by Matt Kroczaleski – 12/13/2011

I've been lifting weights for a long time and have been fortunate enough to put up some respectable numbers. While I credit much of my success to being disciplined, hard working, and goal focused, I've also benefited from some awesome training partners.

An interesting thing about very strong lifters: not only are they usually among the nicest, most generous people you'll ever meet (provided you don't ask them for directions to the cardio theater during a heavy set), they often have, to put it delicately, a bit of the crazy in them.

And some of the most insane "this guy really should be locked up for his own good" craziness comes out during training sessions.

I could fill a book with the mind-blowing things I've witnessed while training. Along with ridiculous weights being tossed around, there have been countless bent barbells, shattered benches, broken dumbbells, and of course, a seemingly endless series of torn muscles, snapped tendons, even fractured bones.

Yet amidst all this blood and carnage are often powerful lessons about true strength – the strength of human character.

The first story takes place six or seven years ago in my old two-car garage gym. I was training with two friends who were fairly accomplished powerlifters, along with a former Olympic female cyclist who was making the transition to powerlifting. She was a very experienced athlete and an incredibly strong woman, but was in no way prepared for what occurred that day.

My training partner Ken was a 198-pound Master's lifter who had been competing at a high level in powerlifting since the 1980s. Even though he was in his mid forties, he was still getting stronger and moving the biggest weights of his life.

We were squatting that day and Ken had worked up to around 700 pounds – which for a 198-pound Master's lifter was impressive. He wanted to go for a 715-pound PR, but I knew he had more in him. I got in his head and pushed him to take 735, which of course he did.

Ken's 735-pound attempt started out fine, but as he started his descent he felt a crushing sensation in his spine just below where the barbell rested on his back. He let out an excruciating groan, but somehow managed to lean forward enough to get the barbell back into the racks before crumpling to the gym floor in a sweaty heap.

We were speechless. Ken lay motionless under the rack for what seemed like an eternity before his upper back suddenly went into a violent spasm. "I crushed my spine!" he screamed, "You need to call 911!"

I snapped back to attention. I asked Ken to move his arms and legs to ensure he wasn't paralyzed. He was able to do so. A wave of relief washed over me and although Ken was still in crippling pain, I was able to relax.

Now here's a point you have to consider: because none of us are right in the head by any standard, we view injuries, even severe ones, as part of the game and as a source of amusement.

This mentality is almost a prerequisite to being a successful powerlifter or strong man. The things that freak out most sane individuals we find hilarious. It's borderline crazy, but you have to be a bit crazy to willingly subject your body to the type of abuse that the sport requires on a daily basis to achieve a high level of success.

So Ken's lying on the floor moaning and unable to move, and my other training partner Chad and I burst out laughing. I hand the Olympic cyclist my cell phone and tell her to call 911. Her eyes are wide and she has this look of utter disbelief on her face. She then slowly backs into the corner of the gym and dials the phone.

Now that Ken has figured out that he's not paralyzed, his main concern switches to getting his new squat suit off before the paramedics arrive so they won't cut it off and ruin the suit.

In between stifled giggles and all out laughter, Chad and I drag Ken over to the bench and bend him over it face down while we attempt to extricate him from the suit without causing him too much agony in the process.

What made this surreal scene a memorable one was that it happened on a sunny Sunday afternoon in the middle of summer. We had the garage door wide open and my driveway faced my neighbors' houses.

I can only imagine what the neighbors thought as two bigger guys (Chad is 6'2" and weighs over 300 pounds) seemingly pinned a smaller, moaning guy face down and stripped him of his clothes.

By the time the paramedics arrived we'd successfully removed Ken's squat suit and briefs. As they put a neck brace on him and strapped him to a backboard, I grabbed my video camera and started filming the scene with Chad and I laughing in the background.

At one point one of the paramedics looked at me with a confused expression and asked, "You're not filming this are you?"

"Of course not, I'd never do that," I responded, but continued to film everything without missing a beat.

Once Ken had been successfully loaded into the ambulance, Chad and I returned to squatting. Throughout this entire ordeal our Olympic cyclist friend remained in the corner and never uttered another word. She never returned to train with us again.

As for Ken, he did indeed suffer a compression fracture of the thoracic vertebrae (or crushed spine as he eloquently put it). However he would return to training a few months later and went on to squat even bigger weights.

A couple years later in the same garage gym, another new addition to our training crew was preparing to try for a raw bench PR. This was a bench training session and that day it was Chad, Mark (another 300-poundish powerlifter), the New Guy, and myself.

New Guy had been training with us for a couple months and had been making good progress. That day he was hoping to hit a raw bench in the low 400s. His warm-ups went well and he seemed to be in good shape to hit a PR. Before going for an all-out single, I had him take a weight that I figured to be about 95% of his absolute max.

The bar was loaded to just under 400 pounds and he unracked the weight in preparation to lower it to his chest. Just as he unlocked his elbows, his left triceps tendon tore and the weight came crashing down.

It got worse. Once New Guy's left triceps tendon ruptured, all the weight transferred to his right arm, causing his right pec to tear simultaneously. It sounded like a pair of blue jeans being ripped in half.

Chad, Mark, and I all froze for a split second before lifting the barbell from New Guy's chest, but it wasn't the torn muscles and tendons that shocked us.

Instead, it was the most girlish, ear-piercing scream that any of us had ever heard that exited from New Guy's lips as the weight landed on his chest. It was so shrill and high-pitched that any tantrum throwing six-year-old girl would've been envious. It honestly didn't seem possible that it could've come from our new friend, but it had.

Once the bar was racked and New Guy was helped up from the bench we attempted to calm him down. He was completely freaked out and understandably so, but the rest of us were quite used to this sort of thing, having been around the sport for a while.

I told New Guy that it was only a torn triceps; no big deal, and that after having surgery he'd be good as new. I even persuaded him to drive himself to the hospital so that the three of us could finish our bench training.

After we watched him fumble into his car and drive out of sight, all three of us just looked at each other in silence before Mark said what we were all thinking: "Did you hear that scream?"

Throughout the rest of the day's bench session we laughed about the incident and New Guy's reaction and discussed how we thought this might affect his lifting future. I was certain that after surgery New Guy would be right back in the gym hitting it hard, but Mark and Chad were convinced that he'd never train with us again.

As it turned out Mark and Chad were right. While New Guy would eventually return to the gym, he never really trained heavy again and never again with us. That incident had affected him psychologically in a way that he'd never overcome.

Now, many of you reading this might think that my training partners and I are some of the most cruel, insensitive people walking the planet. Not so. We truly wanted the best for our friends, but had it been the other way around and we were the ones on our way to the hospital, our reactions wouldn't have been different.

What's important though is the different reactions to a similar situation. One lifter came back quickly after a crushed vertebra and went on to be better than ever, while another never trained heavy again.

Over my lifting career I've witnessed both these scenarios more times than I can count. The difference between them isn't the severity of the injury but the attitude each lifter chose to adopt after suffering the injury.

This dichotomy of reactions can be seen in many types of setbacks. Failures in careers, investments, even in relationships all fit this model.

For every difficult or devastating situation that you can imagine in life, you can find one individual that's been destroyed by it, and another that's been strengthened by it.

The difference between the two lies within the attitude of the individual. The best part about this is it's also a choice. Those that choose to believe in themselves and their ability to overcome adversity are the same people who will rise to the top regardless of the situation.

On the other hand, those that choose to believe otherwise will never overcome any type of adversity in their lives. Instead, they'll complain about "bad luck" or "bad genetics" or "always getting the short end of the stick" yet do nothing to actively change their own fortune.

I suspect that each of you reading this has come across both these types of people in your own life. My question is, which type of person have you chosen to be?

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Tags: Garage, Gruesome, Tales

“Isometrically training the rectus is consistent with its architecture and stabilizing function to enhance performance and power development in the hips and extremities.” – Dr. Stuart McGill

As a member of SWCC, a Naval Special Operations Force specializing in maritime warfare on small boats, I spent a substantial amount of time on a craft known as an 11-meter RIB. The RIB is an eight-ton, thousand-horsepower jet boat with a steeply angled Kevlar hull capable of speeds around fifty miles per hour.

