Weekly Motivation

by jasonferruggia.com

I’ve spent the last two and a half decades pounding the shit out of my shoulders. While that sucks for me it’s actually good news for you. Why, you ask? Because when you’ve torn traps, rotator cuffs and labrums you develop a pretty keen interest in avoiding shoulder injuries.

You also develop a pretty good MacGyver instinct about how to work around them. And today I’m going to share some of that information with the Renegade Army.

Here is a list of 27 tips that will help you keep your shoulders strong and healthy.

1) Do YTWL’s as a Warm Up Before Every Workout- This is an awesome way to fire up all the muscles you need to protect your shoulders against injury.

2) Do 30-50 Reps Per Day of Shoulder Dislocations With a Broomstick- This increases mobility and pumps healing nutrients into your shoulders. Do this every day of the week for a month and I can almost guarantee you that your shoulders will feel better.

3) Do Vertical Pressing Before Horizontal Pressing- If you are going to do some form of military press and some form of bench press in the same workout try doing the overhead work first. I have found this to be a great way to avoid pain and strengthen your shoulders. I can’t explain exactly why but the overhead work just seems to prepare you better for the bench pressing variations. I have had numerous people try this (many of whom had pain with any form of benching with a bar or dumbbells) and they all reported feeling significantly better.

4) Begin the First Rep of Any Set of Military Presses with a Slight Leg Drive- You don’t have to turn the whole set into push presses but you do want to use a slight leg drive to at least get the very first rep moving. The reason for that is because pressing the bar off your front delts from a dead stop with no momentum can be very stressful. It’s the most stressful part of the entire rep. Unless you are competing in some kind of strict pressing contest I’d recommend using the leg drive. If you have preexisting shoulder injuries you may want to do a slight push press on every rep.

5) At the End of Each Set of Military Presses You Do Hold the Bar in the Top Position- This is sometimes referred to as structural integrity work and can help strengthen, stabilize and bulletproof the shoulders. I recommend holding the bar up there at lockout (the joints are meant to lock and support load so forget about that myth that you should never lock out) for three to five seconds. On the last set of the day you could hold it up there for ten seconds or longer.

6) Use a Swiss Bar Instead of Straight Bar for Horizontal Pressing- The Swiss bar allows you to press with your palms facing in towards each other which is far more natural and a lot safer. If you train at home or some type of small warehouse gym I highly recommend ordering. I would ALWAYS make that my bar of choice if I were ever to bench press again.

7) Swap Out Bench Presses For Low Incline Presses- Most regular readers know by now that I’m not a huge fan of the flat bench press. But I do like having big barbell movements in the program as indicator lifts. The low inline press, with the bench set to somewhere between fifteen and thirty degrees was a favorite chest exercise of six time Mr. Olympia, Dorian Yates. This variation hits the pecs more effectively and is less stressful on the shoulder. Even better is the low incline press with the Swiss Bar.

8] Never Bench Press With a Wide Grip- In powerlifting it’s known that using a wider grip reduces the range of motion and thus, theoretically you should be able to press more weight. The downside is that the wide grip puts your shoulders through hell so you should really consider avoiding it and only benching with a close to medium grip width. The widest I would ever recommend is pinkies in the rings and even closer than that for most people. You have to think long term and remember that if you shoulders are destroyed you won’t even be able to bench the bar eventually.

The great Konstantinovs knows the importance of this and has discussed it in the past. Here he is in the video below benching 507 for 3 with what many might consider a close grip.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7TIUMm8uQQ&feature=player_embedded]

9)  If You Do Flat or Incline Presses With Dumbbells Always Use a Neutral Grip- As mentioned above, the neutral grip is a lot more natural and allows you to keep your elbows in tighter while sparing your shoulders.

10) Always Keep Your Shoulder Blades Fully Squeezed Together During Horizontal Pressing Movements- Whenever you are lying on your back and pressing a bar or dumbbells you want to maintain a very tight, bunched up feeling in your upper back and never allow your shoulder blades to come apart. This keeps the shoulders in a much stronger and safer position.

11) Do More Pushups- Pushups are still one of my top ten favorite exercises and always will be. They are also significantly better for your shoulders than any other form of horizontal pressing with a bar or dumbbells. Pushups are highly underrated because people don’t know how to load them properly or do advanced variations.

For loading you can get a weighted vest, chains, a Power Pushup (which is awesome) or even have a partner hold weight plates on your back. A great loading variation, and one that is very comfortable is to place a sandbag on your back with or without additional weight vests.

