Joe Weider's Bodybuilding Training System Tape 10 - Training Safe & Smart
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00In building your muscles, you have to stress them, but you have to stress them successfully
00:13so that you don't create any injuries and hold back your training.
00:18That's why it's important for you to pay careful attention to what my champions tell you.
00:31In reference to training aids, it's very important what type of clothing you're wearing,
00:35and that depends on the type of training you're doing and also the temperature of the room.
00:39If it's very hot, you may want to wear looser-fitting clothing.
00:43You don't want to sweat too much if you don't want to lose too much body weight.
00:46Another problem is if the room is very, very cold and you want to keep your body warm,
00:51you may want to layer clothing, one layer on top of the other.
00:55The inner layer would be used to sort of wick the sweat away.
00:58You see, you get cold and chilled when you get fluid on top of the skin
01:03and cold air comes and rushes underneath.
01:06So by layering clothing, you wick the cold water away from the body
01:10and it's absorbed into the various layers of clothing.
01:13The inside, you may want to be a cotton to help wick away the cold water.
01:18The type of clothing that someone would wear when they were training,
01:21it also depends on the type of exercises or the body parts that they happen to be training.
01:25If you're training your upper body, it's important that you have the clothing loose enough
01:29so that you're getting the appropriate and full range of motion.
01:32You don't want your clothing to restrict the range of motion.
01:35This could contribute towards a potential injury or a muscle tear.
01:39You want to have control over your body and not endure any restrictions.
01:44If you're going to be training your lower body,
01:46the type of clothing you're wearing is also very important.
01:49Some athletes tend to wear very, very tight lower garments when they're training,
01:53for instance, doing squats or leg extensions and so on.
01:56This may restrict the proper biomechanics of your training techniques.
02:00You want to be in control of the biomechanics of your movements
02:04and not have your clothing or outer garments restrict the particular biomechanics of the motion that you're going through.
02:11In terms of the type of shoes someone should wear for the proper stability and balance in training,
02:17if they're going to do weight training, they want to have a pretty solid, strong sole.
02:21If they're going to be doing endurance training where they're going to be running
02:24and there will be a large amount of ballistic forces, force vectors as their foot plants on the ground,
02:30it's very important that they have a shoe that will absorb a lot of those shock vectors.
02:35If you're going to be doing long-distance endurance training where you're having these ballistic force vectors,
02:40you maybe want to have a little more width on the shoe as well as thickness in the sole to absorb the shock vectors.
02:45If you're going to be doing straight lifting, you want the base of the shoe to be a little bit more stable and harder.
02:50You don't want it to be loose to where it can sort of swivel side to side.
02:54This can contribute to an inversion or eversion injury of the ankle.
02:57Now, realize, when your ankle bends over, you're not going to be able to do a lot of weight training.
03:03Now, realize, when your ankle bends over, so will your knee.
03:06And that's how these knee injuries occur.
03:08You keep an unstable base in the lower foot and that will translate right up to the kneecap and right up to the pelvis and then to the low back.
03:16And this is how injuries come about.
03:26A weight belt basically supports your low back.
03:29And the reason people use it is low back pain and low back injury.
03:32And low back weakness is probably one of the most common injuries we see in weight training athletes as well as the general population.
03:39I use the belt when I train, especially doing heavy squats or bent over rows for the back.
03:46I think that's very important to give you that support.
03:49Then in some exercises, it may be a little bit restricting, like doing cable rows.
03:55So I don't use it until I know that it's not something I can control and I don't worry about it.
04:01Now, the reason for the weight belt is what you're doing is you're adding additional stability to what we call the core of the body.
04:07The core is your torso.
04:09One of the things athletes have to remember is the core, your abdominus rectus, your erector spinae, all the muscles that surround your body are called your core.
04:18That is where the stable power in your body lies.
04:21So what you do with the weight belt is that you're actually adding an additional layer of power and strength to that core.
04:27I wear a weight belt while training just about at every exercise.
04:31I do it because it gives me more of a feeling of stability because I'm not allowing all the pressure on my lower back.
04:38Using a weight belt, it kind of restricts all that pressure from just bursting onto that one area because you're using your abdominal muscles to push against the weight belt and you're keeping your spine in line.
04:50However, it is better to train without a weight belt unless you actually need it.
04:54Because when you use a weight belt, you're supporting the muscles and they are not being trained during that exercise.
05:00What also occurs is you're now changing the biomechanics of your body slightly.
05:05And now when you train without a weight belt, you're not accessing that additional stability and the curvature in your spine and stability in the pelvis is slightly different.
05:13You may not be ready for this.
05:15And then injury can occur due to that lack of stability you're used to having when you have the weight belt.
