Well I found out I have mild scolosis a few years ago, around 22 degrees. After a year I came back to the doctor, and it not only wasn't worse, but even a few degrees less, although the doctor said it could have been an error as it's only a difference of a few degrees. Anyway, back has never bothered me normally or during sports or lifting. Also at the time though I hadn't even step foot in a gym and didn't even know what a deadlift even is so I have never asked him or just the normal doctor either.

1. Also I have never used a belt. I don't know if/when I need one, some people deadlift 225 or more with a belt, others don't use a belt at 405 so I don't know whether I need one or not? Actually speaking of belts, weighted dips and weighted pull ups are getting really akward to do with dumbbells...maybe I need a dip belt (like the belt with chains that you can put plates on)? If so not sure where to get it and also wondering how you carry it around because carrying chains and stuff all the time I would think would be inconvient?

2. Also today I just thought of the idea to film my squat and deadlift, and I think I see a big problem (aside from what you said about glutes being weak) in the squat, which I never noticed nor has anyone else, I have a butt wink which starts right as I go below parallel. What should I do? Coincidentally my friend has the exact same problem and it also happens right as he gets to parallel and goes below that.

Also deadlift seems like form is very good but there's two things I am not sure about:

3. Is it normal to feel your back after a set of deadlifts for like a minute or two (not pain but just feel it a lot)? It goes away before my next set but just wondering if it's normal or a sign that there's to much pressure put on the back, but if it is, I am not sure why because my form seems good. My back/lower back is never sore/hurts after a workout, pretty much the only muscle which ever gets sore is my hamstrings.

4. Also how do you avoid hitting the knees when lowering the bar down? The bar bangs into my knees sometimes and it's a bit annoying?

5.

a) Lastly there's something recently I noticed with barbell curls. I'm at 70lb right now, and after a few reps I start to feel a little pain in the pinky side of my wrist on my left hand. This never happened until recently, and actually when I warmed up with the bar (45lb) this doesn't happen, it also isn't like every time it's a bit inconsistent. Why is this happening and what should I do, I know of course you can use the Ez-bar or dumbbells but that's just a way to avoid the problem, how do you get your wrists to not bother you during barbell curls?

b) Also I've never payed much attention to this, but only after bicep curls, when I put the weight down right after I let go of the bar I feel a sharp pain for 2-3 seconds in the wrist and then it's gone. It never happens with any other exercise (even front squat which requires a lot more wrist flexibility), and it nevered happened during a set, just happens the moment I let go of the bar after a set?

Thanks for all the help!

1. Judge whether you need one or not by how you feel at certain weights. If you can lift 225lbs and feel safe without a belt, go for it. If you feel too much pressure building up, then maybe get one. They can be useful, but you only want to use one when you actually need it.. and don't use a dip belt. Get a proper lifting belt.

2. You might just need to work on mobility a little bit. Watch the video below.

3. That's normal yeah. Your lower back will be engaged and working to an extent, and as long as it's not in pain that's fine (and as long as there is no spinal flexion while deadlifting).

4. You just have to lower the bar opposite to how you bring it up - doesn't need to be super slow or anything, but try to repeat the same movement pattern (you shouldn't hit your knees on the way up, so shouldn't hit them on the way down).

5a. It's really hard to say. Could just be the way you are gripping the bar. But I had a bit of wrist pain too when I started lifting. Use wraps if you need to for a bit, but as you get stronger the pain should go away.

5b. Don't just immediately let go of the bar. Put the weight down, and slowly release your grip. That might help.

