I have recently been doing a lot of work looking at rebuilding and strengthening my shoulder girdle.  It seems that people everywhere are dealing with shoulders that aren’t moving properly.  The answer has been twofold.  First of all the Turkish Get-Up done with a barbell.  The ultimate in tools for rebuilding that shoulder girdle.  It of course deserves a whole post of its own… hopefully one where I can showcase putting up my body weight.  So until I have that nailed down I am going to hold off on showcasing my TGU.

The second item has been to play with the good old fashioned push-up again.  An item which seems to have fallen out of vogue, but I continue to believe is one of the few exercises a person needs for building phenomenal upper body strength.  Given some people have recently been asking about some of the basic variations I like to make use of I have thrown this quick clip together.

Now as to how well this program in redeveloping shoulders has been going. Well it seems that I am finally able to start getting back into doing some movements that have been painful to do for a number of years now. Is this a great tool for developing active shoulder flexibility and strength: no. However it is a pretty good way to gauge just how healthy my shoulders are once again becoming. I would simply suggest that everyone add one or two days with some heavy TGUs and some push-ups into their daily training. It of course goes without saying that the standard ball work and soft tissue work should not be neglected.