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Oh, by the way, I know that's why you're here one of these bundles I'm about to talk about we're gonna give away for free to one of you lucky viewers All right, so let me go into detail about what these are all about So here's what we did right for January for this month We put together three workout bundles one is for beginners One is for people who are intermediate and one is for people who are advanced and here's what we did in each bundle We took multiple maps programs that work together put them together for each of those categories beginner intermediate advanced Nine months of exercise programming is each bundle right so if you've got one of the bundles I'll say you did the beginner one From now from when you start till the end you have nine months planned out for you So that's you know what your exercises are, you know sets and reps you have video demos showing you how to do the Exercises right tempo everything planned out for you. 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It's 70% off We actually debated whether or not we should do this we did and it was a hit lots of people getting started lots of rave reviews Huge sale, but it is the final day So if you want to take advantage of this as of the dropping of this podcast, that's the last day Okay, so if you're interested go to maps january Com click on the bundle for you or do all three sign up and you're all set By the way, if you just want to try one maps program right if you've heard about maps You've watched our videos you've listened to podcast You're not sure if you want to commit to nine months of our exercise programming Just do one maps program just to try it out do maps and a ball it gets the flagship program We put that one on 50% off to help people like you out who maybe are unsure right? So that program alone is also 50% off That is also ending today if you just want to do that go to maps red calm And then use the code January 50 for that 50% off discount now this particular show is awesome It's all about your favorite exercises if you can't do them. What do you do instead? Enjoy the show. All right, so I think we've established through our thousands of podcasts that there's some exercises that are just Extremely valuable and other exercises. Well, I say this all exercise is valuable and applied Appropriately but generally speaking They're not all equal right some exercises just they just give you a huge bang for your buck and others Maybe not so much in terms of muscle building and fat loss and metabolism boosting and functional applications all that stuff Someday we'll come out with a rating system. I was just gonna say Justin's he's not really doing anything go through Every exercise ever I love when the audience that like suggestions like that absurdly fucking take months to do And color code them all yeah, no, so okay, so and we know like like the for example the squat, right? It's like such a valuable exercise and what you know as a trainer. I saw so much from the squat one exercise for so many clients in I Could literally say that it's as good as the next five exercises combined type of deal, right? So very valuable, but here's the challenge people hear us talk about some of these exercises They know that they're valuable They go and try them or maybe they've done them before and they just can't do them anymore because of pain They hurt and that's a that's a Valuable I guess for lack of a better term excuse, right? I don't squat I don't deadlift I don't whatever because it hurts my body So, you know, what should I do? What do I do instead? Well? I think this is a good opportunity to address This idea too like when we talk about like deep squatting squatting deadlifting Movements that we think everybody should include or work towards in the routine The important part of that statement is the work towards Yeah, because the reality is when I go back and I think of all the people that I've trained over the years There's many clients that couldn't do deadlift or squat or overhead press Correctly early on and I wasn't doing those movements with them. Now the important part was I get them I assess if they can do it. They can't do it. It doesn't mean I go. Oh check that off We're never doing that again. Here's some extra exercise we could do instead of that It is okay temporarily. We're gonna do these movements We're gonna work our way back to those very impactful exercises that have a lot of value That's just it like and you get this from a lot of physicians too Like if you talked about any kind of pain or limitation that you have We'll avoid doing those exercises and then it's that's the end of the conversation Yeah, you have to understand that there's certain Types of human movement that I guess we could label as foundational right Like in other words your body supposed to move these ways and in rare circumstances they can't because of Maybe some genetic reasons or maybe you had an injury that did fundamentally change Your anatomy, but for the most part You should be able to do certain types of movements like for example, you should be able to walk So imagine if you Went to the doctor and like oh my god walking kind of hurts my knee and the doctor says just stop walking I don't do it anymore. Yeah, we're not gonna have you walking him sponsored by a rascal scooter. Yeah, exactly. So Um and now here's the here's the challenge, right? Okay. I can't do those Well, can I do something instead that a will get me to be able to do that at some point but b Won't have me losing my gains or at least, you know, have me still moving in the right direction That's the question, right? Right. So let me get this clear So the idea of this episode is let's pick, you know, these you know, four or five or six Whatever movements that are common where people have pain Give them a alternative of what we would replace that with temporarily And then also mobility corrective stuff to address it to work towards getting there. Yeah, okay Yeah, absolutely. Um and and talk about some of the most common reasons why people can't