Practical Uses of Variety in Training

A lot of my readers have been asking me about programming. This week, I was luck enough to have my friend Steve write a guest post for me. Steve Bare is a professional strength coach (CSCS, USAW) and competitive weightlifter. His experience includes work in the private industry and an internship at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California. He now coaches at a high school, where he is thankful to work with a huge number of adolescent athletes, and give them all a great start in strength training. You can occasionally catch him writing on his coaching blog, BareStrength.



“Ya gotta switch it up, bro!” 

Variety in training is a very popular, yet polarizing, concept. From P90X marketing as “muscle confusion” to CrossFit purporting to be “constantly varied,” many brands are built by attempting to break the monotony of training. In this article, I’d like to discuss the practical application of variety in training, as well as the extents to which variation can be either be useful or counterproductive.

What qualifies as variety?

Loosely, any meaningful difference in training. This can come from changes in exercise modality (e.g., lifting versus swimming), exercise selection (e.g., lunges versus squats), implement (dumbbells versus barbells), rep range, rep tempo, training frequency, and more additional possibilities than I care to list at this time.

Why should you use variety in training? 

For one, introducing variety can diminish the risk of overuse injury. Athletes who engage in repetitive motions in practice and training tend to wind up with sport-specific injuries: baseball pitchers’ shoulders, rowers’ backs, tennis players’ elbows, runners’ shin splints, et. cetera. The primary recommendation to alleviate such symptoms is to decrease usage and strengthen relevant muscles and movement patterns, typically in an off-season period.

This is also relevant to recreational gym-goers. Your body doesn’t care whether you consider yourself a competitive powerlifter or not; if you’re maxing your bench press every chance you get, you’re likely to rack up some small injuries eventually. These injuries aren’t likely to go away without taking some time off from the movement.

Additionally, if you’ve been doing the same exact weekly schedule for months on end (and aren’t a beginner), chances are you’ve found yourself stagnating eventually. This can be referred to as “adaptive resistance,” when the same repeated exercises no longer disrupt homeostasis enough to drive adaptation. Changing a couple of key variables such as those mentioned above can be a powerful factor to continue to drive adaptation and get stronger.

So how much variation is enough? How much is too much? 

To answer these questions, you have to consider your goals.

If your only goal is to lose weight, for example, then your objectives in training are primarily caloric expenditure. Introducing a great amount of variety is fine, because just about any choice in exercise is sure to expend energy, provided it is performed with sufficient effort and for a sufficient duration. You could jog one day, lift another day, swim next week, fight crime another time, and continue to see results on the scale, provided you net a negative calorie balance. Of course, from a psychosocial perspective, most people enjoy seeing their performance improve, so it’s not a bad idea to stick with something for a while and enjoy the benefits of consistency: your running speeds up, your distances lengthen, your weights and reps increase.

However, if you have athletic performance goals in mind, you’ll need to ensure your training directs adaptation towards these goals. Whether your goal is to beat your old 5k time, or to win gold at the Olympics, your success hinges on specific performance improvements. It isn’t enough just to make sure you “get up and move”. You can run as far as you want, but it won’t ever be enough make you a great weightlifter; you still need sufficient specificity. If you change your exercise regimen each time you work out, you risk never providing sufficient overload. As such, we find some constraints on the limits of variation.

Beginning athletes can usually progress with just about anything, which leads to some polarizing conclusions.

On the one hand, there are proponents of systems capitalizing on very low variety for beginners. The benefit here is that the athlete quickly adapts to the cognitive demands of training, learning the lifts without getting confused by a great amount of variety, and is then able to reap the many benefits of strength training before eventually reaching a point of adaptive resistance.

On the other hand, recognizing that beginners will progress with just about any strength training program, you can also use this time to introduce athletes to a wider range of exercises. You could employ a teaching progression by having the athletes spend a couple weeks perfecting a goblet squat before moving on to a front squat, then a back squat, then a low-bar squat. You could instruct the athlete through different exercises every day of the week. However, you should still use the same exercise from one week to the next for a few weeks, so that the athlete has a chance to repeatedly practice one movement, and also see some progress in weight or total reps performed (overload). See below for a few example blocks:

The benefits here are many. The athlete is excited to train, with a greater variety of exercises. You can emphasize proper movement in a low-risk exercise, and then accumulate a lot of high-quality reps before moving on to a slightly more advanced variation with a greater load. Additionally, with each exercise the athlete knows, it becomes easier to teach additional movements in the future; for example, once an athlete knows how to front squat, lunge, press, and deadlift, it is a lot easier to teach them to clean & jerk.

