While it was deadlift day today and a damn good session at that I had occasion to watch some pretty awful squat form in between sets.
I have mentioned before that I despair at the dearth of heavy squatting and dead-lifting in the gym that I train at. Rarely does anyone put more that two wheels a side on a squat and on the rare occasion that someone does the form and lack of depth is frightening. Take tonight for example. Young kid training squat, now I know for a fact he is on a low level of gear (amongst other things has a massive water bloat and acne on the shoulders that could be mistaken for braille)and has pretty decent genetics. Despite natural and augmented assistance he worked up to four plates a side and wobbled out some really nasty narrow stance, quad dominant, round back 1/8th depth sets.
Ok I know I shouldn't be too hard on this kid. His poor squat execution is borne from an absence of good instruction. Apart from decent hardcore and power lifting gyms it's rare to find gym staff versed in the correct execution of the key lifts such as squat deadlift and bench.
There are many great sources of information on the net and in print that assist with technique fundamentals. I would always recommend Mark Rippetoe's seminal work "Starting Strength" along with videos on his website. In addition the EliteFTS site is packed with great instruction from some of Americas top powerlifters. I recently revisited a great squat video series on this site by Matt Wenning. Matt knows what he is talking about having totaled over 2600 lbs in a professional competition, holds an all-time world record of 2665 lbs in the 308-lb class, and bench press over 800 lbs in a full powerlifting meet.
There are 5 videos in the series, the premise being Matt taking an average athlete and providing a master class in improving his squat.
It's a great instructional series and fantastic to see Matt decompose the technique of his subject and identify clear adjustments to turn around his form.
Here is the first video:
I recommend getting over to the site and watching the full series but a few key take aways for me were:
Form and set up is everything. Matt's key points included:
1. Set bar on back
2. Head up
3. Lock upper back
4. Lock abs and tailbone (nice lordotic curve)
5. Push knees out at the top and on the decent
6. Keep lateral pressure on feet (outside edge towards mid foot and rear)
7. Partial squat to unrack
8. Then 2 inch step back then another
9. First motion sit back knees out to sides
10. Key keep head up don’t look in a mirror get used to relying on your Proprioception (sense of your self and relative positioning)
Here is the link to EliteFTS and the video series: http://articles.elitefts.com/articles/training-articles/articles/powerlifting-articles/so-you-think-you-can-squat-part-1-and-2/
One thing apparent from this series and something I have come to appreciate over the last 4 years is the need for a critical regular appraisal on form. Now as I mentioned before you may not have access to a Mark Rippetoe or Matt Wenning but given today'technology there is no excuse not to video your technique and review offline. Also there are plenty of coaches that are happy to receive your video and provide some online coaching just make sure you pick your coach correctly.
Thankfully Sunday is squat day and I will be definitely doing a form check and putting Matt's great instruction to good use.
Stay Strong!
Thomo
Friday, July 15, 2011
Saturday, July 9, 2011
5 ways to tell your gym is Shite!
I wish I could transplant the famed metro flex and plonk it down 5 kms from my house, better still give me the power freaks of Columbus at Westside. Hey I'd settle for Dave Tate as a neighbor. Alas it's not to be. The closest gym I love is a 5 hour flight to my great coach Damon Hayhow and his fantastic facility in Brisbane. Therefore while I am fortunate to live in a magnificent clean beautiful city on the West Coast of Australia with beaches and weather that make LA pale by comparison I do despair at the complete lack of decent gyms focused on strength.
Those of you who follow my rants know that my needs are modest. Give me a decent power-rack, heavy duty bench and most importantly an uncluttered dead lift platform and I will gladly shell our my hard earned dollars for a membership. Throw in a rubber plates (for cleans), reverse hyper machine and let me use chalk...hell I will sign up for life. This dearth of training facilities has led me to become an expert at identifying truly abysmal facilities (note my early post on joining a new gym). Therefore I submit to you the 5 ways you can tell that your current gym is shit!:
1. There are more cable crossover machines than squat racks:
Preoccupation with cable crossovers is a sure sign that your gym is a haven for douche bags. I wish I had a dollar for how many times I see guys wander in to grind out endless sets of crossovers. Generally the only chance they have of triggering muscle soreness is when they are craning their neck to watch themselves in the mirror.
2. No one lifts more than 2 wheels on compound lifts:
Getting strong and huge requires hoisting decent weight. Now you don’t have to squat like Dave Tate (check out Dave squatting below) but you have to shift some heavy iron if you want to grow! At my gym few guys rarely lift above 110kg in the bench and even fewer deadlift or squat with decent weight (very sad I know)
3. Preoccupation with Isolation Exercises:
Yesterday I worked a 10 hour day, followed this with a 2 hour flight home then sucked it up for my deadlift workout. I won’t mention that the mercury was still hovering at 35 degrees (Celsius) with humidity that would make metro flex feel cold. Ok ok I’ll stop whining now but my point is that regardless of the circumstances you still have to hoist the weight if you want the results. So as I sat between sets in a moist puddle of my own sweat I glance up to see 3 young guys obsessing over 1 arm cable tricep pulldowns . Each of these kids would be lucky to break 70kgs but here they were complaining how they needed more mass. Hell I managed to complete my deadlift workout and get to the chin bar while these clowns were still grinding out ridiculous sets for their triceps. I can’t stress enough how important it is for newbies looking to grow to forget isolation exercises and get their ass squatting and deadlifting!
