What’s on your minds, people? 
EC,
Do you believe that there is a beneficial relationship to doing O-lifts and Powerlifts. For example, I have found that I love doing 1 arm DB snatches will doing these help my deadlift or back squat?
What are your thoughts on programs for building “strength endurance?”
Say for someone looking to achieve goals in the 50-70 rep range.
[quote]sully’s wrote:
EC,
Do you believe that there is a beneficial relationship to doing O-lifts and Powerlifts. For example, I have found that I love doing 1 arm DB snatches will doing these help my deadlift or back squat?[/quote]
They may. As I noted in my “Deadlift Diagnosis” article, O-lifts from the floor can be beneficial for those who struggle with a hips-too-high set-up.
You can do a lot to train your upper traps with O-lifts as well, and that certainly could help with the deadlift. I use high pulls of various grips all the time.
[quote]monkeyarms wrote:
What are your thoughts on programs for building “strength endurance?”
Say for someone looking to achieve goals in the 50-70 rep range.[/quote]
Well, to start, you cannot have strength-endurance if you do not have strength. With that in mind, if your maximal strength isn’t where it needs to be, getting it up a bit higher is going to be a quick route to improving your endurance.
That said, endurance training can be tricky, especially for those with low intial work capacities. You’re much more likely to overtrain on volume than you are on intensity, so you shouldn’t “test the waters” of 50-70 reps that often. With that said, I really like the rest-pause/diminishing rest interval approach.
Say, for instance, you can do 25 reps with 50-lb. dumbbells on the bench press, but you want to be able to do 45. Instead of doing all 25 reps and training to failure, do 15 reps, rest a bit, do 15 more, rest a bit, and do 15 more. At each successive session, drop the rest interval a bit. You can also keep the rest period the same and increase the weight slightly.
EC I have a client (16 year old high school football/rower) Who when he walks, internally rotates his feet. I’m thinking he needs some more glute/abductor work?
But the bigger issue is everytime he sqauts his right hip interall rotates and dips in. Today was our first session and the kid says he squats 135 (he weighs 180)and today we only did 95 pound squats but I don’t know how anyone else never picked up on it
So do you have any suggestions to help correct both imbalances but more importantly how to prevent him from interally rotating and dipping his hip when he squats?
When he did trap bar deads today and he was fine when doing them
[quote]bigpump23 wrote:
EC I have a client (16 year old high school football/rower) Who when he walks, internally rotates his feet.[/quote]
Meaning his toes point inward? Or, the medial aspect of his feet tip inward (inversion)? Just need to clarify, as it doesn’t sound like you’re too familiar with the terms.
[quote]But the bigger issue is everytime he sqauts his right hip interall rotates and dips in. Today was our first session and the kid says he squats 135 (he weighs 180)and today we only did 95 pound squats but I don’t know how anyone else never picked up on it
So do you have any suggestions to help correct both imbalances but more importantly how to prevent him from interally rotating and dipping his hip when he squats?
When he did trap bar deads today and he was fine when doing them[/quote]
So does the right knee collapse inward while the left hip pops up?
[quote]Eric Cressey wrote:
bigpump23 wrote:
EC I have a client (16 year old high school football/rower) Who when he walks, internally rotates his feet.
Meaning his toes point inward? Or, the medial aspect of his feet tip inward (inversion)? Just need to clarify, as it doesn’t sound like you’re too familiar with the terms.
But the bigger issue is everytime he sqauts his right hip interall rotates and dips in. Today was our first session and the kid says he squats 135 (he weighs 180)and today we only did 95 pound squats but I don’t know how anyone else never picked up on it
So do you have any suggestions to help correct both imbalances but more importantly how to prevent him from interally rotating and dipping his hip when he squats?
When he did trap bar deads today and he was fine when doing them
So does the right knee collapse inward while the left hip pops up? [/quote]
Toes point inward, sorry for not clarifing
During the squat his right knee does collapse and his left hip does pop up
[quote]bigpump23 wrote:
Toes point inward, sorry for not clarifing
During the squat his right knee does collapse and his left hip does pop up[/quote]
Well, he’s too old to be pigeon-toed from a developmental standpoint unless he has some torsional deformity. I’m willing to bet that he’s just overpronating at the subtalar joint; you can fix that with plenty of dorsiflexion exercises and stretching of his calves.
Do plenty of abduction work, especially for the right side, and complement it with stretching for the adductors and TFL.
Just bumping this up for tonight. Looking forward to hearing from everyone.
Eric, I’m into kickboxing, and a problem I’ve always had is that while in my stance I don’t bring my elbows in tight enough to my body to protect from body blows. I can force myself into the right position, but I have to actually squeeze my elbows together to do it, which doesn’t really work since it messes up the mechanics of my own punch, ie, I have to release the tension of pulling my elbows together, and then throw the punch.
When I’m in the ideal position I feel it pull through out my delts. I assume that this is due to a lack of shoulder flexibility. Is this correct? Anything else it could be? What stretches or exercises would you recommend to correct this? Thanks.
Eric,
About 6 weeks ago I injured my shoulder throwing a kickball around without warming up. I believe that I aggravated the injury when I did some ring work the following day. Since that time I have been unable to do hardly any upper body work. Benching is painful, espicially when my hand placement I any wider than a close grip position.
