One simple fix can clean up a majority of faulty squat and lunge patterns better than anything else I’ve used in my career. The way you use the body’s most powerful muscles to position the rest of your lower extremity will translate into positional and performance success.

Learn Spiral Loading Through the Hips

Squats and lunges require precise technique to avoid repeated trauma to the knees. Placing an increased amount of torque into external rotation at the hips has three effects on squat and lunge technique:

• Allows the glutes to function more effectively as a lumbo-pelvic stabiliser.
• Positions the head of the femur more centrally in the acetabulum of the pelvis.
• Creates neurological stability and synergistic linkage throughout the lower body kinetic chain.

But that’s enough of the science. Before you get loaded up and start repping out, it’s imperative to understand what spiral loading through the hips looks and feels like.

• Start with your feet in your squat stance, with a slight toe out.
• From this foot position, force your hips into external rotation – grab the floor with your feet and rotate out. This can also be described as rooting yourself into the ground to increase full lower body stability and create tension, especially down the anterior-lateral chain.

You must feel this rotation, so play with it until feel an immense amount of torque and tension just from adjusting this starting position.

Like most things in movement, the starting position is the most pivotal portion of any exercise. When you master the synergistic spiral effect of the hips and lower extremities, you’ll notice your knees will naturally end up in more of a knees-out position. Notice that I didn’t start this setup by cueing knees out, but rather just let it happen secondarily to the hip position. This will allow you to position more precisely to your body’s specific anthropometrics.

Add Dynamic Components

Once you establish a stable position at the hips and lower extremities, the next step is to test yourself and see if you can maintain this stable pelvis, hip, and leg position while also adding dynamic components – in other words, it’s time to perform squats or lunges.

When you start to move, the knees will want to revert back to their natural, most likely dysfunctional movement patterns. For most people, this involves a valgus knee collapse and too much anterior translation of the knee over the feet and toes.

A Killer Cue for Torque and Stability

Many coaches cue knees over the toes at the bottom portion of the squat, lunge, or any other lower-body compound movement. But I’ve seen that taking the opposite approach and cueing the center of the knee cap over the fifth digit (little toe) is far more effective for maintaining torque and positional stability throughout the lower body.

This simple cue will translate into better joint angles and force planes, improved power and strength, and a decreased incidence of injury. Let me know how you get on with it.

You’ll also enjoy:

• Squat Therapy: 4 Drills That Will Improve Your Squat
• Front Squat Versus Back Squat: Which One Is Best For You?
• 5 Lunge Variations for Lower Body Strength (Video)
• New on Breaking Muscle AU Today

Teaser photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Sore Knees? Fix Your Squat and Lunge Patterns appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

One simple fix can clean up a majority of faulty squat and lunge patterns better than anything else I’ve used in my career. The way you use the body’s most powerful muscles to position the rest of your lower extremity will translate into positional and performance success.

Learn Spiral Loading Through the Hips

Squats and lunges require precise technique to avoid repeated trauma to the knees. Placing an increased amount of torque into external rotation at the hips has three effects on squat and lunge technique:

• Allows the glutes to function more effectively as a lumbo-pelvic stabiliser.
• Positions the head of the femur more centrally in the acetabulum of the pelvis.
• Creates neurological stability and synergistic linkage throughout the lower body kinetic chain.

But that’s enough of the science. Before you get loaded up and start repping out, it’s imperative to understand what spiral loading through the hips looks and feels like.

• Start with your feet in your squat stance, with a slight toe out.
• From this foot position, force your hips into external rotation – grab the floor with your feet and rotate out. This can also be described as rooting yourself into the ground to increase full lower body stability and create tension, especially down the anterior-lateral chain.

You must feel this rotation, so play with it until feel an immense amount of torque and tension just from adjusting this starting position.

Like most things in movement, the starting position is the most pivotal portion of any exercise. When you master the synergistic spiral effect of the hips and lower extremities, you’ll notice your knees will naturally end up in more of a knees-out position. Notice that I didn’t start this setup by cueing knees out, but rather just let it happen secondarily to the hip position. This will allow you to position more precisely to your body’s specific anthropometrics.

Add Dynamic Components

Once you establish a stable position at the hips and lower extremities, the next step is to test yourself and see if you can maintain this stable pelvis, hip, and leg position while also adding dynamic components – in other words, it’s time to perform squats or lunges.

When you start to move, the knees will want to revert back to their natural, most likely dysfunctional movement patterns. For most people, this involves a valgus knee collapse and too much anterior translation of the knee over the feet and toes.

A Killer Cue for Torque and Stability

Many coaches cue knees over the toes at the bottom portion of the squat, lunge, or any other lower-body compound movement. But I’ve seen that taking the opposite approach and cueing the center of the knee cap over the fifth digit (little toe) is far more effective for maintaining torque and positional stability throughout the lower body.

This simple cue will translate into better joint angles and force planes, improved power and strength, and a decreased incidence of injury. Let me know how you get on with it.

You’ll also enjoy:

• Fire Up Your Glutes to Fix Your Knee Pain
• Front Squat Versus Back Squat: Which One Is Best For You?
• 5 Lunge Variations for Lower Body Strength
• New on Breaking Muscle UK Today

The post Got Knee Pain? This One Simple Fix May Be the Answer appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

One simple fix can clean up a majority of faulty squat and lunge patterns better than anything else I’ve used in my career. The way you use the body’s most powerful muscles to position the rest of your lower extremity will translate into positional and performance success.

Learn Spiral Loading Through the Hips

Squats and lunges require precise technique to avoid repeated trauma to the knees. Placing an increased amount of torque into external rotation at the hips has three effects on squat and lunge technique:

• Allows the glutes to function more effectively as a lumbo-pelvic stabilizer.
• Positions the head of the femur more centrally in the acetabulum of the pelvis.
• Creates neurological stability and synergistic linkage throughout the lower body kinetic chain.

