Tag Archives: Al Myers

Taking Care of Your Back – Part 3

Part 3 – Have Strong Abs

by Al Myers

Training the abdominal muscles is often overlooked by weightlifters.  Bodybuilders usually go overboard with ab training because they are in search of the perfect 6-pack.  Us weightlifters are just as happy having a perfect keg instead. I learned in college during a physiology course that opposing muscle groups should be of comparable strength in order  to prevent injury due to muscle imbalances.  That hit home for me in my training.  It is easy to overlook less important muscle groups because they don’t seem to be “the  major players” needed in a certain lift.  Think about this, and I’m going to use Powerlifters as my example. Are most Powerlifters upper back as strong as their pec and front shoulder muscles?  Are their hamstrings as strong as their front quad muscles? And are their abs as strong as their back?  I would say usually not because the first muscle groups is not directly involved in the strength of the three powerlifts as the second muscle groups,  with the result over time leading to muscles strength imbalances,  setting up the possibility of injuries.

I’m a real believer in ab training in order to keep your back healthy.  I also believe the abdominal muscles should be trained like any other muscle group.  Too many lifters make the mistake of thinking the ab muscles are different somehow. These lifters  will do sit-ups or crunches EVERYDAY, and wonder why they are not getting stronger or building more abdominal muscles.  They will train with repetitions in the 100’s on these movements and wonder why it isn’t working.  Would these same lifters even THINK training the squat or deadlift like that would improve their strength??  I train my abs once per week – and train them hard and with low to moderate reps, just like any other exercise.  I do sets and rest between the sets like any other muscle group.  I like variety in training the abs, and have over 25 exercise that I will train (not in the SAME workout) in a random fashion.  I also pick ab exercises that don’t put undo stress on my lower back on my Thursday workout, as that would defeat the purpose of this “active recovery” day for my back.  When I was training for the 1000 pound Roman Chair Sit-up that I did a couple of years ago it was not on this day!  It was on one of my back days. This would also apply to other All-Round ab lifts  like the Roman Chair Bench Press.  I have my ab exercises grouped into three categories – light, moderate, and heavy.  I do one exercise from each group, starting with the light ab exercise first, then the moderate ab exercise,  and finally the heavy ab exercise.  I try to spend 20 minutes per exercise, so my entire ab workout can be accomplished in 1 hour per week.  My abs are always sore the next day after this workout.  I don’t do more than 10 reps per set on any exercise.

Al Myers performing a Front Ab Raise with a dumbbell on a Stability Ball.

One of my favorite ab exercises is an exercise I have called the Front Ab Raise on the Stability Ball.  OK – I admit I have one of those silly stability balls in my gym that have been popularized by Health Clubs across the country!  At first, I thought those balls seemed like they wouldn’t be of any value to a Hard-Core lifter like myself, but I always like to “test things out” before I form an opinion.  I found that using a Stability Ball with this exercise will put a heavy strain on the abdominal muscles and at the SAME time put no stress on my lower back.  I have a couple of other ab exercises I train using the Stability Ball – the Allen Lift (bar extended at arms’ length)  and the Abdominal Raise (bar behind my neck), but the Front Ab Raise is my favorite.   My advice for the heavy lifter is to buy the strongest Stab Ball you can find, and plan to replace it every 6 months.  The plastic will degrade with time and weaken the ball.  The forces I put on a Stability Ball is probably more than someone using it for general fitness  (often supporting myself at 250# and dumbbells over 100#s).   I have not had one “pop” on me yet, as I’m sure this amount of weight exceeds the ball’s rating,  but I always replace the Stab Ball if it is worn in any way.

Coming tomorrow – Part 4, Reverse Hyperextensions

Taking Care of Your Back – Part 2

Part 2 – Be Sure To Limber Up

by Al Myers

I initially was going to title this part Stretching.  But that didn’t define it the way I wanted it to.  Stretching to me means doing movements  like touching your toes or light calisthenics.  I next thought I would title this part Flexibility, as that could result from many things, including stretching.  This still didn’t fit the message I wanted to convey. I finally (with much deep thought!) decided  to use the expression  “Be Sure to Limber Up”, because that fits exactly what the first part of my Thursday workouts are all about.

Al Myers suspended by bands to stretch out and limber up the back and hips.