I saw the thread the other day about bicep impingement and did some rear delt work and it only seems to make it more sore. I have been to the doctor and he told me that nothing was ripped and gave me some anti-inflammatories. I have also been going to an ART therapist who works on it every week or so.
The thing is that really the entire shoulder hurts, it’s just not the front or rear. When I have my hands in a shoulder press position, it hurts primarily in the anterior delt, but some dull pain is present in the rear as well.
Might you have any suggestions on how to rehab a general shoulder injury? I wish that I could describe it more aptly to you, but it just hurts and I REALLY want to get back to lifting!!!
Thank you so much for any advice,
Worker
what kind of program do u think is good for when u want to lose pounds of blubber…kind of lifting and if cardo what kind is best
[quote]bino wrote:
Eric, I’m into kickboxing, and a problem I’ve always had is that while in my stance I don’t bring my elbows in tight enough to my body to protect from body blows. I can force myself into the right position, but I have to actually squeeze my elbows together to do it, which doesn’t really work since it messes up the mechanics of my own punch, ie, I have to release the tension of pulling my elbows together, and then throw the punch.
When I’m in the ideal position I feel it pull through out my delts. I assume that this is due to a lack of shoulder flexibility. Is this correct? Anything else it could be? What stretches or exercises would you recommend to correct this? Thanks.[/quote]
I’m having a hard time visualizing what you mean. Admittedly, I’m not too familiar with kickboxing. Are the elbows supposed to be held tightly to the sides (protecting the kidneys), or are they held in front as you would see a boxer do to protect himself from the front?
[quote]worker wrote:
Eric,
About 6 weeks ago I injured my shoulder throwing a kickball around without warming up. I believe that I aggravated the injury when I did some ring work the following day. Since that time I have been unable to do hardly any upper body work. Benching is painful, espicially when my hand placement I any wider than a close grip position.
I saw the thread the other day about bicep impingement and did some rear delt work and it only seems to make it more sore. I have been to the doctor and he told me that nothing was ripped and gave me some anti-inflammatories. I have also been going to an ART therapist who works on it every week or so.
The thing is that really the entire shoulder hurts, it’s just not the front or rear. When I have my hands in a shoulder press position, it hurts primarily in the anterior delt, but some dull pain is present in the rear as well.
Might you have any suggestions on how to rehab a general shoulder injury? I wish that I could describe it more aptly to you, but it just hurts and I REALLY want to get back to lifting!!!
Thank you so much for any advice,
Worker[/quote]
Rehab really needs to be specific to the injury. Did your doctor do any functional tests on the shoulder, or did he just recommend NSAIDs and send you on your way? Most PCPs don’t know a thing about musculoskeletal injuries, so when they’re too stubborn to refer patients to an orthopedic specialist, the patient really loses out (especially if the injury is serious).
Given that it’s been six weeks and you haven’t responded to the anti-inflammatories, that doctor better be willing to at least refer you to a PT; otherwise, they ought to take away his license. Go back and see him ASAP.
In the meantime, do the following with your training:
-
Avoid overhead work and all pressing variations (especially benching).
-
Do tons of seated rows, provided that they do not irritate the problem.
-
Get a theraband and start doing external rotations to strengthen your rotator cuff and promote bloodflow to the area.
-
Ice after all activity sessions.
-
TRAIN THE UNAFFECTED SIDE HEAVILY! You’ll get some neural-based strength carryover to the injured limb; it won’t help much with atrophy, but it’ll make “evening things” out down the road much easier (not to mention give you a considerable training effect right now). Single-arm benches and rows are good examples.
Worker,
Also, make sure that your lower body training isn’t upsetting the shoulder. For most, this will mean eliminating back squatting and good mornings. Try front squats, DB single-leg work, GHRs, reverse hypers, and deadlift variations instead.
Avoid anything that irritates the injury.
EC, I tweaked my back doing db DL’s a week or so ago. It is pretty hard to round out doing DB DL’s so I think I just pulled something. For the last few days upon waking up my back has been sore just to the right of my spine along the “python” (were it starts to thin); Probably 5-7 inches about my waist.
Anyways, after walking around for a while the pain goes away and by gym time at night I have no pain at all. I was wondering if you think it is safe to do heavy DL’s/Squats(triples) or should I take more time off heavy lifting?
Secondly, I focus almost totally on the big lifts but I usually throw in 3-5 sets of bi’ isolation work per week. Any suggestions for the best bang for your buck bicep exersises? Usually I try to do neutral(hammer) grip exersises though I have no clue if this is the best approach.
[quote]kpd315 wrote:
what kind of program do u think is good for when u want to lose pounds of blubber…kind of lifting and if cardo what kind is best[/quote]
Kind of a loaded questions, don’t you think?
How about you tell me what you’re doing now, and I’ll make some comments on how you can improve on it.
ok here we go …the Westside For Skinny Bastards lifting program treadmill on full elevation 3 days a week…then one high intensity running program …low carb eating except for veggies…so what do u think?
EC,
which aspect do you think is more important for triggering hypertrophy in an advanced trainee (10+ years of lifting):
an apropriate time under tension (20-40 or even 60 seconds) or a decent load (about 80% of 1RM for low reps 3-5 and 10-20 sec. TUT)?
I’d appriciate your opinion and thanks for sharing your profound knowledge,
phire
PS: I know variation is paramount, but for the sake of simplicity, let’s asume you’d had to choose one approach for the rest of your days.