My primary principle in developing strength is first, develop hip and shoulder mobility and progress from there. Most of the people I work with come to me with either hip or shoulder tightness and often, both. Hip tightness will cause back pain and shoulder tightness will prevent you from doing the things you love as you age. Also, training many of the functional exercises that are a part of strongman and kettlebell training can be quite dangerous until these mobility issues have been remedied. This week, we are going to focus on the shoulders, increasing flexibility and developing the delts and traps. A joint is only as strong as it is flexible. We are going to teach strength in different ranges of motion so that it will carry over to other exercises and activities. For today, we have a simple session of mobility and strength using bent over one arm rows and windmills.
Today’s Workout
Fifteen bent rows per hand
Three windmills per hand
Twelve bent rows per hand
Three windmills per hand
Nine bent rows per hand
Three windmills per hand
Six Bent rows per hand
Three windmills per hand
This won’t take too long, go at a slow pace and perform them properly. If my pace in the video is too fast, pause and catch up on your own time. The windmills should be very methodical and require a lot of focus to make sure you get them right. Feel free to add push ups to this workout to take up some more time and hit more muscles. This particular workout isn’t going to use the push up muscles and they will be fresh for some extra calorie burn if you like. I will be back in a couple of days with our second back and shoulders session, so get ready, I will see you then!
Peter Hirsh
