TRAINING Q&A WITH DANE FLETCHER
THE STEEL DUNGEON
TRAIN LIKE YOU MEAN IT!
Dane Fletcher is THE Training Authority – sure, he’s got all the industry recognized “certs”… but here is one chap you won’t see hanging that s**t on his den wall. Dane is more comfortable in the dirtiest hole in the wall gym, than your local polished “Fitness Corral”. Originally from London, he has trained in gyms all over the world and has picked up knowledge all along the way from some of the industry’s most recognized personas. If you have a training question, he has an answer – send questions to Dane@GetAnabolics.com.
T-BAR ROWS
Q:Sometimes when I do T-bar Rows, I have a really scary pain come down my arms. It’s like an electrical impulse that travels from the elbow down to my hand and it’s concerning me. It makes me stop focusing on my training and focus on fear instead. This happens typically when I lift heavy, but it has happened with moderate weight too. Can you tell me what is happening?
A:Well, it sounds like a pinched nerve and if it were us, i’d start at the chiropractor. But eventually, you need to check in with a physician too. A general practitioner may not really understand weightlifting enough to know how to help you mend, correct or alter your position or grip during training, or just tell you to quit altogether. This isn’t an option for most bodybuilders and you need someone who actually understands the mechanics of training. If you don’t experience this with any other exercise, then try altering your posture or switching to seated rows. T-bars are an exercise not a lot of guys do a lot of anymore.
They’re great, don’t get me wrong, but they are almost an extinct breed of equipment. If it only happens during this “position” of your body, in the bent over frame, the pain might originate in your back. However, if you have issues with your forearms or elbows, you’ll probably experience it elsewhere in your workouts. I suspect it’s the brachial nerve, and tension and pressure can exacerbate things. I’d be more concerned if it originated in the neck and that’s something an orthopedist or sports medicine doc can assess. If you can find someone who is an ART practitioner (Active Release Therapy), you’ll find relief. If you go to a regular ol’ Joe of a doctor, you probably will be given meds and told to lay off. I suggest ART as a therapy and a means by which to release the pain and problem and help you understand how to avoid it.
DUMBELL PRESS
SHOULDER PAIN
Q:I was doing chest yesterday, and was finishing up on my fourth set of Incline DB presses. I got to about my 7th or 8th rep, with a wide-armed path from start to finish along the range, and my buddy came up under my elbows and pushed in as I was pushing up. My shoulder felt like it was going to pop out of the socket, and then I actually felt a pop or a “give” of the shoulder and I immediately felt serious pain. It was all I could do not to drop the DB’s onto my chest or lap. My left arm was immediately weak as hell and I couldn’t grip very well. My strength came back after 10 minutes but when I went on to do other stuff, my range of motion just sucked and I was sore as hell. Should I get an x-ray? It isn’t back to normal even today....
A:Well, it’s hard to call a medical diagnosis - particularly since I’m not a doc - but I think that you may have moved a piece of tendon or muscle over onto your rotator cuff or front delt and it’s impinging on a nerve or causing you pain from stretching of the tendon. Weakness in grip, running all the way down the arm from the shoulder, means nerve issues. When strength comes back after a few minutes, it’s also nerve related. A diminished range of motion is to be expected until you sort out the cause and begin a rehab program. I suggest you go to an orthopedist or a sports medicine doc and find an ART specialist (Active Release Therapy).
This often gets to the bottom of the problem and ART practitioners understanding weight training and injuries as a result of weight training, perhaps better than anyone. One thing you can do is to stand perpendicular to a wall about 18 inches to 2 feet out, and begin walking your fingers up the wall until your hand is well above your shoulder. Walk back down with your index and middle finger and repeat. Take lots of anti-inflammatories and rest for a week or two on the overhead shoulder workouts. Full recovery is important, but doing exercises to help, along with taking anti-inflammatories, is the best policy.
LEARNING
THE SNATCH
Q:How can I go about learning the “snatch”? I would like to find a way to break the movement down and how I might be able to improve flexibility to avoid injury and better execute the snatch and overhead squat. I am almost incapable of doing an overhead squat at this time. Anything you can tell me that might help?
