Well, hey everybody, welcome to STRONGER WEEKLY, brought to you
by Purest Nutrition. I'm your host, Jesse Carajet.
Thank you so much for being here.
We've got an awesome episode for you today.
And it has to do with safe exercises.
Look, for some reason, most of the common exercise advice that
any of us have ever heard when we're starting out comes from
people. Training for things like
powerlifting, Olympic lifting, CrossFit, etcetera.
And then it gets handed. To us, the general practitioners
of fitness, as though those are the exercises we're supposed to
do. But let's face it. 99% of us are
not training for an Olympic powerlifting event or strength
training or doing. CrossFit.
We're just busy parents, professionals, people who have
general goals to be stronger, to get fit, to run farther, to feel
better, to look. Better and so many of us never
pull up and ask ourselves should we be doing these exercises?
So what I'm going to do today with Justin Mazar as my Co host
who joins me, is we are going to countdown what I'll call 8
unnecessary exercises that are quietly wrecking your joints,
making exercise less safe and potentially reducing your
overall health span. And some of these movements are
sacred cows that I know I'm going to catch a lot of heat
for. But we're going to unpack each
of these eight exercises and then give you alternate
solutions that are just as effective for the muscles that
you're working without the added safety risk.
So hang on for that. But first, as we always do,
we're going to jump right in to our health and fitness headlines
of the week that you need to know.
Let's dive in. OK folks, your top headline of
the week if you have not heard about the Hantavirus cruise ship
story. Yet you need to.
So the Dutch expedition vessel MV Hyundai has departed
Argentina on April 1st, 2026, carrying about 150 passengers
and crew on a South Atlantic voyage.
Within just days, people on board began getting sick and as
of today there are 5 confirmed cases and three suspected, with
three people dead, a Dutch couple and a German passenger.
So the virus has been identified as the Andes strain of
hantivirus, the only strain in the world known to be capable of
spreading directly from person to person, though that
transmission is still considered rare.
And this virus is highly, highly fatal.
And here's the part that alarmed public health officials.
Approximately 30 to 40 passengers disembarked at the
remote British island of Saint Helena on April 24th, nearly two
weeks after the first death on board, with no contact tracing
performed. Those passengers have since
scattered across 12 nationalities and five U.S.
states. A Swiss passenger who
disembarked there has already tested positive.
AKLM flight attendant who briefly encountered an infected
passenger in South Africa is now being tested in isolation in
Amsterdam. The World Health Organization
weighed in. Director General Tedros said the
agency quote assesses the public health risk as low, but
acknowledged the situation requires coordinated
international tracking. So this is a highly, highly
dangerous, rare virus that was contained on this cruise and
people got off the boat and started walking around.
Pretty scary stuff. So the ship is now heading to
Spain's Canary Islands. Hantavirus is not airborne and
does not spread casually. The Andy strain requires close
personal contact for transmission.
The risk to the general public remains low, but if you traveled
on MV Honduras or had close contact with anyone, did contact
your doctor. Now the incubation period is up
to six weeks. So scary stuff.
We're tired in America and elsewhere talking about viruses,
but this one seems to be one of the biggest health and fitness
headlines of the week. Listen folks, let's talk about.
Protein, we all know how important it is and as a busy
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Describing whatever protein supplements were around with no
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High Protein Bars are for you. They belong in your bag, your
car, wherever you are on the go. So go to purestnutrition.com.
Again, that's Purest nutrition.com or click on the
link in the show description to get your Purest Nutrition high
protein bars. Next up some news on
antidepressants. So health Secretary RFK junior
made a major announcement this week that is going to affect a
lot of people and is getting very mixed response from the
medical community at a Maha institute that's make America
healthy again on Monday this past Monday Kennedy announced a
federal initiative to help Americans wean off
antidepressants specifically SSR is like Prozac, Zoloft and
Lexapro. The plan includes new new
clinical guidance for providers, training on safe tapering
protocols, and expanded insurance billing for therapy as
an alternative to medication. Over 45,000,000 Americans are
currently on antidepressants. That is a lot of folks, a number
Kennedy has called evidence of a over medicalization crisis.
That's a quote. The American Psychiatric
Association is pushing back. It's president Doctor Teresa
Miskemin Rivera called Kennedy's framing quotes and over
simplification. That quote ignores the larger
reality that too many patients cannot access timely
comprehensive care. The American Foundation for
Suicide Prevention issued a statement as well this week
stressing that SSRI is reduce suicidal behavior overall and
that quote decades of research show that judicious use of
antidepressants reduces suicide risk and quote.
But some psychiatrists are finding common ground on parts
of the plan. Doctor Vera Foyer of the child
mind to call the push for better tapering guidance and expanded
therapy quote completely reasonable, adding that too many
children are being medicated for issues that therapy alone could
address. Do I personally think some
people are over medicalized as it's put maybe some folks rush
towards prescribing prescriptions.
I absolutely do. I think this is a well intended
initiative and I'm really eager and curious to see where this
lands. Next up, more, more building
research showing that creatine is so much more than just a
meathead gym supplement. So a comprehensive new review
published this week in the Handbook of Creatine and
Creatinine in Vivo Kinetics that is a handbook by pharmaceutical
researcher Dr. Mede Briogierdi, offers the most thorough summary
yet of what creatine actually does in the body.
And the findings go well beyond the gym.
You already know it helps regenerate ATP.
If you did know that, good for you.
Which is the primary energy currency during high intensity
bursts? But the review also documents
emerging evidence that creatine supports memory, mood and
cognitive processing speed, especially in people with
naturally low baseline levels, including older adults,
vegetarians and women. Interesting.
Researchers are also actively exploring creatine's potential
role, get this in Parkinson's disease, depression and
menopause related muscle and bone loss.
Is there anyone or anything that creatine cannot help?
I don't know anymore. It's anti-inflammatory and
antioxidant properties are drawing serious clinical
interest. Across the globe.
So if you're already taking creatine, feel great about it.
If you are not yet, don't overlook the cognitive benefits
as well as. The strength benefits, it's an
amazing supplement, clinically tested, well documented, very,
very low, if any side effects. And if you're wondering about
standard dosing, a great starting point.
Starting around 5 grams a day is great for most people.
And then you kind of work yourself up.
I take about 10 grams per day. It varies from person to person,
but it's an amazing supplement. If you're not taking it yet,
give it a long hard look. Next up, this one is relevant.
If you are someone who listens to health podcast and if you're
listening to this, that is you. And this has to do with
influencers and fitness pet peeve, mind.
So Pew Research Center published a landmark study today analyzing
6828 health and Wellness influencers with at least
100,000 followers across YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.
Can we just pause for a second? Do we really need 6800 health
and Wellness influencers? My God, the headline.
