The leg press gets a bad rep because it’s the exercise that chronic leg day skippers prefer when they finally do decide to lift legs. In reality, the leg press is an excellent addition to any training program in order to get more lower body work without loading the spine.
The lower your feet are on the platform the more knee flexion you will experience, which can cause knee pain for some people.
Leg Press — Execution
1. Safeties
Unload the platform by pressing it away slightly so that you can disengage the safeties.
2. Eccentric prep
Inhale and brace your core.
3. Eccentric portion
Let the weight down until your shins are parallel to the ground.
This is typically the same depth as proper squat depth, however we are all special little snowflakes so compare the feel to your squat and get deeper if you need to.
Shins parallel is minimum depth. If you don’t reach parallel you are cheating yourself out of gains.
Literally no one cares how much you can leg press. Trying to show off with a really heavy leg press is a waste of your time and will make your mother shake her head in disapproval.
4. Concentric portion
Press the weight away from you.
5. Breathing
Exhale when you are at the top of the movement. Inhale, brace, and repeat.
Leg Press — Coaching Cues
Stay out of your back.
When things get hard, people almost always decide to throw their low back into hyperextension.
Breathe and brace every repetition with a strong core and full lungs before every rep.This is how you are strongest.
Hyperextending through the back will never make you better at anything except cat/cow in yoga
Leg Press — Adjustments
Knee pain can be adjusted for by moving your feet higher on the platform or reducing the weight.
Low back pain is the result of a loose core during the exercise. Even though this is a safe exercise, you still need to properly brace every rep or you risk throwing your back into extension. It’s easy to tell with the leg press if you’re doing this. If there is any daylight between your back and the upright seatback, you need to tighten that shit down.
Caveat: This exercise guidance should never usurp the advice of your medical professional. If there is a question in your mind as to the suitability of this exercise for you confer with your doctor. WATM is not liable if you do something ill-advised after reading any of our fitness content.
Dumbbell flys are sometimes looked down on by serious strength athlete. The truth is that flys often help train the movement of the bench better than benching can. The act of squeezing the pecs together in the fly provides a very obvious muscular contraction. That same contraction is what should be felt in the bench press as well. If your press doesn’t feel like you’re squeezing your pecs together the fly movement will fix that issue very effectively.
For the dumbbell fly, choose a light dumbbell that you can maintain perfect form with for the entirety of each set.
For the cable fly, choose a weight that you don’t need to cheat with on the final reps and that you don’t slam back into the stack like an egomaniac.
Dumbbell Flys — Execution
1. Tight back
Lay on your back in a similar set up to the bench press, scapulae drawn in together.
2. Starting position
Start with the weights at the top of the movement with arms perpendicular to the ground, shoulders externally rotated (fingers facing midline).
3. Eccentric portion
Open the arms to the side in a “fly” motion, in a slow and controlled movement that engages the muscles eccentrically.
Breathe in as the weights move down (the eccentric portion of the movement).
4. Concentric portion
When you feel the maximum stretch response at the bottom of the movement with soft elbows, begin the concentric portion of the movement by bringing the arms back to the starting position, up until just before perpendicular.
Breathe out as your contract your chest while the weights are traveling upwards (the concentric portion of the movement).
5. Constant Tension
Maintain tension throughout the entire set and don’t bounce in the bottom portion of the exercise.
Dumbbell Flys — Coaching Cues
The goal is constant tension throughout the entire movement.
Don’t rest at the top
Don’t rest out the bottom
Full range of motion is exactly where you feel the chest engaged.
Too far open allows you to rest
Perfectly perpendicular to the ground at the top is a rest (because the joints are stacked).
The arms don’t have to be perfectly straight.
Conduct the movement with soft elbows.
Dumbbell Flys — Adjustments
If you find flys particularly difficult, switch to the pec dec.
These are an ancillary exercise and can be switch out for any other chest exercise that you prefer more.
Remember the primary chest developer in this program is the bench press. If you don’t feel that this variation is making you better/stronger in the bench press, then choose another variation.
Caveat: This exercise guidance should never usurp the advice of your medical professional. If there is a question in your mind as to the suitability of this exercise for you confer with your doctor. WATM is not liable if you do something ill-advised after reading any of our fitness content.
The triceps are pressing muscles (where the biceps are pulling muscles). You use the triceps in all pressing movements. The purpose of this training is to isolate the triceps by using them primarily to extend the elbow. Guidance for triceps training is very similar to biceps training. The movement is just opposite.
Regardless of the triceps exercise you actually decide to perform these keys hold true. Fail to abide and your arm growth will suffer. Full article at: https…
Triceps — Setup
1. Exercise selection:
Choose the triceps variation you most enjoy or feel the most work from.
