Another good tip from Eric Cressey, which had a tie-in to my workout of the day.

The rhomboids aren’t as innocent as you think.  Typically, the rhomboids are "tossed in" with the lower and middle traps as the "good" scapular retractors.  In reality, with the line of pull of the rhomboids, you basically have a muscle group that in many ways parallels the function of the upper traps – which we know contribute to scapular dysfunction and shoulder, upper back, and neck pain.
Rhomboids2
I’ve seen a lot of upper body problems resolve with dedicated soft tissue work – both in the form of massage and rolling the upper back with a doubled tennis ball (masking taped together) – on the rhomboids.

My workout tonight recruited the rhomboids in a big way doing the farmer walks.

Four rounds, timed, of:

400 meter farmer walk, w/70#
400 meter run
20 slam ball throws
15 air squats
10 push-ups

Time was 41:20 and of course, each round got progressively slower.

Filed under: Gym

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