Many people have written me over the years about wrist pain when benching. After all, everyone loves a big bench press.

It’s one thing if you are stalled in the bench due to a technique issue or because you are having trouble deciding on a bench press program.

It’s something different altogether when your bench press is suffering because of pain in the wrist, so annoying and distracting.

So, what I have done is put together a video for you that is what I call a Diesel Work-around.

What is a Work-around, you might ask?

Well, in industrial settings, when a part of a process breaks or is faulty, but the work still needs to be done, alternative measures can be put into action in order to get the same finished product or desired result.

These alternative measures are called Work-arounds. For instance, if a conveyor belt is shut down, the items being moved can be placed into a cart and moved by hand to the next location, successfully “working around the problem” until it can be fixed.

In the case of the Bench Press, when there is pain in the wrist, we can perform a slight Work-around in order to still get the work done, in order to not miss a workout.

Now, before I get too deep into this, I have to stress this point: If you are injured, you need to address the injury with professional help.

So, if you strained your wrist in a bar fight or because you fell down a flight of stairs in a drunken stupor, you need to go to the doctor, get the problem professionally assessed and follow the doctor’s or therapist’s suggestions in order to completely address the injury.

However, wrist pain does not always mean that there is a break or soft tissue damage, such as that which can occur when you try to touch the stripper on stage and the Eric the Bouncer grabs you and tosses you out the back door into a dumpster.

Sometimes the root of the pain in the wrist is actually something simple such as the misalignment of the carpal bones in the wrist.

The bones of the hand and wrist are supposed to be arranged in a specific order. However, if we are training out of balance or if we have some light trauma to the wrist, these bones can be thrown out of whack, causing noticeable pain and loss of range of motion.

To see what I mean, check out the above picture. It may seem as though the bones seem to be randomly stacked on top of one another, but that is not the case – they are placed exactly how they need to be for optimal performance of the hands and lower arms, and if they get out of whack from trauma or imbalanced strength ratios as a result of your training, you can have some problems.

In cases such as these where the pain might just be a bone slightly misaligned, the following Diesel Work-arounds fit in nicely. They take pressure off of the wrist and allow you to perform work on the Bench without having to miss a bench workout.

Work-around #1 – Use a Thicker Bar

A thicker bar, such as an axle or fat pipe, can be used on the bench press instead of the normal Powerlifting bar. This will feel different to you, but you should notice that there is not quite as much pain when performing the pressing movement.

The force will be spread out over more of the hand and not so much directly on the point of pain within the wrist. If you do not have an axle or thick pipe that is set up for pressing movements, then you might also try a set of Fat Gripz placed on the bar to accomplish the same general objective.

Diesel Work-around #2 – Wrist Straps

Another suggestion to try is wrist straps. These can help cradle the wrist as you press can be very helpful for reducing pain.

A lot of people think I am completely against wrist wraps, but that isn’t really true. I think they are great for preventing injury and for helping to recover from injury, like if something is “out” in your wrist.

The most important thing to know here is exactly how to wrap the wrists in order to get the right support, which I show you in the video, below.

I hope this has been helpful for you. If so, please leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks and all the best in your training!

Jedd

P.S. I just got interviewed by Andres Gonzalez of Strongermen.Blogspot.com. Andres seems like a very nice guy who has decided to improve his lifestyle and has been doing a lot to better his health and well-being. In addition to that, he has been interviewing people he has been following who have made strength training a part of their lives. He found my site and said it is something that has helped him out with his journey to become stronger and I really appreciate him seeking me out.

Also, last week, Andres put together this cool video of the Top Nail Benders in the World. Check it out:

• How to Bench Press Correctly
• Why You Should Train Your Grip
• Massive Thumb Pain
• Bird Calls, Burning Red Eyes and Insomnia
• How to Bench Press

If you spend a lot of time seated, or if you travel a lot in vehicles or in airplanes, then this post is for you.

Also, if you are an athlete and your sport requires you to be able to perform powerful movements with the lower body, like jumping and bounding, then this post is for you.

In addition if you run, whether in sprinting fashion or distance, then this post is for you.

And if you participate in strength sports or feats of strength, then this post is for you as well because today I am going to show you how you can get more power out of your glutes which will lead to better striding power when running, better leaping and jumping power, and better executtion of posterior chain strength movements such as deadlifts, cleans, throws, and braced bends.