DON’T choose the exercise that allows you to use the most weight. The more difficult a movement is/ the weaker you feel the greater benefit you will get from the movement.
Bear in mind there is a huge difference between a movement that is difficult and one that is causing pain. If things cross over to painful then they are also non-productive and will set you back in your training rather than helping progression.
2. Consistency:
Choose an exercise and stick with it for at least 4 weeks in order to see some gains and improvements in movement efficiency. If you switch every week you won’t be able to accurately measure if you were able to do more work than last week.
Triceps — Some Options
See ‘Further Resources’ for links.
Skullcrusher
JM Press
Dips
Assisted Dips
DB Skullcrusher
Cable Tricep Pushdown
Cable Rope Pushdown
Bar Skull
Triceps — Execution
1. Range of motion:
Execute full range of motion. DON’T CHEAT.
Bragging rights go to those that make a workout harder with less weight. That means you are more meticulous and efficient with your movement.
2. Control
Maintain control. NO MOMENTUM.
Momentum means you aren’t using your muscle. It’s cheating as well.
If your elbow is causing your shoulder joint to move, you are probably cheating.
3. Breath
Exhale on the contraction (downward movement), inhale on the extension (upward movement).
If the weight is so heavy you need to brace with your core to prevent cheating, it’s too heavy for you to be using it.
4. Tightness
Keep lats and elbows tight.
Think lying Port Arms with the rifle in drill..
5. Elbow Isolation
Isolate the elbow.
The only joint opening and closing should be your elbow.
6. 3 Contractions
Concentric: the downward portion when you are opening the elbow angle.
Isometric: the very bottom of the movement where there is no movement. Straight elbow.
Eccentric: the upward portion, where you are closing the elbow angle. Do this slowly, and focus. This is a huge part of every rep.
Triceps — Coaching Cues
Breathe with the rep
Don’t crank on your neck (it won’t help)
Eyes should remain stationary
Don’t drop weight (eccentric portion is just as important as the concentric)
Tight lats and elbows
Triceps — Adjustments
If your triceps hurt, don’t do additional triceps training. These are an ancillary exercise. You get all the triceps stimulation you need to live in the world from pressing movements like the bench press.
If your elbow is botheringyou and you refuse to stop training triceps, try switching to a neutral or even pronated grip variation. Often over supination of the elbow is where the issue comes from.
Caveat: This exercise guidance should never usurp the advice of your medical professional. If there is a question in your mind as to the suitability of this exercise for you confer with your doctor. WATM is not liable if you do something ill-advised after reading any of our fitness content.
Shoulder presses are secondary to the barbell overhead press, which more completely engages all the musculature it takes to press something overhead. The DB shoulder press is designed to add extra mass to the deltoids as well as assist in becoming stronger for the overhead press.
Choose a weight that will allow you to observe all the below rules of engagement for this exercise.
You can do these either standing or sitting, just stay consistent with your choice so you can measure gains in strength.
Dumbbell Shoulder Press — Execution
1. Starting position
Grip the dumbbells in each hand and bring them up to rest on your shoulders, thumbs facing in, elbows out wide but slightly in front of the body’s lateral line (your sides). The exercise begins when you press the weight off the shoulder.
The first rep will always be the hardest because you are starting below the actual start position of the exercise.
2. Concentric portion
Brace your core, then straighten the arms to bring the dumbbells overhead on a directly vertical path.
The top of the rep is when the delts are still engaged just before the elbows lock out.
3. Eccentric portion
Bend the elbows to bring the dumbbells straight down.
The bottom of the rep is when the upper arm is just below parallel with the ground.
Dumbbell Shoulder Press — Coaching Cues
Don’t bounce or cause momentum.
Momentum means you are no longer working the intended muscle, but instead taking advantage of physics.
Use full range of motion.
Don’t shorten the reps to allow you to use higher weight. Full range of motion is vital.
Be proud of making an exercise hard with a lighter weight. That’s workout efficiency.
Don’t let the shoulders flare.
The elbows should be wide, but not so wide that they’re in line with the sides of the body.
Maintain tension.
Don’t lose tension at the top of the exercise and rest. Stop just short of locking out your elbows in order to maintain constant tension.
Dumbbell Shoulder Press — Adjustments
Low back pain is the most common complaint in this exercise. Tighten down your core as described above and stay there throughout the movement. When performing the standing variation of this exercise, squeeze your ass tight. The more grounded you are, the less likely it is that you’ll hyperextend through the low back.
