Causes of Tightness/Injury...Don'ts

Straight Bar

The primary rule I give the athletes that come to Therapy Central is to avoid using a straight bar while lifting if at all possible...really. Using a straight bar to do military press, bench press and bent over rows, (the three exercises that work the shoulders, chest and back the most where you can use the greatest amount of weight), put the shoulders and elbows in an extremely compromised position and cause the majority of upper body tightness and injuries in the athletes we see.

Using a straight bar to do squats, lunges and power cleans, (the three exercises that work the quads, hamstrings, gluts, and back where you can use the greatest amount of weight), causes more neck and low back injuries in athletes than any other exercises. Without good neck and back health an athlete is not very athletic!

Note: If you INSIST on using a straight bar in your training routines please keep your elbows tucked into your sides, hands shoulder width apart. Doing so keeps stress to your shoulder and elbows to a minimum and increases sport specific muscle memory patterns. Examples:
- In football you block your opponent with your hands and elbows tucked into your body. If you don't it's called HOLDING.
- When firing off the line and exploding up into your opponent, again, your hands and elbows are tucked unto your body...NOT to the side as you would see in a traditional bench press or push up.

Isolating Muscles

The second rule is to avoid exercises that isolate individual muscles like the biceps, triceps, quads, hamstrings and calves. These include bicep and hamstring curls, tricep extensions, calf raises and leg/quad extensions. These inevitably lead to muscle imbalances which, if you add speed and torque result in tears, strains and sprains.

High weight, Low Reps, Fast

The third rule is to avoid doing high weight and low reps...fast in your weight training routines...really. This flies in the face of nearly every middle school, high school, collegiate and professional weight training program...for a reason. If you haven't noticed THEY ALL HAVE LOTS OF ATHLETES GETTING INJURED ON A REGULAR BASIS! They say it's all a part of sports and is to be expected...and it is IF you continue to do the things that CAUSE THE INJURIES IN THE FIRST PLACE!

I ask clients if they know of a sport where the athletes do 8 repetitions during their sport...hmmm. Baseball, nope. Soccer, nope. Football, nope. Does doing 3 sets of 8 repetition train your muscles for endurance or stamina? Nope.

I have many athletes that say, "I used to be fast, and then I started lifting and now I'm one of the slowest kids on the team. What happened? I'm stronger but I'm slower." One, an 8th grade football play was slower by over a minute in the mile and his vertical leap was over 2 inches less than before starting a strength training program the year before. Not the 'progress' he was looking for, I'm sure.

I understand the motivation and rational of working with high weight in combination with quick burst movements. I also understand how much risk is involved with this weight training technique. Because of this, Plyometric Exercises should be included in any training regimen to achieve the killer combination of power AND speed.

Maxing Out

Lastly, avoid EVER doing any 'maxing out' in your training regimen. This practice is the one thing that I have seen more acute injuries that have ended many an athletes' career prematurely.

Last week I treated a 13 year old baseball player with a low back injury who was injured under the supervision of his middle school coach while 'maxing out' doing 'power cleans'. Now, besides the fact that kids who's growth plates haven't completely closed yet should never lift anything close to 70, 75 or 80% of their 'max', teaching a teenager to 'max out' with weights is like giving him the keys to your car and ask them to see how fast the car can take a corner before it rolls over! In each case they are going to get hurt. If not in school under the coaches supervision, they will get hurt when they inevitably are working out without supervision and 'max out' to see which of the little 'studs' can lift the most. (American Academy of Pediatrics on Strength Training by Children and Adolescents).

Alternatives to Standard Weight Training Methods...Do's

Dumbbells Instead of Straight Bars!

One of the things that you can do with dumbbells that you can't do with a straight bar is rotate your hands so that the palm sides of your hands are facing each other. This is the position your hands should be in when you are doing Military Press, Bench Press and Bent-Over-Rows. With your hands in this position your elbows are at your sides which will automatically put less stress on your shoulders and elbows. (Question. Where do most athletes have upper extremity injuries? Answer. Shoulder and Elbows.)

Try this yourself now without any weights in your hands. Put your arms in the position that you would do a normal Military Press with a straight bar. Where do you feel the stress/tension? Front of the shoulders, right? Now do the same thing and pull your elbows and hands in towards each other. Any tension or stress their now? No? Didn't think so. Now move your arms like you are doing a Military Press, Bench Press and Bent-Over-Row with your arms in that position. Not much stress or tension, correct? That, ladies and gentlemen is the point. To put less stress and tension on the joints in the upper body ESPECIALLY when you are loading them with weight!

Now on to the lower body. The main gripe I have with using a straight bar for squats and lunges is that you have heavy weight perched on the C7/T1 vertebrae of the neck/upper back and all it takes to sustain a life/career changing injury to the low back is a misstep, twist or bend at the wrong time in the exercise. It happens ALL THE TIME. If, instead, you are holding dumbbells at your sides, the weight is BELOW your waist and because of that your risk of injury is GREATLY reduced.

Multi-Plane/Muscle Exercises

The concept here is to work the muscles in your body the way they are used in every day living or in a sporting event. There is not a sport where an athlete is using only one muscle group while on the playing field. Doing exercises like bench press, squats, lunges, military press and bent-over-rows work a multitude of muscle groups. In addition, using cable pulls or thera-bands or thera-tube exercises through the range of motion that you would throw a baseball or swing a golf club also uses many muscle groups together to work on your body's muscle memory...an extremely important aspect of any sport.

Another advantage to doing this type of resistance training is that your workouts can be done in a fraction of the time of traditional weight training where people sometimes spend hours working individual muscle groups separately. In addition to the risk of muscle imbalances developing, a workout that is too time consuming is one that you will eventually tire of and quit doing.

Low weight / High Reps / Fast

This is really where we break from traditional "wisdom". Let me start with a question. If you were training someone to swim the English Channel would you have them doing 80% of 'max', 3 sets, 8 reps? Of course not...they'd sink a hundred yards out! Swimming the English Channel would take a great deal of stamina and strength...like MOST sports do! Why not train for BOTH strength AND STAMINA / ENURANCE?

Baseball pitchers in high school will sometimes pitch a complete game which in high school is 7 innings. During that game they may throw 100 pitches or more, plus warm-up pitches before the game and in between innings. That is a LOT of repetitions...and the ball only weighs, (drum roll please), 5 OUNCES! I've said it thousands of times it seems...you don't need to be able to bench press 300 lbs. to throw a 5 ounce ball fast. As matter of fact if anyone out there knows of someone who can bench 300 lbs. and throw in the 90's I'd love to hear from you! I don't think that person exists. If, though, 'conventional wisdom' held up then there would be thousands of such people.

Using light weights with high repetitions through a full range of motion, fast is the best way to train athletes to increase the amount of fast twitch muscle fiber, increasing speed, stamina and strength. As the weight becomes easy to handle you simply have to increase the weight slightly to continue to challenge the body to get stronger and stronger, faster, with greater stamina and endurance...with virtually no risk of injury! There is NO NEED TO 'MAX OUT'...NONE!  

Higher weight / Lower Reps / Slow

Alternate your routine by taking the amount of weight you use in the 'fast' workout, double it and do as many repetitions as you can, through a full range of motion, as slow as possible. (See the 5/50 Workout for weight/repetition suggestions). This may seem counterproductive but with this routine you actually activate more muscle fibers, both slow and fast twitch and increase power. As you increase the amount of weight used in your 'fast' workout, increase the amount in your 'slow' workout. (The case for Slow Weight Training Technique).

For more information about what we do to help athletes Run Faster, Jump Higher, Throw Harder click here!