do some of these movements. So of course Uh, there's always a wide individual variance But generally speaking when I would train, you know, I've trained personally hundreds of clients and thousands if you If you count by proxy, right with the trainers that work for me and the gyms that I've managed and a lot of stuff And you see very common trends like I would say You know There's like 80 of the reason why most people can't squat or deadlift or are these few things, right? There's always the the exceptions to the rule And we can't speak to individuals because we're doing a You know a podcast or a show But we're going to be able to hit most people I think uh who are kind of in this category And what you don't want to do is this I remember this as a kid. I remember is before I Really became a good trainer. I remember I would go to the gym and and I was lucky that I got influenced by Some really good strength athletes as a as a young lifter and it made a huge impact on My physique and eventually how I started training people But I I I was a kid in the gym 16 17 Doing, you know deadlifts and squats and overhead presses and stuff like that And every once in a while I would get the older guy come up to me and say oh, I used to I used to squat. I can't do that anymore because my knees are bad You should probably stop doing that or I used to deadlift and you know my back It just I can't do it anymore. You should probably stop doing that and I remember thinking Well, that's weird. It's exercise like it's something that's supposed to make you stronger and feel better Yeah, you must have been doing it in a way that wasn't Either right or that wasn't right for your body or using a weight that you couldn't handle or whatever I remember even thinking that as a kid because I thought that's very strange Why why couldn't I be able to do this as I got older? It's I'm making myself healthier It made no sense to me didn't make any sense to me at all Well, not only that but let's say you are somebody who can't do some of these movements because of injury or whatever the reason being There's tremendous value in the pursuit like let's pretend I get a client. This has happened too. I get somebody who Um, we never ended up deadlifting. Yep, or we never ended up squatting But that was the goal was to get to that place And the pursuit of that goal and the things that I was doing as a trainer with that client to help them Get to be able to do a squat or a deadlift has so much value Because you got far right and we improved so many things along the way Even though we may never got to a place where I loaded the barbell and did a back Back barbell squat or whatever I didn't get there But the stuff that we accomplished on the way there was so valuable to that person So I think that's the the lesson when you're having a conversation around Squatting deadlifting and you've been told by a doctor that oh, you shouldn't do it or you've heard Oh, it's so risky So you avoid it or you've tried it and you noticed your knees hurt or your low back hurt or your neck hurt or your shoulders hurt And so you avoid it and saying don't completely avoid it Maybe we temporarily avoid doing that specific movement, but the end goal should be okay This is a very fundamental movement that either hurts me or I can't do So instead of just saying i'm never going to do it again How about I work towards building a program and doing movements and exercises That may get me back to that place to be able to do that again looking as a weakness that you're going to build up strength towards and be Uh, you know solid in that going forward. So it's something that you have to really work on identifying The root like where's the weakness lie? Where's the instability lie? and so it just takes a little more effort to go through the process of Rebuilding that back up so everything communicates well and everything supports as it should because we're looking at it as dysfunction we're looking at it as something that Uh is part of the movement that is not firing correctly something isn't doing its job properly So we go back we we we kind of dissect it and we look and we find out okay for me So if we talk about our first one that we have here is the deadlift So this was a big one for me because it's it's one that I've battled in terms of like having back issues with Uh, and I did injure myself a bit By shifting the weight just just ever so gradually but with a lot of weight on it and it and it affected my ql And so this is something I had to keep building my way back towards You know being able to put substantial weight on there But that process has you know helped to identify You know certain things in dysfunction that I need to address with my hips Uh, you know having asymmetry and having a bit of an imbalance And so this is something I need to constantly Think about and work on strengthening totally and you know before we even get deep into deadlifts It's one more point. I want to make that's really important and I literally Had this thought and I knew this but I had this thought again over the weekend I went hiking with my wife and there's this trail that we go on and um, there's just this part Where there's like this pond and so I picked up some rocks and I was skipping them And I was whipping these these rocks to skip it across this pond and my shoulder was getting a little sore And I remember as a kid man, I You know as 13 14 15 I could throw really hard. I just was able to throw very I remember my uncle who was a collegiate Uh baseball player. I remember him saying man, you got a good arm on you I cannot throw at all like I used to why because I stopped doing it, right? I the old term use it or lose it Is very very very true like if right now You stop walking completely and you go do leg strengthening exercise, but you don't walk You never walk wait five ten years go try to walk You've lost a lot of that skill of something that you know, you were born Um to do listen when you don't do the exercise you lose it Everybody's got a picture of themselves playing with toys when they were a two-year-old in