If you have shoulder pain, ensure that your elbows don’t go past parallel with the ground on the eccentric (bottom) portion of the movement. Also ensure that your elbows are slightly more forward than the sides of the body, not in line your sides, and not behind it.
If your head hurts, you probably chose a weight that is too heavy, neglected to ask for a spot, and lost your grip. Now you have a concussion. See a doctor.
Caveat: This exercise guidance should never usurp the advice of your medical professional. If there is a question in your mind as to the suitability of this exercise for you confer with your doctor. WATM is not liable if you do something ill-advised after reading any of our fitness content.
Calf exercises are to build size on the calves. The calves are used to carrying you for miles and miles, so they take a while to fatigue, and we can program them for higher repetitions.
Choose your variation and ensure there is enough clearance for you to be able to move through the entire range of motion.
Some options:
Calf Machine
Stair Calves
Leg Press Calves
Smith Machine Calves
Calf Raise — Execution
1. Concentric portion
Press the weight away as your ankle goes into plantar flexion.
Exhale with plantar flexion
2. Isometric portion
Hold at the top of the movement for a split second.
3. Eccentric portion
Let the weight down slowly as your ankle enters dorsiflexion.
Inhale with dorsiflexion
Calf Raise — Coaching Cues
Don’t bounce the reps.
Pause at top and pause at bottom to prevent bounce
You’re stronger at this than you think
This is one of the few exercises I advocate starting heavier than you initially think appropriate.
Execute full range of motion.
There is no benefit to shortened ranges of motion, unless you are already doing another variation of a movement at full ROM and are using a partial range to strengthen a weak spot. This is what bodybuilders do. Not you.
Calf Raise — Adjustments
Lighter weight will alleviate most issues.
If you roll your ankle running or playing drunken chicken with shopping carts in a parking lot, this is a great exercise to restore range of motion and to help keep blood flow to the area constant.
Abstain from calf raises if the pain is unbearable, as they are an ancillary exercise.
Point your toes in different directions to hit the muscle differently. Try duck footed, pigeon footed, and parallel stances
Calf cramps are common on these, so be prepared for that potentiality.
Caveat: This exercise guidance should never usurp the advice of your medical professional. If there is a question in your mind as to the suitability of this exercise for you confer with your doctor. WATM is not liable if you do something ill-advised after reading any of our fitness content.
Find a bench that’s the right height. If you’re sitting on the ground with your back straight against the bench, you should be able to place the bottom of your scaps just above the bench.
You can stack aerobics steps, use a free weight bench, use a stationary bench, or if none of these are the perfect height, you can sit on a step or weight to get you to the right height.
Your second option is to use your arms to help you get into position once you have the weight on your hips. With this option, your glutes won’t touch the ground on the bottom of each rep, because you shimmied your way up the bench
Pad the barbell with whatever your gym has. A squat pad, yoga mat, airex pad, foam roller with a hole in it, or a hip thrust specific pad will work.
Pain is a detriment to muscle recruitment. If there is a searing pain, you will unconsciously be weaker due to neurological preprogramming. Don’t be tough, get more padding.
Place the barbell at the most comfortable position for you near the hip-crease.
2. Look straight ahead
Look yourself in the eye in the mirror or straight ahead at the wall. Don’t break eye contact.
Looking forward will prevent you from extending your low back. Low back extension is not a hip thrust and is wrong. It also prevents you from making eye contact with other humans…which may be perceived as harassment with this movement.
Hip Thrust — Execution
1. Vertical movement
Press into the heels and drive the hips up vertically while squeezing the glutes.
Full range of movement ends when you are in posterior pelvic tilt and your glutes are fully engaged.
If you think of your pelvis as a bowl, posterior pelvic tilt is when the front rim of the bowl is higher than the back rim (the bowl’s contents would spill out the back).
If you aren’t squeezing your glutes as hard as possible you’re wrong.
STAY OUT OF YOUR BACK. The hip thrust is all about extending your hips and engaging your glutes. The lift should not continue into the spine, causing a backbend.
Drive through your heels. That’s where you will find maximum glute recruitment.
You can keep your feet flat on the ground or lift your toes.
If breathing correctly, there should be little concern for any back issues with this exercise. The breathing cadence is simply good practice and allows you to keep the entire core engaged isometrically which is exactly how you should be used to contracting whenever you are moving something heavy. Just like with the other main lifts:
Inhale and brace with your core
Conduct a repetition
Exhale at the bottom
Hip Thrust — Coaching Cues
Look forward
Stay out of the back
Drive through the heels
Pivot on the mid-back
Don’t push horizontally on the bench
Keep core engaged
Keep ribs down
Hip Thrust — Adjustments
Hip pain is inevitable if you don’t pad the weight. Don’t be a tough guy. Pad it up.