This is all peachy when you’re on a nice flat bay, but when the boat is going airborne over open ocean waves while you’re wearing body armor, small weapons, ammunition, and a helmet with night-vision goggles, it’s pretty damn rough on the body.

This is going to hurt!

The best analogy I can come up with to describe it would be if you were to ride in the bed of a dump truck while racing down a bumpy road, partially blindfolded with a toaster strapped to the top of your head and an extra fifty pounds or so of awkward gear on your body. Every three to eight seconds, the bed of the dump truck is going to lift completely up and then violently and unexpectedly slam back down while rolling 45 degrees to either side. It’s like being in a car crash several hundred times in a night.

These impacts can reach 20 g’s and literally break bones. They’re rough on every joint in the body and the spine is particularly vulnerable. Shattered vertebrae were not unheard of.

This meant that when it came to physical training, optimal joint alignment and function was crucial, particularly for the spine. Nothing we did was for solely cosmetic reasons, although we developed lean and muscular bodies as a byproduct. We wanted to make it through deployments without broken backs and be able to do our jobs.

Abs trained for spinal stability look as strong as they function

This required a different approach than what most of the civilian world (and the military as well) did when it came to training the anterior core, which you probably refer to as your abs. As it turns out, this approach also works tremendously well for athletes and civilians who train primarily to look good naked.

When it comes to training the abs and the body as whole for visual appearance, it’s important that one develop the entire anterior core and not just the rectus abdominis, which is the primary muscle involved in situps, planks, and crunches. This approach will create a tight, well-balanced midsection with visually striking obliques, along with the sought after six pack.

The other consideration when it comes to visual appearance (as well as spinal stability) is posture. It’s been well established by researchers such as Harvard’s Dr. Dana Carney that an open, upright posture is crucial to creating the appearance of social dominance, also known as “the guy girls want to sleep with.”

For this to happen, the spine must be as erect (no pun intended) as possible, the chest held high, and the shoulders pulled confidently back.

The downside to movements like crunches is that they repeatedly flex the spine forward and pull the ribcage closer to the pelvis. This reinforces the exact opposite of open, tall posture. Movements like situps can also have a negative effect by tightening the hip flexors and pulling the pelvis into anterior tilt, which leads to excessive spinal curvature and a visually shortened, hunched over spine. Not many people think of hunchbacks when they’re trying to imagine a sexy body.

The Hunchback of Notre-Dame did sit-ups and he wasn’t so popular with the girls!

The joints of the body function along a continuum. Much like a bullwhip, a mobile section is anchored to a stable section that is capable of transmitting force without absorbing it.

The small sonic boom produced by cracking a bullwhip is possible because the handle is completely rigid and the whip becomes increasingly mobile down its length, all the way to a soft, pliable tip.

The spine functions similarly. The lower facets of the lumbar spine are meant for rigidity; they allow only a small range of motion.

As you move up from the lumbars into the thoracic section of the spine, the facets become increasingly mobile, just as a bullwhip becomes more mobile the further away from the handle you go:

Training the abs with spinal flexion movements such as crunches reverses this continuum. These movements loosen the lumbar spine and diminish the mobility of the upper spine. Therefore, we stay away from any kind of movement involving spinal flexion, and the majority of our ab work also avoids hip flexion.

As Dr. Stuart McGill has famously illustrated in his books and lectures, the role of the anterior core is to provide stability to the lumbar spine and transmit force. It serves to prevent undesirable motion, be it rotational, extension, or lateral flexion-based. To paraphrase Dr. McGill, if the rectus abdominis (the six-pack muscle) was primarily intended to flex the spine, it would look like a giant hamstring muscle.

Hip flexion, the action of drawing the knee towards the chest, is a crucial part of athletic movement, and many people in particular need to strengthen hip flexion with the knee above 90 degrees of flexion.

In many athletes, a combination of immobility in the hips and lack of strength in certain hip flexors causes the lumbar spine to buckle (posterior pelvic tilt) during activities like sprinting or exercises like hanging leg raises. This leads to impaired stride mechanics and a weak spine.

With this in mind, we do specifically train hip flexion, primarily with exercises like wall march iso drills, mountain climbers, or dead bugs, which train ab/glute co-contraction and unilateral hip flexion. In this way, the athlete learns to separate hip flexion from spinal flexion and maintain the structural integrity of the spine.

These are well known by now in most circles and we still use them quite a bit. When in the plank, ensure that the spine is in a neutral, straight line. You should be able to set a broomstick on the athlete’s back and have it touch their upper back, sacrum, and head. Do not allow the lumbar spine to sag into extension.

A common variation is the “RKC Plank” in which you actively contract the glutes and place the elbows close together and further out in front of you than normal.

With the side plank, pay attention to the hips to ensure that they are not flexed during the hold. Firing of the glutes will help to ensure that the hips are extended.

This movement (and most like it) is generally attributed to the physical therapist named John Pallof who popularized them.  I often drop the Pallof part out of the name, mostly because I can never remember how to spell it right.

Most of these movements are held for isometrics of between five and thirty seconds. We do them with a partner pulling on a band, although a cable machine works fine if you’re training by yourself. Rather than talking and destabilizing your spine by exhaling too much, just nod your head to indicate to your partner that he is pulling with enough tension.

The tall kneeling press can also be performed with a split stance to help train ab/glute co-contraction and stretch the hip flexor and is advisable for people who have a hard time keeping their lumber spine from extending with both knees down.

These are also often done as a press in which the hands are drawn towards the chest and then pressed fully away at intervals. By changing the leverage in this way, you get less resistance with the hands close to the chest and can break a 30-second iso into smaller segments. Try a 30-second bout, with three 10-second holds at the fully extended position and the hands brought briefly back to the chest in between.

We generally only perform this one with a split stance. The potential benefits of performing it with both knees down seldom outweigh the chances of hyperextending the lumbar spine and promoting poor movement patterns. Ensure that the spine is neutral at all times and pay attention to the shoulders. They should be positioned overhead, tucked slightly forward, and the scapulae should be retracted and depressed the entire time.

This is performed with the resistance coming from the same side as the forward leg and with a split stance only. The scapulae need to be set down and back with the sternum high. Grip the band with the hand opposite to the resistance side and set the hands directly on top of the skull. Ensure that the lumbar spine is neutral. Many people who lack mobility in their thoracic spines and shoulders will arch their lower backs in order to maintain upright posture, so pay attention to the lumbar curve.

This variation adds an anti-rotation component to the traditional plank, which normally is solely an anti-extension movement. The hips must be kept flat and the glutes should be braced throughout the movement. We typically switch arms every five seconds for 20-second bouts, although we have worked up to switches every twenty seconds for 80-second bouts.

Years ago, I was talking with Pavel Tsatsouline about drills specifically for military guys working on small boats, and he showed me this drill. It’s a highly effective method for training spinal stabilization and the ability to mitigate impact. Pick your partner up by the feet, shake them slightly so that he can’t predict which foot will be dropping, and let go of one foot. Your partner should be able to maintain a neutral, tightly braced spine and keep both feet at least close to level. Pay attention to the shoulder blades. You’ll find greater stiffness and strength if the scaps are locked down and in, and the lats are tightly braced.

This exercise can also be performed from the pushup position, in which case the glutes must be solidly braced and the abs functioning to prevent extension at the spine. Tension in the lats plays a crucial role here as well.

These can be performed from rings or a pullup bar. A neutral grip bar allows for the best leverage. Here, the ability to generate full body tension is crucial, and the abs must brace powerfully to prevent extension at the lumbar spine. You can ease your way into it by bending one leg in order to decrease the resistance. If you do so, make sure that you contract the glute on the extended leg and keep your spine neutral.

Plate slides require both an anti-extension and anti-rotation effect from the abs. The glutes should be locked out in order to keep the pelvis from tilting in the anterior direction. We use 2.5 pound plates and move them every five seconds in order to allow the athlete to reset into the pushup position between each slide.

This drill places substantial demand on the gluteus medius while the core musculature must work to prevent lateral flexion. Keep the heel of the top foot at least as high as the toes in order to ensure that the athlete isn’t externally rotating the hip and moving from the hip flexors instead of using the gluteus medius to abduct the hip.