05:21You should consider wearing a weight belt when you're doing stiff leg deadlifts to take some of the pressure off the low back and stabilize it.
05:28You may consider using a weight belt when you're doing squats in order to stabilize a low back, especially if you have a weak low back area.
05:36Of course, in heavy squats, deadlifts, or even in heavy curls and presses, I use a training belt.
05:43And I like the training belt that goes around, that is soft on the side, and you make it tight when you're doing the set.
05:49Then when you're done, you loosen it, you breathe deep, tighten it to the next set.
05:55So that's a very important part.
06:04You may want to consider using wrist straps if you do have a weakness in the wrists.
06:08But it is important to still train your wrists.
06:11With certain motions, you may begin to experience pain in the wrist.
06:15And sometimes wrist straps can help to stabilize the wrist joint and prevent further injury.
06:21Anytime you have an instability in the joint or you have a previous injury and you want to prevent an acute or minor injury from turning into a chronic one, you may want to support it with some type of strap.
06:31For instance, wrist straps are used to help stabilize the wrist, especially in motions when you're going into what we call hyperextension where the wrist bends backward.
06:40This can occur in a bench press, in an overhead press, whether you're using a straight bar or dumbbells.
06:45The only basic training aid that I use is usually straps.
06:49On occasion, I'll wear a weightlifting belt, but straps primarily because I have a very weak grip.
06:54And on pulling exercises and curling exercises, that has a tendency to take the emphasis off my wrists and off my hands.
07:02I use wraps because my grip isn't as strong sometimes.
07:06You get to that last, those last couple of repetitions in a set and it really does assist you and, you know, it's like an extra, it's like a cheat.
07:15So it helps. You need that sometimes.
07:24The knee is one of the most commonly injured joints in the body.
07:27And with knee wraps, you tend to get some additional stability.
07:30You have cartilage and ligaments within the knee joint.
07:33It's very important to protect them and prevent injury.
07:36Once you get even a slight injury in the knee, you're more set up for more advanced injury in the knee.
07:42One of the most common exercises knee wraps are employed in is a squat.
07:54Next to the knee, the elbow is probably one of the most commonly injured joints in the body.
07:59The reason being is people may tend to extend too quickly or too hard or use too much weight in a fast, jerky type of motion.
08:06This causes the elbow joint to snap to its full open position and may cause some tendonitis in that joint as well as some calcium deposits or tendon injury.
08:16One of the most common exercises or series of exercises elbow wraps are used for is any type of motion where you're going through flexion and extension.
08:24This can be curls, bench press, overhead press.
08:27Any type of motion that will open and close this joint will tend to contribute to injury in that joint.
08:33And thereby, wraps are many times used to help stabilize this joint when it becomes weakened.
08:50Many bodybuilders like to train wearing workout gloves.
08:53There are two basic advantages to this.
08:55For one, gloves protect the hands.
08:58Working with heavy knurled bars day in and day out can really tear up the skin of the hands and fingers.
09:04If your hands get too sore, it's very difficult to concentrate on getting the most out of your workouts.
09:12But another and even more important reason is that gloves allow you to get a better grip.
09:17Pieces of iron like dumbbells, barbells or chinning bars can be very slippery, especially when your hands are sweating.
09:24And the better your grip, the more intensely and safely you can train.
09:40One of the worst mistakes a bodybuilder can make is training too heavy.
09:44When you try to work with too much weight, it's impossible to do the exercises correctly or effectively.
09:50You may be training hard, but you won't get the kind of results you expect.
09:54Not only that, but subjecting your muscles to weights they aren't prepared to handle substantially increases your risk of training injury.
10:03I'm not interested in trying to impress other people in the gym by training with very heavy weight or weight that I really cannot control.
10:13I don't go in the gym throwing heavy weights around.
10:15You see a lot of guys, they go in the gym, they just start piling weights on the bar.
10:19They grunt and they groan and they're banging out reps or whatever they're doing.
10:23I don't do that. Weight doesn't impress me.
10:25I go in the gym to improve my physique.
10:27So I always use a weight that I can handle.
10:30If what's heavy for me is life for somebody else, so be it.
10:34But as long as I'm getting the feeling out of it, I know I'm at my limit and I don't push it past that limit.
10:39I start with a lighter weight and do a few high rep sets and make sure the muscle is warmed up properly.
10:45And also, getting that blood flow seems to make me stronger.
10:49So when I do go up in weight, it's a lot easier for me.
10:52When you go into a gymnasium, it will be a very great temptation to lift as much weight as the other fellow or the other lady with whom you're working out.
11:00Remember, it's extremely important to lift weights relative to your own strength levels.
11:06Not to try to prove yourself in a gymnasium in the sense that you're stronger than the next fellow.