Ready for this? Four in 10 US adults now get
their health information from social media, influencers or
podcast. And among adults under 50, that
number rises to 1 and 2. So 50% of US adults get their
their primary information around health and Wellness from
influencers or podcasts. And it's OK if you get it from
podcasts, especially if it's one like this.
So come on. So who are?
These influencers 41% describe themselves as some kind of
healthcare professional, be it a doctor, nurse, dietitian,
therapist, but 31%. Are coaches quote UN quote 28%
are entrepreneurs? Look.
And 16% list no credentials whatsoever in their profiles.
Nearly 2/3 of these influencers are women, though men dominate
the highest follower accounts. And the people most likely to
rely on influencers for health guidance?
Adults without health insurance? Lovely.
The population with the least access to actual doctors?
The take away? For listeners of a show like
this one? Look for specificity.
Look for proven, verifiable credentials, named studies,
cited sources, people who tell you when the evidence is strong
and when it is not. So be careful who you are
following, folks. And your last health and fitness
headline of the week? I just found this one
interesting, Did you know that? Your abs might be washing your
brain, and scientists just figured out how.
Stay with me here. So a new study from Penn State,
published last week in Nature Neuroscience, has uncovered a
mechanical link between your core muscle and your brain's
waste clearance system. Here is what they found.
Every time your abdominal muscles contract even slightly,
even just bracing before you stand up as an example, they
press on blood vessels connected to your spine.
That pressure then travels upward through a vein network
called the vertebral venous plexus.
I hope I said that right. And causes the brain to shift
gently within the skull. So your brain moves when you're
contracting your abdominal muscles.
Interesting that micro movement, researchers say, drives
cerebrospinal fluid across brain tissue, flushing out metabolic
waste, including the toxic proteins linked to Alzheimer's
disease. So lead researcher Professor
Patrick Drew of Penn State said, quote, just moving around might
serve as an important physiological mechanism
promoting your brain health. This kind of motion is so small,
it's what's generated when you walk or just contract your
abdominal muscles. It could make such a difference
for your long term brain health and quote.
And to test whether it was the abdominal pressure doing the
work and not the movement itself, researchers applied
gentle controlled pressure to the anaesthetized mice.
Pressure lower than what you feel during a blood pressure
test. The brain moved, the fluid
flowed. So the study was in mice and
more human research is needed, but the implication is very
clear. Movement, even ordinary low
intensity movement, may be protecting your brain in ways we
are only beginning to understand.
So more and more research coming out about not just the exercise
and the movement contained in those 45 to 60 minute exercise
sessions, it's that daily movement throughout the day.
We cover it a lot on this show. This is just another example of
how gentle, subtle everyday movement can be extending your
life, helping prevent disease and otherwise.
So get moving, folks. And that is it for this week's
Health and Fitness news. Justin Mazar is joins me on the
other side for the main feature of the episode.
We'll see you over there. Justin, welcome back to the
show, buddy. Jesse, how are we today, man?
I'm doing good. How's that hamstring healing up
from your baseball injury? It actually is healing.
I have hopefully another week to two before I can start actively
loading it again, but trying to do everything in my power to be
smart, which is, as we all know, a struggle for Australia over
here, especially when it comes to not moving.
I hate having to not do things that I like to do that make my
body feel good. But I also know that I'm in this
position for a reason, and now I can go back to the drawing board
and refine my recovery and outside of the gym habits that
we talked about so much here. Well, I'll tell you what, your
hamstring injury is a somewhat decent segue into the main topic
at hand here, which title to be determined, but I'm going to say
the eight exercises that are probably hurting you and you
should stop. That's a terrible title.
But basically, I'm of the mindset, Justin, that you
probably, over time, chronically working your hamstrings,
probably set yourself up for some little potential injuries,
right? And you probably got hurt
because of some underlying stuff that you didn't even know about.
But we are going to hit 8 exercises that I am suggesting
strongly, especially if you're in your 30s, approaching your
40s and older that you should move away from because there are
safer options that are just as effective.
So that's the kind of framework for this conversation.
I've done the research, I've got statistics.
So the first exercises we're going to use are going to say
aren't as important, meaning they're not as bad for your
joints and for your bodies. And we're going to work down to
like the ones that I think you absolutely should stop doing.
But I'm going to ask you this first.
I have a huge outline. It's 12 pages.
Justin, have you read anything going into this conversation?
The first paragraph. And then I saw that I wasn't
supposed to, so I listened to instructions and I backed off.
Jess. I did.
So you're going to hear this for the first time, which is exactly
what I want, and feel free to debate me, Disagree, agree, and
we'll go one by one. How's that sound?
That sounds splendid. OK, And let me let me start
here, sorry, more of a segue, but the way I went about this is
this, there's going to be some lifts on here that are bread and
butter that people absolutely. Love.
And I am not anti strength. I'm not saying that some of the
moves that I'm going to recommend not doing aren't
beneficial. But what I am saying is this is
all about specificity. If we are perfect example, if we
are not training for a competition that involves a
certain lift, then there are lifts that we should not be
doing. A lot of the strength training,
powerlifting type cleans, barbell stuff, I feel as though
my position is we all just kind of do those because that is the
norm and that's the widespread thing that people do.
But 99% of us are not training for those events in which those
athletes. Will be tested.
So in other words, this is all about aligning the exercises
with our goals and most of us just have a general fitness
goals. We want to build muscle, we want
to lose body fat, we want to increase our cardiovascular
endurance and health, right. So just to frame it up that way,
this is all built on, hey, what should most people be doing to
hit their goals? But, and this is key, prevent
injuries. Is that fair?
I think so. OK.
All right. Well, let's go into it.
So the first lift that I think is very common, I learned this
one early on, 20 years ago when I started strength training.
I never questioned it because I saw everybody doing it.
But the first one is an upright row.
An upright barbell row doesn't matter if your hands are narrow
or wide. It is bad.
And here's just a couple couple kind of stats or research behind
it. But it's an internal rotation
while elevating your shoulders, which is not natural
mechanically speaking. Physical therapist, I've done
some research on this, strongly advise against this movement
because at the peak of the movement, by lifting your elbows
up and rolling your shoulders back, you could damage your
labrum. You could damage actually, you
can strain your trap if you don't have like really, really
strict form. And it's just, it's, it
basically put your shoulders at risk if you're and and and I I
am not even clear on what muscles really it's activating.
So I think the upright row should go.
I think a good swap if you're just trying to build your
shoulders are lateral raises. Whether that's with.
Cables or with dumbbells. I think if you really want to
work your traps and we can go into shrugs.
I would even put shrugs on this list, but we're like the top 20.
I don't think they're a good move, but you could do face
poles with a rope. There's just other things in
your traps are getting activated if you're doing other key lifts
like deadlifts and we'll get into that.
But what are your thoughts on the upright row?
