Do This Simple Warm Up Before Every Upper Body Workout

[@marloncrispatzu1509]

Well said,focusing on the back is the only way to save those shoulders!

[@RedDeltaProject]

Hell yea, Wish i knew that back in the day, would have saved myself a ton of trouble.

[@alperenozen7582]

Great tip . I know it works because I have tried it. An additional exercise is that scapula pull ups . Those two really teaches you to feel your back when you work out plus they really stabilize the back in a healthy way. Thank you Matt :)

[@BluBlu111]

It's a good pump for the triceps

[@chriss2046]

Absolutely agree. For example, dips get much more difficult, if you really engage your lower traps and keep your scapular fully depressed throughout the movement.

[@RedDeltaProject]

You'r so right, although, in time it will make them easier as your body adapt to the increased stability. Look for a big rep increase around 4-5 weeks

[@anivalbenavidez3839]

Before any upper body day, I do over and backs with a band with slow movement. But this is something am definitely trying. Great for those who don't even have a band. It's a win win.

[@RedDeltaProject]

Good call Anival!

[@user-yi1sx5ot3v]

Thanks..

[@bingyu3181]

Ingenious move!

[@RedDeltaProject]

Thanks Bailey Doug!

[@marcelloantoniodreier4795]

Did use it today...very similar to the standig version of the gsc tension control movemnt so I had no issue using this drill. Thanks fot the simple idea Matt!

[@morningstar9233]

Will give this a try. Been focusing more on my pre&post workout stretches with good results. Including squats thanks to Matt and a friend taught me some simple yoga stretches. Feel generally more limber, which is very freeing in a way. Thanks!

[@RedDeltaProject]

I know just what you mean, mobility is like physical freedom from a cage you carried around with you all the time

[@DrummerLittleBrother]

Nice tan you got there!

[@robertjoycetraining3126]

Awesome 👏 I bet this would be great before handstands I will try it tomorrow 💪 thanks Matt

[@RedDeltaProject]

Very much so, although be sure to keep your shoulder elevated while doin handstands :)

[@mediel6378]

Thankyou so much for this information

[@RedDeltaProject]

You're more than welcome Médi El and thank you very much for watching :)

[@TheDamianvain17]

I've noticed that my shoulder blades pop when doing hanging scapular shrugs, and the breaststroke when swimming. I've researched the net and seen that it is possibly muscular shrinkage and the muscles are running and popping across the bone. However, this seems weird since I've not lost much muscle from switching from the gym to BW training. Some, yes, but the strength gains and tougher joints and ligaments have been very well worth it. Have you ever heard of this before? I was going to email you today, but oddly enough, this was uploaded before I could.

[@RedDeltaProject]

That can happen, switching from one training method to another is always a risk of change in a negative direction depending how how progressive and skilled you are in the new modality. But it certainly doesn't have to be the case. Lots of people switch to calisthenic and build more muscle, and other's are a mix of the two until they dail in their training. Go ahead and email me and we can figure it out.

[@officialfitness8326]

The back is so underrated

[@RedDeltaProject]

I agree, it really can be a huge influence to all other muscle groups

[@yoshi1951]

Yes , really great. Im already doing this to get a better feeling for the scapula before doing pull ups. The advice to train scapula pullups didnt helped me so much, because i can easaly do 20 of theese, but i still have some problems to hold my shoulders in a perfect position after 5 pull ups or so. Therefore i looked for a better or harder scapula exersice for the upper pull up position and found exactly what you are offering here :-) do you know a harder version? would like to see. thanks

[@RedDeltaProject]

You may not need a harder variation as this sort of tension control should be present in your upper body exercises, so as your main techniques get more advanced this scapular strength should grow stronger in turn. It's more important to use this to get the muscle activation turned on and some general strength, then the real strength for this should come from your primary exercises.

