 And now, so now, okay, so you do that, you live. And now you're on top of the bench with the bar here. And you're locked out because your thighs are gassed, your feet are heavy, your back is tired. Now what do you do? There's no rack over here. The rack is back there. The rack's not in front of you either. So what do you do now? Well, ditch. But what do you have to do? You're gassed, you're gassed, your quads are burning because you just did 20 reps or whatever. And now somehow you have to balance on one foot, reach back behind you for the floor. Again, the fact that more people don't get crippled on this is what's freakish, not the fact that some guys do get hurt. So if for some reason you think stepping up has some value beyond the work for the glutes and quads and et cetera, that's why running stadium steps was a classic exercise, right? They weren't too steep. That's why steps in a house or in an office are a certain height. You can pretty much do it with all hip and quad action and not make it more complicated. Also from the 2000 NSCA textbook. Same exercise, different parts of the book. Okay? And neither part of the book identified one of these as the wrong way to do it or a risky way to do it. They just described the deadlift. If I was going to guess, I would say that this guy, and again it's hard to see with the shirt, I would say that this guy's lumbar curve is somewhat intact. I would say that this guy's lumbar curve, not so much. Now again, so obviously you have guys with different, no granted, they are lifting empty barbells. But again, you're reversing the lumbar curve and you're trying to lift weights against it. This guy can probably get away with it, probably not. So a couple of alternatives. Trap bar deadlift. Why the trap bar deadlift might work is, especially if you use the higher handles, you don't have to go as low to reach the handles. So like in this guy's case where he looks like he's keeping the curve in his back, again he's doing what he can do. A much taller guy, his lower back probably would curve the wrong way, so that wouldn't be a great option. This one, again, NSEA textbook 2000. I mean, it's just so obviously his lower back is bending the wrong way. Now what you could do, if again, you for whatever reason like the deadlift, the straight leg deadlift, stiff leg deadlift, you could lower, you need another set of eyes, a mirror, a video, you could lower as far as you can go and then when you feel you lose it, then this is your marker. So your deadlift would be here instead of here. But, I mean, that's like classic. You would never get away with lifting that way with occupational help nurses around. But because you walked into a gym, it's different. Kettlebells. Now in Pavel's Enter the Kettlebell book, amidst all the bullshit and all the cutesy stuff, there's actually some good instruction in there. And he actually pretty much says do two exercises, two arm swing and another exercise I don't like. But he basically says master two, right? Well, no one goes to a kettlebell class and just does two exercises. You're not going to say no one does a kettlebell DVD focusing on two exercises. There's always a bunch of things that a dumbbell would be better served. There's nothing unique to the kettlebell. But with the two arm, and the reason why I was looking into this is I'm trying to figure out the fascination with the kettlebells. Like what's so unique about them, what makes them better than a rock or a cinder block or a dumbbell? So now this two arm swing is kind of interesting because if you do them the way he instructs it, it's probably a manageable amount of wear on your lower back. And the way he instructs it is your weight is on your heels through the whole time and it's not really intended as a speed deadlift. So you're not supposed to be swinging this way. It's really meant to be more of a jump. So in the instruction he says sit back as if you're doing a box squat. So you're reaching back to the box and then you forcibly come up as if you were jumping but you keep your weight on your heels and then the kettlebell swings away from you just in response to your hip drive. The point of it isn't supposed to be to be like a derrick or a crane. So again, I don't have my clients do kettlebells. I'm experimenting with it on myself but I'm not having clients do it. So if you're going to use the kettlebell, how to use it safely is what I'm trying to help answer. And of all the exotic stuff to do, that's probably about the most manageable. Moving the kettlebell overhead makes no sense to me. Turkish get ups makes no sense. Half moon pose and yoga with a kettlebell in your hand makes no sense. Flipping the kettlebell from this side of your forearm to have it smash into the back of your forearm and tear up all your calluses. I don't get that one either. The two-arm swing though is manageable. So if anyone wants to say, yes, I use kettlebells, that's the one to master. The one-arm swing, you know, getting back to the disc health argument, bent and rotated is considered, James, one of the worst positions to put the discs in. So if you flex the spine and rotate at the same time, not only are you pinching it on one side, you're ringing it at the same time. So that's considered like one of the worst postures for your disc health. Well, obviously, if you had the kettlebell with one hand, you really run the risk of the kettlebell pulling you into a bent and rotated position. So that one may be this one I'd be very leery of. I would really... I really think there might be something getting back to that list of what makes a good exercise. The left side, where it's feel. Okay, I'll give that one, I'll give it to that one. But that seems to be the most manageable way of handling your back. The one-arm variations, not too much. And if you're really, you know, a lightweight and you want to train the muscles of your lower back specifically, like a spine extension over a ball, over a 45-degree hyperextension bench, the important part, though, is to break the knees when you're stretched out. Because if you don't break at the knee, if this knee is straight, what happens is your hamstrings connect your shin to your pelvis. If the hamstring goes straight and your torso comes down, your pelvis is locked into position and so all the movement has to come out of your lower back. So what happens is when you break the lock at the hamstring, the pelvis can follow the lower back and keep the curve. Okay, so in these two pictures, the lumbar curve is there in both shots. And this is more of a prehab or rehab type exercise. Not training to failure, not doing 50 reps, just sort of like waking the muscles up or making sure you have some control over those muscles. Zip, nothing, I got nothing. I don't know what... All right, so three things you can do right away, Monday, when you go to work out, if you need to make this easier on your joints. And by the way, it's also, the classic way of handling this is, well, nothing hurts, so why should I change? Because that's what I did. Nothing hurts, so I didn't change until I was 40 and everything hurt. So if nothing hurts, file the stuff away, and when things start to hurt, you have an idea where the answer might be. If things hurt, you can do these three things right away to make it easy on your joints. Don't let the weight or the machine push you into a stretch, okay? You're probably putting the joint in a vulnerable position if you do that. It's a thumb bar curve, and I didn't go into too much upper body stuff, but try to keep your hands in your peripheral vision. So if you're looking straight ahead on a machine, let's say it's a peck fly, if you can see your hands in your peripheral vision, you're okay. Once you start coming back here, you're probably over stretching the joint. And that gives you a little bit of a margin of error, but it's a rule of thumb. So whether you're doing a chin-up and you're either here versus here, or some kind of a press, if you can see your hands in the peripheral vision, you have a little bit of a margin of error. The best manuals and exercises are written. So please let me welcome to the stage Bill de Simone. You'd be a champion, but it would kill you, would you take it? And methodology aside and whatever the quibble's people had aside, a lot of people said yes. So that type of thinking, it's not just crossfit, it's been around for a while, a boxer, a tennis player. The reason why you turn, you don't twist is the disc is between the vertebrae. If you twist the vertebrae, it's like ringing out a dish towel. And again, it allows it, but it's not the best thing for it over time. Your office are a certain height. You can pretty much do it with all hip and quad action and not make it more complicated. Also from the 2000 NSCA textbook. Same exercise. Different parts of the book. Okay? And neither part of the book identified one of these as the wrong way to do it or a risky way to do it. Perfect. But if you aim for perfect, then the natural if you fall short, you still have a lot of margin of error. If you