The Dr. JJ Thomas Podcast

Are your wrestling warm-ups setting you up for success—or injury? In this episode, I introduce an 11-exercise program designed to boost performance, prevent injuries, and keep your body balanced during and after the season. These drills focus on improving flexibility, core strength, and overall body efficiency. We’ll tackle common challenges wrestlers face, like tight hip flexors and weak glutes, and share exercises to strengthen the posterior chain, stabilize the shoulders, and optimize body mechanics. Tune in to discover how these exercises can help you or your team stay healthy and dominate on the mat all year long!

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With over 20 years as a physical therapist, JJ’s passion for movement along with her unique experiences and training have shaped her into the successful clinician and educator she is.

JJ graduated from the University of Delaware in 2000, which is now ranked as the #1 physical therapy school in the nation. She holds multiple certifications in a variety of advanced specialty techniques and methods, all of which complement her role as an expert clinician and educator. JJ has been certified in dry needling since 2009, and began instructing dry needling in 2012. She currently teaches for Evidence in Motion (EIM), and also independently lectures and trains other clinicians throughout the country in the fields of physical therapy, chiropractic, and sports medicine. She uses her expertise to help other professionals advance their skills and outcomes, either through manual interventions or specialized movement analysis.

JJ Thomas also has certifications in Gray Cook’s Selective Functional Movement Assessment (SFMA), ACE Gait Analysis, Functional Range Conditioning (FRC), The Raggi Method of Postural Evaluation (based out of Italy), and many other joint, soft tissue, and neural mobilization techniques. In addition to these accomplishments, JJ is also a trainer for GMB Fitness, where building a solid foundation fosters restoring functional, pain-free movement.

JJ’s expertise in the area of movement analysis and in dry needling has played a large part in success in the field of sports medicine. JJ has had the honor to work with the US Field Hockey Team, and with individual professional athletes from NFL, MLB, NBA, USATF, PGA, US Squash, USPA (polo), and more.

As a recognized expert in dry needling and consultant for organizations such as the Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy (FSBPT) and the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), JJ has contributed to national legislative advancements in dry needling. Her work with these organizations includes establishing national education standards for dry needling competence and successfully adding a Trigger Point Dry Needling CPT code for insurance and billing coverage. JJ assisted the APTA in successfully adding a specific CPT code for trigger point dry needling in CPT 2020.

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Creators & Guests

Host
Dr. JJ Thomas
Master of Movement With over 20 years of experience, Dr. JJ Thomas has established herself as a highly successful clinician and educator. Her unique experiences and training have shaped her into a passionate advocate for movement and patient care. Graduated from the renowned University of Delaware, the #1 ranked physical therapy school in the nation. Holds multiple certifications in advanced specialty techniques, including dry needling, SFMA, FRC, and more. Instructs and trains clinicians nationwide in physical therapy, chiropractic, and sports medicine, both through Evidence in Motion (EIM) and independently. Expertise in movement analysis and dry needling has made her a sought-after professional in the field of sports medicine. Worked with notable organizations and athletes, including the US Field Hockey Team and professional athletes from NFL, MLB, NBA, USATF, PGA, US Squash, USPA (polo), and more. Recognized as an expert and consultant in dry needling, contributing to national legislative advancements and education standards in the field. Lives an active lifestyle, engaging in various activities like running, weight lifting, Jiu Jitsu, hiking, skiing, and more.

What is The Dr. JJ Thomas Podcast?

Welcome to The Dr. JJ Thomas Podcast! Here I'll be talking all things physical therapy, raw and unplugged, giving you the unfiltered insights you've been searching for in your cash-based physical therapy business. If you're caught in the grind of the traditional model, swamped with paperwork, or feeling like you're not reaching your full potential as a physical therapist, this podcast was created just for you.

Dr JJ Thomas:

You have to drill 1,000 and 1,000 and 1,000 of reps in order to have good technique with what you need on the mat. Right? And so with that your body is going to start to lose patterns that you need for performance and efficiency. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna give you those patterns back, which will not only help you prevent injury and breakdown, but it will also make you a higher performer on the mat. Welcome to the doctor JJ Thomas podcast.

