Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 69 - Core Training, Deadlift Cues, Anxiousness

Episode Date: September 14, 2020

In this episode, Danny sits down and examines what to include in your core training, how to properly teach someone how to deadlift, and how to manage anxiousness around your training.-Thanks For Listening!-RESOURCES/COACHING: I am all about education and that is not limited to this podcast! Feel free to grab a FREE guide (Nutrition, Training, Macros, Etc!) HERE! Interested in Working With Coach Danny and His One-On-One Coaching Team? Click HERE! Want To Have YOUR Question Answered On an Upcoming Episode of DYNAMIC DIALOGUE? You Can Submit It HERE!Want to Support The Podcast AND Get in Better Shape? Grab a Program HERE!----SOCIAL LINKS:Follow Coach Danny on INSTAGRAMFollow Coach Danny on TwitterFollow Coach Danny on FacebookGet More In-Depth Articles Written By Yours’ Truly HERE!Support the Show.

Welcome back into another episode, the Dynamic Dialogue podcast. As always, I'm your host, Danny Matrenga, and this is the podcast where I try to bring you the best, most up and coming forefront evidence based information with regards to optimizing your health, your performance, and your longevity. So welcome in again. For those of you who haven't been here before, intro's out of the way. Let's chat a little bit about things that have been going on before we get to our topics today, which include, we're going to talk all about anxiety, particularly with regards to anxiety whilst training. We're going to talk about deadlifting and the cues I like to coach the

deadlifting with to get the most out of it, how to do it safely, how to do it effectively, as well as abdominal training in the greater context of your programming, plus quite a bit more. But before we get there, let's talk a little bit about what's going on in the world right now. And for the most part, it's not a whole lot. Things have been going slow. However, many of you are probably aware, at least at this point, if you've been following me on any avenue, particularly the podcast, for any amount of time, you'll know I love, love, love football. And football is back. We had our first game on Thursday night. I'm recording this on Saturday, so this is before the Sunday slate of games. I've got my NFL Sunday ticket locked and loaded, ready to go for tomorrow,

and I'm really, really looking forward to the slate of games. My favorite team is the Rams. We play Sunday night, but Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson dueled it out on Thursday. It was pretty entertaining. You know, no fans in the stands is kind of a strange thing. They had like 7,500 people in the stands. They spread them out so that the at least sound was probably coming from different directions, gave some dimension to it. And the way they always have the camera in the NFL, it's primarily on the field. It's like facing down a little bit as well, so you don't really see the stands much. So with the artificial crowd noise paired with the real

crowd noise, it seemed like the real thing to some capacity, and I was pretty happy to have football back. It's been one of the brighter spots for me recently, particularly given the somewhat monotonous nature of, well, life in general during this pandemic. But having sports back has been awesome. And we're getting closer towards the end of the NBA. So that is pretty cool, too. We're going to actually start this episode with a mailbag question. And this question comes to us from Michelle. And Michelle asks, question. And this question comes to us from Michelle. And Michelle asks, love the podcasts. My question is, how often should I be training my abs? With gyms being closed here in California, I was able to join a CrossFit gym that's outdoors, but I feel like they don't involve many abdominal focused exercises, especially like I used to do them at the gym. What are some good ab exercises?

I think I should try to do them on my own. Or do you think CrossFit style training gives my abs enough work as it is Michelle? Okay. So let's break this question apart because it's really three questions is one in built into one. The first question is, what are some good abdominal exercises? We'll talk a little bit about that. The second question is, should I do them on my own or do you think there's enough built in to CrossFit training? So first and foremost, let's talk about selecting good abdominal exercises. When it comes to training any tissue, we have to look exactly at what it is that that tissue does. And with regards to the core, we're looking at several different functions, such as flexion as in a crunch, anti-extension or rigidity-based exercises

where we're creating tension as in a plank or a side plank. Lateral flexion, which would be in exercises a lot of times where we twist, pivot, throw, or bend to one side or the other. We get those elements of lateral flexion. We have anti-lateral flexion, which is, say, when we do a farmer's carry and we have the weight on one side of our body, or rather that would be like a suitcase carry. We want to have some flexion towards that side, right? If I have the dumbbell or the kettlebell or whatever implement I'm loading with in my left hand,

I'm going to naturally have some lateral flexion towards that left side. So I use the tissues on my right side to avoid or anti, quote unquote, lateral flexion. We have anti-extension, which I believe I mentioned earlier with regards to the plank specifically, but I think it's worth pairing the antis together. So remember, anti-lateral flexion, anti-extension, and anti-rotation, which is kind of resisting the perturbation of rotation. A popular one is the palaf press. So flexion, right?

