This article offers some tips to avoid elbow pain through preventive work. I’ll also explain a few ways to reduce pain and work around it. Not only that, but there’s a little bit of anatomy thrown in so you can show off at parties.

Note: First and foremost, if your elbow is persistently cranky, you should seek professional help for a diagnosis. The pathology of elbow pain varies widely and can be tricky to self-assess.

Let’s Talk Anatomy

The medial (inside of elbow) and lateral (outside of elbow) epicondyles are critical attachment points for ligaments and tendons.

The olecranon process sits in the olecranon fossa of the humerus. This is the “hinge” of the elbow. It also prevents hyperextension.

The humeroulnar joint (humerus and ulna) is a hinge joint. The humeroradial joint is a pivot joint. This is how we can supinate (palm up) and pronate (palm down) our hands.

Common Sources of Elbow Problems

Soft tissue restrictions (i.e. “tightness,” “knots,” or, the super-scientific term, “gunk”) often occur when there is friction between muscles/tendons. Myofascial researcher Luigi Stecco coined the term “zones of convergence” to describe areas where multiple muscles share a common tendon attachment. This creates a zone where forces are generated by multiple muscles, which means there is a high concentration of force in a very small area.

In the elbow there are at least three major zones of convergence:

1. Four of the wrist flexor muscles attach to the medial epicondyle via common tendon.
2. Five wrist extensors attach to the lateral epicondyle via common tendon.
3. The three heads of the triceps all converge on the olecranon process.

Overall, there are sixteen muscles that cross the elbow joint. That is a lot of tendons. Not only that, but you have ligaments, nerves, arteries, and veins all vying for space within the joint, too. It’s more crowded than a New York subway car at rush hour.

Your main take-away is that the elbow contains lots of things in a very small space. When friction is introduced, the tendons, muscles, and ligaments stick together to form dense, fibrotic tissue- that is, “gunk.” This gunk can impact everything to include nerve function, ligament integrity, and the health of the tendons.

Why Lifting Makes It Worse

Typically, lifters experience medial elbow pain. This is because we go through repetitive elbow and wrist motions while under load (just think of a standard upper-body training day). We grip heavy barbells, dumbbells, and kettlebells. The muscles we use to grip – the flexors of the forearm – attach to the medial epicondyle, so it’s no surprise we can get gunky on the inside of our elbows. And it’s not just gripping the bar on a row or deadlift that produces tension. Take a gander at the elbow position on a back squat.

Back squats create stress that affects the inside of the elbows.

Holding the bar on your back creates a lot of valgus (medial or inside the elbow) stress. Do you ever get tingling in your pinky and ring finger after a heavy or extended squat set? The ulnar nerve can get pinched when the elbow undergoes valgus stress.

How to Modify Your Training

Tip #1: Work on Your Soft Tissue and Mobility

The elbow is not only subject to direct elbow movements, such as a bicep curl, but also to the movements of the wrist, shoulder, and neck. Elbow pain can often be a direct result of a dysfunction up the chain. If you’re lacking flexibility in your forearm, shoulder, or upper back, that can have repercussions culminating at your poor elbow. There is a plethora of articles on Breaking Muscle that address shoulder mobility.

Remember how we said there is a lot of gunk in the elbow? Here is how to perform some self-myofascial release on your forearms. Warning: it is not pleasant. If you have access to a soft-tissue specialist, that’s even better.

You should also stretch your forearms:

Extend your arm in front of you, then pull your fingers toward you with your palms in both the supinated (left) and pronated (right) positions.

Soft tissue work and stretching can be preventive, as well. Stay on top of these and hopefully they will reduce the likelihood of developing elbow pain down the road.

Step Away From the Barbell

I know, I know, it’s not what you want to hear. However, if your elbow is really angry, taking a few weeks away from a barbell might give it the time it needs to recuperate. Don’t worry though, you may be able to switch to dumbbells instead. Allow me to explain.

Extend your arms in front of you, palms down. Now rotate your palms toward the ceiling. Do you see the difference in your elbow position? It’s much more “open” in the palms-up position. Recall how claustrophobic the joint is? By pronating your hands (palms down), what little space there might be left is closed off, thus compressing everything inside the joint even further. Even rotating your hands to neutral (palms facing each other) is more open than palms down. Therefore, switching to dumbbells with a neutral grip for a spell can provide some relief as the elbow isn’t as compressed.

