Hand Therapy Sessions with Dr. Jim Wagner

While I won Nationals in June, it came with a price.

I pushed myself as hard as I could in preparation for Nationals.

I was implementing ll kinds of new Training Methods I’ve never tried before in my Grip Training.

And, unfortunately, it proved to be excessive.

In April, after a weekend session, the middle two fingers in my left hand that have been hurting since January of 2020, were producing level 8 to 9 out of 10 pain, and it was a radiant, pounding, unrelenting soreness.

I had to scale everything back – volume, intensities, exercise variations, everything.

In April, I honestly had doubts I would be able to compete, but with God’s grace I was able to compete and managed to win the overall title and become 2023 Men’s National Champion.

Since then it’s been a road of rehab and barely any training.

Any time I’ve worked my left hand, it’s hurt for at least 2 solid days, interrupting and stopping my sleep altogether.

I have enlisted the help of my good friend, Dr Jim Wagner, and I have seen him for 2 sessions of hand therapy featuring various modalities.

Jim was nice enough to allow me to film the therapy for everyone to see.

Session #1’s filming didn’t go so well, as I was only able to capture a short segment of the first part of therapy, but the 2nd session I was able to capture it all, and I have been uploading segments to my YouTube channel, for everyone to see.

As I upload them, I’m going to be posting them here, as well.

Session #1

Session #2 – Part 1

Session #2 – Part 2

A new part of the 2nd session goes up every day or 2 on my YouTube channel, so make sure you subscribe to see how it all pans out.

Thanks and all the best in your training.

NAPALM

Video #1 in the #3aDaysofQnA

2017 Juniata Strength and Conditioning Clinic

Last week, I attended the 2017 Juniata College Strength and Conditioning Clinic. Of all the years I’ve attended, and I’ve been to I think ALL but 2 since it first took place in 2000, this was one of the best, in my opinion!

Today, I went through y notes and compiled a list of all my biggest take-aways from the clinic, and shot a video covering them all.

2017 Juniata Strength and Conditioning Clinic
Part 1

2017 Juniata Strength and Conditioning Clinic
Part 1

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the topics I cover, and of course let me know if you have any questions.

I hope you enjoy it.

All the best in your training,

Jedd

Coaches: This Program Will Help You
Reduce ACL Tears and Other Knee Injuries: Deceleration Training

At the Juniata College Strength Clinic, I was recently asked about the incidence of Tommy John surgery with pitchers and other position players. Specifically, they wanted to know if Grip Strength could be a factor in the equation.

Could a lack of grip strength be a contributor to the increases in UCL tears and the need for Tommy John Surgery?

I dig into this topic in the video below:

Tommy John Surgery and Grip Strength for Baseball Players

Want to bulletproof your elbows? Get the best resource in the world to develop grip strength for baseball players:

Strength Training and Injury Prevention for Throwing Athletes

Matt Ellis
EliteThrowsCoaching.com

Most athletes, whether you realize it or not, are throwers.

Think about it. The first throwing sports you may picture are the classics: Baseball, softball, the quarterback on the football team, the shot put, discus, and javelin throwers on the track and field team.

Those are the images that typically pop into your head when you think of a throwing athlete.

What you might not realize is that throwing motions are done in almost every sport. Think of a tennis player serving the ball, a volleyball player serving or spiking the ball, a basketball player making a big outlet pass…

How about that same basketball player making a chest pass? Isn’t that a similar movement as a football lineman pushing his opponent?

What about the soccer player throwing the ball in from out of bounds?

Or the swimmer gliding through the water using the same repetitive motions with their shoulders?

These are all throwing motions!

When you participate in sports at the high rates athletes do today, you are bound to have shoulder, elbow, wrist, and finger injuries.

Tommy John surgeries are on the rise as are rotator cuff injuries, labrum tears, and elbow tendonitis. I won’t bore you with the numbers, but the studies are out there and it is shocking how frequently these major injuries are happening each year and that the age of the athletes experiencing these injuries gets younger and younger…

Youth sports are more popular than ever. Town rec leagues, church leagues, AAU, All Star, travel leagues, sport specific coaching facilities, position specific coaching, and youth/college showcase events mean your athletes can play their sport 12 months a year without taking a true off-season.

The constant repetitive motions along with specializing at a younger age means the overuse injuries that we used to see in college and professional sports are starting to happen at the middle school and high school level.

You can’t stop younger athletes from falling in love with one sport and specializing early. It happens!

The youth sports movement will continue to grow and overuse injuries will continue to happen at the middle and high school level…

But that doesn’t mean you have to just sit around and weight for throwing injuries to come about.

You can start modifying your training NOW to head those injuries off at the pass.

It’s all about making simple, subtle changes in your strength training.

Watch the video below NOW to learn SIMPLE alternative exercises to prevent injuries in your shoulders, elbows, and hands for all your “throwing athletes.”

Special Price Lasts Just 4 Days – Click Here to Get Your Copy Today!

Stretches for the Shoulders and Lats

I am willing to bet that it has been a while since you gave your lats a good, solid stretch.

This means your results in the gym are probably being stifled.

Tight lats will inhibit your muscle growth gains. Muscles need to be limber and flexible to allow for optimal growth, and if they are tight, your results will be stunted.

Don’t believe me?

Have you ever seen how flexible bodybuilders are? They may look muscle bound, but the truth is most of them stretch their asses off in order to maintain flexibility. If your lats are tight, you are limiting the amount of size you can put on.

Tight lats also mean your shoulders will not work right and your lifts will suffer. A great example is any form of overhead lifting: Strict Press, Push Press, Log, Barbell, Axle – it doesn’t matter. Tight lats will hinder your overhead performance.

Don’t believe me?

Try this. Do any version of overhead press with a thick hoodie on. Put a belt on your waist over top of your hoodie. You will feel the hoodie begin to restrict your overhead movement once the bar passes your head. This is essentially what happens when your lats are tight too – they inhibit your movement, and the Overhead Lifting is not the only thing they affect either.

Best Way to Stretch the Lats

Watch the video below. It will will show you my favorite stretch for the shoulders and lats. If you do this 4 or 5 times a workout, your tight lats will be on their way out the door, brother.

Obviously, this stretch utilizes bands. If you don’t have any bands, then you need to get some because these things are worth their weight in gold. If you have any questions on which bands to get, just let me know.

Places to Get Bands

If you don’t have bands, order some today. Beyond stretches like the one I show today, you can use them for tons of other things. Here are a couple of sources.

Rogue Fitness Monster Bands

RBT Rubber Band Training

Start doing this stretch TODAY and I guarantee you will see better results from your muscle building and strength training, plus, your shoulders will me healthier because of it.

All the best in your training.

Jedd

Got Other Shoulder Issues?
Get Back to Pain Free Workouts with Fix My Shoulder Pain

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I am helping one of my good friends from college get back into shape after some injuries caused him to get out of lifting for a while. He has been sending me his workouts for several weeks, and one of the first things I noticed was he has been doing too much volume in his pushing movements compared to his pulling movements.

Here is a video I shot today addressing this issue, and a quick rundown on what you can do to prevent shoulder pain and injury from setting in.

Shoulder Pain Prevention

One of the biggest causes of shoulder pain is a lack of strength balance between the anterior and posterior muscles of the torso.

When the muscles of the chest and front portion of the shoulder are too strong and the muscles of the back and rear portion of the shoulder are too weak, problems can occur.

This is just one of many causes of shoulder pain, but it is also one that can most easily be prevented.

The first step in preventing shoulder pain due to muscular imbalances is to make sure you aren’t setting yourself up for muscular imbalances. You can take a step in the direction here by making better exercise selections in your training.

The simplest way to do this is to choose exercises that will naturally begin to produce antagonistic balance, or strength balance between opposing muscle groups.

This will give you some examples that will help you make smart exercise choices that will promote antagonistic balance.

Exercise Selection To Prevent Shoulder Pain and Injury

Here are some easy exercise combinations that will compliment this approach of developing antagonistic balance.

Bench Press + Bent Over Row

Military Press + Pull-ups

Incline Press + Pull-downs

Close Grip Bench Press + Seated Narrow Grip Rows

Front Raise + Straight Arm Pull-downs

These exercise combinations will get you going in the right direction towards workouts that will still allow you to push big weight in the gym, plus they will help keep you going strong for many years because you will keep your shoulders healthier than someone else who overloads the pushing muscles and neglects the pulling muscles.

All the best in your training.

Jedd

DIESELS,

This week, I have been posting and emailing quite a bit about elbow pain.

The main reason I have put so much emphasis on this week is because my buddy Rick Kaselj and I updated our program, Fixing Elbow Pain, and we put together an improved version.

We took our already helpful program and make it better based on feedback we’ve received from past customers.

The other reason why I wanted to focus on this is because over the last couple of weeks, I have talked with MANY of you who have been reporting elbow pain, especially Tennis Elbow.

I asked Rick if he could do me favor and just shoot a quick video on some of the basic causes of Tennis Elbow. Rick knows his stuff. He has 20+ years of experiencing helping people get out of pain, and it turns out elbow pain is a common injury he helps people with.

So, check out this video and understand the causes of Tennis Elbow.

As you can see, Tennis Elbow pain can be developed in as quickly as a day or two from doing an extra building job at your house, or by doing too much training over the course of a weekend.

It can also be something that is more cumulative – it can result over the course of several weeks, such as doing bigger home-improvement projects, or by specializing on one certain aspect of training in a micro-cycle, such as if you are attacking grippers hard for a while, or working on lifting the Blob or Inch.

Getting Rid of Tennis Elbow

If you’ve got it, Rick can help you get rid of it with his multi-faceted rehab program. Many people have actually reported that they have noticed a change in pain after as little as just one workout.

Avoiding Tennis Elbow and Keeping it Away For Good

If you want to keep elbow pain away for good, I will share with you EXACTLY what I do week in and week out to stay healthy. Some of the techniques I show on the Preventive side can also be used to fix pain as well. I can’t wait to share this with you.

Special Bonuses if You Grab It Today

If you haven’t grabbed Fixing Elbow Pain 2.0 yet, take note that Rick and I added 3 time-sensitive bonuses this week and they are being pulled down after this weekend.

Here are the bonuses:

Bonus #1 – Indestructible Elbows – This is awesome. This is a program that Jedd put together that you can do to fend off elbow pain from ever coming back again.

Bonus #2 – Secrets to Pain Free Elbows – This is a coaching call that Jedd and I did with past customers, answering their questions and expanding on the Fixing Elbow Pain program.