We need to be able to flex. If you consider hip extension, like glute bridges or hip thrusts, if you consider the hamstrings and the glutes, a function and extension of the core, we have that degree of extension. We have thoracic extension, which can use the lower traps, but you definitely need to have some core work there, everything up and down the trunk, but primarily looking at things that involve the abdominals, like the six pack, which would be flexion, all of those rotation, anti-rotation, flexion, lateral flexion, which involve primarily the obliques and some of the smaller muscles, and then our rigidity-based exercises like planking and side planking and all of that stuff. So that's what it means when we

talk about core training. As for whether or not CrossFit encompasses all of those things, I don't know if there's a training modality out there that specifically highlights core training in a way that I would say is ideal, but I do think CrossFit does a really good job, and here's why. Almost every CrossFit box I've ever been to, any CrossFit athletes I've ever worked with who do the programming at the box, but maybe they work for me with nutrition, they never tend to have lacking or systemic issues with the strength of their core or the musculature of their midsection and torso. Because CrossFit focuses so much on squatting, deadlifting, overhead work, pull-up work. They do things like GHRs. There are things like plenty of sit-ups often worked into it. I just find in general that

CrossFit athletes or people who do CrossFit have very strong developed core musculature. If there were elements of CrossFit that I think, or I should say elements of the core that I think CrossFitters or people who do CrossFit in general should focus on more, I would say that with your high level of barbell and compound lifts, you probably get enough of your thoracic extension stuff. You probably get enough of your stability, rigidity stuff through your breathing and bracing. You might want to do more of your transverse plane or rotational core work. I also know CrossFit definitely focuses quite a bit on carrying, specifically at some boxes, so you probably don't need to do lateral flexion. But what you might do well with is things like rotational work, med ball slams, things in that transverse plane, and then maybe some side planking, some stuff specifically designed to help. Not all side planks are great for the shoulder as well, and you can get quite a bit of glute med if you play a little bit with that, but things like that.

But really, if ever there was a training modality that kind of stood above the rest for core training, CrossFit might be the one. Like I said, it's not necessarily perfect, but just the general demands. I think CrossFit does a good job. Now, if your CrossFit box in particular doesn't provide you with a core training stimulus you think is adequate, one of the things that I would recommend is just showing up a little early and working in a few core exercises that you like that kind of encompass these various things. So for example, you might do a dead bug into a pal off press. You might do some lighter suitcase carries paired

with something like a side plank with hip abduction. You know, there's a lot of things you can do, but I would pick two, maybe three exercises, add them to your warmup, make sure that your core is ready to rock and roll. If like I said, you're aware of what your box tends to kind of cut corners with, you can add it in there. But in general, I think CrossFit does a good job. And I think that when it comes to core training, variety is really important because it tends to be quite bland, and it's not necessarily easy to progressively overload your core training. So I tend to like to get a little bit creative and

fun there. All right, we've got two more questions for the episode today. The first is from Devoshni Devanshi Kamalvanshi. Sorry if I messed that up. And she asks, workouts make me nervous. workouts make me nervous. Is that weird? So I don't know if I'd say weird, but I would say it's atypical. And what I mean by that is I don't think most people who work out are feeling anxiety, nervousness, and generally stressed, super stressed while they're training. I think with everything going on in the world right now, nothing would surprise me with regards to people feeling worried or stressed. I don't think it's that uncommon for people to be carrying their external stuff with them into their workouts. That being said, I don't think that a little bit of stress or kind of arousal, if you will, is a bad thing. One of my favorite studies

that I ever referenced, and this was actually in a high school research paper that I wrote, was back in the day when they literally taught you how to write a research paper, how to cite things and all of this. And this study in particular stuck with me forever. I do not recall what the name of the study was. I only recall the kind of outcomes. And if you kind of reverse engineer the outcomes and put them into a search engine, you might be able to find it. But effectively, what they looked at was they examined football players at the mid point of their season. And what they were looking at is they were looking at biometrics like heart rate and sweat rate. And what they found was throughout that season, as they got closer and closer to the midway point,

these athletes actually one hour prior to practice, right? Remember, high school football players, college football players, that's who they used for this study, practice at the same time every single day. And what they found, and this is fascinating, is that as they got closer and closer to the midway point of the season, aka their practices became increasingly more routine, they actually started to see increased heart rate and increased perspiration or sweat rate closer and close earlier and earlier and earlier to that practice time. Meaning that probably for those first one to two weeks, the athletes got their heart rate up and they started sweating when they started practicing, right? Their body was preparing

when they started practicing. However, as they got further and further into their season, their body started to kind of get a little bit of a head start, started the heart rate going a little bit earlier. So if you think about high school athletes, this might mean, say, if you had your practice in sixth period, maybe halfway through fifth period, you start to feel that heart rate increase a little bit and that sweat rate increase a little bit because the body actually knows that the practice is coming. And so that's a form of arousal. That's the body preparing itself for something. And it's an evolutionary, effectively, adaptation that's beneficial. You want to be ready

