Getting Trapped by RenEx

by Joshua Trentine

My apologies to Ad I managed to miss his question on the blog “Trapped”.

adligtvoet December 1, 2012 at 5:55am

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Hi Ad,

…Again my sincerest apologies for not getting to this sooner. This is a very thoughtful question, and I’m embarrassed that it got buried under all of the nonsense.

I have a statement that I frequently make that I think applies here: “To a great extent the equipment you use will ultimately dictate the expression of your intended protocol.”

The reason the behaviors are different on the two exercises is because the lines of pull are very different on the exercises. Compounding the line-of-pull differences, the exercises utilize different means to arrest reactionary forces and utilize different means by which the resistance is applied to the body.

On the SuperSlow® Systems Neck & Shoulder the direction of pull is oriented downward and coupled through the lower arm. While the machine has a rotary axis, the net effect is that of a straight pull directed downwardly on the arms. The coupled force against the lower arms draws the shoulder girdle downward.

The Neck & Shoulder is not for performing an unslumping/ slumping movement. Slumping merely causes unloading of the musculature. The only time to unslump/slump in this machine is to load/ unload the musculature; the force remains as resistance against the musculature only when the torso maintains an erect attitude.

One might believe that this posture precludes complete involvement of the intended periscapular groups. This might be true with conventional apparatus like a Hammer Strength® Deadlift/ Shrug or a Barbell Shrug, but the compounding effect of this exercise—the inclusion of all of the intended musculature—is granted by cam effect, protocol, and available range of motion (ROM) (the small stuff 😀 ).

Ken and I were recently discussing what happens on the Neck & Shoulder exercise when the cam varies enough to allow us to elevate our shoulder girdle adequately to congest against ourselves in the exercise. We agreed that if you are allowed to get that far into the exercise and inroad effectively, and recruit deeply enough, you will not only call upon the muscles that elevate the shoulder girdle, but also the ones that retract it.

Effect the entire back

The Neck & Shoulder exercise will provide a more-complete stimulus for the entirety of the trapezius (upper, middle, and lower) as well as provide a compound-like effect to the entire back. This is why I do not like placing Neck & Shoulder in the same workout as either overhead press or deadlift.

Now the shrug exercise on the Nautilus® Omni-Multi-Exercise (OME) is a completely different exercise. The line of pull is not straight down. It is well in front of the torso and its line of pull is on a diagonal—forward and downward.

The other big variable is that the Neck & Shoulder machine radically reduces the load toward the upper turnaround as we begin to become congested against ourselves. This explodes the exercise to make it far more inclusive as stated above. It really must be felt to be believed.

The OME cam does not vary this way at all. As a matter of fact it slightly does the opposite… it undesirably increases the resistance during the positive. We can somewhat minimize this problem by maintaining the range of the movement arm during the exercise to correspond with a rather slight variance of the cam. Since the shrug traverses a short ROM, we can select the right spot on the cam where we can experience a very mild cam effect… one that only slightly varies the load.

Now this situation is neither variable nor balanced to the user’s needs, but we can still pick up a great effect by using the line of pull of the apparatus against the muscles through the fullest available ROM we can manage. The inclusion of shoulder elevation, retraction, along with cervical and thoracic extension makes this exercise one heck of a work-around when ideal equipment is unavailable. It keeps tension on the muscles well enough to achieve a thorough and efficient inroad.

Now take these behaviors that we tailored to the apparatus and add low-friction retrofits throughout every articulation on the OME along with a custom shrug bar that completely gets out of your way and we have a fine exercise for some of the population. Here we have an exercise that I’ve used to release muscle tension in my neck, but also an exercise that has likely added mass to my trapezius and upper back over the course of the summer and fall of 2012.

Nautilus OME at The Strength Room in Toronto

I’ve had a very unique opportunity over the last year. I’ve consistently been trained by Gus, Al, or even Ken. Most of the time I train with Al Coleman, since we work out of the same location. During the five or six times a year I’m with Ken down in Florida I get Ken to train me as often as possible.

Getting Trapped

Since March of 2012 I’ve made it up to Toronto just about every other week; and over this period Gus has trained me more than anyone else. The reason I mentioned this is because I feel like I’ve had my best and most productive year training ever and I’ve had a number of people mention the same thing to me quite a few times, especially at our conference in October. The most common comment I’ve heard from people in the last few months is that my upper trapezius looks bigger.

Nearly every time I train with Gus I do my “B Routine,” and I always do shoulder shrug in that routine. Gus does not have a Neck & Shoulder machine, so a great number of times my B Routine includes shrug on the OME. There is no way to estimate how much the change in my appearance came from the inclusion of this exercise on this machine as compared to the designated Neck & Shoulder apparatus down in Cleveland. I do know for sure that I added muscle in this area, and I do know that this exercise is one that I wasn’t doing before. Now whether this was from the inclusion of this exercise, Gus’s expert instruction, the sum of all of my RenEx workouts or the Neck & Shoulder machines in Cleveland and Orlando, I don’t know. I do know that I experienced significant growth and this was one of the variables.