1.

a) What do you mean by feel safe or feel pressure building up, like where would you feel the pressure?

b) Also I meant in regards to weighted dips and weighted pull ups are getting really awkward to do with dumbbells...maybe I need a dip belt (like the belt with chains that you can put plates on)? If so not sure where to get it and also wondering how you carry it around because carrying chains and stuff all the time I would think would be inconvient?

c) Also related to this, on my standing strict overhead press, at 95+ pounds my back starts to arch a bit sometimes ( I can feel my back a little when this happens). I train abs so why would I have any problem with staying tight/stable? A trainer at my new gym told me that core strength goes up overtime and that since I'm 17 it isn't well developed yet, and he suggested I do seated version when going heavy for some months/year, is this bs or legit advice? To me it doesn't make sense, I would think training abs and deadlifts/squats would improve core strength but what would you recommend in this situation? I don't want to hurt my back doing OHP but I like the standing version more than seated tbh.

2. Which video?

5.

a) Wraps would help because you think the issue is the wrist not staying completely straight during the curl? When you say as you get stronger the pain should stop, do you mean the biceps or wrists or what will get stronger? Is there anything I can do specifically to help with the mobility/strength of the wrist? I would think mobility would be fine because I can front squat now.

1a. In your lower back / core.

1b. Oh I see what you mean. You can probably find a decent one on Amazon to be honest, that will do the job. Just get yourself a bag to carry gear to the gym and it won't be inconvenient.

1c. Doing them seated will basically take your core out of the equation for stabilization. So generally you can go heavier. It's probably just something you need to practice more with your OHP. Think about squeezing your glutes super tight as well to help keep your back from arching. If you aren't training your abs already to make them stronger too, I'd suggest that you start training them directly.

2. Sorry! Video is now below lol.

5a. Wraps just help to keep everything tight and sometimes that can help, that's all. It could be that their not straight.. I don't know, I haven't seen you curl. There's nothing you can do for strength really except keep lifting heavier. As for mobility, you can do simple forward and backwards finger bends.

Thanks for the reply Scott, I think that answers a few things. So this is gonna be a really long post but hopefully this will sort out the other important things:

I will actually go see the doctor sometime in the next month just to see how my back is since I've started lifting and I'll ask about that specifically. The only thing scolosis has affacted is that my left shoulder is slightly higher than my right shoulder, since I started lifting my shoulders now are back and not rolled forward anymore and my shoulders look more even now, although the left is still higher it's not as much as it used to be. Is it possible though to get my left shoulder to not be higher than my right shoulder, the doctor at the time said there's nothing you can do about that but do you know anything about fixing that?

Honestly never noticed pressure in my core/lowerback but I will see when I deadlift next time. However, just yesterday watched this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-mhjK1z02I) and I realized perhaps I wasn't keeping my core tight correctly, I do take in the breath and hold it, however I was sucking my stomach in (which is what I thought bracing meant) however in the video the guy explained it's the exact opposite; instead he said that you are trying to push your abs out while holding the breath so actually this is maybe why my back is arching during OHP and why I feel the deadlift in the lower back a bit after some sets because I may really not be that tight because I wasn't pushing my abs out. Just trying it not even doing an exercise you can feel the difference. Also probably wasn't taking as much air in as I should have...

1. Now, regarding the video, so I'm a little confused, these two stretches Squat Position Hip Stretch (3 sets: 15-20 second hold), and Pause Squat Static Stretch (3 sets: 10-15 second hold) are you supposed to do both before every leg workout? I feel like my warmup maybe too much, if I was to do this then this is how my warmup would look like:

Warmup:

Rowing Machine 500m/treadmill 5 min

Shoulder Band Pull Aparts 2 sets of 10-12 reps

Shoulder Band Dislocator 2 sets of 10-12 reps

Alternating Toe to Hand Touch 2 sets of 12 reps

Scorpions 2 sets of 12 Reps

Dynamic Stretches warmup which I got from Buff Dude's channel:

Lateral Squats 1x20 (10 each side)
Supine Bridge (glute bridge) 1x10
Leg Swings - Side to Side 1x10 (each side) Front to Back 1x10 (each side)
Band Walks 1x10 step each direction
Ankle Mobility 1x10 (Each Ankle)

and then the two in this video:

Squat Position Hip Stretch (3 sets: 15-20 second hold)

Pause Squat Static Stretch (3 sets: 10-15 second hold)

and in addition to all this I of course do 1-2 warmup sets for Squats and Deadlifts...