Bonus #3 – Private Coaching Call – Jedd and I will be doing one more private coaching call in the next few week. The first one went so well and helped a lot of people and we will do another one.

All the best in your training,

Jedd

DIESELS!

Elbow Pain is something that causes problems for any lifter.

It doesn’t matter what style of training or sport you practice, if your elbow is riddled with pain, it is going to keep you from lifting the weights you want to, it can keep you from performing your best, and it can be a little distraction that just sits there all the time in the back of your mind, and you will always be thinking about it and wondering when it it is going to bother you again…

I got the following email today in my inbox just as I was starting the below post. This is a question I get on a routine basis, so I thought I would address it here for all of you.

“Hello Jedd, my name is Alex. I am definitely a fan of your site. Since you’ve been injured before, maybe you could help me out.

I sustained an injury while doing 600 lbs calve raises. I was diagnosed with patellofemoral syndrome by the physical therapist, and I had real sore knees for six months.

Because it took so long to heal, I now have a fear of getting injured and I am always sore, even when I work out. I wonder, is that little twinge of pain in my wrist flexors indicative of a larger problem, or is it nothing?

Anyway, this fear of injury is causing me a lot of problems with really going to my full potential. Even now, I’m starting to be afraid of training my forearms, which I never thought would happen before. I’m afraid my wrist tendons will snap clean off the bone.

Anyway, Jedd, maybe you have some advice for me?”

Hell yeah, I have advice for you.

Do everything in your power to prevent these injuries BEFORE THEY HAPPEN, because even if that muscle never tears, and all you get is an injury to the connective tissues, that will be bad enough.

My recommendation right away is to grab our book, Fixing Elbow Pain 2.0 RIGHT NOW while we have it on sale and start implementing the preventive strategies I cover TODAY.

Diesels, I have suffered from High Forearm and Elbow Pain on more occasions than I care to count. The first time I got it, I was doing a lot of Steel Bending while I was also doing Odd Object Lifting like Atlas Stone Training.

Both of these activities are completely safe if you watch the volume and have good technique. Unfortunately for me, I was NOT monitoring volume because I thought I was some kind of tough guy, and I was very new at Atlas Stone Lifting, so I was probably lacking a bit in the technique area too.

What resulted from this lack of attention to volume and technique was some of the worst pain I’ve ever been in – a combined case of Tennis Elbow (lateral epicondylitis) and Golfer’s Elbow (Medial epicondylitis). Both of these conditions are bad enough alone, but I had a serious case of each of them and getting through a workout meant at least a half dozen ibuprofen – I was probably on way to developing an ulcer as well!

Fortunately, these cases are preventible if you follow some really simple prevention methods, which I’d like to cover below.

How to Prevent High Forearm and Elbow Pain

1. Warm-up Properly

The muscles and connective tissues of the high forearm and elbow area need to be warmed up in order to function properly and to keep injuries away. In the video below I show what I do at the end of my full warm-up session in order to make sure my forearms are flushed with blood and the joints lubricated.

2. Stretch Post-Workout

If you are not stretching the forearm and hand muscles out at the end of your workout, then you are initiating a countdown to injury. Stretching helps to reduce the tension in the muscles, relaxing them, and allowing them to more fully recover. Skipping stretching is so 2001! It only takes 3 minutes to stretch out the forearms effectively, so I don’t want to hear any excuses.

3. Stretch Contributing Muscle Areas

Any time I feel tension building in the area near the elbows and epicondyles, I schedule a 30-minute massage. To my surprise, sometimes she isn’t even concerned about the epicondyle area, but rather up the chain to the upper arm. You see, the tricep had gotten do tight, it was pulling on the lower forearm bones and causing issues for the entire elbow. Here is what I do in order to keep this pain from coming back, 3 times a week.

For Alex, I would tell him to stretch his biceps. They could very well be tight and causing the same kinds of problems to his elbow, just on the other side. If you notice above, he said it is the flexor muscles that he is worried about. And along the lines of worrying – that’s got to stop right now! When you worry, you focus too much on the problem. Instead of worrying, pick up my program, Fixing Elbow Pain 2.0, follow my preventive strategies in the 2nd ebook, and you won’t have to worry anymore.

On top of the three things I show above, I also have a handful of exercises I do every single week in order to keep the lateral portion of the high forearm/elbow strong and stimulated. Weakness in the area is also a contributor, so I make sure there is NO CHANCE for weakness in the area.

DIESELS, I haven’t had a serious bout of epiconylitis in over 2 years since employing these regular prevention methods and I have done nothing since then but train harder and harder and harder.

I am confident that if more people followed my lead, fewer people would suffer from annoying pain like this. The information is available for CHEAP, a fraction of the cost of actual physical therapy, that’s for sure, so I am not sure why more people don’t get our ebook.

I talk all about these exercises in Fix My Elbow Pain (Special Price Right Now). Rick Kaselj and I worked together on this. He covered the REHAB portion, and I called the PRE-HAB and PREVENTIVE side.

Believe me, you DON’T want this kind of pain. I will show you exactly how to keep it away. Just click the image below.

All the best in your training,

Jedd

I am going out of town this weekend to visit my sister, so I want to learn more about you so I can help you out more with your training in the future.

Be sure to sign up for further updates on Grip Strength Training.

Thanks for filling out the survey and Happy Memorial Day.

Jedd

Special Offer from My Mad Methods until June 15:
Free Tank Top with a 24/48-month Digital Subscription

This is a guest post from Jerry Shreck, co-author of Deceleration Training to Prevent ACL Tears.

Can We Prevent ACL Tears?

Imagine for a moment this situation…

There he goes, sprinting down the field.

The ball is passed to him…

He cuts left to go get it…

POP!

Oh no, his right knee just buckled out from under him.

He is obviously in tremendous pain. The Medical staff is going out to check on him. A hush falls over the crowd. He is being carried off the field. This does not look good, hopefully he will not miss the rest of the season.

Unfortunately, this is an all too often repeated story for athletes in many of our stop-and-go sports, like Soccer, Basketball, Football, Field Hockey, and LaCrosse. Athletes can go years without injury and then in one cut, one quick slant, or in one quick deceleration, SNAP – there goes their ACL.

Why Does This Happen?

You have to ask yourself, “Why does this happen?” Why is it that the number of ACL tears increases each year? How is it possible that with all the advancements in training that this still continues to happen???

As I sit here and write up this article, I am not going to profess to have all the answers, I am not going to proclaim that I am the world’s leading expert in injury prevention, and I am not going to dazzle you with physiological terms that you will need to look up in order to understand everything.

What I am going to tell you about is what I have seen in my 10+ years working with athletes as a Strength and Conditioning Coach, and I will give you some of my thoughts and opinions as to why ACL injuries happen more and more each year and what just might be the biggest factor in preventing ACL tears.

What is the ACL?

First, let’s briefly explain what the ACL is and what its role is. ACL stands for Anterior Cruciate Ligament. The ACL connects the femur (upper leg bone) to the tibia (lower leg bone) and prevents the tibia (shin) from moving forward when slowing down or stopping.

By controlling movement like this, the ACL helps to stabilize the knee. Understand that there are more structures and ligaments that support the knee, but we are going to focus solely on the ACL right now.

Types of ACL Tears

When an ACL tears, athletes will typically explain a “popping” sensation in the knee at the time of injury. There are predominately two ways the ACL gets torn: (1) through contact and (2) through non-contact.

A contact ACL tear is described as being the result of a collision or contact with someone or something violently. An example of this would be when a football lineman is involved in a pile-up and another lineman falls onto his knee. When the other player falls upon the compromised player, this is the contact that causes the ACL tear.

A non-contact ACL tear is when there is no apparent contact with anyone and the knee buckles under loading from the athlete him or herself. Many times this will occur when an athlete is sprinting and goes to cut on an angle. The knee buckles and you have the same scenario described in the first paragraph. Changing directions, landing after a jump or leap, and other types of movements that involve decelerating the body are what bring about non-contact ACL tears.

As a D-I Strength Coach, I train hundreds of athletes with weights each week, trying to strengthen the supporting muscular integrity of the body with the main goal of preventing injuries. Although we can get our athletes stronger, contact tears are almost impossible to prevent.

Changes in Reporting and Diagnosing

So why then are non-contact tears on the rise in athletics?

Well I think the obvious reason is that we have much better medical advances today for diagnosis. There are Athletic Trainers at sporting events, Doctors specializing on knees, better advancements in MRIs and surgical procedures, and more sports reporting with stats than ever before. So it would make logical sense that we would hear more about these injuries because we have more people actively looking for and diagnosing them.

Now ask someone in their forties, fifties, or sixties that played sports about how many ACL tears they saw or knew of when they played. Most of them will probably say it was not much of an issue back then or that they never knew of anyone tearing an ACL.

So why in the last 20-30 years have ACL tears become much more prevalent, particularly in the last 10 years?

Popularity of Women’s Sports

One reason has to do with the increased popularity of women’s sports. There are more women competing competitively than ever before. What does this have to do with ACL Tears?

As it turns out, there are many studies which show that women are at a much higher risk for tearing an ACL than male athletes. For instance, the hip to knee angle is different for women, due to childbearing purposes. This difference in angle can lead to a higher susceptibility for knee injuries. Studies also show that hormone differences in female athletes can increase injury statistics.

Although the studies support this, I truly feel that the reason we continue to see increases in the number of athletes’ in general with ACL injuries actually has much more to do with the practices of our youth these days.

Youth Athletic Practices – Specialization

Quick question: How many 3- and 4-sport athletes are we seeing today?

There are some still, but more and more I am seeing athletes specializing in just one sport at increasingly younger ages. My daughter plays soccer, and I know many of the kids on her team now play school soccer in the fall, then go into an indoor league over the winter, then straight into an AYSO spring season, and right onto a traveling club team in the summer.

No exposure to anything else.

I recently went to a clinic and listened to a Physical Therapist talk about this very subject and he explained the detrimental effects of sport-specific over-specialization for youth. He went on to mention that kids who specialize in a sport like this get very little time off from their sport and receive too much exposure to the same types of repetitive sports movements.

Without going to deep in detail, the Physical Therapist pointed out that specialization at an early age like this can make the neurological proprioceptors in the ligaments kind of “numb.” What he meant was, these receptors need to have tensile strength when stressed, but due to over-specialization, what can result is a ligament that is slightly relaxed, becoming more susceptible to injury, such as an ACL tear.

I had never heard it explained like that before but judging by what I have seen, it sure did make a lot of sense.

At this point, we know a couple of possible reasons why the stats on ACLs continue to increase each year. Now I would like to discuss what I think is the biggest contributing factor to this puzzling problem.