This one I am in full agreement with you and that it should be
kind of mixed and replaced with similar more safe and effective
exercises. Have done so many of these that
you know, it begins to become like, I feel like I just need to
do them. But once you know, you start
noticing the impingement, you start noticing form
deteriorating. I mean, we're all sitting, not
all of us, but a lot of us I'm sure sitting at desks all day
with our shoulders and posture absolutely horrible, putting
ourselves in a rounded position as is.
Then you go and try and internally rotate even more
about adding load is nothing more than I think a future
strain at the minimum. Like just said, I think lateral
raises are a undoubtedly true and effective exercise that is
much safer, is going to target the muscles you're actually
intending to target effectively, and is one that has less chance
of tearing something. By thinking you're doing
something right when in reality it is not a natural movement,
then there is much more effective alternatives that are
safer. Love it.
And you know, I think about this too, like if if we've only got
45 minutes to 60 minutes in a strength training session to
like do as much, do as much work as possible, you think about it,
do three sets of 11:50 with a 62nd rest, 92nd rest.
I mean, this is an ROI conversation, right?
Like if you're going to do something, do something has
maximum benefit, that's not going to get you injured, right?
So, all right, so you agree on the upright row.
I'm with you on that one. All right, let's move to #7 #7
is the heavy weighted walking lunge.
This could be a barbell on over your, your spine.
This could be holding heavy dumbbells, kettle bells, but a
loaded walking lunge, right? And this is where you're
literally you could. I mean, technically a walking
lunge would would imply that you're, you're moving forward.
So every step you're taking a deep step forward coming up,
moving to the next one. I would even say just doing like
a stationary walking lunge where you're just standing up, taking
a step forward, popping back up, taking the other leg, popping
the the let's count for both of those.
And the reason, and I'm just going to, I'm just going to read
this from some research that I pulled.
This is from McCurdy 2014, but. This is a quote.
Walking adds a balance and stability demand on top of
fatigue by Rep six or seven knee tracking on the back leg drive
falls apart, the knee buckles in the hip drops.
Momentum carries you to the next step before you can course
correct load plus fatigue plus balance plus momentum is the
injury cocktail and just one statistic.
Lower extremity injuries such as knee, ankle, hip make up
roughly. The 19 to 23% of weightlifting
injuries balance load failures are a leading mechanism and
that's from tongue 2024. So before we get into what
exercises to do instead, thoughts on scrapping the heavy
walking lunge? I That's a tough one.
I love lunges and walking lunges in particular, but also
understand, you know, the additional variable of adding
heavy load to that. Maybe not even just for this
exercise and this question, but for a lot of them here, this
answer will probably stay. But like, I feel like technique,
like deteriorating under fatigue is usually going to be what is
more dangerous in the exercise itself I feel.
And like in this example, you're going to fatigue a shit load
faster having all of this added load on you.
So if you are somebody who is already doing walking lunges and
is able to safely and effectively progress into adding
load to that, I would recommend doing it.
But I wouldn't do it in a way that is going to just go from
zero to 100. Like everything, progressive
overload is going to be what, you know, allows us to continue
to advance and progress and adapt to these additional, you
know, loads and variables we're adding to our training.
So to answer the question, lodges are very important, but
being careful with that additional load, especially if
your form is already sacrificed, stick the body weight in my
opinion. Yeah, no, I love the body weight
version of it and I love it especially maybe you're, it
sounds like you're closing out a workout.
But if you haven't done them in several years and there's such a
common exercise, I guess the question views why haven't you
done them? You must be doing something else
that's more effective, because you still want to grow your
quads and your glutes and your hamstrings, right?
That's true. So why have you done?
Well, I think my current leg split, well, it's been a couple
weeks now since I got hurt, but yeah, I'm usually, I mean, do we
want to go through what my typical leg day?
Well, I feel like we're going to touch on some of these exercises
in a little bit. Yeah.
We're going to hit some more lower body ones, but I think
like you're, you're very smart and experienced lifter and you
any one of your leg days you can pick up dumbbells and do some
walk in lunges, but you're not. And that tells me something.
It tells me either you don't enjoy them or you're getting the
same benefit with something else that feels safer or.
Maybe my I've been heavy on not heavy, but like big into the
unilateral leg presses. So I don't know, maybe that my
brain is automatically assuming that's going to cover the
benefits of the of The Walking lunges.
But yeah, now I want to go outside and put a barbell on my
back and do some lunges after talking about this.
Well, here's, here's some swaps that I would suggest and
probably have the same, if not greater quad glute stimulus,
except there's no balance issues and it's just safer.
And that's what this episode is about.
I would say 1 I, I would even say a reverse lunge.
So in other words, step backwards because it it takes
that forward lean in the balance of moving, you know the the risk
factor out of it and it does load your glute a little bit
more. And you could even do
alternating like step with your left, bring it back up, step
with your right. If you love lunges, you could
try that. But I would even say even
better, you could do something like a rear foot elevated split
squat. Love those.
Even a Bulgarian split squad, and we're going to talk about
Bulgarians later because there's another move that I think you're
going to disagree. That I would replace with the.
Bulgarian. But I think the motion of of
that step and lift up, I think it's valuable, it's practical,
it's functional. It's things that we do in our
everyday life. But the loaded version is where
you see all the injuries. That's my thought.
Fair thought, Sir. Fair thought.
All right, so you agree 2 for two.
Yeah, I think we're 2 for two so far.
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come at the cost of your health. This one, I'm I'm guessing
you're going to disagree with me and instead of giving you the
justification, I'm just going to say it and see what you have to
say. Number six, don't do this move a
bent over barbell row. Oh.
Come on. Man, not chess supported, just a
bent over barbell row. I'm not talking about Smith
machine. I'm not talking about I'm
talking you know what I'm talking about.
Free weight barbell in hand. What say you?
That is one of my staples. I definitely disagree, but I
understand the argument and I know there's data to to back it
up to a degree. But I also feel like painting
spinal loading as the enemy in exercising is only going to
cause us to not be able to adapt to to life, right?
So the poor adaptation, in my opinion, in the poor programming
or would get people on a lot of these areas where they're not
able to effectively do these kind of exercise.
And then they blame the exercise as the problem when it is the
form, it is the the fatigue, it is the recovery, it is
everything going into it that is the culprit of the actual injury
itself and not to exercise. So the human body, let's just
take it back to foundational basics like the human body is
designed to what squat, hinge, carry, get up and down and pick
things up, for lack of better words.
I think if we don't train all those at some capacity and avoid
certain things because we know that that certain exercise is
going to fatigue those muscles more, what if we turn that
approach into, I'm going to train these exercises in a
progressively smart way so that I can adapt and be able to
effectively do these exercises safely.
Are there other variations that you can do?
100% chest supported dumbbell rows are my one of my favorites.
I know the question that could come up and I'm sure it might be
coming out of Jesse's mouth soon in a second.
Justin, why would we risk the lower back involvement with
this? That's right.
Because avoiding all lower back involvement is going to set us
up for failure. The goal shouldn't be avoiding
things and turning into being fragile, but it should be being
resilient through intelligent training and progression.