11:11The important part here is that you use proper form and work to get the burn that you can achieve given your own strength levels.
11:18If you do that, you'll have a much better chance of staying around the gymnasium for a lot longer as the years pass and building the sort of body you want to build.
11:27The person who's not familiar with body balance or coordination is often the person who first picks a weight up.
11:39I remember the very first time I lifted weights when I was about 10 or 11 years old.
11:42What do we all do? We overtrain.
11:44We injure the muscle. We create too much mass too quickly.
11:48The next day we can't even comb our hair, right?
11:50Some athletes say, well, I'm just not putting on the muscle size.
11:52How often are you training?
11:53Three hours a day.
11:54How many days a week?
11:55Seven days a week.
11:56They're not allowing their body the rest time it needs for that muscle tissue to grow back together stronger.
12:02They're in a constant state of breakdown, a constant state of catabolism.
12:06They're not allowing the body to rejuvenate itself.
12:09They need to ease back.
12:11If they're training very intensely with weights, they really can't train more than an hour or so with the proper type of training techniques.
12:17The muscles will exhaust themselves.
12:20They just won't be able to keep going, and they will end up in this constant breakdown phase, not allowing for proper growth.
12:27It's great to be enthusiastic, especially for the younger bodybuilders.
12:30It's great to get in the gym, be enthusiastic, and then only do what your mind and your body can handle.
12:38Don't do more.
12:39Beginners have one thing in common.
12:42They all are very enthusiastic, and they go in like a bottle of fire, and they want to do everything all at once as much weight as they can.
12:49They see other people, and they want to be right there right then.
12:52It takes years to reshape your body and form it into a good muscular body.
12:59In fact, you really don't reach maturity until you're about 27, 28 years old.
13:03The muscle and joint systems may become weakened from this constant overtraining.
13:08Tendonitis, tears to the muscle and tissue can also occur from this constant bombardment of stimuli
13:15without allowing the downtime for the muscle tissue to rejuvenate and go through the proper growth phases.
13:28Warming up before you train is an important factor in getting the most out of your workouts.
13:32Light pre-workout exercise literally warms up the muscles involved, as well as the associated tendons, ligaments, and joints,
13:39raises their internal temperature so that they are much better prepared to deal with the stress of heavy training.
13:45And this kind of warm-up activity also brings additional blood supply to the areas involved,
13:50so that your muscles will have all the nutrients and oxygen they need to support the intense contractions of serious bodybuilding training.
13:57One particular warm-up is general warm-up.
14:00It means that you increase the overall level of body temperature.
14:04This can be done in a variety of ways.
14:07You can ride a stationary bike if you like.
14:09You might also choose to run.
14:11Or, indeed, you might engage in vigorous aerobic activity before coming into the gymnasium.
14:17This is particularly important if you live in a cold climate,
14:20and you're going to take a workout coming directly from the cold into the gymnasium.
14:25You see people coming to the gym all the time, and they'll immediately throw themselves into a weight workout with no warm-up whatsoever.
14:31So, the logic is not there.
14:34What we need to do is warm up the muscle and the tendons enough so that we can go into the workout
14:40and begin working in with lighter weights and progressively add resistance, progressive resistance,
14:46until that resistance grows greater and the muscles are worked efficiently.
14:51Bodybuilders most often warm up simply by doing light repetitions of the exercises they plan to do in that day's workout.
15:05For example, a set or two of light benches, rows, or squats performed before loading up the bar for serious training.
15:11The advantage of this is that the warm-up becomes very specific.
15:15The specific muscles, tendons, joints, and ligaments involved in the exercises
15:19are prepared to perform very specific movements and deal with specific types and angles of stress.
15:27Therefore, when bodybuilders explain that they do, say, five sets of barbell shoulder presses as part of their delt workout,
15:34if this is one of the first exercises they're doing for that particular body part,
15:38they may actually do six, seven, or even eight sets total.
15:41Those first sets are done as warm-up sets with very little weight.
15:45The bodybuilders don't count these warm-up sets as part of their overall set total, but they are very important nonetheless.
15:51Warm-up sets allow you to work through a full range of motion, to stretch as well as warm up the muscles, tendons, joints, and ligaments involved,
15:59and to concentrate on form, to find the groove of the exercise so that each movement is performed and executed as effectively as possible.
16:09If you go in the gym thinking that you can lift the world, that's one thing.
16:13But if you don't use a safe approach, warm up thoroughly, stretch properly, and progressively add weight to each set,
16:19then you're inviting injury to set in.
16:22So I train very cautiously because I know that it could all end tomorrow with a torn bicep or a torn pec.
16:39Many bodybuilders go through a program of stretching as part of their pre-workout warm-up, especially before a lower body workout.