By understanding the function of the anterior core and spine, you’ve got a wide variety of options for training your abs to improve both appearance and performance. You have no reason to do situps or crunches ever again….and your spine will thank you.

Written by Craig Weller

Discuss, comment or ask a question

If you have a comment, question or would like to discuss anything raised in this article, please do so in the following discussion thread on the Wannabebig Forums - Situps Are Dead discussion thread.

About Craig Weller

Craig spent six years as a member of a Naval Special Operations Force known as SWCC, the Special Warfare Combatant Crewmen.

The methods which result from this training philosophy are designed to deliver maximal results with improvised or non-existent equipment in as little time as possible for men whose lives depend on their physical abilities.

This passion for showing others the path to a stronger, healthier body stayed with Craig and led to the founding of Barefoot Fitness with facilities in South Dakota and Denver.

You can keep up with his training methods on Facebook.

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Tags: Situps

by Ben Bruno – 10/19/2011 

Many lifters avoid front squats like a lifetime subscription to the Oprah Winfrey Network. That's a downright shame because not only are "fronts" an awesome exercise, they're really quite user-friendly, once you get the hang of them.

Like most things that "suck" at first or are difficult or uncomfortable, front squats deliver superior results. EMG data shows higher muscle activation in the vastus lateralis and rectus femoris as compared to the back squat, with similar muscle activation in the vastus medialis, suggesting that front squatting is a great way to build massive quads.

Front squats also keep you honest. If you cheat, you drop the bar, simple as that. For this reason, many strength coaches consider the front squat to be a better lower body strength test than the mighty back squat. It also creates a built-in safety mechanism.

On the topic of safety, having the bar loaded anteriorly forces you to keep a more upright torso, thereby reducing spinal shear and making it more low back-friendly. Similarly, biomechanical analysis shows that there are less compressive forces on the knee during a front squat as compared to a back squat.

When the rubber hits the road, the biggest knock on front squats is simply that they're hard and can be uncomfortable at first, which is a terrible excuse when you consider weight training is supposed to be at least a somewhat masculine endeavor.

But front squats are worth the temporary discomfort. This article will give you five tips and drills that you can try today to help you front squat more effectively and take your training to the next level.

First things first – you've got to figure out how you're going to hold the weight.

Assuming you have the requisite upper body flexibility to use the clean grip, that's your best bet. It's very secure and will have the most carryover to the Olympic lifts (if you're into performing them).

Unfortunately, not everyone will be able to get into this position without putting undue stress on the wrists. If you fall into this camp, don't force it. Definitely work on your flexibility (giving special attention to the wrists, shoulders, lats, and triceps), but use a different grip in the interim.

The cross-arm grip is another popular option and is what I used for years when I started out. While it worked well for the most part, I found that as the weights got heavier, I had a hard time keeping my elbows up, which led to me rounding my upper back and having the bar slide forward off my shoulders.

Behold, the best of both worlds – the modified clean grip using wrist straps, an idea I picked up from Charles Poliquin and Mike Boyle.

Loop the straps around the bar where the knurling meets the smooth to create a set of handles. I like to fold the straps in half first so there isn't much slack and I've something thicker to hold on to. (See figure below.)

This method is great because there's no stress on the wrists and it's easy to keep your elbows up. I was resistant to trying it for a while because I worried that the straps would slip under heavy loads, but that hasn't been a problem at all.

The fact is, I've found that I can actually use more weight than I could when using the cross-arm grip. This is definitely one of my favorites and something I highly recommend.

My other favorite is using the safety squat bar. Simply turn the bar upside down and backwards from how you'd use it for back squats so that the yoke is facing behind you and the camber on the ends of the bar is angled down and back.

I like this version for several reasons:

If you hold it correctly, there should be about a half-inch space between the yoke and your throat. This makes it easier to breathe and you don't get choked out like you do with a barbell.The yoke helps to keep the bar from sliding off your shoulders.The padding is more comfortable and forgiving on the shoulders, and could be particularly useful for people with AC joint problems who can't tolerate the direct pressure of the barbell.Because the camber bends back and down, it helps to keep your weight back on your heels as you squat, which in turn helps you stay more upright.It allows you to use higher rep ranges. I've done 20-rep sets with no problems.

Unfortunately, not many gyms have a safety-squat bar, but if you do, it's worth a try.

Once you have the grip figured out, it's time to move on to the squat itself.

Typical coaching usually revolves around a set of generic cues. You've probably heard a lot of them – "elbows up," "knees out," "spread the floor," etc. These cues can be great reminders if you have someone there watching you, but if you're on your own, it can be too much to process at once.

Instead, I'd prefer to give you some drills that will get you to do all the right things reflexively without over-thinking it.

I've seen this one called many different things but whatever you choose to call it, it works.

Put your hands together like you're praying, squat down to the bottom position with your weight on your heels and push your knees out with your elbows, keeping your chest up and your back arched.

Now hold it.

How long? It really depends. Do it until you can do it really well. If you can't, well, then you better be doing it all the time and supplementing it with some of the mobility drills in this article.

You really can't overdo it; the more the better. When I was first trying to master the squat, I would post up in this position for minutes on end while I was reading, watching TV, whatever. Laugh all you want, but it helped.

The beauty of this one lies in its simplicity. It functions as a screen (if you can't get into the proper position with your own bodyweight, then you have no business doing heavy squatting until you can), a mobility drill, and a teaching tool all in one, making it extremely versatile and efficient.

As a teaching tool, it's great because it reinforces the idea of pushing your knees out and allows you to experience what it should feel like in the hole. Most lifters – coaches included – think they're going much lower than they really are, as evidenced by all the ridiculously high squats you see in gyms.

I'll never forget the first time I filmed myself squatting (if you've never done it, I highly recommend it). I'd always squatted in front of a mirror, and they looked pretty good from the front – to me anyway. After watching them on film, it was eye-opening to see that the squats I had thought were deep were really quarter squats at best.

Don't be that guy. Learn from my mistake and save yourself the embarrassment.

Get used to sitting in the bottom of the prayer squat until it becomes second nature. You'll develop some great mobility in the process, killing two birds with one stone.

Don't worry, you don't have to do it forever. Once you master this drill, you really won't need to do it a lot except for perhaps as part of a quick warm-up, and you'll be able to maintain your mobility by squatting through a full range of motion. Until then, make this one your best friend.

This probably isn't the box method you're thinking of. It's common practice to use the box squat – where you sit back onto a box – to teach the squat, using a progressively lower box until the trainee can squat below parallel.

This sounds good in theory, and I have no qualms with the box squat as an exercise, but I don't like it as a teaching tool for the free deep squat. I think it's a fundamentally different movement pattern and doesn't translate very well.

The box squat is much more hip dominant and is typically done with a vertical (or almost vertical) tibia. The front squat, on the other hand, is much more of a knee dominant movement where the knees travel further out over the toes. The box squat teaches you to "sit back," whereas with the deep squat you need to think more about sitting down between your feet.

To help groove this pattern, I like to use the box in a different way, using a tweak of something I picked up from Dante Trudel, the creator of DC Training.

Stand in front of a mirror in your typical squat stance with a heavy box in between your feet (the box should be almost the same width as your stance).

Now pick it up, watching yourself in the mirror the whole time and making sure to keep your heels on the floor. That's it.

I love this drill because it essentially teaches itself. If you successfully pick up the box, then you've just figured out how to squat. You'll have to push your knees out to make space to grab the box, and by looking at yourself in the mirror, you'll ensure that your chest stays up.

Furthermore, it helps program proper sequencing in the hips and knees, which is essential to squatting well. Ideally you want to initiate the movement with a slight break at the hips (pushing your butt back) followed closely by a break at the knees. Many lifters struggle with this sequence and break from the knees first, which leads to weak squats as well as knee and back pain.

Putting a box between your feet automatically fixes this issue because you'll quickly find that you must push the hips back slightly first before descending or else you won't be able to get low enough to pick up the box without rounding the back.

Get up from your computer right now and give it a try. You may be surprised how quickly it clears things up!

