What can it do for you? Well, besides building your entire posterior chain, it can shape your core, quads, glutes, etc. I’m talking to you ladies!

I’ve Never Squatted Before. How Do I Squat?

Keep in mind these are the basics.

There are a lot of other cues that weightlifters will use to help lock in their technique, but for the purpose of this article I would like to keep it relatively simple.

Even if you’re proficient with goblet or other kettlebell squats, you may feel awkward squatting with a bar on your back if it’s not part of your normal routine.

The goblet squat is more like a front squat, where the bar is positioned across your shoulders and clavicle.

A barbell squat or back squat changes the leverage.

Placing the bar on your back loads the spine differently than the goblet or front squat.

Key Points to Proper Squats

● Most people are going to place their feet anywhere from shoulder width to just outside shoulder width apart. Depending on hip mobility, it is advantageous to point your toes out 30-45 degrees.

● The glutes should be fired up and ready to go, assuming your warm up takes care of that. Goblet squats, overhead squats, bodyweight squats, bird dogs, and Kettlebell swings can help with warming up your gluten before a squat set.

● Keep the natural curve in your low back to maintain the integrity of the spine. Brace your abs. Take a deep breath before unracking the bar, and then between each rep take another breath. The key to this is to breath into your belly, filling your abs and obliques moreso than your
chest. If you wear a weight lifting belt, imagine you are trying to push your abs through your belt. It should be uncomfortable, but it will make you stronger and more stable for your squats. This applies to any type of squat, even bodyweight squats.

● Find the natural shelf on your back where the bar feels most comfortable. Once you let the bar settle on your back point your elbows down and flex your lats, as if you were doing a pull up. This will help stabilize your core as well. One mistake beginners make here is keeping their
elbows and lats relaxed.

● If your elbows are pointed backwards rather than down, you are driving yourself forward, making it difficult to drive out of the bottom of your squat. By keeping your elbows down you can maintain an upright torso and more efficiently transfer force from your lower half into the
bar.

● Hands should be just outside the shoulders, but this will depend on shoulder mobility. Usually the closer you can get them, the better. Squeeze the bar as hard as you can!

● Finally, keep your head in a neutral position, not cocked way back and not looking into the ground. Find a point just above the horizon and stay focused on that.

3 Essential Squat Cues

Squat Cue #1: Suck in Air!

Fill your belly with air and brace your core.

Squat Cue #2: Get Your Butt Back!

Most beginners will hinge at the knees first. It’s the most natural movement and it’s how we all sit on the toilet. This puts a lot of stress on the patella tendon, part of the reason that people complain of knee pain from squats, and it doesn’t allow your biggest muscles in the posterior chain to properly engage.

So your first movement in the squat should be to push your hips back. This will keep your knees from tracking too far over the toes and will actually allow you to squat more weight with practice.

Squat Cue #3: Drive Your Shoulders into the Barbell!

In the bottom of your squat think about driving your shoulders up and back.

This will prevent you from driving your hips too early and putting the bar up over your toes…leaving you in the ‘good morning’ position with a sore back.

If you are not confident to jump into this movement, there is a great alternative. Box squats. In both a free squat and a box squat you want to be able to work to the point where your thighs are parallel to the ground.

But, a box squat will allow a beginner to understand what proper depth is. They’ll be more comfortable pushing their hips back and sitting to the box instead of hinging at the knees and sitting straight down.

Well alright, alright, alright. I want to squat. How do I program a squat workout? The options are endless, but here are a couple of very basic programs that anyone can follow.

How to do Squats Option 1

● A very simple and effective program for beginners.

How to do Squats Option 2

● Similar program numbers wise, but the key difference is the incorporated deloads (weeks 4 and 8). This is beneficial for a more advanced squatter who is moving heavier weights. The body needs more time to recover from the heavier loads, so the rest weeks are essential.

How to do Squats Option 3

● This is for a more advanced squatter, but still shows a similar progression with some added recovery weeks.

Photography By: Inky Byers, Ken Hicks and Elite FTS.

The post A Step by Step Guide on How to do Squats appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Joe Defranco wrote a great step by step write-up on how to Deadlift. I’ll try to expand on it with this article. Deadlifts can be the most rewarding and the most frustrating lift.

How hard can it be? Just pick the bar up off the floor, right? Well, kind of. More so than the Squat or Bench Press, overtraining the Deadlift can stop, or even reverse your progress.

Deadlifts will train a lot of the same muscle groups as the squat, but have the added advantage of training your grip, lats, and traps. There are two different Deadlift techniques you can use, and they will stress certain muscle groups differently.

Joe discussed a conventional Deadlift stance, with feet hip width. In powerlifting you are also allowed to use a sumo stance where your feet are nearly touching the plates and you grab the bar inside of your legs as opposed to outside of them.

Conventional Deadlifts will force you to use your low back, hamstrings, and even quads. Sumo Deadlifts will require more hip and glute activation. Both are great tools, regardless of your training goals.

Overtraining the Deadlift?

In training, have you ever had the experience of squatting 135 where it feels light, then you come in the next week and 135 feels heavy? It all revolves around your CNS and your ability to recover.