The Biggest Factor Leading to ACL Tears

When I was a kid growing up, I would go home and eat something real quick and then head out to practice (whatever sport I was doing at that time) and when I came home from practice I usually would run around and get involved in a game of kickball or capture the flag until my mother would call me in (by shouting to me, not with a cell phone) for dinner. Many times I would go right back out and play until I was called back in to shower up and go to bed.

I bet you can identify with this, if you think back to your childhood. We were always on the go and we were always doing different things.

Unfortunately I am not seeing this kind of thing anymore. What I am seeing is kids go to practice (and they give it their all), but at the end of practice coaches are telling their players to go home and recover, stretch, and take it easy to rest up for the upcoming game.

Now, I know this does not sound like a bad thing to say but I think it is being said too often. In reality, most young athletes are going to go home and do very little physical activity outside of their practices or games anyways. This is the biggest problem of today’s youth!

Our youth today sit all day at school, and then when not at practice sit down watch TV, texting, at the computer, or playing video games in all their free time. It is my belief that the increased levels of inactivity our young athletes are doing is actually de-conditioning them and setting them up for injuries down the road.

All this time in seated positions is shortening and tightening their hip flexors. Tight hip flexors often lead to inhibited and weaker glute muscles. The glutes should be some of the strongest muscles in the body, but due to lack of stimulation and inhibition, the glutes become weak and this is a huge problem when it comes to sports where landing, deceleration, and changes of directions are necessary.

Changes in Strength Levels in College Athletes

Ten years ago, my freshmen athletes were having strength deficiencies in the hamstrings in relationship to their quads. That is not what I see anymore with incoming freshmen. I am seeing a complete lack of glute firing when trying to teach any triple extension movement, knees buckling in when squatting, and the inability to straighten their legs and touch the floor without pain and discomfort.

In plain English, kids just don’t know how to use their glutes anymore! I am convinced that there is a direct relationship between shortened hip flexors and the inability to get the glute muscles to actively respond to athletic movements.

With this thought process in mind, I have designed a complete training system for re-educating the glutes and making them fire again like they are supposed to during athletic movements. Seeing that the glutes should be the strongest and most powerful muscles in the body, it just makes sense to come up with a way to neurologically get these muscles activated again.

How Athletes Move

Let’s take a look again at the example given at the beginning of this article to discuss what happens with most non-contact ACL tears.

An athlete is sprinting forward and decides to cut to the left. The athlete will plant the right foot and turn the body to the left and should push off the right foot and extend the ankle, knee, and hip (triple extension) to complete the cut and change of direction. If the athlete is not getting good gluteal activation, then he/she will be unable to properly decelerate into the plant or correctly accelerate into the cutting motion.

Because the glutes are not doing what they are supposed to be doing, the quads must take over. This situation is referred to as “quad-dominance” because the athlete is using the quads to decelerate and generate power instead of using their glutes.

The Problem with Quad Dominance

The quads are made up of 4 muscles that attach to the kneecap and run down over it and to the front of the tibia (shin bone). If the quads dominate during deceleration and acceleration, there will be forward pulling placed on the tibia and with the momentum of the forward sprint, you can easily see how this additional tension is placed on the ACL to keep the tibia pulling forward.

If the force pulling the tibia forward is excessive, then as the athlete starts to rotate, it can stretch the ACL to its breaking point. Game Over!

To the contrary, if the glutes remain the dominant muscle group when going into the change of direction, there will be less forward tension placed on the tibia and the knee will be kept in a position behind the toes. Aside from being safer for the athlete’s knee, this will also result in the athlete being able to cut more smoothly and with much more power.

The Basis of Deceleration Training

Knowing the importance of gluteal involvement in the stop-and-go sporting movements, I set out to design a way to build up the glute strength in all my athletes. I have had this Deceleration Training System in place for the past 8 years. Over that time, thousands of athletes have successfully gone through this simple but effective training progression. It is something we begin working on from the beginning with all athletes and continue to do so for many weeks.

The results have been extremely positive with a huge decrease in ACL tears at my University.

This system has worked so well for me and with my athletes, I personally believe that every coach should implement the principles of it. I know this will help many coaches and athletes.

So I go back to the title of this article. Can We Prevent ACL Tears? Yes I Think We Can! Although I don’t think we will ever be able to prevent 100% of ACL tears, especially those related to contact-scenarios, I am certain without doubt that this system has prevented knees from being damaged over the last 8 years!

To find out more about the exact System I use with my athletes, check out Deceleration Training to Prevent ACL Tears.

Thank you,

Jerry Shreck
VarietyTrainer.com

Stay up to date on new posts and information on ACL Tear Prevention by adding your email to the box below and we will keep you posted on new information to help you and your athletes prevent ACL Tears

In a short poll I did on Facebook, one of the most commonly mentioned exercises that causes wrist pain for my Facebook friends ended up being the Bench Press.

If the bench Press is a lift that bothers your wrists as well, then I hope you check out the video below.

In it, I talk about the alignment of the wrist bones and how these bones interact with the bones of the hand and forearm. In addition, I also talk about how to take care of the wrists to keep them feeling good so that they do not affect your Bench Press training.

So, in review, make sure to keep these three points in mind when you are Benching:

Warm-up: Get some blood flowing into your hands and wrists so that the tissues become more pliable and you can better exert force into the bar.

Stretch Between Sets: You would be surprised how much of a difference it makes for your wrists if you do some light stretching between sets. The Thumb + First Two Stretch that I show in the video above is a favorite of mine.

Use Proper Technique: Part of the correct bench press technique is to keep the wrist straight. Having the wrist bent way back can cause extreme pressure in the wrist. This change may feel weird at first, but over time you will grow used to it and enjoy the reduction of nagging pain in the wrist.

I think these slight changes in your technique, preparation, and approach will pay big dividends for you in your training, by helping you to avoid wrist pain.

If you are experiencing wrist pain, and you want to end it for good, you should check out Fix My Wrist Pain. Rick Kaselj and I worked together on this and it is helping people out already.

Special Introductory Price ($27) Ends Tonight – Grab FMWP Today!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below and I will be glad to get back with you.

All the best in your training.

“Napalm” Jedd Johnson

Superstar Billy Graham, circa: 1974

Many times over the years I have heard statements like the following:

“I don’t train arms, because I am not a bodybuilder, I am a strength athlete.”

“I don’t train arms, because I do rows.”

“I don’t do curls, because I only do multi-joint exercises.”

“I don’t do curls, because blah blah blah.”

I will be honest, I have even made statements such as these in the past because I thought it was a waste of time.

After all, for quite some time, I didn’t do dedicated Bicep Training and my arms are still bigger than most people’s.

However, ever since this past August when I watched a friend tear his bicep during a grip contest, I have taken a different viewpoint on this “issue.”

I talk about it in this video:

Superstar Billy Graham, circa: 1974

Many times over the years I have heard statements like the following:

“I don’t train arms, because I am not a bodybuilder, I am a strength athlete.”

“I don’t train arms, because I do rows.”

“I don’t do curls, because I only do multi-joint exercises.”

“I don’t do curls, because blah blah blah.”

I will be honest, I have even made statements such as these in the past because I thought it was a waste of time.
After all, for quite some time, I didn’t do dedicated Bicep Training and my arms are still bigger than most people’s.
However, ever since this past August when I watched a friend tear his bicep during a grip contest, I have taken a different viewpoint on this “issue.”
I talk about it in this video:

I have received questions about Speed Bag Hitting lately.

I have a handful of videos up on YouTube that can help with this.

Basic Speedbag Hitting Techniques

Working into Some Advanced Techniques

Really Advanced Stuff: Quadruple Elbow Strikes

Some Really Crazy Stuff: Covering Eyes While Hitting

But It All Started With This, Diesels

Everybody’s gotta start somewhere. When I first started, I couldn’t do any of the advanced stuff. I couldn’t even do the basic stuff!

The video directly above is me after just a couple of months of having my own platform. It was lame cheap-o model that shook and vibrated, and I needed the big bag in order to maintain control on the bag.

Hitting the speedbag is a great type of training to add to your routine. While challenging, it can also be very relaxing as well as useful for warm-up for the shoulders and elbows, something very important for those of you who train your grip hard and are susceptible to things like tennis elbow and other elbow pain.

In fact, I made speed bag hitting part of my warm-up for about a year straight because it helped me get blood into my upper forearm and elbow area, and kept things like forearm and elbow pain away.

I am planning on putting up a new platform for hitting the speedbag. I used to do it just about every day, but I had to take my old platform down when I added a bathroom downstairs, and have begun to really miss it.

Hopefully, I can get something installed soon, and you can look forward to more speed bag videos.

All the best in your training.

Jedd

Hey DIESELS!

As you know, the Shoulders are extremely important to us for our training, whether we are Powerlifters, Strongman Competitors, Strongman Performers, Steel Benders or Grip Sport Competitors. If you bang up a shoulder, it is going to affect you in many more ways than just when trying to push some weight overhead.

We’ve been putting out a lot of information this week about the Shoulder and how to prevent and begin to take care of beat up shoulders.

Something Cool, Coming Soon

Luckily, I was taught proper technique for the shoulder from the beginning, so I have never had too many issues. Mostly, the things I have had go wrong with my shoulders have been from some sort of trauma – falling while playing paintball, over-doing it in beer league softball, things like that. My training, historically, has not been rough on my shoulders.

However, there are a bunch of exercises that are very common in many people’s strength training programs that can be treacherous for the shoulders. Some of them I have examined in the past, and I thought I would bring them back to the forefront this week, since shoulder health is so important for all of us.

First, we will look at Upright Rows. I am sorry, but from all of the information I have read and heard about at clinics, I can not recommend these to anybody. One of my friends, Josh Dale, asked me for my thoughts on these last year and I shot a video on them, which appears below.

Upright Rows

The next exercise is Dumbbell Rows. These, I feel, are an excellent exercise, along with many other forms of rows. They are very effective at promoting that Antagonistic Balance that I look for so much in my exercise selection. However, if you perform them incorrectly, you can negate the strength balance aspect of this exercise by setting your shoulder up for some serious underlying trauma that you might not feel until a long while down the road, so I encourage you to check out these videos.

Side Rows

I realize I have a tendency to get long winded. The fact is, I feel very strongly about the information I am discussing and sometimes I just keep talking. I want to provide the best information I can and sometimes in my efforts to do so, the videos end up longer.

I hope these videos help you. I like getting notes from people talking about PR’s, not trips to the ER. Stay safe, stay strong and as always…

All the best in your training.