This seems a bit excessive do I actually need all of this? I just don't want to waste like 20-30 minutes just warming up lol.

2. I do train abs directly (as I want the blocky look), could you tell me if this ab routine is good both for size and also to help core strength for OHP, Deadlifts, Squat etc...?

Abs/HIIT:

(I do the exercises in this order because of where everything in the gym is)

Kneeling Cable Crunches 5 sets of 8-10 reps (For size)

Facepulls 4 sets of 8-10 reps (Shoulder health, and Upper day is long as it is so I stick it in here)

Cable Wood Choppers 3 sets of 12-15 reps (Not trying to get thick obliques so higher reps)

Hanging Knee Raises with dumbbell 4 sets of 8-10 reps (also for size)

Sprints 5 sets of ~80 meters with about 1 min rest

Barbell Rollouts 4 sets of 8-10 reps (I think this really helps with stability but not sure?)

3. Next I want to ask you about Hanging Leg Raises and Ab Wheel Rollouts:

a) For hanging leg raises, so I a while ago was doing them on the captains chair, and I was getting around 15 so I switched to hanging knee raises, those got easy, however I still can't do straight leg raises even though I can do a lot of reps with hanging knee raises. Do I just have to build up to 30lb or something on knee raises to have the stength to do straight leg or what do I need to do?

b) Also in terms of the actual form, some people say that you should not allow your feet to come behind you and to at the bottom keep them out slightly in front and not to disengage abs at the bottom because then the exercise turns more into a hip flexor exercise?

c) For barbell rollouts, how would you suggest to progress with this exercise, I know doing it standing is harder, but it is extemely hard and I couldn't do even 1 right now, so how could you progress it? Unlike the ab wheel you can put on any weight you want so by adding weight to the bar will it make it progressivly more difficult and at some point I should be able to do the standing version?

4. I saw that new video that you did at AT&T headquarters and at some point you were talking about tennis elbow. My left elbow is always a bit red, and I am not sure why, my elbows do pop occasionally but during exercises it only happened a few times when I first started doing dips because I at that time flared elbows out a bit too much, however I'm not sure why it's always red and why it's only on my left elbow not the right elbow too?

5. And lastly regarding the bicep curls, so I can't tell for sure but I might towards the top of the curl be curling my wrist up a bit, it's not happening a lot, but perhaps when trying to get the last couple reps I start compensating a bit. Should I grip the bar harder or looser to prevent this? Or should I just ask someone to check when I'm doing a set and see if I am doing that at all?

With your shoulder, you would need to figure out if it's a bone asymmertry, or if it's muscle tightness that's causing one to side higher than the other. Go and see a physical/sports massage therapist if you can and they can probably figure out which one it is and potentially help you fix it (it's it's a muscle tightness/postural issue).

Yeah bracing means taking in a breath, then flexing your abs as hard as you can, making that abdominal wall solid. Have you seen this video I made about it too?

1. Your warm-up should probably be anywhere between 10-20 minutes (including warm-up sets). To be honest you probably can't really do too much warming up, as long as you're not going to failure and pre-fatiguing anything. You just have to consider that you're warming up EVERYTHING. You have shoulders, hips, lower back and legs in there so it will take a bit of time. If you're doing all of that though, you maybe don't need the 5 minutes on the rower. If you take that out, the other exercises shouldn't take any more than 15 minutes probably.

2. That routine looks pretty solid. If you are working on core strength, doing some planks might help as well if you want to add those in somewhere!

3a. Yeah you probably need a bit more training with the knees to work up to the straight leg raises. At this stage, do as many raises as you can with straight legs and just aim to do more and more each week!

3b. Yes you should try to keep your hips forward and only use the abs. Sometimes when I do them I will kind of swing with momentum, but I have been training long enough that I know how to do them quickly but still engage the abs. If you need to, make sure you come to a stop at the bottom so you always engage your abs to bring your legs up.

3c. Start on your knees and just keep working on doing more reps and/or more weight. Eventually you will get stronger!

4. If it's red it could be that you are leaning on it somehow which makes it go red. Honestly I'm not sure on that one.. if it's not painful it might not be a problem. But if it is painful, maybe go and get it checked out.

5. Grip it as hard as you can and just think about keeping it straight all the time. Eventually it will become second nature and you won't have to think about it.

I can't see physical therapist but I would think it's a muscle tightness issue because If I think about it I can lower the shoulder to where it should be, if it was a bone asymtrey then wouldn't it be impossible to lower it just by thinking about it? It's just the moment I don't pay attention to it, it will go back up.

I saw the video but I didn't realize that you meant to push the abs out in order to make them solid. Anyway can't wait to try this tommorow on Bench, Weighted Pull Ups, OHP, etc...!

1.Ok, and you are saying I should do those 2 stretches from the video BEFORE the leg workout right? So just 2x a week before each leg workout?

2. As for Planks, so I used to do planks waayy back when I first started but they were easy. However the planks in your ATP video were a lot harder. So I should do it that way right? Also should I just work up to 1 min and then add weight? How many sets like 4-5 at the end of my ab workout?

3. For some reason I can't do a single rep of hanging straight leg raise without some momentum, I don't know how but a while ago I somehow did like 7 reps of toe to bar which is even harder...don't know how I did it haha.

a) How much knee bend is allowed, or should your legs be literally a straight line?

b) Also, what position are your shoulders supposed to be in, are you just in a dead hang position when doing the exercise or do you retract your shoulders down and back, and keep them there for the whole time until you finish a set?

4. I think you are right, literally as I was reading your post I was leaning on my left elbow lol.

Hey Scott I think the curl is good, today when I focused on gripping the bar really hard my wrists stayed straight and didn't bother me at all! Even when letting go of the bar rather than feeling a sharp pain for a few seconds like usual I barely felt anything. So yeah I think that must've been the issue.

Oh and I applied the breathing today on OHP, my back was much better, wasn't arching like crazy like it was before. Only thing is I felt really tight when i take in the breath, unrack, do my first rep, when I reset my breath at the bottom I didn't feel quite as tight but I guess it just takes practice.

Yeah could be a tightness issue then. It might be a matter of learning to control it.. might even need to do some scapula control exercises if that's what it is. Start digging around with your hands, a foam roller or a lacrose ball or something to see if you can find some tightness yourself if you can't see a PT.

1. Yes they are a great warm-up before a leg workout!

2. Yes you can do it the same way as in the APT video. Adding weight is a great way to progress. But honeslty 1 minute isn't long.. I would try working up to more like 2 miniutes minimum before adding weight. 2-3 holds at 2 minutes or 4-5 at 1 minute would be great core training!

3. Just keep working at it and get those abs stronger!

3a. Knees can be slightly bent About as much as your elbows would be bent when doing flys. Hope that makes sense.

3b. Basically very slight retraction. Really whatever feels comfortable and whatever allows you to focus all of your energy on your abs.

4. Lol.

And that's great about the curls and the OHP. Getting that tightness will take practice. Remember, take in the breath, then flex everything as hard as you can.

Any videos on how to do that stuff, honestly never used a foam roller, ball, or anything like that. Do you think Scapular Pull Ups as suggested in Jermey Either's back video would help? Never done them but what you said reminded me of that exercise. And to fix this how often would you do that or what you were suggesting?

Also that guy Brian (made the breathing and bracing video), he said that on OHP if you are doing 5 or less reps to just hold your breath in to stay super tight, and he said if going for 6 or more to do 5 on one breath and for remaining reps to reset breath at the top instead of ressetting breath at the bottom of the OHP? Isn't this the opposite of what you said? However maybe it's easier to reset at the top...

Also I have a general question, why does your program and most other ones have you change the program after a month or specific amount of time, and when it changes, you change all of the exercises?