*One thing to note: unlike many strength coaches, I often teach front squats before back squats. I do this because it gives me the opportunity to teach my athletes to stay upright in the squat, and I find that even beginning athletes are better at squatting deep with a front rack than they are with bars on their backs. I teach close-grip bench before a competition-width bench for similar reasons. On occasion, I have also taught sumo deadlifts before conventional because many non-contact athletes have disproportionately strong legs to a weak back, and they tend to prefer sumo initially for this reason; of course, this is also a great reason to eventually include conventional deadlifts, to ensure their backs grow accordingly!

This is not the kind of variety you need...

For intermediate and advanced athletes, most decent strength & conditioning programs will follow a system of phases emphasizing the adaptation of different physical qualities, such as aerobic conditioning, hypertrophy, strength, power, and peaking for competition (usually in that order). As a whole, this system would be referred to as a macrocycle; each 3-6 week chunk is referred to as a mesocycle; and each week can be referred to as a microcycle. By its very nature, such a system introduces variety in rep ranges, as well as often including variety in modalities, exercise selection, and tempos. Within a macrocycle, each mesocycle should gradually become more specific than the previous mesocycle, culminating in a major meet or a competitive season.

The earliest mesocycles will be the least specific to the goal, often outside the modality of the sport, to increase general fitness and work capacity. A great example of this is Olympic weightlifting champion Ilya Ilyin investing his time and energy swimming in his early mesocycles. This enables him to build up his general work capacity while letting his body heal from the repetitive trauma of his sport-specific movements.

Earlier mesocycles will include a greater number of unique exercises per session, per week, and between mesocycles. One hypertrophy block might have an athlete front squat and Romanian deadlift in one session, and then leg press and sumo deadlift in another session for 3-6 weeks. In the next mesocycle, the athlete might back squat and goodmorning in one session, and then conventional deadlift and step-up in another session for another 3-6 weeks. The goal here is to rack up great volumes without increasing the risk of overuse injury from any one particular movement.

In contrast, later mesocycles will increase specificity, decreasing variety. The final strength block for a weightlifter will include high intensity work on snatches, cleans, jerks, along with front squats and/or back squats, and possibly some additional work to target the athlete’s unique weaknesses, all performed several times per week for several weeks on end. Non-barbell athletes will typically maximize increases in strength, power, and/or speed (depending on sport and position), as well as increasing sport practice in preparation for the competitive season.

Introducing training variety can be a great way to avoid overuse injuries, drive greater physical adaptations, and generally enjoy your training more. However, it can also be tempting to overuse variety and under-apply the principles of specificity and overload. Be sure to use sufficient variety in your training that you avoid stagnation and overuse injuries, but not so much that you don’t make definite progress towards your goals!

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How Often Should You PR?

Adding more weight to your lifts is always exciting. Getting a personal record is tangible evidence that all of your hours of hard work have been effective. One thing that I've noticed, though, is that getting PRs can be addictive. By this, I mean that many lifters (especially beginners) get so caught up with testing their 1 repetition maximum, that they make it a regular ritual, constantly seeking to add extra plates on the barbell. While it can be tempting to constantly push your lifts to your physical limitations, it's not realistic to get a PR all of the time.

If you've ever followed a general or customized program, you've noticed that the majority of your training sessions included percentage work: some days were a bit easier, and other days were exceptionally grueling and torturous. Generally, the recommendation to increase your strength is to work at around 80% or higher several sets of 5 repetitions or fewer. Lighter days will allow you to practice movement repetition, while the heavy days are going to help you gradually build strength. Following a program allows you to lay down the foundation of strength, which will eventually increase your 1 repetition maximum.

Easy there, big guy.

Now, let's get into the basis of programming. A program is divided up into microcycles (usually 1-2 weeks), mesocycles (around 1-6 months), and macrocycles (which can be a year or longer). Ideally, the microcycles are planned with the bigger picture (mesocycle) in mind. For a competitive athlete, the amount of repetitions and intensity (weight used) per week and month is closely monitored to prepare for competition and hit target numbers.

There is no such thing as a "perfect" program. Rather, there are a million and one different modes of progression that will be equally effective for increasing strength levels. Two basic principles of programming are the linear and the daily undulating periodization methods:

• Linear Periodization basically uses the same repetition scheme. For example you might do 4 sets of 5 repetitions for several weeks, then 6 sets of 4 repetitions for a few weeks.
• Daily Undulating Periodization utilizes a different amount of sets and repetitions in each workout. An example would be to do 4 sets of 5 repetitions one workout, then the next workout you could do 2 sets of 8 repetitions at the same weight. The idea here is that you're constantly changing the rep scheme and the amount of weight used.

Both types of periodization provide results (although many studies have found that DUP is more effective).

Now, if you're following a specific program, you would most likely max out at the end of a mesocycle, once you've accumulated a decent amount of heavy training sessions. Allowing for several weeks in between 1 rep max attempts will ensure that you see the most amount of improvement.