Cease Single-Joint Exercises

Exercises like skull crushers, nose breakers, triceps extensions, or any one of the hundred variations of bicep curls focus the stress of the weight on the elbow and its surrounding muscles. This quotation from Eric Cressey sums it up well:

[W]e vilify leg extensions and leg curls as being non-functional and overly stressful at the knee. The knee is the joint most similar to the elbow, yet it’s much bigger than the elbow, yet nobody contraindicates 4-5 elbow extension-only exercises per week in many routines as being inappropriate – or even excessive. If you want to build big legs, you squat, deadlift, and lunge. If you want to build big triceps, you bench, do weighted push-ups, overhead press, and do dips. The absolute load is higher, but the stress is shared over multiple joints.

If you want to train your arms, stick to multi-joint movements so the elbow is spared from bearing the full load.

Pull Your Elbows In

I see it all. The. Time. People flare their elbows out wide during push ups and bench pressing. Not only does that increase the risk of shoulder impingement, but those valiant elbows, once again, also find themselves straining under the lion’s share of the stress.

Avoid flaring your elbows out to the sides (left) while benching and keep them at a 45-degree angle to your body (right).

This can easily by remedied by tucking your elbows to roughly a 45-degree angle from your body. Pulling your elbows in allows the upper back muscles to assist in stabilizing and can alleviate elbow pain instantly.

Use Fat Gripz With Pressing Movements

I don’t recommend using Fat Gripz with rowing movements, as that will greatly increase the gripping demand, which could aggravate the elbows. However, when used during pressing movements, the muscles of the forearm don’t have to clamp down as hard due to the increased girth of the bar. This can provide some relief for those overused muscles.

Find the Root and Fix It

Elbow pain in lifters often finds its roots in one or more of the following: poor tissue quality, lack of flexibility (shoulders, upper back, etc.), and overuse of various muscles that cross the joint. All of these can be addressed with dedicated soft tissue work (either by yourself or a professional), specific flexibility work, and various exercise modifications.

Ignoring elbow pain will only make it worse and eventually stop you from doing the activities you enjoy. You can easily reduce the pain (or eliminate it entirely) by taking a few weeks to attack the above-mentioned areas. You use your elbows all the time and you only get one set, so take care of them!

More Like This:

• The RAIL System: Shoulder Mobility for the Bench Press
• 3 Yoga Poses to Increase Overhead Shoulder Mobility
• Who Has a Cranky Shoulder? How to Train Around It
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Photo 1 courtesy of Shutterstock.

Photo 2 by Henry Vandyke Carter [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Photo 3 courtesy of Shutterstock.

Photo 4 by By Em Bhoo via Wikimedia Commons.

The post Got a Cranky Elbow? How to Train Smart and Prevent Pain appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Nearly every athlete or lifter who’s trained for more than a couple years inevitably tweaks a shoulder. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, it hurts for a few days and then it’s gone. If you’re not so lucky, that twinge sticks around for years and you may even carry the hefty label of “shoulder impingement.”

This article will provide you with a few ideas for training around an injured shoulder and potentially even eliminating that twinge over time (depending on the source).

Let’s Talk Anatomy

First, let’s identify the major anatomical players we’re going to discuss:

• Scapula – the shoulder blade
• Humerus – the upper arm bone
• Acromion – the bit that sticks up from the shoulder blade and comes toward the front of the shoulder

The scapula, humerus, and acromion are the major anatomical players we’ll discuss today.

Most often, “shoulder impingement” is the diagnosis for shoulder pain. Shoulder impingement typically comes in two flavors:

1. External – pain manifests anteriorly (front of the shoulder)
2. Internal – pain manifests posteriorly (back of the shoulder)

The most common type of pain is in the front of the shoulder so the methods and exercises discussed here will be geared for those with external impingement/anterior shoulder pain. But before you proceed, you also need to be aware of whether your pain comes from primary or secondary impingement.

Primary vs. Secondary Impingement

Ever notice how some people can bench press until the cows come home and yet never seem to have shoulder pain? If I did that, my shoulders would be screaming within a month. Primary impingement is a result of structure or anatomy. For example the angle of the acromion will determine the size of the sub acromial space (the gap beneath the red bit below).

