Transcription
Most people don't realize this, but no matter how perfectly you train, you are going to experience pain in the gym. I've spent 17 years helping coaches, pro athletes, and everyday lifters perform at their best. And in this video, I'll walk you through real coaching sessions where I help lifters fix their pain on the spot. And it's simpler than you think because most people don't get hurt because they're doing something wrong, but because smart training pushes you to your limits, which can slowly accumulate tiny issues for months or even years that never get noticed or addressed until one day it just catches [music] up. But if you plow out of your shoes today, you'll know exactly what to do the next time it comes up. So let's get into it.
But talk to me, what's going on with the shoulder? Cuz that's a new thing.
>> Yeah, so I couldn't I couldn't determine at first whether it was like a pec or a front delt, but
>> Yeah. search around that area there. The last week was pretty inhibiting. Like I couldn't fly the whole pec deck if I wanted. All right.
>> Half the stack was fair bit fair hurting a fair bit. Worse the day after. Just throbs all day. Throbs.
So I'm always curious to find when there's injury. You feel that?
>> Yeah, I can feel it straight away, yeah. And you feel like that like just fire or like
>> Yeah, I can feel yeah. All right. But I can feel where it is straight away. All right. And that's that's Oh, wait. That's 26. That's that's a like a a eighth of a stack. Yeah. It's all right.
I want you to put your elbow right here. Keep all this stuff as relaxed as possible. Imagine you got your ball and socket joint, so the head of your arm here in the shoulder joint. Imagine you're twisting, okay? I want you to rotate downwards into the kettlebell.
>> Well, I'll go lift that up or
>> No, just keep pushing them downwards. Just Yeah, keep this straight though. All right. Just imagine you're trying to push it down into the ground. Don't go to crazy hard, and I don't want to feel a lot of tension in your chest
>> Yeah. or your lat or your bicep. That should remain quite floppy. Yeah. So it's going to be just a very vague like three or four out of 10 intensity, and you're going to feel like a vague thing here in your in your shoulder blade, yeah? Maybe the rear delty kind of spot. Perfect.
Then I want you now to go the opposite direction. You won't move the kettlebell, but try to twist backwards. And you should be feeling roughly that same kind of spot
>> Yeah. activating. That's your rotator cuff. Don't let anything lift up. That happens straight away. So keep that and drop back and down. Any pain?
>> No. Good. Just that Just that guy is like, "What the [ __ ] going on?" Perfect. That's what I want. Keep doing that. Don't cheat with your body. Keep that static. Now come down again. Same deal. Start slow. You go another 15 seconds. Keep holding it strong. Go for it. 15 seconds. It will actually get better the longer you do it for. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Okay, relax for a sec.
>> Yeah, I can just move it around a little bit. I felt it off.
You should be able to pull back using just the rotator cuff and hold it for about a minute straight. And that would tell you that your nervous system is properly primed and the rotator cuff has got a very, very good neurological output to it. 20 seconds. That's your goal. Just count to 20. Go to your happy place. Come out. That'll do. That'll do. That's the way it was on.
There is always the chance that it's going to still feel like [ __ ] but I'm just curious cuz it maybe this is still too far for you at the moment, but we'll see how we go with it.
>> No, nothing. Cool. Nice. Let's not push it. Let's not Let's not try to try to hurt you just yet.
>> Nothing at all. Cool. It's literally literally [laughter] nothing. But it's I So I I always have Believe it or not, I keep trying it.
>> Cool. No, nothing. Awesome. That's good. That's positive.
>> the worst part, too. Like in the start
>> The starting, yeah, yeah. This won't last forever. Yeah. Probably within a couple of days, if you come in cold again, it'll feel like [ __ ] But at least now you know how to prevent it when it comes back. And then the more you do that, eventually it will become permanent states.
So it's usually load dependent. So like like between the hits like maybe 100, Okay. totally fine. But then I pass 100, and then I start to have problems with my left shoulder.
>> Fair enough. Yeah, slightly different from
>> Okay. I like that. I like that. I don't like that. But look at his technique. Like it's it's pretty, yeah? Good arch. Good stable position. He obviously knows how to brace. But he's doing everything correct. Like his shoulder blade is back and down into his ass cheeks. His chest is up. He's firmly braced. It's like, "Shit, what are you meant to do?" Okay, you've been diagnosed as [ __ ] Like that that's not good for a competitive athlete who actually is dependent Like he's, you know, Australia's strongest man.
>> Yeah, that's correct. Yeah. [ __ ] yeah, he is. Australia's strongest man being told now, when you're still like in the peaking phase of your career, that you're [ __ ] with something you need to do in your sport is not good.
Pec minor relatively short. Not just on him, but on people in general. Okay? When you go into the scaps back and down position, show us that. Go into like your bench arch. What does that do to the pec minor? Stretches it. The more you go into that position, the more of an arch you create, the more length you create here, and the more you may end up artificially forcing it beyond what it really knows.
He brought the bar down like here a second ago, yeah? I want you to try to bring the bar down. Don't go as low, so like a half rep. I bring it down over this power logo. Back towards me. There. Go through some reps like I keeping it right on this line here. So brought the bar back more, okay? Into a dangerous position. Into elevation, into internal rotation, into scapulas flaring out, no longer being pulled back and down. Okay? Pull back. Oops, sorry, brother. What does that do? The higher you bring in the elbows. What do we do to the pec minor? Slightly shorter. You actually will feel a lot more through your pecs cuz you're getting into that full pec map as well.
>> That would make sense as well cuz like dumbbell press I usually have a high position and it doesn't really hurt. So heavy dumbbells have been great.
