do you want to improve your pull-up strength this one exercise will drastically improve your pull-up
game increasing your rep count and making it possible to work on harder exercises safely
hey guys Daniel Vaughn all here for fitness fa Q's let's talk about the scapula pull scapular
stability and positioning overhead is vital for being able to maintain good technique and is also
directly responsible for how many pull-ups you can do the scat pull will teach your body how
to correctly position your shoulder blades in preparation for overhead pulling movements by
training this movement you will have no issues being able to draw your shoulders down and back
making full use of your lats and mid-back muscles when you're doing your point the technique is
quite simple but I must stress the importance of being strict with your form elbow positioning your
elbows must be kept completely straight this way we can preferentially focus on the action of the
shoulder blades I want you to start in a relaxed hang before each rep to allow the scapula pool
to be completed through a full range of motion having our shoulder blades work through a full
range of motion is exactly what we need to be prepared for you know training I now want you
to pinch your shoulder blades together as hard as possible picture that there's a coin between your
mid-back and I want you to squeeze it as tight as possible this action will heavily stress your mid
traps and rhomboids and these are very important scapular attracters when you feel like you can't
squeeze and you further draw the shoulder blades down towards your hips to fully engage the lats I
want you to pay attention to the speed of the movement I'm working through the entire range
of motion in a controlled manner doing my best to hit full retraction and depression pausing in
the important phases of the exercise for this variation keep the ribcage down and maintain
a hollow body position I prefer this bracing variation as it emphasizes midline stability
I feel that this applies more directly to the pelvis and the ribcage assumed with our general
point training the last cue I find valuable is X no rotation at the shoulder joint I want you to
focus on pulling the bar apart and you should feel your arms spiraled deeper into the shoulder socket
doing this action really lights up the muscles on the back of your shoulder most of you watching my
channel are working towards the elusive one-arm chin up once you've mastered the two arm scapular
pull start working on the assisted one-arm scalpel by doing the exercise slower you make sure that
you teach your body how to activate from start to middle to end if you do this properly you won't
have any weak links when initiating pull-ups if you've had your dues with the scalpel by doing
the exercise slower you make sure that you teach your body how to activate from start to middle to
end to progressively increase the intensity of the assisted scalpel place you're assisting hand law
a variation that I encourage you guys to play around with is the arched scat
pool most people find this variation easier to enter full retraction and
depression because of the arch back my recommendation used both this and the
hollow body scalpel each of these movements have pros and cons with
differing transferability based on your goals so experiment and see which one you like more
when addressing weak links in a connect chain the body will do everything it can to compensate and
make things easier these are some of the common mistakes I see which if done are a waste of time
if the goal is increasing scapular stability arching the back without actually retracting
and depressing the shoulder blades this tends to happen a lot more commonly on the arched scalpel
I'd recommend leading with the shoulders and then allowing the back to naturally arch if
you focus on the arch you'll be tempted to compensate with more arching and forgetting
to focus on the scapular movement this is one of the reasons why the hollow body scalpel is
advantageous because there's less room for cheating don't make the mistake of moving
too quickly when you move fast you're missing out on using your muscles to activate through
the entire range you're skipping important aspects if you do this at results in having
poor control lower rep numbers and frustration with progressing your pull-up goals the last
compensation is bending the elbows because it's an easy substitute for scapular depression this is
the body's way of mimicking the scalpel mechanics without isolating and stressing scapular control
no bending of the elbows not even a little bit so to summarize the scalpel is an absolutely
fantastic drill for improving overhead scapular stability specifically for pulling patterns take
your time each rep really focus on heating and range retraction and depression and my personal
recommendation for the most transferability two common calisthenics skills use a hollow
body core shape cheers for watching everyone drop a thumbs up on this video if you learned
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