The deadlift sounds simple, right? You bend over, you grip the bar, and you lift it up. But I cringe more often than I applaud deadlifts both on the Internet and at competitions. I see countless lifters perform the deadlift with the ticking time-bomb of a herniated disc due to their bad technical approach.

Me performing a max weight deadlift at a recent King of the Deadlifts competition

This article covers three common flaws I see in lifting approach, set up, and deadlift technique. These errors are holding back your progress and keeping plates off the bar. I’ll give you cures for each one – not only to improve how much you lift, but also how safely you are doing it.

Flaw #1 – You’re Standing Too Far Away

If you’re failing lifts at your knees and it feels like you’re getting pulled forward, take a look down before you grip the bar. How close are your shins to the bar?

If there is a big gap between your shins and the bar before you initiate the lift, you are placing yourself at a biomechanical disadvantage. The bar isn’t over your center of mass and therefore becomes heavier. Hold a twenty-kilo plate on your chest, then hold it at arm’s length. It feels heavier at distance from the body, right? So why do that with your deadlift?

Left: Wrong – bar away from shins; Right: Correct – bar close to the body

If the problem is you can’t get your shins close to the bar, the likely culprit is your ankle mobility. This is a common reason for failed lifts as it causes:

• The weight to pull you forward onto your toes.
• Failure to get your glutes involved.
• Failure to get your hips through.

Cure – Stretch Out the Tibialis Anterior

I’ve talked about this little beauty of a muscle before, and its relationship with a stronger squat. It’s relevant to your deadlift, too. You need to be able to move your ankle through a movement called dorsiflexion (where your shins move toward your toes).

The tibialis anterior muscle runs down the side of the shin and attaches to the first metatarsal of the foot. It’s a key player in controlling dorsiflexion and often gets tight, which reduces your range on both squats and deadlifts. Most people think of their shin as just a piece of bone. Yet this thin little muscle that runs alongside the shin gets tight, gets shortened, and then reduces your ability to move.

Left: Kneel on the floor with your feet and toes flat to the floor. Right: Lean back to sit back on your heels.

The stretch is simple. Kneel on the floor with your feet and toes flat to the floor. Lean back to sit back on your heels, and then lean further back. You will feel a stretch through your ankles and shins. Hold for ten seconds, then sit back forward. Repeat three times, jump back up, and notice the difference.

Flaw #2 – You Have No Tension Through Your Upper Back

Some powerlifters advocate minimal tension in your upper back and shoulders as it allows you to reduce the range of movement on your lift, shortening your lockout substantially. This is true, and a useful tool for seriously advanced lifters. However, for most, this lack of tension promotes a severely rounded lumbar and thoracic spine before the bar is even lifted. This is sloppy spinal positioning and a serious injury risk.

“If your back is severely rounded, you’re at a biomechanical disadvantage and are not properly involving your legs in the lift.”

Don’t take a rounded upper back to extremes.

If your back is severely rounded, you’re at a biomechanical disadvantage and are not properly involving your legs in the lift. Consider the weight-moving potential of your quads, hamstrings, and glutes, along with their combined muscle mass. With your back rounded and not engaged from the start of the lift, you take away all of that leg strength, and rely purely on what your lower back can do.

Cure – Squeeze the Hell Out of the Bar, Lock Your Lats

Try this: squeeze your lats and engage your rhomboids. Done? Okay, rest and remember what that feels like.

“You should be using your lats and upper back to stabilise, support, and stack the spine the way it was designed.”

Now, make a fist. Not just a weak fist, but a white-knuckle-trying-to-crush-a-granite-block-type fist. Seriously squeeze your hand. Now squeeze your lats and engage your rhomboids. Feel the difference? It’s noticeable. If you just hold the bar or apply a small amount of pressure to your lifting straps, you remove a huge chance to engage your upper body, create a stable and locked trunk, and bag yourself a stronger deadlift.

This cure is quite simple – when you address the bar, squeeze the hell out of it, tighten up your lats, and feel your rhomboids engaging.

Squeeze the hell out of the bar.

Flaw #3 – You’re Not Taking the Tension Out of the Bar

“Grip and Rip.” If you own a t-shirt with this written on it, please burn it immediately to remind yourself to never yank on the bar. All bars will flex and bend as you apply tension to them, whether you’re dealing with an expensive deadlift-specific bar or a common gym bar with no discernible knurling. This means if you don’t take the tension out of the bar, the bar ends up working against you. And on top of this, you won’t be creating maximal tension in your body.

If you just aimlessly rip the bar off the ground, you will be half way through your movement before the bar moves. All you will have done is take the flex out of the bar. With the flex then catching up, the bar will start to move, but by this point your hips are high, your shoulders are over the bar, and the rep becomes a grinder.

By not creating tension in your body, you’ve also lost a lot of potential to exert maximal force upon your lift. Try this: place the tip of your index finger against the tip of your thumb, and exert maximal force with your finger as if you were trying to flick something. Quickly move your thumb away and notice the speed at which your finger travels.

“If you just aimlessly rip the bar off the ground, you will be half way through your movement before the bar moves.”

Now, repeat the movement but without the use of your thumb. Extend your finger as fast as you can without the use of preloading. Notice how much slower it is? The time of finger extension is less than one second. As it is so short, you can’t apply maximal force, and as a result, your finger extension becomes slower without preloading by creating tension.