Depending on the angle, if your sub acromial space is smaller, it’s much more likely you’ll wind up pinching one of the many tendons that run through it. This little difference means some people can bench press forever without pain and some of us will have a perpetually tweaked shoulder no matter what they do. There will be certain movements that will always cause problems purely based on your anatomy.

“Primary impingement is a result of structure or anatomy. For example the angle of the acromion will determine the size of the sub acromial space.”

Secondary impingement is related to things like lack of mobility, scapular position, muscle tightness or stiffness, etc. and can be reversed if you improve these aspects through dedicated strength and mobility work. The substitutions listed below are great ways to continue training while you work on your mobility and let your shoulder heal. Increasing the amount of pulling versus pushing in your training can play a role, too, and there’ll be more on that later.

A Word of Caution

How to diagnose your shoulder pain – as primary or secondary – is outside the scope of this article. Unfortunately, the only way to truly know your anatomy is via x-ray or MRI. That said, it’s a safe bet that if you inevitably tweak your shoulder every time you overhead press, it’s best to stay away from that entirely.

Most people with shoulder pain probably already know what they can and can’t do. Be aware that the exercise substitutions below are general ideas and you should add or eliminate according to how your shoulder feels. You should also talk to a health practitioner if you’ve been experiencing chronic pain.

A Little Attention to Form

Before we talk about avoiding and substituting exercises, let’s briefly touch on position and form. If you are unable to achieve the proper position for a lift, say the overhead press, it will be tough to prevent injuries when doing that movement. Check out your shoulder mobility first – and then actually work on it – before loading up the military press.

When it comes to movement form, horizontal pressing and rowing can irritate the front of the shoulder if your rows look like the first two reps in this video. Instead, strive to imitate the form of the last two reps.

What you saw in the first two reps is called anterior humeral glide. It’s when the humerus (upper arm bone) drifts forward in the socket (it looks like it’s popping out in the front) and, as a result, all kinds of friction happens within the joint. Too much friction and – boom! – you wind up with angry shoulders.

Pay attention to how you’re performing your rows and presses and it will go a long way toward maintaining healthy shoulders.

Exercises to Avoid

• Overhead pressing
• Lateral and front delt raises
• Upright rows
• Bench pressing
• Pull ups
• Dips
• Back Squats

If you’re sharp, you’ll notice a common theme among these particular exercises. They entail one or both of the following:

• Humeral flexion – arm going over your head, as in the overhead press
• Humeral abduction – arm going out to the side, as in lateral delt raises or upright rows

Movements like the overhead press or lateral raise can close off the shoulder joint, particularly that pesky sub acromial space, which leads to tendons getting squished. The pronated grip (palms down) of pull ups and bench press also close the shoulder joint more than exercises done with a neutral grip.

Dips are the worst offenders, though. They automatically force the upper arm (humerus) forward in the socket, so we find ourselves in that anterior humeral glide – perfect for rubbing and pinching tendons.

Back squatting may or may not bother you, depending on your shoulder and thoracic spine mobility. But if you’re lacking in either, the typical arm position required by back squatting can be compromising to already tender shoulders.

Exercise Substitutions and Modifications

• Landmine pressing
• Push up variations
• Dumbbell floor presses
• Neutral grip chin ups
• Front squats

Note: You should still avoid front squats if you have an AC joint issue.

Landmine pressing is fantastic for people with cranky shoulders. This movement provides a semi-overhead angle while not requiring full-range shoulder mobility.

If you miss pressing, you can also give supine landmine pressing a whirl.

Push ups are almost always an acceptable substitute for horizontal pressing. The advantage of push ups over barbell or dumbbell work is the shoulder blades are able to glide freely on the rib cage. When you bench or dumbbell press, the scapulae (shoulder blades) are pinned down against the bench. As you bench, your humerus is moving independently from your shoulder blade, which is more likely to result in impingement because the humerus jams up into the acromion. In contrast, push ups allow for a free-moving scapula that moves along with the humerus and thus reduces the likelihood of impingement.

“Doubling your row volume relative to pressing volume can sometimes relieve shoulder pain and prevent it in the future.”