So if you haven't done a barbell bend over row in a long time and
you go and you put 135 on and bend over and expect it to feel
great, it's going to fucking hurt.
So being smart and approaching training in a way that, again,
is not just because you saw somebody do it on an Instagram
real earlier that day and you want the same size lats as him.
So safety is obviously the main topic here, but I think if the
goal is removing every stabilization demand, you
should, I should say like bending over to hold the barbell
in and of itself. You know, eventually we're going
to end up replacing all of these exercises that go back to the
foundations of human movement with machines entirely or, you
know, with other exercises that may not be as natural.
Like if you think about only sticking to machines, I'm not
saying that's what you're saying, but just using that as
an example here. Machines are in a linear path,
right? Life is not in a linear path.
I think that if we don't chain functionally in every capacity,
then we are going to end up in positions where you get hurt and
that could be getting hurt from bringing in the groceries that
could be getting hurt from bending over while gardening.
You know, training your body to be able to move in certain
functional positions that you know you are currently avoiding
out of fear of getting hurt is only going to, one, prove
yourself wrong that you can train in a way to get strong in
these areas that are typically weak or prevent you from doing
these exercises. But it all just goes back to
being smart with your programming, your recovery, and
your technique because of as soon as those three things fail,
you're going to get hurt like doesn't matter what exercise
you're doing. Yeah, OK.
So I'll jump from there. It's being smart about your
training. I I understand that by with a,
with a bent over barbell row, you have to hold yourself in
this proper position, right? You have to hold yourself as you
should not be arching your back. You should not be bending over
too much. And I get that that works.
Your lumbar erectors, like I get that.
So essentially it's a 2 for one. You're, you're training yourself
to be able to stabilize a heavy load underneath you.
It's taxing your lower back, your erectors, all those things.
But, and it is a but your intent, most of your intent for
that lift is to work your lats to get bigger lats, right?
Yeah, it's it's a back exercise you do it on.
Back, yeah. So I, I have having done these
for a decade that no matter what, for me to continue to
increase the load it, it's going to put stress on my lower back.
And I would just say this there, if you want to work those
stabilizer muscles, those spinal erectors, you can do those and
isolate them. You could do it.
I would even say like a, a GHD race, you can do even like
Nordic hamstring curls that that strength of being able to just
hold a position when you're kind of leaned over.
You can, you can work those in an isolated fashion without
having to have 185 lbs hanging under your body.
Because I, I think it's an unnatural kind of movement that
the way that especially if we're doing bench over rows with a
barbell where our hands are locked in like that.
I'm at an advantage, Justin, because I did a ton of research
and just asked you to jump on the show and riff.
But I'm going to throw some research.
I'm going to throw some statistics at you.
Let's go. OK, so last the last movement I
talked about what percentage of injuries are lower body.
So here's 1 Lower back injuries account for roughly 30% of
resisting training injuries. Second only to Can you guess
what body part has the most common injuries?
No. What is it?
Shoulder So here you go just two quotes and I want to bore you
here, but repetitive. This is from Stewart McGill,
University of Waterloo Spine bio mechanics Lab repetitive lumbar
loading under fatigue is the leading mechanism of disc
injury. And then here's here's 1 you you
mentioned chest supported row, which that is that is my
solution to this problem. That is what I do now.
Right? Incline bench, Get some support
on your chest and then take two dumbbells.
But in EMG comparisons. This is from Fenwick 2009.
I'm not going to pretend I know who the hell that is.
EMG comparisons. Chest supported and seated cable
rows produce equivalent lat and rhomboid activation to bent over
barbell rows with a small fraction of the lumbar erector
load. So my, my argument is and would
be you can get the benefit on your lats and even on your
rhomboids and your traps, same games.
You're just cutting out the lumbar erectors and you're just
having less injury, right? Less injury risk.
And I would focus on those other body parts, those other skills
just separately because I think it's not safe.
OK. Last thing I'll say and then we
move on. And I think this is just going
to be all of my answers kind of bubble up to this point of like
removing all of the challenges from exercises is going to
remove our ability to adapt. So I think that's kind of where
I'm getting stuck out on a lot of this stuff is like instead of
avoiding, let's progressively and smartly train in a way that
allows us to be able to be able to safely do these things.
And I think with rowing being like the one movement that
teaches your body how to effectively start and resist
force is very lifelike and functional in my opinion.
I agree. I agree with that.
All right, So agree with me on 2 and I'm going to say you
disagree on are you doing when you're healthy?
Are you doing bent over barbell? Yeah, OK.
How much weight are you doing? I do not do more than I start
with 135 and then if I'm feeling good I'll go to 185 for the last
top set. But I'm not like I used to be
back in the day being dumb and loading UPS.
Yeah, where do you program the bent over barbell row
sequentially in a back workout? That is one of my first prime
movements after I warm up and stretch and I usually start
after mobility stuff with pull ups.
Usually assisted at 1st to get everything kind of moving and
then from there I move into the Rose.
Fair enough. Let's go to the next 1 #5 Box
jumps as conditioning. So not box jumps in general.
Box jumps as a conditioning tool.
If you've been on social media, you follow influencers, CrossFit
world, you see lots of box jumps as conditioning.
And if anyone doesn't know what a box jump is, this is
essentially when you have a box, it could be wooden, hopefully
it's not. It could be more of like of a of
a cushion padded box could be anywhere from 20 inches up to
psychopaths to more than 36 inches and 40 whatever.
But you are essentially you don't have to squat all the way
down, but you're in an athletic pattern, just jumping up,
landing, going into a squat, standing up, stepping back down.
You can alternate legs when you step back down.
And people do these for conditioning.
Often times, especially in you know, like CrossFit world, it'll
be part of like a wad a workout of the day.
I know I've seen some people will actually do.
And I don't know if this science backs this up, but they'll do
like a lower body strength day and then wrap it up with box
jumps as conditioning and that's where you're racing the clock.
You might do something like an imam every.
Get it on the minute you say, OK, at at 0 press go on the
clock. I'm going to do 10 box jumps.
I've even seen box jump overs, right?
And then you rest and then at the next minute you do it again.
You do that for 10 minutes, just as an example.
And my argument is, especially if you're already fatigued and
you have micro tears in your micro fi in your, your fibers of
your muscle from doing strength training.
If you just rush into box jumps, especially as you get older and
you've got some some tread on your tires, you are so likely,
unless you have rock solid form to get a muscle strain, whether
it's your calf, something like that.
You can. You can hurt your knee, you can
do all sorts of injuries by doing it.
My argument is that box jumps are more useful for power, even
if you do them to lead into a lower body workout.
There's tons of studies that show by working on that power
output, and I'm talking 6 reps rest for 60 to 90 seconds.
Just get the motion down, jump up high explosive, focus on
form. But when you are fatigued and
you're moving fast and you already have some maybe tweaks
and strains in your muscle and you do these things for like
high reps, high velocity, you are bound to get hurt.
And I think the. Statistics show that.
Yeah, this is the one I 100% agree with in every every
capacity. OK, do you ever do them box
jumps, whatever? Yeah, and I haven't since.
If you want to, if you want to know what happened.
What happened? I still have scars on my shins
from it, Jess. What did you do?
What did you I saw? Scars on my shins from it, yeah.
A wooden box OE did. Did you miss the mark?
Just a little bit. Well, let me hit you.
We're we're going to keep moving.
I'll give you since you agree, just some statistics here and
then I'll explain how I use box jumps right now.
But here's one plyometric training.
This is from looks like NSCA plyometric position statement
plyometric training, which is what a box jump is.
Depth jumps and high impact box work require full neuromuscular
recovery between reps recommended here, which crazy
long time 2 to 3 minutes between sets for box jumps.
This is incompatible with conditioning intent.
So that's some study there. And this is just a fun random
187% of millennial and Gen. Z social media users get health
tips and mimic training from social media.
Yet only 2% of social media influencers content aligns with
official public health guidelines, especially around
high intensity interval training.
Very interesting. So I currently, and I love it
and I've seen a lot of gains in my actual squat patterns is I
will lead my lower body workout after some mobility training,
after some stretching and dynamic kind of warmups, I will
do three sets of eight box jumps.
I take my time, I focus on form and I go right into my squat
after that. And I find by the time I start
squatting and we'll get into what the right type of squat is,
but I feel fluid, I feel full range of motion, I'm warmed up
and my squat is incrementally going up.
And I can pinpoint since I started doing box jumps in in
connection to my squats. They're not cool being able to
tie certain movements back to the progress you're seeing.
Hell yeah. All right, let's be honest.
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This next one, my Marine Corps family is not going to like
this. Justin.
I'm recommending we completely scrap wide grip pull ups.
Wide grip pull ups. Wide grip pull ups, I'm
recommending neutral grip palms in, or if you absolutely love
that, that feeling of having your palms out, just bring them
in a little bit more moderately, but I wouldn't even do that.
I would recommend if you're going to do a pull up, neutral
grip pull ups by far anecdotally, before I go into
some stats, but I'll let you jump in between.
But I have now injured my I don't even know what the hell it
is because you know me. I don't I don't go to the the
doctor when I get hurt. I just kind of ride it out.
But I have this recurring for it feels like 10 years injury.
What feels like in the back of my neck right around my trap.
And it always is connected to pull ups and wide grip pull ups
and Justin. I focus on strict form.
I focus. I don't I don't swing.
I don't do any of the kipping CrossFit bullshit.
I do strict pull ups and I every like year, once a year when I'm
like ah, I feel good, I'm going to do wide grip again and I tie
it to the wide grip portion. I feel a little.
Tweak the next day. Just as an example, when I'm
driving, I can't, I can't even like turn around and look at my
kids in the car and every single time it's wide grip pull ups.
And now I know now, but what do you think about wide grip pull
ups? I am also somebody who has
struggled with shoulder and neck and you know, pain from years of
whether it be exercise, sports, whatever.
Maybe I love pull ups in every capacity and all different forms
and shapes and sizes. But wide grip is one that I
don't do anymore, and that is because I felt while doing them
that what was supposed to be being the primary driver that
exercise never was. I felt like I was on the verge
of getting hurt every time I was doing them.
So now my pull ups are to your point, neutral grip and then I
do the palms in as well. I still do lat pull downs with
the pronated grip as well. But like the wide grip pull ups
I weigh a decent amount. I'm not skinny and small so like
that in and of itself too is hard for the old joints and
tendons to be able to effectively move in a Safeway.
I think there's a lot that we can do with what you were
saying. Just the supinated grip, the
neutral, or even just bringing your hands in a little bit and
keeping them pronated if you want, that's fine too.
But anything super exaggerated wide grip in my opinion is
there's more risks than benefits.
Agreed 100%. So it sounds like we agree on
this one. Just a couple little quotes here
from some research. So wide grip pull ups under load
and with the momentum is a primary mechanism for.
Slap. That's SLAP.
What is that? Glad you asked.
Superior labrum, anterior, posterior.
It's exactly what like labrum tear?
Stuff like that. Especially in lifters with prior
shoulder injury. Little caveat there.
And then this next one. Wider grip reduces range of
motion at the lats and shifts load onto the shoulder capsule
and rotator cuff. So having your hands wider and
locked out facing outward clearly puts more pressure on
your shoulder and even your traps.
And that's why injuries happen. So great substitutions, Justin.
Already mentioned a couple there you can do.
We'll make sure pronated, right. Pronated is when your hands are
in, right Justin. Yeah, it is.
Yeah, so you can do lat pull downs.
As a matter of fact, if you, you know, look for some really high
quality like YouTube fitness creators, guys like Jeff
Nippert, Eric Chaniki, they're they're not doing pull ups.
And if they do, they are doing them, you know, pronated
whatever that other word was. So lat, lat pull downs, strict
pull ups, neutral grip, things like that.
Scrap the wide grip. You're eventually going to hurt
your shoulder, I promise, especially if you don't have
strict form. Agreed.
Agreed man. #3 we'll call this the top three or the bottom
three exercises we're entering here that you should scrap for
something else. I got to be honest, I intuited
when I first started training that this wasn't right.
This next one, it wasn't good. It didn't feel right.
Something just felt just backwards about it.
And I've continued to see people doing this, but this is.
Behind the neck. Stressing you know this is going
on. Yep.
Yeah, behind the neck pressing or behind the neck pulling.
So for people maybe just kind of easing into fitness training
we're talking about here, like imagine doing a lat pull down,
but instead of putting it on your sternum, the bar, you lean
your. Yep, just like Justin's doing.
You lean your neck forward and you pull down behind your back.
Nothing neck. Nothing good there.
Or this could be even like if you think of a military press,
otherwise known as an overhead press, taking the bar or
whatever machine you're using and coming down behind your
neck. I can tell by your response,
Justin, that I don't really need to pitch you or sell.
You on this but. Do you agree?
Anything behind the neck, I mean, I literally mean anything
is not good for you. I agree and I know I saw all the
videos of Arnold and Jay Cutler back in the day doing all the
heavy overhead behind the head, whatever presses and pull downs.
And I still see people trying to do it at the gyms and like, I
just I want to go up and this can you not just don't let's
just do it the other way, bud. You know, But yeah, totally
agree. I don't there.
There's no place for that in my opinion.
And you know it. Let's just use the overhead
pressing version. Obviously you're, you're working
on your delts, you're working on your shoulders, There's some
tricep activation, other things. What movements?
If you're trying to work on your delts and kind of mimic, you
know, without going behind your neck, what movements would you
suggest instead of a behind the neck?
