DE Squat 7/14/03

[Pam]

DE Squat / assistance

Warm-up:
Treadmill 10 minutes/Stretching

Tricep Pushdown (mini) 1x25xmini

Swissball crunch (db behind head) 3x25x30

Box Squats (15.5" Box, MB, 47%) 1x10xBW 1x8x45 1x6x70 8x2x100 (both knee and groin felt good; need to get off my butt and order those briefs)

Straight Leg DL's 1x15x45 1x15x65 2x15x85 (first time with these for a long time because of my shoulder. I went light and everything went good)

Leg Ext 2x20x50 2x15x75

Donkey Calf Raises 2x20x210 (lost my partner before I got to my last set)

Tricep Pushdowns(mini's) 2x25xmini

My shoulder is tight today but not too bad. Not sure if its DOMS or pain or a little of both. I'm thinking
a little of both. I am going to slow things down a bit more.

Well thats it, it was a speed day, not much to say about those.

[jack]

Each journey begins with the first step and it looks like you've put the right foot forward in your comeback. Keep it light for a while and you'll be rewarded in the end. How did the mini's work on the box squats. That was a good idea Chris had on that one.

Does your partner sit on your back when you do the donkey calf raises ? I'd like to see that if that's the case .

[Pam]

Yep, the kids just jump on my back. I was going from one exercise to the next without resting so by the time I got back to the last set Ryan had gone out to play. I was going to call the other two down but they were in the middle of cleaning so I didnt want to disturb them.

The mini's worked good. There obviously wasnt a lot of resistance there but I just cant do the purple bands yet. I'll tighten them up a bit next week.

[MrF]

Pam,

A few years ago I blew my shoulder doing handstand pushups. Even when it should have been healed, it still felt like I had adhesions.

It was after that time that I began to swing clubs.

The large circular motions opened my shoulders up.

For this I use the plastic juggling clubs that you can get at the mall. There is a book available which gives various routines.

It's fun. It's easy. The equipment is inexpensive. It worked for me.

Pax,

mrF

ps Weighted Indian Club routines are coming back. There's some guy who is trying to sell them as "clubbells" with "circular strength training" but it's old wine in new bottles.

[Pam]

When you say "swing clubs" do you mean juggle? I do something called Windmills in which I lay on my back on my high bench, hold a 2 lb db and rotate my arm in a circle. Is this similar to what you are talking about?

[mrF]

No, Pam, I can not get the same effect with even light weights. I used to do windmills, but I had a clicking in the shoulder joint that the windmills seemed to aggravate. The clicking is pretty much gone if I do my club work for about 5 minutes a day while the oatmeal is cooking.

This exercise consists of a flowing motion with great ROM and articulation of the wrist, elbow, and shoulder, sometimes in isolation, sometimes in unison. The inertia of the bat carries and extends the circular motions without strain.

I have done this with wiffle bats or other short plastic bats. I am assuming that with kids you've got wiffle bats. I can do the exercise with short metal or wood bats too, but for now, let's stick with the plastic bats. The knob on the end of the bat is needed for one of the grips. Could be done with a cheerleader's baton, too.

Let me know if you have a wiffle or other short plastic bat. One will give you an idea. Two are needed. I'll be looking for something around the house that may fit the bill in the meantime.

Then I can send you the description.

The exercise is also very good for opening up the muscles of the neck, upper back and chest. Come to think about it, everything north of the xyphoid process gets pretty loose.

Again, this is a very different exercise from the weighted indian clubs, which I also have, and which are also wonderful. This exercise keeps me limber after I have done any heavy (for me) weight training.

And it's FUN.

Pax,

mrF

[Pam]

Yep, I have bats, short, long, metal, plastic, wiffle. You name it I've got it. I also have some plastic blowling pins.

[mrF]

Pam:

I will put together some instructions but I need to think about them.

My niece is a technical writer. She gave me an exercise once. Try to write a description of a screw and screwdriver with detailed instructions for use that can be understood by any reader. No pictures allowed.

This will be interesting.

mrF

[Pam]

I am terrible at trying to explain exercises in written form. I need to be able to say "You go like this..." Writing detailed instructions about the screw and screw driver would be tough, but I would be happy to draw it out for you.

[mrF]

Pam:

Let's do this piece by piece.

There are wrist and elbow moves that make the simple, big, arm movement more elaborate and interesting. Those combinations of big and small moves are what permit creativity and make the exercise fun.

But let's start with the simple, big, moves.

Hold your arms straight up with the bat or club pointing up.

Let your arms swing simultaneously in the same direction and in the same plane, either left or right ( but not front to back or back to front, that's another move. )

This creates two large circles both either clockwise or counterclockwise. First do one direction, and then the other.

This move can then be done in opposite directions i.e. one arm clockwise and the other counterclockwise. The arms can cross in front of the body, or be timed so that they alternate in front of the body.

Try this and let me know if you get it.

Next move is to take the circles from the plane in the front of the body to the plane at the sides of the body. Again you can use a simultanious move, like a butterfly stroke, or an alternating move like a crawl. It is good to permit the torso to twist as the crawl motion is made either backstroke or frontstroke. The crawl motions are less testing on the shoulder than the butterfly motions. DON'T FORCE DISLOCATES. Use crawl moves with torso twist for a while before trying the butterfly moves.

Go slow and gentle until the shoulders are warmed up. Then you can increase the range of motion and speed.

Now let's try a wrinkle.

Take your bat in your dominant hand with a natural grip. Begin to make figure 8s in front of your body. If in your right hand, the circle in front of your body is clockwise, and the circle out to the side is counterclockwise.

The object is to take the figure 8 and make one circle in front of the body and the other behind. In order to do this, the palm of the right hand has to turn counterclockwise, ie the thumb is next to the hip as the hand goes from front to behind.

So you grip the bat as if you are shaking hands. As you move the bat across the body, the palm turns toward the body. As the bat sweeps through the circle and begins down along the side, the palm turns and faces the side. Then the hand continues to turn, thumb toward the body. As the bat starts to circle behind the body, the palm turns toward the back.

The grip changes as the bat goes behind the body. It becomes a pinch grip which permits the knob to spin, so to speak, in the hand and thus permits the bat to make the circle behind the body.

If you go slow, starting with the 8s in front of the body and gradually try to move the counterclockwise circle to the back, I think you will discover that the wrist turn and grip change becomes natural. Let the knob "spin" in your hand.

These small figure 8s eventually will be integrated into the big circles at just about any point.

For example, if you are doing a big clockwise circle with your right arm, when you get to the top, you can put in a small counterclockwise circle behind your head before sweeping the bat down and finishing with a small circles either back or front or both, at the bottom.

Let me end or now with what you should do first: the warm up.

I stand with elbows locked at my side, forearms parallel to ground.

Spin the bats using only the wrists. first one direction, then the other, first in sync, then out of sync.

Next, originate the moves at the elbows.

Next, take the moves to the shoulders.

Next take the shoulder move from the front plane to the side plane.

Next integrate the small circles with the big circles.

DO NOT FORCE SHOULDER DISLOCATES. The range of motion increases without pushing in a very short time.

Let me know if this makes any sense. There is so much more I can try to give you, and there are a couple of available books. Club Swinging by Ben Richter for example.

In the early stages I got (and hope you will get) a nice "burn" in the shoulders without distress. At first there were what felt like adhesions and clicks.Later the burn went, the adhesions went, the clicks went, and there is now just the easy flow through the full range of motion.

I believe that these moves have done my shoulders a world of good.

Pax.

mrF

[Pam]

Thanks for taking time to type all that out fish. I'll print it off and let you know if I have any questions.

Thanks, Pam