Read This! Training Tips from a Toddler
A huge portion of my job boils down to this: teaching adolescents and adults alike how to move with the same precision and excitement that comes inborn for all of us, but that most of us lose over time. Forget about performance or a one-repetition squat maximum… I’m talking about re-teaching the basics of pushing and pulling. It sounds totally cliché, but watching my 2-year old daughter’s development across all platforms is truly a joy for me. I could, of course, talk endlessly about her cognitive development, but I’ll try to exhibit some self-control and keep this limited to the lessons we would all be well served to apply to ourselves in our physical training:
1. Focus: Last week Ryan and I picked up the kids from daycare and were walking home. As we crossed our neighborhood pool’s parking lot, Arabella suddenly shouted “FAST!” and took off running! I laughed to myself and thought how wonderful and meaningful that short exclamation was.
She wanted to run fast, got into the proper mindset, and sprinted. How simple this is! And yet, so often I have to coach athletes in the “how” of getting themselves into this same focused mindset.
2. Go through a full range of motion: Toddlers are notorious for having impeccable squatting form. Part of this is because they’re all built like power lifters (short legs, long torso, and the classic belly), but even after we lose that physique, full-ROM should be the RULE, not the EXCEPTION. You’ll be strong, stable, and have some pretty excellent mobility all around.
3. Pick-up heavy stuff: Arabella walked up to SAPT’s line of kettlebells on Sunday, grabbed a 10-pounder and carried it a few steps. It was definitely heavy for her, but she moved it a few feet and was satisfied.
4. Be athletic: Run, jump, kick, throw. Doing these things every once in a while is fun and inherently human.
5. Show enthusiasm for what you’re doing: Adults who pine all day about going to the gym at night are setting themselves up for failure. Accept that humans are meant to be active and strong. Once you do, maybe you’ll start looking forward to doing something other than being witness to your body wasting away.
The next time I squat, I’m considering yelling out “STRONG!” before the set – I may get a few looks, but I guarantee it would do me some good.
Are Your Getting the Most Out of Your Squat?
I recently bought the 3rd edition of Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe. As I read through it I had a light bulb go on when reading the squat section more specifically when he refers to body positioning based on your chosen bar placement, high bar or low bar. Rip is a huge proponent of the low bar squat (I am as well) however a lot of people find this position extremely uncomfortable so they utilize a high bar, which is perfectly fine. In order to make your squat efficient as possible however, you need to make sure you are utilizing the proper leverages. Rip does a great job explaining just how to do this and what your body position should look like based on your bar placement. I decided to take a very little snippet from the book about this subject and talk about it a little more in hopes of helping your squat out. Please keep in mind this is all referring to a normal free squat with a straight bar, not variations there of (cambered bar, safety squat bar, etc.).
To kind of reiterate the point you can observe the pictures below to get a better feel for body position based on bar placement. For more in depth information I strongly recommend purchasing Starting Strength.
Deadlifts: Is It One Size Fits All?
The other day I found myself in discussion with a buddy of mine (he trains at a gym/training chain that shall remain unnamed), and the topic naturally steered toward moving heavy objects around. His tone of voice became quickly disgruntled as he told me:
"Yeah, I hate deadlifting. I love squatting though! But I utterly DESPISE deadlifts."
This obviously perked my interest, so I asked him to elaborate.
Friend: "Well, I just can't get down there and grab in a good position. It doesn't feel comfortable and my back always hurts when I do the lift. The instructors are yelling at me 'Hey, do this, do that, get your back flat' and I'm thinking to myself 'I know, I know!' but I physically can't do it since I'm so tall." (he's well over six feet tall)
Me: Ah, yeah, I know what you mean. I'm guessing you're pulling conventional style, with your feet roughly shoulder-width apart?"
Friend: "Yep."
Me: "Well, did the instructor ever have you try using a SUMO stance for your deadlifts?"
Friend: "......What's that?"
Me: "Where you put your feet out pretty wide, and then grip the bar with your hands inside your legs, as opposed to outside your legs. I find it's a bit easier for people with your type of build to get into a good deadlift position that way"
Friend: "Oh, no, they won't allow us to use any stance other than conventional. We're all forced to use the same stance."
Me: "Excuse me? I thought I just heard you say that they force you to pull conventional, and then they murder innocent little kittens."
Friend: "Yeah, that's 'cuz that is what I said."
Me: "So you have no other option? What about elevating the bar a bit to help you get into a more neutral spine position?"
Friend: "No. They don't let me do that. I have to pull from the floor. Conventional. And it hurts my back like crazy, especially when I have to perform 10 freaking reps for multiple rounds in a row."
I think it goes without saying that hearing this made me completely incensed. What's next, are we going to take young, beginner lifters and throw them under a 400lb barbell, telling them to 'just squat it'? Or do something else as equally useful as handing out free tickets to an all-you-can-eat poop buffet?
And this is why you continue to hear people spouting off that deadlifts are bad for your back. Of course deadlifts are bad for your back. If you're an idiot with them.