But that’s enough of the science. Before you get loaded up and start repping out, it’s imperative to understand what spiral loading through the hips looks and feels like.

• Start with your feet in your squat stance, with a slight toe out.
• From this foot position, force your hips into external rotation – grab the floor with your feet and rotate out. This can also be described as rooting yourself into the ground to increase full lower body stability and create tension, especially down the anterior-lateral chain.

You must feel this rotation, so play with it until feel an immense amount of torque and tension just from adjusting this starting position.

Like most things in movement, the starting position is the most pivotal portion of any exercise. When you master the synergistic spiral effect of the hips and lower extremities, you’ll notice your knees will naturally end up in more of a knees-out position. Notice that I didn’t start this setup by cueing knees out, but rather just let it happen secondarily to the hip position. This will allow you to position more precisely to your body’s specific anthropometrics.

Add Dynamic Components

Once you establish a stable position at the hips and lower extremities, the next step is to test yourself and see if you can maintain this stable pelvis, hip, and leg position while also adding dynamic components – in other words, it’s time to perform squats or lunges.

When you start to move, the knees will want to revert back to their natural, most likely dysfunctional movement patterns. For most people, this involves a valgus knee collapse and too much anterior translation of the knee over the feet and toes.

A Killer Cue for Torque and Stability

Many coaches cue knees over the toes at the bottom portion of the squat, lunge, or any other lower-body compound movement. But I’ve seen that taking the opposite approach and cueing the center of the knee cap over the fifth digit (little toe) is far more effective for maintaining torque and positional stability throughout the lower body.

This simple cue will translate into better joint angles and force planes, improved power and strength, and a decreased incidence of injury. Let me know how you get on with it.

You’ll also enjoy:

• Squat Therapy: 4 Drills That Will Improve Your Squat
• Front Squat Versus Back Squat: Which One Is Best For You?
• 5 Lunge Variations for Lower Body Strength (Video)
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

The post Got Knee Pain? Fix Your Tracking in the Squat and Lunge appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Although the dynamic warm up has become more mainstream over the past decade, there are still many questions when it comes to programming. It’s easy to place too great of an emphasis on soft-tissue work, activation drills, and corrective exercises that can be an endless rabbit hole.

If you find yourself spending more time warming up than actually training, listen up. I call this majoring in the minors – and it’s is a perfect way to attain sub-par results, even if you are seemingly spending your time and energy training.

Simplifying your pre-workout routine will exponentiate your results and save you a hell of a lot of time in the process. Time to strategically trim the fat off your long and tedious warm up routine with surgical precision.

The Dynamic Turning Point

As a sports performance physical therapist who specializes in body composition and orthopedic health, I’ve seen some amazing things from physio-esque warm ups and programming. But if you are moving well with no glaring dysfunctions or pain, is there really a need for all the fluffy programming on top of a traditional strength and conditioning program? I used to think so, but here’s what changed my viewpoint.

My own pre-training routine was getting a little out of hand about a year ago. I have expertise in this niche in the industry, so it just made sense to use what I knew to program my own dynamic warm up and activation routine before every big lifting day in my programming. I was spending nearly 25 minutes warming up before every session, and an additional ten minutes in an active cool-down at the tail end of my training days.

For someone who makes a living programming training and regeneration strategies for clients all over the world including Olympians and MLB All-Stars, I’d let my curiosity get the best of me in my own programming, tacking on a half hour to every single training day. At the end of the week, I was spending an additional four hours warming up and cooling down. But what was I getting out of that time?

For someone with no notable previous history of injuries, no major dysfunctions, and great requisite movement capacity, it had just become absurd, and I was in need for a big turn around. Was that four hours a week enhancing my body, or had it just become a ritual with no underlying purpose or progression? Time is one of the most precious commodities in the world, and aimlessly pissing it away is unforgivable. But how do you determine what is working and what is wasting time in terms of exercises in a dynamic warm up? Not so simple, is it?

“It was time to do what every coach and therapist passionately preaches not to do – to ditch the dynamic warm up altogether, and determine my own functional and performance baseline.”

I decided to go back to my scientific roots and set a baseline for myself. Any time you carry out an experiment, it is of the utmost importance to determine a control group for your studies to compare to the variable that is being manipulated. In this case, the control was the dynamic warm up and its many components.

It was time to do what every coach and therapist passionately preaches not to do – to ditch the dynamic warm up altogether, and determine my own functional and performance baseline.

The Results of No Warm Up

After bringing my warm up and cool down time back to zero, what transpired with my own body and the results from my hard earned sweat dollars training every day was amazing.  After four weeks of walking through the doors of the gym and starting right in on my strength program with nothing more than a few steps of “warm up” from the door to the power rack, my mobility, body composition, and general feeling of recovery and freshness had never been better.

How the hell could this possibly be? Was the decade I spent in academia mastering movement strategies for correction and optimization a waste of time and tuition dollars? Not quite.

Creating Perfect Movements

It’s important to reiterate that I do not have any glaring physical issues that need increased focus and reinforcement. I was moving pretty well before I hit the warm up rock bottom. This opened up my eyes to something fellow Breaking Muscle coach and a great friend of mine, Charles Staley, had been saying for years, “Maybe all you need is lifting.”

I also knew I was not going to do any soft tissue work, activation drills, or mobility movements before or after my training session. If you know for a fact that the only physical activity you have every day is strength and conditioning work, you will make damn sure that your range of motions, tempos, strategic positioning, and overall synergistic feel of movements are as close to perfect as possible.

“Want to kick your own ass and justify any movement? Then do something new and novel, and compare it to what you’ve been doing.”

Executing your current programming to the apex of your abilities will do amazing things to your results. It’s easy to lose just enough focus on every set to limit your gains and transferrable functional carry over. I made it a game for myself every single rep, asking myself, “How perfectly can I execute this movement?” And to say that mindset worked would be a huge understatement.

