Longevity ultimately is be being able to

maintain function as you age because

again it's it's not the the number of

years but the quality of the years. So

all muscles in your body serve a

function. You're training these muscles

to get stronger and you're training

these your your balance and you're these

are all skills that can be learned and

improved. They're all trainable. If it's

trainable, it's fixable.

>> Welcome to the Huberman Lab podcast

where we discuss science and

science-based tools for everyday life.

I'm Andrew Huberman and I'm a professor

of neurobiology and opthalmology at

Stamford School of Medicine. My guest

today is Jeff Cavalier. Jeff Cavalier is

a master of science in physical therapy

and a certified strength and

conditioning specialist. He is

considered one of the world's foremost

experts in training for both men and

women to increase the strength and size

of their muscles, their overall health

and longevity. Today we discuss some of

the things that are not often discussed

and considered the small things but that

are actually the big things because they

allow you to do the big things for your

health and fitness and longevity decade

after decade after decade and to do so

painfree and while making continual

progress. We also discuss the typical

big things, the specific multi- joint

exercises and cardio workouts that

create the greatest results. Today

you'll learn some simple exercises that

will strengthen and protect your back,

your shoulders, even improve your foot

strength, which most people don't think

about, but turns out to be foundational

for everything, your pressing and

pulling movements, leg training, and

your cardio. And that will allow you to

live your daily life with vigor and ease

at any age. I must say, I'm a longtime

fan of Jeff's work, which he's been

publishing to YouTube and elsewhere as

Athleen X. As you'll soon realize from

today's episode, Jeff is far more than

just another fitness trainer. He has

deep knowledge of human physiology and

kinesiology and he really understands

that everybody's situation and body is

different and thus needs different tools

to address and solve their specific

problems and to achieve their desired

results. I should also mention that Jeff

and I went to the legendary Gold's Gym

in Venice, California, where he took me

through an arm workout, so biceps and

triceps and forearms. and he showed me

what has become his kind of signature

move, which is face pulls, which are

essential for improving your posture,

for your rear delts, and for general

stability of the shoulders. So, you can

find a link to those workouts in the

show note captions. Before we begin, I'd

like to emphasize that this podcast is

separate from my teaching and research

roles at Stanford. It is, however, part

of my desire and effort to bring zero

cost to consumer information about

science and science related tools to the

general public. In keeping with that

theme, today's episode does include

sponsors. And now for today's discussion

with Jeff Cavalier. Jeff Cavalier,

welcome back.

>> Thank you for having me. This time

actually nice to come out to California.

>> Yeah.

>> A little workout in.

>> Yeah, we have a studio this time. Last

time I think we were in a in a rented

apartment in in New York City.

>> It worked.

>> I said it then, I'll say it again.

You're the man. I've been watching your

videos and following your training

advice for many years. I would say Mike

Mener, Dorian Yates, and you. That's

>> that's uh

>> I've merged the principles and um

>> very high humbling praise for me for

sure.

>> Well, you're 50.

>> Mhm.

>> Never touched gear. That's uh slang for

steroids. You're not on TRT. You've

never done it.

>> And you look amazing. I know you're very

disciplined with your diet, your

training, but you know, you have a

you're married. You have two kids. You

you put in the work all over life. and

you know you're a testament to what's

possible if people do things right. So

today I want to talk about a number of

things but something that I believe is

not discussed enough which you discuss a

lot and it's just been transformative

for me because I also happen to be 50 is

we both know that the big things like

doing the regular compound multi- joint

lifts regularly that's all critical. We

know the big stuff is critical and

people talk about the big stuff all the

time, but you talk about the small stuff

that makes the big stuff possible for

decade after decade. And I credit you

for fixing my back pain. I credit you

for the fact that I basically have no

pain despite training very hard for, you

know, more than three decades. So, let's

talk about the small stuff, which is not

actually the small stuff. These I think

of it as the the kind of hinges and and

uh bolts on the system that allow that

system to work. So

low back, shoulders, neck, these are the

pieces that nobody wants to train, no

one wants to think about, no one wants

to talk about. So let's start right

there. How can we keep our lower back

strong and painfree

while also doing things like deadlifts

and squats, etc. I'm glad you're talking

about all of this. Obviously, it's like

uh it's such music to my ears. But I

think the background of being a physical

therapist is is what set the stage for

my focus on these things. Cuz when I was

younger, prehysical therapy days, uh I

did all the dumb stuff, too. And I did

all the things, just the big things, and

realized that it wasn't necessarily a

path to longevity. But in the in the

immediate and in my 20s, I was literally

breaking down then. Like I had knee pain

then. I had back pain then. I had

shoulder pain then. So, I think people

who are in their 20s these days have the

luxury of having access to videos like

this where they don't just say, "Oh,

that's just um maybe a hard workout."

Now, they start to say, "Well, maybe I'm

actually doing some damage here, right?

Maybe I do need to pay attention to the

smaller things." And when you have

enough videos out there that showcase

these small things, for instance, you

mentioned back pain. We talk about a

major cause of back pain not being

structural back pain, right? A lot of

the times the back pain that we suffer

from in our lives is not surgical. It

doesn't need surgical treatment. It just

needs the right addressing of the

muscles that contribute to that or how

we allow muscles to get tight that that

shouldn't get tight if we did full range

of motion on certain exercises. Right?

So in in in particular, I mentioned the

glute medius, right? And the glute

medius is is a muscle that is going to

control hip position, hip movement. So

if it's controlling the position of our

hips, that means it's controlling our

pelvis. And if our pelvis is tilted or

twisted or forward or backward,

obviously the spine is literally

adapting to the position of the pelvis

beneath it because it's connected

through the sacrum. So how is that not

important? Right? So all these muscles

that connect to the pelvis that change

its position are inadvertently going to

change the position of the low back

directly the lumbar spine that is going

to likely cause dysfunction down the

road if you don't address that. So it is

these little tiny muscles and these

little tiny exercises. So, I made a

video years ago about an exercise that

you could do to help to loosen up if

there was a a a knot in the glute glute

medius, right? An area of spasm, a

localized area of spasm. Because when

the spasm's there, you adjust the way

you move, right? You're in pain. So,

you're trying to move around that spasm.

Something as simple as a leg raise down

and back while holding down that that

pressure point on the glute medius helps

to alleviate some of that that that

discomfort and and in and that spasm to

the point where you could restore normal

motion again because you're not avoiding

pain and all of a sudden the back pain

goes away. There's nothing structurally

there. Fine. That's a great video. It

helped. I think 50 million people have

seen it. We'll put a link to it. This is

the one where people you should everyone

you should watch the video. This

literally erased my back pain. What I

thought was going to require surgery.

You lie on your side. You uh, you know,

one leg, you know, is in front of the

other, toe down on the ground, you put

it up and back. Um, Jeff provides a a

beautiful description of what is

essentially a very simple movement, but

if you do it properly, the pain

evaporates. It's wild. And I thought it

was a back issue, but it was a glute

medius issue.