for this type of stuff. So there's a physical form of arousal that will occur, non-sexual, of course, prior to exercise. Now one of the things that I think is interesting is could that extend into some anxiety? And in general I would say no, but there are some things that people do religiously and that are effectively ritualistic prior to training that I think could really increase that sense of nervousness or anxiety. And the first is caffeine. And caffeine is a really, really big one because caffeine has been linked to nervousness and anxiety, which when you say you feel worried, those are feelings that generally coincide with nervousness, anxiety, and of course worry. So you should say feelings that coincide with one

another. But it is interesting because many people ritually take highly caffeinated pre-workout beverages prior to training, which isn't necessarily ideal when it comes to getting the most out of your training and not feeling any anxiety. If you want to get the most out of your training and you don't want to get any of those potential anxiety inducing impacts that caffeine might have, you might want to take a pre-workout formula that doesn't contain caffeine. Many people take highly caffeinated beverages before every single workout, and that can certainly lead to anxiety. So that was the first thing that jumped out at me when I read this question, and it is what I would look into if you want to manage and curtail those feelings.

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The second thing that I think is really, really important that we look at is our music selection prior to training. A lot of music is highly explicit. It's very intense. It's very in your face. It's exactly the type of stuff that a lot of people want when they're training. They want to be worked up. They want to be intense, they want to be riled up. And while I think that that works for a tremendous number of people, I and a few of my friends can actually work out highly effectively listening to things like audiobooks or even more relaxed forms of music, like in place of perhaps heavy metal, rock, or rap, you might instead listen to something like R&B, house music,

certain forms of EDM. And if you're weird like me, maybe even classical music sometimes just because. So again, you have very few things you can kind of pull on here. But the two things that I think are very consistent with most people's training is the inclusion, especially nowadays, of caffeine, highly caffeinated beverages or beverages that include even more stimulating things than just caffeine, like some of these other stimulants that get thrown into pre-workouts, and the inclusion of music, particularly intense, explicit rap and rock and EDM music that, while it does get you amped, rock and EDM music that while it does get you amped, sometimes in a world where our allostatic load or our stress load is already extremely high, we don't need any more amping up. We're already amped. So maybe selecting something different there could be somewhat beneficial,

and I think it'd be worth looking into. So our last question comes from at Trevor Ottman. And he asks what my favorite cues are for teaching beginners to deadlift. And so I have a few things that I do when I teach somebody to deadlift. And the first is actually to teach them to squat. And a lot of people when I tell them that they're like, hey, coach, how do you teach the deadlift? Or what cues do you do? I get this question a lot. I go, well, have you taught your client how to squat? And they go, what? And I'm like, yeah, listen. So when it comes to training the lower body, we have two primary patterns, right? We have hip extension based movements or hip dominant movements primarily like our deadlifts and our hip thrusts. But we're talking specifically about a hip extension based movement that uses something called a hip hinge here.

So we'll break it down even further. We have our hip hinge movements that are hip dominant, like our deadlifts. And then we have our knee dominant movements, which are usually knee flexion dominant, like squats and lunges. And they're distinctly different mechanically. And you know this if you've been training for any considerable amount of time whether that's training yourself or training clients you know that squats and lunges elicit a more similar response to one another than do squats and deadlifts because they use different joints and they use different muscles the problem is a lot of people end up teaching the deadlift first and because people tend to do a little bit more knee flexion than they do properly performed hip extension and hip hinging, they end up squatting their deadlifts.

And so coaches end up in a situation where they're like, hmm, I have to unteach this person how to squat their deadlift. And what I like to do is teach them how to squat, teach them that first, and then say, okay, now that we have mastered that mechanic, or you've got a fundamental understanding of what makes this mechanic unique, allow me to teach you a different mechanic, which is the hip hinge. And I actually use my squat as a contrasting point when I teach this movement. And I say, hey, look, so when I squat, and my feet are maybe shoulder width to slightly outside shoulder width

with 10 to 15 degrees of external rotation, and I bend my knees, I keep my torso vertical, I'm really using my knees and my thighs, and you have felt that. When I taught you that, you felt that. But now I'm going to teach you how to hinge at your hips, which is a different movement entirely. And this is where

we teach the deadlift and we teach it from a platform of, hey, this is a completely different movement from the get-go. Instead of going, hey, I'm going to teach you the squat and then I'm going to teach you a movement that looks exactly like it, which is the deadlift, which is where most people get hung up. Because for a lot of trainers, they forget that they're coaching people with little to no athletic experience in many cases. A lot of your gen pop lifters are people who've never played a sport before. So it's not just that they don't know how to lift. It's that just general athletic ability, and I guess you might want to call it kinesthetic intelligence, is on the lower to kind of intermediate end and oftentimes at the novice level. So you want to make this as simple as possible. So teach them the distinct

differences and give them something to compare a deadlift to, but do it in a way that's eloquent and allows for clear, clear deviation between the squat and the deadlift. So once you've kind of established that, I actually, when I teach people how to hip hinge, I try to teach them on a kettlebell first or using a Romanian deadlift so that they understand, push the hips back, right? Load the glutes and hamstrings, keep the knees soft, feel that tension through the posterior chain. And it's usually easier to teach that from the top down, doing things like kettlebell or barbell Romanian deadlifts in place of putting them all the way down to the floor.

