Welcome to the third week of #BuildingBlocks powered by BridgeAthletic.
This week we will be working through the Body Weight Pullup Progression created by Nick Folker. The pullup is one of the cornerstones of any strength program. It is very important that an athlete can pull their own body weight. There is no doubt the pullup is difficult, but its difficulty should be no reason for athletes to give up on learning good form. Our pullup progressions is intended to help your athletes conquer the challenge of the pullup.
Exercise Introduction:
Today we are introducing the Band-Bent Over Neck Pull. This is a good starting point in the body weight pullup progression as it negates the effect of gravity.
The focus points with this movement are in scapula mobility and stability, and thoracic extension. In this position the athlete is able to emphasize scapula depression, which is tough to achieve in a regular pullup when just starting out. Work on a slight pause and squeeze at the bottom of the movement, bringing your elbows close to your side, then return slowly to the start position overhead, pause and repeat.
Keep a slight bend in your knees, hinge at the hips, back with a slight natural curvature of the spine and elongate your neck while looking down at the floor.
Exercise 1: Band-Bent Over Neck Pull
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Be sure to check back tomorrow for more Building Blocks!
About BridgeAthletic
BridgeAthletic works with elite professional, collegiate, and club swimming programs to provide a turnkey solution for dryland training. Led by Nick Folker, the top swimming strength and conditioning coach in the world, our team builds stroke-specific, custom-optimized dryland programs for each of our clients. The individualized workouts are delivered directly to athletes via our state of the art technology platform and mobile applications. Check Nick and BridgeAthletic out as recently featured in SwimSwam.
About Nick Folker
Nick Folker is the Co-Founder and Director of Elite Performance at BridgeAthletic. Nick’s athletes have won 22 Olympic Medals, 7 team NCAA Championships and over 170 individual and relay NCAA championships. Megan Fischer-Colbrie works as the Sports Science Editor at BridgeAthletic. Megan was a four-year varsity swimmer at Stanford, where she recently graduated with a degree in Human Biology.
The Championship Series by BridgeAthletic is designed to empower athletes with tips from the pros that will help them reach peak performance come race day. We will be covering competition-focused topics such as nutrition, recovery, stretching, and mental preparation.
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