In the meantime, you can get "rep PRs." This means that you will use a specific weight and you'll be able to perform more reps with it than you previously have. Let's say, for instance, that your best deadlift is 210 pounds. During a training cycle, you may be asked to use that weight for 3 repetitions. Now, the weight that you could only lift for 1 repetition is an easy triple. These "PRs" will still give you the same satisfaction, but can help you continue to make progress.

Ultimately, whether you're competing in a sport or not, planning your workouts is essential. If you want to continue to evade a potential plateau in strength, then you can't just walk into the gym and "wing it." Just going for PRs all of the time isn't going to get you stronger, and you mind end up disappointed.

There are a ton of free strength programs available on the internet, if you can't afford to pay a coach. For optimal progress, find a steady program to follow, rather than just making up your workouts on a whim. Be patient with adding weight onto the bar, and the numbers will come, in time.

Works Cited:

1. Baechle, Thomas R., and Roger W. Earle. Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2008. Print.
2. Prestes, Jonato, Anelena B. Frollini, Cristiane De Lima, Felipe F. Donatto, Denis Foschini, Rita De Cássia Marqueti, Aylton Figueira, and Steven J. Fleck. "Comparison Between Linear and Daily Undulating Periodized Resistance Training to Increase Strength." Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 23.9 (2009): 2437-442. Web.
3. Rhea, Matthew R., Stephen D. Ball, Wayne T. Phillips, and Lee N. Burkett. "A Comparison of Linear and Daily Undulating Periodized Programs with Equated Volume and Intensity for Strength." J Strength Cond Res The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 16.2 (2002): 250. Web.

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3 Reasons Why Your Poor Mobility is Holding You Back

So many lifters are willing to complain ad nauseam about their lack of mobility, but very few of those people are willing to get up and fix it. Most individuals would prefer to deadlift heavy and get their heart rates up than spend about 10-15 minutes addressing their muscular imbalances and chronically tight areas.

What those people might not realize, is that their lack of mobility is actually sabotaging their progress. Instead, they'd rather just cut to the chase and dive face first into their workouts. They see the value in heavy lifting and pushing hard, but they neglect the accessory mobility work. It's easy to ignore, because the immediate pay-off might be minimal. They release a tight muscle once or twice, and don't make any lasting changes. Like strength training, though, consistency is the key. Doing a handful of stretches, some self-massage, and corrective exercises every few days will go a long way. Not only will you feel more loosey-goosey, but you may even PR your lifts just from adding some more range of motion to your joints!

If your overhead squat looks like that of the guy on the right, this article is about you.

Hopefully, this post will help knock some common sense into you and remind you to pay more attention to the corrective exercises. Here are three major reasons why your limited range of motion is holding you back from getting stronger:

1. You can't get into the right positions. Movements like the front squat require a considerable range of motion. If your latissimus dorsi and pectoralis minors are tight, you won't be able to achieve an ideal position in the lift. No matter how many times a coach may say "elbows up," you just can't get them any higher. Your mobility is going to hinder your progress, because if you cannot keep your torso upright, then you won't be able to support a significant amount of weight in that position. I have met plenty of people who have ample strength, but stagnate on the clean, because their chest drops every time they catch the barbell. Their legs can support the weight without a problem, but their shoulders aren't having it. If these people did some work on the areas in question (pecs and lats), they would, undoubtedly, get an immediate PR on their cleans.
2. Your potential for force production is limited. A muscle has to lengthen before a contraction. A length-tension of a relationship of a muscle explains that a muscle can produce an optimal amount of force at a certain length. For example, if you were to pick up a heavy book, you wouldn't do so with a fully extended elbow. Instead, you would probably bend your elbows a bit. Now, this continuum of ideal length is a balance. If someone is too flexible, force production will be limited, and the opposite is also true. If you are inflexible, the muscles are constantly partially contracted. Take a look at the diagram below of a muscle cross-section. The top model (a) cannot produce enough force because there is too much of an overlap, whereas option (c) can't produce optimal force because there's no overlap at all. Option (b) is just right: a little bit of overlap so that the muscles are at their ideal length for force production. So, if your hamstrings are "tight" you won't be able to produce true power on a sprint or a vertical jump, for example.
   
3. Muscles are not firing in the proper sequence. If you're tight, you're more than likely compensating in ways you don't even realize. For example, if your ankle mobility needs some help, chances are, you're using the muscles on the medial portion of your leg (hip adductors) way too much, while the lateral muscles (abductors, gluteus medius, tensor fascia latae) aren't working enough. Every time you squat, lunge, or sprint, your mechanics are altered. Because your muscles are not in symbioses, this could mean a slower 400 meter time or a weaker back squat. Once the kinetic chain works as it is supposed to, your mechanics are more efficient and you might find that previously challenging movements are a bit easier!

