Like many Canadians, Jordan Shallow ate, slept, and breathed hockey growing up. When he reached his early 20s, Shallow faced a crossroads: Did he continue to grind it out in the Ontario junior leagues in the hopes of getting scouted and ideally making it to the National Hockey League, or did he further focus on his education?
Much to his mother’s approval, Shallow chose the latter and enrolled at Palmer College of Chiropractic West in San Jose, CA. Hanging up his ice skates proved to be a pivotal point in his life. Today, Shallow, aka the Muscle Doc, is a licensed chiropractor, powerlifter, entrepreneur, and strength and conditioning coach with the Stanford University rugby program.
“I fell in love with the process of weight training, and that became center stage to playing hockey,” Shallow says. “Sometimes I would skip practices to work out.”
With becoming a licensed chiropractor, Shallow could focus more heavily on weightlifting. He began working and training with elite powerlifter Dan Green, who was based out of nearby Mountain View, CA, after he graduated in December 2015. The two hit it off, and Shallow based his clinical practice out of Green’s private gym, Boss Barbell Club.
Not only was Shallow building up his résumé in the gym—he began powerlifting competitively when he was 25—he was strengthening his credentials outside of it. He was a chiropractic assistant at Apple’s corporate headquarters, Apple Park, from 2015–16, before co-founding Pre-Script, a company that offers corrective programming to help patients and clients improve their mobility, stability, and strength. Shallow also joined the Stanford rugby staff as strength and conditioning coach in November 2017.
The 28-year-old doesn’t just talk the talk, he walks the walk, and he prides himself on being able to relate to his patients because of it. Unfortunately, his 15-year sports career, which not only includes hockey but also lacrosse, swimming, and track and field, has led to some injuries; Shallow has “torn just about anything you can think of.” Add in a max competition squat of 749 pounds while recovering from a torn quad (plus the training it took to get there), and you’re looking at one beat-up body. But it’s those same injuries—including a torn labrum, meniscus, pec, and AC joint— that help him better understand his patients.
“It’s an empathy thing more than anything,” he says. “Pain is knowledge really fast. There isn’t a course in school for that. It’s a blessing in disguise.”
Because he’s had to overcome a laundry list of injuries, Shallow prioritizes mobility-building and stabilization exercises not only in his own workouts but also with his patients. Shallow’s gatekeeper exercises—“the only reason I can still lift”—including the hip airplane, bottoms-up press, windmill, walking lunge, and single-leg Romanian deadlift, all focus on mastering stability.
“Fundamentally, the biggest difference is that these moves are all pure exercises of stability,” Shallow explains. “A lot of times we’re told to strengthen muscles of stability. We’re totally OK with calling strength and stability the same thing. But exercises of stability, the body’s ability to resist force, is not the same as exercises of strength. The oversimplification leads to paradigms being adopted, and that’s where people get led astray.”
Why Do it: “When it comes to hip and pelvis function, this is it. The hip airplane is going to challenge and improve the overall stability of your glutes, adductors, and core,” Shallow says.
Do it: Stand on one leg with the knee slightly bent and hinge into a single-leg Romanian deadlift position, chest parallel to the ground. Slowly open up the torso using the glute to control the entire movement.
Sets X Reps: This is an advanced move, so prescribing reps and sets can be misleading. Chase quality and don’t practice bad form.
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Walking Lunge
Why Do it: “There is nothing more functional than putting one foot in front of the other. The lunge has been a mainstay of human movement for 3.2 billion years—that should be all the ‘why’ you need.”
Do it: Initiate the lunge by anticipating the ground contact, and control the position of the front knee on the descent and out of the bottom. Keep your chest up as you avoid touching that back knee on the ground. Finish the rep by initiating with the other leg.
Sets X Reps: 3–5 sets x 8–12 reps per leg.
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Bottom-up Press
Why Do it: “We spend so much time strengthening the rotator cuff, the bottoms-up press is the ultimate test of rotator cuff stability. It’s not about exerting force—it’s about resisting force.”
Do it: Grab a kettlebell by the handle and lift it to shoulder level. Keeping the elbow tucked in and rib cage down, press the kettlebell, bottoms up, from shoulder height to the full overhead position. Hang on tight, and try to keep the elbow and wrist stacked the entire time.
Sets X Reps: 2–4 sets x 4–6 reps per side.
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Single-leg Romanian Deadlift
Why Do it: “Making sure you have the baseline ability to hinge and stabilize your own body weight is crucial to loading this position, as with a deadlift.”
Do it: Standing on one leg with a soft bend in the knee and a kettlebell in each hand, extend the back leg as you hinge at the hip until your chest is parallel to the ground. Slowly return back to the starting position before initiating the next rep.
Sets X Reps: 2–4 sets x 4–6 reps per leg.
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Kettlebell Windmill
Why Do it: “The shoulder blade plays a huge role in overall function of the shoulder. The kettlebell windmill ensures the shoulder blade is fully mobile and fully stable by using the serratus anterior muscle for its intended function.”
Do it: Hold a kettlebell overhead. Extend your other arm and lean to one side. Keep reaching down so that the loaded arm and unloaded arm are in a straight line and your free hand is touching the ground.