>> Yeah. And again, you feel you can you

can feel referred pain anywhere. But but

what what happens next is great, you

solve that area of spasm. Why do we get

spasm? Oftent times it's because we're

providing artificial stability to an

area of weakness because spasm is is

basically the muscles holding on and

saying, "I need to protect this area."

And so if the muscles around the low

back are protecting that area, there's a

reason for it. It's probably because the

muscles that are supposed to be stronger

are not strong enough. So that doesn't

mean that you do this one thing, you're

done. Yes, you might have no back pain

that day or you might have relieved that

episode, but it means that there's an

area of weakness that could benefit from

strengthening it. So you come back and

you start to do glute media

strengthening. I I demonstrate an

exercise where you you put yourself up

against the wall, right? And you stand

on the leg outside the wall, furthest

away from the wall, and you let yourself

drop. You just let your hips drop,

right? They get lazy. When they drop

like that, you're the only way you can

get them level again is to slide

yourself back towards the wall. And

that's abduction of the hip that way to

get you back to level again. That is the

glute medius dysfunction to get you back

to that level position. Well,

ironically, every time you lift a foot

off the ground to walk, you're getting a

pelvis that drops side to side, right?

Every time you go in single leg stance,

the pelvis is going to drop a little

bit. The people that have less control

of that have more of what they call a

trendelenberg gate where the pelvis

rocks side to side as they walk.

>> It's like if you were looking at them

from the back, you know, uh pick your uh

preferred opposite gender folks and then

uh the butt swinging from side to side.

>> Might look good on Instagram, but it's

not going to it's not going to do good

for your back, right? So, you go back

and forth. Well, all that uncontrolled

motion starts to wreak havoc and

eventually those muscles start to say, I

got I got to provide this artificial

stability. So, what do I do? I spasm.

And so if you don't extend the plan

beyond the fix, how do you then build

that strength up to prevent it from

coming back? And so I'm all about not

just the fixes, but but really about the

preventative things you can do to to to

save this off long term. So we'll talk

about the structure of a bas a really

good basic program. And many people talk

about that, you know, sets, reps,

splits, etc. But let's just assume for a

second that somebody listening to this

is training their lower body twice a

week.

>> They're doing compound exercises and

some isolation exercises, but they're

dealing with some back pain or they're

not like 20s, they're in their 20s or

30s or structurally they're blessed and

they're not dealing with it. What are

some additional things that we would

call small things that make the big

things possible for much longer and also

make people stronger at the big things

that people can do? Would you say uh

back hyperextensions? Would you say

watch your video on medial uh glute

medius training? What would be the

exercise to insert and how many times

per week to do it and when?

>> That's a good question. So yeah, reverse

hypers are an amazing exercise. Um, I

like doing them because they're very

easy to do anywhere. You don't have to

have resistance on them. They make a

great machine that actually provides

resistance. Straps over your legs that

you can lift additional weight on. But

the challenge for most people, remember,

they're chronically weak in these areas.

So, even just their body weight lifting

of their own legs is going to be a

significant enough challenge to get

overload. But you can literally do it on

like your bed in the morning. You can

get up. You lay enough of your torso on

top of the bed so that you're not

falling off the bed, but you can just

have your legs hanging off your bed and

your body up on top of the bed and do a

reverse hyper.

>> So, raising the heels,

>> raising the heels

>> so that they're parallel with the floor

>> as level as you can get them. You know,

again, the bed's a little a little soft.

So, sometimes you kind of dip down as

you're lifting your legs up, but it's

it's it's sturdy enough that you can get

to almost a parallel position to the

floor. I like to make sure we'll talk

about this, but like you're moving the

muscles are doing the work and not

momentum, right? So, you want to hold

that contraction briefly at the top to

convince yourself that you actually were

able to perform the movement. So, you

get up, hold it for for a second. And I

think what's important on that, too, is

people who don't have the strength in

their glutes, cuz it really is a glute

weakness issue, not necessarily a low

back issue. it. A lot of times it's

weakness in the glutes that's

transferring the load to the low back

that can't handle it. And people get the

symptoms in the back, but it's the

weakness somewhere else that's causing

that. So, I like to focus first and

foremost on the glutes, glute max, glute

me, is to make sure that they're strong

enough. And again, if you test even big-

time athletes, we would test their

rotational strength of their hips. Some

of the strongest athletes, some of the

biggest squatters, some of the best

lungers, right? They're lunging over 200

pounds. they you put them in position,

you try to bend their their uh their hip

into internal or external rotation of

their of their bent knee, they can't

resist it at all. So they it just goes

to show you that all the squatting, all

the big lifts aren't enough to

counteract the smaller muscles, right?

There are different functions. A

rotational muscle of the hip is not a

sagittal plane muscle of the hip. It has

a different function. So they all have

to be strengthened. So along that along

that line, we will do the the the

reverse hyper as a good sagittal plane

exercise focusing on the glute. When

they get to the top and I tell you to

contract it, squeeze so you know that's

the glute that's squeezing and doing the

work, not that you're arching at the low

back, that you're using the muscles that

are already overworked in the first

place. So get that up there. Squeeze.

Reinforce that it's the glute that did

the work. Great exercise. The glute

medius, like I said, the hip bump. Super

easy exercise. You could do it anywhere

against the wall. You can do anywhere

against the wall. Any anything you can

do

>> like a butt bump. You you basically

raise the leg that's closer to the wall

like 90° outer one you're standing. It's

almost like you're trying to slide that

hip that's along the that's closer to

the wall up the wall. So it's like Yeah.

It's like a kind of like side booty bump

to the wall but sliding it up. And and

this is sometimes where you have to

invest and this is the small things but

you know they're also small investments.

>> A little mini hip band. You know the

little elastic bands. They're just

loops. The little fit loop they're

called. Put it around your heels.

>> Lay on your belly. Bend your knees to

90°.

>> And then just try to open your feet

apart,

>> right? Spread your feet apart. So now

you're strengthening rotation of the

hip. Or hold one steady. Let one leg,

it's a little hard to show here, but let

one leg come a little bit in front of

the other and then try to cross it over

the other one. So now you're getting

external rotation of that hip. So you're

working external rotation against

resistance, internal rotation against

resistance.

>> Super easy things to do. You can you can

attach a band around your around your

ankle and then you can do lateral hip

swings but with a component of rotating

against the resistance of the band too.

So I'm moving my leg out and rotating

out at the same time. How do you do

that? Just focus on your toe. If your

toe is turning out, your hip is turning

out. If your toe is turning in and your

hip is turning in. So you don't have to

focus so much on how do I move that.

Just focus on what the foot is doing and

you're turning. As long as the knee is

going with the foot, right? You're not

just spinning the foot. the knee and the

foot go together. So, there's there's

simple things and again, you might need

a band or a mini band or something to

get these smaller muscles more

specifically, but it's $10, $15 for a

band. It's well worth the investment if

you can get rid of these long-term

recurrent issues that keep come, you

know, back and and causing agony every

2, three months as a reminder of what

you're not doing.

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to save up to 40%. Once I realized that

the glute medius was causing for me back

spasm issues that were severe enough

that it was immobilizing,

but then it was resolved by the

information you provide in your videos.

