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

I have a few sayings I’m known for.

One of them is, “It’s not about how much you lift, It’s about how much you LOVE Lifting.”

What that means is, lifting is about being passionate about something and doing it with fire.

Lifting is about setting goals to always be improving.

Lifting is about feeling good, and feeling good about yourself.

So, a couple months ago, or so, when I really took a look at some of my training, I came to realize I wasn’t following my own advice.

The whole idea about that saying is that you should be pushing yourself because you love lifting.

It has nothing to do with pushing yourself so hard that you reach your goals at the expense of everything and everyone else.

But, there I was, trying to reach some goals related to the Barbell Bench Press, and instead of getting closer, I was coming further and further away each session because the exercise was tearing my shoulders up, and leaving me in pain.

It’s now been the better part of this year, that I have quit Benching with the Bar, and moved exclusively to Dumbbell Bench Press. And although my numbers were completely embarrassing at first, I now feel like I’m living more in tune with my beliefs.

And, after a couple months, or however long it’s been, I’m starting to see some good increases, feeling better in the shoulders, and I think even seeing a bit of growth.

I LOVE LIFTING, but I think I was coming severely close to having the majority of my training SHUT DOWN due to the pain I was feeling in my shoulders.

I encourage you to do the same as well – by all means train hard – don’t just go through the motions in the gym.

But, if there’s a movement that is tearing you up inside, don’t feel the need to push through pain and suffer because of it.

Remember…It ain’t about how much you lift. It’s about how much you LOVE lifting.

All the best in your training.

-Jedd-

P.S. Along these lines, I want to help you out as much as I can, to get you to your goals. And that means helping you learn to do your goal lifts properly and as safely as possible.

Get Introduction to Strongman Training AND Stone Lifting Fundamentals TOGETHER and SAVE $20! CLICK HERE or click the images below …

There’s lots of reasons I respect Eric Cressey as a strength coach.

First and foremost is the fact that he is STRONG. Guy deadlifts over 600-lbs, despite the fact that he’s not a genetic freak or anywhere near 300lbs. RESPECT.

But the biggest reason is his ability to see deeper, and analyze possible solutions to problems, ASIDE FROM what everyone else sees.

I don’t like to bag on the Fitness Industry. I think that happens far too often.

The problem is not the industry itself, but rather, the bad apples spread throughout it that tend to spoil the proverbial bunch.

Every so often, a new buzz word or catch phrase comes out, and you can just see the Johnny-come-lately’s ready to to swoop in, pick up on the new terms, and use them like they thought of them.

In the video below, Eric Cressey touches on one of these such buzz words, “Ankle Mobility.”

He’s a bit more diplomatic than me in the way he covers this topic, as you’ll see when you watch the video, and he may even make you question your previosu thoughts about ankle mobility and how it influences movement patterns, such as the Squat.

Like Eric points out, there’s more to it than meets the eye.

This attention to detail is why I trust him so much.

This week, Cressey has dropped the price on one of his most popular products, the High Performance Handbook, by $50.

So for the next few days you can add this to your library at a much lower investment.

Eric Cressey is one of the best strength coaches in the world. If you’re a budding strength coach and you’re looking for someone to follow, Eric is the man, and High Performance Handbook is a great place to start.

Get it today. I can’t recommend it strongly enough.

All the best,

Jedd

Avoiding Arm Pain from Kettlebell Training

Kettlebells continue to become more and more common in gyms and more popular these days.

And no wonder – they have proven to be very useful tools that can help you accomplish your strength, muscle and fat burning goals.

But, even with all their awesome benefits, if your form is off, kettlebells can cause some issues if your not careful.

Here are three very common errors in kettlebell training that can lead to elbow pain if you don’t correct them.

1. Grip in the Rack

When you hold a kettlebell near your chest/shoulder, it is called the Rack. This is a starting point for lifts such as the Kettlebell Press and Jerk, so it is also a common position to be in.

Unfortunately, this can also be a very annoying position if your technique is off. The kettlebell can sit on your forearm in a way that cause pain.

This pressure can later cause further issues in your elbow if you don’t correct things right away.

Luckily, this can usually be corrected by adjusting how you hold the kettlebell. By changing where and how your hand is positioned, you can reduce a lot of the pressure (you’ll see it later).