This can apply in the same way to a deadlift if you aren’t using the bar to create tension in your body. A fast and strong pull can be as quick as one second, too. If you aren’t preloading your muscles for maximal power output, you’re missing a trick (and also a lot of power).

Cure – Create Tension and Take Tension

Once you’ve applied the first two cures, you’re in a better biomechanical position and you’ve created upper body tension. Time to complete the process through the rest of the body. You must prepare to release the accumulated tension as maximal force production during the pull. 

Left: Take the tension; Right: Drive through the floor.

You need to load your glutes, hamstrings, and quads; ready for the pull; and take the flex out of the bar. The easiest way to achieve this is to push your hips into the bar before you pull. As you actively grip the bar, try to contract your glutes to push the hips in toward the barbell. You will see the barbell flex and feel your entire lower body engage and get ready to unload the accumulated tension.

Summary

Now, with your better biomechanical position, engaged torso, and lower body tension, you’re set to lift. Take the flex out of the bar, drive the heels into the floor hard, and push the ground away from you. Your hips won’t shoot up, your back won’t dangerously round and sag, and you will have a powerful lockout. And the bar will move faster than you have ever experienced.

• 3 Reasons You Don’t Squat More (And What to Do About It)
• 15 Practical Strategies to Increase Your Deadlift Max
• The 25 Rules of Strength Training (Part 2)
• What’s New on Breaking Muscle Today

The post The 3 Most Common Deadlift Errors and How to Fix Them appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Unfortunately, this is nothing new to me. I have dealt with countless fractures, tears, compressions, and sprains over the years. Some have been my own fault, others, out of my control.

Injuries are a part of sport, lifting, and training, but it doesn’t make the reality of having an injury any easier to comprehend or deal with. While picking up a few minor injuries can’t be avoided, more serious problems can be kept at bay. Here are the factors that have helped me learn from injuries and prevent recurrences over the years – to get back up again and stay standing for as long as possible.

After twelve months of hard work, my chances at England’s Strongest Man were dashed due to injury.

1. Understand Your Injury and Then Review What Went Wrong

First, understand what the injury is and how it was caused. Repetitive stress, poor movement patterns, imbalances, lifting something too heavy, or just a freak accident. Once you know the likely cause of what went wrong, then you can review why it happened. You are no longer spending hours in the weight room, so use your time off productively – think and assess.

Without a thorough review of the injury, the cause, and the effectiveness of the recovery plan, you will stand a greater chance of getting injured again. Reconsider the requirements of your sport or discipline. Are you preparing correctly in the weight room?

2. Examine Your Technique

Technique is king. You can succeed and fail on your lifting technique alone. This is obvious if you compete in powerlifting or strongman as it directly relates to sport-specific ability and kilograms lifted. However, if you play in another sport where you are transferring your time under a bar to performance on a pitch, in a pool, or on a running track, your lifting technique can still dictate success and successful injury prevention.

“If you are lifting with bad technique, then you are overloading some muscle groups, weakening others, and creating imbalances.”

As you lift, you ask your body to perform countless actions and contractions to build, support, and stabilize your muscles. If you are lifting with bad technique, then you are overloading some muscle groups, weakening others, and creating imbalances. All of these weaknesses are exposed when competing and so – apparently out of nowhere – something goes wrong.

Could your technique be creating an injury waiting to happen? If you’re not sure, find a coach who knows what he or she is talking about and focus on your fundamental training movements.

Lifting places huge demands on the body, so be sure you’re doing it right.

3. Programming Failing to Adequately Prepare You

Be careful you don’t neglect aspects of your training. Have you done enough specific and focused training for the task at hand or just hoped the body would stand up to the rigors of your challenge and sport?

“If you keep getting injured in competitions, then chances are you’re not preparing adequately.”

For example, my legs and back are strong enough for me to pick up a 420kg yoke and walk with it, but the supporting muscles need to be up to the task too. Are the quadratus lumborum and erector spinae trained and strong enough to cope with the challenge of the torsion the yoke places on the back? If they aren’t, you’re setting yourself up for an injury.

Don’t assume the body can handle what you’re throwing at it. Consider your training, and if this preparation is enough to adequately safeguard your body for the rigors of your sport. If you keep getting injured in competitions, then chances are you’re not preparing adequately.

4. Mobility and Flexibility

Both the general population and athletes are more aware of mobility and flexibility than ever. Pay attention to your joints, their range of movement, and your muscles’ ability to perform the movements they are being asked to do.

“Consider the areas that feel tight, jammed up, and not operating through a full range, and get them sorted.”

Mobility and flexibility work can easily be thrown into warm ups and recovery sessions. Without them, the joints are often not capable of loading the amount of stress being asked of them and something then has to give.

Don’t allow poor hip mobility to lead to a glute or hip flexor tear. Don’t allow poor hamstring flexibility to contribute to a hamstring pull on the day. Consider the areas that feel tight, jammed up, and not operating through a full range, and get them sorted.

Prevention is easier than cure. This is why movement patterns and mobility are top priority in my five step approach to programming:

1. Fix the movement
2. Clean up the rep
3. Apply effort and intensity
4. Get results
5. Repeat

Walking around with joint soreness all day, every day is not the norm or acceptable. Nor is it a badge of honor. So if that’s you, sort it out now before you’re walking around all day, every day with crutches in your hands instead.

What good is lifting a lot of weight if you can barely walk for the rest of the day?

