Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 193: Correcting muscle imbalances to prevent/overcome injury & improve posture

Episode Date: November 30, 2015

If you have muscle imbalances you are setting yourself up for injury. It also contributes to posture that will make your body less aesthetically pleasing to other. Sal, Adam & Justin cover what causes muscle imbalances and how to correct them. Please subscribe, rate and review this show! Learn more about Mind Pump at www.mindpumpradio.com

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mite, op, mite, op with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You know what, Justin, when I don't want to see happen is I don't want to see Doug starting to cut my steak in no longer salves anymore. You know, I'm saying like, I don't want that to happen. Are you talking about closing a building? I don't want Doug to have like a new favorite.

Are you talking about closing a building? This whole time, I thought I was with Obi-Wan Kenobi already. Are you talking about closing ability and sales ability? We have whatever do you know what it's not a company whatever whatever was it impressed you great. I don't even know that's what impressed you maybe that wasn't impressed by that but no you know what you know what I won't even it's not a competition you know why because we've already been in a couple situations just a couple or, or me and you start to harmonize our ability and it just comes out better

than the individual parts add up to. It's like two crystals, man, just, you know, getting that energy. Bro, it's so like that. It's so, so like, so you can flex your dick, huh? Yeah. How do you do that? I don't know how I just do it.

It's a mind-dick connection. It's a mind-dick connection? Like you get it to do the head nod like that. I'm thinking of that. Well, that's what I think when I think flexing the dick. I'm thinking about writing a guy. I can do that. You're writing a guide on it?

I'm thinking about it. Dick, dick, dick flexion. Like, you can have. I think there's, I think there's, there's important times it can come in handy don't you think so? Yeah, to have a dick bicep to flex your dick on on call have a dick bicep dick tricep Oh my god, all the way up and in you know sometimes you could just lift them You know, I mean no hands

How many towels can you hang off of it when it's not just kidding to be getting really bad to beach towels Yeah, I put rings on mine strong have people swing on it so I had to have the last words. I'm sorry. I always have to have the last word and just go real fucking far With that shit. I do I will say this however not just to go off off the topic I have me of Chris Angel. I have to make it I have to make a a comment on Adam shoes again I like these ones. Oh. I like these ones.

Because they're almost like soccer shoes. That's why. Is that why? Yeah, because they're A6. It's because they're like artsy. Yeah, they're weird, but I like them. The one thing I don't like about them is the laces. Interesting.

The laces are kind of weird. But the rest of it's interesting. I don't know, how would you describe that? Well, it's like, it's kind of, I don't know how to would you describe that? Well, it's like it's kind of I don't know how to describe it here Here's here's the thing that's unfortunate for the list. There's this I'm not gonna plug the guy who made these shoes Why these shoes dick? No, no, no But I felt here's a sweatshop. I felt he handled me really Unprofessionally and I was really disappointed and I was really and because I really wanted to do I'm not somebody

I never asked for things for free, right? Like I'm not one of these douchebags that knows that a lot of these people send me free shit all the time. But I and if there's a product or something I really want or really like, I'd rather pay for it. You know what I'm saying for you, especially if it's something I want. Well, so I had I saw these shoes and I wanted to I bought them first. Then I sent him a message and told him like, Hey, just, I just wanna let you know that I'm a big fan of what you're doing. I've been following your page since you started, do's an artist and he does all this stuff to custom shoes.

And then he also does it to, these are rare pairs. Wait a minute, so this isn't just A6 didn't do this? No, nobody else has these shoes, bro. So he buys the A6 and then he does it. These are just makes his interpretation of it. Yeah, he does all different. It's not just those. How much does fucking tennis shoes cost them?

I don't ask those questions. How much is paid for tennis? I don't ask those questions more than 200 bucks. Shoes more don't you remember this more for tennis shoes? For sneakers My point though is they're super bad at just an hour with fucking shoes from I think I bought mine 10 years ago Yeah, I have I have cheap shoes like that too, but I have nice shoes too. I've never seen you wear cheap shoes in my life. Well, do you know what's cool though?

You'll never see these on anybody else, bro. Your boy is the only one that has these. I like them. I see. We wear the same shoe size. I kind of have that with hats. I used to have that, and then through a bunch of moves lost a huge amount of my collection,

but yeah, that's the way they. What do you mean you lost? Dude, I mean, people stole them, I'm sure. Oh, you actually lost lost? Yeah, yeah. Wow. Lots of hats missing in the mix. And then I think my life threw away a bunch of them.

