IOL Strength and Conditioning

Last month at Perform Better Long Beach, I watched as Gray Cook discussed shoulder mobility to a group of 300 fitness professionals while he smoothly swung a pair of one-pound Indian clubs. I have to tell you, I had a stab of jealousy—it looked cool and I wanted to be able to do that. The following week I watched the Club Swinging Essentials DVD he, Brett Jones and Ed Thomas produced a few months ago and decided to spring for a pair of clubs.

In fact, I’ve had a pair of Scott Sonnon’s three-pound mini-clubbells for ages, and had some trouble getting my head around ordering a new pair of one-pounders. Could there really be that much difference, and would they be worth the money as a second pair? Answer: Yes. No question about it—there’s an enormous difference. The threes are simply too heavy for me to practice the slow movements required to gain movement proficiency.

In the past three weeks since these wooden sticks arrived, I went from an FMS shoulder mobility score of two on the left, one on the right to a pair of twos with no other intervention. For the non-screeners, translated to English that means a dodgey right shoulder is now as mobile as the left—I can reach over and back as well with the right arm as I can the left. The elbow circling tip from the DVD was instrumental in that, and I think the underlying success was from increased thoracic mobility as a result of lifting through the elbow in addition to the glenohumeral and scapular mobility. Here’s the thing: Your neck ache’s probably going to disappear when your scapula moves better. And your low back pain might go away if your thorax gets a little more mobile. Guess what? Club swinging is going to make those things happen.

Even some of the crunchy shoulder syndrome is going away. CSS, Crunchy Shoulder Syndrome, that’s a medical term, right? I’ll let you know if the CSS goes away completely. Wouldn’t that be amazing?!

The light club circling trains joint mobility and muscle coordination at the same time, something we sometimes miss in our mobility programs, and always miss in our stretching. I’ve also been using some momentum swings that sort of force a range of motion, similar to Gary Gray’s stick pushing techniques.

Sounds silly, when talking about using one-pound clubs, but I can feel my neck tensing when I move past my skill level. That’s my cue to stop, restart at the slowest possible pace—absolute minimal speed—and LEARN. From the Amazing Brain Department: The right side teaches the left. Try this—test your uncoordinated side a few turns, then move to the more coordinated side for practice. Once you get a little smoother on that side, retest the original arm. Betcha anything it’s better right out of the gate, no practice necessary.

Plan on springing for the Club Swinging Essentials DVD if you order the clubs. There’s a technique to learning these that you won’t get on your own. Before watching the DVD, I played around with the clubs and aside from a little curiosity, got none of the results I’m seeing now. Three weeks in, it’s time to watch the DVD again to see how much I got right… and what points I missed.

Here are the links you’ll need to make those purchases: Indian clubs link (get the 1-pounders, don’t let yourself be tempted into the twos yet — it’s not a weights thing); Club Swinging Essentials DVD link.