5. Physical Therapy Screenings

Don’t always try to self-diagnose. A trained eye is better than your observational powers, so find a good physical therapist or sports therapist and get your posture, movement, and proprioception checked by someone who knows exactly what they are doing.

They can find imbalances, problems, and potential weaknesses and give you a protocol to follow to ensure these ticking time bombs are ironed out. Poor posture and stability can lead to a whole range of pulls, tears, and pain. If you’re sat down all day, or you already feel like you’re hunched over, get yourself looked at.

Prevention Is Key

Remember – prevention is easier than the cure. Take the time to consider if your preparation is setting you up for success or injury. Improve on the quality of your training time and stay on the field of battle longer than your competitors.

You’ll Also Enjoy:

• 4 Needless Mistakes You’re Making in Strongman Training
• 3 Reasons You Don’t Squat More (And What to Do About It)
• Injury Prevention: The Most Important Goal in Every Training Session
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Photo 1 courtesy of John Clark.

Photo 2 by By Calgary Reviews from Calgary, Canada (Sun and Salsa Festival Strongman Tire Flip), via Wikimedia Commons.

Photo 3 by By Celia Wagner, via Wikimedia Commons.

The post A 5-Step Path to Injury-Free Strength Training appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

If you are experiencing those lows, ask yourself what is holding you back. Take a look at your training, mindset, and goals. Regardless of your experience in the sport, mistakes in any of these four fundamental areas can be detrimental to your progress.

Let’s have a look at four common mistakes in approach and preparation for strongman competitions, and how to fix them.

I competed against four World’s Strongest Men competitors and finished last, but I still learned a lot.

1. I’m Not Strong Enough Yet

If I had a pound for every time I’ve been asked, “How strong do I need to be?” I’d have my daily protein intake paid for each week.

“[D]on’t allow your experiences of competitions to stall you because you are looking at those around you and thinking you’re not strong enough.”

The answer to this question is dependent on your goals. If you want to be the World’s Strongest Man, then you will need a 220kg overhead press, 462kg deadlift, and 350kg squat. Even with those, you will simply be competitive, and winning is far from a given. If you just want to have a go at strongman and see what happens, then you should be able to press your bodyweight overhead and deadlift and squat double your bodyweight.

As the sport of strongman continues to grow and evolve, the standard rises. Thirty years ago, my log press would be a world record. Now, it’s only deemed above-average. But don’t allow your experiences of competitions to stall you because you are looking at those around you and thinking you’re not strong enough.

2. The Value of Competition

Nothing focuses the mind and polarizes your efforts like an upcoming competition. Find a competition that suits your level of ability and just give it a go. That said, experience counts for a lot in this sport, so if you get the chance to compete at a higher level than you may think you’re capable of, don’t turn that chance down either. I competed against four World’s Strongest Men competitors in January after a last-minute invite to an international-level show. I finished last. But despite the result, I learned a lot from being around some of the strongest men on the planet.

“Nothing focuses the mind and polarizes your efforts like an upcoming competition. Find a competition that suits your level of ability and just have a go.”

Coming last isn’t a disgrace. You learn, you consolidate your new learning with what you already know, and you get better as a result. Embrace the competition instead of waiting for that perfect light competition that you’ll blitz and where you’ll win a meaningless trophy. Novice titles are irrelevant in the big scheme of strongman, so don’t focus on winning. Focus on experiencing the competition, getting to know the strongman family, and deciding if strongman is where you want to dedicate your training time.

Twenty years ago, my press would be a world record. Now it’s only above-average. I haven’t let that stop me.

3. Max, Max, Max

Part of the attraction to strongman is the circus-like nature of the lifts. The circus dumbbell, log lift, yoke run, and Atlas stone all look impressive and beyond the capabilities of mortal men and women. Everyone wants a photograph or video of themselves performing these events.

But these movements are all highly technical and require practice and constant refinement. Continually hitting event work isn’t an issue. You can perform the events as often as you feel comfortable or want to. The issues is the percentages that you are doing them with.

“Learn the technique, perfect the movement, and then apply effort, intensity, and volume in a progressive way.”

Everyone wants a shiny new personal best for their YouTube channel. Therefore, many trainees continually chase their event max in training. For example, max yoke, max dumbbell, and max log all in one session. Consider the stress that places on your body, along with the impact that has on your recovery and your ability to train the next week.

Apply similar percentages to your event training as you would your press, squat, and deadlift. You don’t max those three lifts each and every session, so don’t max out the events you are practicing. Learn the technique, perfect the movement, and then apply effort, intensity, and volume in a progressive way.

4. Become Strong, Then Become a Strongman

Many people forget that building strength is like any other part of fitness. It takes time, hard work, and dedication. Strength isn’t built quickly and easily. If you want to be a strongman, don’t forget you need time to become strong first.

“Lifting too heavy and pushing your boundaries too often means you get hurt. Or you see no progress, decide to abandon the plan, and stop training for strength all together.”

Stuck on that 220kg deadlift barrier while you look at others moving up toward the 300kg club? It’s all too easy to get frustrated and try to speed up the process. You start training more, training with higher percentages, and scouring the Internet for a magic supplement or nutrition plan in the hope you’ll progress faster.

Invariably, this leads to one of two things – injury or defeat. Lifting too heavy and pushing your boundaries too often means you get hurt. Or you experience no progress, decide to abandon the plan, and stop training for strength all together.