If you think you’ll shrivel up and die without some sort of press, dumbbell floor presses are the way to go. The floor prevents the elbows from traveling past the body (and thus prevent anterior humeral glide) and you can use a neutral grip with dumbbells, which keeps the sub acromial space open. The same can be said about neutral grip chin ups. The more open grip allows for more wiggle room under that acromion.

Reconsider Ratios

Many workout programs incorporate a press-to-pull ratio of 1:1. When you have an injured shoulder, one training modification you can employ is to increase the ratio in favor of rowing, to more like 1:2 or 1:3 press-to-pull. Sometimes pain is simply an imbalance between front and back and increasing the rowing volume can solve your issue. For example, when pairing push ups with bent-over rows, you would perform twice as many sets of rows as you would push ups. You may find that after a few weeks your shoulder pain clears up.

The Take-Home

While this article is not even close to exhaustive, you should find a couple of tips that can help keep you and your shoulders happy.

• Remember to be mindful of the way you perform your presses and rows to avoid anterior humeral glide.
• Avoid exercises that require humeral flexion and abduction (arms overhead and arms out to the side) like the plague – at least for a few weeks while your increase the strength of your upper back muscles.
• Doubling your row volume relative to pressing volume can sometimes relieve shoulder pain and prevent it in the future.

As I’ve said before, you should walk out of the gym feeling like a superhero, not painfully grimacing as you drive home.

More Like This:

• Not the Rotator Cuff: The Truth Behind Most Shoulder Injuries
• A Simple 4-Step Mobility System for Every Lifter (and Every Lift)

• The Truth About Training Your Stabilisers

• What’s New On Breaking Muscle UK Today

Photo 1 courtesy of Shutterstock.

Photo 2 by By BodyParts3D is made by DBCLS, via Wikimedia Commons.

Photo 3 courtesy of Kelsey Reed.

The post Essential Movement Tips to Keep Injured Shoulders Happy appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Nearly every athlete or lifter who’s trained for more than a couple years inevitably tweaks a shoulder. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, it hurts for a few days and then it’s gone. If you’re not so lucky, that twinge sticks around for years and you may even carry the hefty label of “shoulder impingement.”

This article will provide you with a few ideas for training around an injured shoulder and potentially even eliminating that twinge over time (depending on the source).

Let’s Talk Anatomy

First, let’s identify the major anatomical players we’re going to discuss:

• Scapula – the shoulder blade
• Humerus – the upper arm bone
• Acromion – the bit that sticks up from the shoulder blade and comes toward the front of the shoulder

The scapula, humerus, and acromion are the major anatomical players we’ll discuss today.

Most often, “shoulder impingement” is the diagnosis for shoulder pain. Shoulder impingement typically comes in two flavors:

1. External – pain manifests anteriorly (front of the shoulder)
2. Internal – pain manifests posteriorly (back of the shoulder)

The most common type of pain is in the front of the shoulder so the methods and exercises discussed here will be geared for those with external impingement/anterior shoulder pain. But before you proceed, you also need to be aware of whether your pain comes from primary or secondary impingement.

Primary vs. Secondary Impingement

Ever notice how some people can bench press until the cows come home and yet never seem to have shoulder pain? If I did that, my shoulders would be screaming within a month. Primary impingement is a result of structure or anatomy. For example the angle of the acromion will determine the size of the sub acromial space (the gap beneath the red bit below).

Depending on the angle, if your sub acromial space is smaller, it’s much more likely you’ll wind up pinching one of the many tendons that run through it. This little difference means some people can bench press forever without pain and some of us will have a perpetually tweaked shoulder no matter what they do. There will be certain movements that will always cause problems purely based on your anatomy.

“Primary impingement is a result of structure or anatomy. For example the angle of the acromion will determine the size of the sub acromial space.”

Secondary impingement is related to things like lack of mobility, scapular position, muscle tightness or stiffness, etc. and can be reversed if you improve these aspects through dedicated strength and mobility work. The substitutions listed below are great ways to continue training while you work on your mobility and let your shoulder heal. Increasing the amount of pulling versus pushing in your training can play a role, too, and there’ll be more on that later.

A Word of Caution

How to diagnose your shoulder pain – as primary or secondary – is outside the scope of this article. Unfortunately, the only way to truly know your anatomy is via x-ray or MRI. That said, it’s a safe bet that if you inevitably tweak your shoulder every time you overhead press, it’s best to stay away from that entirely.

