I managed to push through a great deadlift session on Saturday but boy was I feeling wiped out on the weekend and this despite the fact that I kept the obligatory 1-2 reps in the tank on my final deady set.
Recovery consisted of plenty of fish oil, stretching (Plenty of complaining!) and some light movements the following day as well as being chased around the playground by my 2 year old. Therefore when bench day rolled around last night I was pretty happy not to be squatting or pulling.
Scouring Elitefts I came across a brief little articel by Dave Allen. The crux of the article was a reminder of some of the common cues that can make a big difference to the 3 powerlifts. Now nothing in the article was new or ground breaking in fact you can find the content in a thousand similar articles across the net. However the power of these articles is that sometimes despite hearing the advice 1000's of times it can be the 1001st time that it finally sticks in the brain.
Similarly Dave's advice to pull the bar apart and try and snap it in two as you bench was old news to me but again it somehow resonated and during last nights session it came together really well. The activation of the lats that occurred meant I was much much tighter than normal and my traps were really switched on. Overall it felt like a total upper body movement as I finally got the back involved. Noticeably my lats were pumped heavily after my final set and though I only got 1 rep above my rep target it was still a rep PB.
Also following my work sets I pushed out 4 sets of pause benches and again the tightness in my back and lats really worked a treat.
It just goes to show that you have to keep repeating and repeating these cues until they get bedded down. Check out the article, the light bulb may go off for you too!
http://articles.elitefts.com/training-articles/no-bullsht-three-cues-to-improve-your-squat-bench-and-deadlift/
Stay Strong
Thomo
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