16:46Muscles like her quadriceps and the hamstrings are extremely powerful, and it's easy for them to become tight between workouts.
16:53Taking time to stretch these muscles before a workout not only increases the effectiveness of your training,
16:59but it also can substantially reduce your chances of incurring a training injury.
17:03They also frequently stretch the muscles involved in a workout between sets.
17:07For example, grasping the ankle and bending the leg back to stretch the quads,
17:12or pulling against something to stretch and extend the lat muscles of the back.
17:16Most bodybuilders increase upper body flexibility by doing light sets of an exercise
17:21and deliberately working through as long a range of motion as possible,
17:25holding momentarily at the position of full contraction and again at full extension.
17:30Stretching movement should be done smoothly and gently,
17:33because any jerking motion sets off what is called the stretch reflex,
17:37a mechanism in the body that causes the muscles to contract against your attempts to stretch them
17:42as a way of protecting themselves from being overstretched.
17:45Avoid this by stretching slowly, smoothly, and giving the muscle time to relax and respond.
17:51I'm a big believer in stretching. I think that's very important.
17:56Beginning of my workout, I stretch. I don't stretch a lot to the extreme.
18:00I just stretch a little, warm up. I'll even warm up with a bar.
18:05What stretching also does for me is it's giving me more separation in the muscle when I stretch,
18:13and no injuries. So I really believe in stretching.
18:17I think it's an important part of weight training.
18:20There are a lot of approaches to stretching.
18:22Some people like to partner stretch where they have somebody pushing them forward.
18:25This can be quite dangerous because you may have a tendency to go beyond the joint ranges of motion
18:30and tear tissue, muscle, and even joint and ligament.
18:33Very, very dangerous to do this.
18:35Important with stretching to go through that range of motion slow and easy
18:39without that bouncing or leaning forward type of maneuver.
18:44In order to do your training in the most effective and intense manner possible,
18:48it's important to be sure you stay properly grounded,
18:51that is balanced in a secure, stable position before doing the movement.
18:55To correctly perform any exercise, you should first assume the appropriate stance.
19:00You should be stabilized, positioned securely, and on balance
19:03so that you can handle heavy weights in the groove
19:06and give full concentration to the movement.
19:09Look around next time you're in the gym.
19:11See how many individuals are off balance when they do their sets,
19:14how awkward and unstable they look when performing certain exercises.
19:18This need for stability is why a lot of exercise machines use belts
19:22to hold you securely in place while doing a movement.
19:25This allows you to concentrate fully on the muscles being trained
19:28rather than on trying to maintain your balance.
19:31All weight training, however, must be done in a balanced manner.
19:36All weight training, however, boils down to one basic principle.
19:40If you don't have proper balance, you create injury.
19:44Therefore, when we're looking at the weight trainer, the bodybuilder, if you will,
19:48but the athlete, the person who's competing every day,
19:51the baseball player, the football player, soccer player, rugby player, you name it,
19:55you have to have proper posture, and posture correct posture starts with the feet.
19:58And if you don't stabilize your posture from below your knees,
20:01you're going to be compensating for foot instability.
20:03That foot instability creates further back problems and further neck problems.
20:06So, again, proper weight training, specifically for the beginner,
20:10starts with proper organization of posture, proper movement.
20:13Take your shoes and socks off. Look at your feet.
20:16If your arches are flat, if your arches roll in, that's called pronation.
20:19If your feet roll out, that's called supination.
20:21If you flare one foot out, that's called external rotation.
20:24We want proper and efficient balance in everything.
20:26And if you start the beginner off properly,
20:30if he's even 15 years old, 18 years old, or 12 years old,
20:33the point is to start with balance.
20:36Weight training should start comfortably and efficiently.
20:40You should not have a lot of joint soreness.
20:42You should start it off repetitively enough, however,
20:44that you feel like you're working your body and you feel good about it.
20:47There are two aspects of body posture which are very important also
20:51to the notion of preventing body injury.
20:53The first of these has to do with the particular stance.
20:57When you plant your feet, plant them in a way that's solid from the ground all the way up.
21:01And, in fact, concentrate in tensing your body from the ground up
21:05as you pick up your weight.
21:07The second point is that when you're lifting your weight,
21:10there should be a basic balance between the way in which the body is moved
21:14from the front to the back.
21:16So if you're doing a cheat curl, for example,
21:18too much sway will shift the arc of balance in such a way
21:22that it makes you vulnerable to back injury.
21:25So balance in the sense of moderation, respect of any particular movement,
21:30is a key factor in preventing injury.
21:33And it's important to bear that in mind whenever you exercise.
21:37Proper biomechanics of lifting and training are very important.
21:40We must pay attention to the biomechanics of the head positioning, first of all,
21:44because the head is the center of balance in the body,
21:47and as you move your head, it changes the biomechanics of the entire spine,
21:50pelvis, and so on.
