I love working with martial artists and combat sports folk
I trained martial arts for years so I really get what it takes to succeed as a martial artist.
The rise of BJJ has been very good for my business over the years.
It's a fantastic art with many great folk practising.
And one of the key points that makes it so great is its accessibility.
As a ground based grappling art, it can be trained hard relatively safely.
There's not the repeated impact from Judo throws or Boxing strikes.
No wonder it's taken off as it has.
With its popularity, those on my side of the equation have started noticing trends and gaps in BJJ preparation.
In every sport there are elements that strengthen and others that suffer.
In my youth as a karate/cycling/running man, I wound up with the weakest and tightest hamstrings going.
Discovering kettlebells and kettlebell swings rectified that for me.
My hamstring issues were a form of training scar.
A hole in the training that needs to be addressed with supplemental training.
Supplemental training is what we call Strength and Conditioning or S&C to the cool kids.
S&C differs in context from fitness training in that many doing fitness just do fitness. S&C is supplemental to sports.
Whooo, glad I got that off my chest!
Back when I wrote “Fighting Back” my eBook aimed at helping BJJ players overcome the common training scar of low back pain.
But there's another glaring scar we need to address, vital to BJJ, the other martial arts and if I'm honest, general fitness.
And that is Scapula Control
The Scapula is the shoulder blade.
With 19 muscles attached to the Scapula, some running from the Pelvis, some the skull, some the spine and obviously the arm as well.
Let's just say, the Scapula is a big deal for upper body strength and mobility as more specifically keeping the shoulders as injury free as possible.
Much of the best info on Scapula training comes out of the gymnastics world, which if you watched any of the gymnastics in the Olympics last week and marvelled at both their physique as well as power and strength, this may not come as a surprise.
A big part of a gymnastic prepping their shoulders is what they term “straight arm strength “
These are lifts and loading patterns done without bending the elbow.
So Scapula push ups, Scapula pull ups, corkscrew rows (all in my online exercise library)
I also include Turkish Get Ups and Windmills in this category.
As the elbow remains straight, the loading is better passed into the scap and those 19 muscles that connect to it.
The other key point is movement.
Feeling the scap move.
The simplest way to help a person feel their scaps move is simply to place a hand on it or tap it as they do a movement. This helps bring awareness to a region of the body so many folk have completely lost touch with.
The next thing is to reach and screw.
Get your mind out of the gutter, I mean reaching the arm out in various directions. Stand in the middle of your room and try to touch objects all around you, ideally these objects are just out of reach so you have to really stretch.
There's no rule here, reach in literally every direction and let your body follow in whatever way it sees fit.
Sorry, there's one rule, no stepping, at least not yet.
Screwing is the same, but as you reach rotate the hand either clockwise or anticlockwise (thumb goes up first or down first)
This takes the reach and ramps it up a lot.
Don't be surprised if you feel things clicking and popping or some odd stretches in unexpected places.
Add in inhales or exhales to match the movement of the rib cage as you reach (inhale if the ribs open, exhale if it closes)
And you now have a very simple solution to healthy shoulders that will tolerate a huge amount of abuse.
Once you discover your Scapula and begin to enjoy it's movement, you'll look for it in your other lifts (presses and rows in particular)
Have fun with this, reaching is simple and relatively easy.
So play with it.
And let me know what you discover
Feel free to hit reply and send in your questions for future newsletters
And share this with anyone who has shoulders tighter than a Scotsman's wallet
Regards
Dave Hedges
Comments