Pull-Up Technique Tip

External rotation of the shoulder allows for the lats to be strongest. The lats are the prime movers in pull-ups. Imagine holding your arm straight out in front of you and tucking your elbow to your hip then rotating outwardly (right elbow towards the right - left elbow towards the left). This both brings your shoulders back and externally rotates them. This is where the lats are strong, and should be the movement you mimic when doing pull-ups.and other lat work (back).

Elbow position should be tucked at all times throughout the movement. If it hovers up and outwards the lats will be weaker. So ultimately this paints a picture of starting the movement with externally rotated shoulders and as you raise yourself by contracting your lats, keep your arms tucked and let off a bit on the external shoulder rotation. Sink back down and open your shoulders again.

The Mind Muscle Control and Kin Shi-Hai Do

Three years ago I mentioned the Mind Muscle Control with its connection with Max Sick. Here is a chart of the exercises which help with the muscle control, which I pointed to last time. At the time, I was utilizing that list of exercises on a daily basis, and saw results. I found that it was quite strenuous as well. It was clear to me that the lats were over emphasized and the legs and arms were under emphasized. I wasn't able to utilize the ab section because it's too advanced and requires too much development. When I first started doing that type of muscle control, I stopped doing yoga entirely to focus all of my energy on it. As time went on, I did less and less of the full list, and ended up dropping it and resuming yoga.

I only practice that old muscle control style maybe 1-2 times a week. What I've found is a new list of exercises which I feel are more intuitive and easier to do, and there's a larger emphasis on arms, which I really like. Everything's more relatable with this new list. The legs again aren't explored that deeply, but the abs exercises are more accessible. This new form of muscle control comes from a Japanese system called Kin Shi-Hai Do. I found out about this via a google search on muscle control. The site was hosted on angelfire. If you're not tech savvy, angelfire was one of the original web hosting companies alongside geocities in the late 90s. And it's funny that there are gems like these throughout the net - a 20 year old relic touting basically the ultimate knowledge of the universe. Ironically, I often filter my news and information for the latest available content, yet it would seem that age pairs well with some things in life.

If I had to state one source for muscle building and general fitness information it would be the from the oldtime strongman books from lifters and authors such as Eugene Sandow, Max Sick, Arthur Saxon, etc. Interestingly enough, in the year 2014 it's impossible to be able to tell which man is or is not on a form of steroids or a performance enhancing drug. People use insulin, human growth hormone, and extra testosterone to make themselves superhuman - to recover faster and be stronger. It's often said that only the winner of competitions is remembered in history, and in the world of bodybuilding and powerlifting, none of the winners are clean and legit (non abusers of steroids). So there is a heavy distortion as to what is and isn't attainable that exists today that didn't exist 100 years ago.

I train naturally, and thus I feel I need an edge on everyone else to look my best, be my strongest, and to recover as fast as possible. That is where the mind muscle connection comes into play as well as yoga. So without further adieu, here is the newer muscle control site that has an exercise list. The exercises end with abs, and afterwards I like to use an ab roller.

How To Build A Workout Routine

There a number of known preset routines that you may follow and see good results, but ultimately I've found that simply following a routine can lead to injuries, and cannot account for your individual body's past experience and current health. The first part of building a workout routine is defining your goal. The goal is typically strength, muscle increase, endurance, or athletics. Each of those goals have their own rep scheme to follow which also determines the amount of weight used, which will also determine the frequency you perform the routine, and the amount of lifts.

A full body routine incorporates enough exercises to achieve development in each limb and body part. The sport of powerlifting uses three lifts: bench press, deadlift, and the squat. The reason they are used is because they are compound lifts that can represent the maximum strength in a man or woman. An overhead press is usually recommended for being in a routine as well, but the commonality of shoulder problems can prevent people from utilizing them. The fifth most common being a type of row - be it dumbbell or barbell.

Other options include a body split, which would let you plan on diving the full body routine to days of the week. For instance, chest and triceps on Monday, back and biceps on Tuesday, Legs and Abs on Wednesday, which could be repeated for Thursday through Saturday to hit each part twice a week. If you are new to a lift and need experience in form, you may want to plan for more volume or do it every gym session. If you injure a body part like a shoulder, you may want to plan for more leg work and skip deadlifts and pull-ups. If you want to prioritize a body part because it is less developed or you have desire for more development, you could hit that body part 2x a week and others 1x a week.

Progression should alwasy be interlaced with increased poundage or more reps or sets.