21:52One of the other problems with training is that people must pay attention
21:55to their joint structure function.
21:57They have a tendency to go beyond what is normal joint range of motion.
22:02For instance, when they're doing cross-lateral flies on a bench,
22:05they should not go beyond 180 degrees and their arms are directly outstretched.
22:09Sometimes athletes have a tendency to go even much further beyond that
22:13180-degree line, and they tear the tissue at the pec-deck area.
22:18And you see a lot of athletes with stretch marks across this area
22:21from tearing the tissue, not only because they may have grown too quickly,
22:25but because they've gone through a phase of tearing tissue,
22:28going beyond the normal physiologic ranges of motion.
22:32It is really key when you're training to have a spotter,
22:35because so many times somebody's on a bench and they have too much weight
22:38and they get stuck with a bar on their chest.
22:42The Ideal Bodybuilding Physique
22:47The ideal bodybuilding physique is characterized by balance and proportion,
22:52and so is the ideal bodybuilding workout.
22:55Total training means you need to work your entire body,
22:58not just your favorite muscles.
23:00Unbalanced training, working certain muscles too much and neglecting others,
23:03not only leads to the development of a disproportionate physique,
23:07it causes some muscles to overpower others,
23:10increasing the risk of training injury.
23:20Another important point to remember if you want to avoid injury
23:23is that visualization techniques and full focus techniques are extremely important.
23:28A visualization technique means that when you come into a gym
23:32and you're doing a particular exercise,
23:34that you focus very intensely on the exercise you're doing.
23:38You form it in a methodical and strict manner.
23:41Visualize the result you want to achieve,
23:44but keep your attention on the movement of the weight
23:46to be sure that in doing it,
23:48that you do not go beyond the points that are safe in the range of motion of the exercise.
23:54So if you're doing a curl, for example,
23:56that you don't sway your back too intensely.
23:58And if you're doing a triceps press,
24:00that you don't allow the bar to jam down on your elbows
24:04and thereby injure the elbow area.
24:06Similarly on a squat, when you squat down,
24:09you should come to the bottom very gently,
24:12not bounce from the bottom position.
24:14Remember, the idea is not simply to go up and down,
24:18but rather to feel the exercise all the way down and all the way up.
24:22When you do that, you've got two reps for every one.
24:26Many bodybuilders who are just beginning
24:28will tend to throw a weight up and then let it come down as fast as they can.
24:32The important part here is to visualize the motion
24:35and tense the arms as you're coming up as well as coming down.
24:39That way, you always have two reps for one.
24:42100% mental focus is essential to training safely.
24:46You know, of course, the WIDER system emphasizes muscular development.
24:50That's what we want.
24:51We want to make as many gains as possible.
24:53We want to put on quality muscle.
24:55But within these parameters,
24:58okay, we're going to train safely.
25:00And that starts by focusing 100% on what you're doing.
25:04Putting the mind into the muscle.
25:06If you don't feel good, if you can't concentrate on what you're doing,
25:10then there's more of a chance of injury.
25:12You're not concentrating on the weight.
25:14You know, you may pull off a weight and there's another plate in front of it
25:18and you're not thinking and you pull that weight off onto your foot.
25:22So it is important to definitely be there mentally.
25:25That's when injuries usually occur.
25:27I have to concentrate.
25:28If there's any distraction in the background,
25:31you know, people coming up to me,
25:33I have to stop and say, you know,
25:35I'm training and we'll talk later when I'm finished.
25:40Remember that an intensive workout is a very serious business,
25:43and therefore you should treat it with the serious consideration it deserves.
25:55There are two kinds of trauma, microtrauma and macrotrauma.
25:58Everybody knows macrotrauma.
26:00That's like getting hit by a Mack truck.
26:02Once you get smacked, you're down.
26:04However, microtrauma is really a cumulative mechanical stress.
26:07That's, for instance, how do you lift weights, not just the load of weights.
26:11And often if your posture's bad, we call it pathomechanic or stress-bearing posture.
26:17You can create injuries.
26:18For instance, if all I'm doing is working my biceps instead of my triceps
26:22and my chest flexors instead of my upper back extensors,
26:25I may develop my posture into a squatting posture.
26:28No matter how much you build or how much larger you want to get,
26:32you might actually be injuring yourself just because your posture's bad.
26:35So everything that we do in sports science is really built around one word,
26:39and that word is balance, good coordinated physics.
26:42We want distribution of weight in the front of your body,
26:46the back of your body, the sides of each part of your body.
26:50And not only that, but obviously we want you to work your lower body
26:53as much as you do your upper body.