As for my opinion on stretching, I believe a little is necessary but to much is harmful in developing maximum strength.  I know this is a BOLD statement, and there are probably many lifters who would disagree with me on this. Bill Clark once told a training partner of mine Mark Mitchell, when Mark trained at Clark’s Gym several years ago, that stretching the muscles in excess is like repeatedly stretching a rubber band – eventually it will SNAP.  I couldn’t agree more.  I have always been prone to hamstring pulls, and through the early years of my training  I did about everything to safeguard against this injury, including aggressive hamstring stretching.  Sure I got more flexible – but it didn’t solve my  problem of enduring hamstring injuries.  Being able to place your hands flat on the floor with the legs straight is beyond what is needed to be a competitive lifter (unless you are in training for the Mansfield Lift!).  Excessive flexibility, beyond what is required in doing a specific lift,  doesn’t help in being strong in that lift. In fact,  having just enough flexibility to “remain tight” in the bottom portion of a lift will enhance your strength in a lift. Think about the squat – do you WANT to be tight and ready to recoil when you break the legal depth?  I sure do.  This reminds me of a story my brother-in-law Bob Burtzloff once told me that re-enforces my opinion on this.  Many years ago Bob experimented with training the Bench Press using a cambered bench press bar (also known as a McDonald Bar). It allows the lifter to increase the range of motion on the bench press, with the hands going lower than the chest when the cambered portion of the bar touches the chest. Bob first thought training through this INCREASED range of motion would increase his Bench Press.  It did the opposite and made his Bench Press go down.  When he went back to a regular bar he didn’t feel the tightness in his chest and shoulder muscles when at the bottom position.

However, stretching is still part of my Thursday workout. I think you need a balance in flexibility to optimize your lifting abilities.  On the other hand, I have seen lifters who were so in-flexible that they couldn’t even properly perform some of the All-Round Lifts that require flexibility.  In these cases, spending a little time stretching would help their performance.

Chad Ullom performing a stretch with the Jump Stretch Bands that Dick Hartzell called "the rack". Chad is completely suspended off the floor and his back is being "stretched" by band tension.

For me, two days after a heavy back workout is when my legs and back are the most sore.  I start off this workout with some cardio, which usually includes  time on my recumbent exercise bike.  This “loosens up”  those bound-up leg muscles and hips, along with giving me some needed cardiovascular fitness.  After getting a good sweat going, I’ll proceed to wind down with some stretching.  Nothing fancy here – just 20 minutes of whatever stretches I feel like doing at the time. Next I’ll proceed to the “bread and butter” exercise that limbers up my back – Suspended Band Stretching.  I learned this “secret exercise” several years ago at the 2003 USAWA National Championships in Youngstown, Ohio. This meet was hosted at the Jump Stretch training facility, the birthplace of the Jump Stretch Bands.  Known as “the rubberband man”, Dick Hartzell showed several of us after the meet a very unique use of the Jump Stretch bands that I had never seen before.  It involved using the bands to decompress the vertebrae of the back by using band tension. Once I got home I immediately purchased a pair of the Big Black Monster Bands from Jump Stretch so I could replicate this movement  in my gym.  I wouldn’t really call it stretching.  But I’ll tell you, 15 minutes of hanging by the hips with these bands attached your back will be fully “limbered up”.  Any pain from tight muscles in your back will be gone.

More of this workout and the story “Taking Care of Your Back” tomorrow with – Part 3, Have Strong Abs

Taking Care of Your Back – Part 1

by Al Myers

Mike McBride, the Best Lifter at the 2005 USAWA National Championships, performing a Deadlift with Heels Together with over 600 pounds. This All-Round variation of the deadlift increases the stress placed upon the back compared to a traditional deadlift.

Recently, I was contacted by an all-round lifter who asked my advice in dealing with persistent back pain caused from his training.  I’m not going to give his name out here, but he is one of the strongest current All-Rounders in the World and is capable of deadlifting over 700 pounds.  This says quite a bit about his overall back strength, as we all know All-Rounders have many exercises to train and can’t be deadlift specialists, like powerlifters.  He obviously knows how to train very hard to reach this level of performance.  This is just the way it is with All-Round Weightlifting – it is about being all a round strong, not just in specific lifts.  After reading his description of his training, it was obvious to me that he was over-training his back, which can be very easy to do. We have close to 200 lifts to prepare for at any given time, with about 75% of them requiring back strength to accomplish.  I once found myself in this same “over-training trap” as he is when I switched my competition focus to the All-Rounds from Powerlifting.  I still wanted to train like a powerlifter, but just decided to add in extra training for the All-Round lifts.  Combining this extra training volume on my back, in addition to being older, I quickly reached a state of over-training.  I don’t mind my back being a little sore after a hard back workout, but when it is constantly sore the entire week, and affecting my other training, I knew it was time to re-evaluate my training routine and make some changes.