the squatted position Yeah, every at one point in your life You were doing that so and at one point in your life you lost it It just happened gradually over time that a lot of people don't even realize it sneaking up on them You know they just you just stop doing it you you stop doing it and you'll lose it like you said Yeah, so you don't want to avoid these movements completely like we like we're saying you want to go back to be able to do it Because the longer you go without doing them The harder it is to get yourself to be able to do them again. You don't want to lose Some of these skills now you brought the deadlift. It is a fun. It is a foundational movement lifting something up off the floor Is probably one of the most Yeah, uh fundamental, you know, you're gonna encounter that a lot. Yeah, like Like yeah, even now even in our super sedentary lives You still have to go down and pick something up like a deadlift I pick up my kids and I play with them. I move boxes. I have to move the couch You know, you pick up your dog or a bag of dog food That deadlift that type of motion is very very fundamental So it's important that you be able to deadlift and you strengthen that movement And it's a common one that people say they can't do And usually it has to do with the fact that they're back, right? It hurts my back in a way. That's not right I think there's okay. There's a little bit more here too, right? And I remember I clearly remember this when I went from somebody who because I didn't train the deadlift Or the squat that that often when I first started training it was I avoided it Like many people do And one of the biggest takeaways that I noticed I did was I when I started to train when I started to train Squats and deadlifts on more religiously I would notice when I do something and it could be something as simple as like picking a kid up or lifting the couch up Because I started to train that hinge pattern For so long inside the gym I had that pattern when I went to pick the couch up or I went to pick the kid up I didn't round the but yeah, it happened automatically because I trained it In the gym that when I hinge over I load the hips to grasping even if it's something light And what you see is in normal behaviors or patterns for people that don't train that movement You just round at the back if you just drop something on the floor and you tell someone to pick it up Very few people few people hinge at the hip to go grab it They just round the back and they go over and when it's really light They don't think anything of it like it's no big deal But all it takes is that weight or just being slightly out of line when you do it And then you hurt yourself and training those movements in the gym That's why it translates because I know people hear you saying that sometime They're like well, I still I've been I pick up couch stuff or I lean over I did but pay attention to how you do it when you grab something everybody's watching or listening right now Think of the next time you pick up a bag of dog food or groceries or anything with any weight at all Off the ground Stop yourself in the middle of it next time or if you're listening right now and you're cleaning the house Or do something like pay attention to how you bend over. Yeah, do you bend over properly? Do you load the hips to pick something up or do you just round at the back and do that? And that's what's setting you are and this is why These movements are so important is if you train it in the gym and it becomes a common practice Then it becomes hard wired. Yeah, it's hard wired And it's you don't even have to think about it anymore It's just what you naturally do when you go to grab something out in the real world You know you're reminding me of as a kid I remember my dad and his cousins got this dirt bike And my dad was kind of showing off or whatever and fell it was going like 30 miles an hour Flies off. I remember as a kid getting freaked out and my dad rolled Like four or five times and then stood up. It was totally fine What he did a judo roll my dad was a competitive judo player in italy And he got up and everybody's like, oh my god, he has some scratches But that was about it and he goes man, it's in my he's like it's ingrained He goes when I went over I just went right into my top He probably tucked his head and then just let himself 100 versus freaking out and fighting Yeah, play placing his hands out in front could have broke his wrist or whatever So all right, so let's go back to the deadlift and most commonly people will have Pain in their low back. Here's a great exercise to do instead of the deadlift. It's very similar And that's a single leg deadlift most people whose back bothers them when they do unless you have a bad injury But I'm talking about chronic pain like oh kind of body when I do deadlifts If it's really sore doesn't feel good Single leg deadlifts usually you could do first off the load is way lighter You got a slowdown balance is involved So you're automatically trying to stabilize and it's a very similar movement And if you get stronger in the single leg deadlift, there's a very strong chance It'll carry over to your traditional deadlift in the biggest disc disconnect A lot of times is this like very subtle shift And this is something that with a single leg deadlift you can really hone in on that anti rotation in the hips Yeah, okay, and so if you really slow down and put a lot of intent in that exercise This is one of those things that this is this is the root of a lot of the problems that are leading into low back Inflammation and not feeling like you can handle like that kind of yeah By the way a lot of these exercises that you're gonna see that we replace the exercise with until you can get back to it Right They're similar enough to the exercise you're replacing it with that you don't lose a ton of the gains and strength and stuff Oh, and arguably I mean I would make the case that this one is I mean this to me is a Regardless if you can or can't deadlift this is a movement that I did this I went in single leg deadlift. Yeah, I just think this