Most people with shoulder pain probably already know what they can and can’t do. Be aware that the exercise substitutions below are general ideas and you should add or eliminate according to how your shoulder feels. You should also talk to a health practitioner if you’ve been experiencing chronic pain.

A Little Attention to Form

Before we talk about avoiding and substituting exercises, let’s briefly touch on position and form. If you are unable to achieve the proper position for a lift, say the overhead press, it will be tough to prevent injuries when doing that movement. Check out your shoulder mobility first – and then actually work on it – before loading up the military press.

When it comes to movement form, horizontal pressing and rowing can irritate the front of the shoulder if your rows look like the first two reps in this video. Instead, strive to imitate the form of the last two reps.

What you saw in the first two reps is called anterior humeral glide. It’s when the humerus (upper arm bone) drifts forward in the socket (it looks like it’s popping out in the front) and, as a result, all kinds of friction happens within the joint. Too much friction and – boom! – you wind up with angry shoulders.

Pay attention to how you’re performing your rows and presses and it will go a long way toward maintaining healthy shoulders.

Exercises to Avoid

• Overhead pressing
• Lateral and front delt raises
• Upright rows
• Bench pressing
• Pull ups
• Dips
• Back Squats

If you’re sharp, you’ll notice a common theme among these particular exercises. They entail one or both of the following:

• Humeral flexion – arm going over your head, as in the overhead press
• Humeral abduction – arm going out to the side, as in lateral delt raises or upright rows

Movements like the overhead press or lateral raise can close off the shoulder joint, particularly that pesky sub acromial space, which leads to tendons getting squished. The pronated grip (palms down) of pull ups and bench press also close the shoulder joint more than exercises done with a neutral grip.

Dips are the worst offenders, though. They automatically force the upper arm (humerus) forward in the socket, so we find ourselves in that anterior humeral glide – perfect for rubbing and pinching tendons.

Back squatting may or may not bother you, depending on your shoulder and thoracic spine mobility. But if you’re lacking in either, the typical arm position required by back squatting can be compromising to already tender shoulders.

Exercise Substitutions and Modifications

• Landmine pressing
• Push up variations
• Dumbbell floor presses
• Neutral grip chin ups
• Front squats

Note: You should still avoid front squats if you have an AC joint issue.

Landmine pressing is fantastic for people with cranky shoulders. This movement provides a semi-overhead angle while not requiring full-range shoulder mobility.

If you miss pressing, you can also give supine landmine pressing a whirl.

Push ups are almost always an acceptable substitute for horizontal pressing. The advantage of push ups over barbell or dumbbell work is the shoulder blades are able to glide freely on the rib cage. When you bench or dumbbell press, the scapulae (shoulder blades) are pinned down against the bench. As you bench, your humerus is moving independently from your shoulder blade, which is more likely to result in impingement because the humerus jams up into the acromion. In contrast, push ups allow for a free-moving scapula that moves along with the humerus and thus reduces the likelihood of impingement.

“Doubling your row volume relative to pressing volume can sometimes relieve shoulder pain and prevent it in the future.”

If you think you’ll shrivel up and die without some sort of press, dumbbell floor presses are the way to go. The floor prevents the elbows from traveling past the body (and thus prevent anterior humeral glide) and you can use a neutral grip with dumbbells, which keeps the sub acromial space open. The same can be said about neutral grip chin ups. The more open grip allows for more wiggle room under that acromion.

Reconsider Ratios

Many workout programs incorporate a press-to-pull ratio of 1:1. When you have an injured shoulder, one training modification you can employ is to increase the ratio in favor of rowing, to more like 1:2 or 1:3 press-to-pull. Sometimes pain is simply an imbalance between front and back and increasing the rowing volume can solve your issue. For example, when pairing push ups with bent-over rows, you would perform twice as many sets of rows as you would push ups. You may find that after a few weeks your shoulder pain clears up.

The Take-Home

While this article is not even close to exhaustive, you should find a couple of tips that can help keep you and your shoulders happy.

• Remember to be mindful of the way you perform your presses and rows to avoid anterior humeral glide.
• Avoid exercises that require humeral flexion and abduction (arms overhead and arms out to the side) like the plague – at least for a few weeks while your increase the strength of your upper back muscles.
• Doubling your row volume relative to pressing volume can sometimes relieve shoulder pain and prevent it in the future.

