Wrist Flexion Raises

Having wrist, elbow, shoulder or neck problems?

 
Especially during activities like:
- front rack position during front squats or (power) cleans
- closed chain pushing movements like push ups, handstand (push ups) or floor work (crawls, crab walks)

Have you ever checked your wrist and fingers mobility & load capacity (strength)?
Wrist/fingerflexibility is changed due to prolonged time of grabbing (boxing, powerlifting) and manipulating objects (construction work, office job, playing with cellphones & tablets). The wrist flexors & extensors will be lengthened or shortened dependent on the daily tasks frequented the most.

The human body is a kinetic chain. Flexibility problems in one joint can create a lot of trouble in the rest of the chain. One of those chains is the following:
fingers-wrist-elbow-shoulder-neck (some problems in one area can be caused somewhere else in the chain: look up and down the chain!!!)

 

Try the following exercise to know the status (strength/mobility) of your finger flexors/wrist 

Execution:
- Shoulders are above the wrist & stay there during the whole movement
- Distance knees-wrist will determine the weight placed upon the fingers
- with locked elbows lift the wrists into the fingers support position (4 knuckles stay on the ground)
- try to get the lower arm perpendicular on to the fingers
- Increase the knuckles-toes distance to make the exercise harder  
- The ascent en descent should be done with strength & control: DO NOT FALL!

Problems in the neck, shoulder, elbow en wrist? Maybe it's time to check your fingers!!!



- Kaizen -

The Front Body Line Drill

Last 6 weeks we've been working on the "Front Body Line Drill" (FBLD)
A hell of an exercise when done properly but so much to gain from it.

Transfers to:
- overhead pressing movement
- handstand

The feature of this exercise lies in knowing how to tense the body while creating an open shoulder (180° anteflexion). Common problems are inflexible shoulders or the inability to create tension at the right places.

Execution:
Lie down grabbing a stick on shoulder width (arms parallell to each other)
Tense the body by applying the following cues:

Tense the midline:
- Posterior Pelvic tilt: squeeze the butt as much that the lower back flattens out
- Bracing the abs: Decrease the distance formed by the lower part of the ribcage & the pelvis

Only when the midline is active & stays active you open the shoulder angle
- Glenohumeral Exorotation: "Try" to turn the thumbs to the ceiling (while grabbing the stick the thumbs won't be able to turn, but the shoulder will)
- Glenohumeral Abduction: pull the hands out of each other
- Scapular Elevation: press the hands away from the body (parallell to the body)

Only when the shoulder is in position you retract the scapulae
- Scapular Retraction: pull the stick to the ceiling  






In Full position your body should be flattened out like a line, hence the name body line drill
When you're going past the line up then they're a few things that should be checked:
- are you arching the back? Check the midline!
- are you taking the stick on shoulder width?
- are you dislocating the shoulder? Don't! push the shoulders away, pull apart and then retract (avoid the dislocation)
Don't get me wrong, I'm not claiming these are faulty movements. They're rather not suitable in the context of creating a body line handstand or an overhead motion without arching the lower back.