Dr JJ Thomas:

What's up, primal fam? Welcome to the doctor JJ Thomas podcast. We are in my favorite season. It's not fall. It's not spring.

Dr JJ Thomas:

It's wrestling season. I love my wrestlers. You guys are gritty. You're dedicated. You're committed.

Dr JJ Thomas:

You grind, but, you're smart. I just it's a great sport. So we are going to give you exercises to keep you on the mat. We designed I designed a series of 11 exercises that will help keep you healthy throughout the season and in the off season, because it focuses on the the things that you actually need to balance your body. So in every sport, there's a tendency for the body to start to prioritize the movements that we use all the time.

Dr JJ Thomas:

A lot of people can easily relate to, like, a pitcher. Right? A baseball pitcher, their cuff gets overworked because they're using their cuff all the time, and their cuff starts to tighten down. In wrestling, what you guys, you guys spend a lot of time in a flexed position. You're low in your stance, you're staying low, and trying to not be, like, all tall and and, vulnerable for a takedown.

Dr JJ Thomas:

So you're low in your stance, you're crouched, you're flexed. Right? In addition to so that makes you oftentimes tight in the front of your body. Tighten the hip flexors, if you will. Tighten the pecs because you're keeping your arms in, and that serves you well on the mat, but you need that balance.

Dr JJ Thomas:

You need the opposition of that in order to perform at your highest level. In addition to that, you guys are in a flex posture, but you're also fighting posterior chain challenges all the time. So you guys are in a collar tie, and they're grabbing on your head, and they're pushing, they're snapping down on your head, and your your your spinal erectors go all the way from your tailbone and they feather up all the way to the head. So your posterior chain, which ties, again, your spinal muscles all the way from your sacrum to your head, ties into your gluteal muscles, ties into your hamstrings. These guys are getting also overworked all the time.

Dr JJ Thomas:

But in addition, because you're tight in the front of your body, these guys are at a disadvantage because we're not spending enough time out open here. So I've designed 11 exercises to help you guys combat those those deficits that are bound to happen with all the hours of training that you have to do. You have to drill 1,000 and 1,000 and 1,000 of reps in order to have good technique with what you need on the mat. Right? And so with that, your body is gonna start to lose patterns that you need for performance and efficiency.

Dr JJ Thomas:

So what we're gonna do is we're gonna give you those patterns back, which will not only help you prevent injury and breakdown, but it will also make you a higher performer on the mat. So let's go. We have 11 exercises for you. You have the opportunity to do these really any way that you want. I worked with some wrestling teams, lots of wrestling teams, and often what I suggest is there are 11 exercises.

Dr JJ Thomas:

You can do a workout a and workout b, or a warm up a and warm up b. And so Monday, Wednesday, Friday, do warm up a. Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, do warm up b. That way you have 6 or 6 exercises on a day, 5 exercises on b day, and you're only adding, like, 5 to 6 minutes per workout, per session as your warm up, because you're gonna do each exercise for 1 minute. So let's go.

Dr JJ Thomas:

We're I'm gonna get right into it. The first exercise is backwards bear. So you guys might have seen this before on my channel. It's a great exercise for lots of reasons. We'll talk through it, but let's talk through the form first.

Dr JJ Thomas:

You're gonna start in a quadruped position. Fingers spread, elbows and shoulders stacked over wrists. Knees will be directly under the hips. From here, we're going to tuck our toes and we're going to press up into this a frame position. Now, when I get into this a frame position right now, my head is not between my arms.

Dr JJ Thomas:

And we want that for better, movement patterning. So I'm gonna walk my hands out a little bit, and I'm gonna have my head right between my arms just like this. My heels should not be touching. If my heels are touching, then my head's gonna peak out again. It's more important that we get relative overhead shoulder stability here.

Dr JJ Thomas:

So I want my heels to be hovered, my knees to be straight, my ankles, knees, hips to be in line. So if you're looking at me head on here, my ankles, knees, and hips are in line. They're not out here, And they're not too far in, which wouldn't be the horrible thing. But they're just right kind of in line with my hips. Then we're gonna move opposite arm and leg a couple inches at a time.