[@yoshi1951]

@@RedDeltaProject ok, thanks. i keep going :-)

[@edge3220]

I forget where I got this from, but someone once said the back should be trained 2:1 to the front, meaning back should be trained twice as much. Whether literal or not, it's not such a bad concept to adopt given the importance of the back muscles. Also, a fun little piece of advice I read somewhere was to give more attention to the muscles you can't see for yourself, meaning any muscle group you need a mirror to completely see.

[@akbarmirza4217]

From alpha destiny

[@OoohAaah6603]

It's true I remember many years ago reading that the best way to gauge symmetry was that you should always be able to do twice as many reps on pull-ups as you can on bench press for the same weight or better still use your body weight as the gauge so if you weigh 75kg and can bench 75 for 5 you should be able to do at least 10 pull-ups take me for example back in the 90s I weighed 83kg but could get over 20 reps with 100kg on bench but only 16 at best in pull-ups body weight only and sure enough suffered years of shoulder problems causing me to give up the gym entirely it's in hindsight now that I've realized what the problem was😟 I don't go to the gym again Yet but I'm back to purely body weight exercises .

[@akbarmirza4217]

@@OoohAaah6603 I can do 65 kg on the bench 3 ish reps but weighted pull ups 30kg for 3 reps. 30kg plus 60kg body weight is 90kg for 3 damn lol so I shouldnt Have too much problems?

[@OoohAaah6603]

@@akbarmirza4217 that's the way to go forward Always make sure your pull-ups are ahead of your bench last year I got 30 reps on pull-ups at a body weight of 67 kg and 6 reps with 50kg added but I haven't benched in 20 years only push ups started again in the last 8 months. Because of problem shoulders .

[@akbarmirza4217]

@@OoohAaah6603 yeah bench ain't too good for the shoulders and prefer overhead pressing, you should try if you can't over head pressing. Then again I'm only 18 and max pull ups I've done is 15 strict so I need to get back on that lol. You seem to be older than me, I respect that you still lifting the iron, I can only hope I'm still a lifter when I grow older.

[@gavinbuckner5659]

You seem to have pretty great posture. I know you have all kinds of tricks. But I know you love a good chest workout. Would be curious to know how you feel about pull to push ratios. Something I’ve never heard you mention

[@RedDeltaProject]

Kind of you to say, my posture still leaves a lot to be desired sometimes. Good question. I keep the two to a pretty much 1:1 ratio but I also agree that ering on the side of a 1:2 or 1:1.5 push/ pull ratio may be better. We could all do with a bit more pulling these days.

[@stephenneil113]

Any tips for strengthening my lower back?

[@Recep007]

Been wanting to know aswell :S

[@piyushdwivedi7195]

Bridges

[@stephenneil113]

@@piyushdwivedi7195 I've been doing them for so long and I really feel no different.

[@stevedanger7219]

The back extension machine have helped me and everyone I've shown them too. Just go slow up, dont hyperextend and do it until it feels like work and do it every 4-5 days. Its 100% made a difference for me.

[@cristiantrifan6285]

@@stephenneil113 reverse hyperextensions and then you could progress to back lever

[@Dj0enderman3000]

what about sculpular push ups? or sculpular pull ups

[@RedDeltaProject]

Same basic idea, scapular control and stability is super important in all upper body movements.

[@toben11875]

You make a great point. Btw...love the farmers tan...haha ;)

[@RedDeltaProject]

I have that tan-line year round, even in the winter. I'm pretty sure it goes right to the bone at this point

[@Cloppa2000]

My Tkd coach has us doing this all the time... I hate it so it must be good!!! :)

[@cristiantrifan6285]

One for lower body ? :D

[@RedDeltaProject]

Check out the warm up exercises I use for my leg workout in this video. They work wonders: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qoqnYaOGd6qBq9k

[@robertbueno2106]

Last night I did push-ups until I was so fatigued I couldn’t even do one then I did push-ups on my knees until I not be able to do one and then I did a hold for as long as I possibly could and the next morning I’m still not sore what am I doing wrong