If you want to be a strongman, don’t forget you need time to become strong first.

There are no shortcuts around hard work, a good training plan, and a commitment to getting the work done. Consider these tips:

• The strongest lifter is often the one who’s been injury free the longest.
• Don’t put your body and health at risk by neglecting your foundations of mobility, movement, fitness, and an appropriate training plan. You will regret it when you’re in hospital with a bulging disc or torn muscle.
• Create a strong foundation and build. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Become strong, then become a strongman.

Build From the Ground Up

Regardless of where you are on your current journey into strongman, whether you are just trying out the sport or are an experienced competitor, ask yourself these questions:

• Is your fear of failure holding you back?
• Are you pushing your event training too hard?
• Are you sacrificing long-term health and injury-free training to speed up the process?

If your answer to any of these questions is yes, then the only solution is to build from the ground up. Reassess your priorities, so you can lay a solid foundation. From here, build a huge level of strength. Only by following this process in this order will you be able compete at your highest capabilities.

Other Articles You May Enjoy:

• 33 Reasons to Train Strongman
• What Strongman Training Can Teach Us About Getting Strong
• 3 Reasons You Don’t Squat More (And What to Do About It)
• What’s New On Breaking Muscle Today

Photos courtesy of John Clark.

The post 4 Needless Mistakes You’re Making in Strongman Training appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

When the hips rise too fast, you lose the opportunity to move big weights. Regardless of your preference for starting hip height, a straight leg reduces the involvement of your glutes, hamstrings, quads, and adductors. The more you are able to use these significant muscle groups, the more chance you have of producing a higher strength output.

What does your deadlift look like when it gets heavy? More than likely, your hips shoot up, your chest collapses forward, and you lose the maximal force you are trying to apply.

When the hips rise too fast, you lose the opportunity to move big weights. Regardless of your preference for starting hip height, a straight leg reduces the involvement of your glutes, hamstrings, quads, and adductors. The more you are able to use these significant muscle groups, the more chance you have of producing a higher strength output.

The reason for these errors is simple. It’s a lack of tension and bracing. Not creating tension in a muscle before you intend to move at maximal velocity can be a recipe for disaster. You wouldn’t start your car from cold and immediately drive at 100mph, so why ask your body to do the same? When you ask relaxed muscles to contract with as much force as possible, they will take the easiest route rather than the route you need for a maximal lift – which means hips up.

Try this simple test to understand more:

1. Use your thumb and forefinger to flick something (or someone – but I can’t be held responsible for their retaliation). Notice the speed of the finger.
2. Now take away your thumb and try and flick your finger with the same speed. You can’t. It’s slower and far less powerful.

When you use your thumb to hold your finger back, you pre-load the muscle and contract it with maximal force before you unload that tension in a fast movement. Now let’s apply that to the deadlift.

Push Your Knees Into Your Forearms

Getting tight and creating tension at the bottom of a lift is difficult. It’s far harder than a squat, as you have to engage muscle groups when you are already cramped up in the bottom position. It’s hard to feel yourself getting tighter.

The simplest way to activate the major muscle groups when in the setup position for the deadlift is to gently push your knees outwards into your forearms. Don’t force your arms off the bar – a gentle squeeze should suffice. You will immediately feel the hamstrings, glutes, adductors, and even the quads begin to engage.

If you allow this tension to develop through your upper back, you can take off the handbrake on the muscles, explode up, and apply that maximal output by driving your heels into the floor. You will instantly notice how the legs don’t automatically straighten and self-sabotage. Rather, they drive your hips through in the right sequence, contributing force to your deadlift.

Put It All Together

To summarize:

1. Get into your start position.
2. Gently push your knees outwards until you feel the tension.
3. Gently pull back your shoulder blades to add to your upper back tension.
4. Drive through your heels into the floor.

A faster and more biomechanically efficient pull awaits.

More Like This:

• 5 Tips for a Stronger Deadlift
• 15 Practical Strategies to Increase Your Deadlift Max
• Fixing Common Squat and Deadlift Problems with Bands

The post A Simple Cue to Immediately Improve Your Deadlift appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Two Components of a Good Squat

Stability and tension are two key components to an efficient squat. The ability to brace your body from your little toe to your head is a must. When you lose tension in your upper body (your lats, traps, trunk, and lower back), you transition into an awful good-morning-type-squat, where the weight falls forward and your hips rise. You end up squatting just using your back muscles, or even stuck at the bottom of the squat.

A common cause of this loss of tension and subsequent dangerous position is your hand-width placement on the bar. I see an increasing number of people squatting with a super-wide hand position, their hands almost touching the weight plates. If you have shoulder issues, this may be the only way to squat. However, if you can get narrower in your grip, you should continue reading.

A grip that is too wide (left) is one of the most common squatting mistakes I see.

Why Your Hands Matter

When you place your hands at the extremities of the bar, you lose the ability to significantly engage your lats, drive your elbows forward, and keep your chest standing proud. With this lack of back engagement, the sheer weight of the bar pushes your chest forward and away from your center of mass.

A wide grip forces your chest forward and prevents lat activation.

Once you sink to the base of your squat, success becomes a question of how strong your lower back is, as it is obliged to bear the brunt of a heavy good morning. The bar has moved further away from your center of mass, so the hips rise to try and stop the weight from pulling you forward. You end up with back pain rather than leg and glute activation.

Instead of glute activation, you get what resembles a heavy good morning.

