WODdoc Episode 135 Project365: Brugger Tweak

A couple days ago we introduced a modified Brugger exercise. I have been getting some questions on it so I wanted to address them and give you a tweak to improve yours.

The Crossover Symmetry guys have done a great job at bringing scapular stability awareness into the crossfit world…. big fan of those guys. Here is the problem I run into all the time though, and its not because of Cross Sym, it’s a problem with the athlete.  Athletes who are severely upper trap dominant continue to over-recruit upper upper trap despite the movements being rotator cuff based. For us to get the best bang for our buck we need to learn how to turn off the trap during these rehab exercises.

To turn off the upper trap we need to focus on shoulder depression first. This is hard and sometimes impossible to do with our really trap dominant athletes. Enter the “anti-shrug. By placing a band over your shoulders and situating it so it pulls you into a shoulder shrug position you now have a biomechanical feedback for shoulder depression. True this out… go back to your modified Brugger and this time add the band as shown in the video.

Today’s WODdocket:

Complete 15reps banded as shown in today video and another 15 without the band.  Have a partner hold your traps and yell out every time they feel them tighten up.  Re-due every rep when that your partner call out. Good Luck!