Sometimes I squat...and sometimes I should think before I squat...

I'm void of any kind of informative strength-coach banter this week. So, here's a clip of me squatting on Monday...for those keeping score, thats 355,000lbs x 15. While I know it's not Stevo pushing 1000lbs on the prowler, or doing single-arm pushups with 200lbs extra load, hopefully it'll satisfy those of you that come to our site looking for tantilizing exploits of strength-endurance. I'm off to scower craigslist for good deals on "Hoverounds..." this DOMS is no fun.

CuZ StEvO made me...

Chris

Depletion Pushup Eccentrics

It’s really great how some exercise variations come about. Every once in a while an athlete I work with will misinterpret an exercise in such a creative way that the misinterpretation becomes a new variation in its own right. Here’s an example: for Mason Women’s Basketball I programmed Diminishing Pushups for the team’s very last movement of the week. I wrote about these here a few weeks ago.

Trust me, they’re a pretty punishing way to finish a hard training week, but what one of the girls came up with as her interpretation is a sick and twisted variation. So, sick and twisted that I will likely cycle these into their program in the future.

Diminishing Pushup Eccentrics

***To be done at the end of a training week***

3xAMAP :03-:06 eccentrics in 90 seconds (rest :90 between sets)

John was kind enough to finish off his training this morning with this insanity. John did a great job making these look smooth as butter and just as easy! But you should know John just finished his D1 wrestling career and is generally in outstanding condition at any moment in time. He benches close to 300lb and I’d be can rep out well over 100 pushups in a row. But you can see even with the seemingly innocent 25lbs on his back he’s having a rough time at the end of his first set.

Consider giving them a try without using the concentric (the push back up), so just lower yourself slowly to the ground over and over for time.

Good Luck!

A Little Deadlift Troubleshooting

Something I find myself frequently discussing with the athletes and adults at SAPT (as well as with Sarah, Chris, and Ryan) is that there is ALWAYS room for improvement in the lifting and performance realm. More specifically, there is always room for improvement with regards to form. One can always make his or her form just a little better, even if he or she has been training for years on end. Case in point: I recently stumbled across an old video on my computer that Kelsey (my lovely fiancee) had filmed for me when I was around the 15-month mark of learning the deadlift. During this particular deadlift session, I was pulling 285lbs for as many reps as I could without technical breakdown (i.e. rounding of the back, hips shooting up ahead of the shoulders, etc.). Given that I'd severely injured my low back due to improper deadlift form in high school, I wanted to be sure my form was spot-on, so that I could continue to progress accordingly.

A couple years ago, when I initially watched the video, I gave myself a small pat on the back. Not because I was lifting a lot of weight (I wasn't, and I readily admit my deadlift is far from world-class), but because, at the time, I thought my form looked pretty good. At least, it appeared angelic compared to the form you see in people like THIS deadlifting across America (Warning: don't watch the video unless you want to crawl into the fetal position under your desk).

HOWEVER, as I re-watched my deadlift video the other day, I chuckled a bit because I realized that my form was far from perfect, although I didn't realize it at the time. Were there a lot of good things going on? Sure. But, there are also a few tweaks that "2011 Stevo" would make if he were coaching this.

Here are three coaching cues I would give to correct some of the errors in the video:

1. "Pack the Neck"
2. Reset the bar between each rep (i.e. don't bounce it off the floor)
3. Finish "tall" at the top

Let's quickly go over each one....

1. Pack the Neck

In the video, I'm looking straight ahead, thus hyperextending my neck/cervical spine at the start. This can put significant undue pressure along the cervical spine, negatively affect mechanics further down your back (at the thoracic and lumbar vertebrae), and actually compromise your breathing patterns, too.

So, I would cue to "pack the neck," or, make a "double chin" by looking down and pulling the chin in.

This may be very difficult for those of you who have been deadlifting for a long time with eyes looking straight ahead, and I won't deny that there are many elite deadlifters that lift this way. However, I do think it would be wise to at least begin practicing neck packing during your warm-ups, and gradually work towards keeping sound spinal mechanics up through max attempts. Also, I CERTAINLY recommend teaching it to beginners so that they can develop good habits right from the start.