A Simple Solution

There is a simple fix for this poor squatting. Just bring the hands closer in to your body. Whether you can do this will be dependent on your shoulder mobility and flexibility. If you are unable to bring your hands closer together, you should be working on correcting your mobility anyway.

A narrower position allows you to drive your chest upwards, so your lower back no longer bears the brunt of the lift.

A narrower hand position creates far more tension. This is because you can pull your elbows in towards your hips and push them further forward, which drives the chest upwards and maintains good form. This position will then allow your hips to come through at the right time, help drive your back upwards, and keep your chest nice and proud. Notice how the bar now sits over the center of mass and makes the weight feel lighter, too.

Congratulations, you are now squatting using your legs instead of just your lower back. Enjoy your increase in load and decrease in pain.

Another great article on squatting:

3 Reasons You Don’t Squat More (And What to About It)

The post How Your Hand Position Can Maximize Your Squats appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

What happened? I’ll take an educated guess your elbows shot up and backwards. If you flare your elbows like this in the back squat, you cause the bar to move forward and away from your centre of mass. This sends your hips down, your chest up, and takes your legs out of the equation completely. It’s a common mistake that’s nearly impossible to recover from. It leaves your lower back to assume the load and finish the lift.

How to Fix Flared Elbows in the Squat

Luckily, there’s an easy fix. Cue your elbows to pull in and down towards your hips to stop your hips drifting back. This makes your torso more stable and ensures your legs manage the bulk of the weight, not your back. As you hit depth, continue to drive the elbows forward and push the bar backwards to keep your chest upright and your hips moving forward. You’ll instantly find it easier to keep your back straight as you ascend, particularly with lighter loads.

Now your elbows take on a new importance in your squat. They start to work for you, instead of against you. Watch the video below to see what I mean.

Bear in mind that with heavier weights your elbows may not physically move forwards, but the act of trying to move them reduces the likelihood of elbow flare by creating tension in the lats and upper back.

To summarise:

1. Grasp the bar. Pull your elbows into your hips and get tight.
2. As you hit depth, drive out of the hole and keep your elbows pulled forward and down. Push back against the bar.
3. Power up out of the hole with an elevated chest and a straight torso.
4. Chalk up your new PB.

Keep your elbows forward and you’ll be sending your old squat maxes backwards in no time.

More Like This:

• 3 Reasons You Don’t Squat More (And What to Do About It)
• Squat Therapy: 4 Drills for a Better Squat
• 8 Steps to Instantly Improve Your Squat
• New on Breaking Muscle UK

Teaser photo courtesy of Rx’d Photography.

The post How to Fix A Good Morning-Style Squat appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Common cue terminology doesn’t help. It more often than not gets called a “pull”, so that’s what people do. They visualise pulling the weight from the floor and tend to snatch at the bar as a result, which spells bad news for technique.

The Subtle Cue That Unlocks Enormous Deadlifts

If you pull at the bar excessively, your lats lose their lock, your shoulders roll forwards, and your hips shoot up, turning a potentially explosive and safe lift into a slow grind. But if you change your mindset about the deadlift from a pull to a push, it can drastically change what your hips and torso do and ramp up the speed you generate.

The video below will show you what I mean.

By pushing your heels in and driving the floor away you will see your hips drive into the bar rather than shoot up, your torso stay solid and locked, and your spine keep in a safer and more comfortable position.

To summarise:

1. Move into your start position.
2. Use the cues we’ve covered with your knees and elbows to create the tension and pre-engage the muscles we’re targeting.
3. Visualise pushing into the floor. Instead of ripping the bar up, you’re going to imagine you’re leaving craters in the floor where your feet are.
4. Breathe into your belt (or stomach if you’re not wearing a belt) and quite literally push the world away.

You’ll recruit far more leg drive into the lift and then will likely be able to load more kilograms onto the barbell. All through changing how you think of the movement.

So remember: the deadlift is no longer a pull. It’s a push!

More Like This:

• How to Brace Your Lats for a Monster Deadlift
• 15 Practical Strategies to Increase Your Deadlift Max
• The Action-Reaction Law: How to Deadlift Big and Avoid Injury
• New on Breaking Muscle UK

Teaser photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post The Subtle Cue That Unlocks Enormous Deadlifts appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

3 Pitfalls in the Deadlift

If you fail to brace your lats in this way, you will notice three distinct faults:

• The bar drifting away from your body. The weight will feel heavier as it is no longer close to your centre of mass.
• A more difficult lockout. It becomes harder to use the glutes to push the hips through as your body is shifted out of position.
• Hitched lifts. Hitching occurs as you try to pull your shoulders back to complete the movement. This puts more stress on both your biceps and upper back.

To prevent these faults happening, you need to create the tension you need to brace the torso more effectively. You can achieve this through placing an increased focus on what your lats and traps are doing. Here’s how.

How to Brace Your Lats for a Monster Deadlift

Firstly, address the bar and find your start position. Imagine corkscrewing your elbows into your body. You’ll feel your lats engage and your torso begin to brace. As you perform the lift, you should feel a noticeable difference. This is because your back is supporting you properly rather than rounding, sloping forwards, and working against you.

To summarise:

1. Address the bar.
2. Find your starting position.
3. Corkscrew your elbows into your body.
4. Contract the tension it creates.
5. Keep tight and finish strong.