I was just gonna say, that's probably what happened. Pretty sure. I was always a shoe fanatic as a kid It's one of those things that I actually fell Fell off of and stopped doing for a long period of time when I got older and and thought oh that was stupid or You know what what's the point of having expensive shoes ball this shit? But I tell you what I when I got back into collecting shoes again and hats I'm into hats also I when I got back into collecting shoes again and hats I'm into hats also.

It renewed the youth in me and it makes me feel young. So fuck anybody who says that I like expensive shoes a lot, but only expensive like dress shoes, not expensive tennis shoes. See now I have I have the race is I'm in the room. See now I have I have a you can bring all the mick jokes you want, bro. I have a you can bring all the mixed jokes you want, bro I Have a theory about that that I think is silly. I think that it's People that say things like that remind I took this is the same thing. I'm not making fun It's just me no, no, no, no, but that you actually think like a majority of people and here's my defense or argument to that is

Well, I know what you know, I'm gonna say because you're a smart guy And you're thinking you're you're thinking about what you just said things like I get it Then I get what because you know why all wear these shoes more times than you'll ever wear those dress shoes I'll get way more usage out of them right and so to me they're bought a tux one time You were supposed to why would you buy it? I was the stupid it was like Rims inspect exactly somebody like closed me on the fact that I had to have Your head you think that you're going to do like should have got an awesome suit instead

Got a tux never wore what once that's it. That's what you have worse thing ever you wear it for role-playing No, yeah, like honey. I feel like I'm gonna play James Bond exactly. I was like I'm gonna have James Bond parties or whatever Let's make this happen. I have suits. I have y'all. I have some suits, but then I have my big suits and my smaller suits depending on, because I used to bulk back in the day,

everybody knows this, where I gained lots of weight and lose lots of weight, get lean, get big. And so I have suits that are like, for me when I'm at 2.20, 2.30, and I have suits for when I'm like 190. So there's a pretty big, so somebody goes on my closet, they'll be like, two people are sharing this this closet a big dude in a smaller dude

No, I have exact same that's it was shitty part is to I probably have about 10 suits and at all times I can fit in two Yeah, but which one is your wife like more my birthday? I Oh Time I tell about the way I look at points of that one no wife likes it when I'm lean She doesn't like it when I'm she's petite so when I get big. It's just it's just too much Yeah, there's a lot of meat. You know I mean to handle you know it gets big on me when I get heavy my ass gets big and my legs Get really good. Yeah, so I become this big ass walking around. It's just it's just a lot. It's just a lot Adam Adam Adam. It's a lot, to walk around with an ass that big. You know what I'm saying?

It's just too much for people to handle. So I had to cut it down a little bit. I wanna be, you know, I don't wanna overwhelm people. Speaking of that, we should talk about imbalances. J-Lo, Sal. Since you don't like to have an imbalanced ass. Imbalances. Well, you mean like chemical imbalances, like crazy people?

No, I mean like muscle imbalances. Like when people are at a proportion, you know, and that could cause bad shit later on, right? How does that work? We should talk about some common muscle imbalances that we see, well first of all, let's explain what a muscle imbalances is. For the sake of this podcast, we're not talking about a visual muscle imbalance in the

sense of one muscle looking overdeveloped and one muscle looking underdeveloped, because that's purely aesthetic. We're talking about from a functional standpoint. The ability to activate one compared to another. Right. And how they move in synergy. I mean, I'm going gonna use your word today. Just thank you.

Yes. Synergy. Can you say it with that voice that you say, the Arctic breeze voice? Synergy. Yes, Synergy. That's what we want. There.

So let me. There it was. Let's explain why it's important to have muscles that are in balance, or that are balanced. Joints function, they only, joints only move in the direction that the muscles move them. So if the, if there's a favorable way that a joint can move, and then there's less favorable ways that joints can move. And if muscles are at a-

The science of biomechanics. Right. And if, if I have imbalances, then it will create joint problems. It will create smaller or shorter ranges of motion. And eventually we'll cause degenerative issues in my joints. And your spine is one big joint. And that's in the same category. So it's important to identify what these imbalances are.

So I think we should talk about maybe some common ones. Yeah, it's optimizing fluid movement. The way that your body is designed mechanically speaking to get everything to align properly. Real imbalances are, really, it's a recruitment pattern that is off. One is overactive. One is getting more of the assignment, then say another, you know, so yeah, why don't you kind of take it like a perfect example that is the number one syndrome found in people is upper cross syndrome.

So, we'll start with that. You know, protracted shoulder hurtle forward head, which is, you know, think of a person. So protracted shoulder rounded shoulder? Yeah, so think of somebody looking, hunched over a computer, and the way their body looks, you know. So, think of that. If you're hunched over computer typing on your desk, and your head is forward looking

at the screen, that's what up across it. Right. And what may not be obvious is now, you know, you look at tight muscles, so to speak. So, over actively speaking, like, you know, with the chest. It's really hard to open up the chest when you have that condition. And that's what we want to address. And we want to strengthen, you know, back in the bronvoids.