The Deadlift is exactly what it says- a dead lift. There is no eccentric phase (lowering the weight). In a Squat or Bench press you start by lowering the weight, then you reverse the weight (concentric phase).

A Deadlift is a concentric only lift. For that reason it stresses your Central Nervous System (CNS) more than other movements. Also, the stress Deadlifts add to your posterior chain is extremely taxing on your CNS.

Long story short, most people will begin to see diminishing returns on their Deadlifts if they train it every week. However, there are ways to trick your body. Pulling Sumo one week and conventional the next is an option.

Varying the heights from which you pull can help with this as well. Standing on a plate, making the pull longer, aka a Deficit Deadlift, can increase the difficulty of the movement.

Placing the bar on blocks or plates at 2”-6”, shortening the range of motion, is another option. Finally, placing the bar in a rack and starting the movement from the middle of your shin or top of your knee cap is another alternative.

Beginner Deadlift Program

Intermediate Deadlift Program

Advanced Deadlift Program

The post A Beginner’s Guide to the Deadlift appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Everyone should bench, just like everyone should squat and deadlift (or at least know how to).

So, let’s talk about how to increase strength safely with your bench press.

Numero Uno…warm up. Please, please, please don’t walk in to the gym, put a plate on either side of the bar and start benching.

Push ups, pull ups, dumbbell bench, or dumbbell flys are just a few examples of exercises you can do to warm up.

You might get away with not warming up for a while, but eventually it will catch up with you.

How to Set Up the Bench Press

1. Grab the bar shoulder width to just outside. Close grip and wide grip are good exercises to use in addition to a standard bench press, but shoulder width to just outside will put you in a strong position. This position will help to protect your shoulders, pecs, and bicep tendons.

2. Squeeze the bar as tight as you can.

3. Position your eyes just underneath the bar.

4. Squeeze your shoulder blades back and down, or “put them in your back pockets.” Imagine you are trying to pinch the bench between your shoulder blades. This will protect your shoulders and lock in your technique (making you stronger).

5. Arch your back. No, it is not bad for your back. Your spine has a natural curve in it. Keep it that way and use it to connect your legs to your upper body.

6. Either tuck your legs or leave them out in front of you. But the goal is to get your hips higher than your knees so you can transfer leg drive into the bar to help you bench more weight.

7. Take a big breath, filling your belly just like the squat, squeeze the bar and unrack it WITH THE HELP OF A SPOTTER. Have you ever dropped 100lbs on your throat or your face? Don’t be a dummy. The best lifters in the world use spotters.

8. Let the bar settle. Keep your shoulder blades squeezed tightly. Flex your lats like you’re doing a pull up. Begin the eccentric (downward) movement with your elbows at 45 degrees. Touch the bar just below your nipple line (or on the bottom of your sports bra ladies). Reverse the bar keeping your elbows in the same 45 degree position.

Again, there a lot of more technical aspects that I’ll get into in later articles, but these are the basics. If you can do this, you’re better than 90% of America’s gym-goers.

How do I program for the bench press? Well, you can actually follow the same rep scheme I laid out for the squat. But I’ll give you a few more examples that might pique your interest.

Beginner Bench Press Program

• A very simple and effective program for beginners.

Advanced Bench Press Program

• Similar program numbers wise, but the key difference is the incorporated deloads (weeks 3, 6 and 9). This is beneficial for a more advanced bencher who is moving heavier weights. The body needs more time to recover from the heavier loads, so the rest weeks are essential.

Photography By: Ken Hicks and Elite FTS.

The post A Beginner’s Guide to the Bench Press appeared first on Onnit Academy.

It’s similar to Olympic lifting in that a competitor gets three attempts to lift a maximal weight, but instead of the snatch and clean and jerk, powerlifting uses the squat, bench press, and deadlift. The winner is determined by adding up the lifter’s best successful attempt in each.

It evolved from the “odd lifts,” which were more similar to strong man events, but became standardized in the 1950’s as Olympic lifting saw a decline in popularity. Alright, relax, history lesson is almost over…

It used to be on ESPN where guys like Ed Coan and Steve Goggins went head to head, weight for weight on the platform. It was their generation’s Crossfit. But it’s still around today, and has evolved into a strong subculture that influences every aspect of strength training from the average individual up to college and professional athletics. Guys like Joe Defranco would attest to this.

Now I’m not Joe Defranco. But each of my lifts are ranked in the top ten in the world and I’m currently ranked #2 in the world (total) in the 242lb weight class. I’ve squatted 804, benched 534, and deadlifted 734 in competition. So let me share with you how I got to where I am, and how it can help you.

The Breakdown on Powerlifting for Unconventional Trainers

First let’s look at each lift and determine what its benefits are when executed properly. The squat is the king. If you want to be powerful you have to learn to squat, and squat big. You don’t have to weigh 300lbs to have a big squat. I’ve seen 130lb women squat 400+ and they are fit! Squats will build leg strength, teach you balance, and force your body to work together as a whole.