Train Less to Gain Muscle and Lose Fat?

This approach allowed me to mentally and physically push to a higher intensity set to set. I was going into my most important lifts absolutely fresh, and was able to push balls-to-the-wall repeatedly with little neural or mechanical fatigue that I was causing myself with my prolonged warm up routines.

I was asked on the Breaking Muscle Radio podcast what was my major training goal, and my answer was simple, “To push myself every single set to the brink of my physical limits and not let my mind deter me from my ultimate performances.” I stand by that, and it becomes increasingly important when you are trimming the fat off any program.

Once a lifter or athlete gets out of the novice stage of training and into the intermediate and advanced stages, a major plateau breaker is found in the mind-muscle connection and the ability to push loads, reps, and sets to the brink of absolute physical failure. That sounds pretty intense, I know. But pushing yourself as close to your physical limits as possible is what will produce physical adaptations in a more efficient manner.

Can You Limit Your Aches by Not Warming Up?

Before you all jump onto my Facebook page to write me some nasty notes pertaining to my blasphemous claims, give this idea a fair shake. By dropping down to my baseline of warm up and cool down in my own personal training, I felt better from a joint, soft tissue, and neurological fatigue standpoint. This may go against everything you thought you knew and love to teach and program yourself, but I am reporting my own self-case study here.

Many warm up routines are done at such high frequencies that the once novel techniques and movements have a decline in execution over time. After any movement strategy is somewhat mastered, there is no progression or way to overload these sequences.

Many people hit autopilot and just go through the motions. This is when a warm up routine can become dangerously close to a movement ritual. But as I discussed above, you need to set a control group and baseline to compare and contrast what is actually producing results.

Corrective movements, soft tissue work, and activation drills are highly dependent on internal tensions, synergistic stabilization, and activation patterns. They also require a high amount of focus and mental acuity to continue to produce the desired result. If you run every day, your body will get more efficient and thus reduce the caloric expenditure and benefit of cardiorespiratory health and capacity. The same can be said for warm up drills. As you do more of the same drill, your body adapts to that drill. Without an increase in internal execution factors, your body becomes less adaptive to the same moves over time.

This is the same reason any new exercise is always perceived to be harder from your sympathetic nervous system response. Want to kick your own ass and justify any movement? Then do something new and novel, and compare it to what you’ve been doing.

3 Worthwhile Warm Up Progressions

Over those four weeks, I identified many aspects of my body and programming that were not clear to be before finding my baseline. And after that period, it was time to strategically place just one or two movements into my pre-workout warm up routine to get the best bang for my buck and justify the time spent on these movements.

I now have six months under my bare minimum warm up training belt, and I’ve determined these dynamic warm up exercises work for split routines with push, pull, and lower body emphasis. These are the exact warm up drills I use before my big training sessions, and I highly encourage you to give them a try – after you set your own physical baseline, of course!

Click to page 2 for video demonstrations of all the warm up exercises

#1 Push Emphasis – Training Day Warm Up

1a. Banded Face Pull 3×10@0s

1b. Banded Over and Back 3×10@15s

#2 Pull Emphasis Training Day Warm Up

1a. Banded Pull Aparts 3×10@0s

1b. Hip Hinge Dynamics with Lat Stretch 3×15@15s

#3 Lower Body Emphasis Training Day Warm Up

1a. Rear Foot Hip Flexor Dynamics 3×12@0s

1b. Half-Kneeling Adductor Dynamics 3×10@0s

• Exercise Prescription is as follows: SetsxReps@Rest

More on warm up methodolgy:

• Why to Include Weightlifting in Your Warm Ups
• Warm Up to Lift Big: A Movement Prep Blueprint for Strength
• How Timing and Temperature Effect Your Warm Up
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

The post How to Trim the Fat Off Your Warm Up Routine appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Here are a few of my top training methods I use to accomplish these goals in a pain-free manner with my own clientele. And just as a head’s up – this is not your average bodybuilder program.

Pain-free hypertrophy training will help you build lean muscle without breaking your body.

1. Specialized Pre-Training Warm Ups

Cookie cutter warm ups are one of my biggest pet peeves in programming. The warm up, more than any other aspect of a balanced program, needs to be custom fit to an individual’s level, recovery ability, and, most importantly, movement dysfunction.

Sure, for some people strategically targeting a few areas with self-myofascial release techniques before jumping into a training session can enhance a workout, but by no means is this a requisite for every person’s program. The same can be said for general warm ups to increase heart rate and blood flow.

My general rule of thumb for warm-up routines is to follow a basic, but strategic progression through three phases: 

1. General Warm Up
2. Dynamic Warm Up
3. Neural Activation Techniques

The goal is to minimize the time spent in each phase and continuously reassess if the time spent results in any noticeable benefits to either your function or performance.

“The warm up, more than any other aspect of a balanced program, needs to be custom fit to an individual’s level, recovery ability, and, most importantly, movement dysfunction.”

General warm ups can be as easy as jumping on any cardio machine. If the thought of jogging on a hamster wheel turns you off as much as I think it will, no worries. Feel free to go on a brisk walk, jump on the Airdyne, or even get on the elliptical. Start out with a five-minute duration. Your goal is to decrease this over time.

Depending on the focus of your training day, specific dynamic warm ups can be implemented to increase local tissue temperature, lubricate active joints, and work on movement and mobility. Here’s an example:

• Jump Squats– 10
• Seal Jacks – 15
• Prisoner Squat – 10
• Push-Up – 6 (two-second hold at bottom position)
• Alternating Forward Lunges – 6 (per side)
• Stick Ups – 10
• Band Pull Aparts – 10
• Kneeling Psoas Stretch – 30 seconds (per side)

Last come the neural activation warm-up techniques that should be matched strategically to your training day focus. These are advanced techniques I only use with athletes who have great movement pattern foundations and who also have mastered all the mobility and stability requisites in their programs

My favorite activation techniques for lower body training days are jumps. For push heavy days, I have seen amazing results by implementing accommodating resistance rotator cuff work and explosive bodyweight pressing movements like the push up. Go-to movements for pull days include direct glute work like bridge variations, along with functional lateral hip stability movements.

