[quote]Robert A wrote:
[quote]fearnloathingnyc wrote:
- I may have strained my back on deadlifts. I felt strong today, but, I think not warming up my back up at all has caught up to me. I couldn’t continue deadlifting and as I tried zercher squats my back was in pain. It is time to start warming up before heavy lifting
[/quote]
I don’t want to plug/cite my own posts but the “High Mileage Warm Up” seems to do well for Irish and Dude. I don’t know how old you are so you may or may not qualify as easily but the basic idea is to formalize all the things you know you should be doing.
From Irish’s 2.0 log
http://tnation.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_boxing_fighting_mma_combat/log_o_the_irish_20?id=5318526&pageNo=9
[quote]Some chimp on the internet wrote:
I suggest we put you on what I have dubbed my “High Mileage” program/warm up. This only really works on people who have spent some serious time working through, and around injuries, and have enough experience to know what works for them. Hence, they have mileage. You fit. Much credit goes to Dan John for this. His Dan Gable warm up really opened up my eyes as to what I knew I needed to be doing. Really, let us just assume everything that follows was stolen from someone smarter than me.
Before and after every training session you will be in High Mileage mode.
Before your training proper, add the following steps.
1.) Circumstantial warm up
2.) General warm up
3.) Specific warm up
CIRCUMSTANTIAL
Here we address whatever you knew was fucked up when you walked in the gym. So, if your right shoulder is sore and tight from throwing jabs and hooks the previous boxing session, do a light stretching and warm up both to loosen up, get some blood flowing, and to make sure that it is only sore/tired, not injured. Pain here raises a flag.
You are high mileage. That means you will often be a bit banged up. This phase is about making sure it is something you can work through, as opposed to something that needs actual treatment.
Exercises in this phase consist of gentle stretching, mobility work, and light weight. I am a big fan of sets of 50-100 reps done with super light weights, bonus if the dumb bells are actually pink, just to get the blood flowing. I am also not above doing pushups from my knees, or non-weighted box squats or leg extensions if my quad is all bruised up.
If any of this is the wrong kind of painful, than that is important information. You probably will not break a sweat here. That is ok. None of this should negatively impact your workout. It should not be intense enough to make you tired.
GENERAL
This is what you know you should do before damn near any physical activity, just to get ready. Again, this is not to make you tired. It is to prime you to do the work.
In your case I suggest the following:
1.) Whatever mobility work you know works for you, plus whatever exercises you need to do for your shoulder. If that means 10 minutes of foam rolling and an elaborate shoulder warm up, that is fine. If it is just the complexes from DeFranco you posted earlier in the log, all the better.
2.) 2-3 Sets of 10-15 Goblet squats. Go light. Just feel the movement
3.) 2-3 Sets of pushups. How many? Just a few. 15-25 reps are about right. Do these with an emphasis on control and stability. The set stops well before you feel like it is doing anything.
4.) 2-3 sets of only 2-3 pull ups/chin ups. Do these with the shoulder blade positioning that Aragorn recommended, and that you have got good results from. These are not to add volume, but to wake up the muscles that keep your shoulder stable.
You can rotate through the above circuit fashion, or do one after another. It does not matter. This is just to get you ready to workout. Also, the above should put at least a little stress on every muscle. So if while going through the above something hurts/feels off than give it some extra attention.
SPECIFIC
Go into whatever warm up you do for the first exercise of the day in the weight room or whatever you do for boxing. Yes the above gets done before every TRAINING session, not just when you are hitting the weights.
This is what you are doing NOW. The difference is that we have formalized the need to pay attention to fatigue from prior exercises/training/life, mild hurts that can interfere with a good workout, and the possibility of injury.
If during the course of the above you find that you know something isn�¢??t right, or is just too damn beat up than it will be treated one of 4 ways.
1.) A little extra warm up, it feels right. FIDO (fuck it, drive on). You are good to go.
2.) It feels ok after a little work but is still bugging you. Modify your weight room work to go easy. Exercises that include the muscle, or prompt the discomfort, should be of decreased intensity. 5/3/1 exercises, work up to the first set ONLY, than shut it down. Assistance and accessory level exercises are either light weights, or scrubbed.
3.) Hurts, but not in a scary way. Do a bunch of pump sets/light weight or bodyweight exercises. This is basically, rehab.
4.) It really hurts when you try 4. You are not hurt. You are injured. Treat it as such.
The goal here is to keep little things from turning into big things, and to set up a stop gap against running yourself into the ground. Sure, you will pay the opportunity cost of not getting stronger that day, but you will be recovering from injuries, and doing enough work to at least prevent deconditioning.
After the work out proper:
Now do all of the pre-hab work you know you should do, but don�¢??t. You have written a lot about how doing a bunch of face pulls after weight training helps you. Do those here. Do a bunch. Do the things that help, but are fatiguing enough that you do not like to lead off with them. Farmer walks go great here. They suck as a prelude to heavy deadlifts.
So a bunch of face pulls, external rotations, and band pull a parts fit. I would suggest bodyweight lunges of all varieties. Start off with reverse lunges, and modify volume depending on how much it affects your boxing.
Also, stretch any and every muscle you hit with weights. If you do not have a go to stretch, look up the ones associated with DC training, but ramp the intensity of the stretch way, way down. The goal is to help with recovery, and to ward off the feeling of being tight after hitting the weights. If you are still tight going into the next session, it gets addressed during the circumstantial part of the warm up.
Foam rolling, tennis ball, stretching, and dealing with other hurts can go here as well. You can leave the gym exhausted, but do not leave it in pain.
[/quote]
The recommendations about exercises where for Irish at that point in time and are not intended to be universal.
My first “General” Warm up was Goblet squats, push ups, pull ups. Now it is Band or broomstick dislocates, Goblet Squats, TRX rows, push ups for 2-3 sets of 10-20 each. Yours should be whatever the hell basic, easy movements makes everything at least “work” a little. I can’t remember what Dude is doing but you could ask him in his Old and Banged up thread or his log in over 35.
I still do my stretching right after weight training, because I am lazy and that way it gets done. Sento is adamant it pays better dividends to do it later so if that works for you than I certainly recommend it.
If you want to give it a try but have questions don’t hesitate to ask.
Regards,
Robert A[/quote]
Robert, thanks for the chiming in. I took your suggestions and mixed it in with some stuff I found online to establish a warmup routine. My back is starting to feel better. I haven’t gone back to training in grappling yet, I just went back today to Muay Thai and easing back into training.
I’ll post my warmup routine below. Let me know what you think. It may be a little too long. Feel free to offer some suggestions.