Importance of the Glute Muscles to Sport, Strength and Power Movements

Your Glutes are some of the most powerful muscles in your body.

They are heavily involved in Power Movements like jumping and sprinting as well as directional changes.

Unfortunately, if you spend a lot of time sitting down, then you might be making your Glute strength disappear.

You see, when you are seated, your hips remain in a flexed position. Over time this joint angle at the hip can cause the hip flexors to shorten and tighten.

The image above from Human Kinetics shows the relationship between the front of the body and the rear. With tight hip flexors, generally comes weak lower abdominals and conversely, the muscles on the opposite side, the lower lumbar muscles and the glutes get weakened and can’t do what they are meant to do.

When the hip flexors shorten like this and become tight, they can actually hinder the amount of power your glutes can generate because they will keep your hips from extending correctly in the movements we mentioned earlier, such as jumping, running and other unilateral and power movements.

To illustrate this a bit better, imagine trying to jump up in the air, but attached to your waistline is a chain on either side, connecting you to the floor, and just as you are about to really get some drive going, the chains hit their maximum length and won’t allow you to explode. That is kind of what is going on when you have tight hip flexors.

Two of the main reasons to address this issue are stretching the hip flexors and activating the glutes.

Understanding the Hip Flexors

In the image above, you can see where the hip flexors are located, and where they attach. A lot of people don’t realize the actual articulations of the hip flexors.

Per Wikipedia:

Origins: The Psoas major originates along the lateral surfaces of the vertebral bodies of T12 and L1-L5 and their associated intervertebral discs. The Psoas minor, which presents in only some 40 percent of the population, originates at the transverse processes of L1-L5. The Iliacus originates in the Iliac fossa of the pelvis

Insertions: Psoas major unites with iliacus at the level of the inguinal ligament and crosses the hip joint to insert on the lesser trochanter. The Psoas minor inserts at the iliopectineal arch, the thickened band at the iliac fascia which separates the muscular lacuna from the vascular lacuna. femoral nerve, L1, L2

Common Hip Flexor Stretches

For individuals who have tight hip flexors, one of the ways to correct the situation is with stretching. Below is a commonly used stretch and some slight variations in order to intensify it.

Kneeling Hip Flexor Stretch

One common Hip Flexor stretch is the kneeling hip flexor stretch. Just getting into a position like what is shown above is not good enough, however. You must keep the torso upright and as you move forward, keep the pressure directed into the hip flexor muscles themselves. Improper angling here can result in stretching the quad. The quad originates on the ilium so its path is similar to the hip flexors. Not that there’s anything wrong with stretching the quad, but the purpose of this stretch is the hip flexor.

With Arm Raised

This stretch can also be intensified by raising the arm on the same side as the leg being stretched.

With Foot Elevated

As your flexibility increases, the rear foot can also be elevated to increase the stretch on the hip flexor and the quad as well.

Again, this is just one stretch that you can do for the hip flexors, along with a few modifications. In a bit I am going to show you another exercise to try that actually stretches my hip flexor even better while activating the glutes at the same time.

How to Activate the Glutes

When tightness on one side of the body inhibits a muscle on the opposite side of the body, we often have to retrain the muscle to fire properly. In the case of Glutes that have been shut down, the athlete has probably learned to use the hamstrings and muscles of the lower back to provide the force needed for hip extension. We have to get the body back in tune by training the Glutes to fire when they are supposed to.

Glute Bridge

Perhaps the most common of Glute activation exercises is the glute bridge. This movement can be done with one or two legs, and can be modified by extending a leg or by adding resistance, such as chains.

Quadruped Hip Extension

Quadruped refers to being on all fours. One leg is then lifted upwards by means of the Glutes. Very simple to perform, but attention must be put forth not to cheat or use momentum.

Fire Hydrant

Named after a dog lifting its leg to mark a fire hydrant, I learned this movement from Joe Defranco, and in particular, I learned that you don’t half-ass this movement (sorry for the pun, but I had to). The way I heard Joe describe this movement is to imagine you’re sneaking into a house through a very large window. Perform the exercise by carefully pulling the hip around the full range of motion, slowly and deliberately. Doing the exercise like this REALLY helps you feel it. Don’t just go through the motions.

How to Do Both at the Same Time

There is absolutely plenty of value in performing the above exercises. I have done all of them and they have worked for me in varying degrees.