I just think this belongs in everybody's routine It's uh, you know, I brought up the other day on the show A movement that it was actually when we were making fun of like the Multiple movements in one and I actually was calling myself out that there's a movement that I've told my client that hey, we move on you don't ever see me again and You know, don't lose this ability to step up To hinge over and to touch your toe and part of that movement is that's a single leg deadlift I mean the hinging a single leg toe touches essentially a a single leg deadlift And part of why that is is that that's that hip stability and strength that you get from balancing on one leg And then hinging of the hips is is so important to keeping your your low back strong and supported as you age That I think this movement belongs in every routine regardless if you can get can or cannot deadlift But if you can't this is an obvious go to Single leg deadlift and get there and I like to do it with dumbbells. In fact, or your body weight So if you've never done it before Um, try just doing it just your body weight at first and get good at the at the movement and stabilizing without falling over A lot of people will do one or two reps and have to tip over Yeah, get good at balancing through say 10 reps of single leg toe touches And then once you got the stability there then load it maybe with some light dumbbells And that's a movement. I think should be in everybody's repertoire Now, uh, there could be a lot of reasons why your lower back bothers you when you deadlift But the most common reasons have to do with some kind of a hip and core Weakness or imbalance. So I would focus on Hip mobility. Um, I like Different versions of 90 90s for that. It's one of my favorite kind of general hip mobility type of drill Um, and there's different versions of this, uh, but I find them to be very very effective And then work on strengthening your core in particular Um, cable chops are really good and bracing exercises like planks, but proper planks They can really help you with your deadlift because uh oblique imbalances you tend to see issues, uh That that contribute to like ql type problems, right? Um, and then core stability Can you brace and stabilize your core? And so planks done properly, right where you kind of tuck the tailbone and really brace the core That can really help solve some of these issues because like I said nine out of ten times It's either a core or a hip issue That's causing that low back pain with the deadlift one of the reasons why I really like, uh, the assisted miguel planes Is because you get a little bit of both of that, right? So you get the the the stability component in there You get some core in there and you get some strength as you rotate over so that's a good one to add there By the way, it's a good opportunity to tell our audience, especially if you're new to the podcast That anytime we talk about movements, um One of the first things that you should do if you're trying to figure out what we're talking about It's literally just to go to youtube and put in mind pump and then the movement that we're saying And even if it's general like we're saying hip mobility if you literally went mind pump Hip mobility you'd see like all these videos that we've done related that you'd see the 90 90 You'd probably see the miguel plane you'd see some of these movements So um a lot of people don't realize how big the library is that we've made for uh, all the exercises that we talk about So if you're hearing this and you don't know or you've heard us talk about a movement And you're not sure what that is try searching on there first and you should find it Now the next exercise is the good old squat Many people refer to it as the king of all exercises. I would agree. It's probably it's definitely up there Tremendous muscle strength gains metabolism boosting gains in studies that show positive hormone responses squats Crush every exercise great for performance general powers just a phenomenal exercise But let's say you squat your knee hurts. That's a common area people Oh, my knees bother me or maybe my lower back bother me Here are some movements you can do to replace the squat and again what you'll notice Is these movements are similar enough to the squat to where there's a lot of carryover Any split stance type squat like a stationary lunge Or even a uh a goblet squat or a bulgarian split stand squat Phenomenal what you'll notice by the way when you do a split stand here Okay, so we call them lunges most that's the most popular name right lunges It's actually a squat and it's called a split stand squat if you look at the front leg of a lunge It's doing most the work It's doing exactly what you would do in a squat. So now you're still doing a squatting movement with that front leg But most people who have issues with squats can still do those split stance exercise. I think it's a very Viable alternative in while you're in the process of getting back to me Well, I like that you put a goblet squat in there too because many times the limiting factor is The ankle mobility and be able to stay upright and the goblet squat forces somebody in that plus You you sort of train somebody to get used to that pattern and depth that they may not do before they may not be able to do So I like the combination of if this person does has a hard time squatting And even heels elevated like you didn't put that on there But I think that a goblet squat with the heels elevated if the ankles the limiting factor Right, which it's going to be for a lot of people There's very that's one of the more common ones right It's almost it's almost guaranteed that most people have a hard time squatting Have limited ankle mobility. It's rare that I find somebody doesn't have some sort of Limiting factor with their ankle. So doing the heels elevated goblet squat in conjunction with Bulgarian splits quads would be my remedy and I like that We didn't say specifically single leg squat because there's so much balance and Stability that you have to fight through with that which is fine that that could be