As I’ve said before, you should walk out of the gym feeling like a superhero, not painfully grimacing as you drive home.

More Like This:

• Warm Up to Lift Big: A Movement Prep Blueprint for Strength
• 4 Drills to Own Your Position in the Big Lifts
• Super D’s Mobility Video Library
• What’s New On Breaking Muscle Today

Photo 1 courtesy of Shutterstock.

Photo 2 by By BodyParts3D is made by DBCLS, via Wikimedia Commons.

Photo 3 courtesy of Kelsey Reed.

The post Who Has a Cranky Shoulder? How to Train Around It appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Today’s article will cover how to train around cranky knees, and you’ll learn alternatives to common exercises that might cause pain. We’ll also do a refresher on form for lunges and squats. As Dan John says, “Squats don’t hurt your knees; the way you squat hurts your knees.”

Proper form is one of the best solutions for dealing with knee pain.

Types of Knee Pain

For the most part, people experience knee pain in one of two places:

1. General anterior pain – Typically this involves issues of the patella tendon, which you’ll feel in the front of the knee just below the kneecap
2. Medial pain – You feel this in the inside of the knee and it’s typically caused by meniscus or cartilage issues.

I understand there are other forms of knee pain, but given that these are the most common, this article is geared toward them. This article is also not about what causes your knee pain, but rather how to deal with it and train around it in a healthy manner.

“Without being mindful of your form, you’re going to continue to bother the knee joints and place undue stress on the ligaments and tendons.”

If you suffer from cranky knees and consequently less-than-stellar workouts, this article will provide you with the tools to revise and reinvigorate your training. Even if you do not have knee pain, you can cheerfully and confidently pass on the information to someone who does. If nothing else, the exercise variations are a sweet spice to mix in to add flavor to your own workouts.

And always remember the golden rule: “If it hurts, don’t do it.”

Exercises to Avoid

Your “exercises to avoid” list will be individual to your knees. For example, some people can handle running just fine, but any sort of lunge bothers their knees – again, remember the golden rule. Below, I’ve listed some general exercises that I avoid when I’m working with a client with unhappy knees.

• Single leg variations with a decelarative nature – For example, walking lunges or forward lunges. Both these variations require the front leg to decelerate the body’s forward momentum and this places greater demands on the knee joint.
• High-impact movements – This encompasses most jump variations, particularly high-rep jumping due to the fatigue and form breakdown involved. This also includes any activity that involves repetitive pounding, like running, running downhill, or running down bleachers.
• Squatting or lunging with terrible form – If your squat or your lunges look like the videos below, then you need to avoid them. Without being mindful of your form, you’re going to continue to bother the knee joints and place undue stress on the ligaments and tendons. More often than not, poor form is the source of knee aggravation.

Exercise Selection and Modifications

Continuing to train through pain does not make you tougher. Among other things, it breaks down connective tissue (good-bye cartilage), encourages compensations and faulty movement patterns (which can lead to more compensations and painful joints in other places), and, well, it hurts!

“Exercises that emphasize the posterior chain – deadlifts, swings, glute bridges – are generally knee-friendly.”

Training should not leave you feeling beat up. Outside of sports, the main reason most people work out is longevity and health. If your training results in chronic aches and an increased use of pain-relievers – the opposite of longevity and health – something needs to change. Modifying your training isn’t conceding defeat; it’s victory over an obstacle.

Choose single-leg exercises that are accelerative in nature such as step-back lunges and step-ups. Both variations allow the glutes and hamstrings to play a larger supporting role, thus sharing the burden of the quads and lessening the pull on the knee joint overall.

If heavily loaded lunges bother your knee, add a slider to the mix. Performing lunges with a slider on the back foot can provide a challenge without having to pile up the weight.

Split squats and their permutations are usually pretty safe, but if you do experience pain, I’ve found that adding a band distraction to the front knee can provide relief.

Exercises that emphasize the posterior chain – deadlifts, swings, glute bridges – are generally knee-friendly. There’s also the added bonus of strengthening the glutes and hamstrings, which both support the knee and hip. When the hip is strong and functioning correctly, it will absorb the forces that would otherwise be distributed to the knee.