I hear the collective groans and snickers already. Did he really just use the S word?

I'm not a fan of the Smith machine and think it ranks right up there alongside the Shake Weight and the Ab Solo for the "Most Useless Gym Equipment" award. I'm especially not a fan of it for heavy squatting because it takes away the need for stabilization and locks you into an unnatural movement pattern.

That said, I do think it can be effectively used as a teaching tool, albeit unloaded, to help teach and ingrain good technique, especially for those with a tendency to fold forward. Sometimes this issue is due to a mobility restriction, and sometimes it's simply a form flaw. The Smith machine can help with both.

Set up just as you would for a regular front squat using your grip of choice, only with your feet about a foot out in front of you, and start squatting as normal.

You won't have to worry about the bar sliding off the shoulders so you can focus on squatting correctly. Moreover, since the bar is on a fixed track, you literally can't bend forward, thereby reinforcing the idea of keeping an upright torso.

Having the feet out in front will make it significantly easier to squat to proper depth, allowing you to practice moving through a full range of motion. It also helps loosen the hips and ankles, making it function as both a technique drill and a dynamic mobility exercise.

As your mobility improves and the movement feels more natural, move your feet in closer until they're underneath your body in a normal squatting stance. At this point, you'll be amazed how much better your squat looks in a short amount of time.

Now go back to the barbell and forget the Smith machine ever existed.

Once you're comfortable with the drills above, the hands-free front squat is a great way to put everything together. I got this one from Mike Boyle and it works well for getting comfortable with bar placement.

The key here is getting the bar in the right groove in your deltoids so your wrists and hands don't have to do much work. Going hands-free makes it easy to find that sweet spot because otherwise you'll dump the bar. It also teaches you very quickly to keep your elbows high so the bar doesn't roll forward on you. If you can learn all that without the use of your hands, it will feel much more secure when you grip the bar again.

It's also useful for advanced lifters to use from time to time just to reinforce good technique. I still use it a lot during my warm-up sets with moderate weights to dial in my form before the heavier work.

Hopefully this article has addressed any issues you might have with front squats and perhaps even given you some ideas for improving your own. Regardless, I feel better knowing that I've done my part to help rescue the much-maligned front squat from the bodybuilding dog house.

If front squats leave you frustrated and sore in all the wrong places, try using some of the tips mentioned here for a month. I may just make a believer out of you too.

Gullett, Jonathan C; Tillman, Mark D; Gutierrez, Gregory M; Chow, John W. A Biomechanical Comparison of Back and Front Squats in Healthy Trained Individuals. Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research: January 2009 - Volume 23 - Issue 1 - pp 284-292.

Russell PJ, Phillips SJ. A preliminary comparison of front and back squat exercises. Res Q Exerc Sport. 1989 Sep;60(3):201-8

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Tags: Easier, Front, Squats

Strength coach Charles Poliquin introduced T Nation readers to many strength-training tenets like squatting past parallel, body part splits, and the value of compound lifts.

One of his more radical ideas was doing snatch grip deadlifts from a 4" podium. He loved this exercise, saying it was among the best for putting on mass, fast. Sadly, with the advent of maintaining a neutral spine, this exercise has been snatched from existence.

Many coaches opt for safer, shorter ROM deadlift variations, especially when working with populations sporting the posterior chain mobility of a crowbar. But not having the mobility now doesn't mean you won't have it in the future. You just have to put in extra time if you want to do one of the most underrated exercises in barbell history.

If getting "walking-like-you-have-Sidney-Crosby's-Olympic-Gold-winning-hockey-stick-up-your-ass" syndrome after a heavy session of snatch grip deadlifts isn't enough proof that they "work," here are some other reasons to do the exercise:

Olympic weightlifters have very impressive back development. Outside of pulling from the floor with insane frequency, one thing they do that most others don't is pull with a snatch grip. So if band pull aparts aren't exploding your posterior delts and upper traps as planned, consider adding this lift into your program.

Conventional deadlifting is known for developing a muscular back more than it is for developing muscular legs. This is because, all things considered, the lift doesn't require a lot of range of motion in the hips and knees.

Even though you're not lifting as much weight when you use the snatch grip, it's more of a leg exercise because of the starting position depth. Your hamstrings and glutes gets stretched considerably more, and this is what packs on the size.

The deadlift, for all practical purposes, is like a half-squat. There's nothing "normal" about the height of forty-five pound plates, they're that size because of tradition. To increase ROM, many lifters will pull from a deficit.

The snatch grip deadlift is essentially a deficit pull because the wide grip forces you to get deeper in the starting position. You can now stop balancing on stacked plates like a jackass.

I've researched vertical jump training thoroughly to prepare my athletes that go onto combine-esque tests. Although journal articles are insightful, nothing compares to analyzing video footage of people attempting vertical jumps.

I'm looking at two stills taken from YouTube. The quality is too crappy to post here, so take my word for it. Both shots show jumpers stopped in the amortization phase of a vertical jump.

The guy on the left boasts a 30" vertical. Honestly, with the setup he's using, I doubt it, but for the sake of conversation, let's say he's telling the truth. The dude on the right boasts a near 50" vertical. Since that's very high, I'm going to bump it down to 40" to account for YouTube inflation.

We're left with a 10" difference. Apart from the guy on the right being noticeably more muscular, they have dramatically different body positions. The guy with the higher vertical is relying much more on hip extension, which equates to more glute and posterior chain use. The other guy is all quads and calves.

Although there are probably many reasons why the one is jumping higher, his body position isn't hurting him. And strangely enough, it's a position that resembles the beginning of a snatch grip deadlift.

Many who try snatch grip deadlifts get as far as the first set and never to do them again because gripping the barbell mangled their hands into a pseudo-cramped claw. But this lift isn't meant to be grip work, so don't fret.

Most Olympic weightlifters use straps in training and the hook grip in competition to save their hands. The hook grip is a gripping technique where your fingers wrap around the thumb instead of the traditional thumbs-atop-fingers monkey grip. But it's not really meant to be done for long duration sets, and is much more of a "singles" friendly technique.

If you're serious about the snatch grip deadlift but want to save your hands, you're going to need straps. Forgo them on the warm-up sets, however, and save them for the work sets.

In the Olympic weightlifting world, it's customary to setup and start with the shoulders behind the bar so that the quads help the initial push from the floor.

But since we're not Olympic weightlifters, I prefer to use the pulling mechanics that most heavy deadlifters abide by: shoulder blades directly above the bar, and the bar kept close to the body (scraping the skin off of the shins).

Having a form breakdown during the snatch grip deadlift is about as easy as a guy having an affinity for Jamie Eason. Since the wider grip stresses the upper back, it needs to stay rigid to keep the system intact. But the upper back is a mixture of many smaller muscles, and it's not nearly as strong as we'd like it to be. When it fails, the shoulders round over and the lower back soon follows.

Because of this, I prefer "mastering" an easy weight to ease the upper back into the lift. This means volume is added before weight. If you deadlift anything above 350 pounds, a good starting point is 225 pounds for five repetitions. Yes, this will feel "easy," but it's necessary to prepare for higher intensities down the line.

Weight on the bar should only be ramped up after you've solidified the mobility to use maximum grip width, and have built the upper back tolerance for it.

Before I go further, this article is about snatch grip deadlifts from the floor. Most lifters have enough trouble keeping the back in a good position without the extra height a podium offers. If you toy around with this lift for a while, however, and decide you want to kick it up a notch, feel free to pull from a deficit. At that point you should know whether your back can take it.

Since we're easing into this exercise, it's perfect for a "light" lower body day (or light deadlifting day). You can also incorporate it into your conventional deadlifting warm ups. Again, if you're handling anything above 350 pounds, do your warm ups up to 225 pounds with a snatch grip. The extra range of motion will make your conventional pulls feel easier.

Let's start at the beginning: "Where should I grip the bar?"

When people think of taking a "snatch grip," they envision grabbing the bar from collar to collar. But the widest grip I advise (and this is for tall folk) is with the index finger just outside the last ring on the barbell. The narrowest grip would be a grip where the pinky finger is just inside of the last ring. Most, however, will settle in between these two grips.