2. Crashing on the Snatch

New Kettlebell lifters often experience brutal forearm pain when performing Snatches, because they catch the kettlebell incorrectly at the top of the movement.

Usually, this comes from being too passive at the end of the Snatch. Lifters get into the habit of letting the kettlebell handle swivel in their hand. This may be what it looks like should be going on, but it is not.

When the kettlebell handle spins in the hand like this, the giant belly of the KB will smash with full force into the forearm, and this can cause deep contusions, surface bruising, and even knock the forearm bones slightly out of whack.

Having a tender forearm is bad enough, but when bones are starting to get moved around, that can throw up every press, row and curl movement you do in the gym.

Instead, what you need to do when finishing the snatch is allow the kettlebell to turn on an axis in the center of the bell itself.

This video shows exactly what you should do:

3. Bottom Portion of the Swing

The Swing is one of the foundational movements of Kettlebell lifting. It is a lift in itself, plus it the initial stage of many other lifts, such as the Snatch and Clean, because it is the most efficient way to bring the kettlebell from the floor to the shoulder or overhead position. Remember that word – “Efficient.”

When many lifters are starting out, they develop a habit where they keep their hand and forearm pronated at the bottom of the swing. That is, at the very bottom of the Swing, their palm is facing to the sky and the back of their hand is facing the ground.

In the true spirit of efficiency, this is not what should be done. Mechanically, during this follow-through portion of the swing, you should allow your forearm and hand to actually turn over BEYOND pronation. Otherwise, you are essentially resisting this rotation and fighting the bell.

Considering the number of repetitions that are possible with Kettlebell Swings, fighting the bell like this could potentially add up to a great deal of stress on the common flexor tendon in the forearm and result in pain that can be very irritating and get in the way of a great deal of your other training as well.

Correct Your Technique with This Video

These 3 areas of kettlebell training are easily fixed, once the lifter is made aware of them. The problem is that most people don’t even realize they are setting themselves up for injury to their forearm and elbows until it is too late.

For more information on how you can correct and prevent injuries and pain in the forearm and elbow, check out Fixing Elbow Pain. This program has helped hundreds of lifters get back to pain-free workouts and healthy lower arms.

Pick it up today => Fixing Elbow Pain

All the best in your training,

Jedd

There are a ton of crazy workout gadgets out there that are absolute wastes of time.

Curling with Globe Gripz

I am sure you have tried a few now and again and can name some that were totally useless.

Well, one item that you might have seen at one time or another that is NOT useless, is the Globe Gripz handles.

I have been training with Globe Gripz off and on since 2012. I immediately was impressed by their packaging and the quality of the product.

For the last few weeks, though, Globe Gripz have been a weekly part of my training. In fact, I have had a resurgence in my Biceps training, especially in the Barbell Curl.

For several years, I did not do Barbell Curls because they hurt my wrists and forearms so intensely sometimes that I would feel the leftover pain for several days down the line.

However, with Globe Gripz on the bar, I feel ZERO pain in these areas when curling. I have been able to put several good, solid weeks of training in and have upped my 1-Rep-Max in the Barbell Curl to 160-lbs and have been increasing my repetitions with 135-lbs on the bar on a near weekly basis, nearly hitting 10 reps just yesterday.

Barbell Curl Training

Here some clips of some of the recent Bicep Curl training sessions…

Barbell Curl: 135-lbs X 10 (Almost) + Attempt at 170-lbs Barbell Curl with Globe Gripz

Strict Barbell Curl: 155, 157.5, 160-lbs

If you feel the same kind of pain in the Barbell Curl that I do, I strongly encourage you to check out Globe Gripz. Naturally, there are LOTS of other ways Globe Gripz can be used, just like Fat Gripz and the other Instant Thick Bar Handles that are on the market. Barbell Curls is simply what I use Globe Gripz for the most. Actually, that’s all I really use them for.

You can get Globe Gripz here => Globe Gripz

I am sure the Form Police will show up and say these curls ARE NOT STRICT. That’s fine. My response is “Show me your video with stricter form and comparable weight.”

Now, I am also aware that there are strict curl competitions, where people stand against a wall or some other structure to prevent swaying back or using the delts and back for assistance.

Awesome! I am all about competition and comparing my lifts against others, ESPECIALLY when there is a standard, so I tried them too.