Dr JJ Thomas:

I'll give you a side view. We're here. We're in that a frame. Everything's in line. Heels are hovered.

Dr JJ Thomas:

Head's between my arms. Opposite arm and leg slides together. Don't lift like this because we got to integrate the ribs and the pelvis to everything else. So opposite arm and leg slides together. Now, for wrestlers, an even better variation of bear is the backwards bear.

Dr JJ Thomas:

So, same thing. We're going to be in that a frame and fingers are spread, elbows are straight. Slide opposite arm and leg together and that trail arm is going to drive your body away. That's going to strengthen your serratus anterior as it connects to your rib cage. So serratus anterior attaches from the front of the shoulder blade to the abdominals on the rib cage.

Dr JJ Thomas:

So it helps anchor the abdominals to give you more core stability, and therefore, more power on the mats when any challenge comes to your arms or your legs, really. So backwards bear is number 1. You're gonna do each of these for 1 minute. So just backwards bear, 1 minute. In all my exercises that I give patients or athletes, set a timer for a minute.

Dr JJ Thomas:

If during that minute you need a break, take it. Form is of the utmost importance. So if you, I mean I know, you wrestlers, you're tough, but like, if you're 30 seconds in and you're like, man, I'm failing on my form. Shake it out for a second. Make sure your form is exactly like we we described, and then get back to it.

Dr JJ Thomas:

Eventually you'll do a full minute with perfect form. Okay. The second exercise is, frogger stretch. So this is 1, the it's gonna focus on the adductor muscles. Again, the adductor muscles, they're adduct they they're the groin muscles.

Dr JJ Thomas:

Right? They pull the legs together, but they're also hip flexors. So for wrestlers, like I said, you're here a lot. And also when you do a shot let's see how my shot is. You guys are decelerating with those a lot on that lead leg.

Dr JJ Thomas:

So you, so they get really overused on both sides, really. So to stretch those, you're gonna be on your hands and knees. You're gonna walk your feet out and your knees out to 90 degrees. Everything has to be at 90 degrees. So, like, this is not acceptable.

Dr JJ Thomas:

You're not gonna get what you need there. You need to have your shins and your femur at 90 degrees, and your feet at 90 degrees. So if you have to back out of it a little bit to get that, that's fine. Once you get that, drop to your elbows, and then just push back. And then it's really important that you breathe here because your abdominal muscles well, two things.

Dr JJ Thomas:

1, the adductors, when they're inhibited I'm gonna come this way so I can look at you. When the adductors are tight, they inhibit the abdominal muscles from supporting you. That's a problem if you're a wrestler. Right? Because you guys use your core out the wazoo.

Dr JJ Thomas:

So adductors have to be nice and mobile. Because the adductors have a common attachment onto the pubic bone where the abdominal muscles are, where the abdominal muscles attach, and the abdominal muscles also attach at the rib cage, breathing through that frogger stretch is critical. So throughout that minute, all you're gonna do is long deep breaths So you find that 90, 90, 90 position, drop down to elbows, use your elbows to push back, and then breathe. Long deep breaths in and out. So you get rib expansion, and you really activate abdominal mobility and adductor mobility.

Dr JJ Thomas:

Now after that one, the third exercise is the frogger Now, after that one, the 3rd exercise is the frogger hops. These, you're gonna be feet outside your hips, feet straight. You're gonna squat down as deep as you can with your feet flat and your chest upright. Now many of you, if you have tight ankles, you're going to find yourself wanting to do that. Try to resist the urge because when you do this, you're now not you're losing part of your access to your posterior chain.