Neck pain is possible if you are leading the movement with your head. Keep your eyes facing forward and this won’t happen.
Knee pain is a result of trying to drive horizontally through the toes. Lift the toes and drive through the heels. Remember the hips are moving vertically, pivot on your back and use all of your force to drive your hips up by squeezing the glutes.
Caveat: This exercise guidance should never usurp the advice of your medical professional. If there is a question in your mind as to the suitability of this exercise for you confer with your doctor. WATM is not liable if you do something ill-advised after reading any of our fitness content.
When it comes to pull-ups and all the variations, it’s important to hit your back musculature from various angles and grip widths. Change your vertical pull of choice every 4-6 weeks. If pull-ups are a job requirement for you ensure you are hitting some variation at least twice a week.
Choose a variation that you like and stick with it for a minimum of 4 weeks.
Ensure that you can fully express the entire range of motion comfortably for whichever variation your choose.
Pull Ups and Lat Pulldown — Execution
1. Breath
Your breath is intrinsically linked to core tightness. Nothing ruins a pull-up more than extra movement or swinging. The best way to prevent extra movement is to keep your core tight and locked down. This means you should:
Inhale and brace at the bottom
Execute a rep, or 2, or as many as you can on one breath.
Take a breath at the bottom and repeat.
If you are good at pull-ups or the weight is very light you can:
Exhale on the concentric (when you are traveling toward the bar or the bar is traveling towards you).
Inhale on the eccentric (when you and the bar are parting ways).
2. Range of motion
Allow the shoulder blades to move through their full range of motion.
Rows are a back exercise with secondary effects on the biceps. If your shoulder blades (scaps) are locked into a position you are by definition NOT going through the full range of motion for your back muscles.
3. Momentum
Don’t use momentum
Especially with pull-ups, the goal of this plan is to work the lats so you can be stronger at pulls. It is not to do as many bullshit shitty McShit shit pull-ups as possible. You can do those in Crossfit class or during your next PFT. Don’t steal precious time from yourself to get stronger.
Pull Ups and Lat Pulldown — Coaching Cues
Full range of motion in your shoulder blades
Breathe with the movement
Maintain control through both the concentric and eccentric phases
Pull Ups and Lat Pulldown — Adjustments
Choose a variation that doesn’t cause pain. There are many variations that all do an adequate job.
Pull-ups are a skill as much as a strength exercise. If these are in your job description you need to do them. In order to get the most out of your pull-up training start implementing eccentric pull-ups, and assisted pull-ups into your workouts. Check out this article to get a free pull-up programming plug-in to ensure you get to that max rep set of 23 on the next PT test.
Back pain is often caused by arching the chest into the bar as you close the distance between you and the bar. Don’t do that.
If a particular variation bothers your wrists, switch to a supine or neutral grip variation.
Caveat: This exercise guidance should never usurp the advice of your medical professional. If there is a question in your mind as to the suitability of this exercise for you confer with your doctor. WATM is not liable if you do something ill-advised after reading any of our fitness content.
One of the most common reasons I’ve found that people don’t stick with a workout plan is that they go too hard too fast.
Imagine trying to qualify with the M4 at 500 yards the first day you put your hands on the weapon. That’s exactly what many people do when it comes to fitness.
You’ll never be proficient at 500 yards if you can’t hit the target at 30 yards.
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Alexander Mitchell/released)
Before you discharge that weapon at distance, you need to drill how to load it, zero-in the sights, clean it, support it in the different firing positions, use your breath to help your accuracy, and a hundred other things that contribute to solid marksmanship.
Likewise, when it comes to fitness, you need to drill a solid foundation first. You have to learn:
What your 1 rep maxes are
What muscles respond to high volume vs high intensity training
How your endurance is affected by muscle gain
Proper form for the various lifts so you can maximize their benefits
The best time of the day for you to workout
Where the best equipment in your gym is located
How fast and efficiently you recover from certain workouts
How changes in your diet affect your performance
Muscle memory of movements
All of these things are individual to you, and they are constantly changing.
Biceps curls and the treadmill… classic sign of a foundationless approach.
High and Right
When you start hitting high and right on a target at 100 yards, it may only be off by an inch or two. But when you move out to 500 yards it is now off by feet and probably not even hitting the target.
If you try to jump into a hard-core program that has six 2-hour lifting sessions a week without establishing a baseline, your accuracy of the movements, ability to recover, and overall muscle/strength gain are going to be high and right. This potentially means injury, or more commonly translates to a level of muscle soreness that prevents you from making any actual gains.