I have seen a few clips of these competitions and an EZ-Bar is often used. So I gave this a try using an EZ Bar in an attempt to match the competition standard as closely as possible. Here is the video…

Strict Curl with Back Against Door: +/- 158-lbs

I really do not know where this would put me in the established competition lifts that exist. I am assuming that for my bodyweight (about 235 on the day of that lift), this would be pretty low, as I am sure the competitors have a much better grasp on the proper technique of the lift. For instance, I noticed some substantial stress on my lumbar during the first rep and had to adjust where I had my feet to reduce it. It’s definitely not just a vacation performing this lift, especially when you are going for a near-max.

So, here’s the deal. Some people think Curls are stupid. If you feel this way, that is fine.

I personally like to keep track of things like this. I have an idea of my PR in lots and lots of lifts and I like to push myself in this nature.

Plus, I love competition. Ever since I was a child and played baseball, I have loved the field of competition.

Over the years, that field turned from a diamond of dirt and grass with a fence around it to the Strongman and Grip Strength Platforms.

If I can find a Strict Curl competition nearby, I might add that to my Competition Portfolio as well. If anyone is familiar with them, I’d love to hear about them.

Now, if you are not into competition, but just want to get bigger and stronger arms, then be sure to check out Call to Arms, an ebook I put out last year with Joe Meglio.

Check out Call to Arms => How to Get Bigger Stronger Arms

Naturally, the chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If you are not training your biceps with some intensity on a regular basis, then they could be your weakest link. At the least, they might hold you back on other lifts. At worst, you could run the risk of tearing a bicep and be out of competition and training for a while, waiting for it to heal.

Intense Arm Training, like what we cover in Call to Arms can help you erase that weakness.

Also, if you are Grip Enthusiast, you should consider adding Arm Training of some sort to your routine. Both Paul Knight and Steve McGranahan have made mention of the relationship between Grip Strength and their overall arm strength.

All the best in your training,

Jedd

Armaid: The Best Lower Arm Therapy Device on the Market Today

This is Part II to the Epic Upper Body Workout that I started at the tail end of September when my good friend Chris came up to train. This is the Pulling Work we did.

I wanted to show him some new stuff he add into his training to not only build muscle, but also to balance out his shoulder training, as well as be better prepared for physical altercations in his line of work as a Corrections Officer.

Part IV: Bigger Back and Stronger Grip with Pull-up Variations

This video shows several variations for Pull-ups that will not only build your back muscles, but will also balance your shoulder strength and build better grip strength. Having a strong set of hands is very important for Chris in his line of work as a Corrections Officer.

Part V: Build a Big back with Low Cable Row Variations

We split these sets up with both wide and narrow rows. I showed Chris a correction to keep the emphasis on the lats and other big back muscles and to reduce the level of upper trap involvement. The set-up we used made the range of motion much shorter than normal, but this was because of the seat we used, due to my left lumbar area being very touchy. You can see once Chris adjusted, it began feeling totally different.

Part VI: Upper Back Postural Strength with Bodyweight Training

The Inverted Row is a great exercise and it can be loaded with chains draped over the body to make it more difficult. On top of that, we also held the concentric for a 3-count pause. I also used some mental distraction tactics to mimic the sound of an alarm going off due to a prison riot. This may sound annoying, but it is something that would be real during an actual emergency in the jail.

Part VII: Odd Object Loaded Hyper Extensions

Since Chris occasionally runs into situations where an inmate will get physical, instead of loading the Hyperextensions with normal dumbbells or barbell plates, we bear-hugged sandbags and heavy bags. This feels much more like actually having to control an inmate than just gripping some weights.

I still have several clips coming your way from this workout. Stay tuned in a couple days for the Arm Training that we did. My arms were blown up like water balloons after what we did. It was AWESOME.

Sign up for updates to make sure you get notified every time a new article or video is posted here at DieselCrew.com:

All the best in your training.

Jedd

     

Ab Wheel Training For Real

GANGSTA

I have been continuing to experiment with the Ab Wheel. It is by far my favorite piece of equipment for training the core right now. Here are a few reasons why.