Jedd

If you are on my newsletter, a couple of weeks back you saw that I asked you to tell me about your shoulder pain. If you are not on it, just use the box in the upper portion of the right hand margin to get signed up and get some cool gifts.

I couldn’t believe the dozens of responses I got when I asked about shoulder pain. It seems quite a lot of you have shoulder pain. Out of all of the responses, many conditions were brought up, including Bicep Tendon Tendonitis and Rotator Cuff issues, and many of you have had accidents, falls, and other traumas that have caused injuries like torn labrums and other issues.

The reason I asked for this information is because Rick Kaselj, the dude I produced Fixing Elbow Pain with, offered to put together a video on prevention and recovery for shoulder pain. I told him I would survey you all and let him know what the most common issue was.

Although many shoulder pain problems were reported, by far the most common shoulder injury was Shoulder Impingement. I’d say of all the responses about half of you are experiencing shoulder impingement, and many of you have had it either for years or off and on for years.

So, I sent this info to Rick and he came back with the following video, explaining what shoulder impingement is and some simple courses of action to start correcting it.

If you are suffering from shoulder impingement, those simple movements could be just what you need to get out of your pain.

I would suggest doing the Pull-Aparts several times a day. Even if you have a demanding job, you can find the time to do a set of 20 Pull-Aparts here and there. Keep the tubing in your work desk or in your locker, and start building them into your daily routine.

Along the lines of Shoulder Pain, Rick and Mike Westerdall have also put out a very quick 4-question quiz on shoulder pain that you should check out. It will only take like 1 minute to fill out and they have a bunch of other videos to share with you about taking care of your shoulders and preventing pain.

Just click on the banner below and it will take you right to the quiz.

Thanks and all the best with your shoulder pain.

Jedd

Instant Relief from Back Pain

If you struggle with lower back pain, then today’s post is for you. I think this could really help out a lot of people.

Just understand that I am not a doctor. I am merely telling you what has worked for me many times over the years to get relief from back pain.

A Little About My Back Pain History

Some of you already know this about me, but for those who do not, let me give you a run-down of my back pain history.

Every single day of my life, I experience some degree of back pain.

Every single day.

Many people think this came from Strongman Training, Lifting Stones, and things like that, but that is not true.

It all started when I was in ninth grade in gym class.

We were playing a game called Greenie Weenie. The Gym Teacher, would throw a giant green towel wrapped in athletic tape into the center of the wrestling room and we’d have to go in there and fight for it.

On one particular day, instead of fighting for the towel, I just grabbed it and the other two kids (it was a handicap match) and started dragging them back to my base, all hunched over.

I felt something pop and then sizzle inside my lower back and my whole body went limp.

I stood up and limped back to my side of the wrestling room.

Ever since that day, some 18 or so years ago, I have had to contend with the fact that at any given time, my back might “go out” again.

My Most Recent Back “Injury”

Instead of going into all the many times my back has gone out, let’s just fast-forward to last weekend.

It was my 15-year high school reunion for my graduating class and we played a bunch of fun games, including Kan Jam, but Greenie Weenie, thankfully, did not get played.

Anyway, at some point during the day, as I was trying to catch a frisbie, my left foot slipped and my back popped out ever so slightly.

Thankfully, this was only a minor subluxation – nothing compared to how bad it has been sometimes. I credit this to the amount of stretching I have been doing and some of the strengthening movements I have been doing with one of my new coaches, Niko Hulslander.

What I was feeling was this low level burning sensation below my glute muscle. From what I am told, this is due to an issue with my Sacroiliac joint, which can result in inflammation in the joint and thenerve as well. I also was feeling tightness in my Quadratus Lumborum, something that is also very common for me to have take place.

On Monday, I went for a chiropractic appointment, but unfortunately it was one of those times where the visit did nothing for me.

Fortunately, I did a very simple exercise during Tuesday’s workout and it got my back to adjust perfectly. I felt instant relief, so I wanted to tell all of you about it right away as well.

Check out this 4-minute video that explains why this works.

INSTANT RELIEF after the first set!

DISCLAIMER: I am not a doctor and I don’t pretend that I know all the answers for getting people out of pain, but I know this simple exercise helped me out a great deal. I suggest anyone who wants to try this first consult with a doctor before doing so.

By the way, I also own a set of Inversion Boots. For me, they have not worked nearly as well as just a short set of dips. In the past, I used to do a quick set of dips every workout with the sole purpose of making my back adjust if it needed to. For whatever reason, I got out of the habit of doing this, but you can bet that I am going to start doing them on a routine basis again.

Look, I hate being hurt, and I know there are lots of people out there who share the agony of pain in their lower back. Maybe this will help you as well (once you run it by your doctor first).

Let me know how it works for you if you give it a try.

Jedd

How to Prevent ACL Tears

DIESELS!

If you are on my email newsletter then the chances are you have already heard about the product I released this week with my friend, Jerry Shreck, called Deceleration Training to Prevent ACL Tears. I used to know very little about the ACL, until last summer when I roomed with Jerry at a Strength Clinic I attended. I quickly came to realize that Jerry was like the Shaolin Master of ACL Prevention.

I have learned a tremendous amount of information from Jerry, and I thought I would share some of that info with all of you, because some of this stuff is pretty eye-opening.

What is the ACL?

First off, the ACL is a ligament in your knee that helps give your knee stability. ACL stands for Anterior Cruciate Ligament. It literally crosses from your upper leg bone, the femur, down to the larger lower leg bone, the tibia, thus the name cruciate, meaning “to cross.”

Why Does the ACL Tear?

It turns out that one of the reasons that the ACL Tears has to do with the lower leg translating forward of the upper leg. Twisting of course does not help matters either. But the root cause has to do with positioning of the lower leg.

What Types of ACL Tears are There?

There are actually two main types of ACL Tears: Contact ACL Tears and Non-Contact ACL Tears. Let’s define these and go into a bit more detail on them.

Contact ACL Tears: In this case the athlete is hit by some sort of outside force. A very violent example is when a football player or soccer player gets tackled or hit by another player and the force results in the ACL injury. You’ve seen old footage of chop blocks in the NFL – that would be a prime example of how a Contact ACL Tear can take place. Less intentional examples are out there too, of course. For instance, if there is a pile-up when going for a fumble in football, a loose ball in basketball, or if there is brawl on the baseball field, it is always a risk that one player is going to fall on or roll onto the knee of another player’s knee and possibly do some serious damage to the ACL.

The thing that sucks about Contact ACL Tears is that you really have no control over the situation. Since pile-ups, aggressive play, and accidental falls are just part of the game when it comes to many different sports, you never know when someone might experience and ACL injury. Those are the kinds of things that are best not worried about, and just hope that it doesn’t happen.

However, Non-Contact ACL Tears are different…

Non-Contact ACL Tears: In these cases, a player is simply moving about the field or court during regular play, and the positioning or movement that takes place causes the injury. One second everything is going well and then out of nowhere the player is on the ground, holding their knee, cringing in pain because the ACL Tore.

Causes of ACL Tears

Often, what happens is one of several things:

1. Slowing Down: The athlete was sprinting and then has to slow down to a halt very quickly. This change in speed brings about the ACL Tear.

2. Landing: The athlete jumped or bounded and when they landed the forces of deceleration are too much for the knee to handle and the ACL takes the loading and pops.

3. Cutting / Angling: The athlete is moving quickly down the field of play and makes an offensive maneuver to get around another player and during the cutting motion the ACL fails and the tear takes place.

4. Changing Directions: The athlete stops and must change directions completely and in doing so the momentum is too much for the knee to handle and again, the ACL fails under the loading.

These are just four examples, but Jerry says he has seen all of these things take place over the years. And every single time there is a tear, the athlete usually misses the rest of the season, and in some cases their athletic career is very negatively affected and sometimes even brought to an end.

ACL injuries are not things that take place only at the University level where Jerry works. I’ve seen footage of baseball players who, in a rage to argue with an umpire, have tried to make a power move around their coach and in doing so have severely injured their knee.

This scenario is altogether too common in Girls’ Youth Soccer. The kids are moving up and down the field having a great time, when all of a sudden one of them goes to make a move and they fall down in a heap. Your heart sinks as they roll on their back clenching their knee to their chest.

You really have to wonder how many scholarships have been lost over the years due to injuries like this. Again, you don’t have to get a 300-lb Lineman dropped on your knee for these things to happen – they can take place at very innocent spots in games, even when doing things you have done hundreds or even thousands of times before.

Factors That Contribute to ACL Tears

Gender Descriminating Risk Factor: Unfortunately, in some ways, nature has set things up so that certain players are more at risk than others for an ACL Tear. Females, for instance, have a wider hip-to-knee angle than males. Because their hips are wider, it creates a different angle from their hip down to their knee which can lend a higher chance for an ACL to tear.

Quad Dominance: Many athletes are Quad Dominant when it comes to decelerating their bodies. If you look at the 4 main scenarios described above (slowing down, cutting, landing, changing directions), all of them have to do with deceleration. If an athlete is accustomed to achieving deceleration by engaging predominantly the Quadriceps musculature, they run an increased risk for an ACL Tear. The reason has to do with the fact that the Quads are pulling on the lower leg bone, the tibia, and contibuting to that forward translation of the lower leg, and putting more strain on the ACL itself.

Weak Gluteals: The Glutes are the most powerful muscles in the body. Although they are usually thought of as muscles that will provide the power for athletic movements like leaping and sprinting, they are often forgotten when it comes to deceleration. This is a serious problem, because if an athlete is not using their Glutes, they will more than likely HAVE to use their Quads to decelerate, which we’ve already established is a bad practice.

Tight Hip Flexors: Incidentally, another contributing factor to weak glutes is tight hip flexors. You see, in many cases, when a muscle or muscle group on one side of the body is overly tight, often, the muscle groups on the opposite side of the body suffer. This happens to the upper back muscles when the chest and torso are too tight, and it happens to the gluteals when the hip flexors are too tight. And what is one of the main causes of tight hip flexors? Inordinate amounts of time in a seated position. Many student athletes spend all day seated in class, seated on the bus or in the car, and often, once practice or games are done, they can be found seated watching TV or surfing the internet. All of this contributes to tight hip flexors, weak and inactive glutes, and poor deceleration mechanics which stresses out the ACL, potentially causing a tear.

How to Prevent ACL Tears

So, the question is, how do we prevent the ACL Tear from taking place? This question brings us back to the program Jerry has been using at his University for the last several years.

Once Jerry gets the incoming Freshman into a schedule, he immediately starts running them through his program. His program immediately targets the glutes, gets them to wake up from years of dis-use, a summer spent detraining, and begins corrective action with his specific drills.