A big no-no is to never teach somebody how to deadlift without bumper plates if you're going to use a barbell. The reason for that is if you teach them how to deadlift a bar from the floor, they're going to be going down lower than they will ever have to go down using traditional plates. And the issue with that is they end up bending their knees too much to get down there. And they don't really truly ever hammer home like, hey, this hip hinge movement isn't quite a squat. So if you are going to teach someone from the ground up, always be sure that you're using bumper plates. That's really important. So once you've done all those things, one of the things that I think is really important

is to incorporate the finite and more nuanced stuff like breathing, bracing, and incorporation of the upper body and lats. So once I've taught somebody to go like, hey, you're hinging at the hips, you feel that in the glutes and hands, maybe we've got you from a kettlebell, Romania deadlift, all the way down to the floor, and I've set you up to deadlift, and I've got your shins nice and flush against the bar, and they're vertical. That's when I like to teach people to cue their lats or turn their lats on. Now, when people traditionally think of their lats, they think of pulling their shoulders back like in a cable row or pulling their arms down like in a lat pulldown.

But there's a problem with that. And the main problem is that when we are deadlifting and we have a bar in our hands, we can't really emulate those movements. So we emulate something called a straight arm pulldown, which is effectively just shoulder extension or pulling the arms back. And the easiest way to do this on a deadlift is to just keep the bar close to your shins, pull the bar into your body a little bit without obviously literally forcing the bar into your body in a painful manner and feel some isometric tension through the lats. And so what I have somebody do at the bottom of the deadlift, many coaches will say break the bar, bend the bar in half

because the lats also function to internally rotate. So you can get some cueing there, but I'll tell them, hey, pull the bar into your body a little bit and then pull your pinkies towards your back pockets. And if you're in the car right now, you can do that on the steering wheel and you'll feel it, but please don't do it on the steering wheel. It hurts yourself, but you will feel that. And then I will teach them the importance of breathing and bracing, which effectively is just creating tension or intra-abdominal

pressure throughout the portion of the lift where we're picking the weight off the ground. That's very hard to communicate via a podcast, but if you're sitting in the car and you put your tongue against the roof of your mouth and you try to exhale, one of the things you're going to feel immediately is tension through those core muscles that help stabilize your spine when you're picking something up off the ground. So that's what we're trying to capture there. And all of that stuff is really important. one more mistake that a lot of coaches do is they teach people to deadlift with a big tall chest because what happens is people start to squat their deadlift and they go okay chest up chest up but instead we want to teach more of a neutral rib cage we don't want our chest flared we want our chest more neutral so that we can kind of hold a pseudo crunched position, right? Because if we go into that big open chest, while we are,

of course, putting that lumbar spine into a more neutral position, right? What we end up doing, or a less neutral position, I should say, what we end up doing is we lose a lot of our abdominal strength because we stretch out our abs. So keeping a more neutral core is really, really important. So these are things that I've picked up along the way from some of the workshops that I've done with my buddies, Coach Eugene Teo, for example, or Jim Smitty from the CPPS. All that stuff has been a good time. And I've learned hands-on from them, and that's where a lot of these cues come from. Shout-out to those guys for making sure that I knew that.

But that's really how i teach the deadlift and i try to teach it slowly and i try to teach it in conjunction with other stuff so people have the ability to go hey look it's important for me to be sure that i know how to squat and then i know how to deadlift and then they are unique movements that I'm not going to just blend one right into another. So guys, there you have it. That basically ties everything up for today's Q&A episode. For everybody who listened, thank you again so much. I hope you guys are enjoying the podcast. I try to field questions and answer them that are unique so that we get to visit multiple topics all of the time. If you have a question for me, go ahead and head over to my Instagram bio, click the link, and you'll see a link there to submit a question,

specifically via email, which is really nice because you can submit them in greater detail, which I think always leads to better answers on my end, at least. But then again, I know you guys are all quite busy. So if you just want to help in the short term you can hit that subscribe button leave me a five-star rating or review or just share this to your instagram story thank you guys again so much i appreciate you all have a good day