Lots is written about HOW to train your back to make you stronger, but very little is written about how to TAKE CARE OF YOUR BACK  so you don’t sustain a back injury from your heavy training.  I consider this very important.  I have a history of back problems in my family.  My dad and grandfather both had back surgeries for herniated discs.  One of my brothers has issues with chronic back pain.   I know most health issues are linked genetically – and with this family history I am probably more at risk than others to have a “bad back”.   You can find all kind of information about how physical therapists rehab a person after back surgery, or exercises for the non-weightlifter to strengthen their back in suffering from back pain.  However, these things don’t really apply to a weightlifter who wants to be able to at least have one VERY HEAVY back training session per week, and recover fully so it can be repeated the next week. I am going to revel some of my “secrets” that I have learned through the years that have helped me keep my back strong, and preventing  injuries.  I not going to discuss ways of making your back stronger. The things I am going to discuss are all about recovery, things that help you be back to full strength for your next heavy back workout.  I am willing to bet that most lifters do NOTHING in this regard, outside of maybe just some “light stretching”.  That is not enough.  I have discussed these things with my friend Thom Van Vleck in the past, who also believes in this,  and he termed the expression calling these workouts “active recovery” workouts.  I plan to do a 4-Part story on my Thursday workout, which is geared completely to maintaining a healthy back.

The first change in my training philosophy  when I became an All-Rounder was realizing that I have to be careful not to train the back in every workout.  I ONLY train exercises that put ANY strain on my lower back TWICE per week to give adequate time for back recovery.  I am sure this training frequency is different for every lifter, but that is what works best for me.  Now you got to remember – exercises like doing Push Presses or Jerks constitute as a back exercises.  Doing 1 arm full body exercises, like the One Arm Snatch,  puts demands on the back, even though the demands are not like deadlifting.  These exercises need to be trained on one of these “back days”.  Training the upper back also puts demands on the lower back. Even common All-Round upper body lifts like the Pullover and Push or a Clean and Press put pressure on the back.  So you can see where I’m going with this, it doesn’t leave too many exercises available for the other training days during the week!   My back day workouts are Tuesday and Saturday.  I like this schedule because if I have a small meet coming up on the weekend, I can just substitute my Saturday workout for the meet and it doesn’t interrupt my training.  It also spaces my “back days” out evenly – 3 and 4 days.  I do my active recovery back workout on Thursday – two days after my heaviest back workout of the week.  The sole purpose of this workout is to get my back  ready to lift heavy again on Saturday. The details of this workout of mine is what I’m going to highlight over the next three USAWA Daily News segments.

Coming tomorrow – Taking Care of Your Back  Part 2 – Be Sure To Limber Up

Definition of a Clean

by Al Myers

Longtime USAWA veteran Jim Malloy properly demonstrates how to "catch" a Clean.

The Clean is a lift that is not contested by itself in the USAWA as an Official Lift, but is a big part of several other lifts.  Lifts like the Clean and Press, Clean and Seated Press, Clean and Push Press, and the Clean and Press – 2 Dumbbells are very common lifts contested in the USAWA.  We (the USAWA) define a Clean differently than what is commonly referred to as a  “Clean” in gyms all over the country.   The USAWA Rulebook clearly outlines the Rules for the Clean:

The bar will be placed on the platform, in front of the lifter’s feet. The lifter will grip the bar with the palms of the hands facing the lifter, and then in one single and continuous movement lift the bar to the chest. The lifter may choose any width of hand spacing. The lift begins at the lifter’s discretion. The lifter may drop under the bar as it goes to the chest, using a squat-style catch in which the legs are bent, or a split-style catch in which the legs split. The lifter may also choose to drop only slightly, using a power-style catch. The bar may touch the lifter’s thighs and body during the lift. The bar must come to rest on the clavicles or on the chest above the pectoral muscle in a smooth continuous movement with arms bent. The feet may move during the lift. The elbows and the upper arms must not touch the knees or legs during the lift or it will be a disqualification. No other part of the body other than the feet may touch the platform during the lift. The lifter will recover and stand when ready, from the squat or split position, to an upright standing position. The legs must be straight with the feet parallel and in line with the torso. Once in this position with the bar motionless and under control, the clean portion of the lift is finished.

As you can see from this Rule Description  the bar must go from “the floor to the chest” in one motion.  Also,  you can not support the bar on the body during a Clean as that is a violation, as outlined in the General Rules of the Lifts in the USAWA Rulebook. Section IX.3 states, “Neither the body nor the equipment may support a weight in any manner during a lift.” Of course if the Individual Rules of a Lift state exceptions then they over-ride General Rules.  This is the case with this lift, The Continental to Chest, which in some ways is similar to a Clean.  The beginning and end of the Clean and the  Continental to Chest is the same – it is just what happens in between that is different!   This is where the confusion arises.  Continental is even defined in the USAWA Rulebook in the Glossary.  It states, “Continental – This means that the lift may be done in any manner, with minimal restrictions.  The bar may stop, be lowered, be supported by the body, or be lifted unevenly. The hands do not need to stay on the bar and any grip may be used.” In other words – ANYTHING GOES!!