26:55The weekend warrior, the weekend athlete often screws their body up
26:58just because they go out and they work their upper body and forget about the lower body.
27:01I've never had injuries myself.
27:03I think the reason why is because my form's been really, really strict.
27:07I started with the basics, real light, and I've improved, worked up over the years.
27:13And I'm confident now mentally.
27:15I know I can, you know, what kind of weight I can handle.
27:19Probably the most important thing you can do while training to help prevent injuries
27:23is just train smart.
27:25The person that goes the heaviest isn't always the best bodybuilder.
27:28Doing heavy weight is important, but if you can't do the heavy weight with proper form,
27:33you're wasting your time, and most likely you will end up with an injury.
27:37The majority of injuries take place because of sloppy exercise technique.
27:41So what we need to do is we need to look towards making the exercises as perfect as possible.
27:47Post-Exercise Muscle Soreness
27:52Post-exercise muscle soreness is the result of microtrauma,
27:56that is, microscopic injuries to the tissues involved.
27:59Although soreness is the result of damage, it's not really classified as injury.
28:04In fact, it's one good way of being certain your workouts have been sufficiently intense.
28:08However, when soreness becomes so acute that you can't do your next workout,
28:13it's time to back off and reduce your training intensity
28:16until your body is more fully adapted to the stresses of your workouts.
28:20I know when to stop if I have a minor injury because if you're in contact with your physique
28:28and you know how you should feel when you're training,
28:31then you know that this is something that's not good.
28:36You know when a pain is a good pain and when it's a bad pain.
28:40And that's why it's important to always listen to your body.
28:44There's a big difference between post-exercise soreness and the pain of injury.
28:49Pain is a warning sign that tells you an area has been injured,
28:53that you need to avoid that activity and allow the part of the body involved to recover.
28:58You can work through soreness, but trying to work through the pain of injury is a mistake.
29:03With an injury, if you feel any pain at all during the exercise, you've gone too far.
29:08When you ignore this warning sign, you risk re-injury, more severe injury, or chronic injury.
29:14Minor injuries are going to happen.
29:16And I think that the only way that you can circumvent them or work your way around them is by backing off.
29:24A minor injury can become a major injury so long as you continue to beat it to death.
29:29I take time off. Massages are good. Heating rubs are good. Ice packs.
29:34Things like that will take away the immediate pain, but you've also got to back off a little bit. That's all.
29:39If you have soreness or inflammation, you should back off 10%.
29:42Now, that means if you hurt your Achilles tendon, if you hurt your tendon in your knee, your shoulder, your biceps, your neck, your back, any part of your body,
29:49if you have soreness or pain, you back off 10%.
29:53But you still do the full motion of the activity.
29:56And you do that for three days, by the way, for a three-day period.
30:00If anywhere along that three-day period you still can't do the activity without soreness or pain, you back off another 10%.
30:06But you still maintain full range of motion and activity.
30:09If it still hurts, you still have range of motion, then you back off another 10% or a total of 30%, you stop all activity.
30:16You stop the activity and go see a doctor.
30:19I've never been seriously injured.
30:21But I think that that is possibly due to the fact that I've always been conscious of that.
30:26And I have always taken time to warm up properly and to ice down joints and such that were swollen or painful.
30:34And also I've been very, very careful to listen to my body using the instinctive principle and backing off if I feel that there is a potential injury in sight.
30:45Everything's internal about my feel, what's going on inside of my body.
30:50If I'm pulling something a little too far, I know it.
30:55An acute injury can result from a trauma such as a blow or a cut from a sudden stretching or twisting force or from the cumulative effects of overwork.
31:04However, chronic injury is the result of long-term abuse of the body, injuries made worse over time rather than being treated and resolved.
31:13And these are not so easily dealt with.
31:15Chronic injuries are persistent long-term problems that can sometimes prevent you from ever training at your full capacity.
31:22And they should be avoided by adequately treating acute injuries whenever they occur.
31:30Another important aspect of injury prevention is knowing when, in fact, you're injured.
31:35Many bodybuilders who are competitors need, unfortunately, to work past their injuries or around them.
31:41Some bodybuilders in doing this move from having simply a minor injury to a major one.
31:47If you're a beginning bodybuilder, it's particularly important that you pay attention to two aspects here.
31:53The first is that if, when you're exercising, you hear a pop or, in fact, feel a tearing sensation, desist or cease doing the exercise immediately.
32:03Then pick up an empty bar, about any weight at all, and move once again through the movement, making sure that there is no pain.
32:13If the pain persists, don't do any exercise for at least 48 hours.
32:18Come back in 48 hours and try again with simply an empty bar.
32:22If, when you're working with the empty bar, you do not feel pain, then you can gradually increase the weight on the bar.
32:28Go up by five pounds on each side.
