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NASM Prone Ball Combo (Trapezius Activation)
The NASM Prone Ball Combo is an exercise designed to help strengthen the trapezius muscles, which extend from the cervical spine up to the shoulders. This exercise combines a deep, focused massage on the trapezius muscles with a series of isometric holds that target the entire muscle group. By performing this exercise, you will gain greater shoulder and neck stability, improved posture, and increased flexibility. This exercise can be modified to meet the needs of any skill level, making it an excellent
Transcript
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This is Brent of the Brookbush Institute,
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...blank
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and in this video we're going over
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something I learned as the NASM prone
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ball combo. Now this is a mash-up of
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exercises we've shown previously as
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trapezius activation namely prone Cobra's,
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prone horizontal abduction with external
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rotation, and prone scaption also known
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as ITY's. I'm going to have my friend
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Melissa come out, she's going to help me
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demonstrate this mashup and very
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difficult progression. She's going to
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start off in prone ball -position pro
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ball Cobra position. So we're going to
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have good kinetic chain alignment
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between her ankles knees and hips. She's
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going to plantarflex for me, extend
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her knees and squeeze her quads, she's
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going to squeeze her glutes, and drive her
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hips into the ball so we're reinforcing
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triple extension. She's also using that
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hip drive to keep her torso up. What I
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don't want to see is cuing torso up and
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ending up in this excessive lumbar
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extension. This is a lot of erector
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spinae activity and this could reinforce
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some of our compensation patterns like
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an anterior pelvic tilt. So I want to go
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ahead and cure to get long this way
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really push off that wall with triple
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extension, drive her hips into the ball and
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that will keep your torso nice and
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aligned. I'm going to have her go ahead
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and grab our dumbbells. All of that is
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just a nice isometric hold while we do
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our target exercise of trapezius
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activation starting with a cobra. Now the
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challenge of this exercise is once we
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get them in a cobra and they're
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depressed, we know they got their lower
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traps working, we're going to try to keep
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them depressed, keep those lower traps
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active as we smoothly transition
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into scaption. You guys can see it's
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very difficult to maintain those scapula
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down, she's going to lower her arms just as
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she did and then back into a Cobra. Good,
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hold down and back, there we go, up up up up
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up, stay, keep those scapula depressed,
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pinch, good, real good. Notice she's doing
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a good job too of keeping in external
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rotation, so her thumbs always stay facing
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the ceiling, always stay facing the
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ceiling, and you see all that was
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actually a pretty good rep. I thought she
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was going to lose it there.. I thought she
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was going to fall into some scapular
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elevation. Go ahead and keep going. You
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guys will find that trying to get 12
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perfect reps nice and slow without any
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excessive elevation or anterior
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tipping of the scapula is very difficult.
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Not to mention this ends up being a
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pretty good core exercise for the glutes,
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and drawing in and back down, just seven
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more, okay. So we're going to go ahead and
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let her have a break. I have seen this
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taught in the reverse order so from scaption
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to Cobra, we can try that. The reason
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I tend not to use this progression as
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much, is I find it's a lot trickier to
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get somebody to go into scaption
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without excessive elevation and then
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stay down, as opposed to if I have
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somebody, let's go ahead and start in
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Cobra this time, I have somebody start in
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Cobra they're already depressed in their
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scapula and then they're just trying to
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maintain it, and most of this is a really
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good job from there but let's go ahead
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and try the scaption one again. So you're
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going to start up and you can see she
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like wants to, she wants to elevate so
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we're reinforcing that pattern, and then
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maybe I can cue her out of it, but I'd
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rather start good and end good, than
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start bad and have to queue out of bad
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to get to good. Either way guys I think
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you'll find the 12 to 20 reps at a nice
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slow tempo is serious, notice that
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Melissa's is only using three pound
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dumbbells and Melissa is strong,
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she's really really strong. This is one
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of those exercises where you pull out
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the small dumbbells and people go
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what are you going to do with those?
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Like, like
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go get the 20's, because they know if the
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small dumbbells come out there's
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something really difficult in their
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future. I think you'll find that even
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just using bodyweight on this exercise,
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Why don't you try a couple without the dumbbells,
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even just using bodyweight is very
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challenging. It's very challenging to get
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people to work on depression and upward
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rotation, without upward rotation and
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excessive elevation. This is a great
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thing to use in group classes. It's a
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great thing to use in small group
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training right, you're looking for
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exercises that don't take a lot of
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equipment. You could do something like
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this to get the shoulder girdle warmed up
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as part of your movement prep, before
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doing some more complicated exercises
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for the upper body. I hope you guys enjoy
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this exercise. I hope you guys enjoy this
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progression. I look forward to seeing
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some videos, maybe of somebody who could
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pull off 20 slow controlled reps with
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the five pound dumbbells. I think you
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guys are going to find that even your
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biggest guys have a hard time with that
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one. I'll talk with you guys soon.
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