72: REWIND / Bill DeSimone Part 2

The InForm Fitness Podcast

Welcome to the InForm Fitness Podcast series REWIND, a listen back to the classic interviews we’ve had with the high intensity gurus & master trainers… names like Martin Gibala, Doug Brignole, Simon Shawcross, Jay Vincent, Ryan Hall & Doug McGuff.

Adam kicks off the series with biomechanics expert, author, weight lifter, and personal trainer Bill DeSimone. Bill penned the book Congruent Exercise: How To Make Weight Training Easier On Your Joints. Bill is well known for his approach to weight lifting which focuses on correct biomechanics to build strength without undue collateral damage to connective tissue and the rest of the body. In part 2 of 4, Bill talks about the importance of always using a safe limited range of motion.

Bill DeSimone Website

Optimalexercisenj.com

Bill DeSimone - Congruent Exercise

https://www.facebook.com/CongruentExercise

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Adam Zickerman – Power of 10: The Once-A-Week Slow Motion Fitness Revolution:

http://bit.ly/ThePowerofTen

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72: REWIND / Bill DeSimone Part 2 Transcript

Arlene 0:01
The Inform fitness podcast with Adam Zickerman is a presentation of inform fitness studios specializing in safe, efficient, personal high intensity strength training, in each episode Adam discusses the latest findings in the areas of exercise nutrition and recovery, the three pillars of his New York Times best selling book, The Power of 10. He aims to debunk the popular misconceptions and urban myths that are so prevalent in the fields of health and fitness. And with the opinions of leading experts and scientists, you'll hear scientific based up to the minute information on a variety of subjects. We cover the exercise protocols and techniques of Adoms 20 minute once a week workout, as well as sleep recovery, nutrition, the role of genetics in the response to exercise, and much more.

Adam 0:56
Greetings again, Adam here. Welcome to the inform fitness podcast rewind, our listen back to classic interviews with high intensity gurus, scientists, and authors. This is part two of four with author and personal trainer, and biomechanics expert Bill De Simone. Bill is certainly known for a sensible biomechanics approach to exercise and training, and that it should always be joint friendly. Bill and I are going to be talking about the importance of always using a safe and limited range of motion. Bill and I both agree that everyday life tests us and can in some cases, certainly push and extend our safe limits of range of motion, especially in sports. So later in the episode, we will be talking about should you be working out to extreme ranges of motion if your life or your sport asked for

Bill DeSimone 1:43
it. I'm saying limit range of motion because that might be the verbiage that we understand and maybe listeners would understand, it's really a lot more complicated than just saying use this range of motion. So for instance, in a low back exercise, a stiff legged deadlift, when I used to misinterpret that by using a full range of motion, I'd be standing on a bench with a barbell, and the barbell would be at shoe level, my knees would be locked, my lower back would be rounded, my shoulders would be up by my ears as I'm trying to get the bar off the ground. And so yes, I was using a full range of motion.

Adam 2:20
And I go to a chiropractor just listening to that. Exactly,

Bill DeSimone 2:23
yeah, but you still see it all the time. You see it all the time when people are using kettlebells. You see that exact posture, right? The kettlebells between their legs and knees are locked, the low back is rounded. And then now they're doing a speed lead, at least I was doing I'm slow. They're doing speed deadlifts. So if I was going to use it, if I was going to do an exercise like that, it would be a extreme range of motion, I would be looking use a correct range of motion. So for instance, I wouldn't lock the knees. And I would only lower the person's torso so that they could keep the curve in the lower back, which might require a rep or two to see where that is. But once you see where that is, that's what I would limit them to. So for instance, the chest press machine I have in the studio, so nitro and

Adam 3:05
Nautilus, nitro

Bill DeSimone 3:05
Nautilus Nitro, the seat doesn't adjust enough for my preference. So the bed hurt the person's elbows come too far back. So first is to get the first rep off the ground, the person's elbows have to come way by way behind the plane of their back. So what So what I'll do is like, you know, I'll help the person out of the first repetition help out of the bottom, and then I'll have you the my hand or the clipboard where I want their elbow to stop. So as soon as I touch my hand on my elbow, they begin the other way. So that's another thing we tend to do is we tend to think of everything in terms of the big superficial muscles, right?

Because those are the ones that rarely get hurt, right

It's those are the ones that don't get hurt. It's it's the joint set. That was one thing of all the stuff I read whether it was CSCS, or Darden stuff or Jones's stuff. There was always a little murkiness between what was the joint and what was the muscle, and then that stuff was always written from the point of view of the muscle, right? It

Adam 3:59
was a joint capsule. For those that don't know what a joint capsule is a shoulder capsule,

Bill DeSimone 4:04
it's part of the structure of what holds your shoulder together. If the old Nautilus machines, you know, 1980 vintage, that bragged about getting such an extreme range of motion. Some of them it really took your shoulder to the limit of where it could go to start the exercise. And we were encouraged to go that far. But the real problem is unnecessarily adding to life's wear and tear on your joints. So it's not just what we do in the gym that accounts for somebody who plays tennis or somebody has a desk job or a manual labor job and it constantly say, you know, a plumber or some other manual labor guy has to go over his head with his arms a lot that wear and tear on his shoulder counts. And just because they walk into your gym, and yes, my health history of any orthopedic problems, I say no. Yes, I'm on the verge of an orthopedic problem that I don't know about. And I've worn this joint out because of work. But no, I have no problems at the moment. You know, my thing is, my the exercise I'm prescribing isn't going to make that worse.

Adam 5:08
Well, you don't want it to make it worse. And well, and that's why you're limiting range of motion. That's why you're matching the strength curve of the muscle with resistance curve of the tool you're using, whether you're free weight or a machine where the cam

Bill DeSimone 5:21
right there was supposed to be doing this for the benefits of exerc...