There Are Two Types of Pain.

by Tom Furman

“There are two types of pain.

The pain that hurts.

The pain that alters.”

Robert McCall, The Equalizer

The mantra of, “No pain, no gain.” is widely misunderstood. It probably originated from the bowels of a west coast bodybuilding gym in the 70’s, but was quickly adopted by the aerobics bunnies of the 80’s. As if beating your head against the wall did something. It’s more about the type or the difference. The question the is often asked is, “Are you hurt or are you injured?” There is a difference.

In training and life, there is hardship. When mistakes or accidents happens, there is injury. Physical, mental, metaphorical. We, perhaps, understand the first and try to avoid the second. Avoiding the pain that hurts can be done by pursuing the pain that alters.

I remember years ago, in an article by Ellington Darden, PhD, a statement about Nautilus machines. “As the trainee gains strength, the muscle group is pulled or pushed into a great range of motion.” This would be the perfect situation. That when resistance training is used to strengthen the body, rather than to demonstrate strength for strength based sports, it should eventually create a stronger muscle over a greater range of motion. That flexibility increases only when your strength increases. This prevents a great range of motion without strength, a condition that could preclude you to injury.

Unfortunately, the old school Nautilus machines are hard to come by. As well, some of them, being cumbersome with chains and gears, had a lot of friction. The common solution is two fold. One is simply to rig weight training exercises to emphasize the end range of motion and the other is to use bands for specialized exercises that focus on flexibility and enhanced mobility.

I have no problem with movements such as Jefferson Curls or Cyclist Squats that are used properly and programmed with intelligence. However using bands is easy, economical and effective. Of course doing particular movements with the band exclusively and not weight training those muscles or movements is falling into an either/or fallacy.

Another benefit of doing such movements is that you can pump up the muscle and improve blood flow. This can potentially increase hypertrophy and localized muscular endurance. Chinese Olympic lifters do regular, full range, bodybuilding movements after their strength lifts. I have been told that they believe a good dose of hypertrophy benefits their lifting and performance.

The main thrust of using bands in extreme ranges of motion is in the prevention of injury. As well, it maintains a healthful range of motion which benefits quality of life and helps us resist aging. Injuries often occur in the muscle itself and not the connective tissue. I recall listening to a YouTube video of chiropractor, Beau Hightower mentioning that young gymnasts, when injured, will actually pull the tendon from the bone. This statement is interesting. A gymnastics coach might state that this is indicative of the extensive adaptation of the connective tissue to the developmental exercises employed in gymnastics. A counter argument could be made that they were young. If they enter puberty, the onset of testosterone will increase the muscle’s size and strength and possibly the nervous system’s ability to contract them. This might create more muscle injuries. Therefore the comparison of young gymnasts to adults might not be appropriate.

Louie Simmons and the Westside Barbell Club make extensive use of bands for Dynamic Effort Training. As well he emphasizes the use of bands to strengthen joints by using exercises such as curls, triceps extensions, leg curls and terminal knee extension. Power athletes in general use bands for “pull aparts” to offset the volume of bench pressing. Physical therapists and dance therapy specialists use Therabands regularly to address specific ranges of motion that have been injured and are weak.

The advantage of using bands over weights or cables is that they start out with less resistance and increase in resistance the further you stretch them. This might be a disadvantage in terms of limit strength, depending on the movement. However when exploring injured, weak or new ranges of motion, starting light and moving to more resistance errors on the side of safety. Bands are not subject to momentum like free weights, however, moving slowly versus explosively might have advantages. You are taking uncharted ranges of motion and exposing them to more time under tension and metabolic stress. The movements should not be short range, but rather full range and slow. 2–4 seconds concentrically and eccentrically.

Here are some possible motions. If attaching the band at the distal point irritates the joints, move more proximal. So for leg exercises, move from ankle attachment to above the knees.

1. Posterior Chain. The Jefferson Curl with bands
2. Lumbar Isolation. 45 degree hyperextension bench with bands loaded over the shoulders.
3. Hamstring. Supine, single leg, hamstring extension.
4. Calf. With a band looped over the foot, pronation, supination, plantar and dorsiflexion.
5. Quadriceps. Prone leg extension. Put a rolled towel or foam roll under hip crease. Attach bands past the head and attached to your ankles.
6. Adduction. Single legged, standing and holding onto a support for balance.
7. Abduction. Start with the leg across the body to build strength in the stretched position.
8. Horizontal Push. Best done in an incline bench. Use various angles as the upper arms move deeply into ranges not addressed by the bench press.
9. Upper Body Pull. Single arm in athletic stance. Opposite hand on the knee. Pull through the various ranges and get a good stretch as the upper arm crosses the front of the torso.
10. Deltoid. With lateral raises, start with the cable across the body and the hand at the opposite hip. With front raises, the upper arm starts behind the torso. With rear deltoid motions, the arm comes across the torso.
11. Upper Back. In addition to, “pull aparts”, do one arm motions with the upper arm completely across the torso.
12. Bicep. Arms should start behind the torso.
13. Triceps. Arms should start overhead.
14. Trapezius. Hold very heavy bands in, “Zercher”, style and do very slow shrugs.
15. Neck. Bands attached to head. Use light resistance and don’t force extreme ranges, but add strength slowly to a comfortable range of motion.
16. Hip Flexors. Supine knee pull. Place palms under the hips to reinforce a proper hip position and reduce the risk of low back issues.
17. Lateral Chain. The band is fixed near shoulder height, laterally. “Side bends” are done with the resistance being to the side rather than to the ground.
18. Upper Torso. Recline on a stability ball. Loop bands over the upper arms. Do a pullover from a stretched position.
19. Thoracic Spine Muscles. Sit on a milk crate with feet firmly planted. The band is anchored forward of you near the floor. Loop the band over your upper back. Flex forward, rounding your upper back and folding at the hips. Extend slowly and unfold. Those in grappling arts may wish to loop the band over the back of the head to stimulate the neck ex-tensors.

There are many more moves and they can be adapted to your weakness, injury or sport. Here are some guidelines to integrate them.

a. Do these movements as a type of specialized hypertrophy training after your strength movement.

b. Do them after the body part workout if you are into bodybuilder training.

c. Do them after the workout. Don’t weaken and tire an already weak area of your body before training.

d. Do 2–5 sets of 15–20 repetitions.

e. Move slowly. 2–4 second positive/concentric and 2–4 second negative/eccentric.

f. Don’t get aggressive the first few workouts. 100 reps of effort on your groin muscles might have you walking funny.

g. As you get stronger, move to a slightly greater range of motion.

h. Adaptation to weak areas, injured muscles and connective tissue is about months, not weeks.

i. This is about tension and pump, not about extreme effort. Your ego is not your amigo.

j. Don’t be surprised by being either very tight or very weak in certain areas. So this type of training can give us good evidence about our movement.

As with all tools. You may use this extensively, partially or not at all. It’s just another tool in the box.

For more personalized training, contact me at physicalstrategies@gmail.com