We want to strengthen this shoulder girdle by, you know, pulling everything back. Right, so what's the problem with upper cross syndrome? People are gonna be like, well, what's wrong with that? You're anterior delts, your pectoralis major are primarily the ones that are overactive, like Joseph Zane. So in other words, they're tight and they're pulling the scapula forward.

That's what they're doing. And what happens when you have your scapula forward and I try to move my arm, let's say I want to reach above my head, I can't reach very high above my head because the shoulder joint only moves so far, the rest of that range of motion comes from my scapula, my shoulder blade. If they're constantly in that rounded position,

I'm prone to having shoulder problems. That's number one. There's other issues too, but shoulder problems are... So a good test for that. So here's a test for somebody who's at home, if you scoot against the wall, put your heels and your butt in the back of your head, against the wall, and your hands down by your side,

and then you slowly raise them up over your head, you'll see you will all of a sudden arch if before you can wait, how far before you get up there? Oh shit. Before the back, you're buying the confidence to compensate to make that movement possible, attainable. And so something, and easy,

this is how I used to train trainers on this, because it can be kind of complicated when you look at the anatomy and how things move. This is the way you wanna look at it. I'll use my arm as an example. So if I have my right arm bent, like I'm flexing my bicep, but I keep it bent like that all the time.

Let's say I tape it that way, and I keep it like that for a couple of years. When I take the tape off to stretch my arm out, to straighten it out, you can pretty much assume that my bicep is gonna be really fucking tight now, because it's always been in that kind of shortened position. So somebody with forward shoulder,

think about all the muscles that bring that position into play, those muscles are where they're gonna be tight. So you guys pointed to the pecs, that's a real common one. Or that's the most, I think the biggest contributor in terms of tightness in upper cross syndrome. So with that particular individual, they would wanna stretch the chest out. But besides stretching the chest out,

now we have an issue with strength on the opposite side. And typically when you look at the body, if you have tightness in one area, you'll have weakness in the opposite area. Typically, not always, typically when it's extreme. Like you would wanna say. So in that particular case, what we would want to do is we would want to strengthen the shoulder blades ability to pinch back.

Okay. So a row would be a fantastic exercise for that individual. However, can you row, here's a question I'm asking you, can you row without getting good, what's called scapular retraction, or can you row without pinching the shoulder hook? Absolutely. You can row all of your biceps. You can row with your biceps in your lats. Yeah. And so if you don't understand what you're trying to correct, and you just go do the row,

what'll end up happening is you'll actually strengthen the imbalance. Yes. You'll make the imbalance work. Never gets corrected. Right. Which is, this is what happens to most people who go to the gym and they start working out is right. Especially when you're somebody who go to the gym and they start working out is right Especially when you're somebody who starts working out later in your life Because you've created all these imbalances over 10 20 30 40 years possibly and then you're just now Getting into training and working out and if you don't properly fix all these things During your your program design then all you end up doing is worsening a lot of them Which is also also why I think I can't remember the statistic is, but I think it's one out of four people

that actually get there, getting a membership or start working out, end up quitting because of injury, because they end up hurting themselves. They're hurting themselves because they're of muscle imbalances. You move wrong and then you start adding load to that and then you start progressing with your strength, you're setting yourself up for injury. When we're talking about forward shoulder, everybody that goes to the gym, at least every dude, they'll do two exercises, Gary and fucking teed, bench press and lap pull down, which will only make their forward shoulder worse.

Let's tighten the chest more. They're tightening the chest and tightening the lats, the strength of the lats and not focusing on being able to bring the shoulder blades back. And then you get the dude that the meat head walk, you know, when people walk around the gym with their arms out to the side. Yeah, it looks like a gorilla because of those imbalances.

So when you're trying to correct an imbalance, it's important to use lightweight and focus on the form more than anything. Perfect slow. And slow. Slow. I sometimes I even just recommend isometric. So I want to hold in position

so I know I have proper scapular retractions. Yes. And I'm holding it and I'm feeling it. Oh, I would say if your main purpose is corrective and let's say that's your main thing that you're going after, that would be a superior, yes, to a sense, right? I know.

