Introduction - Finishing Fitness The Finisher User Manual

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Background – In July of 2010, following my third neck surgery, I quickly no ced that my le shoulder was

weak and sore. A er a few days I went back to my surgeon and described the pain and rapidly declining

strength. He soon concluded that I was one of the unlucky few who came out of surgery with C‐5 palsy.

Basically, the nerve that feeds the shoulder area suﬀered damage and there was no guarantee as to how

much the shoulder would recover, if at all. He recommended that I begin physical therapy immediately to

prevent further muscle loss, and hope the nerve started doing its job again. A er months of physical

therapy I had improved to about 50% of my original strength and mo on. My physical therapist and I

decided it was just going to take a long me and I should strive to make progress on my own with periodic

checkups to monitor progress.

I've been an ac ve coach and somewhat of a "ﬁtness freak" most of my life. So working out to strengthen

my shoulder was really not going to be anything new for me. However, I never had to pay so much

a en on to a muscle that simply would not do what I thought it should be able to do. With that in mind, I

began working out and always looking for a new way to exercise and strengthen my stubborn shoulder.

That's when I developed what I call "Finishing".

I simply took the term from what I knew about my experience with handyman and construc on work. Over

the years I've occasionally had the opportunity to ﬁnish concrete. This gave me the idea of trying to

simulate the mo ons used when ﬁnishing concrete to help develop and strengthen my weakened shoulder.

As me went on I implemented many of the same mo ons concrete ﬁnishers use but in a controlled and

organized fashion. These mo ons proved to be highly eﬀec ve with working not only my shoulder, but

ul mately, my en re body. I believe I have created an exercise process and product that will impress and

challenge even the ﬁ est of ﬁtness gurus.

The Finisher and Finishing revolu onize exercise from the days of isolated movements with li le func onal

purpose, i.e. bicep curls, to a highly dynamic and func onal exercise. Athletes in all physical ac vi es ﬁnd

superior beneﬁts from employing the dynamic use of The Finisher. With Finishing, you are using the

muscles of the back, shoulders, chest, arms, bu ock and legs. With The Finisher, you employ a func onal

dynamic that requires a person to make adjustments in load and stabiliza on, as well as accelera on,

(change in speed and direc on). This requirement, in addi on to the mandate of trunk and cervical

stabiliza on while performing the exercises, yields the highest degree of func onal exercise from the

simplest of movements. I know you will ﬁnd The Finisher and the prac ce of Finishing, to be as eﬀec ve

and enjoyable, as I have found it to be. Good luck and enjoy!

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