The scap push up warms up your shoulders and rhomboids for a whole range of exercises from the squat to the bench press, and is one that you can’t leave out of your workout routine
A pretty important part of the body that’s often ignored in warm ups are the shoulders and upper back, and whether you’re bench pressing or squatting, you should be warming up these parts of your body to get the best out of your session.
Many people don’t put enough emphasis on back and leg workouts. Together, they account for over 70% of your body’s muscle mass, so ignoring them is going to mean you won’t get the results you want.
When squatting, the upper back and rhomboids are the part of the body that takes the weight of the bar, so it needs to be warmed up before you put a load of weight on top of it. The rhomboids are also engaged in any of the rowing or pressing movements that we do in the gym (bench press, bent over rows, etc.) so they’re key to improving your numbers here.
One of the exercises that’s best for hitting this area is the scap push up, and while not a lot of people do it before exercising, it’s something that you’ll definitely feel the benefits of if you add it to your warm up.
While you can do them from a normal push up position, the tendency most people have is to bend their elbow, which means you don’t get the full benefit from the exercise, so you can try the plank version instead. Here’s a quick video showing the technique.
When performing this warm-up exercise, you want to try to raise and lower yourself by moving your shoulder blades, and make sure that you don’t let your lower back cave when lowering yourself.
You should perform two or three sets of these before your workout, and aim for between 8-12 reps in each set.
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Enjoy Mooju as part of a healthy balanced diet and active lifestyle.
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