In the beginning, definitely. Yes, it's a very sensory nervous system. We're just trying to get to get just a feel of fire. Yeah, just a feel of fire that activation Another example would be an imbalance between the hips and the knees This is a really common one whenever I have someone come in and do a squat for me just a standing squat in a weight Nine at a ten times especially if they're beginners I'll see that the hips won't fire very well. And they're going to be quad dominant. So what it looks like from the side when you're watching someone squat is they should be

able to sit back with their butt almost like they're going to sit down and they should have a nice bend in the hip and a nice bend in the knee. But what ends up happening with a lot of people is a hips don't do that. They kind of squat down their heels come off the floor and the knees come forward because their quads are trying to do the entire movement. That person, if they don't correct that form, they're going to have bad knees. That's their super tights. Their heels are coming.

Right. Super tight, you're going to have quads, sure, those will get stronger, but your hips will be, stay weak, and you're going to get back problems. And knee problem as a result of that. So with that person, I would have them sit back and again, like Justin was saying, go slow and focus on, you know, for a squat, for example, look, the joint of the body that's doing most of the load

when you do a proper squat is your hips. It's not your knees. And if you look at the joints involved in a squat, one joint is very mobile, and then there's another joint, which is not as mobile, which, so the hips are way more mobile than the knees are. The knees are big joints, they can handle a lot of weight too, but not as much as the hips can.

So you should be able to place more weight on the hips than more like stabilizing. The knees is just there to keep you in place. I mean, if you're doing it properly, you should be able to transfer most of the load back to the hips. Back to the hips, right? And the knees only really bend, they bend,

they flex and extend, but they don't go laterally, they don't bend, they have all these ligaments holding them in positions to prevent them. Right, it's a hinge, yeah. Yeah, and the hips do that. So, when you're working out, it's important, and we're talking a lot about beginners, if you're a beginner, this is why I always highly recommend you hire a good trainer, because more than anything what they'll do is they'll progress you to the point where you don't

have super big muscle imbalances, and then you can go on on your own and work out and not encounter some of these problems. However, if you're intermediate or advanced, you also have to be careful for muscle imbalances. You've got to be careful especially just strength progresses. You know, if you're adding 50, 60 pounds to your squat, it's a good idea to back off and perfect your form with a lighter weight. I just did this yesterday.

I just did a post on this yesterday where I was going heavy with my squats for a while. I mean, Adam, we're getting to a little squat competition and I'm kind of backed off. And what I did was I backed off and I put 315 on the bar and I'd go down to the bottom and just hold it for five seconds and watch myself in the mirror Make sure my knees were straight my hips were firing in the right position and then come up And I just did a bunch of those to to maximize you know to make sure that my muscles are firing the way they should right

But yeah, those are those are some common ones The shoulders shoulders are a big one a lot of the imbalbalances are a complex movement that your body can provide with the shoulder joints. You run into a lot of imbalances because of the way that you do things all day long. All these little movements contribute to a pattern. And then the pattern, the body wants to make that pattern more efficient and so it wants to limit other things you're not using probably as much, which really is most of the cases that you're just not using, you know, your range of motion like for certain movements very often.

And so one of the biggest things like, like why I like tools that I promote, like the stick and, like, you know, these clubs and things like that is because it challenges, it gives that circular movement that, I mean, you don't really do that otherwise. You know what I saw yesterday? That remind that you just reminding me of, so I'm in the gym, I'm working out. Guys doing seated military press. And this is more common than not. Guys will do a seated military press.

They'll take a really wide grip, which isn't necessarily ideal. And they'll bring the bar down with their elbows flared way out, and they'll bring the bar down to the, maybe to their eye level at the lowest, usually as towards their, maybe their head, and then they'll press it back up.

If you can't take a weight and bring it all the way down to where it's almost sitting on your upper chest where your elbows are tucked underneath you and then press it up, then you should lighten the load and focus on your form there, because what you're doing is you're making your shoulders perform, you're adapting to that range specifically and now you're limiting.

Which I robbed the capacity of your shoulder and what it was intended to do. Which is ironically one of the issues that a lot of people deal with as they get older is shoulder problems. And a lot of it is because of people end up perpetuating it by doing things like this. And these are old, safety precautionary things that were voiced to us in the education process where 90 degrees was like the standard for a lot of like safe ranges of motion. I promoted by somebody. I don't remember who, but- Oh, a lot of certifications for that way.

Almost I taught that as a trainer forever to drop down there. To only go down a night. Oh, yeah. Almost on bench press, on shoulder. And that's why, you know, now with the knowledge that we have now, that's the reason why they do that is a sort of, if you're going to certify these trainers and teach these people, they think, oh, for safety reasons, let's teach them just. Lots of red tape and procrastination. Yeah. But in reality, you know, for teaching optimal

performance and functionality and so that, that's the worst thing you could do. What you should be doing is actually learning to take all those muscles through as much range of motion as you physically can through being safe. You know, so another thing that always, always bothered me as a trainer was, which it also makes total sense for us now is people would be surprised on how many of those people with really serious imbalances are athletes. Because you think you see this guy on TV or you know, he was just like super football player, basketball or baseball player and he's like, was a stud and looked all great or whatever.