1. It Works a LARGE Portion of the Body

The Ab Wheel is similar to a dynamic plank – you must create tension from the shoulder area to the knee area. Because of this large amount of muscle that is working, I find basic Ab Wheel roll-outs to be a great warm-up, and I often use it at the beginning of workouts as a bridge from my general to specific warm-up.

2. It is not ONLY Hip Flexion

So many abdominal exercises involve hip and trunk flexion – sit-ups, leg raises, crunches – all of them involve drawing the hips and rib cage closer together, potentially causing shortening of the hip flexors. I sit down so much while I work and drive, my hip flexors are short enough, so I avoid doing that movement pattern in training as well. This is something to keep in mind if you sit down a lot and your back hurts – it could be due to tight hip flexors.

3. It Doesn’t Hurt My Neck

For whatever reason, in the past I have strained my neck doing ab movements. Whether it is from hooking my hands around my head, clenching my teeth together, or whatever – it has happened, and a strained neck is one of the most annoying things for me, so I look to avoid it like venereal disease.

With these three benefits considered, the Ab Wheel continues to be something I include in my training on a regular basis.

Plus, in the long-term, I want to be able to do a Standing Ab Wheel Roll-out. It seems to be an advanced feat for this simple device, and I think if I were to train to obtain it, it would be a “Gateway Feat,” in that my core would be so strong that the increased strength would assist in many other lifts as well.

With this in mind, I have been looking for ways to gradually increase the difficulty of the more basic ab-wheel roll-outs in order to progress more smoothly to the more advanced movements.

One drill I have come up with that I have not seen elsewhere is Decline Ab Wheel Roll-outs. For these, you set the Ab Wheel up on some sort of decline, instead of a flat surface.

There are two main strength building benefits to performing roll-outs on a decline:

1. The eccentric challenge level as you roll out is increased greatly, as you must stay engaged in order to control the descent. This gives you much better stability than the basic exercise does.

2. The concentric challenge level is BRUTAL as you must pull much harder to climb back up the hill. This teaches you to pull much harder with the shoulders, lats, and core when returning to the starting position.

Decline Ab Wheel Roll-outs

There are surely many ways you could set this exercise up. One way that I think would be perfect is with an inside pitching mound, such as the one below, to begin with.

However, instead of busting out the nails, hammer and circular saw, I just dragged an extra gym mat out to the hill beside the house and used mother nature to my advantage.

As you can tell by my screams and grunts, this version of Ab Wheel Roll-outs is no joke. Far harder than the basic exercise, this one will hit you hard.

Of course, before you try this, you need to make sure you have the Basic Ab Wheel Technique down first. For a quick video on how to do them right, click here => Basic Ab Wheel Roll-outs.

Even if you don’t go for the more advanced movements with the Ab Wheel, this piece of equipment is a great investment for those with home gyms. For about $10, it takes up no room and leaves every muscle in your core absolutely destroyed.

Get your Ab Wheel here: Valeo Ab Wheel

All the best in your training,

Jedd

Braced Bending DVD: Bend Everything from Steel Bars, to Frying Pans, to Hammers and Wrenches

Fixing Muscular Imbalances

My friend Rick Kaselj, with whom I worked on Fixing Elbow Pain and Fix My Wrist Pain, has a product which has become an ongoing series called Muscular Imbalances Revealed.

Every August, he puts out a new edition of this program, with new guest experts, and this year he has put out a new installment on correcting issues throughout the body.

The new edition this year focuses on unconventional training tools, and how they can help correct weaknesses and imbalances through the upper body.

Much of the features of this program entail the use of equipment I have talked about often here at DieselCrew.com.

Here are some samples of this Muscular Imbalances Revealed installment:

Sledge Hammer Training – Great for the Grip, Sledgehammer Training also gets your heart going while also training the core and glutes. It is also a great contrast training methdo for those who perform a great deal of kettlebell work.

Ring Training – If you have weaknesses in your shoulders, chest, or back, this type of training will find it and correct it. Much more chaotic that training with barbells, benches, and dip stations, Ring Training makes you learn proper stabilization.

Sled Training – If you aren’t including some type of sled work, they you most likely have not optimized your lover body recovery. This type of training has become a staple for many powerlifters and strongmen all over the world.

Tire Flipping – One of the Strongman events that creates the most power, this is a great exercise for strengthening the posterior chain as well. The hammies, glutes, andd lower back are much too weak for some people, and this can help correct that.

