APH-2025-030

Energy System: Mobility

Difficulty: Cultivation

Intention:

Today’s shoulder session adds a bit of pulling to compliment the pushing. Rightly so, Michael points out that in BJJ we’re typically doing a ton of pulling, so this isn’t necessary — at least until we’ve built stability in our pushing.

The bending (or not) of your elbows on the scapular CARs will tell you how overdeveloped your pulling muscles are.

This could have been a “strength session” with slight hypertrophy, but the volume kept it out of range of “maximal contraction” in my opinion. At least, the way I implemented it, was to pause and emphasize those end ranges on the pull-overs and chest flys.

Warm Up:

Shoulder CARs, 2 x 5 (each side)

Scapular CARs, 2 x 5

PAIL/RAIL Shoulder Internal (each side)

PAIL/RAIL Shoulder External (each side)

Single-Arm Upright Row x 20 (each side)

Single-Arm Overhead Carry x 50m (each side)

Work:

5-10-15 Each:

• DB Pull Over
• DB Chest Fly
• Airplanes

Shoulder Iso Ramp, 3 x 1 (each side)

EQI Strict Press (1-arm, band)

EQI Upright Row (1-arm, band)

Articulating Strict Press x 1 (each side)

ENG Shoulder Internal (each side)

Results:

Austin

• Upright row [20#], Overhead carry [30#]
• Pullover [2x20#], Chest Fly [2x15#], Articulating press [35#]

Resource:

• Ollin BJJ Support, Movement 18

Image Credit: WeAreOllin / TMB