2. Reset the Bar Between Each Repetition

As you can see, I transition, quite quickly, from the lowering to the lifting phase of the movement. I'm not "bouncing" it, per se, but I'm certainly not letting the bar settle completely, either.

The reason I recommend pulling every rep from a dead stop is this takes out the stretch reflex. Deadlifting seventeen reps without pausing (as in the video) is much easier than pulling seventeen reps with a pause between each rep. This is of special importance for those that are training for a max deadlift attempt, as well as those working on their starting strength. When you go for a max deadlift, you don't get to set the bar down and utilize the stretch reflex. Instead. you have to pull it from a dead stop. Be warned, lest Newton's first law (inertia) reign victorious over you.

Now, for those of you seeking a little bit more volume, I could see an argument for a "controlled bounce" betwixt each rep, but that is a different story. In general, I recommend that most trainees reset the bar in order to ensure safety and form are in check.

3. Finish the Pull "Tall"

If you look carefully, there are a number of reps where I don't stand completely vertical at the top. I'm slightly hinging forward from the trunk up. It's important to finish the rep by standing TALL, completely pulling the shoulder blades "down and back." This will ensure you're getting the hips all the way through (using your glutes and hamstrings and minimizing anterior pelvic tilt), strengthening the thoracic erectors, and pulling the scapulae into full retraction and depression.

So, essentially, as I'm coming up to the top, 2011 Stevo would tell pre-B.C. Stevo to:

1. Hump the bar
2. Stand tall with the chest out, as if you're strutting your stuff at the beach.

So, what does it all look like? Here's a demo:

Granted, there is still room for improvement (as I said in the beginning, there ALWAYS is...), but there are many more good things happening here than in the first video.

Pushups and Backpacks

About six weeks ago, I made a decision that would be a nightmare for almost any male between the age of twelve and eighty: I nixed bench pressing from my training program. "Why" you ask? There are multiple reasons, but the primary reason being that I've had a pissed off shoulder for quite some time now, and benching (even correctly) certainly isn't going to help my situation. As such, here are just a couple of the things I've ensured to include in my programming:

• LOTS of horizontal pulling, on top of other various exercises to make sure I'm hammering the external rotators, horizontal abductors, scapular depressors and scapular retractors. My guess is that, over time, via awful lifting technique throughout high school+college, benching too much, and not giving my shoulder enough tender love and care, my glenohumeral joint (where the upper arm bone connects to the shoulder joint) has shifted superiorly into the subacromial space. Basically, this = pain.

• Made the Pushup my primary "horizontal push" exercise.

For any of you who have read my writing before, you know that I (and the entire SAPT staff) LOVE pushups. However, as the pushup is now my PRIMARY pressing movement, and no longer my accessory lift, I've had to become more creative on how to load it enough in order to achieve the strength stimulus I'm looking for. I don't have a weight vest, and I don't always have a training partner with me who can pile weights on my back.

That's where the backpack comes in. I realized that, conveniently, I have quite a large backpack I use for hiking trips. However, why settle for it being a unitasker? I've already used it for HICT, so why not fill it with some sandbags for some loaded pushups?

In the video below, I'm putting two sandbags (one is 60lbs, and the other is 45lbs) in the pack for a total of 105lbs added resistance. This is the first time I've tried the backpack, so I didn't want to risk falling on my face or having the bag slider over my head.

It ended up working way better than I thought, and I'm really excited to continue to experiment with loading it. Adding band resistance is certainly a viable way to load your pushups (as shown in the pushup article linked above) but I don't like to use it too often due to the eccentric stress it places on my elbows. Also, with the backpack, you have consistent loading throughout the entire movement (whereas the band resistance changes throughout the course of the exercise).

Anyway, for those of you who don't have a weight vest, this may be an option for loading your pushups. The sandbags I'm using in the video were purchased at home depot for just a few bucks, so they're way cheaper than weight plates for those of you who work out at home.

-Stevo

Suitcase Carry: An Exercise I like (and you should, too).

