many people suffer from poor scapular muscle activation and mobility in this
video you're going to learn a common mistake people make when working the
scapular muscles and a simple drill to get all of your scapular muscles fired
up and working through their full range of motion
yo what's up Coach E here from
Precision Movement and today I've got an awesome drill to get all of your
scapular muscles fired up activated and working through their full range of
motion but before we get to that I just want to know do you have any specific
issues with your scapula or scapular muscles and if you do just leave a
comment down below and let me know what it is and I'll look through that and see
if there's some topics that I should do a future video on ok so leave your
comment down below now let's get into the drill the drill that I got for you
today is called 3-ways scap circles and you may have seen scap circles
before or taught scap circles before but often they're taught in a very lazy way it's
basically just move your scapula around move your shoulders around in circles
and there's your scab circle there's some subtle technical cues that are
super important that when you do them will activate the muscles properly fully
activate all of the scapular muscles and get you working through the full range
of scapular movement okay so those two cues are keep the elbows locked out so
get some tricep activation there and before you even do the second point I
want you to try that so lock the elbows out make sure they don't bend at all and
just work yourself through the full range of scapular motion and what you'll
notice is there's some areas where you feel like you've never been before
especially in elevation and protraction okay so that's super important lock out
the elbows throughout and even overemphasize that a little bit okay
that'll make sure that you're isolating the scapula and getting those scapular
muscles if the other queue is to make sure that
the spine is staying in neutral so especially when you're going into
protraction the tendency is to go to forward head flexion of the thoracic and
even lumbar spine like that if you find you're doing that then when you go into
protraction think of actively pulling your chin in tucking your chin giving
yourself a double chin so elevate protract tuck that chin in
get long through the spine and that's gonna isolate or stabilize the spine and
isolate the movement to you the scapula okay so those are the two important
technical cues to remember when you're doing the movement throughout the
movement to do the movement what you've got a picture is make sure your picture
a circle and when you're working in that circle you're trying to dig the circle
out so that you're stuck in the middle of the circle and you're trying to dig
yourself out and the circles getting bigger and bigger in each direction
whenever you're moving there's two force vectors one is the isometric force
vector so when I'm in retraction I'm still trying to retract even though I'm
at the end range of motion I'm not going anywhere but I'm still activating those
muscles and then there's the movement vector which is elevation so I'm trying
to retract not going anymore there's no more retraction but I'm
elevating now I'm at full elevation I protract and I keep trying to elevate
even though I'm not going anywhere as I'm moving in a protraction
now depression protract and protracting as the scapula is moving into depression
and then once I'm at max depression I keep trying to depress the scapula as I
retract so there's always two movements there's the isometric force and then
there's the dynamic movement force vector remember that as you're going
through that circular always trying to expand that circle from the inside out
okay so the drill we've gone through it already basically but it's
in each direction you're gonna go through the full range
scap circles going nice and slow really experiencing that range of motion
especially the ranges where you're uncomfortable and unfamiliar with and
you do three reps three circles in one direction that was too but let's say
it's three and then three circles in the other direction keeping the elbows
locked out and the spine tall and in neutral
you might hear some crunching and clunking that's totally okay as long as
there's no acute pain no radiating pain no tingling no sharp pain okay so that's
your standard scap circle just standing open chain movement that's what you want
to focus and work on until you feel like you've got the full range or working
through the full range and you're able to isolate the scapula keep the elbows
locked out keep the spine in neutral once you've done that let's add the
other two ways to make this 3-way the first way is the hinge so you're
gonna hinge like a deadlift or a stiff leg deadlift keeping the spine neutral
and just letting the arms hang here because the arms are dropped and I'm
fighting gravity here it's going to put more of the focus on the retractors
so the rhomboids middle traps lower traps those muscles so here the same
thing retract now I elevate and I'm still keen to try to retract and then I
elevate and protract and then hasn't protracted I depress and you'll find it
feels a little bit different because of now gravity is acting on the scapula in
a different way so again three circles in one direction three circles in the
other direction keeping spine in neutral and elbows
locked out after that go down to the floor and you
could start off in the four-point position
it's a four-point year now I'm pushing my body away from the floor we're
focusing more on the protractors so you're targeting the serratus
anterior and the pecs a little bit more then same thing elbows locked out
retract elevate protract depress retract full range pull yourself right through
elevate protract depress and then switch directions you can think of two force
vectors being expanding that circle digging it out keeping the elbows locked
and the spine in neutral so there you have three waist gap circles really
simple drill but applying those technical cues makes it difficult as
you'll see once you try this drill I like to use it as part of a warm-up and
even when I'm just sitting there in line waiting for the teller to check out
everybody in front of me in the grocery store it's something that you can do and
you don't look too crazy you look a little bit crazy especially when you get
up in here but that's fine crazy is good different is good okay so it's something
that you could do all the time different positions activate those muscles but
definitely use it in your warm up because the scapula is the key to
shoulder stability if your scapular muscles aren't activated aren't working
properly then your shoulders aren't going to be stable and you're gonna run
into shoulder issues like I mentioned before impingement rotator cuff
tendonitis and nasty things like that okay so make sure you do that three reps
in each direction so forward backwards in all three positions do one set of
that and your scapular muscles are going to be fully activated
and ready for you before your workout okay so hopefully that is a drill that
if you've seen it before you've got you see it within a new way and it feels new
and different and more beneficial for you if you've never done it start doing
it like I showed you here and you're gonna really benefit okay
and I have a program that is really all focused on the scapula getting it moving
properly and building up its strength so that it provides your shoulder with the
stability it needs to lift heavy weights overhead throw things superfast punch
people really hard whatever it is you do with your shoulders the scap strength
program will help support you and your goals there so you can check that out at
the link at the end of this video and in the description down below otherwise
thanks for watching and tuning in and I'll see you next time peace