Hey, what’s up, guys, Coach Liddell here at CrossFit mass. I wanted to talk about the band pull apart of two versions. We’re going to do a regular band pull apart, and then a supinated band pulls apart. We program these all the time, just because they’re great for scapular control. And they’re great for working on that sketch, scapular retraction, right? So pinching our shoulder blades together, pulling our shoulder blades back and down.
So what the band pulls apart? We’re going to grab a nice light band. Usually, I recommend starting with this thin orange, they’re going to grab it, so we have the same amount of slack on each end here.
My hands are right out in front, so it’s like I’m throwing two punches. I want to keep my arms completely locked out. So we don’t want any bending of the arms, arms completely locked out, palms facing down, and the top of my hands are facing up, like throwing a punch, it’s going to stay like that for the whole movement. So once I get set up here, I’m going to keep my arm straight, and I’m just going to pull that band straight apart. I want that band to end, right about the mid-chest, right? So if I’m going up too high, and we see it, and at my neck, we’re using too much, too much of our traps, right, and not enough of our scapular control there. So we want to have punches thrown, right? So we’re going to have my palms facing down, arms stay straight, and I’m pulling that band straight apart, ending right at my chest, and then controlling it on the way back in case so from the side, arms or straight, the chest is up, and I’m pulling that band straight apart. One cue that we’ll like to use is to pinch your shoulder blades together. So from the back, if you can see that. I’m just thinking about pinching my shoulder blades together. So if a coach comes up and says, “Here, pinch my hands here.”, you’re focusing on squeezing those gaps together.
Another version we’ll see is a supinated band pulled apart so that it will be the exact opposite. I will have my palms facing up this time, which means the top of my hands is facing down. But again, the arms will stay completely locked out throughout the movement. So I’m going to keep tension on that band. Arms are locked out, and I’m pulling that band straight apart, pinching my shoulder blades together, coming back with control, keeping tension on that band the whole time from the side. The arms are nice and straight from the back. I was pinching those shoulder blades together.