Dr JJ Thomas:

Whereas if you just allow yourself to come out of the squat and be happy, be content with where you are, we're now integrating your entire posterior chain from your ankles all the way to your sacrum, like we talked about, all the way up to your head, like you need to counter for wrestling. So feet straight, walk your hands as far forward as you can, fingers spread, elbows straight, feet are still flat at this point. Once you've measured how far you can reach without your heels coming up, then you're going to shift off your heels and stack your shoulders over your wrists, push the floor away to engage the abdominals and the shoulder core, and then pop the feet flat forward, sit back and look up. Now many of you, if you have, like a posterior chain deficit, what you're going to find is that when you go to pop those feet forward, you're going to so you're here, say you're up here, you're going to walk the hands, you're going to shift, push. When you pop, you're going to find you do that.

Dr JJ Thomas:

Just bring them back in before the next rep. Walk, fingers spread, shift, push, pop. If they come out, just bring them back in, and then sit back and look up. So that's Frogger hops. One minute.

Dr JJ Thomas:

Frogger hops, I didn't give all the benefits. They're also going to stretch the adductors. They're also going to integrate your abdominal muscles into your pelvis like you need it. They're also going to give you shoulder stability which, man, you wrestlers, your shoulders get in positions that I'm like, oh my god, my sons wrestle. And sometimes I'm like, you need shoulder stability.

Dr JJ Thomas:

So that Frogger hop is going to give you really good shoulder stability to be able to fight those heavy arm drags, and those heavy arm pulls, and, you know, arm locks. So it's really good for you. Actually, we have a lot of cuff stuff in the next couple exercises. This next exercise though is a star plank. It is going to give you, it is going to give you shoulder stability but it's also a really good, gluteal muscle activation.

Dr JJ Thomas:

So what you do in the star plank is you're going to be just in a, a kneeling side plank like this. Now, eventually you can work up to this, but honestly, I would suggest just starting in this kneeling side plank. What you're going to do is you're going to sink back into your hip here. As you reach in a diagonal pattern, this arm is if I'm a clock, I'm reaching to, like, 11 o'clock and my foot is reaching to 5 o'clock. And then I'm gonna push through this hip and bring everything up.

Dr JJ Thomas:

So reach from both ends like a diagonal sling. Let the hip drop back and then drive. Reach, let the hip sink and then drive forward. So we're getting glute activation, oblique activation, rotator cuff stability. We're getting a stretch here on the ql, we're getting a stretch on the obliques, we're getting spinal muscle activation, we're getting so many things with this exercise.

Dr JJ Thomas:

So it's another really good warm up exercise. So that's number 4. So say we're doing a and b, right? We've done 4 so far from set a. So number 5 for set a is going to be, you're going to need either a ball, like a small ball, or most of you wrestlers I know have like a roll of tape, not maybe not this, you probably have a little roll of athletic tape for when your when your shoelaces come undone or whatever.

Dr JJ Thomas:

So if you if you have a roll of tape in your bag, that works too. The next exercise is a great exercise for posterior chain. What you're gonna do, they're called ball CARs. It stands for controlled articular rotation. So what you're gonna do is with either your tape or your ball, you're gonna be on your belly, and you're going to lift up with your arms and pass the ball from at eye level from one hand to the other.

Dr JJ Thomas:

Then keep your arms as high as you can. Once they get to a t position, let your head come to neutral and pass the ball behind you, and then rotate your thumbs up again as you pass the ball over top again. Again, trying to lift your hands above. So not down here, but trying to get them active as you pass the ball each time. And you're gonna do 30 seconds one direction, and then 30 seconds the other direction like that.

Dr JJ Thomas:

Okay? So it's a great exercise for that posterior chain that you're, you know, that needs extra stability because people are snapping your neck down, and people are pulling the heck out of your shoulders, and also you're tight in the front. So this is gonna stretch the front of your body and strengthen the back of your body all at once. Then the last exercise of set a, which is now we're on exercise number 6, is a great, again, posterior chain and rotator cuff, exercise. What you'll do is you'll be in a plank position.

Dr JJ Thomas:

And so plank position. For this one I'm going to have your feet a little wider than than than hip width. So it'll be just outside the hips, but make sure your shoulders are stacked over your wrist. And then the other arm is going to drop and catch a ball at 90 degrees. Just like that.