Explosive bodyweight pressing movements like the push up are some of my favorite warm ups.

2. Primer Strength Movements

Early on in my career, I was taught to program the most important compound movement of the day first in a program. It made sense. First things first, right?

Though many protocols from my early days in high-performance strength and conditioning helped shape my current training methodology – this tip to go heavy right away isn’t one of them.

“The first movement or two in every training program will have a specific intent and purpose that feeds the rest of the training day and gets our bodies and minds ready to succeed.”

The problem with this approach for most people is that the body isn’t ready for maximal effort early in a session. The specific tissues you are targeting need more time and reps to be fully primed for the epic performances that create results, not injuries.

Does this mean we aren’t going to lift heavy? No, that couldn’t be further from the truth. We are going to get under some serious weight, but only when our bodies are ready. How do we get there? Through primer strength movements.

The first movement or two in every training program will have a specific intent and purpose that feeds the rest of the training day and gets our bodies and minds ready to succeed.

The first movement needs to have a few distinct properties to work as a primer:

1. The movement must be programmed with higher rep ranges than your average strength set/rep scheme.
2. The intent of the movement is to tap into the mind-muscle connection and groove the pattern you are executing with constant tension and accentuated ranges of motion. This drives blood flow to the tissues, lubricates joints, and pumps the region.

These primer movements should always be easy on the joints, as many of them will be programmed with an extraordinary amount of volume. But after your first taste of primer sets, if you are like me, your training will never be the same.

3. Heavy Tempo-Based Strength Work

How does the old saying go? If you lift long enough with the right intensities and heavy-ass loads, you will eventually be injured. There is some truth to that based on statistics – but not if you train like I suggest. With this approach, you’ll be part of the chosen few who are going to lift heavy and reap the benefits of lean muscle growth and fat loss without the derailing injuries.

“The use of strategic variations of the big movements allows us to adapt to new training stimuli while also being challenged by changes in joint angles, core stability and foot and hand positions.”

After we are primed and ready to go, I like to program the big movements of the day. As with many highly successful programs that have stood the test of time, our primary strength work is going to be based around the bench press, squat, and deadlift.

Does that mean that every session is going to look the same? Hell no! The use of strategic variations of the big movements allows us to adapt to new training stimuli while also being challenged by changes in joint angles, core stability and foot and hand positions.

Along with changing up the big movement themselves through slight variations in setups, my methodology also employs strategic tempo-based strength work. At certain points in a program, we bring out all the tempo changes, intensity techniques, and challenge sets that produce results, not injuries.

There is a difference between mindlessly going hard in the gym and having a calculated approach to workout brutality. Trust me – choose the second.

Strategic variations of the big movements allow us to adapt to new training stimuli.

4. Loaded Stretches and Accentuated Ranges

As a strength coach who also sports a doctorate in physical therapy, I often get asked the age-old question of whether stretching is a requisite aspect of a fitness program. My answer is always yes – but the next thing I say catches people off guard.

Should everyone stretch? I think so. Should everyone practice long-duration static stretching? No way. There are times that static stretching for longer than 30-45 seconds can be useful. But I haven’t been exposed to those times when it comes to aesthetics and hypertrophy training. What do I believe works?

“Should everyone stretch? I think so. Should everyone practice long-duration static stretching? No way.”

I am a believer in using full ranges of motion for the majority of movements, along with programming loaded stretches to nail down functional mobility that translates into performance and bulletproofed bodies. One of my favorite regions to target with this method is the chest and lats. After just a few seconds under a loaded stretch, you can kiss the need for static stretching goodbye.

The truth is posture is one of our most limiting factors in Western society, so prioritizing programming that not only enhances good posture, but retrains your tissues to release tightness under heavy loads is the quickest way to fixing dysfunctional or painful positioning.

5. Primary vs. Secondary Splits

Not every training day needs to be balls to the wall. In my opinion, each muscle group or functional pattern should be hammered once a week. When you are training at the right intensities and pushing your limits on every single set, once a week may even seem like a bit much.

Lifting is not an activity with only one gear. We need to train strategically based on our overall recovery and the regeneration of tissues. When both of these aspects are on point, the use of secondary training days becomes of huge benefit.

“Secondary days are programmed with higher set and rep schemes that are largely pump or conditioning focused.”

In many of my programs, we hit it hard and heavy early in the week, trying to squeeze every rep out of our bodies until we no longer have any gas in the tank. But using techniques like primer sets, tempo-based strength work, and loaded stretching, you can get pretty fried quickly. So along with all that fun comes the need to recover properly.

The addition of a dialed-in nutritional program along with taking care of simple things like hydration and sleep can go a long way to get your body back to baseline. And when recovery is proven out on a week-by-week basis, there may be a window where we program additional split-focused days to increase volume and give our bodies another chance to grow and torch fat. But these additional days will not look the same as your primary training days – far from it.

Secondary days are programmed with higher set and rep schemes that are largely pump or conditioning focused. Also, they employ variations of the big movements that are more joint friendly and have less need for heavy core and pelvic bracing. This keeps the emphasis on the muscles as opposed to the joints and connective tissues that can be notoriously gnarly with high-frequency style training.

We need to train strategically based on our overall recovery and the regeneration of tissues.

Consistent Strategy Is Key

As I mentioned, this approach is not your typical approach. But you also won’t experience your typical results. Your performance will continue to progress, your body will continue to lean out, and you won’t experience the injuries that leave you sitting on the bench. Consistency is key – and strategic training is the key to consistency.

