TheNeuroStrengthCoach

Holding onto two dumbbells, pull your elbows up as high as you can keeping the dumbbells towards the ground making 90° angles with your elbows. From there externally rotate your shoulders trying to bring the back of your hands to the walls behind you until you are in a 90° shoulder press position. Press the dumbbells towards the ceiling by straightening out your arms and bringing your biceps to your ears. Then lower and widen the dumbbells back to the 90° elbow position. Next INTERNALLY rotate the shoulders under control to return to the high elbow position. Repeat slowly and under control for the desired repetitions. Trainer Tips: This is a mobility exercise so stay humble and use a light weight. You may use these as a diagnostic tool as well to see if one shoulder is tighter and weaker than the other in certain ranges. Do these under control and build them up slowly over time.

Stand either perfectly straight or with a slight bend in the hips and knees if you are going really heavy. Hold onto two dumbbells with your palms facing you. Using your shoulders and upper back muscles, lift your arms straight out in front of you until the dumbbells are slightly higher than your shoulders. Lower them under control keeping your palms facing your body with the dumbbells parallel to each other. Repeat for repetitions.

Start standing with two dumbbells by your side with your palms facing your body (neutral grip. Using a hip hinge to get some momentum, swing the dumbbells into the front racked position and immediately overhead press them keeping the same neutral grip. Lower them back to the front racked position and then time the lowering of the dumbbells with your hip hinge to catch them with a swing. Utilize that swing to reverse them back to the front racked position and repeat for repetitions.

Use two dumbbells and place them on a slight angle or parallel with eacheother (both are correct) and get into a hip hinge or deadlift position. Extend your back and drive through the legs to get a bit of upward momentum to help row the dumbbells and then squeeze your back muscles as hard as you can trying to bring the shoulder blades together at the top. Lower the weight under control while hinging forward slightly to use your legs almost as springs to absorb the force from the falling dumbbells. Keep this flow going and perform these power rows for the specified reps. Trainer Tips: This is a bentover row with momentum from the hip hinge to allow you to bentover row more weight/reps than you can do strict. These are great for developing power and building muscle as you have an overspeed eccentric component, get a weighted stretch, and get full range of motion in the muscles.

Use two dumbbells and place them on a slight angle making a capital “A” shape and lift them off the ground getting into a hip hinge or deadlift position. Maintain this position and rows the dumbbells squeezing your back muscles and bringing the shoulder blades together at the top. Squeeze for a half of a second or so before lowering them under control until your arms are straight again. Do not break the lower body and spine positioning, keep this variation strict. Perform for the designated reps before lowering the weights back to the ground to rest.

Use a plate, a step, or something flat and stable to create a slight elevation to stand on. Holding dumbbells in your hands, stand on the bumper plate and step back in a reverse lunge until your makes contact with the ground. Feel free to place the plate on a yoga mat or use a knee pad for cushion if need be. If you have a slight forward lean you will target more glutes on the front leg. If you lean back more you will target the hip flexors on the rear leg. Staying upright will work a bit of both. If the 3-4 inch deficit is too difficult, use bodyweight or just a 1 inch deficit.

Position yourself perpendicular to a bench with your hands clasped behind your head and elbows resting on the bench while you rest on your knees. Try to stretch your back by lowering your chest progressively lengthening the triceps as well. Although this is an upper back and lat stretch, you may be limited by your tricep mobility. Hold for the allotted time in your program.

Make sure your audio is on for this video. Elevating your front heel will help with lack of ankle mobility. Elevating the front foot will help with lack of rear hip flexor mobility. If you lack balance or stability you can hold onto something for support. Combine concepts as needed.

Start seated on the ground with your palms behind you and knees bent. Squeeze your glutes and drive your hips up towards the ceiling until you create an reverse tabletop position with your body. Your hands should be directly under your shoulders with your ankles directly under your knees. Your shoulders hips and knees should be in a straight line as well with your abs tight. This will stretch the shoulders and chest and strengthen shoulder extension.

Sit on a bench with one leg on the ground and the other knee bent with the foot on the bench. Use your knee as a resting position for your tricep. Hold a light dumbbell or plate in your hand with a neutral grip and lower the weight under control in front of you with an arm wrestling motion until you reach maximum internal rotation. Reverse this motion bringing the back of your hand outside of the body until you reach maximum external rotation of the shoulder.

