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Modern Meathead Notes:

• People tend to over-complicate warm-ups. Your warm-ups should ideally be lower-effort versions of the exercise that you’re about to do.

  • If you need additional warm-ups in order to feel “good” doing an exercise, you need to address the cause of that discomfort by fixing the exercise you’re doing, not by adding in a bunch of non-specific exercises that have nothing to do with what you’re about to train.

• Here’s an example warm-up for a bench press that I might do, if my first “working” set for the day is ~225×10 reps.

  • Empty bar for 1 set of 5-15 reps.

  • Rest 10-15 seconds.

  • Add 25s (95lbs total) to either side, 5-15 reps.

  • Rest 10-15 seconds.

  • Add 45s (135lbs total) to either side, 5-10 reps.

  • Rest 10-15 seconds.

  • Add 45s + 25s (185lbs total) to either side, 3-5 reps.

  • Rest 20-30 seconds.

  • Add additional 10s to either side, (205lbs total), 1-3 reps.

  • Rest 20-30 seconds.

  • Add 2 plates to either side (225lbs total), 1-2 reps.

  • Rest until ready for first set of 225×10

• The rest between warm-ups is as little as you need not to sense fatigue between or within warm-up sets.

• Your warm-up sets should not ever slow in rep speed without an intentional slowing. If rep speeds are slowing, you’re unnecessarily fatiguing yourself.

• If this kind of warm-up does not suffice to properly “activate” the muscles you’re trying to train, you need to adjust the way you’re doing the exercise, or change the exercise altogether.

In the context of a bench press and other “compound” movements, many people seem to need non-specific warm-ups.

Here is my ultimate guide for:

• Troubleshooting discomfort with any motion.

• How you can make any exercise more specific to your individual structure, needs, and limitations.

Assess Comfortable Ranges Prior to Loading

Many people make the mistake of haphazardly grabbing a pair of dumbbells or sitting down onto a machine with heavy loads without having assessed whether their body is comfortable with the positions that an exercise requires.

This often leads people to load motions that they can’t “get into” without a substantial amount of load “shoving" them into the positions that an exercise demands.

As a rule of thumb, I like to always take people through an exercise without any added load to begin with to ensure that their joint structures initially agree with where we’re trying to move.

For example, if someone is performing a leg press, I’ll first have them sit down without un-racking the weights, and I’ll ask them to move their leg(s) through the intended range of motion before even putting their feet onto the platform.

Another example: prior to executing a pull-down, I’ll have someone reach upward toward the cable to find where their hands and shoulders naturally move, so that we can start from a place that feels safe to their body and brain.

This doesn’t mean that these “non-loaded” positions are the be-all-end-all positions you should always use, but they serve as a good starting point for any motion.

Forces and our body’s response to them will undoubtedly change what feels comfortable for an individual, but I find that it never hurts to assess what ranges feel comfortable to begin with, without the added load first. Use the positions initially that feel more natural for a given motion.

Move Slowly Before Quickly

It might seem obvious, but more often than not, I find that people are not paying any attention to tempo (people with and without joint pain alike).

While there’s nothing inherently wrong with attempting to move a weight quickly, during initial learning and pain scenarios, I find it especially helpful to slow the exercise down and lighten the external load to promote pain-free relearning.

Slowing down the tempo of a lift - not at a snail’s pace, just in a controlled manner - will allow you concentrate on control.

But what is control? And how can we define it?

Controlling an exercise means that you’re resisting the resistance at every point in a motion.

That’s a mouthful. But think about it…

If you’re doing a bench press, the resistance is pushing your hands downward, toward the floor.

Many people “lower” the weights, though, without ever thinking about the fact that they need to be actively “pushing” as the bar moves down.

And this often results in people not moving the weight with control, but rather “dropping” the weight and then “catching” it in the bottom position - the position of highest joint force, regardless of tempo.

So, in the context of a bench press, control means always being able to resist (pushing up) the resistance (pushing us downward) at every point in the range.

You can apply this principle to any exercise:

• In a squat, it means always remembering to push yourself “upward” by keeping pressure downward, through the feet.

• In a lateral raise, it means always raising “upward” against a dumbbell even when you’re lowering your arms.

• In a pull-down, it means always pulling against the handle downward, even when you’re allowing the bar to move upward.

This kind of intent is completely natural during the concentric (shortening) portion of any exercise, but highly unnatural during the eccentric (lengthening) portion of any exercise because the resistance and where we’re moving are in opposite directions.

In short - slow down, and focus on resisting the resistance when you need to.

Adjust Resistance Direction & Joint Position

If you’ve taken care of the two principles above, but you’re still experiencing joint discomfort, it’s time to adjust resistance direction and joint positions.

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• How to troubleshoot resistance and joint position to mitigate pain and discomfort.

• Why ROM is important and how you can adjust it to fit your needs.

• Why training non-target muscles can help your joint pain.

• Why using a variety of implements is a major key to lifting long-term.

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