A:Flexibility is important in this movement, and working up to it slowly is also essential - in fact the only way to go about it. Here’s what has worked for me in terms of teaching the snatch...
• Snatch grip BTN Press
• Back Squat
• Snatch Grip BTN Push Press
• Snatch Grip BTN Jerk
• Snatch Grip BTN Drop Snatch
• Hip Power Snatch or Full
• Hang Power/ Full from below knees
• Full Snatch.
Remember that learning anything physical is a multi-faceted process. How we learn is really important to finding the answers. If you learn by reading or learn by observing, or trying, or a combination of both, then you should understand that and use that method. One of the best ways to learn how to snatch is by watching and then trying. Go to a powerlifting gym or join a powerlifting group and let people who do it all the time, teach you the techniques that work. You can also order the new version of Dreschler’s Weightlifting Encyclopedia. It has a video with it and is cost-effective for learning.
ELBOW PAIN
FROM BENCH
Q:My elbow is killing me - particularly when I am doing flat bench press. I’m having a really hard time lowering the bar to my chest, but once it’s down there, it isn’t a problem pressing it upward and beginning to lower it again. But then in the lower third of the descent, it becomes painful again. I am always abnormally sore for 2-3 days, and need NSAIDS to get through it. What can I do?
A:Well, take time off is one simple answer. You seem to keep exacerbating matters by continuing the cycle of rest-injure-rest-injure. Going to see a doc can also help you because you’ll know what needs to be done. Maybe surgery is the answer - maybe just rest. Either way, I think you are looking at some time off. Don’t be discouraged though. You’re already half of what you could be in the gym, so you really aren’t making progress, just prolonging the cycle. Have you tried using an open-hand grip? And where are your hands in relation to the rings on the bench press bar? Do they stick out? This may be one of the reasons you have an injury that is persistent and only affects a portion of your elbow through the range. You should work with someone who can determine the correctness of your position at the bar, and explain when the pain begins.
IMBALANCED
PROPORTIONS
Q:I began working out about 4 months ago. Recently, I started finally seeing some appreciable results. My arms are getting toned, my legs are starting to take some real shape, and my overall symmetry has improved. I just noticed though that one arm seems more toned than the other. I guess I notice it because it’s just in the beginning of my body’s alterations. Clearly, my right triceps is bigger than my left. I know it’s normal to have one arm more dominant, but this is not my dominant arm. How can I even things out?
A:The truth about training, particularly as you say in the beginning of your body’s progression toward change, is that things will even up as you go along. But always, you’ll have discrepancies in your body’s progress and physical circumference and shape of parts of the body opposing each other. If you’ve ever seen a young horse or dog, their growth and development physically is in see-saw fashion. The front of the body grows taller, then the back of the body grows taller than the front and so on, until it finally evens up. It’s the same as our bodies. Triceps development, deltoid development, pectoral development all happen in unsymmetrical fashion.
Believe that. Just because you see a competitive bodybuilder who looks like a million bucks and appears to look even from top to bottom and side to side, even he has imbalances in his physique. One bit of advice I can give you is to try to ascertain whether you are somehow holding back on one side of your body, perhaps using more trap to lift a weight on your right side than left, leaning without realizing it, or just putting more effort into the other side. If this isn’t the case, then try to do a few one-armed exercises for both sides, and just go a little heavier on your weaker side. Other than that, be patient and realize you’ll always have something off kilter.
GOOD MORNINGS OR STIFF LEGGED DEADLIFTS?
Q:Could you tell me, are Good Mornings or Stiff Legged Deadlifts the best for the lower back and why you think so?
A:I prefer SLDL’s only because the awkwardness and potential for poor form/ injury can really hamper a good experience and results. The load can be much higher with SLDL’s as opposed to GM’s and you can keep a tighter form because you’re doing half the range. You can also feel that the weight is less stable in GM’s - feel as if it’s rolling around when it may or may not be. But the potential is there. GM’s in my opinion are injuries waiting to happen unless you have a great base for lower back strength to begin with. I just think that for the average person, GM’s are really a crap shoot for the low back and spine itself. I know too many people who have had bulging disks emerge from doing years of GM’s. Placing stress on the low back is the point, but not to the point of injury. ‘Nuff said.