a focus on its own But to have a split stance you get that same effect But you have a little more stable position But you're now you're isolating one side to the left or one side to the right now You can actually see a visible difference between the two where you might need to bring one up in terms of strength There may be some weaknesses there to address. What a great point and conversation to be had. Okay. We just said deadlift We all agreed that the single leg deadlift would be great here But then we go into squat and no one says single ankle mobility doesn't let you do a A bilateral squat. It ain't gonna let you do a single leg. It's just gonna shake a lot Not to mention a pistol squat single leg squat is very very difficult Like a single leg toe touch is real. I could take an 80 year old client And and they can do a a single leg toe touch. I get them to that relatively easy But a pistol squat a single leg squat the strength required and look at the ankle mobility Look how much for sure. Yeah, that's number one. Number two is let's say you had good ankle Trying to get somebody out of the bottom position of a pistol squat And then what ends up happening is they cheat their way out and then we end up just creating bad patterns So i'm glad you brought that up just because the maybe the obvious to a young trainer would be like Oh, okay single leg deadlifts. So then single leg squat is kind of the obvious No, if your back bothers you with deadlifts a single leg deadlift Probably is okay. If your knees bother you with the squat, they're gonna really bother you with a single leg squat That's right. So that's why we're not because he needs to travel substantially. Yes further forward. That's right With a single further forward you need more ankle mobility with a single leg squat Then you do a traditional squat this more that's a lot of load for that particular exercise Split stance allows you to do that requires less ankle mobility. You need less ankle mobility for a split stand squat You it's it's easier on the knee. It's easier on the back And it still mirrors the movement enough to where you're gonna get similar gains And I want to add one to this and this is really just If if you really need to regress like you like squats are are very painful for you You know and you want to still get some good activity in the legs and and so I would throw in like a sled pushes and Pulls and there as well just to to be able to get, you know, your client some Great muscle contraction and in volume and really start to slowly build that. Yeah, ink Sled drives are one of the safest Super effective exercises that I can think about so that's a great. That's a great point and as far as mobility stuff It's ankles and hips. Yep. Yeah ankles which by the way If you uh, if it resonated with you when sal said your knees hurt when you squat Which is probably one of the most common things you hear from squat. It's not the knees It's normally ankles and hips eight out of ten times Yeah, I'd say nine and a half that it's in times like it's it's rarely and that's even coming from somebody who had knee surgery Or has quote-unquote bad knees It's the the issue is actually happening from the lack of ankle mobility or the lack of Of hip and strength in your in your hip that is causing the stress Yeah, think about it this way right the the knee just it just flexes and extends right so just flexes and extends But boy the ankle can move in all kinds of different directions and soak in the hip That's right. So when there's an instability issue there the knee which can't bend laterally It can't rotate which the hip and the ankle could both do it's going where you're directing it Yeah, the knee is it's like straining to try to stay together while the hip and the ankle are not doing their job So even if you have knee issues, right? So I'll have people DM me and say yeah, but my MRI showed that I have You know patella or chondrimalacia or I had to have this And it's like that was still often caused by the ankle hip fix that and I've had people Who've come in with knee issues? We fixed the ankle many people fixed the ankle and hip issues the knee pain is That's why I wanted to say that and that's why I said nine and a half out of ten because There's someone listening right now who has been told they have bad knees or their knees hurt and they think That it's the knee that is limiting them from squatting and it's not I don't care what you've done to it 99% of the time if you address your ankle and your hip mobility and strength And you get good mobility good strength and control in those two joints This one ends up ends up not because the muscles should be taking care when you squat the knees shouldn't be taking any of the stress Yeah, there's 10 ligaments should not be Bearing the load like you have ligaments that prevent your knee from bending laterally You should not be placing so much stress on your knee laterally that it's the ligaments that are preventing it from from bending laterally Right, it's the muscle that does that the muscle around it and it's stable if it goes to the ligaments Eventually those ligaments are going to hurt and maybe even tear right so that's the reason ankle mobility Combat stretch one of my favorites very basic very simple Great for improving ankle mobility. We have videos on our youtube channel for that We talked about hip mobility. I still like the 90 90 for that by the way What's the website for the free webinar on mobility that we did the prime pro Yeah, prime webinar and maps prime webinar. Okay, so prime pro webinar calm and then maps prime webinar calm both Free webinars both lots of mobility movements All of which you're going to hear in this episode. You can go all of them are related to this Yeah, you can go on there and just follow the and literally it's justin and adam Teaching them so you'll actually have some of the best coaches in the business teaching you how to how to do These because mobility movements are quite specific in how they should be applied So if you just look at pictures You will not I promise you won't do them