A Word of Warning

You don’t want the shoulders to be pulled back when focusing on the lats. The shoulders should stay fairly neutral, so you’re not adding to the range of motion the bar has to travel in. You should feel the shoulders are stabilised and supported, with the lats activated and engaged, ready to create tension for the lift. They shouldn’t feel retracted, high, or tight.

Following these steps will create a solid torso to achieve a monster deadlift.

More Like This:

• Video: How to Anchor Your Feet for a Monumental Squat
• A Unified Theory of Deadlifting
• 3 Simple Ways to Be Stronger Right Now
• New on Breaking Muscle UK

Teaser photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post How to Brace Your Lats for a Monster Deadlift appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

“Build a big foundation with your feet and you’ll build a skyscraper of a squat on them.“

Your training is a building, and you want to build a skyscraper, not a bungalow. Don’t worry, I’m not about to talk to you about construction. What I mean is if you don’t have a strong foundation and process in place, then the little finishing touches – the tempos, the wave loading, the drop sets, and supplementation – all become irrelevant. Without the groundwork to support your efforts, you’ll never build a building taller than a couple of storeys.

Lofty goals? You need to start from the ground up.

Building can be a long, arduous process. To build up, we sometimes have to knock walls down. The same is true in training. Progression tends not to be linear, and in relentless pursuit of bigger weight on the bar we tend to forget that sometimes we need to make big adjustments. We lose sight of our training roots by sweating the small stuff and never give ourselves the opportunity to look at the blueprints as a whole, and build properly and safely.

5 Rules to Build an Indestructible Foundation for Training

At my gym, Fit3Sixty, we have a system to keep our foundations in mind. I’ve come up with five rules to constantly assess whether we’re getting too absorbed in the minor details and ensure we don’t miss the bigger picture in our training. Try them yourself and set the foundation you need to succeed.

1. Don’t Get Hurt

You need a sustainable way to train. Consider progress as something you have to earn and not something that magically appears on a good day when the weight fairies somehow conjure you a PB. Chasing weights on a bar or seconds off a workout is a way to get hurt. It’s not worth it for the sake of wanting to see a number increase on a spreadsheet. Earn the right to hit your PBs through progressive and realistic programming. Don’t risk a long term injury just because you want to hit the high numbers.

2. Have a Goal

With PBs no longer the focus, you need to zero in on your overall desired outcome. You need to set a goal. With a goal comes purpose, and with purpose your training will take on new levels of commitment, accountability, and work ethic. If you are truly striving to be the best you can be and aiming for a competition or an event, what do you specifically want the outcome to be?

“If you write down your goals and commit to achieving them, you will be accountable to your programme and the building will have less chance of collapse.”

You will work harder and put in the hours needed when your goal becomes an achievable reality, which is far better than idling through training with no real purpose or focus. Don’t end up on a completely different path wondering what went wrong. Write your goal down, work backwards from it, and figure out a plan for how to get from A to B.

3. Be Accountable

The best plan is the one you can stick to. If you can’t stick to your plan, ask yourself why. Is the programme too difficult, is the goal too unrealistic, or are you just not prepared to work as hard as it demands? Many people look for alternative reasons for their stalled progress. But the right brand of creatine, or other such details, aren’t your concern. Sticking to your plan, seeing it through, and earning the right to progress is. If you’re not holding yourself accountable, then you’re just worrying about the small walls and ignoring the massive crack in your training foundation.

So be honest. Have you been fully accountable to yourself, your programme and your goal? If not, then review it, edit it and stick to the revised version. Earn the right to progress and you’ll enjoy it far more when it happens.

4. Celebrate Success

This is a simple but often overlooked element of training. A rep PB, a half second off a sprint time, a 2.5kg added to your max – they all count. Enjoy these moments and the progress and success. When times get hard and you see others progressing faster or hitting big new personal bests, your incremental successes will keep you motivated.

Use the little battles you have won to keep you motivated for the bigger war.

Great overall progress requires small continual progressions, so track these, monitor them, and enjoy them. Using a training diary is a great tool for looking back at what you have achieved. Seeing what you are doing now compared to twelve months ago will empower you as you move forward. On the flipside, never assume by seeing progress you can rest on your laurels. Use the little battles won to help you win the bigger war and as motivation to keep moving forward.

5. Enjoy the Process

Very few of us settle the mortgage through our sport and fitness goals, so the process of training and competing has to be fun. It should complement your life, not define what and who you are. A wise man once told me, “There is no happy arrival from an unhappy journey.” Celebrate your progress, learn from your mistakes and failures and above all else, have fun with it. Enjoy the process and the journey as well as the results.

Your Skyscraper Awaits

If you put these large foundations in place in your training, you can then begin to think about building the storeys. Each of the five rules flows into the next and supports the rules on either side. You’ll find the outcomes will take care of themselves along the way. If you train with a focus on not getting hurt and staying injury free, you will progress far quicker and build higher. If you write down your goals and commit to achieving them, you will be accountable to your programme and the building will have less chance of collapse.

Implement these rules into your training and start building an epic skyscraper of your own today.

More Like This:

• Video: How to Anchor Your Feet for a Monumental Squat
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Photo 1 courtesy of Shutterstock.

Photo 2 courtesy of Jorge Huerta Photography.

The post How to Build an Indestructible Foundation for Training appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The Foundation for Force Production

Your feet anchor you to the floor and allow you to produce enough force to complete your lift. They are the difference between you hitting a great lift and getting buried under a tonne of plates. Ultimately, your feet are the foundation of your squat. Let me show you.