I started doing the um the hip slide up

the wall movement. I still do that. the

reverse hyper and then the one that you

put in a video and again we'll put links

to these that I found uh a little bit

more uh of a setup

but seems really useful is where you

take some sort of rope or dog leash

>> and you put it around your waist and

then you actually have a weight between

your your legs hanging a couple inches

off the floor and then the goal is to

walk and it makes you kind of have to

kind of monster walk or

>> and the idea is to not let the weight

swing and hit your your feet. Now, I

know that sounds really awkward, but it

really works and I know it works uh for

a number of reasons. And by the way, all

this strengthened other lifts for me

dramatically. I was kind of at a

sticking point with a number of of lower

body lifts and upper body lifts. And it

really seems like it helped create a

real stability in the lower back glute

area.

>> What is that dog leash thing doing? Uh

it's very simple, right? Just tie a

weight between your legs and then you're

trying to walk but not let it swing.

what why does that work?

>> Anytime you can take these smaller

exercises and bring them a little closer

to actual function, I think it's better

is better carryover. So, if you're

talking about actually being on your

feet and walking, that's a step towards

function. That's that's you're going to

be more useful, I think. Um, but what

you're doing is, as I mentioned before,

every time you pick up a foot off the

ground, you're in single leg stance. So,

when you're in single leg stance, if

you're not contracting the glute medius

on the side that you're standing on,

your pelvis is going to drop. You drop

in the side because you're you're not

balanced anymore. You're going to drop

towards the up leg. You may not drop if

you're consciously trying to stay level

because you're firing the glute medius.

But for someone that has a weak glute,

you just have them stand on that one leg

and you're going to see that pelvis

drop. So, when you're doing this test

and you're adding the weight to the

equation here, the weight is really to

create a pendulum effect, right? Because

when you start to move anything, that

weight's going to want to go in an

exaggerated way. So, what what we're

trying to reinforce is, okay, can you do

this and take these slow steps in these

single alternating single leg stance and

prevent that that weight from shifting

so much, i.e. because you're dropping

too much that it would hit or bang into

the other leg. So, you have to be able

to walk slowly through a single leg

stance and not allow enough of a drop by

having good contraction and control of

the glute medius so that it would

minimize the the the weight itself. It

would quiet the motion of the weight

itself. So, you're reinforcing how hard

can I keep this thing engaged as I walk.

And you know, if you could do this, the

faster you could move yourself and still

have minimal displacement of the weight

would be a good indicator that, wow,

you're really starting to get good

control and strength in those in that

glute medius. Another thing I like to do

is um we call a suitcase lunge, right?

So, you do a a lunge where you offset

the weight on one side. So, you carry it

in the if I'm going to lunge forward, I

put it on the opposite leg, right? Hold

on the opposite side. What that's going

to theoretically do is obviously when I

lunge forward, I'm going to want to fall

to the side of the weight. Picture

having even like a 50 lb weight or a 60

lb weight in your hand. It's going to

want to go that direction. In this lunge

position, if I can straighten my self

out and keep my torso rigidly in place

the whole time, then I can really

strengthen that glute medius on the

opposite side. And what's cool about

that is it's also done on a in

conjunction with a sagittal plane lunge.

So now I'm starting to plane in train in

multiple dimensions and planes at one

time. So a lunge in this direction

suitcase carry offset only one dumbbell

not in the other side. Obviously you're

going to get that desire for the body to

fall towards the side of the offset

weight. And again that starts to shift

the pelvis up. The only thing will keep

it down is by keeping the hip in

abducted and level. And that pelvis

stays level. So we'll do that with a lot

of our athletes and work up to some

pretty heavy weights there too. And

again, it is a kill two birds with one

stone type exercise because you still

get the benefits of the lunge, which I I

love as an exercise.

>> So, let's say somebody is going to do

some hip slide up the wall or andor

reverse hypers if they're lucky enough

to have a gym with a reverse hyper

machine or or even a just a high bench

or hyperextension machine, right?

Classic hyperextensions.

>> You just go face inward the upper body

moves and um for classic hyper uh heels,

>> which I like too, by the way. That's

more direct low back strengthening

>> which is always good like we can always

strengthen our low backs that those

muscles need to be strengthened but

again I I would say more often the time

times the source of the low back pain is

coming from the muscles but beneath them

that are weak chronically weak like the

glutes. Okay. So, reverse hypers, the

hip sliding up the wall approach, maybe

the dog leash uh with weight between um

legs. Doesn't have to be a dog leash,

folks, but you get the idea. To try and

minimize the hip sway.

>> Should those be done at the end of a

lower body workout when the lower back

and glutes are partially fatigued or

very fatigued or done separately at a

time when they're really fresh?

>> Two times. I think I think you could do

them on a dedicated day at a dedicated

time. So I I approach my ab training as

ab training and I always keep it

separate. I just like to focus on I'm

going to do 5 to 10 minutes of core

strengthening right now here and now

separate from my workout because I don't

want it to be an afterthought. I think

it should be it's a it's a key component

of what I do to keep a strong core. So I

want to focus it and I don't want to add

it to the end of my workout when I'm

already mentally checked out. Right? So

I do that. I think when you start to

have these issues that require special

programming, right, then you should own

that special programming because it's

yours. It's what you need specifically.

Others might need things for their

shoulders or for the rotator cuff, but

like whatever special programming is, do

it as a small routine on its own day at

its own time or even it could be on a

workout day, but a separate time that

you just go through as a routine. 5

minutes to 7 minutes three times a week

or so. That's it. If you want to put it

on a training day, it's actually not a

bad idea to put these smaller muscle

exercises or smaller focused exercises

after your bigger training cuz a you're

not going to compromise your big

training and the goals that you have for

for that, but you also are pre-

fatiguing some of those bigger muscles

that are going to want to dominate these

small movements anyway. The

compensations that you're going to see

on these small movements are always

going to be the big muscles trying to

kick in and do what they've always done,

which is take over. And you're trying to

get them to not. So, if you can pre-

fatigue them a little bit prior to doing

these small exercises, you're actually

setting the smaller muscles up for more

success.

>> Yeah. If I could travel back to my teens

and I started lifting when I was 16 and

20s and 30s, I would have started doing

all of these things a couple times a

week or even just once a week even

before there were there was any pain

because I had the same I don't know if

it's arrogance or just ignorance that oh

you know pain like that's what old guys

talk about like I have no pain I feel

fine like you know but I think by

training a certain way without pain for

a very long time it's almost like the

spring is getting compressed ressed

because it means that unless someone has

perfect mechanics and they're covering

all their bases through other sports and

and things of that sort, it's almost

like the stronger stronger stronger you

get, you're just setting yourself up for

one of these things to go. And in my

case, it was this lower back thing. And

for some people, it's their shoulder.