Reverse Stretching – Most people don’t stretch enough period. This section shows you how you can perform essential stretching to correct muscle and fascia issues to address flexibility issues that are hindering your strength development. If you have seemingly tried EVERYTHING in order to fix your imbalances and it has not worked, then this just may be the information you need.

Over the course of this week, the authors have put out samples of their portions of the program, and I have assembled them all here for you.

Sledge Hammer Training with Travis Stoetzel

Ring Training with Tyler Bramlett

Tire Flipping with Travis Stoetzel

Reverse Stretching with Isaac Ho

To get this program and start viewing it right away, click here = > Muscular Imbalances Revealed: Unconventional Tools.

All the best in your training,

Jedd

Building a Bigger Bench Press

Dino Bravo – World Bench Record – 1988

It goes without saying that the Bench Press is one of the most popular lifts that are done in the gym.

And no wonder – it’s one of the best lifts for building upper body muscle, especially the chest, shoulders, and triceps. On top of the mass building potential of the Bench Press, it is also a great lift for building upper body strength.

In this post, I am going to cover a subtle adjustment you can make when you Bench Press to increase the weight you are able to press, the number of reps you can perform, and the safety of the Bench Press itself. When you can increase those three factors, your potential for size increases and strength gains is practically guaranteed.

The Power of the Lats in the Bench Press

Many trainees do not think about the lats when they Bench, because the lats are part of the back and are prime movers in rows and pull-ups, but the lats actually play a very important role.

Unfortunately, they do not realize that the lats are there to provide stability to the shoulder during the Bench Press. When the lats are activated properly, they provide a much better foundation for the shoulder, and this can be HUGE for your confidence under the barbell, when you are benching.

So, since the lats are so important, it makes sense to get them involved in the Bench Press as soon as possible, correct?

Well, many lifters miss the boat on that one as well. In fact their problems begin right from the moment they prepare to take the barbell out of the rack or hooks.

You can see exactly what I am talking about in the short video below.

Activating the Lats RIGHT AWAY for a Bigger Bench Press

I really want to thank Todd Hamer, strength coach from George Mason University, for showing me this technique modification. I met up with him at the Juniata Strength Clinic in June and asked him to take a look at my Benching Technique, and this has been a big help to me. It starts each new Bench Press set off with a completely different feel.

This way of un-racking the barbell may only be slightly different from what you are doing right now, but the way the bar feels in your grip and as you support it in the ready position is not. There is a night and day difference between these two techniques, and when you get this right, you can begin to see big improvements in your Bench Press.

And what’s great is, you can use this pulling lat activation method on your other Bench Press variations, such as Incline Bench and Decline Bench.

Let me know how you like this technique. Give it a try and leave a comment below.

All the best in your training.

Jedd

In Mid-June, I made the trip to Juniata College in Huntingdon PA for about the 11th year in a row. There, I had a couple of great training sessions, one of which I posted here: 1st Night Upper Body Workout.

During the course of the weekend, I attended many presentations from various strength coaches and other members of the strength and conditioning profession. Some of them I thought were very good and I would like to point to some highlights here today.

Cam Davidson, Penn State – Coaching Olympic Lifting to Large Teams

This one caught my eye in a hurry. First off, I know Cam well because he has spoken at Juniata for several years and I have attended his talks before, plus I have spent time with him off to the side and talked training with him. I knew he was a good coach and I also knew he was an accomplished Olympic Weightlifter. With this combined, I couldn’t miss his talk.

Oly Lifts Eat Up Training Time? The primary reason this talk interested me was because I have always been under the assumption that teaching the full Olympic Lifts to athletes could result in a great deal of time eaten up by the process due to the high levels of skill required for the full lifts. When there are so many things a coach must include in a complete strength programs for student athletes of various sports, in order to get them stronger and keep them injury free, it always seemed like the effort to teach these complex lifts could be put toward other types of training instead.

In fact, many strength coaches who work full time in the profession have said the same thing, that they do not bother with the full lifts in their programs because it eats up a lot of time when they could be teaching something else. Because of this fact, they often teach only parts of the lifts, such as Power Shrugs, Front Squats, and other common Olympic Weightlifting drills that still help train athletes to be strong, explosive, and powerful. These variations are less complex and you don’t encounter the same degree of limitations for some of the athletes, such as poor thoracic mobility or lack of wrist flexibility, both of which can make the full Olympic Lifts very hard to master.