More Like This:

• Shred-telligent Design: How to Ramp Up Your Major Lifts
• 5 Steps to Safely Train Around Lower Back Pain
• Muscle Mass, Strength, and Mobility: Choose 3
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

The post The Secrets to Pain-Free Hypertrophy Training appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

After hearing for years from trainers, coaches, and therapists that the dynamic warm up is an essential part of any exercise program, everyone finally bought in and stopped stretching for twenty minutes prior to any activity. 

This is awesome for the general public looking to stay healthy and get a bit of a sweat dripping off their backs. But for strength athletes, a dynamic warm up is just a piece of the performance puzzle. Consistently moving heavy loads on a frequent basis with the goal of progressively getting bigger, stronger, and more explosive needs some special attention in the warm-up department.

How to Program an Effective Warm Up

Through the programming of ramp-up sets, strength athletes can utilize movement-specific warm ups while not frying their neurological systems in the process. But be careful – if ramp-up sets are programmed ineffectively, they can pre-fatigue musculature and neurological conduction patterns, largely limiting epic performances. 

“[T]here has to be a better way to get warmed up to provide an optimal carry over into your performance.”

Proceed with knowledge, strategy, and goals in mind and reap the benefits of an intelligently designed movement-specific ramp-up program. Here is an example of a full body dynamic warm up that can be used before any type of training session:

Example Dynamic Warm Up

• Jump Squats– 10
• Seal Jacks – 15
• Prisoner Squat – 10
• Push Up – 6 (two-second hold at bottom position)
• Alternating Forward Lunges – 6 (per side)
• Stick Ups – 10
• Band Pull Aparts – 10
• Kneeling Psoas Stretch – 30 seconds (per side)

Ramp-Up Sets

If you aren’t familiar with the term, ramp-up sets can be defined as preparatory sets of an exercise or movement that are completed with submaximal weight to activate specific musculature and prepare active joints for increased loads and intensities, while also grooving a specific pattern in order to achieve pristine movement patterns and form. Think of these as a more detailed and customized version of the generalized dynamic warm up.

Though people have started to get pretty good at warming up dynamically before strength and conditioning work, ramp-up sets are usually butchered in the commercial setting.  This is likely due to a lack of emphasis on their importance as it pertains to actual performance in the working sets.

RELATED: Build a Better Warm Up for a Better Workout

By now, everyone has seen a gym bro approach the bench just to knock out twenty reps with the bar flying off his chest, followed by a few reps with a 45-pounder on each side, then move right into the grand finale by unleashing his inner demons on his max-effort press.

I’m going out on a limb by saying there has to be a better way to get warmed up to provide an optimal carry over into your performance, while not limiting the quality of work about to be done.

Hypertrophy Program

In my twelve-week hypertrophy program, one key staple is the use of strategic ramp-up sets for each movement in a training day. While many programs fail to instruct this detail, I wanted to make it a priority because of a few key advantages that strategically ramping up your weights provides.

First and foremost, the ramp-up sets provide the opportunity to increase your total workout volume by adding a few sets for each movement while staying submaximal in your exertion. Increasing overall volume is advantageous when the goal is packing on extra muscle. Without going crazy like some of the old Arnold routines, which incorporated multiple ramp-up sets in conjunction with set-and-rep schemes of 10×10, we can add a little volume without going overboard.

Second, many foundational strength movements are highly skill-based in nature. The more time you spend under the bar, the better you will be able to find your sweet spot in both the setup and execution of a movement. Don’t listen to Allen Iverson. Practice is the key when it comes to moving maximal iron and emphasizing hypertrophy.

RELATED: Greasing the Groove – How to Make It Work for You

As extended practice is utilized over time, the neural system will become more activated, increasing both the synergistic movement patterns that are coordinated by various segments of the body and the motor units available to play a role in moving a load.

Ramping up also provides you a way to judge how a load feels on a daily basis. Though in most hypertrophy and strength programs, lifters are continuously chasing progressive overload, the rate of perceived exertion (RPE) is also important.

“Don’t listen to Allen Iverson. Practice is the key when it comes to moving maximal iron and emphasizing hypertrophy.” 

Advanced lifters realize that 225 pounds on two separate days of the week may feel different due to other variables in a performance program or lifestyle. Smart (and successful) lifters will adjust accordingly. Appreciating that an internal force is just as important as an external load placed on the body is key in achieving hypertrophy gains for the long run.

Determining Loads Used During Ramp-Up Sets

For most big compound lifts, I have my clients use a three set ramp-up scheme that looks something like this:

• Ramp-Up Set 1 – 50% working load for prescribed number of working reps
• Ramp-Up Set 2 – 75% working load for half the reps in working sets
• Ramp-Up Set 3 – 110% working load for one single rep (explosively)
• Working Sets – Prescribed sets, reps, and load

The goal for the first set is to move the weight explosively, tapping into your fast twitch muscle fibers and activating muscles worked during the pattern.

In the second ramp-up set, your reps will be half the number of the prescribed working sets. For example, if you are prescribed 10 sets of 10 reps, your second ramp-up will be done with 5 repetitions. The tempo of this movement should be identical to the tempo used with your working weight.

RELATED: Maximize Your Strength and Gains With This Simple Rep Scheme

Note: It pays to know your body and its capabilities in each movement, so take notes during your training sessions whenever possible. Data will become useful as you progress over time.

The final ramp-up set will be completed with a load slightly heavier than the load prescribed in the working sets. This will kick on neural activation and prepare you for your first working set. This set also provides you with an option of boosting your working loads. Based on your RPE on a given day for any movement, attempt to get the most out of your training by boosting your weights slightly and challenging yourself.

Time + Work = Results

Put both the dynamic warm up and ramp-up schemes to good use when designing your own strength training programs, or while you follow along with my free hypertrophy-focused program.

Both types of warm ups play a key role in continued progression toward your aesthetic and/or strength goals. So put some time into preparing for each movement, and get ready to reap the benefits.