[@RedDeltaProject]

You're not doing anything wrong, you don't need to be sore to grow. in fact, most effective workout probably won't make you sore at all. The soreness is just a reflection of your body's ability to remove waste product from the muscles in an efficient manner which it adapts to very quickly. As long as your numbers and technique are improving you're on the right track

[@robertbueno2106]

RedDeltaProject thank you man

[@yakir2010]

Great Video Matt, as usual. Question to you, How do you deal with calluses ? I find them very irritating and the worst part is, the pain prevents me from progressing at my pulling chain exercises. Thanks :)

[@didacticpirate9035]

For me it helped changing the grip. Sorry, not a native speaker but if you look at your fingers they are made of 3 parts, which position you can alter. For me, when I didn't thought about calusses, I gripped the bar a way that the biggest finger part, the one closest to the hand was horizontal. This is very intuitive because of the save grip but it also makes you squeeze the parts where you get calusses. So if you grap the bar with just the first two parts of your fingers you don't squeeze your skin anymore and prevent calusses. *kinda needs more grip strength though :) I hope you can understand this or that Matt can describe it better. :)

[@yakir2010]

@@didacticpirate9035 Thing is, I've already tried it before, and it helped me with the calluses, but then I noticed that the weak grip you were talking about lowered my reps, insignificantly though, but still.

[@didacticpirate9035]

@@yakir2010 Yeah it's hard to prevent that. But if you practice hanging hanging then you should adapt quickly and return to your former rep count. :)

[@RedDeltaProject]

I don't have too much trouble with them as mine are pretty smooth, but they make this stuff called Bag Balm that can help keep your hands a bit softer and healthier

[@cristophervescio5824]

Can I use it like activation? To improve tension control

[@RedDeltaProject]

Certainly, It;s a great thing to practice for your tension phase in GSC

[@MAquaJJ]

hi, what's your opinion on animal movements as training method?

[@RedDeltaProject]

Don't really know enough to have much of an opinion on it. It can be a fun and creative way to train though that's for sure.

[@robertbueno2106]

And I want to backfill my pull ups my max on 3 sets were 3 then 2 then 1 so how should I divide it to back fill

[@elduke1111]

You should backfill them with slow negatives until you can do 3 x 3 easily. It will take time, but patience is key.

[@robertbueno2106]

Frank_TM26 thanks frank

[@regprofant6984]

When you get older you seem to automatically slouch. So I really train my back. FOCUS

[@Midtierman]

Jeff says do Face Pulls!

[@RedDeltaProject]

Never got into that move, I guess they can work, but make sure you're pulling your shoulders down as you do them instead of elevating your scaps. Maybe pull downward from a higher pull point

[@folksurvival]

Who's Jeff?

[@Midtierman]

@@folksurvival Jeff from AthleanX

[@dariorox1]

"who's jeff"? are you serious? 😮

[@ollvi]

if you get your upper back stronger, all your lifts goes up

[@RedDeltaProject]

I wonder if that idea can be applied to most any other major muscle group. - Shoulders - Legs - Core - Grip etc

[@raviamin2820]

True

[@raymondfoo9045]

Chinese say backbone is dragon, it is very important. It make sense the back muscle is, too.

[@RedDeltaProject]

I have to agree, the stronger the back the stronger the body.

[@martinskamla6789]

The bench shrug is just irresponsible to tell people to do it internally rotates the shoulders and along with that sink and extension your rotator cuff screams for help not advisable especially as a warm up every training ....flip the palms around get into external rotation and you'll be golden

[@RedDeltaProject]

I like that tip of reversing the palms around, much easier to get that rotation.

[@vaibhavjain3234]

Psst....i just came here to see himm shirtless

[@RedDeltaProject]

SURGEON GENERALS WARNING: Stair too long at Matt's tan lines may induce hallucinations, confusion and temporary blindness.

[@vaibhavjain3234]

@@RedDeltaProject 😁