That soreness, also called DOMS, is often enough to make you say “fugg it! The weight room isn’t for me,” or to decide that you’re meant to be flat-chested and have chicken legs forever.
Don’t let this happen to you in the gym by biting off more than you’re ready for.
I’ve seen the equivalent on civilian ranges countless times. Some ding-dong shows up with a weapon he’s never fired. He starts by trying to hit the target from the furthest distance available, fails to hit the target, gets frustrated, starts firing at a rapid pace (against range rules) like an obese Rambo, and gets kicked off the range for being a jackass.
Don’t be like that in the gym by doing too much too fast and quitting due to excessive soreness and a lack of fundamental understanding of what makes lifting weights a therapeutic art. Both lifting and marksmanship can be forms of meditation if done correctly–which is completely lost on your local bicep-curling gymrat and the average gun enthusiast who knows the nomenclature of every weapon in Call of Duty but consistently loads rounds in the clip backwards.
Let’s get you zeroed-in.
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Gunnery Sgt. Robert B. Brown Jr.)
The Plan
So how do you make sure you aren’t the maniac Rambo-firing at the gym?
The MIGHTY FIT Plan is the first program at We Are The Mighty dedicated to this pursuit.
All too often, people try to make a lifestyle change or get ready for a new military school by firing from the 500 yard line while standing. This is a foundationless approach.
Build your foundation over the next 2 months with The MIGHTY FIT Plan.
This plan is for those who are ready to start taking control of their fitness with a proven method. Just like the rifle range, you need to set an accurate baseline by zeroing in your weapon, doing some dry fire drills, and firing test rounds at a close distance.
Your body is your weapon. This plan will zero in your body to become efficient and effective at all the lifts.
There’s always a way to train once you decide to execute.
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Jonathan Wright)
This plan is designed to:
Introduce you to the main compound movements and their proper forms
Establish and progressively increase your ability to recover from workouts
Build a base level of muscle that will enable you to thrive in all your other athletic pursuits (including unit PT)
Allow you to figure out how to fit lifting sessions into your already busy schedule
Over the next eight weeks, you’re going to become familiar with the following exercises — save this link so that you can always come back and re-familiarize yourself:
I received a less than polite email from a reader that effectively said: “You suck! This free pull-up guide sucks! I can’t even do one pull-up, and that’s your fault!”
Cool. I have some family members that would love to start a Michael Sucks club with you.
So, in this article I’m going to lay out a plan for you to use to get that first pull-up. That plan involves 4 exercises and a way to implement the plan into your current training plan.
RKC Plank
Push-ups
Hollow Body Hold
Hanging
More importantly though, the plan teaches three skills. Those skills are what this article is structured around.
Three of the exercises on this plan train total body tension, if you do them correctly. The RKC plank, hollow body holds, and hanging all rely on your keeping total tension in your body for the whole time you are performing the exercise.
I talked about this concept in This lifting cue has all the life advice you’d find in a Clint Eastwood movie when it comes to bar path for barbell based exercises. The same rules apply for your body when doing bodyweight exercises; the less extra movement you have in your body the better you’ll be at a movement.
When it comes to pull-ups, it does feel like it’s easier to perform a few reps when you are swinging wildly on the bar. I’m not talking about intentional kipping, I’m talking about just being loose and letting the momentum of your swinging body help you. This sensation is a lie though, don’t listen to it.
Instead, learn how to properly hold tension in your body so that you are ONLY moving up and down during a pull-up. Loose legs cause energy bleed-off, a loose neck does the same, and is a cervical spine injury waiting to happen.
When you perform the exercises above you’re teaching your body that you’re in charge of the path of movement it takes and will not tolerate any extra movement for any reason.
Click the image to get the guide in pdf form.
Comfort on the bar
If you want to be able to do pull-ups you need to feel comfortable on the bar. So, yeah, I guess the ground-based pull-up guide is a lie. I’m okay with that. My primary goal is to get you doing pull-ups, not to be truthful to a title.
Marksmanship is probably the most salient example here. How good can you be at firing a weapon if it feels foreign to even hold it? The answer there is, not very good. The same holds true for pull-ups if you want to get a bunch of reps you need to know what to do when you get on the bar. Not only mentally, but you need to have the muscle memory to engage the proper total body tension as soon as you start hanging.
In order to put all three of these together, you need to do all three in unison.
The original plan that got me in trouble with you guys. It’s still great. I stand by it.
Putting it all together
Now that you are training your essential pull-up skills, you just have to ensure one other variable is in place and then you’ll be ready.
You need to pull: horizontal rows, vertical rows, lat pull downs, barbell rows, etc. Your training plan should include these types of pulling exercises to ensure your back is getting stronger. As long as that’s happening you’ll be golden once you start getting on the bar properly.