When you're young, those things that

that appear as post-workout soreness,

even can be masquerading for long-term

pain problems and dysfunction down the

road, right? cuz you're again when we're

young we just feel hey I'm sore I had a

hard workout yesterday I'm a little

stiff again we get through it we manage

it it's not that uh interruptive of our

life at that point so we move on but I

believe that those are

many examples of what is potentially

happening beneath the surface that if

you continue down that road that normal

workout soreness becomes more chronic

joint pain discomfort movement

limitations and and we also lose range

of motion as we get older. So, if we're

not focusing on actually trying to

maintain that, it just starts to pile

up. And it's one of those things where

you look back, we look back years later

and go, "Wow, I can't believe I've lost

this much range of motion or I can't

believe I've gotten to this state." When

it really was just accumulation of many,

many of those days of doing things where

you weren't paying attention to all the

little things. So, it doesn't really

creep up on anybody. It's like it it's

it's happening, you know, and it's

happening every day. It's not like you

can't intervene. You just have to be

aware of what you need to do to

intervene.

>> You have a post that really humbled me

and people are going to laugh. They're

going to be like, "I can't believe you

can't do that." Well, now I can do it.

I'll explain what it is in a moment. But

a longevity test.

>> Oh boy.

>> That includes test of balance,

>> strength,

>> and um inner fortitude. And that's the

put your shoes and socks on standing on

one foot obviously one foot then the

other not sitting down but doing that in

the morning every day. And I'll tell you

if you're training hard that lower

back's going to ache a little bit when

you first, you know, first thing in the

morning. This is a very cool test and I

force myself to do it now. And I have to

say a lot of mornings I'm like I just

want to sit down and put my shoes on,

you know, and I got this puppy now and

he's grabbing my shoelaces which makes

it even more dynamic. But in all

seriousness, it's it's a very

interesting, very simple test. If you

could just explain what it is, folks,

trust me, you want to do this every

single day. So, they call it the old man

test is is gender neutral, though. It

could be a woman test. Everybody is fair

game. The goal here is to simply put

your sock and your shoe on the floor on

both sides. Lay them down in front of

you. Um, untie your shoes, make them

sure they're they're loose enough that

you can get them on your foot. Stand on

one foot to begin the test. lean over,

pick up that shoe or pick pick up that

sock, put the sock on, pick up that

shoe, put it on, tie it, and then put

the foot down. Only after you've tied

the shoe can you put it down and then go

and do the other side. And it is

difficult. It is very, very difficult.

It happens to be one of the tests that I

do a little bit better than other tests,

but um we were joking before. I told you

that I about twice a year I still get

back pain every now and then and mine

came from leaning over to put my sock on

the other day and my whole back felt

like it was going to blow up on me like

that. So there's a lot going on inside

the body when you're doing this, right?

Why would my back all of a sudden seize

up on me when I'm going to pick put on

my sock? because you don't realize the

responsibility that those lumbar

parispinal muscles have in trying to

control even just leaning forward and

they're trying to make sure that you're

doing it at a pace that's safe for your

spine. So doing this every day is a

little mini workout for those muscles.

And again, we we I I think we tend to

get so lazy as we get older and

complacent and so that once you start

sitting down, you're just going to sit

down when you put on your socks and

shoes. What's the need to get up and do

this every day if I'm comfortable

putting it my, you know, doing this

sitting down or, wow, this was easier

because I sat down today. You can't be

seeking easy. If you seek easy, you're

going to get old a lot faster. So, this

test is testing your balance. It is

testing against some of the mini dynamic

control from those muscles in the low

back. It's is testing your ankle

mobility in a way because you're going

to get a lot of this going on the

perturbation through your ankles and

your knees and it's testing your hip

strength because again once you go on

one leg you're now talking about pelvic

control the same way we did before. So

you have to have good strength there.

But it's not uncommon for people to not

be able to pass this test. But with

practice like anything else you're

training these muscles to get stronger

and you're training these your your

balance and you're these are all skills

that can be learned and improved.

They're all trainable. I actually put a

a video out not long ago about um

different measures of of longevity. And

one of them was that test. Another one

was pull-ups. Another one was the number

of push-ups you could do. We we could

talk about these after, but the number

one was like going back to your glute

media strengthening. Can you lay in a

side lying plank position with the top

leg up about 45°? You could keep it

stacked. It's a lot easier to stay in a

plank position. You raise that leg off

of the other. Now it's all relying on

that lateral pillar strength of the

underside hip, the one closest to the

floor. So one arm down or stack on the

on the on the elbow.

>> Okay. Heels stacked at first. Yeah. At

first.

>> Okay. On your side. So side plank, not

just lying on your side. Side plank.

>> It's not the the uh the picnic date

stance. It's uh um you lying on your so

side plank and then you're going to

raise the top leg up to make a 45° and

see if you could hold that even for just

30 seconds

>> and it's difficult. You'll feel a lot of

shaking. You'll feel a lot of of u

sagging of that bottom hip because

you're you're asking your glute medius

on that underside leg to hold you up

into that position. So the beauty about

that series of tests though is that

they're all trainable. So if it's

trainable, it's fixable, you can improve

as you have, right? You've you're now

much better at at the test.

Oh yeah, old man test. Yeah, definitely.

Um there are mornings when I want to

cross one leg over the other kind of go

into like what do they call it that like

kind of pseudo crow pose they talk about

in yoga like rest the ankle and the like

and sometimes it people are probably

laughing at this. Go try it folks. Some

people might do it just right away is

very easy. Many people will find this

difficult like to the point where like I

don't think I can do this but quickly

get good at it.

>> Yeah. Strength is not even like a

determining factor or predictor here

either. You could be very very strong

and do incredibly poorly on this test

>> because you're not strong in these areas

or you could just have bad vestibular

balance, right? You could it could be

that alone. Once you start to lean

forward or look down, you don't have

good control. But there it is testing a

variety of things. And if it if you do

poorly on it, you can look a little

deeper, investigate a little deeper

through additional tests to try to find

out exactly where your weakness is. But

it but it's a good broadspectctrum test

to see how how good your your functional

balance is.

>> Yeah. Some people people might wonder

how do you work up to it? There's

something called Velcro shoes. No, I'm

just kidding. The uh or slippers like

there it's easier, right? It's going to

be quicker. Right. Right.

>> Yeah. I think um it's definitely worth

trying and uh I think identifying these

weak points um I think is just so

critical and I'm probably going to say

this 20 times during today's um

recording, but for the young guys and

gals who are thinking, "Oh, like that

thing is so easy." Trust me, with time,

it's the gradual creep of little things

that you stop doing. I'm going to add

the side plank uh in because I'm I just

haven't been doing much planking, not

much isometric stuff. And I'm sure that

I've got a weakness somewhere along the

chain of muscles that's required to do

that properly. Yeah.

>> And what I love about these sorts of

small things that support doing the big

things for much much longer, hopefully

forever, is that they don't have to be

done as part of the standard workout.

and they can be incorporated into like

you're watching something on Netflix and

you just kind of move some furniture out

of the way and you just do these at that

time which is really cool and important

because it's not just about like an

additional workout because people are

slammed. They've got so much to do and

like how am I supposed to do all this

stuff and be with sunlight and this and

that but it's straightforward.