Bodyworker Thomas Myers notes, "organismic movement and stretching – yoga‬, pilates, training‬, manual therapy – can help cells to their proper tension environment by relieving pressure or strain, and this results in better functioning all over." It's great to work hard and get stronger, but it's also important to give your muscles some love and alleviate tension in the body.

Ultimately, if you find that your performance has plateaued, perhaps it is time to finally work on improving your tin man status of mobility and join the supple side.

Works Cited:

1. Baechle, Thomas R., and Roger W. Earle. Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2008. Print.
2. Clark, Ross A., Brendan Humphries, Erik Hohmann, and Adam L. Bryant. "The Influence of Variable Range of Motion Training on Neuromuscular Performance and Control of External Loads." Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 25.3 (2011): 704-11. Web.
3. Myers, Thomas. "Biomechanical Auto-Regulation." Anatomy Trains. N.p., 17 Nov. 2015. Web. 01 Dec. 2015.

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You Are More than Your Numbers

Fitness is a numbers game. Weather it's your bodyweight, inches around your waist, the weight on the bar, your mile time, you're continually looking for those numbers to budge. Active people are constantly weighing, measuring, and comparing. That's how we track our progress.

To a degree, keeping track of numbers is important and necessary, but it can also be counter-productive, when done in excess.

With social media sites like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, we are bombarded with status updates, videos, and pictures of people rejoicing over their fitness-related victories. I think this is excellent, but it's also a double edged sword.

We have this tendency, as competitive beings, to compare ourselves to others. We want to be stronger or faster than someone, or we want to look like a cover model in a bikini. It's easy to look at someone who's at a different level than you are and feel as though your accomplishments are, somehow, insignificant.

I, myself have been guilty of this. I've watched more competitive athletes in action and felt frustrated that I was not yet at that level.

I regularly hear my friends or clients say comments to the effect of "I'm not strong. I can't lift that." They look at others in awe, but refuse to entertain the idea that they, too, could reach the same level of athleticism.

The truth is, we get so fixated on a specific number, that we lose sight of the bigger picture. Yes, it's great to quantify your goals, but that's not the only important factor. You want to focus on how you feel, and how you've changed in the long run!

Remember this: the triumphs of others does not take away from your own achievements. Just because someone can run a mile 2:30 minutes faster than you can, does not mean you're slow. If someone's best deadlift is 75 pounds above yours, that does not mean you are weak. If you do not look like Arnold Schwarzenegger, you aren't scrawny.

Our fitness journeys are our own. Celebrate your own successes. A PR is a PR, regardless of whether or not you're going to set a national record. Compare yourself to...yourself, only! The numbers aren't as important in the bigger picture. Consider all of the sacrifices you have made to get to the gym when your schedule was hectic, or when you pushed through a really tough workout. The days you wanted to give up and you chose not to are feats of mental strength. Perseverance is an admirable trait, and every step you make in the right direction is still pushing your forward, in the long run.

Yes, other people are making progress, but so are you! Revel in even the smallest of improvements. Don't tear yourself down just because someone is ahead of you at this time. Instead, use that for motivation to work harder and keep pushing towards accomplishing your goals!

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4 Big Benefits of Eccentric Training

You know the old saying "slow and steady wins the race?" Well, in strength training, I believe slow and steady reps win the gainz. Eccentric training is, in my opinion, the Unsung Hero for improving athleticism. If you want to maximize strength, build muscle, and increase flexibility, stressing the eccentric portion of your lifts is a priority.

If you're asking "what the heck eccentric training," well, keep reading! There are three main types of skeletal muscle actions:

• An isometric action is when a contraction is maintained for an extended period of time. Planks and wall-sits are two well known isometric exercises.
• The concentric phase is aptly named, because it involves the contraction of the muscle. When you are standing up from the bottom of a squat, your quadriceps complex is concentrically contracting.
• The eccentric phase allows your muscles to lengthen under load. An example of this is when you are lowering yourself down from the top of a pull-up bar.

Most exercises emphasize the concentric portion of the movement. A standard push-up, pull-up or squat are traditionally used to improve the contraction of the agonist (initiating) muscles. Think about it this way: when you set up for a bench press, usually you lower the bar down relatively steadily and then accelerate the bar on the way up, as you extend your elbows. This is the traditional way to perform the movement, and the way it is performed in competition.

Now, what if I told you that, by training the lowering phase of a bench press, you could actually improve your strength and acceleration on the press? Do you ever find that with heavier weights you just tend to let the bar drop right to your chest, with absolutely no control? In that case, you are weak eccentrically.

