Before I get to the exercise you should be doing, I first wanted to share a “how you like dem apples” moment I had over the weekend.

Like most couples, my girlfriend and I like to take Sunday to slow down, recoup, and re-energize for the upcoming week.  As such, we generally keep things casual and don’t really have a set agenda.  We sleep in a little later than usual, wake up and make a few omelets, throw on some Pandora and chill.  Afterwards we head out to the local BSC (Boston Sports Club) near my apartment to get a lift in.  And, given that Sunday is the one day out of the week we’re able to actually train together, we really look forward to it.

This particular week, my girlfriend was starting a new program and I was just going to you know, bench.  What’s up?  That being the case, we walked into the club and went our separate ways.  At the end, though, I told her that I’d do the metabolic finisher with her, which included:

Med Ball Floor Stomps x 10

Kettlebell Swings x 10

Burpees x  10

The game plan was to do the circuit four times, with our rest interval taking how ever long it took the other person to do their set.

Anyways, as I was getting stuff organized and explaining to Lisa what we were going to do (ie: make people destroy the back of their pants), one of the female BSC trainers literally walked up into my grill, hands on her hips, and started berating me explaining that if I wasn’t an employee of the club, that I couldn’t be there training other people.

After the superb display of customer service, I just casually explained to her that I was in fact training WITH MY GIRLFRIEND who also happens to be an employee of BSC (she teaches spin classes at another location in the city).

PWNED!

For those keeping score

Tony: 1

Random blonde trainer from BSC: epic fail

I get it.   I realize Negative Nancy was just doing her job and following some company policy where if anyone breaks a sweat or is doing anything remotely athletic, she had to come over and lay the law down.  Okay, I’m over it/need a hug.  I just had to vent a little.

Anyways, where was I?  Of yeah………….exercises you should be doing.

What Is It: Band Supine No-Money Drill (off foam roller)

Who Did I Steal it From: this is actually a CP staple, and something we use a lot with our baseball guys, as well, wait….we use this one with everyone.

What Does It Do: Anyone who’s read Shirley Sahrmann’s Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement Impairment Syndromes (and who hasn’t?) knows that she often talks about a condition known as scapular downward rotation syndrome.  Simply put, and I’m obviously watering this down quite a bit, most people are woefully weak in their upward rotators (lower trap, serratus anterior specifically) and dominant in their downward rotators (rhomboids, levator scapulae specifically).  As such, it’s often advantageous to include exercises that target what’s weak- in this case the lower traps.

Moreover, not only is this great for scapular stability, but you also train glenohumeral mobility to boot!   When it comes to “bang for your buck” exercises, this one is right up there.

Key Coaching Cues: Lie on a foam roller perpendicularly and grab a band.  From there, simply abduct your forearms and try to pinch your shoulder blades together (think together AND down.  Don’t “shrug”), holding for a count of 1-2 seconds.  Repeat for 8-10 repetitions for 2-3 sets.  Ideally, I’d use this as part of a rotator cuff circuit, but you could also include this as part of a general warm-up as well.