You will also gain some strength in the posterior chain (glutes, hamstrings, low back) as well as the middle and upper back. This is great for overall health in maintaining good posture, especially for those of us that work jobs where we might be forced to sit at a desk for extended periods of time.

The bench is obvious, but then again it can have some upside that you’re missing out on. A proper bench involves every muscle in your body, not just your chest and triceps. If you go to a commercial gym, the bench pressing you see there will only involve the chest and triceps because they’re doing it wrong.

Your rear delts and lats are forced to stabilize and lower the weight. Your legs should be tense and ready to fire the weight up in conjunction with your upper body. Your knuckles should be white because you’re gripping the bar as tight as possible. It’s a full body workout if you’re doing it right. And that takes practice and hopefully a good trainer.

Finally the most fun of the three, the deadlift. It takes number two to the squat, but it’s a close second. Deadlifts will build muscle mass and develop pure strength. What do I mean by ‘pure strength’? It’s a “dead”lift because there is no eccentric phase to the movement- it is purely concentric. So the descent in the squat and bench is the eccentric, and the reversal is the concentric (think contraction).

That means your muscles have the opportunity to coil or load up. Not the case in the deadlift. It’s that exact reason why it is the most taxing on your Central Nervous System. So training it heavy is great, but you will likely need more rest between heavy deadlift training sessions than you might for other lifts, including unconventional training.

To give them their due diligence, I don’t train the Olympic lifts because they have no benefit for my style of competition. Both are extremely technical lifts to learn, and take years of practice and patience. However, training them will teach you how to be explosive which is essential in moving heavy weights. As with any of these movements, have a professional train you on how to perform them safely and properly.

What Can Powerlifting Movements do for Unconventional Trainers?

Force= mass x acceleration.

To create more force you have to be faster. One way to get faster is to have more muscle. More muscle fibers to call on means more troops for the battle.

1. The big three, when programmed and performed correctly, will increase your strength levels. So that 50lb kettlebell you’re swinging will start to feel like that old 25lb’er you used to hate. Unconventional Training is great in the sense that it trains the body as one unit, leaving almost no muscle groups behind. Understand there are a million ways to skin a cat, sometimes one is better than the other.
2. The big three will increase your muscle mass. I used to be skinny. I didn’t like it. You don’t have to be big, but it is nice to have a little bulge in the bicep or a firm ass or some big traps. Whatever you like, you can get there faster with these movements.
3. The big three will bring up weak muscle groups all at once. Kettlebells and Steel Clubs will force weaker muscles into working harder to catch up, but that is accelerated once you really raise the weight on the bar. I’m not talking about throwing on a ton of weight and lifting with poor form, but slowly bringing up your intensity (i.e. the weight being lifted) with good technique will kick your weaker muscle groups in the ass. You’ll be sore in places you didn’t know you had.

Powerlifting With Unconventional Training

There are literally a million different ways you can incorporate these movements into your unconventional training. I’ll give you a couple of ideas as to how I would do it, but it will depend on how many days per week you train, what your goals are, and what equipment you have available. Let’s say Johnny wants to put on a couple pounds of muscle…

Monday– deadlift sets of 5 up to 25 total reps (so 5×5, 5 sets of 5 reps)
Wednesday- bench sets of 5 up to 25 total reps
Friday– squat sets of 5 up to 25 total reps

• After you perform these movements go into your unconventional training. You should be a little more fatigued than normal, but that’s a good thing.
• The second week you can change your rep scheme to 3×3, doing more weight than week 1. And the third week you can do 5 sets of single reps, doing more weight than week 2. Finally, on the fourth week cut the weight in half from week three, and perform 3 sets of 8-10 reps with that weight.

Back at it again on Week 5, repeating the process but trying to add a minimum of 5lbs to what you did the last time.

Let’s say Johnny just wants to gain some strength, but isn’t as concerned about adding muscle…Another option might be to dedicate one or two days per week to power movements, where you perform all three in the same training session albeit at a slightly lower intensity (i.e. less weight). You can use a similar rep scheme as above, but one or two days you will squat, bench, and deadlift. The rest of your training days will be devoted to unconventional training.

Once you find what set up works best for you, research a program and stick with it. Give it six months before you decide whether it’s working or not. Results take months or years- READ it won’t happen overnight. But if you can increase your strength with these movements then you’ll be able to push yourself harder when using kettle bells, steel clubs, battle ropes, etc because you have more muscle fibers to recruit. More muscle fibers means more power. Everyone can use a little more power now and then.

Photo Credit: Ken Hicks Elitefts.com Inc ©elitefts

Increase Your Powerlifting Strength

If you are looking for quality supplementation, to aid your powerlifting or unconventional training look no further than Onnit T plus. The Florida State Powerlifting team just performed a trial of this product with great results. I did my own analysis of T+, long before the study results came out. I initiated supplementation and carefully logged my results. I noticed findings very similar to what the FSU team was able to demonstrate. But I guess now the secret is out, and I’ll just have to work a little bit harder. Fortunately for me, I’ve got a head start.

The post A Guide to Powerlifting for Unconventional Trainers appeared first on Onnit Academy.