It’s an old joke…
Patient: Doc, it hurts when I do this.
Doctor: Then don’t do that.
That should be posted in every gym. Unfortunately, people think that it’s a good thing to power through pain…
While that’s true of fatigue pain, or growth-inducing muscle burn, joint pain is a different animal. For example…
I have a damaged shoulder, no doubt from overhead presses and masquerading as a powerlifter in my 20s.
I often scream when I’m pulling off a T-shirt—and it’s usually not because I can’t see my abs…
I also wince a little when I do dumbbell curls.
I get a slight pain in my damaged shoulder. Then that night, the joint will roust me awake around 2 a.m.: “Hey Steve, you did something stupid again.”
Actually, the stupidity was in my younger days. But I’m still feeling the effects. Now I need to avoid exercises that aggravate my shoulder.
Alternate cable curls is one ideal-exercise alternative for biceps. There is no heavy downward pull from gravity. That’s great. However, weight-stack drag with cables lessens the negative, or lowering, stroke of each rep…
Research has shown that the eccentric, or negative, part of a rep is most important for muscle growth, so cable moves are lacking somewhat in that respect…
My other go-to exercise is concentration curls. With that move, the negative stroke isn’t compromised; however, the resistance curve is a bit off…
I will sometimes do a few sets of both exercises, or do one or the other at different upper-body workouts.
If you’re getting even slight joint pain during an exercise, you’re not getting all the growth benefits.
Not only are you distracted, but your brain is trying to shut down the muscle because of that pain to prevent further damage. That means fiber activation is not optimal….
Figure out an alternative. In other words, when it comes to moves that cause joint pain, “Don’t do that.”
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Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
Steve Holman
Former Editor in Chief, Iron Man Magazine
www.X-Rep.com
Recommended
NO MORE SHOULDER PAIN
Shoulder pain can affect your workouts forever. That’s not good!
That’s why we’re recommending advice from injury specialist Rick Kaselj, MS. His tips can help make your shoulders nearly bullet-proof.
Here are a few general tips from Rick (he goes into more detail in his program)…
Top 5 Tips To Bullet-Proof Your Shoulders
- Build Tension in Your Lats. When doing shoulder exercises, activate your lats and keep your shoulders happy.
- Prime Up Your Muscles. Most people do a warm-up that just lubricates the joint, but you need to activate and turn on all the muscles in your upper body.
- Technique, Technique, Technique. This is the number one reason why people injure their shoulders. You can’t go to the gym every day and work on your max lift.
- Watch Out for Fatigue. Cooking your smaller muscles in your shoulder complex, and that increases the risk of shoulder injury and pain.
- Work on Your Shoulder Blade Muscles. Many strength coaches will say you’re wasting your time on this, but if you want to have bullet-proof shoulders, you need to work on them.
Get all of Rick’s tips and tricks for pain-free workouts below: