Great warm-up article. I have to warm up my elbows a lot due to past tendon issues and have made great progress in getting the tendons stronger after a lot of trial and error. I trained at a local power lifting gym for about a month to do some training rehab for my elbows and to learn some training techniques and he had me doing 3 sets of 50 mini-band press downs before I start working out. I find it reall helps a alot but my question is that if for example in the UD2 which I will be starting shortly I am training 4 days a week does doing 3 sets of 50 band press downs 4 times a week become too much? When does one back off and just start doing warm ups within the excercise itself? I find that if I don’t warm-up my elbows sufficiently that my muscles get to tight around my elbows and forearms and my tendons will be sore the next day. I just don’t want over train the elbows with too much warm- up either.

thanks,

Long time no hear, Shawn. Getting old sucks doesn’t it? Take care.

Sounds like things are well to great with you. Nice to see ya… not sure how I came across the site but lucky days!

I have to say, great info as always but seems like most my sets are warm up these days! Ha… funny. Certainly not setting any 1RM’s….

A lot of it has to do with a really bumm shoulder and having two little kids doesn’t help either!

Catch up later… good to see you.

Stay Strong,
Shawn Phillips
author: Strength for Life
creator: Full Strength Premium Nutrition

Addressing gluteal amnesia would take a full article and I’m sure others have done it better than I could, just search the net (anything by Eric Cressey or Mike Robertson will be worth reading).

And yes, the difference between dynamic and balliistic is control and momenum. In a ballisic stretch you’re just throwing the limb and letting momentum carry it through whatever range it’s going to move through. With dynamic stretching, you’re controlling it through the range.

Lyle

My glutes don’t fire in squats, or at least I don’t think so. They don’t get bigger, I don’t feel them get tired, and they don’t experience DOMS. I’ve been squatting for years.

Should I do the glute bridge before I exercise? How do I know when I’ve done it enough? Should they start to feel tired before I start squatting?

I was thinking I’d also reduce the weight I do squats with (which absolutely kills my ego) and try doing light squats for the next 8 weeks but mentally focusing on gluteal activation.

Also you mentioned something about dynamic stretching in the last article. Is the difference between a ballistic and a dynamic stretch the “speed”? I don’t exactly understand the term “controlled.” If I fully control the movement, then I would be raising my leg (during leg swings) with the muscles and with very little momentum at all.

Thanks for the article.

Do you think depth drops or drop jumps would have nervous system effects similar to speed squats?

Thanks for your time,
Matt