What's up, guys?
Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.COM.
Does your elbow hurt right on the inside here every single time you step up to a bar to
do a Pull Up?
I think I might know what's going on, and as a matter of fact, I can help you determine
not only how to get through a session so you can get back to doing Pull Ups the right way
without pain,
but also to maybe have a little bit more awareness of what might be causing it in the first place.
And we can actually try to fix that now, once and for all.
Elbow pain is one of the most common sources of discomfort when we lift.
The problem is that the elbow, and I've talked about it before, is what we call a consequential
joint.
So, it's sort of at the mercy of what happens above and below.
So what happens at our shoulder, what happens here at our wrist, the elbow just kind of
goes along for the ride.
Unfortunately, not having much of a say in what we do, we've got to be aware of what's
going on at the wrist and what's going on at the shoulder if we want to try to protect
the elbow.
When we do Pull Ups, it's sort of the same thing that happens with any exercise we do,
we want to get the damned thing done.
So what we do is, we cheat our way through reps even if we have to, and you've seen guys
do it all the time.
They start getting up, the first they'll do is what?
They'll try to pull a little bit more this way, and they'll try to reach their chin up,
anything they can to get themselves to appear as if they're getting their body up closer
to the bar.
And yes, doing this, will help us to get a little bit higher because we're going to use
the strength of our forearm flexors to add to the contribution of the lats so we can
get there.
And even more than that, we'll even use our finger flexors and our pronators.
Do you ever see guys kind of look like they're screwing themselves up into the bar this way?
So, they're kind of like this, and they're trying to pull their hands down even though
they're on a fixed bar.
They're twisting and pulling to see if they can get themselves up a little bit more.
The problem with all three of those moves, the flexion of the fingers, the pronation
of the wrist into the bar, the flexion of the wrist itself for the forearm flexors is
all these muscles attach right here to this little tiny bump on the inside of your elbow,
this little bony bump on the inside of your elbow.
That's a lot of tension and force that gets generated and passed onto this little tiny
bump that has to absorb all that and guess what?
It can't, and it starts to break down.
So, when you're starting to do your Pull Ups, if you first get an awareness of 'I can't
cheat.
I have to let myself use my shoulders first.'
Let the shoulders initiate the move.
Pack those shoulder blades down and in.
Remember, I talked about the shoulder contributing.
Once those are down and in, now you're going to let yourself pull the rest of the way,
but don't continue to try to cheat your reps forward by allowing all these muscles to contribute
because over time it's just not something those muscles are built for.
The lats, sure.
They can handle the job.
Your little tiny forearms?
They can't,.
And it doesn't matter if you have huge forearms, they still can't maintain and withstand all
that tension.
Now, if you already have this problem, what you need to do is try this little fix that
I'm going to show you right here.
Let's head up to the bar.
Ok, so if you're already suffering from this elbow pain, what you do is, you come up to
a bar.
This is one of our ATHLEAN XTREME Bands, and you wrap it around the bar.
You put one end through itself, this way so now the bar, it's wrapped around the bar.
Now, you take the two parts of the band and you overlap them.
So we're creating a thickness.
We're creating a little bit of thickness on top of the bar.
That's important because one of those muscles I talked about that had a role in actually
flexing the fingers,
and all the way from the very end and then crossing the wrist and doing this too, which
is going to be one of the primary offenders when we're trying to cheat our way through
a rep
and primary causes of aggravation to that medial elbow is something called the FDP and
flexor digitorum profundus, it's just one of the flexors of the fingers that goes all
the way deep,
attaches to that inside of that elbow right there, and can cause some problems.
If we put this band, and then rest our last 3 fingers here,
so our little finger, ring finger and middle finger, on top of here, and just sort of rest
them and get them out of the way,
then we grip the bar with the last 2 fingers here, our forefinger and thumb.
The forefinger also is controlled by that same muscle, but it has a separate muscle
belly.
So, it tends to sort of avoid some of the aggravation that happens from the last 3.
So, you get those last 3 out of the equation, you put just those other 2 fingers on the
bar,
and then you do your Pull Up.
And what happens is, these other ones are now going for the ride.
They're not necessarily contributing to all that force that gets directed into the inside
of your elbow.
So now, when I come up, if I have elbow pain I find that I have far less because I'm not
really at all contributing with those 3 fingers.
They're just going along for the ride resting on top of that little lip that we created.
These 2 fingers are doing most of the work almost as a hook.
So, give this one a try if you're already dealing with some of that inside elbow pain,
and I'm telling you, you're going to feel a difference.
And guys, the thing about joint pain is, you don't have to train with it.
You see, if you train smart, you can get around some of the issues that might be causing you
to feel
as if it's something you're going to have to deal with all the time.
Joint pain is something that debilitates every recreational lifter at some point in their
lives
whether it be their shoulder, whether it be their knees, whether it be their elbows, And
as a matter of fact, it's very, very common obviously in my realm with professional athletes.
We've created ATHLEAN-RX MECHAN-X, which is our Joint Recovery Formula for that one very
reason.
Right now it's being used by some of the best teams in Major League Baseball,
the New York Yankees, the Saint Louis Cardinals, both first place teams, guys, it's used to
help these guys make sure they can stay on the field and
do the things they need to to cause a winning season.
Well, you guys may not be trying shoot for a winning season,
but you're trying to be healthy so you can set new records in the gym, feel healthy,
get bigger, be stronger, you can't do that if pain getting in the way.
No pain equals more gains, guys.
If you can keep yourself pain-free, you're way ahead of the game.
ATHLEAN-RX MECHAN-X, we have that ATHLEANX,COM, and in the meantime, if you like these joint
mechanic videos and ways around common joint injuries, just let me know.
As a Physical Therapist, guys, this is my job.
I'm happy to put these videos up here and help you to work around some of the things
you might be dealing with.
Let me know in the comments below, and in the meantime, I'll be back here again in just
a couple days with another new video.
See ya.