Not the Keys, but They Jingle

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The year’s beginning to pick up speed. January slips around like a lazy walrus on an isolated, sun-drenched rock. The tide comes in and off he goes, swift and graceful, with the waves. And February, aimless and impatient, has no intention of hanging around either. How about you? Have you any plans in motion or goals set, high expectations to realize or problems to tackle... a real vacation? Or will you go with the flow, nice n’ easy. Sometimes the latter is just right, yet not as simple as it sounds. Life is not exactly predictable.

You and I are rare birds, high-flying bombers, and we know this for sure: life is real and life is better when we train hard and eat right. And to give these facts of life air and keep them aloft, we need heart, fundamental knowledge, encouragement and some instructive trials along the way. Over the past months, straightforward problems and curiosities have come into our view and the following questions have been asked. The answers are not the keys to the universe, but they do jingle and open small doors.

Q) I have been training around a shoulder injury and my injured side is falling behind. Should I add exercises to the injured side until symmetry is regained? My bench press is going to the dogs and I’m going nuts.

A) I wouldn't emphasize one side over the other unless I was recovering from an accident or surgery where special therapy was indicated. Providing you don’t have a major tear, impingement or nerve damage, health and balance will be regained in time as you proceed to heal, restore and develop muscle from your orderly weight training routine.

Be smart, patient and steely. Directed by the pain, avoid those exercises and ranges of motion that aggravate the tender area. Warm up, employ light weight, progress slowly and seek maximum muscle contraction and intensity through thoughtful exercise execution. Be grateful for the current education in concentration, focus and form and appreciate the new-found respect and humility. Injury teaches us the absolutes, discipline and virtue, when all else fails.

Finally, think twice, big guy, about bench pressing heavy (troubles ahead), and seriously consider dumbbell pressing as an upgraded replacement. I know, giving up the bench press is like giving up Big Macs or gummy bears, but there comes a time in every lifter’s life when he must put his health first. Sorry.

About balance: We're all out of balance -- a little short in a leg, tilted at the hip or miss-curved in the spine -- and it is evident in our muscular health and development if we look closely. A good chiropractor can often attend the health of your structure by manipulations over time -- straighten you out -- and you'll restore a natural balance to which your muscle development and wellness will favorably respond.

Q) I’m looking for back thickness and you mention the bent-over barbell row as your favorite exercise. You also said it was a “big bear” movement. What?

A) Let me be a little more specific. Bent-over barbell rows are a great exercise, but very demanding on the body’s structure and systems. I find they can be done efficiently and effectively only once a week, and only with the right attitude and approach (that is, serious and serious).

The entire back is involved and worked in the movement and the lower back is doubly loaded; it is the fulcrum of the lever action under continual and direct resistance and requiring special notice. The quads are under enormous pressure, acting like pistons in action as the weighted barbell is raised and lowered with might. The large muscle demand and subsequent cardio requirement rate this as a comprehensive or systemic exercise -- the body’s hormonal and enzyme responses are significantly elevated by this “big bear” movement and we reap rewards in overall muscle growth.

Warm up with several light sets to prepare, and thus protect, the lower back for the tough job ahead, and to engage the mass of muscle that is the back, and thereby determine your groove. The barbell row is exceedingly good and wonderfully hard work to waste with poor form, unsatisfactory muscle recruitment and the risk of injury. And if you think you’re training the back only, you’ll be surprised at how your quadriceps, hamstrings and glute muscles burn, pump and fatigue while in action, and how they ache the next day and the next.

The barbell row is an old-school exercise and I don’t see it practiced very often in my gym today. When it is, the position varies from mine, which I discovered years ago; typically, the trainer assumes a narrower grip and more upright stance than I, and the weight is pulled toward the waist or a place low on the rib cage. It’s all tough and swell, but I prefer more depth.

I bend more deeply at the thighs, grasp an Olympic bar two or three inches short of the collars, and make a fair effort at keeping my back flat and parallel to the floor. With appropriate and well-governed thrust, I pull the bar tightly to a line across my mid- to upper-pec muscles. I return it to the near-floor starting position with a mean fight, taking advantage of the negative. I pause a tick to assume my wits and physical placement before proceeding with full breath, total focus, high hopes and a grin at the pain. Sets are no less than five and no more than eight and reps range from 10 down to four.

I pull with thoughtful whole-back muscle action without excessive thrusts as the weight becomes a struggle. I want explosive action, but unless monitored, this action set-after-set is problematic to the lower back -- painful and injurious.

Your lower back needs to become conditioned, strengthened and supported over time -- months and months -- by ab work, hyperextensions and repetition deadlifts as a working exercise (not a power lift only) to support the heavy bent-over rows... and squats and all your life, while we’re on the subject.

The grip is a big player and grows stronger with all the effort. And you know the bis are getting some unusual muscle-building action.

Be smart, attentive as you blast it. No time for injuries. Hold back on going too heavy too soon. Haste makes waste and all of that stuff.

Q) I have been training for almost a year and want to enter a contest this summer, but I’m not seeing fast enough results. What kind of exercises do you recommend? I’m 14 years old.