Use this flow as a warmup or mobility routine in order to prep the toes, ankles, calves, and knees for lower body movements.

Use a close grip style handle on a cable machine with the cable set to the highest point on the machine. Change the weight on the pulley machine to match the amount of assistance you want to use. Put ab mats down or a yoga mat to protect your kneecaps. Start in a kneeling position with the glutes squeezed, abs tight and keeping your torso straight with your hands on the pulley attachment. Lower yourself under control until you can’t go any further – do NOT bend the hips to go down further. Push off the top of the feet to return back to the upright position. These are very challenging, pressure in the knee, quads, or hip flexors is normal, but it shouldn’t be painful. Take your time with these and build them up slowly over a long period of time until you can eventually go to the floor with no assistance.

Using a TRX strap or gymnastics rings, position yourself so that your body is leaning back at about a 45° angle when the arms are long and all the slack is taken out of the straps. This is a good starting point, but if this is too difficult for you then you want to position yourself more vertically for less intensity. If you want more intensity you will position yourself closer to horizontal (parallel with the ground). With your palms facing downward, pull yourself up bringing your hands to the sides of your head with your elbows wide and high. The straps should be in line with your face (eyes, nose, forehead, etc). Pulling to different parts of your face will work different parts of your upper back as well.

This video will help you understand how to build your pushups the right way with tons of options including no equipment, band assistance, and changing leverages and angles in order to pick the perfect pushup for you.

Get into a pushup position with your hands under your chest and fingers making a diamond shape. IF you need more stability you can widen your legs. Lower yourself under control by bending the elbows until your chest touches your hands or hovers slightly above them. Using the wrists and triceps push yourself away from the floor until your elbows lock out and you return to the high plank position.

Adjust the seat on a Pec Dec/Rear Delt fly combo machine so that when your chest is at the same height as the handles. Sit on the pad with your chest resting on the back pad. With your arms straight, perform a reverse fly where you use the back of your shoulders, triceps, and upper back to squeeze your shoulder blades together and bring the arms behind you until you run out of range. Slowly return the handles back to the starting position and repeat for reps.

Adjust the seat on a Pec Dec/Rear Delt fly combo machine so that when your chest is at the same height as the handles. Sit on the pad with your back rested on the back support. To avoid injury grab one handle at a time and use your other arm to bring it to the center line. Then grab the other handle and bring it to the center to match the other arm. With straight arms abduct or bring out the arms under control until you feel a deep stretch. Use your pecs and inner arms to return the machine arms back to the center. Repeat for reps.

Set up a cable pulley with a straight bar attachment with the pulley lowered all the way to the floor. Start with your arms locked out towards the ground. Curl your hands towards your shoulders until your biceps are maximally flexed. Lower the bar under control until the elbows are lockout out. Repeat for reps.

Lay on a bench with the back pad set at about a 45° incline. Slowly lower the dumbbells towards the floor until your elbows are locked out and there is a stretch on the biceps and the front of the shoulders and pecs. Curl the weights by flexing your biceps trying to bring your pinky and ring finger to the front of your shoulders. This slight supination will help you hit the peak of the bicep. Lower the weights under control safely back to the stretched position and repeat for reps. This is a stretched variation so make sure you focus and take it slow to avoid injury.

Start standing with two dumbbells in front of you with them parallel as if you were holding a barbell. Pull the dumbbells up towards your face with your elbows flared. Lower them under control until your arms return to the starting position. Repeat for reps.

Loop a long band around something upright about shin or knee height. Sit on a hollow bench where you have room to pull your feet under the bench. The bench should be at a far enough distance so that there is tension on the band when it is in its shortest position. Put the both feet through the band and flex your hamstrings to try to bring your heel to your butt. These are done for high reps for hamstring tendon and connective tissue health. Play around with foot positioning and always mix things up. Toes out, toes in, both feet rotated to the right, both feet rotated to the left, feet together, feet apart, single leg, etc.

2 options to build leg drive. Hack lift is great for conventional leg drive. The Jefferson deadlift will build core, hips, and leg drive as well and expose unilateral imbalances.