It seems like for me that for a while all my excercises with go up (which can be for way longer than a month) and then at some point 1 or a few might get stuck but others don't? So would it make more sense that if let's say my bench increases, OHP increases, but weighted pull up get's stuck, to keep bench and OHP the same but just switch weighted pull up with chin up or lat pulldown, or more generally switch the exercise I am stuck in with something similair?

Also would you switch the exercise up like if let's say for 3 workouts in a row neither weight nor reps went up or after how many workouts in a row neither weight nor reps goes up?

Doing them every day for a while is probably a good idea. I haven't seen the video so can't comment, but it might help. Also there are some exercises you can do with bands - simple band pull-aparts are good. Another one would be lie face down (on the floor or on your bed), and while keeping your chest, shoulders and body on the floor or on your bed, simply pull your arms backwards to activate the scapula. Hold it for 10 seconds, and repeat 5-10 times.

It depends how long you can hold your breath for. You don't want to pass out. If you need to, take a breath between each rep to reset tightness.

You don't want your body to get too used to things too quickly. You need to change your structure every 8-12 weeks as it is, so 4 weeks is just 'getting in early' if you will. Besides, if you look at the Cheat & Recover program or the 5 day split, those have the same exercises through the entire program (with C&R, there are alternatives you can use as well).

With the PPL split, you do the B workouts through MONTH 2 & 3, 8 weeks total. With the home program, you do the 1 & 2 workouts for 8 weeks each. That's the perfect amount of time before switching things up.

And if you can't progress with an exercise after 2-3 weeks, it's probably a good idea to switch it out and come back to it later.

Hey Scott no rush but wanted to make sure my post did appear because there was some wierd error I saw later after It was posted.

Hey man. Go back to the previous page of this post (page 3). I responded to your last post. If you made another one after that.. no it didn't post.

It's a good idea to copy what you have written before you post your comment, just in case something goes wrong, so you can just refresh the page and paste it.

It did appear but now it's gone..idk something weird. Anyway here it is:

1. If my whole upper workout is let's say:

Barbell Bench Press

T-bar Row

Strict OHP

Weighted Pull Up

Powerbombs (Nice name btw definetly cooler than seated dumbbell overhead tricep extension lol)

Incline Dumbbell Curl

and let's say after 8 weeks

Bench has been going up

T-bar row going up

Strict OHP stuck for 3-4 workouts in a row

Weighted Pull Up stuck for 3-4 workouts in a row

Powerbombs going up

Incline Dumbbell Curl stuck for 3-4 workouts in a row

So instead of just saying "okay it's been 8 weeks so let's change all the exercises", could i just keep doing Bench, T-bar Row, and powerbombs since my weight/reps hasn't gotten stuck yet, but switch out the exercises which I couldn't add weight/reps for 3-4 workouts in a row? So like switch it to this for example:

Barbell Bench Press

T-bar Row

*Push Press

*Weighted Chin Up

Powerbombs (Nice name btw definetly cooler than seated dumbbell overhead tricep extension lol)

*Barbell Curl

So basically I am asking is instead of changing exercises or other training variables after a fixed amount of time, just switch out any exercise only when 3-4 workouts in a row I couldn't add weight or reps but keep exercises that I am still progressing on the same? I just don't get why it would be bad to keep doing bench if it is still progressing...

2. How do you do T-bar row wide grip if you don't have the specific handle? I saw Mike doing it with a lat pull down and the neutral grip handle but I couldn't get it to work lol...it wasn't stable.

