HSPU Program Session 24

Prepare
Shoulder dislocates with band
Shoulder external and internal rotation with band, from this video:

Practice
Lower Body Circuit 1 - 4 rounds with about 2 min. rest between rounds:
Single Leg Deadlift w/ 16kg KB - 3-4 reps/leg
Ring Rollouts

Lower Body Circuit 2 - 4 rounds with about 2 min. rest between rounds:
Shrimp Squat - Arms to front, knee touch with 4-sec. negative - 3 reps/leg
Ring Bird Dog

Push
Single-leg Shoulder Bridge with Side Leg Lift

Modified Pigeon
Half Pancake

Ponder
Today I tried two new ab exercises for the first time.  My thoughts:

Ring Rollout - Unfortunately, not as shoulder friendly as advertised.  I don't think more damage was caused to the shoulder but it was definitely not in a good comfort zone.  I tried a variety of ring heights and kneeling vs. standing.  The activation of the abs was not as intense as in the single-leg shoulder variation or the knee/leg raise progression from either a hang or the top position of a dip.

Ring Bird Dog - Actually friendlier to the shoulder despite load being placed on shoulders.  Protracted scapula per instructions helped.  I think though that the given purpose of the exercise - strength and control of the trunk with upper body in fixed position - is just as achievable with GMB's Monkey variations, especially with High Monkey (hips higher in the air) and Straight-Leg Monkey.  I felt more core activation in the Monkey variations than Ring Bird Dog.

I'm not sure what to call the single-leg bridge variations I got out of Element Core Conditioning.  The closest thing I found on Youtube was this:

Most single-leg bridge variations I found showed somebody lifting a foot into the air, then pressing with the other foot into a bridge, which is different from the Elements variations, where you get into a bridge, and then lift a knee/leg while maintaining the bridge.  What makes the abs, well the core really, work so hard is the effort of maintaining the bridge while also controlling the lifted knee/leg.  It's clear to me that John Garey has a pretty strong core, because it's a harder variation than the bridge variation at the intermediate level of Elements Core Conditioning, due to moving the straight leg in a circle and also using a band for extra resistance.