: Alternating steps to the left and right starting with 1 step all the way to 5 steps 3️⃣Monster Walks: 10 steps forward, 10 steps backwards 4️⃣W’s: 10 steps to the left, 10 steps to the right 5️⃣Squats: 10 squats 6️⃣Single leg firehydrants: 30s per side

HOW: Place a band around the end of a barbell that you plan to hold, get the band as close to the collar of the barbell as you can. Holding the barbell in a landmine rig with both hands in front of your chest while standing, perform a strict overhead shoulder press.

FEEL: You should feel your triceps, deltoids, and shoulder blade muscles working. You will also feel your core and lower body working to maintain position.

COMPENSATION: Do not arch your back, do not shrug your shoulders.

HOW: Lift the kettlebell up to your shoulder. Keep the scapula neutral and maintain the forearm vertical to the ground for the entirety of this exercise. Maintain shoulder and elbows flexed to 90 degrees as you walk.

FEEL: The shoulder musculature.

COMPENSATION: Excessive shrugging of the shoulder and rounding of the shoulder blade.

HOW: Follow along with the detailed video tutorial for all movement cues! FEEL: You should feel nice and warm after completing this, ready to tackle the program or workout! COMPENSATION: None.

What you’re viewing is a visual model I stringed together for the preferred visual learner. I have strictly focused on the main nerve structures distal to the knee. We are assuming hip flexion and knee extension here that would be contributing the neural tension.

For DPT students trying to remember how to manipulate the foot and ankle complex, specifically the talocrural joint and subtalar joint – to impose neural tension – can be challenging. So utilizing a visual model that demonstrates how certain nerves can be manipulated from a slackened to a taught position depending on ankle and foot position can be very learner friendly. Enjoy!

3 Levels Of Scapula Strengthening

Here are three levels of shoulder strengthening exercises that are sure to challenge your shoulders! During these movements, really emphasize protraction at the scapula by making sure to get that extra push at the end of your push-up. Closed-chain exercises like these will target the rotator cuff muscles to help stabilize the gleno-humeral joint.
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Level 1A: Push-Up Plus
✅ Closed chain exercises are a great way to improve your scapular control. To perform this exercise simply protract and retract your scapulae.
– Protraction = Pushing your body away from the floor.
– Retraction = Bringing your shoulder blades together.
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Level 1B: Downward Dog Plus
✅ Focus on the upward rotation at the Scapula again.
✅ Avoid shrugging as this comprises scapular elevation which is often a compensation of excessive upper trapezius or levator scapulae activation. Remember, we are targeting the rotator cuff musculature and NOT the upper trap or levator scap with this exercise.
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Level 2: Downward Dog with a Contralateral Knee Tap
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Level 3: Reverse Scapula Walks (one of my favorites!)
✅ Begin in a staggered position with one elbow near the ipsilateral knee. In the video I start with my left elbow next to my left knee.
✅ I then lunge backward initiating with my left leg and right arm. When pushing away with your arm focus on pushing your scapula AWAY from you by drilling into the floor. This will focus on recruitment of the upward rotators of the shoulder blade, which primarily include the serratus anterior and trapezius muscles.
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Note: This is hard to coordinate at first, however will be a staple in your shoulder routine once you get it down. Tag a friend that needs to level up their shoulder strength!
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This exercise (quad set) is paramount to getting re-gaining active control your quadriceps muscles, which is the muscle on the front of your thigh. After an injury (which includes surgery), there is lots of swelling in the knee that accumulates. This swelling leads to a phenomena called arthrogenic inhibition, in which there is an inability to completely contract a muscle despite no injury to the muscle or innervating nerve. To combat this, lots of practice and developing a new “brain-body connection” is required.

HOW: Follow this foolproof guide to wake your quad back up! Laying on the ground or on a table, place a rolled-up towel/shirt under your knee. This will act as a lever which will make it easier to activate your quadriceps muscle. Attempt to lift your heel off the ground by squeezing your quadriceps muscle until your knee is fully straight. return to starting position and repeat

FEEL: Really focus on squeezing your quad. Sometimes touching the muscle, massaging it, or hitting it can help. Think about moving your kneecap up and into your hip socket. Push your knee down into the towel roll. Move your shin bone in the shape of a “J” by moving your knee down and your heel up at the same time. Squeeze both quadriceps at the same time to improve the quality of the quad contraction.

COMPENSATION: Do not lift your entire leg off the towel/shirt, focus on getting your knee fully straight similar to the other side.

HOW: Get a kettlebell set up in one hand and pick up your foot off the ground that is on the same side as the kettlebell. Keeping your shoulder packed while gripping the kettlebell tight, slowly lower the kettlebell down to the ground just inside your foot that is on the ground by hinging at your hip while keeping your back straight. Return to standing position and repeat

 

FEEL: You should feel your hamstrings and glutes working very hard to control the lowering phase and initiating the return to standing phase. You should also feel your core working hard to keep your low back in a good position and not arching or rounding.

 

COMPENSATION: Be sure to keep your back straight by keeping your core tight. Also do not let your pelvis/hips rotate excessively. Think if you were wearing a belt buckle – keep the belt buckle facing forward and not rotating or tilting. Also be sure to focus on keeping your balance and not leaning too much side to side.

Why: Training hip flexion at end range is especially important for sprinters, hikers, jumpers, punters, cyclists, and hurdlers. Here are a few great drills to help improve your end range hip strength & activation.  Start position: Begin in a half kneeling position allowing the kneeled knee to be on top of a foam pad for comfort. With the opposite hand you can stabilize as needed onto a dowel or any stable surface.  The movement: Lift your hip up as high as you feel comfortable into each position without compensating. The body will want to move away from the body.  For example: with hip flexion avoid leaning back/rounding the back, with hip abduction avoid side bending away/hip hiking, and with hip extension avoid leaning forward/arching the back. 

If you really want to challenge yourself go through the entire motion of the hip: Initiate with hip flexion as high as you can -> Abduction -> Extension. Make sure to keep the trunk straight for the entirety of this exercise!

HOW: Grab the barbell with both hands at chest level. First descend into a reverse lunge. The goal of this exercise is to explosively come back to the starting position while pressing the barbell as fast as you can above you. Using only your front leg, drive into the ground as hard and fast as you can. When you are almost near the top, begin the push the barbell overhead with your shoulders. Simultaneously, you will step through with your back leg for support.

 

FEEL: This is meant to be a very taxing and challenging exercise to develop power. You will feel tired!

 

COMPENSATION: Make sure to step all the way through with this variation.

HOW: Follow along with the videos as there are many different variations

FEEL: You should feel your adductors and inner groin stretching as you perform this exercise.

COMPENSATIONS: Keep your weight even the entire time. Do not shift too much weight over.

Neck Pain? [Try Strengthening your neck]
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It has been shown that neck muscle control/strength are linked with individuals with neck pain disorders. This research revealed that patients with neck pain exhibit increased EMG amplitude of the superficial sternocleidomastoid and anterior scalene muscles and reduce activation of the deep cervical muscles- Longus Colli and longus capitis (These are the 2 muscles we want to activate!)
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So how do we do this? A lot of chin tucking!
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Low load program of craniocervical flexion exercise (Aka Chin tucking) focusing on motor control and strength of the depe neck flexors has been shown through clinical trials to reduce Headache’s as well!
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Here are 3 exercises to help improve your neck strength & motor control
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Citation:  Jull GA, Falla DL, Vicenzino B, Hodges PW. The effect of therapeutic exercise on activation of the deep cervical flexor muscles in people with chronic neck pain. Manual Therapy. 2009.