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Photos courtesy of Corso Photo.

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RELATED: Hypertrophy Is Not a Bad Word: Functional Hypertrophy Training 

Not only will supersets allow you to nearly double your overall workload and volume per workout, they can enhance the overall performance of all exercises in your routine while simultaneously packing on some serious muscle armor.

Me performing pull ups as part of a superset

If adding a few slabs of meat to your frame isn’t convincing enough, listen up. Maximally loaded supersets using short rest periods can skyrocket your anabolic hormone response during and after exercise. This streamlines you toward your strength and hypertrophy goals – one burning, gut-wrenching set at a time.

Almost sounds too good to be true, right? That’s because it just might be.

Improper programming of supersets can lead to increased incidence of traumatic and overuse injuries, while overtraining specific muscle groups and soft tissues alike. Review the simple tips below before you program your training – it could make the difference between personal records and injuries. The choice is yours!

Improper programming of supersets can lead to increased incidence of traumatic and overuse injuries, while overtraining specific muscle groups and soft tissues alike.

Compound Sets Versus Supersets

Superset: The back-to-back performance of two exercises of opposing muscle groups, with little to no rest in between.

It’s common practice in our misinformed fitness culture to use the terms compound sets and supersets interchangeably. This may be okay for the general elliptical-jockey public, but differentiating between these two strategies can be the difference between plateauing with your strength and hypertrophy gains and continuing to throw iron on the bar and muscle on your body month after month.

RELATED: Super Sets: What They Are and 4 Ways to Do Them

A compound set is similar to a superset, but with the use of two exercises that activate the same muscle group. Supersets are used primarily to ramp up the metabolic stress of a specific portion of a training session, while saving time in the form of shorter rest periods. Compound sets have an entirely different goal – to add overall volume to a muscle group.

Due to muscular fatigue, compound sets decrease the overall load you’re able to handle for an exercise. But they increase your overall set/rep scheme for a given pair of movements. Simply said, this method will fry the active muscle groups while keeping your heart pounding through your chest.

More Growth Hormone Anyone?

The muscle-building efficacy of back-to-back multi-joint exercises with minimal (under thirty seconds) rest is mainly due to your body’s endocrine response during and after intense bouts. Heavy loads coupled with little rest increase your circulating blood lactate levels, which increase the acidity of your blood. This increase in blood acidity will trigger the release of growth hormone (GH) from one of the body’s most powerful endocrine organs, the pituitary.

RELATED: Growth Hormone: How Does It Work and Why Do Women Have More? 

Growth hormone is just one hormone in the complex equation of muscle hypertrophy and strength. Testosterone is also released at an increased rate during the performance of near-maximal superset protocols. And directly after a bout of intense training, insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) circulates at increased levels for up to forty hours. This leaves the anabolic window wide open for growth potential and recovery.

Common Mistakes

Programming supersets isn’t quite as simple as throwing together two exercises and crushing yourself with as little rest as possible. Here are some of the most common mistakes made when programming supersets, and why they may do more harm than good when incorrectly performed over time:

1. Pre-fatiguing Stabilizing Musculature

Challenging the core during loaded compound lifts is a great way to link body segments and increase overall functionality and performance. But the muscles of the anterior and posterior core are phasic in nature and only able to perform at optimal levels for short periods. If two exercises both challenge the core from an isometric or dynamic stability standpoint, the core will become fatigued, increasing the chance of injury and overuse.

RELATED: Do You Know What Your Core Really Is and What it Does? 

A great example of a bad superset practice I see in the commercial gym setting is supersetting a squat/deadlift with an isolation core exercise such as crunches or the ab wheel. If you are squatting to near maximal intensities, your core will be on fire. No need to kick a horse while it’s down and throw in some crunches on top of it!

2. Over-compressing the Spine

Performance of two exercises that both add compression of the spine is commonly seen in poorly programmed supersets. Before choosing your exercises, classify them all into two categories: spinal compressors and spinal decompressors.

“Give your back a break. You’re probably already sitting eight hours a day in a slouched posture. The last thing you need is to test your spine’s limits, over and over again, during a superset.”

An example of a spinal compressor is a squat. Vertebral segments are loaded, and forces are bringing them closer together under loads. A movement that acts as a spinal decompressor adds space between vertebral segments. Examples are a chin up or pull up where the feet are in an open-chain position.

Think of this equation when choosing your combos of exercises for compound or supersets: Compression + Decompression = No Back Pain!

Give your back a break. You’re probably already sitting eight hours a day in a slouched posture. The last thing you need is to test your spine’s limits, over and over again, during a superset.

3. Ordering of Exercises

The most popular exercise in the gym is undoubtedly the bench press. This is the first, and sometimes only, exercise done by many people on a daily basis for upper-body emphasis. By programming a posterior-chain exercise before an anterior chain, the completion of the pull will enhance the performance of the push.

So, it is no surprise that when putting together supersets, the chest exercise always precedes the back. Bro logic would have you thinking that because you cannot see your back in the mirror, it does not exist. If you can’t see it, it’s pretty much useless, right? Wrong on so many levels!

RELATED: Understanding and Growing the “Wings” of Your Upper Body 

By programming a posterior-chain exercise before an anterior chain, the completion of the pull will enhance the performance of the push. By activating stabilizers in both the posterior scapular region and the posterior pelvic girdle, exercises such as upper-body pressing and quad-dominant leg work will be more effective due to increasing reciprocal inhibition and dynamic stability.

Remember, Pull -> Push! Your shoulders and hips will thank me later.