Just like any scientist, he first establishes a baseline with each athlete. He does this by assessing their deceleration abilities. He does this with an exercise you have probably heard of, called a Box Jump.

Now, when most people think of Box Jumps, they usually think of one of two things. One is Plyo-Box Training and trying to jump on top of or over the highest box possible.

The other is the Crossfit Box Hop activity where they jump up and down on top of a box for a set number of reps as fast as they can.

These are not the types of Box Jumps that Jerry does with his athletes.

Instead, Jerry has a moderate height box that the athletes can reach without too much effort, because Jerry isn’t looking for Power or Jumping Mechanics, he’s looking at landing mechanics. The bottom line is if you can’t land on a box the right way, there is almost no chance in hell you can decelerate your body properly after jumping up into the air to spike a volleyball or when performing a powerful cross-over dribble on the basketball court.

Jerry’s program starts out with the Box Deceleration drill and progresses in a step-by-step manner to more demanding drills, all the while re-inforcing glute activation.

Then, after several weeks, the athlete has essentially transformed their deceleration mechanics so that they no longer are decelerating with their quads, and instead are doing so with the correct muscles.

Jerry says that many times his athletes are able to improve their power production on the courts as well, because their glutes are so much better conditioned once they go through the program, on top of having safer, stronger knees to work with.

It’s been a great learning experience for me, teaming up with Jerry on this project. I strongly suggest you pick up our program, Deceleration Training to Prevent ACL Tears, especially if you or a family member participates in a stop-and-go sport such as football, rugby, soccer, basketball, volleyball, or lacrosse. All of these sports see far too many ACL Tears each year and many of them, sadly, are preventable.

All the best in your training,

Jedd

Lift Better, Lift Barefoot

This is a guest post from Shaun Daws (aka Barefoot Dawsy) from BeginningBarefoot.com. Shaun is an experienced barefoot runner and general exercise enthusiast. I first became aware of Shaun when I saw one of his articles on another site, and I asked him to do a featured article here at Diesel 1. Over the last couple of years, I have turned to training in bare feet during the warm months, and during the cold months, I go with socks and house slippers (just check out my videos). Check out what Shaun has to say about barefoot training and running.

-Jedd-

When was the last time you included foot training in your exercise routine? If you’re like most people, then the thought has probably never even occurred to you! But did you know that just a few simple additions to your workouts can improve your lifting and reduce your chances of injury?

Before we get into exercising your feet, you may want to spend a few minutes thinking about what you put on them. If you take a close look at most traditional running shoes, you’ll notice one thing almost immediately. Padding.

There is padding the length of the sole, and more likely than not, you will see a built-up heel of some description. This extra padding is designed primarily for runners, to reduce the impact forces caused by repeatedly slamming your foot into pavement a couple thousand times per session.

Disadvantages of Conventional Shoes

All that padding may seem like a good idea for runners, but for people who lift weights, it just gets in the way. There are several reasons for this:

1. Instability

The main reason to avoid padding in your shoes is that it introduces instability to your lifts. Typically, padded shoes will not compress evenly, so you may find your feet being forced into slightly off-kilter angles. The amount that they shift is dependent on the type and amount of material used in the shoe. In some cases, this instability can have a significant impact into the amount of weight that can be lifted.

Having a nice, strong base will allow you to correctly place your feet before you lift and know that they will not move. Once you have a strong base established, you can hang good form on it, and lift at your best.

2. Altered Form

A little bit of padding below your entire foot is detrimental, but a built up heel can cause serious changes in your form that will only become worse the more you lift. Imagine that instead of standing in shoes, you’re standing on a ramp. Now, if you wanted to do a squat, for example, you would need to compensate for the angle of your feet by bending your back a bit more.

The higher your heel is above your toes, the more your back will need to curve, which will in turn reduce the amount of pressure it can withstand. This results in less weight lifted, possibly more pain, and even a higher chance of injury on some lifts.

By keeping your feet flat on the ground, it is much easier to keep your back aligned and lift with good form.

3. Increased Lifting Distance

With some lifts, such as the deadlift, height plays a significant role. If you have shorter legs, the distance that you need to lift the bar off the ground is less, which means that it will take less effort. Conversely, if your legs are longer (or if you wear thick, padded shoes), you’re effectively increasing the distance that the bar needs to travel. Sure, the difference may seem small, but over the long run, and especially when many reps are involved, this small distance is amplified.

You can’t make your legs shorter, but you can stop them from being higher off the ground than they need to be.

Less Is More – Common Types of Minimalist Shoes

Right now is a great time to start looking for new footwear. The recent surge in production of minimalist shoes means that now, more than ever, you have your pick from dozens, if not hundreds, of different styles. This blessing can seem like a curse sometimes, however, as it can boggle the mind trying to figure out which shoes are best.

To get you started, here are a few popular choices that you’ll probably start seeing around the gym more and more:

Converse Chuck Taylors All Stars

These are the quintessential old-school fitness shoe. They’re flat, comfortable, and have that retro feel. People have been lifting in them for the better part of a century and they’re a good all-around shoe. Some folks find that the base is still a little high, and the canvas outers can be a bit scratchy, especially if you don’t like wearing socks.

Vibram Five Fingers

Sporting toe pockets and a foot-hugging design, these are the shoes that most people think of these days when they think ‘minimal’. There are a range of models to choose from, with special features designed for different environments. For lifting, it’s best to go simple, with the KSO or Classic designs. They are extremely lightweight, have the thinnest of soles, and are very comfortable. You may get a few looks wearing them around, but they’re worth it.

New Balance Minimus Trail

Here’s a minimal shoe that was designed for trail running, but that has proven to be an excellent all-around shoe. It’s got a large toe pocket to let your toes wiggle a bit, and the thin, flat soles make ground contact feel natural and solid. They tend to be a little pricey, but they’re definitely worth it, especially if you’re looking to do some cross-training.

Aqua Socks

The original minimal shoe, aqua socks can be found all over, from supermarkets to sporting goods stores. They tend to cost less than $10 a pair, are super-light and have no padding whatsoever. It’s hard to go past these in terms of value and performance.

Barefoot

Of course, you could spurn the whole shoe idea altogether and go barefoot. This is not a new idea, and lifters have been doing it for centuries. You can’t get better contact with the ground than by having nothing between it and your feet. Lifting barefoot gives you the added benefit of being able to grip with your toes, which adds an extra dimension to your stability. The only downsides to barefooting it are that it’s frowned upon in some gyms (booo!) and that you have to be that extra little bit more careful not to drop anything on your feet.

Other Ideas

There are literally hundreds of options out there to choose from, so the key is to keep trying until you find something you like. A few mode ideas are: wrestling shoes, sandals, socks, and of course, specialty weight-lifting shoes.

Getting Started With Foot Training

Now before you go out and trade in your Keds for Vibrams or bare feet, you’re going to want to start adjusting your body to the difference. It may not seem like much, but having a wedge of padding beneath your feet can actually cause muscle weaknesses and imbalances that won’t be apparent until you get rid of them.

It doesn’t take long to strengthen your feet and legs to adjust for this weakness, but it’s important that you address them to reduce the risk of injury. Here are a few simple exercises to do before lifting that will help in this department:

Calf Dips/Raises

Stand with your forefeet and toes on a stair and your heels hanging off. Slowly lower your heels down as low as you can, while keeping an upright posture. Lift back up slowly until you’re standing on your tip-toes. Repeat this 10-20 times before lifting, especially in the first few months of wearing minimal shoes.

Body Weight Squats

Before lifting the heavy stuff, it’s a good idea to limber up with a few sets of body weight squats. These will stretch out the muscles and tendons in your legs and get the blood pumping.

Lunges

Lunges, like squats, work the lower legs and help to strengthen your ankles. A few sets of these each time you work out will go a long way to helping you build a stable base.

Toe Fists

Like the guy said in Die Hard, one of the great exercises for stretching out and strengthening your feet is making fists with your toes. Stand in bare feet and fold your toes under your feet, applying light pressure so that you feel a bit of a stretch. Repeat 5-10 times for each foot. For extra credit, you can also try picking objects, such as marbles, which will do much the same thing.

Don’t Neglect Your Feet

Lifting of all sorts tends to focus on the arms, torso and legs. Very often hands and feet get neglected, but they’re as important as the rest of your body. Having strong feet in particular will allow you to lift more, and with better form, which will reduce injuries and increase your enjoyment. Treat your feet with respect, and you’ll they’ll give you back more than you ever thought possible.

Want to know more? Head over to BeginningBarefoot.com, follow @BarefootDawsy on Twitter, or check it out on Facebook!

What do you think about barefoot running and training? Ever try it? What are your experiences? Leave a comment below…

This is a guest post from Jerry Shreck of VarietyTrainer.com. Jerry used the exact protocol described below to recover some much needed shoulder mobility, helping him get back to his regular training numbers in the gym.

The WARM-UP.

You know how important it is, but many times it will get cut short because of not having a lot of time to squeeze your workout in during an already hectic daily schedule. For years my warm-ups have been sub par or just plan terrible. Well, I got away with it many times when I was younger but as I am “slowly” getting older, I have realized more now just how important it is.

A proper warm-up is not only good for preventing injuries but it will actually enhance your abilities to lift heavier weights with great technique. Now, when I say “proper warm-up”, I do not mean just breaking a sweat. That is a good start, but it should also include increased range of motion through mobilization techniques, unrestricted fascia tissue, synovial joint lubrication, neuromuscular excitation, and increased kinesthetic awareness.

OK, now in English – we need to be completely ready to go when we attack the training session. Getting a sweat going isn’t enough.

I have had on and off shoulder issues for years and I know for a fact that most of it stems just purely from not warming up properly and rushing into big weights before my body was ready to lift them. As a busy strength coach, many times I do not follow the disciplines that I preach to my athletes. Now, I make it a point to follow a more defined warm-up routine that I have developed for myself and I would like to share that with you today. By the way, my shoulders have never felt so good and my goals I set to attain on the bench press and overhead press are starting to look like future realities.

For the sake of this article not turning into a book, I am going to just post my warm-up exercises (with brief descriptions) in the order that I do them. I would recommend watching the video again for better descriptive views of each exercise.