>> Yeah. Well, that it look I think the

thing that you've done better than

anybody is practical implementation of

the things that are going to benefit

people that are not time consuming or

overly timeconuming. They're e easily

implemented. A lot of what I focus on is

when we're talking about these drills or

exercises to do, a lot of them are body

weight or a lot of them are done in

minimal space because the more elaborate

it becomes or the more timeconuming it

is or whatever it is, there's just so

many reasons for people not to do them

and they are going to be viewed as the

extra stuff until they become adopted

and they realize how much they're

helping them. It's always going to be

viewed as the extra stuff originally. So

to get someone to buy into the concept,

open up the time frame where they can do

them. Let them do it during watching

Netflix. Let them do it while me while

I'm on the floor doing some crunches

after I've already done my workout. Like

open up the restrictions so that you're

still getting the effect, but you're

you're you're minimizing the the uh

prescription of it. So it's so demanding

people don't want to do it. So, one

thing that we I don't think we've ever

talked about on this podcast is that

many people don't just work out, they

also play a sport. Uh maybe they do golf

or maybe baseball or softball, maybe

they swim. In every sport, there

obviously dominant patterns of of

movement. And there's a lot that's out

there about how to train to improve

those patterns of movement. I'd like to

ask the opposite question. Let's say

somebody played baseball or golfed or

whatever their sport was and now they

have imbalances that are the consequence

of having done some activity like a golf

swing over and over and over standing in

a particular way and they have pain and

they are thinking about longevity not

just of their golf game but of

everything else tennis whatever people

just pick your sport. I think this is

very common and not commonly discussed.

What can people do to compensate for

these unilateral movements or for these,

you know, you know, always left foot

forward type stance things that won't

compromise their their game but also

overcome any pain and imbalances? I've

always been curious about this. That

brings up the point of like how sport

specific training has evolved over the

years. There was a time when sport

specific training meant doing everything

that you could to replicate the motions

of the sport and trying to strengthen

those movement patterns. I think gladly

we've moved past that stage of of

training because you can get better at

that movement pattern by simply doing

that movement pattern. You can increase

the strength of your entire body by

increasing the strength of your entire

body. So the focus of the weight room

can be to do your general strengthening

bilaterally, right? in regardless of

what movement pattern direction your

sport favors and improve the strength

there and the function there because the

carryover to your movement pattern is

there. Like when you get stronger and

then you go back to swing a bat, you're

going to still have the increased

strength that you built in the weight

room in your swing of the baseball bat.

And you can throw harder if you're a

pitcher or you can throw further if

you're a quarterback. if you improve

your overall arm strength in your upper

body strength. A lot of upper body

throwing strength has nothing to do with

your arm. It has to do with the

stability of your core. So, if you're

getting much stronger in your core, you

can have more torque generation to throw

the ball further without having to do

anything to your arm. So, I think the

the strategy should be that when you're

a playing a sport and devoting a lot of

time to it, whether at the professional

level or not, you you still should be

focusing the majority of your strength

training and conditioning work towards

your overall balanced physique, trying

to get strong across your entire body.

Let the skill work be the skill work.

And if you want to focus, there are

certainly few few things. We mentioned a

couple when we were at the gym

yesterday, but a few things that

specific athletes can do to improve

their specific skill and that's fine

from a strength training perspective.

And that's fine. Like maybe more forearm

work if you're having to swing a a

racket or a bat, right? That's fine.

That can that can be done in addition to

your basic core lifting. But to go back

to the days where the strength training

was was basically replicating the

motions of the sport, especially

nowadays where you've got athletes who

never stopped playing their sport. It's

young athletes. They're they're playing

baseball year round through all these

fall leagues and winter leagues and like

there's way too much repetition of the

same movement pattern. And that doesn't

end well because you you can see what's

happening these days with pitchers like

it's almost a right of passage. when how

many years are they going to be able to

pitch before they have to have a Tommy

John surgery?

>> What is the Tommy John surgery?

>> Their owner collateral ligament, you

know, basically being replaced or it

tears in their elbow. They're out for an

entire season. But it's like some of

these pitchers, it's like you want they

want to get it done early so they can

hopefully come back and then have a

string of years where they can dominate.

It's it's it's crazy. But I think a lot

of it is coming from a lot of overuse, a

lot of repetition, not enough moving

into other sports and movement patterns

to balance off the strains and stresses

that they're going doing in that sport,

their chosen sport. And it's and it's

and it's causing a a lot of uh avoidable

avoidable stress that again just fixing

it through a more managed well-balanced

approach in the weight room is probably

key number one.

>> It's interesting. That's not the answer

I expected, but um really cool to hear

that. So, doing the uh classic

all-around weight training, you know,

squats, some deadlifts,

>> the goal should be to strengthen to

strengthen your body to improve your

flexibility everywhere to, you know, if

you're talking about, let's say, a

situation with a pitcher where you have

hyper mobility of your shoulder because

you're your your move your throwing

requires a lot more range of motion than

than a non-throwing shoulder.

You don't have to say, "Well, I'm

mobilizing my my shoulders now, so I

have to do a lot of mobility work on my

on my my throwing shoulder." That might

not be necessary. In some cases, you

might want to not do that because it's

already mobile enough because of the

skill work. So, it's not like a a broad

you do everything you do here, you do

there on each side. You you might want

to actually steer away from some of the

things that you're repetitively using in

the in the in the sport itself. But from

a strengthening standpoint, you'll never

go wrong sticking to the the core lifts,

building up your strength in those core

lifts and and bilaterally strengthening

your body and your balance and your

coordination and your explosivity and

your power. You're you're not going to

go wrong. That does transfer back over

to the sport itself. People think that

it has to be in this sport specific

motion to transfer back over there.

That's not that's not true. One thing I

noticed yesterday when we were training

as well as in your videos is that

whenever you have the opportunity to do

a movement standing as opposed to

seated, you'll do that. Whenever you

have the opportunity to stagger your

stance a bit, not fully lunging, but

offset your stance a bit, you'll do

that. And then you also talked about

>> even on a on a dumbbell curl, leaning a

bit toward the side that you're curling

up, assuming you're doing alternating

dumbbell curls, uh can be very useful.

Would you sort of explain the general

logic for that and then maybe we can

touch into a few of the specific

examples? I have a phrase if you want to

look like an athlete you have to train

like an athlete, right? And and the the

what that really means is like sure

people might want to look athletic. They

want to have an athletic physique. They

might want to have the six-pack abs.

They want to have what they think is an

athletic looking physique. That's great

because a lot of people want that. But

you have to train for it. It comes at a

price. You have there's a way to get

there. And I believe that the way to get

there is by training like an athlete.