A great single-leg variation is single-leg Romanian deadlift. This nails the glutes, hamstrings, and the musculature of the lateral hip – all of which keeps the hips functioning well and reduces stress on the knee.

Wrap Up

Is it still possible to train hard despite knee pain? Absolutely! You can easily modify your workouts to create safe and effective training sessions. Simply remove exercises that irritate the knees and incorporate exercises that strengthen the posterior chain and have a relatively neutral impact on the knees.

Along with that, keep in mind the golden rule: if it hurts, don’t do it! Training should leave you feeling like a superhero, not limping to the medicine cabinet. Try out these variations and keep your knees happy. Let me now how it goes in the comments below.

More Like This:

• Why It’s Time to Break Up With Your Knee Sleeves
• 5 Simple Solutions for Anterior Knee Pain
• A Doctor’s Tips for Knee Surgery Recovery
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Photo courtesy of CrossFit Empirical.

The post 4 Safe and Effective Ways to Work Out With a Cranky Knee appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Warm Up to Lift Big

On a cold day, do you get in your car and speed off at 80mph? Of course not. You turn on the car and let it run for a while (or a long while, depending on how old your car is). The body works similarly to your car. Jumping into your lifting session without a proper warm up can, at best, reduce your body’s readiness to hoist heavy poundage, and, at worst, increases the likelihood of injury.

“Starting each lift with a proper warm up will reduce the risk of injury, enhance your ability to lift heavy weights (which is what we all really care about, anyway), and elevate your superhero status as a whole.”

An intelligently designed warm up activates the nervous system, increases core body temperature, unglues those sticky joints, and generally prepares you. To help you do this preparation more effectively, I’m going to share some tips specific to warming up for the big three: squat, deadlift, and bench press. I’ll explain the lift-specific movements, and then demonstrate how to incorporate them for your next date with the barbell.

Squat Warm Up Movements

Quadruped Rockbacks

Don’t be fooled at the simplicity of this exercise. These bad boys groove the squat pattern neurologically. Observe that the joint angles and movements are similar: neutral spine and deep hip and knee flexion. It is the squat pattern, but you’re on your knees rather than standing. It’s also a hip hinge, which will help pattern the deadlift. In addition, rockbacks encourage joint centration, particularly in the hip, thus encouraging glute activation at the end range, which should carry over to the bottom of the squat.

Another benefit of rockbacks is that they provide mechanical feedback on your hip end range. As you rock back, note how far into hip flexion you’re able to go before the low back rounds or the pelvis posteriorly tilts. This degree of hip flexion should be the same point at which you set your squat depth with a barbell, as anything lower than that would cause your spinal positioning to fall apart.

Hip Flexor Mobilization

There are a number of these mobility sequences out there to choose from. Typically, hip flexors are fairly tight and can restrict the end range of hip extension, so it behooves you to loosen these up. But this particular drill gets at the best of both worlds – hip flexor stretch and glute activation.

Goblet Squat with Prying

Dan John brought the goblet squat to light. The squat itself grooves the squatting pattern, while the “prying” (holding the bottom position and wiggling around a bit) in the bottom unglues any tightness and prepares the hips for deep squats.

Start in the goblet position and then wiggle around to find any areas of tightness.

Box Jumps

These fire up the central nervous system, improve your ability to apply force quickly (important for lifting heavy weights), and are relatively easy on the joints as there isn’t much of an eccentric component involved. Not to mention, they’re fun. Just don’t go crazy – 2-3 sets of 4-5 reps will be plenty.

Deadlift Warm Up Movements

Quadruped rockbacks and hip flexor mobility drills still apply here as the deadlift is a hinge movement that requires copious amounts of glute activation. The rockback and hip flexor drills will help with both of those considerations. But here are a couple more you should also add to your pre-deadlift routine.

Band-Resisted Broad Jumps

Why band-resisted? The band reduces the amount of deceleration your body needs to do, so you can really unleash and jump powerfully on every rep without having to worry about slamming into the ground each time. The other benefits are similar to those of the box jump: central nervous system activation, rate of force development, etc. Again, 2-3 sets of 5 reps will be adequate.

Kettlebell Swings

Swings mimic the deadlift motion almost perfectly, and the explosive hip extension also prepares the nervous system and muscles to do this movement with a barbell. Choose a weight that allows for powerful swings, but not so heavy that you tire yourself out.