3. I was doing some squats/deadlifts next to this guy who does powerlifting so he let me try some chalk and man it really does work. I was able to deadlift 235 double overhand just using chalk, 40 pounds more than without chalk! Not like enough reps to fail but I could do it for 3-4. Anyway so he was telling me about hook grip because he used mixed grip but ended up switching to hook grip because he did get an imbalance and also he said on RDL's it really was a problem since you start to have a "helicopter effect".

a) Anyway my thought is if mixed grip is not good for Rack Pulls, rows, RDL's etc... why do it for deadlifts then?

b) Now the thing is he said that if you use hook grip it hurts for a few weeks but also it destroys some nerve in your thumb after a while, which is why the pain stops mostly? I'm just wondering if it's not damaging to thumb over time?

c) Also the one limiting thing is you can't really use hook grip for sets higher than 5 right?

d) Have you personally tried the hook grip? I'm thinking just to not risk using mixed especially since I already have a small imbalance in my back due to the minor scolosis so my idea is to use double overhand with chalk when possible, if that fails then do hook grip + chalk if doing 5 or less reps, otherwise use straps?

e) Now finally last part of this question, this older guy comes up and said he's been doing that hook grip for 27 years but switched to this version of it that this olympic weightlifting coach who Arnold was a fan of teaches. I've never heard of this before but it's basically like a hook grip with your thumb outside not underneath your fingers? Is this legit cuz never heard anyone using this before, he claims it's better because you don't end up with thumb problems?

1. Yes, you can do that for sure. No need to change if you are still making progress.

2. Probably just practice bro! It will be harder with a wider grip so you might have to go lighter to start with.

3. I just want you to understand this.. fitness isn't a one-size fits all thing. If it were, as I actually happened to say in my last video, there would be ONE book about fitness that EVERYONE would read. But there isn't. Because there are different ways to train to get results, because everyone is different.

You don't need to go looking for the exact, number one, best ever solution to get your gains.. because the best solution for someone else might not be the best for you. It's all about trial and error to find what does work for you. What I do is give you guys tips through my experiences about what I know has worked for me, so that you can try it, and see if it works for you.

I'm not saying you HAVE to do something.. I'm just giving you options to try. So in terms of the hook grip for example.. do what is comfortable for you. If you want to lift with just hook grip, great! More power to you. But I know personally, and for a lot of people, mixed grip works really well, and doesn't necessarilly lead to imbalances. So you can try it, see if you like it, and then decide if you keep it or try something else. Trial and error.

As for the stuff about it damaing your thumb.. I would say that is an issue with how the bar is being gripped. I haven't had that issue yet (touch wood). And I'd say you can use hook grip for higher than 5 reps if your grip strength is strong enough.

That last hook grip you're talking about is a monkey grip without wrapping your thumb around. It can be good to take some forearm engagement out of exercises. But it can also make things slightly harder to grip. It's legit. But again, it's something you would need to try to see if you could still lift as heavy. I suggest you DON'T use that grip on a bench press.. because you have a higher risk of the bar slipping out of your hands.

1. OK

2. No I didn't mean that it's hard I meant how do you actually set it up so that you can do t-bar with a wide grip rather than neutral grip? When I tried to put a wide grip lat pull down handle in the neutral grip handle it didn't work like in some video I saw.

3. Yeah I kind of thought that it was like one book, but since many people have a ahieved good results doing different things it's clear you're right about that. I've never seen this expression "touch wood" btw, what does it mean in this case?

a) Oh and when I asked the thing about 5 reps I didn't mean regarding grip strength I just heard this guy cailer woolam saying that it gets pretty painful if you try to use hook grip for more than 5 reps? Or maybe this is just a problem when you can deadlift over 600, Maybe below that it's not an issue?

b) So basically Monkey Grip isn't really a version of a hook grip without thumb issues? That other guy was saying it's just as strong as hook grip, he wasn't suggesting it to engage the forearms less.

4. Speaking of grip btw, your tip about gripping everything as hard as possible has helped because on Bench/OHP by gripping hard my wrists don't bend back like they used to and my grip feels much more solid!

5. Btw what is your opionon on touch n go bench vs paused? Now I know there is paused bench like 3-4 second pause but I'm not referring to that, just like 1/2-1 sec so that it isn't touch n go. Which should I use? I have been doing touch n go but today when I did a 1/2-1 sec pause my triceps felt completely fried -- like they had just worked harder than they have ever had too...