right. There's an intent. That's definitely involved. All right overhead press another Common exercise that people say they can't do Oftentimes the issue with the overhead press has to do with the shoulder It it hurts my shoulder if I push anything overhead I feel like there's this impinging pain or I feel pain in the back most common areas Are in the front of the shoulder down the side or in the back and of course people avoid this incredibly amazing exercise And by the way, you should be able to push things up above your head. So this is again another fundamental movement I love overhead carries for this. I love giving clients Something to hold the arms length by the way, if they're not that strong It could be the lightest thing ever, but just have them or nothing I've actually done this with clients too I'll have them just straighten their arm up as well as they can stabilize and then try to walk while keeping the arm Totally straight next to their head That stabilization really helped later on. It was a great way to I guess supplement this actually addresses a lot of Well with a lot of my clients having something overhead was the The most unstable feeling that they had of any Exercise and would want to bring the weight down almost immediately And so now we're keeping it up overhead and teaching your body how to brace properly so that way it doesn't Create a problem for your lower back a problem for your shoulders and to be able to then Figure out too how to To pack that show or how to like build even more stability around the support system with weight over your head It's just so valuable because now You know when your body gets to that point where we get full extension You're very comfortable familiar that position. This has to be the most common. I would say Right. I mean, I think that I think that's just because Of all the things we're talking about even like squatting and deadlifting like People naturally hinge over squat down get up you getting out of your car or getting out of the table the toilet There's so many things that you you you're forced to somewhat squat There's not a lot of things in life that forces you to fully extend. Yeah, fully extend up over your head I mean, it's not very the closest is what putting away dishes That come to mind for me like the average person Oh, I guarantee if you took 20 people over the age of 45 At least and this is over 45 as it gets older the percentage Yeah, I bet you 50 percent of them cannot get full extension Above their head where they're by next to the year And this is the most different construction jobs. Maybe yeah, right? That's about it This is probably the most difficult for me still today and that's and I think it's just because of that It's just we don't do a lot of things Where we're fully extended like that. I would add to this the z-press Well, the z-press is definitely focusing on that full extension. Yeah, I just it's that movement I know like people are probably tired of hearing me talk about on the show, but I can't help myself when I find something that blows my mind on like And that was a movement that got introduced to me way later Like you just started doing that like five years ago Yeah, it wasn't that long ago that I got introduced to that and it's now become this movement that I And I it's so impactful that I actually would probably never teach an overhead press first I would always teach a z-press first To help them get that stability that full extension down And the ability to tighten their core up in that full extension stabilize like I would teach that all first before I even moved to an over if I had to do this over again And start training like that 100 right would be the first thing that I would address and because of the fact that You know a lot of A lot of the imbalances and a lot of the compensations lie when you're like getting your full body involved Now your your legs want to like add a little English to it. You want to use a large low back Yeah, and so it just sort of um, you know This this this bad pattern goes all the way up the kinetic chain Whereas now you kind of eliminate that as being a source of uh stability And you really have to focus in on your core's ability to brace properly, which is everything Yeah, now another carry. So I talked about the overhead carry is a rack carry and the rack carry is when you're holding the weight Here at the shoulder So you can either do this with dumbbells and let's like this kind of supinated position here like an oral press Or with a kettlebell where it's sitting here But you have to support it with the strength of your shoulder and you hold it You stay in stable and you walk and what it does is it's an isometric movement for the bottom Of an overhead press and the reason why I put that there is the other reason lots of people can't do an overhead press properly Isn't the top but at the bottom rather they they hurts when they get too low And so you see people do these kind of short Type of presses and that full range of motion is really important. Well and a lot of times Two they were taught to only go like that 90 degree and then extension from there And so this is very unfamiliar To keep weight in close to the body like that and be able to create that spiral line press, which You know actually follows a more functional Line for the shoulder to to go with and so that to the other point of that is to to maintain Healthy rotator cuffs and health, you know the the supporting cast so you know to incorporate rotation With your shoulder because it's a vital function of the shoulder is imperative Well to that point That's why the mobility movements that I would do to compliments would be something like handcuffed with rotation Hands down I mean handcuffed with rotation. It takes you through the the fullest range of motion of the shoulder Yeah, and it addresses the rotator cuff like you're saying and I think it's the ultimate You know one stop shop like priming movement for the shoulders So that would be one and then maybe our our zone one test like the wall press. I think is phenomenal Those two would probably