1. Body Warm-up: Break a sweat on cardio equipment, jump rope, dynamic lower body routine, or jog to light run.

2. Shoulder Circuit with a theraband tubing, 5 exercises:

• Thumbs out, palms up, pull apart and pinch shoulder blades
• Stand on tubing, thumbs up, arms 30 degrees forward, raise arms until parallel to ground
• Stand on bands, thumbs down, arms 30 degrees forward, raise until parallel to ground
• Stand on bands, high pull position with arms, elbows at 90 degrees, externally rotate at shoulders
• Stand on bands, switch bands in hands and cross the arms, thumbs pointing in towards hips, pull arms up and start externally rotating in the shoulders as you bring the arms up and across the body diagonally until you make a 135 degree angle in your arm-pits with the thumbs pointing back, return back to the beginning by internally rotating the shoulders
• Each exercise is done for 10 reps

3. Indian Clubs: No set number of reps. “Listen” to your body. Some movements might last a few minutes.

• Cross Body Swings with back tap
• External Big Arm Circle Swings
• Internal Big Arm Circle Swings
• Wrist Circles both directions
• Alternating 1-Arm Mace Swings (shoulder mobilization)
• Full Arm Swing with back tap. Progress swing into RDL or Good Morning range of motion.
• Double Cross Body Chops with back tap. Decelerate and accelerate
  through core and shoulders girdles.
• Alternating 1-Arm Mace Swings

4. Foam Roller: (Facial Release) No set number of reps or time.

• Mid/Upper Back
• Lats
• Neck Roll
• Low back over roll with scapular retraction, butt stays in contact with the
  floor

5. On All 4’s (hands & knees): No set number of reps or time.

• Scapular Retraction/Protraction (scapular mobilization)
• Drop shoulder towards floor. Anterior shoulder stretch (thoracic
  mobility)
• Drop Shoulder Floor Slide. Posterior shoulder stretch (thoracic mobility)
• Cat & Camel (high back arch/pelvis drop)

6. Lacrosse Ball Rollout: No set number of reps or time.

• Rollout pec and anterior shoulder
• Change arm positions and angles
• Find hot spots and pressure them (get fascia tissues unrestricted)

Shoulder Warm-up Routine for Stronger, Healthier Shoulders

I will modify this from time to time, but this mainly is the prehab warm-up that I have come up with through my trials and errors until I found what felt right for me. You may have to experiment with some of these and/or the order of the exercises to see what is right for you.

If I am doing a total body training session that day, I would have modified it to include a total body dynamic warm-up first. I would also include a hip band circuit, like I did for the shoulder, and I would have used the foam roller to rollout the legs. Sometimes I will also roll out the arches in my feet with a lacrosse ball. And you can keep adding more and more but I think you get the point.

Obviously, this may take a little time but it is time well spent. In the past, I would have sacrificed parts of a warm-up. Now I would rather sacrifice an additional set or two of a workout, if I have to, to make sure I am properly warmed up.

I hope that helps!

To Your Health,

Jerry Shreck
www.varietytrainer.com

DIESELS,

There’s been a lot of stuff going on recently.

My dedication to bringing you the absolute best information for your training needs has never been higher.

Let me bring you up to date of just some of the things I have in the works…

1. How to Make Atlas Stones

I got together with Steve Slater from SlatersHardware.com and StrongmanStuff.com a few months back and we shot the complete DVD on how to make the best Atlas Stones.

That DVD should be ready this week. I have been running into some technical issues, but I am working through them.

If you have a set of molds and want to make better stones, or if you are thinking about getting some, stay tuned, because we left no stone unturned during the shooting of this DVD. Steve has made more stones than anyone else in the world and he is going to show you exactly how he makes the world’s best atlas stones.

2. Hub Lifting Mania

The Workout of the Month at The Grip Authority is uploaded and the members are digging it.

You can join The Grip Authority here for just $7.

I’ve got tons of awesome features on that site. If it’s grip or feats of strength related, then it is on TheGripAuthority.com.

3. Flexibility / Mobility Update

I have really been working hard on my stretching, ROM work, and soft tissue efforts the last couple weeks and my pecs and shoulders are starting to feel much better.

I also got the Horse Liniment that I mentioned in a newsletter last week. It is called “Absorbine Veterinary Liniment.”

I will report back to you about it, but I do have to warn you that it says right on the bottle “for livestock only,” so I am not going to tell you to go out and get it.

4. Grip Training for Track and Field

At a recent seminar, I met Matt Ellis from PrimalATC.com, who works with Track and Field Athletes. Matt and I decided to get together and shoot a DVD on Grip Training for Track and Field Athletes.

I never joined the Track team in High School because I was a baseball player, but Grip Strength is very important for Shotput, Javelin, Discus, Pole Vault, and even the Sprinters in the starting blocks. Plus, as it turns out, there are plenty of hand, finger, and wrist injuries that take place in Track, especially for the throwers.

We put together a DVD of drills that Track Coaches can do with their athletes to strengthen and bulletproof their lower arms.

Stay tuned for that. One of Matt’s colleagues is working to find a video editor to get that product ready, because I am working on another product already for you guys…

5. Next Project – ACL Tear Prevention

Tomorrow, I will start aggressively on completing a DVD I shot with Jerry Shreck from Bucknell University, on ACL Tear Prevention.

ACL Tears are a career threatening injury for nearly all athletes, and the statistics for college athletes are pretty eye-opening, but Jerry has been using a conditioning progression for several years with his athletes and it has been very effective in preventing them with his athletes.

Goal to release that DVD to all of you animals is 2nd week of June. Keep your eyes open…

As you can tell DIESELS, it has been a hot-bed of productivity around here the last few weeks.

I am dedicated to bringing the DIESEL UNIVERSE the information you all need to excel, whether you like to rip, bend, and twist things or if you dominate more conventional sports.

You are in the right place.

If you want to stay up to dat on the developments about these upcoming products and features, make sure you are signed up for the daily updates here at the site:

All the best in your training,

Jedd

This is a guest article/video submission from my friend Joe Musselwhite, who has trained dozens if not hundreds of athletes from high school sports players, to Grip Athletes, Strongmen, and Arm Wrestlers. Here, he tells us the science behind foam rollers and then shows us how to take advantage of the benefits of SMR work.

Mighty Joe Musselwhite

Several weeks ago my good friend and Grip Enthusiast Jedd Johnson wrote an article asking the question, “Are Foam Rollers Crap?”

After reading the article I e-mailed Jedd and offered an explanation behind the science of foam rolling if he was interested and he said he’d love to have a short article on some of the science behind this new wave of supplementing one’s training.

I said I’d give it my best shot, so here we go!

First, Foam Rolling falls into the category of SMR which stands for Self-Myofascial Release. You may or may not have ever heard of autogenic inhibition but this is the underlying principle at work here with foam rolling.

Deep inside every muscle and tendon is the Golgi Tendon Organ, (GTO). These are tiny receptors called mechanoreceptors. These receptors tell the central nervous system,(CNS) the amount of tension (length) inside a muscle/tendon group. If enough tension is generated in said muscle/tendon group, the GTO will cause the muscle spindles to relax thus preventing further damage or injury. This reflex is called autogenic inhibition. With foam rolling you stimulate this muscle tension causing the GTO to relax the muscle, thus giving the relief.

To answer Jedd’s question, “Are Foam Rollers Crap?”

It depends.

If you consistently employ their use, NO! They are not crap.

Foam Rolling, like massage offers temporary relief and have to be consistently used to offer the benefits. There’s no permanent change to the muscle/tendon group when foam rolling as opposed to resistance training where there’s actually a physical change in the muscle fibers. Foam Rolling or SMR has more to do with improving tissue quality than anything else.

If you’re thinking foam rolling is an overnight fix for your aches and pains then it’s not for you and I guess
you could label them “crap.” As with any training aid or device its intended use always has to be kept in its proper context.

Here is a video demonstrating some excellent ways to apply SMR for Grip Strength Competitors, Arm Wrestlers, and even those who perform a great deal of manual labor…

In closing, always ask questions when exploring new ideas in your training. What others say is an important starting point in your investigation but nothing can substitute self-experimentation.

Ask the right questions. Perform some tests and draw your own conclusions. This is my approach to most every new avenue I choose to explore.

I hope this article helps explain away at least a small portion of weather or not foam rolling is for you.

A Big Thank You to Jedd Johnson for allowing me to write an article for the Diesel Crew! What a privilege it has been!

Joe Musselwhite (Mighty Joe)

Check out Joe’s YouTube Channel = > Grip Freak

Hello DIESELS!

I have been telling many of you about Mike Fitch’s Animal Flow Workout, and this thing is AWESOME. I first found out about Mike when he posted a comment here on the site and it has been good getting to know him ever since.

When I saw his promotional video on YouTube for his new program, I was like, wow, I have to give this stuff a try, especially after enjoying Scott Sonnon’s Flow and TacFit maneuvers and some of my own bodyweight experimentations.

This is some of the most fun I have had training in a while. It makes me feel like I am a kid playing out in the yard, but I also get a kick-ass workout.

I found this stuff so interesting, that I asked him to do an interview with us and he was glad to oblige. Mike has an interesting background and obviously stays in great shape. I love trying new things with my strength training and I plan on using this as my cardio and flexibility training for a while.

Here’s the interview…

Jedd: Hello Mike, thanks for taking time to sit down and tell the Diesel Universe about yourself, and your upcoming DVD, The Animal Flow Workout.

First off, could you please tell us about yourself, including your athletic back ground and how it is you ended up d some of the amazing bodyweight stuff that you do?

Mike: Sure, I’ve been a strength coach, personal trainer and post rehab specialist for a little over 12 years. Even though I had been lifting since a young teen, it wasn’t until I was about 17 that I started learning more and more about anatomy and different training styles. There was no looking back – It was on!

I spent the next ten years obsessively gathering information on as many training styles as I could, from corrective exercise to KB coaching to Olympic lifts to sports-specific and speed-agility training, and attained certifications from about every organization I could find.

But, about two years ago I started feeling unchallenged in my own day-to-day routines. After walking around at fifty pounds heavier than I am now and grinding out countless hours in the gym, I came to the point where I was just done. My joints hurt all the time and I felt like it was time for something new.

I’ve always been interested in non-traditional methods of exercise, but it wasn’t until I started watching the way gymnasts strength train, that something started to click. I began checking out all bodyweight disciplines. Everything from gymnastics, hand balancing, parkour, martial arts to capoeira.

So, getting into to pure bodyweight training started out as a diversion from the lifting routines I’d become bored with, but the more I got into it, the more I wanted to do. There are so many disciplines within bodyweight training that it is a constant learning and progressing process and once you start combining them, the possibilities are endless.

Jedd: Mike, you have a website called, GlobalBodyweightTraining.com – obviously it has to do with bodyweight training, but could you tell us a little bit about what all Global Bodyweight Training entails?