This is just but one example of how eccentric training can help boost your performance. Here are some of the best benefits you can reap from utilizing the lengthening phase of an exercise:

1. Heavier loads. Research suggests that you can manage about 1.75 times as much weight in the eccentric phase than you can in the concentric phase. With a partner, load a heavy weight on the bar for bench. Try to control the weight down slowly and let your partner assist you in lifting the weight back up to the rack. This will help you increase your lifts at a rapid rate. I would recommend only doing only 3 sets of 4-5 repetitions the first few times you try these, as it is going to place a lot of stress on your muscles and your central nervous system.
2. Increased muscle size (hypertrophy)! Strength coach Charles Poliquin frequently writes about the effects of eccentric work for maximum hypertrophy. He says "The eccentric phase causes more muscle damage and leads to greater rates of protein synthesis post-workout. Training that includes a concentric phase as well as an eccentric phase will cause the most muscle damage." This is a great way to get massive quickly. Here's an example: for a biceps curl, you could do tempo sets. Count 5 seconds on the way up, and 10 seconds on the way down. Try this for 2-3 sets of 10 repetitions.
3. Injury prevention. Several studies have used eccentric training of the hamstrings to prevent ACL tears and hamstring strains. One such study was performed on competitive soccer players. Askling et. al. concluded "[the] results indicate that addition of specific preseason strength training for the hamstrings – including eccentric overloading – would be beneficial for elite soccer players, both from an injury prevention and from performance enhancement point of view." Russian leg curls are an excellent example of an eccentric movement for the hamstrings complex. These can be pretty tough initially, so 3-4 repetitions for a couple sets will be enough to light that posterior chain on fiya.
4. Improved flexibility. As you may or may not have deduced from my previous articles, I'm not a huge fan of static stretching. Eccentric training is a fantastic alternative to static stretching that will promote lasting changes on your level of flexibility. Dr. Yessis noted that "Good mornings are excellent. Here you're gonna get some stretching on the way down, and some strengthening on the way up ... You'll find the hamstrings kick in almost immediately." You can do this instead of a traditionally prescribed standing or seated hamstring stretch. Romanian deadlifts are another movement that can do wonders for your posterior chain.

One thing to keep in mind, though, is that slow eccentric movements can have an exceptional effect on the central nervous system. With that in mind, it's not necessary to perform them for very many reps or sets, and you'll only need to do them once or twice per week to reap the benefits. Performing heavy eccentric exercises on a regular basis can be counter productive, so use them sparingly! Using these concepts appropriately, however, you will see tremendous improvements in strength, power, and many other facets of athleticism.

Works Cited:

1. Askling, C., J. Karlsson, and A. Thorstensson. "Hamstring Injury Occurrence in Elite Soccer Players after Preseason Strength Training with Eccentric Overload." Scand J Med Sci Sports Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports 13.4 (2003): 244-50. Web.
2. Cowell, John F., John Cronin, and Matt Brughelli. "Eccentric Muscle Actions and How the Strength and Conditioning Specialist Might Use Them for a Variety of Purposes." Strength and Conditioning Journal 34.3 (2012): 33-48. Web.
3. Farthing, Jonathan P., and Philip D. Chilibeck. "The Effects of Eccentric and Concentric Training at Different Velocities on Muscle Hypertrophy." European Journal of Applied Physiology 89.6 (2003): 578-86. Web.
4. O'sullivan, K., S. Mcaulliffe, and N. Deburca. "The Effects Of Eccentric Training On Lower Limb Flexibility: A Systematic Review." British Journal of Sports Medicine 48.7 (2014): 648. Web.
5. Raj, Isaac Selva, Stephen R. Bird, Ben A. Westfold, and Anthony J. Shield. "Effects of Eccentrically Biased versus Conventional Weight Training in Older Adults." Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 44.6 (2012): 1167-176. Web.
6. Schoenfeld, Brad. "The Use of Specialized Training Techniques to Maximize Muscle Hypertrophy." Strength and Conditioning Journal 33.4 (2011): 60-65. Web.

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Your Grip Strength is Limiting Your Other Lifts

Have you ever played that game at an arcade where you squeeze these metal handles as hard as you can and it determines how strong your grip is?

One of the most understated elements of training is, in my opinion, grip strength.

Whether you're gripping a baseball bat, holding onto the pull-up bar, or picking up a heavy deadlift, you need to have strong forearms.

I find it so unfortunate that many people use and abuse straps for their lifts. Yes, straps have their time and place, but as I've said before, I'm a minimalist when it comes to lifting. I believe the more you are able to learn to create tension, and the stronger you get, the better off you will be. You can deadlift more weight with straps, but you are using a crutch. If your forearms are the limiting factor in a deadlift, then maybe you just need to strengthen them!

The muscles in the forearms connect all the
way up to the neck and shoulders.

According to Thomas Myers's Anatomy Trains, the whole arm and shoulder functions under one fascial web. The fascia is a thin, protective layer of connective tissue that surrounds the muscles. When one part of this fascial web is activated, so too, is the rest of it. With this, we can deduce that a better grip on the bar will allow for a stronger press.