However, recently, when shooting footage for a DVD on Braced Bending, I stumbled onto an exercise that actually is highly effective at stretching the hip flexors while getting an extremely intense contraction from the glutes. In fact, of all the Glute exercises I’ve ever tried, none of them can compare to the heightened contraction of this maneuver.

I call this move the Knee Driver, because I was using it to demonstrate the initial kink used when braced bending things like steel bars, wrenches and other odd objects. In the initial kink, you use the strength of your glute to drive your knee into the bar to get it to bend, thus the Knee Driver.

Knee Driver

For me, I have never felt a Glute Exercise that caused such a deep and hard contraction of my Glute Muscles. I mean, this exercise balled my glute up so tightly when I first tried it that I could not believe it, plus it stretched my hip flexors at the same time, and I have done it just about every workout since then in order to get my Glutes ready to go.

I like to perform this exercise for two sets with each leg and to do at least 6 to 8 good solid contractions per set. I don’t even bother with a lot of the other glutes exercises I used to do, because the contractions pale in comparison to what I get out of the Knee Driver.

I encourage you to give this a try and report back what you have found and how it compares to other exercises you have tried.

All the best in your training.

Jedd

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In Part I of this Build Muscle The Right Way Article Series, I spoke about the three most important keys I use for building muscle and gaining strength at the same time: Multi-joint Movements, Training for Power and Speed, and Working for Muscular Balance. You can read Part I here: Keys to Muscle Building.

Sample Upper Body Training Split

In Part I, I put a lot of emphasis on maintaining antagonistic balance so that you do not develop muscular imbalances that will cause you trouble later on down the road. Also as I stated Part I, if you perform your complementary Push and Pull movements on the same day, it can be easier to keep everything balanced. However, because I spend so much time training for Grip Strength, I run out of time in order to accomplish everything I like to do, so I split the two days up. Lately, my split has looked like this:

• Week 1 – Day 1: Push, Week 1 – Day 2: Pull, Week 1 – Day 3: Lower, Week 1 – Day 4: Grip Specific
• Week 2 – Day 1: Pull, Week 2 – Day 2: Push, Week 2 – Day 3: Lower, Week 2 – Day 4: Grip Specific

In other words, I go Push, Pull, Lower, Grip for the first week and then flip flop the Push and Pull so it goes Pull, Push, Lower, Grip the second week.

Sample Upper Body Push Workout

Here is a recent workout I did for Upper Body Push. This workout took place on a Monday. It was followed by an Upper Body Pull Day on Tuesday and then a Lower Body Day on Thursday. One week later, I followed the schedule and did my Upper Body Pull Day first and the Upper Body push day second, etc.

Optimally, the order of this day would go like this:

1. Overhead Power Movement: Requires the most skill and energy, so it should take place first

2. Bench / Incline Bench: Because the body is supported on the bench, even after doing a big movement like the Overhead Variations, I still feel strong on the bench going second.

3. Auxiliary Bench Movement: Examples could be Speed Bench Against Bands, Incline Bench, Dips – All these are awesome, especially if your shoulders are feeling good.

4. Isolation Movement: If isolation movements are your thing, you can include them here or you can do another auxiliary movement, work on the rotator cuffs, or bring up a weakness in your upper body (triceps, etc)

Bench Press

On this day, I started off with Bench Press, although often I will actually start off with Overhead Press, especially if I am using the Log. I was able to work up to an unassisted single of 365 on the Bench Press, for the first time in about a year. My all time best is 405 with a spotter.

Speed Bench Against Bands

In order to perform this one correctly and get the most out of it, you should be moving the bar much quicker than this. I should have either used lighter bands or lightened the bar weight, but I did not.

Military Press

My back was feeling a bit seized up after the heavy benching, because I was actually arching pretty hard for me. That is about all the angle I get. If I worked on my thoracic mobility more, I think I could get a better arch. Anyway, because my back was tight, I stuck with Military Press instead of a more powerful movement. Like I said, I like to do a Push Jerk, Push Press or a straight out Jerk movement first, but it didn’t work out that way this week.

Gironda Lateral Raise Complex

This is a combination I never even knew about until I reviewed the book, Vince Gironda, Legend and Myth. In that book he has what he calls the 8 Sets of 8 Keep-You-Honest Workout and the finisher for Upper Body Day is Side Laterals followed immediately by what he calls the Dumbbell Swing, but I have affectionately called it the Pirate Ship. Regardless of what you call it, it mimics the movement of the Pirate Ship ride at the amusement park in the way the arms swing rhythmically back and forth.

