Last week we restarted our Monday Mobility series with a great Thoracic Mobility drill ( <– that was a link to it in case you didn’t spot it)
Lets stay on a theme, the upper back, shoulder and chest. Ie, the thoracic region.
If there was a single catch all for the entire thoracic region, I’d have to say the Indian Club is it.
Last weeks drill showed you how to extend the spine, which open the ribs and allows the scapula to move more freely. Swinging the Indian Club shows the shoulder blade how to move.
This little video is a few of the swings we use with the club, including some that add in the lower body:
The key is to allow the weight of the club to take you. You follow the club, you allow IT to do the work. You feel it pull on you, extending the limb and opening out the motion.
Meaning your muscles can relax (within reason of course), this relaxation allows the centrifugal pull from the club to place a gentle traction on the joints of the arm and shoulder, load and stretch the muscles in each and every direction within the swing and allow “overactive” to chill out while “underactive” wakes up.
Another way to think of this is, you’ve used last weeks stretch to prep for movement, now we get that movement oiled up and smooth.
This is an old (2012) video tutorial of the absolute basics:
Since then we’ve learned a lot.
The big thing, which I hope you’ll spot watching the first video and comparing it to the second, is that we have discovered the value of the extension, of allowing the club to draw us into a reach.
It’s this reach that is magic. And it’s a major point we labour in our workshops, the next of which is very soon:
If you come to the workshop, we will ensure you leave competent with the clubs, and you’l have your own set of Pahlavandles to continue practicing with.
I’ll see you there.
Regards Dave Hedges