Let's take, for example, a strict press. This is a shoulder exercise, right? Well, yes, but that doesn't mean we don't need to recruit other muscles in the body! Creating tension from the feet, all the way up through the hands, will activate more muscle fibers, and thus, make the weight fly up faster! One cue in particular that helped me was to think about actively squeezing the barbell as hard as possible.

Charles Poliquin notes,

"when your grip strength improves, less neural drive is needed for the forearm and hand muscles to perform other exercises. That is why many trainees report breaking training plateaus in a host of lifts, ranging from dead lifts to curls, after doing a grip specialization routine."

All of the big lifts require you to create a tremendous amount of tension in your body. The "tighter" you get, the better. Any areas of weakness will make a lift that much more difficult. Strengthen your forearms, and you will be able to get a better grip on the bar, which can result in more weight. A+!

Aside from improving total body strength and motor control, training the forearms may prevent pain in the wrists and forearms.

"There are 35 muscles involved in movement of the forearm and hand, with many of these
involved in gripping activities," notes Jason Shea, CSCS. He then continues on to talk about how inadequate grip strength may result in injuries like tennis elbow, UCL tears, and other elbow and wrist-related issues. If the forearms are weak, you will place an unnecessary amount of stress on your tendons and ligaments around the elbow and wrist joints. Charles Poliquin also mentions that

"these ailments are often caused by improper strength ratios between the elbow muscles and the forearm muscles. If the elbow flexors, like the biceps and brachialis, are too strong for the forearm flexors, uneven tension accumulates in the soft tissue and results in elbow pain"

Therefore, if you're spending a ton of time strengthening the muscles in your upper arm (biceps, triceps, etc.), but minimal to no time strengthening the muscles downstream, you're setting yourself up for injury.

Additionally, some studies have linked rotator cuff health to the integrity of the forearm muscles. When your grip is activated, so too are the muscles of the rotator cuff (teres minor, infraspinatus, supraspinatus, and subscapularis).

You need to have some strong freaking forearms to pull that kind of weight!

Now, for the exercise portion! Here are eight of my favorite ways to make you a pro at grabbing things:

1. Plate pinches
2. Farmer carries (unilateral and bilateral)
3. Plate flips
4. Hangs from the pull-up bar (for an extra challenge, try unilateral)
5. Rock climbing (no video necessary)
6. Fat bar deadlifts or pull-ups
7. Heavy kettlebell swings
8. Finger board (used for climbers)

Note that grip strength is going to be positional, meaning that your forearms may be very strong holding a very small or narrow object, and weak holding thicker objects. It's important to vary the width of the equipment you use every once-in-a-while.

You may have noticed that wrist curls and extensions are absent from this list. I'm not much of a fan of training the grip in this way, because it has less of a carry-over to other activities. We want to train for function, not necessarily for size!

Now go find some heavy objects and grip them! Open pickle jars for your friends, or swing from branches like Tarzan. Build your forearms and reap the tremendous benefits from all of this newfound strength.

Works Cited:

1. Czitrom, Andrei A., and Graham D. Lister. "Measurement of Grip Strength in the Diagnosis of Wrist Pain." The Journal of Hand Surgery 13.1 (1988): 16-19. Web.
2. Dhutia, Maitri, Tara Ruttley, and Sudhakar Rajulu. "Elbow Strength in Reference to Various Shoulder Positions." (2001): n. pag. Web.
3. Myers, Thomas W. Anatomy Trains: Myofascial Meridians for Manual and Movement Therapists. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, 2001. Print.
4. Poliquin, Charles. Winning the Arms Race: The Ultimate Training Program for Arm Size and Strength. Place of Publication Not Identified: Www.CharlesPoliquin.net, 2001. Print.
5. Shea, Jason. "THE IMPORTANCE OF GRIP STRENGTH." (2011): n. pag. Web. 8 July 2015.

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Breathe Your Way to Bigger Lifts (Part 2)

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post on breathing properly for your lifts. This week, my friend Nate Henry, a competitive powerlifter, wrote a wonderful follow-up article. His strongest lifts include a 523.5 pound squat in competition, and a 535 pound squat in the gym, weighing 206 pounds. His best meet total is 1,372 pounds! He is also currently pursuing a bachelors degree in Kinesiology and an NSCA CPT. If you want to move big weights like this guy, follow his advice.

I mean...look at this guy.

Brief Squat Overview (Kinesiology)

Before I get into anything, let's review all of the primary muscles that are used within the squat because a lot of people overlook them.

When you’re lifting or doing anything and figuring out what muscles are being utilized, you have to analyze the dynamic (moving) joint to be able to identify the muscles worked. The muscles being worked are the ones that are fighting against the load.

