So, on Saturday evening I did six minutes of TGU’s with a 53# KB. It was great. I haven’t written about it as yet – perhaps because I thought it was an anomaly – but I actually felt great the next morning. All the muscles in my back and shoulders felt like they had been worked, but they felt loose and fresh, too. I wasn’t sore at all. The quads were a bit sore, but that’s hardly surprising. It was a good, short workout.
Well, last night I did seven minutes of TGU’s with a 53# bell, just upping the duration by one minute. And the same thing happened this morning! I felt great again! So, perhaps I’m starting to see a pattern. We’ll see soon enough.
I’m trying to up my stamina on TGU’s, and plan to keep adding a minute each time I’m doing it…at least for a while.
A few of key points when doing TGU’s:
1) Keep your shoulder “packed.” Don’t let your shoulder start to come out of the socket when you’re pressing that bell overhead. This is very important, as your shoulder is stronger and stabler in its socket than out. If you let your shoulder start to come out as you press overhead – which is very easy and even natural – you risk putting a strain on your shoulder that it’s not designed to bear. If you want to know what I mean by packing your shoulder, raise your hand over your head. If your shoulder comes up by your ear, push it back down. That’s what I mean by keeping your shoulder “packed;” keep it down.
2) For optimal benefit, pause a second or two at each of the separate stops, or stages in the rep. Bell pressed? Freeze. Knee up? Freeze. Sit up to resting on your elbow? Freeze. Up to resting on the hand? Freeze. And so on.
3) Finally, keep a tight core throughout the rep. With that bell overhead, it wants to wobble all over; you’re crazy top-heavy, by design. That’s why it’s a great exercises for the shoulders, but you need to also rely on the core to keep that torso stable and to keep that bell from dropping on your head or torquing your shoulder.
I’m becoming more of a TGU believer, since during both Saturday and last night’s workouts I’ve been dripping sweat after about four minutes’ of work…and because I’ve felt great the next day. Who couldn’t use more workouts like that?!
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