But what you don't realize, that athlete to get that good has done the same repetitive movements. Year in year, year in year and year and year year the same shit over and over and over and over. And I mean, because think about a baseball player does not throw a baseball at both hands. He doesn't bat with both a golfer. Doesn't swing the same on both sides. A tennis player doesn't swing the same on both sides. A soccer player doesn't kick the ball the same way on both his right hand is let, you know,

all these all these sports cause in balances to the body. It's not ideal. But yet in our mind as consumers, we looked at athletes to give us workouts and to give us the answer to what we should be eating or doing and working out, which is so funny and ironic to me. Yeah, I mean, I think it's important to understand

that the safe range of motion for you to train in is the safe range of motion for you to train in. That's it. And what does that mean? The maximum range of motion you can move in with good form and good technique. So and your goal should be to extend that. Your goal should be to constantly progress that range of motion. Now, if you're stupid, what you do is you add too much weight, let your form

go shitty, hurt yourself and then blame the range of motion and say, oh, I, you know, you know, how did you hurt your shoulder? I went too low with a shoulder press. No, you went too low with too much weight with the shoulder press. I'll give you an example. I've had a strained bicep and I believe it was my peronator teres or maybe even my breaky allos that was strained.

And in the past, what I would do is I would avoid doing movements with that muscle and try and let it rest This time what I did is I went real light and I just did long range of motion exercises Mm-hmm and watched my recovery get better I learned this from a physical therapist, you know a long time with it I worked with I had a client who Could not reach above her head without shoulder pain so she could go up to Maybe a little higher

than parallel with her arm. Any higher than that shoulder impingement it was pain. But if she was resisting in the opposite direction, she could get a full range of motion. So in other words, if I had to grab a lap pull down bar and the bar was pulling up on her, then her arm could go up in that position. She just couldn't put it up there herself.

So what did I do? I would do, I would have the bar loaded with some weight. I'd have it pull her arms up, and then I'd slowly take the bar out of her hands and have her just support her arms up in that position. Once it got her her arms in that position, and within a matter of months, and this is a woman who couldn't move her shoulder very well

for years, within a matter of months, she had full range of motion. So that, it was all about moving into that range of motion in a comfortable way and then strengthening within that full range of motion, versus avoiding it, which is usually the wrong thing to do. Squats are a great example too. For a long time, we've heard the myth that doing a full squat

is bad for the knees. It's actually the opposite. Doing a quarter squat is worse for your knees or a half squat is worse for the knees. It's actually the opposite. Doing a quarter squat is worse for your knees or a half squat is worse for the knees. Or more dangerous, but in reality, you should be able to, that's what I preach to you. I tell people all the time, my classes, when I get a chance to see hundreds of people sometimes in a week, and when I get a chance to see all these lives, and I'm like, one of the number one things I always preach to because I see it so often often these little quarter squats by people that are in their 30s and 40s and plus.

And I'm like, dude, you guys, here's the deal. If you can't get all the way down, it's not like you just don't ever think about it and you just keep going about your life and say, that's as deep as you can squat. Your priority now should become, how do I get myself to do a full squat? It no longer is to get through that workout that was designed for you today. It should be, how do I get to this point? What is limiting? What are the steps in the air to say?

And if you can't figure that out for yourself, you fucking need to hire somebody. So, you know, anyone who's listening right now, if you can't get down to parallel when you squat, if you go to a squat and you look at yourself in the mirror and you're like, the position Sal was talking about, where you're coming forward and your ass is sticking out and you're not at 90 degrees or deeper,

then you need to find, you need to figure out what it's keeping you from doing that and then you need to fix that. That's right. Let's talk to about, and I know, so you kind of touched on that with like using different techniques as far as like having some kind of resistance to help hold you in place

for furthering range of motion, other techniques, active flexibility. So the difference being active versus passive flexibility. When you think of flexibility, most people think of, okay, I'm going to put myself in this position and now gravity, I'm going to slow my heart rate down, I'm going to breathe. I'm sitting in a stretch. Yes, sitting in a stretch and holding it for,

you know, an allotted amount of time versus applying tension, moving your body into place, actively pursuing more range of motion, and then holding that position and then trying to increase it and move into that position each time you attempt it. Now, they definitely both have their, they have their benefit, yes. However, okay, let me explain why active flexibility is better. Let's say I focus on, let's say I learn how to do the splits,

