Do sweat the small Stuff
It pays to sweat the small stuff—
You know the saying, “don’t sweat the small stuff”?
It’s generally good advice…when it comes to strength training, however— in my experience—not sweating the small stuff can lead to significant imbalances and big problems.
Specifically, I refer to those oft-neglected small muscle groups, the muscles that most trainees don’t know about or consider. I’ve come here to say that I’ve seen a lot of injuries that could have been avoided if the trainee had paid more attention.
(That being said, it probably doesn’t matter as much if you’re a sedentary non-athlete.)
If you are involved in competitive sports, or other physical activities requiring performance, strengthening, and balancing, training these seemingly minor, overlooked areas of the body, can help prevent unnecessary injuries or common overuse.
An obvious example is the lower legs; many trainees religiously work the calf muscles, yet rarely attend to the shins, and the tops of the feet —the muscles that dorsiflex the foot.
Keep in mind that if you work any given joint in one action, then it makes sense to work it equally in the opposing action.
Some joints, like the neck, have many action: extension, flexion, lateral flexion, and rotation, but if you hit flexion and extension, all the muscles are adequately addressed and therefore all functions will strengthen.
Back to the the lower legs: well-developed shin muscles are important in many sports, and especially so in my own chosen activity of Brazilian jujitsu.
People have begun to realize the relevance of developing the shin muscles and dorsiflexion, and now there are machines and devices to work the tibio-dorsiflexion movement.
In truth, you need neither machine nor device to achieve a great training effect on the muscles of the shins and tops of feet. I find that using the timed static contraction (TSC) method, I can train the front of the shins without muss nor fuss.
Sit, or stand, and lift the forefoot from the floor
Contract the shins, with heels remaining on floor
Simultaneously spreading (abducting) the toes
This motion stretches the calves at the same time, which is what provides the resistance to contracting the shin muscles—no external weight required.
Believe me, you: utilizing the ramping effort of TSC, at the end of 90-seconds, your shins will be well-toasted!
Another generally-neglected area I observe in conventional strength training: wrist and elbow problems from over-gripping.
In the grappling arts—in martial arts in general—you continually grasp or make a tight fist for punching.
Other grip-intensive sports are rock climbing, gymnastics, weightlifting, and—aside from sport —activities like manual labor.
When you think about it, we humans often use our hands to grip, grab, and hold items, and if this tendency is not balanced by compensatory opposite movement, overuse conditions. can develop. I have suffered from this myself, before I discovered a good antidote.
The simplest, most practical antidote I know, I learned many years ago from a rock climber who came into my former gym and showed me rubber band finger-extensions. This is a simple exercise wherein you place a common rubber band around the tips of the fingers, then open wide the fingers, while simultaneously extending the wrist.
Later, I discovered that some businesses make special devices for opening and extending the fingers; still, you need no bands or other specialized equipment for extending the fingers and wrist, just extend with enthusiasm into air.
As I discovered with my shins, merely opening the fingers wide, and extending the wrist and fingers to your utmost ability— that is, to the furthest range of motion you have— you can exact a severe load upon said muscles, using the TSC timing method.
Again and again, I’ve worked with judo and jiu jitsu players, who’ve suffered from chronic elbow, wrist, and finger issues, which completely clear up within a few weeks of focusing on this basic extension exercise.
The last area I will address— and one which surprisingly few people train— are the muscles of the neck and jaw.
I cannot overstate the importance of a strong neck.
All the nerves from the brain, to every part of the body, pass through the neck.
Yet, in the average person’s body, the neck will be one of the weakest areas. If you ever review whiplash statistics— and the neck and and back pain resulting from automobile accidents—you might sensibly conclude that anyone who drives a car— or rides as a passenger— should be training the neck.
Absolutely anyone who participates in contact sports—of any type—needs to train the neck —and keep it strong.
I, myself, suffered a horrific injury in high school wrestling, when I was thrown bodily, off the mat, upon a hardwood floor, landing on the head and neck.
I sustained a subluxation, fracture, and dislocation of cervical vertebrae 3 and 4. I was placed in cervical traction for one month, then, for the next three months, in a body cast—in lieu of surgery to fuse the vertebrae, which my mother, bless her heart, categorically refused.
At the time, I was told by the medical orthopedist, that it was a miracle I had escaped total paralysis.
In the material world, the miracle may have sprung from my strict observance of a neck-training routine—ever since I was a youngster wrestler in junior high.
The point is, that while I had sustained an awful neck and spine injury, another young man, with an unstrengthened neck, could have met a far worse fate.
I had zealously trained the neck prior to the accident, but afterward, I became a neck training fanatic.
In those days, I did a lot of training with various and sundry neck devices, including, a neck harness, and a homemade neck helmet, fashioned from a football helmet, to which weights could be attached.
Later, during my college wrestling career—and afterward—I had access to a Nautilus 4-way neck machine, then later, a HammerStrength neck machine.
But still, all of the above devices are unnecessary to achieve a superior neck workout—nor need you work many planes of motion in neck movement.
I currently use timed static contraction and isometrics, with only two movements: rear neck extension and front neck flexion.
These two movements address all of the neck muscles, making it unnecessary to do other movements for rotation (twisting) or lateral flexion.
Caveat: any kind of rubber band accessory is absolutely disadvised for neck work, as the strength curve of the rubber band is opposite of the strength curve of the neck muscles. That said! A rubber band could be used isometrically. That said! I don’t use rubber bands for neck work because if the anchor point slips, you can lose an eye—it’s happened.
Fancy equipment is both unnecessary and complicated—and for no good reason.
I recommend starting each workout by getting the calves done first, pre-fatiguing them doesn’t seem to interfere with anything else, then finish with grip and neck work; you don’t want to work out with a fatigued neck, and obviously, a compromised grip will compromise your overall training.
Check out Demo videos Here!
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1gRc9fBwkTfVS5MhFE89ufGp1ewA6RHmZ