You’re getting strong and you’re training your pull-up form as you start to get better on the bar it’s time to start swapping in some of the exercises that are in the double your max pull-up PR plan: eccentric pull-ups, horizontal rows where you start to elevate your feet, and most importantly scap pull-ups.
Scap pull-ups get you into the position you need to be in order to start pulling with your full back’s potential. Swap these in first. In your first set of hanging perform a set of five scap pull-ups. After that point, just start swapping in more and more sets and reps.
[instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/Boy2kallmyu/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link expand=1]Michael Gregory on Instagram: “I think that this was more than 20 but the last few were ugly so we won’t count those. . Sometimes I deviate from the plan. . I had just…”
I know it seems simple…because it actually is. You just need to train this stuff consistently. Not once a week either. Minimum is two times a week that you should be going through all these exercises with the intent that you’re doing them to get better at pull-ups. The full circuit may take 15 minutes max. Do it like this:
2-3 sets of MAX hold RKC plank
2-3 sets of 75% of your max number of perfect push-ups
Here we go again! Deadlifts. The name comes from the fact that each and every rep should start at a complete dead stop, unlike the squat or the bench press where the stretch reflex is involved in the rep.
When you approach the bar on the ground, step your feet under the bar, about hip distance apart. Stand close enough to the bar that it comes over your midfoot. This is about 1 inch away from the shins.
This is your balance point. Pulling vertically from this point will keep a straight bar path and make the lift as efficient as possible.
Stay locked in this position. All other steps should not move the barbell and mess up this step.
2. Take grip
Bend at your hips with soft knees and take your grip just outside of the legs.
The straighter your arms, the shorter distance you have to move the bar. This is the most efficient position.
3. Bring shins to bar
WITHOUT MOVING THE BARBELL, bend at your knees and bring your shins to the bar.
Your hips should not move: they are already in the most advantageous position for you to exhibit the most strength.
4. Press your chest up and lock your back into place
Try to “bring your belly to your ass.”
This will achieve both a locked and neutral spine and a presented chest.
The shoulders will be slightly in front of the barbell at this point.
Deadlift — Execution
1. Brace the core
Inhale and take the slack out of the bar by completely bracing the core muscles as you take a full breath in. Your arms should be straight, and you should hear the bar “click” as it touches the upper part of the weight’s sleeve.
2. Pull the bar up along the legs
With a flat back and straight, long arms, drag the barbell up your legs. The balance point (the point directly over midfoot) is directly along your legs for the entire movement.
Tight lats will keep the bar against your legs and prevent it from swinging forward and out of balance.
Squeeze your glutes at the top.
Finish with hip extension, NOT back extension.
Allow the bar to follow the exact same path back down to the starting position.
Exhale
Don’t exhale at the top. Take a full breath when you have the bar back on the ground.
Deadlift — Coaching Cues
Eyes look at the ground 5-10 feet in front of you
Tight lats
Press the feet through the floor
Push knees into the elbows at the start position and keep them there
Tight is right. Comfort does not ensure proper form
Lifting is not comfortable and not painful. It’s in the middle, outside of the comfort zone but not in the danger zone. That’s where growth happens.
Each rep starts from a dead stop.
DON’T BOUNCE THE WEIGHT
Deadlift — Adjustments
If you’re squatting your deadlifts, stop. Use a kettlebell or dumbbell to teach you how to actually hinge at your hips.
Take a kettlebell and hold it behind your back with both hands, like you’re being handcuffed.
Hinge at the hips by pushing the hips backward.
If you are doing this correctly you will feel the kettlebell “pushing” against your ass, opposing the backward movement.
If you are doing this incorrectly, you’ll feel the kettlebell hanging freely behind you because you are squatting straight down.
Low back pain is a sign that you are not neutral through your low back. Drop the weight and focus on a neutral spine. With load, it will feel hyperextended, even though it is just at neutral.
If your low back is in flexion at all, YOU’RE WRONG. Drop the weight and become more strict on your form. If your back is in flexion, it means you will have to finish the deadlift by bringing your spine in neutral. The spinal erectors are not designed to bring huge weights from flexion to extension, they are designed to contract isometrically.
Sometimes the hands hurt. This could mean you need more chalk or to trim your calluses. Remember: lifting is not comfortable. The deadlift will never feel like getting a back rub from your secret lover (unless, of course, she’s a dominatrix.)
Neck pain happens when you are cranking on your neck to “lead” the movement. Don’t do that. It won’t make you stronger. Choose a spot 5-10 feet in front of you on the ground and look there the entire time. This will keep your neck in neutral.