okay, so I can get in this and I'm just sitting there and I, forget the splits, let's do it different. Let's say I'm laying on the floor and just touching my toes and I've able to get this real long range of motion. I can kind of lay down on my own legs, like I'm stretching my hamstrings. I've now increased the range of motion of my hamstrings, but I haven't increased the strength within that range of motion. So then when I get into that range of motion with load in the everyday world, I go, I'm

playing one of my kids and I bend over and I'm in that stretch, but now my kid jumps on me. So I'm in that range of motion with weight on me boom, I get injured So just because you have that range of motion doesn't mean you have strength within that range of motion But you're not yeah, you're not strong enough all the yoga people right now are freaking out bro Well freaking out the right type of yoga that you like right certain types of yoga are fantastic Yeah, because they'll get you in a stretch, but you're supporting your body weight and you're doing these different, like, sun, salutations and positions.

Right. To where you're getting this stretch, but you're also adding resistance to the stretch and you're getting more functional flexibility versus other types of yoga where maybe you're on the ground and you're holding a stretch for a long period of time. Yes, you do get a longer, a better range of motion, but not stronger within that range of motion. Matter of fact, too much flexibility without strength supporting it increases instability. You actually become more unstable in your joints.

So this is why weight training is, if done properly, weight training can give you fantastic. Oh, it trumps them all. It can give you fantastic functional flexibility. Let's say I do, again, we'll focus on squats. Let's say I'm doing my squats and I'm working out and I'm working out, I'm going down to parallel because I'm tight and I'm going to real heavy. But now I'm done with my heavy squats.

Well, and let's say I was doing it with 400 pounds. Why don't I go down to 100 pounds? We'll really go deep. And just go real deep with perfect form and I'm gonna feel fucking things stretching. And when I meet my perfect form is I'm not letting shit deviate. I'm not just sitting on my heels because that's not what I'm talking about. I'm getting I'm perfecting my form coming down feeling a stretch, holding it for a second.

I'm just doing like 10 reps of real lightweight. That's functional flexibility. You could do that with like for your chest. You know, we just talked about the chest rather than getting in a doorway and holding my chest out and stretch. What if I got some light dumbbells and I did some some some flies, but I really exaggerated that range of motion at the bottom. That's functional flexibility. That's what you want.

Functional flexibility. You're actually recruiting and I mean, there's a mind. I mean, I hate to say that mind muscle connection, but that is what's happening like the whole time you're doing. Like you really are active with your mind, with your muscle, you're trying to promote contraction, and just keep an intense, but you're also, it's kind of like, I don't wanna say oxymoron,

but when you're thinking of flexibility, don't think of being tense, right? Right. So it's obvious, but yeah. It's a different concept, right? To apply, but it's once you kind of can feel your way through it where you're still staying supported in your movement, everything benefits from it. Well, I think it's important that people realize how connected the body is. There is no isolated part of your body. Right. So if I'm really tight in

one area, then I'm probably weak in another area that's contributing to that tightness. It's always the antagonist is almost always. Oh, usually, right? But like, we don't even know a case where it wouldn't be. I'm trying to think right now where. Well, let's say we're talking about, let's say I have really, really tight trapezius muscles. It might be because my mid back is so weak that my trapezius muscles are always trying to stabilize my shoulders back is so weak that my trapezius muscles are always trying to stabilize my shoulders. And a lot of people are tight in the traps. Most, I mean, can you recall

any clients that ever came to you as beginners and said they weren't tight in their neck? Yeah, although I think that's still, I still would think that a lot of that's related to your the protracted shoulder girl on the forward head. Right, right. Forward head is going to do that. Yeah, hold on to stress. Yeah, it is. But if you strengthen the ability ofed shoulder girl on the forward head. The forward head is going to do that. Yeah, hold on to stress. Yeah, it is. But if you strengthen the ability of the shoulder blades to retract and depress,

the trapezius doesn't have to fricking do all the work. You know, is what ends up, is what I'm referring to. So everything's kind of connected in your body. And so if you're feeling pain or you're noticing things in the way your body's moving, look at all the different components from strength to tightness to range of motion.

And yeah, one of the biggest identifiers for me is balance, too. So when I put somebody into like a quadri-pred position and have them do a bird dog where they go opposite arm and leg out, it's very obvious if you're not connected. Oh, yeah. One side of her body and lower body. And lower body. And lower body. And lower body. And lower one side of the body and the lower body. One side's always like on people when you first get very. Which is a great exercise.