As you squat there is movement in these joints:

• Hip (femoral acetabular joint, femur connects in the acetabulum in the coxal bone) 
• Knee (tibio-femoral joint, where the femur connects to the tibia)
• Ankle (taleo-tibula joint, where the tibia meets the talus)
• Spinal column (vertebral column)
•  Sacroilliac (SI, or lumbo-sacral) joint which is where the column connects to the illiac.

Analyzing the movement against resistance, standing up when you squat, we can identify the action of the muscle taken. In this case:

• Hip extension
• Knee extension
• Plantar flexion (ankle)
• Spinal extension (and depending on the lifter, there can be a posterior or anterior pelvic tilt in the SI.)

Rather than listing out all of the muscles involved, here are some nifty graphs I made to show what muscles are responsible for what movement:

Keep in mind these are only the primary muscles and these do not include the statically loaded muscles or the secondary muscles involved in the movements.

Now what?

Now that we’ve identified all the muscles we can get into this cueing business, the muscles will come into play a little later. Outside of reminding everyone reading this that their set up is the most important part of the squat (don't rush it, set up every set the same, etc.). I’m going to assume you’ve squatted before in your life, and I'll get right to it.

One of the biggest things that helped me advance my own squat was learning to properly brace and learning to “breathe into my lower back.”

A lot of lifters rant about “getting tight” and “getting your breath,” but what the heck does that even mean? It’s one of those things that if you know it, you get it. If you don’t, it’s hard to explain fully.

The whole point of getting “tight” or bracing is to prepare your body to handle load. Usually in the form of the Valsava Maneuver (holding your breath). However, a lot of people can’t even breathe correctly without load, so getting your breath and bracing properly is hard to do if you’re just starting out.

Rather than explaining it further, Arianna has written an awesome article already!

That breath and bracing is the most important and overlooked aspect of the squat next to having a proper unrack/walkout.

The reason this is so important is because if you’re not bracing completely you’ll put a lot of pressure on different muscles. We talked about spinal extension as one of the movements in a squat right? Well, when you’re just bracing the frontal core (the rectus abdominis plays a huge role in stabilizing the muscles responsible for spinal extension), you’re leaving your back completely unprotected, even with a belt! When you’ve got something heavy on you, that weight will zero right in on your weakest part of the back and that’s how back injuries happen and why.

This cue is especially important for low bar squatters who tend to use more extension in the back to leverage heavier weight on the way up.

To add to that, a lot of lifters might get the back tight (flexing it rather than creating the tension through the diaphragmatic breathing) and then tip forward because there is no brace on the front. This can also create some havoc within the muscles being worked. The quads may try to take proportionally more load than needed and the hip extensors try to pick up the slack. Things can get weird.

The point is, you need to brace and create that pressure. This is how I learned to do that.

Why breathe into my lower back?

Your core musculature wraps all the way around. A lot of lifters just breathe into their stomachs, creating little pressure, and not getting 360 degrees of tightness throughout all the musculature, extrinsically, nor intrinsically. They lack the understanding of what full abdominal expansion feels like; that’s where this cue comes in handy.

Put your hand on your lower back. Breathe into your stomach with a proper breath (fill it like a balloon). Not much going on in the lower back right? Or the sides, really, correct?

Now, do the same thing but try to breathe into the back while still trying to fill in the balloon (if that’s not helping, try to breathe into the lower back lying on your back and try to focus on pushing against the ground). If you’re doing this correctly, you should feel your back, stomach, and sides fill with air. Put your hands on your sides as well, you’ll feel it.

This is what I mean by breathing into your lower back. Proper inhalation helps your muscles in the core/lower back get tight/brace. Think of your core musculature as your body's own belt.

Using this, let's go over a quick squat without getting too much into the whole process:

1. Approach the bar, get your hand placement. 
2. Without rushing, get under the bar and get your placement down (high/low/hybrid). Dig into the bar, get the hands set, get everything nice and stable. 
3. Get your hips under you (both feet, not split stance this will prevent injuries in the back as well)
4. Breathing into your lower back, and getting the full breath first, unrack the bar.
5. Take your first step back, settle. 
6. Bring your other leg back, settle. Adjust this foot if need. 
7. If you’re squatting really heavy and the bar is whipping, let it settle. Good walks, make good lifts.
8. If you let out some air during the walk, retake the breath but make sure you create pressure during the walkout phase because even though you’re not squatting, you’re still having to move around that weight. 
9. Squat
10. Stand up
11. Retake the breath (don't descend without completing the breath!)
12. Repeat

I like using Chad Wesley Smith as an example, since he’s the one who introduced me to this cue. Here he is squatting 825 for a double.

Notice the control, the time put into the set up, and how he breathes. Now, Chad is an Elite Squatter. He’s quick about it. Take your time.

The cool thing is this applies to all disciplines: CrossFit, Powerlifting, Strongman, Weightlifting, Bodybuilding.

Try these tips, and add serious weight onto your lifts.