I mean regular military press, overhead press, the big fan of
hammer strength press machines. Whether you're sitting down
using normally or getting creative and standing facing the
machine and turning it into a standing overhead press, you can
mess around with wherever you want to put your hands, how far,
how in different grips, neutral pronated.
We don't have to do what again we saw the the greats do back in
the day when they didn't have as much research and stats to back
up why they should or shouldn't be doing certain movements.
Do you do overhead presses now in your routine?
Yeah. What?
What day do you do them on? Do you have a shoulder day?
Do you do them on something else?
Shoulder day. Yeah, shoulder and bicep day.
Is that your OK shoulders and bicep?
Is that your lead movement of the day and overhead?
Press. Yeah, Alex, although not after
warming up. And I like my warmups consist of
face pulls, lateral raises, and that's usually out after doing
like mobility and all that fun stuff because I don't have a
choice but have to do that now. Got it.
There's this kind of emerging thought that you work your
delts, the intended muscle in an overhead press a lot if you're
doing an incline barbell press. Some of the people that I
respect in the fitness space, when I look at their their their
workout programs and what not, I don't see a lot of overhead
presses these days. Used to see them a lot.
You used to, I feel like my shoulder knees used to move from
like 3 pressing movements now down to 1 and that's and I'm
fine with it but haven't really noticed much of A drop off and
shoulder strength or size from stopping that I have noticed
less pain. It's telling you something.
I think so. I'm doing Justin, I'm running.
My split is I'll start with Monday, upper, lower, rest on
Wednesday, and by rest I do cardio for 45 minutes, like a
low intensity cardio. And then when I come back around
on Thursday, I'll do an upper pull.
And then on Friday, which I did this morning, I do an upper
push. And then on Saturdays is my
lower 2 and that's more glute and ham focused on the lower 2.
But back to the overhead press. On Monday I don't do an overhead
press, but I do do an incline dumbbell bench press and I feel
some great deltoid activation there.
You know what I mean? It's that same kind of eek that
you feel when you're dealt. And then on Friday when I come
around like this morning, I do another variation of an incline
press, but it's a Smith machine barbell incline press.
And I do do shoulders, quote UN quote, but I do after both of
those incline presses on Monday and Friday, I do a side raise
for like my side delts. I, I don't know how to assess
whether or not I need to work an overhead press in, but I'll,
I'll just say that like eyeball test, mirror, overall strength,
stuff like that. I'm, I'm not missing it.
And I, I do find that by doing incline dumbbell bench press, if
I every once in a while and I will just kind of do a strict
military press with dumbbells, I don't miss a beat.
Like it's the strength is there, it's going up.
I feel just as strong. It's interesting.
Yeah, but it goes to show though, you don't need to press
mountains over your head in order to Nope have, you know,
shoulder work out. No, no.
OK, All right, Justin, the top 2, the top 2 movement and I, I,
if I will take heat for this, I'll probably take it from you
as well. But here we go #2 conventional
barbell. Deadlift.
It's a sacred cow territory here.
Don't get angry with me, but I'm recommending that there is no
place for a conventional barbell deadlift unless you are in a
competition of some kind that features a conventional barbell
deadlift. I can go into why, but I'm just
going to say that in my opinion, a trap bar deadlift is the way
to go. And should be a staple in every
single person's. Weekly workout, what say you on
the conventional barbell? And if you could, Justin, just I
don't want to assume everyone knows what a conventional
barbell deadlift is, but maybe even give it a little
explanation because I didn't of what it is.
Yeah. So one of my favorite movements
over the years is, is this the conventional barbell deadlift,
So not sumo style where your feet are a little bit wider to
us pointed out, but feet close together pulling the bar off the
ground and that's pretty much the movement.
But there's a lot of opportunity for injury.
And yeah, I mean, it's, it's one of the, it's considered.
I would, I don't know. Would you consider a dangerous
exercise, I guess is the way to describe it.
It can be, but it can also be one of the most effective
exercises if done correctly. So I think it's.
Dangerous. I think it's dangerous.
If you train it consistently, do progressive overload.
Eventually they'll be a load on that bar and eventually you will
get hurt or at least strain your body so you get hurt somewhere
else. But go ahead.
Yeah, it's, it's an easy, it's a slippery slope in regards to
the, the needle being able to move not very far in order for
an injury to happen and light it, all it takes is 1 little
tweak. And I have done it plenty of
times too. But that being said, I have
fallen in love with the things that I hate the most in the gym
and that list used to be one of them.
And avoiding, I'm going to say avoiding deadlifts should not be
an option for anybody. Jesse brings up a great point.
Trap bars are one of the most safest and effective ways to do
a deadlift outside of the get to get away from conventional.
Your arms and hands are in a more natural position.
You're able to get lower without sacrificing a lot of the form
and techniques that you need to in order to maintain that in a
Safeway. But I would not avoid that list
at all. I would avoid avoiding them
because the more that we are again, going back to my comment
earlier about staying away from certain ways that we're loading
the body and you know, trying to, to avoid them to be safe.
Like if we're able to train them in a way that is effective and
smart in a progressive overload way that is not, I'm adding 45
lbs to the bar every next time my deadlift.
Like you're going to get hurt. So being smart about it, that
list need to be a staple in some form or fashion, doing them in a
way that makes sense for you. I think everybody has different
posture. Everybody has different past
injuries, everybody has different everything.
But one thing that everybody does have is the need to, you
know, load our bodies in a way that's going to challenge us and
help this translate that into everyday life.
So I I agree with you in that trap bar deadlifts are safer
than conventional. OK.
Do you think anybody should do conventional barbell deadlifts
unless you if you're not competing versus the trap bar or
would you like if you talk to me right now?
Hey, Justin, I'm Jesse. I want to get into training.
What are some key movements that I should be doing?
Would you say conventional barbell deadlift?
I would say if it's something that you have done before, trap
bar would be the first one that I would recommend before moving
into conventional just to get familiar with one, the movement
and two, what the form is supposed to feel like.
Trap bar allows you to maintain that form a lot easier
throughout the full movement, whereas conventional your hand,
the bars in front of you, you're pulling yourself forward the
whole time. So I would definitely recommend
trap bar first. I wouldn't 100% shy away from
conventional, but I would start where it makes sense and that is
laying the foundation in a Safeway.
And I think that could be done easier with the trap bar and
then conventional barbell. Yeah, I'm, I'm going to push you
here. So why the way you phrase that
like start with the trap bar, which is then move towards
conventional and then maybe always lift conventional.
Why even do that? Like why go to conventional at
all and instead of just keep getting more more efficient and
stronger on the trap bar? Yeah, well, I mean that can be
applied to any exercise, right? Like why would you do dumbbell
chest press and also the barbell bench press, right?
Like I think it's not not subjective, but I feel like
you're going to be training different stabilizing muscles,
You're going to be training different erector muscles, doing
these different movements with the deadlifts.