So, a lift from the platform can be called either a Clean or a Continental.  It can not be called BOTH!  And please don’t use the terminology “Continental Clean” to describe a lift  – that is a misnomer due to  being a conflict of description between  both words. The USAWA has adopted the “modern day” rules of the Clean.  Look back in history and you will see the Rules of the Clean were more difficult than what we use now.  The word Clean, was first used because it applied to the bar being taken to the shoulders clean, or clear, of the body.  In other words – no touching of the legs on the way up!!  How many proficient Olympic Lifters do you see keeping the bar “away” from the body?  NONE!! Our Rules of the Clean allow the bar to touch the legs or body without it being a rules infraction.

When the USAWA Rulebook was updated last year, several of the lift names changed to better reflect how the lifts were performed.  In example, the “Two Hands Standing Press” was changed to the “Clean and Press”.  The new updated Rulebook (the 4th Edition which will be released  the first of August) will have some added rule descriptions as it applies to a Dumbbell Clean.  This will be added, “Both dumbbells must be cleaned at the same time and in one motion from the platform to the shoulders. It is an infraction to clean the dumbbells from the hang position”.  THAT is the way it has always SUPPOSED to have been but I wonder how many times, because it wasn’t laid out clearly in the Rulebook, this rule of the clean has been  violated.  I’m willing to bet that several records have been recorded in the USAWA Record List where the dumbbell/or dumbbells were taken to the shoulders using a Hang Clean.  Here is an example that I am sure even some “seasoned officials” have been confused on.  Both are one arm dumbbell lifts in which the dumbbell needs to be taken to the shoulder first in order to perform the lift.  What is the difference in taking the dumbbell to the shoulder between the “Clean and Jerk – Dumbbell, One Arm” and the “Press – Dumbbell, One Arm”?  You should now know this if you have been reading and following what I have described above.  In the first lift the dumbbell needs to be Cleaned correctly, while in the second lift the dumbbell can be taken to the shoulder in any manner, even using BOTH HANDS. Our previous Rulebooks called these two lifts the “One Hand Clean and Jerk with Dumbbell” and the “One Hand Dumbbell Press”.  It would be easy to see how the name “One Hand Dumbbell Press” could imply that ONLY ONE  HAND must be used throughout, which is not the case.

Our Rulebook is far from being perfect.  However, it is far better written now than before.  If we continue to update and correct it every year with issues like this  brought up during the year, it will only get better.

New Lift – Bent Over Row

by Al Myers

Al Myers training the Bent Over Row.

Another new lift that was approved at the 2010 National Meeting by the membership was the Bent Over Row.  This lift was proposed by John McKean of the Ambridge VFW Barbell Club.  The Bent Over Row  is an ole’ fashioned training exercise that has been part of training programs for years – but NOW is an official USAWA lift so it can now be done in competition and contested for records.  I was glad to see John propose rules for it that are consistent with how the lift is usually done in training.  The Bent Over Row is a tremendous upper back exercise.  John had this to say about the Bent Over Row when he proposed it as a lift to the USAWA, “This lift uses a combination of legs, hips and back.  It is a true all-round movement! This is an absolutely GREAT exercise certainly deserving its due as a very heavy weight, total body, competition lift.”

We do not have a lift even similar to the Bent Over Row in our extensive list of Official Lifts. I like to see lifts like this get approved – lifts which are basic movements and not just some “trick lift”, “gimmick lift”,  or a lift with a slight deviation of another official  lift (which isn’t really anything new).

The Rules for the Bent Over Row

The lift will start at the lifter’s discretion with the bar placed on the platform in front of the lifter. The lifter will grip the bar with an overhand grip with the palms of the hands facing the lifter. The width of grip spacing and feet placement is of the lifter’s choosing, but the feet must be in line with the bar. The body must be in a bent over position at the waist. The upper body must not straighten past 45 degrees parallel to the platform at any time during the lift or it is a disqualification. The legs may be bent during the lift and upon the completion of the lift. The bar is lifted to touch the abdomen or torso by bending the arms. The bar must touch the abdomen higher than the belt, or the navel if a belt is not worn. It is a disqualification if the belt supports the bar at the abdomen upon the finish of the lift. The lift ends by an official’s command when the bar is held motionless at the abdomen or chest.

I will definitely be doing the Bent Over Row at the Ledaig Record Day this weekend, and hope to be the FIRST one to set an official USAWA Record with it.  The Bent Over Row will be included in the updated USAWA Rulebook which will be available the first of August.

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