12)  Do Suspended Pushups- Suspended pushups with rings or the Jungle Gym XT call even more muscles into play and force your stabilizer muscles to fire even harder. This is great for building up injury proof shoulders.

13) Do Kettlebell Turkish Get Ups- If you could only do one rehab/prehab/shoulder stabilization exercise this would probably have to be it, in my opinion. Make them a regular part of your routine and your shoulders will feel better.

14) Practice Handstand Holds- This is very similar to the concept of holding the barbell overhead only in this case you are holding your own bodyweight which increases neuromuscular activation and makes it significantly more effective. I recommend kicking up into a handstand against the wall at the end of each upper body workout and holding it for as long as possible.

When you get good at that try removing the wall. This is great for shoulder stabilization.

15) Walk on Your Hands- Once you get comfortable with handstands start walking laterally along the wall with your feet still in contact with it. Eventually, once you master your handstands you can start walking without the wall. In the meantime, slap a Power Wheel on your feet and walk up and down the gym floor or across a field. A great goal to shoot for is being able to walk 100 yards on your hands.

You can make hand walking even more challenging by doing Alligator pushups with the Power Wheel . Any type of dynamic range of motion exercise like this that has you moving positions on each rep is great for strengthening the shoulders.

16) Don’t go Excessively Heavy On Curls- Heavy barbell or dumbbell curls can place a lot of stress on the biceps tendon and lead to shoulder issues. For this reason I rarely recommend curls below six reps. With more advanced trainees I always keep curls in the 10-15 rep range.

Heavy curls can beat your shoulders up a lot worse than you might think. I recommend avoiding them.

17) Initiate Each Rep on Curls With a Slight Cheat- Just like the bottom position of the military press, the bottom position of a curl is very stressful to the shoulder. I recommend hitching at the waist and leaning slightly forward then extending your hips and cheating the weight the first couple inches out of the bottom.

This doesn’t mean you heave the weight up and get sloppy. Quite the contrary. Just use the momentum to initiate the movement and then keep maximal tension on the biceps throughout by squeezing and contracting them as hard as you can. On the eccentric actively contract your triceps by imagining doing a pushdown.

Using  this cheat technique can extend the life of your shoulders and elbows greatly.

18)  Don’t do Curls on the Same Day You Do Heavy Pressing- After a heavy pressing workout the shoulders may be pretty trashed. If you stress them even more with heavy curls the biceps tendon may start acting up and giving you problems. I have found in a large majority of cases where guys where getting shoulder pain from doing curls, that if we moved it to another day or didn’t do the curls after heavy pressing the problem started to dissipate. If you have no shoulder issues this probably won’t be a problem.

Now, if you don’t have any shoulder issues, this recommendation isn’t for you and I wouldn’t really worry about it. But if you are having shoulder problems you might want to give this one a try.

19) Don’t do Incline Curls at an Angle Any Lower Than 60 Degrees- Incline curls are great for training the biceps from a stretched position, but they also stretch the ligaments as well as the muscles. If you have shoulder issues make sure to keep the bench set no lower than 60 degrees.

20) Do Dips on Gymnastics Rings Instead of Parallel Bars- Unlike the bars which keep you in more of a fixed plane, the rings allow you to move naturally and you can work around the pain.

If I could only do one upper body pressing exercise to build and strengthen the chest, shoulders and triceps this would probably be it.

That’s not to say that dips on parallel bars aren’t great, because they are. But if you can’t do them due to injury this could be a better option for you.

21)  Eliminate the Eccentric Component of Olympic Lifts by Dropping the Bar- Olympic lifting variations can be hard on those with shoulder injuries mainly because of the stress that comes from lowering a heavy load so rapidly. If you do high pulls with a lot of weight it can yank away pretty good at those shoulders on the way down, no matter how good your technique is. The simple solution is to simply do singles and drop the bar between each rep.

22) Use a Sled for Explosive Pulls Instead- Louie Simmons turned me onto sled work back in the 90’s and I have found it to be an invaluable asset in the training of clients ever since. A great way to use the sled is to replace barbell Olympic lifts with explosive sled pulls.

Simply hook up a pair of TRX straps to the sled, get in the same position you would be to start a high pull (except that your hands will be out in front of you holding the straps instead of by your knees holding the bar) and then explode up the same way you would with a bar, shooting for triple extension while pulling the straps up toward your chest. Walk backwards to pull out the slack in the straps, bend over and repeat for the prescribed number of reps.