Doesn't mean you have to start going out

and doing again the all these things

that people thought is what athletes

need to do to be athletic. You just have

to start a caring a little bit more

about what you do. So treat it like

you're an athlete. And these little

things matter. It goes back to the

original point. The little things matter

just like they would if you were if this

was your contract on the line. Every

little thing would matter. But more

importantly, functionally, what do

athletes do? Most athletes, not all, but

most athletes are on their feet. Most

athletes move around. You move around,

you're not squared up with your feet

right next to each other and and unless

you're, you know, I mean, in one phase

of an offensive lineman's uh duty, they

stand up and their feet are square, but

they quickly stagger their feet for more

stability. So, you need to be able to

operate from that position, I think, as

often as you can because

it's not to produce professional

athletes. is to produce a body that's

functioning the way it prefers to

function. Why do we default do that? If

I told you, Andrew, I'm going to come

over here. I'm going to try to push you

over right now. Would you stand up like

this or would you put one foot back?

Like, by default, you would instantly go

to one foot back and you try to lean

into me and get get more stable because

your body instantly knows that's a more

stable position. If I can train with

more stability, I know I can decrease

injury risk no matter what I'm doing.

You talked about even something as

simple as the curl. When I

it's not just looking at the bicep, but

when I turn towards the bicep and I kind

of screw I I call it screwing down. As I

screw down on that weight, I'm able to

stabilize the torso a little bit more

over this shoulder. Or I can even dig

the the arm into my side a little bit,

engaging the lats, stabilizing the

shoulder girdle, so that when I lift the

weight, I have more tension in the

biceps, number one, but more stability

that the biceps can work from by

stabilizing the entire shoulder girdle.

When I'm out in space like this, it's a

little bit more of a freewheeling deal

here where I don't have that stability.

So, is something going to happen or go

wrong from doing that? No. But that's

not creating the most functionally

stable body. So, by turning your body

around that arm, keeping it stable in

your side and curling, I'm able to

create a little bit more stability

there. I take it to the same the same

way down to the ground with a lunge.

When you lunge and do my favorite, a

reverse lunge, which takes a little bit

of the stress off the anterior knee,

stepping backward, step backwards rather

than forward. Just again, I'm sensitive

to that cuz I have pretty bad knees from

those early days in the 20s of doing

things wrong with flat feet.

You want to as you step back a take a

little bit of a wider step on that back

leg. So you're creating a wider base of

support, more balance, right? Rather

than being completely narrow cuz not

just staggering my stance, but

staggering and widening my base of

support.

>> This is key. It's funny. If you're

you're in the gym with people, I I'm not

a trainer, but occasionally I've shown

some people how to do some things and

you say widen your stance, they

immediately put one foot further out in

front of the other. But what you're

talking about is getting them the space

between the

>> um the insides of your feet further

apart. So w literally widening outside

shoulder

>> lengthening your stance.

>> Right. And and and especially as you

lengthen your stance, widening them in

in in conjunction is going to create a

wider base of support, more stability.

So when we do that, you step back, you

create a little bit of that width and

balance. But as I go down into the

lunge, you'll find

if you don't lean your torso or turn

your torso a little bit in the direction

of that forward leg and kind of do that

same screwing down effect that I talk

about, that front leg will wobble a

little bit. You'll feel that the hip is

a little bit more unstable. Back to

again that single leg suitcase lunge we

talked about where that hip drops and

you get a lot of that instability. I

want to be able to turn and sort of

screw down on that hip. And what I'm

doing is basically kind of tying the

muscles of the pelvis together, muscles

of the hip, co-contracting and creating

more stability so that now when I ask

that quad and and and glute and

hamstring to to work and push me back to

a standing position, it's working more

efficiently because it's on a stable

base. I I've mentioned before if we were

gonna jump and try to get a the highest

vertical jump jump we could, would you

jump off this ground, this floor, or

this table, or would you jump off of

sand?

>> Jump off a firm firm firm.

>> You jump off of sand. As soon as you try

to place force down into the ground,

it's going to dissipate because the

ground itself is moving. Well, we want

to create as much force and efficient

force as possible. Want to have a stable

base. So all that co- contraction of the

hip when you screw down into it or even

in the shoulder girdle when you're going

to then operate this this elbow flexion

shoulder flexion movement of a curl then

you basically get a more efficient

movement. So stability is a key for more

efficient movement and also I think

long-term safer movement. As many of you

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of D3K2 with your subscription. Jumping

around a little bit here, but I I'm

recalling the many things that have uh

reversed or eliminated pain that is very

common in anyone that works out. And one

of those, you mentioned it, is pain at

the kind of inner elbow point, kind of

forearm, inner elbow. And I figured I

had an elbow problem. I had something

going on with tendonitis of the elbow.

And you know, it

>> turns out it was further away from that.

It was all happening at the level of the

grip.

>> Yeah.

>> And you said, and I listened fortunately

on pull-ups

>> to not let the bar be at my fingertips,

to try and get my knuckles over the bar.

Yeah. Right. And you have a beautiful

demonstration of this. It almost sounds

like that trick that kids do where they

go, "Hey, pull my finger." You know, um

it's not that trick, folks, but where

you um got to put some resistance to

each of your own fingers, like your your

index finger, your middle finger, your

ring finger, and then your pinky finger.

And when you do put the pressure on that

pinky finger, you can feel it right at

that elbow.

>> And so, sure enough, I was causing this

elbow pain by doing, you know, uh

pull-ups and and slipping off the bar a

bit, and I'm at my fingertips. As soon

as I took your advice and got my

knuckles over the bar, even though it

puts requires a little bit of a wrist

bend, sure enough, I haven't had elbow

pain in a decade. It is uh one of those

things that can happen so quickly, too.

Like, you could go from having no elbow

pain to the very next day having elbow

pain or even right after the workout

doing elbow pain if you're doing a lot

of chin-ups with this issue where the

where the bar is too far away and it's

just an overload issue. essentially the

the muscles, the flexors, the deep

flexors of the forearm that run down

into the fingers. It's it's actually the

the ring and fifth fingers, so the

fourth and fifth finger that tend to be

the the weakest and least resilient to

that kind of stress. If you're gripping

through there and that bar gets deep

into the into the fingers

>> or if you do it where you're doing a

curl, even the bar sits too deep into

your hand there and you try to curl

heavy

>> toward the ends of your fingers.

>> To the ends of your fingers. Yeah.

and not into the into the actual meat of

your hand. It's just a lot of strain

more than that that muscle is really

built for to handle and those tendons

get a little bit strained and it can

immediately feel like a knife in the in

the elbow feel and it takes a long time

to go away because how many other

exercises do you do where you're

gripping and and requiring the grip to

be in place to do that. Now, if you want

to intentionally do this, you can do it

intentionally. let's say a an underhand

lat pull down like they call it a hook

grip because what people want to dis

discourage people from doing is pulling

down too much with the bar, right?

Causing too much forearm involvement in

whatever back exercise I'm trying to do.

But in that case, you're really trying

to hook through the stronger fingers of

the index finger, middle finger, right?

And and even the just, you know, you're

getting a little bit of assistance on

the ring finger, but you're really

trying to hook through there. All four

fingers might be on the bar, but most of

the force is being held through there.

And you're you're still pulling down a

lot through your lats to build to pull

that bar down. So, it's not like you're

just letting it hold all the weight. But

that that little hook grip is meant to

discourage any meaningful wrist flexion

that would take over and take away some

of the work of the lats. But if you got

a history of elbow issues, you don't

need to use that grip. Like, that's just

it's just not worth it. the extra

benefit of a little extra forearm

involvement may not be worth it for you.