So let's go into even more extreme positions and really try to hurt him. Come in again for us. Don't come as deep on these. Definitely not on the first rep. Point your finger up to the ceiling. Just your pointer finger. Now I'm going to move you. Let me move you. Okay, that was not intentional. Break your snapping his wrist. Don't do that to your clients. You won't get as low. Don't try to get as low. Not initially cuz you're you're going to feel unstable, okay? Yeah. Go just half rep for now. Cuz it's a new position. Start with Nice. Good. Perfect. Okay. Five more reps just to get a feel for it.
Pec minor is even shorter now, yeah? Shoulders are what? Internally rotated. Shoulder blades are what? Elevated and not pinned back and down anymore. Your shoulders are elevated up. You're hunched up. Elbows flared. Dangerous for your shoulder and your rotator cuff. But also probably it feels good on your chest, won't it? Chuck it in. But you'll probably find like I'm not going to let him You can try letting up in a sec once you break out. Um but you'll probably find if you're getting things like this, this impingement or elevation or this pain, um it actually helps. I don't always go there first with people. Understand that. But I do do that with people teaching them what their chest is or for the posture where um where they're doing the right thing already. That is the right thing technically, but it's the wrong thing for their pec minor. So he would progress this. If you can hit that, probably I want him to come back down there. Try load this up more with that grip within your limits, and then work back to your typical bench press and try to find pain from your 100 kilos or so. Don't hurt yourself, okay? Not on camera. Um but just test and see how Hey, how does it How does it feel?
He did 120 for a few, which was fine. I said to him, "Great. We should stop there, okay? I have it on record now." I said, "Please stop at 120 because you That's already success where there was no pain. Um but he was like, "Can I do more?" So I said, "Sure, okay. If you really want to, it's on you now. You can do 140." And he said, "Okay." And he puts 150 on. Kind of like, "Okay, it's on you now, brother. Um but things are feeling good." So is his pull-up. I would not recommend doing this within 10 minutes of finding someone who's in pain to make them max out again. But, you know, like he wants to. He's a consenting adult. Um let's see what happens.
>> [laughter] [snorts]
>> I'll go again.
>> [laughter]
>> Go. Nice. Nice. Hold on, man. Okay, but what we actually What we actually care about is Was that painful?
>> No, not at all. Cool. Three! That's what That's what I care about. Like he could have done 20 kilos and no pain, I'd be happy as well. But he's like now able to He said 100 kilos hurt him before. He said 60 kilos hurt him before. Now it's, you know, 150 and it's like no pain.
Will you always get that with people? Definitely not. Okay? Like that was a lot of luck on my behalf and him just being a tough guy and not showing his real pain. He's going to go home later and ice and cry and like
So my problems have mostly been with my shoulders and feet. Here Here is pain. Pain. Okay, cool. Here Here is no pain. Here is pain. Is it both pain or just the left?
>> Oh, no, just Just the left. Okay.
So if we're looking at something versus this fluidy sac or whatever that's getting inflamed in the shoulder, that's telling us that for whatever reason something is being bashed up, probably because something else isn't keeping you in position. It's not letting you glide properly. It's not letting your body move, especially in overhead position here. Now overhead, what muscles are really, really integral for stability and for rotation of the scapula? All the traps. All the like the trap muscles, for sure. Teres, the rotator cuff, we can say. We have a whole lot of muscles, but there's the There's the big one you guys are missing. Serratus. Serratus is a really big one that people just overlook because they don't really know how to train it.
So what I want you to do is copy me. So, I'm I'm now your new mirror. So, if you're a right foot, your left foot back to a lunge stance, tuck your butt under. Okay? Now, you're going to do like a uppercut. That up. Keep this compressed. I want you to slowly just push up into me. Just gently. Just gently. And try to drive a little bit higher and try to tuck the elbow this way a little bit more. Right there. Now, I'm not pushing on her at all, am I?
>> No, and she's got Parkinson's right now trying to drive up into me. Cuz right now we're in the position where her serratus should be getting her body into into a um into it stabilizing this humerus and the scapula. And you may if she starts to um inhale deeply through your nose and when you exhale forcefully through your mouth, push into me a bit firmer. Even firmer. Get all the air and try to drive even a little bit higher as well. Okay, now we're revealing a lot. I'm not driving onto her at all. Yeah, I'm just I'm being a fixed object saying, "I push." And this rise like, "I don't know what the [ __ ] to do right now." And you're probably feel something in where you're where you're grabbing. Maybe?
>> Yeah, cool. Feel your serratus. It's waking up. Jesus, you're making me shake. Do five breaths. That was one breath. Exhale, push up.
>> I'm [laughter] so tired. I know. And it shouldn't be. I'm not pushing You're not doing [ __ ] right now. I'm holding your arm, I think. Come on. She hasn't trained since March. Train the upper body and Hold on, Kat. So, if if something is is not working, clearly, then it makes sense that other [ __ ] will be all up in up in her grill. Is that five?
>> [laughter]
>> Let's call that five. Let's call that five. All right, move around a little bit. Feel that. Feels better.
>> [laughter]
>> Fix that. I'll fix that.
>> Upper cut training. No pain. Should you press the bar? Let's not break her.
Now, important thing here is this is going to regress somewhat cuz that was like this is training. You go and do a squat session, you get some improvement to your squat. How long does that last for? A week, maybe? Maybe a day or whatever. How long does the adaptation last for? Who knows? So, we've got to keep again progressive overload this. More volume, more intensity, more frequency. When she can get to a point where she can do a good five breaths with no pressure down, which is pushing into a firm surface without getting the Parkinson's, and that's her first rep is just strong and with no issue, then probably she'll be able to wake up cold and just go that there. Like my long-term, there shouldn't be much direct serratus training. Your your proper overhead press should be serratus training. But for now, we've got to wake it up more and more with this kind of [ __ ]