DCIM100SPORT

DCIM100SPORT

This past weekend I decided, spur-of-the-moment, to take a backpacking trip with a couple good friends of mine. It was incredible, to put it mildly. We loaded up our packs and took them for a 2-day journey along the Appalachian Trail in the Shenandoah. As evening approached, we found a great place near an overlook to pitch our tents. The picture at the top is a photo I snapped of our view of the sunset. As I was hiking along, I was quickly made aware that walking for two days - over uneven terrain with a 40lb pack on your back - makes for a pretty awesome workout. My traps, glutes, hamstrings, and cardiovascular system were all telling me that, just because I was away from the gym for a weekend, didn't mean I was going to get away with time off. To left is a picture snapped just before the start of the journey.

However, the point of this blog post isn't to tell you about my hike, the bears I slayed with my bare hands (they made the first move and attacked first, ok), or the damsels in distress I rescued along the trail. The point of this post is to give you a phenomenal exercise you can do in just about any gym. It isn't anything new, but my hike over the weekend reminded me just how much I love carry variations (due to the pack I carried throughout the trip), and how great they are for you.

The Exercise

Enter the Suitcase Carry. This will hammer your core (emphasis on the obliques and quadratus lumborum), along with your traps, deltoids, forearms, and ankles. Yes, the ankles.

It's tough to truly appreciate this exercise until you try it. See the video below of Ron performing the exercise:

How to Do It

You won't reap or feel the benefits of this exercise unless you walk with as perfect posture as you can. The key is to stand TALL. Your hips are going to naturally drift toward the weight, so do as best as you can to keep the hips from shifting. Shoulders "back and down," and stick your chest out as if your flaunting your stuff at the beach.

Why I Like It

One of the reasons I like this exercise so much is that most of you can do it in nearly any gym, and it kills multiple birds with one stone (see the benefits listed above the video). Just grab a heavy dumbbell, stand straight, and walk for 50-100 yards. Then switch sides. Even if you only have ten yards of space to work with, you can walk back and forth until you reach your target distance. You can use a heavy dumbbell or kettlebell for this. Yes, in the video, Ron has two kettlebells tied together with a towel because we're cool like that.

How much weight or how far should you go? As Dan John put it: You can either carry light weight for long distances, or heavy weight for short distances. I prefer heavy weight for long distances.

We've been doing this exercise for a few years but primarily using a "towel grip," during which you hold a towel looped through the kettlebell. While this is a perfectly good variation, I like tossing in the towel-free version as it takes a bit of stress off the grip (thus your grip will no longer be the limiting factor) and places more of the tension throughout the other areas of the body.

You know when you see people in the airport nearly toppling over to the side because their suitcase is so heavy? It's primarily because their core can't effectively buttress the weaker joints throughout the body. Don't be that guy.

HICT: A "Secret" and Powerful Method of Aerobic Training

Watch the video below to discover a very powerful, yet unconventional, method of developing the aerobic system: (Note: If video is not your thing, I wrote down the bullet points from the video down below.) 

This method is referred to as High Intensity Continuous Training, or HICT.

• Great for military folks, wrestlers, fighters, endurance athletes, or anyone that needs to be able to produce a reasonable power output for an extended period of time.
• Start with one, 10-minute set, and gradually work you're way up to two, 20-minute sets (be warned, twenty minutes is a loonggg set).
• It is both high intensity and high volume, which is what makes it so different than other forms of aerobic training.
• The intensity is based on resistance, rather than speed, which is why it allows for such a high volume of stimulus. Most high intensity aerobic intervals are based on speed, ex. a 15-60 second sprint, so you can only maintain that level of effort for so long before you fatigue and have to slow down.
• Your heart rate should stay in the 150s or low 160s during these, which is under most people's anaerobic threshold (for example, mine is about 174bpm).
• Because the heart rate remains under the anaerobic threshold, there is adequate oxygen supply (and thus it's possible to enhance the aerobic abilities of your fast twitch fibers).
• If you're doing step-ups, as I am in the video, the preferred method of loading would be a weight vest. I'm using a backpack in the video because, at the time, I didn't have access to a vest. Don't use a barbell (trust me, I tried it).
• If the weighted step-ups isn't a viable option, you could use a high quality spin bike. Just crank of the resistance on that thing so you're at 20-30rpm (this is very slow). You should literally be coming off the seat a bit on each push of the pedal.

It was 10:15pm - past my preferred bed time - when I filmed this, so forgive me for my tired expression and somewhat scattered thought process in the video.

HICT is an extremely powerful tool when used appropriately.