Caveat: This exercise guidance should never usurp the advice of your medical professional. If there is a question in your mind as to the suitability of this exercise for you confer with your doctor. WATM is not liable if you do something ill-advised after reading any of our fitness content.
The low bar back squat is the ultimate exercise for overall muscular development, it recruits more muscle groups than any other exercise if performed correctly.
Set your bar on the squat rack at about nipple height. Facing the bar, grip it with both hands slightly wider than shoulder-width distance–you want to get as close to shoulder distance as possible while still maintaining some level of comfort in the shoulder. The closer together your grip, the more of a shelf you will be able to develop for the bar to rest on your back.
Keeping your grip on the bar, duck under the bar and set it evenly on your upper back. The bar should be rested on your rear delts (the back of your shoulders)–not on the top of your shoulders, and not on your neck/cervical spine, which will feel terrible (this is a high bar squat which has different mechanics). Squeeze the shoulder blades together.
2. Unrack the bar
With your feet planted evenly under the bar, “squat” the bar up out of the rack.
Take 2-3 small direct steps backwards. The bar moves up and then back. Never diagonally.
3. Set feet
Heels about shoulder width apart.
Toes pointed at about 30 degrees. Think of your feet as “at attention,” but instead of heels touching they are at shoulder-width distance. Experiment with this to get the most comfortable stance that allows for the best depth. Wider legs and more pointed toes will tend to be better for those with big bellies, long legs, or both.
Back Squat — Execution
1. Breathe and Squat
Inhale and brace with the abs. The pressure from the full lungs and tight core are what protects the spine. Spinal protection in the squat has NOTHING to do with vertical back angle. Keep the eyes fixed on a spot on the floor 5 feet in front of you.
Squat with a straight bar path. Don’t let the bar come forward or backwards at all. Straight down and straight up. Stay in your ass, with a tight core (see breath above), and make the tailbone move straight up and down: the rest of the body will follow.
Don’t let the knees collapse inward. Actively “twist” your knees apart so that they track over your toes. You’ll feel this engage the muscles in the side of your glutes, which may be an entirely novel sensation for you.
2. Finish and exhale at the top
Knees and hips should lock out softly at the top. Don’t “snap” into position: be easy on your joints.
Every rep finishes with an exhale at the top when you are finished with the movement. Don’t exhale on the way up, as this reduces intra-abdominal pressure and puts your spine in a compromised position.
Back Squat — Coaching Cues
Breathe at the top
Knees track out over toes for the entire movement
Vertical bar path, stay in your tailbone/ass
Balance is over the midfoot
Eyes look at the ground 5-10 feet in front of you
Back Squat — Adjustments
The bodyweight squat, the goblet squat, and machine assisted squats can all be less taxing alternatives to the barbell back squat if you are injured or need adjustment.
If you have issues reaching depth due to pain or lack of mobility in the ankles, try the reaching plate squat to learn how to use a counterbalance to keep your balance over your midfoot.
If you have pain in your knees, try warming up with 3 sets of 20 hip thrusts from the floor with a moderately heavy dumbbell. It’s been shown to reduce knee pain.
If you have undiagnosed nonspecific back pain, you need to embrace the process of progressive overload. Perform the movement with an empty or very light barbell. As soon as the weight starts to cause pain during or even after the exercise, stop or go lighter next time. Over the next few months, slowly progress in weight as you’re able. You will more likely than not find that once you learn how to move through the squat pattern comfortably, the pain will go away.
Many trainees experience “growing pains” in the beginning of their first real training plan. Learning to differentiate between your body adjusting to the new training and actual pain due to an issue is an invaluable skill that needs to be developed.
Caveat: This exercise guidance should never usurp the advice of your medical professional. If there is a question in your mind as to the suitability of this exercise for you confer with your doctor. WATM is not liable if you do something ill-advised after reading any of our fitness content.
The single leg RDL is one of the great equalizers in the gym. Very strong men can suck at these no matter what their max deadlift is. They also show any imbalances between the left and right side of the body.
If you start with the strong side, you are allowing your weak side to become even weaker. The first side is always better, so start with the weak side to cure any imbalance you may have.
Like the deadlift, RDLs are a hip hinge, with one major difference: you start at the top of the movement. So really, they aren’t “dead” at all.
For this variation of the RDL, you will hold a dumbbell in each hand.
Single Leg Romanian Deadlift — Execution
1. Weak side
Balance on your weak side leg by lifting your strong side leg behind you.
2. Eccentric portion
With a strong neutral spine, hinge at your weak side hip until you feel a stretch response in your weak side hamstring.