How to Anchor Your Feet For A Monumental Squat

1. Stand up and take your normal squat stance. Note what parts of your feet feel like they are anchored to the floor. For most of you, they will just be flat and resting on the floor, not anchoring you much, and not supporting you effectively.
2. Drive your little toe into the floor. Push it in as firmly as you can. Feel the foot start to engage and the calf come into play.
3. Repeat this action with your big toe. Drive it into the floor with force and feel the arch on your foot engage as well as the tibialis anterior (front of the shin) tighten. You will already feel much more stable on the floor.
4. Imagine your heels are like two corkscrews you are trying to screw into the ground. Screw the heels in the direction that would push your knees outwards. Feel your adductors, hamstrings, glutes and quads activate.

Now, you’re ready to lift. 

The tension generated will assist proper tracking of the knees, support stabilisation of the hips, and keep your heels flat to the floor, all of which are integral to a strong and powerful squat. You should feel a huge shift in tension, a big preloading of the lower limbs, and greater stability. You are now ready to squat in a more supported, safe, controlled, and explosive manner.

Remember, with poor foundations you’ll only ever build a one-story bungalow. Build a big foundation with your feet and you’ll build a skyscraper of a squat on them.

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Teaser photo courtesy of Strength Education.

The post Video: How to Anchor Your Feet for a Monumental Squat appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

However, online training is not for everyone. I have worked with many clients over the years, both online and in person. The results we achieve are in line with the client’s suitability for the service he or she is buying. So is online training for you? Here are four signs you’re not ready for an online coach.

Are You Focused Enough?

Constant feedback is one advantage of a one-to-one personal training session. There are few, if any, hiding places when you are one-to-one with your coach. You can’t slack off. You can’t extend your rest periods by chatting with your mates or checking in with a #beastmode on Facebook.

But when all you have is you, a barbell, and a training program, it’s easy to find excuses not to do the hard graft required.

You stop a set early. You do three sets instead of the five prescribed. You get sidetracked daydreaming of your next peanut butter protein shake. The refined programming and planning, the detailed rep, set, recovery, and tempo schemes all fall down when they aren’t adhered to. You reduce the impact of the session and your ability to achieve your goal. If you get easily sidetracked and aren’t able to stick to the plan, perhaps online coaching isn’t for you.

Your Technique Isn’t Great

Few people achieve technique mastery. The squat, deadlift, bench, and push press are complex skills that regularly require fine-tuning and work. If you are just beginning your lifting journey, you would be better served finding a good local coach than an online coach. Find someone to work with on a one-to-one basis. Someone who can teach you how to brace, stabilize, fine-tune, and find the optimal technique for you.

“Strength isn’t bought, it’s earned.”

Teaching the basics is difficult via the internet. Refining fundamental movements is far easier. If you just need a few refinements and pointers, then online coaching could be for you. But if you need someone to teach you how to start squatting, benching, and deadlifting, perhaps save up your money and pay for a one-on-one service.

You Don’t or Won’t Track and Measure

As your online coach doesn’t see you regularly, he or she should ask you for feedback and measurements on a continual basis:

• How was your session?
• Did you hit the percentages or numbers advised?
• How is recovery going?
• How much food are you eating?

And so the list goes on. If you aren’t prepared to track the information requested, it’s difficult, almost impossible, to evolve, adapt, and refine your program to optimize success. Few coaches will find the perfect program for you the first time around. The perfect program is the one that you can adhere to. So if your coach doesn’t know about your daily habits and metrics, a program that suits you becomes a very difficult thing to develop.

Your training should change based on your workload in your job, stress, teething children, or a few days of poor food choices. The likely success of your goal is hampered without the relevant information and metrics. If you aren’t ready to measure, track, and be accountable, it isn’t for you.

You Want a Quick Fix

Strength isn’t bought, it’s earned. If you are hoping just by buying an online coaching package you’re unlocking the door to a 1,000lb deadlift, you should probably save your money.

If you are hoping to find the secret of the strength training world from any coach, you will be disappointed. All good coaches tend to stick to the basics, with custom and bespoke assistance programming developed through experience and results. Because that’s what works.

A lot of the programs you will pay for will not be revolutionary in terms of rep, weight, set, and tempo schemes. They will probably look similar to ones you can readily find online. However, they will have been adapted and written for you – based on your body, your strengths, weaknesses, lifting style and available time to train, eat, rest, and recover.

You shouldn’t receive a cookie-cutter program, but don’t be surprised if your rep schemes take you back to the fundamentals, rather than offer something new and outrageous.

Is Online Programming for You?

Are you ready to take your lifting to the next level but just need some support around programming, lifting refinements, and getting the most from your sessions? If you can stick to a plan, work with focus, and get the job done, then online coaching could be the perfect tool to elevate your lifts to the next level.

One of the most important keys to success is having the discipline to do what you know you should do when no one is watching you and you don’t feel like doing it. If you aren’t prepared to do the work and be strict with your own approach, you are not ready for an online strength coach.

If you are just starting out, aren’t able to stick to a plan, waste time, skip sessions, don’t give feedback, and aren’t prepared to listen to your coach – then save both your time and your money and wait until you’re ready to focus, adhere, give feedback, and get the results you want.

More Like This:

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Photo 1 courtesy of Shutterstock.