Mike: The idea behind Global Bodyweight Training was simply to create a platform that showcased and increased awareness of all disciplines of bodyweight training. Most importantly though, I wanted to drive the message that no matter where you were, you could get in a killer workout without a single piece of equipment. Allow people to be creative with their programs rather than just getting stuck in the same routine.

On the site you’ll find instructional videos, blog posts, alternative exercise, challenges and rehab techniques. One of the main goals is to provide quality info that’s practical. I’m still learning new styles and exercises all of the time so I feel the content will continue to grow without becoming stale.

The global part was just to create a world-wide project where readers could participate and become part of something. More like a network that everyone can add to and learn from. We encourage people everywhere to send in their photos and videos of their bodyweight training around the globe to inspire each other.

Jedd: Would you say that you specialize in bodyweight training? Is that all that you do? What sorts of weight training exercises do you do?

Mike: My tendency (for better or for worse) is to commit myself 100% to whatever it is I’m focusing on, so once I set down the weights I rarely picked them back up. Also from the experimental side, I wanted to see how far I could push myself going purely BW.

Once I switched over, my workouts became much more of a practice. Each workout was about improving a little bit with each session, but in this case it wasn’t adding more weight but maybe mastering a skill or improving on a bodyweight feat of strength. So I would say that I specialize in bodyweight training but I am still very much a student.

However, with my coaching I’ll never get away from the big lifts or KB’s. It still comes down to whatever is necessary for my clients and students. Of course, if they request to go pure bodyweight, I’m more than happy to oblige – and more and more of them are asking for it as they see how I’ve adopted it myself.

Jedd: What role does the ability to move your body have to do with being strong? Are there any examples of movement patterns that big strong DIESELS might be able to improve upon IF they can move better?

Mike: Hmmm, how about pushing, pulling, dragging, carrying, twisting, bending, lifting, sprinkled with a lot less pain and risk of chronic overuse injuries….haha. Seriously though, movement is everything. I think the importance of mobility and motion is often overlooked by the big guys, when in fact restricted muscles and joints are restricting serious strength potential.

Ape Walking

Jedd: Could you go over an example of a bodyweight workout that you like to do that supports the rest of your strength training?

Mike: Sure, that’s one of my favorite parts.

When done properly you can structure your BW exercises to illicit whatever training response you want, whether it be strength, power, endurance, etc. Usually if I’m training for strength, I’ll pick the goal rep range, then pick the exercises that challenge me within those ranges.

So a workout may consist of full range single arm push- ups, chin ups with a single arm negative, unsupported handstand push-ups and super slow tempo pistol squats. Once you’ve adapted to those exercises, you can still change your lever arm or decrease your mechanical advantage to make it more challenging again. I’m still working on that single arm handstand push up (it may be a very long time).

Jedd: When I think of bodyweight training, I think of bodyweight squats and lunges, which to me can be pretty boring. But your dvd goes way beyond those. What made you move past the basic bodyweight stuff and start moving like an quadruped?

Mike: Well that was all part of the quest. With researching and practicing different BW disciplines I started to realize that 1: they all eventually cross over into each other and 2: each one can play a very different role in your program, depending upon how it’s utilized. The animal movements are super versatile in the respect that they are literally good for everything. These types of moves have been used for thousands of years to increase health and vitality.

While I had played with them off and on in my training, it wasn’t until I dedicated a tremendous amount of time to check out different styles of animal movements that I really began to understand their potential for performance. What developed was a program that was highly teachable and highly effective. Once you learn the movements, you can put them together in an endless flow that is unbelievably challenging. And you’re right – it’s a long way away from your basic BW squats/lunges or the dreaded treadmill!

Jedd: Can you point to any examples of movement or strength improvements you have experienced since adapting this type of upper body bodyweight training?

Mike: Absolutely! The positive benefits have been almost overwhelming. Especially considering we spend most of our careers looking for that one thing that’s going to give us an “edge” in our training. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying this is the end all be all magic pill, but I do know the changes I’ve seen in myself as well as my clients.

As I had mentioned earlier, I rarely pick up a weight these days. However when I do, it’s to assess my strength as compared to my weight training days. The results have been favorable to say the least! I credit this to pure muscle integration and higher neural coordination as a result of this style of bodyweight training. While I’m not the biggest guy around (by a long shot), my body has completely changed in proportion. It’s like Symmetry out of necessity, results I could not achieve while I was weight training.

Jedd: What is something that many people commonly experience once they start adopting these types of skills into their training? Let’s assume that Jedd Johnson is NOT the most limber guy on earth – what might I notice after doing the stuff from your dvd for a couple of weeks?

Mike: Well Jedd, I can say that a lot of the bigger guys or strongmen I’ve seen or worked with have characteristically had tight and locked up hip flexors/deep hip rotators, less than optimal spinal rotation and unbelievably tight and internally rotated shoulders. Usually any mobility or flexibility work is gladly traded in for another couple sets of strength training. Who has the time for everything right?

Well even when using the animal movements at the beginning of a strength workout as a dynamic warm up, can yield some pretty impressive results. Some of the most common responses I hear are “holly s#*t, I feel so opened up!” or “I actually feel lighter.” The animal movements take your through active ranges that will mobilize those tight areas like the shoulders, spine and hips.

Let’s see Jedd, give it a shot for two weeks and then tell me!

Jedd: I plan on it, brother! So, Mike, let’s get down to it. Let’s say some of the DIESELS are interested in your dvd. What is the number one reason to pick it up?

Mike: I really believe it has something for everyone. The beauty of animal movements is that they can be incorporated into almost any workout, whether you are a strongman, a yogi, a traceur, an MMA fighter, and so on. I’ve designed the video so that the information is provided in an easy to follow format, so that anyone can pick it up quickly. That way, a DIESEL can pick up the DVD and almost immediately be able to incorporate the movements into their own workout, at the level they want.

Animal movements can be your whole workout if you want, or can be an added element that you do in addition to your regular routine. Either way, you’ll be using movement in a different way, and It’s an excellent way to improve your cardiovascular performance and endurance. No matter what the sport, athleticism can be rated by ones strength, power, endurance, speed, coordination, flexibility, agility and balance. The Animal Flow Workout will help improve all of these!

Jedd: Mike, thanks for taking time out of your schedule to break off some knowledge for us. I for one am looking forward to trying some of this stuff out. Thanks again!

Mike: Thanks for having me Jedd

Guys, I hope you enjoyed the interview. If you think that you might want to try some bodyweight training in your routine, I suggest you give this a try. As I have said, after just a few rounds of the forward Ape maneuvers, my arms were blown up like I had just worked bi’s and tri’s for an hour.

P.S. Go through the banner above to pick up the program and send me your Clickbank Receipt and I will schedule a half-hour strength training coaching call with you as a bonus!

This is an interview I did recently with Coach Joe Hashey, CSCS from Strength and Performance Headquarters in Endicott, NY. Joe recently released a new product called Power Muscle Recovery.

JEDD: Joe, thanks for taking the time to do this interview with me today. In case some of the readers are unfamiliar with you, could you tell us a bit about yourself?

JOE: Thanks for having me Jedd! I am a certified CSCS through the NSCA and own a gym in upstate New York that trains predominately athletes. I’ve been a long time reader of Diesel Crew and have contributed a few articles in the past. (more…)

5 Minute Shoulder Mobility Warm-up

by Mike Hanley

In this day and age we have such busy lives and schedules that it is crucial to make the most out of our time in the gym.  Many times we often forget the most important aspects of training and just go in and start throwing weights around.  In the long run this causes more problems than it saves time.  I get asked quite often how to get in all aspects of training with very limited time to do so.  When we think about training we think about strength, conditioning, flexibility,  mobility in that order when in fact it needs to be the complete opposite to stay in the game.  Mobility and flexibility of the joints, muscle tissue, ligaments and tendons surrounding those joints is crucial for maintaining a healthy body that can withstand heavy loads year in and year out.

Here is a great upper body warm up that incorporates dynamic warm-ups, mobility and muscle activation to prep our shoulder girdle, thoracic spine and rotators in 5 minutes.  It is a simple, quick and effective warm-up for upper body days.

Objective

To warm up and activate the muscles in  the shoulder region, upper back and thoracic spine.  Properly prepare our tendons, ligaments and muscle for the task to come and to improve joint integrity of the shoulder and thoracic spine.

Bodyparts Involved

Shoulder muscles including the all rotator cuff muscles, teres major and minor,  rhomboids and thoracic spine.

Warm-up

1.    Unilateral External Circular Rotations – 10x each arm
2.    Unilateral Internal Circular Rotations – 10x each arm
3.    Bilateral External Circular Rotations – 10x
4.    Bilateral Internal Circular Rotations – 10x
5.    Corkscrew Shoulder Twists – 20x
6.    Squat Position Unilateral Thoracic Mobility Reach – 10x each side
7.    Band Shoulder Dislocates – 10x
8.    Band Diagonal Shoulder Dislocates – 5x each way
9.    Band Pull Aparts – 10x
10.  Diagonal Band Pull Aparts- 10x each way

Give this warm-up a try on your upper body days or even on a squat day if your shoulder are tight.  It will help alleviate some tightness in the shoulder while squatting with a bar on your back.  Many times our shoulders get just as beat up on a squat workout as they do on a bench day.

This warm up is quick and it works.  If you are pressed for time it will take 5 minutes and your shoulders will feel like a million bucks

Author’s Bio

Check out Mike and his killer blog at http://www.hanleystrength.com .  He has a massive free report, you better go pick it up!

A DIFFERENT APPROACH TO BATTLING FOREARM PAIN

I am always looking for and trying new ways to prevent and treat forearm discomfort and pain. This is something I have been trying for a while and I am interested in hearing what YOU think, and what you do to prevent and combat forearm pain in your training. Please leave a comment to let us know what you do to stay healthy…For now here is something I have been trying lately. Wondering what your thought are.

We’ve all heard of the acronym R.I.C.E for addressing pain and injury.

R = REST

I = ICE

C = COMPRESSION

E = ELEVATION

As you can see, the first letter, R, stands for REST.

Unfortunately, when your mental stability depends on your ability to get into the gym and hit it hard on a regular basis, REST isn’t always on our list of priorities.

Forearm pain is common for many dedicated strength enthusiasts. Labeled with many different names, including tendonitis, epicondylitis, and others, fixing forearm pain can be just about as hard putting the correct name on it.

I have dealt with this condition over the years, because of my concentration on Grip Strength Feats and competing in Grip Strength Contests. My hands and lower arms take a beating throughout the year.