be what I would do in conjunction with the the Z press and then the overhead carries and rack carries you're talking about and then you could do a very And although this is incomplete I think this still has some value just some external rotation which is very simple You can literally hold a band between your arms and And rotate out with your elbows at your side or do one arm with the band where the arm is kind of rotating out with your Elbow at your side to strengthen some of those Rotator cuff muscles that you're talking about those external rotators because that one tends to be weak in people By the way, I think we should address Because I know the next thing that we get to episodes like this is the follow-up of well How much how much and what time and people want this prescription of when you're doing Mobility stuff to Address an imbalance or work on a stronger connection like you can't do too much practice Like crazy. These are not these aren't lifts where you're going into it with the idea of like trying to max out or damaging Yeah, this isn't a you know Do 20 reps with like 30 second rest between and then do it again. It's not like that It's practice these practice these movements get good at it practice as much as you can Don't think about doing it in intensely think about trying to do it perfectly with intent Yeah, the idea is to be perfect in the movement Yeah, here's a good rule of thumb Yeah in the morning at night, you know spend 10 minutes on on doing some of this stuff The ones that realize it that you need the most help with and you'll see really rapid I mean really rapid progress if you do it that way. All right, so the next one Is the bench press right everybody's favorite exercise to do on mondays in the big gyms And typically when people's Camp bench press it's usually the shoulder that bothers them and quite often It's the front of the shoulder that they'll feel now. I want you to this is quite common Pain in the front of the shoulder oftentimes has to do with the bicep tendon that runs along the front of the shoulder Now it's not that you're necessarily your bicep is at fault here But rather the positioning your shoulder lack of stability is causing undue stress on that bicep tendon that runs over So when you're pressing with heavy weight you start to have some issues And often this comes from an imbalance between the muscles that push and the muscles that pull So you've got your bench all the time But your rows aren't so great and you don't have what's called called good scapular retraction where your shoulders come back So we'll get to some of the correctional exercise. Here's a good thing you can replace the bench press with Just a good old incline dumbbell press for most people. It's not an issue for the exact reasons that you said to I've loved this was also something that happened for me later on in my career like Always I struggled with teaching a client if you've never done bench press before as as basic of a movement as that may seem Many people struggle with it More so now than ever to because we're so forward. It's way more technical than it It is and when the average eye that's and even the young trainer when I would look at someone doing a bench press It would look like it doesn't look bad. You're just pushing it up Yeah, it's it's hard to see it unless you know exactly what you're looking for And very few people Retract and depress their shoulders before they bench press. I mean that don't know what they're doing You see great obviously all people that bench press well or like competitors You'll see that you'll see the way they get into a bench press They get themselves all wedged in they have that kind of nice little arch in their low back And their shoulders are really retract and depressed before they go into pressing What I love about the incline dumbbell press is it naturally puts you in that position So even if a client doesn't have a doesn't do very well with being able to activate those muscles and get themselves in that position Naturally gravity is on yourself That's right gravity is going to kind of do that because you're at this You're at a 45 degree bench and you're holding these dumbbells It kind of naturally sinks the shoulder shoulder blades down down and back like you want And so I just find it as an easier move like we talked about the z-press Going back knowing what I know now if I were to start all over as a trainer I probably would very very very very few times when I start a client ever on a barbell bench press I would almost always now start on an incline dumbbell press to get technique down first Before I progressed to the ball that was the second half of my career The first half was like benching benching and the second half was like no No, we're gonna get really good at the incline incline dumbbells and then we'll graduate Good patterns and then we can build off of that. Yeah Now here's a hack by the way if the front of your shoulder hurts you and it is indeed the bicep tendon Try this out before you do your incline dumbbell presses Do a static bicep stretch for about 30 seconds on each arm and then go do your pressing now It's not a fix But what it does do is it alleviates some of the pain allow you to press with well Perfect scenario would be stretch and then do row row. Well, that's the best right So, yeah, a perfect thing would be to stretch that's right Stretch the bicep tendon go right into some rubber band rows or just do some light barbell rows Just to work times you to get your your shoulder blades sat in a good position Yes, work on that upper mid-back area. By the way, just because you row doesn't mean you're working on the upper back Area if you're rowing with your shoulders forward. It's a lat row. You might as well do a pull-up You want to pull the shoulders back and down while you're doing the row Strengthen those mid-back muscles. That's what's going to keep your shoulder healthy For when you do bench presses and you go back to doing bench presses. I should say All right, the next exercise. I know adam you wanted to add this. I think you're absolutely right