4. 60%+ of the floor space is dedicated to cardio equipment: How disappointing, think how man EliteFTS college power racks you could fit in the space currently wasted with those ridiculous elliptical rowers, steppers etc. In my gym I regularly see one poor lass every day as she spends approx 1.5 hours on the cardio equipment. She is rail thin and its quite sad to watch her blithely waste an hour or so of her life to (in the word of my old coach) burn the equivalent of one Tim Tam biscuit or a small potato. Jesus for the sum total of 3 hours for the entire week I could transfer her physique just getting her skinny ass under a squat rack.
5. Your Staff are Dicks!: Too many horror stories surround trainers at many gyms. Here is a sample of trainer behaviour from the gym I train at.
a) spending time on the mobile phone while training clients
b) regurgitating rubbish theories that sound like they came from 1980's Weider magazine articles
c) focusing more on their clients ass than their squat technique
d) promoting routines based on (in no particular order) bicep curls, hack squats, leg extensions and...yup you guessed it cable cross overs
If you have any 2 out of these five then congratulations like me you train at a Shite gym!!
Ps you might wonder why i still train where I do given the obvious limitations of the gym. Well 3 reasons, its close, it is the only gym nearby with a power rack and finally all the stupid shit that occurs there provides me an endless source of material for this blog!
Those of you who follow my rants know that my needs are modest. Give me a decent power-rack, heavy duty bench and most importantly an uncluttered dead lift platform and I will gladly shell our my hard earned dollars for a membership. Throw in a rubber plates (for cleans), reverse hyper machine and let me use chalk...hell I will sign up for life. This dearth of training facilities has led me to become an expert at identifying truly abysmal facilities (note my early post on joining a new gym). Therefore I submit to you the 5 ways you can tell that your current gym is shit!:
1. There are more cable crossover machines than squat racks:
Preoccupation with cable crossovers is a sure sign that your gym is a haven for douche bags. I wish I had a dollar for how many times I see guys wander in to grind out endless sets of crossovers. Generally the only chance they have of triggering muscle soreness is when they are craning their neck to watch themselves in the mirror.
2. No one lifts more than 2 wheels on compound lifts:
Getting strong and huge requires hoisting decent weight. Now you don’t have to squat like Dave Tate (check out Dave squatting below) but you have to shift some heavy iron if you want to grow! At my gym few guys rarely lift above 110kg in the bench and even fewer deadlift or squat with decent weight (very sad I know)
3. Preoccupation with Isolation Exercises:
Yesterday I worked a 10 hour day, followed this with a 2 hour flight home then sucked it up for my deadlift workout. I won’t mention that the mercury was still hovering at 35 degrees (Celsius) with humidity that would make metro flex feel cold. Ok ok I’ll stop whining now but my point is that regardless of the circumstances you still have to hoist the weight if you want the results. So as I sat between sets in a moist puddle of my own sweat I glance up to see 3 young guys obsessing over 1 arm cable tricep pulldowns . Each of these kids would be lucky to break 70kgs but here they were complaining how they needed more mass. Hell I managed to complete my deadlift workout and get to the chin bar while these clowns were still grinding out ridiculous sets for their triceps. I can’t stress enough how important it is for newbies looking to grow to forget isolation exercises and get their ass squatting and deadlifting!
4. 60%+ of the floor space is dedicated to cardio equipment: How disappointing, think how man EliteFTS college power racks you could fit in the space currently wasted with those ridiculous elliptical rowers, steppers etc. In my gym I regularly see one poor lass every day as she spends approx 1.5 hours on the cardio equipment. She is rail thin and its quite sad to watch her blithely waste an hour or so of her life to (in the word of my old coach) burn the equivalent of one Tim Tam biscuit or a small potato. Jesus for the sum total of 3 hours for the entire week I could transfer her physique just getting her skinny ass under a squat rack.
5. Your Staff are Dicks!: Too many horror stories surround trainers at many gyms. Here is a sample of trainer behaviour from the gym I train at.
a) spending time on the mobile phone while training clients
b) regurgitating rubbish theories that sound like they came from 1980's Weider magazine articles
c) focusing more on their clients ass than their squat technique
d) promoting routines based on (in no particular order) bicep curls, hack squats, leg extensions and...yup you guessed it cable cross overs
If you have any 2 out of these five then congratulations like me you train at a Shite gym!!
Ps you might wonder why i still train where I do given the obvious limitations of the gym. Well 3 reasons, its close, it is the only gym nearby with a power rack and finally all the stupid shit that occurs there provides me an endless source of material for this blog!