But for people who find that they don't

have elbow issues and they want to get a

little bit of that, you can do it in an

intentional way, but you really have to

kind of steer away from making these

fingers do the bulk of the work. How did

you figure that out by having that issue

multiple times?

>> Yeah. I mean, I was just again, you

know, just blown away. I was like, okay,

I've got this inner elbow pain and I'm

like curling and I'm doing my tricep

work and my back work and I'm wondering,

okay, what's wrong with my elbows? And

you know, I'm I'm at that time, you

know, young guy. I'm like, what's going

on? And then

>> and then it makes perfect sense as you

pointed out, you know, ring finger,

pinky finger are are are taking too much

of the at the load at the near the tips

of the fingers, force myself to put the

bar or the or the dumbbell in the meat

of my hand. Yeah. Now, we take a more

traditional grip, right? You're not like

relying on that those distal tendons to

have to do all that work and manage that

load. Now, now the hand the hand can

hold on to hundreds and hundreds of

pounds, right? So, if we can just get it

into the meat of the hand, now I'm

getting all the assistance of the

intrinsic hand muscles on top of it. So,

now it's no longer a strain or a stress

to those particular tendons. But believe

me, uh, two things contribute to me

figuring these things out. Number one,

being a physical therapist changed

everything for me because I had to think

of things differently. Number two, when

you're treating patients, not everyone

everyone presents the same. So, you have

to come up with alternative ways to get

to the same end result. I might be able

to tell nine out of 10 people to do a

Bulgarian split squat to alleviate knee

pain. But for that 10th person, it just

lights them up and you and they can't do

it. You have to be able to figure out

how to how to work around that. And the

second thing is that I I had the

unfortunate but fortunate experience of

having to deal with a lot of these

things through my life in the early

years and even still now. I I still do

things that cause inflammation and and

uh a need to reassess and look at what

I'm doing and maybe why. And like you, I

didn't I knew I when I first started

experiencing that pain also in my 20s,

like that wasn't I didn't have an elbow

issue. Like there's nothing structurally

wrong with my elbow. So I had to look

somewhere else. I didn't look then, but

I looked when I got older and had way

too many of those incidents happen. So

it forces you to look and it forces me

to look. I have to look cuz this is what

I do for a living. But it forces me to

look and figure out what's causing this

and more importantly, what can you do to

stop it?

>> Well, I and many others are eternally

grateful cuz that inner elbow pain, the

lower back pain. Yeah. They're brutal.

Like they they can really take the they

can really take the pleasure out of a

lot of things cuz it's not just during

training.

>> Yeah.

>> The shoulders. Um I'm going to knock on

wood in a second because I I've been

fortunate that my shoulders haven't

given me issues, but that means it's

probably just next. But perhaps that's

also the consequence of having once

again listen to your content and

whenever possible I've tried to get into

external rotation which is uh if I

reference the fawns will anyone know

what I'm talking about. So thumbs out

and uh you know giving the thumbs up but

thumbs rotated away from the belly

button away from the midline. Could you

explain where the shoulder tends to be

most vulnerable and this business of

internal thumbs pointing toward the

belly button versus external rotation

during all sorts of movements and also

just daily life? Good point here too is

on top of the thumbs is, you know, not

just the flipping of the hand itself

through supernation and pronation of the

forearm, but literally letting the elbow

kind of travel with that, right? So,

you're letting everything move together

cuz it's the it's the rotation that's

happening in this joint, this ball and

socket up top.

>> Shoulders got to rotate out, right?

We're not just talking about moving your

thumbs away from your belly button out

for those just listening. We're talking

about getting the elbows in in a bit

more. As those thumbs go out, the

shoulders externally rotating as well.

>> Yeah. Which is key. And and

the the issue with internal rotation,

external rotation is that it's in

they're both motions of the shoulder,

right? We're needing we need both of

them. We need to be able if you go back

to the pitcher, he needs to be able to

externally rotate and then of course

internally rotate to throw the ball. I'm

not saying that internal rotation is is

is the devil. What we need though is the

ability to control internal rotation. We

need to be able the ability to have

enough external rotation strength to

hold that position for longer or to or

to be able to control right the ex the

eentric control from the external

rotators is what actually controls the

internal rotation. the eccentric control

from the internal rotator external

rotators

>> from the external rotators which

controls internal rotation because as

we're lengthening the external rotators

we're controlling if we have good

control the eentric control of that then

we're slowing down the internal rotation

or at least controlling it at a certain

pace that's extremely important when it

comes to pitching. we have this rapid

internal rotation going on, right? Which

is that essentially the thumb is moving

toward the midline to throw,

>> right? And so is the so is the elbow, so

is your shoulder.

>> So if the external rotators are

eccentrically strong, they can control

that and control the the pace of that

and make sure that it's not outpacing

what your your shoulder itself can can

structurally protect. So it's important

to have that, too. But internal rotation

in the world of the of of the

non-athlete is particularly problematic

if a you're posturally holding that

position for way too long throughout the

day and which is what we all chronically

are suffering from whether we're

texting, typing, not focusing ever on

the external rotators of our, you know,

in our training. You're just getting

chronically tight and internally

rotated. And then when you go to do even

basic things like lift your arm up over

your head, you're creating an internal

shoulder environment that's more prone

>> to

creating less space in inflaming tissues

that wind up getting pinched in that

position. That basically when you're

tight internally, you get changes to the

shoulder capsule itself, which is all

the ligamentous structures that surround

it that make you more internally rotated

and tight. You can't get out of that

position. So now when I go to raise my

arm up, there's just less room in here.

For instance, I think I we might have

done this before you and I, but if I

were to have you just lean forward like

this or slump your shoulder and then

raise your arm as high as you could in

front you, you're going to that's as far

as you get, right? And you're limited

not because of anything that's

necessarily tight right there, but

structurally there's a little bony bump

on the top of your humorous that's

actually getting stuck on the upper

portion of your shoulder joint there. So

now bring your arm down. Open up your

chest as much as you can. Turn your arm

out a little bit. Now raise it up

overhead and it goes higher. Why?

Because you just created external

rotation inside the joint that allows it

now to go up in a higher position. Well,

what happens if you're chronically in

this position of internal rotation and

you go to raise your arm, you go to wash

your hair, you go to get stuff out of

the cabinet, you go to do all the things

you do every day. Every time with there

being less space in there, there's more

likelihood to pinch on a super spinous

tendon. There's more likelihood to be

pinched on a bersa. There's more any and

every time we pinch, we potentially

inflame and cause more swelling inside

that joint, which causes less joint

space, right? So, you're inflaming those

tissues, more more uh compression in

that joint, and then more pain

ultimately. And then that winds up

causing down the road things like

partial thickness tears and tears of the

of the rotator cuff that we don't want.