Allow the arms and the weights they are holding to be “dead weight”. As you hinge they can naturally swing out as they will want to.
This is contrary to the traditional barbell RDL and the deadlift where you are keeping the bar in contact with your legs the entire time.
The weight acts as a counter balance. You will find that this exercise is actually easier at a slightly heavier weight that can adequately counter the weight of your leg.
Keep a neutral spine throughout the entire movement.
3. Concentric portion
Squeeze your glute and hinge back up to the starting position.
4. Rep it out
Repeat on the weak side for the prescribed number of reps.
5. Switch
Switch to your strong side and repeat.
Single Leg Romanian Deadlift — Coaching Cues
Stay locked in your back so that the entire hinge is in your hips.
Full ROM is when you feel the stretch response in your hamstring, not when the weights touch the floor
Keep the knee soft
Let the hands hang heavy
Allow the weights to act as a counter balance
Single Leg Romanian Deadlift — Adjustments
The single leg RDL is difficult for coordination reasons. If you have balance issues rest your non-working leg on the ground in between each rep. To further adjust, hold onto a pillar or wall with the non-working side arm to maintain balance.
The Single leg RDL is what I would call a corrective exercise as well as a ball-buster. If it is causing you issues, you are probably trying to load it too heavy. Lighten the load.
If there are any major issues with it, simply switch to the Dumbbell RDL with both legs on the ground.
Caveat: This exercise guidance should never usurp the advice of your medical professional. If there is a question in your mind as to the suitability of this exercise for you confer with your doctor. WATM is not liable if you do something ill-advised after reading any of our fitness content.
There are a lot of effective options for working the biceps, so your aim is to find the one that best suits you. The purpose of biceps training for general fitness is to give our biceps some extra work to get a pump and achieve some more hypertrophy (size gainz).
Regardless of the biceps exercise you actually decide to perform these 3 keys hold true. Fail to abide and your arm growth will suffer. Full article at: http…
Biceps — Setup
1. Exercise selection
Guidance for biceps exercises remains quite consistent across most variations. Choose the biceps variation you most enjoy or feel gives you the most benefit.
DON’T choose the exercise that allows you to use the most weight. The more difficult a movement is/ the weaker you feel, the greater benefit you will get from the movement.
Bear in mind there is a huge difference between a movement that is difficult and one that is causing pain. If things cross over to painful, then they are also non-productive and will set you back in your training, rather than helping progression.
2. Consistency
Choose ONE exercise and stick with it for at least 4 weeks in order to see some gains and improvements in movement efficiency. If you switch every week, you won’t be able to accurately measure if you were able to do more work than last week.
Biceps — Some Options
See ‘Further Resources’ for links
EZ Bar Curl
Alternating Dumbbell
Hammer Curl
Cable Curl
Straight Bar Curl
Biceps — Execution
1. Range of motion: For all of these, ensure full range of motion: DON’T CHEAT.
Bragging rights go to those that make a workout harder with less weight. That means you are more meticulous and efficient with your movement.
2. Control: Maintain control, DON’T USE MOMENTUM.
Momentum means you aren’t using your muscle. It’s cheating as well.
3. Breath: Exhale on the contraction (upward movement), and inhale on the extension (downward movement).
If the weight is so heavy you need to brace with your core and breath to prevent cheating, it’s too heavy for you to be curling it. Chances are, your front delt is engaging as well, which isn’t the intention of the movement in our programming.
4. Tightness: Keep your lats and elbows tight
Think about mimicking Port Arms with the rifle in drill. Tight lats will keep your elbows from moving and engaging your delts.
5. Isolation: Isolate your elbow joint
The only joint opening and closing should be your elbow, otherwise, the shoulder is getting involved and stealing work from your biceps.
6. 3 Contractions
Concentric: the upward portion
Isometric: the very top of the movement where there is no movement
Eccentric: the downward portion- do this slowly and focus. This is a huge part of every rep.
Biceps — Coaching Cues
Breathe with the rep
Don’t crank on your neck (it won’t help)
Eyes should remain stationary
Don’t drop weight (eccentric portion is just as important as the concentric)
Biceps — Adjustments
If your biceps hurt, don’t do biceps curls. These are an ancillary exercise. You get all the biceps stimulation you need to live in the world from pulling movements like the pull-up and barbell rows.
If your elbow is bothering you and you refuse to stop curling, try switching to a neutral or even pronated (overhand) grip variation, as elbow supination may be where the issue is coming from.
Caveat: This exercise guidance should never usurp the advice of your medical professional. If there is a question in your mind as to the suitability of this exercise for you confer with your doctor. WATM is not liable if you do something ill-advised after reading any of our fitness content.