To find your starting grip, you're going to have to do some testing. Grip the bar one thumb length away from the smooth. Do one or two deadlifts to groove your form. If you hit them without problems, move your grip out an inch further. Again, one or two reps should tell you whether you're ready for the grip width.

Repeat this process – re-gripping, testing, and resting – until you're unable to keep your spine in a good position. Take note of where your hands are because that's the grip you'll use until you become flexible enough to hit your optimal width.

If you get as far as pinky finger just inside the ring, then you won't need much work. Hell, if you're a shorter person don't worry about going further. For most, however, it's best to have at least your fourth finger gripping overtop the smooth ring on the barbell.

To make this clearer, here's a standard.

Height: 5'6" and below – Pinky finger either on or just inside the ring.
Height: 5'7" to 6'1" – Index, middle, or ring finger on the ring.
Height: 6'2" and above – Index finger on or outside of the ring.

This certainly isn't gospel. If you're shorter and want to shoot for a wider grip, then I encourage you to go for it. But if your form is breaking down with a not-so-wide grip, you need to work on your flexibility.

To get more flexible for the snatch grip deadlift, you need to practice the snatch grip deadlift position. Complicated stuff, I know.

Load a bar with 315+ pounds (you need enough weight on the bar so that you don't actually end up lifting it), get into the starting position (the sequence is described below), and then anteriorly rotate your pelvis while lifting your chest up. Use the bar to pull yourself into the ground. You'll feel this most in your lower back and hamstrings.

Hold the position for 20-30 seconds. Stand up and shake yourself out. Go back and take a wider grip on the bar and do the same, holding for 20-30 seconds. Again, stand up and shake yourself out. For your third set, grip the barbell at what you feel is your optimal grip. Another 20-30 seconds and another shake out concludes your stretching.

Do this as frequently as you can, but especially after your lower body lifting days.

For those already at your optimal grip, take a collar to collar grip and do this stretch for one set after your deadlifting days to develop a safe net of flexibility.

Despite the snatch grip deadlift appearing to be technical wizardry, it's an easy maneuver to master as long as you're working within your means.

Start by settling your feet underneath the bar, lining it up over the mid-foot. Your feet shouldn't be quite as wide as squatting width, but they shouldn't be quite as narrow as deadlifting width, either.

You need to give your torso some room, so point your toes out anywhere from ten to twenty degrees. This makes getting into the bottom position easier, which helps keep the lower back rigid.

Take your grip on the barbell with the same width that you tested into earlier. Along with having a suicide grip on the bar, make sure you lock your elbows.

Think about pulling the bar apart with your hands. This keeps both the elbows and upper back tight. Losing slack in either of these areas is a recipe for hunching over and losing spinal position. It's common to "forget" about the elbows because they're not normally a concern during conventional deadlifts, so make it a point to remind yourself.

The feet are in place and the grip is settled. To finish the setup, bend your knees until your shins hit the barbell. Once contact is made, lift your chest and settle the lower back into a neutral position. You're now ready to pull.

Drive the bar off the ground using your legs. Envision squeezing yourself into the floor. Be sure to keep your back angle constant during the initial leg drive. When the bar passes your knees, drive the hips forward to a strong lockout with tight hips. Remember to slide the barbell up your body. For the sake of your lower back, don't let it float away.

As a small aside, be sure to bring your shoulders with you at lockout. If you don't, depending on your grip width, there's a good chance the bar will settle right across your junk. Guys, consider yourselves warned.

To set the bar down, reverse the directions above, breaking at the hips until the bar reaches the knees. Reposition yourself after each rep to ensure that your back stays in good position.

Most people don't like to pull heavy twice in one week, and for good reason. Between the squats and other leg work, the lower back and nervous system can fatigue quickly.

The good news is that snatch grip deadlifts will be anything but "heavy," especially compared to conventional pulls. Approach this exercise with a tortoise mentality. Start at 225 pounds for sets of five.

The purpose of the first cycle is to gradually introduce the snatch grip deadlift and to work on any flexibility issues you may have. Since three weeks of hard training followed by one week of deloading is a common training strategy, that's the format I'm going to use for this example.

+ 3 sets of snatch grip stretching after

* done as a warm-up to deadlifts
+ 3 sets of snatch grip stretching after
** done Reverse Pyramid style (work up to a 3-5 RM for the first set, drop the weight by 10% for the second set and hit same number of reps as first set +1)

+ 3 sets of snatch grip stretching after

* done as a warm-up to deadlifts
+ 3 sets of snatch grip stretching after
** done Reverse Pyramid style (work up to a 3-5 RM for the first set, drop the weight by 10% for the second set and hit same number of reps as first set +1)

+ 3 sets of snatch grip stretching after

* done as a warm-up to deadlifts
+ 3 sets of snatch grip stretching after
** done Reverse Pyramid style (work up to a 3-5 RM for the first set, drop the weight by 10% for the second set and hit same number of reps as first set +1)

+ 3 sets of snatch grip stretching after

* done as a warm-up to deadlifts
+ 3 sets of snatch grip stretching after
** use these sets to retest your grip

Whether you're interested in strength or size, the snatch grip deadlift is worth the investment. It's a great exercise that can complement and improve a traditional deadlifting program while adding extra mass to the upper back, glutes, and hamstrings.

So man up, work on your mobility, and start gripping the bar wider and wider to master snatch grip pulls from the floor. Just don't complain to me when your friends start making off-color jokes about your newly acquired walk. Of course, once their girlfriends start checking out your beefed-up glute and hamstrings, you might hear a lot less laughing.

Anthony Mychal is an athlete consultant, writer, teacher, and coach. In his free time, he publishes a blog about his musings on athletic preparation at http://www.anthonymychal.com

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Tags: Deadlift, Snatch

Nutrition and training expert John Parrillo is an innovator who has been on the cutting edge of bodybuilding for more than two decades. His ideas go against conventional wisdom and have been hailed as revolutionary by some and dismissed by others. Some people think he's an exercise and nutrition genius who knows more about maximizing muscle growth and losing body fat than just about anyone else around, while others think he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. In any case, John was among the first to embrace the idea of Super Hybrid Muscle. In fact, he was really the first one to develop the first hybrid training system.

More than 15 years ago he caught on to the idea of Super Hybrid Muscle and began having his bodybuilders doing really high intensity cardio. John realized that by doing this, his guys were actually altering the composition of their muscle fibers. He called this form a resistance training the "100 rep extended set," saying that it helped the body to construct more mitochondria-the muscles' "cellular blast furnaces," while also increasing muscular growth by developing the circulatory pathways that provide nourishment to the muscles. As the cellular blast furnaces, mitochondria are extremely important to muscle because they're the energy-supplying systems of the muscle cells.

Every muscle has a certain number of mitochondria-the more mitochondria in the muscle, the greater its potential for growth. So by forcing the body into creating more mitochondria, you're setting the stage for big increases muscle strength, stamina and endurance. Ordinary muscle fibers are either built for strength or endurance-not really for both. By forcing the body to increase the number of mitochondria in the muscle cells, you're also causing a metamorphosis that converts ordinary muscle fiber into Super Hybrid Muscle fiber. And not only that, but a human body loaded with mitochondria is far less likely to accumulate body fat than a body with fewer mitochondria.

While researching ways in which to reconfigure the composition of muscle fiber, John realized that the answer could be found in the past. Looking back, he realized that prolonged, intense physical effort causes a working muscle to build additional mitochondria, resulting in big gains in muscle strength and stamina. Part of this realization came from looking at railroad workers from the 1860s. These guys would lay track all day long using a 4-pound sledgehammer developing powerful arms, forearms and shoulders loaded with mitochondria, strength and endurance. But because their legs weren't being exercised as intensely, they stayed the same.

So basically, John's 100 Rep Giant Set training routine recreates this kind of super intense, prolonged workout.

Here's how it works. You start by picking a single muscle group, doing 20 reps of an exercise, then launch right into 20 reps of the next exercise. Immediately after that, you do 20 reps of another exercise, followed by 2 more sets of 20 reps each of two different exercises. There is no rest allowed between the 20-rep sets. At the end of all this, you've done a total of 100 reps, almost sequentially. Now you can rest for no more than 1 minute before starting the whole cycle again, repeating it at least 2-3 times total.