Dr JJ Thomas:

You can do the same thing with a tape, with a roll of tape. So here. Right. So we're just working our rotator cuff in that in that plank posture so that our whole spinal erectors are firing the whole time. 30 seconds on the right side, 30 seconds on the left side.

Dr JJ Thomas:

Just what? Just once. So that's exercise number 6. Okay. Exercise number 7.

Dr JJ Thomas:

This is called spinal flow. This is if you're doing set a and set b, this would be the first exercise of set b, essentially. If you're doing all 11 in one day, this is exercise number 7, spinal flow. It's, it's a game changer. So you get a lot of things at once.

Dr JJ Thomas:

You're gonna start fingers spread, elbows straight. That's always to give good input to the brain. You're gonna start in this like, kind of plank position. Then you're gonna come back to what's like a, what I call like, like a loaded child's pose. So my toes are tucked here, and I'm coming back into this, like loaded child's pose position.

Dr JJ Thomas:

From there, I'm gonna push from my legs, plank over my shoulders, and then let my body come through and look up. Then I'm gonna push through my arms, round my back, keep pushing the floor away as I come through, and load into this child's pose again. So I'm getting spinal flexion and spinal extension. I'm getting core stability. I'm getting neck activation.

Dr JJ Thomas:

It's so good. So from here, I'm gonna drive through my legs again. I'm going to come out a little bit. I'm going to drive through my legs to a plank, round my back. Once my shoulders get stacked over wrist, I'm going to let my hips sink.

Dr JJ Thomas:

I'm going to look up. I'm going to let my shoulders sag a little. Then I'm going to push through my shoulders, round the back, and come back into that flexed position. And I'm just going to repeat that for the whole minute. It's, you know, it's not your typical stretch.

Dr JJ Thomas:

You're not just sitting there passively. In fact, any stretch of mine, even if it looks like a passive stretch, you're at least breathing in and out of it, so you're getting muscle activation. So that was number 7. Number 8, we're gonna do in standing. This is called so controlled articular rotations, it's a functional range conditioning, type of move.

Dr JJ Thomas:

That's what the shoulder CARs were. They're actually called controlled articular rotations as well. This is a neck CAR. So, you guys, man, your neck gets so stiff. Again, because you're getting snapped down on all the time, you're, you're in you're in, tricky positions.

Dr JJ Thomas:

So this is going to hopefully help with that. In a controlled articular rotation of the neck, you're going to be in a strong sort of, a strong stance here. You're going to be in a strong, like, I want to call it like a power pose. Okay? So your feet will be just outside your hips, your arms will be strong, like make a fist and drive them out so that your chest is erect.

Dr JJ Thomas:

And then what you're going to do is you're going to take your neck through a full range of motion. Follow along with me. You're gonna look down, then you're gonna rotate to one side, then you're gonna side bend, meaning strong through the arms. You're gonna keep rotating and side bending and extending as you look up, and then you're gonna keep rotating. Then you're gonna side bend ear to the shoulder.

Dr JJ Thomas:

Then you're gonna look down at the mat, bring your chin to your chest, and do it all over again. So you can do alternate one side, clockwise, counterclockwise. Do it that whole time. Key points. You really want to I describe this like, like you're scooping the corners out of an ice cream half gallon container, you know?

Dr JJ Thomas:

Like, you know, taking that ice cream scoop to, like, go around the edges? That's what you want to do with this neck exercise. So strong, stable through your entire body. The only thing moving is your neck. Looking down.

Dr JJ Thomas:

You're going to kind of side bend in that flex position, rotate till you get to your end range, then you're going to switch so that you're more of a side bend position here. Then you're going to keep looking up as you extend. Keep extending and rotating through. And then eventually, you're gonna hit a point here where you're stuck. You're gonna side bend ear to the shoulder, then look down to the floor, and then bring it through again.

Dr JJ Thomas:

So that's a neck controlled articular rotation. Remember to do it both directions. That brings us to exercise number 9. What these are crab to bridge. So at Primal Physical Therapy, we don't really believe in often just stretching for the strach like just stretching or isolating a muscle group.

