DE Lower – Saturday, 4.10.10

Hi, Charlie.

I noticed the inclusion of tall kneeling hammer curls in the work that you mentioned for David. Were these performed kneeling specifically because of the back bothering him, in order to provide extra protection against hyperextending the lumbar spine and also to get a training effect while reducing the overall load used/that would need to be stabilized. Or I am completely missing the mark here. Just curious.

Thanks for any feedback.

-Don Reinhoudt

Don – It’s an honor to have you reading. You can clear the blown smoke when I am done, but not often enough do we thank those that have come before us.

Today’s session was obviously in group, and this is @ Thomas Phillips (Senior RKC) Fit For Life gym. He usually calls the shots, but he is away, so I am doing the programming for the guys we actually train with.
These are all advanced lifters and training for strength and fitness. We do not do much movement training @ Tom’s.

So Dave was supposed to do high TrapBar DL for 5s, but when he said his back was tweaked from messing with the dog, we scrapped those and just stuck with suitcase and SLDL.
To get him some more work capacity, I kept him in primitive patterns with less spine risk. We benched and did a ton of tri’s on Friday, so I liked curls, and I liked the tall kneeling to absolutely limit hyperextension but also limit hip flexion. Standing, you can allow the hip flexors to slack in a shortened position with the accommodations of the knee and ankle. Tall kneeling does not allow this. Closing the chain at the flexed knee leaves you 2 choices: tall spine or crouching to your heels. Curling with your heels to your butt is silly awkward, and we use this proprioception to be in a less provocative but also corrective position.

And I probably could have just said yes, but I like explaining how the blueprints to the house are made.

Thank you again for reading, sir.

I’m almost embarrassed to be thanked when it is such a privilege to even be able to stop by here and avail myself of what you so generously post. Chalk another one up to my observation that some of the absolute best always seem to be the most humble and gracious ones out there.

p.s. I like blueprints, and since it’s no exaggeration to say that 1 percent of what you know may be more than I ever know, I am happy as can be to take it all in.

Thanks again for the feedback. It is beyond appreciated.

Hi, Mr. Weingroff. As Don noted above, it is a true privilege to be able to stop by your website, so let me pass on due praise and thanks to you before I as a question related to your answer above.

The point you made about performing those curls from a kneeling position seems like one of those subtle things that appears so simple that it is easy to appreciate what an impact it can have.

My question is whether a strict focus on keeping the glutes squeezed while in standing, and not allowing any of that slack you spoke of to occur, is almost on par with the kneeling position, or if it is going to be a case of apples to oranges. I don’t go crazy with curls, but I still perform a small volume of one sort or another on a regular basis, and I always focus on bracing my midsection and squeezing my glutes as if trying to crack a walnut (sorry for the image, hah, hah). Between that and always trying to crush the implement I am using, I have always felt strong in this movement, even while remaining very upright and strict with the movement.

Now while I have used a tall kneeling position for various things, particularly anti-rotation cable exercises, I had never tried curling from that position. Basically this was my very long-winded way of asking if exhibiting a very upright posture and not allowing for any hip and knee flexion, nor any lumbar hyperextension is roughly on par with performing the movement from a kneeling position.

I almost feel silly writing so much simply to ask you a curling question, so hopefully you’re not laughing too hard at me right now 😉

Thanks again for taking time out to read my question.

Arthur – You can accomplish pelvic stability in regular stance, but for folks with limitations, the flexed knee adds another level of safeguard. The flexed knee creates passive insufficiency in the rectus femoris since it is flexed @ the knee and with a strong glute contraction, it is trying to extend @ the hip. This “feel” is the proprioceptive input we are looking for to cue for the tall spine.
DB Curls really aren’t the issue; you can do any upper body move in this position.

As far as your cuing, I am good with the grip, and I am good with the glutes. But I would prefer you not aggressively contract the abs. This can lead to what is called a high threshold strategy where you use your outer core (rectus abdominus, obliques, erectors, etc.) when in cases they aren’t needed, and the inner core is needed.
Think golf. You swing wildly and powerfully, yet there is no vicious abdominal contraction. This is what we are looking for, so when there is a huge load, the outer core is there when you need it.

Thanks for the heads up, Charlie. Duly noted about being careful not to use the outer core as a high threshold strategy in a situation like that. And the gold swing analogy was a great way to drive that point home to me.

“But I would prefer you not aggressively contract the abs. This can lead to what is called a high threshold strategy where you use your outer core (rectus abdominus, obliques, erectors, etc.) when in cases they aren’t needed, and the inner core is needed.
Think golf. You swing wildly and powerfully, yet there is no vicious abdominal contraction. This is what we are looking for, so when there is a huge load, the outer core is there when you need it.”

Charlie, LOVE what you said above. Is this reasoning applicable to nearly everything/exercise that are not “high loads” (1-5RM’ish)? If so, i think the lightbulb just went off in my head regarding this whole High Threshold Strategy idea. . .