I don’t want to say that this movement pairing or even that just doing the Pirate Ship movement “fixed” whatever was aching in my shoulder the last few weeks, but after doing it every week for roughly 6 weeks straight as my finisher for my Upper Body push day, my shoulders have felt outstanding! I was able to perform dips pain free, getting my rib cage to touch the cross-bar on my dip station for the first time I can remember in years, and I was able to Bench 365 touch-and-go style for the first time in ages. I encourage you to try this out. At the very least the combination pumps your shoulders with a very nice burn.

This is how I set up the strength training muscle building workouts. Because I work a variety of percentages of 1RM, a variety of speeds, and train volume as well, I have been fairly successful at building muscle and strength at the same time as long as I am eating enough calories, staying injury free, and getting enough sleep.

I have had several months in a row now where I have been free of lower back injuries so I have not missed many workouts and recently my strength levels and size have increased.

Now that the latest Grip Contest, Gripmas Carol 2011, is out of the way, I plan on adding conditioning work back into my weekly routine separate of my workouts and cleaning up my diet as well in an effort to trim down a bit and get just plain ripped to shreds in 2012.

If you want to watch some of the stuff that I do for conditioning and fat loss, I can certainly film it, but only if you are interested. I don’t know if this is something you want to see or not on my site, so please leave me a comment an let me know.

Thanks and all the best in your training.

Jedd

For further information on building muscle, check out Smitty’s AMD Program by clicking the image below. This is one of the best Muscle Building Programs on the market, shares many of the same principles I am sharing here, and includes many other ways to keep you healthy and balanced in order to build muscle the right eway.

• Push Pull Workout for Powerful Upper Body Strength
• 3 Keys to Building Muscle the Right Way
• Top 5 Simple Muscle Building Tips – Essential Mass Building Exercises
• Vince Gironda – Upper Body Muscle Building Workout
• Great Tricep Finisher – Improve Pressing Power

I do a small amount of personal training here in my facility. I am lucky enough to have found some guys who will literally try anything I challenge them to do, and they often end up performing the exercises just as well if not better than me. One morning this week, my trainee and good friend Mark was here and I had him do an exercise for his Biceps that he said hit them very well. He liked it so much, I knew I had to try it later on in my workout as well.

Equipment Needed for This Lift

The way we performed this exercise was with a rope. The rope is about 6 feet long. If you do not have a rope, a towel will work fine as long as it is a nice thick towel. An old beat up towel is probably going to rip on you so don’t try it. We used two Pony Clamps to secure the weight onto the rope. That’s all you need!

Benefits of This Lift

I feel this lift is best used as a finisher for the Biceps. What I look for in a Finisher is something that just outright blows the Biceps up, pumping it full of Blood. I do the rest of my larger movements influencing the biceps (Chin-ups, Barbell Curls, etc) first and then use isolation movements like this to bring massive amounts of blood and expansion in. In addition, the pump and increased blood flow helps to fend off and recover from inflammation in the elbows and forearms (tendonitis, epicondylitis, etc).

How to Perform This Lift

The basic way to perform this lift is to grip the towel with the elbows positioned about 90 degrees. From there, you will take your top hand and shift it beneath the lower hand, keeping the hands in contact with one another with each re-grip.

Other Variations of this Lift

Instead of just maintaining a consistent angle of about 90-degrees, you can also vary away from that angle. In the video below, I start out with two sets where I keep my elbow angle around 90 degrees and then finish with a third set where I move throughout the ROM, changing a few degrees at a time. Both variations worked well for an awesome pump.

I definitely suggest you give this exercise a try. My arms were blown up for about an hour afterwards, and I even hit a bunch of Grip, so I’d imagine if this was the last thing I did, I would have had a pump for much longer.

Weighted Rope Curl Ups

Now here is a quick demo. Sorry for repeating some of this information in the video. You will see that once I get up to 75-lbs, this exercise is damn challenging. Feel free to change up the weights to make the exercise work for you.

Let’s Connect

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All the best in your training,

Jedd

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With this post, I want to list a few principles I follow in my training. Next week, I will cover some how to select the right movements and how to program them.

3 Keys to Building Muscle

These are the three main keys I follow in my training when it comes to exercise selection. Now, of course there are other things that go into it, but these are the main three things.