I mean, these are these core exercises that define what type of firing is going on your body. What kind of connectivity you have established and what kind of work we need to do in order to correct these issues. So, you know, that's such a great point you just brought up with there. Such a, I mean, God, that was a part of our assessment forever.

You know what I'm saying? We were taught that, but you don't really, you're taught to do that because you know it was good to do and you would do that exercise to teach people like core activation, but in reality, it was really a sign to show you how the body was connecting with it, or with itself and how you were working and how unbalanced you were. And you see the resurgence of it with FMS and how you were working and how unbalanced you were. You see the resurgence of it with FMS and like these different, like new ways of assessing people and like quality of movement.

And there's this FRC movement that's out functional range conditioning, which I'm really interested in. But it really emphasizes the fact of, you know, manipulating that connectivity, like being able to establish that with some sort of an isometric component to it. So now I'm really going 100% of internal force. I'm trying to contract at a really high level while still moving. And then now this establishes this connectivity,

this neuromuscular recruitment, which, I mean, it makes a lot of logical sense, but they get really weird with it to where they can manipulate, you know, little muscles in your back, and like, you know, that are stabilizing your spine, and like all this kind of crazy stuff. But it's really interesting to see how the industry has evolved in order to address these really, what seems to be simple things going, you know, that aren't working in your body properly, but once you can identify and pinpoint specifics,

you know, think about how much more optimally you're gonna move as a whole. Well, what I would like to see, is I would like to see people, when they're working out, they're doing their good, big, gross motor movement, compound exercises, and then instead of moving, big gross motor movement, compound exercises. And then instead of moving on to the isolation machines, they're finishers. Instead of doing their finishers, to do unilateral balance exercises with free weights.

So instead of going to the leg curl machine on hamstring day after I did my heavy stiff leg a deadlift, why not do a single leg deadlift, you know, with balance. Now we're doing more of an isolation movement. It's doing the same job that the leg curl would do in the sense that it's not a real big muscle builder, but we're getting it way more benefit. We're getting balance. We're looking definitely to tell

if you've been compensating this whole time. Right, and now you're dressing it. Now that's a really good point. When you talk about how in the past, we've talked about functional training. We kind of bashed it a little bit like how. That's how you're supposed to use that. That is where you incorporate functional training.

You don't go take your clients, take them on the Bosu ball and have them do a similar, deadlift, the very first exercise they do with it. Not to build muscle. And it's to identify how you're firing the sequence. As everything working simultaneously, the way you need it to for these gross motor movements. Such a great point because I feel like we did get after functional training and how it's gone crazy

and overboard, but there is a place for it and that's exactly how we would incorporate it and still use it as isn't a scenario just like that. So that's a great, great point. Yeah, because when I do, if I do exercises like that at the end of my big heavy movements, my goal isn't, there's a specific goal with those exercises. So my specific goal with, let's say I'm doing chest bench presses to build the chest shoulders and triceps, and then let's say I go do my quote unquote finisher, it might be to focus just on my range of motion. So I'm not using a lot of weight, I'm just really exaggerating the range of motion.

Or if I'm doing a back exercise, I'm doing all my heavy movements, maybe my last two sets are of a light machine row, even, or a one-armed dumbbell row, and I'm just focusing on this really exaggerated range of motion. Not to necessarily build more muscle, but to create that mind-em muscle connection with that extended range of motion

to correct any potential imbalances that may arise. That's one of the best ways I would say to use functional training if you're already relatively healthy with your training, aside from a purely correctional standpoint when someone comes in with all these really glaring problems. But yeah, if you take them and use them the way they're supposed to be used, super effective.

I mean, nothing wrong with them at all. Legs, what is that called? What your leg is up and you're doing the lunge? What is that Bulgarian split squat? That's a great one for balance. That exercise. It's fucking hurts though. But that's a great one to do at the end of your

heavy squat workout or even modify your squat, you know, with like bottom position squats or, you know, pause squats and stuff like that. So incorporating that into your routine makes a big difference. One last thing before we sign off that I think it's important we talk about since we're on the correctional, you know, standpoint here is how to utilize massage. Oh, yeah. How to utilize massage for sure. utilize massage? Oh, yeah. How do you utilize your knee for sure? Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, very, very good tool, but it's not all massage. It's created equal. Oh, not at all. No. Okay, so great question that was asked one time because my girl's massage therapist, those that don't know and she's by, she not only is massage therapist, but her and her mom own the first school in the Bay Area here in San Jose.

So they've had this school for over 30 years. They taught most of the massage therapists in our area. So she's pretty badass, let's put it that way. Someone like her, and this is how we actually met, we actually met because I used to go to her clinic. I was like, my idea of a massage was to relax and fall asleep. Like when I first got my first massage. And I didn't really have a job at the end.