Wrecked Shoulder Training

A month has passed since I've been able to train again at some level due to the shoulder injury. At first the plan was to just focus on the lower body, but I started transitioning to light upper body training. This was a mistake in retrospect. The chin-ups felt odd on the shoulder, the overhead presses felt fine, but afterwards made the shoulder ache, but I think ultimately the deadlifts were the most punishing on the shoulder. Once my favorite lift, I strived to get back to deadlifting. Now I find myself at another standstill.

I will continue training legs through squats mostly. I do not plan on deadlifting, overhead pressing, or pull-ups for the next month. Perhaps in June I'll try those lifts again.

I learned a few things from this past month of lifting while injured. First, I like the feeling that goes along with lifting versus not lifting. When you are lifting consistently, you build some tension in your muscles and nervous system that stays with you 24/7 until it tapers off. Generally I've swapped between training for muscle or strength or both, but now I have a new goal. I've put on an ample amount of muscle and the rate at which I can build muscle has slowed, and so training for muscle is not a priority. Training for strength requires me to life too heavy to see results, and even attaining those strength gains does not necessarily translate to anything aesthetically, and all that goes along with strength training makes it not worth it (infrequent training, not building muscle, large calorie consumption, and high risk of injury).

So my latest reason to train is for aesthetics with a priority of being in the gym often. As someone who hasn't found their form of cardio in life yet, I need all the weight lifting possible to burn calories.

Injury Intervention - Roto Cuff Woes

After 3 years of lifting without any serious injuries, I didn't think anything would slow me down more than a few days to a week, but that time has come. I have two main injuries. One is my right shoulder, specifically the rotator cuff, and the other is my right chest, which is the source of my sternum pain. I had finished the tail end of 2013 very strong, breaking PRs in every single lift, but a sort of numbness began taking over one of my shoulders, and as someone who's experienced many a sore elbow, and have learned to deal with available ranges of motion, I figured I could continue training with the bum shoulder, but just paying attention to the ranges of motion, but at some point even that stopped working.

The thing that totally took out my right shoulder was the very first day of training on the Juggernaut Method - Military Press for 5 sets of 10. There could have been some form issues (althought my military press has been going up) or a matter of volume, but either way I decided to limit overhead pressing to two sets. This left me with focusing on bench press, squats, and deadlifts. The bench pressing didn't hurt, but also wasn't helping the shoulder. I Deadlifted 495lb (my pr) with the roto cuff still out and it had me hurting for 2 weeks. Then I Rack Lifted 405lb for 10 reps and 495lb for 10 reps. That was 2 weeks ago, and only now am I getting feeling back in my shoulder. This 2 weeks off was by far the most painful of my lifting career and has had me cast serious doubts on my future.

If and when I return to the gym, I'll be foregoing strength training for some time. My only goal at this point is to be able to lift 5-6x a week with light to moderate weight. I think my mistake and injuries have resulted from trying to progress too linearly as an intermediate/advanced lifter. I want consistency, and that's been something I've been lacking as I've been trying to progress too quickly. So I intend to tread a path of light resistance to get back to my former glory.

Juggernaut Update

The third week of the Juggernaut Method is also known as the realization week. You execute an 'as many reps as possible' for the last set, which is 10lb heavier than your prior 10rep max. I've only done the third week for two lifts so far. They are the Military Press and the Squat. I was happier with my squat performance (15 reps).

The reason I haven't been able to complete the third week is because I've given in to injury in the shoulder. It's a rotator cuff muscle that is blown out -  the one you use for overhead movements. I kept lifting despite the shoulder being out because I felt strong in other planes of movement. But I've decided now to wait it out until I'm 100%. It's been a week since then, and will be about half a week to a week longer if I'm lucky. I've been working on abs and arms in the meantime.

Juggernaut Log Update

I finished the first week of the 10 rep range wave. It's the hardest week of the program because of the massive volume. It's 5 sets of 10 with 60% of your PR. This is hard on the joints, and in each lift left me a bit crippled for a few days. The military press took out my shoulders, the squats took out my knees, the bench press took out my elbows, and the deadlift took out my shoulders.

It was a really tough week to get through, but I knew in order for the periodization to work, I had to get the workouts in. This coming week is difficult as well. I am going to take a deload on the 4th week of the program. I've found that the high volume of the first week didn't require much accessory lifting. I cut out both front squats and incline barbell bench press, and didn't even do any dumbbell benching. I found my hands were too shredded to do any other lifts. I stuck with muscle-ups and straight hanging leg raises.

I read about a version of the program called the Inverted Juggernaut, which has you doing 10 sets of 5 for the first week, reversing the sets and reps, enabling you to get the high volume without having to do sarge large sets.