This is an awesome way to get explosive pulling in and simulate Olympic lifts when you can’t do them due to shoulder problems.

You can order a sled HERE.

23) Don’t Do Excessively Heavy Weighted Chin Ups- Each year I get more and more down on heavy, weighted chins. They just seem to lead to too many injuries and shoulder problems. In the past I’d had guys do weighted chins for three reps. Nowadays I would never go below a 6RM weight on weighted chins in most cases simply because the injury risk is too high. There’s just too much stress on the shoulder when you’re hanging from the bar with a bunch of plates around your waist.

And from a hypertrophy perspective, most people seem to turn a good lat exercise into a shitty biceps exercise when they start loading chins.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Some people can do weighted chins with no problems. If you can do ten reps with perfect form and a 45 pound plate around your waist more power to you. I’d stick in that rep range and, again, never really go below six reps. If you want to do triples make sure it’s for a multiple sets with a six rep weight.

But if your shoulders are a bit questionable you’re definitely not one of the guys who can or should do weighted chins. You’d be better off keeping the volume up and progressing by adding more total weekly volume over time.

24) Don’t Go Excessively Heavy On Rowing Exercises- All the same things that apply to heavy chins apply to heavy rows, although I think the heavy rows are slightly less dangerous and would be more likely to increase loading on those before chin ups. Over time, however, you will find that a lot really heavy low rep rowing starts to yank away at that shoulder pretty good and can lead to long term damage. Again, best to keep the weights a little lighter and the reps a little higher on these types of exercises. This advice doesn’t necessarily apply to beginners but when you get stronger this is something that you might want to heed.

I prefer to have my guys do their heavy pulling in the form of deadlifts.

25) Do Band Pull Aparts- Simply grab a medium strength band hold it out in front of you and try to rip it apart. Pull it out all the way so that your arms are straight out to your sides (while maintaining a very slight bend in them throughout) like a T and squeeze your shoulder blades together for 30-60 seconds. Hitting a few sets of these to strengthen your upper back and prevent injuries is a great way to finish off your upper body day.  Heck, they take so little out of you because there is no eccentric, that they can be done upwards of 5-6 times per week if need be.

26) Don’t Squat With a Low Bar Placement- Low bar squats are great because of certain mechanical advantages they give you. They also put the shoulder under a hell of a lot more stress than high bar squatting does. Stick with high bar squatting or find a comfortable happy medium. But never use an extreme low bar position if you have shoulder problems or want to avoid them in the future.

27) Do Kettlebell Snatches- As I’ve mentioned in the past, I don’t think that doing millions of reps per week on this exercise is a good idea as some diehard kettlebell enthusiasts do. But doing a more tolerable number like a few sets of 10-20 reps a couple days per week can be a great shoulder strengthener and help prevent against future injuries.

For the highest quality, best priced kettlebells on the market click HERE.

— By Jen Mueller

When you started a regular exercise program, whether to lose weight or improve your overall health, your enthusiasm and motivation were high. Even though exercise wasn’t the most exciting activity you had experienced, you began feeling better and seeing results from your hard work. You managed to get yourself out of bed early, to squeeze in a little gym time each day, and stick to your plan without much effort.

But then slowly, the novelty began to wear off. You started finding reasons to sleep in and found “better” things to do with your time. Then before you realized it, you had missed a whole week and your drive to continue was missing in action. Is this common scenario just another motivation issue? Probably not. Could something else be getting in the way of the excitement and effectiveness of your previously-rewarding workouts? The answer is yes! Luckily, you can learn to identify the signs that it’s time to shake-up your workout routine so you can remain consistent and enthusiastic about exercise. Here are four of the most common signs and what you can do to get back on track:

Top 4 Signs Your Workout Isn’t Working

1. Your workout bores you.

You used to like walking on the treadmill, so why do you dread your workout each day? It’s easy to get bored if you stick with the same routine for too long. Sometimes it helps to add variety to your walks. For example, try taking your workout outside, adding speed intervals, putting new music on your iPod or bringing a friend along. If all of that isn’t enough, then maybe it’s time to try a new activity. Perhaps you’ve always wanted to try biking or are interested in a new class at your local gym. Change can help keep your workouts fun and interesting, giving you something to look forward to. And that is exactly what will keep you coming back for more.

