Jinder Mahal & Drew McIntyre (BACK WORKOUT!)

WWE wrestlers Jinder Mahal and Drew McIntyre joined me in the gym recently for a light back workout prior to wrestling later in the evening. When you are an athlete, you cannot forgo your workout entirely in order to preserve energy for your sport. Athletes must learn how to train in-season but kn

JEFF: What’s up, guys? Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX. com. Looking damn small today. In between two behemoths here.

Jinder Mahal and Drew McIntire, WWE Superstars. Guys – Jinder’s been here before. JINDER: Yeah. JEFF: But today, we’re going to get after it a little bit more. JINDER: Yep.

JEFF: A little more of a back workout. Take them both through it. I’m going to try to give you guys some tips along the way. Even some of the more familiar exercises, I think guys sometimes screw them up. JINDER: Yeah, definitely.

JEFF: I think there’s always more to be had and you can squeeze that lemon a little bit more and get a little more out of every exercise. I’m hopefully going to do that with you guys today, and those guys watching. JINDER: Absolutely. And I hear – when it comes to weight – sometimes less is more. JEFF: Well, we’re going to- JINDER: That’s just my excuse.

JEFF: The thing is, honestly, these guys are – there’s nobody that has a harder schedule than these athletes right here. As a guy who worked in Major League Baseball I can tell you it’s a pretty grueling schedule. 162 games in about 180 days and I didn’t play. All I did was work it and it was hard for me. But you guys are on the road – how many days?

200 and something? JINDER: Yeah. 200. Year-round. No off season.

JEFF: There’s no off season. So honestly, sometimes what you do in this weight room does have to become a consideration. You can’t just come in here and try to set PRs every time you’re in the weight room thinking you’re going to be able to go out and perform. You’ll be able to figure out a way to make some bulk. JINDER: More technique, yeah.

JEFF: So, dropping down the weight and getting a little more out of what you do is going to go a long way for you guys. JINDER: Exactly. JEFF: So, let’s go knock this one out. You need to be able to get it far enough over to be able to work the back. So, you guys are both tall.

So that means your hips are going to have to go back. The taller you are, the more you’ve got to sit. I don’t have to sit nearly as far back. I could be right here, and I’m already bent over. JINDER: Yeah.

JEFF: You’ve got a lot more torso that’s got to get out of the way. So you’re leaning over. So you’re lifting this up. JINDER: A lot of these [inaudible 0:01:52], right? JEFF: Yeah.

One of the things about this exercise that’s kind of cool; if you were to do it in a drop set, just go through failure, all you have to change is the angle of your body. So, if I want to be here, I could be straight over, and this way here. Like that. Now I’m pulling the weight straight up against gravity. Which could be the hardest.

So, let’s say I get to the point where I’m fatigued, but I want to do a little bit more. I just come a little more upright. So now as I’m pulling in, I’m not really going straight against gravity anymore. I’m coming more at that angle. JINDER: Yeah.

JEFF: So, I cut a little bit of that out. Drew actually had a little bit more of a movement where he comes a little more in. Try, Drew, when you do this one, sit – you even have a longer torso than Jinder. So, sit way back. So, if you can, the bar is almost like a deadlift right up against your shins.

Now just stand up a little bit more. Stand. Drop the hips a little bit. Then give me four more. Go back, yeah.

Now pull from the same – there you go. See? when you cut the angle you can still keep going. DREW: Yeah. JEFF: So, it’s a good way to drop set and just push through.

DREW: Yep. JINDER: Is there anything to do while you go-? JEFF: Go wide? JINDER: Yeah. JEFF: The more travel you’re going to have is when you have your arms narrower.

JINDER: Yep. JEFF: Because they’re going to be longer. If you do this, it’s almost like doing it like that snatch grip. JINDER: Yep. JEFF: Deadlifts.

Your arms are shorter, so you can’t get as much pull. All right. So, the big thing here; don’t turn it into a tricep exercise. For you – and just feel how your shoulder feels because that’s key here. You want to flare the elbows.

So, make that flare, get this back, and now you’re pulling here. So, you move from there, to there. Do you feel it? JINDER: Yep. JEFF: So, it’s out, and you’re just shortening this from here, to there.

JINDER: So, I don’t need to go too, too low? JEFF: No. You could – if you go low, it’s because – open your chest up. Get to the bottom. Again, your shoulder, I always have – and I told you this – but you open the chest up, that drops it.

This is your lat. This is as far as your lats are going. JINDER: Yeah. JEFF: If you keep going lower, that’s just because you’re bending your elbows more. JINDER: Yep.

JEFF: But that’s as far as your lats are going. Get a little – get your elbows a little straighter. A little bit like that. There you go. But that’s it.

And you keep the tension on by stopping them about here. There we go. To there. If I let you come all the way up – come all the way to the top. JINDER: Yeah, that takes it off.

JEFF: There’s no tension there anymore. So, if you want to do it, you get it from here. Down, big stretch, to there. Out, and down. Try to not let those elbows extend at all.

Then the more you drop your hips down here, the more of a stretch on the ribcage because the lats actually attach down to the pelvis here, and they attach here at the arm. So, if my hips are dropped and my arm is back here, that’s as long as they can be. So, you get all that tension on your lats on every rep. Now go. Feel?

You’ve run out of room. DREW: Yep. JEFF: You’ve just stretched that out even more. See, these are long? But the elbows aren’t – the triceps aren’t pulling this.

It’s all lats. The straight arm pullover. He stops it at the right angle, hips are dropped down. JINDER: His arm position doesn’t change. JEFF: No.

It’s all right there. Feel it? The biggest difference is that you – then there’s no extra stretch or separation from the pelvis to there. DREW: Now I feel it is [inaudible 0:05:28]? JEFF: You feel it a little more?

DREW: Yeah, I just feel like a dumbass. Now that I’m doing it this way, [inaudible 0:05:31]. JEFF: It depends on what you’re really trying to train. If you’re trying to get more lats you’ve got to stay upright more. JINDER: Yeah.

JEFF: If you’re trying to get a little more of the midback with the row, then you just recline back. The key is, the chest should go out every time you pull back. That’s the main key. As you pull back, the chest – force it the other direction. Now, as you come down, open this.

Spread it. You feel that? JINDER: Yeah. JEFF: You should come up as your arms are going back. There you go.

Yeah. So, as you go down, spread it open. Stick the chest out, up toward the sky. It’s like opposite direction. There you go.

Opposite directions. You’re coming down, chest is going up. This level of focused work? JINDER: Yeah. JEFF: It makes a lighter weight heavier.

Your body really, truly doesn’t know what that weight is. It never does. It just- DREW: I didn’t even look. It feels the same. JEFF: Yeah.

I can guarantee you, it’s less. So, you get in here, this way. Then you just lean, and then you pull straight down. So, you’re going almost – it’s almost like a pulldown, but you’re going right in at that angle. So, the cool thing about that is, as I was asking about your shoulder, you’re actually getting an overhead movement here without having to have your arms overhead.

JINDER: Yeah. JEFF: So, if you ever get in the position where it hurts to get your arms up overhead, just because they’re sore from whatever, you just change your body position in space, as opposed to your arms. Then you’re able to do the