Do you want to improve your upper body strength?
BE a machine with pullups and pushups?

Maybe you won’t take it as far as this…

But having a goal of being able to a few pullups of your bodyweight is a great goal for most people!

And…it starts with the proper shoulder positioning so that the right muscles are in the right places.

Learning to control your shoulder blades (known as your scapula – you have 2 of them 😉 watch the video)… is a fundamental part of developing strong healthy shoulders.

Any movement or position which transmits force through your arms requires stable shoulder blades.

In the modern world, we tend to have weak upper bodies and most people do not know how to control their scapula.

In this video I introduce some basic concepts and terminology about controlling your scapula. You will learn the first steps in creating shoulder stability and how it pertains to some bodyweight bootcamp exercises.

So to sum up the video, you want to have your shoulder blades retracted (squeezed together) and depressed (lowered), keeping this position during the full range of the exercise. When you lose this position, the scapula are not in the ideal orientation and you put strain on your muscles and joints.

And seriously… this was the best take. There was a blooper reel of these…

Being depressed is ok.

When it pertains to shoulder blade positioning of course…

Thanks,
Josh Saunders, BSC, CSCS, CF-1, PN-1
The Bootcamp Effect