Cadence Commands to Dictate Technique? However, I think Cam has developed a pretty good way to include the full lifts into the program. He uses a cadence, or a serious of numbers and other called commands that dictate the pace of the movement that each athlete executes.

If it is hard for you to picture what I am talking about, don’t feel bad. I had no idea what he was describing either, until he got to the section of his talk where he provided video. But let me try one more time.

Essentially, Cam breaks the lift down into several stages. So if they are doing a Power Clean from the Hang position, that lift is broken down into 4 or more stages. Stage 1 would be lifting the barbell out of the rack or off the floor. Stage 2 would be lowering the bar down the thighs slightly, engaging the hamstrings and glutes. Stage 3 would be firing the posterior chain muscles and cleaning the bar to the shoulder for the catch phase of the Power Clean and Stage 4 would be returning to the upright standing position. Cam has verbal cues that he uses for each Stage of each drill. As he calls each number or cue (in one case, he used the term “home” for the cue), the athletes move accordingly, all pretty much at the same time.

This is just one example of how he breaks down one drill, but he showed 4 or 5 drills that he applies this cadence to.

Cam Davidson has obviously found a way to make the Olympic Lifts work for his athletes. I don’t recall the number of teams he works with, so I can’t speak to that, but I know the athletes he had on tape executing the Cadence Training were women’s volleyball players, who obviously need to be able to explode off the ground to block and spike the ball above the net, and can benefit from training the full Olympic lifts.

One thing to take note of is that Cam stated the majority of the work they do is in the 80% to 90% range. I did not note however, whether this was done using the cadence-pause commands or simply with the full Olympic lifts done in the conventional matter.

This was quite an eye-opening talk for me. As someone who does not work in a university or college setting as a strength coach, I really have to take the word of other coaches when they tell me of their experiences, successes and struggles with the implementation of the Olympic lifts. If coaches are looking for ways to include the Olympic lifts in their programs, this could be one way to make them work, once they get past the initial stages of teaching proper technique.

I will have more to come from the Juniata Clinic later this week. Make sure to sign up for updates, so you are the first to know when knew posts go up on the blog.

All the best in your training.

Jedd

Click the banner below to learn Stone Lifting Technique

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

When Matt Ellis and I released Grip Training for Track and Field Throwers, we knew that the information was killer, but we also wanted to see what other experienced Throwers had to say about it, so we sent out some complimentary copies.

Now, the feedback is coming in and I am excited to share what a truly great multi-talented athlete had to say about it.

Adriane Wilson Reviews Grip Training for Track and Field Throwers

Grip Training for Throwers

“The Track and Field Grip Training DVD is outstanding. It is a complete collection of simple and practical exercises for throwers, lifters, and any person concerned with their hand and lower arm health. The preventive and strength building exercises can be performed in or outside of a gym, which is useful for those unable to travel to the gym on a daily basis.

In addition to grip tools already found in the gym, Jedd and Matt present easy and inexpensive alternatives to top rated grip equipment to further strengthen your grip. Their inventive program can apply to the novice gripper and challenge the elite crusher. With nearly two hours of valuable demonstrations, your grip training will stay exciting and strength will continue to impress.

Adriane Wilson

You have probably heard of Adriane before under her maiden name, Blewitt. She is a decorated Highland Games competitor, having won the Women’s World Championship on 3 separate occasions.

She also became the first woman to certify on the IronMind #2 Captains of Crush Gripper in the Fall of 2011.

Adriane also nearly became a member of the 2012 USA Olympic Team, as she competed for a spot in the Throws, but was ever so slightly edged out during the trials.

To get feedback like this from a truly gifted athlete such as Adriane is an unbelievable feeling. If you are a thrower, a coach, or an athlete, this DVD can help you get to the next level with your throws, as well as keep your hands, wrist, and elbows more resistant against injuries.

To pick up your copy, go here: GripTrainingForThrowers.com

All the best in your training,

Jedd

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

Grip Training for Track and Field Throwers

Last year, I met a great coach named Matt Ellis from Primal Athlete Training Center, at a seminar I attended. It was great meeting him.