And that's dips Most people I don't say most I'd say a majority of people Have a small majority have trouble with dips. It hurts the shoulders. Yeah, I think it's just I think they're It goes back to what we were talking about with you know Range of motion and shoulders and the ability to pull the shoulder blades back I think that we're in this fixed forward tight position all time And then you ask somebody to go into a dip position and it's like the you're pulling and stretching on that And I think that just it's painful for a lot of people and so they avoid it You also see some people that's they they don't have that range of motion And then they go and do something where they load the dips or ends with that and then you they tear or hurt themselves So, uh, this was a common one It was common that I would get somebody who wanted to do dips But then every time they did dips it they would feel this the stress in their shoulders when they try and go down That's the most common I've saw was just like the protracted shoulder where you know We're trying to now also like dip down and we really should be more expansive with our chest and in dips and to get The full advantage of it But yeah, that was always a big common one because then it would go right direct it into You know the shoulder and it'd be create pain immediately totally Close grip bench press or close grip incline press even better And when I say close grip by the way, I know some people are like put your hands All the way together. No, your your wrists don't really bend that well that way. It's like shoulder width Yeah, you know do about a shoulder width bench press keeping your elbows relatively tucked and And that is a great substitute for dips. We'll still train your triceps. They'll train your shoulders It's close enough to dips where you won't lose a lot of your performance from dips But it does train a lot of the similar muscles and the issues with the dips is almost always having to do with the shoulders It's shoulder mobility lack of rotation lack of stability handcuffs with rotation It's like a really good general overall Shoulder mobility exercise that will also help with this Yeah, I would you know to figure out where to like everybody wants to know where to grab the bar And that's the wrong question because we're all There's wider more narrow and like so the way I would tell a client is I'd have them pinch their elbows Next to their rib cage and then get their forearms straight. Like you're so your grip. Yeah, there's your grip Yeah, so that's where you grab the bar. It's not look at the bar and go Oh, where do I grab it for close grip and should I grab here should I grab here should I grab here? It's like no take your elbows pinch them right by your side and I'm looking for that nice 90-degree bend and it looks it's all perpendicular to my body. That's where I want to grab the bar I think that's the the best play and then that's all you're thinking about as you come down the close grip Is you're keeping the elbows tucked in close because we're focusing on tricep And it's not a close grip bench press for your chest We're keeping elbows in tight by your side and focusing on the tricep. Oh wall circles are great, too I really like that never done those before I learned them from Justin It's in our we now have it in some of our programs and the wall gives you feedback allows you to move through this kind of full range of motion You're Externally rotating internally rotating you're extending and depressing and it's a really good full range of motion Kind of intrinsic tension exercise meaning there's no external tension. So it's very safe Nothing pushing against you that's going to cause you to injure yourself and you can see Measurable results when you practice it regularly like you'll see literally if you practice this For five or ten minutes today Tomorrow if you practice again, you'll notice a little bit of an improvement. That's how fast very lightening the full potential you can achieve In terms of like how how much range of motion your shoulders capable of it's really kind of crazy And you don't realize that till you actually put yourself in that position where you test it And again, this is another one of those exercises You really want to take your time with and be gradual if you don't have that range of motion yet You back off a bit the next time you do it guaranteed you're going to go a little further Yeah So the all these movements that we just went over if any of them ring a bell for you that you avoid because of aches and pains or someone told you you shouldn't do it Use the movements, uh, especially the mobility stuff and practice and practice just practice as much as you can And for the time being replace them with the exercise that we provide you That's that's the idea replace someone if there's a program that has them you can't do them The movements we gave that's what you replace with and then the rest of the week You're trying to incorporate it as much as you can just and go light and practice and work on technique and get good at it Yes, and again those those sites they're free webinar. So the free class is taught by adam and justin There's no catch. Nothing like you just go on there and and watch them. It's It's a prime pro webinar dot com and then the other one is maps prime Webinar calm the difference is the maps prime webinar calm is taught by justin He takes you through a few compass tests We're called compass tests that help you identify Your own imbalances and the one adam takes you through is a little more in depth There's no tests But he takes you through all the major joints of the body and shows you some phenomenal Mobility movements and he coaches you through doing them. So you really figure out how to do them well Look, if you like our information head over to mind pump free.com and check out our guides We have guides that can help you with almost any fitness school and again, they're free Mind pump free.com. You can also find all of us on instagram. So justin is at mind pump justin I'm at mind pump sal and adam is at mind pump adam