The very beauty of deadlifts is you can fit them to the individual, no matter the person!
Here's just the tip of the iceberg with options we have at our disposal, starting with the variation that initiated this entire discussion:
Conventional Deadlift
While conventional pulling arguably looksthe coolest, these require the most ankle mobility, thoracic (upper back) mobility, and hip flexion range of motion (ability to bend at the hips without compensating at the low back)in order to get into position safely. Conventional pulling should typically be reserved for those who've had fairly extensive practice with how to achieve and maintain a neutral spine under load, as this variation places the most sheer stress on the spine (bar is positioned furthest away from the body's center of gravity, compared to other deadlift variations).
SUMO Deadlift
Taller individuals (such as our friend from the conversation above), and those with longer torsos are going to find this variation easier to utilize, as less mobility is required to execute the pull with a neutral spine. In addition, the total range of motion of the lift is decreased, meaning the distance the bar has to travel from start to finish is shortened.
SUMO pulling is the most common variation we will progress our athletes to after they have learned to deadlift with the trap bar.
(Note: The only caveat I'll note with SUMO pulling is that it can really beat up your hips if you use a super wide stance, and if you fail to intermittently cycle them in and out of your training.)
Trap Bar Deadlift
This variation is usually the easiest to for all people to "sit into" while keeping a safe and sound position. The high handle setting makes it so you don't have to dip down so low to grab the bar (thus less mobility is required), and the fact that you're positioned INSIDE the bar typically makes the lift easier to execute, given that the weights are lined up with your center of gravity.
This is usually the first barbell deadlift variation we use to teach our athletes and clientele at SAPT. After they have developed proficiency with the trap bar, we'll move on to the appropriate straight bar variation, depending on their body type and other morphological concerns.
Conventional Deadlift with Barbell Elevated
The beauty of this set-up is that you can adjust the height the barbell is elevated - using mats, bumper plates, or whatever - so that the lifter can utilize the straight bar but at a height that is appropriate for them as an individual.
Oftentimes, I find that someone may know what they're supposed to be doing (such as our friend above), and kinesthetically aware of where their body is in space, but they just can't physically get into a solid position when the barbell is on the ground. No worries! Elevate the bar just as high as necessary to get them into a neutral spine position (and no compensations elsewhere), and, as their mobility and stability improves, they can lower the height of the bar over time.
Kettlebell Deadlift: Conventional and SUMO
With our younger athletes, and sometimes with our adult clientele, we'll have them initiate the process of learning the deadlift by using kettlebells, as they may not ready to use a 45lb barbell, even with the luxury of 10lb bumper plates in order to get the bar at a proper height yet keeping the weight down.
These can be done either conventional or SUMO style, and the weight of the kettlebell will obviously be chosen depending on the person.
Stop Trying to Force Square Pegs Into Round Holes
As you can see, we virtually have an endless supply of deadlift variations to fit the lift to the individual, not the other way around. If someone can't pull conventional from the floor, why force it??? They can simply use another variation (or elevate the bar a bit) until their necessary qualities improve in order for them to pull from the ground safely.
Conventional deadlifting from the ground looks awesome and is "hard core," I get that. But I also don't see what's hard core about forcing someone into a position that perhaps they're just not ready for yet.
All deadlift variations are going to hammer the glutes, hamstrings, upper back; "pull" people into better posture, improve the structural integrity of their bone and soft tissue (Wolff's Law and Davis' Law), all the while teaching them to resist sheer forces and elevating their superhero status. Try not to get so caught up in what "all the cool kids do" and instead focus on the larger, and more important, picture at hand.
Should Beginners Perform High Reps?
The other day, one of our interns, Jarrett, approached me shaking his head and wearing a tetchy expression on his face. I asked him what was up, and he proceeded to tell me about an incident that took place while he was out on the floor of a local gym (in which he works as a trainer).
Apparently, he witnessed a basketball coach instructing two girls on the bench press, and it was evident it was the girls' first time learning the movement. The coach had the girls banging out sets of 15 reps at a time, all the while their elbows flaring out to the sides and their bodies writhing and wiggling as they struggled to press the bar back up.
Jarrett's defensive instincts kicked in, and he quickly approached the coach to try and spare the poor girls' bodies and souls from being crushed to death. The conversation went something like this:
Jarrett: "Um, sorry for interrupting, but I don't personally recommend that you have the girls pressing the bar like that, with their elbows flared and all. It's pretty dangerous for the shoulder joint, and not to mention they'll be able to generate a lot more power by tucking the elbows slightly. I'd also recommend having them practice benching with much fewer than 15 reps at a time, as you can see their form quickly breaks down with the high reps and it's tough to learn a new movement that way."
Coach(looking clearly but briefly bemused before shrugging off what was said): "Uh, ok yeah, well, these girls aren't ready for that stuff yet. It's best to keep their elbows out for now and stick with the high reps since they're just beginners."