Yeah, right. So I didn't understand the therapy side and the corrective side of it. It's 50 bucks. Until I got to her. And when I first got to her, I was only doing sweetest massageers because I was too much of a worst to handle the deep tissue. And deep tissue to me just seemed like why would anybody want to be get go through that pain until I learn how corrective it could be. And she could she can actually massage me and she feels my imbalances, I don't even have to tell her, you know, she can feel them in a good massage therapist.

Right. Should be able to tell you where where your issues are just by the way, she they he or she is rubbing you. issues are just by the way, he or she is rubbing you. And then, just like working out and training, how often you get your massages should be the same way too, like the way we train. Well, the frequency of it really dictates on how hard you go. If you get really, really deep into the muscle, so that you're gonna need some time to recover from that.

If you get a little bit lighter on that, or you focus on different areas, and you give other areas rest,age therapy is very similar to that. And correctional massage, how does it feel, Adam? Is it relaxing? Or are you biting the bed and sweating? When you're going through it, it is rough. It's rough while you're going through it,

because it is. It's borderline painful, but when you can feel her get through stuff, and when she gets through it, and then gets away from it, it's like, the feeling of relief is worth the pain that you're going through to get through to that. So I had two massages not comfortable. No, I mean, just go ahead and say that.

Yeah, not my favorite. I didn't get massages for 90% of my workout career. Then I had a massage therapist come on board in my studio and I saw literally the miracle she worked with my client. So I would have a client to be working on them with correctional exercise, we're doing stretching. Then they'd go see her, then they'd come see me and it's like it was like one third of the time it would take me to correct and balance

all of a sudden, like boom, much, much faster. So here I am, never really getting a massage, maybe one or twice in my life. And I had really bad tennis elbow, not from playing tennis, because I'm not that athletic, but it came from, at the time I was, I was, you were the shoes for it. Yeah, exactly.

It was from doing all the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and stuff, all the gripping. And so I'd have really sore elbows. And I couldn't figure out how to fix it. I would stretch it, I would do all these different things, and it would get a little better, but not that big of a difference. I had, she kept telling me,

Sal, let me work on your arms, Sal, let me work on your arms. I wasn't a huge believer. I was like, okay, well, we'll see what happens. Well, anyway, she spent one hour on my forearms, one hour just on my forearms. And it was, I'm gonna be honest, one of the most painful experiences of my life.

It, I mean, it sucks. I wanted to kill her. I literally thought I was gonna be bruised the next day. I'm like, this is for sure she's tearing some shit. This is not good. Two days later, no more pain, none. At all. This was something I was dealing with a year on and off,

gone after one session. Then I became a believer in massage. So again, if you're having pain and muscle and balance as an issues, correctional exercise is important. Stretching is important. Massage. That would be the other one I would throw in there.

Makes an absolute huge difference. Yeah, that's not sure. You've got massage just in time massage? Yeah. Is that what they stand on your back? Yeah, they like put you in real uncomfortable. Oh yeah, stick your hands in, grab your arms and pull you backwards to get you a hyper extend. Or yeah, so it's brutal.

They step on you, yeah. You get in Thailand? No, I got it here. You get that in, yeah. Oh, you big boy. Yeah. Spot boy tattoo. I take care of you.

Spot boy tattoo. Yeah, here is me. Ah. There's two of them. I was just one on the left butt cheek, one on the right butt cheek. Well, they used a lot of them. I just let them deal one on the left butt cheek one on the right But they use they were jumping a radio He's me they just were like yeah like pressing their whole body onto me and like throwing you know pull my arms back I've never had time. I saw this crazy. I have it's gonna try. I'm not a fan deep tissues my

I just deep tissues sports sports sports golfing. Rolfing is good. Yeah, what did I say it right? Rolfing yeah, I did roughing. Yeah, Rolfing is what they put you thrown up. Rolfing is where they yeah, Massage is so hard to throw up. No, that's when you they put you in a deep stretch. So you're in a freaking hardcore deep stretch and then while you're in that deep stretch, then they go deep tissue massage on the muscle. That's the acronym for what it stands for. Yeah, it's, uh, yeah, I know that you're talking about. I don't know what it stands for. Yeah, that's it. But it's fucking sucks. Yeah. So all right. Well, know what it stands for. Yeah, that's it. It's but it fucking sucks So all right. Well, um, thanks for listening. Please subscribe to mine pump leave us a five star rating and a great review Please say something nice about Doug before your mama

Thank you for listening to mine pump for more information about this show and to get valuable free resources from Sal Adam and Justin Visitors at www dotminepumpradio.com. Until next time, this is MindPump.