A) Fast results? Welcome to the club.

My advice is to train with high hopes and strong purpose and for fun. If that includes competing at 14, fine. The fact is this muscle-building sport takes years and years of hard work and proper eating, and there is no magic. Some months go by and, though healthy things are happening, one sees little or no progress at all.

Do not be discouraged, young bomber; you’re way ahead of the mob if you stick with it and be strong on the inside. It takes guts to lift weights, now and for good.

Training for a contest interrupts the healthy cycles of muscle growth as one tends to become highly stressed, eats less as he seeks cuts and trains too hard as he looks for quick growth. These conditions are adverse to building muscle, creating a catabolic environment whereby muscle tissue is sacrificed. Further, muscle-building time is lost and logical, free thinking is frustrated.

What’s the rush? Take your time, be smart and enjoy the action. You'll be bigger and better by next year and the year after than if you train for competition now.

Whatever you do, work your midsection four days a week (crunches and leg lifts) and perform four sets (x 6 to12 reps) of squats, deadlifts, overhead presses, standing barbell curls, dumbbell incline presses, medium-grip bench presses, bar or dumbbell rows, stiff-arm dumbbell pullovers, chair dips and wide-grip chin-ups once or twice a week in an agreeable three-day routine. These are the best exercises for sound muscle growth. There are many exercises that you'll enjoy and employ over time, but these are the kings.

Example: Short workouts to prevent physical and mental overload while preparing a sound foundation for future routine advancements.

Day 1) midsection, deadlift, medium-grip bench press, wide-grip chin, pullover

Day 2) midsection, squat, calf-raises, barbell curl, chair dip

Day 3) midsection, overhead press, barbell row, close-grip chin, light pullovers

Jog or practice sprints for 10-15 minutes on off-days

Eat regularly throughout the day: lottsa protein (meat, fish and poultry, milk, eggs, cottage cheese) and no sugary junk food and lottsa fruit and vegetables and drink lottsa water. Don’t smoke, don’t drink and don’t do drugs.

Train hard, don't miss, be happy and positive. You’re on your way.

Q) I’m in my mid-30s, train on and off since high school and wonder will smoking a little get in my way of building muscle? I’m not in bad shape and want to get back into it regularly.

A) You might not like what I have to say. I don’t offer judgment, only factual criticism. I point no fingers. Up to 20 years ago I was busy drinking alcohol like Kool-Aid.

Yes, smoking will interfere with your muscle building -- and breathing and breath and lungs and digestion and stomach and intestines and teeth and gums and arteries and heart and whole-body tissue repair and skin tone and discipline. I don’t know if there’s a curve to determine the damage smoking does to one’s health, but I imagine it is something like, you smoke a little and it kills you a little or you smoke a lot and it kills you a lot.

Nothing personal, but the habit diminishes a person's potential in every aspect of life. And I don’t think I ever heard of someone smoking for a little while.

Aside from all the bad statistics, cigarette smoking ages the smoker. The body and face don't have a chance. Cigs cause sags. Also, those persons who submit to smoking and continue to smoke share a common nature that is evidenced in flawed self-respect and a weakness in self-control -- short-term or long-term. Training right and eating right travel in the exact opposite direction.

The deleterious effects of smoking go into immediate effect and they compound. The damaging ingredients of cigarettes gather over time; they do not disperse, they are not eliminated.

I ain’t no doc, but it goes somethin’ like this: The cigs eat up the muscle-building B-complex in the body; wreck the immune system making it work harder to maintain simple disease resistance; eat up the lungs and drastically limit the absorption and distribution of life-giving oxygen to the cells throughout the body (muscle repair, energy, endurance and detoxification). The arteries and blood passage-ways are impaired and blocked by ingredients delivered by cigarette use. Heavily weight-trained muscle tissues hate this as they try to repair. Smoking contributes to heart attacks and stroke and death. The stomach's health and its digestive processes are compromised, interrupting the absorption of proteins and vitamins and minerals. The muscles say “feed me” and the body says “I can’t.”

The cigarettes are a real poison to the system -- they placate the mind when it should stand on its own strength; they're addictive and 10 becomes 20 and they cost hard-earned bucks. They're a tough habit to break (the toughest, they say) and I've had to break many. The longer a person gives into the weakness, the more personally disagreeable it becomes and the more difficult it is to escape.

I can't imagine a person who smokes having a great day.

Have a great day...

That’s about enough, dontcha think? A poor kid writes in for a routine and I give him a sermon, some guy sneaks a few cigarettes while playing poker with the boys and I drag him through the streets by his hair and another innocent is curious about “big bear” rows and I snarl as I pound him into the ground he stands on and, finally, an injured bomber who loves bench pressing is told he should be thankful for the lopsided state of his body and give up bench pressing, it’s bad for ya.

Anymore questions, brother and sister bombers?

I don’t think so... I’ll pass...not me...not really...some other time...I’m covered... okay here...I’m fine...no, thanks.

Well then, brace your wings and kiss the winds... God’s speed... dave draper

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