32:31If, as you're working towards your normal limit and you're feeling no pain whatsoever, then you're pretty safe.
32:37On the other hand, if you find that you're in a situation where you are having problems and pain does persist,
32:43you should cease exercise or exercise with a weight that is not giving you pain.
32:48If you follow those two simple rules, you'll be much better prepared to work out without injury.
32:56You have to be very careful not to get injuries, because injuries become permanent if you keep injuring yourself.
33:02When you do get an injury, you should immediately stop and then have it analyzed what the injury is before you continue on.
33:10If you hear a crack or a snap or you hear something or feel something actually tear, immobilize that joint and get to the proper medical care immediately.
33:20Some injuries, when you rip a ligament, for example, make some noise.
33:24That noise, you have to pay attention.
33:26If it makes a pop, then you know, they're going to check very tough.
33:30Even if it's a muscle injury, if it swells, immediately you have to go to the doctor, because that could be something very serious.
33:38Three, if it's some kind of jamming in the joints itself, then you have to really check it and also check with the doctor.
33:46One of the problems I found in bodybuilding is the bodybuilders got so strong and so resistant to pain
33:54that accidentally I took x-rays on their lumbar and I saw fractures.
34:00And I said, wait a minute, you have a fracture in the lumbar. How did you get this?
34:04Oh, my back's been sore for months. I don't know.
34:14One of the basic principles, if an injury happens to occur, is RICE. R-I-C-E.
34:20R stands for rest, immediately rest the injury. I stands for ice.
34:24And a good way of icing it down is to just take some water, put it in a styrofoam cup, and leave that in the freezer.
34:30Then if you get an injury, you just go into the freezer, pull out the styrofoam cup, pull off the top of it,
34:35and now you have a nice styrofoam holder to rub along that muscle belly.
34:40Now, when you're icing that muscle group, you want to go along the muscle fibers.
34:44Icing will tend to decrease inflammation and decrease the swelling in the muscle.
34:48So we have rest, ice, compression. We compress down, push down on that body part that's been injured.
34:54And finally, elevation. We elevate or lift up that body part.
34:58Say, for instance, we damage our ankle. We keep our ankle higher than the rest of our body.
35:03It tends to decrease the swelling and decrease the amount of fluid accumulation
35:07that would deposit in that joint immediately following injury.
35:11When you get an injury of any kind, the first thing to do is put ice on it.
35:17No heat. It must be ice. This is a complete rule.
35:22And a lot of people put heat, then it inflames it more.
35:25Immediately following an injury, I would recommend putting an ice pack on the injury
35:30to reduce the swelling and the damage that it will do to the tissues.
35:33We want to compress to get the swelling out. We want to rest it, obviously, not to reinjure it.
35:38You want to ice it to cool it down and contract the tissue, and you want to elevate it to, again, get any swelling out of it.
35:43So compression is a support mechanism, whether it's a taping procedure or with an elastic strap
35:49or just supporting it with a towel to keep it nice and tight.
35:52But remember, elevating it above the heart is probably one of the more important ideas.
35:56Whether you're on your back or you're on your stomach,
35:59you want to try to raise the part up enough to get good circulation going.
36:02In reference to compression, you want to put mild pressure,
36:05but not so hard that you're restricting blood flow.
36:08Some people have a tendency with a bad injury to tie it so tightly
36:11that they end up with a lot of pain in that joint due to that heavy-duty compression.
36:16Rest, ice, compress, and elevate.
36:20Now, if an injury over the first 72 hours is still sore, it's still swollen,
36:25it's time now to do what's called contrast therapy.
36:28And that means that you use ice on it first, maybe 15, 20 minutes, depending on degree of severity,
36:34and then you should use hot, moist heat.
36:37And that's whether it's a hot shower or a hot bath.
36:39We usually recommend, by the way, using a hot bath with epsom salts.
36:42I like the magnesium sulfate. It draws the soreness out of the tissue.
36:45But it's contrast therapy. Ice constricts, the heat dilates,
36:49draws fresh oxygenated blood in, and you can duplicate the process.
36:52You could do 10 minutes of ice, 10 minutes of the moist heat, and repeat it immediately.
36:5710 and 10 again.
36:58But again, you want to compress and we want to elevate.
37:02Get the swelling out of the tissue as quickly as possible.
37:04If you do not have full range of motion,
37:07and we do not recommend you trying to stretch through full range of motion,
37:10we think that you should do contrast therapy, get the muscle tissue to relax,
37:14and then in the progressive stages of rehabilitation, work the joint and muscle out comfortably,
37:19the tendon or ligament out comfortably,
37:21to make sure that you're not overstretching or over-traumatizing it either.