• Pull-Up / Barbell Standing Overhead Press

• Single Arm Dumbbell Row / Barbell Bench Press

• Cable Rope Face Pull / Incline Dumbbell Bench Press

• Romanian Deadlift / Front Squat

• Hip Thrust / Alternating Forward Lunge

• Glute-Ham Raise / Leg Press

• Back Squat / Chin Up

• Front Squat / Parallel Bar Dips

• Deadlift / Dumbbell Floor Press

How Long to Rest for Your Specific Goals

The design of your supersets is dependent on your specific goals. Here are some common goals, and how to program according to the type of gains you are after. Follow the prescribed rest period for your training focus:

Rest Periods Between Exercises / Rest Periods Between Sets:

• Endurance: :10 / :20
• Hypertrophy: :15 / :30
• Strength: :30 / :60
• Power: :45-60 / :75-90

Because supersets can be demanding from a metabolic and muscular-stress standpoint, the frequency of training specific groupings of exercises and/or functional body units, should be limited to two to three times per week. Adequate rest and recovery are key to progressing your strength for the long run.

The Gains Are Coming

Supersets can be a game changer for your strength and hypertrophy training. But only if they are performed intelligently, using these simple components of program development.

RELATED: The Line Between Hypertrophy and Strength Is More Grey Than Black 

Don’t let yourself become stale, continue to challenge yourself, and get more out of the basic compound lifts you know and love. Fitness isn’t about reinventing the wheel. It’s about getting that wheel turning as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Put your own spin on supersets, and reap the gains. I would love to hear back on the combos you love and are having the most success with. Please post any questions or thoughts to the comments below.

Click to Start John’s Free 12-Week Hypertrophy Workout

The post Everything You Need to Know About Supersets for Hypertrophy appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

1.MACHINE HAMSTRING CURL 3X6@30 (2 RAMP UP SETS)
2. BACK SQUAT 5X8@60 (3 RAMP UP SETS)
3. REVERSE LUNGE 4X12@60 (2 RAMP UP SETS)
4. BARBELL RDL 3X15@45 (1 RAMP UP SET)
4A. LEG EXTENSION 4X15@30 (1 RAMP UP SET)
4B. LEG CURL 4X15@30 (1 RAMP UP SET)
5. STANDING CALF RAISES 2X30@45 (1 RAMP UP SET)

Hypertrophy Phase One: Week One, Day 1 – Lower Body Heavy

1.MACHINE HAMSTRING CURL 3X6@30 (2 RAMP UP SETS)
2. BACK SQUAT 5X8@60 (3 RAMP UP SETS)
3. REVERSE LUNGE 4X12@60 (2 RAMP UP SETS)
4. BARBELL RDL 3X15@45 (1 RAMP UP SET)
4A. LEG EXTENSION 4X15@30 (1 RAMP UP SET)
4B. LEG CURL 4X15@30 (1 RAMP UP SET)
5. STANDING CALF RAISES 2X30@45 (1 RAMP UP SET)

Hypertrophy Phase One: Week One, Day 2 – Upper Body Heavy

1. FACE PULL 3X6@30 (2 RAMP UP SETS)
2. BENCH PRESS 5X5@60 (3 RAMP UP SETS)
3. CHIN-UP 4X6@60 (3 RAMP UP SETS)
4. SLIGHT INCLINE DB BENCH PRESS 3X12@60 (2 RAMP UP SETS)
5. SINGLE ARM DB ROW 3X15@60 (2 RAMP UP SETS)
6A. BARBELL OVERHEAD PRESS 3X12@45 (1 RAMP UP SET)
6B. REAR DELT RAISE 3X12@45 (1 RAMP UP SET)

Hypertrophy Phase One: Week One, Day 3 – Lower Body Pump

1. HIP THRUST 3X8@45 (2 RAMP UP SETS)
2. FRONT SQUAT 5X8@60 (3 RAMP UP SETS)
3. TRAP BAR DEADLIFT 5X6@60 (3 RAMP UP SETS)
4A. BULGARIAN SPLIT SQUAT 4X15@0 (1 RAMP UP SET)
4B. BULGARIAN SPLIT SQUAT HOLD 4X30@60 (1 RAMP UP SET)
5. LEG PRESS 4X20 (3 RAMP UP SETS)
5A. BODYWEIGHT SPEED SQUAT 3X25@45 (1 RAMP UP SET)
5B. REVERSE HYPEREXTENSION 3X25@45 (1 RAMP UP SET)

Hypertrophy Phase One: Week One, Day 4 – Upper Body Pump

1. BAND PULL APART 3X6@30 (2 RAMP UP SETS)
2. CHAIN/BAND BENCH PRESS 4X10@60 (3 RAMP UP SETS)
3. WIDE GRIP PULL-UP 4X8@60 (3 RAMP UP SETS)
4A. DIP 4X12@30 (2 RAMP UP SETS)
5A. BARBELL CURL 4X10@30 (2 RAMP UP SETS)
5A. DB CURL 3X15@30 (2 RAMP UP SETS)
5B. TRICEPS PUSH DOWN 3X15@30 (2 RAMP UP SETS)
6A. PUSH-UP 2XMAX@30 (1 RAMP UP 10 REPS)
6B. HANGING L-SIT 2XMAX@30 (1 RAMP UP 10 SECS)

Want more? Download the PDF:
John Rusin’s 12-week Functional Hypertrophy Program

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Back injuries are the price of doing business if you’re training at the right intensity. So get off your high horse and listen up. It’s just a matter of time until the iron takes you as its next victim.

5 Steps to Safely Train Around Lower Back Pain

This isn’t your physical therapist’s handcuffing list full of dainty recommendations to lay off the weights. These tips will have you maintaining your hard-earned muscle armor and dominating your stat sheet while letting your lower back recover, thus reducing the risk of another debilitating injury.

TREAT IT: Super D Video: Treating Lower Back Pain

1. Assess the Severity of Your Pain

Dominating sets can wait a day. We have to first figure out if you’re able to get back in the saddle or whether you’re going to wet your saddle. With every case of lower back pain presenting in a unique fashion, it is necessary to determine whether you are dealing with just another muscle tweak or an amount of structural and functional damage.