1. Multi-Joint Movements

If you want to put on muscle and develop strength, then you have got to get lots of muscle involved in order to do so. The best way to get lots of muscle involved is to select exercises that involve movement over more than one joint. Examples are Bench Press, Overhead Press, Squat, Deadlift, Bent Over Rows, Clean, Snatch, and other movements that are similar in movements to these.

Now, if you take a look at the exercises I listed, you will see that there is often movement taking place at two or more joints. For instance, with the Bench, there is movement at the shoulder and at the elbow, plus if you approach the movement like a Powerlifter does, you are using even more muscle across other joints as well.

Movements such as the Squat, Deadlift, Cleans, and many Olympic lift breakdown drills involve even more joints. With these we are working over the knee, hip, back and possibly the ankle, shoulder and elbow, meaning even more muscle is being involved.

In other words, select movements that are working larger portions of your body and keep isolation movements to a minimum.

2. Train for Power and Speed

I like to incorporate exercises of increased speed in my training. What I am referring to is explosive movements that produce an increased power output, such as Cleans, Jerks, Snatches, Stone Lifting, and other movements where virtually the entire body is working together in order to move large loads very quickly.

Another way I like to accomplish this is with Accommodating Resistance using exercise bands. I have bands of many different strength levels in order to be able to use this concept on different movements.

The Bench Press is a good example of how to employ bands in your training. Remember when using bands that the purpose is to move the bar quickly against the resistance in order to train the fast-twitch muscle fibers to fire quickly. These muscle fibers need to be stimulated like this, but most guys are missing this aspect. I say this, because when I ask people who email me about this they say they have either never heard of this type of training or haven’t bought into it. I am a firm believer in it and have been experimenting with how to incorporate it in different ways aside from just with barbells in my training and with my clients (these guys kick ass).

3. Work in Balance

One of the recent times someone wrote in, they wanted to know how to put muscle on their chest and shoulders and I asked them what they were currently doing. Their answer? Bench Pressing two days a week and Shoulder work on another day. Essentially three Upper Body Pushing days and each one was balls to the walls intensity.

One of the things I always tell people is that if you are trying to fill out your shirt, you’ve got to remember there are two sides of it to fill. You don’t want to be like Tom Cruise in the movie Knight and Day and look like your back muscles are non-existent.

There needs to be a balance between your pushing and pulling exercises in order to pack on muscle on the upper body, and do it safely. Remember, we are doing something that is supposed to be good for us, not something in order to set ourselves up for imbalances, poor posture and pain down the road.

What I suggest people do is for every movement where you are pushing something, try to also incorporate a movement where you are pulling. If you can pick out complementary or contra-specific movement patterns, that is a bonus as well. For instance, a complimentary movement pattern for the Bench Press would be Bent Over Rows or Seated Cable Rows (although, I’d suggest the Bent-Over variety in order to have a Ground Based Movement – another post for another day).

One other thing to think about with Balanced Training, keep in mind that if you are going all out for maxes on the Bench every time you do it and then you do Bent Over Rows with a fraction of the weight, that doesn’t count as balanced. The loading and effort need to be similar in order to realize benefits.

One good way to do this is to perform your Upper Body Push and Upper Body Pulling movements on the same day and match up the loading and effort that way. If you do it like this, it is easier to monitor than if you do it on different days.

Do You Have Muscle Imbalances, Currently?

If you have been following traditional programs and have not taken things such as antagonistic balance into account with your program, you could be headed for some issues. Unfortunately, imbalances can develop from more than just the way you program you workouts and your exercise selection.

Time seated in a car, time at your desk, time at home in chairs, and other considerations that affect posture can really do a number on you.

If you think you run the risk of having imbalances because you slouched in your seat in high school for years (like me), spend a lot of time at a desk at your work (like me), or have muscular imbalances due to an injury or something else, you should consider checking out Rick Kaselj’s Muscle Imbalances Revealed – Upper Body Edition.

I recently made Rick’s acquaintance on-line and began following some of his work and he has an impressive background. A few months ago he came out with a 2.0 Program for lower body and now he has updated his Upper Body Edition as well.

The sizable clientele he has worked with and the expert backing he has gotten is unbelievable. I strongly suggest you give his program a look if you are a candidate for imbalances. Here is my link: Muscle Imbalances Revealed by Rick Kaselj.

All the best in your training and look for Part II coming next week.

Jedd

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