2. Your workout isn’t giving you results anymore.
Someone who does the same activity all the time is likely to plateau much sooner than someone who varies her workouts. Just as you can get bored by always doing the same exercises, your body can also adapt to these exercises so that they don’t offer the same benefits that they once did. A little variety might be just the thing you need to get the scale moving again or bust through that strength plateau. “Variety” means either changing something about your current routine (adding speed, distance, hills, resistance, etc.) or trying a totally different activity. If you like some consistency and don’t want to change your workout each time you hit the gym, change your routine at least every 4-8 weeks (this includes incorporating changes to both your cardio and strength training exercises). This will keep your muscles challenged, your body guessing, and the results coming!

3. Your workout leaves you more tired and sore than before.
Exercise should give you more energy, not leave you feeling rundown. If you’re feeling overly tired or perpetually sore, you could be overtraining. Your body needs time for rest and recovery. It is during this down time that you build strength and endurance by allowing your muscles to rebuild and repair. If you don’t give your body ample recovery time, you’ll become weaker instead of stronger. If you have been overtraining, your first priority should be rest. You might need up to a week off to recharge mentally and physically. Once you are feeling better, start back slowly. Reevaluate your workout program and find ways to make changes that will prevent this from happening again.

4. Your workout is no longer challenging.
Running a 10-minute mile, for example, becomes easier as time goes on. If your workouts aren’t challenging you anymore, it can be helpful to wear a heart rate monitor. Your heart rate will change over time as you become more fit. By using a heart rate monitor, you’ll know to change up or intensify your routine, and ensure that you’re working in your target heart rate zone. Challenging your body improves your fitness level and can also provide a sense of accomplishment as you become stronger and work toward your goals.

Changing your workout routine whenever these signs arise will help keep your motivation high as you work to improve your fitness level. The key is to pay close attention to how you’re feeling both physically and mentally. Exercise shouldn’t be a chore that you dread, but something that makes you feel good about yourself!

If any of these things are happening, let me know….

By Rita Rubin

More often than not, patients must cobble together a variety of treatments, and increasingly those include some type of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) remedy such as yoga or acupuncture. One recent study found that 44 percent of chronic pain patients on narcotics (opioids) had used a CAM remedy in the previous year. They may seek these out because conventional treatments have failed, or because they mistakenly believe that CAM therapies have no side effects.

Because of such misconceptions, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) urges patients not to replace scientifically proven treatments with unproven CAM therapies. It’s also important to discuss with your healthcare provider any CAM treatments you’re considering; that’s especially key if you’re planning to take any supplements, as many can interact with prescription or even nonprescription drugs.

That said, the evidence showing that some CAM therapies are beneficial continues to mount. “There’s a strong mind/body component to managing chronic pain that some CAM treatments address—which drugs don’t,” says Russell Portenoy, MD, chair of the department of pain medicine and palliative care at Beth Israel Medical Center in new York City. “It’s about learning how to use all of your resources to function better.” Here’s a quick guide to some of the CAM therapies that may be worth pursuing.

1. Acupuncture. A popular option (nearly 60 percent of chronic pain patients try it), this traditional Chinese medicine method entails the insertion of fine needles into the skin at specific sites to disperse negative qi, or energy. In recent studies, patients with lower-back pain felt better after undergoing an average of 10 treatment sessions.

 
2. Massage. Since tense muscles often contribute to pain, it’s no wonder that massage, which works to relax the muscles, can also be effective at easing lowerback pain. According to a 2001 study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, patients who had 10 massages (one per week) reported better pain relief than those who had acupuncture or followed pain-relieving techniques described in books or videos.

 

3. Spinal manipulation.The jury is still out on the efficacy of this technique, in which a chiropractor, physical therapist or osteopathic physician applies controlled force to a joint of the spine, but there’s some indication that it may minimize lower-back pain and chronic headaches. NCCAM is currently funding research to determine how often and how many treatments work best.

 
4. Yoga. It’s one of the most popular CAM therapies, and for good reason. One large study found that taking yoga classes twice a week for 24 weeks helped relieve lower-back pain. Other studies have indicated that it may help relieve arthritis symptoms.

 

 

5. Tai chi. A study published in The New England Journal of Medicine found that fibromyalgia patients who participated in this Chinese martial art for 60 minutes twice a week for 12 weeks fared better than those who spent that time on general wellness education and stretching.

 

6. Acetyl-L-carnitine. This dietary supplement appears to be promising in treating diabetes-related nerve pain. A review article published in The Annals of Pharmacotherapy found that patients who took at least 2 grams daily fared best.