FIGURING THINGS OUT

ARM TO TORSO CONNECTION

This document is a follow up idea, adding onto the “resist the force” document.
It aims to give you the understanding necessary to master the variety of upper body strength
goals you currently hold. The most important thing to note before digging into the specifics, is
that this idea is dynamic and must be used intelligently. Using it dogmatically and without
reasoning will not yield a positive outcome.We must always seek to combine intuition with
reason. Physical Intelligence requires experiencing information, not simple cognitive
knowledge.

I will begin with a simple question:

Wil has a body weight of 60kg. He enjoys doing bicep curls, and manages to progress up to a
60kg bicep curl. One day, he wants to try a One Arm Chin Up. Unfortunately, the outcome is
shoulder pain, and no success with the OAC. WHY?

In short, Force Transfer.

It’s all well and good to have a massive, powerful engine, but is this power deforming or
ultimately breaking the chassis. OR can the chassis transfer the power into movement?

Enter the idea:

Arm to Torso Connection.

So how can we implement this idea?

In short, by ingraining patterning that allows the arms to
transfer as much power into the torso as possible. Here
are some examples that are interrelated yet significant:

Distance
The more you
can feel the arms “in tight” or “close” to the torso, the
better your chances of keeping the force that you
create. Imagine a Ring Support verses an Iron Cross.
The support is far easier due to the fulcrums position in
relation to the lever arm. In other words, the further the
hands from the connection to the torso, the more force
needed.

Elbows to Center

 The next idea which leads from the previous, is the idea of Elbows to Center. With straight arm
movements, this is less clear, but when we are doing bent arm motions it is far more clear. Let’s
take the example of a simple Push Up. I’d like you to try and do this in two distinct ways:

1. By flaring the elbows wide, away from the torso. (Pictured left)
2. By squeezing the elbows tight to the sides, as if you have something under your armpits.

What should
be clear when doing this, is the difference in effort for the seemingly same movement pattern.
Why is this flared elbow position so much harder? Hint* Distance from the center. (Just be sure
to remember the Scapula Principle here also!)

External Rotation
To achieve the above, there has to therefore be a level of external rotation strength in the
individual. To do this in a motion such as the Push Up, think about screwing the hands into the

 floor, biasing the weight into the bottom corner below the pinky finger.
This point of weight in the hand will also greatly reduce the leverage
and stress on the wrist when doing things such as the Handstand and
HSPU.

Here are two final points which I feel are relevant:

Scapula Principle
The partner document to this is the idea of Resisting the Force, which
goes into detail regarding principles of force production when doing
upper body strength work. If you haven’t already, please read it.

Torso Solidity - Ribs to Pelvis Connection.

Finally, we have the idea of Torso Solidity. We can’t
put all of this effort into producing force through the
shoulder/arms, if we then have a floppy torso that
loses all tension or force put upon it… A way to help
this is to think about how the Ribs and Pelvis are
connected, and try to maintain this relationship.

Now, to embody this information by applying it

in practice!..