Dr JJ Thomas:

We just find it not to be as helpful as working on multiple muscle multiple muscle groups at once. Crab to bridge is a great way to stretch your pectoral muscles and strengthen your posterior chain muscles all at once. So you're in this like, you know, I'm just hanging out watching TV kind of position, but you're not. Your hands are gonna be at a 45 degree angle, elbows are straight. You're gonna be not like super here and not way back here, kind of somewhere in between.

Dr JJ Thomas:

The key to this move is you're gonna push the floor away to expand your chest. Now, you can see, first of all, my gaze is at the corner of the ceiling in front of me. You can see that when I do this, I'm not just doing this. Right? There's a big difference.

Dr JJ Thomas:

In this one, I'm activating my shoulder stabilizers, which is important. In this one, I'm just kinda pulling my shoulder blades back. So very different moves. So push the floor away to stretch the chest, then maintain that push as you lift your hips up and bring your head back to keep your ears in line with your shoulders and then come back to start. So this is crab to bridge, but we're emphasizing a pec stretch with it.

Dr JJ Thomas:

So push the floor away, lift the hips, bring the hips up, let ears come in line with the shoulders, and then come back down. Every time you go to do the move, make sure you push the floor away again. Exercise number 10 is another posterior chain slash rotator cuff work, exercise. In this one, we're gonna be in that plank position again. Fingers spread, elbows straight, shoulders stacked over wrist.

Dr JJ Thomas:

Feet are going to be slightly outside hips. Actually kind of wider than than usual here. Because what we're going to do is we're going to take one arm and reach it through the other one, keeping a straight base elbow. Reach it through. See how when I do that my shoulder ends up going relatively like this in my body.

Dr JJ Thomas:

What that does is it uses my rotator cuff to eccentrically control my body weight as I rotate through. So we're actually working this left arm here as we reach through. Again, you guys, your rotator cuffs get really worn down because of all the crazy arm positions people have you in while you're wrestling. Sometimes you get caught in these crazy arm positions and your rotator cuff is like, oh, trying so hard. So I'm constantly treating, wrestlers rotator cuffs.

Dr JJ Thomas:

If you guys do these consistently every day or every other day, you're gonna feel a big difference in your ability to tolerate those challenging positions that you get caught in. With that, there's just one exercise I want to go through. This is sort of your final resting pose, if you will. If you do any yoga and they talk about Shavasana. Shavasana has always been a little tough for me because I'm trying to get on to the next thing and I'm laying there like, oh my God.

Dr JJ Thomas:

I hope this Shavasana isn't too long, but but, but some people really like it. This stretch is more than Shavasana because it stretches a lot at once. This is called the pretzel stretch. Makes you feel like a pretzel. It was invented by a guy named Brett.

Dr JJ Thomas:

So here it goes. So it's tricky though, so do it with me. What you're going to do is lie on your side. You're going to take your bottom arm and grab your top leg underneath the knee. Then you're going to take your top arm and grab your bottom leg.

Dr JJ Thomas:

Now, from here, you're going to split your legs like you're uncissoring them. I don't want you to just hyper bend the knee here. I want you to actually pull this leg towards the wall behind you. Then you're going to, if you can, get your get your head to the floor. And then, if you can, rotate away.

Dr JJ Thomas:

Like that. So if I show you on the other side, my top leg is grabbed by my bottom arm. My top arm is grabbing my bottom leg. I am splitting my legs, uncissoring them. Then, I'm going to get my head to the ground and if I can, I'm going to rotate towards you guys.

Dr JJ Thomas:

Now, this is another one of those ones. We're stretching abdominals so I need you to breathe. Long deep breaths. And every time, try to get that shoulder to the mat. This is a good final pose, you guys.

Dr JJ Thomas:

I think you'll really like that one. I think you'll really like all of them, actually. So give them a try. I know they will make a huge difference not only in your ability to prevent injury throughout your season, but also in your performance. Because, the stronger you keep your core and the more you help your body activate efficiently, then the more powerful and explosive you can be on the mat.

Dr JJ Thomas:

So give it a try. I hope you enjoy it. If you need anything else, I'm here for you. See you at the mat.