It has become a tradition to do a run-down of the most popular videos I have uploaded each year.

For the next few days, I will be posting the Top Videos of the year, along with a little description of what is going on in each one.

One thing you are going to notice is that my Youtube Channel is pretty eclectic. It’s not just about one thing, like Grip Strength or Muscle Building, but rather about all kinds of different KILLER things you can do in the gym to not only get stronger but love the idea of training as well.

In short, I love training and love helping people with their training goals. So, without further ado, let’s look at videos 11 through 15 that were on the fringe of breaking into the top 10.

11. Bench Press Tips – Activate Lats for a Bigger Bench Press – 1266 Views

One part of the Bench Press Technique that is often overlooked is the engagement of the lats. Most lifters only think of the Bench Press as a lift for the chest, delts, and triceps, but if you can figure out how to get your lats more involved, you will no doubt see bigger lifts. This video shows a quick demonstration of how to do this as taught to me by Todd Hamer.

Related Article: Bench Press Tip – Activate Lats for Bigger Bench Press

12. Easy Way to Increase Pull-ups | How to Do More Pull-ups – 1139

Pull-ups are one of the best lifts for building strength and size in the upper back. The more you can do the better. Unfortunately, some people have trouble doing Pull-ups. This video will cover one way that you can train to perform more Pull-ups, and see better results for your back in your training.

If you like the Back Bull, here’s where to pick one up: Back Bull Equipment

13. Easy Tubing Warm-up Drill for Javelin Throwers – 1087

I was surprised this video ended up so high on the countdown. Earlier this year, I released a DVD called, Grip Training for Track and Field Throwers, and put this video out as a little sample of some of the stuff javelin throwers can do as part of their specific warm-up prior to throwing. Hopefully, this has helped out a few throwers in preventing injury and improving their performance in competition.

Check out our DVD: Grip Training for Throwers

14. How to Make Your Shoulders Feel Better with a Simple Stretch – 1034

This video shows an awesome stretch for the lats using bands. I have never felt a lat stretch that is as intense as this one. I love it.

15. Strongman Wrench Bend – 1000

I got a wild hair to bend a wrench earlier this year and ordered in about 25. Unfortunately, 20 or 3 of them stopped me dead in my tracks and a couple others snapped. This is the first one that finally bent. I am not by any means the best bender or braced bend specialist in the world, but I was happy to finally pull this off.

Learn feats of strength like wrench bending, bar bending, and rolling up frying pans, check out our Braced Bending DVD.

Stay tuned as I continue to update the list throughout the week.

Kick ass in your training,

Jedd

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

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

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.

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