That is one hell of a tough workout - especially when you realize that you've just done 200-300 reps for a single muscle. In a normal workout, even on a high rep day, most guys aren't going to even hit 100 for a single muscle. The important thing to remember here is that the workout needs to be intense. You don't want to be screwing around wasting time by not making it challenging. At the same time though, you don't want to start out with a weight that's too heavy because once you start, you need to commit to finishing with the same weight. No drop sets here.

You can do 100 Rep Giant Sets for any body part-you're not limited to just certain muscle groups. You can also do it whether you use machines or free weights but you'll always get the best results from free weights because they force each limb to carry its fair share of the total weight, requiring each muscle to perform equally, making free weights far better muscle-building tools than machines. You should do the 100 Rep Giant Sets once or twice a week, rotating body parts for about eight weeks.

If you tell most bodybuilders that you're going to be doing 100-rep sets to build strength, stamina and size, they're likely to ask if you've gone out of your flipping mind. Most hardcore bodybuilders reject this philosophy entirely because it runs directly contrary to the all-known logic - fewer repeats, bigger weights - equals bigger muscle growth.

Even though the path to getting there is a bit different, the underlying principle and ultimate goals of 100 Rep Giant Sets and Lean Hybrid Muscle training are the same. Both rely on grueling workouts that combine resistance training and cardio activities to force the body to increase the number of mitochondria to build Super Hybrid Muscle.

Get my free report entitled, The Warrior Physique - Building The Super Hybrid Muscle. Click to learn how you can rapidly build muscle and burn fat at the same time.

Mike Westerdal is the founder of Critical Bench, Inc. A free online weight training magazine.

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Tags: Giant, Training

by Mark Rippetoe – 12/06/2011

It's not always apparent, and is often poorly understood. Stated succinctly, stupid is not your fault – you were born that way. You're just dumb. You can't learn.

Ignorance means you just don't know. Ignorance probably is your fault, because you've failed to inform yourself. This is especially true since the advent of the internet has enabled the most universal and thorough dissemination of information in the history of human communication.

The obvious problem is that 95% of that information is wrong, which follows my popular maxim: 95% of all the shit that occurs everywhere is completely fucked up. The internet is no different.

But you can, with a little diligence, tease out the facts if you want to. If you're interested in a subject, it eventually falls upon you to distill the truth from the bullshit.

This you'll do gladly, if you're interested enough to devote significant amounts of time and effort to it, because an intelligent person realizes that bullshit is a waste of time. A stupid person might not appreciate this, and therefore continue to be ignorant of the truth of a matter.

Take the deadlift, for example. It's the most basic, obvious movement in barbell training, the one with the most carryover to everyday tasks and the easiest to learn of all the basic exercises.

You just step up to the bar with a vertical-jump stance width, with toes out and your shins about an inch from the bar, grab it just outside your stance with your knees still straight, then bend your knees forward and out a little bit until your shins touch the bar, squeeze your chest up until your back is flat, take a big breath, and drag the bar up your legs until you're standing up straight.

See? One (admittedly run-on) sentence describes the whole thing.

But just because a task can be described simply doesn't mean that there aren't any important details. Fortunately, they can be built into the instructions, if the instructor is clever. Our one-sentence deadlift instruction carries a lot of important information, and if it's followed correctly and intelligently, it'll result in a perfect deadlift every time.

Let's take it a step at a time and see what we can learn from this simple approach to an uncomplicated movement.

The stance width of a vertical jump is narrower than most novices' deadlift, but it shouldn't be. A push into the floor should have the mid-foot directly under the hip joint, and this is the stance width that allows you to push the floor without losing force to any shear that will develop along a laterally-angled leg (the sumo stance intentionally widens the stance to artificially shorten the legs, and trades the benefit of a more vertical back for the inefficiency of the angled legs – but we're not sumo-ing right now).

Most people jump with toes pointed slightly out, and this toes-out stance is very helpful for the deadlift. It gets the thighs out of the way of the belly, which helps set your back flatter and it gets the groin muscles and the external rotators involved in the pull. Konstantinovs demonstrates this when he pulls, as have many great deadlifters through the history of powerlifting.

Placing the bar about an inch from your shins puts the bar directly over your mid-foot, precisely where the bar wants to be anyway, because that's the point over which the load balances.

When you stand up straight with your feet even, where are you in balance? On your toes? On your heels? Bad idea. In either of these positions, you have to exert more effort to stand than when balanced in the middle. The mid-foot is the place that's furthest away from both those positions of imbalance. This also applies to the deadlift.

An intelligent person will verify this by watching YouTube videos of heavy deadlifts where he'll see that every heavy deadlift travels up in a vertical path, sliding up the shins from a fairly vertical shin angle. Even if the lifter starts with the bar forward of this position, the bar will roll back to the mid-foot before it leaves the ground.

Likewise, this same intelligent person will notice that the bar locks out at the top directly over the mid-foot. Why would you intentionally pull the bar from a position that's horizontally different from the one you're pulling it to? Well, you wouldn't unless you're stupid, so that's where the bar starts.

Your grip should be designed to make the bar travel the shortest possible distance to lockout, and this means that the arms will hang parallel to each other when you grip the bar. This is accomplished by taking the narrowest grip you can without your hands rubbing your legs on the way up. So your grip will be where your hands line up with the widest point of your stance.

Most novices take too wide a stance, and therefore too wide a grip. Most elite lifters take a close grip. Verify this for yourself. If your stance is correct, your arms will hang straight down when seen from the front and you'll have pulled the bar the shortest distance it can travel to lockout.

During the process of taking the grip you do not move the bar, because you just intentionally put it exactly where it needs to be, over the mid-foot.

You haven't bent your legs yet, but now you need to drop your knees forward until your shins touch the bar. This motion places the shins at a slight forward angle that leaves the bar over the mid-foot while in contact with the shins.

If you drop your hips, your knees will travel forward and shove the bar forward of the mid-foot. So don't drop your hips.

Remember, don't move the bar. That would be stupid.

Just after you touch the bar with your shins, push your knees out very slightly. This keeps your thighs lined up with your slightly pointed-out toes and allows your groin muscles and lateral hip muscles to engage during the pull.

If you're a bigger guy, you'll immediately notice that it's easier to get in position over the bar if your thighs are out of the way of your gut, as mentioned earlier. The knees-out motion takes full advantage of the toes-out stance, the smartest thing to do as you prepare to pull.

Now comes the most important part of the procedure. Squeeze your chest up to set your back. Don't drop your hips like everybody else does, and like you've been doing, too. Just leave your ass where it is after your shins touch the bar and set your back from the top down by squeezing your chest up into thoracic extension and letting that wave of extension carry itself down to your low back.

Watch Brad Gillingham do his 881-pound deadlift and you'll see that it can be done quite effectively without a drop of the hips. It's hard, because your back is fighting with your hamstrings for control of your pelvis and your back has to win. It may feel odd the first couple of reps, but as you warm up it will get easier. Regardless, the chest-up motion will always be the hardest part of the setup.

The fact is, if it's easy, you did it wrong.

You must understand this: you're not trying to squat the weight off the floor with the bar in your hands. This doesn't work, as you may have noticed if you've watched enough deadlifting to be informed about what really occurs when heavy weights are pulled off the floor.

When the weight gets heavy, you can drop your hips as low as you want to and push the bar as far forward as it takes to make you happy, but what actually happens before the bar leaves the floor is always the same: the bar comes back toward the mid-foot, the hips come up until the shoulders settle into position just in front of the bar, and the bar comes up in a straight line, if you haven't fucked up the pull too badly.

The shoulders-just-in-front-of-the-bar position is a feature of all pulls that are heavy enough, whether deadlift, clean, or snatch. I take a shot at explaining why in the new 3rd edition of Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training (hint: it has to do with the lats).

By now you've looked again at all the deadlift videos and seen this position establish itself every time, regardless of whether the lifter initiated the lift correctly or incorrectly (if the lifter initiated the lift incorrectly, the hips rise and the back angle changes until the shoulders are just in front of the bar anyhow).