37:25Now remember, in an acute injury that happens very quickly to you,
37:29you want to rest, and you want to give yourself sufficient rest
37:32to where that injury or that weakness that you've experienced
37:35is not going to turn from an acute rapid injury to a long-term chronic one.
37:39So give yourself enough rest.
37:41With the ice, it's important to use a lot of ice,
37:44but don't leave it on the skin so long where it starts to sunburn the skin
37:47or cause frostbite on the skin.
37:50You may want to put a towel in between the ice cubes and your skin.
37:53You may want to put some type of covering on the skin before you place the ice on it.
37:57Or you can take ice, put it in a towel, wrap it up, and rest it on that body part.
38:10The purpose for taping or supporting a joint is for protection.
38:14Often if you have injury, if you have edema, fluid, swelling,
38:18any of those reasons for, quote, pain syndromes,
38:21if you have pain in the joint, you want to protect the joint.
38:24And taping is really one of the safest ways to do that.
38:27So when you go ahead and stand up,
38:29you're going to find out that the tape works like a big spring to protect the knee.
38:32Go ahead and stand up right here.
38:37See how it bounces?
38:38Yeah, it does. It doesn't come loose either.
38:40Brand new ligaments and muscles.
38:43So it supports you, yet it gives you,
38:47and actually gives you some elasticity to the movement.
38:51Massage therapy is actually physically, manually manipulating
38:55muscle, ligament, and tendons mechanically.
38:58In other words, the therapist is doing it themselves to the patient.
39:01One of the greatest benefits is real simple, just increased circulation.
39:05The manual person, the doctor, the therapist,
39:08whoever's doing the massage therapy themselves,
39:10can get into ligament, muscle, tendon,
39:13try to stretch out those tight spots,
39:15which no matter what kind of therapy you seem to do
39:17or what kind of stretching you seem to do,
39:19you never quite can get it.
39:21And this is where the subjectivity of the patient
39:23talking and explaining to the therapist
39:26where they feel it is the most important.
39:28But the greatest benefit for general massage overall
39:31is just, again, simple increased oxygenation of tissue.
39:35Home massage can be a wonderful thing if you know what you're doing.
39:38If you don't know what you're doing,
39:39you may be creating further and greater injury.
39:41For instance, if you have a contusion, hematoma,
39:43some swelling in the tissue,
39:45and you try to massage it out,
39:47you might be goofing up and massaging it in
39:49and creating further micro-tears of the muscle fiber.
39:52You should simply be careful, not overdo it.
39:54In fact, if you can't rest it, ice it, compress it, and elevate it,
39:58you really need to see a specialist.
40:00Go to your family doctor.
40:01The best thing I can say is to, you know, slow down
40:04and learn the techniques of how to live properly
40:07right from the beginning so that you don't develop bad habits.
40:10You know, right from the onset, you can feel really good.
40:13You know, right from the onset, you can feel really good training habits
40:16and have a long, healthy, prosperous career
40:20in training and lifting weights and conditioning.
40:23So when you're young, you get these injuries and you work on
40:26and you have them all the time.
40:28You've got to let them rest and heal.
40:30So hopefully, what you can do at home
40:32is simply look at the literature,
40:34understand the proper movements,
40:36don't do too much.
40:37It's better in the beginning to do enough stretching,
40:40warming up, warming down before and after you lift weights
40:43and making sure that the joints are warmed up efficiently
40:46before you train.
40:48This trophy represents the dream of every bodybuilder.
40:53And every bodybuilder who has won this trophy
40:57in the Joe Weider Miss Olympia event
41:00proves to the world that he is the best bodybuilder of the year.
41:04The exact identical techniques and principles
41:07that these champions use to develop their body
41:10to win this trophy is in your hands now.
41:13It is up to you to apply yourself,
41:16put these techniques into action,
41:19put guts behind them, work them hard,
41:22and you too will develop a body you can be proud of.
41:26The shape, the full deltoids, the pecs, the abs, I want it all.
41:29I want the thighs, I want the calves, I want the tight glutes.
41:32You give me a man who's tight and fit and firm and hard
41:37and you've got probably Adonis, but it's attainable.
41:42And I think every man would probably want that for himself.
41:45I know every woman would want it for herself.
41:47The future of bodybuilding is very exciting
41:49because now people of all ages
41:51are now involved in resistance and weight training.
41:5360 years old is not old anymore.
41:55We have people in their 70s and 80 years old
41:58who look like they're 30.
42:00Physical fitness, I mean, it not only makes you strong physically,
42:04but it makes you strong mentally.
42:06Outside the gym, you take that same philosophy with you,
42:09and whether it's in schoolwork or it's in business
42:12or it's in relationships, you realize that there are no limits
42:15and you make, you get from it what you put into it.
42:18Get off your big butt. Get into the gym.