Cyclists please have a look at your self!!
I'm baaacckkkkk!!!
Apologies for the long delay between blogs but I have been working on a new home/website for the blog which should be up soon.
In the meantime I am long overdue for my rant of the week: recreational cyclists.
I am going to declare my hand upfront. I love road race cycling, hell in my teenage years cycling was my sport. At 55kg it was either cycling or training as a garden gnome. Even now I wistfully reminisce re the 80's tours with Greg Lemonds ground breaking Tour De France win against the badger Bernard Hinault, Stephen Roches' great triple crown year and one of my favourite movies is still Kevin Costners homage to road cycling, American Flyers.
Now despite my overt display of man love for the sport of cycling the burning question I have is why fundamentally are so many recreational cyclists complete and utter dicks!
Let me run through my grievances/observations:
1) Firstly where is their concept of hygiene? I can't tell you how many times I am exposed to some dripping sweaty guy leaping into the lift no shoes stinking of the street as they wander into the building following their morning ride. Furthermore in coffee shops each weekend they drape their ridiculous lycra clad bodies all over the seats spreading nice tepid pools of their sweat for the rest of the patrons to marinate in once they are gone.
2) Fat people wearing lycra. Just because you managed to squeeze yourself into Lance Armstrong's replica US Postal team jersey doesn't mean your lumpy 100kg frame is magically easier on the eye...IT ISN'T you look out of shape AND ridiculous!
3) Stay the fuck out of coffee shops. I have lost count of how many times the serenity of Saturday morning breakfast at the local coffee shop is interrupted by a peloton converging at the counter sans bikes. Can you imagine sitting at your table chowing down then being confronted by a mass of sweaty noisy idiots in lycra hobbling back and forth on their quick release shoes. My question is, when did it become habit for a hard training ride to be punctuated by coffee and a muffin!!! Go home carbo load and do your recovery you silly Fucks!
Now I am cognizant that there are quite a number of numb nuts in the gym as well. Actually many of them appear to train at my gym. The difference is most of these wife beater wearing, creatine breath idiots head straight home in their utes post training, they generally don't foist themselves upon the public in their post workout sweat drenched state.
So lets be clear, I love cycling and hoping Cadel finally breaks through for a win in this years Le Tour. However to the weekend wannabees why don't you consider pounding out a few km's of intervals at the end of a hard ride rather than parking your fat ass on the nice leather settee at Joondalup Dome. You might actually improve your sprint drop a few kgs and I know the leather will survive without your 2 hour ass print.
Till next time stay strong
Apologies for the long delay between blogs but I have been working on a new home/website for the blog which should be up soon.
In the meantime I am long overdue for my rant of the week: recreational cyclists.
I am going to declare my hand upfront. I love road race cycling, hell in my teenage years cycling was my sport. At 55kg it was either cycling or training as a garden gnome. Even now I wistfully reminisce re the 80's tours with Greg Lemonds ground breaking Tour De France win against the badger Bernard Hinault, Stephen Roches' great triple crown year and one of my favourite movies is still Kevin Costners homage to road cycling, American Flyers.
Now despite my overt display of man love for the sport of cycling the burning question I have is why fundamentally are so many recreational cyclists complete and utter dicks!
1) Firstly where is their concept of hygiene? I can't tell you how many times I am exposed to some dripping sweaty guy leaping into the lift no shoes stinking of the street as they wander into the building following their morning ride. Furthermore in coffee shops each weekend they drape their ridiculous lycra clad bodies all over the seats spreading nice tepid pools of their sweat for the rest of the patrons to marinate in once they are gone.
2) Fat people wearing lycra. Just because you managed to squeeze yourself into Lance Armstrong's replica US Postal team jersey doesn't mean your lumpy 100kg frame is magically easier on the eye...IT ISN'T you look out of shape AND ridiculous!
3) Stay the fuck out of coffee shops. I have lost count of how many times the serenity of Saturday morning breakfast at the local coffee shop is interrupted by a peloton converging at the counter sans bikes. Can you imagine sitting at your table chowing down then being confronted by a mass of sweaty noisy idiots in lycra hobbling back and forth on their quick release shoes. My question is, when did it become habit for a hard training ride to be punctuated by coffee and a muffin!!! Go home carbo load and do your recovery you silly Fucks!
Now I am cognizant that there are quite a number of numb nuts in the gym as well. Actually many of them appear to train at my gym. The difference is most of these wife beater wearing, creatine breath idiots head straight home in their utes post training, they generally don't foist themselves upon the public in their post workout sweat drenched state.
So lets be clear, I love cycling and hoping Cadel finally breaks through for a win in this years Le Tour. However to the weekend wannabees why don't you consider pounding out a few km's of intervals at the end of a hard ride rather than parking your fat ass on the nice leather settee at Joondalup Dome. You might actually improve your sprint drop a few kgs and I know the leather will survive without your 2 hour ass print.
Till next time stay strong
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