Photo 2 courtesy of Breaking Muscle.

Teaser photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Will Online Programming Make or Break Your Training? appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

If you are experiencing those lows, ask yourself what is holding you back. Take a look at your training, mindset, and goals. Regardless of your experience in the sport, mistakes in any of these four fundamental areas can be detrimental to your progress.

Let’s have a look at four common mistakes in approach and preparation for strongman competitions, and how to fix them.

I competed against four World’s Strongest Men competitors and finished last, but I still learned a lot.

1. I’m Not Strong Enough Yet

If I had a pound for every time I’ve been asked, “How strong do I need to be?” I’d have my daily protein intake paid for each week.

“[D]on’t allow your experiences of competitions to stall you because you are looking at those around you and thinking you’re not strong enough.”

The answer to this question is dependent on your goals. If you want to be the World’s Strongest Man, then you will need a 220kg overhead press, 462kg deadlift, and 350kg squat. Even with those, you will simply be competitive, and winning is far from a given. If you just want to have a go at strongman and see what happens, then you should be able to press your bodyweight overhead and deadlift and squat double your bodyweight.

As the sport of strongman continues to grow and evolve, the standard rises. Thirty years ago, my log press would be a world record. Now, it’s only deemed above-average. But don’t allow your experiences of competitions to stall you because you are looking at those around you and thinking you’re not strong enough.

2. The Value of Competition

Nothing focuses the mind and polarises your efforts like an upcoming competition. Find a competition that suits your level of ability and just have a go. That said, experience counts for a lot in this sport, so if you get the chance to compete at a higher level than you may think you’re capable of, don’t turn that chance down either. I competed against four World’s Strongest Men competitors in January after a last-minute invite to an international-level show. I finished last. But despite the result, I learnt a lot from being around some of the strongest men on the planet.

“Nothing focuses the mind and polarises your efforts like an upcoming competition. Find a competition that suits your level of ability and just have a go.”

Coming last isn’t a disgrace. You learn, you consolidate your new learning with what you already know, and you get better as a result. Embrace the competition instead of waiting for that perfect light competition that you’ll blitz and win a meaningless trophy. Novice titles are irrelevant in the big scheme of strongman, so don’t focus on winning. Focus on experiencing the competition, the strongman family, and deciding if strongman is what you want to dedicate your training time towards.

Twenty years ago, my log press would be a world record. Now it’s only deemed above-average. But I haven’t let that stop me.

3. Max, Max, Max

Part of the attraction to strongman is the circus-like nature of the lifts. The circus dumbbell, log lift, yoke run, and Atlas stones all look impressive and beyond the capabilities of mortal men and women. Everyone wants a photograph or video of themselves performing these events.

These movements are all highly technical and require practice and constant refinement. Continually hitting event work isn’t an issue. You can perform the events as often as you feel comfortable or want to. The issues is the percentages that you are doing them with.

“Learn the technique, perfect the movement, and then apply effort, intensity, and volume in a progressive way.”

Everyone wants a shiny new personal best for their YouTube channel. Therefore, many trainees continually chase their event max in training. For example, max yoke, max dumbbell, and max log all in one session. Consider the stress that places on your body, along with the impact that has on your recovery and your ability to train the next week.

Apply similar percentages to your event training as you would your press, squat, and deadlift. You don’t max those three lifts each and every session, so don’t max out the events you are practicing. Learn the technique, perfect the movement, and then apply effort, intensity, and volume in a progressive way.

4. Become Strong, Then Become a Strongman

Many people forget that building strength is like any other part of fitness. It takes time, hard work, and dedication. Strength isn’t built quickly and easily. If you want to be a strongman, don’t forget you need time to become strong first.

“Lifting too heavy and pushing your boundaries too often means you get hurt. Or you see no progress, decide to abandon the plan, and stop training for strength all together.”

Stuck on that 220kg deadlift barrier whilst you look at others moving up towards the 300kg club? It’s all too easy to get frustrated and try to speed up the process. You start training more, training with higher percentages, and scouring the Internet for a magic supplement or nutrition plan in the hope you’ll progress faster.

Invariably, this leads to one of two things – injury or defeat. Lifting too heavy and pushing your boundaries too often means you get hurt. Or you see no progress, decide to abandon the plan, and stop training for strength all together.

If you want to be a strongman, don’t forget you need time to become strong first.

There are no shortcuts around hard work, a good training plan, and commitment to getting the work done. Consider these tips:

• The strongest lifter is often the one who’s been injury free the longest.
• Don’t put your body and health at risk by neglecting your foundations of mobility, movement, fitness, and an appropriate training plan. You will regret it when you’re in hospital with a bulging disc or torn muscle.
• Create a strong foundation and build. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Become strong, then become a strongman.

Build From the Ground Up

Regardless of where you are on your current journey into strongman, whether you are just trying out the sport or are an experienced competitor, ask yourself these questions:

• Is your fear of failure holding you back?
• Are you pushing your event training too hard?
• Are you sacrificing long-term health and injury-free training to speed up the process?

If your answer to any of these questions is yes, then the only solution is to build from the ground up. Reassess your priorities, so you can lay a solid foundation. From here, build a huge level of strength. Only by following this process in this order will you be able compete at your highest capabilities.

New on Breaking Muscle UK:

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Photos courtesy of John Clark.

The post 4 Common Strongman Training Mistakes (And How to Fix Them) appeared first on Breaking Muscle.