You can identify this position because the arms don't hang straight down plumb, but rather hang at a slight angle when viewed from the side. While you were looking at them again, you also noticed the bar travels a vertical path. In fact, if you fuck the pull up too badly (i.e. let it get forward of the mid-foot anywhere in the pull so that the bar path isn't vertical) it won't go up – unless it's a sub-maximal attempt.

So squeezing the chest up as the best way to set your back merely incorporates the facts that you've gathered by watching the videos and informing yourself. If you set your back in the position it likes to pull from anyway, you minimize wasted motion before the pull and you create a simple procedure for doing it the same way every time.

All that remains is dragging the bar up your legs to lockout. "Dragging" implies contact, and contact all the way up ensures the vertical bar path; if you let it go forward as it passes your knees on the way up, you'll have let it drift forward of the mid-foot, and thus gotten out-of-balance.

But if you've set your back correctly and started the pull with the bar over mid-foot, it will come up your shins and your thighs in a straight vertical line, which I'm sure you'll agree is a mechanically pleasing configuration.

Of course, you have to keep your back flat, and that takes strength in the lumbar erectors that can only be built with heavy deadlifts done correctly. It has become fashionable in random exercise/"functional movement" gyms to permit the use of bumper plates and a bounce off the floor for all the reps of a set of deadlifts after the first one.

This isn't "functional" – no sane, responsible person picks up a heavy object by bouncing it off the floor because that might break something. An informed person knows that if you don't use a muscle, you won't train that muscle. Common sense dictates this fact, and no particular intelligence is required to arrive at this conclusion.

Simple observation tells us that people who bounce their deadlifts aren't very strong off the floor. Experience informs me that if a 185-pound man with three years of barbell "training" comes to my seminar lacking the ability to deadlift 300 pounds with a flat back, he's probably been bouncing his deadlifts.

The lumbar erectors are the muscles that hold the lumbar spine in extension. If you fail to use them for that purpose during a deadlift, they won't adapt to this isometric task, and you'll have turned the most basic back exercise in the gym into a ridiculous circus trick.

Let's be honest: you bounce your deadlifts because it's easier to do more reps that way. But you know this already, because you were never that ignorant.

Reset all your reps and make your low back get strong enough to hold itself flat during a maximum deadlift attempt. Even if more reps are the goal, a stronger back is the only way to achieve it.

There may be a slight tendency for the bar to drift forward as it comes off the floor. When this happens, it's usually because you've rocked forward during the setup so that your weight is forward of the mid-foot. Shoes with heels can do this, as can a misperception of your start position.

If this happens, you're probably too far forward, with your shoulders too far in front of the bar and your back too horizontal. To correct this, rock back off of your toes, reset your chest up, and think about actually pushing your mid-foot into the floor, instead of pulling on the bar.

Deadlifts are one of the easiest lifts to learn and do correctly. It usually takes me about five minutes to fix an incorrect deadlift, and everyone I fix tells me that the movement feels "shorter." We know that the trip from floor to lockout is pretty much the same distance, wrong or right, unless your grip is very wide, so what is responsible for this change in perception?

There are two components of the system – the lifter and the barbell. If the bar travels the same distance from floor to lockout, it can't be the source of the difference in perception. It's the lifter, whose ass is no longer waving around in the air before the lift starts. This decrease in body movement and increase in efficiency results in the perception of a shorter pull, even though the bar travels the same distance.

So, now that you're not ignorant, stop acting like you are. Do your deadlifts correctly, efficiently, and with impressive weights. Usually, the simplest method is the smartest method to use.

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Tags: Comes, Deadlift, Ignorant

As a full time personal trainer and physique coach, I’ve helped hundreds of athletes, bodybuilders, and weekend warriors get more out of their workout programs.

To say the client assessment process can get a little repetitive is an understatement, and while no two cases are ever exactly alike, you can’t help but spot the consistent factors. I can usually guess four of the five things that new clients would most like to change about their physiques before even asking them!

With women, nine-tenths of the time the priorities are to lose fat, get more “toned” through the stomach and butt, build shapely arms, and either not change the bust or give it more “lift.” (Hey, I’m a trainer, not a surgeon!)

With guys, it’s also interesting. 15 years ago, when I started coaching, priority #1 was always to get big and strong, like a mid-70’s Arnold Schwarzenegger. Today, “Get ripped abz!” is the number one goal of the mid-20’s male, unfortunately. Whether this is an indication that young men are now a bunch of vain bastards who prefer to stand shirtless in front of cell phone cameras or are all just too damn fat is open to interpretation. In either case, priority # 2 for guys is always to build bigger arms.

Ahh, big arms…now we’re talking! Deep down, even the most functional-minded “weeds, seeds, and wheat grass” zealot still longs for an extra inch or two of beef in the sleeves of those hemp T-shirts.

The biceps are the star of the show and for good reason. Ask your typical gym rat to “make a muscle” and he’ll invariably hit a half-assed biceps pose. However, for most of the trainees I encounter, it’s the triceps that are the major issue.

You can build a set of biceps so freaky that they would make Boyer Coe proud, but if your triceps aren’t up to snuff, then you’ll never reach your aesthetic potential. After all, the triceps make up two-thirds of total arm size and make (or break) your bench press — hence the need for bodybuilders and strength athletes alike to give the triceps the love they deserve.

Mike Matarazzo had incredible arms with absolutely massive triceps

When asked to come up with a few ways to improve the triceps, I immediately thought of five things. After going through my client logs, that number quickly reached ten (I quit counting at 15). Suffice it to say that when it comes to triceps, there’s no shortage of ammunition for your arsenal.

I’m going to begin by giving you my 11 best tips. Obviously, using all of them would be impossible, not to mention insane, so I’ve also included a brief explanation as to when and why you might choose to use each one.

At the end, I’ve also supplied a couple of routines that I’ve used with two vastly different clients, each of whom approached me with complaints of substandard triceps development.

#1 - Train Heavy: The triceps often respond well to multiple low-rep sets, as evidenced by the massive triceps development many powerlifters possess. Coaches like Charles Poliquin have noted that the lateral head of the triceps in particular can be notoriously fickle and often responds almost exclusively to heavy loads. The take-home message: if the bulk of your triceps work involves a cable station, switch things up to include multiple sets of weighted dips, close-grip bench presses, and pin presses, all in the 2-6 rep range.

#2 - Change Your Frequency: It never ceases to amaze me how many bodybuilders train each bodypart once every seven days. I imagine the popularity of this practice stems from the convenience of working the same bodyparts on the same day of the week, thereby making Friday night gun shows a weekly ritual. Obviously this system “works,” but I would argue that if the aim is to bring up a weak point, then working it once every seven days is about the least effective approach you can take.

Weak triceps often require more frequency. This doesn’t necessarily mean more volume, but more frequent exposures instead, preferably with different rep ranges. If you’re still hung up on the same-days-of-the-week thing, a routine that trains triceps with biceps on Monday (nine sets of 4-8 reps) and then on Thursday after chest (five sets of 8-15 reps) is very effective.

#3 - Do The Opposite: This is a classic personal training trick. Often, when I pick up new clients who are not growing, I ask to see what they’ve been doing for the past six months – and then have them do the opposite. Nine out of ten will start growing again.

We all have favorite body parts, workout routines, and set-and-rep protocols; it’s human nature to repeat the things we enjoy and with which we experience success. The problem is that the body is highly adaptable, and as any strong dude will tell you, always playing to your strengths eventually stops working. It can also set you up for muscle imbalance issues and injury. Therefore, you need to change your routine, change the stimulus, and force adaptation.

#4 - Focus on Form, Not Weight: Many bodybuilders use horrific form in order to lift more weight. Don’t get me wrong–using a small amount of body English to complete that last rep or two of a gut-busting set is permissible, but if your first reps are shoddy already, then take note: you’re doing nothing more than reinforcing poor technique, not to mention greatly increasing the potential for both acute and long term injury.

For years, bodybuilders have yammered on about the “mind-muscle connection”, and while much of that is “gym science”, there may be some truth to the saying when it comes to stubborn triceps. Slow down the reps and practice perfect form, especially with the single-joint isolation movement. Really feel the stretch at the bottom of extensions, and contract forcefully on your precious pressdowns. In either movement, keep the elbows locked in place at all times.