Before you pick up the phone to throw your name on the weeklong waiting list to see your primary physician (who is probably a triathlete, if he trains at all), go through this checklist. If you are having any of the following symptoms, then you were right, your best bet is to go ahead and make that call:

1. Tingling or numbness
2. Loss of sensation
3. Loss of motor control (inability to coordinate voluntary movements)
4. Loss of bowel or bladder function
5. Severe immobility, inability to walk

2. Skip the Trip to Your Orthopedist

If you made it through the checklist above with a clean slate, chances are you are dealing with a purely musculoskeletal issue. Without neurological involvement, you will be able to independently manage your painful episode. Lucky you.

The ability to successfully self-treat will save you time, money, aggravation, and your general sanity. Through my years of treating lower back pain as a sports performance physical therapist, I can confidently say that 95% of expensive diagnostic imaging procedures are downright worthless.

“The ability to successfully self-treat will save you time, money, aggravation, and your general sanity.”

Sure, today’s imaging techniques can show structural damages in high definition, but have we forgotten about functionality? There are guys playing on Sundays in peak physical condition with imaging that would indicate a train wreck, but they’re still cashing big checks and doing it pain free. There are also desk jockeys out there hindered by gut-wrenching pain but showing clean scans.

As Tyler Durden might say, “You are not your fucking MRI.”

If your back pain is a chronic or recurring issue, the current symptomology should present in a consistent manner as previous injuries. And guess what, if you’re not willing to do things that you have never done before to rid yourself of this literal pain in your ass, then your orthopedic surgeon will be more than happy to grab the knife and open you up, cashing another absurdly large paycheck from the fat cat insurance company in the process. The choice is yours. I suggest you choose to be your own best advocate.

3. Classify Your Painful Pattern

Individuals with active and painful lower back symptoms will all be uniquely inadequate in their own dysfunctional ways. Despite the fact your recumbent bike-riding spine doc has classified your condition as “special,” it can still be categorized into one of two distinct groups: flexion- or extension-based pain and dysfunction.

Flexion-based pain and dysfunction is most prevalent within our culture of sitting, slouching, and overall piss-poor posturing. On the opposite end of the spinal spectrum, extension-based dysfunction presents more in active populations, especially those stuck in an anteriorly tilted pelvic position for extended periods of time.

FIX IT: How to Unlock Your Athletic Potential Through Good Posture

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, turn on ESPN. CrossFit has produced some of the fittest men and women on the planet, but also some of the most poorly positioned backsides for elite athletes in recent memory. And we wonder why CrossFitters continue to get injured.

Using two clearing tests popularized by the Functional Movement Systems (FMS), you will be able to determine your prominent movement dysfunction by the presence of pain while completing the motions below. If either of these tests illicits pain, that is considered a positive test. The most painful test classifies you as either flexion or extension intolerant.

Spinal Flexion Clearing Test

Spinal Extension Clearing Test

The results of these clearing tests will differentiate the daily movements and positions that will aid your path to recovery from those that will leave you flat on your back for the next three weeks, wishing you would have taken this classification system seriously.

For flexion-based dysfunction, avoiding sitting and slouching is imperative. As for extension, hanging out in an extended spinal position for long durations can exacerbate your current symptoms, delaying your recovery for a few more painful weeks.

For both painful patterns, keep moving and change positions as often as possible. Keeping your body mobile, while routinely giving your spinal structures a break, will speed up the recovery process and have you pushing new personal records in no time.

4. Avoid Heavy Front-Loaded Hip Hinges

The position you were in when you got hurt should be avoided. But don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Just stay off these movements until you earn the right to program them back into your routine:

• Deadlift
• Barbell Row
• Good Mornings
• Full-Range Crunches/Sit ups
• Back Extensions
• Low Bar Back Squat
• Leg Press

5. Increase Your Work Volume

In order to overload your lower body while staying within the parameters of the above programming, the overall work volume of a training session needs to increased. Volume can be most effectively manipulated by adding both sets and reps for each movement.

For single-leg primary strength movements, it is imperative not only to push as hard as possible, but to program with primary strength loads that keep you within a range of four to eight reps. Overall volume of your workout will be increased in these primary movements because they replace the traditional power work (between one to four repetitions) that is commonplace for many strength athletes. As long as you can maintain spinal positioning and stability, work towards fifty total reps per leg for single-leg work.

“In order to overload your lower body while staying within the parameters of the above programming, the overall work volume of a training session needs to increased.”

During split-stance work, strength and hypertrophy parameters are most advantageous to continue the pre-exhaustion of the lower body, while also putting an emphasis on increasing the total volume of the session. Stick to sets of eight to fifteen reps per leg, while working your way to sixty total reps per leg.

For any single-leg movement, make sure to complete all your reps on one leg before moving on to the opposite leg. This will allow you to maintain maximal tension and stability through the pillar, while not having to reset your spinal position over and over. For example, for step ups, complete six reps on the left, followed directly by six reps on the right.

You’ll know its time for bilateral work when you start shaking, are walking a little butt-hurt, and are contemplating going to the bathroom to release your demons. This is called pre-exhaustion, and the work that is put in after this level of trashing is what will keep you progressing, even with a painful lower back.

RELATED: The Best Back Workouts

Bilateral work is saved up for extended sets, finishers, and conditioning. Pick two movements that meet the criteria for safe lower-back programming (my favorite is the trap bar deadlift off platforms and isometric bodyweight squat holds), and crush them. Bilateral work is maximal effort, so go hard. Don’t worry about stressing the core. Your legs will be so fried that they will be the limiting factor to every set. Keep loads relatively light and reps to the max. Shoot for three sets of twenty-plus reps for two bilateral movements to put the final nail in this workout’s coffin.

If you have questions on this approach or how to work your way through these steps, please post them to the comments below.

Photos 1, 2, & 5 courtesy of Shutterstock.

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