So internal rotation in this elevated

position is not good. having external

rotation abilities or strength that can

help to centralize what it what it

really does when people talk about

rotator cuff training is yes you're

working the external rotators but really

what its main job is to actually keep

that ball centered in the middle of the

socket.

>> I see.

>> So as you go and you raise your arm up

in an internally rotated dominated

dominant shoulder it will migrate up.

Why? because the deltoid pulls up. So as

you're raising your shoulder up, the

deltoid is pulling that humorris up and

the internal rotation of the other

muscles are already too tight,

chronically tight or just keeping it in

the front side anyway. So you're lifting

your arm up and you're getting very

little space. What the external rotators

will do is they'll keep it centered so

that as you raise instead of it

migrating up, it's countering the force

of the deltoid. So staying in the middle

and it basically can rotate and stay

right in the middle where it has to be.

You're not getting this migration or

pinching going on. So that's the real

function of the rotator cuff is to

maintain a more centralized position

with less of this pinching. So you

really have to focus on when we're

talking about avoiding shoulder issues.

The biggest thing you can do is start

training the rotator cuff,

not stop training the rotator cuff. And

if you're doing a lot of heavy pressing

or a lot of work with exercises that

tend to internally rotate your shoulders

now, then you have to do even more work

for the rotator cuff to try to maintain

that balance. If you're doing all kinds

of delt work, you're never doing it

rotator cuff work, you're just creating

more and more of that imbalance. So I

think the biggest thing you can do is

maintain mobility of the shoulder,

mobility of the shoulder girdle itself.

So the the the scapula being able to

rotate and then having strength of the

muscles of that shoulder girdle which

are the rotator cuff. Those are the

three main things you can do to keep

that shoulder functioning well and

staying out of this domination of

internal rotation with elevation. What's

your favorite uh external rotator

exercise?

>> My favorite is just simply attaching a

band to a stable. could be a stair uh

like a stair post or it could be in a

gym just a rack, right? And you you step

away. You you put the band in your hand

from the anchor point. You're going to

step out until there's good tension on

the band. If you were to let it relax,

you will pull your your hand towards

your chest, towards your belly. You

externally rotate to about back to

neutral or a little bit beyond if you

can.

>> A little bit beyond your torso.

>> Yep. Yeah. A little beyond your torso if

you can. That's even better if you have

that range of motion. Sometimes people

don't. And when you get it there, you

again hold it, right? You hold it for a

second just so you know that you

actually muscled it out there. You

didn't just swing it out there. The

number one thing people do here to cheat

and we talk about this, we talked about

it in the gym quite a bit. Your body

knows how to compensate. Like if you

ever want to know what you're doing

wrong, just look at yourself in the

mirror and then look and see what your

body's trying to do. You'll realize the

compensation is the direct opposite of

what it's not doing, what the job is is

is avoiding. So when the ro rotator cuff

is trying to externally rotate the

shoulder,

>> the way I can avoid that is just lift my

elbow away from my side. I can get my

hand from here to here if I raise my arm

out to the side. But now I'm using my

delt to do it and not the rotator cuff.

>> Keep that elbow pin.

>> You got to keep the elbow pin to the

torso. So the easiest thing you can do

is just put something underneath your

arm, a little towel. Fold the towel, put

it underneath there, and then do the

exercise. And if you find that your

towel is dropping to the floor, it's

obviously that because you're lifting

your shoulder, your elbow away from your

body and you're using the wrong muscle.

Do this as a warm-up. Do it at the end

of the workout. How many sets, how many

reps, how many times a week?

>> There's different applications of it.

You can do it before a workout. So, if

I'm going to press, like, let's say

bench press, I could use this as a good

warm-up before I go press almost as a

neuroactivation technique to make sure

those muscles are alert and firing. So,

I can make sure that they're working

when I go to press to keep my shoulders

back in in a better position. And

especially as I raise my arms up in an

overhead press, I can make sure that

they're alert, they're fired up, they're

they're willing to contribute to keep

that head centered when the arm's going

up overhead. So, I like to do them on

pressing days as a neuroactivator before

I train. And it's serving as a warm-up,

too, or on other days. Again, treating

it as my special program, which is what

I have to do because of all the issues

that I've had with my shoulders. Again,

not from this one didn't come

necessarily from bad training, but just

dumb decisions trying to throw a

baseball back with the Mets. Um, I lost

a bet. It's kind of famous at this at

this point, but like a player bet me

that I couldn't throw the ball from,

well, let's rephrase that. I bet that I

could throw the ball from right field to

third base on the fly cuz it just looked

rather short from where I was, but it's

actually a lot longer and only the

better arms in baseball can actually do

that really easily. So, I have no idea

why I thought I could, but I did. And

literally the the moment I let that ball

go, I feel like my lab went with it and

maybe landed somewhere near second base

because it just felt like a burning

zipper pain in my shoulder and I've had

to deal with it ever since. Did the ball

get to the third base?

>> Oh, no. No way. No. I think it landed

with the labor bat at like second base,

you know, like no way. So,

>> you know, I learned my lesson, but the

fact is it's something that you can

you can adopt pretty easily as a special

programming type thing. Um, there's

things you could do too to make it a

little bit more interesting. Like once

you get into position where you could do

the actual repetition, you could then

hold it in a neutral position. Neutral

for this exercise would be not in, not

out. So where your fist is pointing

straight ahead and then then take a big

giant step away from the band.

>> So you're increasing the resistance of

the band dynamically but still having to

keep yourself in that same position.

>> So elbow still locked to the side, fist

out in front of you. You're holding the

band, there's tension. Step away from

the bar that the band is fixed to, so

there's additional tension.

>> Yeah. And it's going to want to pull

your hand back, but you keep it right

where it is. And then the fun part of it

is that I could then take it even

further. I could jump out there. So now

it becomes a little bit more ballistic

and dynamic. So I can be in this

position and then jump. And if I jump

quickly, now it really wants to pull me

in, but I have to still keep that same

position here. So it's mimicking a

little bit more of a of a ballistically

dynamic force. So I could do that. I

could start to change the angle. I could

be here in this position now facing

facing the the the anchor point and it

still wants to pull me into internal

rotation.

>> The band in front of you, not to the

side. Okay.

>> And I could jump back and see if it

pulls me down this direction. Interal

external rotation is is is

>> is done so many different ways. Again, I

could be in this position here. I'm just

reaching my arm out in front of me and

turning my my my arm all the way. Thumbs

down to the floor, all the way back past

the sky, and then thumbs out towards my

side. Right? That's internal external

rotation. I don't even have a bent

elbow, right? Because we're talking

about a shoulder movement, not an elbow

movement. But when we when we do it, we

could do it down low is going to be

easier for people to start. And the more

things you start to do with external

rotation, internal rotation with the arm

elevated, the more challenging it starts

to become. So you progressively move

towards movements where you're internal

or externally rotating against

resistance in a higher and higher arm

position. Love it. I want to take care

of my shoulders. Uh for me, neck

training has been u fundamentally

important for avoiding injury outside of

the gym. got rear ended in a car. I had

just bought my first car. This was many

years ago. 2005 CRV. I'm like driving my