Jarrett: "Oh, okay I got it. So what you're saying is that the girls aren't ready for healthy shoulders, ingraining sound motor skills and enhancing their overall movement quality, since they're just beginners?"*
*He didn't actually say that (although a small part of me wishes he did), but fortunately was kind enough not to pick a fight and he just walked away. As the he was walking away, however, he heard the coach lower his voice and say (I kid you not) to the two girls, "You hear everything that guy just said? Yeah, he has no idea what he's talking about. Just ignore him"
Which brings me to the central point of this post:
Stop Programming High Reps For Beginners, FOR THE LOVE!!!!!
One of my biggest pet peeves (outside of stepping in something wet when in socks) has to be witnessing a lifting instructor take someone who's new to the weight room, and making them perform sets of 10-15 reps for everything they're learning.
Now, before I proceed any further, let me give full disclosure: I used to do the same thing when I first started out as a trainer. There, I said it. I, Steve Reed, have given high reps to beginners in an attempt to teach them various lifts.
And yes, if I could go back in time to when I worked with my first client, I'd give myself a hadoken straight to the face.
After all, it's the common (albeit unfortunate) practice taught by the majority of certification courses and exercise texts. Yet, as usual, there often exists a large gap between textbook theory and real-world application, and it's sad that it has taken this long (and still has a ways to go) for more "sound" teaching practices to permeate the educational sphere of trainers, strength coaches, and/or anyone simply walking someone through basic lifting instruction.
When the average person seeks out advice/information on how to "break in" to lifting weights, usually the first article or person they come across will tell them to do anywhere from ten to twenty reps on e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. Squats, machine presses, deadlifts, bench press, banging head into wall. Fifteen reps for all.
It's sad, but true.
When teaching someone how to properly execute a complex lift - primarily the deadlift, squat, bench press, and I'll even throw the pushup into the mix - keep the reps AND the load low.
It's so much easier for someone to focus on correct technique when they only have to worry about 2-5 reps, as opposed to 10-20 reps, ESPECIALLY in something like a deadlift where there are so many "moving parts" for them to think about . Either they'll become too fatigued physically, or they'll simply lose attention mentally. It's unfair for a coach to ask them to do otherwise, to be honest.
For example, if the goal is to hit 30 total reps of a lift, I would recommend shying away from the common 3x10 protocol you'll see in virtually every beginner program. I'd rather have someone execute 10 sets of 3 reps, ensuring that each and every rep is perfect (or at least as perfect as it can be, considering they're learning something new), in order to reach the 30 total reps for that day.
Not to mention, they'll have a much greater frequency of exposure to the process of setting up and finishing the lift, practicing it ten separate times in one session as opposed to three.
On a side note: if you're worried about the fact that the load should still remain low even with lower reps, take heart in that a beginner will get stronger using a load as low as 30-40% of their one-repetition maximum. There's no need to rush things in that department.
And just to be clear, it's a bit of a different story if we're talking about accessory exercises like rows, split squats, or pulldowns. I think it'd be perfectly fine to accumulate more volume with these lifts, as the risk of injury is much lower, and it's typically easier to learn these movements more quickly.
Not to mention, you can easily do high reps with prowler/sled work, which is essentially a unilateral exercise for the legs, or even farmer carries for that matter, which are a "high rep" exercise for the core and shoulder girdle (keeping the midsection braced/stable, and the scapulae in a slightly upwardly rotated, adducted, and posteriorly tilted position).
Once a beginner can demonstrate proficiency with the movement pattern in question, then they have the green light to up the reps slightly, or (perhaps which I'd prefer) continue to keep the reps down on the compound lifts, but progress via a gradual increase in weight used.
How to Fix Anterior Humeral Glide During Horizontal Pressing
One of the first articles I wrote was on Anterior Humeral Glide during horizontal rowing which you can find here. I won’t spend a great deal of time going over what AHG is as that would just be overkill and I’ll leave the area of redundancy up to the creators of American Idol.
In the following video I’ll take you through how to prevent AHG during horizontal pressing, namely during the bench press and pushup. Thanks to our intern Jarrett for volunteering for the video even though I kinda through him under the bus; sorry man! Also for another great cue to boost your bench and to stay out of AHG check out Stevo’s article, Quick Tip to Improve Your Bench Press: The other 50%+ of the Equation
Squat Grip Revisited
I still feel people aren’t grasping the importance of a proper squat set up in regards to the upper body. The whole movement starts from the upper body so to have that first line of defense be lackluster will undoubtedly make the entire lift suffer. The goal of the upper body during the squat is to be as tight as possible; engaging every muscle from the scapular retractors all the way to the spinal erectors and everything in between. I will inform you now that using a grip with a “bent” or “lazy” wrist position will prevent your squat from being all that it could be. Failing to straighten the wrist during a squat will cause a failure to engage all necessary musculature equaling out to “force leaks” both in the eccentric and concentric portions of the lift. I have posted the video below before but I figured I would post it again to show people how to use a different type of squat grip in order to overcome mobility problems to achieve a straight writs position. Check it out again!