We sat down for lunch one day between sessions at the workshop, and we started talking about a possible resource we could put out for track and field throwers to help them develop their hand strength in a way to both increase their performance AND to prevent injuries from taking place.

In the short video below, I talk about our project and what it covers for the throwing athletes of Track and Field.

The DVD Artwork features Adrian Wilson. Adrian is a highly respected strength athlete, as well as an Elite Track and Field Thrower, 3X Highland Games World Champion, and she became the first Woman Certified as Captain of Crush.

If you are thrower or are a coach that works with throwers, make sure to sign up for updates regarding this DVD. In it, we should dozens of way to strengthen and bullet-proof the hands. And don’t worry about having to take out a second mortgage on your house to buy all the equipment. Many of the drills we show involve using equipment you already have at your gym, or things you can easily make yourself.

Get ready for more coming soon.

Jedd

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:

DIESELS!

There are a lot of things that go along with a good, strong and safe deadlift, but in the video below I show you the one thing that you absolutely MUST do when you deadlift in order to perform the movement safely.

Imperative Part of a Safe Deadlift

As far as the rest of the technique, I can not recommend highly enough Deadlift Dynamite from Andy Bolton and Pavel.

In case you don’t know, Andy Bolton has deadlifted over 1000-lbs on at least two separate occasions, and is just a monstrous powerlifter.

Pavel Tsatsouline is a renowned strength coach. Although his claim to fame is kettlebells, he knows a great deal about all forms of strength training.

Together, these guys have produced the go-to resource on how to Deadlift. It is perfect for anyone who is either looking to start the deadlift but is unsure of how to go about it, as well as the lifter who has been deadlifting but knows he or she needs to improve their technique.

As a special bonus, anyone that picks up this manual through my affiliate link will receive a 25-minute video I shot covering my Top 5 Grip Building Tips, specifically designed for bringing up your rip Strength where it needs to be.

It’s called, “Never Drop Another Deadlift,” because that is my goal for you when you try out the techniques.

To pick up Deadlift Dynamite and get my special bonus, just click one of the links here on this post and then email me your receipt and it’s yours.

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

Below you will see a video of one of my recent Upper Body Training Workouts.

The video has an audio track over it in which I explain a bit about my exercise selection and why I place the movements how I do.

A couple of other things I wanted to cover that did not get covered in the video…

Shoulder Pain

In the video I mention the shoulder pain that I have been having. I mention that Strict Press bothers it. I just want to clarify that my shoulder pain did not come from pressing or even any kind of weight lifting.

It actually came from rolling frying pans during my Strongman Performances in July. Rolling Frying Pans entails an appreciable amount of force coming from the chest and shoulder and I believe rolling 3 pans a day for close to an entire week just overwhelmed my shoulder and pec minor on my right side.

It is much better now, but at the time of shooting the video, the strict press motion at the bottom of the movement was bothering that region of my shoulder/collar bone, so I avoided that tension on this particular week by performing Push Presses. The catch and Lockout portions of the movement gave me no problems whatsoever.

Just wanted to add that in there, since it didn’t make it into the video.

Exercise Selection

For the last several weeks I have been working my Push and Pull training on the same days. I don’t always do that. Sometimes I will work Push on one day and Pull on the other. However, I always strive to work complimentary exercises for both Push and Pull – movements that are antagonistic movement patterns. I think this is described fairly well in the video.

Some people do both Push and Pull on the same day all the time. To me, I don’t think that is necessary if you are paying attention to the volume you are using in all the movement patterns. Some people might hit me on that. And that’s OK, but I personally believe my approach works well for me.

Whether or not I am working both Push and Pull on the same day generally comes down to the amount of available time I have to train and what else is going on as far as contests and other types of preparation I have to include in my workouts.

With all that said, please enjoy the video, and don’t hesitate in leaving comments, liking the video, or subscribing.

IMPORTANT: Notice the repeated theme – Balance. Balance between the opposing muscle groups in the upper back and torso which surround the shoulder and Balance between movement patterns. If you strive to keep this balance, whether you train Push and Pull on the same day, or if you split them up, your shoulders will feel MUCH better.

Check out my YouTube Channel: Jedd’s Strength Training Channel

All the best in your training.

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