I definitely wouldn't tell somebody to shy away from a
movement in general without doing it unless they have these
past injuries or some sort of compensation that's going to
result in them getting hurt quicker than somebody who
doesn't have whatever issues they have.
That makes sense. I don't like the idea of
avoiding something just because some people tell you to.
I understand there's data and I understand there's science to
back up some of these arguments, but I could also pull stats and
science to back up my argument right now that I haven't done.
I I think that the the trap are safer.
I agree with you and I. Think avoiding like avoiding A
conventional deadlift. I just the phrasing of it.
It's like my argument is like, why even do it?
I think you can get just as much activation of the muscles and
even some of the other things like tendons and your your
spine. I think you can get the benefits
percentage wise, not as as much, but you can get the same
benefits and avoid the risk. And here's I was thinking about
this this morning, Justin, when I I don't know why this.
Came to me and I hope it lands but.
When I think about a wheelbarrow, which is probably
been around for 300 and 400 years, that's humans inventing a
thing to move heavyweight. I think there's a reason that a
wheelbarrow has two handles that come alongside you that allow
you to put your hand right next to your center of gravity, right
next to your legs, and lift it up just like a trap bar, and
then walk with it. I think that humans invent
things that align with their body mechanics to do maximal
things right, 'cause earlier on you're like, oh, it's
functional, it's practical. Can you imagine a wheelbarrow
with a wooden one handle that goes horizontal in front of you?
Yeah, that's what I hope. Like what?
That's what my wheel barrel looks like.
Yeah, I'm. Sure, in custom you'll probably
be a millionaire. People like you would buy it.
But like, just imagine, honestly imagine you had to move like
heavy cinder blocks all day with a wheelbarrow that has similar
to a conventional barbell right across.
What would start to hurt and why?
You'd start to feel like your lower back breaking down.
You'd start to feel that kind of really uncomfortable, dull, deep
pain. And I think it might be a
cavemany stupid anecdotal example, but I think there's
there's a reason why wheelbarrow looks the way it does.
And that to me is almost like a metaphor for, well, a trap bar
deadlift is just so much more natural.
And when the movement patterns are more natural, it is less
likely to get injured, especially when you start
loading it the way that you and I do, right?
It's like right now, you know, I do trap bar deadlifts and I can
put 315 on there and I can do 1215.
Easy. If I put the same weight on a
conventional, I do have to drop the weight, and that's OK,
right? But if I were to do conventional
deadlifts, and I'm pretty confident that my form is locked
in, I know what I'm doing, I start to feel a carryover,
soreness, clunkiness, stiffness throughout the week.
And this is anecdotal when I'm doing conventional, but if I do
trap bar, I can just put more weight on because I'm stronger
and I just dude, I feel more athletic because of course, back
to the sorry for the not the metaphor, the monologue here,
but back to kind of the intro. It's like I'm not training to do
a heavy conventional deadlift. That's not my goal.
I'm training so that like I can be cardiovascular wise, I can be
fat, I can run, I cannot have sore knees, sore lower back.
So for me, in a well-rounded program, doing something that
just feels more natural and still loading pretty heavy,
that's the way to go. Tough to argue with that man.
I don't know why you're so big on the conventional deadlift
dude. But it sounds like you do
disagree. Maybe I'm just being selfish
because I love the movement so much and my personal bias is
outweighing the science behind it, but I think it's a agree and
also disagree at the same time. But I think we both agree that
the the foundation of having it, that deadlift involved in your
training split is a necessity in some capacity.
Agreed, and that could be a single leg Romanian deadlift.
It could be even a Romanian deadlift, which is a different
thing. It could.
So I'll suggest if someone's going to get in a dead lifting,
work up towards a trap bar, add some Nordic hamstring curls,
back extensions, things like that.
If you do want to get that more direct hamstring stimulus.
But you can go with Justin. You can play around with your
conventional and regret it when you're 45, or you can go right
into the trap. Bar.
Let's let's notice real quick which one of us is currently
having an injury and that should answer any questions of that'll
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Number one, the number one exercise that I am going to
recommend you avoid if you can. Barbell back squat, The king of
exercises, as it's been called. For decades, the barbell back
squat. I am not at all even close
suggesting that people don't squat, but the freeway barbell
back squat statistics show it Injuries, all those things
you're going to get hurt eventually.
We all have. I'd say don't do the.
Barbell back squat. Definitely another.
People are going to get mad at you for that, but now I, I used
to be the mentality that there was no other leg exercise
anywhere close to the barbell back squat and that had to be
the prime driver of your, your movements during the leg day.
I have not barbell back squatted now and probably over a year and
a half and I'm still doing legs every week obviously.
But I have fallen in love with the hack squat machine also
incorporating, like I was talking about a lot of the
unilateral pressing that I've been doing to focus on a lot of
these old imbalances and these broken bones of mine.
But barbell back squat, I think is an amazing movement.
Obviously, it's kind of what our bodies were designed to do, but
that is not the only way to do it.
I know I keep going back to this whole loading, this fine thing.
Should it not be entirely avoided?
And that principle still applies here.
And that's your spine is still being loaded when you're doing,
you know, the hack squat, when you're doing, you know, these
other movements as well. But it's doing it in a way that
feels more controlled in my opinion.
I feel like if you avoid squats entirely, whatever capacity that
is, whether it's barbell, whether it's hack, whether it's
B squad, what whatever, maybe you are going to have a lot of
issues down the line. Squats do not just work the
legs. There are so many moving pieces
to that movement that require the recruitment of so many
stabilizing muscles. And it's just it's, it's one of
the best movements there is. So I think the barbell deadlift,
barbell deadlift. Sorry, I'm still stuck on it.
Jess, the barbell squad is a great movement, yes, but it is
not the only one that can be done in order to to get the
results that you're looking for for leg progression and
adaptation. So I'm in agreement with you.
Perfect. And and that's just a little
more. Why did you stop doing them?
For the all the reasons you stated.
You can get the same benefits without the injury risk.
Yeah. So when I made the switch from
Edge to lifetime lifetime a couple years ago, Lifetime had
the the hack squad that edge didn't.
So I wanted I tried it my first time there and then I was like,
well, this is this is everything that I ever needed in my life
for legs and I've fallen in love with that.
We also got the belt squat machine now to a lifetime, which
is. There we go.
Yeah, Belt. Squats.
And Winds it's, it's really cool.
So I know people are going to say that, John, we're wrong and
they don't agree with us, and that's fine.
But I think there's a lot of data to support what we're both
saying right now and scientifically supported
evidence of other exercises being in par, if not more
superior than the barbell back squat.
Yeah, good Segway evidence, statistics.
Here's some quoting random things here.
It has by far the highest spinal compressive load than any other
exercise out there. You mentioned a hack squat.
If I don't, I don't have a hack squat.
I don't have access to 1. If I did, that's what I'd use.
