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This is Brent of the Brookbush
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Institute. In this video we're doing our
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variation of a very common exercise,
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which is activation for the external
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rotators of the shoulder which have a
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propensity to become underactive in
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those with shoulder or upper body
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dysfunction. I'm going to have my friend,
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Brian, come out. He's going to help me
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demonstrate. Now, the common exercise we
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like to use, because it's bilateral, it
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doesn't take a lot of equipment, and it
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just happens to be very convenient is
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chest out, thumbs out. So, if Brian
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takes this band here and he just
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does one of these things, you guys can
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kind of see that's bilateral
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external rotation. Now on top of this, we
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just have to figure out how we
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optimize this. At the Brookbush
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Institute, the first thing we think about
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when we do our activation exercises is
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what are our overactive synergists? So,
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anytime we have an inhibited group of
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muscles, in this case, the external
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rotators being the infraspinatus and
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teres minor, we have muscles that are
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going to try to take over that job. In
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the case of the external rotators, the
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supraspinatus and posterior delt start
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trying to do the job of the
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infraspinatus and teres minor. We have
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to start thinking, how do I reciprocally
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inhibit my overactive synergists? Well,
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the supraspinatus is easy. My
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supraspinatus is an abductor. So what am
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I going to do to reciprocally
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inhibit? Adduct a little bit. I'm just
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going to squeeze the elbows into the
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ribcage. As far as my posterior delt, my
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posterior delt does extension. So to
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reciprocally inhibit, I'm going to do a
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little bit of flexion. So if he, rather
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than gets back here, hugging back on the
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side of his rib cage, goes to the front
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of his rib cage and just hugs the front,
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kind of like where this little angle
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is right here, or the little corner of
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your ribs stick out. If he keeps his
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elbows touching there, we should be good
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for reciprocally inhibiting his supraspinatus and posterior delt. And I think what
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Brian's about to find out is as soon as
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he goes back to try to externally rotate,
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this isn't going to feel as easy as it
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did the first time you did it. So, go
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ahead and give that a
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shot. Deep breath. A little harder? Yeah.
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Yeah, you guys will find that people
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can do all sorts of weight when they
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bring their arms back, because
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they're using those big posterior delts
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to try to get a lot of force in
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external rotation, and then all of a
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sudden you reciprocally inhibit those
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overactive synergists, and they don't
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have nearly as much strength as they
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used to. And, generally speaking, they'll
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start feeling it where they're supposed
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to. Remember, your infraspinatus and teres
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minor are kind of on the back of your
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scapula here. I can actually feel,
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palpating is infraspinatus, I can
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feel it just go "szoof" puff up.
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Yeah, it does. It actually makes that
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sound. He's going to have jacked infraspinatus.
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You think you can get 12 to 20
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repetitions? That was at least 10 right there.
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That was 10? Good, because I want you a
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little slower on the tempo. So, remember,
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guys, your tempo for these activation
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exercises are either 4-2-2, being a 4
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second eccentric. Or, if you
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wanted to concentrate on range of motion,
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you can go 2, 4 second hold, 2, 3, 4
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and then a 2 second eccentric. Now,
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we're going to even take this up another
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notch, because this dysfunction of the
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shoulder and the upper body is often
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very related to cervical dysfunction as
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well. We have a couple muscles of
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the scapula, being our upper trap and our
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levator scapulae that connect our
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cervical spine and our upper body
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dysfunction real quick. I'm going to go
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ahead and place Brian up against this
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wall here. And now on top of all of the
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stuff that we just did- his
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shoulders being a little bit into
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flexion, keeping his scapula down and back,
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good, and he's hugging his rib cage, I can now
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have him head back, chin tucked, putting his
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external occipital protuberance back
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against this pad, helping to stimulate his
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deep cervical flexors while I have him
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Oh, man, we're getting good
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bang for our buck on this exercise now.
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We've reciprocally inhibited our
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overactive synergists, we're activating
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our external rotators, which we wanted to,
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and we're even getting a little bit of
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deep cervical flexor activation, keeping
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his head back against that wall.
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Is it getting hard? You've only
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done about 25 reps so far. Guys, generally
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we'd only do 12 to 20 reps. Now, the last
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thing Brian is going to show you is
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we're going to do this one arm at a time.
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Occasionally, you do have somebody who
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has unilateral dysfunction, right, they're
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only dysfunctional on one side. It is
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important that if you have dysfunction
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on one side that you correct dysfunction
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on that side alone. Something I find
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myself repeating often lately is you
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can't fix asymmetrical dysfunction with
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a symmetrical intervention. So, if he only
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had dysfunction on his right side, and I
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only want him to do right-sided external
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rotator activation, all I'm going to do
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is wrap my band around some solid
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object and follow all those same cues. This
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one is where the towel comes in handy.
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Some of you guys have probably seen
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external rotator activation where they
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put a towel under here. Why he has that
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towel is if I have him adduct and
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just hold the towel- you don't have to
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squeeze the towel- just hold the
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towel on the front of his rib cage, it'll
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help keep his shoulder girdle where
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it's supposed to be. It'll help me keep
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reciprocally inhibiting those overactive
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synergists, once again, being his supraspinatus
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and posterior delt.
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For some reason, the chest out, thumbs out
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tends to keep us where we're supposed to
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be, and then we go to one arm and it's a
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little easy to get flailing around. How
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does that feel? Good. Good, like terrible.
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Yes, like it hurts so good. You guys know
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the feeling. Now, with all exercises, one
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thing I want to remind you guys of is
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this isn't the end. Although this is
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convenient, that chest out, thumbs out
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exercise, especially against the wall
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makes a wonderful warm-up, you can do it
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with a huge group of people in a
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classroom setting or a team setting, you
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do have to progress exercise. There is
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going to be a point in time when this
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exercise is going to be too easy for
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Brian. We need more than just up the
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weight of the band, up the weight of the
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band, up the weight of the band. Remember,
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the goal with activation exercises isn't
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hypertrophy. I'm not trying to get him
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the most jacked infraspinatus that
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anybody's ever seen. That actually sounds
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a little ridiculous just saying it.
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There is another video after this
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called External Rotator Activation
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Progressions where we show several
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progressions to this exercise. You need
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to check it out. Start here. Let me know
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what your outcomes are. As I've said in
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all the videos up to this point, if I
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have Brian doing this, it's because I
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found something that was indicative of
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external rotator inhibition in his
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assessment, whether that's arms fall on
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the overhead squat or a lack of external
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rotator flexibility. So, if I did my
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goniometry, maybe he lacks a
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little bit of external rotation. Or,
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if I was going to directly test this, an
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external rotator manual muscle test. Do
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your assessments. Do your intervention.
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Reassess. Let me know what your outcomes
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are. If you have any questions, please
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feel free to leave them at the bottom of
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this video.