To my benefit, since so much of my time has been devoted to keeping my lower arms healthy, I have spent a lot of time researching and putting into practice many methods for injury prevention and recovery.

To prevent and recover from nagging forearm pain, I have been using my own R.I.C.E. acronym that is slightly different from the classic one, but has served me very well for most of the nagging conditions that come with intense forearm and grip training.

R – Raise:

Just like Elevation from the classic acronym, I try to keep my arm raised above my heart when injured.

I also especially keep my lower arms off any hard surfaces at all times. If I put my elbow down on a desk or table, I put a towel between my arm and the table. I avoid any kind of undue stress or pressure from things like the edges of tables, doorways, etc. Reducing the amount of external trauma helps you manage the trauma you already have. Sounds crazy, but it makes a difference.

I – Increase Temperature:

I have had ZERO luck with Ice over the years, and Dick Hartzell has been warning that icing injuries doesn’t work since at least 2002, so I go a different routine and do all I can to increase blood flow to the forearms. As a preventive method, I will wear them at the beginning of a workout to get blood in there from the beginning, and if I feel any inflammation coming on, I keep them on when I am not even lifting in order to maintain that increased temperature within the area.

I try not to use them all the time in my workouts because I do not want to become “dependent” on them once the pain is gone. This might just be “in my head” but I’m not sure. My sleeves are loose and are worn to the point that they can really only be useful for increasing temperature and do nothing for aiding lifts.

C – Compression:

If I get pain the forearms, I compress the tendons down, away from the spot of pain. This elongates the area of tissue that rubs with other surfaces and can reduce inflammation in the main spot that is causing pain.

This type of wrap does not have to be expensive or flashy. I use an old velcro wrap when I start to feel my forearm start to ache. If you use this method, don’t wrap so tight that you cut circulation off through the rest of your lower arm. Just wrap it tight enough to change the way the forearm muscles move in your forearm.

E – Extensors:

Far too many people are strong in their flexors but weak in their extensors. This imbalance at the very least will keep you from developing your full potential for strength, while it can also lead to injuries.

I knew this for years, but still neglected my extensors until this year. BAD JEDD!!!

Now, I work extensors every single workout. One of the easiest ways to do this is with rubber bands. I have the IronMind Rubber Bands that I use at my desk, but I keep other rubber bands throughout the house, in the car, and in the gym, so I don’t lose or ruin my IronMind set. The rubber bands I use I got from Staples and are #83 rubber bands.

Just wrap the rubber band around the outside of your fingers and then open them up against the resistance. You should feel the muscles in the back of the forearm working. If not, then open your fingers more.

When I hit these with one rubber band, I go for 50 reps without stopping. When I do it with two rubber bands per hand, i shoot for at least 20 reps without stopping.

This kind of high-rep work is great for blowing the forearms up and flushing the area with blood, especially the spot on the back of the forearm/elbow that gets riddled with pain from lateral epicondylitis.

If you don’t like the idea of hitting Rubber Bands for so many reps, another variation of Rubber Band Extensions I like is the Double Extension. This is done by first extending the fingers against the band and then fully extending the wrist. This heightens the level of contraction in the muscles in the back of the forearm, stimulating them even more intensely. I work this variation in quite often and love it.

First, Extend the Fingers and then Extend the Wrist for the Rubber Band Double Extension

Keeping your lower arms and hands strong and healthy requires a balanced approach between proper strength training and injury prevention in your program.

The things above is just a sampling of what I do to stay healthy for Feats and Contests. I do a lot of other things outside of the gym to prevent issues from occurring and to keep current conditions from worsening, but these are some of the things that you can do that require very little time and money. They are just slightly different from the classic medical approach.

What are some things you do? Leave your comments below.

All the best in your training.

Jedd

Want a proven program that will help your forearm and elbow pain? Check out Fixing Elbow Pain by clicking the banner below.

In honor of AMPED Warm-up, I am re-posting two previously released articles for all of our new subscribers.

Check out this essential upper body warm-ups, how to warm-up article below.

If you’ve picked up the latest edition of Men’s Fitness, there is a big 4 week AMD workout in it. You know from all of my posts here on Diesel and if you’ve purchased this innovative muscle building system, that I’m big on full range of motion movements, a thorough warm-up, activation exercises, SMR and everything else that helps you stay healthy and move better.

It is so important as you get older and it is so important for coaches and personal trainers who are responsible for helping athletes and fitness enthusiasts.

With this in mind, I created a killer new video. Each warm-up might look like a whole lot of exercises; more than you’re used to. But as you get proficient, you’ll flow from exercise to exercise and it should not take you longer than 10 min.

In this video you’ll find 3 choices.

Three different upper body warm-up routines that you can pick and choose from for your workouts.

What To Do Next?

1. Watch the Video

2. Rate at 5 stars

3. Print out all 3 Warm-up exercise lists on this page, or in the description on the YouTube video.

Copy and paste the following into word and print it out. Take it with you to the gym.

Upper Body Warm-up Routines

Warm-Up #1

Perform 1 Run Through

1a) Jump Rope, 3 min

1b) Foam Roller, 30 seconds each area

1c) Shoulder Bridging, 10 reps each side

1d) Push-ups, 20 reps

1e) Push-up Plus, 10 reps

1f) Kneeling Reach Through, 5 each side

1g) Banded Diesel Face Pulls, 20 reps

1h) Muscle Snatches, 10 reps

Warm-Up #2

Perform 1 Run Through

1a) Jump Rope, 3 min

1b) Foam Roller, 30 seconds each area

1c) Med Ball Wall Dribbling, Left to Right, 10 times

1d) Db Laterals, 10 reps

1e) DB Flyes, 10 reps

1f) DB Raises, 10 reps

1g) DB Presses, 10 reps

1h) Banded External Rotations, 10 reps each arm

1i) Standing Rotator “Y”, 10 reps

1j) DB Lateral Drops (Activation), 15 reps

1k) Plate Extensions into Halos, 10 reps

Warm-Up #3

Perform 1 Run Through

1a) Jump Rope, 3 min

1b) Foam Roller, 30 seconds each area

1c) Lat Stretches, 5 resets each side

1d) Band Shoulder Stretches, 3 Ways, Various

1e) Hindu Push-ups, 20 reps

1f) Cable Face Pulls with External Rotation, 10 reps

1g) Cable Face Pulls, 10 reps

1h) Side Lying External DB Rotations, 10 reps each side

1i) Blackburns, 10 reps

1j) Full Range DB Laterals, 10 reps

Highly Effective Upper Body Warm-ups

PS. If you want to learn how to pull all of this together into a complete workout, guaranteed to not only build muscle and get you stronger, but also help you rehab your injuries and feel better now, check out Accelerated Muscular Development

PPS. Want power? Want real core strength? Check out Combat Core Strength

Unique Training Equipment That is Cheap and Effective

Sometimes the motivation is there but the money isn’t.  Trainers and coaches don’t always have a big budget to go along with their big dreams.  Dreams of owning the best equipment or the best facility.

Well, I’m here to tell you that you don’t always need to have the best of everything to get RESULTS.  As with every exercise having an alternative, so too is there an alternative to the fanciest equipment.

We here at Diesel have known this for years.  We’ve built athletes over the years with little to no fancy stuff.

(more…)

If you’ve been around Diesel for any length of time you’ll know we have the most popular SHOULDER REHAB VIDEO on the internet.  At the time of this article, it has over 120,000 views and over 200 5-star ratings.

CHECK OUT THE REST OF THIS KILLER POST ==> (more…)

If you’ve picked up the latest edition of Men’s Fitness, there is a big 4 week AMD workout in it.  You know from all of my posts here on Diesel and if you’ve purchased this innovative muscle building system, that I’m big on full range of motion movements, a thorough warm-up, activation exercises, SMR and everything else that helps you stay healthy and move better.

It is so important as you get older and it is so important for coaches and personal trainers who are responsible for helping athletes and fitness enthusiasts.

READ THIS NOW (more…)

Hips Don’t Lie?

Why is improving your hip mobility important?

Well, the most important reason is that you can get your own music video.  You’ll be shaking your mobile hips in waist deep water with a macrame bikini on.  Shakira made a career out of it.

There are a few other reasons that might be important to you as a lifter, or you as a coach responsible for athletes.

Importance of Hip Mobility (more…)

Lower Back Health

I’ve recently been doing a lot of discovery around lower back strength and health.  We will be exploring this research more into 2010.  Lower back health is not reserved just for strength athletes, it is a must for everyone.  Muscle building programs found online miss this boat completely.   That is why I made it a focus in AMD and that is why it is a complete muscle building system.

How prevalent are injuries?  Just one look behind the scenes at Elite Fitness Systems you’ll see that approximately 80% of the questions (just from my observations) are injury related.

Do NOT miss this post! (more…)

Lower Back Health

I’ve recently been doing a lot of discovery around lower back strength and health.  We will be exploring this research more into 2010.  Lower back health is not reserved just for strength athletes, it is a must for everyone.  Muscle building programs found online miss this boat completely.   That is why I made it a focus in AMD and that is why it is a complete muscle building system.

How prevalent are injuries?  Just one look behind the scenes at Elite Fitness Systems you’ll see that approximately 80% of the questions (just from my observations) are injury related.

Do NOT miss this post! (more…)

You see it every day in the gym.  Everyone hitting the big movements; bench, squat, deadlifts, press, calve raises, etc…

You also hear the same things, “I can’t bench anymore, my shoulder kills”, or “Squats wrecked my (insert muscle/joint here)!”

Fix Your Shoulder – READ THIS (more…)

Bent IronMind Red Nail – Do You Have What it Takes?

Bending has come so far since I started doing it, it isn’t even funny.

When Smitty and I started bending we used to wrap a canvas wrist wrap around whatever we were bending. This would often result in a very loose wrap and the bar we were bending would slip all over the place. We could get no leverage on the nail because we were grasping and pinching at the slim piece of material. We had to be extremely cautious when we were bending because if the nail or bar slipped it would bite us in the hand or finger. Each bend had the chance to injure us.

Here is one of the very first videos I ever put out. You can see that it is wrapped with a leather strap, slightly longer than the canvas strap we first started using.

Good thing that was only 1/4-inch HRS!

Later on, we realized that most people were wrapping their nails with (more…)

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Andy Dufresne: Forget that… there are places in this world that aren’t made out of stone. That there’s something inside… that they can’t get to, that they can’t touch. That’s yours.
Red: What’re you talking about?
Andy Dufresne: Hope.

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I just uploaded a new video that I wanted to talk to you about.

Everyday you walk out of your door, everytime you turn on the tv, everytime you read a news story; you see it.

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