I use a Smith machine believe it or not.
Now for my squats. It feels amazing.
But here's some statistics that hopefully debunk this idea that
like the back squat is the end all to be all to quad and glute
and hamstring activation. Cause again, like every
exercise, why are we doing it? Well, we want to yes, become
more functionally stronger. But we are also.
Trying to grow the muscles that are being activated and
exercise. So check this out.
First one, this is from Mackie and Riemann 2021.
J Sports Science Medicine, says Bulgarian split squats versus
back squat mechanics. The Bulgarian squid split squat.
Squid squat. Squid squat.
Produces equivalent quadricep
activation, greater glute Max activation, and significantly
reduced lumbar load. Compared to a bilateral 2 footed
back squat at matched relative loads.
Another one for you. Rear foot elevated split squats
produce higher gluteus maximus and hamstring activity than the
bilateral back squat. Another one for you.
I'm really trying to sell people on this.
Probably because I've been injured so many times.
Here you go. So this one's really
interesting. So this is from Spears J
Strength conditioning. It says carryover study.
Training only the Bulgarian split squat produced a 5.7%
increase in. Back squat one Rep Max training
only the back squat produced a 5% increase in back squat one
Rep Max so in other. Words.
Training Bulgarian split squats. Doesn't matter if it's Smith
machine dumbbell. Gets your one Rep Max on your
barbell back squat higher according to this study and I I
I haven't vetted it that much right and just for.
Fun let me pick out one more here this one's this one's for
you hack squat keeps axial loading preserving bone density
signal while. Reducing the spinal.
Shear via a fixed bar path of a barbell back squat.
So it's pretty clear and these are these are I have actually
have more. I have 7 different studies here
that show there are other movements with that squat
pattern that are just as effective.
Without the risk. And then of course, I always
love, you know, anecdotes here, but you know, I, I still just
like you and your conventional, you know, deadlift.
I still come back. To a free weight barbell back
squat every now and then just. To kind of check it.
I know. It's just like, hey, I remember
you, you know? Yeah, exactly.
And dude, same as the deadlift for me, I can, I can still right
now I can put 225 on a barbell. Back squat and I could probably
do it. I don't know 15.
Times right, but if I just dropped the weight a little bit
and do a Smith machine and focus on Bulgarian split squats and
Smith machine squats. Thoughts.
Dude, again, when it's time for me to lace up my sneakers and
run, I just feel more like agile and mobile, feel younger, more
youthful. If I'm getting down off the
floor playing with my kids, my body just feels better.
And if there's. Anyone that's listening to this
that says, well, it's because you're not doing it right,
you're freaking wrong. Like argue with the statistics.
And by the way, just one little, I guess, hopefully persuasive,
you know, reasoning here. Go look at where where fitness
is moving. Go go find some of the really
knowledgeable smart fitness influencers, whether it's
YouTube or otherwise. Again, you know, Janicki and and
Nippered and some of these other guys, they're all saying you
don't need a barbell back squat. And there's a reason.
For it Dorian Yates I was. Just going to bring up IFBB pros
don't even have the back squat in their prep like it's.
He's an animal and he said he's like, you know what, I didn't
feel healthy or safe them paraphrasing back squatting.
He's like, I know that like back in the, you know, seventies,
80s, that's what she did. He's like, you know what?
I started doing Smith machine squats and hack squats because
it felt better for me and he and he's.
You know he's. Confident, he goes.
My my quads are the biggest on any stage that I ever and you
look at someone like him as he ages.
Versus like, say like a Ronnie Coleman, these these dudes are
banged up, these like 80s, nineties body lifters that we're
all in on like the back. Swats and the look at you want a
case study? Just look at some of these guys.
What do you want to look like and feel like when you're 70 or
80? And that's what this episode is
all about. That's my pitch.
Yeah, it's a good one, man. It's hard to argue with.
Justin, do you think I missed any?
In my top 8. Now, I mean that you we covered
all the big ones that I feel like are the most, I don't know,
like everyone focuses on. I'm sure there's a couple
outliers or some accessory movements that we could go back
and forth on, but I don't really have any of those off the top of
my head. So I think we did a really good
job covering the the majority of the the bases here, my friend.
Well. We hope this episode was
helpful. As always, if you got questions
about moves, exercises, shoot us an e-mail
contact@strongerweekly.com letscontact@strongerweekly.com.
We're happy to answer your questions.
Justin man, your stud, thanks for being here again.
Thanks for having me man. We'll see you next time.
All right, folks, that is it for today's episode.
I hope you took. Something from that, and I hope
I'm not coming across the wrong way here, right?
Like I'm not saying that there is no benefit to doing say, a
conventional deadlift. I'm not saying that there's no
benefit to doing say, a barbell back swap, but what I am saying
is that you can get the same, if not better benefits without the
risk factor. And that's all I'm saying.
I mean, I think so many of us just kind of inherit these
recommendations of these moves that have been been doing for
30-40 years plus and they're completely unnecessary for most
of us, right? We're not power lifters, we're
not strength trainers, we're not CrossFit athletes.
And if you are, power to you. But if you're not and you're
like. Me and you want to be able to
lift weights and healthy weight deep, deep into your 40s and 50s
and 60s. That's what this episode was
about. So we hope that it was.
Helpful hopefully, maybe. You'll move away from some of
those more dangerous lifts and into some of the safer ones and
you'll get great benefits like I have.
And I have to say, man, I'm 41 and thank God, praise God, I
have not had any major, major reconstructive type surgeries or
injuries. I'm healthy, I can run, I can
run long levels. I can do sprints and bursts.
I feel athletic. I can do box jumps.
I can lift heavy weights relative to my body.
I've got a low body fat percentage, a high VO2 Max.
Like all of the things seem to be working out and am.
Am I an elite athlete in any one particular area?
Take strength training. Take endurance training.
No, I'm not, but I'm pretty damn satisfied.
And what I'm most content with right now, it's just how healthy
my body feels. And it hasn't always felt this
way. And I noticed I started feeling
more healthy and mobile and agile and athletic when I
started moving away from some of these lifts that I just kind of
again, inherited from this start.
So I really, really hope it was helpful.
And shout out to Justin Mazars for coming on the show, sharing
his thoughts and bearing with all of the data and research
that I threw at him. Love having Justin on the show.
So thanks so much for joining. Always have to ask if you
enjoyed the show or you know, someone that might please give a
rating, a review, share this with somebody that really just
helps the podcast get out there and find more people to help
them grow stronger weekly. So thanks for that.
We've got some great episodes lined up here as we start the
summer. We certainly hope that you'll
join us again soon. If you're not following us on
places like social media, Instagram, what not, you can
always just find a follow there. We're always trying to put out
good information and insights to help people with their health
and fitness goals. So that is it for this week.
Thank you so much for joining us.
Have a great May and a great start to your Summer 2026 and we
will see you next time.