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Hi, David Weck here. Today I'm going to teach you an exercise with the RMT Rope we call the Behind the Back Underhand Roll. It looks like this: It's behind the back and the rope is rolling underhand. Now, this movement is fantastic if you want to run better. It really improves the strength of your down stroke. And for acceleration, it really helps you fire that arm because the posterior "delts" get tremendously strong and increase range of motion in your ability to bring the arm down and back. So that works great for distance, works great for sprinting [Speed Training]. Having endurance and coordination to do this is key. Now, this is a very challenging move for most. You're going to feel like, "hey my arms aren't long enough to do it" at first. Trust me, they are if you persevere and learn the movements.
So here's how we start the movement. I'll show you from the back and then I will break it down. So, it's this movement here. One hand is whipping across the back like this, and the rope is going underhand. I have a high shoulder and a low shoulder and you really feel the work in the posterior "delts," it's tremendous.
So here's how we break this down. What we do is we start with just this underhand loop with both handles in one hand. And so what we're doing, we're doing this underhand movement right here. You want to keep that underhand movement going, like this, and reach this hand across and try to just hold onto a handle and go for a ride and keep the rope moving the same way. So the rope isn't changing, you're just getting the flexibility and the timing and coordination to get both hands back there in the same position with the rope still doing the same thing. So it's that underhand roll, I reach behind, and I get it. I can use all my body, I can really rotate to get it going. And that is the first key to learning this movement.
Once you have that, here, you want to separate, put one hand on the handle, the other hand on the handle. Let me just straighten out my rope, right there. So it's here and now I want to take control of one handle, so each hand has a handle and I get that rope going and see if I can keep that going. And then I bring it to the other side, same, and here. By getting one side at a time I don't have to really worry about the change, which is more challenging. So the change, I whip that hand across, and you can see how I'm pronating that hand. I'm pronating the hand, I get that circle, and then this hand clears and this hand pronates, just like that. So it's here, crossing them back and forth in the beginning, you can use a lot of side bend to really get it in the beginning, and then ultimately what you want to do is just raise and lower the shoulder and get that rotation.
It's big-time work in the posterior "delts" and big-time work in the triceps and it's all about range of motion. It will help open up the thoracic cavity and really give you better capacity to breathe. And like I said, it really helps you with the down stroke, that down and back, and in particular, acceleration in that beginning when you're really firing that arm up high, as you bring it down and back. That's our Behind the Back Underhand Roll with the RMT Rope. Use those steady steps to really build and learn it. Persevere because it is super challenging to learn but once you learn it, it is worth it, trust me. Nothing unlocks the hidden athletic potential within you like a rope.
