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Combat Shoulder Assessment & The Shoulder Battery by Mark Hatmaker

 


FYI—The Old School Shoulder benefits discussed go for both the Combat Athlete looking for strength, power and stamina in full range of motion and the non-athletic man or woman who experiences shoulder pain, neck pain, elbow pain, and even finger numbness while sleeping.

Old School thought even addresses the connection between a healthy shoulder girdle and headaches and good posture—real posture not the ramrod assumption.

Now, on with the show!

Ready for an obvious statement?

Powerful shoulders are vital to the combat athlete and the Life-Warrior who chooses to interact with the planet rather than simply view National Geographic quality photos and allow that to suffice the soul.

Combat, survival, swimming, climbing, skulking in a low crawl while on an ambush, what have you, requires not only strength, but stamina and full use of the fluidity that this ball-and-socket joint can provide in its healthy state.

Now, let’s address less obvious Old School claims for shoulder fitness.

·        Headache relief.

·        Pain/Fatigue free extended sitting or standing.

·        Relief from Tennis/Golfer’s/Lifter’s Elbow.

·        Relief from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

·        Relief from finger tingling and numbness.

·        Improved posture.

·        Improved breathing.

·        Improved circulation via the postural correction.

[We will examine each of these but be advised there is no single aspect of conditioning that covers all bases. The Shoulder Battery will go a long way to strengthen and lead to improvement in the above areas. This will be bolstered with the addition of The Unleaded Neck & Trap Battery and The Warrior Walking Program that ensures you carry the material into movement and not merely limited gym time.

First, let’s do an assessment.

Get in front of your bathroom mirror.

Stand-Up, make no concession to “good posture” simply stand as you normally do.

Turn in profile to the mirror.

·        Do your shoulders round forward towards the chest—even minorly?

·        Pretend to reach forward as if working with a tool or typing—do your shoulders round forward during the “task”?

·        Is there a pronounced curve at the nape of the neck [cervical vertebrae]?

·        Do your arms hang naturally and freely along the exact middle of the side of the ribs?

·        Do they hang a bit in front of this rib mid-line?

·        Look at your hands, do the palms face in with thumbs forward?

·        Or do they hang with a bit of an inward twist exposing some of the back of the hand to the fore?

Now turn and face the mirror, assume “good posture.”

·        Does your chest raise and jut?

Take a deep breath.

·        Do you see and feel that breath as chest expansion?

·        Or do you see and feel it as belly/diaphragmatic expansion?

Look at your feet…

·        Is there an equal weight distribution?

Now stand tall…

·        Are your hips tucked and tight?

·        Is your back swayed [lordosis]?

·        Or is the pelvis anteverted [tilted with top of the anterior pelvis to the fore]?

·        Do you feel the weight more though the fore of the foot?

·        Entire foot surface?

·        Or through the heels?

Last but not least, slowly roll your arms and shoulders in big circles.

·        Do you experience discomfort at any point?

·        Hear a bit of repetitive “crunchiness”?

[A pop or two is normal, crepitation as gases escape the joint capsule, but if the popping/crunchiness is persistent or painful, we are looking at something a little more.]

Old School thought sees the shoulder joint as not merely bulging delts to press heavier and heavier poundage overhead.

They saw it as a vital link between the skull that you carry above it and the arms that flow from the shoulders.

To the Old Schoolers the Hips and the Shoulders were big keys to, well, everything.

Unleaded: The Shoulder Battery will covers 4 Daily Exercises” that you can [and should] do several times a day—whether seated at work or driving, or simply standing doing dishes.

·        “The Water Bearer” [Helps to activate the longus colli, much more about this in the weighted set.]

·        The Roll & Set

·        Expansion

·        The Plumb Bob

These “exercises” are less conditioners than re-setting the system so what we build with the actual gym work persist outside of the gym and leads to 24/7/365 improvement.

There is also a morning 10-second “Rhomboid Reset” that you can do on your bedroom floor to set the shoulder for the entire day.

All of the above are done daily with no rest days as they require no effort, just attention.

We then offer two weighted approaches.

BOTH approaches should be LOW weight, particularly in the beginning as we re-set shoulders and back and re-educate movement.

One need never push for high weight with either program, but hard-chargers may do so AFTER the re-setting apprenticeship.

PROGRAM ONE: The Gotta

·        This is comprised of 4 exercises.

·        Only 4.

·        You will do only 1 of these 4 daily on a revolving basis.

·        There is a core exercise that is done more often with the other 3 working in rotation as follows.

Day One: Core One

Day Two: Auxiliary One

Day Three: Core One

Day Four: Rest

Day Five: Auxiliary Two

Day Six: Core One

Day Seven: Auxiliary Three

Day Eight: Rest

[Repeat the Sequence]

[The exercises will be covered in excruciating Old School detail so when poundage goes higher the shoulder girdle, elbows, back and neck are not wrecked. Trust the Apprenticeship.]

PROGRAM TWO: The Re-Hab/Pre-Hab

·        Consists of 4 additional exercises for those who have had shoulder problems in the past or merely like extra work.

·        Disclosure: I no longer do this program; I find the Daily Re-Sets and The Gotta give me what I need.

·        I leave it to you decide if “more is better.”

We present this program prior to Warrior Walking as it is an upper-body antecedent of what will be required in that program.

To order or for more information follow the link: Unleaded:The Shoulder Battery

BTW: Black Box Subscribing Brotherhood, you need do nothing, you get this Bad Boy at your usual steep discount as April’s pick. Muchas Gracias to you All!

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