Fro 2020-11-20 14:31:47

You're about to watch me go full nerd mode.. sorry in advance.

Short version: I've hurt my back and with the help of a sports doctor that I visit monthly have learned what hurt means. Most of the time it means to continue lifting. (This is not advice for you, this is what I've learned about me with my doctor!) I've learned a valuable lesson on the difference between hurt and injured. Even through more painful "hurts" I've learned that continuing to strengthen and increase blood flow to the area to increase healing.

As for injuries, I've had 0 injuries lifting so far. Knock on wood.

On the 210 lift I tweaked my lower back/hip. It hurt pretty bad for about a solid week, but the only time it felt better was under weight. This told me it definitely wasn't an injury if it felt great to move it. I continued lifting like normal without any set backs. It got better every day.

It was my fault for not properly bracing. Even on the video of the 225 lift I should have braced properly when lifting the bar off the rack. I didn't, which involved me almost instantly losing balance. (You can see when I take a bunch of small steps, this wasn't intentional, I should have two stepped out, but because I didn't brace I almost tripped under the weight. Luckily I caught myself and didn't have to rerack the weight)

It's a really interesting maneuver that takes a bit of practice. You know when you do it right because the weight seems to move much smoother when performed.

You can read about it here:
https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/how-to-breathe-when-lifting-weights/

Basically, it's filling your stomach area with air and bracing hard against it with your core muscles. This creates an air cast around your spine and puts you in an extremely strong and stable position. If you wear a lifting belt, you can cause even more internal pressure and gain even more strength. It's a funny concept that a belt around your stomach can cause an increase of internal pressure and pushing strength in your arms, but it does.

You can still hurt yourself if you use wrong form or with weights your body isn't ready for. It does make you a lot stronger though. Not using it will almost always cause injury when dealing with heavy weights. A belt doesn't prevent injury either, just allows you to perform the maneuver stronger.

It's highly recommended on OHP, Bench, Deadlift, and Squat. Complete the rep, reset, fill with air, brace, repeat. When you get good at it you can learn how to do it mid lift. On OHP and Bench I can release the air when the bar is at lock out, refill and brace on the way down, and be ready to go again.

Here's an example of me doing it on a higher rep bench press. You won't be able to see me do the bracing, but I'm able to do it without any pause: https://twitter.com/TheCoachFro/status/1324468224797237248

I can't do this on deadlift and squat as well. I'm not too interested in trying either because of how heavy the weights get on those lifts.

Here's an example of how needing to rebrace between each rep on deadlift: https://twitter.com/TheCoachFro/status/1319796003692670976?s=20

Fro 2020-11-20 18:30:27

For awhile I didn't really know the difference between being injured and being hurt. I'm no expert on it by any means, but have learned a lot about how my body feels and have been a much better judge about it. At the end of the day, if it's sore and hurts after activity, but not during activity it's probably just hurt. The best way to heal an area is to keep blood flowing to it.

I have torn muscles so there's a big feeling difference between the two. I don't do too many explosive/athletic movements like throwing or sprinting anymore so those days of tears and muscle pulls are hopefully over.

There's a big community that is against weighted vests, ankle weights, arm weights, etc... They claim that they put unwanted wear and tear on the joints. I on the other hand don't have an opinion one way or the other. Every study that I've ever read that correlates the two show extended use over long distances. So someone running 15km every day for a week with a weighted vest, etc...

No studies have been done with occasional usage. Athletes have been using weighted equipment like this for years once, maybe twice a week for short distance bursts, jumps, etc... with no side effects. I actually correlate my fastest sprint times ever when I trained with a weighted vest/ankle weights and did hill sprints once a week with them.

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Valsalva: As a beginner the maneuver will most likely feel like just holding your breathe. Think about it like you want your stomach to feel like it's ready to get punched.

As a more experienced individual you has learned to recruit muscles via weight training, the entire body will brace along with the maneuver. Not only will the stomach create pressure, but the glutes will tense hard, the legs will stiffen, the arms will stiffen, the neck will tense, you'll even feel it in your feet.

If you want to give it a try, go up to an unmovable object. Think of a door way. Brace your feet and hold air in your stomach and push as hard as you can while keeping your feet braced. Lean into it for leverage. Just push, when you think you can't push anymore keep pushing with your feet planted. 10, 20, 30 seconds will go by and your body will start to recruit other muscles. At the beginning you may just feel it in your arms and legs, but as you hold it your body wants to move this stress so it starts bringing in more. Your back muscles will tighten, your feet, your toes. You're helping your body create neurological connections it hasn't needed before that are much easier to replicate once you need to push something again. (I've braced so hard before a lift that I've smacked myself in the face with the weights in pulling motions when the weight were too light!)

This is why most beginners get a lot stronger right away. They aren't building muscle, that takes a solid 4-6 months of eating in a small calorie surplus and resistance training, but yet someone will be able to add 5-10 pounds to a lift a week for the first 3 or more months without building muscle just because their body is making these connections and learning how to recruit and do the movement more efficiently.

This is the reason why most beginner programs just involve the 4 big compound movements that do the whole body. OHP, Bench, Squat, and Deadlift. (And sometimes nothing else at all) Once they stall on these "noob" gains, they can start worrying about everything else.

So yes, I would say that your exerting this pressure greatly. It will multiple greatly when it has something to press against like a weight belt.

Fro 2020-11-21 17:01:41

Hurt would = pain and injured would equal... well I guess an injury haha. Something that would get worse without a doctor or preventative measures. I think people use hurt and injured a lot here. I hurt my toe when I dropped a book on it. I injured my toe when I accidently sliced it off with a meat slicer. (Extreme conditions!)

It could be the difference between a pulled or strained back muscle (which can hurt a lot, but would benefit from continued movement) or structural damage to the spine that would require rehab and would be damaged more upon movement of the area.

So I hurt my back, I caused pain in it that would go away over time by itself whether or not I continued to lift weights. If I injured my back and continued I would make things worse. The pain is different for sure, but because most people are in the hurt/pain category and rarely in the injured section it all seems the same to them.

For the maneuver, it needs to be started immediately when lifting weights, even as a beginner. Not using it is absolutely the worse thing you could do when lifting. When I teach athletes to lift, it's the first thing we talk about and practice.

It might not seem like a big deal when doing bicep curls, but trying to lift anything close to your body weight without doing it would be a big mistake.