Bench Press Warm Up Movements

Yoga Push Ups

These promote scapular movement, specifically upward rotation, and unstick the thoracic spine and shoulders nicely. The scapular upward rotation benefit is especially welcomed, as it will help to offset the downward rotation your shoulder blades are often forced into during the bench press.

Forearm Wallslides at 135 Degrees

With similar activation patterns as the yoga push up, wallslides also turn on the serratus, which helps to keep the scapulae stabilized during the bench.

Med Ball Chest Passes or Get-Some-Air Push Ups

Chest passes are a great CNS activation for the upper body, particularly if you make each pass as explosive as possible, but they do require both a partner and a med ball.

If you don’t have access to medicine balls, the get-some-air push up is a great alternative to the chest passes. Elevate your hands – even if you can do them on the floor – the point is neural activation, not strength (not to mention you don’t want to slam down on your wrists and elbows right before benching).

Light Chest-Supported Rows

I’ve found these excellent to do between warm-up sets of bench. They activate the lats and upper back nicely, both of which are needed to provide you a stable platform from which to bench press.

“The more lift-specific drills then home in on the particular movements, both from nervous system and mobility vantage points.”

In addition to the aforementioned drills, here is a sampling of other movements to include in your warm up (click on them for video demonstrations):

• Kneeling Glute Mobility
• Adductor Rockbacks
• Double-Leg Glute Bridge
• Rocking Ankle Mobility
• Side-Lying Windmill
• Spiderman With Overhead Reach
• Overhead Walking Lunge

Note that these movements address joint mobility and stability, activate the glutes, open up the sticky joints, and, when performed quickly, will elevate the core temperature. Also keep in mind that from a sequencing perspective, it works wonders to begin with ground-based drills, then move into kneeling drills, and end with standing, walking, and more dynamic drills.

Sample Squat Warm-Up Routine

Start with self myofascial release work on the quads, adductors, lats, t-spine, glutes, calves, and pecs. Then work through this sequence:

• Hip flexor mobility x :25/side
• Quadruped rockbacks x 10
• Adductor rockbacks x 8/side
• Double-leg glute bridge x 8
• Rocking ankle mobility x 8/side
• Spiderman with overhead reach x 5/side
• Stepback lunge with posterolateral reach x 5/side
• Goblet squat x 10 (prying on last rep)
• Box Jump 2×5

Sample Deadlift Warm-Up Routine

Start with self myofascial release work on the quads, adductors, lats, t-spine, glutes, calves, and pecs. Then work through this sequence:

• Hip flexor mobility x :25/side
• Quadruped rockbacks x 10
• Double-leg glute bridge x 8
• Rocking ankle mobility x 8/side
• Bench t-spine dips x 8
• Spiderman with overhead reach x 5/side
• Walking lunge with overhead reach x 6/side
• Swings x 10-15
• Band-resisted broad jumps 2×5

Sample Bench Warm-Up Routine

Start with self myofascial release work on the quads, adductors, lats, t-spine, glutes, calves, and pecs. Then work through this sequence:

• Hip flexor mobility x :25/side
• Side-lying windmills x 8/side
• Double-leg glute bridge x 8
• Rocking ankle mobility x 8/side
• Bench t-spine dips x 8
• Spiderman with overhead reach x 5/side
• Forearm wallslides at 135 degrees x 8
• Yoga push ups x 5-8
• Medicine ball chest passes 2×8 (or get-some-air push ups 2×5)

Applications to Your Lifting Routine

You’re sharp if you noticed 80% of the warm ups are the same. That’s actually the point, as all of those similar movements address the aforementioned aspects of general preparedness. The more lift-specific drills then home in on the particular movements, both from nervous system and mobility vantage points.

Starting each lift with a proper warm up will reduce the risk of injury, enhance your ability to lift heavy weights (which is what we all really care about, anyway), and elevate your superhero status as a whole. So give these a try and see the difference it can make.

Check out these related articles:

• Mobility Work – You are Doing it Wrong (and Too Long)
• 4 Drills to Own Your Position in the Big Lifts
• Super D’s Mobility Video Library
• What’s New On Breaking Muscle Today

Photo courtesy of Andrew Read.

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