Works Cited:

1. Nuckols, Greg. "Squat Mechanics – The Red Pill." Strengtheory. N.p., 23 Feb. 2015. Web. 02 June 2015.
2. Smith, Chad W. "10 Steps to Great Squatting Technique." JTS Strength. N.p., 20 Aug. 2014. Web. 02 June 2015.
3. Smith, Chad W. "Squatting Specifics - What Technique Is Best for Your Sport?" JTS Strength. N.p., 22 Aug. 2014. Web. 02 June 2015.

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Regress to Make Progress

When starting out in a new sport, whether it may be weightlifting or snowboarding, it’s easy to look at what the most elite athletes are doing and say to yourself, “I want to do that!” You may see Shaun White doing a backflip at the Sochi Winter Olympics, and immediately look for the nearest mountain to go and replicate it. While I applaud your determination, mastery of any sport takes time, and it is important to appreciate the process. Sometimes, it is more important to practice regressions as opposed to progressions.

I believe that CrossFit has facilitated this pseudo-mastery of movement. As a CrossFit coach, I see people trying to rush to try tricks that they’re not quite ready to do. Introduce the ever-elusive muscle-up, and everyone will jump onto the rings to try it for themselves. I know the muscle-up looks like a fun party trick, but there’s a necessary foundation of strength that one must possess to execute it safely and efficiently. For example, some of the fundamental movements one should have mastered before even attempting a muscle-up include the freestanding handstand (for basic shoulder stability), the kip (to learn how to navigate your center of mass), the pull-up (to get your body over the rings), and the ring dip (to press yourself up at the top). If you are not comfortable with these four movements, then frankly you have no business trying to hurl yourself over the rings into a muscle-up.

Olympic movements are no different. I don’t want to see you attempt to PR your snatch until your overhead squat looks immaculate. I don’t want to see you throw 135 lbs onto your overhead squat if you can’t even squat the PVC. When I see that you can support a weight overhead in a controlled fashion, then you are ready to dive into a dynamic, explosive movement like the snatch. I see far too many people with horrible overhead stability trying to snatch 215 lbs because they want to look like Jason Khalipa. I’m not saying you can’t and won’t get there, but you absolutely have to lay the groundwork first.

In my opinion, one of the biggest causes of injury is ego. Just because you think you’re strong, doesn’t mean your body is ready for these complex Olympic lifts or gymnastics skills! There is a difference between brute strength and motor control. One allows you to lift heavy things, while the other allows you to do so with finesse. I’m not impressed if you pick up a 520 lbs deadlift with a rounded back right off of the floor. Show me that you can do it with control, maintaining a good position throughout and you’ve got my attention!

You'll get here...I promise.

In the greater scheme of things, quality of movement is far more important than how much weight you can move. I know that you want to lift big weights--we all do. Strength, however, takes time and a ton of repetition at more manageable weights. Just because you’ve decided you want to squat four plates doesn’t mean that your body is ready for that yet. If you’re flopping around on the rings like a dead fish trying to get your first muscle-up, you need to take a step back and reevaluate your strategy. Once you’ve learned how to properly maneuver your center of mass with ease, then, and only then, are you prepared to practice your muscle-ups.

I’ve been down that road myself. I would watch strong athletes and dream of getting to that level. The result was me overworking my body and stunting my own progress, rather than moving forward and getting stronger. Now, I’ve started to regulate myself. I only lift weights that I know I can control, and if I miss a lift, I go down in weight rather than trying it over and over again. The payoff has been huge, I miss fewer lifts, and my body is thanking me everyday.

We have to remember that all of these elite athletes that we see on television have had a lot of time to practice. Shaun White certainly didn’t learn these intricate movements in a month or even a year--he’s had years and years of practice, refining technique and he’s also had the help of experts to watch him and help him perfect his movement. Camille Leblanc-Bazinet was a competitive gymnast her entire life, and she’s been competing in CrossFit competitions for more than five years. You have to remember that you can’t become an elite athlete overnight. If you’re willing to dedicate the time and effort to the little things, you will, one day perfect the most challenging movements.

I urge you to slow down and take baby steps; focus on the details of every movement in the gym; try to be objective about your own performance, and ask yourself questions like, “Can I do this with control?” or, “Did that look sloppy?” If it looks sloppy, take some weight off of the bar and try it again.

I understand that it’s easy to want to rush into these complex, impressive tricks, but you have to trust the process. I promise you will be able to do them eventually. In the meantime, however, you need to make sure you set yourself up to get there; adequate strength, stability, mobility and motor control are crucial pieces of the puzzle to executing the more nuanced movements. I assure you that if you pay attention to the regressions instead of rushing into the progressions, you will be at a lower risk of injury, and you will be better prepared for the progressions when you’re ready!

I love to finish off my blog posts with a great quote: “Practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.”

Make sure you're practicing "perfect."

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