As an aside, perfect form makes achieving “da pump” much easier. Many lifters scoff at the importance of the pump, and while it may be irrelevant for strength, it is crucial for hypertrophy, especially if the given muscle is a stubborn weak point.

#5 - Try Partial Reps and Lockouts: Board presses, pin presses, floor presses, and seated half presses are all powerlifting staples commonly used to bring up triceps strength, and specifically, to assist in the lockout portion of the bench press. The shortened range of motion allows for significantly heavy loads and can serve as a great remedy for triceps that lack thickness and mass. To maximize muscle-building tension, take a 2-second pause at the bottom of the rep but keep tension on the bar. Press it back up to a full, hard lockout.

#6 - Try Chains on Presses and Extensions: Adding chains to a loaded barbell is a way to incorporate what the Westside guys refer to as “accommodating resistance.” Extensor movements like presses and extensions are hardest at the bottom and get gradually easier as you approach lockout. With chains (correctly) hanging off the ends of the bar, the weight gets heavier as you progress down through the range of motion, thus mirroring the strength curve. Similarly, the weight “deloads” at the bottom, where you’re weakest, as more of the chain rests on the floor. This is more of an advanced strength training technique but is very effective.

Not many men have arms literally larger than their head. Sergio Oliva did!

#7 - Target the Long Head of the Triceps: The long head is the largest of the three heads of the triceps and is arguably the “showiest”. Although isolating one head completely out of the others isn’t possible, it is possible to preferentially recruit the different heads by manipulating elbow position.

According to Charles Poliquin, “The further away the arms are from the belly button, the more recruitment there is of the long head of the triceps.” Exercises that fit this description include incline triceps extensions and overhead dumbbell triceps extension.

#8 - Stretch: DoggCrapp training is very popular with bodybuilders, at least as long as they’re able to stay healthy while doing it. One aspect of DC training that all lifters should consider regardless of the program they’re on is fascia stretching. John Parillo was the first to introduce this to bodybuilding circles, before Dante Trudel popularized it a decade or so later. Fascia stretching literally means expanding the fascia or connective tissue surrounding the muscles to make room for more mass. It’s about as enjoyable as dropping a 45-pound plate on your pinky toe, but the results are undeniable, especially in the quads, pecs, lats, and triceps. A heavy overhead dumbbell stretch can provide this kind of stimulation as can an extreme dip between bars, provided your joints approve.

#9 - Try Drop Sets: You’re probably going to do triceps pressdowns anyway, so why not do them in a butt-kicking fashion? Drop sets allow you to use a heavy load with an extended time-under-tension, a winning combination for hypertrophy. Drop sets work best with safe exercises that allow for quick weight adjustments; this is the cable station’s moment to shine. There are dozens of drop set protocols, such as 5/5/5, 6/12/25, etc; pick one and perform three sets, preferably as a finisher. I like to program these after a heavy chest workout for a fast and effective secondary triceps blast.

#10 - Supercompensate: This is one of my favorite programming tricks: beat the tar out of a muscle, then pull back and watch it grow. Those who have done a (successful) specialization program will report that they didn’t really “see” the gains until after they quit specializing. In other words, fatigue masks fitness, and therefore it wasn’t until the body was given a chance to recover that those hard-earned gains appeared. You can try this with numerous approaches, such as 2 or 3 weeks on and 1 week off; but one of my favorites is given in the sample workouts below.

#11 - Gain Weight: My apologies if this is frightfully obvious, but considering some of the boneheaded stuff I read on bodybuilding forums, I suppose it bears repeating. Addressing a weak point involves building muscle, which requires a calorie surplus. Combining your summer beach diet with a titanic triceps specialization program is akin to riding two horses with one ass. That doesn’t mean you need to eat like a fat bastard to gain muscle, but you shouldn’t be restricting calories either.

That’s a lot of tips, for sure: so much so that you’re likely thinking, “How the heck do I combine all that into a routine?”

Simple. You don’t.

Many trainees make the mistake of trying to cram too much work into one training session, especially with body parts that they desperately want to improve. The end result is usually over training and sometimes injury to boot. Choose your battles carefully.

Here’s what I suggest:

If your training diary shows a lot of higher rep, machine-based, Planet Fitness-friendly triceps work, you likely have triceps that lack overall size and fullness. In addition, you probably have comparatively weak triceps as evidenced during pressing movements.

Try this for six weeks. It’s a two-a-day routine that works wonders for folks stuck in the Muscle and Fiction “once a week from all angles” rut.

While this is a relatively elbow-friendly routine (the PM workout can be an issue), your rotator cuffs may not like the half presses and dips. Performing the half presses to the front as opposed to behind the head can help, as would replacing the dips with decline close-grip bench presses.

Roelly Winklarr has some of the best triceps in bodybuilding today

Perform the following on Monday & Thursday (or Tuesday & Friday, etc.)

Warm-up: Rope pushdowns - 3 x 15 reps (both AM and PM workouts)

** come to a 2 sec stop on pinsB2. *Incline concentration curl

* See below for an explanation of tempo.
** Performed by lying prone (backwards) on an incline bench, holding two dumbbells with the arms hanging completely straight. Curl the weights up high as possible without moving the elbow, while being careful to come to full extension at the bottom.

“Two-a-days? Do you think I live in a gym?”, I hear you cry.

Easy there, sport. It’s just for a short period of time, and you’ll actually be in the gym twice on only two days a week. Before anyone asks, the other days should consist of one upper body and one lower body day with no more than 12 work sets per workout. We’re specializing here, right?

Here’s how the specialization would play out over a six-week period:

Week 1: Two a day, twice a weekWeek 2: Two a day, twice a week (push the intensity a bit)Week 3: One a day, twice a week (drop the PM workout)Week 4: Two a day, twice a week (change the exercises slightly – grip width, attachments, etc)Week 5: Two a day, twice a week (push the intensity a bit)Week 6: One a day, once a week (drop the PM workout)>

The following routine is for a different triceps-challenged trainee: a lifter who is plenty big and strong, but has triceps that lack detail and shape (or whose training history shows a lot of basic, low-rep barbell work).

Perform this bad boy every 4-5 days:

B2. Supinated EZ preacher curl

*Can use a neutral-grip triceps extension bar.

A note on tempo:
Exercise tempo is a subject of much debate in the lifting community. Some say it’s an essential lifting parameter, like sets and reps, while others argue it is completely irrelevant information.

My opinion falls somewhere in the middle. While at times tempo is somewhat self-fulfilling (can you really perform a one-rep max safely without anything other than a slow eccentric?), when you do the math, it does make sense, especially for hypertrophy.

Even if you always press the bar up explosively, a set of 10 reps with a 4-second eccentric (lowering of the bar) puts the muscle under load for a lot longer than pressing the same weight for 10 reps with a swift, 1-second eccentric. The difference is literally four times the amount of precious muscle-building “time under tension.”

I’ve borrowed (stolen?) this tempo prescription from strength coaches Charles Poliquin and Ian King, though both would admit that they didn’t invent them, either.

Here’s how the four numbers work, using 4212 as an example:

The first number is the eccentric tempo, or lowering phase. In this example, the lifter would take 4 full seconds to lower the bar.The second number is the isometric pause at the end of the eccentric. In this example, the lifter would pause for 2 full seconds; a zero indicates no pause is taken.The third number is the return or concentric phase. This example has a 1-second concentric; an X indicates an explosive return, pushing the weight back up as fast as proper technique allows.The fourth number is the isometric pause at the end of the concentric phase, before the start of the next rep. In this example, the lifter would pause 2 full seconds before lowering the bar again.

Wrap Up

If you’re cursed with stubborn triceps, there’s no need to disown your parents or head down to see Mickey the local Synthol dealer. Simply conduct an honest assessment of what you have been doing and use the above suggestions to adjust your workout program accordingly.

Take heart– it often doesn’t take much to get things growing again, and one thing is for certain: if what you had been doing was still effective, you wouldn’t need an article like this.

Thanks for reading!

JW

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